Shaun Newman Podcast - #305 - Spencer Bautz

Episode Date: August 22, 2022

Spencer was one of the drivers in the West convoy. We discuss the trip to Ottawa all the way through to the Emergencies Act being invoked, life in the bubble & adjusting to being home back to work.  November 5th SNP Presents: QDM & 2's. Get your tickets here: snp.ticketleap.com/snp-presents-qdm--222-minutes/ Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500

This is Brian Pekford. This is Danielle Smith. This is Glenn Healy. Hey, everybody. This is Paul Brand. This is Dr. Peter McCullough. Hi, everyone. This is Jamie Saleh, and welcome to the Sean Newman podcast.

Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Monday. Hope everybody's weekend. Well, I hope you get to enjoy it with some family, friends. Certainly hung out with the kids, you know, on our side with school coming up and, you know, and then sports and everything else. We all know how the winners go around these parts anyways. Most likely, it's going to spend. speed up, not slow down. So trying to soak in that last bit of summer sun. And I hate to talk like

that because, geez, it doesn't feel like it's been here that long. Then again, we do live in the Great North. And well, in the Great North, we only get so much sun, isn't that the truth? Anyways, we got a good one on tap for you today. We're going to talk some freedom convoy. And but before we get there, let's get to today's episode sponsors, Canadians for Truth or nonprofit organization consisting of Canadians who believe in honesty, integrity, and principal, leadership, and government, as well as the Canadian Bill Rights, Charter of Rights and Freedoms and rule of just laws. And of course, they've signed on Theo Flurry and Jamie Saleh.

They're firing up, I mentioned last week, I met with Theo and had a tour of their 9,000 square foot facility as they start up there. You know, it would be interesting to see here between now and September, and I'm spacing on the day, is it September 24th when their first show goes. I'm going to be, I've been invited to, I don't know, host MC, on September 24th with the Canadiens for Truth group. That'll be Joseph Borgo with Theo Fleury and and Jamie Saleh on stage talking about what their vision for Canadians for Truth is.

So I'm just as interested as the rest of you to kind of know what it is. If you're looking to see who they are or a little bit more about them, go to CanadiensforTruth.net or check out their Facebook page under the same name, Canadians for Truth. Tyson and Tracy Mitchell, Michico Environmental, their family-owned business that has been providing professional vegetation management services for both Alberta and Saskatchew in the Elfell. and they all filled in industrial sector since 1998.

I ran into Tyson there this past week. He likes to run down, and I mean that in the best way, Tyson. It's their busy season, right? This summer is when they're out and busy, and by all accounts, it sounds like they've been as hard as you can go for most of the summer. So they're always looking for good people. I don't think in this world, this area, you know,

I think of different businesses. I certainly know. I don't think you can ever get enough good people. So if you're looking for work or you're looking to sign on with a great team, give them a call 780214, 4,004, or go to MitchcoCorp.cault. To see a little bit more about what they do and who they are. Carly Clas and the team over at Windsor Plywood. They are the builders of the podcast studio table.

I had Shane Getson in on Thursday, I guess. He was Friday's episode 303. 304. Geez, Louise. What episode am I on here, folks? I'm scrambling to look it up now, so I don't get it wrong. And, of course, nothing's going to come up. And now I'm going to ramble.

Dun, dun, dint. Okay, 304. There's my interlude. Anyways, I go back to Shane Getson coming in, and he comes in and looks at the table. Man, that's a nice table. I'm like, yeah, yeah, it's been here almost since the beginning. you know a few months into the podcast probably six months in and he goes who built it i give the story about windsor and and you know uh carly and the team over there building the river table it is a sharp

looking unit it's a it's a heavy piece of of wood if i've ever seen like it's beautiful and that's what windsor has there you know all you got to do is check with their instagram page do a little creeping i haven't said this in a long time doing a little creeping anyways and you can you can see exactly what they're into whether we're talking mantles decks windows doors or sheds they can get you hooked up just stopping today or give me a call 7 8 o 8759663. Clay Smiling, a team over at Profit River. I bumped into Clay this past week, too.

We're working on getting the Chief Firearms Officer of Alberta on the podcast. It looks like it's going to happen here in the near future. And of course, Clay helped me out he's a long-time sponsor the podcast as well. The team over there, Profit River, they specialize in importing firearms from the United States of America and pride themselves in making the process as easy for their customers as possible. The team of Broft River does all the appropriate paperwork on both sides of the border. in order to legally get that into your hands. Just go to Profitriver.com.

They are the major retailer of firearms, optics, and accessories serving all of Canada no matter where you're at, all right? Gardner Management, Lloyd Minster-based company specializing on all types of rental properties. I bumped in, geez, I had quite the week because I bumped into, like, pretty much all of these people. And I bumped into Wade. The building is building up. I talked about that on Friday, and it's certainly happening right now, the more and more people moving in.

So if you're looking for a small office, certainly give him a call or stop in because he can get you hooked up with that. If you've got multiple employees, he's got different spaces that can suit your needs as well. And I certainly can say I haven't ran into many better guys to work with them. 8808, 5025, he can get you hooked up. Now, let's get on that tail of the tape brought to you by Hancock Petroleum. For the past 80 years, they've been an industry leader in bulk fuels, lubricants, methanol, and chemicals delivering to your farm, commercial, or oil fuel locations.

For more information, visit them at Hancock, Petroleum. Dat C.A. He's a business owner, a farmer, and drove a truck in the West Convoy. I'm talking about Spencer Pretty Boy Bouts. So buckle up. Here we go. This is Spencer Boats, aka Pretty Boy from the Convoy, and welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast.

Today, I'm joined by a familiar face. It's been a while. I was saying January, probably February, actually, since we, We had our last chat, but Spencer Boats. So first off, sir, thanks for hopping in with me. You bet. Sean, it's a pleasure to be here. Good to see you.

Am I calling you Spencer? Am I calling you Pretty Boy? What are we going to do? Pretty Boy is not as prevalent now as it was in January, February, but you can call it Pretty Boy. For the listener, if they didn't listen to the convoy updates, you're the one guy I got to ride in a truck with during the convoy out to Ottawa. And we've stayed in touch.

since then and this has been kind of in the works now for I don't know it feels like a few months we definitely talked about it probably three months ago when I fired the podcast up after taking a little bit of a break and and then you know schedules and you're a busy guy it's hard to nail you down so I'm happy to have you here in studio doing this with me but what what are you been up to since Ottawa yeah no doubt so Ottawa I was there the whole time and during the last couple of days I kind of had to pick between staying with my job, I was out of days off and stuff like that, or going back home. So if I wanted to keep my job, I had to leave a week before it ended.

And so I chose to stay at the convoy. It was kind of getting to time that I wanted to quit my job and focus on the farm and my business as well. So I've been running my business full time since the convoy, going hard with that and trying to keep up. Has life changed since, you know, like it's pretty, um, you know, it's pretty, um, you would know this better than most, what you saw there. Yeah. It would be, I don't know, akin to, I don't know, going and seeing the world. I don't know what it would be quite akin to.

But has it been easy just to kind of roll back into everyday life? Or, I mean, pretty hard to forget the events of, you know, you said three weeks. The news talks about 18 days of occupation, that type of thing. You were there a few extra days. But, like, has it been easy to slide right back? in everyday work? Yeah, well, it was a total change for me going from the mine

and my 9 to 5 to the business side of it. But I think anyone who was there it kind of changed how we thought a little bit. And it really like I was kind of the grumpy guy at work and you know, not a very happy camper

over the COVID, the whole COVID thing. And so that totally lifted a lot of weight off my shoulders and really let me relax a little bit more. So I've been a lot more comfortable since the convoy knowing that there's all these people backing me and really good people all across the country so it's taking some stress off and yeah i know it's been busy and really good well let's talk convoy because i mean the last time i see you is the day

we are uh you guys are all stationing at the i forget the little town it's terrible i always remember it uh prior something prior or an arn prior yeah arn prior thank you I ran into you, oddly enough, out there, and we talked about possibly hopping in and riding in. It didn't come to fruition, which at this point I go, you know, or even then, I'm like, oh, it just wasn't meant to be, right? So you just carry on. But after that, you know, I don't see you again, although we text briefly here and there,

you've got to tell me about your Ottawa. Wherever you want to start, however long you want to go on, I'd just be curious because I think if people want to go back and listen to exactly. who Spencer is. Yeah. Go back to Convoy episode number five. That's the first time I interview, and they can hear a bit about who you are and everything else.

