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SPEAKER_00: Ambitions made real. Well,
Zain: look at you, sad and depressed. Why wouldn't you be? It's January 5th, just another miserable day before you drag yourself back to work, back to your boss, back to your team, back to Microsoft teams. Ooh, that sucks. Gross. Sucks to be you. Anyways, back to Zoom calls, even worse.
Zain: Listen, let's not kid ourselves. This holiday season wasn't all bad, okay? It's going to be all bad going forward, but it wasn't all bad for you. You survived. And let's reflect on some of those magical moments of this holiday season. You got confronted by that relative, the one who voted for Trump and proudly declared, See, Trump isn't racist because all those Mexican men love him too. You sat there in silence, radiating the courage of a small, ineffective, spineless rebel.
Zain: Your
Zain: cousin Luigi, he didn't show up this year, which honestly made flirting with your other cousin and way less awkward for you. What a win. He's
Zain: tried to steer the conversation by bringing up Susan Holt as a counterpoint to all this. only to be told to shut the fuck up by your family. Classic. And now, nothing will rekindle those cherished holiday memories quite like kicking back, relaxing, and maybe picking up a little bit of RSV while you listen to the Strategist Holiday Spectacular proudly presented by Flair Airlines. Because if it isn't late, it isn't Flair. And with me as always, Corey Hogan and Stephen Carter.
Zain: Welcome, gents. Some of your
Corey: gents. Some of your best words. I felt like, you know,
Zain: I felt like, you know, here's the thing, here's
Corey: here's the thing, here's the thing. I
Zain: I
Zain: had time.
Zain: And you know what we do, Carter? There's a reason. People might be confused. January 5th, why are we recording late? Three reasons, and we give these three reasons every year. Number one, not late, okay? Orthodox Christmas is on Tuesday. Number two, and this is where you guys can say it with me, we only record when the sponsor's check is in the bank. Right, thank you. We're going right. And number three, we could do whatever we want, Stephen Carter, okay? We're not beholden to corporate interests here. That's true. No,
SPEAKER_00: Christmas is
SPEAKER_00: and this is where
SPEAKER_00: Right,
Carter: Right, thank you. We're going right.
Carter: No, we're not. We're not, and we're not a corporation. Well, we are a corporation. Are we beholden to our own corporate interest? No. No. Never been so far. I think
Zain: Are we beholden to our own
Zain: No. No. Never been so far. I think all of our past activities suggest that we are not. Corey, we
Zain: do this show every year. Sometimes we do it in celebration of Orthodox Christmas, as we have. Sometimes our sponsors check us late, which it was, and they take off early, which is something they rarely say on the tarmac. Well, I hear their CFO's been busy. Yes, yeah, for sure. Sure. Here's the thing, Corey. We're going to go through a series of segments, some of them new, some of them old school classics that we run down the year with. And I think we're very excited. But before we get going, any prayers or blessings you want to convey to the listeners before we get going here? That's a new additive that I wanted
Corey: Well, I hear their CFO's been busy. Yes, yeah, for sure.
Corey: wanted to bring to the show. Okay. That's
Corey: a really good one. You know what? I think maybe not. Maybe I'll save them all. Carter, a man of faith like
Zain: Carter, a man of faith like yourself. I only got four. Prayers or blessings for the listenership as they begin the start of Orthodox Christmas?
Carter: I choose blessings, Zane.
Zain: Yeah.
Zain: Fantastic. And do you want to expand?
Carter: No, I thought you were going to do them. I thought you were offering me a choice, and I chose blessings.
Corey: Yeah, it's like super salad when
Zain: when you go to a restaurant. This is off to a great start. Let's start with a new segment on this Flair Airlines Holiday Spectacular presented by Flair Airlines, which, by the way, you might say, that's redundant. It is not. We named it the Flair Airlines Holiday Spectacular before Flair Airlines sponsored the Holiday Spectacular. And we said, where do you want your name? Because it's already in there. They said, we want it extra. We want more. And I said, well, that's not consistent with anything you guys do. And they said, exactly. And so that's why it's tagged on to the end as well. Well, Corey, keeping with their spirit of talking about things that they don't offer, our first segment is called the Companion Pass, okay? This is something Flair Airlines does not offer. This is the Flair Airlines Companion Pass. Don't look for it because it's not a real thing. It doesn't exist, okay? It's called a regular ticket. But here's what I want to talk about as part of the Flair Airlines Companion Pass segment, Corey. You are going to get us started. And
Carter: when you go to a restaurant. This is off
Corey: does not offer.
Zain: And you are going to tell me one person in this calendar year, which, to be clear, was Last Orthodox Christmas was started in 24 and ends in this Christmas, which is 25. But that calendar year. Yeah, Orthodox to Orthodox. Orthodox to
SPEAKER_00: tell me one
Corey: Orthodox to Orthodox. Orthodox to
Corey: to
Zain: to Orthodox,
Corey: Orthodox, as we say. It's also the strategist fiscal year. It's
Zain: as we say. It's also the strategist
Zain: It's the strategist fiscal year. Corey, you're going to tell me one person that
Zain: we regret going on a political journey with and
Zain: who we would have replaced that person with this year. You'd say, why don't we start the spectacular with positive? It's already January. We're going to start with negative. Who is one person who we would have rather avoided? And I'm not going to give you a list on this one. Other questions I will. But who is one person that we would have rather avoided going on a political journey with this year? And then pull out another person. This is a little bit of the fantasy part of it. Pull out a person that may not actually be in politics right now, may actually have sat on the sidelines, that you would have said, man, in 2024, I would have loved to go on a journey with this other person. Corey Hogan, start us off. Well,
Carter: person who
Corey: I'm going to start with the low-hanging fruit, and I'm going to go with Jagmeet Singh. I'm not really sure that he was on a journey with us, if I'm going to be frank. It kind of felt like we were both just walking together aimlessly in the desert. That's certainly the Jagmeet Singh vibe from the past 24 months, let alone 12 months, what we call a strategist double fiscal year, right? And yeah, I don't know, man. I think if I was going to go on a journey with somebody that was new and different from that, yeah,
Corey: I struggle. I struggle because I hate all people. So I want to hear Stephen's answer and then I'll give a better answer because I'm better when I'm bouncing off him, I think. No,
Zain: no kidding. I think we've realized that on the show. Stephen Carter, known for bold picks. Who should we have not gone on a political journey with and who should we have swapped from the sidelines, real, alive, imaginary, dead, alive, doesn't matter, and replaced them instead with? um
Carter: kevin falcon is someone who we never should have been on a journey with this year kevin falcon took us uh to the soccer pitch and then promptly fell over dead uh we should have replaced kevin falcon with uh i'm gonna go with my old standby the old standby christy clark uh christy clark always overperformed and uh was someone that we could count on not like kevin falcon who folded the fucking party so she's
Corey: folded the
Corey: she's definitely got her eyes on a different job definitely probably will We'll announce her enthusiasm for it tomorrow. That's why I brought her
Carter: definitely probably will We'll announce her enthusiasm
Carter: it tomorrow. That's why I brought her back, because she's going to be back in our zeitgeist for 2025. Okay.
Corey: back in
Zain: in
Zain: Okay. That's exciting. She'll do very well, maybe, and we may cover that in another segment. Corey Hogan. Oh, sorry. We
Carter: That's exciting.
SPEAKER_00: Hogan. Oh, sorry.
Carter: sorry.
Carter: We jumped ahead. Has this
Zain: Has this inspired you for an original thought, which is an evergreen question on this show?
Corey: No. Actually, it turns out that I do my best work when I'm not bouncing off Stephen Carter. That's what I decided in the last 30 seconds. Well,
Zain: Well, of course. Of course. That's fair. Corey, let's jump to another segment. We should talk about, and let's not bury the lead. Let's make this like the Golden Globes. So there's another thing. We actually either record when we want, record when the check's in the mail, record prior to Orthodox Christmas, or record the same night the Golden Globes are on, Stephen Carter.
Zain: Oh, do we? And we do that. We do that. We do that. Yeah, it is something that we do. Does
Carter: Oh, do we? And we
Zain: Does
Carter: Does that mean the Golden Globes are on tonight?
Zain: Does that mean the Golden Globes
Zain: The Golden Globes are on tonight. And what they do is they actually have one of the star awards up front. And Stephen Carter, I want to talk about that right away. Good. Let's talk about our political player of the year, Asterix. Who
Carter: what they do
SPEAKER_00: do
Zain: piloted 2024? Here's the Asterix. You can't choose Pierre Pauliev.
Carter: I wasn't
Zain: wasn't going to. I'm going to give you a list. I'm going to give you a list. Hold
Carter: wasn't going to.
Carter: Hold on. I have to go over the... Oh, yeah. You always get a list and then we choose what we want to choose. I'm
Zain: get a list and then we choose what we want to choose. I'm going to give you a list and then you get inspired to go outside of said list should you choose. Is it Mr. David Eby? Is
Carter: you get inspired to go
SPEAKER_00: Mr. David
Zain: it Danielle Smith? Is
Zain: it Chrystia Freeland, if
Zain: you want to add some recency bias to the mix? Is it Susan Holt? Is
Zain: it Mark Carney? Or
Zain: is it none of the above for Mr. Stephen Carter?
