While being symbolically important, the office of Governor General is really of little use for Canada. Governor Generals are appointed to the role by Prime Ministers to essentially serve as chief ribbon cutters and speech deliverers to parliament. They are a remnant of the Monarchy which we could really do without. At best, they spare elected officials from duties which call for pomp and circumstance rather than material importance. If a modern day Governor General ever actually exercised their theoretical power and tried to override the will of parliament, it would truly bring about the end to the office of Governor General.

Most who serve in the role of Governor General take the plum they were handed and manage the role with dignity. Julie Payette however has gone full Marie Antoinette with the role and is embracing the luxuries of the role while abusing what she sees as commoners around her and dodging official duties whenever possible. The role has truly gone to Payette’s head and she thinks she is royalty. This happened rather quickly as she has only perched on the throne of Governor General for a few years now.

It has been reported that Payette screams at and humiliates staff at Rideau Hall. Payette’s secretary and friend, Assunta Di Lorenzo, is also accused of harassing employees and calling some “lazy” and “incompetent.” Payette has been burning through staff at an unprecedented rate. It is little wonder that she has to have her personal friend in the role of secretary and that her friend appears to be as snotty and belligerent as she is.

Payette has been reported to bring staff to tears during ongoing berating sessions when staff are trapped on planes with her. Apparently, travel brings out the worst in Payette which is rather ironic in an astronaut and idiotic in one who chose to accept a role that includes frequent travel.

Despite a base salary of nearly $300,000 plus numerable benefits and having pretty much every life expense covered for her by the taxpayer, Payette has not shied away from bitching about and refusing to do her job when called to.

In her first year in office, Payette caused a fuss when she balked at signing a bill for Royal Assent in June because she didn’t want to have to rearrange her June schedule. Signing bills is literally her damn job and how hard could it be??

Rideau Hall is the official residence for the Governor General. It is essentially a 102,000 square foot palace on acres of property with 27 outbuildings. To date, Payette has still refused to move into Rideau Hall as she feels that it isn’t good enough for her.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on Rideau Hall under the direction of Payette on renovations since Payette became Governor General including an absurd $140,000, spent studying and designing a private staircase that was never built! You see, Payette has been trying to find ways that she could navigate her palace without actually being exposed to the commoners who pay for it and the staircase was a problem for her.

This all paints a picture of an elitist of the grossest kind who wants all of the benefits of being appointed to one of the top positions in the land while not actually having to follow through on the obligations that come with it.

Apologists for Payette (and they are dwindling) try to explain that she is a private person who doesn’t care for all of this spotlight and exposure to people. In that case, why the hell did she accept a role which is nothing but spotlight and exposure to people?

While millions of Canadians are unemployed and we face a fiscal crisis like none other seen before, Governor General Julie Payette is leading a life of luxury and excess while having the temerity and gall to actually bitch about it. What a slap in the face to the people who work so hard to pay taxes in order to fund the palace which apparently doesn’t meet the standards of Payette.

I guess it’s hardly a shocker that Trudeau chose Payette to fill this role. It’s not as if Pierre Jr. has much experience with the challenges of the peasant class himself. Unfortunately, accountability isn’t one of Justin’s strong points either and it is unlikely that he will show the courage to call out Payette’s abhorrent behavior.

Once a Governor General is appointed, they are pretty much impossible to remove before the end of the term.

One thing that can be done though is to sharply cut the budget of the office. Take away Julie Payette’s servants, limousines, private jets and chefs. Let her do her own damn laundry while living in a Motel 6 while eating at Denny’s. I assure you that the problem will suddenly take care of itself.

Until Julie Payette leaves the office of Governor General, she will remain an embarrassment in Canada second only to the Prime Minister who appointed her.

I sat down for a great conversation with Daryl Makk.

Daryl has been an actor and comedian working in the entertainment industry for over twenty years now.

Entertainers in general are having a terrible time as the pandemic lockdown shuts down their venues while cancel culture shuts down their acts.