Yeah. But from that point on, I don't know anything of what you saw, and I'd be really curious. I mean, I've seen the images of your semi, and I should get you to send me one so we can put it up on my social media so people can go take a look at it. Yeah. Because it's with all the signatures, and it looks super cool.

It does. You know, but leading up to that, I have no idea. So whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. backpedal a little bit to when you hopped in with me.

So I thought it was kind of interesting. You said it wasn't really meant to be that you would have hopped in right before we went into Ottawa. But pretty cool how, because I went alone, just in my truck. None of my buddies and their trucks came. It was just Spencer from Saskatchewan. I'm going. And so I had empty passenger seats and I was going alone, you know, the whole time. And we got hung up in the town that we, what town was that?

it doesn't matter in a small town on the way to ottawa everything was so slow moving because the sheer amount of trucks and the unexpectedness of it it could have been sue saint marie yeah and so you guys can imagine coming out of towns and getting into fuel stations all this stuff i'm gonna i'm gonna cut you up it's thunder bay we caught you guys in thunder bay and i sat with a group of guys in thunder bay and did a roundtable podcast and the next morning we went out to see you guys and you guys and you guys and you you guys slowly came out and you parked right in front of where we were parked. Yeah, so it's funny that way because this is normal by now, you know, these massive lineups and start stop traffic really slow. And people along the side of the road the whole way. But when I stopped by your group, we were just, I was waiting for traffic to move and whatever.

And I'm like, ah, you know, someone would probably think this is pretty cool riding in a truck, all these people in their four wheelers and stuff. And so when we stopped and I looked out, I was chatting with a couple people. And I said, well, hey, does anyone want to hop in the truck? with me you can ride for an hour or two having no idea who sean newman is no offense no idea of not human podcast right um and your eyes lit up and you hopped in and it was super cool getting that experience and it's funny it worked out that well someone who's you know willing to actually talk because lots of guys where you know your truck drivers are not really a podcast might not exactly be their

thing but it worked out really well in both our favors that we got to meet we got along well and we had a really good conversation. So that was when we started. And so what you wouldn't... You think back to that? Just once again, it's like... I always say this, you know, and if you've been listening to the podcast for a long time,

maybe I'm just slow to get to maybe what it actually is. Maybe someday when I'm 90, I'll admit to what that is. But I've had lots of different people on, talk about different moments in their life where things just kind of happen. and it kind of changes your trajectory or bumps you into somebody that, you know, now you, anyways, you get the point. To have your truck stop in front of where I was

and I wasn't thinking about hopping in. Honestly, I was just kind of like, this is cool. I just wanted to see the size of it because we'd driven so hard to catch up to you. And at the time, I was just like, I just want to see if it's 20 trucks or 100, a thousand, I don't really care. And so when the idea comes to the challenge,

Hey, anyone want to get it? I'm like, yeah, right? Like, I mean, light bulb moment. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe that happened at 40 other corners, or maybe that was the only corner, right? That was the only person I let hop in my truck at a random corner.

So it's just funny how it works out that way. You never did the same thing again. No, there was other people who wrote with me, but nothing like out of the blue, like no one that I had talked to previously or something. It's just a spur of the moment, hey, let's, someone can hop in if they want. And I was really enjoying my alone time. That was pretty cool, you know. It's kind of just how I am.

But yeah, when you were standing there and it just popped into my head. It was pretty cool. You ended up being a podcaster. Yeah, that's kind of wild. Anyways, yeah. And I'll recap. We might, I think we talked about this on the earlier podcast, but the whole thing, the whole business of having a trucking company, that, that was a spur of the moment.

That was a fate thing as well. Like I, years before I started my trucking company, you know, grew up on a farm, but trucks were never really my thing. Like lots of people were trucking company. drivers they grew up playing with them and stuff like that that was never really my thing 10 years ago or five years ago i wouldn't really know if it was a peter builder or camera driving down the highway so this whole truck and company falling into place and turning guiding me into this convoy was uh was a fate uh amazing thing the whole step each step of the way so yeah there's no doubt that there's

something to that and maybe when if you figure it out when you're 90 let me know but uh yeah so the last time i've seen you was in that town just outside of Ottawa and everyone was kind of rallying together. That was when if people see the video of the trucks overhead and airstrip that was there right before Ottawa. And for people who follow the podcast, we were in that grouping and then we cut off because we'd met two friends there and we went to an overpass probably, I don't know, 10 miles away and stood on an overpass and did the video. And that's really. right after like I did about an hour and long Instagram. I think it was live video of you guys come rolling through.

Like it was super freaking cool. Yeah. And that was right after all of like the staging area. The staging area was wild. Like just so many people. Yeah. That was that was a good video, a good glimpse of what was going on. But I'll tell you, it was so chaotic because it grew so fast and to this wild proportion.

So just to get people staged or get them in the same place to sleep And you know that was just a huge struggle which obviously we overcame people reacted really fast and really well To that but if you're sitting at one overpass in Ottawa you might only caught half or maybe the other one would have caught you know three quarters Really tough to say but even if you had seen half the trucks you're standing on the the overpass for a long time My point is there was a lot of vehicles you know it was really cool But from that arn prior, we were kind of waiting for the go ahead for everyone to go to, you know, Main Street, Ottawa, Wellington. And in back of my mind, I think a lot of people's like, there's no way we're getting to Wellington Street. How would that ever be possible?

Like they know we're here. They, yeah, the government doesn't really want us there, right? Because we don't agree with them. They don't, so they know we're here. They know there's lots of us. And they've been following this for days, right? So they know there's this massive wave of disagreeable truckers who are going to speak their mind. And the main street auto is like, there's, there can't, we can't get anywhere near Wellington Street.

That's impossible, right? It's wishful thinking. So we kind of all gathered up and guys, we had a somewhat of a route we were supposed to take because we had worked with the OPP, the Ontario Police, the whole time. They picked routes with us. They, you know, shut down certain intersections. We did what they wanted us to the whole time. It was a super respectful relationship between like Chris Barber, guys like that. They worked with the cops.

And so the OPP led us right into the middle of Ottawa. I think they thought at that point, well, these guys came from Saskatchewan and Alberta and Manitoba. They're going to want to be on Wellington. So we may as well do it cooperatively. They've been working with us. We may as well let it happen because it's probably going to happen anyways. And so they did. OPP led us from that armed prior, I believe it's our own prior gas station.

They let us all the way up to Wellington. And there was like a couple barricades, nothing crazy at all. So it was nothing you could like that street was blocked. Well, OPP led you do a different one. and we basically drove right onto Wellington, right into the middle of Ottawa. And so that that blew my mind. And maybe it was the government's a good example of bad government planning that they, you know, month in advance to accomplish anything.

