PHOTOS: They say a photo is worth a thousand words. This one, taken at Ezra Levant’s Rebel Media rally in Calgary yesterday, certainly speaks for itself. Obviously, not all the NDP supporters were successfully purged from the meeting. Below: Chris Alexander, Mr. Levant and Kellie Leitch. Mr. Aleander and Ms. Leitch appears in CBC photos taken at the rally.

It would be easy just to make fun of Ezra Levant, a self-described defender of free speech, for throwing the Raging Grannies out of his protest rally yesterday for daring to try to exercise their right to free speech.

But seeing as in addition to calls from the podium to remove people who don’t support his message, there were credible reports out of Calgary yesterday of death threats levelled against a young woman reporter and someone waving a noose from a hockey stick, surely we can agree to stop calling these ugly events Mr. Levant organizes “anti-carbon tax rallies.”

Certainly opposition to the NDP provincial government’s carbon levy is part of the message at Mr. Levant’s events, but as happened yesterday when 800 or so of his supporters showed up at a supposedly public meeting in Calgary hotel’s ballroom, at least some of them started acting like an ugly, bullying mob.

Mr. Levant’s model seems to be the rallies organized by Donald Trump during the recent U.S. presidential election campaign – but the Alberta versions appear to have a more threatening tone, perhaps because they are closer to home, and to be far less well organized.

I can’t tell you who was waving the noose shown in the photo taken at the rally, posted at the top of this story, but the victim of the death threats was Haley Jarmain, reporting on the event for News 770 in Calgary.

She Tweeted: “I got death threats. Was laughed at. Told that I’m less of a human for my job.” She also said, rather charitably, “I doubt these men are going to actually find me and kill me. It’s the fact that telling me ‘you’re dead’ isn’t wrong to them.”

“I’ve never had that happen to me at any other rally except for the one with this group of people,” Ms. Jarmain said in another Tweet. And she’s right. This doesn’t usually happen at public events in Alberta, even when people are extremely upset or feel they’ve been treated badly by media. That’s because Albertans are mostly decent people.

It’s fair to conclude that Mr. Levant’s events are something quite different.

Last time this happened, in front of the Legislature last Sunday, Mr. Levant claimed the people who showed up bearing racist pamphlets and homophobic picket signs were NDP provocateurs. I expect he’ll make the same unlikely claim today about some of the worst goons at this rally if they happen to arouse enough criticism.

The problem, obviously, isn’t a few elderly progressives dressed up as the grannies they mostly are, it’s the thugs Mr. Levant’s message consistently attracts and the out-of-province creeps he gets as speakers at to stir up his supporters.

People in other parts of Canada should take note of who was here to assist Mr. Levant and his Rebel Media organization, to which mainstream media gives the credit for organizing these gatherings. In addition to a couple of Rebel Media staffers, speakers included:

  • Kellie Leitch, the immigration-bashing “Canadian values” candidate for the federal Conservative leadership, who whinged about the CBC’s news coverage and gave a lame version of JFK’s “ask not what your country can do for you” speech.
  • Brad Trost, the latest Bradsplainer out of Saskatchewan, the anti- reproductive-rights candidate in the same Con leadership race and a vocal climate-change denier.
  • Chris Alexander, the grinning former Harper Government immigration minister best known for his immigrant snitch line proposal who conducted the chant of “lock her up” about Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley last Sunday, now recasting himself for the purposes of the same Con contest as a victim of the “elites” and a battler against “political correctness.”

If this threesome of creepy clowns is any indication of the state of the party of John Diefenbaker and Brian Mulroney, the Conservative Party of Canada is in a sorry state indeed!

As an aside, it gripes me that these politicians from Ontario and Saskatchewan traipse out here at the invitation of a Toronto-based blogger to say and do things that result in people all across Canada concluding Albertans are morons! Could you just keep them at home, please?

As for the other speaker, Ottawa-born Derek Fildebrandt, the Wildrose Party’s chief poster of offensive Tweets, well, he’s been here long enough now I guess that we Albertans are going to have to take credit for him ourselves, even if he apparently thinks we should build a wall around Alberta, although surely not to keep our oil in.

Can we also agree that it’s time for mainstream media and government officials to stand up to Mr. Levant’s bullying tirades to stop pretending Rebel Media is a legitimate news media operation?

This post also appears on Rabble.ca.

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227 Comments

  1. I am presently in Victoria, BC (which has a carbon tax and gas is $1.14 a litre). In disbelief – an announcer on a private radio phone in program here said, “Alberta Premier Notley has obtained pipeline approval as a result of the provincial carbon tax. What do these protestors want?”

    1. To say nothing of the announcement of royalty credits to companies in exchange for building petrochemical plants here. I am not an NDP supporter, but with that announcement, I may have just become one. That’s a few thousand jobs right there, and that’s nothing to sneeze at if those projects proceed. People on the Edmonton Journal article about this had the gall to rail against the government “meddling in the economy,” as if they haven’t noticed the government monopoly on such industries as primary/secondary education and health care.

      One more thing. I’ll suck it up that my family has a high enough income that we do not qualify for a rebate on the tax, but I wish they would acknowledge that having money does not, in and of itself, make us irresponsible environmental citizens. Maybe it’s just me, but that’s what it feels like: “Oh, you have means, so you probably don’t care, with your big house and gas-guzzling SUV.” It does kind of feel like an exercise in “us versus them” when it you turn their rebate explanation around, what they’re really saying is, “Don’t worry. We’re just trying to stick it to the people who are better off than you.” Don’t misunderstand me: I have no issue paying my taxes to all levels of government and recognize the price I pay to live in this great country, but the attitude of the government in this regard always feels akin to them biting the hand that feeds them and trying to stir up hatred of higher income families by those who earn less, always trying to profit with increased approval ratings by using jealousy as a weapon.

      1. You misunderstand the point of the rebates. The reason they exist is not because higher income familes are more carbon intensive but because they have the MEANS to make a change. Whereas lower income families do not.

        1. And that change can take the form of a move to another country, taking their business acumen (which made them rich in the first place) with them putting other out of work. It has happened many times in many countries.

      2. Biting the hand that feeds them? Really?

        I take it you are implying that you and your rich cohorts are the hand that feeds the Provincial government?

        There are many more average and lower income Albertans than people like you. If you do the math, our aggregate taxes feed the province and not the top 1% or even top 10%. it’s just pure math.

        For a person to claim the rich are feeding the province is incorrect at best and arrogant elitism at its worst. Pay your share and be thankful the majority of people don’t revolt in the name of income inequality.

        1. Actually the wealthy are paying majority if taxes. You obviously haven’t filed taxes yet. Take a look at the progressive tax system. There is alot of factual information about this rather in the propaganda cultural marxist nonsense.

    2. It didn’t happen. This is fake lots of people had video running. Total snow job this site. I suggest you go look up real video. This us simple cultural marxist BS propaganda. But nutely is eunnung at75% disapproval rating.

        1. The death threats didn’t happen. One person against rally at first claimed a threat, but story keeps changing. ezra has offered a reward even & has the attendee list & it was filmed from start to finish , olus many that did attend filmed on their phones. If you actually go watch complete video, the death threats didn’t happen nor the fake dummy hanging from hockey stick. There was a PR stunt done by some ndp prior to meeting starting, but it”s discussed even on complete video. Ezra’s reward is for proof & he was offered police the attendee list & video if the person will press charges. Has offered to help review security video as well. Plus there was police presence there, as well as hotel security & private security. But this person just makes claims, that keep changing & doesn’t file police report, even though Ezra is encouraging her & offering assistance. Looks like desporate dippers again.

    3. Frighteningly enough, I suspect they want to run things their way….go back to the days of Tory rule but do it even better. What that means exactly, the guys on the floor might not be clear about, but the good times have slowed down in Alberta……..which is part of the reason we elected the NDP I suspect….and these fellows want them back.

      check out Alberta Politics story on the Wisdom school that was making off with tax dollars big time, and I think you”ll get the picture.

  2. Like their Harper before them: the latest crop of Bums and Creeps from Eastern Canada.

    When two of my family members relocated to Alberta from Eastern Canada some time ago, both of them observed that the most ignorant nativist and libertarian rhetoric they were forced to endure came from other easterners who had made the move a few years, and sometimes just a few months, before they did. I’d always blamed the Texans.

    1. I think that often recent converts to a place or to a church or whatever do tend to be over-zealous and rigid.

    2. My grandmother was a fortune-teller who operated in British Columbia. After visiting Calgary a few times to perform her services, in 1950 she insisted on packing the family up and moving to Calgary as the magical-thinking and lack of reason prevalent among a significant sector of the Calgary population was too rich to resist. Along with the deplorables from every other province though, the Alberta economy has attracted many sophisticated and educated people. The problem is that the entire population of Canada has been subjected to forty years of increasingly doctrinaire neoliberal rubbish. The most aspirational of our far-right reptilian political class continues to come from Ontario and Saskatchewan. They’re like mould spores that thrive on the sugars of an extractive commodity-based economy.

        1. My grandmother was absolutely a professional con-artist, which is why she fell in love with Calgary. She was by no means a supporter of the Left, and neither was her clientele. The Right has been literally conning people with sophisticated propaganda techniques for a century.

      1. I couldn’t have said it better if I’d tried….having lived here since my mid 20’s, I still can’t get over how much we love ourselves, on how little we base that narcissism. Now that all the facts are in about fossil fuels and the end game joy ride they’ve taken us on, the silence is deafening in some quarters…..and in others, angry victims of our ‘magical thinking’ and ‘quick now, head in the sand, ass to the creator’ way of dealing with hard realities.

        It’s going to get worse…funnier and more incredible, before its over.

        1. Actually watching complete video of the entire rally. Plus watching others who filmed it, would make me far more informed about what happened then you.

          Add to this that the supposed death threat (made by one person) with out any proof & a constantly changing storyline, who will not advise police. Ezra has gone public & offered reward for info on death threat. Has also offered to police the entire attendee list & event video, & offered to assist in reviewing security video of hotel. By the way nothing was said at rally. She only made claim later, but will not inform police. Plus police were there, plus hotel security, plus private security. None saw this.

          The full length video shows the presentors commenting on the PR stunt done to their room prior to meeting starts. Even before people are getting settled into room.

          The dippers acting like frat boys, after too many beer bongs.

          This is crap that this site is posting as news.

