Shaun Newman Podcast - #337 - Blaine & Joey Stephan

Episode Date: November 4, 2022

Blaine & Joey are brothers who own Guardian Plumbing & Heating. We discuss losing work due to COVID restrictions, family values, homeschooling & faith.  Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500

Hey, everybody. This is Paul Brandt. This is Wayne Peters. This is Sean Baker. Hi, I'm Megan Murphy. This is Jess Moskaloop. I'm Rupa Supermonea. This is Sheila Gunn Reed, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Friday. Man, I got a busy, it's a busy week. And tomorrow we'll mark QDM and Tuesday live at the Gold Horse Casino. I'm excited for that. And if you're coming, look forward to seeing you. If you couldn't make it, no worries.

We'll see where the next one takes us as actively planning SMP presents again into 2023. So we'll see where it lands up looking to have it out of Lloydminster this time. So we're going to see if I can find a location to do it somewhere in the provinces between Alberta or Saskatchewan, one of the two. So if you got suggestions, hit me up in the text line. Today's show had guys in the podcast studio for the first time. little bit. It was enjoyable. Brothers from Guardian Plumbing and Heating, obviously they're sponsors of the podcast. And speaking of sponsors, before we get to the show, all you've got to do is look at our first sponsor, Upstream Data. Stephen Barber,

the owner of that, he's been a guest to the podcast multiple times, episode 163 and episode 1318, sorry. And if you're looking to get a feel of what upstream data is all about, I suggest you go listen to those two. Of course, since 2017, they've been a pioneer and creative solutions for vented and flared natural gas at upstream oil and gas facilities, obviously pairing their Bitcoin mining data centers to use up that gas and mine Bitcoin. It's a super cool application, and I've gotten a tour of their facility and got to see how they put the different units together and some of the different solutions they're working with. All you've got to do is go to upstreamdata.ca.

You can find out exactly what I'm talking about, or go back, listen to a couple episodes with Stephen Barber. you'll get a feel for his mentality and not only just upstream, but of course, the world today and some of the things he looks at. Rect Tech Power Products, for over the past 20 years, they've committed to excellence in power sports industry. They offer a full lineup including Canam, Skidu, C, do, spider, mercenary, Evernrew, Mahindra, Roxor, and we just got a fresh snowfall here in Lloyd Minster,

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Give me a call. And finally, let's get on in the 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 your farm, or oil field locations for more information visit them at Hancock, Petroleum, and Dat CA. They're brothers who own guardian plumbing and heating. I'm talking about Blaine and Joey Stephan.

So buckle up. Here we go. This is Blaine Stephan and this is Joey Stephan. And you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today I'm joined by Blaine and Joey Stefan. So, boys, you're in the studio. This is, you know, I was talking actually to Clay Smiley, another sponsor of the show.

He's got to come on because he's got a fantastic story with guns and everything else. I mean, you guys coming in and supporting the podcast and now being on their side is just maybe it's something that's going to be happening more often with sponsors. I don't know. Then again, I'm curious to see what Joey has to say today. Oh, no. You may never have us back again. Either way, thanks for coming in. And doing this.

Now, for the people in Lloyd Minster, they probably got a clue for you who you are. But obviously, the audience is growing a little bit. So, I don't know, your brothers, but feel free to jump in on each other, whatever you want to do. But we'll start me with Joey and then Blaine and feed off each other and just let the audience know who you are. And we'll see where we go from there. Perfect. Yeah. So I'm Joey Stephan.

Born in Kindersley. We spent some time in the Moosh-jaw area. And then a company here bought my dad out and we got to work in Lloyd for for 10 years for that company. Oh, five years for that company. And then we started Guardian in 2010. And, yeah, so 12 years in business. We've had some amazing years and we've had some, some slower years. Yeah.

And I would say our recession started in, what, 2015? And then it ended off with COVID. And we've been stretching out that kind of crap. And yeah, I guess I got. four kids I've got a beautiful wife that I've been married to for 16 years and yeah and my oldest son is adopted and I got three of our own and yeah it's a pretty cool cool life here that's for sure we sure like Canada you know what we've learned a lot about Canada in the last three years and we all yeah so yeah that's I guess yeah

Blaine and I have it's we're the two owners of Guardian and we've had a great time I I wouldn't want to be in business with anybody else. Blaine's been a great example to me, and he's five years older than me, so he's a great brother and a friend. And, yeah, it's been a great time. Yeah, I'm Blaine, and I'm 42 years old as of a couple of weeks ago, and I've been married for 21 years. And my wife, Felisa, and we got four kids as well.

I got one graduating this year and all the way down to, I don't know, 17, 15, 12, and 9, Jacob, Haley, Erea, and Ethan. And, yeah, they just keep us rocking and rolling. It's a good time. And I've been a journeyman plumber for, well, I'm not even going to give it that date, but I think I got my journeyman ticket back in 2001 or 2002. But basically, like Joey and I have been doing plumbing our entire lives. Joey used to get in trouble for running the hose in the sandbox.

Dad made half of our backyard sandbox. and he would run all the pipes and have it all set up, and we've just been basically doing plumbing from a very young age. It's kind of an odd thing, isn't it? I don't think of too many people who are like, oh, yeah, plumbing. That's where I want to go. And yet, when I think about it, I'm like, if there's one profession that, you know, everyone will always need,

it is a plumber. Yeah, we've been told that too. And you know what? We didn't realize how much harder it is to find refrigeration guys here because of our short season, but they're sought after and there's not many of them, but plumbers, it's the best trade for sure. The best trade? Oh, 100%, yeah.

No. Oh, there's, there's nothing better. Yeah. There's like you said. We're the gods of the trade. Pretty much. Yeah. There's, you mean, you got to think about it.

You mean, at the end of the day, you mean, we are what, you know, basically saved the world. Uh, you mean, some people give credit to other things, but, you know, when it comes to the fact that indoor plumbing, you know, there is nothing. that changed our world more, you know, when it comes to hygiene and health and safety. Yeah. Every time we fix a problem, vaccines get the credit, right? So we just put a little plumbing in and the diseases go away. It's amazing.

Four kids, both, yeah. I only got three. Was that planned? Or were you both like, I wanted 10? Well, we both grew up in, well, obviously, we both grew up in the same family, same mom, same dad. Really? Really? Yeah. But we, there's six kids. I'm the oldest of six. And so for us, a big family just felt normal. To be honest, I mean, I'd look at my four and my, our younger brother, James just had his fifth one and finally surpassed us all. How many grandkids? 21 or two?

22 now, I think, yeah, for my dad. So we have a little sister that's pregnant again, so there'll be 23 there. So, yeah. So, yeah, so it just feels normal. I mean, I look at my four. and I think, is there someone missing? I mean, because I look at our family and it just didn't feel big when you're in the middle of it. Yeah, I don't know if you, I was sitting down the other day and I can't remember what the kids were doing and getting their Halloween costumes on or something.

And they were just sitting there and all three of them were kind of interacting and I'm like, this is pretty cool. Like, I mean, kind of one of those like calm before the storms, if you will. Every day. Yeah, right. Isn't that the truth? Where I'm like, this is, like, this is really, really cool. Like, I don't know how I still, you know, created part of this and everything else.

Certainly when the mayhem comes, I get blamed for a lot of that. Partly, I will take some of that. We start and we end it. That's right. But I've thought lots. I'm like, man, probably could have had a fourth, you know? People think, in today's world, they think you're a little nuts for saying things like that. But honestly, it's never too late, Sean.

Yeah, you can get it reversed, man. Actually, it's on Casey, our third, Mel had an emergency C-section complications, and she can no longer have. So I keep telling her, I got the golden gun, and I'm going to keep trying, you know, like, and look at that miracle baby. Oh, yeah, you got the, yeah, that'll work. For sure. It's funny because, you know, I, you know, we never did anything to stop it. And I always joke around and my wife just rolls her eyes. But, I mean, I look at my kids, and I think the most neatest part about it is getting.

to know them. Like you have that first one and you know nothing else, right? And it's this crazy experience and you're super protective and everything. Then number two comes along and that first night, you're like, I don't know this human being. And I don't have that same relationship that I do with my first one. I felt guilty for a little bit. But then it's like you start to see them. And now as they've grown up and they, you know, get into school and they have their personalities. And Jacob, my oldest was actually working with us today. He does work at Guardian's work experience. We We started the whole homeschooling journey during COVID and never looked back. It's been a great experience.

But just knowing who they are and just realizing that I may never have a chance to meet another one of my kids and watch them grow into their personality. To me, that's the coolest part. When you talk about that, is there anything that sticks out to you that just like, I'll give you my, so oldest is six? and he's learning his math right now, right? And he's starting to learn how to count by like, instead of just ones. Now he's starting to do it by twos and fives and tens. And I'm like, wow, like, look at you go. And he's learned, you know, and just like simple things, like reading and stuff like that.

And you're like, huh. Like this is pretty cool to watch and see how much energy he puts into it and how excited he is by it. Did you have moments like that with all your children, I assume? Oh, yeah, every one of them. Yeah. Yeah, no, my kids are, I try not to tell them how I wasn't good at school, right? Because I don't want them to, I want them to try their hardest, right? And, and they're way smarter than I was at that age.

So pretty excited for that. Yeah, it's amazing watching that light turn on. And it's like you can almost see it happen when then they are able to read. You mean, all of a sudden they're able to show you, dad, look at this. And you mean, and you're reading them the bedtime story. And all of a sudden, they start taking over. And it's, you mean, that it's neat when it just kind of clicks and you can almost see it happen. And, uh, yeah.

Now you mentioned homeschooling, both you? Yeah, we, we started early. You know what? My, my one son has a bunch of allergy issues. And so when we were moving to the Sandy Beach area, we had to decide between Hillmont. Yeah. And the Lloyd schools. And, and we, we decided, well, we were halfway through a move.

We're like, let's try it from the start because it'll be easier with the allergy. kid and he loves being called that. Sorry, Judea. And, um, and, you know, we decided to homeschool from the start. And it's way easier. Like they don't, they didn't even know COVID happened. It was pretty awesome. Yeah, they didn't see kids before and they didn't see kids after. No. No, they get around lots of kids, of course, not nearly as, as much as they should. 21 grandkids. Oh, yeah. A lot of socializing. And, uh, but yeah, for us, yeah, we, Jacob was in grade 10. and they had all gone through. They were all in the French immersion,

and we really liked that, and we loved our schools. I mean, they were great, great teachers, great principals. We enjoyed watching them be able to learn another language. My dad speaks fluent German, and I just am so jealous of that.

I wish I had, and I actually one year, one of my goals was to spend the entire year learning another language. And so I got an app and spent a half an hour a day just learning. And, you know. And how did that go?

You know what? There's things. I mean, him and I can can kind of not talk, but I can kind of grasp things more. And there's so much more. My brain's so crusty. You know, when you're 40, everything gets the shell and takes a little more to get a pass. And you're trying to learn German. Yeah.

I mean, clonkinvoggin. It's the weirdest. But I loved it. It was fun. And I will continue to do that. There's just new things going on. But, I mean, so I love that about the kids. I love that opportunity.

they grew into that and it's just they're so malleable and able to learn and and it was just neat to watch them be able to speak fluently and um and i just yeah we went we were to ski hill once and the the girl who was serving us up at some chalet uh was from paris and i told my daughter i said if you order your entire meal in french i'll buy you the special dessert she wanted and she was super like she's quiet and shy haley and uh but she made it happen and uh and she got her dessert and the the girl who was serving her was just like, that's so neat, you know, and being able to, to see her and be able to communicate that way. And so, you know, for us giving that up was a bit of a deal. Like, that was a hard thing. I was sad to see the band program. Music is a huge part of our

family and, you know, we always did piano and stuff anyways. But I loved the, the band program and the, and the conductor there was phenomenal. But yeah, it came down to it. And we just, we went, I think it was, was that the year after the, they shut school down. Was that 2020? 2020, I believe, yeah. Yeah, we went in and let the kids go to school for a week as we were kind of making those final decisions. And there was just too many things. My daughter sat at a table with four other girls and her best friend came to sit with them and got shoot away because they could only have four at that one table. And there was just so many silly things happening. And we just, my wife was like, I can't let other people tell me exactly

how we're going to run our life for the next two years. She said, I just can't handle that. You know, the Zoom school thing was just too chaotic with four kids and different classes and different times and trying to find equipment and it was just insanity. And so she's just like, you know what? We're going to plot our own course here. And all kudos to her because obviously I'm at work every day. And she just took it on and, and yeah, we work together, obviously. I call myself the principal. But, I mean, I basically, yeah, just kind of, I help we're needed. And, you know, and, you know, like, cool things like Monday mornings, I get the youngest ones up at 6 o'clock, and we're doing Dave Ramsey's financial piece.

You know, so my kids are learning how to budget and save and to use their money wisely, math that they're going to for sure use for the rest of their lives. My one son wants to be an engineer, so he'll use some of the other crazy stuff. But I just, I didn't get that. I mean, I didn't get that. I don't think any of us get Dave Ramsey's in school, right? Like, I mean, if there's one thing, well, maybe not one thing, but one of the things I think that gets talked a lot about is like how to use money and how to save money and how to run a proper budget and how to do, right? Like that should probably be taught number one because, I mean, what's the first thing you do when you get out of school?

You get a job and then you're like, oh. First thing you do wrong when you get out of school. Thank you. You get a credit card. Yeah. And you, you know, because you're told. that you mean you need to build up your credit. I mean, and that's, I mean, it's if one thing I've learned over COVID is that if

somebody tells me that this is the way I should do things, I should probably double check it. And I mean, when we look at our society and it revolves around debt and it revolves around yeah, go get a credit card so you can build your credits, you can buy a car so that you can go and take out school loans to go to school, I mean, and then you look at, oh, no, I could maybe save up for those things and pay cash for it. And I mean, it's just exactly backwards from what everyone is telling us that's a great statement what did we learn from COVID know what I learned I learned that if they say don't talk to that person that probably should talk to that person if that person has got a

warning label that's probably where you want to be that's exactly that that's probably what I learned from this side if you don't come with a little bit of pizzazz of like people are like oh that guy's crazy yeah then it's probably not worth going there yeah and that's what I told my kids you mean like you mean And so, you know, we're watching these videos. And so Wednesdays is the older kids. And I get a lot of real great feedback from them too. And it's cool because I just love hearing their thoughts about it and wanting to go that way.

