0:00

Food's more expensive than ever, fueling up your

0:02

vehicle is more expensive than ever, and you

0:04

may never know the dream of owning your own

0:06

piece of this beautiful country. But

0:08

don't worry, because Justice Road is giving

0:11

more of your money than ever to failing

0:13

media companies. I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and

0:15

you're watching The Gunn Show. If

0:18

you're like most Canadians,

0:34

you think the

0:36

government is doing a bad job at managing

0:38

your money, and you might

0:41

think that Justin Trudeau, at least according to new

0:43

Ipsos polling, is the worst prime minister

0:45

in 50 years, and quite frankly, it's nice

0:48

to see my opinions reconfirmed

0:50

in some polling data. Take that for what you

0:52

will.

0:53

But life is just so oppressively expensive

0:56

in Canada, and it's not getting any better. In fact,

0:58

the government is doing several things to make

1:00

it worse. So

1:02

I thought I would bring on someone who

1:04

watches all the ways

1:06

the government finds to

1:09

waste your money, and they're getting more creative than ever.

1:11

So joining me now is my friend, Chris Sims,

1:14

from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, in an

1:16

interview we recorded earlier today. Take

1:18

a listen.

1:26

So joining me now is my friend, good

1:28

friend of the show, Chris Sims from the Canadian Taxpayers

1:30

Federation, somebody who is

1:33

frequently mistaken for me because, you

1:35

know, couple of prairie brunettes who

1:38

hate large government and

1:40

taxes and care about freedom. I guess we're interchangeable.

1:43

I've done worse, I'm sure so has

1:45

she. Chris, thanks

1:47

for joining me. You have

1:50

a really great op-ed

1:52

about how

1:54

Canadians reject the idea that

1:58

government should be funding. the

2:00

media. And we were just talking off air in

2:02

a conversation I wish we

2:05

had saved for later, but we can sort of rehash

2:07

it now. It's destroyed the trust

2:09

that Canadians have in media.

2:11

It has. And as a long

2:14

time journalist myself, I spent

2:16

the better part of 20 years as a reporter,

2:19

trained in journalism school, I went to

2:21

BCIT, and I took it really

2:24

seriously. And I still do. I think it's

2:26

a calling. I think it's a craft.

2:29

I think it's a duty in many cases

2:32

to tell the stories of those who

2:34

don't have a microphone, to

2:37

speak truth to power. And

2:39

so that's what really hit me the hardest.

2:42

So there's this long standing

2:44

survey slash study on trust.

2:47

Apparently it's been going on for around 20 years

2:49

or so in most major countries,

2:52

and they do individual countries. And

2:54

the most recent one, they have the data

2:56

from 2022, said that 61% of Canadians now think

2:58

that journalists

3:04

are actively trying to mislead

3:07

them with statements

3:08

they know to be false or gross

3:11

exaggerations.

3:13

So I just want to put a cherry on that.

3:17

Back in the day, and any good

3:19

journalist would lose

3:21

sleep over an accidental

3:23

mistake. You got a name wrong.

3:26

You mispronounce something, the date was

3:28

off. Especially

3:30

if you're

3:31

covering something really specific like committee

3:34

or court, those sort

3:36

of mistakes, they haunt you

3:38

and you're really careful.

3:40

That's not it, Sheila. 61% of

3:43

Canadians now think that they're actively

3:46

being misled by journalists. So

3:49

if you've got a big majority, and

3:52

that's what that

3:52

is, of Canadians now thinking like,

3:55

you're not telling the truth

3:57

deliberately, I don't

3:59

really know where you go from here as far

4:01

as journalistic trust goes. And

4:04

speaking on the Taxpayers Federation angle,

4:07

so we come at things from a monetary policy

4:09

obviously, the fact that

4:11

the government is paying journalists

4:14

big money

4:16

has got to be affecting that trust. Yeah,

4:22

it's hard to put into words

4:25

when you see what's happening to the mainstream media

4:27

in this country. However, if they remain terrible,

4:30

I have job security for as long as I want it.

4:33

But they are being denied the market

4:35

correction that

4:36

you would see in other industries.

4:38

If other industries were bleeding customers

4:41

and bleeding revenue simultaneously,

4:44

there would be a huge moment of introspection.

4:47

Executives would be fired because

4:50

they would be trying to course correct the ship.

4:53

But in media, that's not happening because

4:55

along comes Justin Trudeau with a bag

4:57

full of somebody else's money to say, no,

5:00

no, no, just keep doing what you're doing, guys.

5:02

What kind of money? I don't

5:05

think the average consumer understands, but

5:07

once you do, you will

5:09

realize the lens through

5:12

which they are reporting. What's

5:14

the money being shoveled at newsrooms

5:17

in this country?

5:18

So

5:20

I would say that there is some attempt

5:22

at course correction, but it's not

5:24

working. So we saw recently, of course, the massive

5:26

layoffs at Bell and radio stations

5:28

being shut down. So we did see that. However,

5:31

it doesn't follow along with the executives

5:33

or the brass or a change in direction. And

5:36

so there's two things for the media,

5:39

the pool of money that the media gets from

5:41

the government. So one, there's the CBC.

