Shaun Newman Podcast - #410 - Leighton Grey

Episode Date: April 7, 2023

Senior Partner with the firm Grey Wowk Spencer LLP, Ph.D. in Philosophy & host of the Grey Matter Podcast. Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast Let me know what you thinkText me 587-217-8500

This is Tamara Leach. This is Tom Korski. This is Dr. Robert Malone. This is Wayne Peters. This is Kaler Betz. What's up, guys? It's Kid Carson. And you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast.

Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Friday. Let's get it rolling. Man, it's happy. Happy it's Friday. I don't know. A long weekend here for, you know, all the kids. Easter long weekend.

You know, going to see some family, some friends. We got a hockey draft. going on, you know, it's just going to be, I don't know, I'm looking forward to the weekend, I guess, and hopefully you, wherever you're at get to spend some much needed time with family and friends as well. Before we get to today's show, a couple things. How about we start with Kristen McGowan and her team there? McGowan Professional Chartered Accountants, she's been in the financial industry since 2009. Her education experience have been focused on helping small to medium-sized businesses with a wide range, you know,

mainly in agricultural, retail, not-for-profit, oil and gas sectors, offering accounting, bookkeeping, business consulting, training, consulting, and training, and then financial planning and tax planning. And I would just say, you know, it's tax season. If you are looking for somebody this late in the game and you're like, I need somebody to bail me out, no worry, Sean was there too. And she does it with a smile on her face and, you know, I just, I go like, you want somebody who enjoys taxes?

Because I don't know many people who do. Chris McGowan and the team over at McGowan CPA CPA CPA. CPA, CPA, CPA, CPA, CPA, for more information. And when I talked to them, end of last week, I think it was, 10-day turnaround. So, hey, if you're looking to get your taxes taken care of, just re-cho. Rect-Power products for the past 20 years, they've been committed to excellence in the power sports industry. Of course, they offer Canam, Skidu, Spider, Mercenary, Evan Render, Hinder Rocks. I was on location with the boys back there in March and got to see people interact with the old sea do pontoon boat.

And I tell you what, I found out that it's Al's. I also found out that at some point I'm twisting his arm to take me on it this summer so I can see it in action because I'm just excited. I love a good pontoon boat. Did I tell you people that I, you people, I did I tell you guys that I'm not a, I'm not, I'm not, when it comes to water, me and water, like, I enjoy the water, but I don't like speed and water. So pontoon boat is like right up my alley. And this pontoon boat, I'm like, hmm, this thing looks interesting. I want to get this thing on the water and see how it moves and handles and everything else because it looks pretty slick.

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Maybe I'm tired, you know? I can safely say this. I haven't had a beer or anything today, so I don't know. I'm just happy. I guess I'm just happy, folks. I guess that's okay. Hey? uh...

Fridays uh... if you haven't checked out the uh... substack um you know i haven't uh... written a new article as listeners are all over me about you know you where have you gone? It's like I know I know I know I know I know

I know I know I know I'm working on it I'm working on it I just you know I don't want to put out something that's complete and utter crap and uh in saying that I'm hard on my not hard of myself

you folks are all pushing on me and it's like Sean start typing get something out there all right fair enough I hear you loud and clear substack it's in the show notes if you are so inclined that's one two of the Tuesday mashup is going to be giving live election coverage May 29th so look for that that's going to be a lot of fun me and twos are going to you know what do we say you wonder if election coverage didn't suck well that's going to be the Tuesday mashup live election coverage and we're looking forward to doing that so pay attention for that and you know other than that enjoy your weekend happy easter long everyone and i hope you enjoy today's podcast so let's get on to that tail of the tape brought to you by hancock petroleum for the past 80 years

they've been an industry leader in bulk fuels lubricants methanol chemicals delivering to your farm commercial or oilfield locations for more information visit them at hancock petroleum dot c a Grey Walk Spencer LLP, a PhD in philosophy, and he hosts the Gray Matter podcast. I'm talking about Leighton Gray. So buckle up, here we go. This is Leighton Gray, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today I'm joined by Leighton Gray.

So, sir, I feel like this has been a long time coming, but it's nice to have you aboard, and thanks for joining me. Yeah, I'm really excited to talk with you. I missed the event that you put on recently in Edmonton, although I was invited. I felt badly had some hockey commitment. that caused me to miss it. So I'm excited to chat with you today. Well, here in Canada, if you just mentioned you had hockey commitments, it's like a pass.

Everybody's like, oh, yeah, well, I mean, that makes sense. You know, your podcast, you know, when I talk about different shows in Alberta, I know of a few, and the one that gets sent to me quite often is gray matter. So I've listened to you several times. I'm sure you're like me. You don't have time to listen to every podcast, but at the same time, I was challenging. because you just had Tanner Nadea on and I of course had Tanner on a week or two ago now. Geez, I don't know.

How many weeks ago was it now, folks? Anyways, it doesn't matter. I was laughing because I wanted to see who you had on recently and there's Tanner anyways, another boy from Lloyd Minster. He's great. Yeah, he is. He's got a fantastic mind. Let's do this.

For people who don't follow your podcast, don't know who you are, let's start with that. Give the audience a little bit of Layton and your upbringing and where you're Sure. Well, I'm a lawyer. I've been a lawyer in Alberta for about 30 years. And I had a cancel culture experience in 2020 because I was appointed to a board in Alberta to select judges. And that was right in the early days of the county government. And these boards had been populated. Of course, the racial notling company did a lot of really horrible things during the four years, the dark years when they cast a shadow over Alberta. But one of the things that they did sort of surreptitiously is they populated a lot of boards in Alberta that exert a lot of power.

People don't notice it. One of them is our boards to select judges. And so when the Kenyan government came in, I was asked to sit on a board to select judges. And, of course, I had posted some views on social media that were very conservative, one of which was in favor of meritocracy. I just said something really controversial, like, I think we should be picking the best people to be judges,

regardless of, let's call them immutable characteristics. And that got me pillory. The NDP came after me. The CBC ran a hit piece on me. And that was a very dark time. But out of that, I met some really wonderful people who came to my aid and it made some new connections. And the podcast really grew out of that. I started doing a lot of writing.

I'm about to publish a book right now with 36 essays. And the podcast grew out of that. And more recently, I was able to meet some. some great people at the Miracle Channel who are now producing it and distributing it. And, of course, they've really upped my game because I'm a total amateur. I don't have the, I'm no Sean Newman. So they've really up my game, really up my game. But I would say our podcast is somewhere between, on the scale of podcast,

somewhere between Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson. You know, we're conversational, but we do get into some pretty deep. topics and most of it is is law, politics, religion and culture. And with a mixture of sports, we've had Theo Flurry on there, I have Grant Fier coming up. And so we try to run, you know, we run the gamut and try to have a variety of guests on. We've been very heavy on the COVID-19 file because, of course, I was very involved in COVID-19 litigation. Most people know I spent about four days with Dr. Hinshaw. I'd like to say that I helped to get her fired in Alberta.

but so that's the essence of the podcast it's a way to get information out to people that really to tell truth in media which i know is important to you and your show because i do follow yours um but you know there's so much um dishonesty and misrepresentation and outright fraud in media today that uh you know i'm just trying to add uh some some some quality information to people that i i don't think they're they would otherwise get i think that's what all of us who are in this space, let's call us the conservative media, I would say truth in media, we're all trying to do the same thing. And that's to get information out there that, of course, the government is trying to suppress, especially our prime ministers running through Bill C-11 as we

speak. You know, I have to chuckle when you say you're a complete amateur, not like Sean Newman, that's hilarious. I take that as such a high compliment. You know, I'm actually, I've been writing out, I don't know what to call it. Just some thoughts. Anyway. And somebody had asked me, like, you know, could you tell us a little bit about the Sean Newman podcast? I'm like, oh, yeah, sure, yeah. But can you write it up? Oh, okay, sure, yeah. Yeah, I'll put my thoughts to. And I think I started out with I am a complete amateur because, you know, it was only, I mean, I'm into my fifth year, which I said the other day, and that seems really foreign to say aloud. But, you know, you're into your fifth year, but it's been completely self-taught, Layton, just like you. There's no, you know, there's no years

in media school or journalism or anything. This is completely like, let's just have some conversations and see where it goes. I think that's what people want. They want to be. You have an interesting way about it because of your background, right? Being a lawyer, you can see things

from a certain purview. You have access to certain things that the layman, you know, if you want to talk oilers in the playoff run, I tell you what, I can give you some sharp thoughts. But, you know, when it comes to a lot of this, where I sit is I just, I'm glad that it looks like I'm doing the right thing because all I'm doing is learning. Every single podcast, I just try and bring on people who are hopefully smarter than me to distill some things.

