Shaun Newman Podcast - #368 - Aaron Gunn

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

He's an independent journalist, advocate for taxpayers & common sense who is the producer/director of the hit online series "Politics Explained" with over 50 million views on his videos. January 22nd SNP Presents: Rural Urban Divide featuring: Vance Crowe, QDM & Stephen Barbour.   Get your tickets here: snp.ticketleap.com/ruralurbandivide/ Sylvan Lake February 4th Tickets/More info here: https://intentionallivingwithmeg.com/sovereignty Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500

I'm Rupa Supremania. This is Tom Korsky. This is Ken Drysdale. This is Dr. Eric Payne. This is Dr. William Mackis. Hi, this is Shadow Davis from the Shadow at Night Live stream, and you are listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Wednesday, Hump Day.

Hope everybody's week is, well, I hope it's going well. A couple of things here. One, the SMP presents January 22nd. It is a Sunday. Yes, it is not a typo. Tickets in the show notes. We need a number as close to a number by this Sunday as possible. So if you're sitting there listening this, driving along, going, yeah, I think I'll get a ticket in a week's time.

Don't wait a week. That's going to limit the number of tickets I can sell to this sucker. Sunday is the first deadline. I got to have a number by that time. So if you want to come, which I think you should come, with Vance Crow, Quick Dick, Mick Dick, and, boy, Steve Barber. There are three sharp men who have a lot of interesting thoughts. Urban, Rural Divide is the topic.

It's going to be an electric night. I hope to see you there. Click the show notes. You get the point. Giddy up, buckle up. Let's go. Now, guardian, plumbing, and heating. They got a table to the old event.

That's Blaine and Joy Stephan. So shout out to those boys. Appreciate all the support they give me. And I hope that I'm pushing on them. Either way, go to episode 337. You get to hear all about them. Now, they're looking for guys. And I said this now for the last couple podcasts, but I'm going to say it again.

They start off their ad with, what makes this different? And the service team works on a seven, and I'm like, don't get me wrong. Sorry, boys, I'm teasing you a little bit. I'm like, you want to know what makes these guys different? For the last two years, every employer under the sun or close to it said, do this or you're out the door. These guys didn't. So if you're sitting anywhere in this beautiful province, beautiful, country or wherever you're at and you're going, I would just like to know that my employer's

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started this uh um this venture out and now they're they're looking they're looking for people too Right? Like, I mean, isn't that a great problem to have? Like, oh, we could, we could use somebody from around the country to come in and, uh, whether you're interested in meet, you already got a background of meet. Or maybe you want to be a part of a team that could feature very soon, uh, 222 minutes running your, your, uh, your Twitter account and, uh, pushing it that way. I feel like this is going to be a fun little ride we're going to have in 2023 with the

deer and steer, uh, sat down in a meeting with Brian and twos. I don't know if I'm allowed to share that, but hell, it's my point. podcast so buckle up we got uh 2022 is going to be the year i just there's going to be a lot of stuff coming at us but uh it's going to be the year we've got a great audience all of you some great sponsors businesses i'm working with and uh if you're you know hunter or you got an animal need some butchering you want to get your hands on it and work with it give the deer and sir call 780 874 765 and please pay attention to what it comes down the pipe on social media i feel like it's it'll be fun to watch if nothing else.

How about the team over at Three Trees, Tapping Kitchen, Jim Spenrath? You know, the brothers and I were talking, man, there's just like, it's just like no live music anymore. You know, like, I don't know, do you go to a bar in town? I don't know. Does anybody go to a bar in town anymore? Like, I mean, I guess you go to a pub or something or whatever. You get the point.

Well, I was saying, well, actually, Jim Spanrath, I mean, the team over at Three Trees, they have live music usually once a month. And they set them up. and they go acoustic style, and they've had some great local talent in there where you can take the misses for a great meal, as Tews would say. Tews is like, make sure you talk about how good the food is.

Hey, the food at three trees, top notch. Anyways, take them there, maybe time it out with when they got a little bit of live music, follow them on social media to find out when they're doing that. And I just remembered, I just saw it in my vehicle. In December, they gave us out these little cards. and if I take it back in in January here, and they'll open it and see how much I get off a meal. Hey, I'm excited.

I kind of forgot about it. Now I'm bringing it back up. Anyways, make sure you book a reservation. 780-874-7-6-25. How about change the scenery? You're looking for a change of scenery here in 2023? Maybe you're like Clay Smiley, started his business in the garage and needs a new space.

Maybe you're one of the so many entrepreneurs sitting in your, you know, you've stuck it in your basement room and you're working out of there. Maybe you like the podcast. You're in an old farmhouse in the old most invested storage room. You're like, man, I would just like to get out of here and go enjoy a clean, nice facility where I can get away from the kids, that's me, or maybe the mice, that was also me, and have some space, you know, to hone my craft. Anyways, I'm talking about Wade Gardner, Garden Management.

Wade's been fantastic as the landlord, and there's still room here if you need some office space. Give me a call 780808, 5025. Let's get on that tail of tape brought to you by Hancock Petroleum. I feel like I'm levitating out of the seat on a Wednesday, because I'm fired up. Anyways, for the past 80 years, they've been an industry leader in bulk fuels, lubricants,

methanol, and chemicals delivering to your farm, commercial or oil field locations. For more information, visit them at Hancockpetroleum.com. C.A. He's an independent journalist and an advocate for taxpayers and common sense. He's producer and director of the hit online series Politics Explained. He's had over 50 million views on his videos. I'm talking about Aaron Gunn.

So buckle up. Here we go. This is Aaron Gunn, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. The Sean Newman podcast today, I'm joined by Aaron Gunn. So first off, sir, thanks for hopping on. Thank you for having me, Sean. It's a pleasure to be here. You know, your name has been thrown around by my listeners.

I don't know. It's been months, and I keep saying this, the start of a new year, I look for trends or names to, you know, almost tick marks beside their name every time they come in on the text line, and I'm like, okay, it's time. And I laughed because your name came up, and me and you had text probably, I don't know, two months ago, and I don't know where my brain went. Maybe it was hollowed, maybe, who knows. Anyways, it never happened.

So I'm happy here in the new year to get you on and see where a conversation goes. But I appreciate you making some time this morning for me. Yeah, well, it's starting the new year off right. Now, I've watched, you know, I'm going to be honest. I went down the Aaron Gunn Rabbit Hole and all of a sudden realized, holy crap, how didn't I know about half of what you've done? You know, like I had the Vancouver's dying documentary sent to me a ton because, well, one, it was exceptionally well done. And so if you haven't watched that, I highly suggest it.

But then, you know, I was like a rabbit hole. I'm like, oh, man, this isn't like a one-off, you know, this isn't Aaron had an idea and went out and film one thing. You've been at this for a while. And so I'm like, what don't else I know about Aaron? I thought we might start there. for the listener who's never heard of you, or maybe they've only heard of Vancouver's dying, maybe you can give us a little bit of who is there,

and we'll jump from there. Well, I'm out here in Victoria, BC, of course, the bastion of conservatism, that is Vancouver Island. And I got me start in politics. I guess my first job at university was with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which I'm sure many of your listeners

are familiar with, kind of a Canada-wide advocacy group, fighting for lower taxes and less waste. And then there's a group on Facebook. I guess they're actually across social media called Canada Proud. It's kind of the largest network of Facebook pages and everything in Canada that do kind of short viral videos. And I started working with them. I started making short videos for them back in 2017, 2018, where I'd opine on various political events or topics or dumb things that Trudeau did. and when I started doing those, my following mainly on Facebook blew up.

