Western Standard - What's going on with all the prime ministerial budget announcements？

00:00:00.000 good evening welcome to the pipeline this is the western standards weekly

00:00:28.080 panel show where we'll pick a few top issues and dissect them and discuss them go through them and

00:00:34.720 see what they mean and offer at least our two bits on what we think they're about

00:00:39.200 so myself i'm cory morgan one of the columnists of the western standard and i'm joined by two

00:00:44.400 other folks today starting on my immediate right we've got our opinion editor nigel hannaford as

00:00:49.360 usual hello again corey hello good to have you here we got such a rotating crowd going on i

00:00:54.640 I never know who's going to be next to me week by week lately, but you're a good solid standby.

00:01:00.060 I've staked out of this chair, it's mine.

00:01:01.580 I appreciate it.

00:01:03.000 And on the end, an occasional contributor, though you were on my other show earlier today,

00:01:08.180 Sean Polzer from the news department.

00:01:10.240 Welcome to the pipeline this evening, Sean.

00:01:12.440 Hello again.

00:01:13.220 Yes, it's a long time no see.

00:01:16.440 And we don't have to cover too many names.

00:01:18.040 I'm sorry, during my show earlier, I have to point out the reason I started laughing at one point,

00:01:21.600 There was one story you went through, but I do it too, so I'm not getting on a high horse, but you slaughtered the pronunciation of all three political names of the people you had in that story.

00:01:32.580 I was trying to think, should I interject? No, I was probably going to throw them off even more, but I'm going to book you about it now.

00:01:38.640 Usually in fun, we usually do it deliberately.

00:01:41.460 Oh, yeah. I'll probably mess up somebody's name by the end of this show, too, just to show how I'm just as well capable.

00:01:47.700 It's worse when I get the live guests and I screw it up and they're looking at me.

00:01:51.300 Yeah.

00:01:52.860 Whatever.

00:01:53.660 All part of the fun.

00:01:54.440 Okay, well, let's get into the more important issues going on federally.

00:01:58.360 Boy, the prime minister, as you said, what's going on with all these prime ministerial budget announcements?

00:02:05.500 Boy, it feels like a campaign right now.

00:02:08.140 Well, you know, first of all, they are budget announcements.

00:02:10.920 and this is a gross deviation from parliamentary practice

00:02:16.260 that you even say what's going to be in the budget

00:02:19.860 before you drop the budget.

00:02:22.480 I mean, there's a reason for it.

00:02:24.260 It gives people a chance to, people with money,

00:02:27.080 to make dispositions in advance

00:02:29.100 that they shouldn't have any advance notice of.

00:02:31.440 But I guess it shows you, quite apart from anything

00:02:34.460 that we might talk about as to where the prime minister

00:02:37.900 is going with all of this

00:02:39.740 whether there could be, heavens above, an early election. Unlikely, but it's consistent.

00:02:47.100 But it shows you what he thinks of tradition in the parliamentary system. You know, he just doesn't

00:02:50.700 care. Well, yeah, I mean, traditionally, it would have been more like you hear maybe a few whispers,

00:02:55.900 but I mean, you're stuck, you're embargoed if you're in the House of Commons. That's the

00:03:00.300 advance notice you'll get until that thing is tabled. If you had a whisper in days gone by,

00:03:05.340 the finance minister would resign yeah you know it was that serious even if it wasn't him who

00:03:10.620 breached confidence if if something got out he would take responsibility and resign now they

00:03:16.220 just go out there and tell everybody what's going to be in the budget well it's a valid point it's

00:03:20.780 kind of like insider trading on the stock market like you shouldn't like i pointed out you've got

00:03:24.620 2.4 million that really hasn't been well or 2.4 billion that hasn't been that well it's going to

00:03:29.900 develop ai in canada maybe a worthy cause but boy that's a big pool of money we're not exactly

00:03:35.260 sure where it's going and now they've got an advanced notice or at least

00:03:38.500 perhaps some unprincipled people realizing I better set up businesses

00:03:41.440 that purport to provide AI services or or development so I can get a piece of

00:03:48.400 this while it's all coming out before the budget's been announced that's kind

00:03:51.640 of an inside thing to get in advance there too isn't it I'm not I'm not so

00:03:55.420 sure you know he was in town on Friday and it just kind of struck me as kind of

00:03:59.260 a little bit of a nothing muffin you know they were at a modular home factory

00:04:03.640 And they've been telegraphing all these things about, you know, housing and stuff.

00:04:08.700 And they're talking about AI to build houses and that kind of thing.

00:04:11.240 And it just kind of seemed to me that it was a lot more hype than maybe it was worth.

00:04:16.180 But it's the amount, you know, $2.4 billion.

00:04:19.780 I mean, that's a lot of change, even on a federal budget as a line item.

00:04:24.580 Well, even on the housing, that was, I'm not sure how many billion that was.

00:04:28.340 That's about $2.5 billion.

00:04:29.720 So I'll total $600 million on Friday alone.

00:04:32.240 you know some but they're running around throwing these these numbers around and it's like nobody

00:04:38.000 cares they've thrown around so much money already it's like you know how much more can you throw

00:04:43.760 at the problem you know i mean nobody cares but i mean how many people actually believe

00:04:48.040 well that's a that's another good point too because they've promised a lot of things in

00:04:51.800 the past and like years ago and then you never they just kind of never quite happens

00:04:56.560 And the numbers are big and should be concerning, but we're becoming cynical or indifferent.

00:05:03.020 I mean, how many people believe?

00:05:04.460 But the other thing is, it's hard to wrap your head around numbers when it gets into the billions.

00:05:07.860 I mean, that's been discussed on shows before.

00:05:09.280 The reason a $16 orange juice could take down a minister in the past, even though we overlook badly appropriated billions of dollars, is because your average citizen doesn't think in billions.

00:05:19.780 We do understand going to a restaurant and you would be appalled by a $16 glass of orange juice.

