Shaun Newman Podcast - #405 - Jennifer Laewetz

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

She is a policy analyst and strategist with Warshield, an Indigenous policy and government relations firm and has written for the National Post. Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast Let me know what you thinkText me 587-217-8500

This is Francis Whittleson. This is Benjamin Anderson. This is Dallas Alexander. I'm Alex Craneer. This is Forrest Moretti. This is Chris Sims. This is Chris Barber, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks.

Happy Wednesday hump day. Whoop, whoop. Hope everybody's week is moving along. Here on this side of things, we are harder to adder. I think I'm releasing a Thursday episode this week. Pretty sure I am. Yeah, it's been an interesting. interesting going here. You know, after the event, you kind of take a little bit of a reprieve,

if you would, from hammering out an episode of day. I got a bunch of texts wondering why I wasn't releasing on Thursdays. And I said, well, truthfully, I wasn't planning on releasing five a week. I was planning on releasing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Fridays. And, you know, and then you get rolling in the swing of things. And it's like, all right, I got some stuff coming. Let's roll. and then you have an event go on and you kind of burn yourself out for a few minutes and you got to take a little bit of a breather and a breather is four times a week instead of five times which I'm sure people are laughing about but I believe we're going to have a Thursday episode this week so stay tuned for that either way let's get on today's episode and joy Stefan guardian plumbing and heating they were back on way way way back on episode 337 can you believe we're at what is it is it 406 today 4.05 today I think 405 anyways It doesn't matter. It's like since Wayne does 337 seem that long ago?

I can just imagine how Joe Rogan feels when he's on almost episode 2000, or is he hit it yet, folks. Anyways, you get the point. It's like, that's a lot. That's a lot of talks. That's a lot of, you know, and some people keep asking you having fun. Oh, I'm having fun. Don't you worry about that.

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They are, you know, open for business. So certainly, if you got an animal, you need to get them in, get them butcher. Certainly give them a call. 780870-8700. I would also say if you, you know, you want to learn some practical skills, you can get in there. work with their team and carve up the animal yourself as well, which I think is like super cool. Once again, I've been talking about this for a few weeks because I'm heading back in there in April. I'll make sure to post a few pictures on social media so that people can see my handiwork,

which I'm sure won't be anything glorious. But, you know, I just don't get opportunities to do that, you know, and to square away half a day and go out there and meet with the team and get, you know, and for me, get around the deer and steer a little bit more is exactly what's all about. But for you, the consumer, the customer, if you want to get your meat, you know, get your animal, butchered, and then go play a part in it, I think that's super cool. I encourage everyone to do with that. So that's 780-870-8700 to get the deer and steer butchery, and that is here in the Lloydminster area. Three trees, tap and grill.

You know what's funny? I just asked, we got our U-7 hockey grill. group and we had to buy a couple gift cards and I said oh what's your favorite restaurant three trees and I'm like that doesn't surprise me I mean there's a lot of great restaurants in town but as twos would say few have as good a food as three trees I always point to the live music and if you're going to take them for me the misses out you know but significant other out and enjoy night three trees is it's got a nice little feel to it and it's a beautiful restaurant so give them a call reserve your spot 780 874 7625

and tell Jimbo, well, Jim, I sent you, all right? That'd be, if you haven't met Jim yet, I'm sure you will, and you'll understand when he walks around because he talks to everybody to see how it's going. Erickson Agro Inc. in Irma, Alberta, that's Kent and Tasha Erickson. They're a family farm raising four kids, growing food for their community and this great country.

And of course, Irma, I keep saying it, they reached out. They wanted to team up with the SMP, and just enjoy what I'm doing. Hey, and I appreciate them making their way to Emmington for the last SMP presents Legacy Media. And if you're out there looking to team up with the SMP, just hit me up, show notes. There's a phone line, shoot me a text, and I will do my best to get back to you ASAP so we can see if there's a place for, you know, you and me to work together. Gartner Management, Erloid, Mr. Base Company specializing on all types of rentals properties to help me in your needs.

You know, if you're looking for a little office, multiple offices, give way Gertner a call 7808-5025. Now, let's get on to that tail of tape brought to you by Hancock Petroleum for the past 80 years. They've been an industry leader in bulk fuels, lubricants, methanol, and chemicals delivering to your farm, commercial, or oilfield locations. For more information, visit them at Hancock, Petroleum.com.ca. She's a policy analyst and strategist with Warshield, an indigenous policy and government relations, and as written for the National Post, I'm talking about Jennifer Laywitz. So buckle up. Here we go.

This is Jennifer Laywitz, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today, I'm joined by Jennifer Laywitz. So first off, Jennifer, thanks for hopping on. Yeah, good morning. Now, I've, you know, it's funny. The long story of Twitter and the podcast is like, I run into these people all the time. and then years ago,

I got the gumption to invite this guy named Quick Dick McDick on. And at the time, I thought it was like a great idea, but as it got closer, I thought, this is a terrible, terrible idea. Why are you doing this,

Sean? And then, of course, I've, you know, QuickDick's become a pretty good friend. And through Twitter now, I've met so many fascinating people. So anyways,

me and Quick Dick got talking about you one day, and he's like, oh, you want to have her up? like, yeah, maybe. And he's like, well, here's a number. Give her a text. Mike. Well, that's an easy way to go. That's my story. But this Twitter world is interesting. And you're just another putting a face to a name now, I guess is on this side, Jennifer. Yeah. I mean, I assume you have kind of like similar stories. Because you came to Lloyd for when Quick Dick was on stage with me. Yes?

Yeah. Yeah, I was there. What did you think of that? I feel terrible. You know, Tews asked me before I came on. He's like, oh, did you talk to her? I'm like, well, no, I don't know who I talked to after that show. You run around, you shake hands. You pretty much try and exit gracefully because my brain's kind of fried.

But what did you think of the show in Lloyd back? And that was November, wasn't it? Yeah. You know what? I actually thought it was hilarious. It was nice to be able to get together in a group like setting like that for the first time in a while. I have family from Lloyd, so I was there anyway. And I had spoke to Quick Dick about going.

And so, yeah, I showed up. And I kind of recognized, too, but like, we follow each other on Twitter, but like, I want to be weird. So I'm like, I'll just to hear about myself. And, you know, sometimes I don't think that maybe people don't recognize me out in public because I, you know, I'm trying to get more personable on Twitter with, like, posting pictures and stuff like that. But, yeah.

So it was a little bit awkward. I don't think anyone would No It's funny you say that Because it's like Me being on this Being as everybody knows This is on Twitter

It's not like I'm the most active guy I just kind of You know Creep a little bit I kind of just follow what everybody's saying And try and get my news And then try and find some people That I find

And have very interesting thoughts To bring them on here To kind of Open them to a different world I guess And certainly lots of people Until they come in the show I mean now it's

Now I'm kind of everywhere because of the video and everything. But for a long time, a lot of people would just be like, that voice, is that you're Sean? I'm like, I am Sean. Nice to meet you. Nice to see who you are. And Twitter is interesting because like, you know, Quick Dick in particular, obviously he'd done videos or even twos for that matter until he started coming on. You kind of have a sense of who they are, but you never hear them speak. So all you hear is like little snippets.

And it's kind of, I don't know, it's interesting to me, right? So it's always interesting to do one of these and you're like, I have no idea what today is going to bring. Yeah, I started doing like Twitter spaces, probably when Twitter actually first launched them, maybe not so much anymore. But they were a way to connect, especially through like the conservative leadership and other things like that.

So I feel like people kind of got a way to get to know me that way too. What do you even thought about? That's one thing I don't know if I've ever done one, which is kind of funny. You'd think like I've just hop on Twitter. I don't know. Have you enjoyed that? Some of the best, most interesting conversations the Pleb has put on.

And like I've hopped in just because there's so much, he gets some of the, not strangest people, that isn't the right way, Sean. But, I mean, just like very polar opposites in a room yelling at each other. And you're like, this is kind of strange, but kind of interesting. What has been your thought process on a Twitter space? And then have you enjoyed it? You know, I've been on a lot of just regular, like, Canadian poly spaces. So one's just talking about, like, the news of the day in Canadian politics.

And it's a good way to have, you know, nuanced conversations outside of our little Twitter bubble. I noticed that Twitter especially, you can't read someone's attitude through a tweet. So once you bring it to a space and you can actually have that conversation, you know, there's been people that, you know, have followed. me after a Twitter space where they might be on the opposite end of the political spectrum, but they're like, hey, you know what, you can have a nuanced conversation, you know, you're respectful, this and that. So, you know, they end up following me and we get along great. But there are some spaces where it gets heated very, very quickly and people are, we're at a crazy time in politics right now. So it doesn't shock me that people get upset. So you,

have you developed thick skin or did you always have it? Because Twitter, man, I, this is why I try to, like, I come on here, and if you're, if you're going to get mad at Sean, you're going to at least listen to what he's trying to say and spit out and see what I've done for, you know, how many episodes. I think you're 405 now. I can't believe it's into the 400s anyways. It's like you want to hear what I have to say on lots of different things. We try and bring people on and, and, you know, hopefully provide some in-depth conversation.