Or maybe they didn't think it was actually going to come to fruition. I don't know how. Or overconfidence. Yeah, exactly. Overconfidence. I don't know how that worked out. But it did. We got right on to Wellington right exactly.

on the hill. I guess for anyone listening, Wellington is a street that runs in front of Parliament Hill. So we filled up Wellington and all the streets around. It was, blew my mind we got there. Yeah. Well, I think a lot of people, uh, I think a lot of people know even that, right? Like all the way of that. I think it's the 18 days after that for you, the 21, you were there for 21. Were you on Wellington then? Yes. Yeah, I was right on Wellington. You wouldn't have seen my truck there. No, right on Wellington. I'm wondering how on earth I missed you. Yeah, I was towards, I don't know, I can't remember, I think it was a west side, Wellington. Kent and Wellington was my corner. Okay. In front of the Supreme Court. That's where I was. Yeah, so I wasn't there.

It took, so I parked outside of town, or outside of Wellington, excuse me, for two days. And then I drove into Wellington after. So even after two days, there was like access to the middle of town. Did you do it in the middle of the night or was it? No, it was daylight. Yeah, like you had to pick, pick the street that wasn't blocked off, but it was pretty common knowledge, right? And like you still obeyed traffic laws and it was it was easy. It was crazy. So for for the days in between there and when you leave. Yeah. What happens? Yeah. So we get get parked in Wellington. man, people came from all over Ontario and Quebec and stuff like that to hang out with us and see us. So lots of it was just talking to people and listening to them and just waves and waves of people coming up to you.

And oh, thank you so much where you're from, getting to know you. And some people had stories to tell of the last two years, how they're treated poorly. And some people had good stories of, you know, the community. that had come to place. The day-to-day life was I slept in the truck. Yeah, get up. And we had boardroom meetings every day with a couple people from each block. So there was a block leaders kind of.

And we would say, oh, you know, Kent and Wellington could use a couple porta-potties there. Okay, perfect. Then they would make some calls or whatever. Two days later, they'd be porta-potties. Or, yeah, this guy needs fuel. This guy needs fuel. this guy needs fuel and it would come there. So we'd go to these meetings, you know, we'd sit down as everyone, you know, cooperating,

is everything going smoothly, what do you guys need and figure out every day? Then after that, you'd talk to people who wanted to come up and hang out with the truckers and talk to you and let things off their chest or whatever and offer support, man. People'd come up and some of them give you a 20 box and say for help you with fuel. Others would bring you hot meals, middle of the day or coffee all day long. I didn't have winter boots because when I went there, well, first of all, Ontario was only minus 10 or minus 15 degrees. It can't be cold. Little that I know it's freezing cold there.

The moisture in the air, man, I froze. I couldn't believe it. Go out for a walk, shivering and come back. Oh, man, it's only minus 10. I was only out there for an hour. I thought it was getting soft really quick. But anyways, didn't have winter boots. All I had to do is ask.

People come up to you, please, like, how can I help you? You came all this way, blah, blah, blah. Well, actually, I don't really have boots. Well, they just go grab you boots and bring you back. It was, I was unparallel kindness there. Yeah, such a strong community. So yeah, we do that. And then in the evenings, oh, similar, whatever, you could, you know,

walk around, go to other streets, talk to other people, whatever, intermingle. There was meetings in the evening sometimes. Or some evenings I went and I hauled fuel around, right? Jerry can't fuel around. Um, there was also a main, uh, station they had set up near Wellington, a little bit of a drive. You can walk. And they had, uh, industrial kitchens. They had all amount, every kind of supplies you could possibly need in this, uh, outer, outer area.

And so we went out there a couple times and help manage resources and, uh, whatever, distribute food. and whatever anybody needed. It was, in some ways, it was professional almost. Like it was funny to see just a bunch of random people have these boardroom meetings, like serious boardroom meetings, helping each other out. So there's a lot of that,

a lot of people managing, I guess, and make sure everything's going smoothly. But all in all, it was just lots of talking and stuff with that. You mentioned Jerry Cans. One of the craziest, you know, I'm, you know, My memory is the months carrying on.

I got to think on this. But I was pretty much there when they started talking about how are we going to get fuel to everybody. Somebody mentioned jerry cans, and then all of a sudden, jerry cans become jerry cans everywhere. Can you talk a little bit about that? I mean, you're on the other side of that,

for part of it, at least. Yeah, it was just think about, you know, a semi, how much fuel you burn. To think that you could keep them going, because you needed to run your truck to keep warm, you know, for most of the day. The amount of fuel that had to be hauled was, I could have a hard time putting a number on it,

hundreds of thousands of leaders, for sure, like tens of thousands of leaders, if not more. How could we jerry can, like how many jerry cans? Like thousands of jerry cans. It was no problem. There's people so willing to help. So people had carts and they were bringing jerry cans all over. So if you, they'd come to your door every two, three days,

and say, hey, man, you need fuel. We got a bunch of cherry can't say, so yeah. It was, and like I did the same, right? It was everyone kind of threw in there a little bit of help where they could, and everything was super easy. Yeah. And then so the cops, I shouldn't say the cops, the government, one of their tactics to kind of make things tougher,

kind of chase us out, I guess, was, okay, no more jerry cans. It's hazard, whatever, they're for fires or whatever, so they made up this thing, whatever. No jerry cans. The day after this big announcement, no jerry cans, every Joel Blow walking down the street had a jerry can. And there was empty or some of them are full of pop or whatever water. And so everyone's drinking out a 10-liter jerry-cans

and, you know, hauling around jerry-cans, 40-liter jerry-cans, just walking around the street. So how are you going to enforce it? Like there's little old grandma, she's got a jerry-can, you know, on one arm and a person and the other. And everyone has one. You can't stop it. So whenever they would put in a silly law,

everyone would just kind of bound together and say, okay, well, if we work together, it's all good. And it was. So they tried shutting the Jerry Cairns off, but ultimately it didn't do anything. It was pretty interesting to see when everybody, everybody does it. You can't take that on, right?

Yeah, there's not enough police force there to enforce everyone. No. It was funny. There was some older ladies with strollers when there was a big, this Jerrycan scare. So they'd have their stroller with a 40-liter Jerrycan with a blanket thrown over it. And they'd come up to the truck and go, do you need some fuel? I got some fuel. It's like, I've never been a criminal except for today.

It's just like, it's funny to see these, you know, innocent, super cool people like trying to sneak around and help, right? It was pretty cool. The, um, let's talk about the atmosphere being down there. Uh, you know, I don't know how much you're willing to share and all that, but I mean, I was just sitting at lunch with you and you told me a story and them a story and I'm like, oh, wow. And I'll allow you to share it. Not share.

It doesn't matter. Now the listener's going to be like, well, what is he talking about? Yeah, you trap me. But the, but the atmosphere there was I don't know. I don't know what to put after that sentence because happy. harmonious, unifying. I didn't realize that level of humanity existed. But I've also heard, like, lots of faith-based people talk about God being everywhere, right?

Like, everybody has their version of it, all good, all good, for the most part, right? I'm curious, you know, from a guy sitting in the truck, you would have had a different view of it than where I sat and walked and everything else. and I was only there for, I believe, like six, seven days, right? So I saw the beginning. You saw it all the way through. What was the environment like? Oh, that was such an interesting question, a tough thing to put into words, because it was so different. I think a good way to put it was the first real human experience I've ever had,

like a raw human experience, a real, you know, community experience. So, yeah, everybody put, well, differences aside or everybody put their, you know, greed or ego or whatever, that was all set aside. And it was just everybody acting in the interest of everybody else. And it makes you wonder, like, we live, you know, society today. I love the way our society is, you know, capitalism system and, you know, whatever. I'd think it's great. But if you want to go back 50 or 100 years and you think of what was it like maybe when people came over to start Canada, you know, when they came over, you know, with their church and they

said, well, we're going to settle here and we're going to, you know, establish. I imagine that it's a completely different thing, but I imagine the mindset was kind of similar. Like it was just a human, let's work together, a community-based thing, and let's accomplish something together. It was a super rewarding, super satisfying feeling. And it did blow my mind just the level of kindness and the level of hard work people were willing to put in for no compensation. There was people flipping burgers, there's making tacos or whatever. for three weeks straight making pizzas and stuff. So imagine, Sean, you show up there every day, every day, cold outside all day, it doesn't matter.