  3. Once again, I have yet to see a photo of the attendees of this so called “anti-carbon tax rally” in which there is a single member of an ethnic minority. Yet last time I checked the population of Calgary is about 25% non-Caucasian. I do have to wonder what the ethnic minorities think about these “rally” gong shows. Do they think that white people are just crazy?

    1. They think Caucasians, personified by Trump, Kenney and the gangs, have committed us to repeat history. They are frightened, we should all be. Afterall, once we become refugees, where would we flee?

    2. Actually when I let my “ethnic ” co workers know what I had attended the carbon tax rally, they asked if I could let them know for the next one as they want to attend because carbon tax effects everyone. But thanks for being racist.

        1. You should try and watch full real video of rally. Lots of different races involved. Do you even know Ezra’s ancestry? Doubt it. Dipper leader is a white, blonde. Opps. Pointing dipper hypocrisy again. Shame on me. But go watch full video, not this fake news shown here.

    3. That’s the beauty of freedom. You don’t have to feel compelled to do something just because of the color of your skin.

  4. The Conservative Party of Canada is not the party of Diefenbaker and Mulroney. Their party was buried with the PC/Reform merger that that set let to Harper’s Conservative party, and it is unlikely either would be welcome there.

    1. You are absolutely correct. The present so-called Conservative party is bad copy of the Republican party a la Harper.

      Oh, and don’t forget who betrayed the Conservative party and handed it to Harper – McKay.

      1. You guys and your pathetic propaganda. Rachel – is white & blonde herself & most of her party is too. Plus this is fake. There are real video that was captured on internet you nit wits can see some truth rather then your pathetic lies. There are several east indians that are mla’s in wild rose. But cultural marxists are usually to busy getting their script from their political commisaried. Tell your Comrad he needs new material.

        1. If nothing else, Vince, this false-flag theory betrays your genuine shame over the CPC’s descent into hate mongering and race baiting.

      2. Actually the current conseevative party is the dominant arm of conservatives. Mulroney’s pc’s got their asses wopped. They were down to nothing & maun funding came with help of liberals.

        It was major success in the west. Remember the fed election there was less then 8 % difference in popular vote. Majority of liberal gains were in maritime & 40 ndp seats from Quebec.

        Why the reform even bothered to merge is crazy to me. If you look at numbers Pc’s had almost no seats & few funds & poor vote support, no volunteer base etc.

        The cpc current support is Ontario & west. They also gained 2 additional seats in Quebec.

        Now with Wyne tanking, & notely right behind, & mini pet support plummeting (outside of gov sponsored surveys) a change will happen.

        Go watch full video available and see how fake this news posting is.

    2. Indeed, the federal merger dropped the “Progressive” from the name and moved the party to the right, thus representing a smaller subset of Canadians. The proposed provincial merger with the Wildrose Party would do the same in Alberta, making it no longer the party of Lougheed.

      1. Mike – study some history – when you make stupid comments like that. There was a vote on the name, but originally tge name Progressive was added to conservatives after the collapse of a pary called Progressives during the 1930’s. many had joined the conservatives. Little school for you since you must be a millennial & know very little history. The ndp was a merger in the 1960’s between the CCF (Canada’s official socialist party & canadian labour federatio – which is the federal arm of organized union movement in Canada). To oppose a degenerate socialist tax isn’t right wing, it the only intelligent thing to do.

        1. Too funny!

          When Vince runs out of insults for people and their ideas he anthropomorphizes an inanimate object. A tax (not a person) is deemed degenerate.

          One can only imagine how Vince denigrates his car battery in cold weather. It won’t start so it must be a degenerate power source.

          Thank you for posting his comment David and exposing the idiocy of RWNJs for all of us to see.

        2. But I thought all taxes were degenerate socialist taxes, he asked Vince sweetly.

          So the limp thrust of your attempt an agressive virile attack on Mike C is that Harper’s reverse takeover did not move the Progressive Conservative Party to the right?

          Bless your heart.

  5. I agree with David’s assertion that Rebel Media is not a legitimate news media operation, or perhaps more precisely, is only a media operation when it fits its agenda, such as to gain access to the Alberta Legislature press gallery or the climate change talks.

    I visited the Rebel Media website several times in the few days after Jim Prentice died. In spite of the shocking way he was killed, the story did not meet Rebel Media’s threshold for being newsworthy.

    1. Yeah, in the early days of the Standing Rock protest I wondered what kind of justification Ezra, et al, would cook up to defend private security agents attacking protesters exercising their free speech. After all, they’re always talking about free speech, but they’re also corporate puppets who’s whole job is to look into cameras and read whatever copy whatever oil lobbyist or tory front group gave them, so I was genuinely interested to see what kind of mental gymnastics they’d pull to defend something so egregious. Turns out they didn’t have anything to say about it! I guess it’s a lot easier for propagandists to ignore and omit context than to just outright deny reality. Oh well! (This was a while ago, maybe they’ve addressed [or dismissed, more likely] the issue by now, but that’s an issue too: shouldn’t journalists be covering stories as they’re breaking, and updating them as new information comes to light? I want the news, not the olds!)

      Anyway, Rebel Media is seriously such a joke. Now they are going to anti-fascist protests so they can call people crybabies and tell them they don’t know what they’re talking about. If they’re opposed to anti-fascism then what does that make them? The mask is off, they aren’t even bothering to hide who they are any more. Maybe Ezra will quit it with all the hypocritical bloviating about “free speech” once Trump starts sending dissidents to Gitmo, but he’s never been shy to gaslighting and cognitive dissonance before, so it’s just as likely he will defend the most brutal repressions by saying, “Well, in the long run this is actually GOOD for free speech,” and every Postmedia paper will run an opinion column by some hack saying, “Huh, Maybe He Has A Point”. It’s ridiculous. I’ve seriously had enough of these people.

      1. You obviously have no concept of the limitations of free speech and where it does or does not apply. For example if you fund a wedding, political rally, church event etc. people who are not invited may be allowed to attend but if they become unruly the hosts who are paying for that event are allowed to ask them to leave and may have security to deal with such issues. In government events paid by the tax payers all should be allowed to attend and you cannot bar someone because you do not recognize them as a legitimate journalist/reporter as it is not regulated like other professions are. Even in such government events protestors will be thrown out by governments if they become unruly. They are free to go practice their free speech somewhere else. Only in Communist countries or totalitarian regimes do governments regulate who is and isn’t a legitimate reporter/journalist. Of course you can see the problem that would arise. A government would inclined to certify those who were favorable to them. That is not what the news is suppose to be about and I am more than a little embarrassed for you that you haven’t figured this out.

      1. That is certainly possible, Bert. There is no way I am going to pay for Ezra’s ‘Premium Content’; I already feel the need to shower after only visiting the freebie side of the site.

        1. That’s unfortunate. He has a lot to offer that you won’t find on other sites because they are afraid to report it. Just like the almost 1000 sexual assaults that took place in Cologne last New Years. No one would report on it until Brietbart broke the story a few days after it happened.

          1. You don’t find what he offers elsewhere because he makes most of it up. Lies, racism, sexism and Islamophobia. Not a good source of information.

      2. I’m sure he did.

        So in essence what you are saying is that Levant covered Jim’s death in the opposite way that he covered Jack Layton’s death.

        So, no Orange wig, and no Orange crush soda on the air. Very classy!

    2. Actually it has the full video of what happened which shows how fake this site’s news is.

      The dippers choice to not allow a dissenting press in gallery is simply censsorship.

      Fidel did the same. Concerning what they
      Choose to run as news is always up to the efitor. If you are un educated & think everything that hapoens in the world is on the news, you are confused. Plus, add to the fact the death threat seems fake. Story changes, no evidence, Ezra has even offered a reward for & has attendee list for police is this lady would report to police. Police were in attendence, hotel security, private security team & entire meeting was security taped. Outside of the NDP PR prank, done prior to meeting (which is what the video this fake news site is based on). Historically it was left wings that used propaganda the most – some examples are National Socialists, Soviet Socialists, Fidel & Venezl to name a few.

  6. Grow up Albertans . . . .everything was just fine and dandy when the rest of the country experienced downturns and effects of the vagaries of the world economy, but as soon as it started to affect the prima Donna Albertans, the whining began and it continues to escalate . . . yes, we are part of the problem and yes, it is incumbent upon us to become part of the solution and while a carbon tax is not the total and be all of available options, it is a beginning to mitigate the damages and to allow us to live to fight another day . . . the rednecks are going to have to go without a few of their high-priced toys to put food on the table and clothes on the backs of their children. . .welcome to the reality that millions of other Canadians face every day of heir lives . . .born in Alberta, I lived in northern BC for almost twenty-five years . . .paid the carbon tax and hyper-inflated costs for fuel and the sales tax on almost everything that entire time . . .moved back “home” in 2011 and still appreciate the advantages we enjoy in Alberta. Send Ezra Levant to go work for the Donald in his PR department . . .baboons should congress together.

    1. You actually *support* a tax that will accomplish nothing except make everything more expensive while making Canadian goods and services uncompetitive on the world market? Why, in God’s name, would you do that, especially now when the economy is already in the toilet?

      1. This con job of low taxes seems to create more problems than they solve. I understand your point but the economy is always in the toilet for lots of people. There’s never a good time to talk about the problem of pollution (there’s an old fashioned word ) and there never will be.

        Blame it on neoliberalism.

        1. CO2 isn’t a pollutant. It is a natural gas that is necessary for life on this planet.

          I don’t know what you mean by “con job of low taxes”. Harper proved that low taxes would entice investment from around the world into Canada. Trump is promising the same thing for the same reason.

          1. CO2 isn’t a pollutant. It is a natural gas that is necessary for life on this planet.

            Too much isn’t good either. We need water but can drown in it.

            Fact is we’ve got a problem and it needs to be addressed.
            Government needs revenue and constantly handing out tax gifts for corporations and 1%er’s is costing us all. It’s the old Midas commercial:

            “You can pay me now or pay me later”.

          2. That is a common misconception of the left, Bruce. Tax revenue typically increases when tax rates are lowered because more investments come in increasing business and, therefore, both corporate and personal tax revenues.

          3. BRUCE A
            “Fact is we’ve got a problem and it needs to be addressed.
            Government needs revenue and constantly handing out tax gifts for corporations and 1%er’s is costing us all.”

            sure, taxes is necessity to support basic needs of society.
            but when taxes becomes sole stream of country’s revenue – that’s bad because the country, which makes own citizens poorer by taxation, eventually will become poorer itself.
            i do not supporter of “handout/bailout” on behalf of taxpayers for corporations, but strongly believe exploring and implementing entrepreneurial way of generating revenue from public assets, creation, on base 51/49 partnership, new state-owned enterprises, won’t hurt.