But they've seen it too. They know, you mean, when we talk about food and diet, you mean, it's the same deal. It's, you know, what's the Canada food guy telling us? Well, I mean, is that really the way that is most advantageous for us to be the healthiest? Or is that the easiest way to feed the most amount of people in the world? you mean and you know for the cheapest way you mean and so we start looking at at you know just everything and and i'm not trying to create kids that are you know a hundred percent just like paranoid i want them to be critical thank you yeah and i want them to question in a respectful way

what they're being taught every day and i just feel like you know i mean i feel like as a homeschool family now for only two years you know where like i said we're new into it um i am able to i don't want to indoctrinate my kids. I don't want to brainwash them. They got enough of that, you know, in the past. You know, I want them to be able to look at these things and then tell me, you know, you know, what do you think at that? You mean, what does this look like to you? What do you think would make the best life decision, you're going to that? So do you think you're both fortunate with good kids, good wives, a little bit of both? Because I've heard different people through COVID, trying to do the homeschooling thing. And basically, uh-uh,

it ain't for me and they go back. Well, it takes, uh, yeah, wife that's willing to work and and get driven crazy by these kids and my wife works really hard at that every day and you know I got to talk her down here and there and you know what it's great like I get a call hey I just you need to talk to these kids and so I do yeah and you know what I I have had to run home I don't know once I usually help her get through it so that and then we talk to the kids later and you know what I'll take them with me to work you know what sometimes they just need more dad time as well. I took one to his first job last week and his first day on the job, which

I might get in trouble for this, 16 hours for his first day of work at 11 years old. And he wasn't moving very quickly at the end of the day, but it was awesome. You know what? He got it was, we couldn't get home because we were a couple hours away. And my 11 year old, his first, yeah, three days of work were exactly that. And it was so good for him. Um, he may have had the flu part way through that shut him down. But yeah, it was great. But didn't he also come out of there with a whole lot of confidence? You mean, like he came out of there with skills. Like he was thread and pipe. He's 11 years old. He's thread and pipe for the journeymen's that were there helping Joe. And he's filling the gaps on that end. And I think like you said, he, he didn't slow you guys down,

which is, you mean, when you're training a new green apprentice, you know, you expect that. But, you know, I mean, just super cool for him to have that experience. Yeah. And the journeymen's I took. Like they, you know what? They took care of them. They taught them how. They taught them to thread. I didn't teach him that part. I taught him how to Teflon and dope, just the simple stuff. But you know what? He was able to do all that for us and he got to be there. And at the end of a 16 hour day when your son says to you, dad, thank you so much for bringing me along. Right. That just, yeah, that got cranking at my heart. Like it was, it was amazing. Yeah. And that's pretty cool. When I was probably right around that age, dad used to work for Sandpiper in town and going

manually sting tanks. So you got like a, I don't even know how long that thing is, 30 feet long, something like that on wheels, and then you put it in and out of the hole on the tank and it's got the water pushing.

But you hit like rock, solid sands. You got to slowly work it through. And dad used to take me in Harley along. So this was definitely not on the up and up because I remember he's like, you ever see a white truck? Getting the cab, right?

All right, sounds good. And he used to pay us five bucks. Well, now I think about that. I'm like, man, he got, but that was hard work. Yeah. As kids,

love doing it, love being out there with, you talk about dad time. Like, especially when your dad's work as hard as probably you two do or certainly my father did, you were willing to go do whatever, right?

It didn't matter. Like, you just wanted to be around your father. Yeah, and your dad knew that by being able to put that time into you guys, I mean, that it would pay off in, you know, in spades.

You mean, kids that know how to do manual labor, know how to work, you mean, not do that their entire lives, but having those skills are irreplaceable. I always think one of the best lessons dad taught me was nothing can beat hard work, like that nobody outworks dad. And so that can be transferred to anything. Like it doesn't just mean manual labor. It means like whatever you're doing. I don't know. This thing called the podcast is like, well, there's hard work in that too. I mean, the NHL, the boy,

you watch Connor McDavid the last couple of games. Like that isn't just like everyone's like always he's gifted. It's like, well, yes. But imagine how many hours on the ice that man puts in to be that good. Yeah, that's good discipline,

right? And he's just consistency and that same with the podcast. Like you're saying, you've got to be consistently working at it. Otherwise, you'll sink. But you go back to your son and how we get to here and showing him some of those things,

allowing him to, uh, uh, uh, uh, be around, uh, other men working and,

and, you know, start to do some things like that. Where it isn't like, you know, it isn't like putting together the entire thing. but like threading. I mean, for a kid that age,

when I was just a smidge older than them, I got the job of like cleaning out the toolbox and with Varsol and like, but damn, if I didn't make that thing look like, pearly, like just like good. And the praise you get from that, because nobody wants that job. You know, by the time you're a journeyman,

you're like, I just, I want to do the whatever, right? So to have a kid there that A does it good, treats it like it's his craft and then gets praised for it, man, that's, that's, yeah, every kid should probably learn some of that. Oh, yeah, and the guys were all just like, good job, Caleb, and they were just super awesome to them. And yeah, you know what, that was good for him, good for a person to see that, you know what, 16 hours working on something, good day.

Now, me coming from, you know, wife's school teacher, our kids of, I've always been the flip opposite of everyone I run into with homeschool kids. I'm like, ah, I want them to be, I want them to experience the craziness of society. I want them to, because to me, that's critical thinking in a different way, right? It's having to contend with what society is going to throw at you for the rest of your life. And, you know, you've got to meet different people, deal with different situations, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Do you worry at all, or do your kids get to experience not only society but different human beings all over the place? Blaine was on the same page until he did he did this and I'll let him speak to that more sorry

but you know what with me you know what you've got your kids for their their most critical years for learning information I don't want someone else teaching and indoctrinating my kid at that stage I want to teach my kid how to work and to know how to handle a situation where dad would handle his feelings in a situation where he should be making stories up in his head about how other people are talking to him, right? I want him to my kids, all of them, I got one daughter, and I want them to know, to handle their emotions, right? I want them to take care for other people. I want them to look out for the little guy, right? And you know what? I want to teach my kids that. I don't want them to be taught that in school. They don't need to. You know what? I was

homeschooled for one year in my life. We talked to my mom into lying. She's going to love that I said that. I didn't do any school work for my grade eight year. My dad took me to work. And you know what? When I came back from that year work, I did better in high school when I was back in school. I was better at talking to the teachers than my peers. Can I stop you just for a second here?

So in grade seven, you were doing, I'm going to assume, poorly at school. So you talked with your parents and said, can I just go work for a year? No, dad needed me for a job.

Mom wanted to homeschool. She always wanted to home. I never did get to homeschool. I just, we were in kind of in kind of in high school and I just kept going. But she wanted to homeschool and so she did, I think everybody else, at least one or two years or depending on where they were at. And dad, dad had a different, dad wanted us for the jobs, of course. And you know what? They're not here so they can't deny it.

But you know what? That was the best year of my life. I was the richest grade aider. I worked hard. I made good money. And when I went back to school, I did better. My marks were better. And I was better friends with my friend's parents at that point because I just knew how

to talk to real people. Real people. Well, the interesting thing where you're getting at that way, you mean, like, Joey's right. You mean, I didn't, I wasn't afraid of my kids going to school. And so I sent them and they had a good experience. I had a good enough relationship. I feel like I need to, I want to know my kids.

I want to build those relationships. Jacob and I had a thing where in the mornings. We would meet in the mornings. It was Saturdays for the longest time. Then it became Mondays before work. And we'd go for breakfast and we had a book. And we called Doing Book. And we read this book together.

And it was just about things that you don't talk about and just man stuff and and just helping to build into him. And so we had a relationship where we could talk and grow. And he would tell me things that, know we're going on in school and things like that and we'd go through things. And so that worked for us through that time. But since then and now having them outside of school too, it's interesting when you look back at the dynamics of school. Again, you mean, take it to the Canada Food Guide, COVID, finances. You mean, what is the normal thing that everyone does? And everyone sends their kids to school.

And it's the easiest way to educate the largest amount of kids effectively. Nobody ever claims that our public school system is the perfect way for every single kid. Every kid has a different learning style. And that's the first thing we learned when we decide to homeschool. Lisa did like a learning style test on each one of them. And everyone in my kids learns differently. They learn math differently. They learn English differently.

And they thrive. And you can't personalize that education for 30 kids in a classroom. And like your wife is a saint for, you know, doing what she does and filling that role for so many people. You mean, but when you have the ability or you have the desire to be able to take and personalize that education, I'm not worried about the social aspect. My kids are super social. We get out, they're involved with their youth groups. They're involved in youth bands. My son volunteered at Manitou Lake Bible Camp as one of the leaders in training all summer long and just totally just thrives in that environment.

And, and, you mean, my kids just love people. And, but Joey's right. You mean, where in society are you going? to be surrounded by only people of your age that are going to be influencing you more than anyone else yeah you've got a teacher up front that's there occasionally but who are you really being educated by in school and so by a bunch of other maniacs yeah a bunch of other kids are kids that are the same age as you that don't know anything you mean and you know and you're you're you're just feeding off each other i don't know how much you talk about misinformation i tell you my whole you know

school experience was about hearing about all of the things that apparently were reality and just lies. Like my peers just, you know, we're always trying to one up each other with their crazy stories. And it's, you know, you just lie to each other constantly through high school. And so then all of a sudden you graduate and you're like, you know, like, none of that was true. Like, I knew nothing. You know, and so, you know, at the end of the day, I'm not worried about it at all. I've only seen my kids thrive. And, I mean, obviously, you know, there's days where they wish they could go hang out

their friends and stuff like that and we make that happen. I mean my my son still has his buddies my youngest you know they they reconnect and yeah we have to be intentional about getting them out there to see people and make sure that they they get their time with their friends but what's one of the pitfall okay you talk about all the great things about homeschooling right what are what are some of the pitfalls that you didn't know about when you got into it. Well you know what it is getting them like my daughter getting her friends her age doesn't happen the same like it ends up being different aged kids so that's a challenge is getting getting the kids friends their own age they end up getting friends but they're all different ages which i don't know

if it's a terrible thing but that is a different thing from school yeah where instead of being in a room with 30 kids the same age now you're you're kind of all over the map yeah my like my boys will be friends with the same boy right that'll be in between them or older so it's it that's a little different um and i'm i've got them in some like they're in piano lessons and didn't none of your kids play sports yeah my my two girls both are competitive gymnasts oh gymnas yeah so it for us that was a huge benefit again another good thing uh like they they train at i drop uh my my daughters off to train in the mornings at 645 and they train for an hour and a half before school and then they go back and they train this make hockey

players look like freaking yeah wass like the amount that i mean i guess it i shouldn't say that hockey now with the amount of dry land and everything they're doing, like, is pretty intense. My daughter has a shirt that says something about if gymnastics was any easier, it would be called hockey or something like that. So she found that sweater at a competition and bought it on purpose. So, but, yeah, so they, you know, so for them, it was, it was able to, to not have the stress of all of the after school work. And there's just so much time in school that's not on school, too.

And so for them, their social ends up being in, in, in, and things like that. And my oldest son, Jacob, well, both sons are in archery. And so Jacob's actually working really hard to be on Team Alberta to go to the Canada Games in P.I this fall. He's in the top four. He actually got third of provincials last year. And he qualified to go, he's got one more competition where he has to win it.

And if he wins it, he gets to represent. He represents. Represent team Alberta. So he's been working at that for two years now. It's been something he's been working hard on. There's some really great archers. They were all within one point of each other, the top four in the final shootout a couple of weeks ago. And so, so yeah, so those are the, so that's where they get out and they, and they're, you know, connected.

But it's interesting, though, we've never really been involved in team sports. Oh, I was just, all I'm sitting here thinking is, where are the team? Not that, maybe gymnastics is more team than I give credit. I can't, I can't sit here. It is very individual. I mean, they're on a team. Well, it is. You mean, I can't deny.

I mean, and so, I mean, but I, it's funny because gymnastics, you know, I grew up in Kindersley too and it's small town. Everything there's hockey, baseball. That was life. You mean, there was, you know, the guys played volleyball. I tried to be volleyball player. Just my stature just didn't really help with that. I feel your pain.

We had gangs in Kindersley, though. We did have gangs. Right? We had the door sets, Derek Dorset and us back alley neighbors, knife fights. And yeah, it was pretty cool. We didn't, we had pocket knives. and we were eight, so it didn't really count. But it's, yeah, just, you know, growing up there, I was funny because I ended up in gymnastics.

I mean, and so I, and I loved it. I love to flip. I love to be able to, the only guy who could walk around on his hands, climb ropes and and things like that. And so, you know, I was never good. I was never competitive, but it allowed me to do things like that. You know, I was always the guy who could do the tricks on the trampoline and stuff like that, right? And so now I coach a ninja class over at Explanee.

explosion on Mondays, just because I want my boys and I want, because there's not a lot for guys in that side of it. Yeah. And I remember actually, there was one coach there and I helped him out a couple of times. And we bring hockey players in and just give them a lot of foundation training because guys don't know how to squat. They don't know how to, you mean, they don't know the basics of, you know, how to fall even. You mean, so guys will fall and break their wrist because they've never been taught.

That's the first thing I teach kids is how to fall, how to roll. I always tell the story of Joey. He was in gymnastics with us too. He did some hockey and things like that a little more. But he got hit by a car and pulling into the red rooster. And he went flying in the air, did a full flip and landed on his feet because he knew how to tuck his chin in and to roll. And I literally give gymnastics credit for saving his life.

He wouldn't beat my partner today if he didn't take gymnastics. It's one of the teaching kids had a fall. or take a hit or different things like that. I think it's one of the things that hockey does extremely poor, right? We used to teach that really early on how to give a hit, but I don't know if I ever learned how to receive a hit or how to, anyways. And we were going to put our kids and then COVID happened into rugby. Because rugby out in Lashburn, they teach how to take a hit at like a really young age.

Like you're talking like five, six, that's right. And I'm like, wow, that's like really smart. Like I heard that. I'm like, why have I never? Like, and now I hear it like, that's, that's pretty cool because you're right. Hockey players get this like, you're this strong foundation of like giant legs and like you just, and then you don't know how to stretch or move your body or, you know, anything else about it. I mean, I'm being a little bit tongue and cheek, but that is kind of the mainstay on it.

So that is, that is cool because I think that's a big thing they're changing in hockey right now is they're getting them into tons of different stretching, and yoga, you know, the list goes on, a body movement on how to like protect your body against, you know, all the injuries now that are associated with hockey. Yeah. Well, it's just like anything that you're just doing one sport, you often will end up with certain types of injuries

because that's, you're training certain things to do certain things well, right? And so, I think it's, I think it's super wise. It's probably the reason why I love CrossFit is because you're doing so many different things all the time and you're constantly, moving differently and you're changing the types of things you do so that you never really totally get you know just stuck into one movement right so one of the things i love about crossfit is it is a team atmosphere yes and it's gauged at uh when i first started going there it was right before we

got well i haven't gone there in a long time now i shouldn't say that when i went there we were just about to get married so this is 2014 and i wasn't nearly in as good as shape as i had been and all the things are you against you essentially, right? So, I mean, if all you can do is an air squat, air squat it up. If you can put 500 pounds on, put 500 pounds on. And to me, you're still doing the same thing as the next guy, but it's all against you. I thought that was super cool, but CrossFit. It's the only thing I've ever been able to do for more than like six weeks. I mean, I tried all the videos and the, you know, the P90X. Yeah, all that stuff. It could get like three weeks in and then I sleep in one day and I never do another one again, right? And so, yeah,

I got over and there's something. about dancing alone by yourself in the basement. You know. Just can't keep it up. Got to catch it on video, yeah. That's so good. But did, do your kids do any sports?

