For the next month, approximately 90 Canadian soldiers will stand on guard for Queen Elizabeth II in the UK.
Until October 22, soldiers from Manitoba’s Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery will be standing stoically outside of Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Windsor Castle and St. James’s Palace.
The regiment officially took over the Queen’s Guard on October 4th with the Royal Canadian Artillery band marking the occasion.
According to Buckingham Palace, it was “the first overseas regiment to take part in Changing the Guard since the start of the pandemic.”
Last week, the Queen met with the Canadian soldiers to greet the regiment and talk about their homes and families in Canada.
Being part of the Queen’s Guard will require soldiers to stand sentry outside of royal properties for two-hour shifts at a time up to three times a day.
Some soldiers will be equipped with loaded rifles and can even arrest people in emergency situations.
Although the Queen’s Guard usually is composed of one of five British regiments, Canadians have come to guard the Royal Family in the past.
In 1940, when faced with the prospect of Nazi invasion, King George VI was guarded by Canadian regiments.
This year’s invitation was not based on such dire circumstances but instead was a way to commemorate the Canadian regiment’s 150th anniversary.
Historically, the regiment was one of the earliest land units of the Canadian army following Confederation.
It’s been a year and a half of dealing with COVID-19 and heavy-handed government rules, but governments across Canada still feel the need to dictate Canadians’ lives.
As Canadians gather for Thanksgiving with their loved ones, the government is recommending you take action to stop the spread of COVID – including checking the vaccination status of your guests and contact tracing.
Are you going to be following the government’s rules?
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) responded to recent Statistics Canada employment numbers by noting that while government jobs continue to grow, the private sector is falling behind.
“There’s been a tale of two pandemics in Canada: one full of private sector pain, the other full of politician and bureaucrat financial gain,” said Federal Director with the CTF Franco Terrazzano in a press release.
“It’s not fair to make struggling taxpayers pay for more bureaucrats and bigger bureaucrat salaries during the pandemic.”
Statistics Canada data shows that 257,400 jobs were added to the economy since the beginning of the pandemic, which includes an additional 107,000 “public administration” jobs.
Despite the growth, the private sector and those who were self-employed saw a loss of 256,500 jobs since before the pandemic.
“Not only do taxpayers have to pay for more bureaucrats, we’re also on the hook for government pay raises during the pandemic and that’s not fair,” said Terrazzano.
As noted by the CTF in the past, government workers were also showered with raises and faced no cuts in pay throughout the pandemic while many businesses had to take a hit to their salaries.
In total, 312,825 federal workers received at least one pay raise, meanwhile, MPs received two pay raises ranging from $6,900 to $13,800 depending on their position in government.
Due to historical spending by the Trudeau government, Canada’s federal debt has ballooned to over $1 trillion.
“Deficit spending is out of control and we’re pushing politicians to be honest about how they’re going to pay back the $1-trillion debt,” said Terrazzano.
“More deficits mean more debt that Canadian kids and grandkids will need to pay back. Politicians need to rein in their deficit spending so future generations aren’t weighed down by soaring government debt.”
When it comes to how the media views COVID-19, other countries such as the UK and the US are covering the issue in a much more nuanced and complex way compared to Canada.
Why aren’t Canadian legacy media outlets unpacking the issues for their viewers?
Political pundit Aaron Gunn announced his anticipated entry to the BC Liberal Party leadership race on Saturday in Victoria.
Gunn, who is an outsider to the party, made the announcement at the Greek Community Hall to a crowd of supporters.
“I am tired of standing on the sidelines. I’m tired of watching this province, this country might I add continue to head in the wrong direction. The policies that are being enacted are the antithesis to common sense,” said Gunn.
Just arrived in Victoria for @AaronGunn's anticipated BC Liberal leadership announcement today. #bcpoli
Weeks before his entry, Gunn had announced an exploratory committee to weigh his entry to the leadership contest which is set to be held on February 5, 2022.
The race was prompted by the BC Liberal’s poor performance during the 2020 British Columbia general election, after which former BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson resigned from the party’s top spot.
During last year’s snap election, the BC Liberals lost 13 seats in the legislature, down from the 41 they used to hold.
Prior to his entry into provincial politics, Gunn was a commentator for various conservative advocacy groups including the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and BC Proud.
During the announcement, Gunn revealed several policy positions including making university funding dependent on whether post-secondary schools support freedom of expression, ending the ICBC monopoly, scrapping the provincial carbon tax and developing LNG to fight climate change by reducing China’s coal output.
“I want to be clear about this, I am vaccinated, I support vaccination and I encourage others to get vaccinated as well but the idea that in a country like Canada we would coerce our own citizens into injecting something into their bodies against their will especially in situations like travel, where equally effective alternatives like rapid testing exist and are available is grossly unconstitutional,” Gunn said on vaccine mandates.
To date, six others have declared their candidacy for the leadership including MLAs Ellis Ross, Michael Lee and Renee Merrifield. Former MLA and deputy premier Kevin Falcon also announced his bid for leadership alongside BC businessmen Val Litwin and Gavin Dew.
Currently, the interim leader of the BC Liberals is Shirley Bond, who has announced that she will not be entering the race.