  7. “…stop pretending Rebel Media is a legitimate news media operation”… CBC’s morning show host, David Gray, should have taken your advice. After another example of Ezra Levants “bullying tirades” against CBC’s “one sided reporting”, he must have called Mr. Gray a liar at least three times before this waste of air time finally concluded.

    1. Yes, when David Gray said something like “It’s always a pleasure having you on.” Levant said “That’s a lie too.” which may have been the only true statement Levant actually made.

      Not that David is not honest but he didn’t sound convincing when he said that, and why should he since Levant had just been going on about all the money being given to the CBC, yadda yadda…

    2. More legit then government mouth piece CBC.
      Ctv pathetic coverage of fed election was proof of their problems. So the Rebel is doing it’s job. Which the others should be, but choose not to.

      No one needs the big box news sites. Yelliw journalism too great in their ranks.

      The public needs good press like the rebel to expose the ndp scum. Scum like them needs to be exposed.

      Like this site posting the fake pica here. The complete video is available on internet. Tge pics posted in this site are fake. It was a cheap PR stunt by some ndp’ers. They even discuss it in the videos. Plus the death threat seems fake – story keepd changing, person makes claim on social media but offers no proof. Security video is available & Ezra has offered a reward for info & has stated publically he will provide police with attendee list. This persons doesnt make official report & her online account keeps changing. Police were present, hotel security, private security. Didn’t happen. The good point is the dissatisfaction in Alberta is so high, dippers will go back to their typical 4% of vote next election.

      1. everybody knows the cbc is communist propaganda! rex murphy! KNOWN CULTURAL MARXIST INFILTRATOR! don cherry… KNOWN CULTURAL INFILTRATOR! kevin o’leary… KNOWN CULTURAL MARXIST INFILTRATOR, and what’s worse… he’s running to lead the canadian “CONSERVATIVE” (?!????!) party! just shows you…. how high the conspiracy goes… and the calgary sun refuses to acknowledge it because of THEIR left wing bias!!!! dam… wot a travesty…

  8. I was there and I was pleased to see that the Raging Grannies were expelled as it was a private function paid for my the organizers. Silly ladies singing about the scarey 0.7 to 0.8 C of warming over the past 135 years and how taxes will save us?! Overall, I was happy I went out to show support for this grass roots movement that opposes penalization of Albertans over producing energy and food. People from British Columbia would do the same thing if the Greenies managed to convince the Government to tax their forestry industry for cutting down trees given their importance in absorbing CO2 and in producing O2.

      1. Dylan marked fuel is exempt from the carbon tax. Natural gas used to heat my home and workshop or dry grain that is to wet to harvest is not. Carbon taxes will increase the cost of fertilizer by 2 dollars per acre, electricity will go up for all including farmers, rail freight and trucking freight for farmers will go up. Expert analysis put the carbon tax cost at 6 dollars per acre once it reaches 50 dollars per tonne. I run a small family farm, this will cost me over 10000 dollars per year or between 10-20% of my farms net income depending on the year. No farmers are not exempt!

        1. Dude, the BC carbon tax is $30 mt. On a rail car hauling 93 metric tonnes of # 1 wheat it only amounted to 18 bucks and change last crop year – not even the cost of a case of beer.

          On a farm any carbon taxes paid are a deducable operating expense, so it is not the end of the world. But you can expect the monopoly suppliers of fertilzer and chemicals to use the carbon tax to stick it to us, but then they never needed much of an excuse to start with.

          Might be nice to have the Carbon Tax treated as an input tax rebate.

        2. Bert, you asked about beer. One bushel of barley typically yields 400 bottles of beer. Kang’s rail car would carry enough barley to make about one million eight hundred thousand bottles of beer.

          So the eighteen dollar carbon tax would not amount to much.

          1. In your opinion then Ken you feel the expert analysis by for example CIBC which predict the cost to farmers of 6 dollars an acre to be wrong?

          2. Farmer B: regarding the CIBC estimate: just looking at my own input costs (dry land cereals), six bucks an acre seems rather high given the trivial level of the carbon tax.

            Corporate and business taxes have been reduced by the NDP as have the royalties on natural gas used for N fertilizer and Ag chemicals, so I don’t see much excuse for higher farm input costs.

            However, like the switch to metric, it will give the oligarchs owning the input side of Ag an excuse to hike prices.

          3. Are you referring to the Alberta NDP? They increased corporate taxes. I’ve never known an NDP government to reduce taxes. Ditto on royalties.

          4. Yes Bert I was referring to the Ab NDP. Under Klein (’94) Corporate tax was 15.5% – Notley lowered it to 12%.

            Small business tax rate under Klein was 6% now it is 3%.
            Personal tax rates were dropped by Notley across all income levels with the biggest drops of almost 40% in the middle ranges between $50k and $100k.

            I think lowering the corporate tax rate was a mistake because it discourages investment in plant and equipment by profitable businesses.

        3. Farmer B The use of this tax is to force a point that neither the public nor the industry were moving on. Something needs to be done about carbon emission. If you have to pay more for anything, you will look for a cheaper product, therefor forcing the manufacturer’s/providers of the service to work to lower their costs by improving the technology to produce less carbon. When gas prices go up, people tend to look for more duel efficient vehicles so they spend less. When heating costs increase, you’ll look for a more efficient way to heat your home, as such, some provider out there who wants you business will design a better furnace/boiler/heater. Since they are paying more to product these items, but customers aren’t willing to pay high prices, they intron will create/find technology to reduce their carbon use. Technology is always expensive in the beginning since the R&D costs are there and a small population to sell it to, but as time goes on and pressure increases to produce these items cheaper and more efficiently, the end result will be reduced carbon output and lower cost. It’s always a bitter pill to swallow, but medicine rarely tastes good.

          1. The problem with that, Erik, is that taxes are supposed to provide a revenue stream for government to do its business. They are not supposed to be punitive tools for forcing a populace to do something against its will. You commented in another area about the difference between leftists and rightists: this is one of the most important. Leftists believe that the government exists to force the citizens to do its will and backs that up with laws and threats of jail time. Rightists want the government out of their lives.

          2. I should also say that idiot taxes like the carbon tax can backfire. People WILL heat their homes. With natural gas if they can or with wood/coal if they must. My family will not freeze just because we have a moron for a PM.

          3. Sorry for the spelling/grammatical errors. I’m sure someone will undoubtedly come along and point them out as a deflection from the point.

          4. Erik, you described the way it works in competitive environment.
            sadly Canada not much has it. simple passing the cost onto consumer’s shoulders is a main style of operation of businesses here as a local monopolies do not afraid outside competitors.

    1. 0.7 to 0.8 C is a significant change, when you consider it’s for the world as a whole and how much heat has to be retained in order to make such a shift. It’s also worth remembering that a mean doesn’t capture the variance, and that when you get a change of this magnitude, the variance changes as well, frequently in ways that are difficult to predict. Finally, the “scarey 0.7 to 0.8 C of warming” hasn’t been evenly distributed over the past 135 years. It started slow and has been picking up steam ever since.

      1. Yes and there is polar amplicfication in the Arctic where the average temperature has already gone up several degrees, I’ve seen 3.5C but not sure if that’s accurate

        1. So, why is it that almost every time people mount an expedition to prove that the ice in the Arctic is almost completely gone, the expedition has to be canceled when the ship they are using gets stuck in the ice?

          1. Because your claim is a preposterous falsehood. Do you get it? You are either lying to us, or you have greedily swallowed the lies of others. Only malice or little-wit can explain it.

          2. Are you claiming that there has never been a climate research ship locked in Arctic ice? You need to read the news more.

          3. There has always been, and I suspect will continue to be, year to year differences in ice coverage. Need I remind you that according to the climate alarmists, ice in the Arctic was supposed to have completely disappeared a number of years ago. It’s still there…

          4. Great phoney observation. Straight out of the Reagan playbook. A straight-up fabrication, kind of like lining up in the old “I” formation before the snap. Nice job.

  9. Did anyone get a photo of the hat that was being passed around? Send it over to Revenue Canada and let them get a glimpse of revenue reporting that they should expect from Ezra for that one event. We all know how eager Ezra is to report all sources of revenue from his media outlet and wouldn’t want him to miss out on this opportunity.

  10. Ezra is a super hero. God bless him and his organization for truthful media coverage. I am sick and tired of the Liberal/NDP Propaganda forced upon us by the CBC. One day the CBC will be dismantled and we will get an unbiased news and perhaps a private broadcaster that will give us the truth, without the influence of the “mushy middle” or the “leftie” version of the world contaminating the truth. Let’s be clear, the mainstream media in this country hate it when their version of the truth is challenged by decent people like Ezra.

    1. Thank you. I always knew that I wasn’t a “leftie”. So now I can contemplate whether I may be of the “mushy middle”. I find myself in this position because I realize that I have no moral certainty.

    2. What…The…F&@K? “mushy middle” “leftie”? Do you feel that if you don’t have an extreme rightwing viewpoint, that somehow you can’t make a decision? You are a product of the extreme right wing media propaganda by using those terms. I mean hey, why not keep going and restart the old McCarthyism and labeling people as “pinkos” and “commies”. Should we call you a “right wing nut job” or “fascist”? We are people, Canadians, just trying to eek out a life for us and our families. I may have a slightly left of center political view point, and I think that it actually makes me a better citizen as I can listen to both sides of an argument without throwing out ad hominem character attacks based on some extremist ideology. Being that we live in a mildly socialist country (health care, CPP, government paid police and fire departments), it would seem we do live in a more “liberal” biased reality. The world looks biased when you only look from one side. Try using a thing called empathy and work to see how other people might feel about any given situation, you might be surprised.

    3. You trolls are cracking me up. it’s like a nonstop comedy tour.

      ONCEIN A you just used the words decent people and Ezra in the same sentence. OMG with people like you donating money no wonder he is able to make a living spewing hate.

  11. WOW! Why do all of you libs hate your own hard earned money so dang much?!

    It’s a 5-7 buck a day tax per family, that is thousands a year and for what?
    Billions of dollars and It’s not going to make it anymore colder out side, guaranteed.

