Sheila Gunn-Reid spotlights Matt Dawson, the lone MP rejecting a $20K+ raise despite 80% of Canadians opposing such hikes, while Alberta’s budget looms with debt concerns. Chris Sims urges cuts to pre-2014 levels and slashing corporate welfare like NHL subsidies, exposing wasteful art grants—$15K for overseas videotaping, $10K for doodling Iraq. Gunn-Reid defends Premier Danielle Smith’s $2B teachers’ strike savings, mocking union hypocrisy over high pay but fewer classroom days, and suggests Carney’s pay freeze could politically backfire. A viewer’s letter fuels Alberta independence debates, citing 11 years of "liberal corruption" and Quebec’s referendum model, pushing Gunn-Reid’s Western Canada tour and book amid October’s potential vote. [Automatically generated summary]
An MP that refused his salary hike receives great praise from the Canadian public and Alberta's budget is out tomorrow.
What are your wish lists?
Mine, lower spending.
I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Gunn Show.
Here's the thing when you stand up and do the right thing.
The people unwilling to do that right thing become embarrassed because your act of selfless bravery or ethics, it shines a light on their own lack thereof.
And I think some of that is happening to Matt Dawson, a conservative MP that describes himself as a drywaller and who refused his automatic salary hike.
And then it's budget day in Alberta tomorrow and the premier is already warning that it's not going to be all that great.
So joining me today to break all this down and a lot more is my friend Chris Sims from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Take a listen.
Joining me now is my good friend and good friend of taxpayers everywhere, Chris Sims.
She's the Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
And we're going to talk about a few things, including how you, the beloved public, feel about MP pay hikes and Chris's wish list for the Alberta budget.
And I know some of you are from outside of Alberta, but we really believe that Alberta is leading the way on a lot of issues.
I think Danielle Smith on many issues is the de facto leader of the conservative movement writ large.
And her bravery allows other people to follow behind her.
So we're going to talk about the Alberta budget, which comes out tomorrow, Thursday.
Chris, thanks for joining the show.
Let's first talk about MP Mike Dawson, just an all-around good dude, former construction worker, rejecting his pay hike and then getting a lot of flack for it from some interesting places.
Yeah, that's a nice way of putting it.
So for folks who don't know, Member of Parliament, Mike Dawson, he's a brand new MP.
He's from Miramichi Grand Lake in New Brunswick.
As he puts it, he's, as he puts it, just a drywaller from New Brunswick.
I will point out my brother's a drywaller.
All my brothers are tradesmen.
We don't use the term just.
He was doing that because he's super humble.
So backbench members of parliament are already paid more than $200,000 per year.
That's salary.
On top of that, they get a ton of their expenses covered, okay?
Like food and transportation and housing and all that jazz.
And again, this is a backbench, bare minimum.
Like you show up with two feet and a heartbeat, you're an MP.
So you don't have any committee responsibilities, no critic roles, nothing.
What's frustrating is that Mike, Mike is the only one who has said, you know what?
No, I'm not taking a pay raise.
It's wrong, especially when men and women who are working in my riding are really hurting.
Okay.
They can barely afford groceries and anybody that goes to the store can see that right now.
I'm not doing it.
And so he wrote an official letter on Letterhead from his office to the clerk of the House of Commons and said, don't give me this pay raise.
And now a bunch of people are being willfully ignorant in the House of Commons and saying, oh, well, you can't do that.
It's impossible to stop a pay raise, which is stupid.
Of course they can stop a pay raise.
A, they're legislators.
They literally write law.
They can declare the House of Commons to be a circus tent if they want to.
Okay.
They often act like it is.
So they can do this.
And as Mike put it, when we talked to him, he said, man, you can put a man on the moon.
Like, let's not reinvent the wheel here.
I'm sure you can say no pay raises.
So we put out a poll and we were so proud to see the numbers.
As the kids say, this is an 80-20 issue.
About 80% of Canadians agree with Mike Dawson and oppose member of parliament pay increases.
Why he's the only one, that is a mystery for X-Files.
I don't get it.
I do get it because I think a lot of people get into politics for the money and the power.
And as we've seen with Matt Generot in Edmonton Riverbend, it doesn't matter what party you are with sometimes.
And, you know, it's self-preservation.
It's lining one's own pockets.
And they forget about the people who sent them there.
But I'm happy to see that Mike Dawson didn't.
