Episode 1023: Holiday Spectacular

Zain 0:00

Well, hi there. Happy holidays, strategist listeners. The time has come once again for your non-denominational, exclusively inclusive holiday spectacular. Wow. Is that you carving a turkey? Amazing work there. Why are you carving it so early? It's not even Christmas. And man, that turkey probably cost you more than it did last year. Food prices, am I right? And wait, is that your partner watching TikTok memes after having lost all your household wealth and retirement on crypto? Life, am I right? Regardless, grab your kids, maybe some lukewarm discount eggnog and any semblance of hope you have left. Now burn it all because it's time for the Strategist Holiday Spectacular brought to you by Flair Airlines. My name is Zane Velji and with me as always... It's

Zain 0:41

Yeah, our... Let me get to it. Our strategists, flight attendants, Corey Hogan and Stephen Carter. Guys, what

Zain 0:49

what is going on? It is time. The renowned tradition known as the Strategist Holiday Spectacular, which for the second year in a row is sponsored by Flair Airlines, is ready to take off, Carter. And you know what that means. I feel like we're

Corey 1:04

going to be here a while. We're going to be here. We're going to

Zain 1:06

to be here. We're going to absolutely be here a while.

Zain 1:11

If you are indeed on a tarmac, or if you are indeed in an airport listening to this episode, if you can send proof of life and proof of that occurring, we might give you two weeks free of a Patreon subscription. Corey will figure that out, okay? Corey will figure that out. It's money out of our pocket, but it's the irony that we appreciate. Corey, I'm not going to waste any time. This episode is packed. It's packed with insights. It's packed with a year of review. But it is also prescient. Do you know why, Corey? Because it predicts the future. This is the episode that predicts how white Christmas will be. And let's move it on to our first segment. Our first segment, how white that is right for the 12th year in a row we're going to start off with our annual strategist holiday spectacular tradition now if you're new to the show welcome but cory you know the roles this is a 10 question quiz for steven carter oh god he has a 10 question quiz every year to judge how white he is yeah the

Zain 2:14

answer to every single one of these questions are non-white white people.

Zain 2:20

And if Stephen Carter gets

Zain 2:23

gets a score of six or lower, we know it's going to be a white Christmas. Okay, Corey? Now you, of course, keeping in the theme, are going to be our Vanna white. Okay? You will actually keep score for Stephen Carter, right? I'll be asking the question.

Zain 2:38

Stephen Carter will be answering

Zain 2:38

the question. This has been a 100% perfect predictor of whether we're going to have a white Christmas or not. So Stephen, 10 questions on the board. All you have have to do is simply answer them there's just a bunch of non-white people you answer their names you pronounce it correctly pronounce correctly that's

Zain 2:56

that's part of yes carter we we let it slide in 2019 and 2018 when you what you said it doesn't matter how you pronounce her name the world has changed in the last couple years carter you have to pronounce these names correctly and you have to get the answer wrong a score of six or lower means we're having a white christmas i don't care where you are you might be saying whoa i'm actually in hawaii right now it doesn't matter you're gonna get a white christmas if stephen carter gets six or lower okay but core you ready for your role this

Carter 3:22

this is basically a game to get me canceled okay

Zain 3:24

okay we do that what

Carter 3:25

what do you mean we do this

Zain 3:25

this every year every year it's spectacular stephen carter the first question that once heralded genius of 808 and heartbreaks had a year living out the velgie rule who

Zain 3:35

who is it um

Carter 3:37

808 and heartbreaks you know you threw me with the heartbreaks um

Zain 3:41

um and had a year living out the The Velji rule. If you remember the Velji rule, remember 808 and heartbreaks. Who is this? I'm going

Carter 3:48

going to be honest with you. It's got to be Kanye West.

Zain 3:51

is correct. We would have also accepted Ye. We would have accepted Ye

Carter 3:56

I don't know what 808 or heartbreaks is, but I knew that

Carter 4:00

that the person who suffered the biggest Zane Velji rule failure was Kanye West. If

Zain 4:07

If you're just tuning in, we're playing How White. This, of course, predicts how white Christmas is going to be by judging how white Stephen Stephen Carter, is with 10 questions where the answer are people that are not white. Stephen Carter, question number two. Do you want to clarify questions like

Carter 4:20

phoning a friend? Like, could I do not have any of

Zain 4:22

of these options? No, you need to get six or

Zain 4:24

more to ensure that

Zain 4:26

do not have a white.

Carter 4:26

white. Six out of nine now. Like, I'm doing good. Stephen

Zain 4:29

Stephen Carter, she was the most recent liberal cabinet minister to breach ethics rules in 2022 by hiring a friend to do contract communication for her. Who was she, Stephen Carter?

Carter 4:40

can see her in my head. This is the worst.

Zain 4:43

Don't describe her because then you're going to get canceled.

Zain 4:47

What's her full proper name? She's

Carter 4:53

I get any bonus points for pointing out that she's

Zain 4:55

she's in Mississauga? No, this is a binary system. You have to pronounce the name correctly. You've got to get the name correctly. Corey will actually also act as our clock. If he feels like you're

Carter 5:04

you're going too long...

Zain 5:05

I'm going to go with Minister Ng.

Zain 5:07

What is her first name? Mary.

Zain 5:09

He is correct. He gets two for two.

Corey 5:13

Stephen Carter. We really need somebody in the room. We need a proctor. Like, I don't trust that he's not doing these things at this point. Okay,

Carter 5:20

Okay, I'll keep my hands up. Do

Carter 5:22

we trust, I mean, based

Zain 5:22

based on the last month, do we trust this guy to even be able to use a computer? I mean, I think it's pretty fair. I think I figured out the problem. This guy doesn't have no idea. I think

Carter 5:29

think I figured out the problem. I'm running one too many monitors.

Zain 5:33

Doesn't matter. Stephen Carter, we are continuing on with How White, our segment on the Holiday Spectacular. Number three, the regulation for a ban on foreign homeowners was announced this week and is going to be taking effect on January 1st. Which minister announced it?

Carter 5:53

I've met him. This is very upsetting. I want to say Ahmed.

Zain 5:58

That is correct. Yes! Well done. Pretty white, taking guesses at Mary and Ahmed and gets it correct.

Carter 6:04

Yeah, those were both guesses. Those were both. Stephen Carter,

Zain 6:07

considered an oracle in certain conservative circles. He was a campaign chair for both Patrick Brown and Aaron O'Toole.

Zain 6:15

Remember, the answer is... I think that's time. I'm going

Carter 6:17

going to pass, and I'm going to come back to that one.

Zain 6:19

You will... Oh, you're going to pass? Okay, so Stephen Carter, we'll take that one as incorrect. Number five, Stephen Carter.

Zain 6:26

Stephen Carter, pass is not his name. Pass is not the name of Willie Solomon. Stephen Carter, number five.

Zain 6:34

She is the Alberta NDP children's services critic and once told one of us in private that Stephen Carter, at moments, is rightfully unlistenable.

Carter 6:48

I'm going to go with Rocky.

Carter 6:51

I'm going to mispronounce her name on purpose. This is not because I have to. Oh, you're going to give a point away this

Zain 6:56

this way. Are you going to give a point?

Zain 6:56

Oh, good. Go ahead. What's

Carter 6:58

What's her last name? Okay, Rocky Pankey.

Zain 7:02

Wrong. That is wrong. rocky pancholi is the answer and she was also right

Carter 7:06

right holy fuck you know what that was my inclination stephen carter's

Zain 7:09

carter's got two wrong cory can we just confirm that on

Corey 7:11

on the score yeah he's he's on a bad streak right now let's

Zain 7:14

let's see if he can heat up a bit stephen carter he replaced lisa laflama's chief anchor of ctv national news um

Carter 7:21

he and ian handsome man thing absolutely

Zain 7:24

absolutely not stephen carter's racism shows it's another brown man omar satchardina is the answer stephen carter you You have gotten three wrong, okay? Yeah, this is bad. This

Corey 7:33

This is not going

Zain 7:34

Oh, man. Stephen Carter, this one also, but this one you could have a saving grace with your geography. Here we go.

Zain 7:40

Green Party for its language requirements as a leadership candidate based out of Edmonton.

Zain 7:47

scolded the Green Party for their language requirements. We talked about them on the show. Yeah,

Carter 7:51

Yeah, yeah. For its language requirements as a

Zain 7:53

leadership candidate and is located in Edmonton. Yes, it's someone you know.

Carter 8:00

guys you guys are just killing me you're just killing me in fairness i just like to point out to people that if you were asking me white people's names i would also fuck this up wow

Zain 8:09

shows nothing the jeep jet was the answer stephen carter is wrong stephen carter number eight

Zain 8:13

cory what's the score is it really we

Corey 8:15

what's it's three right and uh four wrong we're we're going to these are important going to yeah you gotta go three for three here you gotta go go three for three here you

Zain 8:26

know she was nominated by joe biden to the supreme court in february 2022 what is her name oh

Zain 8:37

she's a supreme court justice carter i

Carter 8:39

i know i know she's a supreme court justice but i can't remember her name because i can't remember her name not because i can't see who she is jackson jackson that

Zain 8:48

that is correct give me the give Give me the first name.

Carter 8:55

Starts with an A?

Zain 8:56

Does not start with an A. It does not.

Carter 8:57

Okay, then it's Jackson.