Carter: Yeah, it's none of the above. And you're going to be shocked to hear who I say, because my relationship with this person is challenged.
Carter: But nonetheless, I'm going to have to go with your old friend, Nahed Nenshi.
Carter: Nahed had probably— You're giving it to Nenshi?
Carter: Nensh had the strongest performance in a leadership race, I think, that we've ever seen, outside of maybe JT in 2013.
Carter: Dominant performance, absolutely dominant performance. And I think that the political player of the year has to go Nahed Nenshi.
Zain: Really? Yeah. That's bold. I'm into it. I'm into it. That's what I said. But
Carter: I'm into it.
Carter: It
Zain: It
Carter: It wasn't
Zain: wasn't Zayn Balji,
Carter: wasn't Zayn Balji, though. Do
Zain: Do you agree? I've given you a list. Do you want me to recharge that list for you? Or do you want to, you know, do you feel like you've got enough of it? Or do you want to go off book? No, I
Corey: I got enough of it. Like, I think that it can't be Eby because Eby barely won. Barely won. So that's, now to be fair, he did beat a bit of a trend, right? He managed to get elected when incumbent governments were going left, right and center. I can't
Zain: got enough of
Zain: barely
Carter: barely won.
Carter: Barely
Carter: now
Carter: when incumbent
Corey: can't really be Smith, although I think you can make a better case for Smith than Nenshi, simply because she seems absolutely immune to any kind of consequences to unpopular decisions. If you look at her decisions in isolation, unpopular, you stack them together and mold them into the shape of a human being called Danielle Smith, somehow quite popular. Very interesting. Brain will need to be studied by science someday when her day comes. but uh no i mean i i don't think i would give it to her either carney
Corey: carney no i mean carney's most interesting contribution this year was that he was apparently the spark that lit ottawa on fire you
Carter: you
Zain: you know
Corey: know the idea that he would be finance minister at least in justin trudeau's head if nothing else was probably the thing that uh that
Corey: that led to freeland
Corey: freeland being ousted which led to Trudeau, you know, we're recording this on January 5th at 8.56pm Mountain Time.
Corey: By the time you listen to this, Justin Trudeau will probably have announced that he's stepped down or he's intending to step down as leader of the Liberal Party. So I can't give it to any of them. I hate the guy to death, but I think the political player of the year has to be Donald Trump. Donald
Carter: Donald Trump, the man
Corey: Donald Trump, the man who at the start of the year was stacking up felonies like the rest of us collected We got re-elected Pogs when we were 12 years old, got re-elected President of the United States in a landslide. You have to give it to Donald Trump. He sucks, but he's clearly got something there that's taken him from where he was to where he ended the year, which is apparently so powerful that he can just point at things on the globe and say they're mine now. So, you know, him,
Corey: him, unfortunately. unfortunately. Corey,
Zain: Corey, give me a Canadian take on this. You must have one, or at least be partial to a Canadian take on this. If I was giving you the non-Pierre...
Carter: I was giving you the
Corey: the
Zain: Yeah, he's our president, isn't he? He
Carter: He is, I believe, our president, yeah. We are the 51st state.
Zain: Sorry, Zane, I have to side
Carter: Zane, I have to side with Corey on this one.
Zain: Why are you doing that, Carter? You just said on the record that she was a political player of the year, to everyone's surprise. I
Carter: surprise. I know, it's very upsetting. That's
Zain: probably why. No, he's zagging. yeah
Carter: probably why. No, he's
Corey: he's
Corey: yeah yeah
Zain: yeah
Zain: yeah okay well
Corey: okay well if you want to take it into a canadian context i'm
Zain: context i'm curious to hear what actually yeah
Corey: yeah
Corey: yeah it's doug ford oh
Corey: oh doug ford many of the same reasons manifesting in very different ways like when you think about the scandals that doug ford has been beset with we were all joking about how when he had to reverse his green line or not green line sorry that's the alberta green belt the green belt yeah uh decisions that he was going to be invited to you know a 3 a.m party And then that would be the last anybody saw from him, right? But not only did he survive that, he survived scandals related to his ministers. He's looking like he's setting up an election for this year, using many of the same tactics that we just really wrote over Trudeau for doing, like writing checks to people. You know, every Ontarian is going to get their check, and he's going to win a landslide by the looks of things here. And in doing so, if he does so, I mean, there's still an election to happen here. If he manages to put his foot on the neck of the Liberals the way it looks like he will, this might be the end of the Ontario Liberal Party. He may actually kill the Ontario Liberal Party. So, similar powers to Donald Trump, but also at the end of the year, by standing up as the Dean of the Council of Confederation, you know, the premier with the mostest, he also managed to present himself to a lot of Canadians across the country, including myself, as somebody who is handling Trump better than most. Right?
Zain: doug ford many
Zain: same
Carter: same reasons
Zain: reasons
Carter: reasons
Zain: reasons manifesting
Carter: manifesting
Zain: alberta green belt
Corey: Right? So I'm going to give it to Donald. And
Corey: then you're going to give it to Doug. No, just Donald. I told you the Doug thing, but it's still Donald. Carter, we'll
Zain: Doug. No, just Donald.
Zain: Carter, we'll get to Donald Trump in a second. React to me about the Doug Ford thing.
Carter: Doug Ford might be the best sitting premier that we have in Canada right now. It's really hard to say. Despite his approval
Zain: hard to say. Despite his approval rating skewing all the way to the end as one of the worst in the entire country? I think so, because he continues
Carter: I think so, because he continues to survive. I mean, he's going to be ahead of, you
Carter: you know, like when he gets reelected, and I think that he will get reelected, it will be because he knows the populist buttons to push in Canada. And Pierre Polyev is pressing a lot of those same populist buttons, but he's pressing them from a Donald Trump point of view. I think that Doug Ford has his own unique take on populism, and
Carter: and he has been able to survive in
Carter: in this role a
Carter: a hell of a lot longer than anybody thought. Well, certainly I.
Carter: I won't drag
Carter: drag Corey into this, but he's survived better than I ever
Carter: ever would have given him credit for.
Zain: Yeah. Corey, give me the reaction to Nenshi. very quickly in Carter's choice. I know he ultimately went with Trump, but give me the Nenshi reaction with the historic leadership win.
Corey: Yeah, I guess if the year ended in June, I would agree with Stephen, because that was a pretty commanding victory. And he did manage to wholesale take over the party, the Alberta New Democrats, that is, in a way that just shocked a lot of non-listeners to the pod. Because, of course, Gilbert Kerr on this pod, we were, you know, we called it within 2%, I think, because we're professionals. We're very good.
Carter: We're very good.
Corey: Yeah, professionals and very good. We knew what was going to happen. But from
Corey: June to December, he got an A for the first six months. I can't give him better than a C for the last six months. And the only reason he pulled himself up to a C was the Lethbridge by-election the NDP did just as well, pretty much, as they did during the previous general, which was not a given here. here but my observation would be he's been fairly silent and fairly invisible and there are reasons for that often you've got to go silent you've got to go dark as you're fixing up the party that you take over especially if you're fundamentally changing it but um i don't think that i would be alone as an albertan saying he seemed pretty absent from some pretty major debates other debates he has stepped into for reasons totally inexplicable to me the green line is actually actually probably the biggest one, why he feels the need to swing at that ball every time he comes within two stadiums of it, I will never understand. So no, I mean, I just I can't say that. I can't say that he was player of the year. I'd say he had a great start to the year. And if he can find that kind of game going forward, he might be player of next year, year after whenever there's an election, we might be talking about Premier Nenshi. But he really, to me felt like a guy who knew he wanted to win the leadership and then once he caught the
Corey: the car, he didn't know what to do with it to use that. And that
Carter: And that was really all you, Zane. It really wasn't about the leader at all. I rescind my earlier comments and... Oh!
Carter: Political
Zain: Political player of the year, Zane Belgey. Which, by the way, this is a good time to announce that I'll be running in... I'll just pick a random running. I'm just going to run... Edmonton Strathcona. Oh,
Carter: player of the year, Zane Belgey. Which, by the way, this is
Corey: is a
Zain: Oh, boy! Zane,
Carter: Oh, boy! Zane, way to commit.
Zain: Yeah, I'm going to commit to Edmonton Strathcona. I feel like it's viable for the Velji party and for myself, Zane Velji, a representative of the Velji party. I may also, and I'm open to this, run under the Go Calgary banner, depending on the length of the Calgary Tower. If it could be taller than any building in Edmonton Strathcona, which I believe is relatively easy, because they're relatively short buildings. I feel like the Go Calgary. That's a really
SPEAKER_00: length of the Calgary
Carter: That's a really good way to start, Zane. You are starting with a bang.
Corey: with
Zain: with a bang.
Corey: bang.
Zain: bang.
Corey: bang.
Carter: Really well done.
