Sheila Gunn-Reid warns Alberta’s May 29th election could see the NDP’s corporate tax hike (from 8% to 12%)—despite revenue drops ($6.4B vs. $4.8B)—hurting small businesses, contractors, and family farms by driving up costs or pushing them out of the province. The UCP’s Taxpayer Protection Act, expanded to block personal income tax hikes, risks backlash if broken, mirroring past fiscal restraint failures. Gunn-Reid defends private schools (70% cheaper than public) as vital for diverse needs—religious, military, autism, and First Nations—while criticizing the NDP’s deficit spending and Trudeau’s bailout culture. Chris Sims urges taxpayers to resist via petitions at taxpayer.com and local activism, framing economic freedom as a bulwark against government overreach. [Automatically generated summary]
If the NDP win here in Alberta, I think we all lose.
Today we'll talk about exactly why.
Hi, I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.
Albertans head to our general election in about 12 short days, May 29th.
The Alberta NDP, that's our socialist party, have promised to not raise taxes on Albertans, but then they announced a hike to the corporate tax.
Who do they think own or patronize Alberta corporations if not for Albertans?
Who do they think will be paying for the increased costs?
In the taxes, it either has to be eaten by the owner of the corporation who already doesn't have a lot of wiggle room left in the bottom line because of Trudeau's failed policies, his increased taxes, and of course inflation, or the cost increase will be passed along to the consumer.
But either way, Albertans pay.
We all will.
And it sounds like we'll pay for no real benefit.
Joining me today to explain all this is my friend Chris Sims.
She's the Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and much smarter than me.
She's incredible at breaking down these overly complicated ideas in a way that we can all understand.
Take a listen.
So joining me now is my friend Chris Sims from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Chris, I just can't wait till you're on the show again.
Every time the show is done, I'm like, when can we have Chris back again?
I try to give the viewers a little bit of breathing room because sometimes the things you say, not you personally, are kind of irritating when we talk about how the government is wasting our money.
But we actually have a politician who is proposing something really good.
And right now we're in the middle of an election campaign.
We're just in the home stretch.
And the United Conservatives are proposing a taxpayer protection act.
Tell us about this.
Yeah, this is really important.
And it would be a game changer for all Albertans.
So right now here in Alberta, we have a law on the books that is called the Taxpayer Protection Act.
Some of you might have noticed that we don't have a PST.
There's no provincial sales tax here in Alberta, which is why it's called the Alberta Advantage.
Now, what the UCP is proposing is that they would then expand the Taxpayer Protection Act to include any personal income tax increases.
So in layman's terms, they're saying that they're going to tie their own hands as the government and say, we cannot increase your income taxes.
We're going to enshrine it in law.
Now, I can hear some folks saying, yeah, well, they can just change the law.
Yeah, technically they could, but they'd open themselves up to a whole heck of a lot of embarrassment and shame and scorn from some folks in the field if they did something like that.
So again, this is why a PST is often referred to as political suicide in Alberta.
I don't like that term because it's nasty, but that is why that's called that.
And it's because they would have to open up or scrap this law and then hike taxes.
So what the UCP is saying is, hey, you know what that Taxpayer Protection Act does for no PST?
Let's enshrine no income tax hikes with that as well.
So we're super stoked about that.
Yeah.
And, you know, you talk about something that actually has happened in the past.
So in Alberta, we used to have a law, and we sort of do again, that prevented the government from deficit spending.
And then the former progressive conservative government, I think in part it led to their downfall.
They scrapped that.
They started deficit spending and debt spending and Alberta started to not be that place of opportunity.
And it sort of sank the Alberta Advantage.
And I think it contributed to their very quick demise after four decades in power.
Yeah, I think it did too.
And for folks who are saying, oh, well, it doesn't matter.
It does matter.
You know, nothing is carved in stone.
You know, we cannot get inside their brains and alter them forever.
But we can at least put up a fight, right?
As taxpayers, as citizens, as voters, we can say, you know what?
We're not going to make this easy for you.