Zain 9:01

That is correct. Katonji Brown Jackson. Are we giving him that? I guess we're giving him that. Yeah, you have to give him that. We have to give him that.

Zain 9:08

No, we're not giving him

Corey 9:09

him that. No, we have to give him that. Or else he's already lost.

Corey 9:12

I'll let Corey figure

Corey 9:14

You know what? We're going to give him half a point. We're going to give him half a point. Carter,

Zain 9:17

Carter, he made all Indian parents hate their kids as he assumed leadership of Her Majesty's government in the United Kingdom. Who is he?

Zain 9:34

you're not ready for Rishi, yeah.

Corey 9:37

Come on, man. That was his slogan.

Zain 9:37

slogan. Ready for Rishi. Yeah, ready for Rishi, man. Come on. It wasn't groovy for Ravi. It was ready for Rishi, okay? OK, again,

Carter 9:47

I'm taking a full point for that.

Carter 9:49

I'm not going to do it all. It all comes down to this last question.

Corey 9:52

No, you know what? It

Carter 9:52

It comes down to this last question.

Corey 9:56

get this right, I

Corey 9:57

OK, well, that's not true, but you go for it. OK, my new role. This is a tough one.

Zain 10:02

This is a tough one. This makes me think how much you're looking into the future of the Democratic Party in the United States. This makes me think, does Stephen Carter have his finger on the pulse for who might lead or be a core contender for higher and national public office in the United States? She became the first woman, first person of color, and first Asian American to serve as mayor of Boston after winning in her race.

Zain 10:31

Yes. Yes, Stephen Carter.

Zain 10:35

The mayor of Boston. Do you know the name?

Carter 10:37

Of course I don't know the mayor of Boston. Do

Zain 10:39

Do you want to try? Do you want to try a name? No. Do you want to try a name? Do you want to try a name of a woman, a person of color, an Asian American? Do you just want to try this to get yourself canceled, Stephen Carter?

Carter 10:49

You know what? Now that you put it that way, now I'm going to refrain from that. Zane, I'm going to. I've decided it is my best interest not to go with Mayor Wong. It is

Zain 10:58

is Michelle Wu, and Stephen Carter, once again,

Zain 11:03

has suggested with his prowess that wherever you are in this universe,

Corey 11:07

universe, we are getting

Zain 11:07

getting a white Christmas. Thank you for nothing, Corey. This was not

Corey 11:11

not even a close contender. This was a... No, you know, I actually thought you were on one hell of a tear at the start. You went three for three. You went three for three? What happened

Zain 11:18

happened there, Carter? You went three for three. You gave one

Corey 11:22

but you're like, you know what? And you literally got nothing right after those first three. This was quite the disaster. But don't worry, Carter. We'll allow you...

Corey 11:29

you... This was terrible. Terrible. We'll

Zain 11:30

We'll allow you to redeem yourself because the holiday spectacular continues with our next segment. Our next segment, the Flair Airlines, did it land? We have no clue. Guys, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to list you three or four things, major political stories this year, and you're going to justify to me, did it land or not? Did the political strategy, political play, big political moment land or not? And Stephen Carter, I'm going to start with you. We'll go back and forth on these. We'll let you guys get into all all of them, a bit. Stephen Carter, I'm going to start with you, then I'll jump in on Corey.

Zain 12:01

Yep. Pierre Pogliev's political videos. Through his leadership race, through his time as opposition leader, did they land, yes or no, on the macro 2022?

Carter 12:10

Yes, they absolutely landed. He won his campaign with ease. People know who he is. They understand his videos were a big part of who he is. So yes, absolutely safe landing, followed all the flight attendant's instructions.

Zain 12:23

As a fellow flight attendant, Ted and Corey did Pierre Polyev's political videos, the tactics of his political videos. Did they land in 2022?

Corey 12:31

I'm going to say no. They took off.

Carter 12:33

off. No. Ah. They took off.

Corey 12:35

off. Interesting. Explain why. It was a great takeoff. You know, everybody was feeling very good about the pilot. Cracked a few jokes on the ascent. You know, you're thinking this is going to be a great flight. Then you look out your window and you're thinking, I should be able to see Greenland right now. Why does this look like the Pacific Ocean? uh as he is fondling wood and as he's going so deep in his own bullshit and as all of a sudden like the experimental late beatles version of pierre pauliev took over so now i don't know where in the world they are i certainly don't believe it's landed if it has it's landed in the fashion of like the gang from lost you know it's an island there's a polar bear we're not quite sure where we are and

Corey 13:15

and i guess we'll have to wait and see we'll have to wait and see whether whether uh in the finale they all get to go to a non-denominational afterlife or not um to to continue that metaphor which was a very important metaphor i don't want to lose track of

Zain 13:30

carter also spoilers for lost yeah

Zain 13:32

yeah 4 18 15 16 23 and 42 uh if uh if you wanted a deep cut from that abc series uh which by the way in hindsight did not age well i would say carter Actually, I'm going to stick with you on this, Hogan.

Corey 13:47

The Liberal-NDP deal, did it land?

Corey 13:50

It depends on who you're asking it about. For the NDP, I think it did. For the Liberals, I guess it did for them, too. They both wanted different things out of it, right? The Liberals wanted to be able to act as though they were a majority government, and the NDP wanted to act as though they could extract demands from the Liberals. And both have kind of gotten their thing now we'll see if in the year to come uh you know this detente lasts but it's sort of working for them as long as justin trudeau is willing to be a bit of a punching bag and every now and then concede something he was willing to do anyways to jagmeet singh i think um i think it yeah it's um i think it landed it certainly landed for 2022 carter

Zain 14:29

carter in the cory puts that good frame on everything we're talking about is for the calendar year for the calendar year 2022 the liberal ndp deal in your mind carter did it land i

Carter 14:39

i think i have to say that it landed i think that it was a choppy flight um really you know the the there was turbulence all over the place and then then when they landed i think they probably bounced three times which as you know flare airlines calls a perfect three-point landing um so you know i guess it was fine in the calendar year 2022 the problem with these things is uh it's just not one landing they gotta keep going into 2023 and potentially into 2024. So I don't see this as landing particularly

Carter 15:09

particularly well in the future. I think they probably flattened a couple of tires and the next time they land, they risk a fiery explosion.

Carter 15:19

But for now, sure, they landed.

Zain 15:22

Carter, I'm going to say one word and you're going to know exactly what I meant. And in 2021, if I were to say this word, you would have no clue what I'm talking about. They were the biggest political story at the beginning of the year, arguably the biggest political story at the end of the year. Stephen Carter, in 2022, did the convoy land for you?

Carter 15:43

No, the convoy did not land for me. And, you

Carter 15:48

know, I mean, we haven't seen yet the outcome of the trials. We haven't seen, you

Carter 15:55

you know, we're watching the Ottawa Police Service struggle with its reputation.

Carter 16:01

And I think that, no, No, it simply hasn't landed. And there are more effective ways to protest than to piss off all the people you want to support you.

Carter 16:12

And I think that that should be something that people keep in mind as they're trying to build a coalition of people that support their ideas. Corey,

Zain 16:20

they weren't a term that we knew. They kind of built a, if you can call it a political brand or a force in politics, or at least a movement of some sort. biggest story at the beginning arguably the biggest story at the end with the uh with the emergencies act uh review and and and testimony the convoy in 2022 did it land yeah

Corey 16:39

yeah i mean of course it landed to your point we didn't know what the convoy was at the start of the year now it feels like the canadian tea party like people will say they're a convoy party supporter at a certain point here and and maybe it won't preclude membership in other areas but it basically denotes it's a political philosophy, ill-formed, but, you know, rooted in something, right? Rooted in anger, rooted in frustration, and rooted in this idea that they can just take back the country through any crazy reading of the Constitution, crazy reading of the Bill of Rights. And you can sit there like an executive at Air Canada scowling at Flair Airlines and say, yeah, but they don't even have peanuts on their flight. But the reality is, it landed. It's there, it's here. It's certainly something that we're going to be contending with going into 2022. It has changed our politics fundamentally. It has ended careers. It has launched new careers in politics. You bet the convoy landed. Do you need to like it? No, but you got to acknowledge it.

Zain 17:36

Carter, this is the political frame we operate in. I want to spend some time on this. I don't want to just rush right through these. This is a point of disagreement between the two of you. you respond to cory here well

Carter 17:45

well cory's wrong uh i mean because the the idea

Zain 17:49

just uh how many did he get out of uh ted uh yeah i got

Carter 17:52

got like of course no

Carter 17:55

and a half if we're being generous

Zain 18:03

me very happy carter go ahead yes

Carter 18:07

not one woo here's

Carter 18:09

here's the thing just because you know that something happened doesn't mean it's a good thing you know i know that that's what we're arguing here to

Zain 18:16

to be clear i

Carter 18:16

i know you know there's been uh multiple house fires oh isn't that a good thing i know that there's been a car crashes all up and down the deer foot oh isn't that a good thing i know that i know all kinds of shit that i in 2022 that i didn't know before i don't know how to make it a good thing the house just because you didn't fucking know something doesn't make it good oh i know about the convoy ergo it must have landed that's bullshit if you don't support the house hold on hold on it is not a good thing okay

Corey 18:49

okay if the house fires goal was to make you aware of house fires and you knew about the house fire then you'd have to give the house fire props to continue your incredibly painful metaphor this

Carter 19:01

this is the most upsetting thing that you've said today this is not the truth everybody When they did the convoy, it was to support the anti-vax movement. And the anti-vax movement did not want to send it. It

Corey 19:13

It was truckers. That's why it's called the convoy. It

Carter 19:16

It was not about the truckers. It was about anti-vax bullshit. And it has gone downhill since the convoy. The only person still talking about it is Danielle Smith and her minister of propaganda, whatever the fuck her name is. She's white and I forgot her name.

