Free Speech, Schools, and the Fear in Canadian Politics | Laurie Throness - EP 51

April 11, 2026

KYLE: [00:00:00] Allows me to do, um, interview, uh, like advertise my coaching and my recruiting. So

LAURIE: you do the same as my brother?

KYLE: Yes, that's right. I, I've been told by a few people that I need to, uh, connect with him. I do all online and one-on-one with business owners specifically?

LAURIE: Yes.

KYLE: It's a little, I know he works with a lot of groups and companies.

LAURIE: My brother's afraid of ai.

KYLE: Oh, is he?

LAURIE: Yeah. He thinks he's gonna be replaced.

KYLE: Uh, I don't think so. I think the human skills are one of the last things that are

LAURIE: I hope so. I sure hope so.

KYLE: But maybe not. We'll see, I guess.

LAURIE: Yeah.

KYLE: Tell nothing new underneath sun.

LAURIE: Time will tell.

KYLE: Right. So if that's the case, then

LAURIE: how's your dad?

KYLE: It's not bad. He's in, uh, Holland right now. My, my mom.

LAURIE: Okay. So he's not that bad. He's traveling.

KYLE: Yep. He preached his last sermon on April 25th.

LAURIE: Oh really? Eh,

KYLE: yeah. As last ever one,

LAURIE: so, oh my.[00:01:00]

KYLE: 'cause uh, the shakes,

LAURIE: that'll be got

KYLE: him,

LAURIE: that'll be a big day.

KYLE: Yeah. Yeah. He is been retired for a while, but he was still working here and there, or preaching here and there.

LAURIE: My brother's the same. He doesn't have disease, but he's just about retired.

KYLE: Oh, really?

LAURIE: From preaching at Chillowak Alliance.

KYLE: Okay.

That's a, that's another brother then

LAURIE: Leon. Older brother.

KYLE: Oh,

LAURIE: okay. He was a senior pastor till a few years ago.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: COVID.

KYLE: Okay.

LAURIE: Yep. And I just got back from Paris actually a couple of days ago.

KYLE: That's right. 'cause we were gonna record before and then didn't, didn't work.

LAURIE: Yeah. So that was a great trip. It's a bucket list item, man.

Beautiful.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: Safe clean.

KYLE: Really?

LAURIE: Yeah. I was shocked. Okay. Like, you hear all these bad stories, but No, it's just white middle class people running around everywhere and very expensive food. But the, the,

KYLE: I used to go there for work.

LAURIE: Oh, really?

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: And

KYLE: mil, uh, there was a, a military show called Middle Pole that I, um, visited.

[00:02:00] Uh, it's funny 'cause I went to the local gun show here recently, Uhhuh, and uh, it's just full of more older rifles. And then I went to that military, so there, and there's rows, rows of tanks and rows of drones and row artillery. Yeah.

LAURIE: Yeah.

KYLE: The delegations from all over the world shopping.

LAURIE: Okay.

KYLE: Which is our crazy in itself.

Yes.

LAURIE: You know, it's, that wouldn't be though in central Paris. That would be in the outskirts somewhere.

KYLE: Um, we were probably 20 minutes out in the center. Yeah, yeah. Pretty close. Yeah. I mean, it was not anybody, it's not open to the public. Yeah. You know?

LAURIE: Yeah. Yeah.

KYLE: So.

LAURIE: Well, very cool.

KYLE: I'll pray and then we get into it.

LAURIE: Let's do it.

KYLE: Oh, Jesus. Thank you that, uh, Laura and I get to record today on Good Friday.

LAURIE: Mm-hmm.

KYLE: It is a beautiful day to remember. Mm-hmm. Uh, what, what you've done and yet you have already conquered and, uh, Satan has been defeated. Mm-hmm. And we're talking about things today that, um. Sometimes make it seem like he hasn't been defeated.

LAURIE: Mm.

KYLE: And, uh, uh, I know that's not the case and I'm so thankful for that. So I ask that you just help us today in, in our [00:03:00] chat, and that'd be a blessing to whoever listens down the road. You would give us clarity of mind and, uh, help us say the right things for your glory. In Jesus' name,

LAURIE: amen. Uh, do you have any instructions for me?

KYLE: Be yourself.

LAURIE: I'll try to do that. I can't really be somebody else.

KYLE: Uh, it's conversational. Yeah. It's uh, no pressure. Yeah.

LAURIE: I've seen your other stuff.

KYLE: So yeah, if I send you, I'll send you a link beforehand and if you wanna take anything out, can you move the mic a little closer?

LAURIE: Okay.