And so things like balanced budget legislation, which they're also wanting to do, they passed a law.
So during the last budget back in February, feels like a million years ago, they passed a law saying, hey, in future, this is going to be balanced budget legislation, meaning they can't run a deficit unless they're in a massive big hullabaloo crisis.
They also, this is key.
They must hold future spending increases to the rate of inflation and population growth.
This is huge.
This is something that the Taxpayers Federation has been pushing for since like the 90s.
Like the Backstreet Boys were topping the charts back when we were first pushing this.
Okay.
And so they're saying that they want to keep all of these major promises.
And for folks who are saying, well, you know, we can't hold them to it, we can.
We can make it really hard for them.
So yes, the government could grab the wheel and go for the exit ramp, but boy, oh boy, we're going to be putting rumble strips and speed bumps and maybe a couple of those big sawhorses right in front of them.
So that we're going to make it really hard for them to break these promises.
And so this is what makes the Alberta Advantage a real thing of keeping taxes low and keeping spending restrained in seeing these promises.
And we're seeing them come from the UCP and we're really happy to see it.
Yeah, and I think it speaks to the philosophy of the current government and the United Conservative Party.
And I think this comes directly from the Premier's office, is that there's a philosophy of responsibility, fiduciary duty to the people who are paying the bills, and that's us.
But also that so often we see governments who pass laws to restrain the behaviors of the citizenry.
This is a government that has passed two major laws or considering the second one as a campaign promise, restraining themselves, restraining the size and scope of government as opposed to restraining the freedom of the citizens.
And I think that's a real philosophical difference between the United Conservatives and I think probably almost every major political party in the entire country at this point.
Yeah, and I agree.
I think it's largely, my gut's telling me it's largely coming from the Premier's office as well.
I've spoken with Premier Smith many times on the air, both, you know, as a CTF person or a media person.
And I've also spoken to her more casually and privately.
And this is something that she's talked about like openly, like it's a fun topic for her.
She was totally geeking out one time.
I remember.
She was saying, hey, do you realize that if we put X amount of dollars, I forget how much it was, into the heritage savings plan for year after year after year for a certain amount of time, we could totally eliminate income tax in the future?
Like gone at some point in time down the road.
And she really was right into it.
Like this wasn't even me starting this conversation.
And so I do think philosophically it's coming from that office.
And we really want to see this put in place because again, like you say, if they restrain themselves, if we have smaller, more accountable, more fiscally responsible government, it frees up people to go out there and make their fortune, to go out there and be entrepreneurs, to be job creators and to make that money and to reinvest back into their families and communities.
We think it's better to have the money in the hands of those folks than in the hands of government.
Yeah, and this is something we were talking about before we hit record, but I think this is a good place to talk about it, is actually if you leave more money in the hands of people, it actually creates revenue for the government.
Right now we have the NDP saying that they're not going to raise taxes as a campaign promise out of one side of their mouth.
And then they're proposing a corporate tax hike on the other side.
And you pulled some numbers that show that actually when corporate taxes are lower in Alberta, you see a capital influx.
People want to come here and start a business as opposed to somewhere else.
And that actually ends up with more money in the government's hands.
Yeah, that's true.
And it might sound counterintuitive.
So I'm going to actually pull up the numbers right here in front of me.
Bear with me, folks.
So when we have a lower corporate tax rate, we have at this point 8% corporate tax rate.
So this means all of those businesses that aren't small businesses, which is a lot of businesses in Alberta, we have an 8% corporate tax rate.
We are pulling in about $6.4 billion for this fiscal year.
Okay.
8% pulling in 6.4.
Back when the rate was 12%, so it was higher, we were only pulling in $4.8 billion per year.
So again, with a lower corporate tax rate, the government is actually pulling in more revenue.
There's more stuff going into that pot with the lower rate.
With the higher rate, there's less.
And so it might sound counterintuitive, but this is why we're really concerned about this announcement coming from NDP leader and former Premier Rachel Notley.