Daryl speaks to those challenges and gives some suggestions on how we can ease the pain for people in the entertainment industry.

This was my first outdoor interview and unfortunately, we did pick up much more outside noise than I anticipated. It is still a learning experience.

It is a great listen even with those extra, unintentional but natural sound effects.

For more information on Daryl Makk head to his website here. 

Don’t dismiss this. Don’t assume that just because it is petty, ridiculous and bizarre that it won’t go somewhere.

We are in a world where even the most innocuous of things get attacked by the swarming, self-righteous, social justice mob and the mob usually wins.

Now anything even remotely considered to be referencing the American South is considered to be an unforgivable trigger to the world of activist snowflakes who are constantly on the lookout for something to be outraged about.

Sound exaggerated? How about the band “Lady Antebellum?”. They changed their name because folks found the term “Antebellum” to be offensive. “Antebellum” is simply Latin for pre-war but because it is considered a southern term, cancel culture rules came into effect.

The band “Dixie Chicks”? Yep. “Dixie” was too much to bear so it was dropped.

Well, the insane social justice mob is running out of things to cancel and they are starting to set their sights wider.

This genius of a Professor from Indiana has decided to post an article linking the name of the Calgary Flames to American civil war battles and Yahoo “news” happily gave him a platform.

The article refers to the name and speaks to a “wound that still burns“. It speaks to how the team was “named for calamity“.

Inflammatory is indeed an apt term for the crap this fellow wrote.

Nobody is feeling that a wound is still burning here. Nobody cares about the winding and distant path with which the name of the Calgary Flames may have a tiny link to a battle of 160 years ago.

No, this clown doesn’t call for the name of the Flames to be changed. He is simply trying to set the stage for that and is hoping that the social justice mob will take up the torch from him. It is no coincidence that he chose the day before the NHL playoffs in order to drop this story.

It seems unlikely that this will grow legs but as can be seen, the social justice set is hoping it does.

We need to stop cowering to the mob. We can’t let the cancellation spread. It is just an article now, but it could be protests against sponsors and lobbying of cowardly local politicians next. Never underestimate how far these idiotic initiatives can get.

Calgary can set an example by telling Christopher J. Young and any other fool who tries to imply that the name of the Calgary Flames is inappropriate in any way.

If we don’t, rest assured they will get there way in the end and when the team name is lost, we will deserve it.

It’s about time.

I am old enough to remember the last overblown pandemic which decimated the Alberta economy. That was BSE (mad cow disease). Alberta producers could not export their cattle due to a worldwide panic over a disease which had not actually killed anybody. As a result, producers were killing and disposing of their animals as the process to try and sell meat directly to consumers was too onerous.

While Alberta producers were swimming in a surplus of beef, consumers were still paying the full price for beef at the grocery stores as a small cartel of major meat processors ensured that retail prices stayed high. I remember how some producers slaughtered and ground beef to be sold directly to people in lots in Calgary. They were sold out in minutes as government kindly looked the other way at this gray market transaction. Pretty sad that something as simple as selling a food product had to be done in a parking lot transaction which felt like a drug deal.

Agriculture and Forestry Minister Devin Dreeshen announced yesterday that new regulations will allow producers to slaughter livestock on site and sell directly to consumers.

While producers could already sell directly to consumers before, they had to transport the cattle to a slaughter facility and payment had to be made through the slaughterhouse. It was a pain in the arse and took away much of the advantage of a farm-direct transaction as the expense was incurred by the transport and the animal was stressed by the trip.

Livestock still needs to be processed by a licensed butcher and health regulations need to be followed. Now though, this can be done by a mobile butcher (or the producer if they are licensed). Video inspections are now allowed as well to ensure that protocols are followed.

This is fantastic news for consumers who want to directly support local producers and for producers who want more value added to their meat products.

It is doubtless that some ambitious butchers are already preparing mobile setups and some producers are preparing to advertise direct sales.

This is a winning policy for us all (aside from the handful of giant meat processors).

We need some good news and policy now and then and here we have some.

