Western Context

Maxime Bernier quits the Conservative Party before its convention, Alberta’s sole NDP MP doesn’t consider Trans Mountain to be an issue, Trudeau’s cabinet retreats to wildfire threatened Nanaimo, and Trudeau gets heckled and responds by crying racism.

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Duration: 51:02
Hosts: Shane and Patrick

• MP Maxime Bernier quits ‘morally corrupt’ Conservatives, plans to start new party
• Alberta’s only NDP MP says Trans Mountain pipeline ‘not the priority issue’ with her voters
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• Trudeau’s cabinet kicks off 2-day retreat focused on trade, wildfire response
• Trudeau unapologetic after telling heckler, ‘Your racism has no place here’
• Word of the Week: Secession

A John A. MacDonald statue is removed in Victoria, a Stats Canada report on Alberta jobs gives conflicting info, diplomatic troubles with Saudi Arabia raises questions of energy independence, and Maxime Bernier raises a discussion about multiculturalism.

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Duration: 55:57
Hosts: Shane and Patrick

• City of Victoria to remove John A. Macdonald statue from front steps of city hall
• National unemployment rate falls to four-decade low; Alberta’s numbers are less rosy
• Saudi Arabia withdrawing students from Canadian schools, suspending flights
• Maxime Bernier criticizes Liberals for ‘extreme multiculturalism’
• Word of the Week: multiculturalism

A special episode where we rundown major electoral systems in use today. We have a look at first past the post, all the methods of proportional representation, and we cap it off with a primer of the American Electoral College.

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Duration: 46:23
Hosts: Shane and Patrick

• First Past the Post
• Forms of Proportional Representation
• The Electoral College

BC government projects requiring unions inflates cost, Canadians are united against the federal government’s carbon tax, and Trudeau’s nanny receive a wage increase. Also, the full story and unanswered questions regarding the Toronto Danforth shooting.

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Duration: 50:07
Hosts: Shane and Patrick

• NDP rules could boost Pattullo Bridge replacement by $100 million
• Carbon conflict: two-thirds of Canadians say provinces should have the final say on pricing
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• Feds set wages for nanny caring for Justin Trudeau’s kids
• Islamic State claims responsibility for Toronto mass shooting, yet provides no evidence
• Word of the Week: union

Trudeau shuffles his cabinet and creates a border security minister, many provinces now oppose Trudeau’s carbon tax, and Alberta’s NDP is equalizing and diversifying K-4 education. Also, Vancouver’s False Creek is teeming with raw sewage and E coli.

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Duration: 40:49
Hosts: Shane and Patrick

• Trudeau cabinet shuffle brings new faces, several changes for run-up to 2019 campaign
• Trudeau’s carbon tax looks pretty much dead now that most provinces are out
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• In new social studies curriculum, there’s no such things as Albertans
• Call for clean swimming water in Vancouver’s False Creek falls flat
• Word of the Week: Sanitary

Policing a Saanich tent city is costing residents over $700k, Italy is blocking the EU’s ratification of CETA, the media misreports the value of sold Crown land in BC, and the federal government’s spending follies on glasses, name changes and cushions.

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Duration: 40:54
Hosts: Shane and Patrick

• Saanich council approves $700,000 to police homeless camp
• Italy won’t ratify EU free-trade deal with Canada: deputy PM
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• New report confirms former BC government sold off surplus real estate too cheap
• ‘Just outrageous’: Government spends $24k on 86 cushions for Mexico City embassy
• Word of the Week: Appraisal

US tariffs could cut Canadian car production in half, a frivolous lawsuit falsely claims that the BC foreign buyer tax is racist, and the UCP supports self defense to combat rural crime. Also, the media finally reports on Trudeau’s groping hypocrisy.

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Duration: 41:10
Hosts: Shane and Patrick

• U.S. auto tariffs could cut Canada’s output by nearly 1 million cars, CIBC says
• B.C.’s foreign-buyers tax is nothing special and not xenophobic
• Support us on Patreon
• UCP says Criminal Code should be amended to support use of force in rural self-defence
• Trudeau says he ‘did not act inappropriately’ in latest comment on anonymous groping allegation
• Word of the Week: Foreign

NAFTA negotiations have stalled, and the media changes the channel to Harper. Also, Ottawa has kept the equalization formula until 2024, an odd story about David Eby’s popularity on Reddit, and the government’s crusade against parody Twitter accounts.

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Duration: 47:36
Hosts: Shane and Patrick

• It’s NAFTA crunch-time, so why are we talking about Stephen Harper?
• Ottawa to keep provincial equalization formula as is till 2024
• Support us on Patreon
• There’s a ‘David Eby Appreciation Thread’ on Reddit, and it loves B.C.’s attorney general
• Do ‘parody’ Twitter accounts pose real political threats?
• Word of the Week: Parody

Unnecessary expenses incurred by Trudeau’s India trip raises questions, BC’s deadline to fish farms could push companies out of Canada, Alberta GSA legislation mishandles parental choice, and a Conservative by-election win receives little coverage.

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Duration: 43:39
Hosts: Shane and Patrick

• Trudeau India trip included $17K for celebrity chef, $3.6K for hockey jerseys
• B.C. government sets new 2022 deadline for coastal fish farms
• Support us on Patreon
• “Climate of secrecy:” Schools, parents dispute Alberta gay-straight alliance law
• Conservatives steal riding from Trudeau Liberals in first byelection test of Scheer’s Quebec strategy
• Word of the Week: By-election

We look into the reasoning behind Trudeau’s trade escalations with the US, a by-election with huge ramifications in BC, and over-taxation by Edmonton council on businesses. Also, an unreported bombshell about Trudeau, what is the media not telling us?

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Duration: 45:49
Hosts: Shane and Patrick

• Trudeau stumbled into a trade war. That isn’t all Trump’s fault
• MLA Leonard Krog ponders move with huge consequences
• Support us on Patreon
• Edmonton business group urges city hall to put the brakes on rising property taxes
• Don’t believe Canada’s media on Me Too stories
• Word of the Week: Backbencher