    Climate change is real no doubt because it means anything, the world has been changing for millions of years.
    CO2 is 0.03% of a 99.07% of an atmospheric problem, mathematically that is a mad conclusion to blame that small fraction. especially when if cut in half all plant life on earth will start to starve and die and so will we. CO2 is not a curse it is the give of life!
    In fact the CO2 was 5x what it is today, and was the most prolific time in the earth’s history, yet there was ice ages and since then CO2 has been steadily depleting.
    Our production of CO2 is actually prolonging life here on earth.

    But really, when the government wants something so bad, should tell you all you need to know about it. It is not because it cares about the world or you.

    -23*C right now. Yet we warm our homes up to 25*C and live there 90% of the time, where the atmosphere is 5-100x worse then outside air. WTFools!

    It is mainstream madness!

    1. If you’re going to get all sciency on us, try learning a bit first. If it wasn’t for that 0.03% component of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere, the average surface temperature would be below freezing. Everywhere, and always. CO2 is a potent greenhouse gas and only fools and charlatans dismiss its role in the atmosphere’s thermodynamics.

      1. Guess again, Lars. CO2 has very little effect as a greenhouse gas. Over 80% of the total greenhouse effect on the planet is caused by water vapor. Less than 5% can be attributed to CO2. That’s the science of our atmosphere.

        1. I’m afraid that you don’t know enough to realize how little you know, Bert. Water vapour does not remain as a gas over a wide temperature range. CO2 does. Without CO2, the Earth’s surface would be too cold for water to evaporate. Water vapour has a great effect, that’s true, but it has to be facilitated by CO2.

          1. Not even close, Lars. Archeological evidence in ice cores shows that, throughout history, global warming at the end of an ice age always started at times of low CO2 concentrations and that the level of CO2 didn’t start to rise until 700 to 800 years *after* the global warming began. It shows that pattern time after time. If what you claim is true, the earth would have had one single ice age and would never have recovered from it.

      1. Just for the record, all comments pro and con are welcome here as long as they are not openly abusive, defamatory, threatening, or fraudulent. I try to allow people who disagree with me strongly to have their say without interference, on the theory that if you’re going to dish it out, you ought to be able to take it. When they make me mad, I try to restrain myself and allow my readers to respond for me – as they usually do, more often than not with biting wit. Fortunately, most of the defamations are unintentional and editable, and most of the abusive and threatening comments are mailed directly to me. As for those that are fraudulent, well, usually it’s usually a signal if a comment claims to have come from, say, “Rachel Notley,” “Justin Trudeau,” or “Vladimir Putin.” There are other ways to tell as well. When identified, such frauds are dealt with ruthlessly, although I’m sure the odd one slips through. DJC

      2. The IPCC is the last place you should look for science. But even they have admitted that there has been a hiatus (their word) for the last 20 years.

      3. Thank-you for posting this comment and these links Val. It is sad to see that conspiracy theories (as those posted by the likes of Todd and Bert) are becoming so widespread on comments boards all over. Just remember that comment boards are certainly never the place to go looking for truth! 🙂

        1. What conspiracy theory did I post? I posted facts. Your not liking those facts doesn’t make them theories.

    2. Climate change has a natural cycle component, and a human-caused component. The natural cycle changes very slowly, over tens of millennia per degree Celcius of average temperature, giving species time to adapt through evolutionary processes. Human-caused global warming, however, has happened very quickly on geological time scales, in fact over less than a century, and this is far too fast for nature to adapt. It is this rapid change that we are trying to slow, stop and reverse by tackling carbon emissions.

      In terms of the carbon tax as a means to achieving these goals, there was a University of Ottawa professor interviewed on CBC Radio’s The House (with Chris Hall) this week, and he suggested that the market incentives created by a carbon tax are not only the most efficient way to induce a behaviour change in the economy, but should be particularly attractive to political conservatives, who tend to favour market-based solutions to public policy challenges over regulatory approaches. And yet, in both Canada and the United States, most conservatives, the BC Liberal government being the most prominent exception, oppose any form of carbon tax. What’s up with that?

  12. Since Kellie Leitch and Chris Alexander are presently running for the federal Con leadership, I guess they figure the world – or at least Canada – is their oyster. (Yes, yes, I know what a prairie oyster is.) I read some more blathering from Alexander on some news site this morning. (Gotta stop reading that stuff. It’s depressing.) Alexander’s basic theme was, “I’m gonna do what I want and nobody is going to stop me, NAH-nah, NA, nah-nah”, for all the world like a particularly nasty three year old. (My apologies to all other three-year-olds out there, who are hugely mature and in control by comparison.)

    Who is the Toronto-based blogger? Surely not Ezrant. I thought he was Calgary born and bred. Mr. Alexander was kicked out of his seat in the last election. Unfortunately, Ms. Leitch was not and being a sitting MP gives her some legitimacy. Of Brad Trost, I can only say that all the time he spent at university was completely wasted.

    They seem to want to be rebels and do their own thing, all the while telling everybody else what to do. Very sad that they can’t see the contradiction there. Is someone putting something in their Kool-Aid or was it years spent in the HarperCon ranks that caused their brains to dissolve?

    1. Mr. Levant is the Toronto blogger. Vlogger, actually, but whatever. He was born in Calgary. But he is long gone from Alberta and just because he was born here – it’s my opinion as a British Columbia-born person – doesn’t make him an Albertan. Indeed, as his Cons said about Michael Ignatieff, “he’s just visiting.” Likewise, Kellie Leitch spent a period of her life in this province. And, likewise, so what? If these people loved Alberta so much, why didn’t they stick around? They’re just a couple of members of the Laurentian Elite, if you ask me.

      1. Levant, Leitch, Alexander and Trost. Sounds like a bunch of ambulance chasing shysters. You Albertans ought to squelch the western hospitality bit and tell these carpetbaggers to stay in Toronto or Saskatoon or wherever. Sic the Calgary raging grannies on ’em.

      2. I had no idea Ezrant no longer lived in Alberta. He had significant ties there, including being a member of the Law Society until 2013, and was very good at doing the divide and conquer thing, Alberta good/Quebec bad, Alberta good/Maritimes bad. He was the editor of the Albert based Western Standard, first on paper, then online and then finally defunct, until 2006. That’s around the time I first heard of him, when he used to do meltdowns on TVO (TV Ontario). He managed to stage his recent hate rallies in Edmonton and Calgary. Why did he move to Ontario? To follow the right-wing government to Ottawa?

        Looks like some people may be falling prey to his wiles, as if everyone from one particular place was either good or bad. I’ve lived all over Canada – east, west and north – and a few other countries as well and I’ve never found that any particular population was either bad or good because of their location.

        To say that Ezrant’s loathsomeness comes from Ontario and he should be kept there (or here) makes as much sense and Ontarians wanting to send him back to Alberta. He looks for an audience and exploits it, wherever it might be.

        There have been loathsome people everywhere I’ve lived but I never attributed it to the location. They also make a lot more noise than the unloathsome ones.

        But if you insist on attacking someone who is on your side and understands the problems that Alberta is going through – because they are the same or similar to what everyone is this country is going through if you look around a bit – then I’ll leave you to it. Funny. There used to be a time when you could travel all over this country and feel welcome. Not so much any more, eh?

        Good luck.

        Over and out.

    1. They’re just having their moment in the sun since the Trump win. They’ll get sunstroke after a while and have to go back down to the basement.

        1. Then why do they spend so much time making stupid comments on a lefty blog like this one? Don’t they have a cross burning to attend?

          BTW alt-right stands for nothing else than white supremacists. Now that you’ve attached a hyphenated fighter to it, you’ve defined them as white supremacist fighters.

          I guess that’ s another thing you can be proud of.

          1. I was wondering when terms like “whit supremacist ” or “racist” or other such unsubstantiated garbage would float to the surface as it always does when lefties run out of arguments. I have to admit that it took longer than usual this time.

            No, the alt-right is not made up of white supremacists. It is made up of severely normal people who love their country and are tired of all the BS from the left doing what the left does best: destroying anything and everything they disagree with. That’s why slogans like “Make America Great Again” resonate with them. Instead of destroying our country, why don’t we make it great for the benefit go ALL citizens? But, that would be racist, wouldn’t it?

  13. “It would be easy just to make fun of Ezra Levant, a self-described defender of free speech, for throwing the Raging Grannies out of his protest rally yesterday for daring to try to exercise their right to free speech.”

    Throwing out the Raging Grannies from this rally should be considered an act in the interest of public safety. The modern Granny demographic has become increasingly violent and socially disruptive in recent years.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmzMzmnB-iQ

  14. Another left tard whining. If these people actually made death threats why did you not call 911. Because you made the whole thing up. The hockey stick with a noose and body said carbon tax. Grow up lefty. Go to your safe room with your crayons and coloring books.

    1. I suggest you quit lashing out like a spoiled child before demanding others to “grow up.” Give an attempt to present even the most subtle of indications that you’re capable of adult communication and others may perceive your message as rational enough to consider a reasonable argument. Until then…

      1. So, what is it that Vic said is wrong? Or do you just mount ad hominem attacks? Adding some substance to your argument would go a long way.

  15. Article is focused on eastern folks opposed to liberal and ndp policies. But no mention of the myriad non Albertans as chiefs of staffs etc that the govt has brought in. Hypocrisy to criticize when NDP is way more staffed with import appointees who have own self interests ahead of native Albertans.

  16. Isn’t Mr. Levant paid by some of the big oil companies for his work with “Ethical Oil”? Sounds like a huge conflict of interest for a “journalist”.

      1. That’s easy to answer.

        When a so-called journalist takes money from the Koch brothers or the fossil fuel industry and then proceeds to write a book with fossil fuel industry lies and presents them as facts, that’s a conflict of interest.

          1. Start with public records.

            As for the rest, let’s just say we left tards have our sources too.

            Ethical oil indeed.

          2. So, you don’t believe in the main point of the book that Canadian oil is ethical oil? That Canada is unethical?

  17. Regardless whether or not you agree with this rally, the real point here is the reason it’s happening?
    When people feel that they can’t handle any more increases to their cost of living, they start to revolt, some this way, others find alternative ways, but the point is clear! People in this country are struggling, lost jobs, bankruptcies etc. and obviously they have had enough? Your talking about adding extra pressure to their budgets, not helping them cope with the increased cost of living, is going to be the straw that broke the camels back?
    The other important point here is simply this, when gov’t refuse to listen to the voters, they will find out the result can be very damaging? like not re-elected down the road, that will scare the hell out of a politician, since, most politicians only care about being “RE-ELECTED”! Bingo! Even Socialists want to be re-elected, and keep their power positions, just ask that idiot Mulcair? Do you think he is happy about not only losing his status and perks as the official opposition? but his own neck as the leader of the federal NDP’s? Oh yes, he isn’t a happy camper, so all the people can hope for is they can hold on long enough, to get these stupid taxes removed? Trudeau thinks most Canadians are pretty stupid, I mean, they elected him right? When his backers start adding up all the extra costs of this so called Carbon Tax! they will hand him by his N”s! I can only hope that Canadians are not really that stupid??