5:44

They get more than $1.2 billion per

5:48

year. But that's been happening for

5:50

a long time. So let's set that aside

5:52

for a sec. There's the so-called media

5:54

bailout. People call it that. It's

5:57

around $590.

5:59

million. So close to $600 million has been set aside

6:03

for non-CBC media. Now,

6:11

this is key. We don't know which

6:14

ones exactly have taken the money, but

6:17

by and large it is print.

6:20

So as of right now and so

6:22

far it has been largely

6:24

print that has taken taxpayers money

6:27

that has taken government money. And

6:29

folks over at Canada Land, to give

6:31

them credit, did the math and they broke

6:34

down how much money that is per reporter.

6:37

Now on average that's around $13,000 per reporter.

6:41

Yes, not $1,300, not $130, $13,000. So

6:44

this led me, like I said, being a lifelong

6:52

journalist to kind of do a little thought experiment.

6:55

Imagine you're up on Parliament Hill and you're

6:58

a reporter and you're working in the press

7:00

gallery and it's your job to,

7:02

you know, speak truth to power,

7:04

to hold the government to account.

7:07

How well are you going to be able to do that

7:09

if you're counting on that same government for

7:11

your paycheck? Maybe

7:13

even the existence of your job, because we

7:16

all know, you know, margins in private

7:18

newsrooms are pretty tight. $13,000,

7:22

your job might not exist without that $13,000.

7:24

How on earth are

7:27

you supposed to call that game straight?

7:29

Like you can't. It's human

7:31

nature. Even if you tried your darndest,

7:34

it is still in the back of your mind and even

7:36

if somehow you miraculously could,

7:38

say you were like, you know, data

7:41

from Star Trek or something and you were able

7:43

to do so.

7:44

It's the perception of bias. So

7:47

if the Canadians watching you know

7:50

that you're being paid by the government, it's

7:52

the perception of bias that destroys the

7:54

trust. It's the same as ethics, right?

7:57

It's the perception of corruption. Once it's

7:59

there,

7:59

Like you can't regain it. So

8:02

this is why this is a fundamental thing.

8:05

Journalists being paid by the government

8:07

are in a huge conflict of interest.

8:10

It mustn't happen. And

8:14

I don't think people realize, but again, once you start

8:16

paying attention for it, you'll see

8:18

it.

8:19

The government also funds special initiative

8:22

journalism in local papers. So,

8:25

for example, if I'm reading the Fort Saskatchewan

8:27

record, which I'm not quite sure what the

8:29

circulation is there, but I'm sure

8:31

it's fewer than 10,000. If I'm

8:33

reading that and I'm seeing a bunch of shoe horned

8:36

in climate change garbage that literally nobody

8:38

in my community of farmers and

8:42

industrial workers cares about, and

8:44

you're wondering why is this in the Fort Saskatchewan

8:46

record? I'm here for the hog prices in

8:48

the garage sales.

8:49

You know, it's

8:52

right. It's because post media

8:54

or Glacier or whomever is running your

8:56

local news outlet is being

8:58

given special funding by the government

9:01

for a special initiative reporter,

9:03

a climate change reporter usually is what it is.

9:06

And look at that disconnect. Like

9:09

how is that possibly serving the community

9:11

and the readers? And even if you wanted

9:13

to do another thought experiment, you know,

9:15

to be fair, let's imagine that

9:18

there was a different government in charge and their priorities

9:20

were completely different. And for some reason, they

9:23

were funding the government, too. Imagine

9:26

if it was hog prices and

9:28

I don't know, when the firing

9:30

range is open that day in

9:33

downtown Toronto, right? They'd

9:35

be like, what, what is this?

9:36

Why am I reading about this? Because

9:39

the government is paying for that reporter

9:41

to say those things. That

9:44

is not a free press.

9:47

Folks, I the

9:49

term free press, I think some

9:51

folks might have thought that it harkens

9:53

back to an old tiny era of

9:55

when those rolled up newspapers were free for the

9:58

taking off the newsstand. No.

9:59

No, it meant free

10:02

from government. That

10:05

means money, influence, censorship,

10:07

all that jazz.

10:08

So a free press needs

10:10

to be a free press. It doesn't matter

10:13

whose team is in power. A

10:15

free press is essential in order to hold

10:17

the government to account. And

10:19

this is why the Taxpayers' Federation were flagging

10:22

it. So number one, it's just a huge waste of money.

10:24

If you add up, it's awful, but

10:27

if you add up how much money we've

10:29

spent on the CBC and this

10:31

so-called media bailout and a few other emergency

10:33

top-up fundings over the last four years,

10:36

it's well over $5 billion.

10:38

I

10:45

think it was like 300,000 families

10:47

could have groceries for a year, something

10:49

like that. It was a really big

10:51

number. $5 billion that we have

10:53

poured from the government

10:55

into media. And

10:58

it has to stop. Not one nickel should

11:00

be going into journalism from the government.

11:03

I think from a news consumer's point of view, it

11:05

ends up being a huge psy-op

11:08

on the population because I'm

11:10

there, like I said, I'm there for the hog prices,

11:12

the garage sales, and maybe the

11:14

farm equipment that are being listed on the classifieds.

