Shaun Newman Podcast - #695 - Tom Korski

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

He is the managing editor for Blacklock’s Reporter in Ottawa and has 40+ years in the news industry. We discuss the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, an election being called before the end of this year, foreign collusion in Canadian government and Charles Adler appointment to Senate. Clothing Link: ⁠⁠⁠https://snp-8.creator-spring.com/listing/the-mashup-collection⁠⁠ Text Shaun 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast E-transfer here: [e-mail] Silver Gold Bull Links: Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/ Email: [e-mail] Text Grahame: [phone]

This is Vance Crowe. This is Tom Longo. This is Drew Weatherhead. This is Marty Up North. This is J.P. Sears, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Tuesday. How's everybody doing today?

Once again, I probably should start this off every Tuesday for like a full year. If you're wondering where on earth the Tuesday mashup went, I'm sure you figured it out by now, but the mashups now air or live stream at 10 a.m. Mountain Standard Time on Fridays. 10 a.m. Mountain Standard Time on Fridays is no longer the day. the Tuesday mashup, it is the mashup. So if you're confused, we moved it, and the same show with the same great content on Fridays now at 10 a.m. There you go.

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you're not going to be disappointed by stopping in there. So, rectech power products.com, that'll get you everything you need to know about them. Ignite distribution out of Wainwright, Alberta. That's Shane Stafford and his group there. I look forward to running into Shane. You know, one of the things of being on holidays and taken off is, you know,

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worry about whether you're going to have everything that makes your business successful and running smoothly. So give Shane Stafford a call 780842-3433. So substack. Okay. We've, we just put out our first Sunday night, well obviously not just. Obviously that's two days ago now. But we put out a Sunday night week in review. And so moving forward Sunday evenings, we're going to be putting out. We can review videos. So for anyone, you know, for you, the great listener who listens to absolutely everything,

well, I got all the time for you. I got all the time for all you. I get it. There's five in a week. Some people love the mash-up, some people love when we talk the Brothers Roundtables, others like the politics, others like the faith, everything under the sun. You get the point. What we're doing on Substack, along with we'll be pushing it on social media as well,

as we're going to have a week and review videos. I'd started them probably a year ago, but there were a ton of work, and I'd heard how much people liked them. And one of the things, while we're off on our walkabout, our journey for 46 days, is we well I started talking about things and one of the things that came back up was the week in review.

So we put out our first on Sunday night we're going to be fine-tuning it making sure it is slick and smooth and nice and easy to use. We're keeping it under two minutes. In lots of cases we'll try and keep it under one minute so that you can just click on it and go oh, that's who was on the podcast this week

and if something jumps out at you then obviously you can go back and listen. So that's something to keep your eyes on. If you haven't signed up for the substack, it's free so you can literally just subscribe to it. I'm not one of those guys who's going to blow up your inbox three times a day or what have you. Right now, it's once or twice a week. And when I put things out, I'm really trying to make it worthwhile your time to click into it. And so Sunday nights is going to be week in review.

We also have the paid portion of substack. It's the one way where you can subscribe to the show. And I think it's $8 a month. You can also do it annually. and the thought being is, you know, you're going to see it today with Tom. We're independent media. I don't get government subsidies as much as at times. I'm like, mother, she's just like figure out a way to, you know, put in a request

or, you know, one of their ways to get, like, millions of dollars. You know, we got lots of diversity on this show. I don't think it's the opinions they want diversity. But regardless. So one of the ways you can support this substack, you can subscribe. up there for paid. We're working on some different things to ensure that, you know, when you're paying for it, it isn't just, hey, here's $8 a month because we love what you're doing, although I, if that's why you want to subscribe, and that's the only reason I appreciate it.