So my kids are just getting into archery. So they're getting into archery this year. Sports-wise, they did Blaine's ninja course. They haven't been lately. We just kind of picked different stuff at this point. But it was a great. My kids love. Did neither of you guys think about,

you mentioned it, the hockey of the world, the baseball, the soccer. Well, we go to the gym with a bunch of guys that, yeah, all the, a lot of guys that are into the hockey thing. And I just, you know what, that's not, I don't want my life to evolve around that. You know what? I think it's cool and I see they're passionate.

They love going to it just as much as they're having their kids in it, I think. And that's, so my kids, I don't want, I don't want them to play hockey. If they want to, sure. But you guys were all about like hunting and being outside and hockey really messes with that in the winter time. Yeah. It's just in the fall and everything else. And even with gymnastics, I wasn't my intention to be completely committed to something that would kind of draw us in all the time. I mean, I want my kids to be well-rounded. I figure if you can't swim and you can't skate, then you should probably not live in Canada. I mean, you're going to die. And so I just,

those are just things that I feel like you need to know how to do when you're here. And so, you know, we try to do those things as well. But at the end of the day, we wanted to be able to just be well-rounded. Wondermen to be able to experience. Yeah. And so like we'll take my girls and my, my boys will go out hunting. Well, you know, well, we usually just hike. We try to shoot things, but we mostly just hike. Well, well, my boys got to shoot their first muley buck with me last year. And even though they didn't pull the trigger, both my two older boys were with me. And they talk like they shot that deer. And they were there for the whole experience, right? And it was, it was really good. Like, that was an amazing time with them. And yeah, hunting is sweet with them.

I do want them to play rugby or football. My wife wants them to play maybe soccer. So I do want them in a little bit of team sports, but I love football. You got to love women. They're like maybe something a little less physical. I don't want them to get hurt. Until they tear their knee because soccer players like. Danger sport, danger sport.

Well, it's all about, but you think about it. It is because it's all about like you're going to clip a knee. You've got to do these fast little movements with a ball on your foot and everything else. I'm telling you, I don't probably. had more run-ins with injuries and soccer than any other sport. Well, football, you have all the equipment. Like, it, honestly, I never got hurt playing football besides my ankles. Every single game, I twisted my ankle.

But that's just because I never practiced. We, yeah. You know, one of the things, you know, as you talk, you boys talk about archery and hunting and all these different things. I remember sitting in the Hitman dressing room playing senior hockey and home on, and somebody going, you know, like, I can never do this. Like, I love my winners too much. You know, I want to have my winter getaway to Mexico and I want to do hunting and I want to do all this.

And I'm like, huh, my winter getaway is the dressing room. Like I enjoy it that much. And so now as I sit on the other side, right, because now I'm not playing hockey. I'm like, in my brain, I'm like, I want my children, if they want to, to have that experience. Because for about 33 years of my life, that's what life was, was wintertime was hockey. And I loved going all the different ranks and playing the competitiveness and the team atmosphere. and the only issue I got as a parent now is how freaking expensive it is.

It's like, come on. And I want my kids to learn the discipline. You guys learned as hockey players. And I see that. When I go the CrossFit gym, like those guys, you got the, I don't know if I should be saying names,

but the guys that were hockey players, like they can not look as good as shape as me and they can outwork me any day at the gym. It's hilarious. They just, they power through it. They just, the mental capacity to be able to push through pain.

Like it when it starts to burn I like to stop and you know, there's jitter juice at the door there and I can have a coffee and watch them work through the pain. And so I want my kids to learn that discipline to work through the pain that I never learned, right? I didn't do sports long enough. And you know what? I would love to learn that. And I would love my kids to enjoy that. My wife, that's the best part. My wife loves the burn. Like when she goes to the gym, she yeah, she's a lot. all over it. And so, you know, they're kind of doing CrossFit at home with her. And she, if I would set up a better area, yeah, they'll be doing that at home too, which is cool. But that's at home. Not in the group, but as soon as they get older, they can start going to the group, right? To your question before, just on some of the, the not so glamorous parts of homeschooling, there is definitely, my wife doesn't get a day off. I mean, and that's probably the most challenging part is for me to be able. She's so busy in just, she's super active in, in our life. She still does payroll for Guardian. She is trying to homeschool four kids and have a life. She's a saint. Yeah. And I,

like, she absolutely is phenomenal. And, I mean, and that's been a challenge. And I said that at the start. I told her, I said, we need to actually plan days where you just have your time and you go away. And so she started, that's where we were in Kit Scottie last weekend. She makes it bags and like just amazing. But it's her creative outlet. She found something that she's super talented at. And so we try to give her that space to do those things. But it ends up being like till two in the morning.

And she's just burnt out. And so she's exhausted. She's, you mean, these last couple of years because she only knows how to do things to the best of her ability. And so she's not willing to do anything halfway. And so she pushes and pushes. And so, you mean, a couple weekends ago, I took everyone to Jacobs, uh, archery thing and she wanted to be there. We got this FOMO thing too, fear missing out.

And, and, and, uh, if you're going to have a fear, I think it's the best one. Yeah. And so she wants to be there with us, but we left her at home with the dog, you know, big old Bernice and, uh, and her and, uh, Luca just sold bags all weekend. And she just got a break and was able to be there. And we sent, I sent her, you know, like five minute updates on stories. So she was able to experience, you know, kind of the excitement of the final events and stuff like that. But that is the hard part. It's that. It's trying, you know, for us, you know, having,

you know, a son who's graduating this year and making sure he's not screwing up his life by not taking the right credits. And at the end of the day, you realize that it doesn't matter. You know, he's going to move his life to where it needs to go. And he's going to, I mean, we're going to give him what he can. But do you were, like, when I graduated, I was thinking, okay, I need this, this, this, this and this. And in the end, I probably didn't pick any of the right stuff. If I actually you wanted to go do something else, I'd probably have to go upgrade anyways. You're never going to be perfect at what you are picking. You have to kind of relax. And so that's where we're trying to get to is to be able to just kind of, okay, we're going to do our best. We're going to kind of guide them to where

they need to go. We're going to give them the basic skills, how to organize. You know, we're not good at that either. And so we're learning through it too. And even the whole Dave Ramsey stuff with the kids. I mean, it's been great for us to be able to sit there and talk through with these super smart kids. Well, biased, obviously. But, but, but, and have you. conversations as young adults and us, you know, feeling like we're actually growing through it as well. So it's, yeah, there's obviously, you know, the pros and cons to it. I mean, but at the end of the day, we've, yeah, we've found that we, we like the experience that we're having so far. Always it. You know, you mentioned high school and what was I thinking and everything else. I remember

being told, and I don't think this was right or wrong. At the time, it certainly felt like it was the right advice that enjoy your high school years because of the best years of your life. And I was like, oh, okay. So Sean enjoyed his high school years, right? In more ways than one. But what I found over time is that that was not even remotely close to the truth. No, I agree. Actually, when I look back at high school, it was a fun period. Don't get me wrong. But if I'm going without kids, the funnest time of my life was college meeting my wife and the group of people we there and almost like similar interests, your brain's starting to fire a little bit more. You're starting to ask. little deeper questions you're starting to explore some different ideas instead of you

know like I want to be a policeman or I want to you know go to the NHL or you know or whatever the idea was back then some and saying that some kids by grade 12 have got it locked like I'm going here Sean was never that Sean wanted to be a world explorer I think and and go different places right which actually isn't a bad thing right at all we don't encourage that near enough maybe we do a bit more now but certainly when you go back to high school uh yeah i don't there's like so many hormones floating and everything else right like i mean you just you think you got the world by the tail what you do but you also think you know more than everyone else which is danger because that's what

sean was he was this 18 year old kid who thought i know everything which i did not no and it's 12 years of school like people say that that's when a kid needs to be around all these other people it's like yeah my kids don't get around nearly as many people as they should, but it's 12 years of their lives. Like, there is a lot more after school. Well, I was just going to say, you're just, you're so right about the whole aspect of hormones and development and they're just learning so much. And yet they're, you mean, they're just a mess. Like, I remember, you mean, I, I go back and I'm like, did I really feel like that? Did I really think that way when I was growing up and the things I was just frustrated about with

my parents and things like that. And it was just so irrational. And I just, I mean, I look back to, you I mean, and so, I mean, I think there's nothing more valuable for our kids in those years is having just a strong family unit to be able to support you through your own brain. I mean, because, like, it's insanity. Like, you literally are insane when you're a teenager. And you're only, you know, like you're, you have this cocktail of hormones that are just like messing with your brain through that whole time. And you just need somebody there to walk you through that and support you.

you through what you're going through and not validate maybe some of the things you're thinking because they're probably not right. A lot of the things you're coming up with in your own brain are, you mean, and that's part of the critical thinking aspect is a part of learning about that. But when you're that young and you're still growing through that and just dealing with all of that, I mean, you need somebody who's mature to mentor you and walk you through those emotional times you're going through and not just, I mean, that's the problem I have with it only being your fellow students because now they're just validating oh yeah that's exactly how you should feel i felt that same thing to the day yeah let's just go kill ourselves you know like it's just you get to that

place where you just end up in this echo chamber pushing you towards all these terrible ideas that you came up with as a bunch of immature kids learning i must uh you know you mentioned the i'm sure you're going to the extreme with the kill yourselves but to me to me i'm like you know it's funny like I, were there bad days in high school? I can't really recall those, but I sure there were those days back when you're that young. But I don't know if it was my friend circle, if it was sports, if it was my parents,

if it was all the above, whatever it was. I skated through that time, I think, for the most part, not doing anything too silly and not getting down any route, you know, like you think of the amount of drugs, you think of some of the ideas out there about, genders and different things like that you think about all the things that you can get yourself into trouble and believe me i'm not judging anyone because like as a young guy i i drank more than

than my fair share of uh classmates i mean we push the pedal pretty freaking hard uh and yet i can't put my finger on it it's something that i constantly search for you know like why is it that some kid goes down this road and off the path and can never find his way back? And yet Sean ran off the path 17 times and came back and, you know, I think I've done quite well. And I feel like, you know, when it comes to where I want to be, one of the things is what you just said is like the family unit. I'm like, first, you know, you got to make sure you take care of yourself. But after that, like I can't see anything more important than the family unit. And I used to have my thoughts on homeschooling until COVID hit,

and then I understand why people do it, because they're trying to protect their family unit, I think. That might be a general. I think it's pretty good. Because if the family unit isn't protected, I mean, then what happens is, well, then the community is made up of all these family units, and it just starts to spiral.

And in society, I see a lot of that right now. There's a lot of spiraling. And not enough people taking care of their family little units. And so, I don't know, to me, I admire people who put their kids in homeschooling and take that onus on themselves because that is, you know, we need more, maybe not of homeschooling, maybe more of homeschooling, whatever. It doesn't matter to me, just more of the onus of, like, protecting your unit. I think we just need more, yeah, especially dads taking responsibility for their families. I feel like a lot of us men tend to just push the responsibility off on to, you know, to. schools and our wives and just say yeah you mean you're at home with them you just

take care of them and stuff like that and and we just lose our we we don't take ownership of our families I one of my favorite books would be extreme ownership with Jocko well and it's so important for us to own the things that we can you mean there's so many things we don't have control over but one thing we do have control over is us and we have the ability to to pour into our families and to be able to be involved and you mean you have a very like Joey said limited time frame of spending time with your kids and with your wife and well you hopefully have the lifetime with your wife but you never know you mean like it you're we only

have every breath you mean we only have the next day right and it's like you need to own every one of those moments and and because you only have so long to to affect it right but yeah and you know what like even high school for me like I I had I had goals I knew what I was doing after school I just wanted to get through it and you know I had a great time. My friends were awesome throughout. We were at a boarding school. So we had lots of different friends that showed up every year as a hockey school and um and it was great. And you know what? It went really fast. Do I think it was the best time in my life? No, man, I love every day right now watching these kids. Like you said, watching them actually get along and talk and it's like, oh man,

I wish someone else would have taught them how to talk. But no, I just, yeah, no, I love these kids and yeah and you know what I don't yeah high school is great but it's interesting what you said there about the goals and I think that kind of goes over to you Sean like you said hockey was a big part of what you did too right and so you mean I think I had a maybe worse experience in high school and part of it was maybe just not knowing for sure I had a fairly good idea and and again I had a dad that that poured into me that he for him we had a family um prior to to us like my dad's family uh that had a lot of issues with alcohol. I mean, it wrecked my parents, wrecked my, my dad's family. Yeah. And so for him, he was never shy about explaining that to us and telling us the things. And

you mean, at the end of the day, you mean, ultimately, we, we had the choice to do what we needed to do, but we saw what it did to them and how it destroyed my grandparents' lives and really made a mess. And, And, you know, I mean, for my dad, he, he made a huge shift in 1983 when he decided to become a Christian and decided to change his entire life around. And, and it's interesting when I look back at how, you know, the paths diverged at that point, where he was heading and how that absolutely turned things around. And, and I was three years old, so I don't remember anything prior to that. But I do remember that now we had a foundation. And we now had something that was got. us and directing us and it gave us. And so even through high school, I was in Kindersley and

and it was there was some rough patches. There were some ups and downs through that and, you know, where I was questioning things along the way. And, and I wasn't the kid who, like you can see, I was small. I was wiry and I was fiery and the red hair, you know, kind of. And I and a gymnast to boot. And people would get, you know, and I would, they'd make fun of me. And, and, you know, there was a lot of lonely days through that. And I had a kind of. couple of, I had like two good friends and one was in a different grade and one didn't even go to our school. And so there was a lot of days where I just felt like I was by myself. And there was too many times where, you know, I could think too much. But fortunately, like I said, my dad, you know,

would take us with him to work. We would do things with him and he was always present in what we did. And I think a lot of that, you know, just sharing with that, you know, helped me kind of work through those times without having to, yeah, just get too, just in my own head through it all. But yeah, so I don't know. I didn't, I didn't, it's funny you talk about, because I'm so goal-centered now. Like, that's my thing. I just love, you know, like, again, take it back to CrossFit. You mean, in the last two years, my goal was to hit the top 10% in Canada and to,

because you get to go to a separate set of workouts. And I hit it two years in a row now. And, I mean, I'm just all about them, teaching my kids about goals and stuff. And yet coming out of school, I didn't really, you know, always knew that I was going to be a plumber, only because dad said I got six kids. I can't send you all to university, but I can give you a trade. And from there, you can do whatever you want. And so that was always just kind of the plan.

You're going to become a plumber. And then, you know, use that to springboard off of. And, you know, Joey and I both just kind of got stuck in it. And I've fallen in love with the business aspect of it and, you know, the entrepreneurial side of it. But, but yeah, it's funny how, you know, coming through school, that wasn't. Our high schools were different. That's for sure. We got a different experience through high school.

