Shaun Newman Podcast - #456 - Shane Wenzel

Episode Date: June 28, 2023

President and CEO of Shane Homes Group out of Calgary talks pride month, media & politics. Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast Patreon: www.patreon.com/ShaunNewmanPodcast

This is Nicole Murphy. This is Rachel Emanuel. Hi, this is John Cohen. Hey, everyone, this is Glenn Jung from Bright Light News. This is Drew Weatherhead. This is Terracount. This is Eddard. And you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast.

Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Wednesday. Hope everybody's week is moving along. Before we get to today's episode, how we start with Guardian plumbing and heating there, the home of the Guardian Power Station, bringing free electricity to everyone as well as the reliable off-grid solutions, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Beyond.

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Anyways. Lloydminster Area Butcher Shop, that's the deer and steer. Erickson Agro Incorporated out of Irma, Alberta, Ket and Tasha Erickson family, farm raising for kids growing food for their community and this great country. They got, I'm heading down there here in July for the golf tournament in Irma. They got a few different people that are going to be there. And I found out I'm going to be. facilitating a little bit of a fireside chat with Daryl Sutter and Daryl Sutter, Bob Stoffer,

and now I'm forgetting the third person. And you know, I'm going to hold myself to it and pull it up because I feel like maybe some people know this name. Jerry Johansson, I hope I'm saying that, is Gary, Jerry, Gary, Johansson, top NHL agent. Anyways, so I'm going to have the opportunity to sit with a few different NHLers and talk some sports, which should be interesting. Hit a club around, hit a golf ball around. I'll probably hit the bush, pond, etc. Multiple times.

It's been a little bit of rocky start to Sean's golf season. Either way, looking forward to being down there and being around some good people. Now, let's get on to that tale of the tape brought to you by Hancock Petroleum for the past 80 years. They've been an industry leader in bulk fuels, lubricants, methadone, chemicals, delivering to your farm, commercial or oil field locations.

For more information, visit them at Hancockpetroleum.com.ca.com. He's the president and CEO of Shane Holmes Group out of Calgary. I'm talking about Shane Wenzel. So buckle up. Here we go. This is Shane Wenzel, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to Sean Newman podcast. Today I'm joined by Shane Wenzel.

So this is a little interesting. You know, the journey of a podcaster is a strange art. You kind of just like load up some things and then, you know, you end up in Calgary and you sit and, you know, you end up at this place. You know, sure, where do you want to go? You know, sit on the couch. Let's do this. Let's get to know one another and then see what comes of it.

You know, I like so many, Shane, have stumbled on to so many different people via Twitter. And now that Twitter's kind of wide open, you know, on full throttle, one might say. The people that are coming across the timeline these days, you're like, well, sure, this is interesting. And, you know, and then you, you know, and these conversations happen. So either way, thanks for allowing me to do this. You know what? And thank you for having me. Now, to the folks who aren't on Twitter or certainly to the audience that maybe doesn't know who Shane is, let's start there.

What long or short of it, don't matter to me. Well, professionally, I'm Shane Wenzel, and I'm not only the namesake of the Shane Holmes group of companies. I'm also the CEO and president now. And the company's been around since 1979. My father and his business partner started it at the time. And 20 years into it, his business partner, Barry Balsley, retired from the business. So it became a wholly owned family company. And we started off simply building single family homes back in 1979

to now building every form of single family home, right down to townhomes, right down to semi-detached homes, multi-family, land development, investments. So that's why we call it the Shane Holmes group of companies now. This beast is growing incredibly large. And are you originally, then you're originally from Calgary? I am born and raised here in the city of Calgary. Man, I don't know. This comes from a guy from Lloyd Minster, you know, but the city of Calgary certainly has changed in the last like five years, let alone your entire life. You having a bird's eye view. Maybe you could have part some wisdom on some of the listeners from around Alberta and Canada, for that matter,

on what you've been seeing here in Calgary over the last little bit. Oh, boy. It's been absolutely insane. We've had so much not only immigration, but now immigration coming to Calgary and Alberta in general. But we've seen the city grow leaps and bounds. I mean, we're a company that has the capacity to pick up about, you know, 550, possibly 600 sales. on the single family side, and we have been at capacity now for the last three years. And there's no more to be had.

We can't, you know, we've somewhat solved the supply chain issues, and we've somewhat solved the labor issues, but people just keep coming. This is a popular place to be, and, you know, it differs. It differs by everybody coming to the province as to why. But I think a lot of it has to do with, you know, what I still refer to as the Alberta advantage. You know, you have a certain amount of freedoms. We have this great entrepreneurial attitude.

You being a great example of it is, you know, taking advantage of that, you know, being able to switch careers and really make a go of it. And, you know, I love stories like that. You know, but there's a lot of stories like that here in this province. And that is a part of the Alberta advantage. Yeah, so there's Alberta's, well, Western Canada, we always single out Alberta, but I think I grew up. and, you know, a small town farm in Saskatchewan.

Yeah. And, uh, Western Canada is full of like really, really interesting people. We look at the world in like unique ways and, uh, Alberta certainly is full of them. There are certainly everywhere I run into, everyone I run into this weekend seems to have ties to Saskatchewan. So you're not, you obviously, you know, like, uh, obviously Shane's from Calgary folks, but, you know, I've ran into small town Saskatchewan guy after small town Saskatchewan guy living in Calgary now.

I'm like, I am. You've got the Alberta advantage powered by the Saskatchewan farmer, you know, like that. What can beat that? My mother was born and raised in Saskatchewan. She moved to Alberta and to Calgary specifically about, you know, 60 years ago. My father has family in Saskatchewan. He used to go and farm in the summers when he was younger on his uncle's farm in Saskatchewan. So there's lots of ties to Saskatchewan even here.

It's how important. to you was, uh, was the last election, uh, you know, you had the NDP, you had the UCP, you know, Daniel Smith obviously, uh, wins, but I mean, a narrow margin, you know, uh, as a, as a, as a business owner as, you know, like somebody who's, you know, supply and chain and all that. Like, I mean, I, we can, I want to get into homes and everything else, but I mean, like, how important was, was, uh, the last couple months here around this city specifically? Well, if you couldn't tell from my social media channels, it was very, very, very important to us to see a UCP government win. And largely the fact that, you know, we had experienced, you know, the NDP for four years between, you know, 2015 and 2019.

And it wasn't a great run for us in this province. You know, you'd seen, you know, our economic value just go down all around. Investments were leaving the province. You know, we were hurt by that. I can honestly say that, you know, three of the four years they were in power were three of the worst years we had had in business at that point. Really, to the point where we had never laid people off

in our entire lives running this company. And we laid off a third of our workforce because we just couldn't hold on to it anymore. Those were very, very, very lean years. We didn't want to see a repeat of that. So when you look at, you know, a political party that your values align with, with for the most part, the UCP were the clear choice for us.