We do want to add some things in. We've been working on Substack exclusives at the end of interviews. We're trying to fine-tune that to make sure that I enjoyed on this side, and wherever you're sitting, you know, it's worth a benefit of having to click over to Substack and hear the end of an interview or what have you. So we got some fun things we're going to be toying with and tinkering with here over the next, you know, as we close out 2024 and I realize it's only August. And so the first of those is going to be the Sunday nights. We're going to try and fine tune that every Sunday night getting out this week and review video with a brief, you know, over the week. This is what's been going on. And if you want some personal shots of this Yahoo, there's some of those in the,

in Sunday's substack as well. It's got a little more personal feel. I mean this entire podcast. as the personal feel to me and probably to you the listener. That's all I got for you today. So if you haven't subscribed to Substack, head on over there. Subscribe. If you haven't seen any emails come through, make sure to check your junk box because obviously there is lots of content there. The Cornerstone Forum in its entirety, all the videos are there and lots of great content

from our 46-day, you know, as twos we call it, walkabout of the United States and part of Canada. So let's get on to that tale of the tape. He's the managing editor for Black Locks reporter and has 40 plus years in the news industry. I'm talking about Tom Corsky. So buckle up. Here we go. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today I'm joined by Tom Corsky.

Thank you, sir, for giving me some time. My pleasure, Sean. It's been a while since I've had you on this side. And that doesn't mean there isn't anything to talk about in Canada. There certainly is. and I don't know of any two people that know that better than yourself and Holly. And, well, I give, on our side of things, we give you guys a ton of praise for what you do. And I feel like if everybody embraced what Blacklocks does, Canada would be a completely different nation.

Maybe I'm wrong on that, but that's where I'll start. I really do appreciate everything that Blacklocks does. In saying that, there's been, there's been, a ton of stuff going on. And I wonder if we wouldn't mind starting around the anti-hate network. I come back off the holidays, Tom, went to the States, my wife's from there, and I was thinking, how am I going to get caught up on what I've missed over the course of a month and change? And, you know, I wrote down a list of like, okay, I'm going to have this person, this person,

this person. They're going to speed me back up on what I've missed in Canada. that's proven a little difficult because a whole lot of things have happened. Let's start with the anti-hate network, and I don't know, you folks have written several stories on it. As always, you follow the money, and just, I don't know, let's start there, Tom. Well, it's an unusual group, Sean. Basically, it's a bunch of guys in Ottawa. That's pretty much it.

They call themselves the Canadian anti-hate network. It's not a network. It's a small group of people, surprisingly small, and they have a website. Well, millions of others do too. But they're ambitious. They're not without ambition. And what they would like to do, and they've said this in a submission of the Commons Finance Committee in 2023, when they were looking for a $5 million grant, they want to become a sort of a quasi-official agency to be on the look up for right-wing haters.

is their characterization. They have been very successful at landing subsidies. When I say subsidies, I mean these are six-figure grants. This is big money. And their former co-founder did even better. Her name was Amir Al-Gawabi. And she landed an appointment last year as cabinet's Islamophobia advisor, special advisor on Islamophobia. None of these people, people have PhDs, none of them have any particular expertise. They've never published a peer-reviewed article in their lives. Ms. El Gawabi was a freelance columnist for the Toronto Star. But they did pretty well when it came to applying for funding. What have they been up to? Well, most recently, after receiving two-thirds of a million dollars in federal funding over the last nine months,

he published a guide, and it was a little booklet, and it was to help people take action against the haters, and they had to list the haters, and it was some list. It included Catholic groups, like, for instance, Campaign Life. It called it a hate movement. I'm quoting them, quote, unquote, hate movement. Campaign life has been around. It was started in Edmonton in the 1980s, and it has been best known for having an annual day of protest at the House of Commons on the front lawn of Parliament Hill. It's pretty mild, Sean. The Catholic school girls march, and they express pro-life opinions, and MPs come out and make some speeches, Christians and mainly Catholics, but others.

They called it a hate movement, and they called an affiliated, Catholic-affiliated website, LifeSight News, as also part of the radical right-wing haters in Canada. You know, Sean, hate is in the criminal code. There's a legal definition of that. None of these people have ever been charged with hate. It gets even worse. Or did our friends at the Anti-Hate Network get their research? Well, they republished it from an American.

anarchist, his name is Sunshine, Spencer Sunshine, that's his legal name, a self-proclaimed demonstrator with the Anarchist Youth Federation in the old days, and he writes these guys, and primarily focused on an American audience. Canadian anti-hate network ran with it. They're heavily subsidized. And so now we have this scenario where we have essentially a cabinet fund bunch of guys who have opinions, as many Canadians do, only they have cast themselves as sort of extra legal adjudicators of what passes for really unacceptable discourse. This case, campaign life. Now, I have to tell you before I stop, Sean, I've passed those campaign life demonstrations

many, many times. They always do it in the springtime, usually in June, just before House of Commons during for a summer recess. I've never seen firearms. I've never heard violent speech. I think if I waited into a campaign life picnic on the front lawn of Parliament Hill, and I said, you know, I'm feeling very vulnerable right now.

