Episode 1277: Holiday Spectacular

Zain 0:02

Well, hi there. Happy holidays. What's that? Not the holidays for you? Weird. They are for me because today, well, it's Orthodox Christmas, a perfect time to look back on the year that was. Grab that turkey. What's that? It's in shreds and it's frozen, being used for lunches now? Fun. What's that? No eggnog? Well, your family isn't speaking to you anymore? You feel sad? I'm late with a special? No, you're racist and wrong. Stop gaslighting me like a Ramaswami. regardless grab your kids wake them up strange that it's a school night for you and sit down as we pay down your debt by the cozy holiday fire together because it's time for the strategist holiday spectacular presented by flair airlines and with me as always cory hogan and stephen carter what's

Corey 0:48

orthodox christmas ah yes

Zain 0:53

doc christmas that's what the kids say that's

Zain 0:55

that's what they say that's what the kids you know what you know what also

Zain 0:58

also That's what a merch store says with you get-doxed t-shirts, Corey. They're going to be everywhere, these get-doxed t-shirts. Yeah, probably. On the streets, probably not in the synagogues, in the mosques, but maybe. No, probably. I mean, I

Zain 1:15

will say, every religion has its own orthodox version of it. So you could find it in the synagogues and the mosques. In fact, I'd say we start selling there.

Carter 1:25

Oh, I like that.

Zain 1:25

that. Yeah, that's probably a good point. let me

Carter 1:27

me be the sales rep to go into these synagogues and mosques i think i'll do great

Zain 1:33

think honestly depending on on the type of mosques you go to um they they like white and they have different types of mosques they they do have different type of mosques carter we'll get you a primer we'll get you a primer this is literally

Corey 1:44

literally the the whole point of there's orthodox yeah it doesn't

Zain 1:47

doesn't matter jesus christ carter yeah you did you not uh and so for some Some people, more Jesus Christ than others, which is, by the way, us, which is us this year. I

Carter 1:57

I went skiing yesterday, and I'm a little tired, so don't expect great things from me. I went skiing with my daughter, and

Carter 2:05

and she skied me into the ground. She kept saying, go, dad, go. And I'd say, I can't keep up, Samantha. I can't keep up. But she didn't give a shit.

Carter 2:14

And then I asked her boyfriend to help me.

Carter 2:17

Anyways, I made it down the hill, no injuries. I'm perfectly healthy. healthy but

Carter 2:20

but i asked her boyfriend to help me change a light bulb honest to god and it takes two of us in his house to change the light bulb and uh the i don't know if you can see it but the the glass

Carter 2:31

glass thing fell on my head and now i've got a big bump like a unicorn what

Zain 2:35

what do you mean the glass thing the light bulb like the light cover fell

Zain 2:38

fell and hit me in the head it's

Zain 2:40

it's so strange you started going with light bulb but then change it to glass thing well

Carter 2:44

well we had to change

Carter 2:45

change a light bulb and to get to the light bulb. You have to go under the light. You know what it is. Don't be like this.

Carter 2:51

You know what it is.

Zain 2:52

I don't know what it is, Corey. Corey, anything else before we get going? This is, of course, I'll just let the listeners know, a holiday tradition for us. The holiday spectacular. The holiday spectacular, which is what this is. We alternate before, sometimes we do it during Orthodox Christmas, which is today. Other times we do it during the, what we'd call, the conventional holiday season, for those that like to observe. Yeah. But this year, of course, Corey, an Orthodox Christmas special, always some of our more exciting work.

Corey 3:23

That's true. And not unusual for us to do this in January, because we are very unreliable. But last year, I was doing it from a bathroom in a Hawaii Airbnb, so I feel like this is a bit of a step up.

Carter 3:35

You know, that's such a memory refresher for me, because I was trying to think of when when we last did the holiday spectacular and I couldn't remember ever doing just think

Zain 3:42

think roughly a year ago, Carter, that would probably talk to me. I

Carter 3:45

I couldn't remember at all. I was totally lost. I am now here. We are can't

Zain 3:50

can't remember totally lost. It's time for our first segment, a holiday tradition for 13 years now in a row. Corey, you know what it is, Carter, you know what it is. It is how white with

Zain 4:01

with Stephen Carter, Stephen Carter. Do you remember this? I

Carter 4:04

I do. And it was really bad. And I forgot to study.

Zain 4:08

Here's what ends up happening, okay? Every year, we predict how white Christmas is going to be. In this case, because it is Orthodox Christmas, we will, of course, be predicting Orthodox New Year's Eve and Orthodox New Year's to see

Carter 4:21

see how white it will be. I think we could do Chinese New Year's. And we have found the

Zain 4:25

perfect— That's a good start, by the way.

Zain 4:27

This is good. This is good, Carter. For the segment, How White. I'm

Carter 4:30

I'm really zoned in.

Zain 4:32

Okay, Carter, here we go.

Zain 4:33

I'm going to explain this to the listeners, because you know what this is. Corey knows what this is. Oh, I'm

Carter 4:36

I'm scared shitless. Corey knows.

Zain 4:38

I'll give Corey his role in a second. He knows what it is. But Carter, here's what ends up happening. We ask you 10 questions. The answers to those questions are not white people. If you get above six on

Zain 4:55

right, you, and you've done this with 100% accuracy in the past, I have to say, you will predict your sort of results, how you perform in this segment predicts whether we're going to have, in this case, a white Orthodox New Year's Eve. It is

Carter 5:11

is no wonder I blocked this episode out.

Zain 5:16

marvel. We ask you questions that are simple. they

Zain 5:19

are straightforward they are not complicated you just have to answer who these non-white people are oh god with pronunciation because correct

Carter 5:28

pronunciation come on really yeah

Zain 5:31

yeah carter it's it's a new era okay we're dusting off those we're hanging up those old cleats of you know i'm gonna call you bob if that's not their name okay we're just gonna we're gonna go with the full name the pronunciation steven carter we're gonna start right here with question number And of course, you might be asking folks, what is Corey's role? Well, he's also a white. He's a Vanna White of sorts. He will be keeping track. He will be potentially acting as scorekeeper slash timekeeper, maybe telling Stephen Carter to shape up when he gets some of these questions that are so easy for Corey, but not so easy for Carter. Wrong. Okay, we're going to keep track. Six out of ten, it's going to be a white Orthodox New Year's Eve. Here we go, Stephen Carter. First question. She was the president of Harvard University until last week.

Zain 6:18

this is an easy one this

Zain 6:21

oh my god cory

Zain 6:23

cory also does that hang

Zain 6:25

on that thing i

Carter 6:26

think that the president of harvard university her name it was um well it still is uh

Carter 6:37

yeah i shouldn't have to

Zain 6:38

change her name i

Carter 6:40

think that it is um

Carter 6:42

the president of of harvard we're

Zain 6:45

we're gonna go from one claudia gay was the correct answer steve carter

Carter 6:50

i knew that i didn't actually know that okay

Carter 6:53

hit me it's in the news everywhere man okay hit me okay

Zain 6:56

carter he's still a current ottawa mp mp uh but

Zain 7:01

but he ran for the ontario liberal leadership

Zain 7:05

what's his name uh

Carter 7:07

uh i actually know this one because i've met the fella uh it's yasser nakvi fee cory

Zain 7:12

cory we're gonna give him one that's one on the board stephen carter's hitting 50 from the line yes good that's

Zain 7:18

that's good it's like an anthony mason free throw percentage deep

Carter 7:22

anthony mason i would not have gotten okay

Zain 7:24

okay well carter yeah

Zain 7:27

yeah this is a little this is this is gonna be i

Zain 7:30

i think you're gonna get this one okay i think i want to give you a bit of a winning streak sort of here in the dying days of 2023 she spearheaded a conservative party of canada petition to to advocate for Canada's exit from the United Nations.

Zain 7:47

That's right, here in Canada. You should...

Carter 7:49

I didn't see this.

Carter 7:52

Can I give you a hint?

Carter 7:55

No, she's white. Shit.

Carter 8:01

we give him hints? Are we allowed to

Corey 8:02

to give him hints? Yeah,

Carter 8:02

Yeah, give me a hint. Give me a hint.

Corey 8:04

hint. This should be like a phone-a-friend kind

Corey 8:06

you last year. I remember

Carter 8:07

remember the last time he called me a friend. Hey,

Carter 8:09

Hey, Corey, I'm sitting here with Dane Belgi, and we're doing that thing where he makes me look like a white prick. Could you help me out? The question is, she circulated a petition from the Conservative Party to remove Canada from the United Nations. You have 10 seconds.

Corey 8:28

She has a doctorate degree, and she ran for leader of the Conservatives the last two times.

Zain 8:35

That's like two hints.

Zain 8:37

No, you're supposed to answer the question. He's not giving it to you. He can't give it to you. He can't give it to you, Carter. This is the rules, 12 years going, now 13, of How White, the holiday spectacular. Thank you for joining us. I

Corey 8:48

I feel like if I gave you even her first name, you would still not get it at this point. Okay, give me

Zain 8:52

me the first name. No, you

Corey 8:53

you can't. It's over. He's getting it wrong.

Zain 8:55

The answer, Corey, is?

Carter 8:59

What are you doing? She's a lunatic, too. I should have known that one.

Carter 9:03

That one I should have gotten.

Zain 9:05

Carter, we're one for three. okay if you were batting in the mlb you'd be an all-star in every

Carter 9:09

every other sport you

Zain 9:10

you would be you would be on they get easy sidelines here

Zain 9:16

is simple and straightforward he's canada's justice minister seriously

Zain 9:27

god complicated wordplay uh

Zain 9:29

the fact that he He occupies a high level of public office, Stephen Carter. Corey. And he's not

Carter 9:35

not white. Did you give me his general

Carter 9:37

general area that he represents?

