Shaun Newman Podcast - #1127 - Pete Hoekstra

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

Pete Hoekstra is an American politician and diplomat who immigrated to Michigan as a child, worked his way up to vice president of marketing at Herman Miller, served nine terms in the U.S. House representing western Michigan (1993–2011) including as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, later became U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands (2018–2021), chaired the Michigan Republican Party, and has served as U.S. Ambassador to Canada since 2025.Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionBitcoin: www.bowvalleycu.com/en/personal/investing-wealth/bitcoin-gatewayEmail: [e-mail] Nor’East Apothecary - USE promo code SNP for 15% off your orderhttps://thepowerofplants.ca/Get your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500

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This is James Lindsay. This is Vance Crow and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Monday. How's everybody doing today? Well, we're just wrapping up our time in Newfoundland. It has been, that's been beautiful. The people of Newfoundland have been great.

A little bit chilly. I'm not going to lie. Last night was a little cool in the camper, but we survived. Who am I kidding? I'm not going to complain about it. Just we finally got some sun back. It feels like it disappeared for a week plus. And finally the sun is shining this morning.

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I'm going to start calling Zane, Professor Zane, here, because when it comes to, you know, like talking things through over the phone, there has been very few like Zane helping me navigate some little things, you know, just little things that I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing. And classes in session whenever I'm on the phone with Zane. If you want an expert on your car, well, maybe give Zane and his dad, Brian, a call. You can find them at zeebs.ca. That's the easiest thing to do. Go to their website and everything is sitting right there.

If you're listening or watching on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, rumble x facebook substack all the things make sure to subscribe make sure to leave a review if you're enjoying the show share with a friend and if you haven't handed over to substack yet you really should um we have the week in review on sundays well all the episodes have been coming out there and then for paid subscribers we've got some some bonus stuff some bonus questions from most guests not today today's episode was uh well i was given a time frame and i stuck to that and um um honestly I reached out to Pete, his team, the morning of 9-11, and by the afternoon I was driving to Gander.

So you're going to, you know, it was, you know, one of those ones where you're like, I wonder, I can get a hold of this guy. I didn't think I wasn't sure. And I woke up at 5 and I was sitting there and I was going through a bunch of things. I thought, well, what's an email going to hurt? So I sent him an email and, well, send his team an email. They told me know what to start, but they C-Ced his entire team. And then, wouldn't you know it?

One of them with him at Gander's like, well, Actually, if you're here at 530, we can make it work. So pack up your stuff, Sean, and off to Gander to sit with, well, the interview you're going to hear here shortly. And then I got another cool one. You know, after last week's interview with Dr. Laura Braden and getting a tour of the apothecary, I approached her and said, you know, like, would you do a discount code for the audience? And she was like, yeah, absolutely. So I started with shampoo and conditioner because, you know, we got talking about a few different things, which you all got to hear about.

And, you know, I've been enjoying it. Like, listen, I think I'm just like everybody else. I walk into a super store or a big grocery store or wherever you get your products. I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. What should I, you know, should I just get rid of it all? And then what do you start, you know, putting in place of it? And so, you know, I got to talk with Laura and her brother.

Thomas about what they're doing and I thought you know nor east apothecary or for you find folks if you go to uh the power of plants dot CA you can get 15% off with SMP code so just SNP and you get 15% off and you know they're they craft small batch tinctures teas salves on on on a PI farm you know clean health and wellness for your entire family I'll get better at rambling through this. I just thought it was super cool. And I thought, why not give you guys some options? They ship all across Canada, right? I'm like, why not give you some options to not only support a podcast guest who's been on here that I think highly have heard in her family. But, you know, if you're looking for different things when it comes to, you know, for me, it was the

shampoo and the conditioner. I was like, I'll try that out. Yeah, like, let's try this out. There's other things on there. You can always give Laura a call as well and talk directly tour. I think that's super unique compared to a lot of the different companies that have mainly been in the U.S. that have approached me. I thought why not a podcast guest from here in Canada and something cool

for the audience to interact with? I know, I think I speak for a lot of us when you're trying to, okay, well, is it going to work? What, you know, like, what do you think of that? And what do you think of this? I don't know. I have been using the shampoo and conditioner for what, a week. And Mel's even commented on my hair. I don't know. Who knows?