They'd probably just give you a hug. But we have this subsidized group, and they have very definitive ideas about who's a hater and who should be censured and in fact targeted by all those who oppose hate. It's really something. What does it tell you know, what does it tell you about the state of Canada

when the government is actively funding? You know, like, is it nefarious, Tom? Because, I mean, certainly sitting in this chair and watching blacklocks and all the things that your group continues to go through. Is it looking nefaris to you, or is it just like it's a group of guys who are exploiting a dumb government? Where do you go with it? Because when you're talking about them labeling a group like that hate,

that's an interesting direction of where our country seems to be heading, or at least that's my eyes. I think Cabinet played out its cards in the 2021 election pretty well. And they carried it through the 2022 Freedom Convoy protest. I don't think it's accidental. I think it's contrived. Prime Minister said in the 2021 election that there were people who were opposing mandatory vaccines and other really extensive regulations in the name of public safety,

who were racist, misogynist clowns. He called them unfit parents. What about our kids, he said, in a speech and such. Henry, famously called them a waste of space, and in the Freedom Convoy, decreed before the truck drivers ever double parked outside his office or honked a horn that they were a fringe group representing a minority view. By the way, that wasn't accidental. The Privy Council Office, that's the head of the Federal Public Service, really the cabinet's bureaucracy, they They commissioned in-house research.

They called it psychographic polling. This was before the 2021 election. It was contrived as hell. Excuse my language. And they determined through psychographic polling that people who tended or would be more likely to vote liberal were most afraid of dying in the pandemic. For instance, working age women. And they said, well, that can work for us, Sean. And so they ran with it.

And they certainly ran with it during the Freedom Convoy protests. I can't tell you the staff time we wasted chasing evidence of claims made in the House of Commons by primarily liberal members that the protesters were violent, homophobic, misogynist, racist. We finally had to stop because we couldn't find any evidence of any evidence. that, and certainly a federal judge agreed so later when he called the use of the Emergencies Act against the protesters, peaceful protest, and constitutional. They're playing, I think, a new card that no previous government I can think of has ever played in many, many years. And it is about division. When you're getting reelected, Sean, with 32.6 percent, I mean, that's pretty fine cheese pairing. So I think they've

decided, it's the only way they'll ever get a fourth term. You know, Kim Campbell, not a person I quote often, she said famously, there's a lot of buttons to push in Canada. East and West and English and French and Protestant and Catholic country and city, don't go around pushing buttons. Because we all have this understanding, live and let live, or we're going to be at each other. throats. This cabinet has decided they can profit from people being at each other's throats. My two cents, just my opinion. I mean, I guess sitting on this side, we've watched it play out, haven't we? I mean, your two cents alone, I mean, Tom, I would agree with you, and I would think a lot of the audience would agree with you, that over the course of the,

you know, the term of Justin Trudeau and his liberals, we've seen it play. out. And they're creating, you know, I'm forgetting the name, and you'll probably recall the name of the lady. They had the emergency meeting for the women's committee. And she came out with a long essay talking about, you know, like how conservatives are handling themselves. And there was some things. Oh, that was Anita Vandenbeld. Thank you. Ottawa West Napier. I was, I read her, her essay or her, you know, her response. And parts of it I agreed with, right? Like, we, we need to be cordial. We need to act with a little bit of grace, you know, like on how we discuss issues and everything else. But the thing she did not do was jump on the fact.

The liberals have created the environment that they're now living in. And that seems to be lost on them. And when you say, well, they're trying to find another way for another term. I'm like, man, what a scary thought to do whatever it takes to be the next leader of a country? and I know the liberals are not the only ones that'll do that. I'm not trying to paint that picture, Tom. I'd be silly to do so. They're just doing it very evidently in my eyes

when you see all the things that are going on. I think they have done it, Sean, to a degree that others have not, for fear of doing what Kim Campbell said. Once you create the whirlwind, you don't know where that's going to wind up. And I think others, everyone knows politicians. Missouri, Joey Smallwood, former Premier Newfoundland said every politician has three jobs, get elected, get reelected, get reelected.