And you cook burgers, you flip burgers for 14 hours a day and you go home and you come back. For three weeks straight, no money. And people were just happy. Happy to be there. Yeah. Isn't it wild? You know, you're 25 now, right? 25.

So you just must have celebrated a birthday not that long ago? April. April. In your first 25 years of life, the first human experience you've had is Ottawa. Isn't that a wild thought? Yeah, and I think that's a really good way to put it. Like, I think we're a little bit disconnected from that community sense. You know, everybody, it used to be a thing maybe on Sunday,

you'd go over to your neighbors and you'd build a barn together. Or, you know, you guys would work on a project as a community or as an RM or something. that's kind of all gone away. Like even people don't really conjugate in the matter that they used to, right? So it was definitely a much more human experience than just the, you know, competing in industry constantly or going to work, going home kind of thing, right? But I'm just glad I got to experience it. And I hope everybody gets that at some point,

but I'm just fortunate that I got to grasp that early. Yeah. I wonder, you know, to the listeners, they're going to be like, oh, that sounds interesting. How do you recreate that? I don't know. I've had my own thoughts on it. To me, in the Middle East, they do pilgrimage to Mecca, right? And it's a journey. You go on a journey with an end destination, and people do it, I believe, and once again, my listeners will prove me right or wrong on this. I can't remember if it's every year. I assume it's every year. That would make the most sense, but you do a pilgrimage.

Anyways, it's a Middle Eastern thing. And a different faith group than Christianity. Anyways, I'm butchering this a little bit. When I look at Ottawa, the convoy from the west to the east had an end destination. Here it is. And it had the distance needed to travel, you know, like time to sit and think and see things and have people come out to a path and then your final destination,

you get there and everybody's there for the same reason. Yep. So I go, I start to understand maybe why people pilgrimage in different faiths, or maybe why people do fast, right? Like long extended fast together because they get to share an experience something that isn't an everyday routine.

You don't get this probably by going to the, Lloyd Mall or going to West Eminton Mall or, you know what I mean. I'm being a little bit of a jackass, but you get the point. Yeah. You know, I came from a family. My grandparents would have been quite religious. My parents, not so much. I think that's a common trend.

It's kind of a slowing down thing. But no one's pushed me into religion. I kind of feel a little bit funny talking about it for some reason. I think it's just not. I feel funny talking about it as well. So like don't feel. Right. It's like the Sean Newman podcast is going to talk religion?

What is going on? Yeah, exactly. And yet you can't fight certain things. And I said this to Drew Weatherhead. This is probably three months ago. It feels like a lot of people are talking about God right now. Yeah. And yeah, so let's talk about it.

But when I think about my farm or my business, so I'm going to dedicate my life. to growing the farm, you know, to be sustainable, keep up with everybody else and be something that I can pass to my kids that's tangible and it's going to, you know, set them up to have highest probability for success. Same of my trucking company. Hopefully you grow it to where it's something that they can work with and you know what I mean. You want to pass down this opportunity for them. but you can have the best farm. You can have the best trucking company.

You can have, you know, you can set up this amazing legacy of how hard you work and how smart you are. But if you don't have, you know, if you don't raise your kids well in the meantime, it's kind of all for nothing. It's not going to, you know, maybe they can't keep it up

or maybe they won't be happy regardless, but. Or maybe their work ethic sucks. Right, and you see that all the time. And so that's, it's, you know, you see it all the time. So it's like, well, this isn't enough just to, you know, do a good job my truck and company and, you know, do a really good job with the farm son enough. Because if I raise a arsehole of a kid, whatever, he's going to piss away the money.

All right. It's going to all be sold in a generation anyways, you know, 70% of lottery winners go to zero. So if I don't do a really good job raising my kid, then how's it going to work out anyways? It's not. So, okay, well, how can I raise my kids? kid, well, you know, you're going to have these set of values and whatever, I'm going to and install him, spend time with him, blah, blah, blah. But to go a step further, if he doesn't raise good kids, what's the same outcome, right?

Two generations, it's gone anyways. Well, that's a blink of time. So how can I hopefully put it in a system that can allow for every generation to have good values and maybe uphold this thing that I'm trying to help build? well it kind of leads you back to religion because now okay the community all agrees on these set of values and you're going to so if my kids wander a little bit or if their kids wander a little bit well there's still if they can at least um be faithful to this to religion then the community is going to support them along the way and kind of keep them in the bowling

out like in the lane and keep them from straying off to where it's all for nothing anyways. So every time I think about stuff more, it's like, well, this religion, there's a lot, there's a lot to this, there's a lot of value. And of course there is. How come,

how come it's thousands of years old? How come people could come over somewhere and settle it and blah, blah, blah. Just like there's something to this, something strong to it. And I think it's something that I got to work on and really dedicate some time to, but I think that I don't know if a society

can really last or be prosperous, like past, you know, a couple hundred years without some sort of religious values. And every corner of the world has that in one way or another. You know, as you're talking, I'm thinking, you won't know the name Todd Lowen, I assume. This is where I was joking with, I'm not joking with you. I explained to you on the podcast leading up to this point. It's been heavily focused on Alberta politics. Todd Loan is a guy who stood up, when Jason Kenney brought in all the mandates and everything and basically, well, he got booted from a conservative party and now was an independent. Now he's running for Premier of Alberta.

Okay. Anyways, I was having this conversation with a guy and he was, you know, they had Todd Loan in to speak to a group of like 50 businessmen. And he sat down and they were growing, you know, and finally went, well, I can't remember where he stands on, you know, lockdowns coming in the fall. And he goes, well, I don't know how much you know about me, but I took my wife and I, and we went to Ottawa, and we went and experienced that, and that's where I stand.

And he said, within, like, not even half a second, everybody in the room relaxed, because they understood what they were dealing with. It was like, oh, that's where you stand, okay. It's become that, right? All you've got to say is you bring up that, and you're like, oh, it's a very unifying thing. I wonder, I don't know, this is a poor analogy,

but you wonder if Christianity back in the day, when you came across, it's like you showed up to, church and you just immediately knew you could trust most of the congregation if it had a similar effect right ottawa uh specifically of the last decade if you bring up that you were any near around that that you followed it that you you know all of a sudden it's almost like you jump past who are you and it's going to take five meetings for us to know who we really are to like all right you're on the same pages of me and let's move on or am i wrong in that yeah it's like a a family you know, it's like agreeing,

kind of like, I guess, a religion. So I uphold the similar values to you. Here's a blanket way of saying it. I support the freedom convoy. I support, you know, personal choice, blah, blah, all that. So when you can identify with, yeah, I agree with the convoy, then I can, you know, very accurately assume that you agree with all these values that I also agree with.

In Ottawa, I don't know how much I talk about this. so for your brain i took two months off of podcasting okay during that two months um i assume listeners went from left to right on where i was on everything because i i stopped abruptly in ottawa i did eight convoy updates and then i just went silent then i did one more update and then i went silent again for two months okay okay what was going on in ottawa

I keep coming back to it. I've been waiting for somebody to step in the room with me that I can have, that was there and can understand where I'm coming from. Strange, weird, so many of these words because I cannot put my finger on it, okay? But you said something with Ken and his family that I was like, I get that.

You talk about praying. And I think I mirror everything you said for the most part, which is, you know, I grew up in a Christian family. We went to church every Sunday, but up until, you know, where I'm sitting right now, I'm kind of just kind of on the fence, you know, like I'm watching and I'm reading a little bit. And, you know, like, are we going to church? No, but I got a ton of listeners who have been following me that have been, you know,

encouraging that side of things, whatever. But then you go to Ottawa and everybody's praying. Like, I, you know, if there's one thing I didn't hear and I haven't heard anyone talk about, and I find it very curious, is the amount of worship and everything that was going on there. And I don't mean that in a dark and a farious way. I just mean that it is like a very loving like, there's a lot of people who don't want this to succeed. And there's a lot of people that want it to get violent.