That's for sure. Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah. I think it's cool to hear I'm sure there will be a lot of listeners who agree and probably some well actually I have no idea what the listeners think anymore the text line

whenever you hit on something that people agree with man it lights up like it's just like anyways I come back to a word you used and we've been talking kind of about it directly indirectly it's just being present when parents are present in their kids lives good things will happen and it does

doesn't always just need to be the dad. The mom certainly has an equal, if not larger role to play. For sure. And I always look at my childhood. And like dad, dad literally, for a chunk of my childhood, was gone working like 27 days of the month, whatever it was, working his butt off, right? And so the one present was mom.

And, you know, I look back at how difficult that must have been, right? I can't even begin to fathom. but being present I think is a very very smart word there's there's a lot of a lot of different things that sound like it's just like yeah that's part of it and being present is is certainly one now I want to talk to you guys you know it's been an interesting we said oh we what are we going to talk about it anyways and of course it never disappoints that's what I love about this business business has been You guys have talked about it an awful lot.

Plumbing's been your life here, Guardian, 12 years, correct? 12 years is how long. Can we just start with how difficult has the last? You mentioned your guys' recession started in about 2015 where it started to slow down. How difficult was the COVID years on your end in regards to employees, in regards to going to places, or was it different than anything?

everyone thinks. You know what? We came out of, we felt like we were climbing out of the oil recession. We went from a construction company to a mainly service-based company. And so we just really got that figured out right before COVID started. So we went, we were fully geared up for doing construction in Lloydminster and a little bit of service. Now we're mostly service and a little bit of construction. And so we had to change gears completely through those oil recession years. And then COVID hit. And so it just kind of right when we were starting to climb out, then we got to figure out the COVID thing. You know what? We had a great group of technicians at the time. We got some advice that good employees will be fired through COVID and that you

should pick them up. And you know, our experience wasn't quite that. We tried a couple of guys that, you know, we still probably, um, we should have kept to our normal hiring where we don't hire guys that have been fired. Um, that would have been the advice we should have stuck to. Um, we tried to keep it pretty, like at the start, everyone was kind of trying to figure it out. So we started by dispatching from home, uh, our guys where we usually every morning we meet and we have a, quick, uh, devotion that we do. And then I just, uh, we go through the issues from the day before and we get everyone out of there. And, and, uh, and so, we started dispatching from home and then we did a Zoom meeting once a week for our service meeting.

And, uh, you mean, obviously the guys would mask up and sanitize and when, when, especially, you know, it was all about communicating with the customer. And it was funny because we had some customers, you'd pull up to the house and you take that thing off before you come into my house. And we just always told the guys, you know what? You know, you guys listen to your customers and, uh, and make sure that you're, you know, meeting their needs along the way. Um, because we'll still have people right now that, you mean, whether it's, you know,

medical things along the way, they'll ask. And our guys have been, um, been very just cognitive of the people that they're talking to along the way and stuff. So, so, you know, we just kind of navigated like everyone else did. I mean, we got to a place where we just, you know, tried our best to, to keep the guys working. And that was always our big goal. Is we, we have a great team. We love our team and we wanted to, to keep them all busy and working. And so we did everything we could, to kind of manage that. And things slowed down. You mean,

you mean, people were nervous. You mean, there was, we have a, like Joey said, we're very service-based. We do, we have a maintenance plan that we, that we do that. And the whole idea behind it was that people weren't doing it. So we tried to find a way to really make it easy for people to do this where we would call them and it would be discounts and stuff like that so that people would actually take care of their equipment.

And people wouldn't let us come and do that service for them. I mean, even though it's something they've prepaid for, they just were like, I'm just going to wait and see how things go and stuff like that. So, I mean, you can only do so much, you know, from our end, because people have to be comfortable with you coming into their place, right? So, and if you're not there doing that, well, then you're not there offering other solutions to things. I mean, when we do the inspections, we always show them anything that could be whatever. But so, you know, along the way, those are, you know, kind of the challenges we came along.

And then, you know, we told our guys, you mean, ultimately, we're not going to be asking them. We had some guys who, you know, have some medical issues and they went and got vaccinated. And that was totally fine. They, you know, needed to do what they needed to do. But we told our guys that we're not going to judge you by the decision to me. We will mandate it at our shop. Yeah. You can do what you need to do.

And we respect your decision making because you're adults and you're going to be able to make the right decision for you and your family. And so to us, that was important to be able to give our guys the, to make those decisions going forward. And we did get thanked a lot from our guys that they didn't have to worry about being vaccinated to go to a job. And, and, you know,

we just, we realize that it's, it's a medical decision that it's none of my business. And I think it's crazy. I've literally just watched, well, today's episode, so,

uh, Rupa Subramania, um, I watched in January, in January, of this year. This is how in less than a year, this is how far we've come, you know, like where

if we would have had this conversation in January, pets' heads would have been falling off. You know what I mean? Like, it just, but I go back to, she was on the show with three other people. One of them was Roman Babber, who has been on the show before. He ran for the conservative

leadership, obviously Pierre Polly of winning. But he was on with her, and then two others. One was a doctor, and then one was a guy from BC, and I'm spacing on his name. But what they were talking about in January of this year was Quebec was talking openly about finding unvaccinated. So if you're unvaccinated, you're going to pay more in taxes. And this guy on the show was saying, oh, this is a great idea. They've had their time, right? They've had their time. Like, they're danger to us all. And you could tell those show hosts were kind of,

I'm not saying he agreed with it fully, but he wasn't going, this is nuts, right? Like, that's where we were in January. You know, and you think you go where we sit, walking into November by the time this releases it will be November like that's how much the the temperature in the room maybe has changed um I mean obviously the convoy did an awful lot now here in Alberta we have Daniel Smith who's going to change it all over again but and then you got the commission going on as well but it's pretty crazy when you when you think you know guys are like oh thanks for just not pushing on us we were at a point where the government was starting to talk about finding people. They weren't even going to give us an extra room to eat in at restaurants, right? They should

have an unvaccinated room for for dirty unvaxed people like me. But, you know, it's not over. And that's the thing that's, I was sitting with a friend this weekend. And, uh, you mean, he lost his job, um, for two months. Um, you mean, he was in, you know, the emergency emergency industries. And, uh, and yeah, two months, you know, they didn't know what was going to happen. And, uh, and so now, you know, he's back. But he's, he's, not content either with the fact that you mean that this is over. You mean, this happened to us. And like, we're still dealing with it. Like, we have a job that, uh, that we are the only people that are offering the proper solution for this company here. Uh, and we, you know, it's hilarious

because it took over a year to actually show them, you know, what they needed to do. And it was just an improperly designed system. Like everything is there. It just needs to be rehashed and fixed. And we're the Only once for that would offer that. Everyone else just wanted to put more heaters in and just costs them more and stuff like that. So it took Joey a long time to finally convince them that this was the way to go. And they said, okay, let's do it. And guaranteeing them that I'll fix it. Yeah.

And they're like, okay, here you go. Here's the PO. Get her done. And then along with the PO comes a form that says that. And this is, yeah, government businesses right now. So this is the maintenance company for ATCO. So it's an ATCO building. And it's Harvard maintenance.

I think that's what they're called. Harvard developments, a hill company, a hill company. And yeah, this company is, yeah, does the maintenance on the ATCO buildings. And yeah, and we couldn't sign the papers properly to where we could do the work in the end. So we were rewarded the job. And then if we clicked on the sign health and safety acknowledgement form, If you clicked that, it immediately automatically filled in the checkmark box for sign COVID policy acknowledgement form.

And so we ended up, I got my bookkeeper to print it out and manually fill it in because we did finish the health and safety part. But what it's saying is that anyone going on any adco sites right now needs to be fully vaccinated. Well, only a third of our people at work for us are vaccinated. and the guys that can actually do this job and are my, I'm going to say most skilled workers, they aren't vaccinated. And they want me to, I won't even do the job.

Like I could probably scab together a bunch of, um, or vaccinated guys that can do this job. But I, I don't want to, I'm not doing it. And so we declined that and sent it back in that, um, I believe this is a proper statement. but where is it here? So we just said declined on the COVID portion and we said Guardian plumbing and heating will not participate in medical discrimination contravening the Nuremberg Code.

So I don't know if that's a, I think that makes sense. And then. So then we got an email back that just said. I'll read it here. Thank you for. Completing the supplier application form, ADCO's policy,

all individuals entering ADCO property must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and the following all, and follow all civil and provincial regulations in this regard. Therefore, we cannot progress further. So yeah, we're still. So to me, that's my guys losing a job. they're saying we've lost a job that's just like getting fired from a job in my mind that's saying because we won't put something into our body we can't do this work and everyone I tell about this

they're like oh no this is done in in Canada now like no this is not over like we this is it's over in the news right there the big federal push is on a big hold because there's been so much pushback but it's seeped its way into a lot of different institutions. And even in this situation, you know what? I probably could have lied. I could have lied and said it. They want us to be liars. Like this is insane.

I've been told, I can't say I got told straight out on this situation. Well, just put that you are. We're not checking anything. But we've been told that in several areas already. And I'm not going to do that. Like, that's ridiculous. Well, and. I know that I can't speak for a company, but I mean, I could speak, I guess, for the podcast, right?

The day you start lying, even once, right, as small or as big as it is, is a slippery slope. Yeah. And then you got to live with, I don't know, is it guilt, boys? I don't know what the word for it is, but it's on your conscience, right? If you don't have guilt, there's an issue. Isn't that truth? Yeah, and that's the thing, is they're making people really easily making, making, everybody liars. It's it's like yeah, I know there's a few situations right now where I could talk

to that of course. But yeah. Yeah. So it's just it's one of those things that we're just, I mean, people feel like it said, I like Joey and I still can't fly to the United States. I mean, it's, you know, and we can't drive across the border. I know everyone tells you. Yeah, just tell them you're vaccinated. You got a vaccine once, right? And, uh, and you mean, I suppose that's, you mean, but it's still, you mean, it's funny that it's one, like I think I can go just about anywhere else in the world. But I can't go down to the United States. And it's crazy. I've got two family members now, our brother James, just before Trudeau locked us down, they got out and they moved down to Texas. And our other family are moving and bought a business in Florida and we'll

be there before the new year. And because of their visa, they're able to travel unvaccinated because of the visa that they have. So you guys ever think about? leaving. You know what? Like for us, you mean, we're so established here in Lloydminster. I can't say it hasn't,

you know, watching our family, you know, move. And there's things like our brother James, you know, he's got his open carry permit now. He's not a selfie guy,

right? James isn't a selfie guy, but I keep getting these really rude selfies of him in the mirror with his gun mounted on the side. And it just, and they're allowed in the United States. They're allowed to defend themselves,

right? They're allowed to, if someone attacks you, you're allowed to use your gun that you've purchased and you own to defend yourself. In Canada, you can't own a gun for self-defense. It's interesting, though, just, you know, I mean, we're not the kind of guys that run away from things. And it's always been a challenge to when I see people heading off. And I think you've talked about that before, too. I mean, I want to be part of the solution. I want to be part of what is, you know, fixing things.

And the question is, though, and this is what my friend this weekend, He said, you know, is it worth saving anymore? And that's the question that, and I, that's not my words. This is his. And this is another person too. It's, you mean, looking at and I wish I could find it. There was a tweet that somebody in Europe put out. And they just basically said, you know, I mean, when, you mean, our leadership is the result of the culmination of the people, essentially.

And I'm paraphrasing it. You mean, and so, you know, when it boils down to it, it's like if this many people can put this leadership in place more than once, you mean, are we worth saving? And, and you mean, so that's, you mean, and. So what do you think of that? What do you think of that statement? I think there's validity to it. And I think to be honest, when I look at, you mean, so, you know, I've been to Saskatchewan boy all my life kind of like you, but now I live on the Alberta side. And so, you know, this whole Alberta politics thing has been pretty new to me.

but I took my daughter to the to the Vermillion what our leadership round table and and we sat down and got to question each one of the you know in the different rooms and just another benefit of homeschooling and being able to to you know help my kids both my oldest two got their memberships this year in the in the conservative party so that they were able to vote in both leadership races and and I didn't tell them who to vote for I gave them things to listen to and allow them to to dig into those and and make those decisions for themselves. And so they did that. And yeah, I don't know where they ended up with on those decision making, but, but they were informed and they had an opportunity to do that. But, you know, just watching

what Daniel Smith is doing. And you mean, at the end of the day, we've had a lot of politicians say a lot of things. And I mean, to be honest, I haven't been hugely satisfied with the results. I've seen from them, you mean, in the past. And so I'm super excited to see, she said, you know, Danielle specifically, Pierre on the federal side of things, our two newest leaders have said a lot of things. You mean, now I want to see some action. And we've seen some action in Alberta already. And even in Saskatchewan with, you know, some of the different things that we're standing

up for. And, you know, I've got some hope, I guess. And, I mean, because when I really look at it, it's do I, do I, it? do we have the ability in Alberta and Saskatchewan to stand up for ourselves and to be able to, you know, as companies support, you know, the local aspect, you know, at the, at this level, you know, whether it's provincially, you know, in a way that we can be different. I mean, I look at things in the States and you've got guys like, you know, Ronda Santis or, you know, Christy Noam and these different places where there are these little islands.

And I know the United States political system is quite a bit different and there's a lot more autonomy for their states. But I am encouraged by the conversation of us, you know, trying to stand up for ourselves and, you know, I guess take a playbook, a little bit of the playbook of Quebec in regards to saying, I mean, this is who we are. And this is how we want to live our lives. So get out of it sort of thing. And so I am encouraged by it. But, you mean, there's, I don't know if it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, I've just been, we've been, we've been lied to so many times in the past. And so I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm going to do my best to be loud and supportive of the things that I agree with. Um, because even during COVID, you mean, I, I, I, I would send, uh, messages off to, to, to our MP here and, or, and, uh, and our MLA's. And I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, and I would, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would I would get responses back. I know that a lot of people believe this way,

but I get twice as many letters from the opposite side. And it just reaffirmed to me that people who believe like I do are not necessarily the loud ones that are writing the letters and sending the emails, even though we may, and I don't know that for a fact, but we may be the majority. And I feel like the whole Jason Kenney thing kind of, you know, when he, I feel like he abandoned his base and it was shown. and that's why he's not there anymore.

And had he actually followed through with what I believe his real base is, they're just a lot quieter. And it just encouraged me that I need to be a little louder. Because they're probably all working. Well, and, I mean, okay, I think of a couple things. One is I'm like, I don't run away from a fight. I just don't. But even if, let's just say you had to, I go, yeah, but what? What's the long-term ramification of people running from Canada to the United States?

The United States becomes the last home front of the, where it's eventually, because if Canada falls, and I put that in, you know, we fall to whatever, then we're the giant border on the United States. And what do you think starts happening now? Now it starts pushing down, right? And it starts closing in. At least that's what my brain thinks on it. And maybe I'm wrong.