I get it. Yeah, that's right. We're all adults. But there are limits. And the limits have always been decency and fair play. And so we see what's the latest psychographic polling we see from the Privy Council Office. They're working it. They're working it, Sean.

They got some Muslim-focused groups, Muslim Canadians. And they asked them very provocative and leading questions in these internal polls, focus groups. They ask them, do you think there should be more accommodation for Muslim sensibilities in everyday life? And some of them said, yes, you know, this five prayers a day, I can't really do that at work or public school, that's a problem. Why would you ask such a question? They have targeted LGBTQ communities famously in Montreal and Toronto. And they would ask them, is there, do you have any concerns about public discourse, about LGBTQ issues in rural Canada? You can imagine what they would say.

That's poking it. That's driving it. They're trying to create it. I've never known any other government that did that. Of course they want to get reelected, but they had a big shock in Toronto, St. Paul. You know, when was a by-election a headline? It was in Toronto St. Paul's. This is a seat that went conservative for the first time since 1988,

and they got a blowback. Now, the final polling numbers haven't been authorized yet by Elections Canada, Sean. But we're waiting for them. They're coming any day, and we want to go through that poll by poll. Because they lost the writing and they put everything. They put the kitchen sink in that writing. They had more cabinet ministers go down there. Cabinet members, door knocking.

The liberal candidate was a long time political aide, former chief of staff to the Minister of Public Works. And you'll never guess what happened. The implication is there's a large Jewish electorate in that writing. And they didn't get the Jewish votes. Because that's what happens when you push the button shot. You push and push and there will always be someone else. who has their own grievance, who has their own worldview, who finds this irritate.

And now I'm motivated to vote. Other prime ministers didn't shrink from this because they were gutless or stupid. It's because they knew it was dangerous and unpredictable. But let's be frank. And you're looking for a fourth term. You're starting at 32.6% to begin with. Any port in a storm. That's where we are.

That makes the next year very unpredictable, would you say? Would that be the correct word? Oh, if they go a full year without an election, they're going to be at each other's throats here in Ottawa, in Parliament. Do you see... Sorry, Tom, but do you see... No, not at all. No, I just go, does anything out there in your side of the world

suggest that we won't go of the full year to get to an election? Oh, I think there's still a chance there'll be an election called this year because it's not getting any better. The economy is not getting any better. There will be a China inquiry in the fall. It will resume hearings in September. This is just my two cents, Sean. I think it's going to be a widowmaker because you've already had a judge conclude.

There was definitely demonstrable election. interference. Really, these are felonies, breach of the Elections Act by Chinese agents in select conservative writings in the last two general elections. Now she is going to open hearings with a final report due by Christmas on why cabinet failed to act. And my opinion, that's a box of fireworks. So you reach a point where you say, you know, the closest analogies I can think of her in Ontario. Bob Ray, when he was Premier, Kathleen Wynne, Liberal Premier, and they decided to run the clock.

We're going to go to the last day. We've got a five-year mandate. We're pushing that to the last day. Wynne was so besieced and unhappy, she literally suspended her campaign halfway through. And Bob Ray, to this day, he hasn't been Premier in 25 years. Do you know there are streets that Bob Ray in small town, Ontario, can't walk down the street without little old ladies calling him dirty names?

So when you run the clock, that's a loser play. I agree with you. I just, I look at Justin Trudeau, and I haven't seen anything from him. Now, in fairness, they're not going to tell a little old me. But, you know, when you watch his interviews, his press conferences on and on and on, I mean, sure, there's little things like Kamala Harris taking over for Biden. and then Canada mainstream news from my eyes starting to hint that maybe Canada should do the same. So in my mind, I go, oh, okay, there's maybe the first domino that's going to fall in a series that gets Justin Trudeau out of the way. And that way, you know, in a year's time they have an election.

And now maybe the liberals try and find a way to string on for a little bit longer. Except you don't hear that at a Justin Trudeau at all. Not that he would go, well, I'm thinking about it, right? because that would make zero sense. But you might be the first Tom that has suggested there might be an election before then. And the guy that doesn't care about being hated walking down the street, in my mind, is Justin Trudeau at this point, anywhere he goes.