And I kind of spun that off into my own thing. And I still do some of those short videos, but also do a lot of longer kind of proper documentaries like Vancouver is dying and other things like that. And that's kind of, that's my short political history. So when it comes to documentaries, is this something, I don't know, is this something you've always been interested in? Or did it just kind of like you saw a need for it and kind of went with it?

It's a good question. I've always had a bit of an interest in film and video production and a bit of a background in it. But it's definitely more about the need where there's, well, actually, it came about from, you know, a lot of my short, these short two, three minute videos having a lot of success on Facebook. But then also finding that there were certain issues, there were certain perspectives that were being ignored, that you couldn't really communicate in just two minutes. in three minutes. And I felt, and there's just no long form, or almost no long form journalism, proper investigative

journalism in the country, especially that was telling our side of the story and wasn't just kind of parroting the talking points of a lot of the mainstream media. So I guess I'm curious then. What was, because I hear you mean, and like, to me, you know, part of where this show has gone is just been giving a voice to exactly what you're talking about because there's a lot of people with very interesting thoughts that are given zero time or even shun society almost for what they think and say and everything else so certainly have had an opportunity to sit down across from a lot of interesting people with differing ideas and some thought-provoking things I'm curious

on your side you know you start doing these short videos um at what point were you like man like we got a you know you got to find a way to give these people a bit of a platform to get out an idea um goes against what you know whether it's government or um social media or or the corporate media or whatever we're going to call it is pushing because i mean uh there have i assume been a moment where aaron's like oh like we we got to talk about this yeah i would say the um i mean kind of the Where I felt the long-form journalism was really needed was back in 2020 just before COVID, where you had the nationwide blockades going on over the coastal gasoline pipeline, and how kind of the environmental groups with the media helping them were able to distort what was actually happening up there.

And kind of silence any of the, you know, you never heard from the vast majority of elected chiefs and members of the Watsawitan that were in favor of the pipeline. That was something where I thought, okay, this story needs to get out. And a two-minute, three-minute rant of me standing there isn't going to do it. And that was kind of the birth of politics explained. That was one of the big issues that for me really just put into focus the need for this kind of journals. And the other one I would say was also the tearing down of the Johnny McDonald's statues. That was another episode I covered in the first.

season because that's another issue that's been horribly distorted by the media and just felt that, you know, somebody's actually got to do the job and tell this story properly. Well, I'm curious about that. You know, not about the actual, we can certainly talk about John A. McDonald. We can certainly talk about the pipeline blockade and all that. I'm more interested in Aaron. And what I mean by that is, you know, for a lot of people, they stared at that and went, Those idiots, what are they doing?

Or I'll take the Johnny McDonald's statue. I was just like, what are they doing? But at no part, at least back then, did Sean go, I need to dig to the bottom of this and figure it out. Was there, and I don't know, it might be a large question. I'm not sure. Was there a moment where Aaron woke up to like, man, what are we doing? I got to go see, or is this something you've been doing for a long time where you see an issue?

You're like, oh, I should read up on that or talk to some people or, you know, like, you know, for a lot of us, we just go about our day, our day, and, you know, and there's things on the news and you kind of shake your head and you move on with life. And then there's some exceptions to the rule, I would say, that do something like what you're doing and want to get to the bottom of it and take the time to, like, really dig in. and that is, I don't know, I don't know if that was a moment. I don't know if that's a story. I don't know if that's something that affected your life. Yeah, I mean, I think I've probably been like that for a while. I mean, that goes back to the story of I was trying for a significant period of time to avoid getting to involved in politics. Everyone that I talked to kind of, that was in politics, right experience in it.

And I said, you know, go off in the private sector, you know, go do business, which is why I got my degree in and make some money. and if you want to go into politics later in life, do it. But, you know, every time I tried to get out, it dragged me back in. And I definitely think I have a passion for kind of seeking and uncovering the truth, which is, I think, what you were getting at. And it's, you know, I'm just getting so frustrated by the lack of media options in this country and the quality of media and the quality of journalism. And I think that's kind of what drove me to do what I'm currently doing

and what I've been doing in the past couple years is just no one was telling the other side of the story, and I think that the truth is important, and especially when you have a deep passion for this country, as I do, and you watch these distortions of truth really affecting the country negatively from everything from what's going on in the downtown east side of Vancouver, to what's going on with how we're telling stories about our history, to how we're developing our resources. a lot of these issues and the state of politics in this country is because I think there's been a certain corruption of truth because the media has failed to do their job and and you've got politicians that that rather divide and conquer and weave certain narratives together that that aren't exactly

based on the on what's actually happening. Are you originally from, I should, you know, are you originally from Vancouver Island there, I am, yeah. So you have said something that it has perplexed me for, I don't know, now, seven, 10 years. I don't know how long I've been thinking about this question. I've been, people, and what it is is you basically said people said avoid getting into politics. Just avoid it. And I've been told similar things here.

So that's something that has stretched across the country, as I'm going to assume, right? And I don't know what they told you. I don't know if there wasn't enough money. or the public backlash or, I mean, there's a list of reasons. And yet, I used to argue, and I think it's so evident now, it's like, yeah, but eventually we hit a point where, like, because we didn't get involved, you kind of reap what you sew, which means, yeah, you might have went and made more money in the private sector, although I would argue politicians make pretty decent money.

And we kind of get where we are, where now we're all like, well, crap, we need to get some people into politics, we need to push this and everything else. And to me that it feels almost like a short-sighted idea or notion of like, don't get into politics. What's your thoughts on that? Well, I think it's important for the country that people get involved in politics. From an individual level, there's definitely, it's not exactly a career with a lot of career stability. Or, you know, if you compare it to like the United States where there's, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars sloshing around in politics,

You make a pretty good career getting into media, getting into politics. I'm sure if I was doing the exact same thing, they're doing it. And in fact, many Canadians who are successful end up going down to the United States. It's a real problem we have, actually. The real problem. You see people like Jordan Peterson, Stephen Crowder's Canadian, Warren Chen's Canadian. There's a lot.

So it, but I do think it's important for people here in the, country. It's important for this country that people get involved in politics, whether on a part-time or full-time basis. Because at the end of the day, in a democracy, I mean, we as the citizens are effectively the shareholders of the country. And the country is only as strong as its electorate and only as educated as its electorate is. And so it's important that we've got people out there searching for the truth and standing up for what they believe in. So do you think there's a way to, I don't know, you can see it on the wall behind me, a big hockey guy.

And, you know, like, you know, there's just certain days of the year you look forward to, you know, free agent frenzy. And all that was, was, I believe my memory is correct on this, is TSN making a big deal out of it. And over the course of five, ten years, it became a really big deal, right? Where players were finding out before they'd even been traded, they break it on TSN. And, you know, and that's the point it got to. And what I'm trying to just throw out Tia's, is there a way that we can do the same thing in politics? Because, you know, like watching politics every day long, all day long,

will drive the most sane man probably insane, especially in this country, is probably any country for that matter. But you look at people being elected, it's not like it's every two months somebody's elected, right? Is there a way to, and I don't know, maybe out east where it's a little older and they've been doing it for long, maybe it's already there.