KYLE: Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I looked it up today and the last time you came on the show was January of 2022, episode nine.

LAURIE: That's a long time ago.

KYLE: Yeah,

LAURIE: three year, four years now.

KYLE: Yeah. Yeah. I had a big break in between

LAURIE: Uhhuh and,

KYLE: uh, then I started back up again. So, uh, I appreciate you coming back on today.

LAURIE: And time has passed, man. Uh, four years passed, just like nothing.

KYLE: That's right, because af I, I don't remember how much longer.

Um, in January 22, how long had you not been in MLA anymore?

LAURIE: Two years.

KYLE: Two years, [00:04:00] okay.

LAURIE: Almost two years.

KYLE: Yeah. Okay. And then for a, and then how, when did you become a school trustee?

LAURIE: Uh, just a year ago.

KYLE: Okay.

LAURIE: Like in March 1st.

KYLE: What did you do in between?

LAURIE: Uh, I learned Greek.

KYLE: Oh, wow.

LAURIE: I actually, yes, I, I took courses at Regent, uh, college associated with UBC, and, uh, I learned Greek and I translated the New Testament and I finished like two months ago.

KYLE: You translated the New Testament?

LAURIE: Yeah. It was a long and arduous process.

KYLE: And what made you wanna do that?

LAURIE: I wanted to see if I could get closer to Jesus, honestly.

KYLE: Okay.

LAURIE: Uh, that maybe reading the words that were actually written by the apostles and some who are not apostles, uh, would bring me closer. Like you think of, um, uh, a photocopy and you do a photocopy of a photocopy and I would move one generation up in clarity and, uh, you know, I, I'm not sure that I did in the end.

KYLE: Okay.

LAURIE: It's just another language.

KYLE: Okay.

LAURIE: And, uh,

KYLE: how accurate. [00:05:00] Would the translation be?

LAURIE: Our translations are very, very good.

KYLE: Okay.

LAURIE: Yes. There's not a lot of exception. I can take exception, like I have a few ideas about a few things. Yeah. But, you know, I can't be an authority at my level.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: You know, I'm, uh, I'm not a fluent reader by any means.

KYLE: Okay.

LAURIE: There are 5,000 unique words in the New Testament and probably, I know 2000, there are at least 1500 that only occur once, that you only ever see once. So yeah. So, but still, it was a wonderful exercise and I enjoyed it hugely and I'm still working on it on different aspects of it.

KYLE: And what English translation do you prefer?

LAURIE: I prefer the NASB. Okay. New American Standard. Uh, 'cause it's quite close to the, to the literal, but every translation takes some kind of liberty. 'cause you, you know, you can't translate it directly. You know, the syntax just wouldn't work out in English. Okay. So you have to rearrange words and everything.

And Greek, uh, words are scattered throughout the whole. Th throughout the whole sentence. Uh, [00:06:00] here it's, uh, you know, in English it's subject verb object. I did this. And in Greek it's not like that. You have to sort of gather the pieces together from all over the sentence. So anyway, it very complicated and, uh, and a wonderful study.

KYLE: Very interesting. So NASB, why prefer that over the ESV or the King James version or,

LAURIE: uh, it just sticks more close, closer to the, uh, the syntax of the Greek.

KYLE: Okay.

LAURIE: Yeah.

KYLE: Interesting.

LAURIE: Not, not that much closer. And I found that it too takes liberties.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: Every translation is still translation. A bit of an interpretation.

Yeah.

KYLE: And so, and you said you're not sure if you got closer to Christ in, in, in the process. I mean, you're reading the Bible that much. Like how much of it is

LAURIE: it, it's a, it's a grammatical exercise when you're doing translation. Mm. It's not necessarily a spiritual exercise. Mm. So you, I'm, I'm reading it now, uh, more as a spiritual thing every day.

And uh, and I find that to be rewarding. Um, there, there are [00:07:00] some, some things that stand out to you like it. Um, you, you might say, be fervent in spirit. The word is boiling in spirit. Like, like water is boiling and so that, you know, it brings out a picture Yeah. In your mind. And that's helpful.

KYLE: Yeah. That is helpful.

Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Okay. So you're, you're, uh, studying Greek and then you decide I want to run for the school board again. The local school board here.

LAURIE: Yeah. Well, Heather Mos resigned. Yeah. And I thought, really there needs to be a social conservative in her place. And so I thought I would give it a try and see what happened.

And I would only run on academic achievement because I felt all of the social issues they've been decided by the public. And there's been a majority of five against two for a long time. And so I wasn't gonna change any minds, I wasn't gonna change any policy on that, but perhaps I could make a difference in academic achievement.