You know, you look at history. Maybe they'll put a fence up. Right, and keep it up here. Interesting. There's a podcaster in the States. his name is Steve Dase and well he's part of the Blaze Network and uh and he talks about California and I think there's like three million Trump voters in California and he's like what are you doing there he said you mean the lights are going down you mean like the the

place is sinking it's on its way the only reason it hasn't fully imploded is because you guys are still there propping it up he said stop supporting what you don't believe in and get out and so his thing is until all of us leave, there's no change. And so that's where... Can't implode. Yeah, exactly. It's not going to... And so that's where I see things differently here now.

I don't believe that Saskatchewan and Alberta are ready to sink if we all stand up and, you know... Well, we're definitely not California. No, 100%. I don't know of too many places in the world that are California. Joey, what makes differently. Yeah, I do. Yeah. You know what?

Honestly, our... I think we're way more left than California and Canada. Okay. Like California, New York, Canada is right there, if not more left. I really believe that. You know, you got 50% of the states that won't allow, let's take a simple topic like assisted suicide. Okay.

So if I'm going to go there. Simple topic. Simple topic assisted suicide. Canada is all for that. I'm a minority that thinks that's insane. Okay, I'm a minority in Canada in the United States. It's funny you should bring up medical assisted made. Medical assistance in dying made is what it's short for.

The next time I have Rupa Subramanian, she's written a lovely article on it. Terrifying, but I mean really well versed. And the list of requirements, you have to be 18. You have to have an O-H-I-P card. referring this is referring to the Ontario Health Insurance Plan you have to be suffering that cannot be remediated or treated in some way that's acceptable to you that is our plan here so this with the story was talking about a younger man who was blind in one eye and had diabetes and he wanted to have you know and he lived a lonely life and I can't speak for the man

but that was enough for him to have a date set with with being yeah medically says And he doesn't get to do that in the States, even in. Well, and you mean, I don't know if it's that latest law that, you mean, that they're trying to pass or whatever that for kids, for kids. I mean, and without parent consent. I mean, and we talk about developing ages and we talk about. Let me, let me read then the final paragraph. Thank you. Last year, the government amended the original legislation stating that one could apply for maid, so medically assisted suicide.

if one's death were not reasonably foreseeable. The second track fabrication simply showed that the condition that was intolerable to them and could not be relieved under conditions that they considered acceptable. So that was one. And then next March, this coming March, the government is scheduled to expand the pool of eligible suicide seekers to include the mentally ill and mature minors. And we can both, all three of us, shake our head at, well, I mean, just like literally, I'm sorry, but the mentally ill is what the Nazis did all their damn experiments on.

Like, let's pull our heads out of her asses. And mature minors, we just talked about kids for the last how long. And talked about how, like, they're pretty much insane. They're, like, they're going through some things. Oh, the kids are nuts. We can't, we can't give them the ability to choose what, you know, like, if you got a dark day and that's a, I mean, I know, I know somebody's going to sit on the, wow, they got to go through a process. Well, you take a brand new baby. And I heard a speaker once say, you take that brand new baby, you put them in a grown-up.

Why do they start so small? Well, obviously, we know they have to grow. But you take a brand-new baby, you give them a knife, okay? You put them in a man's body and you hold something they want. They'll kill you. And they'll kill you and they won't have any remorse because they haven't been taught it yet. Nothing. They'll kill you.

They'll get what they want and they'll be happy about it. Right. So you take a kid, they're all insane the moment they come out. You got to teach them. They come out. They're crazy. They won't even let you sleep sometimes. Right. You take this child and you have to teach them what is right and wrong. And if we're going to start by teaching them lies, right? And tell them they aren't what they are. We're starting a bad. You're starting out pretty rough. And you know what? Those kids will, they'll never know right and wrong. So what's going to happen? That's. where you end up with kids that'll pull the trigger. Yeah. And do you mean, like Joey said, you mean, if we can't even take fundamental, you know, truth of gender, you mean, that is, I mean, right from day one. And we're going to now basically lie to ourselves in that end, too. You mean, it's, we just don't have.

These are real fights in the United States. In Canada, that's my concern with Canada is, well, those have already lost, right? You know what? Canada's sold over to this. Most of the people want this junk here. I don't fit in in Canada anymore. Okay, so then, so I'm going to, I'm going to try and say this again, okay? So my hope, here's my hope, okay?

Here's the hope, listener, is that's the way I felt too. And then I started doing the podcast. And then I started doing the podcast where I started talking about things that actually mattered to me, and I found out, oh, wait, there's a, there is a fuck ton of us left. part in the French and I would argue you saw what happened in in Ottawa that I mean we didn't all have identical ideas on everything that's never gonna happen but there was enough people there from across section of the population diverse diverse diverse that were like no more and I would argue compared to

the United States maybe compared to a lot of places we don't have anyone we didn't have anyone speaking openly about it anymore because our culture was shutting you down pushed on us that you weren't supposed to talk like this yeah i go back to personally hockey guy right i go back to when ron mclean and don cherry had their last little thing and ron came out and instead of defending him about you people said you know he should have never said that and blah blah blah blah blah and i got all the time for the world i got all the time in the world for ron mclean i know a lot of people don't like me saying that because you know what he did to Don. And I agree. What he did to Don was, you know, how do you, yeah, how do you come back from that?

A lifelong friendship where they, that's what they did. They, they were the two sides of the population. Don was the outspoken Canadian who said things that was controversial and a little bit insensitive. And Ron was the opposite side. He was the liberal left and he, they combat it. As soon as they removed that, they were showing their car. The only thing that gets a voice now in Canada is the liberal left. Yeah. And if, if you're you know Daniel Smith had a radio show and I didn't think it was that controversial she was just talking about things that we wanted to hear so they removed all that CBC removes all that and now what we're starting to see is and why it gives me hope is I used to say I'm like I can't find anyone else and I'm like I'm finding a whole lot

of people that are got shows going on in Canada right now that are talking exactly like this you know I go back to Rupa supermania she's a lady who was triple Vaxed and was against everything and now she's starting to see and so I'm more voices talking about it. There's going to be more people that start are like, oh my goodness, there is a voice. Okay, maybe there is something here. Well, and you know what? My mind has been changed a bit on that.

You know what? In the way that people in Ontario, I thought they were all that way, right? Really left and not at all like us. You know what? I met a few people in Ontario that every local in Ontario, this is what I got from their voices. we aren't all like that. We're like you guys out west. I'm like, well, three quarters of the people out west

are like the people you're saying you aren't right now. Right? And does that make any sense? Yeah, you're saying majority of the West is more like. True. Oh, like seriously. Like I can't believe how many people just let this happen. They let it happen here.

See, like when you were in on in Ottawa, I mean, like you did run across quite a few people though, that we're thanking you for being. I would just, yeah. I don't think they're like Toronto. I do agree they let it happen, but I got an interview, geez, I'm trying to think now and I'm spacing.

It doesn't matter. What she talks about is that people had careers and they weren't willing to give their careers away because if they did, then all they'd work for, and we know how this goes, and that's why they went along with what they went along with, because the choice, you know, that's a big choice. Maybe they've never had to sit and question their reality that much before.

Yeah. So they're in the same way as a lot of people that when push came to shove, they went with their career. They went with, you know, their idea of protecting their family was money and whatever. And I'm making this. Listen, folks, to me, what went on for the last two years put us all on this, well, what do we do? You know, oh, man, this is going to be tough if we go there. And part of the hardship of that was there wasn't enough voices talking openly against it to give them like enough affirmation.

I'm like, oh, okay, I can do this because you think about it. I didn't start talking openly about this until basically August or September of 2021. By that time, most people have been vaccinated. They'd already had the pressure and everything else. And I'm not saying I'm the only voice in the West. I'm certainly not. but I don't think the West thinks the same way as Toronto. I just think they acted the same way in the vaccination and everything

because there was no other voices going, don't do this. And that's hard. I don't know about you guys, but for me, I almost went a bit insane for a few months because I thought I was that alone. And if it wasn't for, you know, like for kids' sake and different groups like that, that kind of kept you like, no, there are a few people like us. There are a few people like us.

We were pretty lucky. You know what? We got a whole family of dirty unvaxed people. And you know what? I'm very thankful. Like we never felt alone through this. We had a good time with it the whole time. Right.

And you know, right when it started, we were concerned. We didn't. It's not like we're part of our family always vaccinate. Right. It's we were super careful with my dad because he has lung problems. Right. And we just wanted to be careful. But he wasn't careful.

He was the. Oh, man. tried to contact trace us. It was hilarious. I'm like, dad, I got them on the phone right now. Do you want to talk to them so I don't have to give me your number? I'm not talking to them, he said, and don't give my friggin number, right? It was amazing. Like he would. So him and I had COVID at the same time back in about a year ago now, whatever. And, and so I did go and get the brain swab just because I wanted to know when I went and got my antibody test, which I did later with ICOR, that I had it as per the government and that I

and I had crazy immunity in February or March when they came out and did that. Like it was just off the charts. And so that was cool. But yeah, dad was at the same time. And he's like, you know, he never said anything. We just knew it. Well, he did the rapid and stuff. But any, so he's ripping around and he's just like, dad, go home.

Couldn't keep him at home. Yeah, it was great. And super blessed, though, that it didn't get into as long as he got the, you know, the required treatments he needed to take care of things. And he was great. I mean, and it was just, it just, he's just hilarious. I just, but yeah, anyway, just in back to, you know, you know, that initial, like my wife, too, you know, right away that two weeks when the, okay, two weeks flatten the curve in day one,

you send our kids home and she's like, this is not going to be two weeks. And I'm like, oh, sure, well, it's just going to be a couple weeks. We're just, we're going to hang out at home. We get to work out at home. The gym sent us equipment. We're just like, it'll be fun, you know, and stuff like that. Yeah, six months later. And she was definitely right.

And same thing. She's like, there's no way they're going to stay at school this year. And, and that's where, you know, our journey moved on that. Yeah, there's certain people that I just need to always trust because I derailed us because you said we're the same as Toronto and I just, I don't take offense to that. I just take the mentality over the last two years. Yes, but outlook on the country, I think there is more people today that are don't know how, and I'll be one of them, that don't know how to articulate why they're against, that they're more than one. two genders, right? They just can't articulate it because nobody's talking about it

because it's so, it's just so offensive. You're so offensive if you talk about it and yet it's truth. But I come back to like if anything about COVID's taught me anything it's like, well if I don't start talking about it, then I literally will get ran over for the rest of my life, right? You talk about

made, you know, like it's like if we don't talk about it, then people can't defend themselves again. And what I'm finding out is there are more and more and more people maybe don't agree on everything, but do agree on some certain things in society. They just haven't been talking about it.

If you don't talk about it, you can't articulate what you're thinking about. And you know what? How I've been able to have all these inappropriate conversations, apparently in Canada, with people around me is I, you know what, I start,

I just start with, you know, you're going to disagree with me on this, and that's okay. You can hate me for it, but I'm not going to hate you. I want to have this conversation. Because I want to have this conversation with everybody.

about this. You know what? I've got lots of people that live right next to me that are teachers and I want to have this conversation with them. I want them to be able to disagree with me because I want them to hear my opinion on it. And I could be wrong, but I've got an opinion and I should, why why can't I say my opinion

in Canada? I agree with that. If there's been one thing that for a long time, I couldn't, this is exactly what you just said. I'm trying to the thought I was having is why is me having an opinion on a subject so wrong?

And that is a thought in Canada, that you should not have an opinion on something like, oh, I mean, listen, the list is long. Oh, it's insane. Like, I can barely talk without being, and I love people. I care for them, right? And you have the whole idea, sorry, I'm... Well, no, I'm pro-human. Like, I'm pro-human being.

I think we are in overall, we're good. And if society around us and communities come together, we're amazing. It's just, it boils down to us. You mean, like you said, we have these conversations and it's deemed that we're hating people and that, you mean, what we're saying is hateful things. And at the end of the day, having a conversation with someone because I actually care about them and what their decisions or lifestyle are going to, how they're going to affect things. And, I mean, I don't hate anybody for making those decisions. And it's just they're allowed to have those views and to believe those things. And we need to be able to have a conversation about it.

And so that you can understand where I'm coming from. And even though we will disagree on things at the end of the day, I don't hate them at all. I never, I mean, I want to understand you. And I want to be able to have these conversations. What's one thing you want to have a conversation on that is taboo? Or that you go to somebody's house and Joey, you're like, well, we're going to talk about this, and I know you don't want to. Okay. Yeah, you know what?

Because I just, you know what? One comment you made there was that you think we're all good people. Okay? Okay. I disagree with you. Okay. I bet you weren't expecting that. No, I get told, I think of Professor Chris Montoya.

He laughs when I say good. I guess I phrase it as we all are capable of good then. Yeah. But we are also very all capable of the opposite, which is bad or evil or whatever you want to put there. I think we're all evil. And we are, well, no, I think we all have evil in us that we are trying to hold at bay at all times. And that's part of discipline as well where, you know what, we've, I think. think we are, well, if I don't talk about this, the book that I believe in and I think is

100% true and accurate, the Bible, is going to be hate speech in Canada really soon. You both think it'll be hate speech in Canada real soon. Yeah, I do. I think it's right on the border of it. Yeah. That's, honestly, that scares shit out of me. Listeners will, you know what I started this thing? there were two things sports commentators would always say I remember this like I'm doing a

podcast but you'll want two things you'll never hear there is politics and religion or god or something along that lines and I always find them that funny because I'm like I actually just read something I don't have a journal I'm putting that you know in quotes I have more of like a list of thoughts that you know from time to time I reference again and one of them is exactly that. Why don't we talk about the things that really actually matter? And the things that really matter, you know, politics is a cesspool, but it dictates a lot of what goes on.

And, you know, faith for whatever you fall on that line, I'm beginning to understand it has a lot of importance. And so when I chuckle, I go, here we are, episode 3.30. six, I think. Remember your says it was me, correct? And it's taken a while, but it keeps coming up over and over and over again because we're at a time where when you say that, that scares

the crap out of me. You know, when you think of all the wisdom that is in that book, and I haven't even read it cover to cover since I was a kid, which is kind of not funny, boys, I don't know the word, right? But you think of all the wisdom

that is in there. That's scary. And this isn't, it's a poor comparison. But Jordan Peterson had his 12 rules to life come out, I think it was 2018, I want to say. And certain bookstores wouldn't put that in their bookstore. And I remember thinking, are they insane? It's the most sold book in the world. Well, you go, you look at what's in the pages. And there's nothing really controversial.

It's all rules to life. It was the man that was controversial. And some of the things in quotes that he said that made him controversial. And that's what they distance themselves. from. Now if the government of Canada were to ever do that, well, I just come back, my hope is this thing right here, different people across Canada using their mics to open up conversation, people listening and tuning in. I think that's a scary thought. Yeah, the thing with the Bible is that it's a mirror. It means it helps us to see, like Joey said, just how evil and hopeless we are without a

savior. And so, you mean, people don't want to hear that. People don't want to believe that they can't do it on their own. And, and, you mean, everyone feels like they need, you mean, that, you know, we're self-made man. I did it myself. I did it all my own way. And when the Bible tells you that you can't and that you are required, you mean, to let somebody else take care of things, it, yeah, it, you mean, it becomes offensive. And that's, and it's funny because it actually, the Bible calls that out. as you mean that these words will be offensive to people and they're not going to want to hear it. Well, I don't know what I think about that, actually. Do you want me to go farther?