Zain 19:37

god damn it you're the

Zain 19:39

carter refute cory's points that it's forever changed our politics that it's association it's a term we didn't know a year ago that it's something that has come and asserted itself even if it's been rough around the edges even if you haven't agreed with it even if you don't align with it that it is become an an object in our politics and perhaps an an extension of our politics in some way refute that point because i think that's the core of corey's point to me how

Carter 20:07

how has it actually impacted canadian politics i mean has justin trudeau had to come out and address this pierre polyev has run away from it since he went to the convoy meetings the only person who's talking about the only person that has changed is danielle smith and it didn't change her at all she was a fucking whack job in 2012 she's a fucking whack job in 2022 this is no change this is the way it is cory

Corey 20:29

cory so two questions for you one is what year did you work for daniel smith i'm

Carter 20:34

i'm just 2010 all

Corey 20:38

right thank you second question i have um who is the premier of alberta well

Corey 20:49

no listen it's changing politics daniel smith would not be premier of alberta right now if it were not for the convoy. Do you think Pierre would be leader?

Zain 20:59

leader? Do you think Pierre would be leader if it wasn't for the

Corey 21:01

No, he'd be leader. He'd be leader. Look how much he won by. But you

Corey 21:05

you think he was an additive? You think he was an

Zain 21:06

an additive? The convoy was a net additive to him that he was able to... You remember how he launched his leadership was to kind of take advantage

Zain 21:14

of that data mining, data operation during the heart of the convoy. Yeah,

Corey 21:18

Yeah, he didn't even have a website. He had like, you know, a list of links that you could go to. Yeah,

Zain 21:23

Yeah, like Google Forms

Zain 21:24

fill out your data sort of thing.

Zain 21:26

you think it was a net additive to Pierre?

Corey 21:29

Well, for sure, for his leadership contest. I don't know if Jason Kenney would have lost as premier if it weren't for the convoy. I don't know if Saskatchewan would have gone so mad with Saskatchewan first. I certainly don't think Daniel Smith would be premier of Alberta if it weren't for the convoy. Entirely

Carter 21:45

Entirely revisionist, Jason Kenney wouldn't have lost without the convoy. Hang on a second here. I got to write this down because this is something I'm going to remember for

Corey 21:52

rest of my life. Jason Kenney didn't lose. the question was would he get a high enough percent of the vote to stick around we're still talking about margins here and when you had this mobilized right-wing group who was feeling very energized by things like the convoy then yeah you bet that's causing problems for jason barfing

Carter 22:07

barfing into my mouth listening to you today we'll

Zain 22:12

continue merry holidays on whether the convoy yeah

Carter 22:17

what's going on three of us are all stuck in this fucking weather together that's the only thing that's held me together on this whole thing i

Carter 22:26

understand i'm glad carter

Zain 22:28

that sounds like the misery prize of a man who's lost his family's wealth on crypto uh

Corey 22:38

first year we kind of got to see liberal child

Zain 22:39

child care in action and implementation in the 2022 year from what you know what you see as a signature policy but also also as a legacy policy, also as something they believed in. In 2022, did the liberal childcare deal land for you?

Carter 22:55

No, which doesn't mean that it's not going to land in the future. I think that as people get exposed to it and as people start experiencing what it has promised, it will be even bigger. But right

Carter 23:06

right now, it is kind of like a touch and go landing, right? People are excited by the opportunity, but they haven't yet yet experience the fullness of what it can bring. And I think that as that real value starts to be seen in 2023 and 2024, that liberal daycare package, along with I think the liberal dental package, are really going to start making differences in a lot of people's lives.

Zain 23:33

Corey, did the liberal childcare deal in the 2022 year for you, did it land? It was the first year we kind of got to see it in implementation form. It was a signature policy of the last election. I wouldn't say it was the only signature policy, but it's a big one. They spent a shit ton of money and a shit ton of effort getting these individual deals, which was a win politically. But did it land in 2022 for you?

Corey 23:56

Yeah. And you can tell the difference between Stephen Carter and I and the age of our kids. The fact that he doesn't think it landed is because it is to him just theoretical. To a family like mine, it was massively substantive. You know, if you have children in childcare in a province like Alberta, it has absolutely changed the game. That's true in provinces across the country here. it is it is by far the most material thing government has done in my day-to-day life in the past you know five to ten years and um that's not to say government hasn't done other things this is just we're talking about magnitude here of like the cost of a mortgage has been reduced from a large families you know if you've got a large young family this has been such a game changer carter

Carter 24:36

carter he says that because he's got like 20 25 children but that's not the norm i think it it gets better as things move along, which does not minimize the impact that it's had so far. I think it's just going to be when you have a full year of it, like when you get that mortgage level back, it's really going to be something. It's going to allow a lot of people to go to work and it's going to have tremendous impact for families in the future tense.

Zain 24:58

We are going to leave that segment there, move it to our next segment. Corey, they say in politics that it's all about timing, timing, timing. Well, I want to talk about timing. It is now time for the flair airlines delayed response of the year cory i'm

Zain 25:14

i'm gonna give you a list and you have a choice you you can choose from this list in terms of which of these deserves the award for flair airline delayed response of the year or you could give your own answer we'll let you fill in the blanks on this one we're making the rules so cory carter you can keep track of this as well

Zain 25:30

you're going first on this hogan was it the truth was it trudeau delaying on pulling the trigger on the Emergency Act? Was

Zain 25:37

Was it Trudeau on his dithering on true leadership and policy on the cost of living in an inflation crisis?

Zain 25:46

Was it the CPC's delay in dithering before getting rid of Patrick Brown eventually?

Zain 25:52

Was it Jason Kenney being caught flat-footed and losing his leadership vote?

Zain 25:57

Was it Stephen Eby being caught flat-footed with an upstart campaign in the BC NDP leadership race before he and the party tossed and turfed that candidate? Or finally, Corey, was it the Ontario NDP and Liberals in their delay in defining and going after Doug Ford aggressively? I'll do a summary for you again. Trudeau on the Emergencies Act, Trudeau on cost of living, the CPC on Patrick Brown, Jason Kenney getting flat-footed, Stephen Eby getting flat-footed, or the Ontario NDP and and the Ontario Liberals delaying in trying to define Doug Ford, allowing him to sweep an even larger majority. Corey, you can give me an other, or you can give me one of these. Which one is it for you?

Corey 26:43

Well, I was going to let one Stephen Eby go by, but when you said it twice, it makes me think you actually think

Corey 26:48

think that's his name.

Zain 26:49

Sorry, David. You know what? It's weird.

Carter 26:50

But he's white. As is Stephen.

Carter 26:54

Yeah. People mistake me for David more than anything else. You know what? Here's

Zain 26:58

Here's what I'll do. I'm not sorry. Fuck that guy. That guy could be named Stephen Eby for the rest of his life. You know how many times I've been called Zian? Okay. Well, that's fine. It doesn't matter. He gets a Stephen. Most of them by Stephen. Yeah. So

Carter 27:15

Okay, let's go. Let's go. Corey, David Eby.

Zain 27:17

Eby. Here we go. Trudeau, Trudeau, the Conservatives, Kenny, Eby, or the NDP and liberals in Ontario in their delay to define Doug Ford. What is it to you? Or is it another one? Oh,

Corey 27:28

Oh, I think you've put a great one on the table with Trudeau and the cost of living response.

Corey 27:32

response. I would potentially maybe even say the government and the passport situation as well. But I just don't think that's material even now. Those things have been resolved. But the thing with the cost of living, it's

Corey 27:46

it's illustrative of a bigger problem in politics. Politicians do this all of the time. As soon as an opponent makes a critique, their first instinct is to dismiss and deny the critique. If they had looked across the world, if they had looked at every other jurisdiction, if they had just taken kind of an honest assessment of things, they would have said, yeah, okay, this is going to be a problem. And I think the liberals spent a good quarter, like a good three months, pretending that the cost of living increases we're seeing was not a big deal, no problem at all. and this was consistent with other activities of theirs around supply chain challenges we've had as a country getting medicine for kids not a big deal overblown just pictures of empty shelves we said this at the time and i think it was actually even in 2021 technically so probably outside of this year's scope but there

Corey 28:31

there was a time where you'd go to the grocery store and there would be empty shelves were they all empty no so it was ridiculous to pretend they were were they all full no they they were not, right? And so what we saw was partisans just jump in on cost of living and just find every way they could to say, you don't have a problem here. Oh, your mortgage is not going to be too big. Oh, the cost of food is not going to be too bad. But people are feeling it, you know, people are looking at what a gallon of milk costs, and they're saying this is too expensive. And the liberals, by denying it for a few months, gave a few months of the issue being entirely entirely framed by their denials, which look out of touch now, and Polyev's attacks, which look accurate, prescient, and on point. And so that was the one that I think both had the most consequence, the most real consequence in the year for real people, and also most likely to affect the next election, if the liberals do decide to do something as foolhardy as pull the trigger early.