11:17

I'm looking for a hate- I love reading the letters too. Those

11:19

are my favorite, the grumpy letters. I'm looking

11:21

for a hay rake, to be honest with you. I'm

11:25

reading that and I'm like, wait a minute, I don't care

11:27

about climate change. Am I supposed to care

11:29

about it? Because apparently everybody else in my

11:31

community does. And so it sort of rewires

11:34

your brain in

11:35

a way that normally, all

11:38

of a sudden you're like, wait,

11:40

do we all care about this? Am I the strange one?

11:43

Because I don't care, because I see

11:45

this in the newspaper every single week. So obviously,

11:47

because people are reporting on

11:49

it, they must care about it. I think it plays

11:51

games with the minds of the consumer. See,

11:54

there it becomes this top-down influencing

11:57

instead of this grassroots organic interest.

12:00

in something that is then reflected

12:02

in the local newspaper or the local

12:04

media, right? Because that would be

12:06

the free and fair exchange in ideas or

12:09

the market correcting itself, people choosing

12:11

to buy the newspaper, all that stuff. Whereas

12:13

if it's coming from whatever ideology

12:16

from top down, you're going to be

12:18

getting a semi-artificial product

12:20

right there in your newspaper. And so

12:23

this is again why we need

12:25

to really speak up about this. Because if we don't

12:27

have a free press and if

12:29

we

12:29

have potential government censorship

12:32

of online news media or independent

12:34

news media through C11, like

12:37

that's a stranglehold on free

12:39

expression in Canada. And the reason

12:42

why we continuously flag this is because

12:44

they're not done. So

12:47

C18, I know you guys have covered this,

12:50

C18 in essence wants

12:52

to force big tech to pay

12:54

for when news links are posted.

12:56

And they want them to pay into

12:58

newsrooms. So

13:00

we don't have an exact dog in that fight, don't

13:03

know where that's going to go, but we can tell you what's going to

13:05

happen when it all falls apart. Taxpayers

13:08

are going to be stuck holding the bill. And

13:10

the heritage minister, Pablo Rodriguez, already

13:13

indicated this. To paraphrase,

13:15

he said, we need to make

13:17

sure that newsrooms stay open. By

13:20

we, he meant government. And

13:23

we need to make sure they have the resources

13:25

they need.

13:26

Resources, of course, is government speak for

13:28

taxpayers money. So this is

13:31

no, no, the government does

13:33

not have business in the newsrooms

13:36

of the nation. Yeah.

13:38

A lot of people don't understand exactly

13:40

what C18 is, the Online News

13:42

Act. It's a shakedown of big

13:44

tech companies for a

13:47

bailout for newsrooms

13:49

that if big tech doesn't give it, we already

13:52

know the government's going to backstop it. And

13:55

at the end of the day, Canadians will see

13:58

less news about Canada. and

14:00

the government and be able to hold their

14:02

government to account in a less effective

14:05

way Because big tech is

14:07

big tech. They control the internet

14:09

You know what they're gonna do what they're already

14:11

doing just turn off news to Canadians

14:13

because

14:14

they don't want to have to pay Justin Trudeau's bailout

14:17

Which is really just blackmail. I mean

14:20

Justin Trudeau squared off against big tech

14:22

and lost and

14:24

The law is so bad that

14:26

I find myself cheering for Google and

14:28

Facebook Is it like that's how that's

14:30

the position you put me in. I didn't have that on my bingo

14:33

card. Yeah I

14:35

know and so and then you combine that

14:38

with C11 Where you've got

14:40

you're

14:40

like I'm wincing saying it bureaucrats

14:43

then deciding how Canadian

14:45

your stuff is Forgive

14:48

me, but I've seen this story before

14:50

so I remember Back

14:53

when Sun News Network was trying to go

14:56

for mandatory carriage, which didn't incur

14:58

cost to taxpayers Just want to be clear But

15:00

it was so that we had a good cable

15:02

package offering and back then

15:04

the CRTC So, you know had

15:07

put us through all these hoops saying how Canadian really

15:09

are you? I remember staying

15:11

up late into the night holding my kid Phoning

15:14

all of our supporters saying please hand write

15:16

a letter to the CRTC if you feel this way About

15:19

how Canadian we are

15:20

didn't matter. It's

15:22

did it didn't matter it ultimately

15:24

is always up to the personal opinion of the

15:26

bureaucrat and Whatever

15:28

culture the department happens to have and

15:31

then it's in the hands of bigger and bigger government

15:33

Which you all pay for by the way and is ever expanding.

15:36

It's up to the CRTC to decide

15:40

how Canadian

15:42

The online content producer is under

15:44

C11 and so now

15:46

guess what that's open to interpretation and It

15:49

could eventually slide into oh we're going

15:52

to down rig you because

15:54

for whatever reason so that you're not seen

15:56

anymore And what was interesting

15:58

is that I saw

15:59

content creators back during the hearings

16:02

on C-11 from all sorts

16:04

of angles of the political spectrum. I

16:07

heard all sorts of people saying, I won't be seen

16:09

anymore or this is really important to

16:11

me. Why is this up to the government where

16:13

I'm going to be showing up on somebody's algorithm?