Zain: Really well done. You know,
Corey: done. You know, really
Corey: a real bone for the Discord right here that you're handing out. Absolutely. That's nice of you. No,
Zain: that you're
Zain: Absolutely. That's nice of you. No, I think they should be on it. Get print-ready files going, people. We need to make this happen. Okay, let's move on to, before we get into what I know is your favorite, which is the
Zain: who we lost this year. Let's talk about, Corey, I know you're expecting this. I know you're excited about this, because I know you're all about the positivity, but you know what? More negativity. Good vibes. More negativity. Bad guys. No, more negativity. It's time for our Flair Airlines Flight Risk of the Year. This is our most overhyped play or person of the year. Let me give you a list. You can also make your own, as is always customary on the Holiday Spectacular. We got Justin Trudeau for doing Justin Trudeau things. We've got Pierre Poliev's Populist Pivot. I'm not talking about Pierre Poliev in prison, but his Populist Pivot. Is it softening? Is it overrated? Bonnie Crombie.
Corey: Bad guys. No, more negativity.
Zain: Danielle Smith and the Promise of the Sovereignty Act. Cabinet Shuffles and their effectiveness. And David Eby on housing and street crime.
Zain: You
Corey: You know, that is a solid
Zain: that is a solid
Corey: solid list.
Zain: list.
Corey: list. I'm going to give it to you, Zane. It
Zain: Zane.
Zain: It is
Corey: is a list, but
Zain: but
Corey: but
Zain: but it is not a comprehensive list. There are so many other things you could choose for a flight risk, something that was overhyped, overrated this year. We loved it. We thought it was amazing, or we didn't love it. We thought it was amazing from the get.
Corey: but it is not a
Zain: Your choice, Corey Hogan. Carter, I'm coming to you next. It's
Corey: It's really hard, really hard to get past the first one on the list, which is Justin Trudeau. And in the course of the last strategist fiscal, we saw how many different attempts to reset his government's fortunes. Do you remember in February when the liberals were talking about what a big deal the budget was going to be? The budget is going to fucking change things. things. Do you remember that? I put the budget on
Zain: Do you remember that? I put the budget on the list. That's true. As I put cabinet troubles. Yes. Yeah.
Corey: Yeah. Well, maybe the budget is my answer then, because I'll think about that in particular. They were going around talking about how it was going to increase fortunes by five points. Remember
Zain: Remember that? 10
Corey: 10 points? Yes.
Zain: Yes. If I remember correctly, and you guys will have to help too, right? It was, they had leaked or explicitly broadcast that this was supposed to have a, like a poll boost. Like you were supposed to see it. And it was supposed to be by single Single digits by X date and a double digit by Y date. Yeah. And
Corey: And it didn't do any of that, by the way. Here's what I want our listeners to do. I want them to go to Wikipedia and look up public opinion polling for the 2025 federal election in Canada. And I want them to identify when the budget was introduced. And I want them to look at what polling did between then and now. Because what you'll see is the continuation of an unbroken trend down from summer of 2023 when Justin Trudeau probably should have resigned, right? When he did his first big change-up, when he decided he was going to do the cabinet. So then there were ads, and then there was the budget, and then there were more ads, and then there was the change of staff and all of this shit. And it's not worked. So I think that realistically, to give it to anybody else would be doing a disservice to this award. It would be like one of those weird Oscars eggs, or I guess more topical would be a weird Golden Globes egg. Yes, to record on the 9th. Yeah, it's just not going to happen. You've got to give this one to Justin Trudeau.
Zain: And it didn't do any of that, by
Zain: Carter, is it going to Justin Trudeau? There are other folks on this list, you know, that may have, whether it's themselves or their plays. It could be Bonnie Crombie. It could be Daniel Smith on the Sovereignty Act. It could be Pierre Poliev on populism. Or it could be on EB on A Source of Things. But it could also just be Justin Trudeau for you two. Stephen Carter, who is it? it so
Carter: so eb is a strong contender i mean this is a good list zane this is your best list yet this is we're actually choosing from this is a good list this is a good this is a good list attaboy way
Corey: from this
Zain: this
Corey: this is
Zain: is
Corey: is
Zain: is a good list this
Corey: this is
Zain: is
Corey: is a good
Zain: good
Corey: good this
Zain: this is a
Corey: a
Zain: a
Corey: a good list attaboy way
Zain: way
Zain: way to come proud of you buddy proud of you but i might i might actually take it mainstream uh
Carter: you but i might
Carter: might i
Carter: uh no i wouldn't expect belgium's list um but
Carter: but it's
Carter: gotta be justin trudeau i mean we are we
Carter: we are recording this on on the eve or the eve of the eve of the resignation of the Prime Minister of Canada. These things, you know, they come pretty quick, but they don't come very often, right?
Carter: right? We don't see this very regularly. Most of the time, our prime ministers are unelected, and
Carter: and now we've got ourselves someone who's going to have to resign. 18 months too late, really, but nonetheless, it's still a resignation. so i'd say it's uh the biggest flight risk is justin trudeau who is uh probably boarding a flight to cabo
Carter: cabo cabo cabo cabo
Carter: let's say that cabo cabo he's
Carter: he's
Carter: he's gonna he's boarding a flight uh tomorrow uh and will not be back you're
Zain: predicting tomorrow many people are we of course to be clear recording on january 5th cory hogan you wanted to finish us off on this segment before before I move it on to our next sponsored segment by Flair Airlines, which is a whole podcast of holidays. It's a Flair Airlines holiday spectacular brought to you by Flair Airlines. Corey. It's
Corey: Flair Airlines, which is a whole podcast of holidays.
Corey: It's
Zain: It's really good.
Corey: good.
Zain: good.
Corey: Really, really important to note that when Steven said they come pretty quick, but they don't come pretty often. Yeah. I didn't interject to say that was the name of his sex tape. Yeah.
Carter: Thank you for that. But
Corey: the awkward pause
Zain: pause was put in there. No, that's good. Yeah. I'm letting people laugh at home with that. Is that what they were doing? No, no, No, they were not doing that. Let's move on to our next segment. Our next segment, Stephen Carter presented, of course, drumroll please, by Flair Airlines. This segment is called Last Seat in 35F.
Carter: Yeah. I'm letting people
SPEAKER_00: people
SPEAKER_00: Is that what they were doing?
SPEAKER_00: that. Let's move on
Zain: You're
Carter: You're on
Zain: You're on the Flair Airlines red eye, Corey Hogan, and you could choose one of the following two and sometimes three people to allow boarding on the flight heading into this year. Who would you rather be is the question. The
Zain: question is, who would you rather be present day and hence get boarding on this beautiful, beautiful beautiful very outdated aircraft cory
Zain: cory hogan they're new no not
Carter: cory hogan they're
Corey: they're
Zain: not
Carter: not really no yeah
Zain: yeah yeah no they they haven't splurged for auto 727s
Carter: auto 727s i think yeah cory
Zain: cory would
Zain: you rather be i'm gonna and i'm gonna go with with these questions to each of you so you guys can have a bit of a discussion on this pure polyev which seems like an obvious choice wouldn't you want to be pure polyev more so than anyone else in this entire country well i'm going to expand beyond the country and i'm not going to throw donald trump at you because then you could easily say well well, you're Donald Trump. You get to control the United States and the U.S. bigger than Canada. You want to be Trump.
Corey: so
Zain: Corey, would you rather be Pierre Pauliev or Elon Musk?