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Hope everybody's doing well. We're heading out of Newfoundland today, and we're going to be in Nova Scotia again as we line up some interviews there. I hope you enjoy today's chat with the U.S. ambassador to Canada. Yeah, that came out of nowhere. I'm going to be honest. Kind of one of those ones you go, well, I'll throw a dart and see if it hits the board, and today it hit the board.

So with that being said, let's get on to the tale of the tape. Today's guest is a U.S. ambassador to Canada. I'm talking about Pete Hoogstra. So buckle up. Here we go. Well, welcome to Sean Newman podcast. Good to be with you. Well, Pete Oström.

You got it. That's right. Now, you've given me a pretty cool coin. That's pretty cool. Thank you for that. Yeah. Well, you know what these are. Challenge coins.

Yeah, okay. All right. Okay. So you do know that. Well, so I interview military guys all the time. And they've given me some pretty, what I'm saying me, is this the most unique one? I'm like, I don't know. The military guys have given me some pretty cool ones.

They've got some awesome ones. They really, really do. I was on the Intel Committee. And so I've got one with kind of like a little spy on it. You know, the, oh, yeah, you've got some that are unique shape. Most of them are round. And then you get the one from the president, and his is just a little bit bigger. Yes. I assume that's a pretty cool one.

That's a pretty cool one. Yes. Well, I tell you what. this is awfully kind. And what people didn't see is the story is, one of my major sponsors is Silver Gold Bowl, their company that started at Alberta. And now is all across Canada and the U.S.

And normally when somebody comes to my hometown and into the studio, we give them a one ounce silver coin. But on the road, it's kind of been this, well, how do I give it to? So I'm married to an American. And this morning we're sitting there and said, well, should I give a U.S. Ambassador to Canada a one-ounce silver coin? I think you got to. I'm not fair enough.

So you said that. Thank you. Yeah, you bet. Now, okay, Gander. Okay. At the time of recording of this, it is 9-11. When it airs, it'll be a couple days after. I didn't know the significance of this until I came to Newfoundland.

And then people started talking about it. You know, for 9-11, for me, 25 years ago, I was sitting in grade 10, English. English class and the teacher rolled in the TV and don't ask me connectivity and how she pulled that off but regardless and we watched the second plane go in and you know it's probably the only time in my life I've had a teacher telling me to shut up and just like sit there and watch yeah walk me through your story and then obviously Gander 25 years later the so I'm in Congress what they do at so this is after the 2000 election. And in Congress, what we do is we then bid on committees, primarily for

some bisoniority and those kinds of things. And then there's a couple of committees that are called Speaker Select Committees, where the Speaker of the House picks the people that go on the committee. I'd run for another committee chairmanship, and I didn't get that. And the Speaker came back and said, hey, you know, you interested in any committees? And so, you know, yeah, Mr. Speaker, I'm fine. You lose. You don't always get everything you want. I'm fine with the committees I have. And his staff asked, and finally I talked with my staff. I said, well, is there anything I should ask for? And I said, well, you've never done anything internationally. It's a long story to get to a short answer. And so I'm talking to a politician.

And so I said, hey, how about the intel committee? our Intelligence Committee. And the Speaker said, yeah, you're the 30th person to ask, and I've got three openings. And he called back three days and said, you want on Intel? And I said, yeah. He said, okay, you're on. So that's January of 2001. Nine months later, 9-11 happens. The day that it happens, I'm in my office, Washington, talking with some constituents, talking with my asparagus. My asparagus, farmers. Okay? Parliamentarians do this all the time, right? Got to buy more, got to buy, get asparagus on a government procurement program because we're really getting killed by

asparagus coming in from Peru. So we kind of worked through that. But yeah, we're working through it and then someone comes in and says, hey, turn on TV. Turn on TV. We see what everybody else is seeing one plane into a tower and then it's soon the second plane and then I can look out of my window. I can see a smoke column coming above what would be the airspace over the Pentagon. I can't see the building. I can only see the airspace. And so that's my story. But the biggest impact it had for me is I was on a committee that I spent a little bit of time on to a committee that became my life for the next nine and a half years. I spent all of my time working on Intel.