16:16

But now it's passed and so

16:18

we're going to have to see what happens as

16:21

a result of it. But when you combine this thing with

16:23

things like C-11 and things like

16:25

especially the heritage minister trotting around

16:27

with the taxpayer piggy bank in his hand,

16:29

you're going to be strangling free expression

16:32

in the country and we can't hold the government

16:34

to account if we can't express

16:37

ourselves. And I think with

16:39

C-11, much like squaring off

16:41

with big tech right now,

16:43

Justin Trudeau is going to find himself squaring

16:45

off against Netflix,

16:47

YouTube, Twitter, Rumble

16:50

and guess what's going to happen? Rumble already

16:52

did it in France. They said, okay, fine, you want

16:54

to control us here and what we can show and how

16:56

we run our algorithm? No Rumble for

16:59

France. And Netflix will

17:01

do the same. YouTube will do the same. All

17:03

the other streaming services will do the same. I

17:05

don't think people understand.

17:07

Twitter will be considered a streaming

17:10

service because they have a video

17:12

aspect to their platform now. And

17:14

Justin Trudeau is going to square off against

17:16

them for what is considered Canadian

17:19

content and what's Elon going to do? Fine,

17:21

no Canadians for Twitter. And

17:24

just imagine,

17:26

imagine what that does to the exchange of

17:28

ideas because well, some

17:30

people would say that Twitter is not real life.

17:32

Granted, I understand. Believe that. It's also

17:34

a gathering place

17:37

for a lot of people and not just a lot of people

17:40

in general. I'm not trying to sound

17:42

like an elitist jerk, but almost

17:44

every journalist,

17:46

independent, government paid,

17:48

media, etc, international

17:51

are on Twitter. It's where so it's like,

17:53

journalists are made, including myself.

17:55

Exactly. Yeah. All I guess that's why

17:57

I said all journalists. Like I can't, I actually.

18:00

don't know one personally who is not

18:02

on Twitter anymore, even

18:04

if they say they've left. It's a

18:06

watering hole. It's a gathering place. It's a nerve

18:09

center. And so you've got journalists and

18:11

politicians right up against each other and

18:14

a bunch of activists too. So that's why it's this

18:16

big buzzing hive all the time.

18:19

Imagine cutting that off for Canadians and then

18:21

what sort of stories and messaging will

18:24

be lost. Yeah, I mean, I

18:26

know so many stories that have

18:28

been broken by

18:29

citizen journalists who were

18:32

just there on the scene. You look at

18:33

the news of the Trucker

18:35

convoy.

18:36

Almost all the images that people

18:39

saw

18:40

were coming from citizen journalists on

18:42

the scene who just flipped on their cameras

18:45

in a town

18:46

that is teeming with journalists who didn't

18:48

want to go

18:49

just down onto the streets to talk to the truckers.

18:52

All the news basically about the Trucker convoy

18:54

came from citizen journalists and it was all dumped

18:57

on Twitter and TikTok. And

18:59

if Justin Trudeau has his

19:02

way, he might force those platforms

19:04

to cut Canadians off altogether.

19:07

Jordan Peterson has compared,

19:09

I think it was YouTube he was talking about, but

19:11

I think the comparison still stands where

19:13

you can just grab this

19:16

and suddenly you have all of the

19:18

technology that I had to book

19:20

a satellite truck for. It's true. Like 10

19:23

years ago, it's crazy. And

19:25

so I think Jordan Peterson compared

19:27

YouTube specifically to the printing press. I

19:30

agree. I

19:31

agree. I think it's just as much of an

19:33

informational and cultural revolutionary tool.

19:36

And if that part has cut off, just

19:38

imagine the stories you're not being told. I've

19:41

even done now because you can do longer

19:44

form videos on Twitter. I've

19:46

done really long like walk and talks

19:48

at the gas station

19:50

where I'm holding up the gas pump and I'm showing

19:52

you the difference on how much it costs

19:54

to fill up in BC versus Alberta.

19:57

And I've explained it all

19:59

and I've got all the

19:59

taxes there because my team does so much great

20:02

work on gas taxes. That

20:04

information is not being provided

20:06

to you by the government. Okay. They're,

20:09

they're not issuing a press release telling you

20:11

how much they're screwing you over in British Columbia.

20:14

I'm filling up your pickup truck. It's 50 bucks

20:16

more per fill up, by the way, versus

20:18

Alberta. And so this is where

20:20

things get really frustrating is I

20:23

need to get that messaging out, it got

20:25

tens of thousands of views.

20:28

What happens then?

20:29

What happens if we're cut off there? And it will

20:31

also point out that the government itself

20:34

has called, I don't know if they said disinformation

20:37

or misinformation, but they don't

20:39

like the word carbon tax.

20:41

They like fee, levy,

20:44

something, price on pollution, et

20:47

cetera. Um, they don't like the word carbon

20:49

tax. And we talk

20:51

about the carbon tax all the time.