Because if you do that kind of a huge tax hike, you're really running a risk there of scaring off the businesses and entrepreneurs and job creators that are flocking here.
You're acting as a scarecrow to that flock of people.
Yeah, it seems counterintuitive, but when you think about it, it's really not.
You want people to move here and start a business.
You want people who are thinking about starting businesses to start a business.
You want people to spend the money that they didn't have to give to the government in taxes into the economy, to buy a pickup, to buy tools, to hire people who then spend money into the economy.
It makes perfect sense that if you leave the money in the hands of the people, it creates an economic superheated furnace that we have seen here in Alberta.
I'm happy for us to be sort of returning back to that, but leave it to a socialist to not understand that.
This is it.
And this is where it gets so frustrating because they'll turn around and say something good like, hey, let's make the small business tax rate zero.
Great, that's good.
And it actually would match Saskatchewan right now.
They're on track to increase it in June, I think last I heard.
But right now, as of right now, Saskatchewan has a 0% small business tax.
But here's the catch.
By making that zero and then hiking the corporate business tax, it's basically telling entrepreneurs, oh, sure, come here, do your thing, but don't you get successful.
The moment you start climbing that ladder and you start increasing your wealth and you start hiring people, all this good stuff, and you get bigger and better and stronger, we're going to nail you with higher taxes.
It's wrong.
It's totally wrong.
They shouldn't say that to people who are creating jobs and creating wealth.
And again, it speaks to it's almost a lack of understanding.
It must be.
Why else would they say on one side, oh, we're going to reduce this down to zero?
But on the other side, don't you get too big or successful or we're going to hit you with this baseball bat.
And which is why we said to them, folks, just keep the corporate tax rate where it is.
8% is nice and low.
Keep in mind, you're not just competing with British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
In some cases, depending on the industry or corporation, you're competing with all of North America in most cases.
Florida, North Dakota.
Yeah, exactly.
Bingo.
And so this is where we're saying hiking taxes, really bad plan.
And also, I haven't had a chance to look right into their data.
And so I will.
But as of right now for the NDP, I'm not seeing matching pledges like balanced budget legislation.
I'm not seeing a firm debt repayment plan, which we're seeing with the UCP, which is now in law.
I'm not seeing a promise to keep the fuel tax suspended, right?
Right now, we have no Alberta fuel tax.
We're saving 13 cents per liter.
We have some of the lowest gas prices in all of Canada because we have the lowest taxes in all of Canada.
I'm not seeing their documents saying, hey, yeah, we're right on board with that.
So I'm really leery about the spending and potential tax hikes here.
Yeah.
Building Corporate Tax Misconceptions00:03:11
And I think in Rachel Notley's announcement to raise the corporate tax rate, I think it presumes a certain amount of, you might say lack of knowledge, but I would say bigotry against the business community because she's presuming that corporations are all Walmart or all Amazon,
as opposed to the majority of people who work in the oil patch are contractors with their own tools and their own corporations.
and their own equipment, their own pickup trucks, their own insurance.
It might be one guy.
It might be his wife.
A lot of farms, family farms are structured as corporations for, you know, for tax reasons, for inheritance reasons.
There's a whole host of reasons why somebody might do that.
How they pay their kids, how they pay for their kids' school.
People are really creative about how they structure their businesses.
And it's not all Amazons and Walmart and big, enormous, faceless corporations.
Corporations might just be your neighbor fixing small machinery in his garage for a living.
And it's just the little guys.
It's our friends and neighbors.
And I think the people on the other side of the argument who so often just generally work for government, they don't really understand that.
They don't.
And it even, you know, to take it a step further, right, visualize.
So I'm here in Lethbridge and I absolutely love it here.
Thank you for taking me in from BC.
I feel like I have to tell you that every time I talk to you.
So I'm here in Lethbridge.
You drive just outside of the residential area and you go into like the industrial area.
They're cheek to jowl with these major companies and industries that are literally building and feeding this province.
So you could have something like a manufacturer of like a grain silo, right?
Or a truck and trailer fabricator that is doing major welding because they're hauling livestock, they're hauling feed.