Heck, is he even releasing where he's going anymore? Last time I checked, the guy, anytime he was showing up anywhere, even on short notice, had a mob of people trying to chase him down. They have resorted to this technique of having unannounced appearances at, you know, completely innocent community events, but without proper notice to all media, because then that would leak to protesters. The problem with the strategy is that that's fine, but you're meeting 25 people at a time. I mean, so what? The thing you do, here's a tip, though, if this is useful at all, is to watch the liberal supporters very closely right now.

And I have to tell you, caucus, my opinion, is despondent. They're really unhappy. But read the Toronto Star columns, and they'll give you a hint of what's going on in the Liberal Party. You know, it's like TripAdvisor reviews. I don't know about anyone else. I always look at a TripAdvisor review for a place I'm going to go just to see the negative ones. I don't care about the positive ones. People say, this is the greatest holiday ever had. I want to read the negative ones because they're more informative to me.

So if someone's negative review of a hotel is, I thought the elevator, was too small. You say, okay, well, it's a pretty good place. So I like to read the reviews of how Trudeau is doing by Trudeau lovers. And I got to tell you, there's not a lot of enthusiasm. We don't need conservative premiers to say there's a lot of liberal columnists who are really unenthused about this guy going into a fourth-term campaign. kind of the way you put it and our audience can laugh at me and forgive me you know hockey guy on this side it'd be like watching uh i don't know i'll go to the arch nemesis of the oilers right now the calgary flames and seeing some of the moves they've made and realizing man we're in for a long road ahead and it starts to bleed out of you no matter how much you love the team that's what you're you're explaining to me i think when it comes to uh the liberals and their leader right now very true the other thing to watch for uh by the way is is when I look at election, this is not inside baseball. We look at cabinet appointments.

And before every election, the pace of appointments picks up quite dramatically. And these are just patronage jobs, you know, with every court authority, every obscure board, most people have never heard of. And when you start to see many more liberal donors and lawyers getting these appointments, that usually means they're getting ready to go. I have to tell you, the appointment machine has been running red hot for about four months now. I mean hundreds, thousands of appointments. You usually don't do that when you're going to take it easy for the next year.

The other thing is to watch is resignations. So we see to date three liberal MPs, including a member of cabinet, announced they will not seek re-election in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the liberal premier is absolutely horrified by the carbon tax. That's interesting. Why would you announce 18 months before the next election that you don't plan to seek re-election in Avalon? Well, I can think of one reason,

and that's because the election's not going to be in 2025, but we'll see. Well, I tell you what, Tom, I appreciate that insight because one of the things sitting on this side, you know, I remind myself and the listeners an awful lot. I've been sitting in this chair since 2019, and we talked an awful lot of sports sitting in this chair until the middle of 2021. So, you know, when you look at that, that's three years of talking about different things and less than that talking about politics. I've never been on the beat. So when these little tea leaves are starting to assemble themselves, it takes people such as yourself to point them out because I think a lot of us don't realize what some of this looks like.

because I do see the people getting appointed. I do see people stepping down. And, you know, in my mind, it's like, oh, they're going to draw it out and they want no part of it. But I do appreciate you pointing out some of what that means, because I think that is really interesting to hear. I just want to rewind for a second, because one of the things when I was leaving for holidays,

my wife's from the States, so we went down there for a time, is, you know, not. by the time we left, it was during the lead-up to when we were leaving and then while we were gone, the 11 MPs, the China collusion, and on and on and on this goes. You're sitting out there. Here in the West, we have our own anger towards it. What have you seen out of that area when it comes to a foreign government messing with elections and possibly 11 MPs and on and on and on this goes? I think it's been quite profound. One of the most impressive, I think, effects has been to watch all the rats scatter, forgive my plain language. There are many, many friends of China in public life. I could draw up a list when there were releases by a Commons and Senate Joint Security Committee that said, we think there are.

There are paid stooges of the Chinese embassy in public life in parliament. Anyone who follows this place could pretty much name them. I think I could come up with a list. They've all scattered. They've all shut up. They've all scattered. And now there is a quick passage of a bill for a foreign registry, which cabinet had opposed years. This thing passed

metaphorically in about 20 minutes before they broke for their summer recess in June. This is mandatory disclosure. If you are acting on behalf of a foreign government to affect any change on a bill or a motion or legislation, Parliament.

