Shaun Newman Podcast - #836 - Franco Terrazzano & Kris Sims

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

Kris Sims is the Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), a citizens' advocacy group focused on lower taxes, less government waste, and accountability. With over 20 years of experience in journalism and politics, she has worked in radio, CTV’s Parliamentary Bureau, and was a founding reporter for Sun News Network, covering issues like big government and personal liberty. Franco Terrazzano is the Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Before joining the CTF, Terrazzano worked as an economic policy analyst at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and as a fellow with the Canadian Constitution Foundation.Cornerstone Forum ‘25https://www.showpass.com/cornerstone25/Get your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcastSilver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionWebsite: www.BowValleycu.comEmail: [e-mail] Use the code “SNP” on all ordersProphet River Links:Website: store.prophetriver.com/Email: [e-mail]

Hey, welcome to the podcast, folks. No little intro. Hold on before you skip anything. Let's chat for just a quick couple of seconds, shall we? The Cornerstone Forum, May 10th, you got till the end of this week to get your full access tickets. That's going to include meals. We've got to have our numbers into the venue by the end of the week. So if you're holding out and waiting, don't wait any longer.

Go get your tickets. They're down on the show notes. If you can't find them, text me. We'd love to pass along that link. We're getting closer and closer and closer. to this event, Man Alive, it's like, it felt so long. You know, like I had so much time. And now here it is.

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unreal to say uh the least the other thing i want to bring to everyone's attention is the federal election is monday april 28th so that is coming up real fast and twos and i are going to be on air live uh from noon mountain standard time and we're going to be going for the full day So if you didn't know about that, mark your calendars and make sure that you have that day scheduled off. We're going to be on the air with guests from all across Canada, and we look forward to having you guys live with us. That's going to be on X and Facebook and probably Rumble. Probably Clyde do something's YouTube channel. There will probably be a few more there.

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Here we go. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. We're jumping right into this because I was told I had this amount of time. And then, no, you guys, planes, trains, and automobiles is pretty much your story. Yep. And so I'm not going to forget to do this. Ooh. I got coined. Chris never, sorry, welcome to the Sean Newmanpaw, I guess I'll say it again.

We got Franco Tarzanal, Chris Sims in studio. When you're in studio, you get a silver coin from silver gold bull. Thank you. So, you know, when I first started to hand those out, those were worth, I don't know, was it $30. Look at this. This is a real one. Yeah. Holy smokes.

Thanks, Sean. Well, that's silver gold bull for you. Yeah. I love them. So that's, they're a major sponsor out of California. Algarie, Alberta. Nice. Got their starting Rocky Mountain House as you're doing your giant tour of Alberta or Western Canada.

So anybody who ventures this way. And Chris, this is your first time in here. This is so cool. Yeah, well, I'm excited. I'm excited to have both you in here. Franco, uh, okay. So when did you get into Alberta? Uh, yeah, when did I get into Alberta?

Like last Sunday? We've been around for more than a week. We've been touring around the place. Like today, I don't know if we were talking before we started recording, but we started in Lethbridge. Then we went to Medicine Hat. then I think at some point we stopped in Belize and now we're in Lloyd Minster. Okay.

Yeah, we went a little bit off course, but we made our way here. Can we just meet in Belize next time? I would appreciate that. Those daugries look amazing in those pictures. But to be fair, we had to leave Medicine Hat quickly because we got locked out of our rental car because everything went to hell. But then I managed to McGiver the thing open and make it start again. But that lost us time. So we didn't have time to stop for gas.

And then we started getting up here and realized there weren't a lot of gas stations. And then so we had to turn down a dirt road. Franco started to despair, but we brought him back on board and he's good. We've got a tank full of gas and beef jerky. He's fine. Everything's fine. You make that I love when people come to Lloyd Miston and I've been. It's like we survived. It was like, no, I've been here before. I was here back in like 2019. You guys remember when like the big pipeline problem was happening. You couldn't get anything built. I mean, sounds like today here in Canada. But back in 2019, before COVID or any of that, was. happening. One of the big issues is you couldn't get anything built. We're selling our oil at a

discount. And so at the CTF, we did this huge national tour where we had these big inflatable balloons with this running clock, kind of like our dead clock, but it was showing how much money we were losing out because we're not getting pipelines built, right? And one of the stops on the national tour was right here in Lloydminster. And there were balloons shaped like oil barrels. It was amazing. I got a funny story about that. So I was about when we started that tour, I was probably about seven and a half years old, just starting out with the CTF. And our first press conference was right in Parliament Hill. And as you can imagine, I was pretty nervous. I was shaking a little bit. And so we roll up these big oil balloons. We have the clock going. We have a full scrum right in front of the press gallery

in Ottawa. And it just so happened that we timed it up with a major climate protest going on right behind us. So the visuals were good. You know how much better it is to have you both in studio. This is so fun. You know, like the next time when you're coming through though, like, we're going to, we're going to do a lot of different things. One of them, we're not going to give ourselves a time limit. That's good. Because we got to move things, you know, I'm just like, I'm sorry, Sean. Yeah. Well, our events at 730, so we don't need to be like out of here, out of here. As long as we're out of here by like a little after seven. Okay. Well, that's cool. That's cool. Yeah. They picked, here's the funny, because by the time this airs,

folks, this is the funny this. They don't realize the Oilers played a playoff hockey game tonight. Hold on. We booked this tour way before the playoffs, right? So, I mean, you darned if you do. So the Oilers put it on your night. I got it. I got it now. And, you know, I didn't suit up and skate for the Oilers and then say I'm going to cap Alberta Energy the same day. That wasn't me. That was Mark Carney.

So that's on them. Can we talk about this whole, this whole, this whole, what is it now, carbon tariff? I'm like, I read your guys' latest, you know, I don't know, was a report, email, doesn't matter. I'm like, come on. We just, it's like we can't catch a break. If this guy's elected on the 28th, I'm going to have a conemption. Like, I'm probably right on air.