So of course, I was out there supporting them as much as I can. That's, um, you know, when we, when we were talking, uh, different NDP stories, uh, you know, leading up to it, uh, you know, I was, I always say like, as far as politics goes, I didn't, you know, I played hockey, you know, until I was 26. And I just didn't pay attention to anything, right? Like in the hockey world, you know, I don't know, you're not really worried about who's in government, right? Like you're worried about like a whole other world.

And then I got home and, you know, and get married and started having kids. And all of a sudden you kind of, you know, now you're in the workforce and you're paying taxes and you, you know, you're starting to like pay attention to some things. And you're kind of like, hmm. And the NDP story in particular when you talk about from a business standpoint, this is one of the things that I was trying to highlight before the election was like. Well, let's talk about it. What did the NDP do? that was so bad, you know, because everyone's like, oh, they're horrendous, but okay, so what was it horrendous? And so stories like that, I think, are really interesting because you got to see firsthand what their government did for not only you, but, you know, for an area.

Yes. You know, for our industry specifically, I know that they came back with 24 consumer initiatives to implement over a four-year period, and that would mean six a year. and we were always two of the six, this industry, you know, from everything from builder licensing to revising the Condominium Act. So you felt it that way. So they just put more red tape in on you? They put more red tape in on it. And, you know, to be honest, I wasn't really keen on their consultation process

where you come into a room to consult and try and give your thoughts and feelings on it. And all you're told is that we're implementing this November 1, be prepared. Well, that's not really constant. consultation, is it? I'm just calling you into the room to tell you that you're doing this. Yeah, and then we get to say we consulted, even though I just told you exactly what you're going to do. Well, and that's what's portrayed in the media. So in the case of builder licensing, there was no consultation. It was just, you're doing it. End of story. You've had, everybody's had their interesting dealings with media.

I'm curious, you're, I don't know the full backstory, Shane, but, you know, you Google, if you Google, Yes. Shane, the stories that come up are pretty wild all over the place. Collusion from, I mean, just I don't even know how to explain. You can explain the story better. And I, it's kind of, I'm like. I wish I could explain the story better. Unfortunately, I can't because that part of it is in front of the courts.

It's in front of the courts. We can't, you can't even talk anything about it, unfortunately. Really? Hmm, that's interesting. You know, I saw Sarah Palin last night. Mm-hmm. And I don't know, maybe, do you watch much American politics? politics?

Very little, but I am familiar with a lot of the key players. Yeah, who isn't familiar with Sarah Palin? I mean, she was a star on Saturday live, and I'm talking about the Tina Faye. Absolutely. But anyways, I showed up, and, you know, two things came to mind, and one was Tina Fay, and the other one was Lisa Ann, and everyone will chuckle about that, but literally the porn industry created a character out of Sarah Palin, as did SNL. And I'm like, what a wild thing to have out of a career.

Anyway, she sits down and starts talking. And I'm like, I don't remember a single thing from this lady in 2008. I was not paying attention. They created a story around a character and portrayed her that way. Yes. And here's this lady speaking now. And she is, honestly, a badass, very, very charismatic, knows her stuff. You understand why the Republicans handpicked her.

And you're like, and none of that filtered its way through the media. And you go, what are they trying to do now these days? I mean, we've all lived it now for however long, however long you've been able to pay attention to it. But it's wild. You know, I'm curious your thoughts on media these days out west. I'm not really a fan of mainstream media reporting. And, you know, and not to say that I'm not a fan of, you know,

some of the journalists out there. I just think it's almost a lost art now. It's an intentional bias in a lot of cases is what I find, you know. And this is from a guy who writes a couple of opinion columns, but at least you know I'm writing my own opinion. And so there is going to be a certain amount of bias there. That's why it's called an opinion column. But when you actually go to the media for a story,

you expect kind of a balanced reporting method. And then you can decide exactly what the truth is in your own mind. But I just don't find a lot of that now. And, I mean, you used a great example with Sarah Palin. From what I've seen, you know, she's a relatively intelligent lady. But the way she gets portrayed is, you know, like she's, essentially a dingbat and she's not. Yeah, she's arm candy.

Yeah. She's, she's just there for the looks. I know. And it's, uh, it's, it's, it's, it's,

it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, and, uh, you know, and that's why, you know, tend to, tend to really have to dig around and, you know, find those journalists that I can, that I can trust a story coming out of,

because other than that, you just kind of end up disappointed. Well, you know, when you talk about writing opinion, uh, articles, what's some, something that's on your mind then, these days like what are you staring at?

Staring at a lot of stuff it seems, you know, because between, you know, writing opinion columns and blogs and you're working on your own videos, I mean, you end up coming up with a lot of subjects. But, you know, again, a lot of, kind of a lot of opinions, you know, a lot of sharing your own, you know,

stories from business, you know, leadership, you know, videos on how you approach certain things. But, you know, when it comes back to the opinion columns, I mean, there's a lot to write on. You know, you almost get confused when it gets to that time of the month where you're saying, well, what should I write on? There's about five different things that are hot buttons today. Well, what's one thing you haven't written on that you want to? You know, I think I'd probably want to write on something

about the community being Pride Month, you know, and, you know, and how that's kind of, well, really kind of gotten out of hand. Well, tell me about it. Well, I mean, obviously, you know, I'm gay. And, you know, and I don't mind being out and out being visible. Uh, you know, what I don't understand, you know, it's, you know, I understand, but I don't understand why you need an entire month for this. You know, I think, you know, it's great that we have acknowledgement, and you do have acceptance in Canada, especially in Canada, where I think, you know, the vast majority of people are, are very welcoming of, you know, same-sex marriage. You know, so it, it does beg the question, here, what are you fighting for? I mean, you have a lot of freedoms already.

and I guess where the fight comes in is there's other countries where people don't have the same kind of freedoms that we do here. Great, that's fine, you know, but why are we so angry over here is the point. Yeah, so that would be something that I would probably want to touch base on. I probably tick a few people off, probably lose a few friends along the way. I'm curious, you know, what do you think of schools and having it be so visible? visible of the pride, the pride flag, the pride, you know, the LGBTQ 2SL plus community being so visible, them celebrating them having different things, them being absolute outrage, back and forth it goes, back and forth it goes. I was trying to remember. And the reason, the reason I'm curious is I'm trying to remember, you know, as a kid, I just don't think it was there.

I don't think we talked about not even just like gay lesbianed that thought process. I just don't like I'm trying to remember the birds and bees of health class. You know, like very little was in school about sexuality. And now it seems to be everywhere. Like it is is absolutely everywhere. And you mentioned, I think, a good point. For the most part, people, yeah, all right, you know. But when it starts to go around kids, now it's become very, very, well, I don't know if I was.