And they're trying to do a little pressure tactics. You know, he talked about the gas, the jerry cans and things like that. That was just one of many different little tactics. Oh, yeah, tons. But the amount of faith-based stuff that went on there made for strange times, at least in my eyes. Well, I'll tell you my... thoughts on it.

And it's funny because people who know we are listening to this going, what's this guy talking about really? I'm not a church guy. So everyone, I wasn't forced into this way of thinking. Not even a little bit, right? This wasn't someone in, I wasn't,

this is my choice. And there was tons and tons of religion. And from a lot of people like me who didn't really have an opinion, didn't really, you know, care. Now everyone's praying all of a sudden together. me myself I actually

pray I prayed for the first time honestly like in my truck I just sat back and prayed and I I don't know how to explain it and I was in the presence of God it was just it washed me over

from my head to my toes and it was it removed doubt that I have there's something for sure to religion and to all this but I can't explain it but that was going on everywhere. You could feel, you know, all this.

And a good example of that is, Sean, think about people who over the last two years in the COVID, the whole thing, right? Some people had very, very bad stories of adverse effects for their kids, of losing their job, having to sell their home and, you know, terrible things have happened to these people that were on the streets. And so they have had two years of pressure. building pressure building misery anger and now they go to the streets of ottawa and they're there and thousands of people you know in the convoy not one person acted out not one person you know pulled a weapon out of their truck or not one person stormed into a cop and tried beating them up or not one person not one person acted selfish how a lot of those people had terrible stories and not one of them acted in their best interest or in their emotions

and i think that that has to be you have to akin that to something better than me and you right better than a human emotion and anger and all this things there was uh there was a protection of some sort there for sure well and the other thing i would stick in there there is I don't know I want to stick in things but then I'm like you know you second guess where your brain's going I um I thought we were talking honestly Sean it's Ottawa is a tough time you know um Ottawa for me isn't the same as everybody else I and I'm I have very fond memories of it but it ended with me running into a brick wall like it you know and then you had to you know I I say you have you

had I had to pick myself up, dust myself off, put the pieces back together, and try and reassemble some things. And that's very cryptic. But what I mean is I was ready for a lot of the, what we're doing here. I wasn't ready for the weird part of Ottawa. And the weird part, you can, people put a lot of different words on it since I've been back. And when people ask me and I tell them, they're like, oh, that's this, that's that, this is that. Everybody seems to know the answers. And maybe they do, maybe they don't. I don't know.

Right. I just know that for me personally, what Ottawa represented was Bob Marley. It was like straight out of a song, you know, peace, love, harmony. It's the greatest peace of humanity I've ever seen when you talk about the old timers coming across the pond to come settle here. I'm like, that makes complete sense to me. You know, it's them against the world almost. And in minus 40 weather, who's going to look out for you? Well, you better treat your neighbor with counter.

as if you want help, right? There's tons of stories like that. But Ottawa was, I don't know, I don't know where I'm trying to go with this, because I'm just, it's something that I've been waiting to sit down and share, I don't know, a little bit of a conversation over. And so I mumble and stumble over my words because although I'm sitting here trying to get it out, I've been almost locked it away for now a few months, and I'm wrestling back together with what's sitting there.

And now I've talked for like two minutes straight, having said Jack Squaw. It is amazing that nobody went out of their way. Very. But I would, you know, one of the craziest things about being there on the way there is I don't know how many times I heard I can't wait to lynch them and haul them back to West. And when everybody got there, it went away. Yeah. He just went away. Everyone was like, you know, I don't even care.

I just, you know, like I'd like to have them come talk. I'd like them and step down. I'd like to move on with life. And I just, you know. And part of that was what happened there, you know? Like I got to see Quebec coming at one in the morning on the first night. It was the coolest thing. Them park right in front of Parliament,

and the one guy with the air horn, I still know how he did it, probably souped up, you know, and just playing a song and you're just like, this is, like, pinch me, this is weird, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's, it is crazy that nobody acted on their own accord because, like, look at the January 6th thing, or January 6th in the States, right?

They stormed the Capitol building. Or is that what they call it, the Capitol? Yeah. Anyways, like a couple of, you know, 10 crazy people could have made this scene the same as that. And then guys like me would have been sitting waiting for a trial, you know, it was that easy. A couple people, and the media was looking for that. They're just looking for just one, just one guy. And it would have.

Look, one guy did fly that stupid flag. And I heard about that a dozen times. It's like there's hundreds of thousands. Well, they said there's millions on the busiest weekends of people. And there's going to be one jackass with this flag. And why do I got to hear about it all these times? Like, it's so easy that's what they were looking for. And I also think that we'll talk more about this.

But when they busted up the convoy and kicked us out, the amount of force, when I've seen it all firsthand, was so out of hand, but with that much force, like it almost, it really makes you, you know, go in defense mode. And I think they were highly banking on one person to, I don't know what, pull out a weapon or whatever, retaliate. And then it would have been all acceptable. Everything they did would have been fine because look at these crazy people

with their weapons and their trucks and they were planning something bad. and it would have been spun out of control. And it didn't happen. And I think they're left empty-handed after they, you know, used extreme force. And they're left empty-handed, not one person, you know, used extreme force back. So they were left empty-handed, is what I'm saying. Yeah, it's almost unthinkable that during the course of that, everybody would be, hey, you know. Yeah.

With, you know, I talked about it when I came back. When we first got there, I didn't see that much drinking. By the end, I saw more and more people starting to drink because they had nothing else to do. They were just sitting there and people are bringing them every which last thing they can imagine. Oh, yeah. The partiers came out for sure. Yeah. So you just think, I just go, I've been to a ton of parties.

How many times the thing's gotten out of hand by a guy who isn't that dangerous, but, you know, get a little bit of liquid courage and all of a sudden he's whatever. And that didn't happen. You know, like, it's pretty, pretty incredible that, that stayed on the rails. Yeah, it is. Those final days, when you, when you're watching the police getting closer and everything, every like, maybe it's time to pack up and go? Yeah, it was a tough decision. So they enacted the Emergency Act, and they basically brought in, I don't know how many, a couple, I don't know, 200 maybe, 100, I don't know, something like that.

lots of cops, riot gear, you know, they had the horses, all these things. They had two LRAD. They looked like tanks, LRAD machines. And so it sends like a sound, I guess. That's like an extremely uncomfortable thing to be in. And it makes you basically take off as soon as you get hit with this LRAD. They had two of those tank-looking machines marching with the officers. And so lots of people did leave.

and there was we were told to leave from people who were heading the convoy. Once that kind of started, it was, okay, guys, we don't want, they didn't want anyone retaliating, getting crazy. He said, here's consensus is, we got nothing to prove here. They're making a big mistake. Let's not react to this and let's get the heck out of here. And that happened like the second day the cops were there. But basically they made a line from, I think it's the east. and at this point I was parked right in front of the hill

because lots of people left so I moved up to the hill and they just made a line of cops and there was also a line of people right in front of them face to face and the cops just kept slowly trying to gain ground forward against the protesters so they would take shifts you know there'd be a line of cops and they'd be trying to march forward

then they'd take shifts and they kept overtaking and it was to the point where they would get up to any semi left behind. He smashed all the windows. They went in the trucks. They, you know, ripped the bunks down, all this stuff, ransacked the trucks. And then once the cops got in front of them, then the tow trucks, they weren't, I don't know if they were tow trucks or city vehicles, whatever, got rid of them. Totally ransacked them.