Either way. Can we talk about this carbon tariff? Yes. Yes. Do you want to go first? Yeah, I mean, a carbon tariff is essentially just another carbon tax on Canadian. So what Cardi wants to do,

and if I can remember the numbers correctly, it's going to cost about half a billion dollars, us taxpayers. So look, any tariff, that a government imposes is a tax on your own citizens, right? So when Canada imposes knee-jerk, retaliatory tariffs on the U.S., that's a tax on Canadian businesses and tax on Canadian consumers. So what Carney essentially wants to do is impose this carbon tariff. It's a carbon tax on us, another one. And any good that we import from another country is going to be taxed,

carbon taxed, if that country doesn't also impose a carbon tax. Now, here's the thing that you all have to remember out there, is that the vast majority of countries don't have carbon taxes or national carbon taxes, right? So 70% of countries don't have carbon taxes, national carbon taxes. So essentially all the goods and services that we're buying from abroad, I don't know, think maybe cheaper shoes, clothing. Just think all of your junk you're buying from China. Well, or like, I don't know, vegetables and produce. I don't know. You know what I mean?

Like all that kind of stuff. If it's coming in from another place that doesn't have as high of a carbon tax as what Carney would like us to pay, then we're going to be hit at a carbon tax on our businesses and on our consumers whenever those goods are imported into Canada. So in his platform and during his announcement back when he was running for leadership of the party, he calls it a carbon border adjustment. Wonk, wonk, won't. So carbon border adjustment is a carbon tariff. And put more plainly, I read his book, I read Carney's book, Values. I strongly recommend everybody read this thing because it's like his entire plan.

He loves carbon taxes so much that when he looks at, around the world and finds other countries that don't have one, that upsets him. It upsets him so much, he's going to hit them with his own carbon tax. But the problem there is that it hurts us. So imports coming into Canada gets a Kearney carbon tax tariff slapped on it. And he costed it out. It's like half a billion dollars to start. It's a lot of money. Can I jump in here too? Because it kind of builds on this whole carbon tariff thing. You might have seen that these carbon taxers, the green activists, the politicians that want to hit us with carbon taxes, They've shifted the narrative on why they say Canadians must pay a carbon tax.

Have you noticed this? So first it was about the environment, right? If you care about the environment, you have to pay a carbon tax. Then Canadians push back and was like, well, you know, hurting Canadians doesn't reduce emissions in China. Okay, so they lost that battle. Then they somehow moved on to the carbon tax is going to make you richer. And then Canadians were like, I don't know, man. If I give the government 20 bucks, I'm probably not going to get 50 bucks back.

Right? So then they lost the affordability argument on the carbon tax. And now they have this another argument, and it's probably the worst one I've heard. And they're trying to say now that we have to hammer all Canadians with a carbon tax in the off chance at some time down the road when some of our businesses sell some of their products to some other countries, they're going to be hit with a carbon tax tariff on those goods in other countries. So that is probably the silliest rationale I have ever heard for a carbon tax on all Canadians. and you see academics, you see some in the media, you see politicians trying to spin Canadians on that rationale. But like, as I just mentioned,

it doesn't really make sense to hammer all Canadians with the carbon tax in the off chance down the road that some businesses pay a carbon tax when they sell some of their goods to some other countries. But look, after losing the argument on the environment, they lost the argument on affordability, now they're trying to find another argument to try to spin Canadians on the necessity of a carbon tax, even though it's really just a scam. I feel like anything that's that confusing, because you started talking, and I was like,

I almost went cross-eyed when you were trying to like, you know. I saw you losing it there. And I'm like, anything that's that confusing just feels like, why, why? And actually, to go back to Mark Carney and how much he loves carbon tax, not that I don't know if I can pull you into this discussion or not, but I'll try. Isn't it his wife, who's the big climate person, even though he's written the book on it? Like, how much does that factor into this, too? because she's working for, and forgive me, Chris. You raise your group, Gerald Butts.

Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. So, to be fair, that is her role. Not that it matters because he's the one putting out the platform. He's the one doing everything. Sure. Sure.

But not to take it away from him. This is his book. True enough. He wrote it 507 pages. And in fact, when he wrote the book, he was the UN special envoy on this topic. Dear God. On climate change. And he was also the financial.

advisor to COP 26 while he was at the UK. And he quotes Greta Thunberg repeatedly in this book. And it is endorsed by Bono, this book. So he, in his whole little self, with his PhD in economics. Once again, this is where I stand corrected. Chris Sims, you are correct. I am wrong. And, you know, you're touring around with your new book, Franco. Yeah. Axing the tax. Yep. Okay. Right here. How, how, um, how many stops you make and how long is this this thing going on the road for more than a week we are going through alberta this is our last stop in alberta then we're heading through saskatchewan and uh and manitoba so we'll be done by the end of this week a fast a fast tour so wait wait wait by the time this airs though just uh where exactly are you going to be over

the next you know three four days so we have five more big stops uh we're so well six we're in lloyd minster tonight going to north battleford saskatoon regina brandon winnipeg those are going to be your big stops. What days are you in Brandon, Winnipeg? Right there, Wednesday. Wednesday? Wednesday. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

So that's coming soon. Soon. In a day and a bit. Today's the 21st, so we're in there at the 23rd. Yeah, it's real quick. We did launch it in Ottawa at the Canada Strong and Free Conference. And so there's a lot of folks in their, you know, policy changers, that sort of stuff. We launched it there.

And then Franco flew back home here to Alberta and we got started. Then I was going to ask, you know, one of the things I'm curious about, especially right now, Now, I assume I know the people that are coming out to buy this book, but maybe I don't. You've been probably running into a ton of Albertans, correct? Correct. Of course. And what have been the thoughts around this, you know, as we inch closer to this election, everything, are everyone like, you know, is it all conservative?

Is it a PPC? Is it like, you know, is there a couple of liberals out there, NDP? I don't know, maybe a green. You know, like are the colors of the rainbow coming out? Or are you guys seeing a lot of people that are. upset with the current establishment. Oh, definitely the latter. Like, I'm not exactly sure where people are going to be voting, right?