And at times I see that happening more and more in the podcast landscape is there's a lot of brilliant minds starting to enter the conversation here in Alberta and here in Canada, which, you know, for a long time, we all point to Joe Rogan. He was fantastic. But there was nothing in Canada that was bubbling to the surface. And I see it happening more and more now. You know, you just look at Alberta with yourself. And then, of course, I just had David Parker and the Canadian story. That's him and his cousin, folks. I think it's his cousin.

I don't know. I can't remember. Nothing to matters. You got Drew Weatherhead and in social disorder. I think that's a wonderful podcast as well. And there's more coming, you know. Nick von Dubbs and Emmett. different style anyways I could rattle on about this I'm just starting to see it

happen more and more just in our province and it's starting to happen across Canada which is pretty cool to watch it is I agree with you totally Sean that the best part about doing it is the learning I'm a bit of a polymath you know I try to consume two to three books a week two to three books a week yeah yeah I'm a I'm an information junkie and so I agree with you the best part about about doing this is you get to meet so many interesting people. And I'm constantly learning. I think if I have something that is interesting or that is useful to people in terms of watching our podcast,

what I hear the most is that I tend to ask the questions that they want asked. And I think that a big part of it is the way my mind works and also my background as a lawyer, always trying to anticipate and think of what the next question is. and so I think if I have a quote unquote talent for it that's it you know and I also like you do I let the guests talk because I always assume what they have to say is much more interesting than anything than I could add to the conversation you got to let me know two to three books a week are you waking up bright and early are you a speed reader do you listen to books how you getting through two to three because I do I do listen to books a lot I I encourage people there's so much available there's so much

stuff that's free on YouTube, for starters, but I do listen to books a lot. I think the big thing is I stop watching television. And, you know, so if you think of all the time that you spend, most people spend watching television, if you were listening to something or reading a book instead, you know, it just, it adds up. I try to set a goal every year of 100 books a year. We're just, we're just into April. I've got 42 books to go for this year. So it's just all, you know, It's just all goal setting and trying to learn it. And once I got into the podcast, it became more and more important because then if I have a certain guest on, then, you know, and they've written, for example, I had someone like Eric Mataxis on.

He's written a number of incredible books about Martin Luther and, you know, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the like. So I'll go and I'll read their books so that when they come on the show, I have something to talk with them about and can actually have a meaningful conversation as opposed to just saying, hey, I heard you wrote this book. Yeah, you can, you can dig into it a little bit. Right, exactly, yeah. I've had, I've had mixed feelings about that. I remember interviewing Jim Patterson, from the story time here, and I read his book.

And one of the things that stood out to me, this is going back a long time, folks, this is summer 2020. We drove out to Vancouver, first ever road trip, only a road trip so far I've done, I hope to do it again. It took the podcast on a road trip. My parents came with, they drove, and all I did was read. I just read, I read, I finished reading Jim Pattison's book, I read

Jordan Tutu's book, I read a whole lot of books. Every guest I was on there had a book, you know, even Judy Reeves, who I talk about, who survived the perfect storm was in Sebastian Younger's book, The Perfect Storm, I think it was called The Perfect Storm, it was perfect storm. Anyways, my problem, my, my, now maybe this is an older man and he didn't want to talk about it, but in the book, the thing that stuck out to me is he'd witnessed a miracle. He'd gone to a tent revival seemed two kids that were I'm gonna I want to say like blind or deaf or you know just you kind of get the point and and Jim Patterson followed these two kids for it was something like four years he checked in with them just to see if he'd been

had in the book it talks about this I'm like so I asked him about it and he just brushed it off I was so I was like you know like it was a great interview because it's Jim Patterson and you're like I can't believe I'm sitting here but the same time I read your entire book, this is what sticks out to me, and I got nothing. It didn't address it at all. You know, it's like, you've witnessed a miracle. I don't know, Layton. To me, it's like I want to read all the books, but sometimes I used to listen to all the interviews. So I go listen to like 40 hours of Leight and Gray just to pick up like six different things. And sometimes I found that worked great. And other times, I thought it derailed an entire interview. I don't know, I've had a lot

of internal battles with that. What's your thoughts? Well, you know, it is a sort of a truism that sometimes you know when you when you meet someone and you have an expectation of what that meeting is going to be like so oftentimes it disappoints i can tell you a story about when i was a kid at the canada cup in evinton and i was a big fan of a defenseman named dennis potfan you probably remember a great islander's defenseman yes i guess he was going through a divorce at the time i remember asking him for his stick he was like one of my hockey heroes and he just uttered an expletive at me and i never cheered for the islanders again so it's true sometimes when you run into people who you admire or you're interested in it disappoints but you know oftentimes it's the other way too i can say uh anybody

who's seen my podcast knows that i certainly believe in miracles uh you know i'm a person of faith but you know some people are not as up front about that and that's their right and mr patterson may be he may be like that. He may be an agnostic. Who knows, maybe he's an atheist. I don't think so from what I know of him, but, you know, some of us, not everyone is a 10 or 90, you know, who has written books about his faith and how it's guided his thought, you know, his thoughts and his work. So, but I do understand. Sometimes, unfortunately, people disappoint. We said our bar so high. It's a real, I just think it's a real shame because, I don't know, I didn't mean to pull you into this in this realm, you know, because I do want to get to some other things, but I'm like,

you know, if you truly witnessed a miracle, that's something. Like to me, like, that should be talked about from the rooftops, you know, it's like, this happened. And yet, we kind of like, yeah, but, you know, maybe, yeah, the world wouldn't understand. And even then, and whatever else, label you is crazy, all these things. I'm like, yeah, I know, but imagine if there's miracles rolling around right now nobody's willing to talk about it but they're happening everywhere and you're like what why isn't nobody talking about this you know it's funny it Sean in year one probably wouldn't have brought it up but here I am sitting in year you know going on five and I'm like that seems so

strange to me anyways that's my my book story I think wonderful amazing that you can read that many books right now Sean is reading one book he probably should have read this a long time ago it's called the I don't know if you've heard of this one late and it's called the Bible and yes It's actually 66 books, and they're all good. Correct, correct. Well, I'm reading the New Testament right now, and I never thought I would say that out loud either. But I'm like, you know what, it's time we stopped hiding from certain things and just talked aloud.

I mean, we lived through COVID, and certainly you've seen some things, and it's like, maybe it's just time to talk and let people decide where they want it to go, because it doesn't really matter to me at this point. I'm having fun just inviting different people on. Now, I got to know, you played, I found this very interesting, reading a little bit of your bio. You took a, I'm going to call a leave of absence. You went and played some hockey down in Daytona Beach. Is that true? That is true.

Yeah, I played, I grew up in Edmonton. I played for the Evanton Canadians, the people who know I played all my double A, AAA, AAA hockey there. And then I played for three different teams in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, all of which are now defunct, maybe because I played there. And what were the teams? What were the teams? The Fort Saskatchan Traders, St. Albert Saints, and the Hobema Hawks. The Hobbes, I'll just share with you, I know because you're a hockey player. We had a coach there was a man named Peter Driscoll who played for the WHA Oilers,

and he was one of the toughest people I've ever met in my life. We would, as a regular thing, there were about a half dozen of us, he would take us aside and he would teach us fighting, and which now people would say this is all horrifying. But, you know, in that era when I played in the 1980s, you know, it was a different game and it was very important. He wanted to make sure that a certain contingent on the team knew how to look after other players. And if we got into a situation against somebody who was really tough, we could protect ourselves and handle ourselves and not get hurt. So, but anyway, after that, I went to university, completed my law school.

I did my articles of clerkship, which is an apprenticeship for lawyers with the Federal Department of Justice. Then after that, they put me into tax law, which for those people who don't understand, with apologies to tax lawyers, it's like chewing styrofoam. And so I quit that.

It had an opportunity to go down to Florida. And it was a really cool experience because the owner of the team was a guy named Bill Nyrop, who's deceased now. He had been a lawyer, but he played on the Stanley Cup, the Scotty Bowman, Gila Fleur, Larry Robinson, Montreal Canadians of the 1970s. And I learned more in one year about hockey from him than I did the whole time that I was playing.

Just incredible man. Unfortunately, he got sick and he died of cancer within a year or so. And then after that, I came back to Alberta and got a real job. And so I've been doing this law thing ever since. Yeah, you know, going back to your, you're fighting that people don't understand. I think a lot of people, I played in the early 2000s. 2004 is when I started my junior career. And we used to do it just as players because it was so, it wasn't so prevalent, but there

was the possibility you were going to have to protect yourself and you better know something about it. I mean, it makes complete sense to me, right? So there's little tricks to the tradists, even if you're just going to, you know, throw a guy down and end the fight quick so you don't have to take a bunch of haymakers, right, if you get the wrong guy to tactics of what to do against somebody, you know, I'm a small guy, right? And if I get up against a big guy, which happened pretty much every time I fought, there's little things, and I wasn't a great fighter, but to me that makes a complete sense.