    1. No mention of the fact that Albertans got approval for the pipelines they said was the one and only key to their happiness… besides, what happened to the ‘pull yourself up by your own bootstraps’ ethos that was so prevalent when the sun was shining?

      1. In case you haven’t noticed, none of the approved pipelines have been built yet.

        And the whole “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” is what these rallies are about. It is difficult to get up when the government has its jackboot on your throat.

        1. Thank you for that Bert.

          You are quite right in pointing out these pipelines have not been built yet.

          That is one ray of hope that keeps us environmentalists going with our opposition. That means there is a possibility that with enough grass roots protest, the will of the people will prevail and those needless pipelines won’t be built at all – ever.

          1. The will of the people is to get the pipelines built. Even Trudeau said that extremists will be jailed if they (you) block their constitution. I don’t know if that will actually happen n (this is Canada after all) but that is what’s has been proposed.

        2. You know how you can tell when there’s a jackboot on your throat?

          When there’s a fucking jackboot on your throat.

          When a duly elected government passes legislation that breaks no law and implements policies with considerable popular support that are consistent with it’s platform, that’s called representative democracy.

          The only jackboots in evidence are ones you and brown-shirted buddies are slipping on.

          1. The problem with your argument is the phrase “considerable popular support “. If she had considerable support, no one would attend these rallies. And, since the oil industry in almost every other jurisdiction is doing quite well while it is in a shambles in Alberta, that shows the NDP jackboots firmly on the throats of everyday Albertans.

        3. Bert

          What constitution? I don’t think there is a constitutional requiring the building of pipelines.

          As for the will of the people, you are confused. CAPP and the top one-percenters who own politicians does not constitute the will of the people.

          1. You can thank the idiotic iPad spellchecker for the constitution comment. It was supposed to be “construction”.

            Regardless, my argument stands. the people of Canada – not the politicians – want to see the pipelines built. Yes, there is a fringe that wants all oil production blocked (but, of course, they don’t want to lose the fruits of that production that enriches their lives to be affected) but most Canadians are reasonable people who recognize reality.

          1. Expat Albertan is correct.

            It’s a hyperbole for one person (Levant troll) to defend the fossil fuel industry by claiming or intimating that all Canadians support pipelines when this is patently false.

            That is a textbook example of a hyperbole.

  18. *please, it’s DR. Leitch. Let’s not forget this person is sworn to follow the Hippocratic oath. It makes what she is saying all the more dissonant

    1. Dr. Mengele was a bona fide doctor too.

      Leitch voted to deny insulin to refugee children. Some doctor!

  19. Lmao, the noose on the hockey stick had the word “TAX” plastered right on it, and it’s clearly visible. The NDP and the left hiring paid protestors to hold up racist signs isn’t unlikely, it’s been proven in the past. This is journalistic shite. A laughable left leaning hit piece filled with the same BS that the MSM peddled against Trump. The tide is turning, people are waking up. The time for political correctness and liberal BS will soon be at an end. #Oleary2019 is coming, get ready to go retreat to your safe space. Oh, and btw, going to a rally that is obviously going to espouse a viewpoint different than yours just so that you can scream over them and disrupt it is not free speech, it’s bigotry. Unfortunately for you and others like you, the silent majority sees what’s really going on and the time for congratulating yourself will soon be at an end.

    1. Poor chap… you really need to take a step back from the right-wing rage…. it’s not good for your health.

      1. Judging by the American experience, especially since the last election,it appears that the left has cornered the market on rage.

        1. Wrong!

          The left? I guess that includes the CIA who are investigating the Trump – Russia relationship and the election interference. Questioning the legality and legitimacy of the US election is not rage.

          1. Where have you been? Or are you being intentionally obtuse? There have been riots, attacks and death threats by the left since the election. Open your eyes.

    2. If you are referring to Kevin O’leary you have failed to grasp what the Trump message was. Poor Kevin would be way out of his league and carries too much baggage to be taken seriously. Now he has time to reinvent himself like Kenney is trying to do but I seriously doubt he could.

      1. I hope that O’Leary or Leitch wins the leadership race. That way it will ensure the Harperites don’t get in for the next 10 years or more.

        No self-respecting Quebecer will vote for O’Leary. Without Quebec seats you cannot win the federal election.

        As for Leitch, she is equally loathed in both French and English Canada. So, she too has no chance of leading her party into an election victory.

    3. I wish I’d paid more attention back when a few were trying to warn us about globalization and terrible trade and investment protection deals. But why would I listen to Noam -Chomsky conspiracy theorists and other leftards? It took a businessman like Trump to wake me up. He showed me that confusing details are unimportant and most often just a load of bs designed to conceal the intentions of the lobby for political correctness.

      The issues may be different but I’m not waiting this time. Now that the right people are talking I’m going to start paying attention. From now on I’m taking my cues from successful businessmen from the get-go. Never mind 2019; I’m with O’Leary now. Or at least I think I am. I’m going to join with smart investors and fight the establishment with Binary Options. But first I have to find out whether Kevin has or had a licencing agreement with Optek or whether they could be using his name and image without permission. If he says it’s a winner, then I’m good-to-go. In any case, I plan on earning like O’Leary and winning so much this time that I could get sick of it.

      Somebody help me!

  20. I suppose this is a glass half full, glass half empty situation. Albertans can take some solace in that most of the organizers of this kooky event are based outside Alberta, so the kookiness represented from the “just visiting” Ezra, the Ontario and Saskatchewan Conservative leadership candidates is not completely home grown.

    However, the glass half empty part is that while Mr. Levant failed to get Alberta Conservative or Wildrose leaders this time, he still managed to get a reasonable size crowd and he does not seem either repentant for or have a desire to improve on his previous bad behavior.

    It seems especially hypocritical that Mr. Levant who was previously claimed to be an advocate of free speech, would be kicking people out of his protest for protesting his protest. Perhaps Ezra is a believe in the old saying “do as I say, not as I do”. He might have also encouraged kinder treatment of journalists there, given that he has often claimed to be one himself.

  21. It would be great to see people acting like mature adults instead of cheapjack Trump-knockoffs.

    1. Unfortunately that may be wishful thinking at events like these in today’s day and age. The state of our society is very day indeed.

  22. I was one of the many there at the rally and I will also post up the link to the actual event so you all can actually see what went on there. I cannot say for sure if there were people threatening reporters with death threats but if there were, we true conservatives condemn their actions. Mr. Levant and the rebel is the only one speaking out for all those who are in desperation because of the massive lack of work and rising costs of living. to put it into perspective I will use my family situation to help give you an idea of what we are facing here in Alberta. I am just one of the over 200 thousand Albertan’s unemployed. I had a job with an Electrical company as an Electrician for over 8 years and lost my job just a few months after the NDP came in. Now before all of you lose your collective minds and rant and rave stating it isn’t the NDP’s fault, I will admit that they did not create the oil price crisis we face, but one quick look at our neighbor’s in Saskatchewan shows that with the right policies, the oil fields can still be successful. In a few short months, under the leadership of Brad Wall, they have surpassed Alberta’s oil field production, and in a few short years they will have the majority of the oil fields working out there. So all the thousand’s of jobs that we had here will be lost and gone, leading to even more unemployed people. That includes my brother who used to work in the oil field, just got out of rehab and had his first child. He lost his job just weeks after the NDP terminated all contracts for growth in the oil fields, putting on hold or canceling oil drilling jobs all over the Alberta without a second thought about all those who are dependent upon the oil fields for work. Now my brother who was doing so well, and was finally getting his life back together is facing a divorce as his subsequent job loss forced him to take a job out of province. Sadly his wife and child could not go with him as they couldn’t afford a place out in victoria. He was trying to save up money but because of the long distance and issues they were still trying to work out in the marriage before all this, their relationship has collapsed. That is just one of the victims in my family over the NDP job killing policies. My cousin is now looking for work in Hannah after the announcement that the coal plant there is being forced to shut down. Over 200 hundred jobs including my cousins are now lost in the new year and with how bad things are in the job market, work is sparse. I myself have been out of work for quite some time, it’s so bad out there for work that almost everyone I know who I used to work with are unemployed, and several electrical companies have closed their doors. Things aren’t too bad, but we face a problem. My EI cheques only make up 2/3rds of our bills, and according to the banks, we are in a much better position than most people. My wife and I have worked so hard to get us out of the ditch, making sure to save back as much as possible and pay off all our debt. As of this summer, we were completely debt free, but things changed after both of us lost our jobs just weeks apart from one another. We did have savings but that is all gone now, and we only have one vehicle that we share, but it’s used and now needs maintenance that will cost us close to a grand that we cannot afford. We live in an old home and our mortgage is only about a thousand a month. We have cut off tv, and phone except for our cell’s. We need internet to look for work, and we try to conserve energy by shutting off lights and only heating the house up to 20 degrees. Sadly, though, we still get energy bills that are almost 300$ a month even with what we try to do to mitigate this. We use cold water to wash our clothes and do our best to do our own car maintenance and make our meals and even bath products from scratch to save money. Just recently we had to start using my line of credit which I pay a lot of Interest on because of our past debt. So now we owe money again, and to top things off, We had to take out a loan to help pay for my wife’s dental since my benefits don’t cover everything she needed done. That was nearly 5 grand which we now owe, on top of the amlost 10 thousand I owe again on my line of credit and pay almost 30% interest on. My wife and I had worked so hard to write the wrongs we did in the passed, but with one quick swipe we are being thrown back into the pit of debt and things just keep getting worse. Some of you mentioned the reinbersment cheques, but sadly, you don’t consider the fact that the NDP never stated just how much they are going to reinmberse, not only that, but the carbon tax is a tax on everything as it affects everything that involves gas, coal, and natural gas. From what most experts say, we can expect an almost 200$ increase a month for just the neccesitties, not including extras we might need. My benefits also end in January so I will be forced to pay close to 200$ more for my asthma meds as I am a severe asthmatic. All we Albertan’s want is a governemnt that would at least consult with us before making such a huge increase in taxes that this province has ever seen. Yes we get reinmbersments, but what will we do in the meantime untill we get that money? and the truth of the matter is this reinmbersment doesn’t cover gas, grocieries, cloths or other products many of us need desperately. If things keep up and neither of us get work soon, we will be forced to sell our house in a market where we will end up coming out with nothing. This is how desperate things are here in this province, and it is only the beggining.