But definitely more so upset with the current establishment, for sure. You know, one of the things that's been so nice on this tour is we just get to meet with our supporters. People who, you know, really care about these issues have been fighting for a very long time. And really, I wrote this book for them. I really did because they need to understand, you know, how hard they've been working for a very long time. And they really have to understand their accomplishment. Even though the fight against carbon taxes is not over, we can get into that into a second. But, you know, a lot of people have been fighting carbon taxes and this do what we say or pay mentality from these political elites for like two decades, right?

And they need to know that this was a real David versus Goliath kind of fight where you had all the elites in the political circles. You had the bureaucrats, the taxpayer-funded academics, many of the media elites, even big business, right? He'll remember back to when Notley brought in her carbon tax back in what, 2017, who was surrounding her, right? So all these elites have been essentially telling working class people to sit down, be quiet, and pay your carbon tax bills. And you know what? Honestly, it would have been easier for people with their busy lives,

raising their kids and grandkids trying to get to work, trying to pay the bills. It would have been easier for them to have done that. But they didn't, right? They signed petitions. They emailed politicians. They organized and went to rallies. They got bumper stickers. They did everything.

and, you know, they forced the liberal government who up until about, let me check my watch here, six minutes ago, the carbon tax was their favorite tax, right? And they forced the liberal government to at least back down on their consumer carbon tax. Now, obviously the law is still on the books, but it's an accomplishment for like more than two decades of ordinary Canadians essentially telling the political establishment to shove it. Yeah, big time. Like, just remember, back when we were first saying, let's ask the carbon tax, let's scrap the, carbon tax, you were probably called similar things. I mean, I've been on the air saying we need to get rid of the carbon tax now for years. I've been called a climate denier, which, by the way, is a

disgusting term, and nobody should use it because it's meant to bring up images of Holocaust denial. So doing those two comparisons between those two things is disgusting. So nobody should say that. So I've been called that. I've been called a monster. I was told that I wanted Litton to burn down, all because I said it was wrong for people to be nailed 13 bucks extra, fill up their minivan, bucks extra to fill up the pickup truck and $200 extra to fill up their big rig truck because it does nothing. Up here in Canada, we're responsible for about 1.4% of global emissions, meaning if we shut down everything, close down this studio, Sean, everybody don't drive your vehicles. It wouldn't make a dent in global emissions. But we've been banging on that drum now for years and our supporters have been

too and they've been taking it on the nose. Remember last summer when this same liberal government said, how dare you stand up and say, we don't want carbon taxes, you want the planet to burn? These are these same MPs who are currently out right now knocking on doors, asking for your vote. By the way, backbench MPs just got a pay raise. It's what, $207,000? Yeah, it's just under $210,000, right? So while they're collecting dust in the House of Commons, they're also collecting a $210,000 paycheck. Yeah, so that's why I love this book. I've read it a couple times. This is a punch in the nose off on behalf of other people towards the elites who were pushing these carbon taxes for years.

Don't get me started on politicians. You're in a safe space here. Before we move on from the book, because you know, you doing the rounds, stopping in here, how can people get a copy of it, right? Obviously, if they run into you over the next couple days, that's one way, probably get it signed that way,

get to shake hands with Franco, which is super cool, you know, and Chris, I might add. Thanks. And my question, too, I guess, is just how can they go? about buying the book they can't run into you on the on the road yeah the easiest way is amazon i mean a lot of the big bookstores will also have it ask them if they have it but amazon is probably the

easiest way axing the tax the rise and fall of canada's carbon tax and hey sean um before we move on let me just outline this because it's not just a history it's not just a look back as i briefly mentioned the fight against carbon taxes is not over right so what carney did is he said they got rid of it right yeah well good segue he set the consumer carbon tax rate to zero okay the law the law still on the books. So that means after they're done, singing for their supper, knocking on your door, trying to get your vote, when the election is over, they could

still go back into the house of comments and crank that carbon tax all the way back up and even more. That's how it's set up. So the fight's not over, but even more importantly, and I think where the fight's going and it's detailed in this book, is you're going to see these politicians and activists, even academics, try to

re-label, repackage, and hide carbon taxes, right? Carney's already he wants to hit Canadian businesses, with these huge hidden carbon taxes, and he hopes you won't notice when your life gets more expensive. But not just that, right? Think about how damaging a carbon tax on Canadian businesses is, because that's going to force them to cut production in Canada, increase production in the United States, or just set up shop in the United States. So when we talk about Carney's carbon tax, hidden carbon tax on business, it's really the worst of all worlds. Higher prices for

you, me, and everyone else, but then also fewer Canadian jobs. And one last thing I want to say on one of the reasons why I wrote this book other than just telling the tale is that you're already hearing and seeing some activists try to claim that, oh, the carbon tax was a good idea. It's just Trudeau's fault. He bungled it or he didn't communicate it well enough. And the reason I wrote this book, one of the reasons, is just to shatter that myth. Just sit it down before it even stands up because the carbon tax wasn't a good idea. it always was and always will be a bad idea

for us Canadians who are forced to pay the tap. Yeah, oh, I have so many thoughts. I was going to say, you know, when you say shattering the myth and different things like that, not to bring in a different, but I'll bring in the lady. Linda Blade wrote a book on men and women's sports and like Linda Blade, you know,

coached Olympic athletes, right? And that book, you know, was it the most, was it Lord of the Rings? No. No, and I highly doubt this one's Lord of the Rings. No, it is. Some say better. Some say.

Not to knock it, right? But I'm like, chances are you're going to read the book and it's just going to be an outline of every argument you ever get in on the subject. You just flip to 13. No, actually it says right here. Because that's what happens in books like this is you can just shatter any argument.