The second thing I was going to say is, you know, talking about having the coach where you learn so much in such a short period of time. Isn't that, that's a, that's, um, coaching is so important. But even if you don't play hockey, maybe you just in life in general, um, finding the right mentor can be so important because, uh, yeah, they can really take a year and turn it into something that, you know, would take, I don't even know, 10 years, maybe you never even get there. I had, I, I talked about Larry from time to time. Larry was our coach first two years in, in Dryden.

And he was a tough hombre from Thunder Bay. And he played for the Thunder Bay ball. back in the day when they were winning Allen Cups and that type of thing. And he taught me more about everything from hockey to life in two years than probably any coach that I've ever had. Actually, I know that for a fact. And that's pretty cool. That's a cool experience. Not every player or person ever gets that. And, you know, I don't know. Have you been lucky enough late in your law career or anything like that to have stumbled into a mentor who's really sure you know the ropes? Oh yeah. And mentorship is, you're so right. It's,

And it's something that I find we're losing. We're losing in our culture. Why is that? I think it's connected to the domination of leftist thinking. Because mentorship is connected to individual responsibility. It's connected to individual growth and self-determination. It's also connected to the family, especially when you think of it. And I happen to think one of the really, really.

dangerous things and harmful things that's going on in our society is the destruction of fatherhood. And one of the chief roles of a father is obviously as a mentor. So many players, you know, who have played in the NHL, you know, and they talk about who's your hero. Well, you know, it's almost invariably, you know, they say they thank their parents and their father. And, you know, when you look at, for example, the prevalence of indigenous men who are in prison system and I've dealt with them for so many of them over the years through

my legal work. If you look at the statistics in the United States with black men who are in the penal system, almost invariably it's the absence of a father. And we talk about things like racism, we put it down to racism, we put a label on it. But actually, I think the, the, the, the destruction and really the denigration of fatherhood and motherhood for that matter as well. because mothers can be mentors too. But I think, you know, having so many fatherless homes, in the United States, three quarters of children born into black families in the United States are born without a father in the home.

That's going to have significant impacts on the way people's lives turn out. And the same is true. There's a similar metric for indigenous peoples, people growing up on reserve in our country. And so the loss of this of this mentorship is so key. It's a huge, huge problem. And I think many of the social ills that we complain about, that we worry about, can be put down to destruction of our families and the loss of this mentorship. And this goes all the way up. The answer to your question, probably the greatest mentor I've had in the legal profession,

was a man named, is a man named Vitellette early in my career. And like all great mentors, somebody who is very generous with his time. and his knowledge and took an interest in me, made me feel like my progress was important, that he wanted me to be a good lawyer. And that's the whole basis of our legal profession is the mentorship, the relationship between their principal and an article student. And that's why I've had many, I think I'm up to a dozen articling students I've had in my career.

I have two right now. And so I really cherish this role as a mentor. I think it's one of the best things that you can do in terms of. of personal growth is to be a mentor because you learn so much from from that relationship both ways i suppose yes absolutely you know you think of it as a one-way street uh but uh i assume you learn from the young because you know exuberance uh will show you a few things i'm sure as well oh yeah absolutely and it's exciting it's exciting to see somebody grow and learn and have that uh have that ambition it's exciting to see somebody, you know, come in and want to be good, want to be great, want to achieve, and be their best self.

That's the most exciting thing. And then as a mentor, what you try and do is figure, okay, well, how am I going to help this person do that? You know, because people are not cookie cutter, right? Everyone's different, you know. And you're trying to figure out, I suppose it would be the same if you're a hockey coach, you know. You get some young kid on the team and really talented or whatever. how do you get the most out of them and to build them into the team concepts that they're going to help the team but also to achieve their individual goals. It's a challenge but I think it's very,

very rewarding. If you know, I always say get to the root of a problem. If you could get to the root of a problem, maybe we can like change it. If you know, you look at the prison systems like you've mentioned, you look at the loss of fatherhood or single parents, you know, and that type of thing. In your mind, then, how do you address that? Like, how, is there a way to change course, or I don't know the word I'm looking for, but I think you understand what I'm trying to ask? Yes. Yes, you're talking about rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is a Greek word. It means to restore a gain to dignity. And I think we need this top to bottom in our society, but I think that the change that has to come in Canada is not political, it's cultural.

And let me give you an example. A lot of people right now are resting their hopes on Pierre Paulyere as an antidote to Trudeau. But the truth is when you look at his party and you look at the liberal party, the distinction is sort of like between Coke and Pepsi. There's not a lot of difference there. We can't pin our hopes on a politician who's going to change everything. I think Preston Manning has the right idea. Preston Manning is, you probably had him on your show.

I've had him on mine. If you hadn't, you must. I actually haven't, Leighton. I haven't had Preston. Yeah, he's great. He's written a number of books, but one of them is called Do Something. And the book is 365 things you can do in a day that could make a difference in your community. And I think the problem that we're having in Canada right now and really in the West is we don't

have enough regard for our culture. The Western culture is, and I'm biased here, but I think it's the greatest achievement in human history. And yet we denigrate it, and we put labels on it. We talk about racism. You know, racism is a Thomas, Dr. Thomas Sol, who I haven't had on my show, but I'd love to. He's a brilliant economist. He's at Stanford. And he said, racism is a simplistic label that we put onto a host of complex problems that if we really try we could do something about. So let's take, for example, I just said, we put racism, we apply the racism label to, let's say, indigenous men, the prevalence of indigenous men or women, for that matter, in our prisons.

Well, that's really great, but you put the label on there. Let's say that Canada is a systemically racist society. Okay, who have you helped? whose life has been made better. You've helped no one, and actually you've done another thing. You've actually divided the population. Exactly. Whereas if we looked at, if we said, okay, let's look at the problem of the prevalence of indigenous men in prisons.

And let's look at a metric that, oh, it seems that there is a prevalence of not enough fathers in homes, not enough mentorship. Could we do something about that? Yes, we could. there are things we could do if we committed the resources to it. We could improve things like education. We could improve things like water and health care on reserve, but we don't. We talk about it. We talk about racism, but the money goes elsewhere.

The time goes elsewhere. The energy goes elsewhere. And that's why I say in Canada, what we're going to have to do, what we need to do is to embrace our culture, celebrate it. and we need to, I think that's the road to get away from the division that you talked about and to have a unifying vision of what our country is going to be culturally. The best example right now in the West has to be Florida. If you look at the way Governor DeSantis is running that state, everybody knows,

everybody who lives there or watches Florida knows what that state is all about. you know, what they're pro and what they're anti. And I think that's the way a province like Alberta, if I ruled the world, that's the way I'd like to see Alberta governed. Let's decide what are the good things and what are the bad things and govern accordingly. Do you think Daniel Smith can be that leader? That's a million dollar question.

I mean, I have a lot of admiration for her. I think she's a very bright lady. I think that she wants to do good. I agree with a lot of the things that she's doing. I think she's really in, you know, in favor of growing our economy and helping to get Alberta back on track in terms of being the economic powerhouse of Canada. I hope she's going to be able to stand up to what's going on in Ottawa. I would like to see a leader who is more clear about cultural issues that I think

are harmful in Alberta. An obvious one is, you know, what's going on. If you look at the way that the mayors of Edmonton and Calgary are governing in a very leftist anti-human manner, that's obviously very aligned with the World Economic Forum and the globalists, thus far the Premier has not shown that she's prepared to do much about that. She would probably say that that is going to come post-election. I am hopeful.

I am very concerned about what will happen to our province, if Rachel Notley is put back in power because for people who don't understand this, folks, she's not the leader of that party. Jagmete Singh is, and Jadmete Singh is not the leader of any party anymore. His party belongs and is beholden to liberals. And the Trudeau liberals are not governed in Canada. They are totally beholden to globalist interests. And that's a big part of what's wrong with our country.

We talk about this a lot in my show is that Canada is no longer being governed for the good of Canadians. And anybody who doesn't understand that or know that is just simply not paying attention. Well, for the people who are hearing that maybe for the first time, when you talk about Rachel not, the NDP, she doesn't govern, you know, specifically here to Alberta with an election, you know, closing in here, you know, May 29th is, I'm just going to say D-Day, but I don't know if that's the right reference, but you get the point. I'm like, I don't know, is that D-D, that's a terrible analogy. Anyways.