And three and a half years later, I became chairman of the committee, you know, traveled all over the world, trying to figure out, you know, what this threat was, what Al-Qaeda was and these types of things. So it really defined a 10-year span of my life. I would love to just ask a lot of questions on intelligence and everything else. But, you know, I know we got time crunch and as a podcast host, there's nothing worse than a time crunch. But in saying all that, I'll leave that to a different day of intelligence and different things. Sure.

Because we're sitting in Gander, Gnufeland. If you would have told me 69 days ago, specifically when I left on this trip, that I'd be sitting in Gander, Newfoundland, with the U.S. ambassador to Canada at a 25th anniversary of 9-11. I would be like, huh? And yet here we sit. And I, you know, of all the things you put with 9-11 in my world from the west, Gander, Newfoundland, I didn't qualify. Wasn't there. And then, you know, as you come further east, then you start to hear different stories.

It's almost like, well, there is a division in Canada, certainly, and there's lots. But east to west or west-east, there's a lot of divide there. So coming across the divide, you start to hear different stories. Gander is certainly one of them. And, you know, it was talking with a friend today about even Winston Churchill calling Gander the largest aircraft carrier in the North Atlantic. And once again, I'm a student in history. I enjoy history.

I hadn't heard that before. Or maybe in passing. Gander. So did you fail history? I guess so. I guess it was a very good student. 9-11 happens. and Gander is put on the map for its generosity

and its ability to come together and house people. But you have, now I listen to your speech today talking about basically the best of humanity sits right here in Gander. Now what I said is, because I'm an optimist. Well, that me you have in common. All right. And, you know, I think what Gander has come to represent

the best in people. Okay. I mean, you know, they did awesome things on 9-11. I mean, awesome. I really believe that there are lots of places in the world that might have done that. But Gander did it and did it at such a time that it got recognized.

There were all kinds of heroes on 9-11. Okay? It was the first responders running back into the buildings. It was what happened at the... the Pentagon, you know, taking care of the people that were injured there. It was the people rushing back from the back of the plane to take down a plane, right, for the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. Lots of heroes in those kinds of things. Actually, and in Canada, you know, I think you had like 240 planes that were diverted from the U.S. and had to land somewhere

in Canada. The reason that you're in Gander is you know, you increase the population by 70% in three or four hours for five days. And Gander just did everything that they possibly could. I mean, you know, Halifax took more people. But, you know, Halifax is a much bigger city. So, you know, I'm assuming that in these other communities, I don't know, but, you know, that there were people that were helping out not again to the same extent that they were in Gander because the burden would you know if you go to Halifax there's probably enough people there or probably enough hotel rooms for a lot of those those folks to go to but you know Gander Gander just there's something special about it but I do believe that there are other people around the world around North America

that would have responded in much the same way that just didn't have the opportunity I would I agree with you. Out West, and then certainly along the Freedom Convoy in the middle of COVID, you witnessed the same thing happening. Out West, you know, the generosity that comes with small communities, farming communities, that's, it's just there. The more stories I heard of gander, I'm like,

oh, it's kind of like back home, you know? Like it just sounds like the stories from back home. You see people in need and, you know, people help and find ways to take people out of harm's way. Yeah, I mean, and the people we've met here have been phenomenal. The stories we've heard have been phenomenal. You know, we've gone to the play, come from away. We've read the book, you know, when the world came to town,

and you hear all of these stories. All of it is true. All of it is phenomenal, okay? But I do have a belief that it might have happened in slightly different ways in other parts of the world. if they, if communities around the world had been, you know, presented with a similar type of a challenge. Do Americans know where Gander is then? No.