    1. The Government of Alberta does say what the rebates are and you should get a cheque in January if your income is low & if you filed a tax return https://www.alberta.ca/climate-carbon-pricing.aspx#p184s3 It’s not a huge amount but it should cover the costs of the carbon tax which isn’t really such a huge increase.

      I doubt your “experts” are correct about how much your expenses will rise, many tend to over-estimate it. The real experts put it lower.

      It’s very difficult, but there are some things starting to improve in the economy, so there is still hope.

      1. How are we going to afford these carbon taxes with no jobs until we get the ‘rebate’? Taxes don’t get filed until April-May and we can barely afford the utilities now! Not to mention the fact that we go months without groceries and we are already seeing them go up. We aren’t even the hardest hit. I’ve seen so many comments about us ‘sucking it up’ and we don’t care about other have not provences. Why don’t people remember and realize that we still pay equalization payments? Alberta is one of (or the) cleanest oil producers and instead of investing in her people, Notley is investing in her environmental guilt while not caring that we now have to buy oil from OPEC. Why don’t people realize the green energy isn’t so green? We who were there #1) didn’t threaten people. We were maybe sarcastic but there was no collective ‘threatening’. #2) ALL of us had to rsvp for the event in a private location – not public, and the disrupters could have ‘protested’ outside. #3) We are all so tired of seeing every industry destroyed, being called apes, pigs, haters, idiots, and rednecks because we don’t agree with the Communist agenda. There are going to be people like us who will have to choose between food and heat. All for what? A very slim and skeptical chance of ‘helping’ ‘climate change’? We are already one of the lowest admission producing countries in the world and no one is giving up their phones, computers and poly blends anytime soon, but we can’t afford to eat to ease every liberal’s guilty conscience?

        1. Did you file for taxes last year? That is what the rebates rely on, your 2015 income. See if you get a payment next month.

          What communist agenda? The carbon tax is a market solution, not socialist or communist. And we do have to reduce emissions, we produce more per person than many other countries do. And some of our industries are growing, we may have turned the corner.

          If you’re an Albertan, you should know that oil & gas has always been a boom and bust industry, and nobody can rely on it to always be there. We just pissed away another boom, and we don’t know when the next will come or how long it will last. And that is not any government’s fault it’s just the way the industry has always worked.

          1. Okay but we did not lose our jobs until 2016, so how is that going to help me until I file my 2016 taxes. Am I going to magically get government funding? We are not in this situation just because of Oil and Gas. If that was the case other places like Saskatchewan, and Texas would be in the same financial situation. The reality is that this current government’s positions are driving away the investors and also destroying every industry we have. According to the Environment Canada’s website http://www.ec.gc.ca/indicateurs-indicators/default.asp?lang=en&n=54C061B5-1 we only produce 1.6% emissions as an entire country, while China (the country our PM wants to emulate) produces 24.5%. When it comes to the Communist agenda, it is the idea that Big Government will solve everything. Please explain to me how giving what little money I have to pay my bills to the government is going to create any impact on the environment? I’m all for better ways of doing things but not at the cost of lives. Suicide is on the rise in Alberta and people are losing their homes. We will have to reduce our heat in the next month low enough so that the pipes don’t freeze in order to survive our bills. I’m sorry but we don’t live in the dark ages. Do you think that Notley is going to be living in 10 degree temps this winter? No, but I will have to pay for it. Besides all of that, people do not take into account the countless problems regarding the creation of solar panels and wind turbines or the damaging effect turbines have on bird populations. Furthermore, regarding oil and gas, it is not the industry driving business out, it is the government who has control over the industry.

            Finally, let me remind you that not only is my hard earned (depleting) savings going towards the NDP, Liberal and your environment guilt, it is also going to every ‘have-not’ Province in this country because my Premier seems to think that almost 11% unemployment in Calgary alone can afford it. I’m sick of having the rest of the country and leftist society telling me that I don’t deserve to have a job and pay my bills because you feel guilty for your petroleum created phones, computers, cars, and clothes.

          2. You don’t understand things very well,do you, Val? Only socialism and communism try to manipulate markets the way that the carbon tax is designed to. And they have failed miserably every time they did. If a carbon tax is so great, why is it being abandoned by almost every government that has implemented it?

            As for emissions, you may not have noticed that Canada gets a bit chilly on occasion. We need more fuel than the average African country.

            If the state of Alberta’s oil and gas industry is the result of global markets,why is the same industry in Saskatchewan and in the US doing so much better than in Alberta? It’s the same industry.

          3. Seems like careful explanation won’t help. Because these people are not arguing with you they are either hysterical partisans, or else trolling you.

          4. Yes PIGL I think you are correct. Maybe they will calm down after spouting off their anxieties, but it’s an evil thing Levant & his minions are doing, to use lies & smears to whip up the fear & anger people are feeling.

          5. Can you be more specific on these “lies and smears”? I have supported Ezra for many years and I do not lie nor have I witnessed Ezra lie. He may be over the top on some of his analysis but I have yet to see him outright lie. I don’t support liars.

          6. It appears all lies start & end with left wing. The fake death threat, the frat boy style prank they did prior to meeting start – which is part of the original fake news posted in this site. If the left had any truth they wouldn’t resort to this childush nonsense.

            The left is always lying as usual & hiding behind sligans like 1%.

            Ezra has been right in most cases & far more truthful then gullible left wing libtards.

    2. But really, don’t rely on Ezra Levant for your information, he lies and exaggerates and he wants to make you more frightened and angry.

          1. Yes, Ezra does tend to get a bit exuberant at times and, yes, his mouth has gotten him in trouble from time to time but at least he tries. He is the only source of non-fake news in Canada right now.

          2. Exuberant? What a stupid remark. He’s a vicious smearer and liar, and anyone who believes him is a gullible fool.

          3. And many who oppose him are hate filled bigots with nothing to support their opposition to what he says. Pick your poison.

          1. A lot of that stuff is Ezra breaking rules, etc, not lying. There is a big difference between the two.

            And, that website is quite biased against Ezra. Watch a few of his shows for yourself.

      1. Yeah, all true, but the real reason he does all this is to garner financial support from those gullible enough to give him money.

        That’s his shtick. Angry verbosity seems to sell I guess.

        Don’t anchor your characterization of Levant on ethics, morality or even political philosophy. Follow the money. It’s as crude as that and nothing else motivates him.

          1. You are right.

            He pretends to be angry. He is not angry. He acts as if he is angry in order to gin up contributions.

            After the contributions from the rubes are tallied up he probably laughs his ass off. He’s very happy.

    3. Alberta oilfield remains four times the size of Saskatchewan oilfield. The majority of production remains in Alberta. The number of rigs working in Alberta has remained higher than the rest of Canada combined under the NDP even during the lowest oil price and is often four times the amount of rigs working in Saskatchewan. At current there are over one hundred more rigs working in Alberta compared to Saskatchewan. The NDP have approved numerous large oilfield projects in Alberta that investors are lining up for and will soon begin. It is the responsible handling of environmental concerns, supported by oil companies in Alberta, that have achieved approval for pipelines to market. The very pipelines that Saskatchewan will now ride the coattails of to get their oil to market. Saskatchewan is not surpassing Alberta in any way, shape or form. And per GDP is in equal debt compared with Alberta. I feel for everyone struggling. I’ve been through the previous price drops and this is definitely the worst by far for the oil industry worldwide. Jobs are available right now in Alberta oilfield if one is willing. If not, those jobs will continue to go to those willing to commute from their provinces like Saskatchewan to take.

  23. I am curious as to what experts you are talking about? Both the Herald and the Sun have reported that many experts point out that this tax will not only do nothing to curb carbon emissions in any significant way, and all it will lead to is many more job losses. As for our economy there hasn’t been any announcements that things are gettting better or will get better. As of this month I was told by over a dozen companies they are no longer taking resumes as they recieve close to 600 a day on average. Also many of the projects that were supposed to be starting this next year have already been cancelled or put on hold. That and the fact I am losing a grand per month in my line of credit of which I only have 5 thousand left to use puts me in a desperate position. We may have to walk away from our house if neither of us get a job in the next three months. My wife and I barely sleep anymore because of the stress and she has also had a miscarriage because of this. We have been trying to have a baby and we found out she was pregnant just two months after we got laid off. So please show me where the silver lining is in all this? Besides that the NDP refuse to put out any economic study on the impact this new tax will have, I can only imagine why. Do you even live in this province? Or are you just a backseat driver?

    1. The people in the Herald & Sun are probably not experts, because the economists like Trevor Tombe & Andrew Leach say the tax will help curb emissions and will not have the huge effect on jobs that rightwing politicians keep shrieking about.

      1. And this is based on what study exactly? Do they have a working model? And what evidence do they provide to support their statements? Please provide me with your sources and the evidence.

      2. Can you provide me with the evidence that backs up their claims? do they have existing models that prove their point? What about Australia? why did they decide to go back on the whole Carbon tax system if it works so well? How will this system provide better jobs and lively hoods for all those who have lost their jobs? What kind of jobs are created by increasing taxes on people who can barely afford a roof over their heads? Just answer me these simple questions and show me your evidence, and also show me the evidence you have to prove that the Herald and Sun are not using experts of equal standing.

      3. That’s what many leftist economists said about the $15/hr minimum wage in the US. They were wrong then, too. Many minimum wage jobs have been lost to automation, just like real economists predicted.

        1. Hey Bert

          LOL

          You used the term “real economists.” That’s almost as funny as political scientists.”

          Thank you for brightening up my morning. You should be a comedian.

      4. The Herald and the Sun have an agenda of their own, of course. They can decide which “expert” opinions they want to publish.