One of the things about Twitter is like, it gets so emotionally charged so freaking fast that at the end of it half the time is just people yelling back and forth. I assume that's what it is, right? But like you say, you can't really tell what a person's their tone and everything through a text. But I think there's something obviously I have twos on

and twos does an interesting job on Twitter. Did you always have that ability or is that something you've kind of like had to learn? I'm still learning. Twitter is, it's a very volatile place when it wants to be. And I don't

just get to come in as like a political talking head. I also come in with my identity of being a First Nations person. And, you know, being on the end where I continuously have to justify why I vote the way I do and why I think the way I do. And, you know, they don't attack me just for my political opinions. Most of the time, the people that attack me actually come after my identity. And that's really difficult because for me, it's hard not to take that personally when, you know, they attack you.

but it's like they forget that the trauma walks with me and my life history doesn't just get erased on Twitter. And I always think of that one speech, the man in the arena speech, where if you're not in the arena, getting your ass kicked with me. Roosevelt. Yep, do not care about your opinion.

It sits above, well, it's in our room. I look at it, you know, I'm not going to sit here and say I read it every morning, but any day I'm having a tough day, that quote gives me some piece. That's my wife's favorite one. So that sits in the bedroom. That's a good quote.

You know, so when you say they attack you. Actually, you know, I'm going to think about this. I'm going to get you 15 minutes in and people are going to wonder who you are. But I'm going to finish my thought. And then I've got to get you to kind of give us a little background. When they attack you, you're saying they attack you because you're indigenous. You're a woman. And what else?

Mostly just that. Are they real people? Yeah. Actually, there's been a few that have come at me with fairly large accounts. And, you know, I got Twitter DMs where there was one where she's a volunteer for the liberal party. And it didn't take long for my followers to figure out who it was. And they were sending me DMs. And they were like, this is who that person is.

And it's like, it does not take long to find who people are on the internet. And, you know, like, I would never go to the lengths of publicly humiliating someone and being like, I know exactly who you are. But at the same time, I'm like, I just, I wish you the best, but leave me alone. it's funny i i i always like when you get in an argument with somebody if you defeat me in the argument like you have a compelling argument i'm all for it but when you attack somebody you know when you start using really vulgar language and stuff and you're attacking the person not the argument anymore that's the problem we have right now like over and over and over and over and over

and over again like covid put that on absolute steroids wasn't it wasn't the facts anymore it was you attack the person and maybe the you know sean I always said, like, I might just be naive. Maybe this has been going on forever, right? And some people are more gifted at controlling their emotions so they don't go to that level. But that makes zero sense to me, you know, like, you know, and I hear Rogan say it all the time. Like, people who do that to you online, 99.9% chance they'd never do it to your face. You know, like it's, I don't know, it seems so low.

I don't even know, you know, and how does that garner any following on it? I'm looking for, you know, when somebody puts on Twitter something that makes me think. I'm like, I mean, like, Quick Dix, a magician at it with his little videos, right? Just finds a way to put the context into like eight minutes or less. Heck, sometimes a minute or less. That is a special talent. We need more of that, not less of it. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. Well, here, you know, we're, we're, I follow you on Twitter, which is its own your weird, unique world. A lot of people listening aren't going to have, you know, they come from across Canada, into the state, you get the point. How about a little background? Wherever you want to go, Jennifer, you give her, uh, I'm curious, uh, you know, you know, your background, your makeup, uh, like, uh, where you come from, all that good stuff, goes as long or as short as you like. Yeah, I hate talking about myself. I feel like I need to do more of it because people just really don't know who I am. I'm from Saskatchewan, obviously.

Of course, like the best province in the world. And I live in Alberta now and I love Alberta. But I mean, come on. Anyways. From a First Nation community in southern Saskatchewan, but I live in Northern Saskatchewan. And this is where I work and live and raise my kids and the whole thing. Went to the University of Saskatchewan for almost 10 years.

started out and taking my Bachelor of Education. Once I got to the end, it was like, you know what, I don't want to teach. I took one political science class as an elective in my fourth year, and I was hooked. I wanted to make a difference. No one at the time believed in me, and they thought I was crazy.

So didn't go into teaching, went directly into another degree, went and took my Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, took two proficiency certificates, global citizenship. That one still don't really know what like why it was important but the other one I took was indigenous governance and politics so studying why self-government is important and how to make it happen um and then got accepted into graduate

and postdoctoral studies at the university Saskatchewan with a focus on public policy um some of my research areas have been like the water crisis policy I'm a policy nut that's my thing um married a guy from the country from north of Prince Albert, fell in love. We have two kids together that we raise here, a teenager and a six-year-old, so it's quite the household. Yeah, I worked in

federal politics for over five years and then joined the consultation Rellum last year. So that was a new, kind of a new gig for me. And now I work directly with nations, so working every day on things that affect First Nations

people directly, some important things there. And yeah. Well, then I'm going to start with the one that twos and I talk about all the time because I can't figure it out. And then, of course, I've had, and it's water. It's Joshel and Berziac, Sundance Construction on Twitter. I've had her on so many times. And that one hurts my head.

It's like there's an issue. I think I'm going to say 90. percent of Canadians would agree it's an issue and nobody understands it why you know that the idea is well just throw if i had an answer for sean two years ago had been like well let's just throw some money at it and get it done then you talk to jocelyn and what's going on you're like oh this is strange um in your mind like what is going on with with first nations and water and why is it that it's so bungled why is it that you know like in where we're at in society today why this isn't a non-issue Like, why isn't it just like, by the end of this year, just done?

You know, I don't know. That's a good question. Jocelyn's obviously going to be the one that understands the technical side of it a lot more. I kind of come from the policy end of it. So looking at the data and being able to analyze it is where I come in. One of the biggest issues, there's a couple. And that is the fact that we are going to have to accept the fact that there are going to be communities that are extremely difficult to get water to.

And that was done on purpose. Unfortunately, when the government of Canada, moved First Nations out of the way for the highway and the railway. They put them in secluded areas, and now we have to deal with that. And another issue is that some of the infrastructure, getting it to those communities is extremely difficult. And I think one of the biggest issues that we're seeing now is that the liberal government came in and actually started talking about it, which was a big change from the Harper years. but Canadians, especially liberals, like to forget that just because we're doing a little bit of a better job doesn't mean we're doing an amazing job.

And it's often like, you know, even as a First Nations person, I come in and I'm like, hey, this is where the government is still failing because I see it happen. And they throw the graph at me. Like there's a whole group of indigenous people that laugh at that graph where liberals will come in and they'll be like, here's the graph. We're doing amazing. What's the graph? It's a graph that's directly from the government.

a Canada website that outlines how many long-term boil water advisories there are. It is, it can be widely inaccurate for a multitude of reasons. One of them is that right now it says that there's no long-term boil water advisories in British Columbia, for example. So I made a tweet one day and I'm like, here's what's actually happening in British Columbia, used a First Nation organization, Health Authority in BC, gave the data of myself. I was like, here you go. These are all the Boil Water Advisory is currently in BC. But if you read the Auditor General Report, the last one I was able to analyze was from 2021.

There were multiple issues that the outlined from the liberal government, and some of those were that they were putting in infrastructure that was not sustainable and was destined to fail. The risk management system from 2015 to now hasn't changed. And it even said in there that they were essentially putting Band-Aid solutions on things to check them off the list. And, you know, I have communities nearby. me where they're not on those lists, but the people there are still getting beaver fever four times a year.

But all these people that live in the suburbs of Ontario or the GTA, they don't understand. The disconnect is there. So it's almost like swimming against water, trying to educate these people on what the actual reality is. How, this is going to be, this has been like one of the largest questions Sean has chewed on and has never got remotely close to an answer. okay. I'm reading, I'm, I'm completely changing a little bit of the script here because I'm reading, I went to Frenchman Butte Museum. So if you're in this area, folks, Paradise Hill Country. And from there, one of the old, they got all these great books that have been written about things that are in our area. One of them was Big Bear. I asked a guy, what book would be the best to read? He said, you should read Big Bear.