And so I ran on that alone and, uh, said that I would, uh, [00:08:00] add a value to the five existing values of the board. Uh, and add academic achievement and was not able to do that. They voted it down.

KYLE: Voted what down specifically?

LAURIE: I, I wanted to add academic achievement as a value of a core value of the district, and they voted that down.

I couldn't believe it.

KYLE: Okay. And do you, did they say why?

LAURIE: Uh, they said it was unnecessary. They, they said, uh, you know, academics is in everything we do, and so we don't need this, but it's obvious that they need it because their performance is so low. I mean, the children, you know, I can tell you stories that children are not learning to read.

Uh, the, uh, the ministry or district officials came to us and said, we've decided in middle school that we're gonna change our slogan from, uh, from Learn from Reading, to learn to learning to read. I said, why is that? Is that because kids coming into middle school can't read? They said, oh no, it's not.

Because of that, they spent five minutes explaining why what they just said wasn't true. [00:09:00] And, and I've heard other stories that suggest that, that kids do not, uh, know how to read when they get to middle school. And middle school is grade six

KYLE: crazy.

LAURIE: And it's, yeah. Uh, there was a teacher who came to us who was a math teacher, and in conversation about something else, she said, I have to treat my middle school, uh, kids as baby-ish.

And she used that word, uh, because they don't know their 10 times tables, 10 times one. Like it's scary. These kids are in grade six.

KYLE: So the other members of the school board must hear these same conversations.

LAURIE: It just seems to go over their head. It doesn't concern them, it seems.

KYLE: Uh, do you have one-on-one conversations with your colleagues and like, and, and kind of try to converse with people that way and

LAURIE: they were not very open to one-on-one conversations?

No,

KYLE: really.

LAURIE: There was, there was one or two of them that would be, but no, most of the dialogue took place across the board table and sometimes, sometimes it was very unkind. And kindness is one of the core values of the [00:10:00] district, but to their own. Uh, and, and I, you know, as a Christian, uh, I determined that I would not answer in kind, I would not answer when they said something nasty to me.

Uh, you know, one person called me arrogant, one person said I was racist and so on. And, uh, I determined that I would never respond in kind and I didn't. And I just held my tongue and just kept quiet and just made my arguments on, you know, a logical basis. And, uh,

KYLE: because I know, like, I think it's Karen Bonar, um, who would probably lead be the most left-leaning person on the school board.

Um, made some comments about you after you resigned recently from the school board, which we'll get to that. She said she appreciated you. Uh, and, and that like, some kind words to say,

LAURIE: and, and in fact several of them made comments that said that I was respectful, including the trans member on the board who, which I appreciated.

And I, I got along with that person, uh, and uh, and said that, uh, [00:11:00] that Terry was sorry that I left. And, uh, so I appreciated that. At least I was able to make that personal connection in a kind way,

KYLE: but there would be one-on-one.

LAURIE: But, you know, I didn't ask for one-on-one coffees with them, but some of them didn't wanna say hi to me.

And so probably they would not have greeted that with great joy.

KYLE: Okay. Interesting.

LAURIE: Yeah.

KYLE: So in, in your year that you spent on the board, do you feel like it was worth it? Did you, did you get something done? Did you feel like you have a thought? I,

LAURIE: I think I got people talking in, uh, among ministry staff more about academics, but to say I made a real.

Significant change. I don't think I did. I was resisted at every turn by, uh, by others on the board, by the majority on the board.

KYLE: And do you think you were resisted because you were l thrownness and there's a history of your political, um, um, you know, values that you've stood for historically here in Chile?

LAURIE: Uh, I've, I've been in politics since the mid eighties [00:12:00] in Chillowak, and there's always been a hardcore of leftism in chillowak centered around UFE or Fraser Valley College at the time. And, uh, and there's still that hardcore, only it's larger today.

KYLE: Hmm.

LAURIE: Uh, the, uh, the union is, uh, is a center of, of activism and, uh, and yeah.

And, and they're able to call out the troops and vote. And uh, and I think the world has changed as well. I think Chillowak has changed some, uh, so

KYLE: it's doubled in size since

LAURIE: doubled in size

KYLE: mid nineties when I

LAURIE: came. Yes. Yes. And, um, so I'm not, I'm not sure I made a huge change. You know, it, it's a bit discouraging to say that, but maybe in one year.

It could not be expected that I would make a huge change. I'm not sure. It's

KYLE: pretty rare in politics to make any change in general. So

LAURIE: It's true, it's true. 'cause you're moving, you're not just moving five people across the board table, you're moving [00:13:00] 2,500 employees.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: And, and Leftism is pretty well ingrained throughout our educational system, and not only in Chillowak, but in BC and in Canada and in North America.