And so they marched this line of cops slowly up. And everyone's seen the video of the old lady, indigenous lady. getting run over by the horse and you know all these things were happening they had uh flash bangs i imagine they were probably toned down flash bangs but so every i don't know hour or so three of them would in unison throw out a flash bang into the crowd of people standing in front of the cops and boom it would go off so everyone would stumble back 10 or 12 feet and then the cops would overtake that so they slowly marched and marched and marched and only did it during the day so when it came night on the first night they were there.

They shut down. They had that fancy hotel. I think it's the east end. And they basically went to bed and they kind of held their line, but they didn't try to make any progress. And the second day, they moved hard. They threw piles of flashbangs out. They marched those tanks up hard and heavy right up to the hill, overtaking trucks, smashing them up along the way.

And then, uh, while anyone who got caught up in it, got arrested, taken down, thrown and day prison, I guess. I think they had to sign a waiver of some sort and then kicked out. So that's how that ended. Yeah, it was, they just slowly marched ahead. And when you acted up a little bit too much, they would pin them down, rough them up a little bit, and then haul them away.

Was that an unnerving time? Oh, tensions were high. Yeah, big time. Yeah. Kind of felt, well, you know, I knew I was, I was expecting someone to do something stupid. and then make everyone look bad. So I was happy.

That didn't happen. I knew it was their screw up, not ours. Yeah, it was absolutely, man. Like crazy to see your own, your own police force throwing flashbangs at you for wanting freedom, personal choice. And you're going to throw a flashbang from my truck. Like, isn't it such a, isn't it such a crazy time

that people are going to hate you? for asking for personal freedom hated for that that that blows my mind and it's crazy to see the cops um enforcing that yeah well you uh you just got to look at the uh charter of rates and freedoms geez i'm spacing here but i got a sitting right there and in the first line it just talks about pretty much freedom of association belief uh press media yeah like there's a whole way that's pretty much what was going on and and I mean it was character you know I talk about lots about CBC there the way they were framing it compared to what everybody else was seeing is the most wild assinine thing I've ever been a part of to see and and you know I got uh by the time this

releases kid Carson will be out and kid Carson is a media guy morning radio show host from Vancouver and he talks about his experience out in Vancouver seem the exact same seeing how the big media corporations framed a protest in Vancouver and he was there and he's like that that isn't anything that's going on so you know what that makes me wonder Sean is what's going on across the world so what do you think well what's going on like I see you know when wars you have this painted picture what's going on in a war in the Middle East or what's going on in Ukraine, Russia. People in Saskatchewan have no idea what happened in Ottawa.

How do I think I have any idea what's going on in Russia-Ukraine war? Yeah, there's a war, but like, what's going on? Or what's going on in the Middle East? Like what? We have this media narrative painting a local picture that convinces most people. Well, now let's go across the seas. I feel totally lost in what the reality is anywhere over there because the same media games being played

and it's way easier to get away with it because... Because we can't see it. Because Pretty Boy is not coming on the podcast and saying what happened. So it just makes me realize how little we know and how we're just basically fed a narrative. Well, I think in 1984, Oceania is at war with East Asia.

East Asia is at war with Oceania. It just, you know, and then they can change the narrative whatever they want. And we just, you know, most of us, myself include it, I might add, you know, I don't put myself on this pedal. So I just, you know, I want to provide for my family. I want to have some laughs. I want to, I want community, a big guy in community. And I just want to, you know, go about life. And I don't know, right?

It sounds so simple. That's all I want. Right. And yet that isn't what's going, like once you, you know, seeing it, like, God dang. Now I got to do something about this. Now I got to pay attention. and now paying attention is going to leave me here and that's going to do this and you know it's it's a wild wild thing yeah and it's not like

i want to take over the burden of oh i need to find out exactly what's going on in the middle east it's all that i it's not my i it's not my thing and i'm not saying people you just understand i just understand i don't know the the same government that said that it was unlawful protests and they're being violent and tried cooking up just about everything and now you hear about how they, you know, on the final days, how they pushed back, how aggressive they were. Once again, for the listener, they're going to have, just listen to Kid Carson, Kid Carson talking about, you know, how he wasn't allowed on air to talk about certain things. He joked about not wearing a mask to a corporate softball game outside. Just joked about it. And that was his stick. That was his thing.

He made fun of it, and they reprimand him for it. So after that, he wasn't allowed to talk about COVID. It just hit a boiling point of you guys going to Ottawa and him being like, all right, I got to say something. And so he has like a six-minute spiel. And then, of course, he's off one of the largest radio stations of Vancouver. So you start adding all these pieces up. And you're like, listen, do I want to sit there and go what's happening in Ukraine is bad? Yeah. Right.

But I don't know anything about it at all. And I can't trust the CBC to tell me. I can't trust half the damn world, maybe more than that, to tell me what's actually going. on there. No. And people get that confused, like I said before, just because I recognize something's, just because you recognize something's wrong, doesn't mean you have to take it on and, you know, not worry about your family, not enjoy your time, whatever. But we need to have conversations about these things like COVID, for example. Yeah, you might not single-handedly be able to stop the government from enforcing their mask mandate or whatever. But a lot of people I know

totally disagreed with it, but didn't say anything. Like we need to at least have conversations about this stuff openly and honestly and then have a unified response to it. People have, we have to, it has to be a conversation. You can't just, even though it's wrong or whatever, you can't just turn it off because, oh, I can't do anything anyways. Let's go watch Grey's Anatomy. You have to at least, you have to at least learn and talk about it and, you know,

discuss with your peers. It's an uncomfortable feeling, though. It is, because it's no fun. Well, you know, I've become this guy. I know I have. I used to have different friends, acquaintances, probably still do, that really loved talking politics, right? And I was just like, you know, like, I don't care.

And let's talk about whatever. And where am I at? I was explaining to, once again, before we started, you know, like the podcast really went, some days I think I'm at the helm of the ship, you know? Like I know where I'm going. And other days, I don't have a bloody clue, right? And so now I've sat down with, you know,

I've tabled a round table discussion with five of the candidates to become premier. One of them in my mind will be premier. Right. And why am I doing that? Because it is of the utmost importance. But I also understand that I've become that guy. Sean, nobody wants your thoughts on politics, which I will say right now is probably very true.

But I tell you what doesn't do the world good. none of us having any thoughts on politics. Yeah, well, that's right. You know, like just hands off and we don't do anything about it. It's like, last time I checked, we elect these guys. We elected all the people in Ottawa.

We elected all the people in Alberta, Saskatchewan when they weren't standing up for, you know, is it uncomfortable? Yeah, it ain't fun. No. But I mean, geez, what are we here for, you know? Yeah, no, I'm a 25-year-old guy. I'd way rather be, you know,

wrenching on my truck and going and partying on the weekends and talking about hockey or not caring at all but it's it's carrying in a different way right there's a responsibility to it I think like we have to at least even though we can't change it maybe or we have to at least have a conversation about this stuff can't just totally ignore pretend like there's not a tornado on your doorstep like I seen that lots guys know guys knew this was wrong but But it's no fun to talk about sitting here. Emperor's not wearing pants. Ah, yeah, like, yeah.

I just think that we have to take personal responsibility and things like this, too, and not just say, oh, it's out of my hands of government, did it, I'm just, I got no saying it anyways. That's, there has to be personal responsibility to that, too. Yeah, one of the, the things, I think I came to realize, though, over the last, like, six, seven months,

eight months, Jesus, August now, is you know when enough people start taking ownership of what's going on things can happen awfully quick like you watch how politicians change what they're saying because they can see you know I go back to an episode ahead on with Shane gets in an MLA from around Evanton and he said politics is formed off media and media is formed off public opinion well public opinion is a bunch of us being disgruntled about something so the media will report on it right and you go now media is compromised.