Corey: Holy shit. I would
Corey: pick Pierre Pauliev. I would pick Pierre Pauliev because he is going to be prime minister of this country. And that's a pretty good job. And that's the kind of job that I think somebody should aspire to do and has an awful lot of value to it. Elon Musk is not a particularly redeemable human being he's got a lot of money right
Corey: how much hundreds
Corey: of billions at
Carter: billions at this point hundreds yeah yeah yeah do
Corey: hundreds yeah yeah yeah do you know what's more than that the gdp of canada so i i like canada better i think canada is probably a better prize there and elon musk is a sad pathetic man who doesn't he spent christmas day basically hanging out at mar-a-lago instead of with his family so i
Corey: i don't know about that doesn't he
Carter: that doesn't he have like 12 kids or something yeah and yet i thought
Corey: yeah
Zain: yeah and yet i thought both of you would would choose elon now carter still very well may but stephen carter who
Zain: who would you rather be heading into 2025 pierre pauliev or
Zain: elon musk
Carter: let's assume i had 100 choices and
Carter: i could choose 100 different times right 100 different times i could choose simulation okay
Zain: choose 100 different
Zain: 100 different times
Zain: simulation okay it's like
Carter: it's like a simulation yeah like and every time you do i would choose 99 times out out of a hundred to be Pierre Poliev because that
Carter: that man, Elon Musk is losing his fucking mind in front of us. He is Howard using his life away. And in 10 or 15 years, he will be locked up in some hotel penthouse, uh, with his fingernails growing long and his hair completely growing out, uh, not speaking to anybody, but his most trusted advisors via Twitter, uh, or I'm sorry, X, and he'll be the only one left he'll be the only one left on on x and he'll be xing
Carter: xing back and forth to
Carter: to his key advisors uh and one of them i hope will be donald trump i
Carter: i hope he lives up cory
Corey: cory jump in i got the thing about musk is it's actually kind of sad like there's not even as
Corey: as much as i don't like the fellow very much there's also a patheticness about it that is just tragic like i already mentioned that the family component of it but he also has this alt which has been outed for all of the internet to see who basically went around praising himself and what a good dad he must be and stuff like like that's really sad dude like you've created a fake persona to pump you up in front of the internet about you not being a piece of shit father like you're you're
Zain: tragic like
Corey: you're a loser and there's no amount of money in the world that's going to get that stink off you there's no number of social social media platforms that you can buy that's going to turn you into somebody better than that. The only way you're going to turn yourself into somebody better than that is doing some serious work on yourself. And frankly, I think you have too much money to do it. I think, unfortunately, the algorithm that is life has trained you to think this is what winning is. Yeah, you've got hundreds of billions of dollars. You've got some successful companies. I wouldn't be you on
Corey: my worst day you know if i was sitting there poor as shit thinking man i just need a dollar i wouldn't pick elon musk that guy is tragic there
Zain: it is cory hogan with the final word on pierre paulie versus elon musk pierre getting the final no legroom seat on flare airline seat 35 f carter you know what's better than two or
Zain: three
Zain: three is better than two okay four is not better than two here we go okay my bad carter
Corey: is not
Carter: not better
Corey: better
Carter: we go okay my bad carter
Zain: carter three people run to you you're the gate agent um because that's what you've been reduced to for flare airlines red eye going to yeah to nowhere you
Carter: yeah to nowhere
Zain: you
Carter: you know not out of the question david
Zain: you know not out
Zain: david eby tim euston susan
Zain: holt who
Zain: are you giving the seat to who do you want to be heading into the plane of 2025 between those three provincial leaders who all common
Zain: denominator won an election this year
Carter: yeah they all did um but
Carter: but only one of them won a election of of a real province and that
Carter: that was david eby so
Carter: so come on
Corey: on uh
Carter: uh
Carter: uh those other provinces don't do that you know they exist because of history so carter's
Corey: uh those
Zain: those other provinces don't do that you know they
Zain: so carter's given up carter's given up a slimmer mandate a very tight majority but it's a tight majority for a bigger majority eby
Carter: for a bigger majority eby
Carter: eby
Zain: eby
Zain: eby houston or holt who you choosing
Corey: i'm for sure eby because bc is uh just
Corey: just across the
Carter: the rockies from here you know
Corey: rockies
Zain: rockies
Corey: rockies from here you
Corey: know yeah
Carter: yeah i
Corey: i don't want to say that i don't want to go where steven did with this real you don't want to say that but you want to mean that right so like yeah
Carter: you don't want to say that but you want to mean that
Zain: that
Carter: yeah
Zain: yeah
Carter: yeah that's exactly what
Zain: yeah that's exactly what
Carter: what he's saying okay
Zain: okay so maybe just say i want to mean i want to mean what steven said but i don't want to say it and then we'll move on it's a
Corey: a large province zane
Zain: cory we'll start with you do you know it's better than two um
Corey: three
Zain: three
Zain: three three that is correct cory it is three mark carney okay
Zain: okay yeah christopher freeland okay For Christy Clark, who
Zain: who are you handing the
Zain: the boarding pass to seat 35F heading into 2025? Give me that choice and game it out for me. Let's spend some time on here. So
Corey: So this almost feels like a monkey's paw thing, right? Like, which one are you going to allow to go? Because these are three likely contenders for the liberal leadership. Yes, that is the common denominator. That is the common denominator for those who just are not following the ball. because the name christy clark will throw a lot of people like christy clark liberal leader man she is thirsty for that job she's been going around everywhere putting her hand up for that job she will almost certainly be the first person to announce her official intention to run for that job she might actually do it before justin trudeau gets off the podium i think there's a real possibility of which could be tomorrow yes
Zain: putting her
Carter: yes i thought you meant she would do it before justin trudeau gets off and
Corey: yes i thought
Carter: and i
Carter: i didn't think that was likely that's
Corey: didn't think that was likely that's you're taking it too blue so sorry
Carter: so sorry Sorry, my bad. Yeah.
Corey: Yeah. You
Carter: You were the one talking about the name of my sex date.
Corey: That's different. That's better. Yeah, it's different. It's different. It's better. Yeah.
Corey: Yeah. Okay.
Corey: Are you going to make a choice, Corey? Yeah, I am. I am. I just wanted to talk out a little bit of it here. So here's
Zain: here's the thing. That's fine. You can talk it out. Where's your struggle at?
Corey: the thing. That's fine.
Zain: Freeland
Corey: Freeland is obviously- And what do you mean by monkey paws? I don't understand what that meant. Well, because you win this, you win the leadership. That might not actually be the best thing for you. This might be the thing that is good in the short term, and then it turns out maybe you didn't actually want this. real possibility with the liberal leadership right now right
Zain: what do you mean by monkey paws?
Zain: right you potentially just get a portrait and then you're a footnote in history sort of thing
Corey: yeah absolutely like shortest serving prime minister you know you'll be in the textbooks for a while on that particular one right real possibility so um here's another question for sure for
Zain: another question for
Corey: for sure not here's what i think i
Corey: think that i'm going to give this one to carney and here's why freeland had an amazing close to the the year freeland did a like she basically brought down a prime minister right there was a lot of grumbling for a lot of time nobody stood up and did fucking shit and then his most loyal lieutenant took him out right that is wild and she did it with this perfectly written letter she played the next week perfectly but
Corey: but i don't think her weeks since then have been particularly amazing i mean
Zain: mean
Corey: mean And listen, I've been talking to a lot of people. I know so is Steven. I know you have too, Zane. There's a lot of chatter about a lot of people, but I find that she has actually kind of slid down the chatter rank order. That's not to say she's not out there doing things, but I think that there's a lot of conversation that is not being controlled by her and her team. Let's put it that way. so
Zain: mean
Corey: so that's that's uh that's why i put freeland off to the side here christy clark could be the dark horse here i am not gonna i'm not gonna write her off because i made the mistake of writing off daniel smith when she ran for the ucp leadership thinking that she was too far outside of the mainstream there but and daniel smith of course announced basically the day i think actually the day that jason kenney resigned right we were all like what is she doing that's crazy there's
Carter: we were all like
Corey: there's a lot lot of value in being the person who's out there first, puts her hand up, is able to call everybody. So I'm not saying she can't do it. But I'm saying she seems pretty tonally off where the modern Liberal Party is. She does. And it's hard for me to imagine her getting a ton of support in
Corey: particular in the East. I think she could do a pretty good job out here in the West. But BC plus Alberta is as big as Quebec plus a chunk of the Maritimes, but it's not enough to win the liberal leadership. And that leaves Carney. And strangely enough, while I wouldn't give Carney like the play of the year earlier, I think that he is pretty well positioned here in the sense that he was at ground zero, but somehow seems to be getting to walk away from it. Go back to like all of the drama with Freeland and Trudeau and the end of it all. And the fact that he was going to be brought in to prop up the Trudeau government. But I don't know. I mean, it's way too early to to call these things, but I guess don't get the sense that that stink is sticking to him in either sense, right? And ultimately, a lot of the reason why he was appealing to the prime minister is why he's probably well positioned to be one of the serious contenders for this liberal leadership and to be prime minister of Canada. Now, do I think he can win the election?
Corey: Fuck, I don't think any liberal can win the election right now. But if what he wants is to be a liberal leader, I don't think he's horribly positioned.
Zain: Carter, that's an interesting analysis by Corey. You got one seat. I dozed
Corey: You
Carter: You got
Corey: got
Carter: got one seat. I dozed off. You got one seat. You got Clark, you got Freeland, and you
Zain: dozed off. You got one seat. You got Clark, you got Freeland, and you
Zain: you got Carney. Who were you handing the boarding pass for 35 F2?
Carter: you
Carter: I'm giving it to Freeland because that's as close as she's going to get to winning anything in the next year.
Zain: Wow.
Zain: Okay.
Zain: You feel like that was a mic drop moment for you?
Corey: you? Listeners, he has put his hands up in victory and stepped away from the microphone.
Corey: I win.
Carter: win.
Corey: um nobody it's
Corey: not nobody yeah that's not okay
Carter: that's not okay
Carter: okay yeah
Corey: yeah anyways
Carter: anyways it's gonna be freeland she's not gonna win anything next year who
Zain: who would you rather be heading into 2025 let me ask you in the more elementary way um not non-sponsor non-sponsored coded carter let's take out the freeland
Carter: let's take out the freeland because i think that winning the liberal leadership is gonna be a nasty piece of work for whoever wins you
Carter: think she's gonna win it is
Zain: is that
Carter: that what you're trying to say i don't even know what i'm saying she has no chance of winning the leadership okay
Zain: i don't even know what i'm saying she has
Carter: okay i think that that's good for her because
Carter: because at the end of the day whoever wins this thing is then going to get seven days before they are turned into um
Carter: um
Carter: um the heavy bag being
Carter: being punched by mike tyson and
Carter: i hate you know making pierre pauliev mike
Carter: mike tyson in this characterization uh
Carter: uh i know that you know mike tyson's character can't take that kind of a front okay
Corey: okay
Corey: that was that was a little bit much i gotta say
Carter: You're
SPEAKER_00: You're so proud of yourself with
Corey: so proud
Zain: proud
Corey: proud of yourself with that.
Zain: with that. Can I give you
SPEAKER_00: Can
SPEAKER_00: you another swing at this,
Zain: Parker?