When you talk about Rachel Notley, say she's not the leader of a party, can you break that down for us? Well, functionally, that party, the New Democratic Party, by the way, is a socialist party. Its constitution is a Marxist document called the Regina Manifesto. And its goal, the goal of the NDP party in Canada is to set up a communist socialist utopia. And when she was in power for those four years, that's what they said about doing. And their policies are anti-human. And they are essentially tied into all the globalist fantasies about, you know, climate change and diversity, inclusion, equity, which don't mean anything like what those words are supposed to mean. But essentially, what would happen and what always happens under socialist governance is you have a,

concentration of wealth in the hands of very, very few. Those people tend to live very, very well. The middle class, which is the bulwark and the strength and the beauty of our country, the best Canadians, are strapped or cash strapped and pushed into a lower category. So you tend to have a few people at the very top who are living very well. And then most everyone else is living a subsistence lifestyle. And that's essentially what the NDP, that's the vision, what the NDP and liberals have for our country. And that is going to significantly reduce the quality of life for people in this province. And, you know, people need to understand how you say D-Day, Sean, and, you know, I totally agree with you. This is probably the most important election in the

history of our province. It's part of the reason why a group of people instructed me to send a letter to the chief electoral officer, because they're very concerned about the outcome of this election and they're concerned it's so key and they're concerned about the integrity and the security of our elections because we see so much corruption in the democratic process in our country everybody knows about or should know about the interference of china in the last two federal elections which is proven there's ample evidence of it it's a it's a story that the prime minister simply cannot kill and and we also have just in our province i mean I mean, the Democratic National Congress of the United States has donated money to the NDP.

This is blatant foreign interference in our elections. In the last two national elections, the presidents of the United States have expressed public support for Trudeau. That's clear interference in our elections. So there's a lot of concern about the integrity and security of our elections, especially given what we know about the use of these voting machines. how that is sort of impugned the integrity of our elections. Can you walk me through this? This is for the listener, you know, you've said a lot.

Oh, I'm like, oh, man, I want to, I want to ask about six things, but I'm going to try and keep us on the voting machines here with the upcoming election and everything else. Can you walk me through this? Because I think if people watch the American election and I've seen a ton come out about the voting machines, and certainly if you do a little more digging, you're going to get into Venezuela and all these different things with these electronic voting machines. So this got thrown on my lap a week ago, and I'm like, oh, perfect timing to have

latent on, because I have your name on a list, right? You know, the government has all of our names on a list, and my name, my list is a little different. I'm sure they'd love to have that list. Anyways, I'm sitting there, and I'm like, at some point I'm going to have latent on, and, you know, I just kind of go, it's going to happen. And then I get this article, I'm like, and bingo, it's time to go. Um, walk me through this because you're representing a group of Albertans who are like,

this is concerning, but I, I need to understand, I think, um, not only do, uh, um, I just need to understand, I guess, what Alberta says it's supposed to do and what is trying to come in that I don't understand. Like is it as bad as what I think it is or isn't it? And what is it's, we're supposed to hand count everything like can you just walk me through a bit of it and paint a bit of a picture for all of us yeah sure so the history of our elections in Alberta um was that to have every single ballot hand counted and uh that was the status quo until again uh December of 2017 while the nDP while rachel notley was in power they changed the regulations and they permitted uh account through voting machines and voting machines have been used in elections ever since.

There was a lot of controversy in especially the Calgary municipal election when Udi Gondek was elected, and that there actually were reports that voting machines were used, and some ballots were destroyed. Now, according to Alberta law, the ballots are supposed to be preserved for at least 90 days post-election, and that's so that if there is a call for a recount, that can occur. And so that had been the history of our elections until recently.

The other thing is, you know, in Alberta, although we're a vast province geographically, we don't have that many people. And our constituencies are not that large. So it really is quite feasible to count every ballot by hand. So the concern that has arisen recently is that, you know, these voting machines could be used. if they're used in advance polling, or if they're used, for example, primarily, that given what we've seen in the United States and the concern about destruction of ballots, that this could harm the integrity of the election.

So I was asked to write this letter, and the letter simply was addressed to chief electoral officer, and the essence of it is, look, this is a really important election. we think that every single ballot in Alberta should be counted by hand. That's totally feasible. That way we can preserve every single ballot and that we really should not be using these voting machines. There really isn't any good reason to use them. And the response that was posted not long afterwards by the Chief Electoral Officer

was that in the sake of transparency and security, the plan is that the voting machines, the voting tabulators, are going to be used in advance polling, but not going to be used on election night. And then more recently, just over the past couple of days, some people might have seen the premier came out. Sorry, I'm not supposed to call it the premier because of an election. The leader of the UCP came out and said,

yes, what's planned is that the machines will be used in advance polling, but that every single ballot will be hand-counted on election night. And that seems to be what's going to occur. That's still concerning the position of my clients, people who hired me and I agree with it, is that really we should, there's no reason. Our system of voting has worked very well for a very long time. We don't need to import risk by using these voting machines.

There isn't really any good reason for it. The only argument is convenience. And like you said, with something as important as a provincial election only happens every four years, especially given the gravity of it for our province and for the country, you know, why would we import this unnecessary risk of using voting machines? We have enough people. We can get more volunteers to count all the votes by hand. We know that's the best way to do it. It's worked for a very long time.

If it ain't broke, you know, why fix it? So a couple things. One, I'm just going to say this to the listener because I had a bunch of people to reach out after I had David Parker on a vote. He'd had said, you know, if you want to get involved, there's different ways. One of them is monitoring the vote on elections, Alberta. Right. You can register to be a counter or somebody who just, anyways, you get the point. So if you're looking for things, that's a way.

Now, these machines, you know, part of my brain goes. efficiency. Like, it's just going to make it quicker and, you know, we, like, why wouldn't we use a computer, right? Like, it'll just rattle them off way faster than a human can do. So why is that the wrong train of thought, uh, late? Well, uh, for starters, um, we know, and the evidence is clear, uh, that there are problems with the, with the voting machines. Um, they, they use, uh, and I'm not an expert on the technology, but the technology, but the that's used, I understand is developed in China. The machines are constructed in China.

If you don't know, folks, if you don't know, the CCP are the 21st century Nazis. They have a plan called Belt and Road where they want to take over the planet. They have, they have materially and significantly interfered in our elections before. We know this now. The cat is out of the bag. And so why, again, it's just a question of why. would we import the risk for the sake of convenience? There are some things that where technology is great and we should use it. But there are other times when technology maybe is not the answer.

You know, maybe we shouldn't have robots delivering babies. Maybe we should have doctors doing that. You know, and just maybe the best way to conduct an election in order to ensure its integrity is to have the votes done by hand. Now, that's not going to ensure that there won't be cheating. There always has been cheating in elections. We know this. We can't be naive or Pauliana about it, but we know that the best way to preserve the integrity of elections historically is to have the ballots hand counted. So if there's a good reason other than convenience to use the vote tabulators, you know, I haven't heard it. But maybe there are good reasons, more good reasons for it. But it seems to me that maybe this technology should be perfected more before we use it on a broad scale.

And to his credit, the chief electoral officer, Mr. Ressler, seems to have heard our complaint. And I give him credit for doing that because he could have told this to just a gold pound sand. But he did hear our concern, and as has the Premier. So I do think the letter has done some good, if only to raise people's awareness about the risk to the integrity of our elections. It's really, really key. And people need to understand, too.

Having free and democratic elections is not the rule globally. It's the exception. They don't have free elections in places like Russia and China or Venezuela, as you mentioned. You know, it's a privilege to have this. It's a treasure. And we have to guard them. We have to guard them as though they are precious. And that's the essence of the, you know, that was the impetus for the letter.

Now, the NDP got a hold of this and the mass media and they said, well, you know, these guys are just trying to call into question, you know, our free elections and, you know, cause, you know, public fear. Yeah, but here, Lane, NDP and the CBC and all these things that have been doing their little game, Who Gives a shit? Pardon the, part of the French. At this point, it's like, I don't care anymore what they're saying. To me, I, if you get a month past the election and you've come. call this into question, it's too late.