I think everybody, I don't even have to have any more discussions on that to know that that's factual. I think we all all can see it. But our politicians are starting to hear the loud and clear voice of like things are off, at least in this part of the world. I can't speak for all the parts. But Alberta, I mean, you look at what the elections being ran on. No more lockdowns. You know, body autonomy.

Like things, you know, crazy, crazy ideas a year ago. Yes, right? But that is what they're running on right now. Oh, man. Yeah. You know, the biggest thing I want people to take away from the convoy is just a mindset change that we do have the ability to control what happens when we unite. When we all work together and unite, you absolutely can. The people do control it.

You can't sit back and cop out and say it's out of my control. You have to take personal responsibility when things are wrong. And if there's any sort of united response, these things cannot happen. At, you know, an industrial site for this vaccine mandate. If the company puts in vaccine mandate, and it doesn't have to be 50% people say no. if it's 15% or 20 it can't happen. So don't feel lost.

Like, oh, there's no way half the people are going to say. If 10% of people, if 15% of people. By having a voice, it gives people other people the courage to have a voice. Right. Exactly. And it doesn't have to be even 50-50. It's a company can't lay off 15% of its workforce. It'll crumble.

There has to be a unity. And guess what? When you get 5% of people standing together, it's going to turn into 30% or 40% or 50% right away anyways. But when everybody feels lost, it doesn't work. Well, and you feel alone, right? I don't know how many times, you know, even when I was, when we were talking back in January, when I was in your cab, I brought up, you know, just the isolation and not knowing if you're one of 10, one of 10 million, right? Like, the difference is astounding. And now, I mean, it's become very popular, I think, to talk about all these topics, except for on mainstream media, I might add, right?

Like they're still acting like it's not, you know, something. I mean, it's come a long way out west. Like certainly more, there's talking more openly about it. Yeah. But for a lot of people, if your argument is sound, you know, there's a lot of people would be like, or probably think of the exact same thing. Right.

Whether they got vaccinated or not. Like, it doesn't matter. It didn't matter. No. You know, so many people got vaccine. They're still on board for like, yeah, but it should be your choice, right? It was my choice or not my choice or whatever else. Right.

absolutely no informed consent it's I know it's a radical crazy right-wing idea informed consent but I don't think it's too much to ask for you know what do you think of Tamara Litch Chris Barber I mean Chris Barber obviously I got lots of time for Chris he's been on the podcast before I met Tamara when I was in Ottawa but sticking specifically I think with Tamara what do you would have been your thoughts on the sidelines watching that all go down Yeah, that's, it's a good way to scare people off from, say there's another lockdown in the fall. Who's going to head the resistance or the other side, the other opinion, right? The more brutal they can treat Tamara, the less likely maybe I am to say, okay, I'll take the lead and I'll be the person not necessarily leading the convoy, but, you know, leading this voice on the other side.

So the more they can abuse Tamara, the more scared people might be to take lead. I think Tamara going the way she is. I think it's... Well, it definitely opens eyes. Yeah. But it'll take a strong person to, when you actually, like, facing jail time to take that lead. That is a fair statement.

Yeah. Yeah. So it's, I think that's all. It's just a. It's an imaging thing, I guess, trying to say this is an example of what will happen to the next person, the next Tamara, right? But I don't think that people shy away. I think enough people know now that any sort of a unified response is extremely powerful. So I think that they'll have to be careful if they want to lock things down again or whatever.

I think that a lot of people will have a backbone against it this time, a lot more. I got to bring up a quote that I've said of yours multiple times I don't think this was ever on the podcast I think this was just me and you talking in the truck but emotions had gotten the better of me and I was sitting there and wiping away tears you know as you see all these people

from the convoy perspective man you had one hell of a seat like it was it was something else and here's this 24 year old kid guys and he can see I'm wife it you know I go whatever I'm sitting there and I'm looking out the window. A big tough guy.

Yeah, that's right. We were going to wipe him tears away. And you said, don't hide that shit. And I probably said that line and phrased it as, you know, I met this guy named Pretty Boy, who drove a truck across Western Canada into Ottawa. And he was only 24, and he leaned across me and said, don't hide that shit. And it made me laugh. But, you know, we're so afraid to show, especially men, emotion.

But there in Ottawa, nobody was hiding that shit, one. And two, I just, I'm like, where the hell did that come from? Well, I didn't really want to ignore it. It was just honest. I was like, everything was honest. Everything was honest experience. And so I thought we connected well, and I didn't want, like, it just seemed like, I don't need to be hiding things from me.

You don't need to be hiding things for me. Let's just be real for a minute in here. You know, it's funny. That's a hidden talent, yeah. have because most people can't speak that direct, right? My grandmother used to have this ability to say really blunt things that normally would you'd take offense to or would push you away, but it pulled you closer instead of further away, if that makes sense, right?

Yeah, honesty is pretty easy when it's something fun or nice to say. Yes. But the honesty that really counts is when it sucks to hear, when it pisses, like my pisses you off. my the best friend you could imagine will tell you something that makes you dislike them and that makes them your best friend because even though they say they know that what i'm going to tell you is going to make you like me less but it might benefit you then i'm going to say it anyways even at my loss so your best friend is going to give you the honesty that sucks that's tough

i mean it's it's awesome but it's tough isn't yeah it is super tough to be that honest and but it's also super rewarding because people really recognize that look we're still talking about today and it's just a simple honest gesture. Listen, I've done I've done 300 episodes now, a little over 300 and the amount of things that are lodged in my brain that I have not been able to lose no matter how hard I try or don't try, it doesn't matter. I can put on one or two hands right of like what somebody said and I'm like God, that's a thought. That is a thought and that thought sir was not on a podcast that was sitting in the truck after the podcast. Yeah. And it's stuck with me, um, it's stuck, well, it's just stuck with me. It's stuck with me right now because I'm thinking, I think about it all the time, like how important

that is, whether you're talking about your relationship with your, you know, for me, my wife, my kids, uh, how important it is, I'm not saying you got to be a blubbering idiot. That's not what I'm saying. But when something really hits you to show the world that or to show your family that or your friends that isn't a terrible thing. Maybe they make it more uncomfortable because it's, you know, at that time, a lot of us, I think everyone was coming to terms with emotion and it was okay because we'd been holding it in for so long. Yeah. But showing people emotion is a good thing. And that is another skill, like just being willing to do it. Yeah. Yeah, it's not always trying to put on this persona that's, you know, positive, happy, everything's good kind of thing. It's the reality.

It's same same thing with me talking about religion. Yeah, like I said, my buddy, or whatever people know we're going to say, what's this helly in doing, talking about religion, right? And it's not comfortable for me to really talk about it, not used to it, but it's important because it's real. That is what happened.

That is what I felt. And so we got to talk about it. Yeah. I think I have a different, I think I have this, not warped, that's not the right way to say it. I think I thought religion

was something that it's not. Right? Like, I heard Peterson and Rogan the last time they were on together. Yeah. Talk about how you can have like a spiritual, a spiritual experience. Jeez, is that a thing? Maybe. And one of them was meditating.

If you meditate really hard on something, supposedly you can go into a state of, you can obviously take illicit substances, right? Joe talks awful lot about, you know, there's a ton of different substances. One of them is not sleeping, right? If you don't go to bed, you can put yourself into random states. And then I think one of them is, I think they put it on with meditating, is praying.

There's a fourth one, and I'm forgetting it right now. But when I listen to it, where I'm going with this is, when you talk about religion, I'm kind of like, man, that the weird, it feels like a weird word. And what I mean by weird folks is I guess is almost like not good. And it's almost like we've gotten to a society where religion, you kind of like, oh, you push away from it, right? I think that's kind of been subconsciously kind of put into our heads maybe, just through the things we see and whatnot. Now it's been kind of shedded away.

