Leaders on the Frontier Podcast

No region of North America has had more experience – much of it positive – with populist movements, populist parties, and populist governments than western Canada. It was the populist Progressive and Farmers parties that elected the first woman to Parliament, the first women to provincial legislatures, and which secured recognition of women as “persons” in Canadian law. It was populist legislators in the prairie provinces and in the House of Commons that secured the Natural Resources Transfer Agreement which granted ownership and control of natural resources to the people of those provinces. And the first healthcare system offering universal coverage regardless of the patients ability to pay was established by a populist government in Saskatchewan. Preston Manning, former Leader of the populist Reform Party and the Official Opposition in parliament, is a long time student and practitioner of populist politics. He was also his party’s science critic and is a long time student of the application of science to public policy. Mr. Manning believes that the bottom up political energy exhibited by the recent Freedom Convoy and those supporting it has the potential: • To force the creation of an independent, non-governmental investigation of governmental mismanagement of the COVID pandemic, including its misuse of science to support its positions. • To facilitate a change in government at the federal level depending on the extent to which Canadians demand a better balance between health protection and the protection of their rights, freedoms, and economic wellbeing, and whether the Official Opposition in parliament under a new Leader can respond positively and vigorously to that demand. Mr. Manning thoroughly explores both these possibilities in a futuristic fictional work entitled The COVID COMMISSION which the Frontier Centre will be publishing, posting on its website, and exploring as part of its Leaders on the Frontier series.

Affordable, dependable, reliable and secure energy has always, been foundational to Canada’s economic competitiveness and high standard of living. Yet the broader political and media consensus today, based on the unproven theory of human caused climate change, is all about suppressing and ending the benefits of Canada’s immense energy resource wealth. As the largest source of tax revenue and high paying jobs this anti-energy policy is highly irrational and, if achieved, will greatly degrade the way of life of every Canadian. Indeed, the current public discussion regarding energy ignore the fact that world demand for fossil fuels has never been higher. What are those undeniable facts and what really is the policy path forward for Canada? Speaker info: Terry Etam is a twenty-five year veteran of Canada’s energy business. He has worked at a senior level across the industry including finance, communications and trading. He has written for years for the industry publication the BOE report and is an influential voice in the oil patch. He is the author of numerous articles and including his best-selling book “The End of Fossil Fuel Insanity.” In our session he will explore how the current energy and environmental policy debate in Canada has become so unhinged from reality. Ultimately we all know that fossil fuels are a finite resource will not last forever. Yet, our world has never been more dependent on fossil fuels. While headlines and political pronouncements promise a “green” future just around the corner, Mr. Etam argues that Canadians more than ever, need to be grounded in the realities of our situation so we can create positive solutions not harmful policy dead-ends. In this revealing discussion, industry insider Mr. Etam will spare no sacred cows cutting through the rhetoric and nonsense of current energy policy that stands to do extraordinary damage to the lives of all Canadians. He will address the real energy transition that needs to happen.

The media plays a vital role in the health and well-being of our democracy. And yet, the trust and confidence in legacy media has never been lower. At the same time, so called independent and smaller media outlets are on the rise. What is the role of the fourth estate? What are key issues it faces today in a challenging environment?. Why is it that certain big stories tend to be only found in smaller media? Guest: Ms. Holly Doan, is the co-founder and publisher of the legendary Blacklock’s Reporter, an on-line media outlet based in Ottawa. Ms. Doan is an award-winning journalist and producer of many political history documentaries for television. As a TV journalist, her career has spanned Parliament Hill and four provinces with both the CTV and CBC networks. She was the former Bureau Chief in Beijing. Ms. Doan brings a one of a kind insider’s perspective on the state of the media today. Don’t miss this eye opening discussion.

Sometimes health care hurts the very people it is supposed to heal. This is now the situation in Canada, where waitlists, rationed services and a fragmented system have resulted in tragic and unnecessary consequences to far too many patients. Susan Martinuk’s newly published book, Patients at Risk: Exposing Canada’s Health-care Crisis shares the heart-breaking stories of those who sought healing and instead found themselves trapped in a system that prioritizes an intangible ideology over patient care. How did Canada’s beloved health-care system lose sight of its original purpose to heal and devolve into a system that routinely denies care to those who need it? Patients at Risk has become a Number One Bestseller on Amazon! Click here to order a copy. (https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1777657741/)

The April 1982 Saskatchewan election proved to be a major turning point in the province’s history. Over its nine years in office, the Devine government commenced and completed numerous policy initiatives in spite of considerable challenges including two recessions. In retrospect, many of those initiatives fundamentally shifted policy away from state ownership. The evidence, as detailed in the Frontier Centre book “So Much More We Can Be”, shows that the Devine government was indeed an important inflection point in Saskatchewan history. It significantly diversified the provincial economy while creating long-lasting positive effects on Saskatchewan’s revenues, employment and the quality of life of its citizens. What were those policy initiatives and why was the turn away from government ownership central to the principles and tactics that guided them? Saskatchewan, in many respects, now leads Canada as a province of prosperity and opportunity. How can we learn from these policy initiatives as we look to our future? What would Premier Devine have done differently if he had to do it all again? Can we return to a time of big bold policy ideas to re-energize the private sector economy – especially during a time when the federal government is rapidly expanding the public sector and crushing the private economy and resource sector with more taxes and regulations?