00:05:25.240 but it just doesn't run in your head in the billions it just doesn't quite on the other hand

00:05:29.240 you don't go to the kind of restaurants and i don't go to the kind of restaurants where they

00:05:33.000 would charge sixteen dollars and by the way that happened a long time ago back in the harper era

00:05:37.800 so probably that sixteen dollar orange juice is more like 25 now but uh if you're traveling on

00:05:43.160 government business you have to stay in those places they don't let you pull into the well

00:05:46.840 that happened to me when i was in spain at the herald i had to bill for 18 orange juice

00:05:52.840 in madrid and it was like i really you know and then it was like i had a little bit of sympathy

00:05:57.380 for these people because i couldn't really get around it yeah yeah they actually did you know

00:06:03.300 the beer was only seven dollars the orange juice it was like 18. thinking of a helsinki airport

00:06:08.060 many many years ago and myself and another fellow who was layover before one of moscow

00:06:12.160 it was 32 for two soups and a beer because they dinged us on the travel that's how long it was

00:06:18.020 traveler's checks, cashing, and then the conversion,

00:06:21.180 and then the airport prices.

00:06:23.000 And if I had to expense that somewhere at that time,

00:06:26.120 in you know, 87, people would have lost their marbles.

00:06:29.900 But as I said, I was just talking about the dollars.

00:06:31.360 That's how, you know, people can relate though

00:06:33.040 on how outrageous that amount is.

00:06:34.880 They don't think about how outrageous 100 million here,

00:06:37.940 a billion there, that doesn't resonate.

00:06:40.260 You know, when you were talking about the election though,

00:06:42.500 that was kind of an interesting point as well,

00:06:44.040 because I was thinking to myself, you know,

00:06:46.820 I've only seen Trudeau in Calgary like, well, three times since 2015, once in 2016, and

00:06:55.560 then twice here in about the last six weeks.

00:06:57.680 And I was kind of, you know, you know, he really hasn't, you know, now he's coming into

00:07:03.660 Alberta, it seems like almost every few weeks.

00:07:05.780 And it did kind of feel like a campaign announcement.

00:07:09.220 No sense.

00:07:10.460 I mean, just looking at the liberal numbers right now, they'd be insane to pull the trigger

00:07:14.560 on an election.

00:07:15.200 But the feel of it, as I said, Trudeau was hiding it from the House of Commons the other day.

00:07:19.440 That's nothing new.

00:07:20.940 What he's trying to do, he's trying to grab this issue back from Pierre Poliev,

00:07:27.140 because there's no question about it that the very high standings of Pierre Poliev in the polls right now

00:07:32.840 are largely because he's speaking to a whole generation of people

00:07:35.840 who are going to have a lot of difficulty in establishing themselves in the housing market.

00:07:41.400 Oh, if they can at all.

00:07:42.900 If they can. Well, yeah, I think you still can in Calgary, actually. But anyway, be that as it may, how do you go back? Well, you go out and you make all of these grand announcements about how you're going to put money out there for housing. You're going to make loans available. You're going to interfere with the CMHC.

00:08:05.040 and the municipalities

00:08:07.500 and it's

00:08:09.460 first of all

00:08:10.900 people forget this

00:08:12.880 in all the excitement and the buzz and the bright lights

00:08:15.500 they forget that this

00:08:16.720 is a problem of this

00:08:19.420 government's own making

00:08:21.320 by genning up the

00:08:23.380 interest rates

00:08:25.720 which they have done through excessive

00:08:29.240 borrowing

00:08:29.800 and then by creating

00:08:33.220 an artificial demand by increased immigration, there is now a shortage of supply compared

00:08:42.020 to the demand. Up goes the price. This is how it happened, and now he's, this is government

00:08:47.160 policy, and it is perhaps a niche point of view, but my point of view on it, folks, is

00:08:55.100 that they're doing this to disguise the fact that GDP growth in Canada would actually be

00:09:02.920 negative if it wasn't for the rising property market uh and the immigration that kind of 0.64

00:09:08.360 artificially juices that absolutely and the other big one that some economists have spoken of is

00:09:13.560 the gdb per capita it's on a terrible downward trend that's an important number uh that people 1.00

00:09:21.480 don't pay attention to but yeah they realize you know okay yeah the pie is getting bigger

00:09:25.480 but our pieces are getting smaller that's exactly right you've got it you know there's one other

00:09:30.920 thing that needs to be said in this discussion and it is that housing shouldn't even be something

00:09:37.800 that ottawa does constitutionally speaking ottawa does not do that as a provincial function i mean

00:09:44.280 really it should be just a simple matter of uh builders come along get approvals build houses

00:09:49.220 according to the demand government shouldn't even be involved but that the way things have trended

00:09:55.400 And that is what has happened.

00:09:57.920 But, you know, this has got a long history.

00:10:02.760 Back in the last century, the federal government sold the provincial governments on health care.

00:10:10.540 They would give 50 cents on the dollar.

00:10:13.780 What happened, happened.

00:10:15.200 Then in the 90s, the federal governments fell into huge debt, and they welched on the deal.

00:10:22.840 They said, look, we're not doing this anymore.

00:10:25.900 You get 15 cents from the Canada Health and Social Transfer.

00:10:29.520 Make the most of it, boys.

00:10:31.100 And the provinces could not afford electorally to let health sink.

00:10:36.960 So all the money that in the past they had been able to devote to things like housing

00:10:41.980 suddenly got pulled into health.

00:10:44.880 And as a result, if you think that government financing has a place in the housing market,

00:10:51.300 Well, the provinces don't have any money to put there.

00:10:54.080 But now the federal government comes along, and they can borrow, they can print.

00:10:59.500 There's money here, there's money there.

00:11:01.200 And it's all an attempt to make Canadians look inwards towards the center, 0.58

00:11:07.720 to see the federal government as the source for everything,

00:11:14.040 from your pension to your housing,

00:11:16.260 elevating themselves at the expense of the provinces.

00:11:21.460 No wonder Daniel Smith is up in arms.

00:11:23.720 Well, they're setting themselves up to fail as well

00:11:25.480 because they've already got a built-in excuse to back out of it,

00:11:29.700 and that is some of these green policy initiatives

00:11:33.300 that they want to extend into home building and municipalities.

00:11:37.980 So that's increased density.

00:11:39.380 That's this blanket rezoning that people are up in arms against here in Calgary.

00:11:44.380 You know, so-called retrofitting of these construction module things to make them energy efficient and meet their emissions caps and all that kind of thing.

00:11:57.060 And a lot of that money is conditional on that.

00:12:01.340 And Trudeau basically said, you know, if the Alberta government doesn't want to, you know, do these things that we want them to, then don't take our money.

00:12:08.860 Yeah, well, we'll get on to that, the interjurisdictional mess that's being created out of all of this.

00:12:14.240 and then a lot of the intergovernmental ire.

00:12:16.160 Maybe we'll start things before we break on with a light note.