SPEAKER_00: We
Zain: haven't even got to the eulogies just yet. Oh, okay. Or
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
Zain: the Flair, as we call them, the Flair Airlines near misses, which is, I mean, there are people near you that you miss because they're gone. That's what they call them.
SPEAKER_00: which
Carter: which is, I
Carter: Okay, no, that's really good. Yeah.
Zain: That's great. It was their choice, not mine. No, your stuff is really good. Your stuff is very good. It's real good. Your stuff is really good. No, I mean,
Carter: It was their
Carter: choice, not mine. No, your stuff is really good. Your stuff is very good. It's real good. Your
Carter: Your stuff is really good.
Carter: No, I mean, people
Zain: people
Carter: people love
Zain: love it. E. Carter, I'm going to give you a nice shot at this. E. Francois Blanchet, okay,
Carter: nice shot
Zain: in the BQ, or Jagmeet Singh in the NDP? Oh,
Carter: that's so easy.
Zain: that's so easy.
Carter: Heading into 2025,
Zain: Heading into 2025, who would you rather be? And who would you board into seat 35F?
Carter: Blanchet's got a political future, so I'm going to go with him.
Zain: Does Jagmeet not have one? Should he become leader, official leader of the opposition?
Carter: leader, official leader of the opposition?
Carter: Jagmeet's not going to become official leader of the opposition. He's going to be the official leader of the fourth place party, if he's lucky. and
Carter: that's that's his i mean
Corey: mean he's going to be battling
Carter: mean he's going to be battling with elizabeth may you
Corey: you just predicted it yeah
Corey: yeah just you made a prediction i
Carter: yeah just you
Carter: i made a prediction and write it down
Carter: write it down prime
Corey: prime minister singh you heard it here first on the strategist write it down who
Carter: strategist
Zain: strategist write
Carter: write
Zain: write
Carter: write
Zain: write it down who
Zain: who would you rather be the bq and blanchette or singh and the ndp blanchette
Corey: bq and
Corey: blanchette heading into what seems to be an election coming blanchette because it's an expectations game and those expectations have not crystallized out there but he has a real possibility to be leader of the official opposition something that the bloc has done before we'll all recall in the 90s uh when Lucien Bouchard did that right but uh it's
Zain: blanchette heading into what
Corey: it's it's not nothing and you don't even need it if you're leader of the bloc he's gonna have an awful lot of power in an Ottawa that is otherwise unipolar polar right because here's the thing here's the thing that you need to keep in mind and I think I think we all forget this dynamic, because it's been such a quiet time on the sovereignist front. And you look at Poland and Quebec, and it's not super popular to be a separatist right now. You know, it's 30-35%, depending on the poll. Holy fuck, I'll bet you a light bulb just went off in my head. It's probably as high or higher here in Alberta. Somebody shoot me. but the dynamic that you have to remember is
Carter: here's the thing here's
Corey: is in a majority government in
Corey: theory all of the power is with one party but because of the dynamic of confederation you
Corey: know quebec interests separatist interests you know keeping that fire down is always right there and if you are a bq leader in that unipolar environment and you're the official opposition leader you're going to have way more power than the liberals in that job or the ndp in that job because your ability to bestow the flames and potentially ruin the country doesn't go away simply because you're not in government. You're never in government. You've been given the biggest platform possible in that situation with an antagonist in Pierre
Zain: because your ability
Corey: Pierre Polyev. Don't let the French last name fool you. He can speak French, but he's not a Francophone. His French is, you know, a little rusty sometimes. He is not naturally a Quebecer. I
Corey: I mean, you add in a PQ Premier, which is very likely as well, Well, if you look at the polls right now, although you never know, Pablo Rodriguez is running for the Quebec Liberal Party. Save that
Zain: Quebec Liberal
Zain: Save that thought for a second. Yep.
Corey: Yep. Well, I'll tell you something. That dynamic gives a lot of power to Blanchett, like a lot more power than any, any
Corey: separatist has had in a federal setting since Lucien Bouchard.
Zain: Carter, any reaction before we move on to our next one?
Carter: He basically said that Singh is going to be the leader of the fourth place party. We
Carter: We all
Zain: all heard.
Zain: Carter, Corey mentioned Rodriguez. I want to bring him up.
Carter: Okay. Would
Zain: Would you rather be Pablo
Zain: Pablo Rodriguez or
Zain: Nahed Nenshi heading
Zain: into 2025?
Carter: Well, one
Carter: of them has a chance to become a premier. You
Zain: of them has a chance to become a premier. You both have uphill battles. Yeah. The common denominator for those not familiar, they're both trying to run uphill battles to become premier.
Carter: Yeah.
Carter: not familiar,
Zain: Or what seems to be uphill battles to become premier.
Carter: what seems to be uphill battles
Carter: Yeah, I mean, Nenshi's
Carter: got a long ways to go in Alberta. And yeah,
Carter: I'm going to say Rodriguez. I'd rather be Rodriguez.
Zain: You'd rather be Pablo Rodriguez right now? Former Liberal cabinet minister. He's from Quebec, right? And I don't know if he's fully declared, but it is. Oh, no, I think he's declared.
Carter: Former Liberal cabinet minister.
Corey: is. Oh, no, I think he's declared. I mean, he left cabinet to do it. Yeah, left cabinet,
Zain: I mean, he left
Zain: do it. Yeah, left cabinet, and he's expected to run for the Liberals to try to create some resurgence for that party in Quebec. Corey, who would you rather be? And then I'll get both of your thoughts if there's anything to expand on. So
Corey: So the thing about Quebec politics always is that they're much more changeable than
Corey: than Alberta politics, than Ontario politics. People are willing to move between parties more aggressively. And so I think if you are given a vehicle, and if you're a talented politician, and the Quebec Liberal Party is still a vehicle, and Pablo Rodriguez is a talented politician, you've
Zain: Ontario politics.
Carter: you've
Corey: you've got a shooter shot, right?
Corey: right? And so I think that you've just got to acknowledge that as a bit of a starting point. He's starting from further back, but it's in an environment that's more dynamic, dynamic in the sense more changeable, and he's probably got a bit of a possibility there. That
Corey: said, he is further back.
Corey: I think I would actually pick Nahed Nenshi on this one. I think not only is the prize my home province, which I like, I
Corey: think Nahed Nenshi is not so far back that if in two years the shine has come off, If the magical force field around Danielle Smith
Zain: Smith fails,
Corey: fails, all
Corey: of those components are there for Nahid Nenshi to take government with the Alberta NDP. So I actually like his chances better. I would give the ticket to Nahid Nenshi.
Zain: Great, Carter. So Corey chooses Nenshi because he was the political player of the year, as indicated by you. Carter, final one. Seat 35F. Final time as gate agent. You're being fired tomorrow. Doug Ford needs a seat. What's my severance?
SPEAKER_00: What's my severance?
Zain: not
Zain: not as much as you're used to okay that's for sure experience but good for you it's not made public this time yeah
SPEAKER_00: okay
Carter: okay that's
SPEAKER_00: that's
Carter: that's for
SPEAKER_00: experience
Carter: experience but good for you it's not made
Carter: yeah okay so it's
Zain: yeah okay so it's a win-win i guess yeah less money not public um daniel
Carter: yeah less
Zain: smith needs a seat doug ford needs a seat who
Zain: are you giving it to i
Carter: don't want to give anything to daniel smith i don't want to give her credit for anything i don't want to give her victory for anything i
Carter: i think that she's a lunatic who's gone way way way outside
Carter: outside the norm of canadian politics politics um but
Carter: i think she's going to be premier for a lot longer than doug ford's going to be premier so i'm going to go with uh i'm going to go with daniel smith and i'm not going to worry about the fact that your camera's pointed at your crotch i freaked me out a little bit but i'm not going to worry about it i
Corey: not going to worry about it i was i was
Corey: was
Corey: was wondering if we were just going to breeze past that but sorry just a moment i was getting i
Carter: sorry just a moment i was getting i
Zain: i was gonna just getting ready to tube in it on the the yeah
Carter: there
Carter: was a total moment okay anyways uh yeah daniel smith is who i'm picking uh
Zain: okay anyways
Carter: uh picking
Zain: picking daniel smith cory your political player of the year canadian wise yeah there's no way i mean was douglas ford uh are you choosing daniel smith to take c35f heading into 2025 or would you rather be mr duck for so
Corey: so i just disagree with steven that she's going to be premier longer like i i I think he's going to re-renew and re-up in like a month here when Ontario goes to the polls, and I think he's going to win. So I could be wrong about that. Stranger things have happened, but I will pick Doug Ford. Not only has he managed to hold on to Ontario, not only has he managed to totally change the landscape of Ontario politics over his terms in office, but he also has started to build himself a persona amongst Canadians that makes him look like a real leader. Listen, Ontarians out there, this is going to rock your fucking world. But most of the time, we actually don't think of the Premier of Ontario as a particularly important person in our lives outside of, you know, well, ever, right? But Doug Ford, the way he's standing up to Donald Trump, he has actually started to have resonance in other provinces here. And no, I think it's all good for him. I think that he's having kind of a so inexplicably because of all of the scandals that have been around. He's having a really good year at a time when premiers don't usually have really good years. You know, he's just been premier too long to have really good years. And yet he's seemingly doing it. We're
Zain: going to leave that segment there and move it on to our next segment. Do you sense a change in the tone of my voice? Well, it's obvious. It's time for the Flair Airlines Near Misses. As I mentioned earlier, these are actual misses. These are people near to us. We miss them.
