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.

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 despite the extra and unintentional sound effects including a police helicopter. For more information on Daryl Makk head to his website here.