Zain 29:31

Carter, what was it for you? Was it Trudeau and Emergency Act, cost of living, the CPC getting rid of Brown, Jason Kenney, Stephen slash David Eby, or the NDP and Liberals in Ontario, or

Zain 29:44

something else, or that's your own.

Carter 29:46

No, I think your list is great, Zane. And I want to agree with Corey on cost of living, but I'm not going to. In no small part, because I just want to, in general, Justin Trudeau and his government move too slowly. And I could jump on the Trudeau government. I think that Corey was was right to pick the cost of living one um but i'm gonna and i think also the cpc with patrick brown makes a really strong case that you you should do that at the at the at the you

Carter 30:14

you know outset um but

Carter 30:16

but actually i'm going to go with david eby and the and and the bc ndp they

Carter 30:20

they knew they were in the shit early and they chose not to do anything for months uh and it really under that was my He's my runner-up, for

Zain 30:31

would have been your runner-up, hey? Oh,

Carter 30:33

Really undermined the start of his leadership. I mean, to

Carter 30:37

to have to take the action against...

Zain 30:38

against... To the point that

Zain 30:39

one of the three of us don't even know his first name.

Carter 30:43

You can never go wrong with calling someone Steven, in

Carter 30:47

But David Eby will

Carter 30:51

carry that shadow with him for a long time, that he is perceived to not be able to beat a lightweight environmentalist. and i'm not sure that that's fair i think that that the environmental movement in british columbia is very very strong but i think that that perception i would have had him i would have rather had him either disqualify her on day one or fight her fight her through a leadership battle by choosing the

Carter 31:17

the the middling mediocre he is basically exemplified every weakness that every white man has. And I speak on behalf of both Corey and I, when I say that.

Zain 31:28

That is interesting. I think there's a... Thank you. Interesting. I was going to give it away to Justin Trudeau, as I thought you were going to double down on Corey's point, but congratulations to David Stephen Eby and Justin Trudeau for their Flair Airlines Delayed Response Award. They're going to be sharing that this year. Carter, we're moving it on to our next segment. We'll send it eventually.

Zain 31:50

We'll send it eventually. That's right. It'll eventually get to them. Yeah. Carter, you know, we'll move on to our next segment. This one, of course, a little bit sadder in tone, because Stephen Carter, it's time for our forgotten but not gone, the Flair Airlines annual goodbye from the gate. This is where we wave to those whose political careers have said goodbye for some reason or another. It's a somber moment. It's a sad moment. But it's a moment that is a ritual. And it's been ritualized on this podcast for 12 years now, Corey, for our 12th holiday spectacular. We start with you, because this individual went away, came back, and decided he probably should go back away. I'm talking about none other than

Zain 32:35

Mr. Jean Charest, Corey. So please take it away for the Flair Airlines annual goodbye from the gate eulogy for Jean Charest and his political career.

Corey 32:48

lost Jean Charest's political career this year.

Corey 32:55

Don't weep for Jean Charest.

Corey 32:58

Don't weep for his cause or the dream of a more moderate conservative party.

Corey 33:02

Because that cause never existed.

Corey 33:05

And what was never alive can never die.

Corey 33:08

I'd like to read from you 2 Corinthians. So

Corey 33:11

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. Since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. And

Corey 33:20

there is nothing more unseen than

Corey 33:21

the idea of a moderate conservative party.

Corey 33:24

Jean, patron saint of not getting the job done, we

Corey 33:30

we will remember you in the same way that we remembered you before this, which was we forgot about you.

Zain 33:38

That was very nicely

Carter 33:40

touching. He was my first political boss. I'm going to miss him. Corey,

Zain 33:44

Corey, with the political eulogy of Jean Charest, or as he's known out West, Gene Cherist. Carter, over to you. You know, we lost another hero of the

Zain 33:57

the conservative movement. This one less moderate, but equally as confident. Stephen Carter for the Flair Airlines annual goodbye from the gates. Political eulogy for Jason Kenney.

Carter 34:09

To lose Jason Kenney's political career at

Carter 34:12

at the height of its strength was

Carter 34:17

One could not imagine a situation where we would, in fact, look back with

Carter 34:21

with any degree of fondness upon the last two or three years when he has been Alberta's premier. But with

Carter 34:28

with Danielle Smith in the job, we

Carter 34:30

we have been reminded that sometimes

Carter 34:33

sometimes a bigger prick is not a better prick. and

Carter 34:36

and we will miss

Carter 34:37

miss jason kenny uh with that on our minds as

Carter 34:41

as you know jason kenny was lost as a direct result did

Carter 34:46

did you prepare this how long

Zain 34:47

long have you been waiting to say this but

Carter 34:50

but it's not just the convoy that killed jason kenny it

Carter 34:54

it is the fact that an organizer will

Carter 34:56

will never be a politician

Zain 35:04

when did we start doing amen

Zain 35:07

as a non-denomination holiday spectacular cory started

Carter 35:11

started cory cory's well you know what i'm

Carter 35:14

i'm gonna friend setter i'll

Zain 35:16

yeah please i'm gonna shift to let's include all fates or no fates after this please thank you cory hogan you know sometimes someone's rebirth birth, provides a goodbye to the party that they're associated with. So Stephen just finished a beautiful send-off to Jason Kenney. I need you to give me a beautiful welcome and goodbye,

Zain 35:37

a confusing cycle of life, as

Zain 35:41

as part of the Flair Airlines annual goodbye from the gate for one Elizabeth May, Corey, because she is back, but she may have killed her party. Corey your improv on the spot eulogy for elizabeth may well

Corey 35:56

well this is very appropriate because of course um saying goodbye at the gate and then saying goodbye at the gate four hours later and then saying goodbye at the gate four hours later again is is very much in keeping with the experience uh of not our sponsor uh

Corey 36:13

uh well zane look i could be very tempted to just dust off a eulogy that i used on this very spectacular in 2006 when she lost in that london by-election or in 2008 when she lost in central nova that one i remember very well or

Corey 36:32

or of course in 2014 when she tabled a petition from 9-11 conspiracy theorists in the house of commons or

Corey 36:38

or you know that time that she promoted homeopathy and raised concerns around wi-fi which of course is just the reordering of radio waves that have been around since the start of the universe but she thought they were a potential carcinogen i do get off track i

Corey 36:51

guess i could have used the eulogy from 2015 press gallery dinner where she was so drunk she said omar katter had more class than the harper cabinet this

Carter 37:00

this is a child

Corey 37:00

child soldier yes uh or maybe i could have used the one from 2019 when she stepped down as party leader but

Corey 37:07

but i like the frame you've given me here i think it's very good uh

Corey 37:10

uh because there is is no death there

Corey 37:13

there was only starting new in a different way and in this changing world it's nice that some things never change the great circle continues and

Corey 37:22

i suppose like the homeopathy that elizabeth may has championed the greens need not fear she's

Corey 37:29

she's gone from being one leader to one of two leaders and with enough co-leaders she'll be diluted to the point of greater potency as promised

Corey 37:37

promised in homeopathy uh

Corey 37:39

uh so with that um so

Zain 37:46

amen thank you thank you cory thank you very very beautiful touching moving a lot of proof points to past eulogies stephen carter we move from the green party to something else green that captured our hearts yeah something else green that captured our hearts for less than two weeks i'm talking of course as one part of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Trilogy, the Head of Lettuce, Bojo, and Liz Truss, Stephen Carter, I need, you know, Corey says sometimes there is no death. Well, sometimes there is death in rapid succession. And that is what we saw here with these three. Stephen Carter, for your Flair Orleans annual goodbye from the gates, for Bojo, Liz Truss, and the Head of Lettuce.

Carter 38:29

Well, I think that what brings these two together is, in fact, the Head of Lettuce. the head of lettuce that outlived Liz Truss and that Boris

Carter 38:37

Boris Johnson calls a hairstyle, that

Carter 38:41

that head of lettuce will be remembered from 2022 for years. And I'd like to, of course, mention that Boris Johnson has stood as an inspiration to

Carter 38:53

to all white men of limited talent, limited sex appeal, as

Carter 38:57

as he has been able to find woman after woman after woman that he can impregnate and

Carter 39:05

and marry and share 50% of his dismal, dismal earnings.

Carter 39:14

Of course, Johnson stands as an inspiration to all of us. And I would again like to thank Liz Truss for

Carter 39:20

for reminding us that Alison Redford was in fact successful in

Carter 39:24

in staying as long as she did. And thank you to Liz for that. I will miss them both.

Zain 39:33

Beautiful. No amen. Very nicely done, Stephen Carter. Corey Hogan, we're going to move it right along. Some people say this is too much sadness, but I think this is actually poetic.

Zain 39:41

poetic. This is beautiful. This is part of, as I mentioned, the cycle of life. And, you know, one guy who really, as a physician, didn't really capture the cycle of life, who probably was looking at alternative methods to life, was Dr. Oz. He wanted to inject some life to his political career, but it was eventually Crudite that did this man in Pennsylvania. a state he did not live. Corey Hogan, the Flair Airlines annual goodbye from the gates eulogy for the political career of one Dr. Memedaz.