Carter 9:40

How about I give you his initials? I'll

Corey 9:42

I'll give you his initials. I'll

Corey 9:43

I'll give you his initials. How's that sound? That's

Zain 9:51

We're going to give it to Carter. Is that a half point? No, we're going to give him a full point. No, I get a

Carter 9:55

a full point. We're

Zain 9:55

We're giving him a full point. That

Carter 9:56

That was only one hint. You gave me three hints last time, and I still fucked it up. Corey,

Zain 10:00

is he? Is he, is he, he's

Zain 10:02

he's now... He's two, he's two for four. Two for four. Okay. There's

Corey 10:07

There's no way we're doing six more.

Corey 10:10

He will get himself canceled by the seventh one. I'm just very

Zain 10:14

Steven. This might be it. Carter, name a Filipino person.

Carter 10:20

Oh my God. I ran a Filipino campaign.

Carter 10:24

What do you mean you ran a Filipino campaign? i've read a philip i've

Carter 10:28

i've read a filipino candidate in in uh you don't

Zain 10:36

don't have to go down that rabbit hole my

Zain 10:40

any filipino person with you carter oh

Carter 10:46

go ahead hang on give me a fucking second will you um

Carter 10:55

It's going to be

Corey 10:56

be a white Christmas, Zane. It's

Corey 10:57

It's going to be a white Christmas.

Zain 11:01

do you have anything? No,

Zain 11:03

Now, let me just look up. Filipino,

Carter 11:05

Filipino, hang on. Now,

Zain 11:05

Now, there's a good chance that Ramos might be a Filipino

Zain 11:08

Filipino pop star. Hang on,

Zain 11:09

on, no, there's a guy. One named Filipino pop star.

Zain 11:15

Any person, Carter. Any person is Filipino.

Carter 11:19

Oh, my God. Just a single person.

Carter 11:23

guys are killing me.

Zain 11:26

Are we going to give Carter Ramos, as in Eddie Ramos, the Filipino general?

Corey 11:31

should. I think we should. I

Zain 11:35

Yeah. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, I got

Zain 11:38

We're good. We're giving it to him. Once again, folks, just to remind you, if Carter does get six or more white New Year's Eve slash white Orthodox New Year's Eve slash Orthodox New Year's Day, Stephen Carter, currently

Zain 11:49

currently three for five.

Zain 11:51

No, he's more than that. Corey, you're two for five. No, he's three

Corey 11:54

three for five. Three for five. If you're giving him Ramos, which I think is pretty generous. I got to say. There's

Carter 11:59

There's a Filipino named Ramos. I win. That was the question.

Zain 12:05

Carter, he was the former chief of staff to the finance minister, a former CBC news anchor, and currently he's one of the most senior advisors in the prime minister's office. Who is he?

Zain 12:19

um there's a political staffer that i'm sure we all know who

Zain 12:23

who is he carter

Zain 12:25

uh i'll add one more i'm rumored to be the next chief of staff to

Zain 12:32

to prime minister justin trudeau he's

Carter 12:34

he's rumored to be the next chief of staff um in

Carter 12:40

uh i have no idea like none oh

Carter 12:44

oh hold on um uh

Carter 12:47

uh nope i have none

Zain 12:51

cory do you have any idea yourself ben chin

Corey 12:54

correct oh yeah we know ben

Zain 12:56

yes i should have gotten that one carter

Zain 12:59

look at this cory cory

Zain 13:02

should we put him out of his misery right

Zain 13:04

right now no i

Corey 13:05

i mean you could put him out of my misery you

Zain 13:07

you know i mean mean this is my favorite segment of course uh this is how white uh just to remind everyone uh stephen carter testing his knowledge don't do this to me the racialized broader

Zain 13:18

set cory yes what do we have we can't

Corey 13:20

can't end here we need to have at least one more because we're at uh what

Corey 13:24

what is he at where

Corey 13:25

where we have he's three out of six no

Zain 13:27

no no he just got four he got four i got four you

Zain 13:31

out of six you

Corey 13:32

you didn't get bench in he

Zain 13:32

he just got it he literally got bench

Zain 13:35

He said Ben Chin. You got Ben Chin? I got Ben Chin. Oh, okay. He's the one who said Ben Chin, which then I said, yeah, that's correct. He got forgot for a quarter. I

Corey 13:41

I wasn't listening. You're

Corey 13:42

You're a bad Vanna White. I'm not good at this. Four of

Zain 13:44

of six. It's not my

Zain 13:46

Four of six. I think I got it.

Zain 13:48

One more? You think this is the high quality content people expect in the New Year? I suspect it is. It's

Carter 13:52

It's better than they expect.

Zain 13:54

Hey, Carter. Yeah. Let me ask you this. It's a personal favorite. He's the Spurs current franchise player. Over seven feet from France. You should know the answer to this one. From

Carter 14:07

From France. You're going to

Carter 14:09

I'm going to accept

Zain 14:10

accept nicknames. Absolutely, I am.

Zain 14:14

it, Carter. You got this. What

Carter 14:16

What position does he play?

Zain 14:18

All positions. That's not even a lot. Yeah, come on. You know what? Positionless

Corey 14:21

Positionless basketball. How do we have to go? Positionless basketball. Yeah, do we need to explain this to you?

Carter 14:27

I want to say something like Wemba. Wemba, Wemba, Wemby, Wemba Yama. We're

Zain 14:32

We're going to take Wemby. We're going to take Wemby. Okay, we

Carter 14:34

we got it? We got Wemby? Okay. Carter,

Zain 14:36

Carter, we're going to take

Zain 14:38

We do need a proctor at his house. We feel like some of that Patreon money should go to where it's having a proctor sit beside Stephen Carter. What

Corey 14:45

What are you suggesting?

Zain 14:46

I'm suggesting that we

Zain 14:49

can't... Your hands need to be up when you answer these questions is what I am suggesting. Go

Carter 14:53

Go ahead. Ask me one more, Corey. I was saying, ask

Carter 14:55

ask me one more. Hands up. Here

Zain 14:57

Here we go. I think he's going to get in the next two, okay? He may not get it with this one. but carter this individual died in 2023 in his upper west side manhattan home he was

Zain 15:08

carter considered the the king of caribbean music okay

Zain 15:13

do you know who this person is do i need to get okay i'm gonna give you more his album calypso which included both songs the banana boat song and jamaica farewell were

Zain 15:24

were the top of the billboard chart for 31 weeks in 1956 carter a big name, a big personality. Who is it?

Carter 15:34

Well, it's not Herbie Hancock.

Carter 15:40

Caribbean music. I know the song and

Corey 15:50

don't know. Do I cut the silence or do I leave it in? No, the silence is

Zain 15:54

is good. The silence lets you know how white Carter's circles are outside of me this

Corey 16:00

is really good we

Zain 16:01

we could put like the

Corey 16:02

the fear factor sound in the background oh

Zain 16:03

oh we could is that open source is that like uh i doubt it but yeah okay what is probably a probably a knockoff

Zain 16:10

that's available that's good i like that i like that

Carter 16:12

is shaggy still alive it is not shaky the

Carter 16:18

harry belafonte carter i moved on harry belafonte i was doing a joke with the whole shaggy thing yeah no

Carter 16:25

you weren't it was a carter I'm

Zain 16:27

I'm going to give you five and a half points and I'm going to let you put you out of your misery here he

Zain 16:32

Canada's first First Nations Provincial Premier elected in 2023 Carter who

Zain 16:40

folks it is going to be a white orthodox New Year's Eve Carter there were other questions on here that I didn't even want to go into asking you about different ministers I didn't I put you out of your misery well done Stephen Carter I

Carter 16:55

I was a senior advisor to the prime minister. I pulled that one out of my ass.

Zain 17:00

Well, you nailed it, Stephen Carter. You're getting better at this. You did okay.

Corey 17:04

year, you couldn't even pronounce Racky Pancholi's name, so... And

Zain 17:10

Yeah, no. I think you are getting better. I am getting better.

Zain 17:16

are moving it on to our next segment, our Flair Airlines Did It Land. Guys, I'm going to jump in to four things that happened this year. and ask you, like in Flair Airlines fashion, did this particular political thing land this year? Did it work out? Was it successful? It could be a cleanup. It could be a strategy. It could be a particular agreement. We're going to go through each one of them. You're not picking them for me. We're going to go through each one of them. We're going to discuss them for a bit, relatively quickly, and then we'll move it on simply thereafter. Corey, I'm going to start with you. You haven't had a lot of action on the pod thus far. Let's start here. Trudeau's election interference cleanup did

Zain 17:54

did it land for you in 2023 did what trudeau ultimately end up doing after all that public pressure the back and forth the weeks and the months of headlines did the cleanup ultimately land cory hogan well

Corey 18:07

well zane there's a great holiday classic called die hard two and in this movie there's an airplane that has its transponder reset to below sea level level and it tries to land, I believe, at Washington Dulles, if I'm not mistaken, and crashes into the ground because sea level was set below the actual sea

Corey 18:29

sea level that it was trying to land at here. That was their first plane landing on this particular thing when

Corey 18:35

they decided that they were going to, you know, have an inquiry into whether there should be an inquiry. That was pretty bad and that was

Corey 18:41

dumb. And a lot of people died. A lot of people died.

Corey 18:44

Wait, in Die Hard 2. Not in the actual inquiry thing. Thank

Zain 18:47

Thank you so much. Just

Corey 18:48

Just the reputations of one

Zain 18:50

one David Johnson. That's right. That's pretty much what died there.

Corey 18:52

My metaphors are getting a little mixed. That's fine. Now, you'll recall in Die Hard 2— Also

Zain 18:56

Also known as Dave. That's correct, yeah.

Corey 18:58

Also known as Dave, that there was a second plane that had John McClane's wife on it that then

Zain 19:03

then did land safely—

Zain 19:04

safely— Oh, by the way, just give me one second. Spoilers. Yes, go ahead.

Corey 19:09

That then did land safely because he had, like, the flares, which he held in his hands, and he, like, got this plane in, and the plane

Corey 19:15

plane landed. It's spelled

Corey 19:15

same as Flair Airlines.