So the fact you're preemptive, call it in, and they go, yeah, you're right. And then, you know, we talk about it and let more Albertans know, everybody's aware. And everybody should know that, you know, like as much, uh, uh, at times you're, you know, you're like, man, they're going to cheat and they're going to do all these things. It's like, so get out and vote. We should have in this election, we should have the highest voter turnout ever, more than even, uh, the last time when Kenny got in because this one, you know, everybody's staring at it so get on vote and if you're like I'd love to do a few more

things it's like well then volunteer and and make sure that we have a you know like there's things we can all do um to make sure that uh uh hopefully this election goes off uh without any problems and any questions because i mean it's we still have time still have time like you know and as far as the nDP and all that goes at this point it's like like i mean listen they're already doing what they're doing the cbc's already slanting it a certain way. They've been slanting it for the last three years. Nobody cares anymore and everybody's moving along. On this side, the old Tuesday mashup, if you haven't heard, it's going to do election coverage. I've never done that before. And we're going to sit and do an election

coverage then. We're going to sit and see what do we say? What if election coverage didn't suck? Tuesday mashup's going to try and bring that. Well, that's where I'll be watching. Yeah, well, I mean, I don't know how it's going to go. I mean, me and two is pulling off something. So not silly. That sounds stupid. I'm excited about it. But it's like, you know, when it comes to the Alberta election, where do you go watch? And it's like, I don't know, do you flip on, do you flip on global? I don't know, maybe I do. Maybe do I follow somebody on Twitter.

I'm like, I actually don't know. So we're just going to do it. And we'll have some fun with it and we'll bring on some people and we'll see how it goes. One of the things that I wanted to ask on there. So you were talking about Calgary specifically and maybe some of the odd things. Why, with an electronic vote, would they destroy the ballots like immediately? That makes zero sense. Well, it's, have you ever had the experience when you put your money into a vending machine?

It eats it. And your Coca-Cola doesn't come out. Well, these machines are, are not, I mean, human beings are fallible too. We know this, but it's not, it's not by design. It's certainly contrary to it. If I created a technology, Layton, that destroyed the ballots immediately after, I'm talking me. Sean would never get hired ever again for anything. I mean, any job I've ever worked, if that's what happened, I don't care.

You know, all of us have written an essay on a word document and then forgot to press save and been like, oh, my God. Yes. But on a mass scale like this, there should be like, it's a computer. All of us know that both hard drives in a second and everything's saving and blah, and it all gets destroyed. Come on. Well, it's a, it's certainly a bug, not a feature of the machines. But the problem is, you know, the law requires the ballots to be preserved for 90 days. And it simply is a fact that ballots were destroyed by machines through inadvertence or malfunction or by design, however you want to say it.

There were ballots were destroyed and it did not permit recounts. I have very reliable anecdotal reports from Albertans who witnessed this during the last Calgary municipal election. and if we're not careful, that will happen again. And, you know, this is supposed to be a very, very close election. So, you know, every vote counts. I can tell you just in our Cold Lake constituency, the race for the nomination, for the UCP nomination, was so tight, it came down to a single vote.

A single vote? A single vote determined. Yes, our incumbent, Mr. Hansen, who did an incredible job, He lost out to Mr. Sear, who was our representative previously, by one vote. Now, fortunately, they're both very good men and they would both do a great job. But imagine, you know, there's a difference of one vote. You know, in a hockey game, it's like one bounce and a goal in triple overtime, you know. So it all counts.

Except in hockey, we got these real funky goaltender rules and like, are you on side, offside? This is like pretty black and white. count the damn ballots and be done with it, you know, like to me. Yes. And what that will do, you know, the fact that, you know, a machine, whether you're right, whether it was a bug, whether it was designed, doesn't matter. The fact that happened, what that does immediately is it roads all trust the public has in it. So why do that on such a key, key election?

It's like don't even, don't even take that machine, stick it in the other side of the world for this election and just count everything. Get volunteers. People want to volunteer more now than ever because we want trust back in our institutions. More now than ever. Yeah. It's so key.

And it's so key that you said that because I remember seeing a poll a few years ago asking people what they had most confidence in in terms of public policy. Right at the top was confidence in elections and public health care. Need I say more? I wonder if they said,

what do you trust the most in Canada right now It was public health. Before COVID, it was public health. It was public health. It was public health. And now I... I wanted to late in if podcasts would be at the top now. I just curious.

I don't know. I hope so. Well, certainly this one. I don't know if it would be... I don't know what people would put... What do you trust the most right now? God? Isn't that a wild thing to say?

I mean, not a while. It's not a wild thing to say, but honestly, right? Like, I can't think of one thing where I'm like, 100% trust X. And you said the one thing that I'm like, yeah, I can't refuse that. Well, I do, I know, I do trust that that there are forces at work in the world and in our country, in our province, in our communities that are, that are evil and that are anti-human and that want to destroy human flourishing. What do you mean?

And it feels like they're winning. Yeah, they're winning because we haven't started playing yet. Yeah. We got the, we got the 1972 Canada Cup team, and all we got to do is put them on the ice, fellas. And away we go. And it just rolls, you know, roll them out the door, roll them out the door, right? Maybe I should say the 20, what was it, the 2014 Olympics, maybe, when was it, Russia? That was a domination, right?

Oh, yes. We just got to start playing the game, folks. You know? When you say anti-human, what do you mean? Well, like, what are you? Well, yeah. I'll give you a thing. Well, let's talk about fossil fuels because, you know, here in Alberta, this is so key.

We're sitting on the fourth largest, you know, the repository of fossil fuels, natural gas and oil. People need to understand that over 600 products that we take for granted come from, oil and gas. And if we follow the policies that are being put forward, the net zero policies that are being put forward by the world economic form in terms of the fallacy that carbon dioxide is causing irreparable climate change and all of that. If we did what they said, it would take human beings, as human civilization, back to the year 1800.

Now, in the year 1800, first of all, people were more susceptible to climate catastrophe because oil and gas products actually produce the very things that significantly prevent human beings from dying from events like hurricanes and tornadoes and so on. And actually, about seven times more people die from cold than from heat. and so when I say anti-human, all these policies are designed to destroy human flourishing. And there's a wonderful book actually called Fossil Future by Alex Epstein. He's coming on the show in a couple weeks. Oh, what a great book. Everybody should read that.

Bjorn Lomberg has written a book called False Alarm. Of course, Michael Schellenberger has written a great book called Apocalypse Never. But what they all say is that during the first, during the first 20 years of this century, more human beings were risen, were raised out of poverty than the entire history of human civilization combined, the whole history of human civilization. And it was through taking fossil fuels and energy, an energy to parts of the world where it had never been before. And of course, COVID-19, the pandemic, reversed almost all of that. and there are great many people died

not because of COVID-19, but because of lockdowns. And so when I say that these policies are anti-human, I mean it. You know, if you read Klaus Schwab's writings, he's committed to reducing, to eliminating, I should say, seven-eighths of the Earth's population, human population. They think that human beings are a pestilence upon the Earth

and that we are destroying this planet. They worship the planet like an idol, and they don't understand that we're a part of the earth. We come from the earth. We're meant to be here. And that we do a lot of good. We're part of the fabric of existence on this planet. And so when I say anti-human, I mean it. And if these policies go through, this just transition, which is taken right from the pages of the World Economic Forum, it's going to destroy human flourishing.

We're going to have people starving to death. There was a lady. It was just reported, Sean, just yesterday, an 87-year-old woman in England who died in her home from hypothermia because she couldn't afford to turn the heat on. That's what we're talking about. That's anti-human. Well, and we just passed April 1st, right? Yes. With all the, I mean, all the listeners got to go back to is listen to Chris Sims break it down for you, right?

but cost of natural gas goes up, the cost of fuel for your vehicle goes up, you know, everything is going up, which isn't stopping. By 2030, it was, well, until April 1st, it was going to be triple of where we were at. And I don't know about anybody else, but we live in, you know, I always wonder about the old timers who came over here, or even First Nations, for that matter, who were here, and live through what this planet in this area has to throw at us, because this, this way. winter in between what January, February, probably December. There are some months there that like if you don't got heat in the old house,

boy, she would be, I don't know how people did it back then, right? And I've read the stories of my area and like living in a tent in minus 40. It's like what? Right? Like that's a hard life. I mean, in saying that, they always say, but we were happy because they had, you know, we go back to the beginning of this story. The family unit was something.

I'm not saying they didn't have their problems back then. They certainly did. But it was, it was, there's been a real attack on, on the family unit, you know? Oh, yes. In real interesting ways that aren't, well, at times almost seem like it's a progressive and like very like we're moving forward in the world. Yet it feels like at times we're taking giant leaps backwards. I mean, regardless what you're talking about with some of these anti-human.

when you talk, the just transistors and the climate, all these different things, I never want to get there. I don't, I don't want to, like, I can't,

like, but I don't, how do we stop that? Well, we have to, we have to elect people who are going to resist that. But I think the key thing is we've, it's got to happen at a grassroots level.

We have to make, we have to make the right decision. We have to stand up for what's right, uh, locally. And even when, even when it's painful. You know, I mentioned earlier, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,

who wrote, he died during World War II. He was a Lutheran minister. He died during, you know, at the beginning of April of 1945, he died in a Nazi death camp. But he wrote a book called The Cost of Desipership. And in there, he coined a phrase, you know, basically cheap virtue. which is like virtue signaling.