It's just like you flip to the page, there it is. This is why, no, right here, right here. And shout it to Linda Blade, who's now an indie. So if I ever get over there Wow Yeah anyways Yeah her and her husband moved over there Well lovely woman

She gave me her book And when I read it I'm like This thing like shatters all the arguments Like it's just like you flip through And you're like oh there and there And I assume this is when I hear you talk about it's the same And all I was gonna say is You mean to say we can't trust politicians

Weird-a Like I mean I know I'm shocked I just You know one of these days One of these days Probably when I'm 80 I'm gonna be sitting here

And I'm like ask her I've tried. And I'm going to sit here and I'm going to have conversations about the Emmington Oilers again. You're going to go back to hockey band. Probably. I don't know. We have the brother. We have the brothers in here weekly now.

Yes. Doing brothers roundtables. And we get in here and we talk, you know, could we be talking about the election? Sure, we could. But instead, we talk about the Oilers and the flames. We make fun of the flames. Sorry, flames. And on and on it goes.

I mean, obviously you're not happy when these teams are getting government-funded money or government money handed out to them. Yep. Taxpayers money handed to big NHL O'ranks. Come on. It's the NHL. The poor things. They need our money. Hat and hand, eh? They need our money. Yeah, they just can't do it. Yeah, that and just again, the footage of the skating with the

politician and the, yeah, in the goalie skates that was just awful to watch. It hurt me too, Sean. It didn't hurt, you know, I know, it didn't hurt me as much as it hurt you. But. Well, then they had Mark Messier do a Budweiser commercial, and if it was circa 2015 or something, I wouldn't have bug me so much, but I'm like, of all the companies,

of all the companies, Come on. There's dirt in this book, too. People like, anybody who's into politics, like people might remember the former, the last leader of the conservative party? What was his name? Can't remember. But anyway, he signed a pledge saying that he wouldn't have a carbon tax.

And then he betrayed that pledge. And then everything hit the fan. Politicians? Why are they? To get into power? This was a big one. So, yeah, there's lots of tea spilled in this book. Talk about, because the carbon tariff comes out.

out of Carney's proposed budget, correct? Did I say that right? His platform, yeah. His platform, I don't know. What else stood out to you, too, about his planned budget? Oh, okay. So first I'll just say this. Like, I didn't even think it was possible to have a worse budget than Trudeau.

I was saying something. I guess I was even, I was naive about that. So we, the whatever comes out on whenever it does Saturday, and we go through it. And the thing that pops out to me is, like, look, Carney wants to run bigger deficits than even Trudeau is planning to do, right? And he's like running on like, you know, he's this banker, you know, the math guy with the math numbers and he's supposed to be credible. Well, it turns out the math guy's math isn't mathing. You know what I mean? Like, okay, so over the next four years, he wants to add $225 billion to the debt. Okay, the Trudeau government just doubled the debt in nine years and he's like, ah, not enough. Let's keep maxing out the next credit card. Hold my beer. Yeah. Hold my credit card. So he wants to add $225 billion to the debt. And just being curious, I look back at Trudeau's most recent budget update. And Trudeau, over those same years, wanted to add $131 billion to the debt.

So in those same years, Carney wants to add about $100 billion more to the debt than Trudeau. That's nuts. What is you want to do? Like, are we all getting fancy things at the house? You won't, Sean. I won't, yeah. No. I mean, I'm sure they'll pay.

for a lot of beef Wellington on those nice airplanes abroad, maybe spend another $8 million on another barn for the Governor General's estate. I don't know. Think about the sex toy shows in Germany that we can fund with that type of coin, Sean, right? Won't somebody think of the sex toy shows in Germany for a change? I mean, look, like, the government's budget is an absolute disaster. You know, I mentioned some of those like sillier wasteful spending.

The other one that I have to say is the 12 grand that the government spent so senior citizens and other countries can talk about their sex lives in front of live citizens. So yes, our government is in the business of outsourcing old people sex stories now. That's fun. But, you know, those silly examples. But, like, honestly, if you're going to tackle the spending, if you want to balance the budget, if you want to start paying down the debt, like, you've got to tackle the big side.

And that's the bureaucracy, right? The bureaucracy in Ottawa has gotten out of control. In less than a decade, Trudeau added 108,000 extra bureaucrats, not 108 extra. 108,000, right? So the cost of the bureaucracy went up 73%. I don't think anyone who's not paid for by the taxpayers getting anywhere close to that. Do you have any faith, any faith, that any politician, no matter the color they serve, will be able to tackle the bureaucracy? I once sat in here with a lovely lady from a certain province. And I asked about this because I'm watching Elon Musk and I'm watching what Trump's doing and I'm seeing how they're hacking and whacking and they're causing

an uproar all over the place, but they're getting rid of agencies left, right and center. And you look at Canada and you go, is anyone going to be able to tackle that issue? Did that lady just run a $5 billion deficit in Alberta, that lady that might have sat in this chair? Yeah, I know. I'm going through line by line now after that budget with the full-time employees, full-time equivalents, to find out where we need to cut. Because some people are just too nice to go through their budget with the big set of scissors that they need. But I don't care about that.

So I'm going to be going through that for the next pre-budget report. And I hear you, like to Franco's point, this blew my mind when I saw Carney's platform get released. Because that was his thing. Like he's a banker. Who thought a banker would be worse at budgeting than the drama teacher? When the banker is tied to all the global elites and everything we just talked about, hand up, I guess I did. I'm like, I'm not waiting for him to walk in and be like, oh, we're going to balance the budget in three years. and we're going to do all these great things.

We're going to get, like, do we think he's like Trump? No. And I know that's going to spur on, well, actually on this show, probably nobody's going to care. You're probably fine. Probably fine. But like, I don't think anybody looks at Carney and goes, oh, this is a shocker. It's just how shocking can he get?

How bold, if I may use that word in that way. I don't know if I can. Audacious? Audacious, maybe. That's a better one. To be like, oh, we're just, you know, Trudeau, this is what you were going to do? I'm just going to make it worse. Watch this.

Yeah. Like, to me, that's. what I see coming out of this. That's why it's so shocking that right now he's even remotely close at being in the conversation. Yeah. What gets me going to is all of the big price tags that he's got and the way that he's not bringing in revenue. Like, for example, he's still in favor of Bill C69, so the No More Pipelines law. So he's opposed to pipelines.