It's very contentious now, isn't it? Well, as a father, I don't get it. I go like, I don't, why are we even worried about a grade five or knowing any, like it? It just doesn't make any sense, but maybe, maybe you have a different thought. No, I don't have much of a different thought on it at all. I mean, I tend to agree with that. But, you know, I come from a generation where, you know, sex ed was brand new when I was in grade five. You know, I still remember, you know, my parents reluctantly signing that permission slip for me to participate.

And I realize that over time it's going to evolve in the school system. But I think we've, you know, we reached that point a long time ago where we hit the top with it. So where we're going now seems a little bit over the top and ridiculous. And it should be really left for adulthood. You know, I don't think kids need to see some of the books that are, that are being brought into the schools. I think, you know, some of those discussions have, you know, can be limited to a certain degree.

And I think that's where you get the pushback from parents especially now, is that they're telling you, point blank. No more. This is too far. We want it scaled back. And I think that's, that's pretty apparent. You know, the repercussions of all of that, you know, fall back on this community.

And I think largely because you have a small select group of people who have almost turned into bullies in their own right. You know, they've tried to bully a message and really there was no need to. You had acceptance already. You live in one of the most free countries in the entire world for LGBTQ acceptance. So what are we trying to achieve now? other than really pissing people off. You didn't see the pushback the way you are now, even a year or two ago.

You're starting to see more of it because, you know, this is stretching it. It really is. And this is coming from a game out. Well, and I guess I, the hockey guy, right? NHL. You know, you got, you got, it started with Proveroff, you know,

And then I'm forgetting the goalie's name. James Reimer. James Reimer, thank you. And I'm like, people are upset with him. I'm like, James Reimer is maybe the quietest guy I've ever seen. And he's telling you to stop. Like he's just, and everyone's like, well, he's against the gay community. And I'm like, no, he's not.

He's not. He's already explained that, I think, very clearly. Very clearly. What's happened is, is now they've taken, like, where everyone's like, yeah, you know, be who you want to be, you know. It's, yeah, okay, sure. to kids got to know about it at age four or younger or old. It doesn't matter, but they need to know. And we need to support them and they know what they are.

And it's gone into this weird la-la land. I think it's a parent's job. They can. Because they're always going to have gay friends, gay relatives, but that's their choice. That, to me, is outside of the school's responsibility. When do you think of this inclusivity thing then? Because like everything is like, well, we've got to be inclusive.

inclusive of everybody. We can't draw a lot, because if we draw a line, then I mean, we're pushing somebody outside. But I mean, I don't know, at some point, as a society, I don't care who you are, eventually there's a line. And somebody's going to go back through history and say, well, they had a line once upon a time with voting. And they had a line once upon a time with segregation. And they had a line with marriage.

And they had a line. And I'm like, sure. I mean, I'm willing to cede some of those points. But I'm also going to say, like, you know, well, are we going to let a little boy decide he's a cat? And that's, and that's, and we're going to say that reinforce that because we want to be, you know, accepting of everyone. It's like, or is there eventually a line that we can all be like, that's a line? Anyway, I mean, we've just literally jumped over it 18 times. And there's nothing to, you know, like we're so far and beyond gone.

I don't understand why there has to be a line. I mean, can we just quit being shitty to each other and just be nice? I mean, plain and simple. I think we've complicated things a lot. And again, I blame that kind of small minority within the community who want 21 genders. And, you know, today I feel like a plant, so I'm going to be a plant like, come on. You know, I'm sorry, but biologically, you're a boy or you're a girl. That's all there is to it.

You know, if you feel differently about it, you know, even with, you know, touching on the transgender issue, that's great. I understand that some people don't feel comfortable in their own skin and, you know, and maybe they want to transition to it, but you can't decide that when you're a kid. You can't decide when you're 13, 14 years old, because let's face it, we were all there. And we all had those times where we just didn't feel who we are now. That takes time. You have to grow up. You have to learn what you like, what you don't like, you know, what you want to be as a human being. And then maybe then you can decide, you know, whether you're comfortable with it.

You know, and sadly, you know, we're really going down the rabbit hole with some of this stuff because you're allowing this then? No. I mean, again, this is going to have to come back to, you know, what they see on social media. And really, it's going to come back to the parents. helping guide their children. I just, again, I don't think the schools have a place in that regard where, you know, they can decide or they can help decide. Their job is to educate and get kids ready to take on the world.

That's it. Take on the many complexities of the world. And it's very well put because one of the things you stare at is like, and there's a, you know, you have a, I was just saying to a guy before I came here, you know, You have a, everybody has a stage of life where you think you know everything and nobody can tell you anything, right? And I, for me, I think it lasted longer than some and maybe shorter than others. But, you know, I think it starts right around 16. And you being a fall, you know this probably more than anyone.

Sure. And I don't know where that ends, but, you know, certainly for men into your early 20s, you think you have the world by the tail, which you kind of do. Oh, yeah. And you just don't want to listen to anyone, right? But in saying that as parents, it's like, well, once you hit 18, I get it, you're going to go do your thing. But before there, like, there's certain things that are just like, listen, you don't even understand the ramifications of what the heck you're talking about at this point. And no, you cannot. And yet we seem hell-bent on making sure that.

And I shouldn't say that. I would say, I go back to you, the small, loud minority seems really hell-bent on making sure that younger and younger and younger can. corrupt some of their values, some of their bodies. They're just like, and just latch on to that because you're so, you can influence children at such a young age, right? They're not corruptible and maybe that's the poor word, but certainly, um, you can influence. Influence.

Yeah. And that's the, that's the problem. You know, you're influencing somebody who's incapable of voting and capable of going to war and capable of a lot of things, but, and you said it perfectly. up until about 25, I mean, you think you're the smartest person in the world and you really know nothing. Absolutely nothing. You're still learning. But you're asking kids that age to make a decision, a significant decision about life?

I don't know, man. I tell you, I remember being 13, 14 years old and all I really cared about is, you know, I want to go out and play with my friends and I come home until it's dark. That was my priority. Pretty simple. Pretty simple, you know. You're not going to get that kind of an answer out of a 13, 14-year-old now because they have different challenges.

And they don't need this stuff throwing at them right now. What they need to do is be kids, plain and simple. Yeah, I used to, I remember being 25. Well, I remember being 18 and thinking I had the world figured out. And then being 25 and laughing about that. And then being 30 and laughing about 25. Sure. And then I hit 35 and went, I'm going to stop laughing at my foreword.

And I'm like, I've got a lot to learn. I've just got a and that's like a realization in your 30s where you're like I just I thought I knew some things and I just I really I really don't you know and of course COVID and everything you know media wise certainly being on this side of it and talking to different people the media landscape really opened my eyes to a lot of like just how they push things how they frame things how they talk to things and when you take a step back and look at that you're like man this is this is this is interesting and I you know I go back to when I was probably, well, Sarah Palin, 2008. I would have been, I would have been 22. And I would have been staring at that going like, you know, Obama, it's almost a product. It's almost a product of who she was up against. You know, she wasn't running for, she was running for, you know, the VP, right? But on the other side, she had maybe one of the best orators I've ever seen to this day. You can love her hate Obama. But that man's ability to speak to a crowd and his ability to, to just, they'd roll that in college.