But I wonder out West, is there a way to find a way to make it so it's like, we look forward to the fourth year where, or whatever year it is, if it's every two or four or whatever, there's elections all over the place, where you engage more of the, population because I think the last couple of years have taught a lot of us like holy crap there's a ton of

power or at least influence or that it really impacts your life and I would have never thought that 10 years ago and certainly since I've had kids I stare at it now all the time and I'm just like so how do you creatively make it engaging so the common person looks at it and roots for bill to win the you know the election so that you know and that could be in can because I feel at times, we stare at the U.S. election more than we do the Canadian election. Yeah, it's a, it's a bigger and better showdown there, that's for sure. I mean, I think, in a perfect world, maybe your politics is, is tame enough, or you're fighting within a certain Overton window of reasonableness that, you know,

it doesn't have to take the average citizens a ton of their attention. but I would say a big part of the problem here in Canada is because of the media and maybe some of the quality of the opposition parties and past opposition leaders is we don't have the big debates that they have in the United States because usually conservatives just aren't represented in those debates or they advocate their responsibility of having the debate a lot of the time you'll see the liberals or the NDP push forward pretty kind of wild progressive policies and there's almost no push back in the mainstream media and a lot of the time the conservative opposition won't push back at all there's obviously a lots of examples on this I mean there was very little pushback federally on the on the vaccine passports when those were brought in for example for a while eventually obviously the conservative party kind of found itself on that issue but and there's a there's a whole bunch of different issues that that are similar to that whereas in the the United States, there's always a big fight when something, because both sides are very well

organized, both sides are very well funded, there is a robust media ecosystem on both sides, so you have those big political debates. And I actually think in a democracy, although a lot of the times we'll look at the United States as being dysfunctional or hyper-polarized, you know, they're actually having those conversations. And, you know, here in Canada a lot of times you have got these wild changes or pushed through and nobody's even talking about them. So I think it's important that we have these conversations. And I think if the conservative side was better organized

and better funded and all that kind of stuff, you probably have more robust debates happening on a lot of these issues. A really good example is actually Vancouver is dying because that talked about an issue, what's going on the downtown east side and just the handing out of free drugs, of which there's been basically no debate in British Columbia. There's no party in the legislature that was bringing up this issue and confronting the government on this issue.

They were happy just to let it happen. The mainstream media was pretty much okay to just sit back and let it happen without any serious conversation or debate. And most British Columbians probably didn't even know what's happening. They could tell something was going wrong because they could see it with their own two eyes. But they don't know the nuances of the policy because there's not a real debate and there's not a real robust conversation. One thought here before we continue on. Is there something making a bit of a noise in the background on your side? What kind of a noise?

It's almost like a hum and then a tick. And it just stopped. The chair, possibly? No. It almost sounds like, I don't know, I'm... It almost sounds... I have a fridge in my studio. Yeah.

And it almost sounds like that where it's just a little hum and a tick. Anyways, it doesn't matter. I was just curious if there was something that you could turn off. If not, not a big deal. Where I was going to go? I was going to go with, oh, okay, you're talking handing out free drugs. You've got to explain this more to a guy. Like, I don't get the thought process behind this.

When you talk about most British Columbians not understanding or maybe not even following along, I'm like, I live in Canada, and the fact this is happening here, I kind of hear things about it. And then when I watched Vancouver's dying, I'm like, oh, like this is, this seems like a crazy idea. Like one that should be hotly contested. But, I mean, you're a guy who was boots on the ground. You got to walk around and interview a whole bunch of different people. You got to leave me through this.

Lead the listener through this. About the handing out of free drug specifically? Yeah, well, it just be even more the, yeah, let's start there. Because the handing out of free drugs is like, what is the idea behind that? So the idea of the advocates for this, I mean, they call it safe supply, which, which, you know, in the documentary I expose, I think, as an oxymoron where you're talking about these, you know, essentially heroin tablets that they're handing out to people or heroin substitutes. The idea that the government, well, first of all, there's definitely some, I should say this is, part of it is what they, why they say they're doing it, maybe why they're actually doing it, which aren't necessarily always the same things,

because like anything, there's people that are making a lot of money off of this. But ostensibly, what they're doing is they're trying to displace the illegal drug market with a basically government-provided taxpayer-funded perpetual supply of opioids to those who are addicted to drugs. The idea being not even necessarily, that the drugs are different.

In some cases, maybe they would claim that they're providing less potent opioids than those available. But really, those who really believe in safe supply want to provide the same drugs up to and including fentanyl. But do so in a way that has predictable dosages. And, you know, it's all part of a larger concept of harm reduction where the government provides the drugs. and then the attic notionally, you know, injects them in some kind of government facilities

so that if they overdose, they can be revived, and this is just some kind of perpetual cycle that will go on forever. The grounding for that belief or the philosophy grounding that belief is that drug use, hard drug use is some kind of legitimate choice, or these individual addicts don't have any individual agency or ability to exercise what we would describe as kind of personal responsibility and they're kind of trapped in the cycle and the best that we can do and the most compassionate thing we can do is kind of ease their suffering and treat it almost as what many people told me is almost like a palliative issue if you think of palliative care and that is their idea behind it of

course that ignores the fact that thousands of people have been addicted to these opioids and have gone through rehab and rehabilitation and got clean and returned as taxpaying members of the workforce to get married and raise families and seems to ignore that fact and instead just seems to passively accept the fact that these addicts this is going to be the best they're going to be able to do in life. And the best thing that we can do is try to for the government to take over, providing the drug supply and just give them drugs in perpetuity.

How do you feel about that? Well, for one thing, I think it's an oxymoron that concepts of safe supply and harm reduction because I think you can look at the, you know, when they brought in these programs 20 years ago, there's about 150 people overdosing in British Columbia dying every year. and that number's increased over 2000 after the, you know, 20 years of this kind of harm reduction

and these kinds of policies. So I don't think objectively it's been successful, which a lot of people want to ignore. And I also think there's something that's the opposite of compassion. I mean, what we might have used to call it is kind of tough love, where, you know, if it was, you know, your friend or your family member on the street, is this the policy that you would want the government to undertake, which is just to keep giving them drugs and perpetuity? I don't think so. In fact, if any son or daughter of any parliamentarian,

God forbid, becomes addicted to opioids as they have in the past, the solution isn't that they're then given a government taxpayer-funded supply of opioids and perpetuity where they can just continue being addicted to drugs. No, they're taken and they're put into rehab and rehabilitation facilities that are abstinence-based where they're not doing drugs. So it's kind of, I don't know, I just feel like we're throwing an entire segment of society under the bus here and just trying to kind of sweep it under the rug.

The other thing is, so there's kind of that moral aspect of it, and then there's just the fact that it doesn't work as they think it would work. For example, we were talking to home, homeless addicts on the streets of Vancouver who got their little scripts for these safe supply drugs, these opioid drugs. And what did they do? Well, as soon as they got it, they went around and actually sold those drugs because they didn't want them.