But what he said, what makes the most difference is when people at the grassroots level, in their families, in their communities, in their schools, in the hockey rinks, that they are doing things that are the right things. I'll give an example. I don't know if you heard about this. Your viewers heard about this, but I spoke out against a drag queen event in my home community of Cold Lake. while I was inside speaking to the city council, there were some people outside vandalizing my car.

And I expressed concern about, you know, small children being exposed to, you know, these drag queen burlese dancing. And more importantly, or just as important, I expressed concern that this event was being sponsored through public funding. That's an example of where, you know, I got out into the community. I'm trying to paint myself out as some sort of caped hero. No, you're just getting involved. Yeah, you're just getting involved in your community.

And that's, you know, when people like this pastor in Calgary, God love him who keeps getting arrested, people like Timothy Stevens, who I represented during COVID and Pastor James Coates, these guys are real heroes, but they're being vilified. but they're doing, they're paying the cost of discipleship that Dietrich Bonhoeffer talked about. And there is a price to be paid and it has to be done at the grassroots level. That's the antidote. That's the solution.

So we have to make right decisions in our own homes and our own families. And we have to get involved in our local communities at the grassroots level. That's where it's going to change culturally. It's got to start in the soil. We can't look at the, you know, at the tops of the trees. We've got to look at the soil at the roots and do something about what the roots are. Because if the roots are strong, the tree will grow tall. I couldn't agree with you more.

I think I just had Dan Beheels on. He was the former detective out of the Eminton Police Service. Right, yeah. I've heard of them. We were talking about, you know, the last. legal system. And I actually had a listener reach out this morning and say, you should listen to this podcast because this is how our legal

system works. And I was, and he's like, you should really bring people on to, you know, and maybe I should do a mini series on this or something. I'm mini series. I don't know, but bring on a bunch of a topic I could, I could speak on authoritatively. Well, and I wonder Layton if I don't

do a series or a series of podcast maybe where it's like, I don't know, I don't know how many would take, but where we breakdown can't so people can understand because if you don't understand a problem you can yell and scream at it all you want but you're not going to fix anything you're not going to understand it blah blah blah blah and I keep seeing bits and pieces of the law system and I'm like huh that that's interesting so maybe what I'm

going to table then with you right now because I I want to make sure that I'm in the right frame of mind for when we start to go into this is what we need to cover so people understand the law system and maybe there's some people you would suggest that would be great to have on as well. And to me, I'm like, I'm, I'm really interested by that. I think that would be a lot of, I never thought I'd say, it'll probably be the most boring topic, but I'm really interested about it because it's learning. To me, I need to understand.

And what me and Dan Beheels were talking about was a pedophile running around and getting out of jail, or getting released. And I'm just like, I just don't understand. How can he get caught and on the same day get released and get caught again? It's like, what are we doing? You know, like, come on. And he's like, well, you got to. And so what I'll table with you is, and for the listener, I'm going to have Layton back on.

And we'll find a way so that we can, I don't know, educate myself and in return the listeners as well on some things. And maybe there will be two or three lawyers because I'm just like, to me, it's probably long overdue that I did something like that because I need to understand what's going on, not only in Alberta, but in my own town across Canada. And I assume Layton, as he smiles there, it sounds like a great idea. I'm in. Yeah. Well, the short answer is law and order go together the way anarchy and chaos go together. I know you're just teasing me. There's a reason why we talk about law and order, right?

Because law and anarchy are opposites just as order and chaos are. And so if we want to have a society that's governed by laws, we must have order. And order requires enforcement of laws, meaningful laws, which means actions have consequences. When you don't, when actions, wrong actions don't have consequences, you invite chaos. And really, you are not then a society that's run according to laws, which means that you are a society of anarchy. And when people start to lose confidence in the law, because you're not, you're not then a society that's run according to laws. you think about it just for a moment what is law it's almost it's in the ether it's a state of mind people if people just decided that they were not going to govern themselves

according to law what would happen take a traffic light you go I mean you're you're stopped at a traffic like John but imagine everybody says oh red what's red run it yeah yeah I thought that many a time the first traffic light that'd be an interesting who introduced that and what was like Like how long did it take to catch on? Yeah. Or think of a hockey game. Think of a hockey game without the rules.

Now, those of us who played an outdoor rink will know with no parents. We still played according to rules. And yet you always set down rules. Yes. At the start of any game, you'll watch kids do it too. Sure. Right? But these are the rules.

You know, you can't do that. Right. All you've got to do is play with a young kid in a game. And they'll try creating rules as you go. Right? No, no, you can't do that either. It's anyways. Yeah.

And if you don't play by the rules, you get kicked out of the game. Or nobody wants to play with you. Exactly. Exactly. If you're going to cheat, if you're going to do all these different things, eventually you're not invited in the game. This is Jordan Peterson. What you should be teaching kids is to be invited to play in all the games. Right.

Because if they, then you have friendship and you get to, you know, you get to experience what the world is all about. If you're never invited the games, that's a lonely existence. Right. But what type of orderly society do we have when we tell kids, that there are 91 plus different genders. How do they find their role in the game? Yeah, I've been, so for me, that's another topic.

I go as parents, as adults, were put on this earth to do pretty much one thing. That's protect children. If you don't have kids, you may look at it differently, but if you have kids, it's like, well, we have to, like, that's what we're doing. We're stewards for, you know, 18 years until they tell you to go fly a kite and they're going to go experience some things.

Right. But up until that, you're trying to protect and guide and every generation has their rough waters. We are certainly in rough waters right now. Like when you talk about the gender thing, it's like I, you know, like, what are we doing? And yet society's reinforcing it, which is making it even more confusing for all the adults. Right. Because you're like, wait, we're saying you can be a cat?

Are we actually saying that? And then it takes somebody to stand up and saying, no, this is ridiculous. But they got media slamming on them. They got protesters slamming on. They got funding slamming on them because we're all inclusive. We're all this. We're all blah, blah, blah. And it's like, well, when you get, yeah, this is, this is just you're laughing at me.

I know you are. I'm just like this is. I'm smiling because this is the stuff I think about all the time. And, you know, when, at Tanner and Idy, you mentioned him on the program. You know, he, he said this. It's Tanner, Tanner, Nadeh. Nadeh. Sorry.

Yeah. Thank you for the correction. I tell you when, I laugh about it because it looks like 90. And he corrected me and I'm like, oh, Nadee. All right. Anyways. Wow. Okay.

Thank you. Yeah. Nadee. He said this. I mean, try to imagine a populace that could be more easily governed than one which individually, they don't know who they are. See, if you're self-reliant, right, if you can, the less things you need the government for,

the more self-reliant you are, the more free you are. But the most easily governed and controlled populace is one that doesn't even know who they are. How are you going to govern, how are you going to look after yourself if you don't even know who you are? Not even sure about that. You see, this is a great trick. It's a great trick.

that's being played and there's a reason why they're going after our youth after our children. Yeah, to me, I get it. I just, you know, I talk, everybody, I had a listener reach out to me. This is a couple weeks, a couple days ago, because I talked on an episode and I hadn't mentioned book clubs. Here we are, so I'll mention it again. But one of the things I think people should do is, and I speak specifically to men, because, you know, in the world today, there's very, few places where you can go and argue things that are like this, whether we're talking about self-improvement, whether we're talking faith, whether we're talking, you know, drag queen story time, where, you know, you can get in and try and get your thoughts kind of straight and, you know,

so you can kind of go out. The danger of that, not the danger, what I think the realization I've had in doing that is what awaits you at the end of that is you're going to wrestle with really big questions that you thought the government took care of, which they don't. and what awaits after that is probably the mob because you're going to realize if I don't stand up, then this gets worse, perpetually worse. And that's an interesting conundrum to get to. You know, you talk about the grassroots.

The thing is, is I think there's, they make it seem latent. Like there's only, what is it, small fringe minority? There's only a few people who care about this. No, there's a few active people who care about this. but there's a whole lot of the population like this is BS. And they're just waiting for somebody to take the reins because they got, you know, they're running businesses, they're working their job, they're running around after kids, they're dealing with XYZ.

And, you know, like, we just got to find ways to encourage those people to stand up in a respectful manner and be like no more. Yes, because those are the things that really matter. People talk about politics, but, you know, politics. our downstream of culture. And so is law for that matter. So we're sort of look, as I said earlier, you know, people are looking at the tops of the trees.

That's where the mass media and politicians point, everybody, look at the tops of the trees. Nobody's looking at the roots. And it's the roots where we can really make a change and really make a difference. And really, it's the only way we're going to make a difference in this. I had Shane Getson once tell me, and I got to, I should break this down because it stuck with me when he told me this. MLA from Laksan-Nan.