I went to college in Wisconsin. Yes. And they would roll for the debates. They'd roll the TV into any classroom. So I was in, I was in Rockmaster Fitz Geology course. And we stopped class and watched an hour of Obama talking in a debate. And it was like, the only person I would say that's gotten close to that has been Daniel Smith. Like, I really enjoy watching her debate.

Like, she is very gifted. But I go back to it. So media had an easy scapego. of like Obama's like this, you know, Muhammad Ali of, you know, of the debate world. And somehow they just glanced over McCain. They didn't even talk about him.

They focused in on Palin and that Oham G. Willickers kind of, and all of a sudden you just wrote her off for being what she is. And I'm like, man, that's interesting. Like that's 15 years ago. Yes. Like 15 years ago they were doing that. Like, isn't that wild to think? And I go like, well, I just come around to the argument of when you're young,

you don't, you think you know it. And as you get, as you get along, I don't know. What new lesson am I going to learn here in the next five years? Lots. Lots. I'm still learning and I'm 50 years old. So, I mean, you can never stop learning. You can never stop learning.

If you do, I mean, you're, you're getting ready. You're getting ready to check out of the world today and you're just going to step back. But no, I find it fun just to learn new things. Yeah, I love it when people can, you know, even with my opinion columns, if people can, you know, bring up something and prove to me that, you know, maybe you should take a look at it from this viewpoint as well. That's a great lesson to learn. I mean, that's lifelong learning right there.

Critical thinking on top of that. How many years then have you been in business, like running Shane Holmes? I've actually been running the company now for the last 14 years. 14 years? Yeah, but I've been around since the early, 90s, full time. And your father would have been running it back then? My father, yeah, my father was president and his business partner at the time,

Barry Balsley was vice president. That's how big the corporate structure was back then and for a number of years. And then as things started to grow even more, he found that he just, he had to expand the management team and just kept going. So that's when I became president. It was my job to figure out how to keep this all together. Well, the reason I asked years and the reason I ask, you know, I'm curious, did they mentor you along so that by the time it was time you were ready to roll?

They did mentor me along, you know, as much as they could because, I mean, they're great business people. You know, they're harder to learn from, but you do pick up a lot from osmosis. And, you know, I did go to school, a University of Calgary for, I always call it the mini MBA. So it was the introduction of the executive MBA program, which at the time was spread out about 12 weeks. So they called it management essentials. But a great introduction to the MBA course.

So that was every Friday for 12 weeks. And I think where I learned the most was being involved with Tech Canada in one of their groups for seven years. you know, where you're sitting in a room with other presidents and CEOs, and you're learning from them. And they could be in companies bigger or smaller than your own. And what did you pick up out of that? Like, you know, when you look back on all those meetings,

you're sitting in and everything else, what's one of those moments where you're like, oh. That was damn near every meeting. Every meeting? Every meeting. Yeah, because you get a chance to talk to your colleagues. and from various industries. There were no other home builders in that same group.

So, you know, you're learning about, you know, proper succession planning. You're picking up lessons on leadership. How do you properly grow your company from, you know, say, doing $150 million in business to a half a billion dollars in business? Because we were dealing with companies that size in there as well, right down to, you know, how do you deal with this HR issue? How do you promote somebody properly, you know, and we would go so far as to talk about personal or even family-related issues that you could learn from somebody on because we've all been there at some point, you know. I still remember one conversation about having a, not me specifically, but one of our members, you know, where their child had a had a cocaine addiction.

And you're talking to, you're talking as a group as to how to get through that. So, you know, I speak very highly of my time in, in Tech Canada as a part of one of those. groups because it was great one-to-one conversation and you learned a lot about business and about life. And we, um, we've had a book club, five of us for, for five years. And then actually, uh, uh, well, I, I just, I guess I can't, uh, almost put into words how important it's been to have people who you can like openly argue with about a vast amount of.

of subjects. Perfect. And I got talking to Vance Crow, a different podcaster out of St. Louis, and he's had a group of four for a decade where they do the same thing. Yeah. And, you know, it's one of the things I try and leave the audience with all the time is like, you know, if you don't have a group like that, you should be actively searching out trying to find or create one, et cetera, and, you know, weed through, like, you know, because

it's effort and you got to keep it meeting, you know, because you don't realize how important those conversations are to get through very difficult. subjects or to stare at the world through a different lens and hear different perspectives. You know, for you, you're talking big, small businesses. And as a business guy, I assume that's, that's got to have been, you know, would have been cool to be a fly on the wall, so to speak, to sit in there and hear what some of the different guys are approaching different issues, even a cocaine problem. You know, the one, the one I was just actually sitting, I tell this story a little bit,

is sitting talking about a 14-year-old kid finding porn for the first time. and how that's a different, you know, like when I was a kid, we joke about the series magazine. But I mean, like, literally, like, internet, you know, in the mid-90s was just becoming a thing. Yes. And, you know, I don't know, I assume folks you could find porn way back and then on the internet, I'm sure of it.

But, I mean, I... There was always a way, I'm sure. But, like, you know, you joke about it, like the Playboy magazine aisle in the gas stations, they had that little section, you know? but I mean like you had to be pretty ballsy to go buy one of those and like here I'm going to you know and whatever else so it's like porn in western Canada I don't know maybe I'm wrong on this folks but I'm like wasn't really a thing but today you know a 14 year old kid only needs that

device that's it and all of a sudden boom and the the the depravity that is on those sites now which just is well I don't need to go into it but you get the point so it's like oh man. So anyways, here's 16 grown men talking about this from 70 to 20 talking about, you know, an issue with a guy. And I tell you what, that was a phenomenal conversation. I don't know if we got to an answer. But just the fact that, you know, like you need to talk to them. You need to understand the ramifications of being into something like that at that young of an age and it construing what a relationship actually is. Great point. You need to understand that, right? And I mean, like, as a kid, I didn't have to worry about that.

I didn't have to worry about it either. My parents were more than happy to pass that off, you know, to sex ed class, you know, for that one day. You know, but yeah, I mean, those are great conversations to have. So it sounds like, you know, with the book group, I mean, you had a lot of similar experiences that way. And that's really what it is, isn't it? You're learning something together. But, I mean, you're sharing those experiences and trying to come to the best possible conclusion. What an awesome way to get that.

to it, get to the end goal. Well, and you add in, as long as there are people you respect, you're adding in people that you respect and you're like, okay, he's not saying this to be rude, he's saying this because of something that has happened to him and he's trying to expand on his thoughts, which doing that is, you know, you risk being offensive. I'm thinking of Jordan Peterson right now, right? Like, you just, like, to expand on your thoughts, you risk being offensive. Like, in order to talk out your thoughts, you risk offending everything.

everybody in the room. And as long as you can create an atmosphere of like, well, we're just trying to get to the bottom of this, right? And then you can enter into some really wild conversations that isn't talking, you know, conservative versus UCP because, I mean, obviously that was the, that was the conversation for how many months, you know, I mean, it was only a month of election time, but everybody knew it was coming there since Danielle won the nomination. And, you know, for what is that, seven months pretty much, eight months maybe, eight months, I think, of, like, oh, man, let's just get past this thing already. But I mean, I come back to what a wonderful thing that people should hear about is getting into these groups and understanding like not only are going to talk maybe for you, business, but you're going to talk about some things that are impacting your life.