They wanted the real stuff. They wanted the good stuff. They wanted fentanyl. So they would sell to their dealers, these opioid pills, or trade them for fentanyl, and use the money that they got to go out and buy more illegal drugs that they were actually the ones they were seeking. then these dealers took these tablet provided by taxpayers provided by the government and resold them on university campuses, college campuses, even high school, as kind of an easier gateway

to get people and that were looking for opioid, painkiller type drugs. So it clearly hasn't been working at all. And it just perpetuates the problem. And the other thing that we really looked in in Vancouver is dying, these increases in crime, including violent crime and drug use are not too unrelated issues. They're completely connected in the sense that we talked to recovered addicts who said, look, my habit was costing me $200 a day, and so I had to go out and steal $200 worth of stuff every day to fund my addiction

or $1,400 a week, and it was as simple as that. So why won't they, like why, I'm maybe. Maybe you don't know the answer. Why won't they just, you know, we tried it? It doesn't seem to be working. The stats say it's not working. The overall effectiveness says it's not working. Why won't they just draw it back in?

Try something. Because of a... So what they say is they say that the reason why it hasn't been working is because we haven't gone far enough. That's always the, you know, we haven't tried real harm reduction. or real safe supply, you know, it's, we, that's, that's, it would be worse if we haven't done what we're doing. If that isn't the most dangerous sentence I have ever heard. Yeah.

Anyways, carry on. And so that's, that's what they say. Uh, now, of course, it's hard for people that are invested in an ideology to ever kind of, you know, objective to look at, look at facts and say this isn't working. So I think that's, that's the first reason. And, um, the second reason is that, uh, We haven't been having a real conversation in society because of our politicians and media about this particular issue. And then third, you get people that are what I call part of the kind of the poverty industrial complex that are now financially tied to these kinds of programs,

whether they're part of you. You have a lot of these groups that are quote unquote non-profits or charities, but I mean the people running them are making 200, 300 grand a year or more. and they're invested in these kinds of programs, in these safe supply programs. There's people, the former chief medical officer of British Columbia, is like a shareholder, it's on the board of directors of a private sector heroin manufacturer, like they basically manufactured heroin for the government for this kind of safe supply program. So you have a lot of people that are now kind of part of this industry. So does it ever, you know, when, that's a big hill to climb to change something when you got that many people who are pushing again, that isn't just ideology. That's the, that's the, man, money is the root of all evil. Like, that's, that's, that's, that's a lot there in what you just said. You know, here in, you know, I, I, I shouldn't, I don't know the answer to this. I don't feel like Alberta has safe supply, but maybe I'm missing.

something. You're out in a province that, you know, is pushed for decriminalization of pretty much every drug. Now you've got safe supply, things like that. Do you see, like, where a pendulum swings so far,

eventually it hits a point and it comes crashing all the way back the other way? Yeah, you see that in BCA. I think he saw that with the success of Vancouver's dying. The problem was, and still is to an extent, that that pendulum I mean you need

you need a force pulling it back you need you know like a I mean in the in the metaphor it's you know it's just gravity or whatever but you need proper opposition parties and and authentic investigative voices in the media that are

that create the conditions for that pendulum to come swinging back I mean in you know in fascist or communist dictatorships that pendulum doesn't come swinging back because there's nobody to actually pull it back. Yeah, there's a monopoly on information. There's no one to pull it back.

So I think the voters in a lot of cases, and why I think Vancouver is dying was successful, is they know what we're doing isn't working, or they think that we should be able to do something better, but they don't see any alternatives. And if there's no alternatives there, most people just shrug their shoulders or stop paying attention

and just get apathetic, focus on their own lives. lives or just or just think me you know or they buy what these groups are saying which i don't know maybe we're not going far enough or you know maybe this just is how it is and there's you know there's no way we can have uh you know anything can be better i mean you see that with you know some of the the arguments and conversations around inflation i mean that's obviously what the the government the line that the government tries to push which is that you know this is something that's happening around the world and it just is what it is and uh you just have to live with your grocery bill going up, you know, 7, 8%, all the consistently.

So I think, you know, being able to have those voices in the political discourse, whether they be politicians or in the media, is very important to get that pendulum to come swinging back, as you suggested. Well, you know, you said something I don't know I'd ever thought about. And, you know, when you give the visual of a pendulum, everybody knows that gravity pulls it back and you know like that's how it moves so i i just assume wrongfully that gravity will just pull us back but you've actually made it very of a nice little point there erin where it's like nope you need an organized group of people to help

pull it back because without that there's nothing to pull it back it isn't gravity that's also you you know, when you think about this safe supply, when they say, no, we haven't gone far enough. If there's nothing to oppose that, that means they push harder and go further to try and, I don't know, is it succeed at their idea or their ideology like that? And until you have something that gets organized

to try and pull that back, it's only going to go further. Actually, that's a really scary thought. Yeah, and I would say it's not just this. I think you can probably apply that analogy to multiple issues and multiple aspects of our political debate right now. I think there's a couple ways of looking at it, but I think it's, you know, I think an ideally in democracy and what you have much more in the states is you have a kind of a tug war where it's, you know, both sides are pushing very hard, fighting for their ideas. And through that, you can think of it as like, you know, almost like a criminal trial. through that debate and tough fight,

hopefully the truth rises to the surface, the best possible outcome rises to the surface. Maybe the left gets their way a little bit for a while, but then if they don't succeed, it gets pulled back a little bit. I think what we have right now in Canada to jump over to kind of like a military analogy is that the trench warfare kind of aspect of politics where you've got both sides fighting,

you know, giving inches on this side, inches on that side is kind of the progressive lap have just broken through the lines completely. There's no organized defense on the conservative side, on many of these ideas, on many of these policies. And as a result, you know,

these people on the left are running around, setting everything on fire, and there's no coherent defense in a lot of cases that's standing in their way. And the result, I think, is very, destructive policy. I think you see that on energy. I think you see that on certain, you know, social cultural issues. You see it on the drug policy, on crime, with the revolving door system that's just ridiculous when you look at it. And in a lot of cases, I think you asked a lot

of Canadians on these topics and they agree that it's, it's, it's, they agree that it's not working or they agree that you know someone that that rapes 15 people should not be out of prison in six or seven years which is what just happened in calgary and and yet it still happens because there's no organized there's no organized alternative that that is that is presenting itself um or i couldn't say that but there's no organized there's no well-organized alternative specifically in the media so a lot of these issues go completely undiscussed and i think hopefully trying to change a little bit, but I think Canada has faced the consequences of having that. Yeah, that's, you said some very, you know, I sit on this side and I say this a lot,

because I wish, you know, I wish I had the ability of Joe Rogan to have you sit across and, you know, and fly in to little old Lloyd Minster and sit and have this conversation or heck, even better. I fly to Vancouver, and I'd probably take that over Lloyd right now, although it's pretty nice. here, today at least. But you've said something that, you know, is, I'm going to chew on for Deverell, for several days to come, because, you know, it's accelerated by the fact, you know, you have an organized side that is pushing and pushing and pushing, and there isn't an organization on their side that's well organized enough to pull back.