20:54

And we've been around since 1990. Are

20:57

they going to deem that misinformation

20:59

and then block it? Like it's

21:01

really bad folks. And for folks who,

21:04

if you're on the complete opposite side of things and

21:06

you're a huge fan of all this, imagine

21:08

your guy is not in,

21:11

imagine it's the other guy who's deciding

21:13

what you can say and see and share, this

21:16

is the crux of free speech and free expression.

21:19

Yeah. One of the things that sort

21:21

of turned me into a citizen journalist

21:23

was seeing a clip

21:25

of Andrew Breitbart. I think he was speaking

21:27

at a tea party rally and it's in

21:29

the movie hating Breitbart.

21:31

I recommend everybody see it. And

21:33

he tells every, and I say this sometimes

21:36

at our rebel news live events.

21:38

He tells everybody in the crowd to hold up their cell phones.

21:42

And he says, there's a sea of new

21:44

media to debunk the lies. And

21:47

that was like in 2010, um,

21:49

what an Oracle that man was, but

21:52

it is the, it

21:53

is the importance of new

21:55

media

21:56

that is prompting the censorship of new media

21:59

by the powers that.

22:00

because it is so instrumental

22:03

in undoing the lies that they must

22:06

censor it to maintain control. It's

22:08

incredibly powerful, that media. And

22:11

so this is where I think we're in this struggle

22:13

right now, this crux of

22:15

how much power do

22:18

the average people have, how much information

22:20

are we allowed to see, who should be

22:22

deciding what we're allowed to see. And

22:24

so the mom

22:26

and me wants to think that in the future it will calm

22:29

down because I want a nice

22:31

bright future. Right, exactly.

22:33

I want a nice bright future for my kids. But

22:36

I think fundamentally, we

22:38

need to be able to hold government

22:40

to account. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation

22:42

was founded in 1990 for lower

22:45

taxes, less waste and accountable government.

22:48

And we can't have accountable government if

22:50

we don't have these tools and we don't have this power

22:52

and we're not getting the information we need to make our

22:55

own informed decisions. So

22:57

this is again why it's so incredibly

22:59

important that we not pay

23:01

the media. Government funded media

23:03

shouldn't exist in Canada. And

23:05

what I found really interesting is when Elon

23:08

Musk labeled CBC

23:10

government funded media,

23:12

how mad they got. Yeah. Yeah.

23:16

No, seriously, I was really puzzled. Why

23:18

did they get so mad? Like

23:20

they are. I know they are.

23:23

Like I wouldn't get mad at somebody saying, oh,

23:25

you're a grassroots organization with

23:27

a huge support base in Western

23:29

Canada, growing in Ontario, etc. Like,

23:32

okay, yeah, fair enough. Accurate. You

23:35

know, you want small government. Yeah, we

23:37

do. Because it's being wasteful.

23:39

Like, if not,

23:41

it gets big and wasteful and we're going to be spending

23:43

more than 50% of our paychecks on taxes.

23:46

Sure, guilty is charged. So if

23:49

they're literally government funded media, why are

23:51

they getting mad about being called government funded

23:53

media? And so this is where we're saying

23:55

there's a real simple solution to that.

23:57

Like just stop taking taxpayers money.

23:59

I think there's an acknowledgement by

24:02

the CBC right there that there is a certain

24:04

stigma attached to being

24:07

on the government dime. Now, I just want

24:09

to change lanes because you just talked about it there a second

24:11

ago. And that is that it is summer

24:13

driving season in Canada. I

24:16

think Western Canadians, we like to drive

24:18

to wherever we're going. I know like in the

24:20

office in Toronto, they're like, oh, we'll

24:22

get you a flight to Calgary. And I'm like, no, I

24:25

live so far from the airport by the time I get to the

24:27

airport, go through security,

24:28

pay for parking, pay for parking, get

24:30

on the shuttle, get over there. I'm in Calgary.

24:33

Like it's four hours

24:35

either there and I get to have my vehicle on the other side,

24:37

which is a bonus. So we like to drive

24:39

places, although this is a very vast

24:42

part of the world. And

24:44

it is more expensive than ever, just

24:47

as we're coming into summer driving season. And

24:50

luckily in Alberta, it's a little

24:51

less expensive than everywhere else,

24:54

but it's still crazy expensive.

24:56

Yeah, it's hugely expensive. So good

24:59

news first, you just pointed it out,

25:01

Sheila. We have the lowest gas

25:03

prices typically in all

25:05

of Canada. That is because we have the lowest

25:07

gas taxes in all of Canada. And

25:10

sneak peek, we're going to be doing a lot

25:13

of press conferences and

25:15

fun stuff all on in August, mostly

25:18

on this from the taxpayers perspective. And

25:20

so we pay the lowest

25:23

gas taxes in Canada here in Alberta,

25:25

because

25:25

we don't pay any provincial gas tax rates. None.

25:29

None. I think it's 32 cents

25:31

per litre is taxes here

25:33

in Alberta, and all of them are

25:35

federal.

25:36

Because Premier Daniel Smith has continued

25:38

the suspension of the 13 cent

25:41

per litre of Alberta fuel tax.