And I'm like, okay. So I'm like, it has been a fascinating book. But it has taken me time. I don't know why I just can't get through it all. It's only 200 pages. It's not even that long. But just the amount of patience that man had is beyond compare. Anyways, this is, we're talking 18, I forget what the last year,

mid-1800s, 1850 to 1880, let's just say, somewhere in that range. And the systematic way, they just, they just draw out pushing his people into an area. Like when you say they moved him out of the way for the railways and everything, I guess I'd never thought about it like that. To me, when I see it, it's like they wanted them up out of the way that was inconvenient so that they wanted to assimilate into our culture. And they made life really, really, really miserable. like women dying children dying people starving families tearing apart blah blah blah blah you get the point

my question is how how do you fix something that is like unfixable like we're talking 100 and 100 in like i don't know 150 you you know the history better than i probably ever will 150 200 years i don't know and i look at the water thing because i'm just like i mean like one of the the basic necessity to life is water. Let's just fix it. I don't understand. But it bleeds into this much larger issue of like how do we bring people together instead of always being apart. And I'm not one for government solutions because I've seen how they approach things and I just disagree with a lot of it. Doesn't mean there isn't good that comes a bit. There certainly is. But I found with Ottawa when I went and saw like all these different diversions,

people come together under the same banner. I'm like, how do we do this more instead of less? And I don't know if there's an answer to that, Jennifer, but I am curious your thoughts. I think we're actively working on that. I think if you look at the broad term of reconciliation, that's what we're trying to do. Obviously, there's still a lot of healing to be done. And I, you know, I'm just one single person. I can't speak for anyone else, especially, you know, my people, especially I will never

speak on behalf of them. I think it's a learning process. And in our culture, we look ahead at seven generations. And right now, you know, that's my biggest focus is what can I do differently to make life easier for my kids and make them have an easier time? You know, I, you know, I wasn't raised by my mom and dad. So there's a lot of things, even me as an adult now, I have to learn just to pass on. I have to learn, you know, how to be a parent when, you know, I never had a mom or dad around. You know, I wasn't raised with all of my siblings under one roof because of the foster care system.

So there's a lot of things I have to learn differently. And I guess just doing it in a holistic and healing way so that my kids don't have to carry those burdens to hold against their fellow Canadians, you know? Like I feel the onus is on me to try and heal. And I don't want to say let things go, but just to do my best at looking forward to the future so that we don't have to keep. reliving these things over and over again. As long as you're okay with me, Pryan, why weren't you raised by your parents? I was actually apprehended when I was a baby. So, yeah, I actually, in one of the 60 scoop people, I went through the class action

lawsuit and everything, and it was up to kids taken from their homes up to 1996, and I was one of those kids. You got my hair, like parent, three kids. When you say apprehended, can you speak to me like I'm a moron because at times I am? Can you really just lay that out? What do you mean? I actually just had Patricia Bauer on. Geez, what was that a month ago?

And she was talking about the 60 scoop and how she was a part of that. And I never heard that before. So when you talk about being apprehended, like how old are you, Jennifer? You don't look that old? I'm in my 30s. Okay. And I would have been. And I know the cardinal sin is never ask a woman her age, folks.

But I'm curious. So we're talking like late 80s, early 90s. Yep. Okay, apprehended. Please walk me through this. Yeah, so just apprehended just means that social services came in and they took us from our home. And granted, you know, there was trauma interwoven there with my parents as to why they couldn't raise us properly at the time. And I know, like, if my mom is watching that, she's not going to be happy that I'm talking about.

it. But the issue is that we were placed, well, me specifically for sure, in a non-indigenous household. And the problem there is you break that culture when you do that. So luckily, later on in life, I was able to recover from that and was eventually raised by my grandparents. And, you know, but those ties to my dad's side of the family were kind of severed. And now, even as an adult, I'm still fixing them and I'm still, you know, trying to actively participate. participate in my culture and it's it's tough it's tough you you never come back from that so i've always had the thought so um we had a little personal info here for for folks who maybe don't know this uh i don't know if i've ever talked about adoption but um our plan once upon a time was to have two kids of our

own and then to adopt and so after we'd had our daughter we started actively looking into adoption and one of the things i couldn't you know and maybe it's changed from now so i don't want to get everybody worked up. But at the time, they said since we had biological children, the opportunity to actually adopt was going to be extremely low. They wanted children to go to people who were struggling to have kids. And my thought at that time was I was really surprised by that because I thought if you have children who are in a rough house or whatever the circumstances is, even a woman who

just doesn't want to parent the baby, right, wants to give it up right at, you know, birth, I was like, shouldn't we be looking for the best households for those children to go in? But then you bring up the cultural side. And that's one of the things I, you know, I still don't understand because I'm like, what would be better? A house where your culture maybe stays intact or a healthy home where you're fed and, you know, cared for and everything else. And I don't know the answer to that.

But I know at that time, I was really surprised. I was just like, I thought this would be way easier process because we're just, you know, looking to give some child a better opportunity or chance. At least that's where my brain was at back then. Yeah. Well, there's a different difference between adoption and foster care, right? Like, there's not as many kids. Yeah, there's more kids in foster care.

And not, unfortunately, you know, even being a child that was once in foster care, it's more difficult for people who want to take those kids in because you never know when they're going to leave. And that's, you know, foster care has been one of those things that has went through my mind, you know, even being a former child of the ward, where. but at the same time, I don't think I could ever handle bringing a child into my home and then having them taken away. Like, it's difficult to fathom that, although the ultimate goal is for those parents to be able to get, you know, to heal and do what they need to do so that they can eventually raise their kids. That's, um, how old were you when you went through the foster system then?

Oh, I probably would have been apprehend. I would have been less than a year old because it was me and two of my siblings and my oldest brother was already with my grandparents. And how many siblings do you have? I'm the youngest of four, but my sister passed away in 2018. You've had some interesting turns in life, and I don't mean that in a comical sense, just in like I got four older siblings, so there's five of us. And I always think we've been very fortunate that all of us have, you know, I don't know, there's some, you know, you have that stage when you're 18 to probably,

25. I think there's even statistics. Maybe it's men 16 to 25 or they go through a stage where they're just like, I'm going to do a lot of stupid shit. And I hope I survive. You know, it's, it's tough. And I assume women, it probably isn't as long because you probably mature way quicker than all of us. But at the same time, you know, there's, there's an interesting stage in life there. When you talk about the four siblings, I'm just curious, did you all get separated then to different foster homes or it was a different process than that? Yep. I went to one. We actually spent a great deal of time in the hospital because to put it as shortly as possible not to get too far into it, we were not in good shape when we were

apprehended. So I went to me and my two siblings went into the hospital for a very, very long time. And then I went into a foster home. The twins went into a foster home. And then my oldest brother was with my grandparents. And then inevitably, what ended up happening is through like some court battles and stuff like that. Me and my oldest brother ended up with my grandparents. And then the two twins, the middle ones, went with my grandpa's sister. That's, I just think of like all the happy times I can think of was always with my siblings.

You know, like you just, I don't know, that's how you learn and grow. I mean, especially as the youngest one, right? Like you just like you mimic everything they do and you wrestle and you play and you everything else. I appreciate you sharing that. Anytime I have somebody on, I'm like, I hate to dig too deep into past things because some of it's, you know, uncomfortable to talk about. Even from my side, like I get to open it up on different things. So, no, that's, I don't know enough about all the different scoops and all the different things, you know, in First Nation. I think it's one of the things that I'm trying to do better on.

Like I'm trying to read and learn and figure out some things. But I'm also trying to be like, we have to figure out how we're moving out of some of this stuff. Because at the same time, it doesn't matter the color of your skin or anything else at some points. We're all being attacked the same bloody way by our own government. And it's just like, what are we doing? You know, from a first nation standpoint,

were you excited to have Trudeau as your prime minister? And then at what point in time, if you were excited, did you go, what is this guy doing? No, I have been not a founding Trudeau, but again, I'm politically active. So I knew who he was. I knew kind of, for me, I'm more of a realist and sometimes pessimistic a little bit about politics, but I guess you could say that I kind of foreseen what was about to happen. And at the same time, there were so many grievances with Stephen Harper that it was hard

for anyone really, especially amongst the indigenous people, to continue justifying his leadership. So people were like, yeah, Trudeau's coming in. Everything's going to be great. And I'm like, okay. And for someone that understood what his father was like to Western Canada, I inevitably suit, like, could see what was coming. When you mention grievances with Harper, I am not a political nut.

Well, I mean, some would say I am now, but, you know, certainly I joke. Up until I had kids, I was kind of in and around the country, out of the country, back in, then you have kids, and then you start thinking about things a little more out in the future, and certainly it timed in with Trudeau getting elected. Since then, I've been paying more and more and more and more attention. but when you mentioned Harper, what were the grievances that were coming up at the end? I think it would be good for people, especially myself, that weren't really paying attention to things, you know? Yeah, I'll try to explain this as best as I can, and this is a conversation I have amongst conservatives a lot.

Harper was, he was fiscally, he sat on his fiscal fence post and he very seldom wanted to move from it. His goal of the country was to just keep it in a healthy fiscal way, right? But when it came to First Nations issues, the Jobs and Growth Act was going to make certain amendments to the Indian Act and essentially just make projects in Canada fair game without proper consultation with First Nations. The Crown has a duty to consult with First Nations. It's inherent right. It's in our treaties. You have no choice. So that kicked off a social movement.