And I'm happy to see the amount of people who emailed them, took time out of their own day and wrote a sincere email, not form letter, sincere email to him to thank him.
I think it was 10,000.
Yeah.
I might choke up because I'm such a nerd, but I'm so proud of him for doing this.
So the Taxpayers Federation, we did put out, you know, a, hey, everybody, thank Mike Dawson.
But for those folks who are watching who do get our emails, you notice we don't do forms.
It's not click this form to automatically send because that gets filtered out and the people on the hill don't see it.
No, this is, and it wasn't just Taxpayers Federation.
There were people who've never heard of us before who saw Mike Dawson's story somehow on either, you know, independent, real journalism, or, you know, mainstream media.
However, they found out, more than 10,000 people sent an original email to that guy saying, good job, buddy.
Thank you so much.
And it must be overwhelming because I know a lot of people with our inbox, they won't just say good job.
They'll say why.
They'll say like how they can't afford something or how their wife just got sick.
So I just want to give a shout out to Mike because I know sometimes reading thousands and thousands like that can start to weigh on you.
Keep your chin up, man.
We're super proud of you.
I will point out it's Wednesday.
And for nerds on the hill, that's a caucus day.
And that's where all the parties get together within their own groups behind closed doors.
And you're supposed to not talk about what happens in caucus every Wednesday morning on the Hill.
And so I'm really, really hoping that he's not getting any grief from any conservative MPs.
They better not try to pull this crap again, Sheila, because when I heard about that, ironically through the CBC, that he was getting the gears.
Tax fighters were super mad about that.
So we need to see some leadership here, frankly, in the House of Commons.
Everybody should be standing with Mike Dawson.
I will just put on my political strategist hat real quick, if you don't mind indulging me.
Please.
Imagine if Prime Minister Mark Carney is the one that comes out and says, you know what?
People are hurting right now.
And I am going to freeze the pay increases.
Talk about getting outflanked, man.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Could happen.
I would if I were Carney.
Yeah.
He's rich enough.
That's like him.
He's got tons of money and prime ministers are paid like $400,000 per year plus a fancy place to live, et cetera, et cetera.
What's he, what are they going to do?
What's his cabinet going to do?
Revolt?
Leave?
He was their meal ticket during the last election.
They're not going anywhere.
So I wouldn't be surprised if it's Mark Carney that steps forward.
You know, it would be a shrewd political move.
Yeah, you pulled the same stunt with the carbon tax.
Sure did.
Yeah.
Sure did.
So we'll see.
We'll see.
Sorry for being so frustrated.
It's just that, how do I put this?
I feel like there used to be more Mike Dawsons.
Yes.
Who were MPs, you know, like back in the early reform days and stuff.
And to be fair, even some of the folks who used to work within the NDP, like I remember Bill Blakey being a boilermaker, like talking about the working man and woman all the time.
Jack Layton, the late Jack Layton, even he, folks might forget, he opposed the carbon tax all the time.
We used to book him on CTV all the time.
And he hated the carbon tax.
Why?
Because it punished people for heating their homes in winter and driving to work.
And he thought that it was especially cruel to poor people.
It is.
Where are those MPs?
Where are those NDP folks who are supposed to be supporting the working man?
Like seriously.
Sorry, I'm getting ticked off.
I know.
I know.
And just a message to the conservative MPs who gave Mike Dawson a hard time.
We know who you are.
Or at least I'm pretty sure I know who you are.
Just so you know.
Just putting you on notice.
Pretty sure I know who you are.
And okay.
You wouldn't want yourself subjected to extra scrutiny, would you?
Bagging Struggles00:02:44
Sure wouldn't.
Sure wouldn't.
Because entitlement, if you're entitled to your entitlements, that's kryptonite politics, man.
Still is.
People do not like seeing their dollars being wasted and they despise entitlement.
So folks are going to be getting a really hard look.
Yeah, they sure are.
Especially in this time of, you know, outrageous out of control food inflation, 6% food inflation.
People are having a tough time just getting by, just putting food in their kids' bellies and, you know, being crushed by taxes.
And then the people who stand up in the House of Commons and make speeches on your behalf about food inflation are taking a pay raise.
That stings, man.
Can I tell you like God's truth story that happened last night?
So I was at a grocery store because I have to head out to Edmonton after we're finished chatting.
So, you know, I have to make sure my fridge has got food in it for my people.