Corey 40:16

sitting in his home in

Corey 40:18

in New Jersey one day and

Corey 40:19

and he got one of those YouTube ads we see, you know, one great trick to win an election next to the penis enlargement that he himself probably sponsored at one point during his medical career and next to the homeopathy that uh you know that ad really got elizabeth may i think earlier so

Corey 40:38

it's a bit of a through line there i suppose uh

Corey 40:42

uh and he was he was seduced like so many of us by the idea of politics by the notion of giving back in a way that increases your own glory

Corey 40:53

and so he did what any good uh favorite son of new jersey would do which was leave new jersey and

Corey 41:00

went across the river to Pennsylvania, registered

Corey 41:05

and he threw his hat in the greatest of rings

Corey 41:08

to be part of the great deliberative body, the United States Senate.

Corey 41:13

But Zane, you alluded to it off the top. Life

Corey 41:15

Life can be crudite, and

Corey 41:19

things were not going

Corey 41:21

going to work out for

Corey 41:26

He is the only person who lost an incumbent seat,

Corey 41:30

in the senate and

Corey 41:31

and uh he will be back back

Corey 41:34

back to his chair in new jersey refreshing

Corey 41:39

for one more great trick to

Corey 41:41

to have an electoral rebound which

Corey 41:43

which is you know something

Corey 41:45

something we all struggle with i think once we've been involved in politics so

Corey 41:49

so i see him having a career not dissimilar from elizabeth may he'll be back and

Corey 41:54

and when he does you'll

Corey 41:55

you'll have so many ways to increase the size of your penis amen

Zain 42:01

amen indeed how beautiful cory hogan with that touching touching tribute to one dr memedaz of new jersey stephen carter you know they say that

Zain 42:11

that dying is sometimes just living a different life in a suburb which

Zain 42:15

is why we are needing and just yearning for the political eulogies of one

Zain 42:23

one stephen del duca and andrea horvath i mean they were dead their Their political careers were dead. But you know what? Do you want to throw Patrick Brown in there, too?

Zain 42:32

Dying is just living a different life in the suburbs for Andrew Horvath, Stephen Del Duca, and Patrick Brown. Carter, the only Brown name you'll be able to pronounce is Patrick Brown. Stephen Carter, I'll

Carter 42:44

I'll give this to you.

Zain 42:44

you. The trio of trilogies. You did Bojo, Liz Truss, and the head of Lettuce, please. Please, the trilogies that are now the Suburban Mayors, Horvath, Del Duca, Brown, over to you, Stephen Carter, the Flair and Airlines annual goodbye from the gate for

Zain 43:02

for the three mayors. I'm

Carter 43:03

I'm just so thankful that we put all three of them together.

Carter 43:07

Together, let us remember Angela Horvath, Phil

Carter 43:11

Phil Brown, and David Del Duca. The

Carter 43:14

three will live in the front of our minds The

Carter 43:18

way that Wonder Bread sets the standard for sandwiches That unsalted, dry popcorn sets the standard for entertainment And that boiled potatoes is the starch of preference For

Zain 43:34

prepare this year? What

Carter 43:35

What is going on?

Carter 43:37

The celery of vegetables The mock turtleneck of fashion passion let

Carter 43:41

us all raise a toast of our white cloth and celebrate angela horvath phil

Carter 43:47

phil brown and david del duca as they have left us forever oh

Zain 43:54

oh beautiful beautiful cory i'll end this with you with the final forgotten but not gone the flare airlines annual goodbye from the gates sometimes we have to say goodbye before someone is truly gone we call this awake we call this a a living eulogy but we know the time is near the time is nigh cory

Zain 44:13

cory hogan the flare airlines annual goodbye from the gate for

Zain 44:17

for the lubricant of politics known as twitter

Corey 44:24

it feels appropriate i would do this in 280 characters um but i i can't i won't there's just There's too many memories I have of Twitter. There's too many things to say about Twitter.

Corey 44:37

I remember my first tweet. Well, it was 2008. And I was tweeting that I had just tweeted my first tweet. And that up your acidness became the hallmark of our favorite social media platform,

Corey 44:54

platform, you know, for the next 14 years. Could

Carter 44:57

Could I preach? For

Carter 44:58

For me, it was getting a pork bun.

Corey 45:04

there ever been something that allowed us to talk more about ourselves while pretending to care about the things in the world?

Corey 45:11

I don't think there will be either. It's going to be tough to fill that.

Corey 45:15

I'm thinking I might need to start another podcast.

Zain 45:19

appropriate. Amen. That's what white men do. That concludes, of course, our Forgotten But Not Gone, the Flair Airlines annual goodbye from the gate. the political eulogies of those that live, that have died, and now some that continue to have rebirths and different lives in our politics. Guys, let's move it on to our next segment. Of course, Corey Hogan, sometimes when you fly so often and you take so many people, there is a rare perfect landing. And moves on to our next segment, the Flair Airlines rare perfect landing. Corey Hogan, here's how it works. I'm going to give you a list of what I consider to be the rare perfect landings in politics this year. You tell me which one takes the cake, which one deserves the award. It could also be other, like we discussed last time. Corey, here are your choices. Pierre Polyev, owning

Zain 46:07

owning the entire cost of living issue. Pierre Polyev, data mining during the convoy to ensure that he's got a head start in his leadership race.

Zain 46:17

Jagmeet Singh, as part of the Jagmeet Singh-Justin Trudeau liberal NDP deal. QP in Ontario calling Doug Ford and Minister Lecce's bluff and winning that side of the public advocacy debate. Justin Trudeau's arguably masterful performance on the Emergency Act inquiry.

Zain 46:38

And Danielle Smith inserting the sovereignty act at just the right time in a come-from-behind UCP leadership race victory. So let me give you the list again, Corey. You're going to choose a list. Also other is option. option. Peer on cost of living, peer on data mining. Jagmeet Singh on the Liberal NDP deal, extending his shelf life, perhaps. CUPE, Ontario, calling the minister. And Doug Ford's bluff, Danielle Smith, come from behind victory with the Sovereignty Act. Justin Trudeau and his Emergency Act testimony. Other is also on the table. Corey Hogan, the Flair Airlines rare perfect landing goes to who and what in your mind?

Corey 47:17

I'm going to go off menu here, Zane, And I'm going to go with Volodymyr Zelensky.

Corey 47:25

We forget that all happened this year.

Corey 47:28

In early 2021, this was supposed to be a guy who was going to, a comedian who was going to flee the country and Russia was going to overrun Ukraine in a matter of hours. But he rallied his country, he rallied the world, literally

Corey 47:42

literally rallied the world.

Corey 47:46

And as recently as yesterday was in the United States speaking to, you know, their jointly assembled Congress, asking for more still. And he'll get more because he has been, you know, Churchillian in his approach. And he's been such a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance against this Russian aggression. And I don't know if I've ever seen anything like it. And, you know, it's been months, and maybe we're a little bit numb to it now, or we forget how remarkable it is. But there was a time when

Corey 48:16

when this invasion started where the last thing I did before I went to bed was I would go on, you

Corey 48:22

you know, social media, and I would see, how

Corey 48:24

how is this war going? Is Zelensky still alive? First thing I would do in the morning is, how is this war going? Is Zelensky still alive? Just totally inspiring. Totally matched the moment. We talk a lot about how the skills politicians actually need are

Corey 48:39

are those presentation skills. It is the ability to persuade and to speak passionately and even to be funny and know how to crack a joke. And Zelensky is like the perfect example of that. But he's not just that. He's clearly brave, he's

Corey 48:54

he's clearly dedicated, and he's clearly tough as hell. So he gets my rare perfect landing. No matter what happens from this moment forward, what he has done has absolutely upended the world order. Nobody thinks about Russia the same way they did before he stood up to them. And that's really remarkable. Remarkable.

Zain 49:11

Going off menu with a great pick, Carter. I'm going to summarize for you. You can also go off menu, double down with Corey, add something else. Peer on cost of living, peer on data mining. Jagmeet on the NDP-Liberal deal, QP Ontario. I've kept it pretty domestic. Daniel Smith, you come from behind victory. Emergency Act and Trudeau in his testimony. Carter, Corey goes with Vladimir Zelensky as leader of Ukraine, 300 plus days in that war. We forget that was all in 2022. Stephen Carter, where are you going? Well,

Carter 49:40

let me just say I agree with every word that Corey just said, but I'm not going to choose Zelensky. I think that I'll just let what Corey said stand on its own. And I'm going to kind of stick with the domestic side that you've laid out, Zane. I'm going to give an honorary mention to Justin Trudeau and the Emergency Act. He nailed it in a way that I don't think could

Carter 50:03

could have been better in terms of the inquiry. And then I'm going to also honorably mention CUPE Ontario with their stand down and push back on the Ford agenda.

Carter 50:17

But my real winner is actually Pierre Polyev and his cost of living, anti-inflation. argument as much as i hate the term just inflation um and as much as i hate some of the tactics that he used i think he was incredibly effective uh he

Carter 50:34

he made the cost of living issue his issue it will be something that if it continues into 2023 he can still own but during 2022 he's made that issue his own and it has matured him out of the leadership uh the leadership i I think he was immature in a lot of regards. But while something is fleeting like the passport issue, which Corey mentioned earlier, this cost of living issue has legs. And Pierre Polyev really landed that one and needs to get the credit for it.