I think it's right above Saskatchewan. Fair. In fairness, a guy from Saskatchewan didn't know where Gander was either. You know, I'll get a lot of harassment on, from my audience on that that I should know. But I'm like, I don't know you get stuck in your area. and the problems of the day. And it takes going across the country to stumble into a place like this

and hear the stories, which seem pretty important. Now in your time here, have you ran into people that were a part of those flights that got diverted here? Like, is that something that's going on across the few days you're here? Yeah, I mean, I think we met some folks at the airport yesterday. We were waiting for our luggage.

You know, we've gone to some different events and you see meet people who've been diverted I think we've talked to two or three of the pilots who diverted you like I've read different reports talking about it feeling almost like a family reunion is that a fair comparison of or maybe like maybe I don't know maybe there's a better analogy I mean I think when we were listening to the stories last night they were calling them untold stories of 9-11 you know some of them talked about what happened but at the same time they're saying you know I stayed at people's house

but I never took their address or their names down, and those kinds of things. And then you have other people who say, you know, like they live here. Okay. They live in Ohio or whatever, and they're, but, you know, they're raising money for scholarship funds and these types of things to help young people here, you know, education-wise and those types of things. So they've got a real connection. and they still have a real connection.

And for them, it's kind of like a reunion. So I think you have the full gamut. And it's crazy. Not crazy. I'm not an expert. Yeah. It's cool because, like, you think a very dark event, right? Like, people died that day.

And then, you know, like, if you were coming across the sea, expecting to land in a certain spot, it's hard to like go back 25 years you know to like what we've been on the plane like could you have paid for a phone call maybe but like cell phones weren't strapped to everybody's hip you weren't you know texting off the Wi-Fi saying hey we're here there would have been a total lack of communication from all those passengers you know the 6600 plus yeah I think here like it would have been an interesting event but out of it came something beautiful I guess is what I'm trying to point out in gander compared to new

New York City, which there would have been beautiful stories come out of there too, but a lot of heartache as well. Yes. And what you'll get out of Gander is the, yeah, and they're beautiful stories, okay, of the people and what they've done and those kinds of things. And, you know, the, I think we were just talking to somebody who said, yeah, they went to see come from away in New York. And they were sitting, the guy in front of me, he said, he kept turning around and looking

at me, kept coming around and looking at me. And he said, I was finally getting a little bit annoyed. And the other guy looked around. I said, do I know you? And he says, I don't know, I'm so-and-so. And he said, and he gave his name. And the guy says, ow, I was one of the passengers. So by accident, they knew each other.

They knew each other. Yeah, you look familiar in him. And so they found out that they were connected. You know, you say you're an internal optimist. And in a day and age where it feels like there's not a lot of optimism just brewing out, maybe in the United States it's different than Canada, is a day in gander. And this story really important for people to hear of like, you know, once again, I'm married to an American, right? There's lots of division between our two countries.

There's lots of divisions west to east and Canada. putting aside those divisions for maybe a day or two and just celebrating good human beings. Yeah, you don't celebrate. You commemorate. Thank you. Okay. So we commemorate. But, yeah, it's good to sometimes step aside and step back from what's going on in the world. Have you seen the play?

I haven't. Okay. But, you know, part of the story is when the planes landed. right and the passengers after you know a half a day or whatever start unloading they need buses the bus drivers are on strike right have you heard that story no no yeah the bus drivers are on strike well you know i in michigan if you're uh you know if you're a public education worker and you're on strike i mean you are on strike you know you're going to uh and they came you went to the bus drivers and said uh we've got this problem

here we've got 7,000 people we weren't expecting, we've got to get them around here, will you guys help? And they said, yep, we will come back, we will drive buses until these, you know, until these folks leave, and then we'll go back on strike. We'll deal with the strike issues and those types of things afterwards. Okay, but right now we've got an immediate problem. So yeah, it's good to put those things aside. It's kind of like, you know, people have asked about the terror situation and all of that between the U.S. and Canada, and it's kind of like, no, we're not talking about that today. You want to talk about it? Great, but, you know, go talk to somebody else, but I'm not going to talk about it.