This is not radical. The United States has had this law since 1938. Australia has one. The United Kingdom has one. Sean, how can I say with certitude, I think I know who the stooges are? Well, I think of a baseball analogy. If you're sitting in the sports box,

you can pick out which ball player has been consorting with the gambler. If you know baseball at all, you can just tell who is trying to affect the game. It's exactly the same thing when you sit in the press gallery. You can just tell which MP and which senator

is really going the extra a little mile to try to affect the play. That's been profound. This has gone on for years, Sean, and now it's over. They're frightened, and they should be. Will you see

come out of that? You know, one of the things that once again, I lean on my experience as talking about different things like this as being, you know, in the early stages. When you look at it, were you surprised they didn't name names? And then once it does

come out, assuming it does, will you see anything revolving or anything around jail time? Like, because a lot of people, treason, that word has been talked about an awful lot. When you hear, you know, will they name names and then will there be repercussions from that? I think there will be names. I do. I don't think it's, this is too hot to handle. You can't suppress those names. The charge isn't treason, by the way.

under the Elections Act, they're very strict laws, and these, trust me, people have gone to jail for less. If you're aware, hypothetically speaking, that the consulate in Vancouver made a cash donation unreported or a payment in kind to a certain campaign in an election period. That's a felony shot. That's one of the allegations, by the way. If you are aware that there were placements in a Mandarin language media in a certain Toronto riding that were underwritten by the Chinese consulate, that's a felony. You go to jail for that. That's a big deal under our elections law.

And there have been people go to jail for less. It's happened. It doesn't have to be as harsh reason. it can be very mechanical. Here's where it gets interesting. If you're aware that there is evidence of the commission of a crime, a felony, what I just said, an legal campaign contribution, an unauthorized payment in time, and you're told that, what's the implication?

That's cabinet's problem. I'm happy to give an example. I'll keep it short. The Prime Minister had an MP in his caucus, Han Dong, Don Valley North. A couple of interesting things about MP Dong. He has acknowledged, said this in court documents, he had frequent conversations with the Chinese ambassador or the Chinese consul in Toronto. What did they talk about? Well, he couldn't recall all the conversations.

He said some of them were innocent about visa matters. But that's odd, Sean. Can you imagine a conservative MP? Sure, I've had a dozen conversations with a Russian ambassador sometimes during my campaign. Are you kidding me? What else do we know? We know that he came under surveillance of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service because of his close ties to the embassy. Now it gets interesting. We know that there were some Chinese foreign students who were bused into his nomination meeting. and the implication was they voted for him and won him a nomination, liberal nomination, in Don Valley North in Toronto.

It was a very close race. It was so close, MP Dong's campaign manager thought he was going to lose until voila. The busloads of Chinese foreign students came in. By the way, the implication was they promote out of the riding. That's against the regulation. And then something interesting happened. This nomination meeting was literally during the writ period

after the election and called. It was the only contested liberal nomination in Toronto, and it was the only one that happened during the writ period. Why does that matter? The minute an election is called, all the federal regulations on foreign interference and electioneering suddenly apply. It was the difference of 24 hours. We know from MP Dong's campaign manager that the party was so nervous about what happened at this. mysterious meeting with the Chinese students and the buses, that some unnamed party officials from Ottawa came down to attend the meeting to see if there were any problems with media. He said, quote, end of quote.

The fact that the man was under surveillance by the security services was reported to the prime minister. This is sworn testimony. This is a fact. And what did the prime minister do? Nothing. Through two elections, Sean. He kept this man in his caucus. He signed his nomination papers twice. Why would you do that? Sean, if I told you there's a member on your team who's under police surveillance for suspected illegalities and you kept him in the head office through two seasons, I have some questions for you now. That's what the prime minister faces this fall. Well, one more before I let you out of here, Tom. And I was just, you know, like, how long has it been?

It's been a while since you've been on the side. We're going to rectify that because every time I chat with you, I do enjoy the insight you have, especially from being out on the east side of this country. We've had, well, you've been in the media industry for 40 plus years. I got my math, correct, right? That's right. Charles Adler just got appointed to Senate as an independent for Manitoba.

I was just curious. In your 40-plus years, I assume you've ran across Adler before and your thoughts on this appointment. I have run across Adler. I want to be frank. Well, the public office now. I never got the Adler thing. He struck me as humorless and lacking in personality. I didn't like his radio broadcast.