Shane Wenzel is the President of Shane Homes in Calgary. Shane Homes and the Wenzel family have been known for their community engagement and their local philanthropy.

Like his father Cal, Shane has always been an unapologetic conservative and is outspoken online with his views.

Shane came out as a gay man publically a couple years ago when he posted his wedding pictures on Twitter and Facebook.

While the reaction from the conservative community was mostly positive, there was unfortunately some negative feedback as well. The conservative community is getting better but still can be a haven for the intolerant at times and much to the detriment of the conservative movement in general.

On the other side of the coin, not everybody in the LGTBQ community was welcoming of Shane’s conservative views.

It was a fantastic conversation as Shane speaks of his experiences and where we should be going as conservatives and perhaps those within the LGBTQ community as they learn to accept that sexual orientation and political philosophy are not one and the same.

Give it a listen below..

Nice work if you can get it.

While most of us fear for how we may be making our next mortgage payment while the COVID-19 pandemic crisis drags on, federal civil servants are enjoying and extended vacation with pay.

The vultures at the Canada Revenue Agency alone have collected $311 million in paid leave over the last few months. Rest assured that they will be working their hardest when they finally absolutely have to return to work as they will have to hound and harass working Canadians more than ever in order to try and get money to pay the massive and building interest on the federal debt.

While everybody from construction workers to grocery clerks are managing to continue to work through the pandemic, federal civil servants in the thousands and thousands apparently find it impossible to come in to the office or work from home. So far 1,470,000 hours of paid leave has been given out to bureaucrats in order to have them do nothing and the numbers are expected to grow.

It’s utterly galling to watch these parasites sucking what little is left of the federal treasury dry while average Canadians are suffering through the worst economic crisis in generations.

While Trudeau and Morneau take money from charities in order to pad their family’s fortunes, hordes of federal bureaucrats are sitting at home and lapping up tax dollars and enjoying a paycation that your average person could never even dream of.

Simple mathematics tell us that we need to greatly reduce the cost of government and soon as debt mounts yet here we are spending hundreds of millions of dollars paying government employees to do nothing.

Has your life been all that bad without the work of all those civil servants this last few months? Had you even noticed that they hadn’t been on the job?

Of course not. That is because these civil servants really weren’t doing a hell of a lot of value in the first place. We will not be losing much in services if we cut a great many of them loose.

I don’t see cutbacks coming any time soon when the federal government is too gormless to even put these “workers” back to work.

While most Canadians are going to be seeing incredibly hard times in years to come, thousands of federal civil servants are feathering their nests while doing nothing.

Canada is broken.

In the truth is stranger than fiction department, the British Columbia Health Services Authority has actually promoted the use of “glory holes” in order to avoid the spread of COVID-19.

This is a beautiful example of government bureaucrat thinking coupled with a deranged notion of political correctness written into policy.

For those who don’t follow tasteless comedy or take part in anonymous casual sex in public washrooms, I will explain what a “glory hole” is.

Glory holes are holes that were typically cut into the cubical walls of men’s washrooms to allow for anonymous sex acts. One can use their imagination there.

The holes are typically found in truck stop or highway rest stops.

Now, while COVID-19 is indeed of concern to some people, I can’t imagine how performing anonymous sex acts in a filthy public restroom is any better. People appear to be forgetting that there are hundreds of other infections and diseases out there, many of which are far more dangerous than COVID-19 and I can only imagine that use of glory holes is a fine way to pick one of them up.

So why on earth would a government health authority suggest use of glory holes?

Well there are two reasons. One is simply that bureaucrats tend to truly be linear thinking morons blinded by their own obsession to make policy. They are simply looking at ways that people can avoid breathing on each other and can’t look outside of their simplistic box.

The other thing bureaucrats are blinded by is a deep sense of political correctness.

To be blunt, glory holes are a remnant of the bad old days when gay men were pushed underground by societal condemnation and literal law. Public washrooms gave a means to hook up relatively safely and anonymously.