Mom's going to be away.
And so there was a lady that was behind me and I could tell she did not want to talk.
You know what I mean?
Where don't talk to her or offer her stuff.
I could just, you can sense it.
Anyway, I'm bagging my stuff and she comes in behind me.
And again, I don't know her circumstances and I don't know why this is what she was buying, but this is what I saw.
She was buying a huge bag of no-name brand potatoes, a couple of trays of liver, which were reduced and on sale, and a bottle of ketchup.
She was digging around in her purse to get the, I forget how much it was costing, like $20 that she needed to buy cell phone minutes for her phone.
Okay.
So like the cheapest possible way she could do.
And I, it was hard listening to her because the checkout guy, nice kid, brand new, they automatically ask if you want to round up to feed kids or whatever it is, like round up for the food bank, et cetera.
And she said, I'm fighting to feed myself right now.
Yeah.
But I saw this last night and I kind of looked at her and she looked at me like, don't.
I'm like, because I was going to say like, do you want my extra bag of pepperoni?
Like something, but you could just get the feeling off of her, right?
Where she was, you could tell she was working.
She had some sort of like paint work pants on.
Super proud.
And it was fighting tooth and nail to afford stuff.
Vancouver's Strained Budget00:15:20
And this is in Alberta.
Right.
I can't imagine someone in downtown Toronto or a single mom or somebody, God love them in Vancouver or anywhere in BC trying.
Anyway, all this is to say, shame on those members of parliament for wanting those pay hikes.
How dare you?
How dare you?
Yeah.
How dare you take the pay hike from that lady struggling to feed herself from her taxes?
How dare you?
Poor lady, just trying to hang on to her dignity in this horrible country.
I just say, anyway, my skin's crawling and I didn't know I was going to share this story, but the way you put it, I couldn't not tell her story.
Yeah.
Yeah.
She's the people these conservatives are supposed to be fighting for, not themselves in their own pocketbooks.
Yep.
Skip your pay hike, guys.
Yeah.
Show some leadership.
Yeah.
Just I want to touch on this thing real quick before we go into your wish list for the Alberta government for our budget coming out tomorrow.
Carson Binda has done some excellent work exposing British Columbia's waste.
Bureaucrats making six-figure salaries have blown thousands of dollars on gift cards to sports stores, Starbucks and Amazon over the past year.
All this while the government is hiking taxes on families and rolling back core programs.
NDPers being NDPers, I guess.
But like, what are they doing there?
Wasting money as hard and fast as possible.
I got to say, Carson is young enough to be my son.
And I think of him that way.
I am so proud of him.
He has been going after expenses and FOIs, so freedom of information, et cetera, with a hammer and tong.
Like he's so good at it.
And like, I'm not super good at it because I'll put out a bunch of requests and I'll get some stupid delay back and then I get distracted by some other dumpster fire.
But Carson is literally going to help me do this because he's so good at it.
So at the provincial level, they're doing this, that both the government and the bureaucrats are doing this.
And at the city level.
Oh, yeah.
So he's on this like a duck on a June bug.
Carson somehow manages to make rent in some Crackerbox apartment in Vancouver.
And he has dug into the expenses in places like Richmond.
Okay.
Metro Vancouver, which is basically a slush fund board for all the mayors of Metro Vancouver to get together and spend money.
If you can believe it, Sheila, mayors.
Okay.
So for folks who are watching in British Columbia, in the down, in the downtown, the Greater Vancouver Regional District, it used to be called.
Now it's Metro Vancouver.
It basically runs from half of Langley all the way through, you know, Surrey, Burnaby, Whitlam, all the way up to North Van.
That area, your mayors get together a couple of times a month at the Metro Vancouver board meeting.
They are paid meeting fees.
Like these mayors, I know, I know.
So it's so gross.
I know that's what I said.
So they're already paid salary okay right, like 200, 300 grand, whatever their rake off is okay, they're overpaid, all of them.
Um, if you, these people, choosing my words lightly um, they show up to a meeting, they get paid like 300 bucks per pop.
This is like the at issue panel on CBC right, but it's just like you know, I don't get paid unless I roll out of bed.
You know, it's just gross.
So Carson has done a huge deep dive.
Suffice to say tons of taxpayers money going out the door.
He once described um, apparently one, I think it was, I can't remember if it was a Richmond or if it was a provincial bureaucratic department.