I don't know why it feels that way, but it does for me as well. But if you take God away from it, let's talk about it without that. forget about God. There's, you know, no God. Okay, we're going to have a community of people that support each other. We're going to have, you're going to help me stay within my values of being honest, you know, not stealing all these great values. And we're going to come together on Sunday.

We're going to talk about, you know, our achievements and how to do better and how to uphold, you know, raise each other's kids, you know, help each other raise kids and stuff like that and how to grow our community to be safer and more prosperous. and we're going to do that for generations to come. So when you talk about it with, oh, God, it's like, wow, that sounds awesome. I want to sign up right now. You know, all my neighbors, we can come together and we can have this, you know, more human experiences more often and support each other in the long run that way.

So it's funny when you take this idea of God away and you bring it into what it accomplishes and the values of it, suddenly it makes a lot of sense and it's easy to talk about. And what is a bunch of people talking about right now? Do you know? What's up? They're talking about creating smaller communities where you look out for one another and you, you know, you get your own supply chain

and you look out for one another. Yep. And one of the things that, it's funny, I'm 36 and I've never, I've read the Bible as a kid, but I mean, I don't think I really read it, right? And you go, when you start reading, it you go man there's a lot of meat on a lot of these words there's a lot of stuff

that I have no idea what it's even talking about you know whatever but you go why have I never thought to sit down and read it even if you just read it for the lessons that are there the lessons have stood the test at time like a ton of other books you know I I brought up with you in the truck Soljanitson talking about Soviet Russia you can do Marcus Aurelius meditations some of the things he said in there and you're like holy shit Like that is, that's still bang on. Yeah.

And so you go somewhere along the way, we lost something. Right. Just as a society, I mean. I agree. I mean, look at the amount of people on antidepressants and all that stuff. Like there's something, the society, I think we live in a super prosperous, super opportunistic society. Where a 25-year-old guy can, you know, buy a truck, compete in industry, do very well, you know, have a nice house and raise kids and all this very, very, very, very. you know, easy to accomplish.

Very prosperous society. But something is missing. Something's missing. Why is 15% of the population on antidepressants? Something's wrong here. There's something not quite right here. And maybe that's it. Maybe not.

I don't know. I don't have the answer for you. I'm sure there's somebody screaming at the radio right now going. Someone thinks they know. Yeah, or no, I different. Maybe they do. I don't know. You fall.

Peterson as closely as I do, right? Like the man is very smart. At times he says things that you're like, well, I'd really like to hear a two-hour podcast on why you think that way, right? Because he can be pretty brash on certain things. Right. But he's not wrong on all, like on a lot of fronts he's bang on. Yeah.

Yeah, he is. And it was interesting to hear him talk about religion too. But no, he's got his core values and the way he sees the world is a lot to learn from him. you know even a younger guy like me five years ago basically the first time someone's preached to you the idea of um being responsible for your action self responsibility and being encouraged in that way like this delayed gratification all these things it's it's necessary to have you know to have delayed gratification to have self-respect or all these values that he talks about, it's necessary for a young guy to understand those

and to start working on implementing those in your own life. Yet that's the first time that's really been preached to me. I wish that was a more commonly talked about theme, especially to younger guys. You know, we see all these issues with mental health, especially in young men. And I think there are a lot, a lot of that could be solved or that can be helped with just personal responsibility and the values that he talks about. Yeah, well, I was older than you when I found him.

Right. It was probably when I was 30. I've never had anyone break down things and just like, that makes a lot of sense. You know, that makes a lot of sense. I say if I ever get Jordan on here and geez, I've put it out to the universe an awful lot. if I could ever find a way to get that guy, you know? Like, case in point, one of my goals for this year is to have him Jordan Peterson on. I had two.

Let's go full time. Okay, check. Let's get Jordan Peterson on. It hasn't happened. He was coming to Saskatchewan. I was going to meet him, VIP, and then, and I'm not saying he would have came on the podcast, but you get the point. Yeah. And then show gets canceled.

And I'm like, what is that, you know? But if it isn't for, you know, when I filter back, and I found this a lot with people who are standing where they are in their convictions. A lot of them are, you know, they were churchgoers and they, you know, I mean, we literally told them they couldn't meet, which is the most crazy thing in the world now that, you know, like you start thinking about it. The other interesting trend was how many people had read Jordan Peterson. And for me, this podcast is because of Jordan Peterson.

I read Jordan Peterson and probably three months after it, I started putting together. they're the first studio in Ken's basement. No kidding. Right? We took an old, uh, most infested, not infested that most poop,

infested like cold storage room in the basement and turned it into one of these. And now I've recreated it here. But if it wasn't for Jordan Peterson, then I wouldn't be interviewing. I wouldn't have been blah, blah, blah, blah. You understand. And I, and I,

the amount of impact one man has had, you know, when we go back to finding your voice, I don't think I've had, you know, if I compare myself to Jordan Peterson, I am not even a drop in the bucket, right? Right.

But Jordan Peterson doing what he did and standing firmly in something he believed in now created a new generation of people that are finding their own ways to stand. And I go back to, and there's a long way of saying it, what you said early on, if you find a way to stand up, you don't understand how many other people will take some of your confidence

and imply it to their own life. Right. And where that ends for society and everywhere else, I have no idea. But only good things probably come from that. Yeah, it's, it doesn't take much. Like Jordan Peterson, you think about it, he's smart. He doesn't, like, he's just a video, just a guy on a screen, right? And he talks about that too.

He says, I didn't really do much. I'm just asking people to have a little bit of self-responsibility and to try hard and, you know, have values. Like, his baseline message that spoke to you is, not much, but it's enough. But it's enough to push you over the hill to get moving again. Right, and it's why are those things not, why am I learning, why are you learning about when you're 30? Like, wouldn't you want to teach your kids out when they're...

Like 17? Young, yeah. When they're, when they can actually make the most of it. Right. You know? Like, don't get me wrong, I've been making the most of it. I don't mean to say a 30 you can't. Right.

But we both know, you are learning that and actually implementing it, the better off you're going to be. For sure. Yeah, absolutely. Man, I've enjoyed getting to sit with you again, Spencer. It's been, uh, anytime I run into anyone that, you know, specifically that I, I've ran into in that course, it's, it's, uh, always enjoyable. Is there anything, uh, I need to, you know, is there something you want to say to listeners about Ottawa, about anything that I haven't brought up with you? I just think that everyone needs to take that personal responsibility when they see things going

wrong that the strength in unity it's obviously very effective and there's a lot of people behind that it doesn't matter what we're sold to about you know what's right and wrong there's baseline values that shouldn't be encroached upon like what happened COVID's just an example there's going to be more examples of this and I just want people to take responsibility in upholding what's right and wrong. Whether you think you can change it or not, whether you think that your family is going to think you're crazy or your workplace going to think that you're wrong or whatever. We have to be responsible on holding basic right and wrong up and being unified in doing it. Also, hardworking haul, hired me to haul your combine and build your bin pad. Sure, a selfless plug. I don't mind that.

Yeah, yeah, slip it in at the end. Well, here's your final one, then. This is Heath McDonald's words, Crued master, final question. He said, if you're going to stand behind a cause that you think is right, then stand behind it, absolutely. What's one cause, pretty boy, stands behind?

Cause? Yeah. Now, what's one thing you stand behind? One thing I stand behind? Well, you just can't isolate certain people from society. I don't care whether they, certain religious group, whether they take, you know, this vaccine or whatever, you can't take a group of people and isolate them from society no matter what. It doesn't, you can't justify

that, especially when they're not harming. Like that's, that that has to be upheld. No segregation. Well, I appreciate you hopping on and doing this and best of luck here in your future endeavors, your businesses and everything else. I look forward to following along, and hopefully this isn't the last time we bump into one another. Yeah, I know. Come have an update in a couple months or years, or we'll see where it goes.

Sounds good, Spencer. Appreciate it. You bet.