And as someone that studied social movements, I was shocked at how much I don't know more rippled across this country. I don't know more. They started out with just doing round dances and malls. They started up with a Facebook page. And eventually, indigenous people across the country were like stop Harper, vote ABC, anyone but conservative. And those grievances are still there. They're still there.

No matter how much work the conservatives do to try to, you know, work with First Nation communities and build that consultation, build those bridges. We can't move past it. And it's difficult because, you know, you see, you see. the liberal government come in and make all these promises for First Nations, but, you know, I look at the jobs that we have in Canada with the resource sector. You know, now you hear, well, indigenous people don't want resource development. They want to hold it up. They want to hold it up. No, they don't. There's 65% of indigenous people want resource development in some form. If you go to northern Saskatchewan,

who's working in those minds? It's indigenous people. You know, we saw 23 communities buy into the and bridge the ideal. But when you don't have consultation, you leave a window of opportunity open for communities to be, I guess, have environmental activists latch on to them. Well, Wet Sueton doesn't want this. And then you see celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio

latching on to these issues. Because our government, even right now, they're not consulting with anybody. They're saying they are, but they're not doing it on health. They didn't do it with BLC21. They didn't do it with the emissions cap. they're not doing it, but they're just taking a hard approach where they're anti-resource development, and they're using, again, indigenous communities to prop that up.

So they're just on the other side of things. Harper was on one side, liberal governments on the other. There is no common middle ground on any of this. And all we know is that our resource sector is being shut down and there's no conversation happening. The more you stare at politics, you mentioned you're cynical. And I chuckled at that because the more I stared at it, I'm like, you know what really bothers me? is they pander. They pander to everyone.

Every party does it. And I'm like, no. Now, I keep, you keep using the word indigenous. I keep saying First Nations. Does it matter? Yes, because First Nations,

like I'm First Nations, and I'm also Indigenous, but Indigenous is a broad term for Inuit, Métis and First Nations. Oh, so Indigenous is the word I should be using. Fair? Yeah, yeah. Okay.

So at some point, it just has to drive indigenous people's nuts. When they see people basically pander to them saying, we're going to do this. Meanwhile, they never do it anyways. And just like they pander to the Kwebuckers, just like they pan, they just do this over and over and over again. And I feel like, maybe I'm wrong, I feel like we're maybe getting just a smidge smarter across all groups. We're like, why are they doing that? Why don't they just say what they're going to do? And we'd probably all vote for that, except it is innately in all of them that that's the way you win in election.

So is there a way do you think, I hate to suggest a new party because I just, I'm not really in the mood for that. But if you ever had a party come out and just be like, listen, this is the way it is and this is what we're going to do. And do you think that can ever work? or the cynical side of you says that ain't work and any time this system is way too big and everything else. I feel you and I don't want to deal with any more parties. At the same time,

I think we're just becoming, like we saw it with a liberal government, like government get even bigger and it's so frustrating because now we're seeing at the trickle down effect where they can't manage the government because it's big. The departments aren't running effectively and everything in between.

I think in hindsight, it sounds really good to have a party that's like, this is just what we're going to do. But at the same time, there's a process. And I think process is necessary. Like even with the conservatives, their convention is coming up. And policy will be put forward by grassroots members across the country. That's why you're not going to see any policy out of the party yet because that hasn't been done. And those, to some people might be like, oh, so just to say what you're going to do,

it's like, but how do you just do that with, oh, because. consulting with the grassroots members as to what they want. Well, in my mind, that should be ongoing all the time. Right? Like, I don't think you should have one convention. And once again, if this isn't the way it works, just put me back in my place. But to me, to have a weekend where everybody comes in and we write some public policy, I'm like, no, that probably should never stop.

You should probably be listening to what the people are saying all the time. That's your job. And, you know, but once again, Again, like when you talk about the size of government, you see all the things you're doing. And the fact they just keep doing it, you're like, as a common layman just sitting here watching this playout and having no idea of all the, what politics was about and hearing the different stories, I just don't get it. And the longer it goes on, the more you go, they don't care. This is probably the way it's been done for a very long time, so they don't see anything wrong with it. and truthfully if the population doesn't come together and unite on a common thing

then they kind of get to do what they want anyways right like they just because none of us can you know it's hard to line me and way and peter just talked about this when when covid got to where um it was just like what are we doing it didn't matter what side of the coin you're on and then that coin of us and them was vaccinated unvaccinated it got to this point where even the majority of both sides just went this is strange chris barber a guy from saskatcham one of the leaders of the west convoy vaccinated trucker i've heard him talk lots about how he always wore a mask into everywhere he wasn't this big extremist he was just a guy like our government has gone way too far and everybody went there and united around one thing and what happened within three weeks everything's getting repealed everything's coming off because oh we went too far and i'm like how how can we do that again How can we, you know, like if we need to, whether it's an indigenous issue or just an issue of all people, it's like, how do we bring people back? Well, we got to get on the same page, but how do we do that? I don't know.

That's a, that's a large question and something that the large government seems to just find ways to really get us all worked up on different things that I don't know. It's like, what's the most pressing issue we have today? Let's talk about it. And I truly believe, and I could be wrong on this, Jennifer, and you can laugh at me. but I think majority of Canadians, if they could get directed the right way, we'd fix things real fast. Yeah, I think there's a number of issues that you brought up. The first is, yes, Canadians are tired. Maybe not all of them because there's still a handful, a big handful that both for the liberal government that we currently have.

But there is a big population of people that are absolutely exhausted. And you brought up some good points. I actually wrote about that in my last National Post article about how Trudeau came to power on a message of unity, but then divided the nation. And it was so, like, as someone that has been involved in politics as long as I have, nothing is done by accident. His comms weren't an accident. Calling an election at the height of Delta Way was not an accident. This party was absolutely campaigning on a pandemic. And it was working.

And what scared me during that time was just why. watching Canadians get so absolutely comfortable, just absolutely shitting on their fellow Canadians. Like, you know, you see polls in the media that's like, should we take health care away from Canadians? And I'm like, holy smokes. And people are getting comfortable saying that. And it just, it got to a point where I was just, I would, yeah, I.

I had a, I tell the story from time to time because I had a friend. I'm not going to use his name. don't need to go there. But me and him had a conversation at the height of COVID. When, you know, they're calling it pandemic and then vaccinate, blah, blah, blah, blah. And as everybody knows, I didn't go down. I went my way and he went his way. And what he was saying at the time was, I don't think you should be allowed in the hospital.

I pushed him hard enough that I got him to say that. And I was like, wow. Okay. Like I was, I was shocked because I was kind of, I was watching everything you were watching. I'm like, I wonder if this is actually how. people are thinking. And I'm still great friends with him today. This is, you know, he called me an hour later.

And he's like, I don't know why I said that. Like I have, honestly, I don't think that I, I'm, he's like, I'm like, I can't believe it came out of my mouth and I'm like, well, in fairness, I was pushing on you pretty hard, right? Like I was, you know, we were going back and forth. And, like, there was a moment in Canada where, you know, they're talking about quarantine facilities. they're talking about building quarantine facilities.

They're literally talking that you shouldn't be allowed in hospitals. You shouldn't like when I say it out loud again, I'm like, we got to an insane level. You know, and yet we diverted, diverted, averted disaster. And you come out and you go, I see a lot of hope because I know deep down most Canadians don't think those things. but when you sit and listen to how, you know, well, crap, I'll crap on the liberal government for a bit, like how they did that, us first them. And you talk to military guys and they say all great atrocities that they've ever been a part of start with an us first them conversation. It's like, okay, well, let's not do that. Let's find ways to bring people together so that we can, you know, like, I don't know what utopia looks like. I don't even know if we'd ever want to go there, but we could make things better. And certainly when it comes to, one of the biggest us versus them it has been I don't know

what is this side the European colonialism to the first nations that have been across this indigenous peoples that have been across this country that's been a long

you know like but how do you take out the us first them and just put it back to Canadians allowing for culture and everything to have its place and I don't know I feel like I've gone full circle all the way back around of this question again.

Yeah, I think it really brought out the worst in people. And then you put politics in the middle of it and it became a driving issue that people were able to utilize to feel the way they feel and then justify it. You know, like I, when the pandemic first started, rightfully so, everyone was worried. And I don't hold it against anyone how that was handled in the very beginning because it was so new to everyone. that literally no one knew what to do. Like we were doing crazy things, right? Like, watching down our groceries and whatever. Yeah, I don't blame anyone, like,

for how things were handled at the very beginning because I think the concept of the pandemic was new to everybody. But enough time had passed where, even in, like, the election in 2021, we were getting to a point of just, it was evident that we were using it as a driving issue. I, like, I just,

I really stayed in the middle of the whole conversation. I mean, as someone like, I'm immunocompromised. I showed up. I got vaccinated. You know, it is what it is. I've had COVID a couple times, actually. I avoided COVID for a couple years. But I just, I watched kind of people on both sides.