Sure. I guess all I was going to say was Paul Brandt when I had him on last time or when me and him were talking after the podcast. That might have been it, so I apologize to the listener because they won't have got this part of the conversation. I was talking to him about the spiritual realm or the world you can. can't see or what you know you probably got better way of of poetically putting it but he was talking about how the culture in north america specifically in the western culture um has distanced ourselves immensely from that side whereas if you go to like the third world uh third third world country sorry um they know all about it and it isn't hidden they don't talk like it isn't

there they they speak specifically to it and he goes so you know if you go to different parts of the world. They'll talk differently. Here in Canada, here in the United States, here in, you know, Western world, we act like it doesn't exist. We keep ourselves preoccupied like it doesn't exist. Anyways. Yeah. I would say more North America. I mean, sorry, more Canada on that end. I would say there's a lot more. Yeah, it's amazing in the States, how we don't see it because the media doesn't want us to see it. I mean, but yeah, my, you know, I know people who are just in Montana and it's just everywhere you go it's Jesus and it's I mean and they're there it's on the sides of the the hills and you know just describing you know Bible verses and things like that and

yeah we just you mean when you actually get down there and it's a Christian country yeah right like the United States is a Christian country right it's um but isn't Canada a Christian country no no you you know what you take you take um sorry I'm dealing with a bloody cold on this Although it's almost done. Yeah, I'm hiding mine still. You know, you take the unborn life, the comment, we talk about abortion in Canada, and it's already, it's not a conversation anymore. People are like, oh, why are you even talking about that?

Well, it's an actual, like, open fight in the state still, which is pretty cool. And it's good. They can fully disagree and have it out all the time. Canada, I don't know, I heard some churchies talking one day, and they were saying, oh, did you hear in New York they can kill the baby as it comes out of the womb? I'm like, like, you live in Canada. Like, you could kill the baby out of the womb the whole time. Like you kill the baby anytime.

Like, it's not a baby to people in Canada, right? They'll call it a fetus, which is baby in, is it Greek? Yeah, that's all it is. Yeah, thanks. Search it. Yeah, I'm going to search it. Keep going. Yeah.

And so, um, Canada is, is so left. Like, I would say that we. are more left than the Democrats in the States. I think that's a bold statement that I can be told wrong on, which would be all right. And like, yeah, I'm okay. If my neighbor wants to fully disagree with me and say that a baby is is not human at any stage until they're out of the womb, they can decide to say that. But to me, that baby and according to science in this situation, all of a sudden we don't

want to we want to ignore the science science says that a baby is a baby from conception so which is a fetus which is a baby like I love when people use that term no it's just a fetus yeah yeah it is you're exactly right good job but you tell us what fetus means here well I can't find it that's that's oh they probably we aren't allowed to use that word anymore yeah well I got what fetus means in Greek but I know I'm just yeah okay I'll go back here's it here's what fetus means the word fetus is related to the Latin fetus bringing forth hatching of young what does fetus mean in Greek it means embryo or fetus so fetus is in in in what's the first what's the not Greek but what's the other one you said there embryo

no the language Latin Latin yeah so Latin fetus is base be next next search engine yeah so um so that like you saw in the Greek they use the word fetus again so what is fetus fetus it means baby but like obviously hatching young one whatever you said there fetus is a Latin word that means the bearing bringing forth or hatching of young yeah so it's a baby it's not it's not cyst or or um compass cells compa cells no it's actually well and they like to say that um yeah that's a rabbit trail that i i love so you think not you think i'm okay so you can you can you think me don't be so canadian no no no i actually what i was going to say you know when it comes to

abortion i'm like i always go isn't there a happy medium i don't know if there's anything happy about murdering so let's let's take i know i know but let's say a woman gets raped. Oh, good. That's my favorite. Let's start there. Woman gets raped. Finds out two weeks afterwards. She's pregnant. Doesn't want the baby. So who should we kill? The rapist or the baby? The rapist? Thank you. And I agree. That's, we should kill the rapist. And it's just as harmful on the mom to murder the baby than to have the baby and adopt it out. So they they like to skip all the emotional part of abortion. And if it's a human,

human, right? They are trying to dehumanize what they call is a clump of cells. It's a human. No woman has 20 fingers and 20 toes. Okay, right? Is that correct? Do women all of a sudden when they get pregnant have 20 fingers and 20 toes? So as soon as it becomes a cell, an embryo, whatever as soon as it's there. Yeah, you can say fetus, which or you could say baby. Fetis, sure, whatever. You're saying in your eyes, you can't touch it. Well, science shows that it's huge. It's human, a different human than the woman it's in. Okay. And do I care for that woman? Yeah. You know, I could any single woman can be taken care of. They're like, oh, we can't afford it. No, it's not true. Someone will help you. No problem. That's easy to find. And the cool thing is,

is that it keeps on showing it. You mean that, you mean, every time these laws change and everyone's up in arms about, what do we do with all these babies and stuff like that? And, and And there are thousands of people that want these children and that will take care of these children and raise these children like their own. And, you mean, like, we are more than willing, you mean, to, you mean, and support the moms. And that's the thing is that often we end up with, with people that just say, you know, well, then, you know, help them. Well, we will. You mean, if a mom needs help, we will be there for them. And, you mean, we just need to know. You mean, and it's just, it's so, we just, I guess where it goes back to, and we do this now.

What about the, let's go back to the, I'm going to stick to the extreme, okay? Yeah, go and that's what we should do, yeah. What about the woman who doesn't want to, you know, complications with the body, everything, certainly in my own three, we've had an emergency C-section, which was not pleasant, not only for my wife, but myself, you know, like that, that was a scary little time. what about the woman who doesn't want to go through the process of like but if we're if we're calling this a human which i believe is should we murder a baby over that we shouldn't punish the mom we shouldn't punish the baby we should punish the rapist and we should help the mom he's talking

about a medical situation so like my mom our our youngest sister her name is victory uh she started hemorrhaging and uh early early in the pregnancy uh we woke up the next morning uh We didn't know that the ambulance had come and taken her in and she lost a ton of blood and almost her and the baby almost passed away that first night. Dad's home with five kids and and the doctor told her you probably should terminate this pregnancy and she's like not in your life. And she ended up in the University of Hospital. We lived in Kindersly for six months waiting to have victory on bed rest. And they didn't give her a lot of hope and in the end even in the emergency. C-section almost lost my mom several times during that too with blood loss and

everything else in regards and and she wasn't a same thing she wasn't able to have children after that you mean they they had to take everything and and and but we had victory and we had mom and she's the bravest woman I know and you mean and and and she was that situation and she just wasn't willing to you mean and then you mean as much as I it's a different situation I look back to to where we are as a society and COVID, and we are masking our kids and vaccinating our kids to shield the elderly. And instead of protecting our kids and helping them to thrive, we're using them as a human shield for us. And I mean, we look at that and we take it and, you know,

we're looking at extreme situations and you look at the percentages of people and heck, what if I gave you all the people who have been raped and what if we gave you all the medical emergencies? You know many of that percentage that is? It's tiny, yeah. In regards to the the nuisance pregnancies, the, you know, this isn't, this just isn't convenient for me and stuff like that at this point in my life. And it's like we all have the ability to make certain decisions at certain times in our lives.

And one of those things is we need to know when we need to put ourselves in a situation where we're going to become pregnant. And, you mean, and, you know, it's guys. are just as much responsible. I mean, we have our, we all need to take ownership of the things in our lives. And sometimes we have consequences. Sometimes they're beautiful consequences like a child. And we get to experience that amazing miracle every single time. And, I mean, it's, these are not easy conversations. And I don't say this lightly. And I know that there's a good chance that somebody's going to hear this and they're going to be like, I'm never doing work at guardian again because of these

people but I'm just as passionate about murdering children as I am about my job. I mean I just it's just not they have no hope they have no chance and it's just yeah I I don't know I like I said it's these aren't the easy conversations these are the ones I hope people hear the compassion because that's the worst thing and I think that people who believe in life like we do get ostracized and put as just inconsiderate you just care about the baby, don't care about the mom. And that is not true. We care about all life. And we want all life to be able to have a chance to experience what we've had here. And most the abortions aren't because of rape. Like it's just not, the numbers aren't there. It's a small amount.

And if we said, oh yeah, we're okay with you doing that, but they won't, that's not where they'll stop. They just use that point all the time. It's, it's used as birth control. Well, I think I can speak for the, the audience. Maybe. I should never do that. I won't do that right. I'll speak for myself. I'm sure they'll speak. I want to hear it now. Well, just that, you know, you're worried about how it gets interpreted. I think at this point, if you're turning into this show, you've got your ears open,

and I've had some people talk about wanting to turn the radio off on several different guests, like banging the thing. I just don't think it's there, Blaine. I just don't. I'm sitting here, and I'm not even remotely uncomfortable, which is weird, because we're talking about something that is an uncomfortable. subject, right? Like, I'm no woman, right? But when you talk about women in the room, but when you talk about kids and, and, um, you can't be a birthing person? Certainly not. And I don't you know, like I think it's a part part in the French game, but I think it's fucking ridiculous to even put it in the thought process that we want to get society to where men, like it just,

they want us to lie. Yeah, it's, to me, um, having these conversations is the funnest thing about my job doesn't mean I'm not going to get torn a new one on the text line all right I mean it's a very real possibility my wife laughs at me because I I I um I don't enjoy people disagreeing or like losing their mind on me right like I just don't I like I just I wear it for for a couple days it really irks on me and actually I listen to people like Joe Rogan and stuff like that and they stopped looking at Twitter comments and things like that because even though there's only one or two comments out of a hundred that are against you,

those are the ones that stick with you. You're like, huh, like I'm not, I don't think I'm sensationalizing anything here. I think all we're doing is having a conversation. Once again, on a topic that does not get talked about.

And, you know, it's almost like a foregone conclusion that what they've done is right, right? I mean, that's, Canada. You know, when I look at the conservative,

I found this very fascinating. And, you know, I apologize, like, I wish I would have been in town when she was here, but Leslyn Lewis, I found very interesting when she was running for conservative leadership.

They were on the first debate in Eminton. And they had, are you for abortion or something pro-choice maybe? And she was the only woman on the stage and the only one that said pro-life. And the immediate follow-up question I would have asked if I was the host. It was, why are you pro-life? Can you just give us 30 seconds quickly? Because all these men are pro-choice and you're the woman. That seems so starkly against everything that's going on.

why? I absolutely appreciated Leslin's view on things and her willingness because she knew the power she had. She knew that she was a woman who had an experience of a baby before she was married while she was going to college or university, you know, all of the things that could affect her life. And she had all of those experiences. So the talking heads had nothing to get her. She wasn't a man who was imposing her beliefs on somebody else. She was just, using the power that she'd been given to be able to show and shed light. I love what you said. You mean that that's what we're doing here and having a conversation is we're shedding light.

We're opening the door. You know, on the darkness of these conversations that people are just so afraid to have, right? And, and, you know, when we open that door and we shed the light on it, that's when you're right. People are able to just have confidence to continue it. Or even just to think about it. You know, when you think about it, you aren't allowed to think about it if you,

you can't even talk about it. So no one has a chance to even think about that view on it. You know, it's funny. So since I started talking politics, you know, I would have a political conversation, I don't know, once a year. I have no idea, never. And today walking in, a guy cornered me, not, I shouldn't say cornered, he stopped me in the parking lot.

And you could just see it on his face. We're about to have a serious conversation. Something I have done or something I've said, he wants to talk about. So we talked about it for about half an hour before we started this. And not heated, just like,

here's my thoughts because this is what you're talking. Let's talk about. All right. And now, like, you know, do I love talking about the oils?

Oh, by the way, suck at Flames fans, because we won the Battle of Labor on the weekend. But at the end of the day, are you a flames fan? Yes.

Yes. Oh, a little nerve there, hey? Oh, yeah. That's amazing. I'm an oilers fan. you're in good company.

There's even real company. I'll say this. The flames, I think, look better than they did last year. Like, they looked like a solid team. And I got all the time

in the world for Daryl Sutter. I mean, he's been on the podcast. I really appreciate his values, how he talks, and his demeanor at any press conference is just epic. He's gold.

But I would just say, like, when we go back to what we're talking about and opening conversations, anytime you start talking about something that is so taboo, the initial thought for people want to talk about it

is they're going to grab a, in and for people who don't want to talk about it they're going to be like cringing the entire time we're not supposed to talk about that right but at the same time like we're in a country that's supposedly free where you get to have free speech and all these things told that while I grew up and yet Bc 11 just passed and you know and I go I don't know maybe Sean's on the way out right you know you talk I talk hopefully about more and more people just starting to open up conversations and yet the government is actively trying to suppress said conversations because it, I mean, well, your guest there who, I forget her name, but, you know, who moved down down to South America

there because she was concerned. Yes, Megan Murphy. Yeah. Will I be able to actually continue to have the conversations that I'm having in a year or two? You mean, and you mean, if you, you know, our conversations are, well, yours and Megans and a lot of the voices that you're seeing, if they're already being suppressed, I don't think it's a far off. place where the Bible becomes something that is, you know, considered, you know, hate literature.

Well, literally, I've already been suppressed. Like, I don't wear it as a badge of honor. I don't know what I think about. I'm not, there's some big guy that it's happened to large entities. Yeah. YouTube removes your entire channel. And now what are they doing YouTube?

They don't talk about, you know, what's a word? Ivermectin can get you booted. So they talk, and vaccine, even talking about it. So they'll, they'll use, like, different code words to get around the, algorithm right it's very creative that way you can still be on the channel yeah and I'm just like J.P. Sears I love how he does it oh right like just a creative way so you don't fall into the algorithm chat everybody knows exactly what you're talking about

but it's the algorithm loaded up with this is what we're looking for get it out of there so you never treated um with ivermectin I never got COVID that you know of I don't know yeah yeah well we had prescribed with our names on it Ivermectin pilled how the heck Did you guys pull that off? Well, we can't tell names now. Oh, that's fair. Yeah.

So, yeah, we had for our whole family, we had pill divermectin, and we followed the whole treatment plan. And you know, I didn't need to take it at my age. And I want to speak to this because I think it's hilarious. Okay, so a bunch of guys got it the same time as I did at the shop. They were a couple weeks in. They lost their taste, all that. Well, the moment I got it, the only reason I took the rapid test,

I wanted to know the moment I had it. And I was all super disoriented that day. Took a rapid test. Oh, I got COVID. look at this. And I had my whole treatment set up long after they shorted the supply on ivermectin. And so I took my whole treatment. I was done in three days. My family wasn't yet because we all went through it one after another of course. And I didn't lose my taste. And I didn't and it never went to my lungs. And the guys at the shop, same time. So it would be the same variant,

whatever. And so I was, I recover really fast from it. And I never had to go through that crappy part of it. And so I think the treatment worked. Not that I needed it at my age, but I, I don't know. It was kind of cool. Why not? Yeah, why not? Yeah. And, and so when I went to get, we were short one box, one dose of Ivermectin because it was,

I would have to look up the dates. But when I went to the pharmacist, he said, no, Joey, they, if you look here, there, this talk was there yesterday. Like it's, they've shorted the supply indefinitely. It says on an back order for indefinitely or something like that. So all the stock for this pilled human Ivermectin was in stock in Edmonton, like weeks before they filled our last prescriptions on it. You know, I go back to, you know, Peter McCullough right now as having his credentials pulled in the States. I actually just emailed him yesterday.