Even if there was, the media doesn't give them any time a day. So it makes it feel like there's no opposition. In fact, there probably is. Actually, we know there is. It's just they don't get any air time because, well, as we know in this country, our big media companies are not really interested in certain talking points. And that's why people such as myself get to do what I do. it's probably why your documentaries have become so popular, right,

is because it's filling a void that is giant in Canada. And the problem is, the longer that goes on, the higher the pendulum gets. And it's like, how do you pull that back? It's like, I don't know. But at some point, we either, you know, I just assumed, ah, it'll just naturally come back. But the more, you know, I'm going to have to listen to this 15 minutes again, folks,

because I'm like, that's a really interesting thing. thought, we have to not only get organized, because, yeah, like, I can't even spit out the thought. You know, it's a very, very, very interesting point this morning, Aaron, and I appreciate you for bringing that to my attention, because I probably was like so many people. I just assumed the pendulum gets up, comes back, not a big deal, and the thing is, is, like, it goes across the board on so many issues, you know, like the green agenda is the same way. It's, you know, farming, same way. The guns, same way.

Like, this just goes down and down and down. And you're like, oh, you know, like, Maid. I just had Tim Mowen on again, and I've had Rupa Superman on it. And, like, when you do the history of what Maid is, now, you know, it isn't like it was an idea over a two-year period. They've been pushing for 40-ish years. And now there's money behind it. And now it's like creeping into mentally ill and mature miners and all these crazy things. where you're like, why is that? Well, there's money there and they're going to keep pushing.

And where does it end? I don't know. But it ain't good because the government's involved. And anyways. Made is a perfect example. Made's another example where you don't have this, you would think you have this, the pendulum analogy that you used or the tug of war where, you know, it goes a little bit one way and comes back and ends somewhere in the, in the center, reasonable, well-thought-off policy. But because the defense, in opposition to these things has been so non-existent in Canada. Almost every, if you go back, say, 10 years, every slippery slope argument has basically come to fruition way faster than anyone making the slippery slope argument like myself

would have ever predicted. And you see that on so many different policy fronts. And that's obviously one example. I mean, just to expand on that point I was making, you can contrast it with the United States where if the Democrats go too far on a particular issue or come out with some kind of crazy policy, immediately there'll be all sorts of media outlets. I mean, Fox News is the biggest kind of media outlet there in the United States now. Then you've got just many, many online, huge influencers that come out in unison that are pushing

a counter-narrative almost in alignment. with, you know, opposition politicians or opposition governors, and then you have a real political debate that happens in the country. And usually if the, then, you know, the public is the focus to it. If it is unpopular, you know, the government has to back down. Of course, the exact, you know, thing happens in reverse if it's the Republicans and power and the Democrats in opposition. We're in Canada, the government will pitch something in many cases

that would not be popular if it was opposed correctly or it would be contentious. And nobody says anything. The media doesn't cover it because the opposition parties lack self-confidence. Nothing happens there. And then the change just goes through and the Canadians don't even know what happened. Is it nobody opposes it or is it people oppose it and get zero screen time while opposing it? I would say, I mean, none of the media opposes it and asks hard questions. And the Conservative Party, I don't think is, I mean, mainly because politicians are followers.

So I think a lot of times they don't feel like they're going to have the cover from the media. So they cower and don't say anything. I would also say that that's changing under Pierre Pauly. I think the tone has changed significantly. but the you know even oh sorry no no finish your point

I'm going to say a good example for me I mean you mentioned you're a hockey fan back there you know when the government pushed to change the lyrics of the Canadian anthem which the vast majority of Canadians did not support that would never happen in the United States it happened in Canada without a debate

like it literally nobody people didn't even know it happened like more than half the canes didn't even know the lyrics to their anthem had been changed from from right under their nose because the conservative party didn't push back the media didn't push back there was no one you know sounding the you know the alarm or saying you know what's this about or why are politicians changing our national anthem that nobody has a concern with and it's a good example of

something just just happened and people didn't even know what was going on you see this the same thing happening with the crazy distortions in in our history and and with Johnny McDonald and stuff like I mean most Canadians oppose that this historical revisionism but they also aren't experts in Canadian history. So normally to have a proper debate, you need an opposition that stands up and says, hold on everything that these guys are saying aren't true, we should be proud of the history, the stuff you're saying about McDonald is fabricated. But instead, the conservative party doesn't say anything. The media doesn't say anything.

They just copy and paste whatever the activist groups are saying. And then Canadians just kind of, next thing you know, our entire history has been taken from us. And we've rewrote the the narrative of the country to fit the current government's, you know, present-day ideology. So I think it gets very frustrating to me. And again, it would never happen in the United States. So I don't think it's healthy for democracy. And I think it's, and I should say that if it was the other way around, it would also be unhealthy for democracy. You know, this kind of unchecked power, this unchecked kind of ideological power,

is bad for Canada, and it's created a lot of imbalance in the country. And I think, I mean, I'm obviously hoping that people like Pierre Polyeff can start turning things around. But it's very difficult when you have the entire media apparatus aligned against you. Yeah, I hope, well, we're going to find out here, you know, in May here in Alberta, right, with Daniel Smith. certainly she's been a very interesting character to watch play out in the political landscape, right? She, you know, leading a province speaking openly about multiple different topics. You know, like she's in the same, you know, category now as, you know, Desantis and maybe not quite that far. I mean, DeSantis is obviously the furthest.

I mean, Pierre Pollyev coming out and having his video about Jordan Peterson, you know, um, there on January 3rd, uh, Jordan Peterson had put out a tweet, uh, to clarify, it's been decided. I either submit to social media communication retraining or face a disciplinary hearing and possible suspension of my clinical license and the right to represent myself as a psychologist. And, you know, 10 years ago, maybe a little less than that when Peterson was talking about compelled speech, I think even myself, I was like, what? what the hell is he talking about? Like, I got no clue.

And now you start to see the leader of the opposition way in on that, which to me, he does this, you know, six-minute video or whatever it is. I can't remember how long. It's just fantastic. And it's so well done. I'm like, imagine if that's our leader instead of Justin Trudeau who mumbles and bumbles and stumbles and does so many things just wrong. And I'm not saying everything that Pierre Pollyette will do is right.

I just like the fact that he comes into a conversation that is very um hot water right you know the conservative leaders of past would have just stayed away from it not even the your whole point of being a leader is that you go into the hot water and talk about it you have to and you know i you hope that uh wins out and you hope for daniel smith here uh in the coming months that you know we got two different ideas you got the the rely on government idea and everything we do and say is great and we'll just spend more and more money and everything else and then you got daniel smith and the conservatives i should say in in alberta talking a different tune but they're not getting a ton of help from media you know media is a

dangerous culprit and all of us yeah and i think i mean everything you just said about pier paulia pauliav and his video on the jordan peterson situation i think it's a hundred percent right that showed the kind of political courage and leadership that's been missing in the conservative party. The, and which is why I think it's super important that he's successful in the next election. The challenge, though, still, and then you mentioned Daniel Smith, is it still feels a bit like to go back to that military analogy right now, and even some of the stuff I'm doing or you're doing or True North, is you have these pockets of resistance that are popping up.