Like, it wasn't just like the pro vaccine people that were, you know, kind of being an issue at the time. There were like, I had a couple people even on Facebook that were like, if you got vaccinated, just delete me. And it was like, this is the point we got to is Canadians, right? Like, people were just upset with each other. And the government was not making. it any easier. They were dumping fuel on it. Absolutely.

Just letting it burn, man. Let it burn. I put that in my national post article that it was like watching gasoline be pouring on a fire. Like it was just getting increasingly worse. And I even think even to where we are today is people are still just, there's trust issues now and it's created a whole wealth of issues. Well, I have a buddy that I talk to about this.

He's Métis. and he's like, you had your first taste of what indigenous people have dealt with for the last, I don't know. And once again, I use 150 years. And if I'm a little law from, but please correct me, I've been reading Big Bear and it's just stuck in my brain of some of the things you went through. And I'm like, yeah, this is, this is wild. And I just can't believe how quickly things can turn on a group of people that have, you know, one shared thing, right? Like, I mean, if you didn't do it, you, have whatever your reason was. This isn't religion.

This isn't a color of your skin thing. Like it's just you didn't do one thing. You're in this group now and we're going to come after you. And he's like, well, I mean, go read some history on the indigenous peoples of Canada and see what they went through. Well, okay. So obviously, Sean's been doing a little bit of that and having these conversations because I find it fascinating is the word I'm going to use, but like very troubling is. probably the better word, like to what governments are capable over the course of history.

And I think we'd be naive to think they can't do something similar if the population wills it. And when we talk these stories, that's how close we got? So it's like, well, how do we never, ever, ever get back to that? Ever, right? I don't want anyone to have to do that. How do you create where it's strong? Because if you're not divided, like they can't do anything, right? Like, what are they going to do?

If we're all like no or whatever to where we move from here, that's where I want to be. I want to be strong communities, strong, you know, like, and I assume that's an indigenous value as well, is that they want to have the strong community and provide jobs and save places for their kids and families and everything else. I assume that's something that we all want. Yeah, there's a level of understanding. understanding that needs to happen in order to be and to stay united. And, you know, I think, especially amongst our indigenous communities, you need a strong community. You need it.

But amongst Canadians as well, like I know it's really difficult to get really upset with people. And I know maybe I'm the drop in a bucket and I won't make that much of a difference, you know, here on Earth. But it's just being understanding and seeing all, all different sides of how people feel helps bridge that gap to not divide further, then that's the work that I'm going to do. And, you know, maybe people don't agree with me. Maybe they think that there was no room for understanding when it came to vaccines. But at the same time, that's their business.

I chose to go the empathetic route. I chose to be the understanding route. You know, I had no interest in losing friends. And, you know, I came in as someone who was immunocompromise. I was scared. I was very scared in the beginning. I didn't want to get sick. You know, I'd been hospitalized with pneumonia before and struggling to breathe is not something I wish on anybody.

But at the same time, I just, it wasn't worth it to me to spend my days just dehumanizing people and just making them feel awful and capitalizing off of fear and division. And I just, I had no interest in it. And if being the understanding one is what, you know, helps even a group of 10 people unite them. To me, that's good enough. I think what all of us probably want more than anything is just somebody to listen, right? Because you've got problems going on. Everybody's got something going on. And they just need an ear or a shoulder or whatever to tell.

And certainly if they see big problems coming, there was a portion of the Canadian population that grew and grew and grew the longer it went on. They got to a tipping point of where you're like, yeah, this probably needs to stop, right? Like life is, you know. Yeah, it's, it's, it was an interesting, interesting time. I'm curious, you being, I'm going to say a political nerd, you political nerd? What have you thought about the China, the Cesis, everything coming out? Like, I mean, it's just another thing on the old, uh, um, um, resume of Trudeau's government. I mean, like there has been how many different scandals go on and nothing seems to, uh, um, stick.

and then this one on Handong, and then I saw his letter, he's suing global and for defamation and different things like that. And you read his brief little story about where they escaped China and things like that, and you're like, so where do you sit on this?

You've probably been following this, you know, since day one. I think that there's a number of issues. I think the liberal government has lost trust in a majority of the people that don't vote for them, right? There's a ton of Canadians that don't trust them. and now we're plagued with yet another issue. Allegations of election interference, especially from China,

is widely concerning. And they almost kind of are like expecting us to give them the benefit of the doubt that everything is fine. Canadians were already skeptical before this. Why are you shocked that they're already labeling someone is guilty? Because they just, they don't trust you. They do not trust you. So I, when it comes to the allegations, like I read the press release this morning and it's good.

It's in the communication side of things. He checked all the boxes. He put in a personal story. He ended it with saying, I'm innocent. Like, whoever wrote that did a good job. You know, but at the same time, I think Canadians really need to start paying attention, and I try not to get too upset about this.

But we have had an issue with nominations in this country for a long time. And it's not just with election interference. It's even grassroots. people, right? Like, you look at, you look at a safe riding. You know, I live in Saskatchewan, there's ridings here where they win with 70% of the vote. Winning the election isn't the hard part. It's winning the nomination. And if you're backed by any special interest groups, whether it be organizations that support you, whether it be religious organizations, I don't know, election interference, anything in between, we are then going to have candidates that really,

you know, I'm sorry to say it probably didn't have to work that hard, but they had the outside help to push them where they needed to go. So I want to make sure that if there's not a political junkie on here, that I believe I get what you're saying, is what I said about China was interesting is they didn't actively send people to vote in the election. What the thing was is you have your nomination. So here we have a UCP and I guess in this area you could be NDP, you could be whatever. And then you have the election and what's going to happen at the election? Everybody's going to vote. and I'm sorry, I'm speaking provincial now.

UCP in this upcoming May election in our area is going to be like, I don't know, I don't know what it's going to be. We'll say 70, 80 percent. It's going to be high because everybody votes conservative in this area. So what you're talking about is the nomination for who's going to run for the UCP because you can put your name in for that. You can have 10 different people running for it and you have to get voted to be the leader of the UCP in the upcoming election, correct? Right. So, yes, and that's the issue is when you have stronghold writings like this, and I know I've seen some liberals run with the talking points of like,

these allegations, you know, it's not that big of a deal. It didn't affect the actual election. It was the nomination. It doesn't matter. When it affects the nomination and they get in, they're now a sitting member of our government with the capabilities of making decisions. And, you know, I hear people talk about, well, there has been a couple different political talking heads come out,

saying, well, it didn't affect the outcome of the election. Okay, no, those seats probably stayed the same because they were stronghold ridings. So those seats might not have changed. But the people that got in those seats, if they were backed by election interference, that is a problem. You know, conservatives might not have won the election because there wasn't enough seats to be compromised. But if we have even one person sitting in government that was backed by election interference, that is too many. Yeah, it's brilliant, though. My hat's off to them, you know, in a really weird way, right?

Like I'm like, so what they did is they looked at the map and they went, so, you know, I'm going to use, I'm going to use the United States as an instance, okay? You look at the map and everybody's probably seen this before where it's a sea of red. And then you got a couple cities that are blue. Heck, I think in Alberta we can think of a place that's orange, you know, it's in a sea of blue. A sea of blue for us. and what they, like, if you could win, I don't know why I'm bouncing around, I'll stick to Alberta, all right, I'll stick to Alberta. See a blue with, with Eminton being orange. If you just look at it and go, like the NDP have won these seats for the last, I don't know, five years, five elections. It's like, well, why don't we try and get nominated in, as an NDP in there, and then voters just go out and cast votes and it's NDP. And, I mean, don't get me wrong, it is playing dirty, but by the rule, of Canada is that not legal right now? And that's what you're saying like,

this needs to change. But right now as it sits, that's the weakness they've identified. And not just, probably not, probably not just China, like just political nuts in general, understand this. It's very like underhanded,

because you're playing for the other team in order to do with, you know, it's, but that's what they're doing. So how do you change that? How do you stop that from happening. You get involved and a lot of people don't. I know even in a riding of, you know, 90, 100,000 people, there could be less than

a thousand conservative members. And if that's a safe hold conservative writing where that member wins with 70% of the vote, but there's less than a thousand members that get to decide who that nomination is, that's, you know, and it's a very small percentage. This is what happened to Jason Kennedy. right? They had the confidence vote and I had never owned

a UCP membership in my life and I went out and bought one as soon as I heard there was going to be a confidence vote and I would have an opportunity at least cast a ballot and I was laughing I'm like there's 4.4 million roughly Albertans 4.2 maybe somewhere in there and certainly they're not all voting age but there was a hundred was it a hundred and was it a hundred and twenty thousand folks i think it was a hundred and twenty

some thousand folks uh bought ucp memberships and voted on that to put daniel smith uh well a sorry to to have um uh the confidence vote and then the it grew to 120 thousand sorry to vote for daniel smith i'm buttering this a little bit but when daniel smith and and travis taves are up there you're like there should be a million votes on this right now like if it's truly alberta like this is a wild thing for 100,000 people to vote in whoever they want. How much do you, you know, sitting in PA, how much are you looking at the Alberta election coming up in May and going, this is really, really big for Canada? Or are you like, ah, conservatives are going to win this?