And today, in our world, we have wild things going on every bloody day. You almost can't keep up with it. That's why I said earlier on, I can't come up with an opinion column because I got five to choose from. True enough. What's the hot button issue to talk about now? Did you always, I'm curious, you know, you mentioned writing, opinion columns, blog, I think he said blogging. Yes. Was that something you always done or is that something you kind of fell into?

That's something I just kind of fell into. You know, I have one through business and, an opinion column through business in Calgary. And that was largely because I'm on the board of directors at the Alberta Enterprise Group. And the president at the time asked me, would you mind writing the Calgary column because he says, I take care of the Edmonton column being at Edmonton, but he said, I don't have the same perspective you do in Calgary. So I said, sure.

Never done it before. New challenge, why not? Let's have fun with it. I didn't know if I was any good at it, you know. So I get 500 words every month, and so far it's been fun sharing that opinion rather than just talking to other people about it. And the Western Standard was very, similar. I was approached by Corey Morgan, who was the opinions editor, and I've known Corey for

10, 15 years by this point, and he just said, I want to call them out of you. I'm like, you're going to get a call them, but you're only going to get it once a month because I have time for anything else. And that just kind of took off from there, too. So, yeah, it just ended up fun. And, you know, with adding in a few more things like a website and what have you, a blog just seemed kind of natural because certain opinions or certain topics you want to discuss aren't necessarily controversial, but, you know, it shows a little bit of a little bit of pride in Alberta and in Calgary in general. We can talk about some of the things that are out there, but you can do it in about 200 words as opposed to a thousand. So it's been fun.

It's, you know, it's a good little distraction from, you know, from running things here on a day-to-day basis where you just get to apply some of those thoughts. and apply that critical thinking. Well, when you come back to your main state, the housing industry, what's some things that are going on there that you think people should, or people don't know, maybe, don't understand. Because, you know, once again, am I looking at the Calgary housing industry? It's like, no. It's like, so now I'm talking to a guy who's got his finger on the pulse of exactly what's going on.

And you alluded to it right at the start where you're like, listen, we have the capability for, I believe, 600. were there and people are still banging on the door and you're like, I don't know what to do. And what does that mean, like when you, when you, is that mean, what does that mean, I guess? Well, it means there's a lot of red tape in the way of what we do for sure. You know, that 600 should probably be 700. Take away the red tape, you know, created by every level of government. I can do it.

I can do it. I can get you a hundred more just because. Contrary to what people think, you know, just because you buy a house. for $500,000 does not mean that we have $250,000 profit in it. That's a fallacy. There's lots of things along the way. But, you know, one of the biggest things is, you know, getting kids into the trades. You know, it's been cool and chic in today's world to, you know, to hop into tech and, you know, want to be a content creator, you know, which is great.

And, you know, thankfully, you know, our post-secondary groups are, you know, they're taking care of that at the, at over. at Sate and MRU and University of Calgary, but if you don't have anybody to build anything, where the hell are we going to be in the next 10 years? And that's why I always tell people, the greatest opportunity for this generation is right now. We have opportunities because that older generation that came out of the ashes of the 1980s, they're retiring. They're selling their businesses or they're shutting them down. what an amazing opportunity for kids to get out there

and do exactly what they probably are better at doing than get into the trades. There's what somebody will call a selfish plug for our industry, but it's true. It's actually come up on a lot of shows lately, you know, like where are we without the people who put things together and build it and fix and, you know, somewhere, Steve Barber once told me,

that we have to know maybe it wasn't steep maybe it was Robert Oswald it's one of the two anyways said we've got to make we got to make blue collar cool again yes because blue collar you know everybody wants to you know like you say tech and and all that but he's like what happens when you know we don't have truck drivers moving things around what happens when you don't have you know home builders building things or plumbers fixing or or or and on and on and on and it goes And once upon a time, that was the cool thing to do. I remember being in high school, early 2000s,

and becoming a mechanic was maybe the most sought-after thing in my area, heavy duty specifically. Yes. Working on the big trucks and working on. And tons of people did that. And I still have buddies that are continuing to do that or built their businesses around that or on and on. Thankfully.

And it's interesting, you know, like I guess I don't have my, my my finger on that pulse of like what kids are going off to become. But certainly, uh, it's no shocker that you can make a million dollars playing a sports NHL and, and you go like, well, kids are going to figure they can do that.

And that's what, you know, if I could play video games the rest of my life, I don't, I don't care, but I could see how kids get drawn into that world thinking of, or the Twitch streams or the, and on and on it goes.

I mean, geez, I'm going to sit here and talk about it. Now I've literally created a career off of interviewing people. and I get it. But at some point we have to show that being blue collar can be really cool and really like financially more than stable. Absolutely.

Can make a killing at it. Absolutely. Well, I think one quick example would be framing. If we go back in time to the 1990s, in fact, framing crews used to consist of five or six people. And just because it wasn't really a sought after. career all these years. We're now down to three people, one Zoom Boom, and in our case, excuse me, in our case specifically, we prefabricate the walls, the floors, the roof, trusses, all in a factory and ship them out to site. So these guys can get the job done two or

three days quicker. They can erect those walls with that Zoom Boom. They can lift the windows up and install them correctly with the Zoom Booms, but they only need three people. So he found some unique ways to deal with that labor issue. With a labor shortage. But even they say now there aren't enough young kids coming into this game. What happens in your mind if you play that hypothetical on? We have a shortage of laborers that want to get into that career. How does that, to the common person, if you can, visually explain for me the dominoes

or you know what I what, of how that actually affects the consumer. Mm-hmm. Uh, it means I can't get the house up fast enough. It means it takes me longer to get that framing crew on the job. You know, where we used to, uh, maybe the best way to explain is where, where we used to, uh, assemble, you know, or at least frame rather a, uh, a 2,000 square foot two story,

uh, in five months. Now it takes us, seven months and with things being so busy in Calgary that has been extended to even nine months in cases because you just don't have

that additional labor to play with and yet you know there's there was the end to that example was you look at the lead of a framing crew they're making $200,000 a year

they're good with their hands you know you look at the owner of the framing crew they're making a half million dollars how is that a bad career for you know financially it isn't The answer is it isn't.