They literally had a bucket of gift cards.
Oh my god, like to sports stores and the KEG and all these fancy places.
And it's not these stores' fault, who's got nothing to do with them, it's the government and the bureaucrats.
They just handed out like candy.
This is why you can't afford things.
So kudos to Carson.
And, if I might, I usually don't do this um, Global BC has been listening very carefully.
There's still a couple of real journalists in there who are doing the who what where when why, how work.
Um, so kudos to them too.
They've been picking up on all of Carson's work.
They've been handing stuff back and forth, which is how advocacy organizations do their best work.
Um anyway, kudos to Carson.
Anybody go check out that spending scandal.
It it'll shock you.
And i'm literally going to just copy that kid's homework because I heard.
I heard that Calgary yeah, there's all sorts of funny business happening right now, like somebody just emailed me about it this morning.
So i'm, yeah, Edmonton has funny business happening too.
I've got a big story coming out that's going to make everybody very angry.
Next time you're stranded in your neighborhood for three weeks because the city can't clear the snow, i've i'll tell you what they've been doing in the winter with your money.
She already told me, but I can't tell you.
And i'm super excited to tell the story.
Yeah, good stuff.
Well, that's time you're tripping over a drug addict downtown.
Remember what the city's doing with your valuable money.
Um no Chris Uh, budget days tomorrow in Alberta, and i'm hoping for the best but, as always as I am in politics, bracing for the worst.
What do you want to see?
Okay, so I always try to say the nice things first.
First off, we are really happy with what premier Daniel Smith is doing.
Okay, like by a country mile, she's outshining the other provinces.
That's really good.
She delivered on a huge tax cut last budget season okay, so a year ago.
That's a really big deal.
They have things like the taxpayer protection act.
That's been changed now so that they cannot increase spending beyond the rate of inflation plus population growth, like super important stuff.
That's good.
However, they're still spending too much money.
Yes.
Like they're adding to the debt, like big time.
Now, I know what people are saying of like, oh, well, the price of a barrel of oil isn't what we need for our benchmark.
And yeah, Ottawa is sending way too many people here too fast.
Like, yes, yes, yes.
Ottawa will always do stupid things.
Right.
We can control the other side of that, though, with the spending.
Yeah.
That's right.
So we have got to get this under control.
I know Premier Danielle Smith loves the late former Premier Ralph Klein with him holding that sign of paid in full above his head.
I know she wants to reach that promised land again.
This is how it has to happen, though.
She has got to be Dr. No.
Yeah.
She has got to grab the chainsaw or the big pieces, pairs of scissors and cut, cut, cut.
Frasier Institute did a good, really good job.
They put out a piece in the fall and they said, Sheila, if we reduce the size of our Alberta, Alberta government back down to pre-2020 levels, so pre-lockdown.
Okay.
We would save billions of dollars per year.
So she needs to do that.
Start up the chainsaw, cut it back down to like 2018, 2019 levels because you don't need this much government.
I say 2014 levels because in 2015, the NDP ballooned the size of the public sector to hide job losses.
They added like 50,000 people to the government payroll to offset all the jobs that were being lost in the oil and gas sector to skew their numbers.
We need to go to 2014 because we've been artificially inflated since at least then.
Amazing.
Okay, well, let's go back there because it would save so much money.
So much money, Premier.
I know you want to.
Okay.
Yes.
Like, here's your backup.
Okay.
We got the tanks rolling in.
We got your backup.
Also, stop all corporate welfare, okay?
Which costs us billions of dollars.
Also, stop handing out money to NHL teams.
Yeah.
Like that's that's millions of taxpayers' dollars.
Um, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames, they can pay for their own stuff.
Like stop handing out that money.
Now, the other, do you have time to get into the art?
Cause it's so dumb.
I would love to.
I just want to point out that the more Danielle Smith does the hard things, the higher she gets up in the polls.
I know.
Like, you know, if you got all your news from the mainstream media, you would think her banning of explicit materials from elementary school libraries was wildly unpopular or the teacher's strike, dealing with the teacher's strike the way she did was wildly unpopular.
But as it turns out, she's up 13 points on the NDP in a recent polling.
And she like that's headed upwards.
So do the hard things and people will support you for doing them.
But they want the hard things done.
We were so glad to see her stand up to the teachers union.
I know.
It would have been the easiest thing she could have done in the world is just, okay, that's fine.