00:12:19.040 Our finance minister heading out to Ottawa,

00:12:21.060 looks like we're on a plane there to deliver the budget.

00:12:24.360 And she got to meet a social media celebrity, Cat Canada,

00:12:27.260 though perhaps Chrystia Freeland didn't realize who she was chatting with.

00:12:31.340 So here's a little video clip of Cat Canada and Chrystia Freeland

00:12:35.400 enjoying some quality time together on one of our flights in Canada there.

00:12:40.460 Air Canada executive class.

00:12:44.240 look who I ran into. Can you wave to my followers on Twitter? Sure. Hi.

00:12:50.080 That either way, that aside, so getting onto this, I mean, money, money, money, boy, this

00:12:54.160 government, it's going to be interesting to see this budget. I mean, how big it's going to be by

00:12:57.540 the time the actual budget comes out. So it's certainly gotten Premier Smith got her backup.

00:13:05.940 I mean, you know, you've got this, this, I guess, foreign leader, as far as I'd call it, you know,

00:13:10.260 I'm quite an independence-minded person, but keeps coming in and making these announcements

00:13:15.160 and then taking off and leaving the province to hold the bag and really deal with the administration

00:13:19.160 and all of that.

00:13:20.840 And it sounds like they're considering legislation just to stop the federal government

00:13:26.180 from going directly to municipalities.

00:13:28.840 Well, it's something, some people call it an oversight, but municipalities aren't recognized

00:13:35.360 as a distinct level of government in the Constitution.

00:13:38.040 So maybe for some of these cities like Toronto and Vancouver, you know, arguably they're almost kind of like city-states more or less unto themselves.

00:13:47.740 But for regular old cities and towns, you know, like we have here in Alberta, those are the purview of the Alberta government.

00:13:55.920 They're basically just an extension of the Alberta government.

00:13:59.180 The Alberta government can withdraw these people or, you know, take away their spending power.

00:14:04.840 They basically can tell them what to do.

00:14:08.040 a mayor and some council members out of power.

00:14:10.180 I mean, admittedly, in a small municipality,

00:14:12.060 but it showed the government does have that authority

00:14:14.240 if they ever had test a mirror, medicine hacked.

00:14:16.980 You know, there's been kind of a few cases

00:14:18.780 or implementing some of these ridiculous, you know, bylaws,

00:14:22.660 like the single-use ketchup bylaw, you know, 0.74

00:14:25.440 like when municipalities are overstepping their bounds, right?

00:14:29.360 So I think that this is just kind of a...

00:14:33.280 You know, and it seems deliberate part

00:14:35.780 on the on the federal government to try to bypass the you know so they kind of

00:14:40.340 leapfrog right over the provincial legislature and land rate and city halls

00:14:43.340 and show up with money yes yeah so put dollars and how are you supposed to say

00:14:47.180 no to it so what do you think nods although with this legislation it's

00:14:53.800 being framed terribly already of course but that's not unusual in legacy media

00:14:57.080 Quebec already does this you know if people are a lot of people not

00:15:00.540 mentioning that Quebec's had this legislation in place for a long time

00:15:02.800 Of course, they're a province that has never hesitated to say, no, we'll deal with our affairs.

00:15:07.040 You stay out, and that's all there is to it.

00:15:09.620 I don't see why it's unreasonable for Alberta to do the same.

00:15:11.600 Well, it certainly is not, is it?

00:15:13.780 You know, every province should lay down the line as to where their influence extends

00:15:20.980 and where the federal government stops.

00:15:23.740 But it was like I was saying, it's not as if this is just accidental.

00:15:27.940 There is a strategy here.

00:15:29.220 It's been going on for a very long time.

00:15:30.780 It predates Mr. Trudeau.

00:15:31.860 but it goes back to his father

00:15:34.400 but there is this

00:15:36.040 concentrated effort to elevate

00:15:38.360 Ottawa at the

00:15:40.400 expense of the provinces

00:15:41.440 and anytime you come and say here's money

00:15:44.200 but it's conditional, you buy into

00:15:46.460 that. So that's what

00:15:48.380 Smith is saying no to

00:15:50.320 I don't blame her. Well it puts the

00:15:52.360 provinces in a real tough spot too because what they

00:15:54.400 love doing is coming in and saying this is what's going to go into

00:15:56.340 this program. If the Premier makes

00:15:58.360 a stink they say well you know what we'll just take the money and

00:16:00.280 go back to ottawa and then you know the premier looks like this heartless soul who's saying

00:16:03.880 they're throwing away money and the opportunities for albertans oh that's what the ndp will say

00:16:08.440 absolutely but you know remember trudeau came in and said well take our money whose money would

00:16:13.320 that be sir you know but you know that's another part of all this because my understanding is that

00:16:19.480 the grants that quebec does get under these federal programs they're all kind of mishmashed

00:16:24.760 in on a per capita formula and there's the federal government doesn't tell them how to allocate these

00:16:31.320 dollars they they just give them a lump sum based on populations and say here you go you know split

00:16:37.960 it up whatever way you want it and at the same time they're coming out here you know into calgary

00:16:42.520 and making housing announcements saying well you have to densify you have to rezone everything you

00:16:49.320 you know, to allow eight plexes on their, you know.

00:16:52.900 To be fair, Pierre Polyev actually proposed

00:16:55.660 something very similar.

00:16:56.780 He's saying that, I believe, I could be phrasing it wrong,

00:17:01.240 but he was looking, you know, pointing out

00:17:02.540 that this is provincial jurisdiction

00:17:04.440 and municipal jurisdiction,

00:17:06.200 but if the federal government's gonna give housing funds

00:17:09.160 to these cities, we expect the cities to facilitate

00:17:12.520 the growth and outward growth and cuts,

00:17:14.860 like he was proposing having strings attached

00:17:17.380 to the municipalities if federal transfers

00:17:18.900 came their way as well.

00:17:20.820 He did indeed say that.

00:17:22.440 And I do recall that editorially we reacted to that,

00:17:26.440 saying it doesn't make it right

00:17:29.100 just because it's a conservative saying it,

00:17:31.660 but federal government has no place in housing.

00:17:35.720 It's just fair to point out that, you know,

00:17:37.720 Justin Trudeau's in good company.

00:17:39.360 Well, I think that applies more to say cities

00:17:42.260 like Toronto and Vancouver, like we're saying,

00:17:45.400 They almost are kind of like entities into themselves, and then they have certain specific needs.