25:43

So that saves you just that one

25:46

suspension of that one tax, saves

25:48

you about 15 bucks every time

25:50

you're filling up a light duty pickup truck. So

25:54

I'm going to be driving one of those light duty pickup trucks to the

25:56

airport in a few minutes to go hang out with a family

25:58

member that's saving me.

25:59

$15 than I would be otherwise.

26:03

Now, if we can, if you're

26:05

driving to the lower mainland in British

26:07

Columbia, which I just did to go

26:09

to a family wedding, so taxes

26:13

in the lower mainland are about 77 cents

26:16

a liter. That's

26:17

like half. Yes,

26:20

it's so gross. This

26:22

is why, this is why gas

26:24

prices in Vancouver are about

26:26

two bucks a liter.

26:28

So, and it's unnecessary.

26:30

So, why? So, in BC,

26:33

especially so lower mainland, so, you know,

26:35

GVRD, Greater Vancouver Regional District,

26:37

they pay the first carbon tax, they

26:40

pay the second carbon tax, which is an extra 17

26:42

cents a liter, and they pay

26:44

a Metro Vancouver TransLink

26:47

tax for their transit system, which is 18 and

26:49

a half cents a liter. Yeah,

26:53

it's horrendous. And so, this is

26:55

why they have the highest fuel prices in North

26:57

America. And this is why folks

26:59

can cannot afford anything. People say, how

27:01

are people making ends meet in Vancouver? They're

27:03

not. Yeah. They're

27:06

not. Average working people are not making ends

27:08

meet in Vancouver. And so, here

27:11

in Alberta, though, it is, we've got the

27:13

best deal. It's still expensive,

27:16

and we're bracing ourselves because now

27:18

the carbon tax is going to triple the first

27:21

one in the next seven years.

27:22

And now there's a second

27:24

carbon tax. So, Prime

27:27

Minister Justin Trudeau, not

27:29

kidding,

27:30

took a look at the gas price in BC

27:32

and said,

27:33

that's awesome.

27:34

I'm gonna do that across the

27:36

rest of the country. And so

27:38

now, there's a second carbon tax in

27:40

place, you know, in the rest of

27:42

Canada. We don't know how much it's costing

27:45

us out of the shoots just yet. It's

27:48

in play.

27:49

Like, the bell is wrong. The

27:51

horse is running down the ring. We

27:53

just don't know how much it's costing us yet. Because

27:56

the second carbon tax is a really complicated

27:59

form of government.

27:59

regulation where they

28:02

penalize companies for the

28:04

carbon content of their fuels. And when

28:06

they can't reduce the carbon content of their fuels,

28:09

the companies then have to pay a fine and

28:11

they pass that fee on down to us

28:13

at the gas pump. So in BC

28:15

typically it's 17 cents a litre up

28:18

and down for gas. It's 19 cents

28:20

a litre thereabouts

28:23

for diesel.

28:24

Like how truckers do it there I don't know.

28:27

And so now we're waiting to

28:29

see what happens. We do know though the parliamentary

28:31

budget office who does amazing work,

28:34

nonpartisan government, arms reach

28:36

government organization, they're

28:38

a watchdog. They did the math

28:40

and by 2030 it's gonna

28:43

be as expensive as it is in BC. Oh

28:45

my goodness.

28:46

So yeah I know it's gross. I don't know what it is

28:48

right now. It could be five cents, it could be eight cents.

28:51

We're going to have to wait I think a couple months

28:53

for it to shake out to see where it comes out. But

28:55

it's in play right now. We have two carbon taxes now.

28:58

And that ends up being tacked on to everything.

29:01

I was saying the other day I think it was

29:03

to Drea Humphrey that my

29:07

oldest moved out of the house a couple years ago

29:10

and the kid is a food furnace. You

29:12

know he's six foot three's. You

29:14

know he's a pipe fitter. And my 17 year old

29:16

daughter is a high-performance athlete

29:21

who

29:21

is also a food furnace.

29:23

But it feels like she moved out because

29:26

she works all the time. She's training at the gym

29:28

and she's playing her sport. So she's always

29:30

gone. I

29:32

know she's eating somewhere. I'm looking at her

29:34

and I'm like no you're eating obviously. Just

29:36

not here. But my grocery

29:38

bill is still the same

29:40

as a couple years ago when both of them were

29:42

eating me out of house and home. And it's because of

29:44

stuff like this. It's not just hitting us

29:46

at the pump. It kicks down

29:49

every step of the way through all

29:51

aspects of the economy but especially food.

29:54

Yes and this is something

29:56

that people really need to understand. So

29:59

the pump price the one that's

30:01

still hidden by the way, like you need to look it up

30:03

to find out how much it is, but that's the most obvious

30:05

because there's literally a price tag hanging in the

30:07

sky everywhere you drive. Okay,

30:09

but it's the

30:12

cumulative layered carbon tax

30:14

on everything that is a major problem.