All of these things are quite likely corporations and quite likely they employ lots of people, even something as simple as concrete.
I was speaking with one of the guys who heads up a major concrete company at a movie premiere last night on Aaron Gunn's latest documentary.
We went to it, the opening here with the mayor in Lethbridge.
And I met up with one of the guys there who basically runs the concrete supply here in southern Alberta.
Like you can't build stuff unless you have a strong foundation.
And that's literally building the province.
So are they going to then turn around and nail him with a higher tax rate?
Why?
If you're taking in more money, more revenue with a lower corporate tax rate, why lash out and increase it?
Like if your end game is to get more revenue to, I don't know, help more people, whatever they're thinking is, why then turn around and hike this tax?
And so again, I think it, I think it is a misunderstanding of this almost caricature level, like monopoly man twirling his mustache, running Walmart.
Scouch McDuck.
Scourge McDuck.
Why Raise Taxes?00:07:03
I love it.
Exactly.
Diving through all of his money coins.
It's not, you know, there's maybe three people like that.
Other than them, there's a whole lot of people that you would probably recognize as your neighbor who would pay a corporate tax rate.
Yeah.
I don't know.
It's just odd.
I just don't understand.
Like, as you say, if you're taking more money with the tax rate the way it is, why would you tinker with that except for a philosophical disagreement that doesn't align with the facts that you think money is best served in the hands of government deciding what to do with it as opposed to the people who created the wealth themselves?
Exactly.
I wanted to ask you, do you believe the NDP when they say that they are not going to raise taxes on normal people?
I don't believe them because they gave us a carbon tax in 2015 after never campaigning on it.
And then they said, but it's not a tax, Sheila, it's a levy.
So much.
Yeah, it's my favorite.
So my kids would say that that's sus.
Yeah.
That's the NDP promising that they're not going to raise taxes.
I'm super suspicious of that.
So that's sus.
I was listening to Ms. Notley on a radio show.
It was, I guess it was about 10 days ago.
And the host, to his credit, it was on a Calgary radio station was saying, hey, but you didn't campaign on the carbon tax and we still got one.
And her answer was something along the lines of, yeah, but we didn't say that we weren't going to put one in because you didn't ask me exactly.
So this is where they might think in their comms shop, and this goes for all politicians, they might think in their communications shop that they're being really cute, like super clever.
The former leader of the federal Conservative Party, and I stress the former, Aaron O'Toole, thought they were being super cute by signing our pledge to say, I will never, ever, ever impose a carbon tax and I will scrap the carbon tax, blah, blah, blah.
They thought they were clever when they said, oh, well, it's not a tax.
It's a levy.
And you get all these green points and McBucks and what normal people can't stand politicians.
And this is why.
Because they're twisting language and they are trying to get away with something as important as hiking taxes on your everyday life, like a carbon tax, while saying they're not doing so.
People aren't, you know, they're not naive.
They know when their costs are going up.
They don't care what they're calling it.
And so exactly based on the same thing, because of the surprise Alberta carbon tax, I am very suspicious when I hear we won't raise taxes.
I'm also really kind of scratching my head over her pledge, because she said this during the same radio interview, over her pledge to balance the budget like throughout the four-year term.
I don't know how they're plotting that because they had four deficit budgets when they were in.
Four.
So you're zero for four on balancing the budget.
Now I can hear people saying, oh, they had softer oil prices.
Yeah, well, I agree, but the UCP also had this COVID mess, right?
There's plenty of pain to go around.
Okay.
We get it.
Lots of excuses, blah, blah, blah.
But just looking, zero for four.
So I might tell you, Sheila, that I could score a hat trick.
Easy.
But I can't skate.
So the chances aren't zero, but they're near zero.
So when I hear them saying, yeah, we're going to balance the budget, no problem.
When I look at their record in government, they've never done it.
Now, to be fair, the UCP had two deficits too, but they also had two surpluses.
So they're two and two.
NDP is zero for four.