It's not a big deal. You know, I admit that I don't pay a ton of attention to, like, outside provincial elections. Obviously, I'll be watching because I'm a political nut, but I'm, I'm not. not super educated on what's going on outside of province.

My head's right in the middle of federal politics. Okay, so then let's stick with federal. What is the biggest story you see

happening right now that Canadians should know about in federal politics? The allegation interference for sure, the election interference and the allegations

surrounding it, I think if this isn't enough to entice people to want to get involved locally and start choosing who they're candidates are than I don't know what it is.

How do we get people interested in politics? You know, on the wall, hockey guy, and in hockey, there, you know, certainly it is, people are begging for them to stop being so political and taking, you know, just interjecting politics and social justice stuff into a sport where they just want to go and watch a sport. but, you know, like, one of the things hockey programs always said is we're never going to talk about religion and politics. And it's like, okay, so how do you entice people to want,

you know, you think, like to entice people in the policy, well, like, dictates your life. You should get involved because this is who's, that doesn't seem to work. So how do you make it in a way, Jennifer, that people actually want to be involved in it? I think now, if we look at the voter turnout, depending on your age, young people have typically not showed up in numbers to vote as much as older

people have. I think now with the crushing pressure of not being able to own a home and, you know, other things going wrong with inflation and taxes and everything in between, we're going to start just naturally enticing people to get involved. I have a real grievance with people that don't care. I've been surrounded by people even in my own personal life where, you know, I understand that I'm very passionate and sometimes my ADHD gets the best to me because being a political talking head and an ADHD or at the same time, I'm like, why don't you care? But at the same time, you know, there's even been minor things in politics that I try to bring

up with, you know, certain friends or certain people around me. And you could just tell that they could not care less. And I don't know. To me, it's extremely frustrating because I'm like, it is what it is, I guess. But it's frustrating. I've always thought if you could create American Idol for your writing, you know, And I'm a conservative, so liberals feel free to grab my, because to me, I just want good politicians, right? I want somebody who, you know, is the right candidate.

I've always wondered if in my writing for next time. And for me, you know, here it's going to be UCP enless in the next four years. Something really drastically changes of a way, because Garth will be, I assume, after his second term, I assume he gets in. This is a lot of assumptions, folks. But I assume he gets in and it's like, okay, we have somebody new coming in. how do we go about creating something where you get the best people

pushed forward and then an opportunity for them to be heard seen by more people than just what the political nerds know where to go and how to see everything. By the time you get to an election, you have a couple of debates where they kind of talk a little bit and you kind of get to understand who they are.

But at the same time, I'm like, you know, and certainly I'll probably try and interview a bunch, right? but like if it's only two guys there's only six guys and i don't even know where they come from like how do we in your area your community how do you find the best so that they want to do that was always my idea on how to like get it maybe kind of like popular not a game show but you know kind of like this is big like this is a big to do like these people have very important jobs i don't think i realized how important they are until you know you have kids and you start

staring at this and you know there's certain uh uh points in your life where you start to stare at things a little differently. Kids for me was certainly the one where you're like, we got to do this. But I don't know if that can work nationwide. I don't know how does a community, you know, foster an environment that is like, we're going to make politics cool for six months so that we can get the right person to represent us. Yeah, I think that there's a multitude of ways that we could do that, like American Isles a little bit out there. But, you know, depending on the organizations in the area, whether it be chambers or whatever it is hosting political political idol you know on there can you imagine oh yeah rock obam would have nailed that everybody would have been you know like he gets on

stage starts talking you're like who is this guy uh i still remember the first time i ever saw him start talking like who is this guy anyways carry on um for me it should like the parties really need to crack down on their eligibility criteria for nominations. And again, I think if you're backed by anyone other than grassroots members that actually support you, then I don't think that you... How would they know? How would they know?

If it just came out. Like, if you have an organization, like, let's say I have an indigenous organization. And, you know, I'm not putting in any work or I haven't put in any work for five years or whatever. And an indigenous organization just starts, you know, rallying the troops and they're emailing and they're calling everybody and they're like, just show up and vote for her. It's like, how much have I earned to really get there? You know what I mean?

Like, for me, I like the old-fashioned way of politics. Knocking on doors, phoning people yourself. Like, I, you know, I've been asked numerous times if I plan to run, and I still don't know the answer to that because right now, working with indigenous communities is the best place for me. But I've spent the last, you know, five plus years just listening to Canadians, whether it be Twitter spaces or, you know, getting to know different people, that the issues that I could potentially represent one day, whether I decide to do that or not,

are not just indigenous issues. They're agriculture issues. They're Canadian issues. And I think that that's important. And, you know, if my MP ever decides to retire, I would be shocked to see who decides to run. Because as someone that's been out the last few elections, I haven't seen many other people that heavily involved to be able to put my full support behind them. I'd be like, where have you been? it's interesting though because i i start um talking to people and i start you know like um certainly you know it's been four years for me a little over four years of talking now uh on this show to different people and certainly it's been you know the last year and a half maybe two years where i started

really digging into some different political things uh certainly but i feel like they're they're sitting there like i you know like think of think of us too uh you know uh i didn't know who the heck you were until you came to the show and quick dick talk to me about you afterwards and then you know you look out and then you start following along and you know you just this little it's like this uh we don't realize what is in our ecosystem like of talented Canadians that are smart want to be involved but they just need a little encouragement they just need a little kick in the bum you know just a little here we go and get out the door because I keep running into them all over the place. You know, how many Saskatchewan folks that are just sharp as tax are sitting there in

Alberta is the same way. And I'm sure Ontario has it. I'm sure, you know, BC has them and everything else. It's just they're caught in a little bit of their own ecosystem. They're smaller one. And then essentially, not essentially, but as well, they don't realize how many talented Canadians are sitting right beside them. And, you know, that's a little bit of a network of like, I mean, we just had a whole bunch of independent media at the last show. And that was really interesting to watch play out. A lot of them are Twitter characters as well. But even now, as things are coming down the pipe, I see them now interacting and working together. I'm like, oh, that's kind of cool. I don't know where that goes. I have no idea. But on the political side, Jennifer, I think, you know,

like you talk about running. I'm like, I wonder how many other people who are paying attention such as yourself are pondering that same question. And, you know, and then there's probably people sitting right beside you that have no idea that that was even a thought out of your brain. You know, it's like, because if you know, a little bit of encouragement, help, I'll help you do this, you know, like, because running in politics is not like an individual by themselves. They're going to need some help on, you know, the door knocking alone and getting out and all that jazz. Like, I don't, I look at politics. I'm like, man, that's a steep ask, right?

Like, there's a reason why lots of good people don't want to get involved in them. That's true. and I, you know, I, it's been a conversation that's kind of a lot of people ask me. I mean, you can even look at my Twitter and it's a question that I'm asked all the time, at least once a week. But the thing is, is that I want to be able to make a difference. And I know that that sounds so cliche, but it's like, I think from being involved in politics for as long as I have and watching things play out the way they have,

if I can't go in with 110% confidence that I can actually do the job that I'm required to do and and, you know, make the people that elected me proud, then I would never do it. And I just, yeah, I know that there's going to be people that if I were to ever run that I'm up against that have the connections or have the name or have the money or have the family. And I don't have that. And that's just plain and simple. You know, me, for me, I'm the first one in my family to go to university. I'm the first one to be politically active. This, what I have today, I had to build from the ground up and then overcome so many hurdles that the average person doesn't even have to go through. So to think about ever trying to get elected sounds so incredibly difficult.

And if it ever comes down to that day, I hope the people know that if I ever decide to put my name on a nomination paper, it's because so much thought went into it and that it's because I'm ready and fully able to do it. I think the average person in Canada has had to do a lot of what you've had to do, not certainly not the cultural aspect and certainly a couple parts there. I think we're

like I think we're led to believe that to be in politics you have to have this great amazing background and all these blah blah blah blah blah and I'm at this point I'm like I'd love to see a political nerd like

Jennifer in politics where she's ramped up but I'd also like to see a guy who's ran a plumbing company and he's just like, you know what, I'm fed up. And let's get in there and let's get to work and let's start doing things like that. Because, you know, like, you know, in my mind, what makes Western Canada, probably all it can. I got listeners right across the board is just the everyday person.