I'll be the nice person.
Here's $2 billion more dollars handed to the teachers union.
Okay.
I will point out real quick: A, the offer that they were offered, which they now have as their contract, make Alberta teachers the highest paid teachers in all of Western Canada.
Okay.
On average, the classroom number of days that are actually physically worked in classrooms for teachers, about 180, 185 days-ish per year.
In case you're wondering, the average working stiff, about 240 days.
Yeah.
I wish.
Not even close.
And I know, right?
And then, and I'm sorry if you rewind to October, but it was so important that she stood up like this.
Yeah.
I will also point out the Alberta Teachers Union didn't have any strike fund to pay their teachers while they were on the ticket line.
Right.
That's super weird.
If I were a teacher and I've been paying my union dues for the last 10, 15 years and I got nothing during a strike that they wanted, I'd be super angry and I'd be asking some tough questions.
So it was really good for Daniel Smith to say, nope, you're not getting an extra 2 billion on top of all of this.
This is more than fair.
take your contract.
So that was really important.
She was a very iron lady there.
That was good.
And it saved taxpayers $2 billion.
So, and yeah, it turns these things turn into 80-20 issues.
They sure do.
They sure do.
It's amazing.
And if I were, if I were a teacher right now, I'd be wondering why I was angry at the province for their, you know, if you listen to the ATA, the province is mismanaging the budget when it comes to education.
But it's like, okay, but you guys kind of mismanaged the budget when it came to those union dues, didn't you?
Sure did.
Maybe you guys aren't the experts on this.
You think you are.
Sure did.
And anyone, the budget is actually pretty readable.
Like anybody, it's right there.
It's on open data.
It's right there on all of the government websites.
You can go back.
Gosh, I think I went back to like 1994 in one of my budget reports before every year.
And you can see as a line item, what we're paying for K to 12 education.
It goes up like this.
Yes.
This whole, oh, you've cut education spending.
That is not true.
Like it's just mathematically wrong.
You can, you can hate Daniel Smith.
You can love Daniel Smith.
You can love Nahid Nenshi.
I don't care.
Okay.
Like math is there and it is not being cut.
So let's talk about real things here.
This art thing, do you want me to mention this part?
Please do.
Okay.
So people are going to say, oh, well, this is little stuff.
I don't know.
The way I was raised, $5 million is not little stuff.
Okay.
This will surprise some people.
The province of Alberta, you, the provincial taxpayer, spent more than $5 million in the last fiscal year on individuals' art projects.
Like people, not a school, not an art gallery or some, you know, show choir.
No, no.
Like Jane Smith, artist, artist, asks for money.
I'm using that term really loosely.
And they get money.
Like I'll give you an example.
There's a lady here in Lethbridge, actually.
And it's just one example.
There's tons of stupid examples.
A lady here in Lethbridge, she got $15,000.
She routinely gets $15,000 in these provincial government grants.
One time she flew overseas and videotaped herself flopping around on a lawn chair for like eight minutes.
Yeah, she was like, you know, took her Crocs off and like flopped around and videotaped it.
If you want to call that art, like fill your boots, but don't pay for it.
Exactly.
Don't make taxpayers pay for it.
Start a GoFundMe.
Get willing donations.
Another time, same, same artist, she flew overseas and she taped a big piece of paper to a wall and then she hid behind it.
Again, that was like 15 grand.
So that's just, so there's tons of examples like that, tons and tons and tons.
There's a lady that like doodled on her hand with pen and thought, oh, that kind of looks like a map of Iraq.
And then she took a picture of it.
I think that was $10,000.
Are you, this is mental.
I know.
So again, anyone can go look this stuff up.
Go to Alberta Arts Foundation, grant recipients, click on it, download the data set, and then cross-reference, find something, like find a name, find a location, and then Google that person and see what art they produce.
Okay.
The point here is, is that, of course, art is in the eye of the beholder, but taxpayers shouldn't be paying for this.
Right.
Like, go find willing donors.
Go find willing sponsors.
And lastly, even the group stuff.
Okay.
We're not just paying for, you know, Chinook High School to go do a clarinet lesson.
Like, I think a lot of people understand to pay for that.
Sure.
I get it.
There's some art galleries, Sheila.
It blew my mind.
I found this one that actually has a window in the downtown Calgary transit way that's right downtown there by the train.