Zain 51:05

Nicely done, both of you. The Flair Airlines rare perfect landing. One award goes to Vladimir Zelensky, another one to Pierre Polyev. Those will, of course, be in the mail for both of those gentlemen. Can we afford the shipping to the U.S., Corey? We will get it to him while he's in D.C. Just Ukraine. Just

Corey 51:22

This is why I write the labels.

Zain 51:24

Okay. Let's move it on to our next segment. This, of course, Corey is talking about who would you rather be? This, of course, is the Flair Airlines middle seat. Who would you rather be in?

Zain 51:36

Segment, Corey Hogan. I'm going to go through. I'm going to start with you. I start with you in these segments. Give you two or three people. You choose one of them. Who would you rather be and justify why? Then I'll go to Carter. He does the same. We'll go back and forth, and then we'll head on to our next segment. Would you rather be Corey Hogan, Patrick Brown, or Jean Charest at this current moment in time, December 22nd, ending 2022? Who would you rather be between these two gentlemen?

Corey 51:59

Okay. Where does Jean Charest live? Wherever the fuck he wants. I think it's Montreal, I think. Yeah. Yeah.

Zain 52:04

Yeah. Where does Patrick Brown live?

Carter 52:11

question then. Good. Yeah. Carter, do you agree? Yeah. Absolutely.

Zain 52:16

I'm going to start with you. Who would you rather be? This one may be an interesting one. I'm curious to hear your answers. Pierre Polyev, who you just gave our Rare Perfect Landing Award to,

Zain 52:24

Legault, or Ford? Who would you rather be in the 2022 year? They all seem to have a good year of different kinds, but who would you rather want to be this year? Polyev, Legault, Ford, who's your pick, Carter?

Carter 52:37

Legault and Ford are already premiers, and I think that the guy who's going to be prime minister is the person I would rather be. Oh,

Zain 52:43

Oh, you're choosing Pierre Polyev, keeping consistency. Corey, between these two gentlemen, two of them are premiers who won re-election this year, quite handily in both of their cases. Pierre Polyev won a leadership this year. Who would you rather be? Pierre Polyev, Francois Legault, or Doug Ford? Who's your choice?

Corey 53:01

It's hard not to pick Polyev for the exact same reason Stephen did. But I'm going to go with Doug Ford, because he is premier of the largest province in the country. and if um if polyev doesn't work out or even if he does and he just runs for eight years doug ford's well positioned to be the next leader if he could learn french if he could do something like that because there tends to be this um flip

Corey 53:25

flip back right so when you have a leader of one type it's almost the hangover effect people go to the like the more extreme version the other way who can still show that they've been successful and i can't think of two personalities more different than Doug Ford and Skippy.

Zain 53:42

Corey, I'm going to stick with you for our next one. Two premiers on the list, two additional premiers, I should say, on the list. Would you rather be Corey Hogan, Daniel Smith, or would you rather be David Eby? Which premier would

Zain 53:54

would you want to, whose seat would you want to take, so to speak?

Zain 53:58

You got Smith, who's

Corey 53:59

who's going to come up for re-election,

Corey 54:01

and you got Eby, who's also going to come up for

Zain 54:03

for re-election eventually. You're

Corey 54:04

Eby. Give me why. I'm taking Eby because I think I think ultimately, well, A, he's not coming up for re-election next year. So you get to be premier for longer, right? B, you are much more in sync with your province. You're not going to have an easy run. Like, I think actually that it's going to be quite a competitive race in BC. But, you know, give credit to Horgan. He has really recreated the BC landscape to the point where the NDP look more like the default governing party of BC than the liberals do.

Corey 54:35

And so you've got a much better shot, I think, at maintaining that premiership. And even if you don't, you've got much more time to be premier. The thing that Danielle Smith has is a very short runway and a very uncertain future. Now, she could very well win.

Corey 54:52

And she probably has better odds than a lot of people are giving her, simply because of how the math works out between the cities and rural areas. And, you know, you can only win so much of Edmonton before you get all of the seats And every other vote is additive, right? You can only win so much in downtown Calgary and it's not getting another seat. But that said, she is deeply unpopular. She is going to have to deal with her caucus if she continues to be deeply unpopular, even before the election. And

Corey 55:23

that election is an event horizon that it's hard to see past at this point. Because even if she manages to win it, I suspect she will have to win it by making concessions to the mainstream that is going to make her life more difficult after the election with her base.

Zain 55:38

Carter, I'm giving you the same choice. Eby, Smith, who would you rather be? Whose seat would you rather be in?

Carter 55:44

Well, this is going to sound weird after I chose Pierre Polyev in the last one, but I'd rather be David Eby because I'd like to have a soul, just throwing that out there. I think that

Carter 55:55

that Danielle Smith is void

Carter 55:58

void of any caring or reason or rationale to be in the Premier's chair, and that scares the crap out of me. So I don't think I can do what she's doing. I

Corey 56:11

I forgot. I know you mentioned it earlier, but when did you work for Daniel Smith again? What year was that? It's

Corey 56:18

Oh, thank you so much, Carter.

Zain 56:19

Carter, Biden, DeSantis, whose seat would you rather be in on a Flair Airlines flight? Who would you rather be? Would you embody the president for some strange reason as flying Flair Airlines? Maybe

Zain 56:30

Maybe budget cuts cost a living? Or would you rather be Ron DeSantis?

Zain 56:35

Who would you rather be in the calendar year ending 2022, Stephen Carter, go i

Carter 56:41

think i'd rather be joe biden um your president which is good um you're probably not going to be challenged going into the 2024 uh primary structure which is good and uh you get to be president into you know i think that desantis is just a weak version of trump uh who will be found out to be you know to be that i mean the commercial of him building his little wall with the kids you know it it's he's not going to just get away from being the trump trump light um and and walk into victory i think that just because no one has emerged yet as uh as the jeb bush of the 2024 race uh doesn't mean that jeb bush doesn't step forward you

Zain 57:24

you mean the president like jeb bush president jeb bush well we got to re-elect

Corey 57:28

-elect president jeb bush i don't know selling shirts we're selling

Corey 57:31

to that effect the strategist

Carter 57:33

strategist we got to move some of those because Because I can't keep them in my garage much longer. Corey,

Zain 57:37

Corey, Joe Biden seems like the obvious answer. Are you choosing Joe Biden or Ron DeSantis? Who would you rather be? Of course

Corey 57:43

course I'm picking DeSantis. Oh, my God. I'm picking DeSantis for a bunch of reasons. Yeah.

Corey 57:48

Yeah. Let's start with biological. You don't have a soul and you

Carter 57:50

you don't care? Let's start with biological. Joe

Corey 57:52

Joe Biden is 80 years old and DeSantis is 44. Let's start with the future in their parties. DeSantis is the future of his party. Even if he's got to wait out Donald Trump, who's what, 76, 78, something like that? I don't even know. He's going to be the next guy in the Republican Party. Everybody knows it. Everybody can see it. And he represents a, you know, a power block in the United States that is growing, not shrinking. Joe Biden will be lucky to be nominee for the Democrats again, if he even wants to be. And yeah, for me, it's not a hard one at all. DeSantis has his future ahead of him. Joe Biden's got his future behind him.

Zain 58:35

oh very interesting Corey I'm going to start with you for our last one would you I'm going to get two liberal cabinet ministers who would you rather be would you be the transport minister Omar Al-Ghabra who's on a Flair Airlines flight in the middle seat testing out transport or would you rather be liberal cabinet minister Mary Ng both of them have run into different types of trouble one on the passport file this year perhaps sort of shaky confidence in his abilities Mary Ng many calls for her to resign in the last couple of weeks Which cabinet minister would you rather be, Corey Hogan?

Corey 59:07

I would rather be Al Gabra, because the passport matter is, as I was saying earlier, largely resolved. Memories are short for these kinds of things. You do have the opportunity to rebuild your competence. Let's put it this way. The public, in my opinion, I'd be curious to hear Carter's too, is much more forgiving of previous incompetencies than previous corruptions. And if they perceive Mary Ng as being corrupt, that is going to be very difficult to shake. And that's the kind of thing that dogs you for a long time. It's very tough to, like, let's put it this way. Imagine it's 2030, and there's a heckler at a political debate.

Corey 59:44

What do you think the heckler is going to get more, you know, currency with saying, yeah,

Carter 59:48

yeah, are you going to give any contracts to your

Corey 59:49

your friends there, Mary? Or how's the passport office working, Omar? I mean, like, that's going to be such ancient history at that point. Who the fuck's going to care on

Corey 59:58

on one of them? but

Corey 59:59

one of them speaks to character and the idea that you would be on the wrong side of ethics laws is is not a good look ever and uh i

Corey 1:00:10

i you know that's that's tough to shake even if you don't agree with the way the ethics laws are constructed i know steven doesn't i'm almost pre-empting him on this one yeah

Corey 1:00:18

yeah carter who would you rather be ing

Carter 1:00:22

i think you'd much rather be be, Corey's laid out a perfect case, uh, for Algebra. I mean, it's, it's, you know, ethics versus incompetence. Um, and Lord knows I've all, uh, I like Corey's all I've always chosen incompetence. Um, so, uh, you

Carter 1:00:41

you know, I, I think though that the problem is that we've written really dumb laws and whether

Carter 1:00:47

whether it's a dumb law, like you can't be a lobbyist for X number of years after working in the in the federal government or whether it's the dumb law that you can't hire someone that you know um to be your you know your your media relations professional um you know there

Carter 1:01:05

there are certain jobs you want to bring in someone who you know is loyal and you can trust and these laws are shit so um marrying is going to be the latest to find out that uh trying to win over a general population by creating an ethics box that's so small that you can't operate in it is just not a great way to win over the voters.