I didn't like his columns. I never read them. And when I had limited exposure, I didn't find them worthwhile. Well, that's fine. This is not an entertainment tonight review. I'm from Manitoba and Adler's an embarrassment. I find it very hard to believe 1.3 million people in Manitoba. They couldn't find someone who was either dedicated.

their life to the betterment of Manitoba people who have spent years performing charitable works, helping out at the school, making their community better, who could not bring a really interesting perspective Senate work, or people who have extensive political experience, understand how a bill becomes a law, and really devoted their lives to appreciating what a legislative body can do and what they can't do. I don't think a Senate appointment is like winning a game show. Yes, I made it. Adler's heart up against it.

He's 69. Maybe he's short of cash. His ratings were terrible. But I did it. I got my six-figure job with the staff in Ottawa. The hell with that. You know, there are some senators who do very serious work. Sean, it's about 15 to 20 percent.

They work like dogs. They really do. I don't think Adler is going to be one of them. Well, I had wondered, it seemed, maybe I'm wrong on this. Once again, I lean back on your your history, your experience of being in the industry. I found it odd. It was Manitoba. I was like, that seems like they must have, unless he was searching for a position like this, that seemed odd to me just because it's a different province. And it's not just a different province, it's too over, right? So that struck me as odd, Tom. Now, maybe that is something that happens all the time, and I just don't understand. That's fair. I'm here to learn as much as the listeners and everyone else. The other thing that struck me is you just said it, right? In all of

Manitoba, with all the great Manitobans out there and listen, I come from Saskatchewan, and we don't have a whole lot of nice things at times to say about Manitoba. But in saying that, it's all in jest. We know there's some great people out there. I mean, as you were just saying, you came from Manitoba. So what is it? Would this have been them searching it out? And once again, this is a speculation at this point, because like, obviously you can't know for sure.

But I assume they go looking for different people across the country that can fit a need that they're looking for instead of, you know, Manitoba going, hey, who could we get to run in this spot for us? Well, there's one interesting thing, Sean. And I don't know that this occurs in sports or business or any other endeavor, but it sure happens in politics. Everyone keeps a blacklist. Everyone knows that. I have a white list and a blacklist.

I don't mean that in terms of ethnicity. I mean that in terms of my friends and enemy. I remember when Jim Munson, who I'd known when he worked at CDV National, became a senator. He was laid off at CTV, briefly attempted to freelance, then got a job in John Cretchen's office. And he was, you know, like he carried the briefcase. He wasn't, trust me, he wasn't doing anything in the office. Cratchen made him a senator from Ontario. I always assumed John Cretchen did that because there was someone who really wanted that appointment.

And Cretchen wanted to give him the stick. So I'm going to, I'm literally, I'm going to walk into the office. I'm going to see Jim Munson. Hey, you, guy, with briefcase. I'd you like to be this. I would not put it past these guys. This is, that's politics, that they appointed Charles Adler because there was someone in Manitoba who really, really wanted that appointment,

and they just wanted to stick it to them. Can I give you an example? I can use this candidly because I think all the, the individuals are dead. Charles, Lawrence DeCorp, was former mayor Edmonton. And his father had been a liberal MP in the 1940s and 50s, when liberals got elected all the time in Alberta. And when the wall came down, the Cold War ended, Lawrence DeCore was desperate. He appointed as the first Canada's first ambassador to Ukraine.

He was Ukrainian, and it meant just so much to him. It was just so wonderful. And he was a longtime liberal. And I remember Lawrence DeCore flying to Ottawa. You see him the odd time walking across Parliament Hill carrying his briefcase. and we knew that he was never getting that appointment. And do you know why? Because he'd gone into a liberal leadership campaign

like 15 years earlier and voted for the wrong candidate. In other words, not Kretchen. Those guys remember that. They never forget. And Decor never got his ambassadorship. And that's politics. Well, I appreciate you doing this this morning, Tom.

I promise to the audience and to yourself. I'm not sure Tom cares, but certainly on this side, we'll make sure that we don't wait near as long to have you back on. Make sure to continue doing what you guys do out there because I know for a lot of us, we pay attention what Blacklocks is doing. You continue to break stories that seem to, well, it's just become part of what you guys do. And we appreciate that very much in this country. So thanks again for joining me this morning. And once again, we won't wait so long to have you back on. My pleasure, Sean. Thank you.