And the gallery was putting up art in the window.
Some of this art, it was take out food container garbage that was taped to old Christmas tinsel.
And they hanged it in the window.
Trailer Art Show Revelations00:02:12
I know.
I have pictures of it.
What am I doing working for a living?
I know.
What am I doing?
Putting in an honest day's work when I could just go lay in a lawn chair overseas and flop around.
I know.
Like, not just that, folks.
I don't know if I'm allowed to say, like, you know, Sheila like has her own like trailer she brings to like Canadian war zones.
Like she does all the things.
Like she, she eats beef jerky out of a cooler for like a week.
Like I want everybody to know when I go on missions and they're local, I bring my own trailer to make sure that I keep the costs low because we're crowdfunded.
That's out of my own pocket.
I'm cooking steaks out of my freezer that I bought from the boy who lives next door.
She's bringing her jar of pickles.
I bring my own pickles that I made.
I know.
I still have it.
I kept it.
I couldn't.
Why?
And I am working for a living so that some lady can go overseas and lay out in a lawn chair.
And she's like, I'm art.
I just can't believe it.
Or hide behind a big piece of paper.
And again, I'm sorry for laughing.
If you don't laugh, you'll cry.
Plus, we need to laugh at them because we have to mock all these people because they think that they're landed dukes.
So the one in the transit window, again, I'm not kidding.
It was food containers.
So I've been saving all of the plastic trays and stuff from all of my grocery shops and everything.
And I've been washing them.
And I'm going to make art.
And I'm going to tape tinsel to it.
We should have an art show.
And one of them will be a video of me doing my art.
And that is hiding in haunted houses and corn mazes during the spooky season to make them more exciting for the people who come.
It's a public service that I do for free, but it's also my art form.
And, you know, if a lady can hide behind a piece of paper, I can hide behind a fake coffin and jump out and we'll do an art show.
She sent me a video once, guys.
It actually terrified me because I didn't know what I was looking at at first.
Like it was just no movement.
And all of a sudden, this thing jumps out.
It was great.
That was art.
Good job, Sheila.
It is.
You know what?
Drive Carefully and Hold Government Account00:03:47
Taxpayers didn't pay for it.
No.
No, I actually paid to get in the corn maze and then I did the public service and making it better for everybody, but it is my art.
It is my art.
Anywho, I was shocked to see that Alberta, Alberta.
We have to stop this madness.
We have to, that was $5 million just for the individuals.
There was way more money spent when you add in the groups and stuff.
So I know Premier Smith, if she's watching this, she's probably pulling her hair out because she does not like this nonsense.
She doesn't like this kind of waste.
She thinks it's silly.
A, stop all the individual funding.
B, go through that group funding with a fine-tooth comb.
For sure.
Unless you are a bunch of kids who are trying to go to the Calgary, you know, clarinet center.
Yep.
Don't pay for that stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just, I don't want to, I don't want to pay for somebody else's weird hobbies.
I'm already paying for my own weird hobbies.
You do.
Chris, how do people find the good work that you do over at the CTF?
And it's not just you, it's Franco, it's Carson, it's Devin.
You guys are all just doing your best to hold the government to account on behalf of the little guy.
Oh, thank you.
And Gage Halbrick, I have to say, yes, Gage, for sure.
He's our prairie director, and he has been going after the gun grab just tooth and nail.
Crazy.
Folks can go to taxpayer.com.
Okay, click on the petition link, and then there's something there for everyone.
Like if you want to defund the CBC, if you want to defund the media, if you want to scrap all carbon taxes, if you want to get rid of the ban on the sale of gas and diesel vehicles, because it's still happening, it's just deregulation.
There's something there for everyone.
Okay.
Stop government waste, stop governor general waste, something like that.
Click on the petition, sign it, and then you're part of our email group.
Okay.
And what's wonderful about it is: A, it's a form of fellowship.
So you don't feel like you're alone anymore in this crazy world.
And B, when it's time to all gang tackle an issue at one time, you'll be part of the taxpayer army.
And so just go to taxpayer.com and sign up.
It's free.
Yep.
And if you want to thank a politician who's done the right thing, you'll find out about it there too.
You sure will.
Yeah.
Chris, thanks so much for coming on the show and making the time this morning.
And I know you got to get on the road up to Edmonton.
Looks like the roads will be nice today.
It's nice weather for once.