30:17

So even diesel, so truckers

30:20

obviously use diesel. Filling

30:22

up just, you know, one of those big rig trucks,

30:24

the two tanks, the cylindrical tanks, costs

30:27

about a hundred and fifty, hundred and

30:29

sixty bucks extra just in the

30:31

carbon tax. Filling up, you

30:33

know, a locomotive that uses diesel,

30:36

it's around $2400 if you do the math on the carbon tax.

30:40

And now if you go to farmers,

30:42

so farmers do get a break on

30:44

on farm fuel, it's a really complicated

30:47

thing they need to fill out, but a lot

30:49

of folks don't know that they've had to be paying

30:51

the carbon tax on natural gas and propane,

30:54

not just to dry their grain product,

30:57

but to heat their barns.

30:59

So, you know, spoiler alert, if

31:01

it's January and it's Saskatchewan,

31:04

you need to heat your barns or keep your livestock

31:07

alive or to cool their barns, their chicken farms,

31:09

their hog barns. It's, you know, it's

31:12

everything. Great point. Yeah.

31:13

Great point. And they use the same stuff. They use

31:15

natural gas or propane, etc. Though

31:17

that's all carbon taxed and a

31:20

lot of folks don't know that. So

31:22

now you've got, you know, on the farm carbon tax,

31:24

on the truck carbon tax, in

31:26

the grocery store,

31:28

right? Same thing, heating and cooling, right?

31:30

All day long, all year long. That's

31:32

carbon tax. Now you're driving there

31:35

to go get it. See? So this

31:37

is the layer cake from hell, which

31:39

is the carbon tax, and that is what is helping.

31:42

It's not the whole problem, but that's

31:44

certainly helping make

31:44

your grocery bill go up. And,

31:47

you know, I just saw an article that

31:49

you wrote about how Quebec on the flip side

31:52

is getting a very special deal on the carbon

31:54

tax. And I'm like, we're over here

31:56

in Alberta. We're keeping the place running. We're

31:59

fueling everything. thing, we don't get a

32:01

deal, but Quebec gets a special deal. And we're

32:03

supposed to just think, Confederation

32:05

is just working all hunky dory. It's

32:08

like, stop me if you've heard this one. Quebec's

32:12

getting a special deal. And what I think is

32:14

interesting here is that it's really

32:16

highlighting how special a deal they're getting.

32:19

So to be clear, we want everybody to pay

32:21

zero carbon tax. Yeah, me too. Like,

32:24

French, English, space aliens in

32:27

Canada, nobody pays the carbon tax. But

32:29

now,

32:29

is this ever getting highlighted? Because

32:32

for the first time ever, the Maritimes,

32:34

Atlantic Canada, they're paying

32:36

full freight on the carbon tax. So

32:40

for a long time, they

32:42

didn't pay the full mandatory minimum

32:44

carbon tax. They were paying about $0.02

32:47

a litre on their carbon tax, where the

32:49

rest of us were paying $0.14 a litre.

32:53

So overnight,

32:55

July 1, happy Canada Day, their

32:59

window ran out. And the Trudeau

33:01

government forced them onto the full

33:03

mandatory minimum carbon tax. Overnight,

33:06

Sheila, filling up their minivan

33:09

in Dartmouth is suddenly costing

33:11

them $10 more. Like

33:13

that.

33:14

Like that. And people who sniff at $10, I

33:17

can get a roast chicken for $10. And

33:19

then I can make soup out of it. $10 is $10. Don't

33:23

assume that that belongs to the government, because it

33:25

doesn't. So yeah, I think

33:28

now

33:28

people are really waking up and realizing.

33:30

I'm even getting some texts from relations

33:33

that I have down that way saying, what's

33:35

this carbon tax thing?

33:38

And why is it so expensive? And

33:41

so yeah, they're on it now. Our

33:44

team, Jay Goldberg and Franco

33:46

Terrazano, just finished doing a tour there. And

33:48

people were talking about it. They could hear it over

33:50

in the coffee shops. So welcome

33:53

to the party, pal, as John McClain would say. Yeah,

33:55

a lot of people getting mugged by reality all of a

33:57

sudden.

33:59

I forgot about that term. It's pretty good. Now,

34:02

Chris, I could obviously talk to you all

34:04

day, but I know that you have to go

34:06

to the airport to meet with some family. And

34:09

I have other things to do. Let people know

34:11

how they can support the good work that you folks do at

34:14

the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation because you'll never

34:16

take a penny

34:17

from Justin Trudeau. And how could you ever hold them to

34:19

account if you did? Exactly.

34:21

And for the record, we're not a charity.

34:23

We're a non-profit. That's

34:25

for many reasons, and one of the big reasons

34:28

is we don't give you a tax credit.

34:30

Even.