We'll get back to that. We'll get back to that on, you know, it's Friday now, so we'll get back to that on Monday. For sure. When you're like, do you know this story, do you know that story? Pete, I don't know any of the stories. So you got stories to tell on Gander and 9-11, you might I don't have enough time, yeah. Well, I tell you what, they're giving you. You don't have enough time. They're giving me five minutes. Yeah.

You can probably even take seven minutes if you want. Well, we'll pick some of your favorite stories. Well, I mean, there's the, like I said, the guy that we were talking to, you know, he's in the play. And, you know, he just runs or he, you know, he runs across somebody. And they said, wow, this is a beautiful piece of geography here. And he says, oh, hey, here, take my car, throws them the keys. What do you mean, take your car? Yeah, just take it and just drive around and, you know, come back in a few hours or whatever when you're done,

seeing some of the area around here. You know, that's fine. You know, I think last night we heard the story about, because, you know, after 30 hours on a plane and getting, you know, finally getting somewhere, you're feeling a little grungy. And so people would say, well, you know, they go into the, where people initially were staying, they weren't staying in people's houses. They said, you know, you want to come over for a shower. What do you mean come over for a shower? Oh, you want to take a shower?

And a couple said, yeah, we'd love to come for a shower. So they went and the owner of the house gave them a towel and, you know, what they needed for the essentials for a shower and said, okay, see you guys later. What do you mean? See you later. Oh, if you guys are taking showers and all that, I'll just leave and come back in a few hours and we'll be fine. So that's the kind of things that happened here. Well, as I've been telling you, just before we started,

been on the road for 69 days? You need a shower? No. Do I smell like it? No, not yet. I actually was going to say our vehicle broke down in Ottawa. And because of some of the people I've met through the podcast, showed it to Melissa McKee, if she's listening.

She just gave me the keys to a, like, I'm not saying it was a 2006 truck, but I'm not saying it was a 2020, like somewhere in between. It was a brand new truck. So, here we go. And I'm like, what? Like, we live in a society where that is...

It's very uncommon. Uncommon. And yet, you don't have to look that far into our past to see that it was very common. Certainly from the area I come from, That was the people who came across the sea and had to struggle to find a way to live. That's what they did for each other.

And so it's there. That's why I'm an eternal optimist. I guess when I hear, you know, a man in government say he's an eternal optimist, what gives you optimism in today's day and age? Just because we've accomplished so many things. I mean, I look back and I'm a lot older than you are. But, you know, I mean, you take a look at, you know,

what do we have today? You've got cell phones. You've got, you know, who knows what artificial intelligence is going to bring to us. I think we've finally gotten over, you know, this, we don't want fossil fuels or anything like that. So we're starting to deal with the energy stuff. And, you know, every day there are just new inventions

that are coming out. And you just kind of wonder, okay, what are our kids going to experience, what are our grandkids going to experience? And I always believe that these things are going to be forces for good. There are challenges that are coming, that come with them maybe. But people will use them for good, artificial intelligence, what it does for health care. You know, you just feed all of this data into computers. And, you know, it comes up with different formulations for medicines and these kinds of things.

and I think it's just going to be amazing. So is AI then the one you look at and you go, I don't know where that thing goes, but better days are ahead? But I think for a whole lot of stuff, better days are going to be ahead. I don't think it's just AI. You know, what happens with, you may not get there, but your kids, space travel. I don't know.

The pace we're going, maybe. Maybe. Okay. just all kinds of different opportunities that are out there. You know, the agriculture, you know, we're going to get to a point where, you know, food's not going to be an issue. There's going to be enough food. It's not an issue in Canada. It's not really an issue in the United States and those kinds of things.