Zain 1:01:28

I'm going to leave that segment there. That, of course, was the who would you rather be in the Flair Airlines middle seat. I'm going to move on to our final segment. Stephen Carter is the Flair Airlines New Year's resolutions. Of course, it's the final segment

Zain 1:01:39

for our lightning round. I'm going to alternate between the two of you guys. Don't get a shot at each one. I'm going to start start with you, Stephen Carter. Give it to me in a sentence or two. If you're Justin Trudeau making a New Year's resolution, what should it be?

Carter 1:01:52

I'm going to make better decisions faster.

Zain 1:01:55

Better decisions faster for Justin Trudeau. Corey, Pierre Polyev, you're making New Year's resolutions for him. What are

Zain 1:02:02

they going to be?

Corey 1:02:04

Shoot. I was just thinking about Trudeau and how his resolution should be, be prime minister-less. Polyev's, I guess, in turn could be be prime minister more oh it's

Zain 1:02:15

it's that wit that we that we have you on here for cory be prime minister martin want to expand on that no

Corey 1:02:21

no yeah look i think the actual thing he needs to do is is be

Corey 1:02:26

be you but be a more likable you like don't change your entire character but you you've got to work around like you've got a way to frame yourself so that you can be the

Corey 1:02:37

the way to think about it is this you know in the movie dave how tony stark yeah is just an absolute prick

Corey 1:02:44

but everybody loves him for it find your tony stark find the way to be a prick that's an affable prick instead of you

Corey 1:02:53

know the guy who as i put last week you know maybe or i guess it was on our patreon you

Corey 1:02:59

don't need to be the guy everyone wants to have to beer with but you need to be a guy who they're not going to leave the bar when they see you're in there nicely

Zain 1:03:05

nicely said carter i've I've got you on Danielle Smith, Corey, up deck, up on deck for you, just so you can prepare Jagmeet Singh. So Stephen Carter, Danielle Smith, as she writes her New Year's resolution, just a sentence or two, maybe, writes it on a piece of paper, folds it underneath, puts it in the bed and said, this is my North Star for the 2023 calendar year. There's an election coming. Here is my resolution. It's either something I got to change, something I got to be better at, something I got to make sure I definitely do. What is it if you are

Carter 1:03:37

are Daniel Smith, Carter?

Carter 1:03:40

Create policies for the 80%, not the 20%. You're

Carter 1:03:44

You're not running a leadership.

Carter 1:03:48

You're running a general election. And the only way you're going to win the general election is if most people want to vote for you. So there's

Carter 1:03:54

there's all kinds of policies that are available in Alberta that 80% of Albertans would agree with.

Carter 1:04:01

They're still not all going to vote for you. We

Carter 1:04:03

We have a much better chance of winning Calgary if you start thinking about the 80%, not the 20%. Yeah,

Zain 1:04:09

Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, we're hearing some things recently, some murmurs around where she could use the Sovereignty Act and she might be putting CPP on the ballot as early as May, things that certainly don't seem like 80% issues. Corey, Jagmeet Singh, he's

Zain 1:04:22

he's got this deal with the Liberals. He's perhaps pushing forward some of the the historical policies that the NDP have been desiring for decades. These could be considered wins, but he's also still the guy in the third place party. Jagmeet Singh, his New Year's resolution, what should it be, Corey?

Corey 1:04:41

Yeah, I think I've got a unique one here.

Corey 1:04:45

It's create policies for the 80%, not the 20%. You're

Corey 1:04:49

You're not running for NDP leader.

Corey 1:04:52

You're running in a general election. And there are a lot of NDP policies that people will agree with that are going to have – you're taking notes. Can you just repeat

Carter 1:05:02

repeat that for me? Yeah,

Carter 1:05:03

Yeah, that was really good.

Carter 1:05:05

Can I clarify this

Carter 1:05:07

for both of you?

Zain 1:05:08

Because there's a big – I mean, I don't want to make this a regular episode because this isn't – this is the holiday spectacular. Yeah, that's why there was background music earlier. Before we get to the lightning round.

Zain 1:05:18

The beautiful background music, Carter. Carter, you know, listen, you're not saying that Daniel Smith should do non-conservative things that just cater to the middle. And Corey, you're not saying Jagmeet Singh should do non-NDP things that cater to the middle. This is not adding water to your wine. That's not what either of you are suggesting. It's choosing which bottle of wine are you bringing out. Yeah.

Zain 1:05:40

Yeah. This is what's interesting. Can you expand on that a bit? Because I think there's a lot of conflation that people have, and perhaps even a lot of confusion to say, does that mean that the NDP are doing out-of-type or, as Carter would say, non-type policies? Is that what this is for both parties, Daniel Smith or Jagmeet Singh? Or is it something different, Corey, to your point about the type of wine you're bringing to the party? Expand on that. Yeah.

Corey 1:06:04

Well, it's what you're talking about. It's what you're putting in the window. It's what you're allowing the rest of your party to put in the window as well.

Corey 1:06:11

Okay, let's put it it this way. Taxing the rich, pretty popular. Spending it on social programs, pretty popular. Raising a minimum wage, even a federal minimum wage that doesn't affect a lot of people, pretty popular. Do these things. Build an overall package of you being there for, you know, everyday Canadians and assisting them with the various things that are going on in their lives. Things that are less popular, you know, anytime you take a strong position on animal cruelty. Listen, I'm a vegetarian, but I'm going to tell you right now that shit doesn't fly with with a lot of people. You can consider as well, your, your, you know, social justice, social equity, pick the ones that really matter to you and consider the ones that are going to come off to many Canadians, even if you feel them sincerely as a performative or out of step with where they are. Focus on the things that people universally agree with, that are very, very popular, and not the stuff that seems different and scary to a lot of like the, you know, the median voters in areas Areas like Brampton that are voting for Patrick Brown, areas like Hamilton that are voting for Andrea Horvath, you know, you've got to find, you've got to find a way to just pick what's working for you and amplify that rather than diluting it with a bunch of other stuff, which is going to come off as much less popular. and you know i mean it's so difficult to have this conversation without actually just sounding like an asshole or even saying things i don't agree with right but i think for example about how at the ndp federal convention how badly derailed they got because i think there wasn't like a sign language interpreter for a while do you remember this i do i do yeah

Corey 1:07:49

yeah this wasn't yeah i remember this a bit yeah yeah and so it's important accessibility is super important important. But what I found, you know, there as well is like, this was not an expectation anybody had of like a political convention five years ago, 10 years ago, maybe you should have. But you are the NDP, you are the vanguard. And you've got to think about how the, you know, the bleeding edge is scary to people. And so think about the things that people have thought about and put those in the window and be very conscious about the type of party you're presenting yourself as.

Zain 1:08:22

Carter, you want to add anything to that? This is less about the NDP, Corey gave a good example. Both of your points kind of converged on this, right? Two things that are for the 80%. I think often what people think is that that means diluting what you believe in, even if you sit on one of the polls, so to speak, because there's still things that people on the left and people on the right believe in that could be popular with a large swath of people. Anything to close that out before I go to our over, under, and our lightning round, Stephen Carter?

Carter 1:08:47

No, I'm really grateful

Carter 1:08:49

grateful for Corey for sharing that piece of wisdom about the 80%, 20%, not the 20%. Thank you, Corey. I'm so mad. I think

Zain 1:08:55

think we all are. I think we all are. Let's move it to our final segment, our over, under, and our lightning round. Stephen Carter, we do this for you, even on the Holiday Spectacular. We start here. Stephen Carter, biggest surprise for the 2022 year. Could be a political party, could be a political moment, could be a political person, leader, candidate, anything. I'll give you a wide berth. The biggest surprise for you in politics in 2022?

Carter 1:09:20

Well, I mean, it has to be that Andrea Horvath, Patrick Brown and Stephen Del Duca actually

Carter 1:09:27

actually won their mayor's races. I mean, that is shocking. I am taken aback. So that was a big surprise for me. I did not have that in my win category.

Zain 1:09:37

Angela, Phil and Dave, they did it. They really did it. Corey, the biggest political surprise for you in 2022,

Corey 1:09:50

yeah i'm gonna leave domestic again and just say uh europe and canada and the united states unifying against russia and just how rapidly those sanctions escalated that was really surprising to me when that happened good surprise but a surprise i didn't think we would get where we got yeah

Carter 1:10:08

yeah i mean if i was going to go with a more serious international one i'd say that bolsero i'm not challenging his election in brazil bolsero

Zain 1:10:14

bolsero losing another guy that carter's uh mispronounced nicely Nicely done, Carter. You know, people can

Zain 1:10:20

can check back on the tape. Corey, I'm going to stick with you.

Zain 1:10:24

Biggest political disappointment for you in 2022? Once again, could be a candidate, a politician, a political party, a key moment. Your biggest disappointment in politics in 2022?

Corey 1:10:35

We started this show with him. It wasn't the start, but it was pretty early on.