And he said, politics does what the public wants, but the public wants what they get informed by media. So it's like, well, we know media, this is why, you know, I talk about the rise of podcasts,

because it's giving something that people, including myself, have been, like, searching for. It's like, is that the only side of this thing? There's no more to the story? And it doesn't mean it's always right. But if you control the media, which by now I'm pretty sure we all agree they do, it's like, well, then politics thinks they're doing what the public wants.

Meanwhile, the public is getting one side, you know, is getting rationed, whatever they're gruel they're giving us. And that's totally changing, I think. Well, I think the COVID lockdown era perfectly proves what you just said. it was revealed during that time that the governments were making decisions in terms of lockdown restrictions based upon polling.

They were polling people constantly. We were in lockdown because people were saying that's what they wanted and then of course we had the freedom convoy and then all of a sudden lockdowns are gone. So I think that's a perfect example of what you just said and the truth of it. Can you imagine?

I just like it's laughable now. This is like me laughing at a very dark moment in history. but it's like a health emergency and the way we're going to figure out what to do is by pulling the public to see what they want it's like yeah you're going to do what that makes zero sense yeah beyond in the meantime we're going to scare the heck out of them right so they're afraid to go outside or do anything and and then and then we're going to poll them and ask them what they want you know no it's there's a great book by um matthias desmond called the psychology of totalitarian I hope people watching this will read that book.

It's deep, but it tells the story. He has a, he's been a guy that I've been in contact with. I'm trying to get on the podcast as well. Obviously, he's, you know, in all the podcasts, we listen to, you know, all through this thing. And he's right up there in a list with, I don't know, probably a handful of 20 people across the planet. That said something where you're like, that actually kind of makes sense. Yeah. And I believe he's got a second book coming out.

Yeah, he does. Yeah. Looking forward to it. Yeah, looking forward to it and hoping that for this side of things, we'll have them on because it'd be cool to hear him here either way. Man, Leighton, I don't know why I waited so long on this. You know, it's funny. You drag your feet on certain things because you get sidelined with other ideas and everything.

And then, of course, read your name in an article. I'm like, oh, it's just time. You know, sometimes it's just right in front of you. We will do this again. We're going to talk about the law because I think in my world, it's like it's, it's, it's time we started to understand a few more things. I wonder if we don't do that in person, though. As you know, I'm, as you'll know both sides of it, it's way better in person. Yes.

But either way, I've really enjoyed coming on and doing this. the Alberta election coming up here in May 29th, assuming when they announced. Is there anything else that I haven't got to that you want to make sure the listener knows about other than just get out and vote if you at all concerned, listen to this is in our hands, get out and volunteer, do what you have to do. There's different ways to get involved. Is there anything else that you want to make sure the public knows about? I think you said it really well.

I think people need to understand the important. the vitality of this election, not just for Alberta, but for all of Canada. People need to understand that globally, there are interests at work that want to destroy freedom and prosperity in Alberta. And this election is very, very key. And so people need to understand that

and really take an interest, get out and vote, get involved in the way that you described. Because if the NDP win this election, Alberta may be lost forever. The Alberta that we have known, those of us who have lived here, all of our lives and have loved and cherished this province and its history of freedom and prosperity and self-determination,

you know, we're gonna lose that under an NDP government. I'm confident that. We were going to, Canada will become a monolith of liberal, I'm talking about large out liberal ideology, which is coming, which is coming, which is really expressing a globalist plan for Canada. And the world is seeing our country transform. If you watch what people outside of Canada are saying about our country,

people like Tucker Carlson, they're noting this. In fact, Tucker Carlson is producing a documentary right now about the growth of totalitarianism in our country. I'd be interesting to get Mattias de Desmond's thoughts on that. but yeah i i that's what i would say other than that within what you have already at it's just this is this this election is is really maybe the most i don't want to overstate it but certainly the most important one in my lifetime and and and but yeah i'd love to come back and talk to you again about the law and hopefully maybe by that time my book will be out have a book coming out called

leftist lies laws and liberties it's a book of 36 essays that uh i'm going to be publishing later this year. So hopefully we'll be able to talk about that too when I come back. Oh, for sure. You know, maybe you'll have to give me a copy that way I can actually get through it and then pick apart. Sure. I'm going to find that one thing in there. I tell you what, I'm going to forewarn you right now that's going to bug me about your book in the best way possible. It's going to tease my mind, I mean. Well, one of the essays, Sean, is about the NHL and the resistance, the courageous resistance of certain players, the NHL. James Ramon. Yes. The Stahl brothers.

Proveroff. But somehow the New York Rangers don't have a night and Chicago Black. Anyways, you could get me fired up about this conversation. Yes, absolutely, for sure. We will have you back on. I think it's, you know, when I talk to different shows in Alberta specifically, but I've been trying to do this all across Canada, if there's shows out there that people want, you know,

that know about that want me to have their host on, you know and if there's a way to reciprocate it right where i hop on the gray matter and or whatever you want to have you on yeah but the idea uh what i was meaning was the idea is audiences need to know that these shows exist and if they're looking for uh different perspectives different views in our country they're sitting there because there's a lot of them coming out of the woodworks that i didn't know about or maybe i'm finding more out about and certainly uh the audience if they want to get some different thought processes or different ideas going on here in Alberta or Canada, they're sitting there.

And certainly having yourself on and others is a good idea. But as for your book, yes, the NHL. I mean, would you have ever thought James Reimer of all people? I don't know if I've ever heard that man speak. No. Would go, I'm not wearing that. And then get slammed by every. one that, you know, like, oh, Christianness and blah, blah, blah, and you're like, come on, guys.

Like, do we realize what the symbol now represents across the board? It's no longer this simple thing. It has ballooned to this strange world. And more and more people are saying, no, I'm just not interested. I mean, the Stahl Brothers is another one where you're like, I mean, they talk, but, I mean, to stand, like, the NHL has become an interesting world. I would have guessed, though, that there were incredible parents in the stall home. Oh.

For those guys going to the NHL and all being a really great leader. I think they've all been captains or assistant captains of the teams they've been on. So I would I would guess that those guys are really first class people. Well, Jordan, Eric, both captains, Mark, assistant captain, I think. Yeah. And who am I missing? What stall am I missing, folks? There's Jordan, Eric.

Mark, who are we missing? Who are we missing? I know there's one more. Somebody's yelling at the radio. Which? Yeah. I'm going to figure. Somebody calling.

Yeah. Anyway, those three are pretty good. I'm missing one. Who is? Which four? Did it in the four? Eric, Mark, Jordan. Eric, Mark, Jordan.

I probably could tell you all six of the Sutter brothers. But I can't tell you the fourth Stahl brother. What the heck? is going on here Google come on give me like you'll have to put it back in in post editing oh man goodness this is this is terrible like folks I can't even find okay you know Eric Mark Jordan Jared Jared still yes Jared played to look at this so you know I I just cherish the time to talk a little NHL you know when you get him on Eric played erics played 1290

three games, Marks played a thousand games. Jordan Stalls played over a thousand games and then Jared played two. You know, of the four brothers that obviously made the NHL and everything else, right? Like even just two games, I mean, that's a cup of coffee

in most people's books. Yes. And have four kids out of the same family. I mean, three of them over a thousand games, holy dinah, right? But to those of us who have played and you, you've played at the highest level to play even one game in the NHL.

You're 99.9% of all the guys who put on skates never get there. That's a dream that everybody like me, whoever played, wanted to get there. So just to get the NHL and play one game, Bravo. Yeah, I agree. I played very good hockey. And once upon a time I told myself, you know, if I was six foot, I would have made it farther, which is true. I'm sure I would have made it further if I was six feet. feet. But then I watched a kale McCar bounce around the ice as a defenseman and I'm like,

like wow. Amazing. Oh, man. We're an amazing player. Yeah. Question for you. Oilers or Flames or anyone at Alberta? I would say, I would say neither. Neither?

Yeah. Who do you cheer for? I became a big fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins back in the 80s. So you guys see the Hayday. of Lemieux and Yager. And then, of course, I'm getting Sidney Crosby and all that he's done.

You're a Pittsburgh Penguin fan. I can't even hold it against you. I was a big Mario fan. And so follow them up up through there and still sort of stay with them through the Crosby era. Although I have to say

it's been hard for me to watch what's happened with the NHO where they've kind of adopted the woke mentality, as all pro sports have. But I'm also just as pleased to see that there's some resistance to it. Yeah, it's, yeah, I concur with you. You know, once upon a time, I've gotten lots of things wrong in my time.