Yeah, but isn't that conflicting on him like getting rid of things and opening things up? Because he says that one day. Yeah. Clear his mud. This is what, okay, seriously. Okay, he says in one breath, I want Canada to be an energy superpower. Okay, what do you mean by that? Because if we look at his record and what he has written down with his own hands,

he wants 80% of oil and gas to remain in the ground. He says so repeatedly in his book. He is opposed to new pipelines because he is supporting Bill C-69. He said that out loud with his face. He also says that he's in favor of keeping the cap on Alberta energy, which will blow what, how much of a billion dollar hole in our economy and like lose 40,000 jobs in Canada? So for him to say, I want Canada to be an energy superpower,

but be opposed to oil and gas, is he trying to deflect sunshine down those pipelines? Is it wind and sunshine? Because people need to ask him these questions. No, they just get the entire media not to ask questions. Don't get me started on that too. Where's the revenue? Seriously, where is the revenue coming from?

Where is this money going to come from? All we have to do is look to other countries that have ran on wind and solar and knocking out all their things, i.e. Germany. Right? Like Shane Getson hasn't been in here in a while. Shane, if you're listening, we should probably make that happen again. But, you know, like the last time I had Shane on was after he'd gone to Germany. And he was talking about like, he's looking around the room and he's going, this is insane. When I hear these things, I go, oh, this just sounds like Germany.

It's like, you know, it'll work. He says in his book, he says, Karnie says, Karnie, says in his book values that 90% of a required energy needs can come from wind and solar. So he repeats this in his book. So journalists have got to put these questions to him. What do you mean by energy superpower? Have you changed your mind about pipelines that carry oil and gas through them across Canada and to tidewater to port? These are all super important questions. And also there's other stuff that people haven't talked about yet. Like what about the home equity tax that they were sniffing around really hard? They were spending money studying

that. What about the ban on the sale of new gasoline and diesel powered cars, which is coming up fast? That's going to cost go. Yeah, that's when they're starting to implement it. Let's start with the home equity tax. Because I think this is important to talk about because this is on everyone as far as I understand.

But maybe you guys can elaborate on it. Yeah, so let me take the ball here for a second. So back to basics, a home equity tax. There is none in Canada yet. And I say yet, that's the key word there. So home equity taxes, you sell your home, the one you live in, right? You don't pay a tax on essentially the profits that you made from

the sale of your home. However, the government under Trudeau has been sniffing around our homes like crazy. So Chris mentioned the fact that the government used about 450,000 of our tax dollars to essentially study and promote a report that had a big old home equity tax in it. So your tax dollars paying to study and promote home equity taxes. But not only that, the biggest worry, the big alarm bell for me, in 2016, the Trudeau government brought in a reporting requirement. So even though there is no home equity tax yet in Canada, when you sell your home, you have to tell the CRA what you made on the sale of that home. And so the question is, okay, like if the taxman ain't taxing it, why is the taxman asking that question? So they can build a case to eventually tax it? Yeah, well, that is the,

that is the first step that the government needs to impose a home equity tax. And look, as these Deficis balloon out of control, you'll see what happened in the last budget. What happened in the last budget? They tried to impose an undemocratic and illegal capital gains tax increase. Why? Because they had no money. They're flipping over the couch cushions, trying to look for as much money that they can take from Canadians as they can get away with. Right.

So as the debt, as the deficit balloon out of control, they're going to have to start looking for these new ways to take as much money from Canadians as possible. And on a home equity tax, that one personally boils my blood. And I'll tell you why. So, you know, my mom is probably the most important person in my life. For a long time, she raised myself, my younger brother and my younger sister, and a lot of it, too, as a single mom. So she worked her butt off. And, you know, she finally has a home in southern Alberta and the thought of the government

going after her essentially retirement with this type of tax hike drives me nuts. And that's exactly what it is, right? A home equity tax would rob Canadian seniors of their nest egg for. for their golden years. But not only that, it would then make it harder for parents and grandparents to also help their kids with a down payment on their house. Okay, so it also hurts younger generation from trying to get into the housing market. And then not only that, what do you think a home equity tax is going to do to prices of houses in the market? Well, it's going to increase home prices. So it's such a bad tax. It'll take more money from Canadians. It'll rob many people of the Nessig they use

for the retirement. And it's going to make it. It's going to make a tax. It's going to make a tax. It'll take more money from Canadians. It'll rob, it's going to make it harder for younger generations to finally be able to afford a home. So you think if you spell a spent, and I think I got the number right, I think I heard this correct, roughly half a million dollars on this study. You think some of that would come through it, but probably all the study is doing is seeing how much money is sitting there and if they taxed it what they could earn off of it, correct? Answer is a lot, a lot. Canadians for generations now have been counting on the sale of their home, their primary residence, as the government calls it, the one you own and live in.

Canadians since the early 70s have been counting on that nest egg sale in order to live out the rest of their years. And so, of course, the government has been kicking the tires and sniffing around now. And the answer is how much wealth is in there? A lot. But the point is, that's their wealth. That does not belong to the government. Too many people in government and who are parasite adjacent to government like to think that all wealth belongs to government. But it does not.

and the gentleman who is pushing for home equity taxes met with the staff and the PMO at least twice. They tried to deny that they were meeting, but we found documents to show that the main person who's been pushing home equity taxes has been meeting with the government. And let me just jump in here because I forgot another point. Like, you know what? These bureaucrats and politicians who are sitting on fat taxpayer funded pensions, they don't get it. No. Right? Like, they don't understand that people who are outside of government, for the most part, you're relying.

on the sale of either a business or your home to fund your golden years to help your kids or grandkids out right or just to be a carrot to go work your ass off yeah have it 100% like like you you go and you work your bag off and the hope is that whatever stage it is yeah you just you have what you're for yeah they already taking that more than their fair share they already take way too bloody much thank you i give two craps what they think the number is and what they're deserved are when they're running the country this freaking awful. I know. It's awful. It's awful. They take half your money.