00:17:51.160 And if you're going to donate federal money to Toronto, like, why wouldn't you want to have some kind of condition on it that they're actually going to build houses with it?

00:17:59.300 But, I mean, it's one right, not the other.

00:18:01.360 I mean, it's recognizing one of the problems we have, too, with getting more housing.

00:18:05.320 Like, with the city of Calgary, I believe, it was the data I got from Shane Wenzel.

00:18:10.000 uh seven years from concept to development you know to get a new development built because of

00:18:17.160 the amount of hurdles and red tape and applications and licensing and all of that garbage you got to

00:18:23.280 go through in this city and the amount of people who have to study this and approve that and at

00:18:26.580 any time they could pull the rug out from under you uh you know polyev is recognizing these

00:18:32.740 municipalities have got to step up and get out of the bloody way just used a liberal buzzword step 0.99

00:18:38.300 You have been listening to too much news lately, I'm sorry, it's starting to, how can you do that?

00:18:44.720 I probably heard mine have a word.

00:18:46.760 Oh, geez, there's my starfish award for the year.

00:18:49.560 Corey used a liberal term.

00:18:51.720 Now I feel dirty.

00:18:52.760 But you know, Corey, it doesn't matter how much money you put into it, who are you going to get to build these things?

00:19:00.700 Yeah, well, the issue is much bigger than just money.

00:19:04.360 Well, and on Friday, Trudeau, he used an interesting term to describe it, which he called an industrial project.

00:19:12.220 Like, this house thing is like an industrial policy.

00:19:16.400 And, you know, they acknowledged, like, huge worker shortages.

00:19:20.460 I mean, if you're a bricklayer worth your salt, like, you're already busy, you know?

00:19:25.820 So then we get back into jurisdiction.

00:19:27.900 There's been some talk about the province saying we want more sane than which immigrants are coming in. 0.97

00:19:32.020 And we get that catch 22.

00:19:33.100 We've got mass immigration. It's mass. And they need immigrants when they come here, whether they're temporary or long term. They need a place to stay. They need health care. They need those resources. I'm not faulting them that, but we're letting in more than we're able. Even Trudeau kind of admitted that.

00:19:48.460 But what we need then, we also know that we do need a degree of immigration to keep up with just pretty much everything.

00:19:54.320 It's the nature of our system. We need to start targeting them.

00:19:57.600 We don't need more senior citizens. We don't need more, you know, I hate to be cold and heartless. 1.00

00:20:02.340 We don't need more children coming in.

00:20:03.780 We need working age people who can put in some time and into the working world in some of the areas of need. 0.70

00:20:11.180 And maybe if we could stabilize our economy, then you can start talking about bringing in Uncle George and Aunt Martha

00:20:15.960 and your parents and the others.

00:20:17.980 But right now, we're not bringing in productive people.

00:20:20.060 No, it was back to the 60s.

00:20:22.340 Well, you know, Trudeau, he also kind of admitted, he said at one point,

00:20:28.000 you know, the temporary immigration would be typically about 2% of the population.

00:20:33.740 Right now, it's running about 7%.

00:20:35.080 But the irony is that he blamed foreign students and then said,

00:20:41.260 well, education is provincial jurisdiction, you know, so it's not my fault.

00:20:45.100 play the football with who which which level of government is at fault you know the diploma mills 1.00

00:20:49.340 and all these people you said you know it's the and the faults of the universities that are bringing

00:20:53.820 in all these people to make up for the lack of funding that they're getting the university can't

00:20:58.060 bring anybody in without a federal visa uh you know badminton back to you but we've got a big

00:21:06.860 problem i think we're at that step one i guess where the government's acknowledging that there's

00:21:10.860 a problem but we're a long ways away from a solution well a year ago if somebody would

00:21:14.300 would have raised it, then Trudeau would have shut him down and called him all racist, bigots and 0.58

00:21:18.220 racists, right? So maybe that's progress. I mean, I guess the ball, though, Nigel, for example, 0.86

00:21:24.340 politically, if Premier Smith comes in, brings in this legislation, it comes in fast, apparently

00:21:28.520 this could come in next week. I mean, the legislature's in session. The federal response

00:21:34.320 could be, well, we're just not going to transfer. Yeah. Well, and then you get another court case

00:21:39.900 going and a fight i mean they've done this before i recall when ralph klein was premier and he

00:21:46.060 wanted to bring in a a user fee to just try and control the flow through at emergency departments

00:21:54.780 people showing up there for frivolous reasons or maybe not for frivolous reasons but at the least

00:22:00.620 convenient time you know if you struggle with a headache all weekend and then finally going on

00:22:05.580 sunday night that's not fair pay your 10 bucks all right so that was when he brought that in

00:22:10.860 he was told quite clearly that they would withhold funds from the uh the health and social transfer

00:22:17.580 tax and uh he would be and they would lose by it so that could happen difference i think is that

00:22:27.580 smith has got much more of a stomach for a fight than mr klein seemed to have rolf talked a good

00:22:33.980 game. But when it came down to it, you often backed away from the things that a lot of the

00:22:40.120 base really cared about. This would be a counter suit and it would have to be expedited. And

00:22:46.100 I think the federal government is contractually obliged to forward this money. It goes out of

00:22:55.160 Alberta. It goes to Ottawa. It's supposed to come back.

00:22:59.080 so

00:23:00.300 Premier Smith is spoiling for a fight

00:23:02.220 I mean that's really marked since she's

00:23:04.300 held the last election very much a federal

00:23:06.260 provincial battle

00:23:06.980 I'm not sure that she is actually spoiling for a fight

00:23:10.620 it's the other guys who are spoiling

00:23:12.420 for the fight

00:23:13.100 but if that's what they want to do

00:23:16.560 she's ready

00:23:17.580 to do it

00:23:18.840 it's not bad politics in Alberta to stand up

00:23:22.380 to the federal government

00:23:23.320 well and it goes both ways

00:23:24.500 that's where I think this clash is inevitable

00:23:26.220 I mean, just looking from a hard political strategy point of view, it's good for Toronto to fight with Alberta and it's good for Premier Smith to fight with Ottawa.

00:23:35.780 I mean, so, you know, it's made for them to be adversarial, just hopefully not to the point where the fall is really actually hurting people when they get into battle.