34:31

So if you make a donation, you're

34:33

just making a donation. Free will. Because

34:35

we don't even want to give you a tax credit. That's

34:38

how seriously we take this. So

34:40

if you go to the website Taxpayer.com,

34:43

the best way to get started in our relationship

34:45

is to sign petitions that you like. So

34:48

that could be anything. It could be defund the media,

34:51

defund the CBC. It could be stop

34:54

the gun grab. It could be all

34:56

sorts of stop the carbon tax. Even

34:58

some really regional things, like something that really

35:00

bothered

35:01

me personally in British Columbia is

35:03

that they charge PST on everything

35:06

there, including used vehicles,

35:08

which cost you thousands, and

35:10

thrift store items. It's crazy. Like,

35:13

just

35:14

talk about attacking the poor. It makes me

35:16

so mad. And so there's even a very

35:18

specific angry petition in British Columbia

35:21

saying get rid of the PST on used items. So whatever

35:24

floats your boat, sign the petition on

35:26

that issue, and that way we'll start

35:29

having email conversations with you, and the

35:31

next time we're all doing a big blast to a minister

35:33

or speaking up at such and such a time, you'll get on the list. So

35:37

just go to Taxpayer.com and sign the petitions

35:39

that tickle your fancy. You

35:40

know, sometimes people say petitions

35:42

are not effective, but I will tell you, I

35:44

bullied Earls into putting Canadian

35:47

beef back on the menu, and I got accused of working for

35:49

Cargill by somebody in their

35:51

media relations office. I'm like, no, no,

35:53

right? It

35:56

helps you create a standing army of like-minded people. And

35:59

what is more grassrootsy than that?

35:59

than that. It's pretty wonderful. Yeah, you

36:02

can affect change. It's a and it's

36:04

fun. It's fun to see these people quaking in their boots

36:06

when I show up and I'm like, here's 10,000 signatures.

36:09

Take them.

36:12

Good work. Thanks so much. We'll

36:14

have you back on again very, very soon.

36:17

Thank you.

36:25

Well,

36:25

friends, we've come to the portion of the show where we invite

36:27

your viewer feedback, because without

36:29

you, there really is no rebel news. Unlike

36:31

the mainstream media, we don't take a penny from Justin Trudeau

36:35

to hold Justin Trudeau to account, just

36:37

like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

36:39

And so

36:40

we rely on the support of you at home. But

36:42

because we rely on your support, I also think that

36:44

you should also get your say, which

36:46

is why I give out my email address. If

36:48

you want to send me

36:50

feedback about the show, put gun

36:53

show letters in the subject line, send me an email

36:55

at Sheila at Rebel News dot

36:58

com.

36:58

Sheila at Rebel News dot com. And it's

37:01

gun show letters gun with two ends. But

37:04

don't hesitate to leave a question or comment

37:06

wherever you're watching us. If you're watching the free

37:08

version of the show on Rumble and you feel

37:10

like sitting through a couple of ads, leave

37:13

a comment there. I'll go looking there. Sometimes

37:15

I even go looking on the censorship platform of

37:17

YouTube. But today's comments come

37:20

to us from Rumble and they

37:22

are on last week's show with my friend

37:24

and colleague and filmmaking partner, Kian

37:27

Simone, about the recently

37:30

wrapped up first leg of our documentary

37:32

tour. And our documentary

37:35

is called Church Under Fire, Canada's War

37:37

on Christianity. And it details the

37:39

treatment

37:41

of the COVID resistor

37:44

pastors when the lockdowns came

37:46

to their churches. And we

37:49

try to explain to Canadians

37:51

who may not have been paying attention that what

37:53

happened to these pastors didn't happen

37:56

in a bubble. It was a slow

37:58

burn from

39:59

make it an

40:02

historical record

40:06

of what happened.

40:07

Because the other side of this is

40:09

desperately trying to rewrite their own history

40:12

and seek amnesty for themselves. Perhaps

40:16

there can be reconciliation one day,

40:19

but before reconciliation, there must be truth

40:22

and the raw truth. That's what

40:24

we tried to present. It

40:27

reveals clearly how those twisted-minded

40:30

lunatics in Ottawa and the government of Justin

40:33

Trudeau got carried away with their power and authority

40:35

kick and seemed to relish every minute

40:37

of it. How their mindless brainless

40:40

servants, those lowerlings in government

40:43

on the provincial and municipal level, and

40:45

in the judiciary, and those police officers

40:47

dressed in their black uniforms with

40:49

those leather belts with their impressive paraphernalia

40:52

of handcuffs and guns that seemed to give

40:54

them that feeling of authority over the citizens. This

40:57

reminds me of my five-year-old dressed in his Darth

40:59

Vader outfit, playing the bad guy. Does this

41:01

say something about their low life mentality? This

41:04

documentary must be sent to every school, library,

41:07

in church, in Canada, in the United States.

41:09

Well,

41:10

if you were at our documentary screening, you know that we're

41:12

working on distribution. I saw,

41:14

but just this week, the

41:17

DVDs have arrived in the

41:20

head office in Toronto. I'll

41:22

have to explain to a young man like Keon exactly

41:24

what a DVD is and what people do with them,

41:26

but people still use them. It's how we

41:29

used to get our videos in the olden days. But

41:32

anyway, we are working on distribution and we

41:34

do want to make sure that we get this video in front

41:36

of as many eyes as possible because

41:40

people must know what happened

41:43

to be a part of making sure that it never happens again.

41:45

Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight. Thank

41:47

you so much for tuning in. I'll see everybody back

41:50

here in the same time, in the same place next week.

41:52

And remember, as always, don't let

41:54

the government tell you that you've had too much to think.