The problem is it's still not, you know, compared to the, that basically the juggernaut that is the progressive left in this country. Well, this is, this is, I don't mean to elicit this out of the viewer. But when you say that, what it reminds me of is, is World War II, the Allies show up thinking it's going to be World War I, right? They get in their trenches, they sit down, here we go, boys, four years of firing over the lines and away we go. And then Blitzkrieg happens, and the Germans roll through with all their tech and everything else.

And by the time the Allies figure what's going on, France is falling, and everywhere's fallen, and you get the last bastion of hope, the Brits, and, you know, if I'm paraphrasing this a little bit, and maybe there's chunks I'm getting a little bit wrong. You get the general sense of what Aaron's pointing out is the fact is they have broke through the lines, and although there is a bunch of us rebels sitting out in the bushes firing pot shots, right now they are pushing and pushing and pushing more, and at some point, you think there's got to be a united front that then pushes it back.

That's kind of the idea? Yeah, I mean, that's, and it's, you know, maybe, because I'm metaphorically in the trenches here every day, but it really does feel, now I think that, that and I've always said this and this has been this is also why you know some of my previous involvement with politics but the only person I think they can organize a defense and basically get everybody unified pointing in the right direction is the leader of the conservative party because they have a certain platform that that

nobody else has to set the debate for example the media can't really ignore what peer. They can ignore what I say. 100%. And they do. They can't ignore what Pierre Pollyov says. Or Daniel Smith says when she's the leader. So that can be used as a rallying card. So I think that is a huge part of it.

I mean, the other thing is, as I've said told Pierre, I mean, they the other part, you got, if Pierre is able to win the next election. The other thing that's important to understand is this progressive left juggernaut that's broken through the lines. It's kind of mourns

because it's all paid for using taxpayer money. Yeah. Because the CBC is completely by taxpayers. The rest of the mainstream media has $600 million plus media bailout. So if you remove that, you know, it could create quite a bit of chaos on their side. You know, it could disrupt their, you know, logistics if you want to keep the analogy going. And the other thing is I think that the population, and I used to be in the, the reserves and I'm a big fan of military history.

So I just keep going with these analogies to ridiculous. But the thing about the progressive left, you know, they've got a lot of momentum, but they're also, they don't have, they're not very disciplined, let's say, and they've got a propensity to overreach and do really crazy, ridiculous things. You see it in May, you see it what's going on in Vancouver. And in my opinion,

or the gun grab, right? Or the gun grab, exactly. So they've got, and I feel like they have over-extended themselves to a point where all of the positions they put forward are completely indefensible. And that could be risky for them. And now the concertos actually have a competent, articulate, and most importantly, politically courageous leader in Pierre Paulyat, who I think can really capitalize on that. And of course, you've got new media starting out and new voices and over social media. and a lot of Canadians are also, you know, getting news about certain issues from, from, you know, Rogan and other things, other sources like that.

You ever think in Canada, you know, this idea has been thrown at me by listeners and certainly talked about with different podcasters and social media people, and you get the point, you ever think we could create a, it's not do you ever think, I know we could, do you think it would work if you created, like a daily wire of Canada. I'm just maybe not a daily wire of Canada. I don't want it to be a 2.0 of what they've already got. But, you know, like, sitting in my chair,

I just know of how many talented people there are across our country, not in just BC or Alberta or all the way across to the eastern coast, the east coast, the eastern coast. Why did I say that? Anyways, you ever think there's a way you could put it all under one umbrella? have it become because oh sure fire well i was going to say i've had this conversation with lots of

lots of people and there's been lots of proposals kicking around um i do think that would be possible um there's uh i mean this gets into the weeds of how like the movements funded and and some of the issues surrounding that i do sometimes question myself though with like the various social media platforms like if that's that's completely necessary in the the sense that you can also have five or six people doing their own things that are that are on you know Facebook YouTube as long as it's accessible that the daily wire this is more inside baseball I think what that does if you wanted to to to monetize something to make it financially sustainable then getting people under that then you need you know paid

content and paywalls and stuff and to justify that it probably makes sense for a bunch of people to kind of you know get get together but I do think I definitely do think it's possible. I also sometimes wonder if the Daily Wire might make a Canadian bureau or something because there's lots of Canadians that subscribe to their content. But I do think that's the future. The only thing I will say is that in the short term, the cable media companies are still dominant.

I think the Daily Wires will be the dominant players in like 20 years from now. And I think they're the dominant players now for those like under 35, maybe under 40. just the baby boomers are still watching the nightly newscast and the dribble coming out of global and CTV and CBC. And that's not going to change in the foreseeable future. Well, the reason I bring it up is like I don't ever put my faith in a politician. Never, no more. No matter, I just, that is for me too much faith in government. And I've seen what government's been capable of.

and I think we all have. And so I look at it and I go to sit around and wait for, like Pierre to get in, let's say, become prime minister and change the complete narrative and everything else. It's like, yeah, but then he's going to need to be held in check too because he's just, you know, he's like there's a lot of people. Conservatives are just liberals 2.0 and everything else. Now, obviously the leader is definitely, definitely not.

But regardless, I just go, you know, there's enough independent voices that are really brilliant in what they do. Like, I mean, your documentary was superb, and I've watched, well, no, I'm going to backspace that. I'm going to say my listeners have watched a bazillion documentaries. Like, there's just so many. And every once in a while one comes across the desk, you watch it, oh, man, that was, that was like, that was spot on, you know.

It didn't lead the witness too much, if you would. It just kind of laid it out, and you're like, yeah, this is bizarre. And you're not You're certainly unique But there's more uniqueness in Canada And one of the things I see happen all the time And I think we talk about it with the hop Is you know what happens is you get popular

And then everybody goes to the States And leaves Canada bare And I'm like, okay How is there a way to keep Canadians here Fighting for this beautiful place Talking openly To create the opposition that is probably In dire need

it allows it independent certainly i don't think there's anything wrong that heck you know i i did a little bit of work with western standard and i decided uh out of calgary the online newspaper and i decided you know what i'm going to remain independent like i just like being sean newman i like being the sean newman podcast but one of the one of the pleas i guess from listeners is is i want to i want to support aaron and i want to support sean and i want to support this person i want to support that person The problem is, is, you know, in our current state, actually, in today's world, is they don't got $10 to give you, and $18 over there and $3 here, and the list goes on. You get the point. And is there a way to put it all under not one umbrella?

You're never going to have a thousand independent under one umbrella, but it makes a guy ponder, I guess. Yeah, no, and like I said, it's something that's come up. I've had lots of different meetings on this. I mean, there's, you know, I would say probably True North is trying to do, follow the Daily Wire model, probably. So there are some that exist in Canada already. But you're right about how, I mean, Jordan Peterson is obviously a good example of a kind of top-tier Canadian talent that has now gone to the United States. And it's great, it's great that he'll talk about Canadian issues. It is.

sucks he's not living it and I mean that's I'm so happy he's all the success he's had in the message that he's got to spread to the world and everything else but right now I just feel like in Canada we need every last soul

ready to go and yeah I don't know maybe that's selfish of me I don't know it's always going to be smaller I mean there's there's a whole bunch of I mean there's just so much more money in the states is what it is I mean I'm uh you know, I made the decision a long time ago that I'm super passionate about Canadian politics,

so there's nothing that's going to, or this country, so there's nothing that's going to drag me down there. And, you know, if I wanted to, if it was about money for me, I just would have followed my finance degree and gone and worked in New York or London or whatever in that field. But I get it. And I do think, yeah, I mean, we can get, I don't know how this probably isn't that interesting to your listeners with how the fundraising works in Canada and I mean

it's just not no I'm curious I'm curious people don't kick money around in the same way up here as they as they do in the United States I mean like there's there's lots of conservative billionaires in BC and Alberta and like if if one of them wanted to kick back a bunch of money

and start this they could have kept Peterson here they could have brought a whole bunch of people together and start but nobody so they did start that Sun News network which failed which I think left a bad, bad taste in people's mouth. For people that don't know, that was a television network. Actually started by a Quebec billionaire or a very wealthy individual.