Well, not only did the NDP have nothing but deficit spending, but multiple credit downgrades, multiple, multiple credit downgrades.
And, you know, further to your point, just sort of walking back to the corporate tax rate hike that the NDP are proposing, that also is a tax hike on everybody.
Because do we really think that these corporations are just going to eat a tax hike?
They're going to pass it to the consumer.
Of course, they don't have a lot of wiggle room in their bottom line.
So when you go to have your vehicle fixed at the local mechanic, the rates are going to go up because he can't eat that cost.
You have to.
Because the money has to come from somewhere.
So they can do one of two things or three things.
Let's do something fun here.
They can do three things.
They can leave, right?
If they're a big mega, you know, mustachio twirling corporation with a top hat that people don't like, they can just leave and go somewhere else because they have the capital and the money and blah, blah, blah, and they can go.
They can lay people off so they can save money on payroll or they can increase the costs of the stuff.
So whatever they're selling, it could be, I don't know, internet access.
It could be that feed, that grain silo I was talking about.
It could be, you know, the folks, you know, who are manufacturing, you know, the trailers for our trucks, whatever it is.
They could pass that cost on with that widget.
And again, this is something that they just seem to not understand.
And this is going to sound snotty, and I'm not trying to be snotty because the title of it is a little bit off-putting.
But I strongly recommend every single person read the book by Thomas Soule.
It's called basic economics.
Yeah.
Okay.
I am not an economist.
I am mostly a journalist, but some of my best friends are economists.
And they many years ago recommended that I read this book and it's for free.
You can listen to it for free on the internet.
Okay.
The man is brilliant and he explains exactly this all the way down so everybody can understand it on supply, demand, scarcity, wealth, how money moves, why inflation happens, all of this stuff.
And so I just truly am concerned when I hear a leader and a politician saying something like, we're going to drop the small business tax rate down to zero, but turn around and nuke you with a huge tax hike on the other side if you become too successful.
So we have to keep all of this in mind when we're assessing each of the party's platforms.
Now, to be fair, the UCP hasn't put out their costed platform yet, whatever they would call that.
I think it's coming out next week.
But They already passed so much economic legislation during the budget that, again, a lot of it got lost.
So spending restraint, debt repayment, savings account too, a lot of people didn't notice that.
And balanced budget legislation.
Like these are major things.
Money Follows the Child00:06:19
Now, before I let you go, although we're already over.
Sorry.
No, no, no, no, I'm great.
I just don't want to take up your whole day.
I could, obviously.
But I wanted to talk to you about, and it's not something that I ask you about off camera.
So if you don't have a, don't have an opinion or taxpayers federation doesn't really have an opinion, that's great.
But I see that the NDP and the unions are attacking the UCP pledge to maintain funding for private and charter schools.
And for me, I mean, I realize why the NDP is doing it.
They believe all things should be under the purview of big government and all teachers should work for the government.
But as a taxpayer, I look at that and I say, okay, well, parents who send their kids to private or charter schools, they are also taxpayers.
They pay education tax as a portion of their property tax.
And those schools actually operate cheaper.
They save about 30% out of the bottom line.
They provide, I think we can all agree, excellent education, excellent choice to parents whose kids, you know, parents who are maybe seeking a parochial education or religious education for their kids or, you know, the charter schools, the military schools, the hockey academies, they're doing it at 70% of what the public system does.
And I think they're seeing far better outcomes.
And just a little known fact in all of that is that parents who send their kids to these schools are by and large not wealthy.
Actually, they're actually under the average income.
It's just a choice that they're choosing to make.
Does the taxpayer federation have, do you guys have a view on this?
Are you pro of private education?
Like, what's the view on that?
For me, I think more choice, the better.
And that's what makes Alberta great.
We have one of the most diverse education systems for our students and our families.
Where are you guys on that?
We're pretty much on the same page as you.
We want to see more choice.
Generally speaking, just from like 30,000 feet, it does save money.
So that's number one.
The other part of our mandate is lower taxes, less waste, and more accountable government.