Like different various levels of government, about half. Sorry, I cut you off, Frank. No, no, no. The best exercise is to imagine if you get paid a salary and it gets in there every two weeks, it's landed in your bank account, close your eyes and imagine it being double. That's how much the government's taking from you. Think of what you could

be doing with that kind of money. Could you afford more nutritious food? Could you put your kids in a better school? Could you afford to fix your car? Right? But no, instead, we have these terrible passport offices. that my wife keeps telling me about, yeah, I know, all about that. Ruttro.

Sorry, Franco. We jumped off there where you were with equity taxes. Well, you're getting me wound up because the time I hear about the government being just a smidge more common sense. If they just looked at it this way, it's like they don't care. No. And I mean, like, if anything I've learned from you to, it's like, they just don't care.

And I don't mean all of the bureaucrats, but I don't even know why I have to put that in as a caveat. It's like, it doesn't matter. If this guy gets in, this is what's coming for us. You know, along with all the other BS he's tied into, it's just like lives are going to get way more difficult. It's like, oh, we got rid of the carbon tax. Like, come on, folks. Well, unless you're in government, unless you're in government, right?

Don't you kind of feel like there's, look, I think unfortunately what highlighted it was COVID and the pandemic, right? Where it made it seem pretty clear to me that we're living kind of through a tale of two canadas, right? A lot of pain for workers in the private sector, small business owners, and then a lot of financial gain for the politicians. and bureaucrats who are shielded behind the golden gates of government. Right? Like, don't you remember that? Like, people were sent, like, in the thousands were sent to the ranks of the unemployed. And our politicians, the people who are supposed to represent us, could even forego one pay raise.

Not one. Not one single pay raise. Could they be like, ah, maybe we should at least show the taxpayers, the people we get our money from, that were all in this together? Not one pay raise could they forego since the beginning of the pandemic when people were losing their job. people were losing their livelihoods. How many small businesses shut down their doors and some for good? A lot. I just had one on earlier this week.

There you go. There's a guy who lost it. And then, you know, and another thing, somebody can text me if I'm wrong on this. But if you were government official, you got across the borders and you had no issues. And so November of 2021, or was it October of 21? Can't remember now. When they were shutting down everything, I think it was October, right? It was beginning of November.

It was a bad time. It's kind of foggy. It's kind of foggy. And one of the things about government officials is they had a pass on that. Now, I don't mean to say they had a pass in, you know, because there's, I think, a Kathy Wagonthal. Sorry, I'm taking this on a left turn. When she was on the podcast and she talked about being in, you know, in Ottawa and coming out that she didn't. And others, I don't mean to give them a pass.

Just that, you know, there was a lot of fear baked into a lot of people on top of their businesses, on top of how they're going to make ends meet on and on and on. But a big one for a lot of people listening this show was how the heck, like, are they just not going to let us go, let alone out of the country, but across it, we're going to have, you know, everybody's mind went to very, very dark places. And when you were a part of, you know, they said the golden gates of government, that was another one that they got shielded on, you know, as far as the U.S. Canada border, probably elsewhere, if they were parliament or government, they got to pass on that too. Well, you know, I was in Alberta. I was the Alberta director of the

Canadian Taxpayers Federation for the beginning of COVID and all, on all that stuff. And What was one of the stuff that really, really took Kenny down, was when you had all these people essentially, like we were in revolving lockdowns for how long, and then you find out either political staff or others, we're flying out of the country when essentially we were told that Christmas was over. I remember that because I didn't go to see my mom that Christmas, so I sure remember that, you know, and it was just this, it was just so...

I just used this line on my daughter before we came. It was something silly on... tickling, I believe, is what it was going on. Either way, she was doing something and then when it got back done to her, she didn't like it. And so the answer to that question is rules for thee and not for me.

And government seems to embrace that over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. It's why I'm like, one day, I'm going to be 80. And I'm not going to give two flying craps that the government's done and how they've screwed me for my entire life. We're just going to talk about something else because I love Chris's optimism.

Certainly love Franco's fire. And I look at you too and I go, maybe we're winning. Because sometimes I feel like maybe we're winning. And then I see that Carney's possibly in the lead in the polls. And I'm like, well, I mean, that's what all the pollsters are saying. And I just want to, like, why? What are Canadians even thinking about right now?

There's no way they're looking at their, just take the simple necessities, which you always talk about, you know, the grocery bill. And has it gotten better? Not a chance. The one thing that has gotten noticeably, visibly better. price of fuel at the gas station, right? With them pulling it right back, you can actually see that. Yep. But I mean... And remember, at any point since 2019, this government could have taken their foot off your neck.

Yep. At any moment since 2019, since they started hitting you with that carbon tax, they could have said, you know what, this isn't working. It's not helping the environment. It's bad for everyday people. Let's stop it with this carbon tax. But instead, they told you to like it. They told you to like it. They told you, in fact, remember Trudeau said it was more important to pay his carbon tax than to pay your rent or feed your kids. Literally. You're going to take it and you're going to like it. That's right. That's what they said for years.

And only now at the 1159.30 second mark. They're like, oh, wait. When they're trying to get reelected. Bingo, my friend. When they're trying to get reelected. That's right. So everybody who drives past the price of gas and says, oh, that's really great that it's 20 cents cheaper. they could have done this years ago.

They chose not to. I went back through the budgets, just out of morbid curiosity, and added up the revenue from the carbon tax since 2019. It's more than $43 billion. That's what they took from you. Since 2019, just in that one carbon tax,

more than $43 billion. And just the way they, I don't know, it's gas like the right term. Yeah, it's right term. just the way they just told you the silliest stuff, you know, like, we're going to make you richer with these rebates. Or how about this one? You know, back in November, so like only a couple months ago, really, we were in a parliamentary committee and our colleague Devon Drover, who's amazing. One of the MPs in there was like, I don't even know of a carbon tax in Canada.

What do you mean carbon tax? Like, so I think Gaslight is the right word. It is the right word. This was a liberal member of parliament. I'm not. kidding. She pretended to not know about a single one. Really? It was as if she had never even heard of the concept. What? Let alone, you know, the three that we had at the time at the federal level. And these are the same MPs who are knocking on your door and saying, please vote for me. Oh, they ain't knocking on my door. Everybody better remember this. I don't think they're out here. I mean, to be fair, it's pretty tough to get here.