Like, just drastically bad wrong. I remember when Donald Trump got removed from Twitter and I had an argument with my brother. I was like, you can't be the leader of the free world saying those things. And then we saw what happened to Twitter. And I'm like, oh, this is going back to, you know, German times, Nazi times, when you, you know, when, when you don't stand up for, anyways, it's like, oh, okay, I get it. And I remember, I remember thinking with the NHL specifically Layton, you know, when they started to talk about a few social issues. I was like, I don't know, I don't see the harm in that.

I'm what's the harm? Sure. Except now they've adopted everything. They're, they're everybody's warrior for everything, except for things that it, times you're like, well, why can't you talk about this or this or this? Why is that such a taboo thing? And that has become taboo. There's lots of them. Lots of them get talked about on here. Either way, I appreciate you tickling my NHL, you know, with the playoffs closing.

And does Sean watch all the commentary? No. But the Emmington Oilers are freaking good this year. And I hope they, uh, they do well. Oh, what a remarkable player, Connor McDavid is. One remarkable human being. anybody who hasn't seen that documentary where he rehabs his knee the part where he goes on the ice for the first time and he's not sure if he's ever going to be able to do those things again and Gary Roberts is there watching him and Connor starts doing the stuff that he does and Gary Roberts is going no I cried I literally cried

because I could just I mean to understand to be that great at something and to think at 22 years old I can't do this anymore and just to see the absolute joy when he realized oh my god I'm still Connor McDavid my best hockey is in front of me yeah I love watching that I think every young hockey player should watch and see just what an extraordinary person he is yeah I'm a great admirer I'm not so much a fan of the orders but it's hard not to be a Connor McDavid fan. For sure. You know, you stick them with hockey.

You know, it's funny. I'm keeping you past the hour and everything else. You're a lover of junior A hockey. Are you part of, do you? Yes, I'm the chief owner of the Drayton Valley Thunder. You are the owner of the Drayton Valley Thunder. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love it. I love being around the kids.

And yeah, it's great. I love being around the kids. And I have two boys who are playing a 19-year-old and a 15-year-old. And so they're in it. Yeah, I just love being around it, and living around the people, being around the rink. It's, yeah, it's in my blood, and I hope it never leaves. That's cool.

Well, here's your final question, man. I'll let you get out of here and get on the road and everything else, Leighton. I appreciate you. You know, people are going, how did we get at this point in the podcast? Anyways, I told Layton before we start, I said, you know, a good old podcast. You know, you better tell me if you need some direction right now, or if I need to have direction because if we don't, this is what happens.

But here's your final question. It's brought to you by crewmaster transport. And it's, if you're going to stand behind something, then stand behind it absolutely. What is one thing latent stands behind? I think that we have to get God back at the head of our state. I think that is a really, really key thing. If you look at our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it says that all of our laws are supposed to be subject to the supremacy of God.

and the rule of law. And our rulers are not beholden to anything or anyone anymore. And this is why they are capable. We have a prime minister who has been five times convicted of ethical violations. He's been shown to be involved in election interference with China, and he won't resign. And that's because he's not beholden to anybody. He operates as a prince. If we had got at the head of our state, then the ruler,

of law would be meaningful. The rule of law, meaning that no one is above the law and the law applies to everyone, is only meaningful if you have God at the head of the state. So that's what I'm behind. That's what I'm committed to. When I hear that, I think if there's going to be a grassroots thing, that right there is going to have come from the grassroots. Am I wrong on that? That's it. That's it. And, you know, that's exactly so. Because I don't see, I'll pick on Daniel Smith or Scott Moe going saying that and not being attacked being attacked by the public right now. Yeah. No, our leaders don't talk about, well, some do.

I mean, Ron DeSantis does. True. Donald Trump does. Who knows if he means it. Joe Biden talks about God and sin, but I don't think he has a concept of what those mean. I think he's a Saturday afternoon Catholic. But, you know, I think that's key. I mean, we have to have to have a society that's governed according to laws and the laws have to be grounded in something meaningful.

And that meaning to me is something that is transcendent, that is not of this world. We have to be beholden to something that's beyond this world. That's a deeper. Well, it's a reason why Sean's picked up the good book and started reading because it's funny. I say that aloud and I can, I can, I can, I can. safely say four years ago I would not I remember I was thinking this the other day I was going through I was going through a list of guess because at some point here what the podcast would love to do is go on the road for an extended period of time and go see these people in person

and do everything you know any kind of thing anyways Ruben mays people who followed the podcast since COVID started, wouldn't remember this name. But Ruben Mays is, a guy who was originally from North Battleford, was a draft pick of the New Orleans Saints, I believe, running back, super good. I remember him. I also know where North Balford is. Home of the North Stars. That's right.

Hey, you want to talk about a good hockey team? North Stars, holy boy. At the end, I'd have to go back and relisten this, But I remember him saying it and me thinking maybe I'd edit it out. And I want people to understand how far Sean's come about topics. And if you've been listening since the start, you get it. But he says, oh, and I just want to mention that I'm a Christian. And I was like, that was kind of weird.

And I like, oh, yeah, sure. And I like, what the heck was that? And I'm like, do I pull that out? Like, do I, you know, like, do I talk about religion on this thing? I'm like, I don't know. And then, you know, Sean's, uh, uh, uh, part of his brain goes, Sean, you don't edit anything out. Oh, right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was stupid. Anyways. And of course, I released it, whatever. And I had my best friend go to me. We never talked about, really, this is a long-ass time ago, Layton, go. You know, it's kind of nice to just hear somebody say it. And I'm like, what?

And I was so caught off guard by that comment. Like, think of how far we, I just talk about myself. Think of how far I've come where, you know, I had Tanner and a day on. And we talked two and a half hours about Jesus and well, and Bible and whatever else. And somebody texts me going two and a half hours of Jesus, never thought I'd enjoy that. But I'm asking for a little bit more. Could you bring them back on? And I'm like, that's a strange text.

Isn't it? That's how far, that's where we're at today. We haven't talked about certain things for so long that it is like a nutrient in a diet or something. Right. And it's so lacking. that's how far we've come. I don't know if that sounds absurd or not. And it is biblical.

Christ said, if you will not profess your faith before me, I will not stand for you before the Father on the day of judgment. So that is biblical. So that's why Reuben is saying that, right? That's a profession of faith to the world. As Christians, we are required to do that. And that's not preaching to people, but it's just saying, this is who I am before the world.

And unfortunately, Christianity is under attack. And, you know, people need to start to understand why. And I think a big part of it is because implicit in the Judea Christian tradition is individual freedom and responsibility. Free will is fundamental to it. And that isn't true of other religions. And of course, Christians hold, coming back to my point, hold themselves to a higher power. a power higher than the state. And that is not true of other major religions.

In all your books you've read over the course of your life, have you read, I don't know, the Quran and different things like that? Yes, I have. And people would be shocked by what's actually in the Quran if they read it. I don't know what that means. Is that good or bad? Well, the people we're taught, in our country right now, we have a minister, basically a minister of Islamophobia. But we're taught that Islam is a religion of peace.

And there are many Islamic people, in fact, the vast majority of them are peaceful. But Islam is not a religion of peace. In fact, Islam is a religion that is a latecomer. It comes after Judaism and Christianity. And it holds that other people who are not part of Islamic faith are infidels and that we're not on the same level as them. And if people want to learn more about this, actually I had a gentleman interviewed recently named Robert Spencer. He's written a number of books on it. He's two that I'll mention.

One is called stealth jihad. Another one is called Confessions of an Islamophore. And he does a much better job of explaining about Islam. And about Islam plays a role in what is going on in our society right now. And it's important that people understand that too. because, you know, we are bringing many people into this country, into the West. And unfortunately, you know, multiculturalism,

although is a nice idea in theory, it doesn't work so well in practice. And I'm saying that as a, I have Muslim people working in my office. I have a lawyer down the hall. A great guy. And I think they're wonderful people. However, there's a, there's a, fundamental, you know, conflict between

Islam and Judaism and Christianity that, you know, is centuries old and it's not going away anytime soon. And it's not being very well reconciled in our society, unfortunately. Well, I appreciate you giving me a little

extra time, and I certainly appreciate a guest who doesn't stray away from the places I want to take it. Because, you know, I've taken you on the full gambit today late in It wasn't, I don't know. But that's me. That's me.

I'm a polymath. That's not many places we can go where I don't have something to say. Well, I appreciate you coming on and doing this. And I'm certain it'll happen again at some point here because as far as the law goes, I'm really, really intrigued by it. Either way, appreciate you hopping on it and giving me some time this morning. I'm so grateful for the conversation. And I want to wish all of your viewers, whenever this is,

airing on hope they if they have a happy Easter or they enjoyed a happy Easter with their family well it comes up Friday so so it'll be just before yeah absolutely well thank you so much for the time it's it's I'm really grateful for it