Corey 19:18

that just flared not quite

Corey 19:20

and then everyone is so fucking happy dennis franz is ripping up parking tickets right just like it's just like joyous hundreds of people died yeah

Corey 19:31

they got to have their happy ending not

Carter 19:32

not one guy's not one guy's wife that's

Corey 19:35

basically what's happening right now with the foreign inquiry right like they're able to be like oh this is going okay ignoring the plane crash that occurred a little bit earlier right plain so i guess did it land Lanzane? The second plane seems to be landing, I guess. I guess the second plane's landing. No one's asking much about the first plane anymore.

Corey 19:56

guess. That's what I would say. A

Zain 19:58

A lot of guessing. A lot of rhetorical questions. Stephen Carter,

Zain 20:02

Corey Hogan's amped up. Of course, it is the holidays. Why

Zain 20:05

Why wouldn't it be? I'm

Corey 20:06

I'm going full Howard Dean on this

Zain 20:07

It's good. It's good. I'm looking for some sound effects eventually. Stephen Carter, Trudeau's election interference cleanup, did it land for you? you

Carter 20:15

well i mean cory's made a very good point the plane crashed but it didn't just crash once it crashed and then it crashed and then it crashed and then it crashed uh because the prime minister's office did not hire any pilots um so as a result you know it just kept happening crash crash crash crash crash so no it didn't land um if you're going to do the double down strategy one that we've recommended again hundreds of times on this lovely podcast um then you must in fact double down uh and not fold like a sick little pup tent or try and find a way around things be strong uh take a position and go forward and then maybe the plane won't crash uh but on this one the the plane has crashed and i'm anticipating further uh plane crashes in 2024 cory

Corey 21:02

cory yeah let's let's be clear uh 2023 started around this time last year the liberals and the conservatives were high

Carter 21:09

high cory you're so smart. What a smart boy.

Corey 21:13

Tied. The liberals are now kind of in the poll of polls down 13 points or so, right? Like this plane did not land,

Corey 21:21

land, you know, and it's not only because of the foreign interference inquiry. But I think if there was one issue that to me sort of encapsulated the problems that the prime minister had this year, it

Corey 21:31

it would be this one. They

Corey 21:32

They tried to be too clever by half. They didn't realize when they were making errors and they held on to a failing strategy way too long and then they were self-congratulatory when they ultimately managed to turn the page on it after the first half of the book lit on fire so you

Zain 21:54

indeed carter i'm moving on to our next one oh good this is of course the flare airlines did it land year in review pure polyevs pivot steven carter it began in the summer with the ad no actually probably began earlier the

Zain 22:06

the haircut the shirts the glasses, the lack thereof, the

Zain 22:11

the mentions about CrossFit, and then it was the ads, the ads, the ads, the conversation around softening his image. We saw the correlation for the polls going up, but he's experiencing maybe some light turbulence as the year ended. Stephen Carter, Pierce

Carter 22:31

Absolutely it landed. It landed 100%.

Carter 22:35

You know, I mean, you don't get extra points just for making it look better. Did you get the plane on the ground? Absolutely, they got the plane on the ground. Corey, what were those numbers again? The pole of poles, how far? 13. Oh, gosh. Yep, that plane landed. We did not think that the plane was going to land. I certainly didn't. And I think that that was just wishful thinking because I know the people on that plane. And I'll be honest, if they didn't make it off, that would be okay with me. but here

Carter 23:03

here they are not only did they land the plane but they're flourishing they're going through duty free and just picking up all kinds of shit for practically nothing all on Justin Trudeau's credit card

Zain 23:17

beautiful mixed metaphors yeah very nice did

Zain 23:22

it land for you Pierce Pivot

Corey 23:25

yeah it's still on the taxiway I'd like to see if it gets to the gate to continue your metaphor here But for sure, for the year they landed it, you

Corey 23:34

you know, we didn't even talk seat projections. Seat projections are always a mess. But basically, at this point, it's not even in doubt that the conservatives are in majority territory, right?

Corey 23:44

The liberals would have to take up some significant ground just to yank them out of there. And by the way, I say the liberals, but the liberals are barely ahead of the NDP. Maybe it'll be the NDP that needs to get ahead of them at the current trajectories of these parties here. So that's, you know, tough to say that it didn't land with his pivot. it the other thing i will say is on the more anecdotal side the number of people i've talked to who are not political who are like oh that pierre pauliev seems like a nice guy makes me think his pivot landed yeah

Corey 24:12

because pierre pauliev has a lot of things but would i describe him you know his public persona as that of a nice guy i sure wouldn't have before 2023 and

Carter 24:20

and not only his public persona his real personality cory

Zain 24:24

cory i'm going to start with you on this next one the did it land for daniel smith in the fall she

Zain 24:31

had a moratorium on energy projects she had of course her app introduction that she introduced and then quelled she had you know comments about many different things but her fall overall for you did

Zain 24:45

did it land it didn't necessarily nothing necessarily seemed to stick to her from a negative perspective or you might disagree smith's fall did it land for you look

Corey 24:55

she landed the plane in the spring and she moved it into the hangar she lit it on fire and she said no big i don't need to fly again for four years that's what's happening right now and and it's actually pretty common behavior for a government to do it's it's tough stuff in year one right when they've still got the most charity when people are most fatigued about an election when the opposition is most disorganized or internally looking you know thinking about out their own leadership and their own future. So look, the polls don't show Danielle Smith in freefall. The

Corey 25:26

The polls show her actually in a relatively steady place. She has done some pretty wild things that I think are ultimately, for people who are paying attention, pretty unpopular and unpalatable. But if you're going to do unpopular, unpalatable things, crassly from a political strategy point of view, this is the time to do them, for all of the reasons I said. So I think she's in a fine spot right now. What will be interesting to see where to from here uh you know and whether she's going to have to start dealing with things like caucus unrest whether she's going to start seeing people clue in and pay more attention and be more negative about it you know whether the alberta pension plan manifests as her worst nightmare all

Corey 26:03

all to be seen but in terms of like the 2023 did it land thing yeah i guess so yeah i mean i'd have a hard time saying otherwise carter

Zain 26:11

carter did it land for you smith's uh fall the the flurry of of activity, the introduction of the APP.

Zain 26:20

What do you think? Did it land?

Carter 26:22

Well, I mean, I think she landed, but I think that she landed a very small plane in a remote airfield. So, you know, that is, she's come in.

Carter 26:34

in. There's no popularity bump after winning the election, which is tradition. You know, normally you go up, she stayed relatively level or gone on down. She has put her foot in her mouth on a number of different things and brought forward ideas that weren't discussed in the campaign, not only weren't discussed in the campaign, we were told on some, you know, on the Alberta pension plan, for example, it wasn't going to be discussed. It wasn't going to be a part of the government after the election. So I

Carter 27:02

I don't think that she's crashed and burned by any stretch of the imagination, but she did land a very small plane, probably down in southern Alberta. And she's getting together with the far right wing kooks down there and having a great time.

Zain 27:18

Carter, I'm going to stick with Alberta and add another one, an audible, so to speak, that I'll add to the table. This is something when it first happened, we talked about. I don't think we've talked about it since. So I'm going to ask you, in the spirit of the holiday spectacular, Stephen Carter, did the Alberta NDP land the plane on every one of their caucus members getting a critic title. We talked about this in depth when it began, but did they land the plane now with some time and some ability to look at this? I wanted to balance off the Alberta conversation. This is one that I think is fascinating. Did that particular political strategy or tactic land for you?

Carter 28:00

Largest opposition in Alberta history, And I'll tell you something, because they named every single one of those caucus members a, you know, a critic.

Zain 28:11

Or shadow minister. I

Carter 28:12

I know every single one of their names.

Carter 28:15

Go ahead. Test me. Test me. Because that critic stuff really stepped everybody up and made them the most efficient that they can be. So instead of focusing maybe on three, four, five, six people, you know, a number that we could remember. remember instead you wind up with i don't

Carter 28:31

don't know what's 30 what 37 38 whatever the number is who cares because i don't know a fucking name apparently racky pancholi there you go and i can say it properly now i'm so proud of myself but that's it like how who else am i supposed to know because

Carter 28:46

because i haven't seen them anywhere because they have no focus and they have no no ability

Carter 28:52

ability to get get attention for 38 people or 37 or whatever the fuck the number is uh

Zain 28:58

carter do they have any filipino people in that uh it seems to be your strength didn't they at one point okay cory uh what do you think did i'm gonna i'm gonna save you carter i'm gonna be i'm gonna be a christmas angel orthodox christmas angel cory what do you think did the albert ndp land the playing on on this particular uh political uh choice look

Corey 29:21

look by making everybody a critic they they're trying to write a book with more characters than a george rr martin novel and i don't know that that's particularly wise given everybody's let's look at it from two lenses let's look from the public point of view i couldn't agree with carter more like this is unlikely to me to be the way that you build characters that you can then use when you actually need them during during elections, or during heightened moments when people say, I know this person, I trust this person, this person seems savvy, I understand the things they say, I can connect with this individual, right? That's one lens. And I would say that hasn't, in my opinion, assisted them any, although let's not overstate it either. I don't think it's been like a fatal flaw.

Corey 30:00

The other thing is kind of, well, let's say three. Then there's the stakeholder component, which is I get to go talk to people and say, I'm critic for X, and that's the reason that you're talking to me here and i don't know like we just don't have good line of sight on that you would have to ask somebody who i mean on a day-to-day basis works with the alberta ndp caucus to sort of understand that at this moment otherwise you're gonna have to wait a couple of years to see what kind of fruit it bears you know but then the third one and the one that i always found kind of interesting was the notion of like the internal dynamics that you are creating and avoiding uh in the you know there's pros and cons here but i can only imagine what it's like working in that caucus office and somebody comes up to you and is like, I'm critic for X, I need support. And it's like, well, you and 30 some other people,

Carter 30:46

people, right? Yeah, exactly. I

Corey 30:47

I want to know how that works on a day-to-day basis with limited caucus resources, with people expected to do their own research, but with you still trying to tell one story as an opposition. It's probably not a huge deal right now because it does look by all signs like the Alberta NDP is going to have a leadership contest at some point in the next 12 months. But I think if this was a regular kind of course of action where you've got one leader with one vision with one plan, I can't imagine it would be a particularly good strategy.