00:23:44.700 well the animosity is mutual for sure because uh they asked him as well in the uh in front of the

00:23:51.180 calgary economic development uh you know uh what about these tensions between alberta and

00:23:57.900 ottawa and then so he went into this spiel about how he's worked with three u.s presidents and

00:24:03.500 he's worked with uh three alberta premiers you know and and then it was kind of like the implication

00:24:09.580 was like by far you know you know i've worked with donald trump and i've had to work with daniel

00:24:17.180 smith you know and jason kenney might have added that he got so much work with donald trump has

00:24:23.900 got worked over by donald trump because he was foolish enough to say something unkind behind as

00:24:29.820 soon as trump had gone snickering on the sidelines i mean again that was just that was a whole 0.95

00:24:35.900 separate affair it showed how disrespected he is on the federal on the international scene though

00:24:41.500 i mean even people who didn't like president trump when they see that kind of behavior going

00:24:47.340 on at a summit it's not surprising when you see trudeau on the outside looking in at further i

00:24:52.300 mean it's a terribly disrespectful behavior from supposed to be a world leader and he's uh making

00:24:57.820 fun of the the president of the that's just the figures of trudeau but we were still dealing with

00:25:03.100 this guy. I could be doing it again, too. Come November. Well, I'm not talking about Trump. I'm

00:25:09.720 talking about Trudeau. Well, no, I'm talking about Trudeau. The whole return of Trump is a whole

00:25:14.980 separate show for us to talk about, which is interesting. I mean, I would have said a year

00:25:19.160 ago, there's no way that Trump's going to be president again. And boy, I would have been

00:25:23.720 very wrong. It's certainly looking like he's going to be there again. So I was going to offer

00:25:28.380 you odds but it doesn't seem like you're inclined to take them up no no I'm bad with those long-term

00:25:35.500 bets it seems so I'm going to stay out of that market well let's take it a little closer to

00:25:39.740 home I mean the adversarial and how hyped things up are getting in the legislature a pretty bizarre

00:25:46.620 interchange between Schmidt and Jackie Lovely. Yeah. Well, it actually boggles the mind,

00:26:03.580 you know, I mean, adults don't usually behave like that. No, they don't. So there they are,

00:26:09.100 there's a lounge outside the legislature. Lovely has just been speaking about, I think she was

00:26:16.940 making some remarks about how Edmonton should do things. She's an MLA. Everything that goes on in

00:26:21.820 the province is fair game. Seems to be. Should be. And out comes an Edmonton MLA Schmidt.

00:26:33.100 and he starts to berate her. And she said, okay, thanks very much. I've had enough of

00:26:42.740 you. Gets up to leave and he's blocking her way. Like this kind of behavior at a nightclub

00:26:51.920 or a restaurant, you know.

00:26:54.740 Probably got you bounced out the door.

00:26:56.740 He was mocking her even, and security had to come in and ask him to just step away.

00:27:04.880 And then, of course, we had the very unusual picture of house leader rising on a point of privilege

00:27:13.360 to complain about the behavior of another MLA.

00:27:17.660 It is a shocking thing, and it sort of goes against what we think we know about legislatures,

00:27:25.520 legislatures which is that they'll fight with each other when it's time to fight

00:27:29.240 but there's a certain collegiality between MLAs or members of Parliament

00:27:35.420 that allows them to get along quite well in the corridors often it's the case

00:27:39.560 and often that is the case well this this story is it seems to suggest that

00:27:46.340 that's not the case in general even the state of gender relations in this day and age 0.96

00:27:51.140 a man bullying a woman physically intimidating you and i are both you know six feet tall it's like

00:27:56.020 you know if you stand over top of somebody there's somebody like michelle over there who's only like 0.63

00:28:00.340 about five foot two like i mean this is from the the ndp bullying uh uh ucp woman i mean it's one 0.99

00:28:06.420 of the male feminists that's that's doing this you know you know it i i you know i'm going to add my 1.00

00:28:12.340 own opinion on that those self-styled male feminists quite often just seem to be the ones that 1.00

00:28:16.820 actually when things come around they're the ones that have the most problems with women 1.00

00:28:20.260 not always. There's unfortunately

00:28:23.440 abusive men of all stripes.

00:28:25.580 They don't know how to hold the door. I mean, if they want to play

00:28:27.360 those games, they should have brought Jason Nixon in to talk

00:28:29.500 with him.

00:28:33.000 He's not going to call them things, but maybe

00:28:35.180 Mr. Schmidt would understand what it is when

00:28:37.300 somebody's standing two feet taller than you

00:28:39.280 and wants to get

00:28:41.020 on your case. But it's just

00:28:42.620 bad form.

00:28:45.020 Well, bad form, yes.

00:28:47.800 What has happened

00:28:49.200 to the society we live in when we can generate that kind of...

00:28:55.720 I'm not suggesting that legislatures were always peaceful, friendly places.

00:28:59.620 You'll find, if you go back 200 years, you'll find examples of where they fought duels with each other.

00:29:04.820 They've always been...

00:29:06.020 Well, that's the mace. That's the symbolism of the mace, right?

00:29:09.780 Just to keep people...

00:29:10.560 But, having said that, 200 years ago, men may have fought duels with each other,

00:29:15.700 but they were generally respectful to women.

00:29:19.200 That was part of the deal, the old code of chivalry. I kind of like it, except that it's gone.

00:29:25.940 I think women do, too, secretly.

00:29:29.260 I mean, and I don't, as you pointed out, people always keep saying, this is the worst I've ever seen it.

00:29:36.040 I hear that every legislative is parliamentary session. No, they've always been that way.

00:29:40.960 You can read transcripts from Sir John A. MacDonald and opposition members.

00:29:46.100 I mean, these legislatures are in England and are built for you're facing each other.

00:29:50.440 You're there to fight.

00:29:51.320 That's what it's about.

00:29:53.020 You're going to score points by sometimes personally insulting the other individual.

00:29:57.360 It's not so productive, but it's political theater.

00:29:59.680 It's not new, and we're no worse at it now than I think we ever were in the past.

00:30:04.100 Maybe we see more of it because we can get those little clips on social media.

00:30:07.180 You say you're no worse today than we were.

00:30:09.120 do you actually think that in, you know, even when Sir Winston Churchill was going after

00:30:17.680 Barbara Castle and some of the, some of those kind of really rancid labor MPs that 1.00

00:30:24.640 were getting elected in the 1940s, he would cut them up with his tongue.

00:30:31.120 So adventure a little later too, yeah.