That's huge for people now. I mean, even general labor, I think they make $28 an hour for a framing crew. I mean, like, there's so many opportunities in this industry. And like I said, with retiring owners of plumbing companies, electrical companies, HVAC companies, you don't even have to fully understand that to hop in there and just be that entrepreneur that can take that business to the next level. So I love hammering that point home because I think this is this is just a huge opportunity and a missed opportunity if we don't do something about it now. Well, and with the right government in place that's going to help support that.

That's the biggest thing. That's the biggest thing. Yeah, just knowing a little bit of their platform, I mean, definitely there's a focus on trades and the possibility of some more trade schools out there in this province. I'd love to see that. Yeah. the Alberta's going to be an interesting place here over the next four years. Oh, absolutely. You know, like there's a lot of, when the, when it drops that Danielle's won, I don't know about you.

Maybe I'm wrong on this. But I felt like you could just feel the air change like immediately. And it's like, oh, Alberta's going to be a place that's going to move and shake here for the next four. And chances are if it does that for the next four, it does it for the next four after that. because it's going to be hard to argue with success, essentially, is what I would say. I think for any government, for any government, there's no way to argue if they're, geez, successful with bringing prosperity of the province, bringing investment to the province. How could you ever vote that out?

I mean, as long as they have a social conscience along the way, which I think most do, but in this particular case, yeah, I mean, let's just keep it rolling. I mean, this is a fun ride. But you're right. I mean, right after the election, it's almost like there was a cloud lifted because it sat there for about six, seven, eight months of, oh my God, what's happening?

What happened in Calgary? You know, like Calgary, you see I'minton. Yes. Solid Orange. Yes. And you're like, I get it. Government, union. You know, it's their castle, essentially.

And they're, you know, they're doing things in that. and blah, blah, blah, blah. But Calgary's been an interesting one to watch from afar. You know, I mean, we can only surmise at this point, but I think what happened in Calgary is that was hangover from lockdown era. Let's face it, there was no government that was going to escape lockdowns without feeling the wrath of the people they locked down at some point. And, you know, I remember the sentiment around the province was just anger,

especially if you're a small business owner, anger at, I'm shutting down again. I don't know why. I don't understand these stupid rules. Mask up, one person in the store at a time, et cetera, et cetera. None of it made sense. And I think that that kind of lingered on here for some people where they just couldn't forgive the UCP government for doing that to them. But I think you'd seen that across all of Canada.

It's interesting because I certainly understand exactly what you're talking about. and some of the people who didn't get reelected were a part of that old government and there were sure they were. There were some people, obviously, I mean, obviously folks, yeah. But there were some people who were like, you know, I was wanting the UCP to win. I just didn't want my UCP to win

because I was tired that like the BS needs to end and you're like, it's actually quite fair. It's a fair statement, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, I mean, I never really understood. the entitlement until they were out the first time. And I attended a conference in Red Deer and I actually sat at a table with some older folk.

And all I heard was, well, when we form government next time, when we form government next time, it's like, okay, well, this is the entitlement that got you guys kicked out this time. And I think there was some lingering entitlement, even in this last election, is that, where UCP will be here, no problem. And kind of like you just said, these are the constituents teaching these people a lesson is, I don't want you to win.

I want the UCP to win. I just don't want you to win. I don't know. It's going to be fresh in my mind. But Sarah Palin last night, really, obviously she said some things that really stuck with me. Because she, you know, here's this lady, you know, nothing of her story. She gets on stage and she starts talking about, she goes, you know, like Republican. And you go, oh, why Republican?

She's like, well, I don't know. I sat down and read the stage. the two platforms and I went, well, Republicans that I believe in government staying out of the way and, you know, freedom essentially. And she said a couple other things. But she talked about

how she was like nonpartisan Republican. She ran as a Republican, but then tried keeping as much of the money out of the politician's hands in Alaska and giving it back to the people because she's like it's their money. Yes. So she was talking, she's literally saying, you know,

at one point I had 86% approval. rate in Alaska. You're like, wow, that's pretty huge. That's pretty almost unheard of, isn't it? I mean, certainly if you look through Alberta politics, I'm sure there's a couple that were, we're up in that range, but 86, I mean, like, holy dinah. But she talked about at one point, they had surplus from oil. I mean, we wouldn't know anything about that here, would we, Albertans? No, absolutely not. And with the surplus way, way, way back, she was talking, you know, like bills were really high back then. So what The government did was they wrote every person in Alaska, a $3,200 check. And you're like, that's unreal.

Yes. I'm just like, I'm sitting there listening to this lady. I'm going, oh, how do we take a little bit about what you're talking about and put it back into politics here in Alberta? You know, Canada, I, listen, folks, I, I'm going to try and help, you know, maybe there's something to be done in your own province, right, where it's like we work together, you know, like so much of politics. Baltics right now is just divide and yell at each other. And we know the way and they know nothing. And it's like, well, sure, there's going to be some stupid ideas. I get it.

But at some point here, why can't we work together? Why can't we stop giving away every last ounce and cent to somebody else? And why can't we just put that into Albertans? So they become the Alberta advantage. And it's just like, boom, here it is. And here it is on steroids. And we're the best on everything. And everybody that's great comes here because they know what we're about.

I tend to agree with you on that. That's why I said earlier on you. I agree with their platform for the most part. It doesn't mean I agree with absolutely. It doesn't mean I agree with absolutely everything at the UCP stand for and what they do. You know, there's actually a few things in the NDP platform I do agree with. What do you agree with? That's an interesting statement.

What is it in the NDP that you're like, I actually like that? Well, I tend to lean a little bit more towards the social programs, yeah, because I do have a soft heart for people because not everyone's created equal in this world. I mean, society has been created as a bit of a construct. You know, there's winners and there's losers. So I always have, you know, some apathy for, you know, for people struggling to make ends meet. You know, so I do like to see some support programs there. I would love to see, you know, that tax rate, that entry tax rate rolled back,

rolled back to a reasonable level where, you know, people making a certain income actually don't pay taxes or pay very, very little. You know, there do need to be a few other social programs in place to just kind of help people get along. This world is getting expensive. It's hard to pay for everything. And it's only getting more expensive. Yeah, but I'm also a big believer on the other side of,

you know, I want less government involved in absolutely everything. Like, stay the hell out of it. You don't need this much, you know, these many tax dollars sent to you so you can wash it and throw some pennies back at me. I am in total disagreement with that. So, I mean, in a way, I agree with what Sarah Palin did. But, you know, I mean, here in Alberta at one point in time, you know, we had Kleinbucks being thrown around. You know, to me, I just, I like the fact that when do you take and lower my tax rate by two or three percent, lower two to three percent all across the board and see what people do with it.

It's almost like this fear of not having that income rolling in. Well, guess what? If you give it back to people, they will spend it. Oh, Hunter. Well, I... But I just don't need the government to take it in, you know, and wash that three. percent down to about a quarter percent and give it back to me. Yeah.