Before that, it's smaller in brackets, smaller, more accountable government, because the vast majority of our supporters want more freedom, more independence, more autonomy.
And right now, the way the system works, according to these experts that I've listened to here in Alberta, is that the money follows the child.
Yes.
So that, say, you want to put your kid in a charter school, the money will follow your kid into that charter school.
Okay.
They still have to abide, obviously, by all the same rules of the province, right?
They can't, you know, start teaching them crazy stuff.
But what lot of people don't seem to know is that, number one, the money follows the kid okay, so this isn't an increase in cost.
It's usually a decrease in cost, to your point.
Number two, most charter schools actually have to find a geographical, physical location in older buildings.
Yeah, like they're.
They're finding unused buildings that are sitting there otherwise vacant and using them in a very efficient way.
And number three, just from a more choice, more diversity, smaller government, more individuality for freedom and families perspective, I don't think a lot of folks realize that charter schools can be anything from say, a classic academy where you're learning the classics, like Greek and Latin and English literature, to rural stuff, like they're teaching them like on-farm mechanics, like really specialized things,
and they're also including really specialized things like First Nations cultural based learning, like that's incredible, like really incredible.
And so for folks who initially go oh, I don't want private schools, stop listen.
The money follows the kid yeah, and it gives them more choice and it can be, like I said, this wide range of specialized schools, including for kids who have autism, who have learning disabilities.
They get way more tailored and specialized care and attention in some of these charter schools and you got to hand it to the parents here who are really researching and doing their homework and trying to figure out what's best for their kid.
And so yeah, number one, from everything we can tell, looks like it's saving money.
Two, people who use them really like them.
And three, it makes it more a smaller government and gives more autonomy to individuals, which is all really good stuff.
Yeah, it's odd that the people who won't shut up about diversity being their strength wanting to shoehorn other people's kids into cookie cutter schools where they may or may not thrive.
Yeah, I honestly I think most of the time maybe this is my naivete coming in I think people often don't know what they don't know.
Yeah, and I think much of the time they just hear something like, oh rich, private school, and then they stop listening or they don't know.
If you sit down and explain, like we just did, the wide variety of what you can pick for these schools and the the benefit for some of these kids yeah, I think you'd capture a lot more hearts and minds, and so I think most of the time, people don't know what they don't know.
Yeah, that was one of the most shocking statistics for me that I saw is, you know like.
I have relatives who send their kids to private religious like private religious schools, not separate as we have the Catholic system here.
Yeah they're, they're not rich by any means, and so I dug down into the Fraser Institute data and they do some really great research on this and they're the best actually on this.
Yep, the income of these families is below the average.
It's just something that they are choosing for their kids, and so there there is this stigma that says, you know, like you're just wealthy people.
This is like their pet thing is that they want their separate system where they don't have to be near your icky, snot-nosed kids.
And that's not it at all.
It's not it at all.
Close Call on Affordability00:03:38
No, especially here in Alberta, it's not it at all.
I have been, I think, you know, private schools, for example, exist in downtown Ottawa, right?
Where people from Rockcliffe and the Glebe are sending their kids to these schools.
And in some cases, the tuition rivals that of university for like a nine-year-old.
And they're in prep school to become, you know, deputy ministers of the crown forever and be bureaucrats forever or international famous lawyers or whatever they do.
That's largely not the case here.
When we're talking charter schools in Alberta, we're talking exactly what you were just describing.
Yeah.
And, you know, I think it provides opportunities to kids to have access to specialized education that suits their needs in a way that is not available in the rest of the country.
And if you want kids who are vulnerable to have the same level of education and opportunities as kids who are wealthy, I think Alberta's system is probably the best case scenario in this country.
And I don't think we should tinker with it the way the NDP would like us to do.
Chris, I want to ask you before I let you go, predictions for Election Day.
We're hurtling headlong towards it.
I honestly, I had had people explain polling to me.
And to me, it just kind of, have you seen that Beautiful Mind where Russell Crowe is backing up and there's all these numbers and stuff going around?