They're like so great, you know. You talk about trying to make the world a better place and that being cliche and, you know, blah, blah, blah. It's like, but that's why I continue to do this. this. That's why I love it. But the reason I keep, it's like, I have to find a way to push the world just a little bit good, just a little bit better. So when my kids come around to being of age, they aren't in this strange world where nothing makes sense because I'm learning very quickly. If you stop playing the game or you just go on idle cruise cruise control for too long,

things start going like, you know, what is happening right now? Like what is going on? You know, And certainly we can point to a lot of weird stuff coming down through, I don't know, just social movements, right, of trying to be inclusive to everybody. And it's making things really strange. So when you talk about leaving the better place, the world a better place, I think I know exactly what you mean. And I think a lot of people are trying to do that or want to do that. It is a strange thought. It is like a sense of grandeur that you are like, oh,

I can believe, but I mean, if enough people with that thought get together, you probably can. Yeah, like to your point about like electing like plumbers and stuff like that, I got into that conversation on Twitter one day where I told people, you know,

don't just, don't just vote for the people of fancy degrees and fancy titles. I mean, am I proud to have those pieces of paper on the wall? Absolutely. But at the same time, I think the average Canadian, brings a wealth of knowledge to the table that can't be taught in school.

And I married someone that worked, you know, in resource development and civil heavy earth works actually for over a decade. And the knowledge that he brings is something that I will never know. Like I, you know, the way he talks about moving the earth and all the minerals and everything, I don't even know, you know? And it's like, I went to school for a very long time. And I think that my husband is one of the smartest people I've ever met. But he's not, he doesn't want to study.

He doesn't want to sit in school. He wants to get his hands dirty. and he wants to work hard. And I do think, though, that there has to be a certain level of understanding as to how politics works and how policy and everything comes together. But that can be talking about. Well, then, Jennifer, then here's the next question. I agree with you.

I think there has to be a little bit of understanding. Even if you're the greatest, most hardworking person, if you get into politics and have no idea about anything to do politics, you can be the smartest person in the world, the learning curve for what? The first two years is going to be like monumental. mental. So what could a person who wants to get into politics do as maybe a little bit of a stepping stone just to wet their toe, just to be like, oh, this is kind of what it is and this is what's kind of expected. And then if they did that, by the time they go to run for an MP or an MLA or what have you, they would be still the, and I'm sticking with a plumber. I don't know why. They'd still be

the plumber that everybody loves and knows as a smart person, but with a little bit of what you just said, right, like a little bit of knowledge on what politics, how it actually works in that type of thing. I think if I were to start, like not knowing how to get involved in politics, I would try to get involved locally, and I know that that seems really tough

because people are like, how do you even get involved locally, reaching out to your party a choice locally and finding out who that EDA is and creating a little circle, whether it be join Twitter. Seriously, join Twitter. And you will find people all over,

the all over the spectrum that you can connect with. And then if I had to suggest one way for people to just watch politics in action without, you know, watching question period where it's a gigantic waste of time, I would suggest watching committee. Like if you're someone where you're like, okay, I care about indigenous issues or I care about the gun legislation or, you know, these are the issues I care about, find the committee that's relevant to that and just watch it. Watch how the MPs are interacting with each other.

The questions that they're coming up with, you know, that's a problem. place to start. I don't expect everyone to read legislation and to understand fully how things work, but it's just, yeah, just getting started that way. Just easy steps. I look for, you know, like easy steps where you can just see if it's something that you want to do, right? Because if you get into politics for four years, you know, I think of myself, like the biggest fear is like, what if you just hate it day two? You're like, what have I done, you know? And so it's like, it's like dropshadowing. Like, There has to be a way, and I'm certain there is, right?

As I say that, I'm like, I'm sure you could ride around with a politician for the day, and they'd love that, right? Like, just to see you exactly what they do, right? Like, what are you doing? You know, is it just coffee and shaking hands, kissing babies? Or is it, like, reading a 500-page report? And by the end of it, Sean's, like, staring at the stars going, and some people can just, like, you know, the bylaws that have been coming in with,

I'm forgetting the term right now. But here in Alberta, there's been lots of talk about the bylaws coming down to different municipalities or communities about, you know, how many cattle, chickens, etc. you're going to be able to have on your farm. And now somebody had to read a stack of papers like that to find it. And I'm like, Sean is not that person. Someone is that person. And some people are just like, you know, I think of my mom. actually she's a

for the RM of Britannia here she's one of the councilwoman and she's like wired for that she can just read things that is a superpower being able to read a you know Sean tries to put it in 10 sentences we're gonna we're gonna you know change this

fitting and that's what's gonna happen and government puts that into like a hundred page report and and like really tries to sound complex when it probably it's a little easier, but you're a policy nut. So I assume you love reading long, drawn-out things. I do, and I actually started using TikTok. I actually have a bigger reach on there than I do on Twitter.

But I know people don't like TikTok, but you know what? I've been covering this Chinese allegation stuff on there. And like everyone in the comments is like, you're making it so easy to understand. And it's like maybe it's the mom and me. Like I don't know if I'm just good at breaking things down. but and then I grabbed screenshots from the government of Canada website and I'm like here's the vote here's what they voted on today here's the motion this is what it means and you know I went on TikTok live the other night and I was on there for two hours just people were asked me so many different questions and I was like I have no problem answering any of these and you know everyone was like thank you like you're making it so easy to understand and I think that's necessary because I think that there's too much big language around politics and it it scares people away because there's a there's a lot of things even when I entered politics I'm like what does that mean? You know, I don't know what any of that means. And you have to learn. It's a different language. You're literally learning a different language when you get into, it doesn't matter

the realm. Politics. If you, if you're not a gun lover and you start talking to somebody who is a gun advocate, in the first two minutes, they will have Sean going, uh-huh. I'd missed, like, you just gave me seven acronyms and I have no idea what the heck you're talking about. but the most avid hunter is just like oh yeah totally right it goes the same with cars it goes the same with just on down the line so politics is is that yeah like the breakdown so you i'm not a tic guy because i hate it i'm not a tic guy because i can't keep i got three kids i don't have time to like watch tic i always watch uh kudym i always like like how on earth does he have the time no kids so i'm gonna he's got he's got lots of cattle and he's calving and all that good stuff

but I laugh at him. Like, you got no kids, man, because there's no way I can be on Twitter, uh, Instagram, TikTok. He's probably got a Snapchat handle that's blown up. I mean,

that's how he started, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But making things simple so that I can understand it or other people can understand it is much needed. So you're doing something very,

very much needed or very, very needed because politics is confusing. It's taken a long time for me asking a lot of dumb questions to start to understand. kind of, kind of how our system works. Yeah, I, you know, I enjoy making the videos. It takes like, it takes a couple minutes out of my date. But for the most part, I already kind of know what I'm talking about.

But I will say TikTok's one of those places where like people come at me and they think I'm a reporter. And I'm like, I'm not a reporter. I don't owe like, they'll say, well, you know, Stephen Harper did this. And it's like, I'm not talking about Stephen Harper. I'm not a reporter. I don't owe you anything. This is my content. If you don't like that, I'm not banned to the liberal.

that's your own problem. I'm curious. Tuse had sent me a text this morning when I was, he knew you were coming on. And he said, it would be fascinating to hear your thoughts on the policy of, of Undrip.

United, what is it? What is it? I wrote it down here somewhere. UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It was accepted back in 2007. It became in law in 2021. people are throwing around undrip like all over the place. Do you know much about it?

Have you read the policy? Is there anything you can dispel to all of us? There's a couple things. Like I haven't read the full document in its entirety. It's basically a set of standards of how indigenous people should be, I guess, treated at a global level. There's some parts in there where they are absolutely fitting to our issues here in Canada. Like there's a component.

and they're on self-determination, which is our right to exist freely, politically, economically, and be free from harassment and humiliation and everything in between. So there's certain parts of that where I agree with it fully. I will say, honestly, I'm just, I'm focused on, like, the individual level of, like, being indigenous and our communities and helping them create policy and do really cool things. Like, I know that some people are big fans of that. I don't know enough to form, I guess, an educated opinion on it. So when it comes to indigenous right now across all the different reserves, that type of thing,

what's one of the things that you're strong advocate for that they don't have or, yeah, probably that they don't have, that you think they need that would make life better? self-determination and self-governance is a big one like people always come to me and they'll be like well are you saying that the conservative party would be better for indigenous people? I said no, I've never said that. Point me in the direction where I have ever publicly said that. I have never said that. I think first and foremost having strong government on our on our nations is the priority because it ensures that we have good leadership and we know that we are protecting our sovereignty. I think that second is just getting certain components back and within the autonomy of our nations.