00:30:33.040 But he was not the kind to actually follow them down the corridor,

00:30:37.680 find where they were having a cup of tea and then no that's a whole new line has been crossed

00:30:43.120 when you're taking them in their personal space outside of the legislation i mean in the legislature

00:30:47.600 with your political theater whether it's federal or provincial it's one thing if you're going to

00:30:52.080 stock them outside that's getting well it's even like reporters when we're out covering these things

00:30:56.320 i mean we're all competitors and rivals but you know at the same time you kind of have to

00:31:00.080 to keep the knives down.

00:31:03.840 What is it, like Bugs Bunny, it was the coyote and the dog,

00:31:07.560 and it's like, hey, morning's Ralph, morning Sam.

00:31:11.600 Time stamp.

00:31:12.440 Yeah, go at it.

00:31:13.900 I remember Daryl Stinson, if you remember,

00:31:15.760 in the federal government news reform,

00:31:17.240 I remember rolling up his sleeves,

00:31:18.800 and I can't remember which member it was.

00:31:20.260 Come on, let's go, I'll step on the side. 0.99

00:31:22.760 Oh, in Taiwan, they have brawls on the legislature floor.

00:31:27.200 So it's not unique.

00:31:28.320 I mean, it'd be nice if they tone it down.

00:31:29.620 It builds a bit with the cynicism of voters sometimes if they get too heated and they're spending more time, you know, trying to score shots at each other than actually accomplishing anything.

00:31:39.600 But either way, is there going to be any other sanction for Schmidt, though, other than the Speaker saying don't do that again?

00:31:45.580 Well, you know, hard to say, and I'm not a member of the NDP, so I don't know what goes for, you know, decent behavior in that party.

00:31:54.960 But I would think if that was a member of the UCP that had done something like that, there would be two things.

00:32:01.640 One, there would be a chat with the Premier.

00:32:05.600 And secondly, there would be a chat with the Constituency Association.

00:32:13.620 If that's how you're going to represent us, sir, maybe we will find somebody else.

00:32:19.680 That would be a very fitting response.

00:32:24.960 I don't expect it, but that's what should happen.

00:32:28.020 We'll see what turns out with this, too.

00:32:29.560 I mean, if this was a conservative member, well, they'd be demanding a resignation.

00:32:33.540 You know that.

00:32:34.140 But at the very least, they would perhaps be saying this person should be going through some sensitivity training

00:32:38.400 or some of that woke torture and punishment that they do.

00:32:41.240 I got put into a two-day course of Aboriginal cross-cultural communication over an incident I had up in Onion Lake many years ago.

00:32:49.240 I tell you, that was the worst punishment I ever had.

00:32:51.000 But I was just saying that perhaps Mr. Schmidt

00:32:54.120 might be in line for some of that sensitivity training.

00:32:56.760 Sensitivity training, yes.

00:32:58.240 Yeah.

00:32:59.420 Actually, we should move right along

00:33:00.780 because I'm going to be late for my anger management.

00:33:02.680 I don't want you to swing a belt in me.

00:33:06.000 Two minutes over time, Morgan.

00:33:09.460 I'll try and move it along, but let's go on about. 0.63

00:33:14.040 Poor insanity and ludicrous things, I guess.

00:33:16.580 Yeah, he said, getting to BC, ah, man.

00:33:22.560 You just said the magic.

00:33:24.120 BC is an insane asylum.

00:33:25.900 It is. 0.94

00:33:26.580 Let me sketch this out for you.

00:33:29.180 Because we've, I can't believe what I'm reading from there.

00:33:34.180 We have a columnist, Paul Forseth.

00:33:36.320 Yes, I read it.

00:33:36.800 He's a former member of Parliament.

00:33:38.740 Paul is very diligent.

00:33:40.180 He writes for us once a week.

00:33:41.400 And he sent me this article that was talking about how drug addicts were now permitted to take their drugs into hospital with them, that they were also permitted to keep their weapons with them.

00:34:03.700 now i was aware that the government of british columbia about a year ago

00:34:10.800 had received an exemption from ottawa so that possession of small amounts of illegal drugs

00:34:18.460 would not be a criminal matter and the idea was that if you destigmatized drug use well then it

00:34:26.920 would make it easier for a person to seek help they wouldn't feel embarrassed to show up at

00:34:32.940 emergency okay so that was the idea didn't think it was going to work didn't think there was any

00:34:39.740 that it was a good idea to destigmatize drug use it should be stigmatized but that's what they were

00:34:45.820 doing in bc and then the next thing that came along was that they needed safe supply so that

00:34:53.020 people could depend on the stuff they were putting in their arms and not be worried that it was going

00:34:58.060 to kill them because fentanyl overdoses are very common and the bc is i think the highest per capita

00:35:05.420 in the country followed by alberta followed by alberta so this was going all that we already 0.65

00:35:12.220 knew but what paul was describing was testimony from the bc nurses unions that had been shared

00:35:23.020 in the legislature by the by the opposition health clinic which was saying that nurses

00:35:30.940 were now physically afraid for their safety because these people were drugged up they had

00:35:39.020 more drugs they were not allowed to remove or confiscate the drugs which would to me seem like

00:35:47.100 the first thing that you would do and even more they were though they couldn't go through the

00:35:53.020 possessions of the person as a consequence of which some of these people actually have knives

00:35:59.660 and other weapons with them in the hospital bed and the testimony of one of these nurses

00:36:06.540 and i refer you to paul's column we ran it about 10 o'clock this morning go look for it

00:36:11.260 and and it it talked about how there was one fellow you know how everybody's in sort of shared

00:36:17.940 rooms these days they go to bed in each corner well you imagine yourself being in there you've

00:36:22.280 just had your appendix out or whatever you whatever's been done and there's a guy in the

00:36:27.320 other corner threshing around naked in the throes of a a drug session and you don't know what he's

00:36:35.760 going to do next i mean they have security but jeepers man what can happen between the

00:36:40.300 pressing the button for security and somebody actually showing up it is astonishing so i

00:36:46.180 here's the thing i called a doctor i know who works in the bc system it's all true that's the

00:36:53.640 damnable thing this is not an exaggeration this is not a politician taking swipes at the ndp

00:37:00.060 government this is just what's going on in bc now maybe now that i hate to say you know that 0.95

00:37:07.040 a positive coming from a negative. But now that the unions have to step in because nurses and 1.00

00:37:11.880 other health practitioners are being put at risk, there's this enablement ideology that I rip into

00:37:16.860 on a regular basis, this ridiculousness, this delusional approach to addicted people where