But, yeah, I mean, there's money out there, but nobody seems to have picked. I mean, like I said, True North does exist. Western Standard does exist. So there's people that are trying to do it right now as we're having this hypothetical conversation. but it's there's certainly nobody is resource like the daily why and the other thing is in the states

you can I think the business model exists where you can be profitable where in Canada I personally doubt that you could ever really be profitable to the same extent and you probably rely on fundraising okay you're kind of giving me a bit of the argument

of why to stay out of politics don't go into politics because there's no money there It's like, well, how much money is there? Oh, actually, there's a decent amount of money. You can make a living off it. It's not the end of the world. Now, are you going to become a billionaire? I don't know.

In Canadian politics, probably not. In the United States, yeah, it kind of seems like you could make a lot of money there. And even though you're on the radar of everybody, everybody just kind of goes on their daily lives and they make a crap ton of money and, you know, you just move on. The problem I got is that go, if you follow the money argument, eventually, get to where we're at. And if all the talent goes to the states to chase money, then eventually what happens is Canada continues to go the way they are.

They are the biggest border neighbor the United States have, which means these ideas will eventually go down because it will be constant pressure on the USA, which means eventually, and maybe not in our lifetime. But eventually, if you play the long game and think far enough ahead, it eventually goes there too, doesn't it? Or am I wrong on that? And I just, so I come back and I go,

but there is millionaires here. There is very wealthy people that think like we do, that want what we do. And I just think of, you know, Joseph Borgo is a name that immediately comes to mind. And whether they're doing it perfectly right or working on or whatever, there's a businessman out of Saskatchewan

who's put his money and faith behind a group to create Canadians for truth. We'll see where it goes. so you are in Canada anyways that that that's my thought there's some in Canada I just again it's this I mean there's there's way more in the United States

you know probably do you think sorry Aaron I'm I'm you're getting my brain ticking this morning I enjoy this do you think it's because we don't realize the network that is there in Canada so if because one of the things about the podcast is I've stumbled

into a little bit of these networks works. Not a lot of it, just some of it. And I'm like, oh, this is interesting. And these people are willing to, you know, like Rebel News in Canada eventually had to have had some big backers. Same with Western Standard. Same with True North. I guarantee it. Sean Newman is without his people that don't believe in what I'm trying to do. And so you wonder, are they not here, or do we not know about them? And don't we, we need to maybe uncover a bit more of the work so that that can become not part of the philosophy, but do you, am I getting this across the right way? It's, I'm thinking and talking at the same time. I think there's a couple things. So again,

there's just, there's just way that the mass in the United States is way, I mean, the English-speaking population that, I don't know, it's like 15 times the size of ours or something like that, and then and then probably twice as conservative, and then also a, that's a good, that's a good, For giving, for charitable giving in the United States, is much higher in Canada. You can see the statistics behind that. And then also, to your point, there are people that are funding the outfits that you just mentioned. Usually it's the same like four or five people that are giving to all of them. That's one issue.

And they're almost all in Alberta or Saskatchewan, which is, which is, and, you know, I'm in BC, so I'm part of kind of the Western Canadian ethos. I'd remember most of the population and wealth in those countries in Central Canada, and they give almost nothing to any groups, and it's all, you know, they're playing a completely different game. Well, then I challenge Central Canada, I challenge BC, I challenge, if you're sitting there and listen to this, I'd be curious, because to me, you know, we talk about, Well, I got a show coming up, the urban rural divide here in the way.

And it's talking about, you know, like everybody's talking about it. Everybody can see it, right? Like, there's just a divide in the way we think, the way we vote, everything. So it's a problem. Let's talk about it. Is there any way to bring people back together? Is there, or doomed to this inevitability? And the people, I've had tons of people reach out from Toronto saying, I think, exactly like you do.

And actually, this is, you know, this is what we see. see out here. And so I'm, I don't know, maybe I'm too optimistic, Aaron. That is quite possible. Yeah, I don't think it's going to be easy. I mean, I think that there's, I think that Pierre Pauliev is, his election as leaders, is a step in the right direction. I think a lot of these new media outfits and independence gaining prominence, especially among those under four, and by the way, I think there's a reason why the most recent poll, you know, in the different age brackets, Canadians between 25 and 35 were the most likely to identify as conservative, which to me is crazy. I remember when I was growing up, you know, it was, you know, there was the over 65.

So Pierre and the conservative movement more broadly in independent media is actually winning over young Canadians. But, of course, you know, there's not a lot of people over 55. There's some, but obviously the bulk of them are still watching the CBC, CTV global kind of propaganda drip. But I think that we got our work cut out for us. I think the growth of independent media might be the most important

aspect of that and its ability to reach more and more Canadians. I think without the internet, we'd probably be screwed right now. I also think that's why Trudeau is so obsessed with and the liberals are so obsessed with trying to regulate the internet or you know, manipulate the algorithms of various social media companies because they understand

that's the, they want, as Pierre told me when I interviewed them, they want to reconstruct the gatekeepers of information that used to exist pre-internet, which basically if you didn't have a broadcast license, you weren't really part of the political debate back back in the pre-internet age, and now anybody can start a social media following, start a podcast, create videos, these kinds of things, and kind of get that citizen journalism going. So, yeah, I'd say I think there's reasons for optimism, or at least there's, we shouldn't think the fight is futile or anything. I also think we shouldn't deceive ourselves into thinking it's going to be easy.

Because I'll tell you, Pierre is, I think, a generational talent, but when that election rolls around and same thing will happen in Alberta and May, you just watch the media get in line with each other and settle on their narrative that they're going to use to try to slander Pierre or Danielle and then just watch the ruthlessness that they engage in that debate. Because federally specifically, their jobs are on the line. So the media is no longer a umpire to the fighter, a referee. they are a participant. Yeah, they got six billion on the guy in the red trunks, you know?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and they're scoring the fight. So that's an issue. And I think that's the one thing that concerns me. And to your point about the Daily Wire, you know, I think, you know, there's lots of times that I think that would be the single most impactful thing that can happen to the Canadian political landscape is to get a alternative media

that has the credibility and production value and everything of the mainstream existing legacy media outlets which is obviously something we don't have in Canada even though we have

a bunch of well-intentioned people like it's just the CBC has got a billion dollar budget so like it's it's tough to it's David versus Goliath it is David versus versus I mean we

amazing how how competitive politics is in Canada when you think about it when you look at those kinds of you know when you look at Aaron Gunn's budget to produce a documentary in the CBCs. Sean's Newman budget to produce a podcast yeah exactly you're not wrong

I mean honestly when you put it like that I mean I like to point out David one but I mean at the end of the day you're right a billion dollar budget man like we joke every on the Tuesday

mashup so Tuesday shows we walk through you know the week's headlines in a newspaper right we talk about it and I always get back

to the same thought man imagine if they gave the money they just gave you know these different organizations to do different things I'm like I wonder

what I do with that amount of money like I feel like all of a sudden this show could go to the moon and back just because it could have the funding to

I don't know advertise and everything else. Not that I don't love the ground or grassroots movement. Because, I mean, this show, you know, it was cool. I read, I think, I read, and you can give me the updated number because it probably is. On your website, 5 million views, is it more, it's probably more than that. How many views does politics explain to have now? Well, politics explained over the three seasons is probably around 5 million.