Like Bill C-92 gives autonomy back to First Nations over child welfare. So, you know, we hear a lot of issues with the government doing wrong to indigenous people on child welfare. We heard settlements. We hear class action lawsuits. That is now becoming a reality for First Nations where they can just have the autonomy over child welfare. So Bill C92 gives that freedom back. So, you know, nations are now doing the work to build their own child welfare programs so that there's no government meddling with how it's, you know, it becomes an issue within their own communities now.

When you say self-determination, self-governance, those are the two, yes? Yeah. Can you simplify that for me? I know that's pretty simple, but I'm like, what does that actually mean? So self-governments would just be, self-governance, sorry, would just be the right for our First Nations to have their own government structures. So chief and council, whatever their government structure looks like, where leadership looks like within their own communities. So it would just be rather than the federal government kind of controlling how they act through the Indian Act, they are then utilizing their own power. Self-determination has many different definitions and people kind of.

pick and chew at what parts of it they like. But for me, what self-determination means is as an indigenous person, I'm allowed to exist freely, believe in politics the way I want to believe in them, pursue economic opportunities the way I feel like it, and not be, you know, crapped on by anyone from outside of me telling me what to do because I have the right and autonomy over myself, like any other Canadian does, right? I'm trying, I feel like I'm missing something here. So forgive me.

When you say self-governance and you say the ability to have a chief and counsel, right now, don't you have chief and counsel? Or am I just wrong on that? We do, but there's certain autonomy that we don't have. You know, you have your chief and counsel that manages things on your communities, but there isn't certain things that traditionally First Nations have had the right over. And child welfare is one of those where the federal government made the decisions. So bringing that back to a self-governance model and for the community to be able to write their own policy and their own programs. Would that be similar? And this is where my political no is lacking.

Would that be similar to an RM in Saskatchewan that has a re-even council members and they do the governance for a specific area? is that kind of similar to what you're talking about with self-governance? Or is that not at all what I'm thinking? I'm thinking wrong. Somewhat. It's just kind of moving away, I think I guess, the way to put it would be moving away from the Indian Act, because the Indian Act is what dictates everything, right?

Like people say, well, why don't you just drill a well in your community to get clean water? Yes. You can't without asking the federal government. The federal government has to make every decision. The Indian Act ensures that they basically are paying. parenting us as people. Oh.

There's a lot of working parts and a lot of people ask questions where it's like, I just don't think that they understand that there's a lot of things that First Nations still have to go to the government for. So right now, if you on a reserve wanted to go just drill a well, not allowed. What happens if you drill a well? I don't know.

And like, yeah, like there's like you can't even own a house. on a reserve right now. And I know Pierre Polly of was talking about that. We're getting equal access to like mortgages and stuff because like if I want to go live on my community and get a mortgage for home, I can't do that. I don't own the land. The government does. That's a, that's a tough thought because, you know, like come from a farming background. And certainly why farmers are up in arms about the bylaws coming in is the government telling them how they're going to run their farm. Right. To me, in the simplest sense, they're going to dictate, you know, if, you know, well, the bylaws are basically

that's trying to come in as, you know, once again, I go back to the cows and the chickens and whatever else, but it's like, you know, a farmer is a very smart person. They know what their land can do. They can, you know, they're like very, they have to be attentive to it. Because if you buy, you know, a thousand cows and they all die, you are out of business, right? Like, you have to really know. But when it comes to water, if they want to drill a while, Like, they drill a well.

I, you know, when I'm trying to think back to when I was living out there and we just, we ran out our water, sand it off. So we just went and drilled, you know, got a company come out, survey. Boom, drill a well. Done. Didn't. Yeah. I'm trying to remember if there was permission asked, anything like that.

And I'm like, that's a, that's a wild thought. Like, I didn't realize that. I don't know, like the full technical side of that. I know, like, there's Jossum would probably know a little bit more. And I know Melissa Mabarky, she knows quite a bit about this type of stuff too. But I, yeah, like, it's not as easy as it looks. And I think there's a misconception that, you know, indigenous people are just kind of sitting on their hands,

waiting for the government to fix things. And that's not it at all. There's a lot of bureaucratic hurdles that you need to go through. And anyone that has ever worked with the community and worked with government at the same time understands fully that there's a lot of bureaucratic loophole. you have to go through. So that's the self-governance portion. I think I'm starting to,

I think I understand what you're talking about there. And like overall, this isn't like where all of a sudden you become a different country or something. To me, it's just like it gets to the point where you're like, we don't listen to anything the federal government or the provincial government says.

It's more you have. control of over your land and what goes on on it and like and things that are very very local which you don't have right now that's what i'm i'm fair to say that yeah there's certain things right like right now you have to deal pretty heavily with the federal government the first nation communities don't really have to deal with the province unless it's something that i guess affects them provincially when you say self-determination and you probably did this already and i'm just going to I'm going to make sure that I got that. When you say self-determination, can you give me again what you mean by that?

Yeah, so just the right to just exist politically and economically and pursue those opportunities and be free from just judgment while doing it. Like we have the right to exist and to coexist in our culture and, you know, as a Canadian, that's the way I look at it. I feel dumb for asking this. And sometimes folks, as you know, don't we have that or we don't have that, the self-determination? Is that like, am I just a moron for saying that? We're working on it.

Like I, you know, we should have it. But like, let's take me for example, okay, I go on, I go on Twitter and I don't like the liberal party and I'm vocal about that. And then I have, I have a liberal person come at me and say, you're a fake Indian or, you know, you should be ashamed as an indigenous person to vote. vote for the conservative party or whatever, they're actively working against my right to self-determination to decide what is best from me as an individual. And that has

actually happened, by the way, multiple times. Yeah, I just, I don't know. I could be wrong on this sentence, but I'm like, I don't judge life by Twitter. Like Twitter is, I just, I think horrendous things get thrown either which way. You have a tribe. And it's either, you know, in Canada,

for the most part, it's either liberal, or conservative. You're in one of those two parties and they will say the most horrendous things and some people get a kick out of it. Some people love to watch the world burn and I do not understand it. But in saying that

I get what you're talking about and in that case then I think all of us want probably both of the things that you mentioned self-determination and self-governance. Okay. Well, you know as we slowly wind down, I appreciate you coming on and doing this, Jennifer, and I appreciate you, you know, having a little bit of fun with,

with Sean as he asks, you know, like, I'm, I am always uncomfortable in these conversations. I don't know why, but when it comes to indigenous, just like anything, it's, it's like it's been bred into our culture of like, well, we don't talk about it because it's so charged. And it's like, well, we got to talk about it because like at some point in time, like, we got to, I don't know. fix the wrongs of the past.

I don't know if that's possible. But if we don't try, like, you know, then they continue to perpetuate into the future forever. And like, you know,

we hear the water thing. Me and twos have talked about it so many times. Like, this is like, I'm like, if people need clean drink water, at some point, let's just,

let's just get a truck up there and go hammer a couple wells in. Let's, you know, like, that's the blue collar way. It's like, here's the problem.

Let's go fix it. But when you talk about, the federal government having complete control, not complete, but kind of on all the reserves, you're like, oh, okay,

so why does no government want to give that up? That's an interesting, that's an interesting problem. And think about drilling a well and then trying to bring that water from just that well to a big community, depending on the size of it as well. Like you still need infrastructure there

and you need money for that infrastructure. And yeah, like there's a lot of, well, you would love, Love, you know who you should have in a Twitter space is Jocelyn Bersiak. Yeah. Manitoba, Manitoba lady who does exactly that is brilliant and can talk to all of this.

You know, the money things, I shouldn't say hilarious, but it's almost like funny. For a government that spends money on absolutely everything, one of the biggest issues they have is they, you know, money is there, but nobody gets paid. So where's the money? Nobody seems to know. Yeah, it's a strange, strange. situation. Either way, I appreciate you coming on and doing this. I'm happy to finally meet you considering you're at a show and I, you know, I can't remember if I said hello or not, but either way, I always apologize to everyone after all those shows because my brain is mush. Like I just,

it's been a long day. Before I let you out of here, though, we've got to do the Crude Master final question. And that is, if you're going to stand behind a cost, stand behind it, absolutely. What's one thing Jennifer stands behind? Just Yeah, well, do I stand behind? A lot of things, actually. I think just, you know, take your morals and your beliefs and stand behind them. And again, if you're not in the arena getting your ass kicked with me, then I'm not here for your feedback. Oh, yeah, we all get her asses kicked from time to time.

I appreciate it, Jennifer. And, well, you know, next time you're in the neighborhood of Lloyd Minster, you make sure to drop me a line and love to have coffee or something. And we'll go from there. Either way, thanks for giving me some time this morning. And I look forward to seeing, you know, where life takes us both and when we eventually cross-pass yet again, I'm sure. For sure. Thanks, Sean.