One day prior to Gunn’s announcement, the BC NDP went on the offence and attacked the rookie candidate for promising to allow a voice to all members of the party including social conservatives.
“Aaron Gunn says he would make space for discrimination” the BC NDP alleged in an October 8, 2021 news release.
In conversation with True North, Gunn challenged the NDP on the statement claiming that the governing party would be happy if any other candidate wins the leadership race other than him.
“You see some of these other establishment people in the race, the NDP know all about them, they want one of them to win and they’re scared of having an outsider come into the race and realign the political system. That’s what we’re here to do, I’m not afraid of the NDP, I will be hitting back in the next couple of days,” said Gunn.
Alberta is reporting a slight decline in opioid deaths, however, the hard hit province is still set to report the worst year on record.
Between June and July, 242 people died from opioids including the deadly-synthetic variants fentanyl and carfentanil. The number was 5% less than the 254 deaths reported over the same period last year.
Despite the latest numbers, Alberta saw a grim 720 deaths in the first seven months of 2021, over 100 more deaths than reported in 2020 for those months.
In 2020, 1,316 people died from opioid fatalities. 2021 is expected to be even worse.
“What I’m hearing on the streets is there’s a huge carfentanil issue in Edmonton – there’s a lot of organized crime around carfentanil,” internal medicine and addictions physician Dr. Monty Gosh told the Calgary Herald.
“We clearly need more resources in Edmonton – harm reduction, treatment, agonists (replacement drugs).”
Fentanyl and its cousin carfentanil are extremely deadly synthetic opioids that can be up to 4,000 times more potent than heroin.
“Carfentanil is one of the most toxic opioids currently known, with studies showing it to be 10,000 times more potent than morphine, 4,000 times more potent than heroin, and 100 times more potent than fentanyl. In humans, a dose as small as 1 microgram is enough to elicit a response to the drug and about 20 micrograms, which is less than a grain of salt, is enough to be fatal,” an Alberta Health Services backgrounder states.
Throughout Canada, numerous provinces have seen a surge in opioid deaths over the span of the pandemic. In 2020, Ontario saw an increase of 38% opioid deaths.
A report by the Public Health Agency of Canada raised the alarm about opioid death rates during the pandemic.
“Jurisdictions across the country have reported increases in overdose deaths and non-fatal harms related to opioids and other substances, in part due to increasing toxicity of the illegal drug supply since the start of the pandemic,” said the report.
Federal workers will have to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk losing their jobs, thanks to a new edict from Justin Trudeau’s government, which is also requiring people to get vaccinated to board a plane or a train. These measures undeniably violate the right of individuals to make their own medical choices by threatening employment and mobility rights, so The Andrew Lawton Show assembled an expert panel to discuss this mandate, and some of the broader themes connected to vaccine passports and civil liberties.
This weekend edition of the show features Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms president John Carpay, Macdonald-Laurier Institute domestic policy program director Aaron Wudrick, Toronto Sun editor Anthony Furey, and True North’s Andrew Lawton.
A number of legacy media outlets joined forces to condemn “heinous and threatening messages” sent to journalists in recent weeks. Where were these media outlets when conservative journalists were harassed and assaulted?
Plus, it appears the Laurentian elite are turning on Justin Trudeau and many are speculating Trudeau may resign as prime minister. But as Candice Malcolm explains, the Liberal Party is a cult of personality around Trudeau – he is not going anywhere any time soon.
It’s Fake News Friday on The Candice Malcolm Show. Tune in now!
Conservative MPs took to social media this week to blast the Liberal government’s inaction on recent incursions into Taiwanese airspace by China.
Both MP Michael Chong and recently-elected MP Melissa Lantsman made separate statements on social media calling for immediate action to support the island nation.
“China’s latest actions against Taiwan are unacceptable and needlessly provocative. Canada must stand with our democratic allies in the Indo-Pacific region, and publicly state our support for Taiwan as have our Australian, American, British, and Japanese allies,” wrote Chong.
Recently, Taiwanese defence minister Chiu Kuo-cheng warned that China could invade Taiwan by 2025.
“With regards to staging an attack on Taiwan, they currently have the ability. But [China] has to pay the price,” said Chiu.
“We will make preparations militarily. I think our military is like this — if we need to fight, we will be on the front lines.”
Recently, 150 bombers, including airplanes with nuclear capabilities, buzzed Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone.
The incursion has been called “the most serious” in over 40 years by Chiu.
“China’s latest incursions into Taiwan’s air identification zone are needlessly provocative and only serves to destabilize the security of the region. Canada must support our friends in democratic Taiwan. The silence on this is deafening,” tweeted Lantsman.
Following China’s recent incursion, the Liberal government made no statement condemning the Communist country for the incident.
In the past, critics have accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of failing to stand up to China with regard to Taiwan.
In September, the Canadian government refused to support a bid by the island nation to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
In just over one week, Albertans will vote in a referendum on ending equalization, a constitutional program that has funnelled billions of dollars from Alberta and other wealthy provinces to have-not provinces like Quebec. Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes says this is an important vote for Albertans who want a fairer deal in confederation. He joined The Andrew Lawton Show to explain.