Corey: people near to us. We miss them. them yeah yeah we're missed them because they're near to us or they were near to us they're people that are near to us yeah
Zain: them yeah yeah we're
Zain: to us they're people that
Zain: yeah there are people that are near to us so they're near yeah miss and we missed this statement used to be called the flair airlines uh forgotten but not gone uh but of course we have rebranded for this year uh for for all you folks carter it's the flair airlines near misses uh before we um before we jump into the first um uh eulogy uh the first heartfelt uh goodbye um which will be we'll we'll start with one cory hogan um any commentary on the new name i
Corey: and we missed this statement used to be called the
Carter: prefer the old cory okay
Zain: the old cory
Carter: okay
Zain: okay you did cory cory um this was not a great year this was maybe a goodbye year for our canadian yeah immigration ideals uh
Corey: our canadian yeah
Zain: we held immigration uh in in the window in such a way heralded and and and proudly prompted it up in in such a way unlimited some Some said near unlimited, others said, well, no longer seems to be where the population is on Canadian immigration. Corey Hogan, for the Flair Airlines near miss, because it's near to us and we miss it, the Canadian immigration ideals eulogy.
Corey: held immigration
SPEAKER_00: immigration
Corey: eulogy. Well, first off, Zane, thank you for that verbose lead in which gave me time to do a little bit of Googling here. here. Now, I'd
Corey: like to read some excerpts from the Book of Exodus, chapter 22. If
Corey: a man shall steal an ox or
Corey: or a sheep and kill it or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. Goes
Corey: on, of course, to say thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. But
Corey: I think the point that I was building to, thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him, for ye were strangers in the land of Israel. Wait,
Corey: Wait, Egypt. Shoot. That was weird. Okay.
Corey: Canadian consensus on immigration is over. And
Corey: there's a lot of reasons for that. People
Corey: need houses. And
Corey: immigrants are people looking
Corey: looking for houses.
Corey: Because houses cost money. And
Corey: you get money from jobs. And immigrants want those jobs. And you want those jobs too. Here's the thing. As Canadians, we've decided the economy can no longer grow. The economy is the size it is. All
Corey: the cream goes to Elon Musk and the rest rest of us just duke it out for whatever's left. We now believe the
Corey: economy is something that can never grow, and
Corey: therefore it's elbows up all
Corey: of the time, and
Corey: and it's time to keep people out.
Corey: Is it Canadian? Well,
Corey: Well, I'd say probably whatever we do as Canadians is Canadian. Not historically what I'd consider a Canadian, but
Corey: but it is what it is. There's
Corey: never been, I think, a farewell that's happened so The
Corey: consensus moved from immigration good, all parties agree, to the liberals shutting the borders in so little time, it
Corey: would make your head explode if you lived in a world where you expected rational things to happen.
Corey: And I forget how I normally end these. Yeah,
Zain: I think just with a nice amen. Amen.
Corey: just with a nice amen.
Corey: Amen.
Corey: Beautiful,
Zain: Beautiful,
Corey: Beautiful, beautiful
Zain: beautiful words, Carter, by Corey Ogun. He had me at Israel. Carter, you've already teased this eulogy. You're a tease on this show, so it is completely fitting. And, you know, levity is welcome when we're putting something to rest, something to bed. Stephen Carter, for the Flair Airlines near miss, because it's near to us and it's near our heart, and we miss
Corey: miss it. You said it was people, and then your very first one was the concept of immigration. I just... Well, no, it's
Zain: miss it. You
Zain: just... Well, no, it's people, it's things, this next thing is a thing. I mean, careers end, people end, things end. Stephen Carter,
Zain: BC United. Oh. You gave a eulogy last year.
Zain: It didn't really do the trick.
Zain: Please, give
Zain: a eulogy this year.
Carter: Soccer teams do not make political actors, saith the Lord.
Carter: the Lord was correct in this. And proof is
Carter: in the fall of BC United, under
Carter: under the sub
Carter: -optimal leadership of one Kevin Falcon.
Carter: See, Kevin Falcon is proof that following your political instincts is
Carter: sometimes a really bad idea.
Carter: Kevin Falcon thought that he would be a better premier than Christy Clark. And, well,
Carter: well, oh my gosh, he wasn't even a better leader than Christy Clark. He couldn't even lead an opposition party into government. He couldn't, well, I mean, he did lead it to oblivion. So I guess I shouldn't be too hard on him. But BC
Carter: BC United, the
Carter: soccer team, we never knew we wanted.
Carter: The political team, we
Carter: we knew we didn't need. May
Carter: they rest in peace. Oh,
Zain: Oh, beautiful. Very nice. Corey Hogan, I'm coming to you. Of course, you wanted a human to eulogize. Well, I will be giving you one. I'll be serving you up human. In one, former Premier Blaine Higgs, the OG of anti-trans legislation in New Brunswick, keeping
Corey: OG
Zain: his life, to be clear, very healthy, I'm sure, but losing his political life for a very quick, maybe quick, maybe long, who knows, eulogy for Blaine Higgs. Corey Hogan, take it away.
Zain: I'd like to read from the Book of Judges, chapter
Zain: 3, verse 21.
Corey: Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh, and plunged it into the king's belly. Even
Corey: Even the handle sank in after the blade, and
Corey: his bowels discharged.
Carter: Plain
Corey: Higgs, the
Corey: king in this metaphor.
Carter: Oh, I thought he was the bowels.
Corey: Discharged his duty,
Corey: duty, which was to act as
Corey: a cautionary tale to us all.
Corey: about how gutter politics will
Corey: be the undoing in
Corey: the long term.
Corey: Blaine Higgs thought
Corey: that he could look around, pick
Corey: the nastiest things he saw in political discourse, and
Corey: package them for New Brunswickers.
Corey: Unfortunately for him,
Corey: fortunately perhaps for common decency, the
Corey: good people of New Brunswick said, you know, not
Corey: for me, and
Corey: handed him his
Corey: his bowel discharge.
Corey: Amen.
Zain: Amen. Amen.
Corey: Amen.
Zain: Corey, you're on a roll. I may give you another human. That's nice. In a second. Stephen Carter, you will
SPEAKER_00: second.
Zain: also be getting a Pearson. You'll also be, well, maybe I'll give you a, would
Zain: would you prefer a person or an ideal, Stephen Carter? Well, I think a person,
Carter: Well, I think a person, please.
Zain: Would you like a person? Yeah, I
Carter: Would you like a person? Yeah, I haven't had a person yet. I had some
Carter: some political party.
Zain: took over in July, but
Zain: but she couldn't get the job done on
Zain: Kamala Harris. Stephen
Zain: Carter, a
Zain: heartfelt goodbye to Kamala Harris. Still very much alive, I'm sure healthy, but
Zain: but politically.
Corey: So is Blaine Higgs, not that anybody cares. I
Zain: I said that about Blaine Higgs. She was fine. I mean, I don't know if it's medicals. When
Carter: When they said that a peanut farmer from Georgia would never be president, they
Carter: did not count on the heart and the soul that
Carter: that is Jimmy Carter.
Carter: It was Jimmy Carter.
Carter: Jimmy Carter lived 100 years of
Carter: of real, solid, down-home Christian living. And
Carter: in those 100 years,
Carter: sadly, some of them were occupied with Kamala Harris running for president.
Zain: Jesus
Corey: Jesus Christ.
Zain: Christ. Just
Corey: Just
Corey: prepare for Jimmy Carter. You
Zain: we actually don't eulogize people who died on this show. Do you know how this works? Kamala Harris was
Carter: was thrust onto the national stage far too early. She
Corey: was afraid to create
Carter: was afraid to create her own new vision.
Carter: But
Carter: she was also too strong to die quickly. And
Carter: instead of dying a quick death, she dragged it out over 100 days, where
Carter: where we could all watch her struggle
Carter: struggle to reach up to the very bare minimum of Democratic presidents, one Mr. Jimmy Carter.
Carter: May they both rest in peace.
Zain: Jesus Christ, Carter. That is not what we were going for. Corey, Corey.
Carter: Sorry,
Zain: Sorry,
Carter: I feel bad now.
Carter: I
Zain: want Joe Biden, Corey.
Zain: Corey.
Zain: Joseph Joe
Zain: Biden. Please,
Corey: Please,
Zain: give
Zain: give him a nice send-off.
Corey: Geez,
Corey: I only have so many of these. I'd like to read from the book of Judges, chapter 3, verse 31. One of my favorites.