I think the thought process is if we tax them harder, we know what best to do with the money. And once again, folks, I'm not, just my view on what politicians seem to think. Could be wrong on that. But they seem to think if I tax you more, we can have control the money and we know what to do with it. Yes. And where I stand, I go, the smartest people I know have risked everything to start businesses and everything else.

And when they get to the point where they have excess money, all they do is give it back to the community. Yes. Like, I mean, my community of Lloyd Minster is case and flipping point. We don't have big government there. We don't have big unions there. We've got a bunch of people who, you know,

are on the edge of the world, so to speak, right? We're not really Saskatchewan. We're not really Alberta. We're left alone. So you've got all these entrepreneurs figuring out ways to, you know, make oil. And once you have oil, how to better get it and you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. block and on it goes. Yes.

And what do they do with all that extra money? They give back to the community. That's why the community has all that it has, right? And it's like, well, that case and point, you take that thought process. And I mean, sure, do you want some tax come out? I mean, I'm no tax. I'm no, you know, here. I don't know what in and out.

Once again, I started this off by like as I get older, I keep learning. But it's like, one thing I've learned is, you know, you allow business to thrive. Businesses will give back. Absolutely. And then it just, it's just like, oh, and it starts to help with all the social programming. And they take care of everything in their city. They literally, you know, they see the problem. I don't need Alberta, the government of Alberta trying to like, COVID was such a,

COVID was such a frustrating thing because for many reasons. But they had one solution and it was going to work everywhere. Like, you're insane. I don't even know how you think that makes sense. Calgary to Eminton is different. Yeah, they're two big cities. They're just different. And Calgary to Vermilion is different.

And Vermilion to Lloyd is different. Right down to Red Deer. Right. And on and on it goes. And it's like, trust the people in those places to figure it out. Yes. Get out of this one centralized, we're going to solve every problem you have. I'm sure in the housing industry, building houses in Calgary, although similar to different places, is not the same and not everything.

works identical. There's going to be things from supply chain management to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, that are just slightly different. There always is. There always is. And I think that's the biggest problem is, you know, like we need to come up with kind of local solutions to make things work properly. But, you know, and that's why I guess I get a little frustrated with federal because we're, we're dealing with a very centralized government there. And they keep passing policy that works well, you know, for about 500 kilometers. and that's about it. You know, and yet we're expected to deal with it, you know, on the other end of the country, you know, 2400 kilometers away.

It doesn't. It just doesn't work. You know, if we're allowed to work on our own solutions, then I think the world would be a better place. But past that, no. Well, let's let's, let's end on this question. Okay. It's the crude master final question. And it's been changed.

I had an architect in Lloyd, uh, who's a soil guy. Anyways, Dale, I said, I'll run with it for a month. So here it is. Okay. What's next for Shane and how can we help? What's next for Shane and how can we help? Well, I guess in my role, what's next for Shane is, you know,

I end up taking a higher level approach to everything. So I do end up spending a little more time with government and working on, you know, trying to have those conversations where it's collaborative. and we can get to some solid, solid solutions. Personally, Shane's going to have to, you know, look at his own life and figure out, you know, how many more years do I want to keep running at this pace? I'm going to, I'm probably looking at about a five, ten year slowdown period, you know, and yet here I am.

I'm trying to pick up more. But at the same time, yeah, I want to see this beast grow. I mean, this is kind of my second child, and I'd love to see it. double in size in the next 10 years before I step aside and let, you know, another generation run it. So it's not going to be boring. It's going to be fun. It's just going to be different.

Different challenge. That's a double. That's a, so that would be 1,200 homes. Sure. That's, uh, do the math. That's, what is that? That's essentially four homes a day. Yep.

We can do it. It's not impossible. Well, nothing is impossible. Nothing's impossible, and I can't tell you exactly what that looks like. You know, I couldn't have told you that this is what the company would look like. If you asked me the same question 10 years ago, I couldn't have told you this. 30 years ago, it certainly didn't look anything like this. Well, if you could go back to 10 years ago and talk to your younger self, what would you have said?

What I would have said to myself 10 years ago? Awesome question. Well, probably be the same thing that I learned then is, you know, Keep your ears open. Listen, learn. Shut up. You've got a lot of people ahead of you, a lot of smarter people. Just keep your ears open and learn from it.

I mean, who wouldn't love to go back 10 years in time and not make the same mistakes? But you know what, with that said, those mistakes are what kind of made me who I am even now. Well, as a parent, I was just, you want to keep your kids away from the rough waters, right? Sure. You want them to stay on the shore and be safe and whatever. And yet, in my life, it's like, the rough waters is who defines you. Absolutely. And certainly you don't want to drown, right?

But at the same time, it's like you need to go through those. And heck, sometimes you steer right into it. You're just like, well, this isn't going to be an adventure. But, I mean, like, are we not going to go out into the storm and see what comes of it? It's like, we probably should. Oh, yeah. You know, like I think of the podcast in general, Shane, you know, when I first started, you know, it was pretty um yeah i this sounds really stupid to say but uneventful you know and saying that

it was don cherry and darrell sutter and brayton holfey and like really cool human beings that are really you know hearing their stories is it was i don't know surreal at the time and then you know in the middle of covid i kind of just parked the car and walked across the street and jumped in a different one and head the other direction because i'm like well we got to figure out what the heck's going on here. And those are, those are rough water. I mean,

continued to this day. To this day, there's strange things still going on. Yes. And you're like, you know, you think you're getting to the calm. I don't even know what the,

do you want to be at the calm waters at any point in time? No, that's boring. Is that boring? It is. It is, yeah. It's like saying to me,

you know, well, don't you want things to slow down so you can kind of get back to a normal? It's like, it's kind of boring. It's kind of boring because, you know, you don't have these things.

things throwing at you at 12 noon on a Friday anymore. You know, you don't have any issues popping up. I mean, it's just, you know, business as usual all the way through. Like, I want a problem. I want to solve something. You know, I want to, I want to take things to the next level. How the hell do I do that if it's all normal? I don't know.

I tell you what, when you're in the, when you're in the rough waters, the stormy days or the adventurous days, you learn a lot. When you talk about, you know, I just need to shut up and listen a little bit. it's like, yeah. Yeah. I mean, you learn a lot. There's a lot to learn these days. Oh, absolutely. And there's some interesting individuals starting to find their voice, stand up, talk about different things, lead in different ways.

And that's been interesting to watch from where I sit as well. You know, like the case in point, from a media standpoint, you know, people have their thoughts on Tucker, whether they love them or hate them. but what's happening on Twitter and him just releasing these things now these whatever 11-minute monologues it's been really interesting oh what has you know Joe Rogan did you see just recently he had Robert Kennedy Jr. on and then and then he offered a doctor on Twitter called him out for medical misinformation and all this things

and so he offered him $100,000 to his charity of his choice if he'd come on and debate him on the largest podcast in the planet. Yeah. You know, and, and I'm like, oh, like, shit's getting real. Sure. Like, we're getting to a point now where, we're, you know, once upon a time, I don't think Rogan would have done that.