Carter 31:15

strategy. It's fucking stupid, Corey. Just call it like you see it. Atta

Carter 31:19

Corey Hogan, it's fucking stupid. That's what he said.

Zain 31:22

Carter, in the holiday spirit, of course, finally, Carter, I'm going to begin with you. Jagmeet Singh's supply and confidence agreement. I asked you about this last year in terms of the fruit that it bore, this year in terms of the fruit that it bore, and what he, as the the federal NDP were able to get from it, both in terms of positioning policy and, frankly, dollars to support policies they care about.

Zain 31:45

Did it land, Stephen Carter?

Carter 31:47

Well, no, it didn't land. The people who are going to be able to receive benefits don't know that they've got them. I think the dental community is confused as hell about what it is that is actually going to happen. And for some reason, it comes with a price tag that seems completely disproportionate to

Carter 32:05

to the number of people that are going to be impacted um

Carter 32:08

um you know based on some just kind of

Carter 32:12

cursory glances at some of the programs isn't it something like you have to be 87 or something to get a to get dentures covered i mean 87

Carter 32:20

87 seems pretty old doesn't seem like there's that many people left at 87 i mean so actuarially it strikes me as a relatively small investment

Carter 32:30

and if you delay for a year you lose like 50 of them i'm just throwing that out there i mean just delay one year and it's

Zain 32:36

it's good health care policy advocate stephen carter uh-huh cory

Zain 32:41

supply and confidence did it land no

Carter 32:43

no crash oh sorry cory that's you well

Zain 32:46

well let's unpack it a little bit more here i

Corey 32:48

i i would say at this particular moment is there something that the uh the ndp the federal ndp could be more thankful for than the supply and confidence motion because they don't want an election they don't want a conservative government this is kind of their excuse not to do the thing that otherwise everybody would be expecting them to do deeply unpopular government hold them to account let's go to the polls hi i'm prime minister pierre paulieff right so in some ways it is now um their minor salvation no

Corey 33:20

thing is no it's

Corey 33:23

it's pretty hard to argue and i did argue but i'd say with the benefit of hindsight that this has been to their advantage in terms of their public profile like they have done a shit job of getting credit for anything that the liberals did and they are they're not up in the polls like i don't know if i can think of a time in my lifetime carter maybe you can and maybe there's some recency here where

Corey 33:44

where the where the liberals have dropped that much and the ndp haven't climbed at all you

Corey 33:50

you know like that's baffling to me you

Carter 33:51

you kind of have to go back to the mulroney years to find anything that's vaguely like this you

Carter 33:56

in that time Mulroney was seen as a as a kind of court you know brought together all these different parties all these different factions but there's nothing like

Carter 34:07

like there's nothing that seems to be like that with Pierre Polyev he's not actually bringing together factions so much as just being the beneficiary of incompetence on both sides of the quote-unquote left of center uh side of the aisle so

Corey 34:21

so let's make a case let me make a case at least that maybe

Corey 34:26

you know for whatever reason the ndp is in an absolutely brutal purgatory they can't get any traction with anybody here at all but now the uh supply and confidence agreement at least allows them to have another year to figure their shit out but if they waste this year all

Corey 34:42

all they will have done is delayed the inevitable and probably to their detriment because if this election if If there was no supply and confidence agreement, if there was an election in the spring or in the summer as the liberals were just starting to fall in popularity, you'd probably have a minority government, right? But like a deep minority government for the liberals or a strong minority government for the conservatives where the NDP would have some sort of power. But now, now the cupboards will be bare if there's an election. And so they can use this to put off the election for a little bit more. But

Carter 35:12

But they could have put off the election anyway. It's just by simply saying, okay, well, here's something that we want. Now give it to us. I'm not sure they should.

Carter 35:19

they could have done that. Instead, what they've done is they've just given everything away for free. There is no requirement on behalf of, oh, we gave you your dental piece. Okay, well, I didn't get any credit for it. Yeah, well, tough luck. Good luck next time.

Corey 35:37

put in the calendar NDP strategy special. I want to know how the NDP get themselves out of this particular loop.

Zain 35:43

are doing it, Carter.

Zain 35:45

No, Carter. Carter's being presumptuous again. Here we go. That, of course, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for that, guys. That was the Flair Airlines Did It Land. Let's transition to maybe a bit of a somber note, because every year we lose some folks, Corey. We lose some strategies. We lose some policies. We lose some initiatives. Political lives are lost. Well, sometimes they're just forgotten and they're still there. Which brings us, of course, to the forgotten but not gone Flair Airlines annual goodbye from the gate, Stephen Carter. This is where we get to say goodbye from the gate, waving goodbye for 13 years in a row, even predating Flair Airlines. Stephen Carter, this is a sad, sad time for some who are celebrating the holidays politically alone, maybe

Zain 36:30

maybe politically cold, isolated. Maybe that fire isn't as warm as it was last year. So, Stephen Carter, let's start with the mention of fire, and let's give our first Flair Airlines annual goodbye from the gate to you, Stephen Carter, because forgotten, in some ways politically, but not gone, is

Zain 36:51

is the carbon tax.

Zain 36:52

Carter, take us away with the short,

Zain 36:56

short, succinct, but emotive goodbye to the carbon tax.

Carter 37:03

the carbon tax of canada and

Carter 37:07

and arguably the rest of the free world has

Carter 37:10

has died a death due

Carter 37:12

due to what we lovingly refer to as the tragedy of the commons it is our inability to act together because of of our selfishness in

Carter 37:23

in the moment. It

Carter 37:25

It is for us, our desire to blame others instead of taking individual responsibility that has condemned this action to

Carter 37:36

Now, one could argue that

Carter 37:37

that this tax was always fated to die because people in general want to punish others instead of themselves. But

Carter 37:47

after reviewing a few articles with the headline, the

Carter 37:51

the carbon tax is dead from

Carter 37:53

from the Atlantic, Trevor

Carter 37:57

luminaries like Rex Murphy, the

Carter 38:00

the Fraser Institute, Chris

Carter 38:03

Ken Bozenkul, who I had actually over for Boxing Day dinner,

Carter 38:07

Globe and Mail. And, of course, our friend, Max Fawcett, who wrote a stunningly good profile about me called The New Politics, published on September 12, 2012.

Zain 38:21

Just like it was yesterday.

Carter 38:24

Every single one of those thinkers included,

Carter 38:28

captioned their title. Wait, Rex

Corey 38:30

Rex Murphy? Rex Murphy. Okay.

Carter 38:32

Rex Murphy and Max Fawcett are now on the exact same page on this. i want you to i want you to understand the mourners include rex murphy and and chris nelson and the fraser fucking institute so

Carter 38:46

so yeah it's dead because none of us want to pay for the sins of our past wow

Zain 38:54

wow a lot of yelling in that eulogy thank you steven carter you

Carter 38:57

you know what sometimes sometimes that's how um mourning happens shifting

Zain 39:02

shifting blame yeah it's true shifting blame a lot of yelling a lot of mind melding uh cory hogan i'm gonna throw this over to you this is of course the forgotten but not gone flare airlines annual goodbye from the gate and we need one annual goodbye to one ron desantis this is a dead man walking uh

Zain 39:19

uh a dead man walking maybe weeks that he has to live um do us a solid say goodbye like

Zain 39:27

like a family member cory say goodbye Bye, once and for all, to

Corey 39:39

Most famous for opposing science during COVID-19, also notable for opposing the so-called woke

Corey 39:48

which was enough to make him look like a contender in today's Republican Party,

Corey 39:53

has struggled to lift in the polls, just as he has struggled to lift his feet beyond his tiny stature

Corey 40:01

starting with 39 to 36 percent favorable at the start of the year now

Corey 40:09

jacksonville's least favorite son he has blown a war chest of almost 300 million dollars through a super pack called never back down kind

Corey 40:21

kind of hilarious for a campaign that has has never stood up as

Corey 40:25

he kisses the boots of donald trump on his way out the door i

Corey 40:30

want you to know and reflect on how tragic it is that he's now coming third to

Corey 40:35

to a woman in the primary who doesn't know the civil war revolved around the issue of slavery

Corey 40:44

walking in lifts is leaving us in 2024 24 but

Corey 40:50

in a way he's

Corey 40:52

he's already left us

Carter 40:58

man you gotta give me a warning I

Zain 41:01

know I know in a couple of weeks his robotic smile will be looking down at us Carter

Zain 41:07

Carter someday what's the name of that woman who's in second place Nikki

Zain 41:16

that's good Good. Brown woman, white name. Okay. Hey,

Corey 41:18

Hey, what's the name of her husband? What's her husband's name?

Corey 41:22

No, no. There's a story, though, about how she renamed her husband. Oh,

Carter 41:26

really? I haven't read that.

Corey 41:27

No, I've not heard

Corey 41:28

One of their early dates, I guess, his name was William. He's like, what's your name? And he says, well, you know my name. He says, I don't like it. What's your middle name? And he said Michael, and he's gone by Michael ever since. Oh, my God.

Corey 41:40

We got that going on. Corey, beautiful

Zain 41:42

eulogy. Thank you so much. Thank you. Stephen Carter, you know, Corey said something at the beginning of that eulogy that really encapsulates the spirit of our next person, who's politically passed away. Who? Heather Stephenson. What?