Corey: Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh, and plunged it. into the king's belly even
Corey: the handle sank in after the blade you
Corey: the end folks and
Corey: his bowels it
Corey: is charged on
Corey: stage in front of millions of americans as joe biden was
Corey: debating donald trump a man whose debate performance on a normal day could be considered uh non
Corey: -existent unhinged but somehow superior to the sitting president at that particular moment joe
Corey: biden was
Corey: was the original irrational confidence man. He
Corey: went in thinking, of
Corey: course, him and his state and his whisper voice would be the natural choice of Americans. Of course, after all of the inflation, of course, after all of the trials and tribulations, of course, his
Corey: performance was enough to put aside his earlier commitments, vague though they may be, that he was just going to be a stabilizing force before turning it over to somebody else to run for president. And
Corey: Joe, Joe
Corey: Joe
Corey: Joe died ugly. Joe died in a way that left only 100 days to his successor,
Corey: Kamala Harris. And
Corey: after Kamala didn't manage to pull off the miracle,
Corey: overcoming the inevitable defeat he handed her, Joe
Corey: then had the good
Corey: graces to go on and start telling people how he was pretty sure he could have won that election.
Corey: And may
Corey: he always be remembered that way, as
Corey: the guy who didn't know where he was or what was going Amen.
Carter: Amen.
Carter: Indeed.
Zain: Indeed. Yeah.
Carter: Yeah.
Zain: Yeah.
Zain: Stephen Carter, you have eulogized a person. You've added a eulogy for a second person in that eulogy for a person. So I'm going back to a concept, an ideal for you, Stephen Carter.
SPEAKER_00: eulogized
Carter: eulogized a person. You've
Carter: Stephen Carter. I
Zain: Carter. I need
Carter: need
Zain: need you to eulogize what
Zain: seems to be the
Zain: end of
Zain: DEI, or more commonly known as EDI, on this side of the border. Stephen Carter, your eulogy for the diversity, equity, and inclusion movement. This will be our last
Corey: This will be our last episode. Yeah,
Zain: Yeah, that's it. Stephen Carter, please. It
Zain: seems to be happening.
SPEAKER_00: Back
Carter: to the talk.
Carter: It's the winning formula. formula no
Carter: no i don't no i i no
Carter: that's the wrong tone um
Carter: is
Zain: is
Carter: is
Zain: it
Zain: you did you also want to maybe think about the message
Carter: di yeah
Carter: edi
Carter: equity
Carter: diversion i mean
Carter: there's only one agency that's better the dea no i i'm it's
Carter: it's sad it's a sad day you're
Corey: he was not a good pick for this one say no he was he was not he
Zain: no he was he was not he was done that is becoming abundantly clear cory um i'm
Zain: giving you a choice Joyce, do you want to eulogize? Have
Carter: Have you ever
Corey: seen a eulogy? He's
Corey: not invited to speak at my funeral.
Corey: Carter is
Zain: is
Carter: is
Corey: is available for
Zain: is
Carter: is available
Zain: available
Carter: available
Zain: available for-
Carter: for- I'm going to live long enough to see your funeral.
Corey: - I'm going to live long
Zain: long enough
Corey: We'll both
Carter: We'll both be at Zane's, but-
Zain: both be at Zane's,
Carter: -
Zain: - That's true. I'm coughing up a lug.
Zain: Joyce, do you want to eulogize incumbency?
Carter: Joyce,
Corey: Joyce,
Carter: Joyce, do
Corey: do
Zain: this was not a great year for incumbency as it meets its political death, potentially. Or do you want to eulogize the effectiveness of cabinet shuffles? Corey Hogan, it is your pick. I don't want to overload you, but I will give you an opportunity. Now, if I were Corey Hogan, I'd say, give them both. I'll do them both at the same time. But I am not, of course, Corey Hogan. You are Corey Hogan. But these are things that are near misses to us. We loved cabinet shuffles. We loved incumbency. And Inflare Airlines is sad to see them, well, potentially die political deaths because they They are, well,
Zain: they might be missing and they're near to us. And it's part of the near miss.
Corey: Corey Hogan, where are we going? Inspired by Donald Trump. I'm going to do the weave and I'm going to pull both of these together. The weave. I
Zain: Corey Hogan, where are we going?
Zain: together. The weave. I like the weave.
Corey: I'd like to read from the second book of Kings, chapter six, verse
Corey: 28. Then
Corey: he asked her, what's the matter? She answered, this woman said to me, give up your son so we may eat him today. And tomorrow we'll eat my son.
Corey: So we cooked my son and ate him. him. The next day I said to her, give
Corey: give up your son so we may eat him. But
Corey: she had hidden him. And
Corey: so too it is with cabinet shuffles. They
Corey: are implicit agreements that don't always pay off the way you think they're going to. The
Corey: thing about cabinet shuffles that we have taken for granted for so long is
Corey: that they are supposed to matter because the people shuffled around are
Corey: supposed to matter. But
Corey: they don't anymore.
Corey: anymore.
Corey: With the centralization in prime minister's offices, premier's offices the ministers are just a bunch of people that canadians can't name and they certainly have no effect on
Corey: the trajectory of a government or even frankly of the individual who holds that position they
Corey: cannot change the
Corey: consequences that
Corey: incumbents face for
Corey: you see incumbency too also died this year and
Corey: the powers that it brought across
Corey: democracies not just Just democracies in one country or
Corey: or countries in a region. But
Corey: every single democracy,
Corey: incumbents saw their percent of the vote decline. Most were thrown on their asses. It
Corey: seems that in an era of negative partisanship, where
Corey: nobody
Corey: nobody really wants to get into the feeder system because the best you can be, if not leader, is an irrelevant cabinet minister. It
Corey: does seem that
Corey: parties
Corey: are struggling.
Corey: Incumbency is struggling.
Corey: Cabinets are struggling. We
Corey: sit here and we watch their struggles and we remember, Zane, a
Corey: time when incumbency mattered, when
Corey: when it was a good thing, when
Corey: cabinet shuffles mattered, when
Corey: when being a minister was a good thing. And
Corey: we are left here to
Corey: contemplate how alone we are in
Corey: in 2025.
Carter: Amen, man.
Zain: Amen,
Carter: That's
Corey: That's
Zain: That's beautiful. I
Carter: I felt more alone.
Zain: Carter, speaking of alone, one final eulogy that I'd like the two of you to start working on together. Oh, collaborative. This is collaborative. Okay. This is, of course, the Flair Airlines near miss on death's door. This is someone whose political career is
Zain: not dead yet, because
Zain: because we're technical about it. It's
Zain: on death's door, which, of course, on a Flair Airlines flight is known as the cockpit door. Carter, on
Zain: death's door is one Justin Trudeau.
Zain: Please begin with your Flair Airlines near miss on death's door eulogy for the political career and
Zain: times of
Zain: Justin Trudeau.
Carter: Justin Trudeau is
Carter: an actor, a
Carter: man who performs every opportunity he gets.
Carter: Sadly, he is an actor who enters the stage three weeks too late and leaves the stage four weeks too late.
Carter: He has no sense of timing whatsoever and
Carter: is unable to
Carter: to produce any speech with
Carter: with any more emotion than
Carter: this speech that I am giving right now. In
Carter: fact, I am emulating Justin Trudeau's speaking style right now. cory
Carter: would
Zain: you like to me is it would
Zain: would you like to read not
Zain: mandatory justin
Corey: trudeau 10
Carter: 10
Corey: 10
Corey: years as prime minister with some rounding which will give him
Corey: redefine this country he
Corey: brought us legalized marijuana and
Corey: now he's gone not
Corey: not
Corey: merely a leader a
Corey: symbol a
Corey: reflection of our national hopes our fears the
Corey: contradictions that define this vast land we live in
Corey: trudeau's tenure was marked by triumphs by controversies like a maple tree standing tall in an untamed forest he
Corey: too was felled by
Corey: a lumberjack,
Corey: metaphorically speaking, named
Corey: Chrystia Freeland.
Corey: That's her actual name. That's not a metaphor. Good, that's a good softwood lumber joke.
Corey: were unrelenting challenges. Global pandemics, climate
Corey: crisis, rising populism.
Carter: this still going on?
Corey: Through it all. Am
Corey: Am I? He carried the hopes of millions like Atlas bearing the heavens. Am
Corey: Am
Carter: Am I alive?
Corey: alive? Steadfast, even
Corey: when burdened by
Carter: by the weight
Corey: by the weight of
Corey: his hair.
Carter: This is heaven.
Zain: Amen. Beautiful, amen. man it is indeed heaven oh what a what a beautiful what a beautiful flair airlines near miss segment i think you guys hit it out of the park this year thank you um now carter uh we do have the option our sponsor has presented us some rebirths this year these these are these are a little
Corey: carter
SPEAKER_00: this year
Corey: year these
SPEAKER_00: these these
Corey: are these are
Corey: little
Zain: little bit more cheery cheery do we want to do we want to just knock off some of these rebirths and let's do them quick where are these eulogies no
Corey: no
Carter: no
Zain: no no these are rebirths but the opposite rebirths this is like you're showing up to a christening and you're saying holy shit look
Carter: these are rebirths but the
Corey: you're saying holy
Zain: look at this like i don't know what music
Corey: look at this like i don't know what music to back a rebirth with so um probably something
Zain: something techno
Corey: techno techno
Corey: techno okay techno and maybe corporate buzzwords how's that set techno
Zain: techno and
Corey: techno with corporate buzzwords okay steven carter
Zain: steven carter do you want to begin for us yeah
Zain: yeah i do i want to go first he he went he came he went he came he kept popping up and now it seems like he might be here for a while one mr mark carney steven carter i'll let let you begin with the rebirth of Mark Carney, a guy that clearly is
Zain: is back with potentially a new skin. Is
Carter: Is it a rebirth if you were never really gone? I mean, sure. One time we were talking about Mark Carney running for leadership of the Liberal Party in 2013. We were all there thinking it could happen. And then he left. He went to London, where he got to be the banker in charge charge of watching the brexit debate uh and watching that go through but he was always there always on our television screens always warning us about what was going to happen and then he was there through through covid and he's been there uh through the through the the final years of the of the trudeau uh enterprise and now he brings us to a new stage where we're still seeing mark Mark Carney, in the windshield. He's the person always in front of us that we're following as someone who is taking us to a better place. So
Carter: So he has been the promise of a better place for
Carter: for over 10 years, the
Carter: path we did not choose in 2013. And now we get the opportunity to choose him again.