And so, you know, we just had a brief exchange and said, you know, he's got a, shout out, he's got a new substack. Heck, I'll even put it in the show notes that way if you're, if you're, you're, you know, we just had a brief exchange and said, you know, he's got to, I'll even put it in the show notes that way. if you're looking for it, because I know he could really use some support right now. But his, John Leake, the guy who helped write his book, you know, he said something because I keep, you know, like, I'm, I keep questioning. And it's been a blessing and maybe a curse at times. And he just said, like, once you change your mind from how could they do this to its criminal, right?

Like it was meant, you know, you can get over a lot of things. and when you talk about the ivermectin to me is one of the things where i'm just like the emergency use authorization needed no viable anything in order to be put through and so it's it doesn't matter if it was ivermectin it doesn't matter if it was penicillin would have got rid of it as soon as they had a viable alternative they had to pull the emergency use so what did they do they buried it yeah and we don't like it listen we We can argue about anything you want, folks, but that one you can't argue about. It's so crystal clear.

And so, like, it was a self-induced problem. We had the problems with the health care system before that. I mean, any medical person here in Canada will talk about shortages and beds and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you stack on it that we're not going to do any preventative maintenance on something that obviously could get bad enough to where people died. I'm not arguing that. We definitely knew people that got, you mean, got really sick. Don't let it get to your lungs. They also didn't have the ability to treat it.

Don't let it get to your lungs and you won't need all the ventilators and crap, right? They've, I don't know. You're exactly right. And that's where it gets really hard to just sit by and just hope that, you know, they have our best interest at hearts and who they are, you know, it's a whole other, another story. That's a rabbit hole. And people will talk, you know. I used to just, me and my brothers, I, you know, I love having family members in because, you know, you guys can go and talk and, you know, you've had different, obviously you've had lots of different conversations. But me and the brothers have certainly had some arguments throughout time.

And, you know, one of the ones was Bill Gates. You know, like, what's Bill Gates? I don't know, like, ah, he's just some eccentric, blah, blah, blah, but man, the longer this goes on. And the more things you see him trying to orchestrate and conduct, like, he's a dangerous man. Oh, and you just keep seeing it over the way he's buying up all the land and just, you mean, all the things. It's like, why would he care? Even why do you need to do this? I mean, and it's just over and over again, there's just so many, I mean, it's all connected.

You mean, whether it comes to, you know, the food, you mean, I take her back to COVID. And, you mean, where did you pick up your mask? You mean, from COVID at the beginning? You picked up at McDonald's and A&W. You mean, it's like, like they were giving them out for free, right? You picked up at the drive-through. And it's like, I mean, why are, you mean, why are we pushing people to go pick up their big Mac and yet the gyms are closed and you mean you know the and the crazy thing you know

if you weren't vaccinated you can go to the gym anymore and it's just like there was just so many things along the way that just just played it exactly what you're saying it's just you hope you hope that the opposite although it was a long couple of years you hope it started ringing the bell of like time to wake up time to see what's going on I'm like yeah they they don't have and I just mean I in general it's like I don't know what they is such a generally I hate using the term right but you but you hope it wakes some people up of like I got to take care of my health you know like I got I got I got to you know I got to start looking at some things that can help myself and my family because then if we do that then it can gravitate into the community and we can start

creating these stronger units so that as a country or a province we just become better because right now when you put all your faith into the big institutions are going to have all the answers you know i even use daniel smith that she's going to be the white knight that comes in no she needs everybody to pull too because the day that we all stop talking about it pulling think she's got everything just on the up and up i mean is the day we go back to where right where we came from because one person doesn't have all the answers on this sucker no and as soon as we decide that our leadership is going to save us. That's when, like you said, whether it's Daniel Smith or Pierre Polyev or, you know, Scott Moe in in Saskatchewan, I mean, you look at every one of those. And even like Scott, you know,

you look through the whole thing and we'll never do this, we'll never do this. And four days later, you mean, total change face. And I don't know what that looks like. Again, you can go down a lot of rabbit holes as to why all of a sudden the narrative went to, we've lost our patience with you. You mean, and everybody from Joe Biden to Scott Moe was saying the exact same words, you know, was a little bit mind-boggling to me. And, I mean, and people that I thought, you know, had enough guts to be the potential, you know, Ron DeSantis of the North. You mean, to have that opportunity to be.

Nobody would, nobody would, nobody would take the step. No, nobody had the, the guts to be able to. Well, I mean, you go back and listen to Dr. Francis, Francis Christian. And you listen to what his words on, on Scott Moe is. And if, if you haven't listened that one, go back. That's, you know, we're talking. April this year, I want to say. I think it's one of my first podcasts back.

I want to say if memory serves me correct. You go back folks and listen to that. I try and say, you know, Scott Moe, kind of, and he lets me have it. And here's a doctor who got let go for standing up for informed consent, right? That happened here in Saskatchewan. That happened here in Saskatchewan.

So to act like any one of our leaders that was on the up and up, all through this, you just got to pick the right people to talk about it and they can, they can blow that right out of the water. And I mean, and so that's where I get, you mean, with, with Danielle, like I really am hoping, like she's like, even you, you know, telling her, you know, on your podcast that you mean, I'm going to hold you accountable to this. You mean, she has a lot of people. She's said a lot of things. She's been very vocal, very bold. And so far, you mean, like, she's taking a lot of heat. The left in Alberta is going crazy.

And they're already, like, signing their own papers for, you know, winning the next election. They just figure they've got this in the bag. And I really just am hoping that the silent majority, you know, actually stands up and, you know, and desires freedom. Yeah. And, I mean, don't get me wrong. You have to get out there, Alberton's, and vote in May. You have to, you can't just assume. But to me, I think we outnumber it.

Yeah. And the day that is proven wrong. is maybe the day where Sean starts thinking about what his next steps are. Because to me, I think, I personally think it's her game to lose. And she just, you know, she's got to steer some rough waters that we all do, no matter which way you go about this sucker. But anyways, I really enjoy having you guys in. Is there, you know, I'm sure we could do this for five hours.

And who knows, maybe someday that's what we'll do. but is there any other thoughts here before I let you out of the studio? I appreciate you guys coming in. Any more uncomfortable things you want me to say? Yeah, thanks, Joe. I guess, you mean, I was, you know, ultimately what it boils down to for me is that, you mean, we can't expect our leaders to save us. You mean, what it boils down to is that we are, we need to build strong foundations.

And until we, like I talked about before, we take responsibility, for our, you know, number one, like you talked about, you know, ourselves and, you know, for me, it's my relationship with God, making sure that that is my guidance and that's giving me direction. It's my moral compass you mean is the is the Bible. And then that leads into me having a relationship with my wife that's strong and supporting her and taking care of her to raising kids that, that know how to think critically and know how to ask questions and not just, you know, follow along with those things. And until we build up a society of families that are willing to then change our communities and then those communities will change our provinces and then that will all be

reflected throughout the rest of our society. You mean, if we, like you said before, if we think that Danielle Smith's going to come in and absolutely, you know, transform everything, well, we're wrong. You mean, ultimately, I pray that that is a reflection of our society and that that means that we do have some people that are willing to get serious about these foundational things, these family units. You take it back to Ron DeSantis in the States and there's a podcast he's on. And he just talks about how vital it is that you have. And I only speak, like I think we talked about before women, there's a ton of strong,

especially single moms, total props out to them, trying to raise families on their own because we got, you know, dads who have just taken off and done their own thing or whatever the circumstance is, I only know men because I'm a man. I mean, and, and I know that we have failed our families because we put things like our businesses and we put things like our past times and our hobbies above them. We get all selfish about, you mean, well, you know, I mean, I work all day. I should be able to come home and watch hockey all night. And I work all day and I should be able to go hunting with the boys and blah, blah, blah. No, our responsibility is to raise strong families that have a compass. And for me, that's the Bible. And that they, you know,

know where their their direction is and they are firm in that because until we do that our our society is lost and it's just kind of crumble yeah yeah no um that was well said you know what i um well crap now how do you follow that up well you know what and i i agree you know what um i'm i'm thankful i saw through these these times just a lot of husbands and wives not being on the same page and that was really hard and sad really sad to see that how many families were broken up because of them not being able to agree on situations over the last couple of years. And I am thankful having a, you know what, solid family at home. And Blaine's right.

You know what? I fail miserably as a dad every day. But you know what, if we aren't willing to acknowledge where we fail, we can't change it. Right. And so I daily fail my family. And that's why I can do one step better the next day. And I just, yeah, it's important. If we don't, if we aren't good fathers and not there for our kids,

Good fathers as in being willing to say when we weren't good fathers, which is also daily. And just like they're a bunch of insane little kids, you know, we're men that need to be men and admit when we're wrong and continue to be growing daily. Well, I can't speak for you to, but I don't have it figured out at 36, you know. when my kids eventually get old enough and they can understand all these different conversations. Hopefully, maybe they won't. There's a lot of them. There's, you know, 300 now, and by the time they're, you know, God willing, maybe there'll be a thousand by the time they get to the, or whatever the number is.

But if they stumble upon these, they're going to understand that I definitely did not have the answers at 36. And actually, that excites the hell out of me because I'm like, that means I got another 36 or whatever many years of figuring things out and slowly piecing it together. And I think probably as a young man, I had the idea that I was going to have all the answers at some point, which is just almost laughable to say out loud again. Because that's not even remotely close. I mean, every day brings a new challenge, and some of them you've never experienced before.

So how can you possibly know the answers to? Well, I want to say to you, Sean, you know what? Thank you for changing your mind on. on I guess you you started this as a hockey thing and being willing to listen and talk to people that that don't agree. Like it's pretty cool to see what you've what you've done. Your kids have something really cool to look forward to because you're right. I loved watching the evolution of this podcast. I mean as much as I it was interesting seeing I it started off with me just being super curious about the conversation you're having with local people.

Like I'm I'm I'm we've been here for 17 years, but I still feel like a bit of an implant. You mean? Because you know, we were down in Kiddersley and you are an implant. Yes, yes. Transplant. That's it. Not an implant. And so you mean, it was super interesting to just hear some of these other businessmen and and just how they've made and yeah, congratulations to your dad and t-bar won on on their award this year like that is that you know amazing.

And uh, and that doesn't come. without a ton of hard work and integrity. And so, yeah, so good on them. And that was exciting when I saw that. So, but you mean, watching you grow through through this and the different conversations you've had and your willingness to just to adapt and learn and grow, that's just been fun to be a part of that journey along the way. And, and yeah, like, you mean, it's, it's cool to see where we change. I don't have, well, I was going to say, too, you were talking about you don't journal. I'm going to send you a link. There's this awesome thing that I found a few years ago called a few minutes a day.

And it's this little journal and it's got five years. And it's like a line like this and you put your year in. And it's on every day. And you write in a few lines a day. That's literally what it is. And so I'll try to get in some days. It's literally just me writing what I did. Other days it's like, oh, today was tough.

This was this, stuff like that. And the cool thing about it, I realize I'm all about instant gratification. And so, I mean, I need. to keep doing something, there has to be a reward. And so the cool thing about this was I spent the whole first year doing this. And how it came out is I came across something I'd written 20 years ago. And it was a list of goals. And almost every one of those goals had come to fruition.

I'd never looked at it since the day I'd written it. I was like, that's so cool. Being able to look into my past and see what I was thinking. It's like, I want that in the future. I want to be able to do that. And so my whole first year was fighting through every single day, putting down those few lines because when it came around to year, two, I got to look at what happened on that day a year ago and just see what I was thinking.

And the cool thing is I did it a year before, uh, before the whole pandemic thing started. And so then I got to watch that exact conversation in my own head. So this weird thing called coronavirus just showed up. Some kid in Maidstone had it stuff like that. And, you know, it was the same day that some helicopters and some car crash happened, you know, you know, with this high speed chase. And we were in red deer. And so I have that memory now.

And I'm able to watch those things. And so I'm on year four out of the five years. And I think the saddest thing is going to be when I have to start a whole new one. And I have to go through a year without getting to look back. But I hope my kids get to look at this someday. And that's kind of my little podcast in there that they can someday go back and just see the journey that I traveled and be able to hear my thoughts a little bit and just kind of my life. Well, when I first started the podcast, I would journal quite a bit, you know, like goals where I want to be, that type of thing. and I was hoping one of the ones that sticks out my mind the most,

and this is why I think people should do goals, was my goal was five years to be full-time, and I didn't in three. And I still think, I'm like, man, that's, like, at the time, I was like, man, if I could ever get five years to be full-time, that would be pretty cool. But, like, the first couple of thoughts I had are almost, not ridiculous, but just so simplistic.

You know, it's pretty cool to, like, look back and see how, like, you say your brain was focused on, well, things that you could handle, I guess, right? Because you know, as you grow, you start to have more experiences and you start to be able to maybe handle a little bit more, one might say. I mean, geez, if I had this conversation two years ago, I would have been like squirming. Like, this is, this is uncomfortable. You know, I'll bring some squirming stuff next time. My kids said that you were going to be the cringiest when we talked about this. Oh, yeah, for sure. Here's a, I don't mean to open a can in worms as I keep you here for a couple extra minutes,

but you know, I've been wondering, two faith guys, two Christians that believe in Jesus, God, like, that's what it is. What are your thoughts on people that call it the universe, that have a different faith, but, you know, believe in a God or have you? Is that like not open? So that's a great question. So I believe that the, I believe the Bible is the one book. Okay.

I do. I believe that it says, this guy created everything. Okay, God. Okay. And, and I believe it's true and accurate. And, and you know what? You take the Bible. People say that Christians hate a gay person, for example.

No, that's not true. We care for everyone, right? But the Bible, the God, the one that, if that book is true, and he wrote the Bible, okay? He says that being gay, lying, blaspheming, all these things are sins against him. Okay? Not against me. You can use God's name in vain in front of me and you aren't offending or hurting me.