Zain 41:56

I'm sorry? Yes, indeed. Carter, the political eulogy for the once part-time Premier

Zain 42:02

Premier of Manitoba, who is no longer campaign like there was no tomorrow, campaign like no one was watching when

Zain 42:10

when everyone was watching Stephen Carter. carter the flare

Zain 42:14

flare airlines annual goodbye from the gates forgotten but not gone heather

Zain 42:18

heather stephenson eulogy by one stephen carter okay

Carter 42:22

okay this is a little embarrassing um who yeah

Zain 42:27

yeah so heather stephenson carter cory

Carter 42:33

could you just give me a second here i just have to open up uh

Carter 42:38

uh okay cory tell tell me like three things about heather steffens if you don't mind um

Corey 42:43

maybe two manitoba okay

Corey 42:48

okay didn't want to search it yep

Corey 42:52

okay that's enough i got two i mean that's it that's

Carter 42:55

that's enough i got it okay

Zain 42:56

okay carter you're good okay sorry okay

Carter 42:57

okay sorry get back

Zain 42:59

back to it yeah okay

Carter 43:00

okay here we go i gotta make it heartfelt they gotta draw my drama skills Do you

Zain 43:04

you want me to tee you up or are you good? I'm good. Here we go. Okay, good.

Carter 43:08

There once was a woman named Heather who doomed her party forever. Her ads caused a fuss. No to the landfill. Thus, she paddles a canoe down the Red River.

Corey 43:22

guess that's pretty good.

Corey 43:24

You put in that whole thing about the Red River so you know that about Manitoba. That's exciting. Well,

Carter 43:28

Well, actually, I didn't know that about Manitoba. That was a chat GPT special. i

Carter 43:34

i just needed a couple of things from you so i appreciate that oh

Zain 43:38

oh thank you that's a mad lib limerick by stephen carter no

Carter 43:41

no not by chat thank you

Carter 43:44

you so much we're

Zain 43:47

this next eulogy really underlines the forgotten but not gone in some ways and some things sometimes in our political world things are introduced that we've never wanted in the first place they take up a lot of time they take up a lot of space and then they're ultimately parked to the sideline prematurely killed but they should have never entered the political fray to begin with cory you have one of those next on the list it's

Zain 44:13

it's the alberta pension plan cory please the flare airlines forgotten but not gone annual

Zain 44:19

annual goodbye from the gate for

Zain 44:21

for the alberta pension plan

Corey 44:24

i'd like to read from

Corey 44:25

from the book of psalms chapter 137 verse 9

Carter 44:31

is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks

Corey 44:39

of public policy's most beautiful children the

Corey 44:42

the canada pension plan oh

Corey 44:47

in the sights of danielle smith premier of alberta the

Corey 44:53

darling of pension pension funds, envy of nations, was

Corey 45:00

the rocks in the spring, in the fall, in the current times, by the idea of an Alberta pension plan, a pension plan that would be smaller, politically

Corey 45:09

politically motivated, less stable, less portable, inferior in every way, but

Corey 45:17

but kind of something that some people thought was a good idea 20 years ago and just can't let go of danielle

Corey 45:23

danielle smith denied considering an alberta pension plan during the election

Corey 45:28

she accepted that that was her fate come the fall but even after millions spent polls show

Corey 45:35

no chances no opportunities but zayn

Zain 45:38

zayn just like the

Corey 45:38

the plane that was lit on fire

Corey 45:41

there are four years to

Corey 45:43

to do more arson to

Corey 45:44

to figure out more ways to

Corey 45:47

to get that joy that you get from smashing them against the rocks, I guess. I didn't really know how to end this one. That

Carter 45:55

I don't think it does end.

Corey 45:58

Living on a pension plan. Watch this space.

Zain 46:00

Forgotten but not gone, but potentially living. Stephen Carter, once again, a beautiful eulogy. I really wish you would take some notes from Corey and strike that somber tone we are looking for. I'll give you an opportunity. I

Zain 46:12

think the limerick was fine. I think admitting that it was, was, thank you so much, admitting that it was done by Generated AI. I'll

Corey 46:21

I'll back it with some extra sad music. It'll

Zain 46:24

It'll be fine. We'll clean it up

Corey 46:25

up and post. We'll really, yeah.

Zain 46:28

to Corey Hogan. Stephen Carter, I'm giving you a final opportunity here, because it is about Canada's relationship with India. Because in 2023,

Zain 46:38

We are eulogizing it. It will be a long time until it is perhaps reborn. Stephen

Zain 46:43

Stephen Carter, take it away. The Flair Airlines annual goodbye from the gate. for Canada's relationship with India.

Carter 46:50

Starting with the death of our citizens comes the death of our relationship with India.

Carter 46:58

We have seen what

Carter 47:00

happens when you stand up against a government that stands against you. Obviously, the Liberals and the New Democrats, no, just the Liberals, never mind the New Democrats, they haven't done fuck all. The Liberals saw a

Carter 47:20

a grievous sin committed against our country through the assassination of one of our citizens. And the reaction of the Canadian Conservative Party was to say, that does not matter to us. We're fine. We're still alive. What the fuck, man? And the Americans said, we have other things to worry about with India. Good

Carter 47:39

Good luck. You're on your own. and

Carter 47:42

and so Canada went to the loan and we wound up getting our asses handed to us

Carter 47:47

that's what happens when you go and you pick a fight with the largest kid in your grade 8 class when

Carter 47:54

when Alan Payne kicks the shit out of you there's nothing you can do but just allow it to happen and then one day hire him to be your accountant

Carter 48:06

will finish with this with this we

Carter 48:09

we committed no sin against india they committed a sin against us but let us remember for always the larger country always wins we

Carter 48:19

we should know that we live next door to the united states of america thank

Zain 48:26

okay somber indeed beautiful carter i should mention uh to the patreon subscribers we will be introducing a new 25 a month package which includes having stephen or cory uh all All expenses paid coming to a funeral of your choice.

Zain 48:41

Not ours, though. And giving a eulogy. Right, like, not ours. No, a family member, friend, pet, plant. We'll do it all, right? It's our new package that we'll introduce shortly. Corey, the final eulogy. And sometimes, Corey, when you see something leave, when it is forced away from you, when you push it aside, you regret.

Zain 49:02

You repent. And our

Zain 49:04

our final Flair Airlines annual goodbye from the gates might fall into that category because, Corey, you are here today to eulogize the

Zain 49:13

the BC Liberal Party.

Zain 49:16

Gone it is, but its reincarnation is alive and not performing so well. Well, so Corey, eulogize

Zain 49:24

eulogize for us, please. The final Flair Airlines goodbye from the gate for 2023, the BC Liberal Party, which was laid to rest earlier this year.

Carter 49:33

You should do his limerick.

Corey 49:38

never do this, but I have another Bible verse. This one's from 2 Kings, chapter 2, verses 23, 24. from

Corey 49:46

there elijah went to bethel where

Corey 49:49

where he was on his way some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him go

Corey 49:53

go up bald head they shouted go up bald

Corey 49:58

the prophet turned and saw them and he cursed them in the name of the lord then

Corey 50:02

then two she bears came from the woods and tore 42 of the children to pieces now

Corey 50:09

now i'm going to be honest i don't know how that ties to what we're going to to talk about is i

Corey 50:14

i like the word she bears though yeah

Carter 50:16

yeah it's really good but

Corey 50:17

but every year i make a list of bible verses and i pick one and this one was pretty good

Corey 50:25

the bc liberals lost the last election they asked themselves why

Corey 50:29

was it a leader who

Corey 50:30

who couldn't stop telling us he was a lawyer and a doctor

Corey 50:34

was it incomprehensible policy like a one-year tax holiday for the pst

Corey 50:41

being completely outplayed by the bc ndp on the covet issue no

Corey 50:48

obviously this party that

Corey 50:50

that hadn't governed since well

Corey 50:52

well let me check my notes here 2017 came

Corey 50:56

came to the conclusion it was their name unelectable so

Corey 50:59

so name change they did now

Corey 51:02

yes now zane now congregation

Corey 51:05

would they pick a name that talked about where they sat on the political spectrum

Corey 51:11

but no was the answer. No, no. Listen, you're not Catholic. Call and response is kind of big for us. Oh,

Carter 51:18

Oh, sorry. Let's try again. No.

Corey 51:20

No. Jesus. Okay. That's good.

Corey 51:25

Yeah, okay. We're not like Baptists.

Carter 51:27

Baptists. Oh, sorry. You got to make

Corey 51:29

make it sound like you're reading an incantation. Oh, I see. No.

Corey 51:34

Can you wait? Yes, that was better. Yeah. No. Would

Corey 51:38

they pick a name that spoke to their political philosophy? No.

Corey 51:43

they pick a name that spoke of

Corey 51:46

of their value proposition to British Columbians? No.

Carter 51:49

No, they wouldn't. No.

Corey 51:51

course, not obviously this smart political party that

Corey 51:54

that knows to keep the focus on the voters instead decided to choose a name that said they had no internal divisions.

Corey 52:02

Which I have to say is kind of like calling yourself the No Murderers Party. It was very suspicious. Suggested perhaps they were not actually so united.

Corey 52:10

But it was also very uncompelling. We were all over Ted Lasso by now.

Corey 52:15

And here they were with a soccer-themed name.

Corey 52:18

So now we see them, six

Corey 52:20

six feet under in the poles,

Corey 52:23

dreaming of the glory days of Andrew Weaver's leadership.

Corey 52:27

It is an organization

Corey 52:28

organization truly forgotten but not gone.

Corey 52:33

Oh, very nicely done.