I think we passed one on the way. I'm laughing Just a side note on getting to Lloyd Minster It's not that hard folks You know I drooped about it with the Premier And then now you two Almost get lost planes, trains, automobiles To get the Lloydminster people who've never been to Lloyd Minster

People who've never been to Lloyder I'm like, this place sounds really difficult to get to I'm like it's not The road's so straight and boring You almost fall asleep That's what driving the Lloyd is like And then you get out to God's country And if you take a step outside the city

It's like this beautiful, beautiful place It is beautiful. That is very windy and occasionally sunny. It just smells good up here. It does. When I finally got back to the Calgary airport from Ottawa, I was like,

that's right. Woo! Smells like home. That's what I'm saying. That's exactly what he did. It's because we usually keep him in the swamp. Yeah. I call it more.

I'm like caged up. They throw me a steak every now and then. We make him live in Ottawa. You are in Ottawa, surrounded by bureaucrats. You want to know a cool fact? Well, I don't know if it's a cool fact, but something that's very different from Ottawa in Lloydminster.

Okay. We literally have like, as far as politics, go. I mean, sure, we got MPs, MLAs, but I'm like, after that, I'm like, we don't have any, like, government official buildings. Sure, like, a couple of courthouses maybe, but, like, the amount of government people compared to Ottawa is, like, models will be 100 to zero. Well, I feel like some of the dogs are employed by the federal government out there, you know what mean? That's how many bureaucrats there are. Yeah. If I was living out there, I'd be trying to get

lucky signed up. Yeah, Lucky's, uh, doing, um, street cleanup. Yeah, yeah, that's right. The head of the passport department now. You do a better job. Well, we have none of that. We have no, oh man, why is my brain spacing on me? We have no, they represent workers, folks. What am I calling? Unions.

Unions, thank you. Oh, my goodness. Am I a host of a podcast? I don't know if I am. Unions. We have, like, we just have, right, everybody out here is, well, I don't want to, I don't want to, too much, but Lloyd's a group of successful entrepreneurs. People have to think for themselves.

I was joking with you too as you walked in. I'm like, as you make it, it is so hard to find to get here and everything else. I'm like, at times I feel like that's the way both governments treat us, because we're half Saskatchewan, half Alberta. You know, we got a RCMP building, right? Our police detachment used to be on the Saskatchewan side, and it was there. Alberta used to fund a bit of it, and Saskatchewan funded a bit.

Then they built a new one on the Alberta side, and Alberta funds it, and Saskatchewan said, eh, and they haven't been funding it. And you're like, what? But we literally are half, like, does that make it? any sense? I don't remember that. What's going to happen when Danielle kicks them out and it's all going to be Alberta sheriffs? Well, I think it's going to be awesome. I would take a Lloydminster police force. I would take anything. Actually, I got nothing bad to say about the Lloyd R.C.

No, no, no, but I just mean not from Ottawa. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I just, to me, the government, ugh, I'm rambling. I'm just, I'm among friends, don't. I listen to you to talk. I'm just like, uh, government sucks. It does. Yeah. And I know it's never been designed. What's your Political ideology. That's pretty much it. Yeah. Yeah, they're bad at everything. All right, so we solved it.

So I'm sorry we brought all this. This is about as irritating as talking about Mark Kearney wearing the Oilers jersey and going for a skate. And I'm like, that's the guy talking about elbows up? Like, he can't even skate. It's like, this is horrific. Imagine if twos were here. Yes.

Yes. Well, two's, sorry, twos. Flames aren't in. Sorry, bud. I'll have fun on the links, okay? But the good news is, is I do think that it matters when people get off the bench to keep your hockey term going and actually participate. So folks should be out door knocking. They should be talking to their neighbors.

If they want change, they should be making change happen. Because we need just a certain percentage of people to be active in politics when they usually aren't. And that is what shifts. That's what shifts the election. Yes. I have to bring up, since you're in the house, specifically, Chris, that, that, But, you know, it's funny, Franco wouldn't know this, but I toyed with inviting him to it. I'm actually going to be there.

He's going to have. Well, I haven't got the invite yet, but I'm actually in Calgary that day. Yeah. In May? For a cornerstone. So I would love to, I would love to, I don't know for announcing this on air, but I would love to come to the conference. Yeah, you should come. Okay.

Awesome. Well, that's great. I've been meaning to bring it up with you, Sean just invited you. I think I'm invited myself. You should, are you, CTF is. getting a booth. Yes, we have a booth. Okay, because you should be selling your books there. There you go. That's a great idea. You can hand out, like, defund the CBC bumper stickers. You'll have a great time. I'll bring you some, bring you some roast. You'll probably be

very well received. I was just going to say that Cornerstone Forum, as people are listening to this, you have like two days. You have until Friday to get a full access ticket with meals, with the food. Okay. Because our food number has to be in by Friday at like 4 o'clock. So I'm not going to wait until 4 o'clock. It's going to be well before then. So if you haven't bought one, I was going to say that you're coming back. Yes. And I just wanted you to tell the audience what your thoughts of the first one was like,

because you got to host part of it. Oh, it was great. I would encourage everybody to come to this because there's people from all over the world, super smart people. Like at some points, I was just kind of sitting here with my mouth and opening, listening to them. They're talking about everything from buying, I don't know if they're doing the same thing this time,

but from buying property around the world to cleaning their, own water, buying gold, buying goats, buying guns. One of the differences this year is we're going to have a trade show. That's why when I say you should have a table and you should make sure that's all set up, so that's going to be a little different. So there's going to be products. Tamara Leach is going to be selling her book there, which is going to be cool. Chris Barber is going to be in attendance.