Corey 1:10:40

Jean Charest. Jean Charest was the biggest political disappointment of 2022. and um part of that was just he was not the man for the moment but has anybody ever come in with like more expectation and underperformed so badly and even when you started adjusting on a curve and being like well he's gonna lose but at least he will represent a more moderate conservative voice getting absolutely crushed in the vote biggest

Corey 1:11:04

biggest disappointment of 2022 uh for sure uh biggest disappointment in terms of his own personal performance biggest disappointment for what what it says in terms of, you know, people's openness to those kinds of views in the modern conservative party. It's a disappointment all around.

Zain 1:11:21

Corey goes with Jean Charest. Who is your biggest political disappointment of 2022?

Carter 1:11:25

I'm going to go with what is my political disappointment? I think the Sovereignty Act in Alberta and the Saskatchewan First Act. I mean, I think that it's one thing. Actually,

Corey 1:11:38

that's my answer now. It's like the 80% thing. It's yeah

Carter 1:11:42

yeah i think it's one thing to campaign against these federal you know the the provincial versus the federal or the the municipal against the provincial but

Carter 1:11:50

but to enact it into legislation and uh really start to tear the potentially um tear the country apart is uh man

Carter 1:11:59

man you're playing with fire i mean do you really want that to be your legacy cory

Corey 1:12:03

cory do you want to jump in on this yeah

Corey 1:12:04

yeah i i think that's the right answer i want to change my answer jean charé congratulations you're the second biggest disappointment of 2022 still on the podium though my friend um the the sovereignty act is is so obvious i feel like it's a massive miss that i didn't throw it out there the the idea that we are now playing so fast and loose with our country this is an amazing country you know it's it's about as good as they get and we are treating it like absolute garbage we are risking something truly incredible with all of this uh you know know, monkeying around with this revisionist history, this pretending about what was the history of the province of Alberta, acting as though we are not a province, but a nation in our own right. And we're

Corey 1:12:48

we're risking it. We're risking a lot. We're risking a lot that I don't want to risk. And we're risking it based on a misreading of history, a misreading of facts, and frankly, kind of a smallness that suggests that Confederation is supposed to be this calculation calculation uh where the inputs and the outputs need to balance right but

Corey 1:13:08

but it's not it's not an economic transaction it's it's bigger than that and we are supposed to take like a multi-century view of a country like canada and there are going to be centuries where alberta is up and there will be centuries where alberta is down but we're all supposed to be in this together and that we would would be acting in this moment in this way is so deeply deeply disappointing to me um it might be the biggest disappointment that i can think of in politics in my lifetime so

Carter 1:13:39

so now that you've jumped onto my answer

Carter 1:13:43

are you willing to look back at my answers a little bit with more favorably in the whole white guy white christmas thing

Corey 1:13:51

no we're not no that is willing to give you the full point for justice justice brown yes

Zain 1:13:55

yes yeah and we'll give you

Corey 1:13:57

you jackson and on behalf of

Zain 1:13:59

of uh all brown people

Zain 1:13:59

people we will give you ravi sunak uh thank you didn't win um carter carter i'm gonna start with you you know they say politicians um you really are are secondary to the pundits so stephen carter the best pundit of 2022 who was was that um

Carter 1:14:17

don't want to give her this because she annoys me althea raj is a great pundit i think that she's supposed to be a media person which

Carter 1:14:24

is probably why i don't want to give it to her but she's she's she brings a lot of insight um if

Carter 1:14:30

if it wasn't her probably would be tim come on tim what's tim's last name in our land tim powers he's always been a straight shooter never takes the party line. And I quite like that about him. And I would have given it to Amanda Alvaro, except she's the other half of the ethics violation in the Mary Ng situation. So she can't get it.

Zain 1:14:51

Corey, I was deeply surprised Stephen Carter didn't give it to himself. That was a question Taylor made for Stephen Carter to celebrate. We were up for that? We literally record a podcast all the fucking time. We were in that?

Zain 1:15:03

Are you new? What is wrong with you? You're a strategist,

Carter 1:15:06

a pundit. I'm pissed right off. Taylor

Zain 1:15:09

Taylor made Corey the best pundit of 2022.

Corey 1:15:14

Well, you know, whoever that Zane Velji guy is stealing soundbites from, that person or those two people, they seem really smart to me. They seem like they've got an awful lot going on. Zane Velji is just two white people

Zain 1:15:26

in a trench coat. I don't know if you know that.

Corey 1:15:30

know, my actual answer might be Andrew Coyne. I've always appreciated Coyne and his kind of opinionated but

Corey 1:15:39

but principled takes on these. He's never a contrarian for the sake of contrarianism. He's got a clear ideology and philosophy, and he's rigid in his worldview in a way that makes his columns very honest, right? You know, he's a small C conservative who has a conservative critique of the current order, which I really, really appreciate. it always makes me think about things a little bit differently but

Carter 1:16:05

but like althea raj i think that both of them would reject the

Carter 1:16:08

the idea that they're pundits you

Corey 1:16:11

but i don't know how coin rejects it but yeah well

Carter 1:16:15

well both of them i i think that makes i'll i'll

Zain 1:16:18

i'll skip what worst pundit because we know who that all is we can just uh whisper it to ourselves um who the worst pundit is and we'll just do it right now um perfect okay great we've we've done it yet court did you want to do that for all of us do you want to just do the service no

Corey 1:16:32

no i don't think he's a pundit because he hasn't been on cbc in a while yeah

Zain 1:16:36

yeah that's a good point yeah

Carter 1:16:39

hang on are you talking about me you

Carter 1:16:41

you we're gonna go we're gonna go with cory

Zain 1:16:44

cory i'm gonna start with you the biggest loser of 2022 you can expect what's next but let's round this show out the biggest political loser of 2022 in this case i am going with a person i'm not going to expand the scope to policy i'm not going to expand the scope to party which individual is the political biggest political loser will do winner right after that cory we'll start with you uh

Corey 1:17:04

uh i there's two people that immediately come to mind right is it uh is it donald trump with all of his various legal woes with the fact that his party is now turning against him his emperor has no clothes moment that was the u.s midterm election maybe

Corey 1:17:21

maybe is it jason kenney waiting in line to see a dead body in his last days as being premier of alberta jesus

Corey 1:17:30

maybe i do think ultimately donald trump is the biggest loser because he he his loss is at on such scale and donald trump his his fall has been um you know so foretold for so long and the fact we actually see it feels like it's uh you know like book seven part two of the movie dave like we finally got there beautiful book did it it need to be as long? Probably not. But here we are.

Zain 1:17:58

biggest political loser of 2022. Who is it? Corey says Trump or Kenny, you say?

Carter 1:18:05

Listen, I like Trump and Kenny as the biggest political losers. I also like the 4.444 million Albertans that thought they would get a better premier by getting rid of Jason Kenney. And in fact, we're just fed Daniel Smith. Smith, but I think, and I think you guys will agree with me, the biggest political loser of 2022 is the Hurley Burley.

Zain 1:18:31

Jesus Christ, Carter. Carter, I'll give you a shot of redemption. That's what life is about.

Zain 1:18:42

happy holidays indeed. Yeah, Jesus Christ. It's about throwing flowers, not shade, Carter. Biggest political winner of 2022. to steven carter round us out or start rounding us out the biggest political winner of this calendar year is the

Carter 1:18:56

the 1 000 people who pony up money for to get the strategist podcast on patreon those people are the true winners because they get twice as much content as they get on this podcast without having to listen to the flair promotional stuff which is very very very good for them so i I think that I think they're the biggest political winners of 2022. I don't know how Corey could argue. Corey,

Zain 1:19:22

Corey, the biggest political winner of 2022. You notice that winner isn't plural. So Carter, of course, broke the rules. Who is the biggest political winner of 2022? And Carter, I'm going to come back to you for your real answer. I'm not going to let you get away with that.

Corey 1:19:35

Well, it's either the thousand people that Stephen Carter mentioned, or if we can only pick one, I guess I randomly assign victory to one of them. I think that's probably what I'll do. Please. you've

Zain 1:19:46

you've done so well you've done so well up until this point don't fuck this over biggest political winner of 2022 steven carter who is it mark

Carter 1:19:54

he doesn't have to be prime minister of canada and he got to leave the bank of england i got political winners as put as giant victories cory

Zain 1:20:03

cory hogan biggest political winner of 2022 don't let the people down give us a real response i

Corey 1:20:10

think that the the one person uh of the 1000 uh who i assume is listening so i can be my answer for both is

Corey 1:20:19

is probably joe biden you know as much as i was giving him a hard time and i'm saying his future is

Carter 1:20:24

is his name on the patreon list i thought that they would have called and that's just to get the link yeah

Zain 1:20:30

yeah it is so also extremely strange i don't i don't mean to like like Doxum. Very strange. He uses a Hotmail email address.

Carter 1:20:38

Come on. How long has he had that?

Carter 1:20:41

yeah. Back in the day, it was easier to get Hotmail. Hotmail. Now, you

Carter 1:20:45

you know, bigswinganddick at hotmail.com did seem a bit weird, but...

Zain 1:20:51

Okay, our time has come. That is it. That's a wrap on The Strategist Holiday Spectacular brought to you by Flair Airlines. My name is Zane Belch. You're with me, as always, your flight attendants, Corey Hogan, Stephen Carter, and we will see you in the new year.

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