Corey 52:35

in my eyes, man. That,

Zain 52:37

our Flair Airlines forgotten but not gone annual goodbye from the gate. Thank you to Stephen and Corey. Once again, our new package on Patreon. One free funeral included with that one. They will eulogize all expenses paid. Yeah. You guys will be paying these expenses. Have you run the numbers

Zain 52:52

on this? I have absolutely not. I have absolutely not. No, I have not run the numbers. Guys, we have to move on to our next segment. And, of course, sticking with our sponsor, by the way, a great time to shout out our sponsor, Flair Airlines, who has sponsored the Holiday Spectacular even prior to them existing. thing. This is the 13th year in a row, Stephen Carter. It is time for the Flair Airlines rare perfect landing. That's right, Carter. Rarely does Flair Airlines make it to the tarmac properly on time. And I have got for you a couple of political things that have happened this year that I think would be almost universally described as W's across the board. You have to tell me which one is the biggest win. And Corey, I'm going to ask you that same question, same list we'll discuss us, so to speak. So Carter, here's your list for you. You

Zain 53:38

You got Pierre Polyev's summer with

Zain 53:40

with the ads, the polling bump. You got advocates in the latter part of 2023 getting Canada to commit to a cease fire at the UN. You

Zain 53:49

You have Daniel Smith winning the 2023 Alberta election. You have Wab Kanu winning the Manitoba election in 2023. And you have Olivia Chow in a very crowded field becoming the mayor of Toronto.

Zain 54:03

Stephen Carter, Pauliev, Advocates on a Ceasefire, Danielle Smith, Wab Canoe, Olivia Chow.

Zain 54:12

The rare perfect landing for you goes

Zain 54:15

goes to who, Stephen Carter?

Carter 54:17

Well, I think you have to immediately take Chow and Canoe

Carter 54:22

Canoe off because Chow was supposed to win from the beginning and it was actually way closer than it should have been. Um, you

Carter 54:31

you know, I, I think that canoe is also should have been much higher up when you've got an opposition party or a government that's pledging not to, um, you know, dig up a landfill, uh, and coming across as racist bricks.

Carter 54:46

speaking of coming across as a racist brick and doing well, Danielle Smith, uh, was doing stronger than one could expect. So I, I mean, I'm, I'm looking at that. I'm looking at the ceasefire from Canada. I mean, I think that us standing opposed to the United States is a big deal. And I just don't want to give Pierre Polyev anything. So I am between Smith and ceasefire. Smith and ceasefire. I'm going to do the random number generator on chat GPT.

Carter 55:16

that a thing? I don't know. I'm actually going to go with the advocates and Canadian ceasefire, calling for the Israeli ceasefire. That's a big get. and it was not something that I thought was necessarily possible when the United States was standing where they were standing.

Zain 55:33

Corey, of course, controversial to many, even within the government, right? This potential call for a ceasefire. But the advocates who pushed for it collectively, they got what they were looking for with their advocacy. Similar to last year when we talked about on the Holiday Spectacular, CUPE in Ontario pushing Doug Ford to their ends in terms of what they wanted as an outside player and advocate. Corey, Pierre, these advocates on Canada committing to a ceasefire, Danielle Smith, Wab Kanu, Olivia Chow, that is my list. Feel free to add to yours if you think it's none of these. How come he gets to

Zain 56:04

Well, he can as well. Carter, I don't give you credit to be able to add to a list that exists, okay? Corey, who are you choosing for your Flair Airlines rare perfect landing of 2023? 23 well

Corey 56:14

well on the ceasefire one i think we should appreciate that like there are two countries in the world not calling for a ceasefire at this point or at least abstaining on it so i don't think you can actually give it that i mean the absolute weight of international opinion is on a ceasefire and well i mean you're setting the bar pretty low if it's like look at us we're not doing exactly what the united states would do and by the way i'm quite certain there were conversations with the united states where they said you do what you got to do for

Zain 56:39

for your internal politics

Corey 56:40

politics part of international relations is this kind of horse trading issue by issue understanding the pressures that people have it's the art of diplomacy we've talked about this we've talked about how when canada went to afghanistan so heavy in the 2000s but

Corey 56:55

didn't go to iraq in many ways there were conversations behind the scenes where it was we'll take some of the load off you in afghanistan but for political reasons we can't follow you to iraq that's how diplomacy works And that's the reality of it. So I don't think that was a perfect landing. Stephen's done a pretty good rundown on some of the others as to why they can't be considered perfect landings, right? I

Corey 57:17

I would say Pierre Polievs comes pretty close to being a perfect landing. The only reason why I'm not that inclined to give it to him is because we just have not gotten to an election yet. So we just don't know. No. There is the possibility he's setting himself the mother of all traps by creating this fake persona that will fall to pieces under the hot lights of a campaign. I don't actually believe that's likely, but it's possible. Can't call it that one yet. Like, that's still a flight that's, you

Corey 57:43

you know, it's in the air. It's at 30,000 feet, and we're going to have to figure out where that is in a bit.

Carter 57:49

The door could blow right off.

Corey 57:51

The rare perfect landing. I'm going to say one that you are going to think is a joke, but

Corey 57:55

but I don't mean it as a joke.

Corey 57:57

Sophie Gregor Trudeau, divorce

Corey 58:00

divorce of Justin Trudeau. That was out of the headlines like that. That was gone in an instant. And you see a little bit of it in like kind of the year-end raps, but even then it's all on the Prime Minister. There have been situations in other countries where all of a sudden it's like, you know, page five news following what the former spouse is doing all the time with politicians. Like that was very well done, the way they managed that at the summer with the announcement and how little conversation there's been afterwards. But the rare perfect landing I'm going to give is actually also off menu. And that's Sam Bankman Freight, OpenAI,

Corey 58:35

OpenAI, his ousting and then his reverse ousting of the board that ousted him. You're talking

Carter 58:45

Bankman Freed. That was not perfect, dude. That did not go well. Too many Sams.

Carter 58:50

Yeah, too many Sams. Sam Altman. I'm just thankful you didn't name my Sam or your Sam in that. I

Zain 58:57

I was like, Sam Bankford Freed. Yeah, that's true. My son's named Sam. Perfectly landing in prison. That's good. I

Corey 59:02

No, no, no. Sam Altman. Oh, man. Yes. Sam Altman. Perfect landing. Open AI. AI reverse, reverse ousting. That was amazing. And, and, you know, I think that it's actually, you know, Zane Stevens already talked about chat GPT twice.

Corey 59:20

I don't think that there's anything that's happened globally, literally,

Corey 59:24

literally, in my lifetime, that's gonna have a bigger impact than this generative AI. And, and that's even with the tools where they are today, once we figured out how to incorporate them all through. And so I think that the stakes of the game he was playing where he got that perfect landing is what impresses me so much. So, yeah, I'm going to give it to him. Now, obviously, the year ended a bit rocky with the

Corey 59:44

the New York Times suing OpenAI, but that's, you know, that's a next year problem. That's a cost to doing business. And for 2023, hell

Corey 59:51

of a landing. Hell of a landing. Carter,

Zain 59:53

Carter, you know, with Flair Airlines, you either get a perfect landing or if the plane doesn't arrive, they don't give you meal vouchers in a hotel. They make you walk. So it's time for our Flair Airlines walk of shame, Stephen Carter. Carter. This is a new segment we're adding this year. You're going to pick from the following list or we'll give you the ability to go off menu like Corey has. Who deserves the award for the Flair Airlines Walk of Shame this year politically? Is it Blaine Higgs on Trans Kids? Is it Anthony Roda, the former speaker who had to resign in shame? Is it Doug Ford on the Greenbelt controversy? or is it heather stephenson and her campaign tactics in the 2023 manitoba election carter you

Zain 1:00:38

you got that list you can add to it but

Zain 1:00:41

but who's taking the flare airlines walk of shame for 2023 for you oh

Carter 1:00:45

oh i mean the trans piece should be should

Carter 1:00:51

should be higher on my walk of shame but you know it's not just blaine higgs i mean we're gonna see danielle smith do it um we're seeing Scott Moe.

Carter 1:00:59

Scott Moe, who is absolutely, you know, a terrible human being. Um, so there's a, there's a whole collection of folks. Um, Doug

Carter 1:01:10

Doug Ford's green belt thing was fun. Um, I'd have to say that that is one of the largest political back, you know, backtracks in history. uh but ultimately the and

Carter 1:01:21

and you know what speaker not gonna get there for me so i think it actually has to come down to uh uh

Carter 1:01:28

uh heather steffensen because she's the one who

Carter 1:01:33

who was just an out and out racist and lost her election others can be out and out racists and uh win elections so you know she's doing something wrong so i'm going to give her the ultimate walk of shame

Zain 1:01:46

the the once limericked heather stephenson and get stephen carter's award cory

Zain 1:01:51

higgs rhoda ford stephenson are you going off book for the flare airlines walk of shame for 2023

Corey 1:01:58

well yeah look higgs is somehow still there and and still walking around on two feet so i think that you can't really say it's higgs yet rhoda is already forgotten so i don't think that you know it's not even a walk of shame that would imply that people are looking at him i mean i I think that he could go into his parents' house and be confused for a stranger at this point. Like, nobody's talking about Rhoda.

Corey 1:02:21

Stephenson lost ugly, like, ugly, ugly, right? And I think that that's going to follow her for a while, and it should, and it should follow her and her party. Because some of the tactics that they pulled at the last bit, and like, the vote like nobody's watching, where

Zain 1:02:36

where it was like,

Corey 1:02:36

like, hey, we know you're ashamed to vote for us. That was,

Corey 1:02:39

that's about as walk of shame as it gets. but the reason

Corey 1:02:42

reason why i'm not going to say any of those and the reason why i am instead going to go with ford is because this ain't over right

Corey 1:02:50

right like he he bled so much he lost a minister he lost senior staff he

Corey 1:02:56

he had to reverse himself entirely so he lost the policy as well but this ain't over and there are investigations going on there are still other shoes that could drop and um this is this is a big deal this is a big deal this is multi-billion dollar stuff and so watch this space and if

Corey 1:03:15

if if there's one thing that you can say about a walk of shame it's shame it's contrition and ford has basically had to reverse himself entirely and say how sorry he is here so i'm gonna give it to him let's

Carter 1:03:27

let's just say i'm really pleased that we're not doing the walk of shame from the game of thrones because that would be bad with the things with the two people we've chosen i wouldn't like it steven

Zain 1:03:36

steven carter we're gonna move this segment on to our another new segment which is you guys may not know this but 2023 was the first year that flair airlines has added a first row now they don't have first class but they have a first row now you might be thinking wait how does that work well they've got a first row and it is a premium seat okay it's a one seat

Zain 1:03:55

they didn't have a first row before nope nope they didn't have a first row before okay

Carter 1:03:58

okay we just started don't test me

Zain 1:04:00

this this is the first time they've had a first row okay 2023 it's landmark here for our sponsor okay so don't fucking slag them.