It's like, well, it's slippery slope. If this guy's real, if he's real, right, he says you're sinning against him. So you know what? The difference between a Christian and other religions, okay, is it's not a word. based faith, right? It's just like in a court of law, okay, if we've sinned or let's say we've stolen or raped someone, okay, and we're in front of a judge, okay? How do you get out of that, that? What can you do? How many times do you say sorry to get out of that to that judge? Can you say sorry and will you get away with it? No. No, you're going to get your

punishment. You're going to get if it's death, if it's in some states, you murdered someone, you you get put to death, right? And you know what? You take that situation. Well, what's the one thing that can get you out of all that punishment, right? Someone has to take the penalty. So that's the idea behind the gospel is we've sinned against a perfect God. In human terms, we're good guys, right? We've never done anything. We can get through society all right. But we've sinned against a perfect God. We all have equally. Me as a, I'm a wretched sinner. Same as anybody else. Okay, we've all sinned against a perfect God. That's what the Bible says. Okay. How do we get forgiveness for sinning against a perfect God? Well, we have to take on his sacrifice. That's what

the whole idea behind Jesus. Like I believe it's not just a story. Jesus came, died for our sins. So he's taken that penalty, like in that court of law, that we can't get, we can't do anything. we can't beg for forgiveness against a perfect God. He lets us do what we want on earth. He's allowed us and what we want to do is not like you go into any of our heads. The crap we think up in our heads, it's like, man, no, I don't want to be that person. I don't know. I think I'm a pretty horrible person if I look at what I think every day and what goes on in my head.

I think I need a savior. I don't know if that answered my question. So I'll try and rephrase it. I talk about, I've interviewed a ton of people where things just happen, where there's no logical like this is why that happened. And I'll use me a perfect example. I talk about this. Actually, I'll do a couple quick.

Brian Burke, former GM of Vancouver and Anaheim, and, you know, was a commentator on Sportsnet. He falls into the game of hockey because of a snowstorm, right? Gets trapped with his family and then ends up going and then all of a sudden this career blossoms out of it. Glenn Sather, you know, one of the greatest GMs of NHL all-time, Oilers, etc., meets his wife, pulled over on the side of an overpass, if I recall, in New York City, right? She has a flat tire stops to help her, and I'm like, ah, what is that? And I've always just said, you know, it's like the universe.

It's like the grand symphony of the underlying things playing out, if you will. I think everything happens for a reason. So, but by calling it the universe instead of saying, now that's God, that's God right there. Does that, what are your thoughts on that? The problem with using God is that you have to use it in every way. When something goes bad and you get in a head-on collision and you die, well, you have to say that's God just every time something good happens, right? So things will just, I believe things are going to happen, right? And you know what?

Neat situations. And you know what? Everything happens for a reason. Even you'll call somebody and you'll be like, oh, I was just thinking about you and you called. It's like weird stuff happens. And I just don't, I don't drum it up to any special mixture. I think what you're saying, though, though. is that, you mean, are we offended or, you mean, is it that we're not giving credit, you know, to

to God orchestrating things when we say the universe and stuff like that? And, you know, like, obviously for us, we do believe that, you mean, God is, you know, is the orchestrator of all things and that everything happens for a reason. And sometimes that's bad things too. You mean, from our perspective and that we just don't have the oversight to know how. how that all plays out. At the end of the day for us, you know, the ultimate goal is, is, you know, that we would, we would be in heaven. You mean, and so, you mean, and, you know, we're taking it all the way down to, to the end. You mean, and again, like Joey said, that's not by anything we do. You mean, that's because of a sacrifice that was done for us.

But, you mean, when we start giving credit to just, you know, the universe and things like that, you mean, it's, yeah, for us that, you mean, ultimately, yeah, I don't know if it's, you I mean, if I think... You would, you... Correct me if I'm wrong. You would probably think, and I shouldn't do this, but this is... You'd probably think you need to ask the question a little deeper on... Is it just the universe?

Well, what's behind the universe? Yeah. Yeah, fair. Yeah, no one... And I... Hey, if I'm going to have you two on and you're going to get some offensive topics going, which isn't really the case at all. Yeah.

Well, I mean, it's controversial. Sure. I'm going to do you what I do. And I love philosophy. I like going to... deeper on it. I mean, it's maybe the greatest question or not the greatest, the biggest question any one human being will deal with in their life if they want to think about it. Some people will never think about it. Yeah, some people don't want to and that's fine. That's their choice. You know what?

I believe God can definitely, you know, direct things. And we see that, you mean, even the Bible, they talk about how he'll send ministering angels to prepare people for salvation. You mean, and, you mean, the hard part is that some people take those experiences, though. And Joey will talk about this a lot and they all of a sudden they start making the experience the thing instead of God. I saw a light. So this is why what I'm doing is right. I saw the light. Yeah. It's like that's not a biblical. What do you mean ministerial angels? Did I say that? I didn't say it right. So in Hebrews and I and I can look it up. Ministering. Ministering. Yeah. So I'm trying to say ministerial. Anyways, carry on. Ministering. He just, I mean, and it's in Hebrews and it just talks about

how there will be, you know, he'll send ministering angels. So, I mean, whether that's something you can see or not see. I'm sure you and Paul had a similar conversation when you're talking about the unseen realm per se. I mean, but, you mean, obviously we believe that there are angels and there are demons and those are, that's all part of what the Bible says. And so if we're going to take the Bible, we have to take it all. And as truth. And so, yeah, he says that he'll send, you know, angels to help. help prepare people for salvation. And, and, and you mean, that's, so that's, it could be an experience that, you mean, that we won't ever fully understand on this side of heaven, whether or not, if that was God or if that was just a coincidence. And like Joey said, we don't really believe

in coincidences. You know, ultimately it's, you mean, your life has some order and some direction that's been given. I don't put strength to an experience I've had, right? Like, man, great things have happened to me. Great, bad things have happened to me. And you know what? I give God glory for both, right? Like, craps, you know what? The tough time.

You don't think, sorry, you don't think that if you, what's, I'm going to say pay attention, but I'm, I think that's, that by focusing on it, you can start to see the path. Maybe you're supposed to be going on. Because if you know, if good things are happening, isn't that a path you should be going to yeah if you focus on good things and you are focused on going good directions and you're disciplined things are going to go well with you right if you focus on crap if and it's interesting though like when you say that i can hear i mean you know you're you're talking about when you're focused on the things that the bible is directing us to and you and you talked about all the

the great things that you mean the the direction the moral you mean you see there's a lot of crap in the Bible too. I mean, there's a lot of stories of people that that went the wrong way and did a lot of wrong things. But when you look at those things and you realize that when you follow the path that's been laid out for you, focus on the good things, the way that the Bible teaches you to go, a lot of good things happen along the way because you're in line with what you're supposed to be doing. You mean? And when you, when you become a Christian, you know what? You're commanded to do things. Okay. What is that? So you don't become a Christian, because of these good things you do, you do these good things because you're Christian.

Does that make sense? So and these good things like they're not the Bible, people are like, oh, you get all these boundaries. Well, no, they're pretty good boundaries. Like it's not sleeping around on your wife. It's not, it's having four wives. Not having four wives. And you know, you got people right through the Bible that had four wives.

Well, it didn't go well with them, right? These are, you take right back to the Old Testament. The whole Old Testament is all it's for is to point towards a Savior. You got all these wretched sinners that are men after God's own heart, right? You got David. Do you remember stories of David in the Bible? You're asking a man about Goliath. Yes.

Yeah. So David was. I mean, do you remember the great stories of the Bible? Yeah. Because that's what you learned as a kid. Yeah. So you've got David in the Bible. I'll try to keep this short.

You got David. You've got, this is someone that is supposed to be a person you follow in the Bible, right? Well, he, it was a wretched sinner, but he was a man after God's own heart. What that means is he would do things, horrible things. He was a worse king than the king before him. He slept with this woman while her husband was off at war. And then he had the guy killed. Okay, this guy, I believe this guy's in heaven.

Not because of anything he did, but his heart, when he was confronted on it, he was repentant. he was sorry. He actually turned and ran from that sin. Well, he had four or five wives through this through his life. Well, this guy's supposed to be a godly man. Well, he was. And when he went outside of what he was shown and commanded to do with four wives, he had all these different kids all over the place. So he had kids that wanted to kill him, right? And in the stories of the Bible, this one son that wanted to kill him, you know what? It speaks that he was. would have went to hell this kid. And you know what? Because this kid, the way David talked about

him is he was so, he wept when this kid died because there was no repentance in him. There was no evidence of a person that genuinely knew he was a sinner. He thought he was a good man. Well, he was sleeping with David's wives. He was, he was a disgusting person. And David's a disgusting person too. Like we all are. Yeah. Right. But the difference between. mean, people are like, oh, how can you say that somebody else's sin is so bad when you're a sinner? Well, it's like, there's two different things. A Christian that is a genuine Christian will say their sin is bad, right? A person that isn't a Christian will say their sin is good.

Does that make any sense? Like they'll, they'll say, oh, why can't, I'm going to go all the way. You know, why can't a gay person, according to the Bible, It's not me judging them at all. I care for, that's why I'd want a gay person to hear what the Bible says. The Bible says that they have sinned against a perfect God, just like me being a liar. And if we've stolen anything in our lives, we're a thief, right? We've all sinned against a perfect God, just like them.

But they're saying that their sin, what the Bible says is sin, not me, is okay, is okay. Is okay and good. The Bible says it's not. like me being a liar, I say I'm sorry for being a liar and I'm repented of it. I'm not saying it's good. Does that make any sense? And if I continue to be a liar, then I'm not repented. Then I don't believe it's bad. Or you mean, you know, if you're, you know, if you continue to live in, you know, any sort of like the Bible, I mean, there's all kinds of things that we know are wrong. And, you know, we continue to live those and not be repentant and sorry about them. That's when we

know that we're not actually. A Christian never gets perfect. We're in the sinful body. that, man, good luck. I can't stop sinning. I'm a wretched sinner. That's what I would say about myself. But I don't say my sin is good. I don't say when I say or think something that goes against the laws of God. I don't say, oh, I can think that if I want.

No, I think it's wrong. And that's a comfortable way to live life. Does that mean? Yeah. Well, it kind of makes sense. the, when you bring in the gay side of it, right? And that's, it's like, it's like, well, I mean,

it's like, it's like, I don't even know how to unpack that. Yeah. To make it, not, not to even like, venture into the subject. It's just like, it's like, in your life, you're married to another man or another woman. Yeah. You're happy. You're good human beings.

In human terms. Sure. Yeah, like God. Yeah. Sure. If this Bible's true, though, okay, that's what I'm. We're talking about this book. Right.

And if you skip over this book. But you just told me the story, David, where he just did everything awful. Oh, yeah. Awful. And still in heaven. Yeah. Now you have this wonderful human being who is going against something within the good book. Perfect.

Yeah. Can they not also be right alongside David in the good book? So the difference would be. And that's the perfect example is, is, is one recognizes that they are sinning against God. And one says, no, I'm good enough. I can do it on my own. That's the whole idea behind the gospel is standing in front of that judge.

Okay. You got David in front of that judge that's accepting this gift and he's repenting as a repentant sinner. You go in front of that judge as a person saying, no, I'm a good person. Well, no, we all know in our own heads we're not good people. Sure. But going back to said couple,

Even if they admit, I'm sinning against what he's put in the good book, right? Exactly. That's up to them, exactly. They could still be great human beings go on living the way they currently are just acknowledging. But if the Bible says that if they're going to live that way against his laws, right, they can't, his sacrifice is no good to them because they aren't accepting. If you're going to accept his gift, you're going to do as he commands. So they're choosing, they can say, oh, I accept your gift, but I'm clearly not going to do as you command. Does that make sense?

Kind of, but I come back to David then, and I'm like, okay, here's a guy who slept around, murdered, murdered, multiple wives, blah, blah, blah. Why does he get to go? Exactly. And that's why I love his example. That's the example we get in the Bible as a man after God's own heart. and it's that's where it's hard to but it feels like it's picking and choosing so so picking and choosing as in david could have been that same person you take saul the one that he replaced okay as a king

of Israel Saul was actually a better man like you really look at the two guys he looked better like physical looks they say that saul was a good looking man okay David was not a pretty man okay we got these two guys. Saul did way less things, but when he did things wrong and he sinned against God, he justified his sin in his own goodness. Okay, so that's the whole idea behind the Bible is is if you read the Bible, he has came to save sinners, not self-righteous people. And so it boils down to that Saul probably did similar things, not as bad maybe. I mean, and yet wouldn't have received salvation because he didn't repent for the things that he did wrong. You mean, so you get the guy on the cross. You got Jesus there and you got the guy beside him who is a murderer and a thief or

whatever you mean. He's up there. He's being punished on purpose because of the things he did. And all the way through his life, terrible person, last minute, you know, he said, you know, I know you're the son of God. You know, remember me today when you come into your kingdom. And so, you mean, it's that repentance. It's the telling, it's just admitting that you can't do it on your own and that the things that you do are terrible. And so yes, anybody can have that. Anybody can receive that. But you have to actually, you know, we all have to. And we all, like Joey said, I mean, we all are, have terrible things.

And I mean, and nobody's any better than anyone else when it comes to, you know, to God. So there's a verse in the Bible, okay. It's the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. What the heck does that mean? Right. So you got to think, if this guy's real, if he's real, God, okay, and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So that's a healthy fear. Okay. Like it's like the whole idea if you get shoved out of the airplane, well, you're scared of the ground at that moment, right? You're pretty scared of it. Okay. You know what? And to use your parachute as an example, right? That's, you're scared of the ground. Right? That's, you're pretty scared of it. Okay. You know what? And to use your parachute as an example, right? That's, you know, should be Jesus in your life. Right, you can't do nothing. You're going to hit the ground and you're dead. Okay, you pull that parachute. You know what? You got to trust in that parachute then. Right. You, it's doing the work. Right. So that's, you know what? You take, people are so scared of

the government right now. You know what? I've met all these people, all these freedom people, whatever, right? And they're all still scared of the government. It's like, no, you should be scared of the one who can take body and soul. Like, I really believe this guy's. real, right? I think it's evidence in everything that's made, right? I think God's a real thing. And I trust in that book. Does that mean I hate other people that sin? No, I think they have the same condition I have and I'm going to go to hell if I don't honor and repent and run from my sin. And run for my sin means change what I'm doing, make it so it's, it's, I'm not a liar. I'm not a sinner and that I never achieved that I never want to say I've ever got that figured out all I know

is that me sinning and me lying is wrong I'm not sure that I got where I was trying to get to either way I appreciate you both coming in and doing this it's been we've we've talked a full gamut of things haven't we you know like when I told you when you said you should come on the show, I said, I don't know, man. Listen. I'm going to say a lot of crap. At the end of the day, exploring new topics, hearing different thoughts, having people confident in their own voice to talk about difficult things, I think is always compelling.

It's always interesting to hear something. Because, you know, there's going to be people who sat and listened to, you know, two and half hours, and they're going to go, they're going to go, uh-uh, like, I don't agree with half that. Or maybe they agree with everything. It doesn't matter. That's the whole purpose of this. as I never get all these right.

Like if I did, you know, I don't know how much fun that would be in the beginning anyways, right? Like it's exploring things that I haven't really talked about out loud, especially on this show. So either way, I appreciate you guys coming on and doing this. I'm going to let you get back to your workday, but I do appreciate you coming in and sitting and doing, I don't know, doing what I do. Yeah, Sean, thanks. It was a lot of fun. And, yeah, thanks for the good conversation. Yeah, thanks so much for having us.