00:37:23.740 they try to say they're harmless. They're harmless. They're just addicted. No, that's a load of crap. 0.91

00:37:27.660 Go and see the stabbings and the numbers and the things that are happening in the shelters and the 0.99

00:37:31.860 train stations and the places where they congregate. Not every addicted person is dangerous, but a lot

00:37:36.580 them are in the terms meth induced psychosis when they particularly with meth fentanyl usually knock

00:37:42.340 them down yeah they're pretty harmless but the meth you take that too much too long you snap and

00:37:47.940 you can become very very dangerous and they're not themselves like you know maybe they are nice

00:37:52.260 people i'm i'm sure everybody is but when you're in the throes of an addiction like that you are

00:37:56.820 not you're not you're right you're right and that's the whole rationale between premier smith's

00:38:02.180 policy here about the treatment right is that these people are unable to make these

00:38:06.980 rational choices for themselves but you know it's funny because we were talking about it on your

00:38:11.380 previous show at lunch there about uh how you know these people are smoking crack in

00:38:16.340 in the hospital rooms you know but if you lit a cigarette you'll be arrested they'll

00:38:23.060 drag you over there faster and find you yeah i mean that's exactly that is exactly the case

00:38:28.900 Yeah. And the response of the health minister, Adrian Dix, to all of this was, well, we'll set up a task force to look at it.

00:38:37.380 But that's, now that it's been at least exposed and the union's speaking up, that's where I see perhaps,

00:38:44.000 and the NDP doesn't like listening to citizens and commoners or common sense.

00:38:47.180 But they listen to unions.

00:38:47.820 But they listen to unions.

00:38:49.340 And they've been warned.

00:38:50.380 And now that this warning has come out, if they don't get on with their task force or something else,

00:38:54.120 and a nurse gets stabbed or injured,

00:38:56.500 or even just an attendant or anybody else

00:38:59.460 working in the hospital-

00:39:00.660 Or they walk off the job.

00:39:01.720 And they've ignored that warning.

00:39:04.480 Then we could perhaps see the unions,

00:39:06.820 because the unions tell them what to do.

00:39:08.520 They're gonna say, that's enough.

00:39:10.020 This is gonna change.

00:39:11.060 You're right, Corey.

00:39:13.100 All of that would happen in a heartbeat

00:39:15.220 if somebody actually does it.

00:39:17.020 But why should it have to?

00:39:18.860 What if a nurse who's there to help people 0.95

00:39:22.500 need to get a knife in the gut before the government says oh things have maybe maybe this

00:39:28.180 wasn't such a good idea after all well that's to say is hopefully they listen to the warning first

00:39:33.540 because this is their canary in the coal mine guys you know unions have spoken up and again

00:39:40.420 common sense thinking people can see this but unfortunately a lot of legislators aren't common

00:39:44.980 sense thinking people but you know this whole thing has been a complete disaster they have

00:39:49.940 actually more people that have drug overdoses this year than last year and they've had this policy

00:39:54.340 for a year yeah i mean i mean yes alberta's numbers are up as well but there's a very different

00:40:00.500 kind of field what alberta is trying to do here they're trying to actually salvage people 0.98

00:40:06.100 trying treatment here and over there they're trying to enablement and i think there's some

00:40:10.500 battles in alberta maybe they're getting a little too harsh on the harm mitigation and there's some

00:40:14.500 aspects of harm mitigation to be useful but treatment is essential the enablers on the coast

00:40:19.940 And I mean, this is a pet subject for me, and I can do it a lot.

00:40:24.480 They live under this delusion that this is a maintainable condition,

00:40:28.340 that if people could just get enough safe, clean supply,

00:40:32.380 they can carry on with their lives and they'll be all right.

00:40:35.840 It's the bad drugs that are the problem.

00:40:37.740 It's this and that.

00:40:38.960 They never will admit it's an addiction that needs to be treated

00:40:43.160 and somehow eradicated if possible.

00:40:45.960 Well, my understanding of it is that they're not devoting the resources

00:40:49.280 to the treatment. There's a shortage of treatment

00:40:51.360 of people who want to get treated

00:40:53.300 and they have to wait for months and months and months

00:40:55.300 and then basically what they're doing is they're

00:40:57.240 just giving them free dope to kind of

00:40:59.160 tide them over until

00:41:00.760 maybe one day they can or they will.

00:41:03.420 If they survive long enough to get to the treatment.

00:41:04.780 If they survive long enough to get to the treatment.

00:41:06.640 Which then gets intercepted by organized crime

00:41:09.200 and being resold across the country.

00:41:11.200 But that's one thing that

00:41:12.960 Premier Smith is doing in Alberta

00:41:15.140 that I'm very

00:41:17.100 supportive of because

00:41:18.000 Because if you're going to go with the prohibition approach, right, then I think it's incumbent to have the supports available.

00:41:28.400 And she's drastically increased the number of beds, the number of resources. 0.99

00:41:34.280 If you're going to intervene, you've got to say, okay, but we're putting you here.

00:41:37.780 I mean, we're not just intervening, taking away your drugs and then throwing you out.

00:41:40.580 But you've got to say, this is also how now we can hopefully get you back on track, which is a long, expensive, arduous process.

00:41:48.200 It is. And sometimes it requires intervention.

00:41:50.740 Like during the election campaign, she showed up on stage with parents and, you know, compassionate intervention.

00:41:58.280 We'll do another show on it.

00:41:59.740 You guys are a bit familiar.

00:42:01.480 I've got some issues going on within my own family where we're dealing with some of that.

00:42:04.760 I've been learning some interesting things and some of the limitations we're sitting at right now, which, you know, I'll expand on more at another time.

00:42:12.280 You know, just before the show, I think you and I were talking about it.

00:42:15.500 And didn't you say that really this is from the B.C. government point of view, we're just making it easy on themselves.

00:42:22.220 If you don't have to arrest people and if you don't have to put them through the court system, you don't have to send them to jail.

00:42:29.280 Well, you just don't have to do all those things at vast expense.