But, you know, for other parts of the world, is it not going to be an issue anymore? Well, the issue on food is healthy food, probably. Probably. That'd probably be the issue we face in the one. Western world is what are we putting in our food. There's a lot of food, but then it causes a lot of problems. Yes. Right? Yeah. Oh yeah. And so you go, yeah, well, there be food for everybody? Yeah, probably. Whether or not, you know, it'll be... It'll be healthy food that tastes good, so we're going to be fine. Yeah. Well, that's the optimism, right? That's the optimism. Two forces, one, you know,

stares at the negative possibilities, the other tries to put forth the positive and, you know, in my world, I see them kind of at war with each other and lots of different aspects. But appreciate you doing this. We love independent media. Well, why is that? Because you don't have an agenda. I don't think. I probably do have an agenda, but I'm like.

They didn't tell me about it. So yeah. I didn't, well, I've never met you before. So like the, until you've done me wrong, it's like, well, I want to come in. I want to meet you. I want to get a sense for who you are. And we just had it this week. We got interviewed, and then you see the story that comes out and says,

let's see, this is what I said. Well, the nice thing about what I do is everything you said, even your digs at me will be on, all of it will come out. Yeah. Yeah, that'll probably be what grabs the audience the most as if they stink or not or something, you know. So how's the program running? This?

Great. You're doing well? Yeah, it's my full-time job. Okay. I've been... Well, that doesn't mean you're doing well, but it means you're putting food on the table, you're putting gas in your old truck. Sure.

I mean... Could you pay to get it repaired? Yes. No, okay. Just ask it. Just ask it. Or whether you're still driving the truck from Ottawa, that somebody loaned you. No, no.

Oh, sorry. The vehicle, no, it was a minor fix. It was nothing serious. I just, it had to be down for half a day, and so we just got it fixed and carried on. But, you know, I got three kids and my wife along, so I got it. So they've got to be young kids. 10, 9, and soon to be 7. Yeah.

And school started last week. Hom schooling did. They're loving it. Okay. It's been cool to watch, right? Yeah. My wife's a teacher. I mean, it's a big trend in the U.S.

It's a big trend. I think it's a big trend everywhere. Okay. I mean, I hate to just keep bringing it back to COVID, but COVID really screwed up a lot of things. And a lot of people don't trust a whole lot of anything establishment anymore. And that isn't why we went on the road trip, but for the trend of homeschooling growing, certainly that's part of it.

Yeah. So are there, you know, federal police kind of following you behind that you're tracking that there are two days behind you? I've had some interactions with, I don't know. I don't worry. That stuff, in the middle of COVID, I'll put it to you this way, Pete. In the middle of COVID, I was interviewing, you know, I went from. So you've been doing this for a while?

So I started in 2019. Okay. Good timing. But it was athletes. It was, you know, the height of it was Don Cherry, Ron McLean, Glenn Sather, Paul Bissonette, all these hockey analysts across the board. Tell me you know who Don Cherry is. I have no idea who Don Cherry is? Do I know who Don Cherry is?

No. Come on. No. He's going to give me a hard time about Churchill and Gander. Don Cherry is royalty and Kansas. Canada, hockey commentator who was very pro-Canada U.S. relations. Now? And he would be 92-ish now.

Okay. So he's not the one that's driving Americans out of Canadian hockey? Driving Americans out of Canadian? No, goodness gracious, no. I mean, you know, no, that's elbows up. That's the elbows up. Yeah. Yeah, because you've had what?

You've had Chichuk? Chuk on. And you get, was it a goaltender or somebody out of it? Hullabuck hasn't left, but there's been strong possibilities he's not happy with it. Did he ask for a trade? Yeah, he asked for a trade. Yeah, he did. Well, I mean, would you want, I love Canada.

Love it. But if I had my choice of hockey markets to go play in, no doubt it would be Tampa Bay. Taxes, weather, even talking to hockey players, the effects on your body living in a warm climate compared to cold, It's just two different things. Now, let's say you come to Eminton or Winnipeg or Montreal or Ottawa, and you're playing there and you have success. Obviously, you want to stay with the team. That's hockey culture. Then you win the Olympic gold medal, and there's always going to be hard feelings in Canada because we're the best.