So I can do percentages for you.
I can like rip through a budget real quick and figure it out for you.
As far as polling goes, there's so many variabilities.
You know, how big is a sample size?
Where did they get?
Exactly.
Who's answering the phone?
Who typically still has a landline?
How old are they?
Like, there's a million things going on there.
I will put it this way.
I think obviously the cliche is the big poll that matters is Election Day.
My feeling is that it's close, right?
So I'm here in Lethbridge and that's kind of a swing riding.
My feeling is that it's close.
My feeling also, though, is that people are more engaged.
So I don't know if that's different because I'm from BC and people in Alberta are just more engaged people.
That may be it.
Yep.
Right.
But I am hearing people talk about it.
I'm seeing a lot of signs in our neighborhood.
It is obviously all through the airwaves.
I think it's too close to call, honestly.
And I think that both teams had better get their ground game going and their door knocking teams had better be working almost round the clock, sun up to sundown.
They got to be out there on the doors and it's not guaranteed.
I think personally, it's too close to call.
I think it is a lot closer than it should be.
And I remain optimistic that Albertans are not going to fall into some sort of collective madness the way they did in 2015.
And I think Calgary is going to save us from ourselves, I think.
At the end of the day, I think folks really need to look at what's important to them.
And if affordability is important to them, they need to realize that that doesn't mean that the government promises you a bunch of free programs.
Okay.
Because it's not free.
You're going to pay for it.
You're either going to pay for it directly with a tax increase or you're going to pay and your grandkids are going to pay because we're going to hurdle even deeper into debt and we're going to be spending billions of dollars per year on our interest payments on the provincial debt and we're going to get credit downgrades.
Folks Need to Prioritize00:08:21
So if affordability is your thing, look to people who are saying we are going to lower your taxes and guarantee to lower them.
And again, the NDP could come out tomorrow and match those promises.
Nothing is stopping them from confirming that they will match all those same promises.
Kids, listen to your auntie, Chris.
Yes, please.
Chris, tell us how people can get involved in the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
You guys do great work.
You don't take any money from any level of government.
And you advocate for the normals out there against the behemoth of government.
So how do people help you?
And how do they help you help them?
Awesome.
Well, you can go to our website, taxpayer.com.
And the first thing you should do is click on the petitions page.
And the reason why I should do that is because we got something there for everybody.
If your thing is to cancel the gun grab, we have a petition.
If you want to defund the CBC and stop giving the media government money, you should sign that petition.
We have all like scrap the carbon tax.
Whatever your thing is, sign that corresponding petition.
And now you're part of our standing army.
So that means anytime this issue comes up, we're going to send you an email blast saying, everybody phone the minister right now.
It's like critical mass.
Also on our website, there's really good tips on how to start your own ratepayers organization.
Because if you're loud and you're noisy, you're pushing back and you're not letting politicians getting away with wasting your money.
So go to our website, taxpayer.com.
It's a huge wealth of resources for anybody who wants lower taxes, less waste, and smaller, more accountable government.
Chris, thanks so much for coming on the show.
I'm sure we'll have you back on again after the election to either celebrate or plot for the future.
Build our bunkers together.
I'll get my canning ready.
And we'll, yeah, me too.
And we'll talk very, very soon.
Thanks so much.
You bet.
Well, friends, we've come to the portion of the show where we invite your viewer feedback for better or for worse.
Today is, I guess, for worse, if you care.
I'm not sure that I do.
I leave you my email address right now.
It's sheila at rebelnews.com.
And like I said, I invite your viewer feedback because without you, there is no Rebel News.
We rely on you and what you think about the work that we're doing.
And if you don't like it, then you don't support us.
And then we wither on the vine and die, unlike the mainstream media who have to rely on their sugar daddy Justin Trudeau for a constant series of bailouts, which prevent them from receiving the market correction and mass layoffs they so rightly deserve.
But if you don't want to send me an email, might I suggest you leave a comment on one of the platforms wherein you find us.
If you're still watching us on the censorship platform of YouTube, leave a comment there.
