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A few weeks ago, I interviewed Dr. Anmol Kapoor on the Indian Farm Protests. It has been a developing and ongoing issue within India that is beginning to make international headlines and spill into Indian expat communities around the world. It is a nuanced issue that involves farm policy reform and has some cultural and ethnic complications which have made this a very heated and divisive issue for many people in the Indian community and a concerning and confusing one for those of us outside of it. There are some distinct perspectives on these protests. Dr. Kapoor offered one, and now Anirudh Bhattacharyya is offering another. Anirudh Bhattacharyya is an author and columnist based in Troonto who writes for the Hindustan Times among other publications. He recently wrote a piece in published by the MacDonald Laurier Institute on Canada/India relations that touches on the protest issues and how these things may impact Canada. Bhattacharyya offers a position more supportive of farm policy reforms. https://www.macdonaldlaurier.ca/canad...​ As for myself, it is one of those rare issues where I am trying not to take a side. I don't understand enough about the basis of it and just want to learn as much as possible. The Indian community is a strong and growing segment of Canadian society with a huge population in the country. It is unfortunate and concerning when divisions from the homeland spill over into Canada and we should always be concerned when they do so.

Angelo Isidorou is a young podcaster/journalist in Vancouver who while ironically running an ongoing chow about cancel culture, is now a victim of that very cancel culture himself.  A fringe-left publication online used a picture of Angelo from years ago in a pose using the OK sign and created a campaign to label Isodorou as a white supremacist. It was a ridiculous reach but the damage was done and even the Mayor of Vancouver jumped on the bandwagon of trying to label Isidorou.  The parallels with Caylan Ford are striking as she was targeted unfairly by a fringe left publication as well and Calgary's mayor jumped into the fray.  Ford is suing those who defamed her and so is Isodorou.  They won't let these online bullies smear them and potentially ruin their future career paths.  Angelo explains in detail what led to this mess and what he is doing about it.  Let's all hope that Angelo and Caylan are both successful in their actions. If the unprincipled publications that slandered Ford and Isidorou lose these suits, it will set a precedent that will help prevent this kind of odious character assassination in the future.  Consider helping Angelo out with his legal funds at the link below. It's going to be a long battle and it is for all of us in the end.  https://www.gofundme.com/f/tuj3g-support-angelo-in-his-defamation-case 

Last weekend in Edmonton, a number of anti-lockdown organizers decided for some inexplicable reason that marching with a number of people including their leader, holding tiki torches would be a good idea. The rally was of course reported as being a white nationalist event, the messaging about lockdowns was utterly lost and these rallies have lost a pile of credibility. The likelihood of anti-lockdown rallies gaining support and participation from average folks dropped dramatically last weekend and there is no good excuse for it. I am tired of arguing with people on Twitter over why this was an idiotic and damaging move so have put it into a video to cover ground rather than trying to respond to the apologists on Twitter trying to make excuses for this.

While the world has been occupied with the COVID-19 pandemic and other affairs such as the American election, an event has been developing under the radar in India for months. The Indian government has been becoming increasingly authoritarian and they rammed some bills through their parliament with little debate which will very directly impact the farming community in India. This has sparked protests which have led to over 100,000 protesters being on the border of Delhi while the government has been becoming increasingly violent in efforts to quell this uprising. It could end very tragically if this continues. It is a complicated issue with roots going back to government agricultural policies from the 1960s. I spoke with Dr. Anmol Kapoor to get a better understanding of what is happening over there and what may be done about it. Dr. Kappor is a Calgary cardiologist who has been outspoken on social media in trying to bring attention to this issue. Calgary has a large Indian population and many people are concerned for the well being of family members back in India as these protests escalate. Dr. Kapoor offers some much-needed insight into what led to this standoff and what it may take to bring it to a peaceful end.

Among the many many things which have been lost in the COVID-19 pandemic, we have lost the banter and chatter from the true political experts of the world who tended to congregate at the local pub.  In less restrictive days, we would drink and solve the world's problems at the barside.  Hutch used to be a regular patron at the pub I used to own. We would have extended chats as I tended bar and politics was of course a top issue.  I don't miss much about bar ownership but I do miss some of the interactions with my neighbors.  It was great to sit down with Hutch to rant on about the world at his basement bar for a podcast episode.  We may not have solved the world's problems but we made a good go of it and it felt nice to have a touch of normalcy like we used to have if only for an hour. 