Due to advances in public thought and online communication, I am suspecting that glory holes have fallen into disuse for the most part and are now more of a piece of urban mythology than reality.

Still, some pointy headed bureaucrat at the health authority likely felt that glory holes were an integral part of the gay community and that it was best to recognize their use as a COVID-19 contraceptive. They felt it would be offensive to leave such a practice out of their list of suggested “safe” sex acts.

I may be off the mark in my speculation of the motive of the idiot who put this suggestion to paper in the BC health authority but in light of how utterly absurd the recommendation of glory holes is, I can’t imagine that I am too far out to lunch here.

This is reason number 100824 for wanting smaller and less intrusive government.

Do you really think these people can run your lives more wisely than you can?

Corporate welfare is an insidious and damaging economic strategy which is used by governments at all levels and pretty much with every party. Whether through direct subsidies, preferential tax treatments or selective regulations, governments try to pick economic winners among the business community and invariably end up creating losers.

Franco Terrazzano of the CTF and I discuss historical examples of failed corporate welfare along with current ones. From the city of Calgary’s $100 million slush fund to Premier Kenney’s petrochemical initiatives.

As governments seek ways to restart the economy that they shut down, the lure of trying to use corporate welfare in order to do it appears to be overwhelming for them. Punishing successful enterprises in order to shore up the unviable ones won’t help anybody (aside from the crony capitalists with hands extended).

It was a great chat and we covered a lot of ground in 40 minutes. Give it a listen below.

You work hard and pay taxes on your income.

You save your money and pay taxes on the capital gains.

You live responsibly and pay your bills on time thus building a good credit rating.

You purchase a home and pay taxes on the purchase.

You pay property taxes on the home.

You work hard to maintain the home and invest in renovations which of course you pay GST on.

After all of this, if all goes well your home will have gained equity.

Now the Liberal government of Canada is considering stealing your savings through an equity tax and the galling pricks have the nerve to call homeowners who have managed to gain equity “lotto winners”.

Doesn’t that feel nice?

Isn’t it good to know that your retirement and hard earned nest-egg may be snatched away in order to fund things such as the corrupted WE charity that appears to primarily exist in order to launder tax money towards well connected Liberals?

I wish that I was making up this gross travesty but alas its true. The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (federal government arm) has spent $250,000 in order to study how to gouge Canadians with a home equity tax. When researchers literally describe hard working home owners as “lottery winners” one doesn’t have to wonder too hard about where they plan to go with it.

These are extreme ideologues who want to “equalize” the perceived inequity between renters and home owners. Like all practitioners of the politics of envy, they view the fruits of the labor of others as being unfairly earned somehow. They have a repugnant urge to seize those funds and give them to the irresponsible in hopes of creating an egalitarian utopia.

This is hardly new of course. It has been tried and failed in numerous nations from the Soviet Union to Venezuela. The only thing that changes with extreme socialists is the approach to their goals. In Canada they are trying to do it incrementally rather than through revolution. The end result will still be the same though. They will bankrupt the nation if allowed.

Will Canadians finally find the will to stand up and tell these thieves to piss off?

I fear not.

Canada is broken and the ride is only going to get worse.


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Below is episode three of the Cor’s Notes podcast where Cory Morgan and Franco Terrazzano of the Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation discuss disastrous corporate welfare policies which are screwing taxpayers at all three levels of government. It is a great discussion of a pressing issue.

My second podcast episode and first one done through a Zoom interview. The delay presents some special challenges to the discourse but we got through it.

Thank you to Josh for working with me as I get the hang of this podcasting thing.

The American South is often one of the most misunderstood and mischaracterized regions in North America. While the deep south has a terrible reputation for ingrained racism, it appears to have stayed clear of the rioting and unrest which overwhelmed many Northern cities.

Many people have not spent time in the South or spent much time speaking with people from there.

Josh Tupman is from Benton Mississippi and is tiring of some of the stereotypes.

I have known and worked with Josh for some years now.

He offers a perspective on racial and social issues that we Canadians rarely get to hear.

It was an interesting chat.