Zain: Beautiful. Wow. Positive. Heartfelt. Ambitious. Heartfelt. Agreed. Corey, I don't know how you're going to top it. Well, I mean. You may be able to top it with the reaper. I mean, just by speaking, I guess that was emotion. You don't have to talk about Carson. Yeah. Yeah. You are, of course, doing the rebirth. Oh, okay. I got someone different. Okay. You get
Carter: with the reaper. I mean, just by speaking, I guess that was
Corey: emotion. You don't have to talk about Carson.
Corey: You are, of course, doing the rebirth. Oh, okay. I got someone different. Okay.
Carter: get the rebirth.
Zain: rebirth. We
Corey: We were doing
Zain: doing collabs a minute ago.
Corey: doing
Carter: doing collabs a minute ago.
Carter: ago. Yeah.
Zain: Yeah. No, you're not doing collabs anymore. We don't have time for that fucking shit. Okay.
Zain: Nahid Nenshi.
Zain: Nahid Nenshi. Reborn.
Zain: Rebranded.
Zain: Reoranged. Corey
Zain: Hogan.
Corey: Purple.
Corey: Nonpartisan.
Corey: Calgarian. These
Corey: are words we used to use to describe Nahid Nenshi, future MLA for Edmonton Strathcona for the Alberta NDP. I
Corey: had Nenshi. He
Corey: now strides
Corey: the world like a narrow colossus. Not
Corey: so narrow, mind you. It's a big province.
Corey: And he strides it well. For
Corey: you see, he is the great hope.
Corey: Bring the NDP to
Corey: to the doors of the legislature, which
Corey: I guess they already sit in. But you know what I'm saying.
Corey: He's going to be premier someday. And you know why? Because
Corey: he's got a campaign manager named Zee.
Corey: That's
Zain: also not true, but okay.
Corey: okay. Put some techno and some corporate buzzwords behind it. Oh, okay.
Zain: okay. Put some techno
Zain: Oh, okay.
Corey: Synergy. Yeah.
Corey: Passion. Excellence.
Corey: Touch base. Touch base.
Zain: Touch
Corey: Touch
Zain: Touch
Corey: Touch
Zain: Touch
Corey: Touch
Zain: Touch base.
Corey: base.
Zain: Touch base.
Zain: In
Zain: summary, I don't know if he's going to win
Corey: know if he's going to win or not. It really is too early to say. I've got to see that he's serious as leader. He thinks this is a rebirth, but all I can remember about him from the past six months is that he's just another tax and spend liberal, friend of Justin Trudeau's. Saw that on a few flyers at the end.
Zain: Carter. Good
Carter: Good stories. Good stories. stories the
Zain: the rebirth of something that was here that went away or just kind of went quiet and now it seems to be all over the place it's the technology it's the platform it's the place called blue sky steven carter it's
Zain: back with us let's
Zain: celebrate it
Carter: yeah i
Carter: seem to have lost my password so
Carter: so the problem with blue sky is
Carter: that i got this invitation a couple years ago to join blue sky and i i you know i did it was but it's been a long gestation i sent it to you it
Corey: i
Corey: it
Corey: it was not a couple years ago it was like me in march
Carter: years ago it was like me
Carter: me in march because
SPEAKER_00: i
Carter: i
SPEAKER_00: i
Carter: i i
Carter: don't i i've tried to get into blue sky i have i'm very excited about it because anything that could replace uh x and twitter um is going to be very exciting but this long gestation that it's been under i'm not seeing growth i'm not seeing development i'm
Carter: not seeing it become something new i want to see in the rebirth that comes in the new year i want to see it grow beyond just the idea of simple micro exchanges a move towards something that actually has value in my life again uh something new something more exciting than something that we started on in 2008-2009
Zain: it's a call
Carter: call call
Carter: call to action
Zain: call to action it's a call for something finish us off here the rebirth of something that was up front and center as
Carter: call for something finish us
Zain: as part Part of, one would say, the recipe for the Trump victory, the
Zain: manosphere.
Corey: Corey Hogan, it
Carter: it
Corey: it
Zain: it is reborn. It is with us. It is branded. And it has no shame associated with it anymore. Well, at least for some. Corey Hogan, please. The rebirth of the manosphere. I
Corey: is reborn.
Corey: want to talk to the people out there who are struggling.
Corey: People who don't know what to do or where to go. I've
Corey: got a simple message for you losers. Eat
Corey: your meat, sun your taint, and the girls will like you.
Corey: Corey out.
Corey: Thank you, Corey.
Zain: Thank you, Corey. Oh, fuck, I love that.
Corey: Oh, fuck, I love
Zain: It's good. I'm happy with that. I'm happy with that segment. Let's move on to our final segment. Stephen Carter, our final segment. As always, every year is the Flair Airlines Cleared for Takeoff, where you tell me, as we finish off the Flair Airlines Holiday Spectacular presented by Flair Airlines. You tell me, Carter, who is
Zain: going to take off in 2025? You can give me an obvious choice, and I want a less obvious choice. I want the obvious choice up front, and then I want you to give me the dark horse secret pick, a name people may not have heard, a person people may not have heard. Give me the Stephen Carter intel with part two of the answer. So, Stephen Carter, bigness, start us off. Corey, I'm coming to you. Well,
Carter: I think the person who's going to take off like a Canadian budget airline is probably Bonnie Crombie. I look forward to seeing her crash
Carter: and burn on the runway. And the other person who's going to take off, I think, and this is probably more along the lines of an Air Canada, something a little more tried and true, something with a little bit of economics behind it, something that needs to be bailed out, probably Mark Carney.
Carter: He's, you know, he's a banker. He's used to being bailed out. that's who i would count on
Zain: never follows instructions always gives us answers carter is off the dome all the time cory hogan clear
Zain: for takeoff for 2025 who's the obvious choice and who's the less obvious cory hogan dark horse pick obvious
Corey: choice is pierre poliev who's going to be prime minister of canada in no matter of months at this point on the outside you know there'll be a liberal leadership race and then there will be a collapse of parliament and then there will be a new prime minister that's that's the odds that we're facing right now as a country at least that's what seems most likely so you got to give it to him the guy has taken over what was a very fractious conservative party he's not just rebranded it but he's rebranded himself remember when the guy wore glasses doesn't wear glasses anymore you
Carter: glasses anymore
Carter: you
Corey: you know it takes a certain genius to get
Carter: takes a certain genius
Corey: get rid of glasses like that i mean
Carter: get rid of glasses
Carter: i mean he totally preston manning that he
Corey: he did preston manning that in a big way but somehow it's all working for him and um so you got to give it to him he's the obvious choice the non-obvious choice i
Corey: am not just stalling for time as i think about that for the very first time well somebody it's
Carter: well somebody it's hard for you i know that other people would have thought of it dramatic in advance as they do as they do in dave i don't know every year you ask us
Corey: thought of it dramatic in advance
Corey: as they do as they do in dave i don't know every year you ask us this every year you ask us this and you would think that i would have come in with a little bit more more than just a bunch of Bible verses to this particular episode. But I
Zain: I think
Corey: think
Zain: think
Corey: think that the person that we need to be thinking about is... But we're not, is...
Zain: But we're not,
Corey: Is Racky
Corey: Pancholi,
Corey: who came in... Well,
Corey: she dropped out and supported Nahed Nenshi in the leadership race. But I think what she did in her time that she was in the leadership race was pretty interesting and will help redefine the party. And if Nahed has a chance here, it's going to be taking on some of that and moving forward. She's come
Carter: come a long way since I couldn't pronounce her name.
Corey: Which was like a year ago.
Zain: ago.
Zain: Just to close this off, Carter, did you write the Shahal letter?
Carter: Which Shahal letter?
Zain: That's a wrap, folks, on this year's Holiday Spectacular. In fact, our Flair Airlines Holiday Spectacular presented to us by Flair Airlines. Thank you for sticking through that turbulence. If you made it this far without your emotional support animal, you were on the wrong flight. Flair Airlines does not allow an emotional support animal. And in fact, we'll charge you an extra two seats if you complain next time. Until next time, may your ambitions fly higher than Flair Airlines ticket prices and smoother flights ahead. With me as always, Corey Hogan, Stephen Carter, and we shall see you whenever Justin Trudeau resigns.