I spoke with Franco Terrazzano of the Canadian Taxpayer's Federation on their recently launched campaign to fight equalization. Alberta is committed to holding a referendum on October 18th to ask Albertans if Canada should end the equalization program. Their site is here: https://fightequalization.ca/ The campaign can't start soon enough. Terrazzano explains the importance of a strong vote by Albertans against equalization this fall. We need to come out in strong numbers and speak up. We also covered the futility and huge costs of corporate welfare, the myth of "social license" and the ongoing campaign to shut-in Alberta''s resources. I close with an inadvertent suggestion that Franco changes his first name to Marco. Find more on the CTF here: https://www.taxpayer.com/

In this podcast interview, I spoke with Fergus Hodgson on the economic state of Western Canada (bleak) and the prospect for Western independence (growing). Hodgson is the Director of Econ Americas is a columnist for the Epoch Times He is also the roving editor of Gold Newsletter and a research associate with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. A bright and busy man who had a lot to say not the state of affairs in Canada and where we are headed. Our economy is reeling and equalization is stunting the development of the entire nation.

One of the most pressing issues in Canada is the dire fate of its aboriginal citizens dwelling on reserves yet it is an issue which politicians and other leaders do their utmost to avoid. The reserve system is a failure for its citizens on every front. Measures of health, crime, education, income or even simple happiness show that people living on reserves are lagging despite decades of increased investment and effort on the part of the government. Cory Morgan speaks on the futility of trying to maintain or fix this broken system. It is a form of racial apartheid and it is doomed to failure. The only question is how long it will take and how bad will it have to get before people in power find the courage to act on this?

    Yasmine Mohammed is a Canadian born activist of Egyptian decent. She escaped a terribly abusive family in order to safely raise her daughters and has written a very personal book about her experience called: Unveiled: How western liberals empower radical Islam. Mohammed has been outspoken and critical of the gross double standard held by Western liberals when it comes to women’s rights and Islam including encouraging Muslim women to shed their hijabs on the day that progressive activists try to celebrate the oppressive head covering. Yasmine has also set up a foundation called Free Hearts, Free Minds which provides support and counselling for women who have left Islam but are still trapped in Islamic nations. Apostasy is a capital crime in many Islamic nations and it is terribly dangerous for women to try and escape the religion. Our conversation was fantastic and informative. We have countless women in North America who are suffering within fundamentalist Islamic households and a “progressive” network of liberals making excuses for this and almost encouraging it. Its time to expose this travesty and address it.

I had a rare opportunity to interview Premier Jason Kenney for half an hour for my podcast. It wasn't nearly enough time but we covered some great ground on a number of current issues. Podcasts provide such a casual atmosphere hh where extended answers can be given and followed up upon. We spoke on the current pandemic situation and potential government responses to rising cases, the longer term economic fallout due to the pandemic and the challenges to Alberta's economy coming from some less than supportive governments and activist groups. It was a great conversation.

Darcy Gerow is the former Deputy Leader of the Libertarian Party of Canada, was an organizer for the PPC and Maxime Bernier in Western Canada, and has been an outspoken advocate for libertarianism in Canada for some time with columns appearing in the Western Standard and elsewhere.  We speak to the challenges in promoting or organizing libertarianism whether in thought or in partisan matters.  We had a great, broad conversation on libertarian principles in general with Canadian issues from supply management to justice. 

  As we enter what is clearly going to be a period of austerity, we will need to seriously examine how much we are spending and how we are spending it. The number one spending item in Canada is health care.  The costs are growing along with the waiting times.  We have long been told that Canada has the best health care system on the planet but it is becoming increasingly clear that we do not even by a long shot.  Its time to gore the sacred cow of Canada's health care system and have a realistic talk about reform. 

I spent a lot of time at countless meetings and events with Paul Hinman as a party leader while we worked to build the Alberta Alliance which changed to the Wildrose Alliance, then Wildrose Party which later merged into the UCP which is governing Alberta today. Paul brings a great experience set to the Wildrose Independence Party and they scored quite a coup in getting him on board. He has been down the party formation road before, has won election campaigns and has lost election campaigns. We assuredly will be hearing a lot more from the Wildrose Independence Party and Paul in years to come. Hinman's persistence and organizational skills can't be dismissed. 