And now he's like, no, we're going to, we're going to push this all. So you got like, and Robert F. Kennedy, or Robert Kennedy Jr., sorry, is running now for the Democrats. And you got all the stuff going on with Trump and you just like, on and on and on it goes. Anyways, I'm rambling here, but the Twitter land is like, is an unbelievable place. I keep telling people if you're not on there, you just go watch, just get an account. Oh, for sure. And just sit back and watch the stories going on.

Who are you watching on Twitter? Oh, I watch a lot of them. You know, Jordan Peterson's always a fun one. You know, I don't actually don't follow Rogan on that one. But, you know, I do tend to follow a lot of politicians on there. And, you know, it's funny, like you said, when you see the, that one feed come up. Just to read the comments, yeah.

And I think that's great for getting a different perspective. So I appreciate the platform from that perspective. Yeah, but there are some lunatics on there for sure. But there's lunatics on every platform. There's lunatics on every platform. Yeah. I don't think Twitter's any worse than any other out there. But it is good to read.

And some of them do make a valid point and they can challenge your own thinking. So I encourage people to do it. I think it's fun. Well, part of this podcast has been built around the Twitter world because people who can put their thoughts out consistently and concisely and make like, it's just like, oh, wow, that's interesting. You know, one of the guys out of Saskatchewan, now he wasn't,

certainly he's on Twitter, but was Quick Dick McDick. Like a long time ago. Oh, I love Quick Dick. Well, I had Quick Dick, his first podcast he ever was on was mine. Was he? Yeah. And I forgot to press. record the first time. So we recorded the first time he was ever on, it went nowhere. We had

to record again. He was great. But I remember him telling me, before we knew each other, man, I don't know if I got enough to say. And I'm like, dude, you were like killing in on these videos. I don't think you don't realize how much you have to say. Yes. You know, and so, yeah, yeah, he's been on the podcast now, like five or six times. He's done one of my live events where, you know, I put on these SMP present shows where we bring in different people to talk about, well, you know, different things going on. You know, I had Danielle Smith before she announced on stage March 22. Yeah.

Just after all the mandates were falling off and restrictions were coming down. On stage in Lloyd with three others, we had a lawyer, a politician, media, which Danielle at that time was. And a daughter. It sounds like the beginning of a great joke too. Doesn't it? And it's, anyways, I come back to Twitter. One of the things I love about it is if you can find somebody who can, put together their thoughts like that.

Chances are they can come and sit and have a conversation because they're really thinking. I admire those because I hate social media for a lot of things. I just, you can get sucked into the bloody thing. Oh, sure you can. Right?

Like, I mean, and when it comes to kids and my kids being as young as there, I'm trying to be like ever present. I say that as I sit here on Father's Day, you know, and I'm like, ugh,

you know, I should be back home, but regardless every day is Father's Day, isn't it? Like, I mean, so I'm pretty fortunate that way. Well,

again, Yeah, you can learn a heck of a lot there. I mean, it's funny you mention quick. You know, he still has one of the best videos out there, in my opinion, on how to understand the carbon tax. One of the best. Guys got a lot to say. But you can pick up stuff like that,

but you can also go to the video, some of the videos on the Laurier Institute and learn a little bit more about how things work the other side of the coin. So, I mean, I think it's, you know, if you use it the correct way, you know, don't get into a bunch of name calling on there, then you can really learn a lot off social media. Well, if you attack someone's idea, that's interesting.

Yeah. Or challenge, I should say, maybe not attack. Challenge someone's idea. I think that's really interesting. When you attack the character of somebody, which is what seems to happen on all social media platforms, it's like, you wouldn't do that out in public? What are you doing?

Like, that's ridiculous. Well, that's the best way to look at it, isn't it? If you wouldn't do this to my face, why are you doing it on here? Well, Jordan Peterson talks about it all the time, right? Yes. Do people come up to you on the street and what's their thoughts? And he's like, nine, probably I forget if he says nine out of ten or if it's 99 out of 100.

He's like, all of it is positive. Yes. You know, like, they're all like shaking my hand and being like, you've like, help me. You know, I got the same story. The podcast starts because of Jordan Peterson. I mean, in a weird way, but you start reading his book and, you know, and then you start looking at your life and you start cleaning some things. things up and pretty soon you know you're gallivanting around Alberta interviewing people and

you know and on and on it goes I someday I hope you know to shake his hand yeah and explain that to him and have him on the podcast because I would love nothing more than to sit and and pick his brain you know like I mean that's a guy and another albertan who's really shook the hornet's nest he's done exactly that you know and I agree with you I mean I uh I missed the last live show here in Calgary in May, but next time he rolls through town, I definitely want to go and and hear him speak. I got to see him at Rogers Place in Eminton. Did you?

And the overall, you know, when people were asking, what did you think of the show? And I was like, yeah, it was, I've seen him three times live now. Yeah. And the first time I saw him was in, like a hotel in Emmington and he was not polished. It was unreal. It was the best. It was, it was so good. It was just like, just the way his old lecture series.

is where he's trying to formulate what he's thinking about. And from time to time, you can get that out of him. But I find his show is now very polished. But this one, he had his wife with him. So Tammy was there. And she did the Q&A at the end. Just like phenomenal. And they danced on stage together.

And I was like, like what you're doing for people, that right there, what you're doing for married couples, is you're showing them how they're supposed to interact. And we don't have enough of that in society today. Like we just, we just don't. It's, uh, yeah, we just don't. And he, he is found a way, like his most recent show. That's what sticks out to me is, is his interaction with his wife.

Not on the rest of it. The rest was like, whatever. You know, I took my wife to it. She's never seen him live. Yeah. And, you know, she hears me talk about him. She's never, she'd never read him. And so to me, like, I was more interested to see of what she thought of it all.

And then he does what he does with, with Tammy at the end. I'm like, like, that's what I'm, that's what I'm both. That was great. Perfect. Well, now you're making a good call for me to go and see them. Anyway, I appreciate you making some time today and doing this with me. I always find it interesting to put a face to the Twitter name, you know? Like, obviously you go by your name and everything else,

but to meet somebody in person and actually sit down and have a chat and talk about some, you know, like the Pride conversation, especially during Pride Month. And, you know, where I sit with kids and everything else, I appreciate having a different voice on to talk a little bit about that, and you being willing to open up. And after this thing gets out of the court, I would really like to dig in on that. And whenever that day comes.

We might be able to. It would be interesting to hear, you know, you've become another guy when I look up the media of it. It's painted one way. And any time I think that, I go, or see that, I go, And there's a story there that has not been told or they don't want told. Anyways, I digress. Thanks for coming on, Shane.

And Sean, thanks for having me on. I really do appreciate it.