        1. Many minimum wage jobs have already bit the dust since the increase in pay, back in October. My brother was one of those victims as he had been working at Dairy Queen, trying to save some money so he could go back to school and get an education in a different field since there is no work in his current field. He went from making $30 an hourly to a job that paid $11 to make a buck. Now he has no job since he was laid off three months ago. Turns out, Dairy Queen, Mcdonalds, and a few other fast food joints began laying people off just over these last few months and are now turning to electronic kiosks. The news hasn’t talked about all these jobs lost, but it was discussed just months after the announcement of a $15 pay hike that they would be doing this to curb costs. It shouldn’t have been a surprise when my brother and six other people lost their jobs at his location, not including the several hundred more across Alberta. He was told it is because they are moving towards an electronic kiosk system, and they no longer need to have as many employees. His boss said he wish he could keep them but this was coming from corporate. So now my brother is unemployed, has no money to go back to school to better himself, and he doesn’t have any money beyond his small savings to keep paying rent here in the city. I also know of another friend from work who has been waiting for the last five months to get a reply on the status of his EI. It turns out that not everyone made it through the system yet and he is just one among the several hundred who are still waiting to be processed. How are they supposed to survive when they can’t even collect EI to help feed their families? This isn’t just a small problem, CTV, and the National both did reports on people who have yet to receive EI payments. This is a growing problem as more and more people end up without a job. Same question to you JONO, what evidence can you provide to back up your claim? Can you show me your sources and the evidence that proves that they are wrong?

  24. It amazes me when I look through the comments that people turn things around into a talk about minorities or people from eastern Canada ect. I see comments in regards to trump yet using examples such as the politics he represents has no justification. Why, because we live in Canada! Us Notley raising our taxes? Fact is yes. Are the oil companies taking there investment money elsew here? Fact is yes. Are we already heavily taxed by our federal government also? Fact is yes again. Taxes keep going up, we pay more than other countries for services in general. We live in a great country with a lot of crappy policies. Our governments take advantage of our passive nature year after year along with corporations that truly run the country. The east complains about the west and vise versa. The east has the population so much gets dictated from that area. It’s an argument that never changes. Politicians are over paid idiots that are looking for a guaranteed pension that the rest of us over taxed payers are not going to have in another 20 years.

    1. I think your analysis is also too common….and it has the same sweeping generalizations in it, that we would likely hear at an Ezra rally. Which is not to suggest that you would have been there, but that you are articulating a common mantra.

      Here’s what I see as wrong with it. 1. We need to pay taxes, as citizens, to finance the things we need and rely on in a society. Education is one such need, and it should be available to all our children. Good roads, reliable infrastructures are other needs. Taxes are not evil…if they are spent wisely for the good of the society. What we should be discussing is progressive tax systems, accountable tax systems, closing loopholes for big money and big corporations Taxes should be fair….but we should beware the politicians (Brian Jean comes to mind) who have nothing to offer us but ‘I won’t raise your taxes’, or worse…’I’m going to lower your taxes’. The right wing has been promising that for 30 years…and according to you, they didn’t follow through, because our taxes keep going up. MAYBE WE SHOULD SEE THROUGH THEIR PENNY PINCHING PROMISES and start thinking a bit more clearly about the costs of running a civil society.

      2. “Politicians are paid idiots….” etc. etc. I find this particularly pernicious, since I’ve known some pretty hard working ones over the years. Besides, its a sweeping generalization to paint everyone with the same brush. Politicians are sometimes the most dedicated members of a community…they certainly don’t get a free ride, unless they happen to have been a tory in Alberta over the last 30 years or so. But beyond the politician bashing….it’s hopeless then isn’t it? and a dictatorship would work much more efficiently!

      This line of reasoning let’s you and me off the hook. Maybe its time to consider the possibility that OUR POLITICIANS WILL BE MORE HONEST AND CONCERNED FOR THE GOOD OF ALL, WHEN CANADIAN CITIZENS ARE….After all, in a democracy, we elect them, and we can also hold them accountable.

      The NDP right now is busy cleaning house on a number of issues. Tune in. Accountable public education, fair election financing, the end of money lenders gouging the poor, a living wage…..these are all important social poliicies. We all need to give more of a damn before we bash our leaders and continue to whine about taxes. A pipeline even, they’ve managed to get the okay for. Think that would have happened without the carbon tax????

      So did Stephen Harper.

      1. You should do a bit of research. Canada, under Harper, lowered its corporate tax rate to the lowest of the G8 making Canada the most attractive place in the western world to invest. And invest people did. Until McGuinty and Wynne started to gut Ontario, all of Canada benefitted from those lower taxes by bringing jobs to our country.

        I agree with your point 2). It is much to easy to claim that all politicians are morons because it relieves the commenter of providing any proof that what they claim is true. After all, morons can’t pass good legislation, right?

        The NDP are gutting Alberta just like Mc Guinty and Wynne have done to Ontario. Ontario was the manufacturing base in Canada and our economic engine. Now it is a have-not province. That is what Notely is doing to Alberta. Just like your much-vaunted “living wage” would do more to harm those who need help the most. Any time a government has screwed around in a free market, disaster has occurred. The places that have passed the $15/hr minimum wage (like the NDP in Alberta and many states in the US) have seen the pool of minimum wage jobs dry up putting many of those people out of work. That’s a great living wage, isn’t it?

  25. Brad Wall’s Saskatchewan taxes are higher than Alberta taxes. Why isn’t Ezra throwing his temper tantrum tour in that province? Oh, right, because it has nothing to do with taxes.

    1. Because few, if any, current taxes have the impact on the market than the carbon tax. Plus, as Brad Wall has pointed out many times, now is the wrong time for a new tax. The economy is in bad shape and Trump has promised to make our major customer and competitor far more competitive. If Trump does half the things he has promised to do, we’re screwed.

      1. Yes, the carbon tax is proving to have a positive impact for Alberta and that just doesn’t sit well with Ezra. And now the majority of Canada has signed on to a federal carbon tax plan. The carbon tax is strengthening Alberta industries while developing new along side. So with fewer people being sucked into Ezra’s schemes as they prove to be false, what fabrication will Ezra come up with next to keep the rage machine going? Maybe he’ll have to take a few right wing “news” friends on another boat ride and figure one out.

        1. A positive impact? What planet are you on? Not only is it poised to destroy what little there’s left of Alberta, it has been abandoned by, or is in the process of being abandoned by, every jurisdiction that it has been tried in. How stupid do you have to be to implement something that has failed all over the world? Do you have to shoot yourself in the foot to prove that bullets and flesh don’t mix? Why can’t we learn from other’s pain?

          1. It’s a good thing the Alberta NDP put in place a proper system for the carbon tax to ensure positive results for all Albertans. Alberta can now plan for a prosperous future with a well managed government that the Alberta NDP have proven to be. Previous governments abused Alberta and Albertans and left us in a deep hole that we’re now digging ourselves out of. I’m glad we have a responsible government with the NDP to help us out of it. Well done NDP voters and supporters! Alberta, with adults running government will be ahead of the game from now on with the NDP instead of lagging behind like we once were and like few unfortunate other provinces continue to be.

  26. A couple other points to consider, a recent article on the CBC website pointed out that it is Justin Trudeau’s intention to continue raising the carbon tax above the 50 dollar a tonne level it will reach by 2022. He says this will be necessary to achieve our C02 reduction goals. He also intends to buy international carbon credits if we have not met his C02 reduction targets. For those of you that think 30 or 50 dollars a tonne is the end it is just the beginning. On the plus side by 2019 Albertans will be able judge the success or failure of these policies and make your feelings known at the ballot box. It will be interesting to see if our Canadian governments high tax interventionist model will produce more jobs or Donald Trump’s incoming pro business model will be more successful, only time will tell.

    1. At the rate things are going, by 2020 Alberta -and possibly all 4 western provinces – will be a separate country. Time will tell.

  27. While this is all good theatre, and I’m glad people are tuning in, in one way….I’d also like to suggest that we give these goons 5 minutes of our time, no more. This week our Alberta legislature is debating a bill that would bring electoral financing back to earth. Let’s spend at least 30 minutes checking in to that and sending our MLAs on all sides of the assembly a message of support.

    Ezra and his ilk depend in the last analysis on dark and dirty money to spread their version of activism. Let’s help the government to shut monied interests down and bring our politics back to the people. Hope David writes on this issue soon.

  28. I’ve thought about this blog for some time now and read many of the comments on it. I have also made a few comments myself in response to some of the more egregious ones. But, I didn’t write one to express my feelings because I wasn’t sure how I felt about the blog. I had some rather ambiguous feeling that I had a difficult time nailing down where I stood – mot on political ideologies but on this blog specifically. But, I finally realized what the issue I have with it – over and above the very poor research it suggests the author did to verify a single fact claimed therein. The biggest problem I have is with the author himself. Mr. Climenhaga has shown himself to be a very reasonable individual in that he has let stand comments on this blog that either disagree with him personally or with his ideology. That bothers me deeply.

    You see, if we look at the title of this blog, we see three specific claims being made: Death threats, a noose on a hockey stick and opponents kicked out. This is exactly the type of misleading titles conservatives complain about in the MSM. You call the alleged death threats against the reporter to be “credible” yet there isn’t a single shred of evidence – from a venue that had dozens of professional and personal cameras running beginning to end – that there was a single death threat or even heated words exchanged. Not a single parent has come forward to complain about inappropriate behavior or language in front of their children. So, why do you suggest, without any evidence, that there was a credible claim about anything? If you have any such evidence, Ezra has posted a $1000 reward for it so he can make sure the perpetrator(s) is/are prosecuted.

    Noose on a stick: in typical MSM fashion, you mention something completely out of context. Was there a noose on a hockey stick? Yes there was. What was it doing there? Were there threats to hang someone like Notley or Trudeau or some other politician? Why, no, there weren’t. Instead, there was an effigy of the carbon tax hanging from that noose. But, somehow, that fact was overlooked. Present the noose as if it is a bunch of rednecks out to get their pound of flesh instead. That sells better copy than hanging a hated tax anyway, doesn’t it?

    Opponents kicked out: This was a private event. It was a rally against the carbon tax. If people want to protest against the event, have at it! But, not inside the hall that was rented by the promoters of that event. Not only is that common courtesy, it is the law. If you crash someone else’s party uninvited, you can be arrested and rightfully so.

    You also take other swipes at the event itself and the attendees that are not warranted. You compare the rally to a Trump rally. Fair enough, it was well attended and the attendees were well behaved, just like the Trump rallies. And, the only people stirring up discontent were those opposed to the rally and/or the people attending it, just like a the Trump rallies (see the Veritas Project for further information).

    You also called it a goon show thereby minimalizing the fear and suffering of many of your fellow citizens. They appear to mean nothing to you. Since they support something that someone you don’t like (Ezra) supports, they must be subhuman vermin to be trampled upon, is that it?