Over on Rumble, likewise, sometimes I go looking on those platforms for what you think about what we do here at Rebel News.
Now, today's email letter comes to me from somebody named John.
We're not going to publish his email address, but he put gun show in the subject line.
So I'm just assuming that he doesn't have a problem with me reading the email.
And I'm pretty sure he got my email from watching the show last week because I don't really think that he's a regular viewer.
And if you stay with me as we read his letter, I think you'll see why.
So it comes just from John.
And he says, normally, I would not say something about appearances, but after having watched your show with Josh, now this is Josh Andrus from Project Confederation.
We talked for about a half an hour about election predictions here in Alberta and the raw deal that Alberta is getting within Confederation and things we can do to make it better.
I thought it was pretty interesting, but this was John's takeaway.
But after having watched your show with Josh, I have to say that you have to get your hair out of your eyes.
A nice trim, perhaps.
Also drinking coffee or water on camera looks highly unprofessional and is a real turnoff.
If you need a drink, John offers me editing advice, even though I do not edit my videos.
We have a talented production team that does anyways.
He says, if you need a drink, focus the picture on your guest for a few moments.
Finally finally, your farmer or cowgirl look, because last week I was wearing a plaid shirt, as I tend to do.
Finally, your farmer or cowgirl look is a real put off.
If rebel news wants credibility, then you will have to clean up your on-camera look.
Watch yourself and your interview with Josh on youtube and you will see what I mean.
Sincerely, John from Millbay Bc.
I'm gonna respond to John and I should tell you that John sent me that on mother's day, so I was enjoying my time with my children on mother's day and that was the feedback that I got.
Now i'll also tell you that I also received some positive, very positive feedback from uh the show last week, and thank you to those who do.
I appreciate it very much.
I I do take those things to heart.
I definitely don't take John's comments to heart, by the way, and you'll see why.
Anyways, I did write back to John.
I said, hi, you must be new to Rebel NEWS if you're just discovering my Albertan aesthetic.
I'm quite literally a farmer, in case you're wondering.
To be frank, and that's what i'm paid to be, i've received more, far more, compliments about my authenticity in my appearance over the last eight years at Rebel NEWS than busy body complaints.
But I recognize that i'm not for everyone.
That's okay.
Maybe Rachel Gilmore is more your speed.
Everyone has a type, i'm not yours.
I'll do my best to survive this disappointment.
However, it's a shame that my curly hair and I should point out to you that it is naturally curly, this is the hair my father gave me my that, my curly hair, my dry throat and my modest shirt as I said last week I was wearing a plaid shirt again, as I tend to do were your takeaways from a 30-minute wide-ranging thought-provoking, somewhat funny and rather engaging interview with Josh Andres.
I should inform you that it is a personal policy that I will not be accepting criticisms about my appearance from somebody who does not attach at least three candid full-body photos to their email wherein they meticulously break down my on-camera presence, and I should actually suggest that if you are going to send me an email like this, friends at home, I want an audition tape too, because I really want to see how you interact with the camera just before I take those criticisms to heart.
If I were a leftist woman, I would be decrying the misogyny of all of this, but i'm not, so I don't take it personally.
Thanks for taking the time to write in on this beautiful mother's day.
I hope the women in your life rise to your high standards.
And I forgot to add 2022 Viewers Choice Award winner.
P.S. Next time, try the free podcast if looking at me is too distracting.
Well, friends, and everybody else who thinks that they're going to feel as confident as John is to hit send on that email, think twice.
Think twice.
Anyway, thanks everybody for tuning in.
And thank you to everybody who works behind the scenes in the studio in Toronto and at their desks around the country.
They work very hard to bring you all the shows you see here on Rebel News so that our content is there for you to watch when you're ready to click on it.
Let's make sure that we vote wisely.
Albertans, in the upcoming election, Calgary, you know what to do.
Save us from ourselves.
Edmonton, all hope is lost there.
Edmonton, if you are a conservative in Edmonton, I'm just so sorry that you're still there.