Drive carefully and hold that government to account for us.
thanks sheila well as always the last portion of the show belongs to you our viewer because without you there's no rebel news so So I got to let you have your say.
So you can send me a letter to Sheila at RebelNews.com.
Put gun show letters in the subject line so I know why you're emailing me.
But also, if you would be so kind as to do a thing that helps us out here at Rebel News interact with the clips of the show, you know, the free ones that you might find on YouTube or Rumble, if you leave a comment or if you share or like those, it helps the algorithm serve us up in front of more people.
And if more people see the clips of the show, then they join our little gang here behind the paywall where you and I get to talk about things.
So today's letter comes to me by way of Terrence.
He is a regular viewer of the show and frequently writes viewer feedback to me, which I appreciate.
And Terrence writes, Hi, Sheila.
To begin with, let me say what a pleasure it was to meet you at the Independence Tour in Red Deer and have you sign your latest book for me.
You've always been my favorite Rebel reporter and your book is a first-class publication.
Well, thank you so much.
You can get my book at independenceblueprint.ca.
Terrence's Independence Tour Feedback00:04:46
And you can find out about the next bit of our independence tour where I'm on the road with Tamara Leach and Corey Morgan over at the Western Standard.
And we're talking about Western independence.
And for me, I'm talking about the questions we need to have answered for the public based on the Quebec experience.
Because, you know, a lot of times Quebec and Alberta were seen as mortal enemies a little bit.
We pay, they take, but they came as close as anybody to ever leaving this country.
And they stress tested in a series of commissions what the people's concerns were, what would get them over to the yes side from the no side.
And so I got my hands on those commission documents, read them, wrote a book, basically serving up the independence movement, the series of questions and concerns that they really need to alleviate for the public to move from no to yes in the referendum vote, I'm sure we will be going to referendum once the referendum question is approved after the petition signatures are counted.
It sounds like we will be going to referendum in October.
So it's going to be a summer campaign of information.
So that's what's coming next.
So anyways, I was on a tour stop.
I met Terrence, which was a delight.
Terrence says, why am I writing?
I'm a 77-year-old male Alberta boomer who should be basking in my retirement years while contemplating my life well lived.
Instead, I wake up most mornings with feelings of dread for my grandchildren's future in this country.
Man, our Alberta boomers are just better than those liberal voting Toronto ones, for sure.
This results from 11 years of dreadful liberal governments.
For this, I blame my own generation, mainly my counterparts in Eastern Canada.
Me too, Terrence.
How can they be so blind as to keep voting these corrupt people into power?
Could it be because they have watched the mainstream media all their lives and didn't notice when their unbiased and professional news correspondents degenerated into pathological liars to please the governing liberals?
For that oversight, they should be ashamed.
And why did they fall for this elbows up nonsense?
It makes them look like idiots.
When I was a kid, we had our own version of elbows up.
We would take the palm of one hand and fit it under the opposite armpit and then flap that arm to make obnoxious noises.
When I see those elbows up flapping their arms like chickens with their heads off, it seems to me they're simply being doubly obnoxious just to be annoying.
What happened to their sense of dignity?
And when they see Pierre Polyov, an honest and honorable man with a beautiful wife and children, and then compare him to devious Mark Carney, then how can they possibly choose Carney to represent their country?
I no longer feel any allegiance to Canada or its flag with the maple leaf that grows poorly in Western Canada and with those stark red colors symbolic of the Liberal Party.
I do, however, feel proud of being an Albertan along with our beautiful blue conservative flag.
Alberta independence does give me hope though and eases my mind considerably.
I think my grandchildren have a hope for a decent and prosperous future as long as they stay in a strong and free independent Alberta.
Screw the rest.
We'll keep the best.
Cheers, Sheila, Terrence, and Lacombe.
A lot of people feel that way.
I know a lot of people, young people, they don't see that they will be able to rise to meet their potential in Confederation.
And I know a lot of older people like yourself, Terrence, in Alberta, they don't recognize Canada anymore.
And they don't feel like bad Canadians when they say they want an independent Alberta because they feel like they are preserving those values that they saw in Canada by voting for an independent Alberta.
It's like the only way to preserve what's left of Canada is to keep it inside of a free and independent Alberta.
All right.
That's a great letter.
On that wonderful note, let's close the show.
Thanks everybody for tuning in.
I'll see you back here in the same time in the same place next week.