    In short, your blog has all of the hallmarks of an extreme leftist out to destroy anyone and anything that you deem worthy of destruction with nothing but hatred to back up your infantile attack. And then you show a reasonable side letting dissenting voices stand. Amazing…

    1. Bert:

      1) I am not writing news. I write commentary on news. I write from a particular perspective, which is my own social democratic outlook. I have a point of view that is underrepresented in media, which I believe is part of why I have a large readership. I’m not a big fan of the commercial marketplace, but I believe in the marketplace of ideas. So I’m willing to allow a vigorous discussion with people who disagree with me. Unlike Mr. Levant, I don’t throw people who disagree out of my “private” forum.

      2) I am strongly committed to free speech, and believe that readers should have the right to criticize me, vigorously and even offensively if they wish on the grounds that if I can dish it out, I need to be able to take it. I delete or edit comments that are off topic, irrelevant, obscene, defamatory (of others), threatening (to me or others) or commercial in nature.

      3) Each of the three items you mention are in my view legitimate causes for concern and criticism. First, I am confident the death threats were for real. Good for Mr. Levant for putting up a bounty. I hope he has to part with the money. But you will note, he has done this before when someone does something predictably offensive at one of his events. Second, the noose is an offensive and violent symbol, regardless of what the little man hanging from it has written on him. Saying, “but it was only about the carbon tax” is like holding up an assault rifle and saying “I’m only talking about hunting.” Doesn’t wash. Third, this meeting by the way it was advertised and marked was clearly a public event. As far as I know, there was no notice saying “don’t come if you disagree with Ezra” or “No entry to people who disagree with Ezra.” Mr. Levant, again in my view deserves to be excoriated for this.

      1. I didn’t suggest that you are a reporter regurgitating the news of the day. But, I think that you will agree that, to be a *good* commentator, you must first ensure that the topic you are commenting on is true or at the very least credible. There is absolutely nothing so far to even suggest that the death threats claimed to have been made actually were made. Your feelings aside, you have nothing to support that conclusion. Yet, you are presenting the claim as if it has already been proven that it is true. To that end, I can only conclude – perhaps unfairly – that you *want* the claim to be true so you can vilify Ezra. I don’t like that kind of commentary. It does no one any good and makes you look like you have a vendetta.

        On a more personal level, I believe that your point of view is over represented in the media. I don’t know you or your blog so I can’t comment on your followers except that from what I have read here in the other comments, many (most?) of your followers just want to hear the narrative you share with no regard to its veracity. And, Ezra doesn’t throw people out of his forums, either. Frequently, when he shares his “viewer’s feedback” at the end of his show, it is anything but complimentary of him. But he allows it and even shares it in an attempt to correct inaccurate perceptions or to correct something he said or did. That’s one of the reasons he has such a large (and growing) following. Contrary to what many have posted here, his shows are based upon facts. He doesn’t pander to a cause and tell people what they want to hear.

        I do find it interesting that your point 2) could have been copied and pasted from Ezra’s site. You really should try to see past your hatred of Ezra. I suspect that you will find that you have more in common with him than you would currently like to admit.

        In point 3), I agree that all three items are legitimate causes for concern *IF* – and this is a BIG if – they are true. But, as I have said earlier, you have nothing to stand on as far as proof is concerned. I also disagree with you on the noose. If they had been threatening to actually hang someone, then you would have a point and I would be 100% behind you. But, they were showing their disdain for an idiotic tax that will drive the province and, most likely, the entire country to the brink of bankruptcy. Using a noose or threatening to hang, kill, execute, destroy, obliterate or otherwise cause the demise of this hated tax is, in my books, perfectly acceptable jargon. Normally, I don’t like such terminology, but this tax is beyond the pale and we need the strongest possible language to express out disdain for it. No holds barred (well, we can keep the profanity out of it for the sake of the children).

        You are also going too far on the escorting out of the rabble rousers. Ezra welcomes dissent. Hell, that’s how he makes his money. But, if you come to an event like this just to disrupt it, why should you be let in? If you want to protest outside, have at it but there were many people there with legitimate concerns (and children) who wanted to express those concerns.

        But, to put it into perspective, Ezra was reporting on a rally in Calgary a while ago and he recorded shouts of “Heil Hitler”, “Hail Satan” and “death to Jews” but not only did the police who witnessed this behavior do nothing, it wasn’t even reported on by anyone except the Rebel. And, that is another of the reasons I support Ezra. He and his staff report on things the rest of the media, and most bloggers like you, don’t or won’t report on.

        1. re Bert said: ‘ I believe that your point of view is over represented in the media.;’

          This may be the most ridiculous claim among all the comments about media issues in the comments in response to this Climenhaga post.

          What a crock of BS!

          RW commentators in conventional newspapers, TV broadcasts and radio broadcasts easily comprise more than 75-85% of the commentary on anything, and especially on the any climate agenda/carbon tax/renewable energy agenda.

          I have no idea what the percentage would be among bloggers. But their relatively trivial reach compared to conventional media makes them almost irrelevant in terms of impact on general public opinion.

          1. You really should get out more. In the Us, about the only right leaning news outlet is Fox. CNN, MSNBC,ABC, NYT, WP, NYP and on and on are solidly left.

            In Canada, the CBC practically campaigned for the Liberals in the last election.

            All of that is the primary driver behind the explosive growth of “alt-media” like Brietbart, InfoWars, The Rebel, etc. people have become fed up with being lied to by a dishonest media that has a decidedly left spin.

          2. I realize that CNN, MSNBC,ABC, NYT, WP, NYP and on and on are very unlike Fox, Breitbart, Daily Caller et al, but can we be sure that some of them aren’t “mushy middle” rather than solidly left? Does the US have a “mushy middle”?

          3. Well, toward the end of the presidential race, CNN became known as the “Clinton News Network” because they supported Clinton almost as much as the CBC supported Trudeau in the last Canadian election. One woman (now the chair of the DNC).was fired by CNN for giving (or getting caught giving) the presidential debate questions to Clinton. How is that for partisan?

          4. Thank you. Yes, I head references made to that network as the “Clinton News Network” by Trump and some of his supporters. And I accept that they may have done it often enough to ensure that a sufficient number of others heard them doing it to qualify for the “known as” characterization.

            That Donna Brazile would have cheated such as she did certainly says something about her personal political ethics and in a stretch about the judgement of the network in hiring her, as well as some of the liars representing the other side from whom when exposed it didn’t receive offers of resignation, in the first place; but it probably says something equally, if not more, noteworthy that CNN let her go, so she could return to being a full-time declared asset and problem of the Democratic Party while the rest of the network-employed partisans of both sides continued to blather it out on the daily shitstorms.

            I still won’t assign the “solidly left” designation to this outfit, but “mushy middle” is still in contention.

        1. So Bert, you have admitted that the scumbag Levant is using a student reporter’s own name in order to attack and smear her. I think Levant is approaching a point where he could be charged with criminal harassment.

          1. Attack and smear? She is the one who claimed, without evidence, that she received death threats at a rally organized by Ezra. So, who is attacking and smearing who? If she really did receive a death threat, a crime BTW, she should have immediately reported it to one of the many police officers there. She didn’t. This will most likely end up like the many fake claims of rape, racist attacks, etc that have plagued the US lately. Can’t find a juicy story to report on? No problem, just invent one.

            But that’s OK for the left to do but if someone like Ezra exposes the lies and hypocrisy, he’s one who is demonized. Typical.

          2. Alright, Bert, your tone is getting nasty and you’re starting to repeat yourself. Plus, I’m bored moderating your stream of early morning commentary. You really should sleep later. You are welcome to comment on other posts, but, like “Vince,” you’ve been banned from this one. Like George W. Bush, I am the decider, and I have decided. One difference, if Ezra Levant is willing to promise me, in writing, that he will admit the Raging Grannies to his next rally, you can come back and comment here. Yell all you want, it will change nothing. DJC

          3. Thank you David.

            I’ve always respected you for publishing RW comments no matter how nutty they are, because it serves to remind more moderate people just how negative and misinformed RWNJs truly are.

            The down side is that sometimes it can approach a soap box from which these right wingers can spread their vitriol. It’s a fine line which I’m glad I don’t have to tread – that’s your job, because it’s your blog.

            Keep up the good work.

  29. 174 comments and counting….looks like you really hit a nerve … on the right side of the body that is. Congrats, Dave!

    1. Actually photo was a frat boy style prank done by ndp. Like taken a chapter from national socialist tactics.

      Anyway the prank was done before meetingwere started. It was mentioned in the presentations several times. But lefties don’t look at real facts, only attempt to create a distorted narrative.

      I guess the pathetic excuse of hitting a nerve with li d & deceptions is all that can be mustered.

      I laugh as the more desparate dippers get ad they plummet in polls & voters opinions.

      Stay tuned for more crazy crap from libtards.
      Hey, it gives us more opportunity to show everyone how pathetic the dippers are.????

      1. OK, Vince, you’re starting to repeat yourself, you’re getting offensive, and no one is going to read to the bottom of a list of 200 comments. Go to bed! I’m the bartender at the AlbertaPolitics.ca Bar ‘n’ Grill, and you’re cut off. DJC

        1. Is what Vince said right or wrong, though? When the noose was displayed and by whom is critical to this discussion because it is a central part of your blog. Personally, I have no problem with it either way but it definitely changes the narrative if it was carried by someone other than a rally attendee.

          1. Who’s noose it was is entirely irrelevant.

            What is germane to the David’s point/article is that it did happened at this rally. That’s what we call facts.

            Ultimately, the responsibility for the shameful display rests squarely with the event organizer. It is his duty to moderate the event and its attendees.

            The event organizer had no problems exercising his right and responsibility to kick out the raging grannies. So, obviously Levant knew or accepted the fact that he was in charge of his own rally.

            Therefore, he could have insisted the participant/visitor or whomever to discard the noose, but alas he failed to do that for obvious reasons.

  30. It is really a mixed up idea of free speech we as Canadians have, l was taught that you speak your mind, however there is a line that we all should be aware of.People l feel we don’t have the right to threaten or use methods to insult or demean another human being, what l see across the world is not right , and the idea that someone can force their freedom onto another is not proper behavior. My suggestion to all the people that are so willing to treat everyone bad is, think how you would feel if someone did that to you . We are many on this earth we should try and get along, don’t you think? I live by a simple law, l treat everyone like l want to be treated, simple and easy to understand.

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