00:42:32.720 and furthermore it's unrecorded so you can say crime is going down yeah yeah that's like holland

00:42:38.720 dude it's pretty tough to get arrested in holland because nothing's illegal but it doesn't mean the

00:42:43.120 crimes aren't happening it's just like the insanity in california where they basically

00:42:47.120 legalized shoplifting so cold business districts are closing because lo and behold people started

00:42:52.800 shoplifting and i get tired of that it's the same sort of delusion well it's for the the single mom 0.93

00:42:57.520 who needs bread and milk for her children well no that that quote unquote single mom is stealing 1.00

00:43:01.120 nikes and televisions guys she's not going for for the uh well and in the case of bc you'd think 0.93

00:43:06.720 that okay so you know obviously the toxicity of the drug supply is is one issue but if this program

00:43:14.480 was really working and it was such a success then why are people still dying i mean all you have to

00:43:19.360 do is to get your drugs is to walk in and get a prescription increasingly so it's not working

00:43:24.480 there's there's no beating around that bush it's not working no well and even in oregon like what

00:43:29.200 they did they were and oregon was really bad i don't know i like portland i've been to portland

00:43:33.520 quite a few times and when you know like the last few years it was getting pretty scary well i think

00:43:38.080 we have abandoned that whole approach in oregon they have to and it started off as kind of a

00:43:42.240 compassionate thing i'm hoping maybe bc's hitting that tipping point where at least the reality is

00:43:46.640 going to soak in and they'll start backing off we're not going to have to start putting something

00:43:49.760 into treatment yeah you know i got a feeling there's a lot of tipping points that are starting

00:43:54.160 to tip they're starting to i think the wave is finally hitting the crest and people are saying

00:43:59.360 wow this is you know where there's trans issues and other things people are just getting enough 1.00

00:44:03.280 is enough extreme isn't this that's great there's hope yes oh get on there is no there is yes we

00:44:10.880 got to maintain that we complain so we'll get on to drunks uh since we're on the drugs we'll finish

00:44:15.920 up with uh oh the vodka uh hey alcoholism serious i'm aware of that and i'm open about that as well

00:44:22.800 Well, I've had my battles with that,

00:44:24.240 and I'm getting sober and enjoying it now.

00:44:26.820 But I didn't get sober because the government intervened

00:44:29.880 and made sure I couldn't buy big bottles of vodka.

00:44:32.040 I got sober because my wife would have killed me

00:44:33.840 if I didn't, and a number of other issues. 0.95

00:44:35.880 But this is ridiculous, I think, in my view.

00:44:39.480 Well, it's not free market economics. 0.71

00:44:41.360 I mean, of all the governments to...

00:44:45.020 And again, I hope that there's a little chat

00:44:47.400 in the Premier's office, you know?

00:44:50.300 these people are paying the taxes that they are supposed to pay, and I'm sure they are,

00:44:56.700 it's up to them what they sell their drug for. Yeah, and just background for folks in Alberta,

00:45:01.660 we had a situation where there were these big water jug looking bottles for like 45 dollars

00:45:06.460 or something like that of vodka. Four liters of vodka, I'm sure it's terrible, terrible vodka,

00:45:11.900 but it's budget priced and so be it. And the minister in Alberta got up and started initially

00:45:18.860 talking about regulating liquor prices and the volumes that it could be sold at. And it sounds

00:45:23.280 like they backed off on that pretty quickly. But where did you think you were coming from even

00:45:27.200 talking about that? Well, you know, governments in Alberta, you know, traditionally tended to be

00:45:33.760 kind of, you know, Puritan, let's just say, you know, social credit, we, you know, there was a

00:45:40.920 time in this province, you couldn't get a drink on Sunday, or I moved to Calgary, you could, but

00:45:45.480 You had to work really hard to find them.

00:45:47.180 You know, you had a buddy that was selling it out of the garage.

00:45:50.380 Yeah, hang out at the Cecil.

00:45:52.280 It was almost as bad.

00:45:53.380 I don't mind them being puritan, Sean. 0.99

00:45:55.480 I just want them to be conservative.

00:45:57.780 And conservative does not say you're selling your product too cheap.

00:46:04.680 Well, I mean, what's to stop somebody?

00:46:06.280 I mean, you can buy Texas Mickey's already.

00:46:08.480 Like, what stops somebody from buying a case instead of just one big job?

00:46:12.180 Well, that's it.

00:46:13.080 So it was kind of a poorly found reactionary thing.

00:46:15.280 Well, and the distillery said, too, on their website that it was meant more for wholesaling to restaurants and bars,

00:46:21.620 not just because it was more convenient for them for their well liquor instead of having to buy them multiple bottles, right?

00:46:28.080 They said that, didn't they?

00:46:30.540 They also said it's the party jug they marketed.

00:46:33.920 I ran a pub for five years, and if I could have bought those jugs, I probably would have,

00:46:37.560 because I don't care what people say and what they claim, and I know I'll probably get emails about it.

00:46:41.780 you can't tell the difference between gray goose and that cheap crap in a caesar i will give you

00:46:47.760 a hundred after the third or fourth line no not after the yeah but if you want to pay that premium 0.89

00:46:52.180 i'll happily sell it to you but otherwise you should just stick to the well liquor guys

00:46:56.120 one of the days when we met here we always had a little glass of water here

00:46:59.840 oh well either way it was a little distracting spat and i'm sure there's been a chat saying yes

00:47:07.800 and leave the, I'm craving a drink, I'll be afraid.

00:47:10.880 Yeah, those days are gone.

00:47:13.520 Well, the UCP's got bigger fish to fry.

00:47:16.480 Well, you'd hope so.

00:47:17.760 It just seemed ironic that the minister of red tape

00:47:20.080 was the water to print, more red tape, you know.

00:47:23.220 Yeah, we don't need more.

00:47:24.900 Oh, well.

00:47:25.960 Okay, well, that kind of covers what we've got today, guys.

00:47:30.820 I think we've solved a few of the world's problems.

00:47:33.100 What we need is to sell a few more copies

00:47:36.420 of the Western Standard.

00:47:38.020 Well, yes, that's that final thing.

00:47:39.500 I missed that last week.

00:47:40.500 I'll finish this with that reminder.

00:47:42.620 So thank you, Nigel.

00:47:43.540 Thank you, Sean.

00:47:44.860 And don't take off, you guys.

00:47:46.180 That's that reminder.

00:47:46.820 The reason we're independent media,

00:47:47.960 the reason we can give you the truth

00:47:49.360 and talk about these things

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00:48:08.680 So thank you all for tuning in this week.

00:48:11.360 Be sure to tune in to our other shows throughout the week.

00:48:14.240 And keep going to the Western Standard for your news.

00:48:16.640 And we'll see you again next week with a whole bunch of new issues to chew up for you all over again.

00:48:22.360 Thanks.

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Western Standard - April 11, 2024

What's going on with all the prime ministerial budget announcements？

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