Not this year, but we are the best. You are the best. I mean, it's too bad you always finish second, but go ahead, yeah. Once, okay. I got lots of American friends. they do the same thing. Regardless, then you come back and instead of being proud of your captains and your players for winning the gold medal, it's quite an accomplishment. You've got to give your hats off to the Americans. They played a heck of a game. Goldtender played Helbach

played out of his mind. And they beat us. Life goes on. And then you tie in everything else going on and it just, it gets pushed on to individuals and they want to because like why would you want to stay and play in that? I can't blame them. for it. Yeah, no, it's kind of surprising. Yeah, but 2019 I started. All the athletes, everything, and then in 2021 I switched over to politics. I interviewed this lady, Danielle Smith, before she was a Premier. Daniel Smith, where's she a Premier? Alberta. Alberta. Have we been to Alberta? Yeah, I think we've been to Alberta.

Now, we had a great time in Alberta. Danielle's a good friend. So I interviewed her, but I also interviewed. I've been to I better not say that. That might get her in trouble. I don't like her at all. She's awful. I interviewed a whole bunch of doctors, lawyers, professors, because I just didn't understand why we weren't getting back to normal.

And so when you bring up the comment, are they following you? I chuckle. I'm like, in those times, everybody would text me saying, are you still alive? They put a black bag over your head? Like, have you disappeared? Right now at this point, if they're going to whisk me away, It's probably five years well overdue, and I'm not going to stress on that. Life's going to go on.

I really do like Danielle. Yeah, well, I think she's one of the most level-headed leaders we've got. She's split in Alberta because Alberta's got the referendum coming, right? And they want to, well, that's 38 days away as we sit here, right? There is a huge group of people that are upset with Ottawa, specifically Ottawa, and the relationship. How's that going to do? Who knows? I'm asking you, that's why.

Well, okay. So if you go by the mainstream media, which only publishes certain things that we talk about. Right, yes. They'll say it's going to fail miserably, 30% or less, that's it. But they're freaking out like it's 70%. If you talk to Albertans, it's a strong 30%. And then there's probably another close to 10% that is scared of its own shadow. They're going to be called a traitor, lose businesses, all that stuff.

And then there's the milky middle, which are like, I don't know, is that going to be better than staying in Canada or worse? And so what's happening right now is a ton of dialogue and a ton of conversations and debates. And if there is an Albertan sitting there going, I don't know if I want to stay or go, there's avenues to just go watch and listen to really intelligent people discuss it. The thing that I keep reminding them that they should remember is this referendum isn't to leave. This referendum is to have a referendum. To have a referendum. So like to me this is playing with House money. Vote to leave or vote to have a referendum so you can get a better deal for Alberta in Confederation.

Because right now the chips are stacked against you. All the political positions and appointments are all stacked against you. And so how's it going to go? I mean Because you guys do pay money What are they? Transfer payments Equalization payments.

Equalization payments. What does it equalize? The have provinces give to the have-nots. I think it's a beautiful idea. But then when people have grievances, you have to go talk to them. And right now there is a huge group of people in Alberta

that are not happy with the way Canada's been run for now going on 11 plus years. and instead of going and talking to them, they call them names. They don't report on them in the media very well, if at all, and that just makes it bubble more. And so it's bubbling more. And so we're getting to where, you know, this is going to be an interesting October. Right now it's picking up, pace, not slowing down.

Yeah. It's too bad because, you know, that it's happening in October because you've got a lot of Canadian politicians now who are opining on the U.S. elections. And, you know, I don't know how some of them are going to handle it. You know, they're going to have to be talking about, you know, an election in Alberta and they're going to have to be giving us their expertise and insights about how Americans should be voting in the U.S. So. I argue with my wife who vote that from time to time.

But other than that, I'm like... Do you tell her how she should vote in the U.S.? No, goodness gracious. Can you imagine me telling an American House? You should vote? That'd be. Oh, man, that's all you have to do is turn on TV here. Yeah, well.