Its always fun and interesting to sit down with author Marcel Latouche of The Institute for Public Sector Accountability to speak on municipal issues. The race for Mayor formally began in Calgary with Jeromy Farkas officially entering the race while Jeromy’s maverick counterpart in Edmonton, Mike Nickel fought off efforts of his council colleagues to censor him. We discussed how the municipal governments of both Edmonton and Calgary are both irreparably broken and how the 2021 municipal elections may lead to the sea-change which both of the city councils desperately need to see. Farkas and Nickel are both daring to go against the grain and it is going to make for a very hard fought election year in Alberta.

She loves her firearms, her individual rights and small government. She was openly supportive of Jason Kenney and the United Conservative Party in the last Alberta general election and she wrote a fantastic endorsement of candidate Leslyn Lewis in the BOE Report during Conservative Party of Canada leadership race. She also happens to be transgender. Conservatives have long held some social hangups which hold them back as an evolving political group, particularly when it comes to sexual orientation and gender identities. We are getting much better and people from the LGBT community are becoming increasingly comfortable in coming out of the political closet as conservatives. We still have a way to go though. Transgenderism and trans issues are sort of the final and most complicated of the sexual identity package which conservatives are learning to embrace. It takes some work to try and understand this tricky issue but it is well worth delving into. There is no better way to try and gain an understanding on an issue than in chatting directly with people who are literally living within it. Tiffany Gillis was fantastically candid and open as we had an extended conversation about trans issues and the challenges surrounding them. The bottom line is, we have to get better at being live and let live with our attitudes and stop judging other people over their lifestyles and identities. It makes us better people and makes the conservative movement stronger. We finished the chat with some discussion on Trudeau's "green" plans and some speculation as to why Jason Kenny is having such a hard time at the polls.

This morning, Jeromy Farkas became the first formal contender to announce a run for the Mayoral seat in Calgary in the 2021 election. Nobody else has announced yet and Naheed Nenshi remains coy about whether or not he will seek another term. Farkas has ruffled more than a few feathers in his term on city council and he has forced the city to examine many issues on waste and transparency which they wouldn't have otherwise. Jeromy has great plans and has launched a positive campaign. He sat down with me for nearly half an hour to lay out what needs to be done, how it will be done and why he is the person to do the job. It was a great chat.

  We all see footage and clips of protests, riots and such on the news but few of us actually venture down to those events in person to see what is going on for ourselves.  We can't blame people for not wanting to go to these things themselves. It can be dangerous and most people simply have better things to do.  Unfortunately, that means that most people only get an incomplete picture of what is happening at these protests. Short clips from an often biased media are all we get and many folks have in incomplete knowledge of what goes on at these protests.  Greg Renouf has been attending protests, occupations etc. for over eight years now. He has documented and shared what he has seen on various platforms of social media. He has been assaulted and threatened as extreme protesters try to avoid exposure of what they are really all about and who is behind them.  Greg chats of his experiences and what he has learned in his visits to the world of chronic protesters.  Greg's website is at http://www.genuinewitty.com/ and he can be found at @grenouf on twitter.

The fiscal update from the Alberta government was terrifying as we embrace over $100 billion in debt. Not all of this can be blamed on the pandemic. Alberta was heading into another big deficit well before we ever even heard of COVID-19. Franco Terrazzano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and I discuss how we got into this mess and more importantly, what we will have to do to get out of it. Alberta got debt free before and we can do it again. When will we see a leader with the will and fortitude to do it though

In a world that has gone mad in a hysteric rush to try and force itself off of fossil fuels, it was refreshing to sit down and talk with some people applying real-world experience and common sense to the issue. It was informative and refreshing to sit down with the publisher of the BOE Report, Josh Groberman and columnist Terry Etam who recently authored The End of Fossil Fuel Insanity. It was a fun conversation loaded with some common sense on an issue that so dearly needs it. We covered the failure the industry and government to communicate the benefits of the petrochemical industry including of Alberta's failing "war room".

I sat down and had a fantastic conversation with author and CEO of the Institute for Public Sector Accountability,  Marcel Latouche. We discussed transparency, issues with service delivery monopolies, public art and what voters will need to be watching as we enter a municipal election year in Alberta, particularly in Edmonton and Calgary.