Zain 1:04:06

But they've only got one first row seat. And

Zain 1:04:09

so in this next segment, the Flair Airlines first row flyers, Corey Hogan, we're going to choose between a couple of political players. Who would you rather be? Who would you put in that Flair Airlines first row seat? Some of them are outright winners. Some of them are losers going up against each other. I I want to figure out who you'd want to put there. Who would you rather be? Whose shoes would you rather be in? Stephen Carter, let's start with you. Sure.

Zain 1:04:39

Heading into this year, after

Zain 1:04:40

after all we've seen in 2023,

Zain 1:04:43

after we're past Orthodox Christmas, would you be Daniel

Zain 1:04:47

Daniel Smith or Wab Kanu? Who would you want to be sitting in that first row of your Flair Airlines flight? Daniel

Zain 1:04:54

Daniel Smith or Wab Kanu? Both winners in this year. going forward who would you want to be morally

Zain 1:05:00

politically carter this is never called the moralist so you

Zain 1:05:04

don't have to you don't have to ask that clarifying question um

Carter 1:05:08

think that wab canoe probably has a better chance of getting back-to-back governments uh i think that you know we've seen one and done governments here recently and it's it's tough to get momentum uh it's tough to get things done um you know and it's it's hard to create things that aren't going to be immediately undone um as the as we saw with the the pc's undoing you know jim prentice undoing rate uh come

Carter 1:05:38

come on allison redford god that was embarrassing allison redford ran her campaign

Corey 1:05:42

campaign man you were

Carter 1:05:43

were her chief of staff i mentioned i'm a little fucking tired no one seems to be giving me a break today that's

Corey 1:05:50

that's okay you know i did the sbf sam altman thing so

Zain 1:05:54

he's probably going to edit that out because

Zain 1:05:55

he's going to edit

Zain 1:05:56

that out. I'll probably

Corey 1:05:57

He'll probably edit that out.

Zain 1:05:59

Zane, remind me to edit that out. I

Carter 1:06:00

I won't edit it out because it'll sound ridiculous when you bring the name in properly. Carter,

Zain 1:06:04

Carter, you are delaying this. Who are you picking? Smith or Canoe?

Zain 1:06:10

Cori, show us a bit of your math. Who are you picking, Daniel Smith or Wab Canoe? Who's sitting in that first row? Daniel

Corey 1:06:15

Daniel Smith for sure. Like, first of all, better chance of back-to-back. That is crackerjack

Corey 1:06:21

crackerjack stuff that you're suggesting that in Alberta conservatives who have governed for basically most of Alberta's existence. Now

Carter 1:06:28

Now I'm gunning for her, so she doesn't really have a chance, right?

Corey 1:06:34

look, I mean, I think we could relitigate that campaign a lot of different ways. But one of the things that was a bit, I

Corey 1:06:40

I think, demoralizing for people as they looked at it and they said, oh, my goodness, with everything on the record for Danielle Smith, with every policy position she's taken, which were individually deeply unpopular in Alberta, there was still kind of a collective shrug by huge swaths of the population. Now, a few thousand votes in different places could have been an NDP government by a squeaker. You could make a pretty strong case this should never have been a close election in Alberta, let alone one Danielle Smith won, right? But there are just some inherent things there. So I do think Danielle Smith probably still has a better chance back to back. I think that because she barely won, she eliminated all of the moderate elements in her party that might have given her trouble from that particular aspect. And so she's probably – like, you don't hear a lot about UCP caucus unrest right now. Now, maybe you will in a year. That is kind of the UCP. Yeah.

Corey 1:07:31

But, you know, she seems to have a stronger hand than she did before the election. I remember talking to people before the election. They're like, oh, yeah, Danielle Smith's a train wreck. But don't worry, right after the election, we'll start to figure

Corey 1:07:42

out. No, that's not happening, right? Her hand has been incredibly strengthened.

Corey 1:07:46

And then there's just the reality that I'd rather be premier of Alberta than premier of Manitoba, with no slight to our good friends in Manitoba. More powerful province, economic powerhouse, more people, bigger

Corey 1:07:57

bigger national prominence. I think you've got to give the seat to

Corey 1:08:01

to Danielle Smith. I say that while

Corey 1:08:04

saying that, like, Wap Kanu, really

Corey 1:08:07

really love what he's managed to do there. Really impressive. Obviously, a really important premier as our first Indigenous premier. But if you ask who is in kind of a better position to drive agendas going forward, it's probably Danielle Smith.

Zain 1:08:20

Corey, I'm going to move on to our next one. Who would you rather be in that first row of the Flair Airlines flight? Would you be Pierre Polyev? And you might think, well, who could compare with Pierre Polyev right now?

Zain 1:08:29

Or would you be David Eby in

Zain 1:08:32

in the first term? Pierre Polyev.

Zain 1:08:35

Lay it on me. Yeah,

Corey 1:08:38

Well, one is almost certainly going to be Prime Minister of Canada. And one of them has an election this year that, I mean, I think he will win pretty handily. But, like, you

Corey 1:08:49

you know, he'll get to keep what he's got, right? I think that the upside on Pierre Polyev is phenomenal in terms of power and authority and what he might be able to do.

Zain 1:09:01

Carter, Pierre Polyev or David Eby?

Carter 1:09:02

One gets to be prime minister and one gets to be the outgoing premier. I'm going to have to go with the guy who gets to be the prime minister. You're saying outgoing

Zain 1:09:10

outgoing premier? You think David Eby is going to lose in 2024?

Carter 1:09:14

I think that there is a bigger chance of that than anybody is giving consideration to. Oh,

Corey 1:09:19

Oh, OK. So now I want to hear your analysis on this. Yeah,

Zain 1:09:23

Yeah, because I don't know if you heard the whole BC liberal eulogy. I don't know if you heard that. Yeah,

Carter 1:09:27

Yeah, I don't know if you see where the conservatives are fucking pulling. The conservatives in British Columbia have taken off. They are, you know, traditionally they're a rump. They don't even pull into the double digits in British Columbia. Now they have taken off into what

Carter 1:09:42

what I would describe as the stratosphere for them. They are way up. And that's before we get to an election. Now, it could go where everything around the conservatives simply collapses because everybody thought the conservatives were, you know, Pierre Poliev. have um but i don't think that david

Carter 1:10:04

david eby has connected with the people of british columbia in the same fashion the

Carter 1:10:10

previous leaders have so no i i i'm i'm

Carter 1:10:14

i'm not going to say i'm confident but i'm not confident that it's going to be a david eby walk uh you know walk to easy walk into the next level of government cory

Corey 1:10:25

cory i mean he's 20 points up in the polls if we're going to say pierre pauliev's up by a lot we got to say evie's up by a lot but to your point steven if that vote consolidates the bc united and bc sorry the bc united and bc conservative vote behind one of those two then

Corey 1:10:41

then yeah it's actually a much closer election it's quite an interesting split it's

Carter 1:10:44

it's where it's going to right like it

Carter 1:10:47

because it bouncing back to bc united seems almost most impossible. Kevin Falcon does not seem to resonate at all.

Carter 1:10:54

So if it doesn't

Carter 1:10:55

doesn't bounce back, then what?

Zain 1:10:59

Yeah, it's fascinating. We should probably do an episode at some point around how a political machine moves from one party to another, because one of the rationales one would imagine that the BC liberals changed their name was that they are no longer liberals. They never really were. They're more conservative than anything, at least in terms of some of the key key organizers and folks, and now you've got a conservative party that might be exactly where they need to go, that didn't look viable six, eight months ago. Carter, last one for you.

Zain 1:11:29

One's got an election guaranteed happening in less than a year's time, but he's president of the United States, should he win it? The other is Justin Trudeau, doesn't have to face the music, so to speak, this year, unless he wants to, or it so happens that Who would you rather be heading into this calendar year, Carter, Biden or Trudeau?

Carter 1:11:50

Well, as you know, Biden's extremely old. He probably only has a couple of years left to live. Politically speaking,

Carter 1:11:58

No, I'm still talking about politically. I mean, he's only got a couple of years to live, and I would still rather be him than Justin Trudeau, because Biden

Carter 1:12:08

Biden has a chance of winning his next election. Justin Trudeau can't win the most popular man in his own household contest. So I'm going to go with I'm going to go with Biden.

Zain 1:12:20

go ahead gory you go and buy the intruder i mean the the the sort of thing to park is like which country they get to control in the back end of political victory but in terms of in terms of electoral want to park that i mean i'd rather i don't know well introduce it from because then it becomes obvious you want to take anyone who's running to be the nominee for president of the united states versus even a sitting prime minister but

Zain 1:12:42

but who would you be give me give me your give me your take i

Corey 1:12:45

think that the amount of authority a u.s president has is is not something you can kind of just hand wave away and i think biden lest we forget his the amount of time he's got left even if he loses the election is not significantly different than the amount of time or justin trudeau has left uh

Corey 1:13:02

uh you know biden things could go real south for like he could lose to trump it could be the end of american democracy he could be remembered as the american kurt von schleichner you know or oh

Carter 1:13:12

oh yeah i don't know that's how i would say it that

Corey 1:13:14

that the chancellor before that's how it's handler i can't remember um that's exactly how it said though no

Carter 1:13:19

no no you nailed it crushed

Corey 1:13:22

okay well but but as it stands i think his name was sam bankman street

Corey 1:13:32

maybe it was a family name yeah uh

Corey 1:13:34

uh so yeah who knows uh what's gonna happen but But I would rather be Joe Biden for a lot of reasons. Now, to be fair, though, Justin Trudeau probably knows what his defense minister is in the hospital or not. But that's

Corey 1:13:50

that's topical humor. You guys didn't know that. I did

Carter 1:13:53

did the whole door blowing off of an airplane. You guys didn't even fucking blink.