And they've got, all of your political experts are telling us, this is what they have to do. And it's going to go. Yeah. And then you ask them, you know, where, yeah, where some of our states are. And it's kind of like, well, I didn't even know that was a state. But okay.

Well, I don't know. It's the people we've sent down. So Canadian media in general, the independent voice, that are starting to percolate up are really interesting. I think there's some really intelligent people there. But if you're looking at the statewide media that is broadcasting about what's at, there's just a lot of, not even noise, it's just very frustrating.

It's very one side, maybe even one area of people's thoughts. Out west, we don't think that way. Daniel Smith has a pretty good grasp on how we think towards the United States. So what's out west? Does that include British Columbia? Parts of British Columbia. Oh, okay. You know, there's, it's same as the United States, right?

You're not all red, you're not all blue. There's certain areas that all think alike. Alberta, Saskatchewan, parts of Manitoba, parts of BC, that part of Western Canada, really think alike. We have a lot of connection to the United States. A lot of our industry goes right to you guys. There's a lot of familial ties. Okay.

You know, and so there's, it's just viewed differently. Media talks about it in a certain way. And then we send down people to talk on your media that you're just like, oh man, I can't even watch it half the time. I'm like, I can't believe this is a Canadian they sent down to talk for it. And I hope they get better Canadians come down and actually talk about what Canadians are thinking. Yeah. And then we're frustrated with our government and we're frustrated with how they're dealing with a ton of what's going on.

So when are you going to be back in Alberta? You have a plan? Yeah, next year. I mean, that's a big time window. I mean, next year starts in 90-some days or 100-some days. We're on day 69, so that leaves me 200 and what's that, 296 days left on the road. Oh, so you're doing a full year, full calendar year. Full calendar year.

So you're doing more than just Canada. Yeah, so we get to Newfoundland. and then when we come, well, we're at Newfoundland, and then we go back through Nova Scotia, Halifax, we cut back into New Brunswick a little bit because we went across it very fast, and then we go down the East Coast, the United States, and then when we're done...

Good thing you're married to an American, we'll let you back, yeah. Yeah. And then when we get back close to Christmas, we fly south, we're going to escape winter, and we're going to go to some of the places that I've interviewed people Panama, El Salvador,

Hawaii, New Zealand. And we're going to go do more of this because I'm a firm believer in so much of our conflict is because people aren't talking or people are listening

to one side and not like just letting both sides get together. I thought you were going to go south and you're going to spend time in Lethbridge and Noble for it. No. That isn't warm enough for my wife.

It probably isn't warm enough for me. Yeah. No, I would, I'm. I've got family there. Do you? Yeah. Are you going to spend the winters there? No, we're going to spend in Ottawa.

Okay. I have fun in that. Yeah, we did last year. Yeah. I mean, we skate the canal and those types of things. Well, I tell you what, my wife's, one of my wife's favorite memories. She was a graduate, got her master's in St. Lawrence, so an hour south of Ottawa in upstate New York. And her favorite memory of Ottawa is skating the canals.

Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It's not. Wow. It's a big canal. It's a big canal and it goes quite a ways, nine, ten kilometers. Now, I can see everybody starting to, like, I got to end this.

Yeah, you got to end it. I appreciate you doing this. You mean my people or you're, I'm thinking your audience and saying, get rid of this guy. You've talked about him long enough. No, what are you talking about? I could do this all night. I just start bringing in other subjects. Yeah.

I appreciate you doing it. Very nice to meet you, Pete. Good luck to you. Yeah. We'll follow up on a different day and talk some. Well, when you get to Florida, this winter. You want to come down and meet me in Florida? We have a place in Florida. So we're in Florida for, you know, January or February, there's a good chance. I may be there. All right. Sounds good. I don't

know where you'll be. You might be in Texas or wherever. January, I am in Panama. In Panama. Yeah. Oh, okay. So are you driving there? No, we're going to fly there. Okay. All right. I love it. I'm like, am I getting an interview? This is great. Thank you for doing this. Before I, your staff, tackles me maybe they'll tackle you I don't know yeah great thanks very nice enjoyed it yes thank you thank you