Trying to convince them to bring Brigg Red because it sounds like they want to take it and scrap it and all that, get stuff, which is wild. But once again, I'm talking about guys. government, so it's not that wild. But on stage, you know, specifically for Chris, oh, to the audience, Chris is going to be hosting one of the round tables again. And you're going to have Jim Sinclair, so Jamie, 34 years of Canadian military, and then Matt Erritt, the Untold History of Canada Book Series, and Alex Kramer, who you got to sit

with last time. And I've done it very different, well, no, similar, almost identical format to last year, except I have a different host for each of the roundtables now. I have Tom Bodrovix from Palsake Gold Radio, you from the CTF. I gave Tews the official invite last Friday, so he's going to be hosting solutions in a world full of problems. So that's going to be interesting. And then I have the final one. So it's going to have a little less Sean Newman on stage, which I think will be interesting.

And a few different voices working on the roundtables. It's amazing because you get to talk about everything. And then you get to eat. Are we eating this year? Yes, we are. And then we get to eat. And that's really good. It's like having a big family reunion, but with family that you enjoy.

And, and if I may. So the first one, the first one I tried getting a harp. Have you ever seen a harp played real? Yes. Like a no. Real life, I mean, back when Sean barely had enough pennies to pinch, you know, you get the point. I was dating Mel. We were in Asheville, Wisconsin.

And I was like, you know what, we're going to go for New Year's Eve. We're going to have a nice meal. And so we went to this place and we walked in. And it was like, I don't know, three times the size of this room, quaint little spot. walked in there was a harp player and I'm like I screwed up like and we ordered the lowest we ordered spaghetti and meatballs because it was the thing we could afford. We drank water because I didn't have enough for it. And we just sat there. But I'm like the harp was like that is the coolest instrument I've ever seen played.

So being on the edge of the world in Lloydminster last year, I wanted to harp couldn't find it. So we had the fiddle brothers or fiddle brothers. Fiddle boys. They were excellent. That was great. But going to Calgary, this year we have a harp for for supper tech. That's amazing. We're going to see.

People might be like, why the heck is this happening there? It's cool. Because they're, because I'm going to be sitting there like, this is amazing. I'm excited for it. So, of course, don't form if you haven't bought tickets.

These two people, I didn't know that. That's cool. Well, yeah, I mean, I hope I'm invited. Yeah, I shouldn't have dropped it like that on air. Sorry. No, that's perfect.

It's perfect. You're invited. Great. Yes. Pick up a copy of your book, Axe in the Taxing the Tax, the rise and fall of Canada's carbon tax. Well,

when I'm saying where for people listening specifically to this can find it, You can find out of the Correstone 4. It'll be there. Like, that'll be sweet. Before I get you out of here, any other thoughts that you want brought up so I can get you on to your event? Mostly just for people to hang in there. We get a lot of emails and a lot of phone calls from people who are really fighting to make ends meet.

And it's often from working people. And that's, of course, showing in the stats. So quite often I'll mention this whenever I'm on your show, that half of Canadians are broke. And it really makes me mad when people get all huffy at Pierre Pollyov when he says Canada is broken. He's right. He's absolutely right. Because 50% of Canadians are broke. They're within 200 bucks every month of not being able to make the minimum payments on their bills.

And that's just keeping the lights on. That's just keeping the credit card company from phoning you. Okay. That's a situation that so many working people are in. And I just wanted to let them know that they're not alone. Okay. And I know things can feel dark, and I know it can feel like there's no hope. There's always hope.

And I just really encourage them to get involved in some form of fellowship. If it's at their local level, if it's at the riding association, if it's honestly joining the CTF just for free, that way they get their email updates and stuff when we try to keep things boisterous and joyful and give them something to do. Or a similar organization, if CTF isn't your cup of tea, I just want to encourage those people that they are not alone and there's always hope and that we can work hard to fix things

and make good change. That's what I want people to know. That's a good one. Yeah, I just want to say thank you to everyone especially the Canadian Taxpayers Federation supporters. I know a lot of people in your audience are also, I'm sure, like-minded, right? Smaller government, government so small,

I can drown in the bathtub. I've got a ton of time for you too. Actually, anyone who's come on from the CTF, they've been thoroughly impressed. But ever since I, well, everybody knows my thoughts on Chris and actually you too Franco because you've become reoccurring uh guess but uh I don't know if you know the story on Chris when I first sat across from her I got an email from Chris Sims I can't remember how it got to me and I read it and I was

like this is who is this now you know I I always point out to the fact that I was a moron before 2020 late 2020 I paid attention to nothing um I didn't you know I was an athlete I did sports and on and on and then I had Chris on for the first time and I think I pretty much asked you at the end of the podcast what you were doing. And I had my first ever event that happened outside of Lloydminster, and Emmington. And I just made a spot for Chris. I'm like, you just come talk.

This is amazing. I don't know how you take that much information that I would take four hours to say it into these little bite-side things. Like, you're just sober after the, oh, man. You have you. Yeah, yeah. So I have a ton of time for the CTF as a whole. Finish your thought.

No, I just want to say, look, thank you to everyone for fighting so hard for so long. I know sometimes it's easy to be pessimistic, but let's just keep fighting. And yeah, I'll just go back to echo what Chris said, but really just like, thank you everyone for fighting with us. We're going to keep fighting with you guys. Well, hats off to you. Because I, this fight is, um, Easter was really, really good on this end because I just turned the phone off. Nice. I went and hung out with my kids and my wife and my family.

And I'm like, the world can burn tomorrow. It probably is burning in spots. I just, I can't. At times, I just feel like all the things are sucked for me. Can't hear about how awful can it is anymore. Because I walk outside, and if you got community, people to fellowship with, it doesn't matter the darkest of times. You can find a way through.

And certainly, I think this show in the middle of COVID was a beacon for a bunch of people, unbeknownst to me because I was just trying to survive just like everybody else. And these days, when I look at what's going on with the world, even if a Kearney were to get in, whatever the outcome is, hopefully you've got some people to talk to and if that's joining the CTF or listen to this show appreciate you guys for doing what you do because it does you're fighting for the little guy

and I have a ton of time for that. I think a lot of people do. Thank you, Sean. Thanks, man.