All my videos in total is over 50. I mean, those were a lot of... Yes, but that's the shorts and everything. everything, right? That's the shorts. Yeah, cool, cool. So the podcast, I was with no advertising, all these wonderful who listen and sharing and everything else, just passed a million downloads. And I was like, I'm like, whoa, that's, like, I don't, I don't even know what the number means, other than it's like, that's a, that's a cool one to put on the, you know, like, checkmark list, right? And it's like, so what do you get when you have six billion dollars? What do you, what do you get,

Aaron. How many downloads, views do you get with that? I feel like a lot, except people aren't stupid, you know? They look for quality, and the quality is a $6 billion budget model, because it sucks. I mean, it just...

People want, people want authenticity, people want truth, people, and so you're seeing these independent media with much smaller budgets compete and defeat these much larger media conglomerates. The one thing that we can't compete in in this side of the political debate is broadcast media because that costs tens of

millions of dollars to even play in that playground and um uh the fact is and that goes back to the age discrepancy i think because that's still how the majority of people especially people over 45 are consuming their news and i mean we just we we we don't even have a guy in the field in that in that uh in that debate but i think when it comes to independent media and podcasts and and I mean I'm sure Rogan is getting $100 million from Spotify or whatever but I mean his podcast doesn't cost a lot to produce probably doesn't really cost much more than yours so yeah well you think about Rogan when I watch him conduct himself I don't know what he spent on his new studio I assume it's a it's a healthy chunk of change but I mean in saying that it's a pretty kick-ass room and then

I assume he has a budget to fly everyone to him because he understands as well as all of us in person is a not a thousand times better like this is as close as i can get to having you know i don't have the budget to bring aaron all the way to little old like minster and vice versa um but in saying that uh his production value or like uh not even value his production cost you're right like once it's it's like oh there's two people talking you know the bottle of booze for the day is worth more than half the stuff going on in there yeah i think i don't even know if he be i'm i mean Maybe he flies people out there.

I almost wonder, like anyone going on a show, like I would fly myself down there. Oh, I'd fly myself down. Hey, Joe, I will fly myself to Texas. No worries. I will come willingly. Yeah. So, I mean, anyone that's got a book or, you know, anything to sell or boost their profile. I mean, the ad value of showing up on Rogan is massive.

So I'm not even sure if he does that. I know he books his own guess. I know he just, like, text people, just like you texted me. So it is, but it shows the power of the internet. It shows the power of good quality content and authentic journalism because you've got all the big cable groups and news groups down in the United States that have huge budgets, but Joe Rogan's got the number one podcast. So I think that's where we should draw kind of the hope and the inspiration from

that, you know, David can be Glythe, as you said. It's a little bit more challenging with, you know, doing the documentaries and stuff that I do, and obviously the broadcast news. But, yeah, we'll see. And if Pierre gets in and takes their budgets away, maybe he'll shell out a little bit to Aaron and the small guy like me. Yeah, well, that's the debate in conservative circles.

Do you take their money aware? Do you just sprinkle it around more evenly? I would just rather all the government gets out of the media. Oh, no, to me, get rid of the government and media. I mean, it's a very, I think we can all worry, that's, it's just, it's a bad recipe, and we're seeing it play out in live. Hey, before I let you out of here with a few minutes remaining, I want to do the Crude Master final question.

Shout out to Heath, Casey McDonald, supporters of the podcast since the very beginning. Um, he's words, if you're going to stand behind a cause, then stand behind it absolutely. What's one thing Aaron stands behind? Well, the one that I always come back to is, is, um, is, uh, you know, being proud to be Canadian and not apologizing for, for, um, all the incredible things this country does and the people that built this country. I think if you, if you travel the world, if you look around, we have a pretty good life here in Canada and that didn't just fall out of the sky.

Uh, it was built by people that came. before a really a handful of very incredible generations and it also happens to be the same generations our current crop of politicians and university professors and and media pundits seem intent on on on on slandering and dragging through the mud so that's you know that's something for me that that i refuse to compromise on i mean the media has come after me a bit for for some of the stuff i've said on that but it um yeah it's just it's uh i think we need to be proud of this this this country's history of the people that found it, the pioneers that built it, you know, from the, from Johnny McDonald to the work that everyone did to build the railway to bring this country

together. And there's a not, no so subtle movement by a group of people to try to, I think, delegitimize the country and it's founding. And I think we've got to draw a line the sand and say, we're proud to be Canadian. We're proud this country was founded the way it has. And on the whole, by far, maybe more so than any other country in the world. It's been a huge net positive for the globe from obviously fighting in the two world wars through the Cold War to today. And, you know, sometimes we go through, we take a step backwards, but when you view it in context and everything that this country is accomplished, I think it's phenomenal.

So I'll never apologize for this country. And that's my line in the sand. Well, I think that's well put here as we close out today. Appreciate you hopping on and get some time. I guess for the listener, if they're trying to find what Aaron's up to his latest and greatest, where do they go? Well, you can go to my website, Aarongun.com,ca, but if you want to follow my content, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or the places to go, if you just type an Aaron Gun, I'm sure I'll pop up. and as long as the algorithms aren't out to get me for the given day.

But you should be able to find me there. And if all else fails, you can go to aarongun.ca. And a lot of my videos will be up there as well as direct links to my social channels. I'm curious, what are you working on next? Or can you share that? Well, we're trying to figure out, or I'm looking to decide here by the end of the month. I actually thought season three was going to be my last politics explained season. but Vancouver was, I mean, Vancouver is dying and some of the other episodes did so well that we're thinking about season four and talking to people to see if that's something that they want to see and if that's something they did want to see what issues they think need to be covered in this country to everything that we just talked about.

I can safely put my head up and say, please don't stop, right? Now that I've found it, I'm like, ooh, man, this is something that hopefully, assuming you do. another season. We love to have you back on because I think what you're doing is invaluable. It's just like we need this. We need more of it. And I hope people will search you out, find what you're doing and find the same value that I place on it because I think it's, well, very well done and needed in our country, specifically our country. I appreciate it. Yeah, no, it's whatever happens, I'm definitely not going to stop fighting. and in this battle for life, I think.

So hopefully these pockets of resistance can get more coordinated together, and we can start dragging that pendulum back to a more reasonable balance. Well, thanks again, Aaron, for giving me some time this morning. Thank you so much for having me, Sean.