Zain 1:13:58

No, we don't blink. I

Carter 1:13:59

I did a whole fucking

Zain 1:14:02

fucking thing. It's standard business.

Zain 1:14:04

That's a window seat. That's a window seat.

Carter 1:14:06

seat. It was a window seat. OK, it's

Zain 1:14:08

it's everyone gets a window seat. OK, that's that's great. That, of course, concludes the Flair Airlines first of a first row flyer. All right, guys, it's time for our over under our lightning round. Let's let's give you guys an opportunity to close out the year the way you want. Stephen Carter, a couple of questions. We do it for you, even in the holiday spectacular 13 years in a row. Yeah,

Zain 1:14:26

especially and even then, Stephen Carter, your biggest play of the year for

Zain 1:14:32

for 2023. What was it?

Carter 1:14:33

Oh, my biggest play of the year for 2023. My goodness. I think it would have to be Danielle

Carter 1:14:42

Danielle Smith absolutely lying about everything that she was going to do when she became the premier and Albertans fearing a government of socialists completely buying into it because it was amazing. It was quite a play, and I think that it was ultimately Danielle Smith. I wish I could say Doug Ford's Green Line, because that's just kind of fun. Green Belt,

Carter 1:15:09

No, I'm sorry, that's Calgary's Green Belt.

Zain 1:15:15

Okay, thank you, Carter. It is getting late. Corey Hogan, your political play, your biggest play of 2023, as we celebrate today on Orthodox Christmas, what would it be for you?

Corey 1:15:27

think one of the biggest things happening in Canadian politics we've not actually talked about on this podcast and I don't think in English Canada we are talking anywhere

Corey 1:15:36

anywhere near enough about I think we're so distracted by what's going on in Alberta and what's going on in Ontario and Higgs in New Brunswick but there is kind of the fundamental you know English French tension in this country rooted into our DNA that we are entirely asleep with the switch on and I think I think the biggest play of the year has been Plamondon bringing, you know, the Parti Québécois back from the ashes to be the party that's leading right now in Quebec on an actively, aggressively, sovereignist agenda, saying, like, they released a year one budget for what the first year of Quebec separation would look like, right? They are ahead of the CAC by six points after being behind CAC by, I think, 25 at the start of the year. This is something to watch. And when you start thinking about the volatile conditions that are kicking around here. Oh, just imagine 2025, we have Prime Minister Pierre Poliev. And then just imagine in 2026, we have Quebec Premier Plamondon.

Corey 1:16:34

Plamondon. And then all of a sudden, you start to think, are we going to have a Canada in 2027? it's not very difficult to imagine kind of the the tinder that might result from this so i

Carter 1:16:44

i think we are think of that cory because you're scaring the shit out of me right now we

Corey 1:16:49

we are totally asleep as a nation on this issue quebec sovereignty has been so dormant for so long and even the pq when they've gotten close to power and been in power they've run on a but not now agenda right we now have a pq that is running on a why the hell not now and yeah sovereignty association and yeah looks a little different but i think english canada is going to be reacquainted with a bunch of concepts that they haven't thought about in 30 fucking years and i think we're all asleep on it so i think the play of the year goes to plamondon yeah

Carter 1:17:19

yeah no the play of the year goes to you for choosing something we haven't spoken about on the podcast for the whole fucking year that is well

Carter 1:17:27

well we might we might talk

Zain 1:17:28

talk about it soon once we have the country of quebec uh all set up been ready to go uh carter here

Zain 1:17:35

here we go biggest surprise of 2023 uh

Carter 1:17:39

uh biggest surprise of 2023 oh geez um well

Carter 1:17:45

well i'd love to be able to say that it was uh justin trudeau and his inability to respond to crisis um but that seems to go back a few years so i'm gonna have to go

Carter 1:17:58

oh, Dave, the NDP in British Columbia having to disqualify a green level, you know, a green style candidate because they were so scared that that candidate would beat their chosen hero of David Eby. That's what I'm going to go with. I think that that was a yeah, that was good. Yeah,

Zain 1:18:19

that was. So are you sure that's.

Corey 1:18:20

that's. Yeah, I was going

Corey 1:18:22

say, are you sure that's what you

Zain 1:18:23

you want to go with?

Zain 1:18:24

We'll take it. Listen,

Carter 1:18:24

I mentioned I was fucking tired, and you guys have driven this fucking podcast all night long. What did you expect? I'm exhausted.

Zain 1:18:31

exhausted. Corey literally texted you and said, brew a pot of coffee. Have you done that?

Carter 1:18:35

No, because I don't know how to work it. It'd be time.

Zain 1:18:37

It'd be time. Corey. It's time.

Zain 1:18:39

There's still probably another hour. You're good. Corey, your biggest surprise of 2023, just a reminder, Carter chose something not from this series, so you can easily win this question. Shut up.

Carter 1:18:47

Is it a contest? I didn't know we were in a contest. It's always a contest.

Zain 1:18:50

contest. It's always a contest, Carter. I've been keeping score for the last

Corey 1:18:55

biggest surprise of 2023 you're

Corey 1:18:58

you're talking in canadian politics we allowed to go a little bit broader than that sure

Zain 1:19:01

sure give me whatever you want at this point cory oh sure he can choose it's the holidays

Zain 1:19:05

holidays it's the holidays put your feet up do whatever you want

Corey 1:19:10

that the more jeopardy donald trump gets in the more voices that rise up against him the more legal risk he's in the more popular he becomes with the republican base and look i i was pretty pretty used to donald trump having a cynical grasp on the republican party once he won but even in this primary season when they could in theory go somewhere else he the way he's managed to get a stranglehold on this the way now everybody in the republican leadership save for you know some of the senate leadership is

Corey 1:19:38

is endorsing donald trump despite

Corey 1:19:40

despite him being under multiple indictments in you know state level federal level all over the place rewriting the history this guy ran an insurrection against the United States, there are now disqualifications of ballots occurring here, and it just gets more and more popular. That to me is probably one of the bigger surprises, but it's also probably

Corey 1:20:01

probably one of the more dangerous things to watch next year. I mean, I think we are so used to times where language is so over the top on so many issues, but this is just utterly existential for the United States. The way that they are sleepwalking towards a man who has now said, oh, I don't know, that he's going to run himself as a dictator for day one. I'm sure it won't stop after day one. The way he's talked about actively, I don't know, imprisoning people who have different views from him. The threats that his proxies have made about basically everything that we would consider fundamental to a fair and democratic society is so incredibly troubling and yet this man sits there in the polls tied with joe biden sits there unsurmountable in the republican primary now maybe next week we'll get a bit of a surprise in iowa someone will outperform maybe people will reconsider some things but as it stands right now yeah yeah

Corey 1:20:57

in 2020 he started 2023 not actually up that much on ron desantis not at all

Corey 1:21:03

speak about somebody we talked about yeah you know like 15 pierre polliev over justin trudeau territory here now he's approaching kind of like the territory in the overall primary i'm not talking iowa but like in the overall race he's getting like eastern

Corey 1:21:18

eastern soviet dictator levels

Zain 1:21:20

levels of support i mean from republicans i know this is your your response here but there's a good chance that the

Zain 1:21:26

the republican primary is over in like eight weeks from now like

Zain 1:21:29

like it's over yeah like it's the races are not held but it's over like it is so like they drop out like so quickly they don't have money they don't have time these are all the other competitors i'm talking about to trump that it's just over like the coronation has begun six weeks in you know four weeks after iowa very possible that that is what we are going to see in the united states and then trump's the nominee cory that's yours carter i'm going to end with you on this final question who

Zain 1:21:57

who won this past year who

Zain 1:21:59

who was was the biggest winner of this past year. I think there's a name we've been repeating over and over on the potty. You can go with that. You can go with someone else. I'll let you keep as broad or as narrow of a scope as you want as we round out the holiday spectacular for this year. Stephen Carter, who won 2023?

Carter 1:22:17

I want to say the anarchists. The anarchists won, Zane. I mean, look at the United States. Corey's point about Donald Trump. Look in Canada as Danielle Smith takes the center stage and Pierre Polyev. There's

Corey 1:22:29

There's a bunch of anarchists that are really mad at you right now. But keep going.

Carter 1:22:34

Oh, you want the anarchists only on the left? There's anarchists on the right. They're crazy people on both sides. And you know what? The anarchists have been mad at me for years. This is nothing new for me, right? The anarchists are already angry.

Carter 1:22:49

I'm going to say, in general, right-wing politics then, because Corey doesn't like my phrasing. Right-wing politicians Politicians and right-wing organizations based on misinformation continue to win, and they've won 2023. If they win 2024 and 2025, I have great fear for the future of our democracies.

Zain 1:23:12

Corey, who won 2023?

Corey 1:23:18

Look, this was not a great year. We saw within—there were glimmers of hope. There were nations that turned back from darkness. But by and large, we continued to see demagogues

Corey 1:23:29

demagogues do well. We continued to see people not have the attention span to deal with true dictators and true tyrants like Vladimir Putin. And we continued to see a rising unrest in a world that had actually become pretty peaceful. full like look there were conflicts

Corey 1:23:46

conflicts abound all over the world right but if you turn back the clock even 10 years we had seen far less than we'd seen 10 years before that far less 10 years before that and it just doesn't feel like we're going in the right direction at all so a lack of human attention span a lack of human empathy these

Corey 1:24:05

these things seem to be coming out undisputed champions Europeans, having a grand old time on Elon Musk's ex, just shitposting our way to oblivion and destruction. But, yeah, happy fucking New Year, everybody.

Corey 1:24:20

One final audible. Carter, name another Filipino person.

Zain 1:24:26

And we're going to leave it there. That's a wrap on the Holiday Spectacular. My name is Zane Velgey. With me, as always, Corey Hogan, Stephen Carter. And we'll see you in the New Year.

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