Uh, you see the same complaints, uh, popping up all over the place. And, uh, for instance, I went to the B-C-S-T-A meeting last year, the BC School Trustees Association, which is all the trustees in bc and, and it went on the Saturday where they consider all their motions from different, uh, boards around the province.

And there were no motions about academics. It was all, you know, it wasn't about A, B, C, it was about X, Y, Z. It was about everything. But, and I was kind of shocked at that. That there seems to be not

KYLE: so that academic issues aren't just here in school, district three, three in Shelac. It's, it's all across the board.

LAURIE: The It is, it is across the board. Because there is a pH philosophy, sort of a leftist philosophy that pervades education, uh, not only, uh, here in Canada, but in, in North America. And much of the ideology that [00:14:00] comes to Canada comes from the states, from places like San Francisco and progressive areas like that.

Yeah. Yeah.

KYLE: So this must be a cultural issue as well, because if there's parents that their kids are coming home in grade six and they can't read yet, you think that's a red flag for parents. But if it's as pers pervasive as you're saying it is, then it must also be a reflection of, um, the parents of kids that they're somewhat okay with.

The education level that their kids are coming home with.

LAURIE: Yes. So, um, the last year the district embarked on a huge strategic review exercise and they got about 8,500 comments, including comments from parents. And so I went over all the comments and I found that about 16% of them were specifically concerned about academics.

Uh, one, one board member said, oh, that's just cherry picking. That's not cherry picking. That's statistically significant, but it does mean that 84% are to some level okay, with what's going on. And, uh, [00:15:00] probably of those 84% a number would be concerned about academics too, if they were pressed on it. But, but 16% said this, this is the top issue.

This is a big deal. And so I brought that, I brought 30 pages of comments that I. Took out and sent to all board members, and it didn't seem to phase anybody.

KYLE: Okay. And do you know where Canada is in, in its education levels compared to other countries in the Western world and, and

LAURIE: Oh, that's a good question.

I don't know. I, I think I've heard a rumor that it's low on the scale. Um, I had a teacher come to me and say that, uh, I think he's a middle school teacher, that he had a student from the Ukraine and who had just newly immigrated because of the war. And he was acing all the tests because they had done all that stuff two years ago.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: In the Ukraine.

KYLE: Yeah. So I mean, that, that's been like that for a long time already because I, I immigrated from Holland when I was five, and so I've been in contact with my cousins over the years and, [00:16:00] uh, their educational, um, system is definitely at a completely different level than where we're at here.

LAURIE: Is that right? Eh?

KYLE: Yeah. Like years ahead. Yeah.

LAURIE: Well, it, it's scary. It's scary because these kids growing up are gonna be our doctors. Our lawyers and our whatever.

KYLE: Well, they're not gonna be able to become doctors, are they?

LAURIE: Well,

KYLE: unless you change the, the, the levels for that as well. I mean,

LAURIE: well, in attending graduations though, I did find that there are high achievers everywhere.

So you'll find that there is, uh, a, a top echelon of high achievers. Yeah. And then there's a bot of echelon of people who are very low and then a whole bunch in the middle. And really, it's not the high achievers I worry about it is the ones in the middle, the average person.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: And I think the average person is, is declining in proficiency.

Um,

KYLE: along with middle class.

LAURIE: Along with the middle class maybe. I, I, uh, I talked to one student in, uh, in one of the high schools, uh, in our area, and he was in an advanced chemistry program and he said, there are three of us in that program. It's a big school. And I think, [00:17:00] where are our, where are our top chemists gonna come from in the future?

You know, this is scary. You.

KYLE: It's also what I think the society values. I mean, if you look what, what's on YouTube or social media in, in the feeds, you're getting what you know you want and, and, and it's promoting anything but education, right? It's promoting, uh, becoming an athlete or an, uh, you know,

uhhuh.

LAURIE: In

KYLE: influencer, influencer or whatever the things are. Um, it's not easy promoting anything That's good. Which ironically is so much different than like TikTok and China

LAURIE: Uhhuh,

KYLE: which bans that kind of stuff. Mm-hmm. And only allows educational stuff

LAURIE: Yes.

KYLE: To come across the feeds of these kids Yes. Who are like, that's

LAURIE: Yes.

KYLE: You know, this is a highly secular Yes. Government in China. Yes. Um, communist government, and they actually are taking better care of their kids in that way.

LAURIE: I do wanna say though, and hand it to teachers and principals that, uh, they're receiving kids from homes that are severely, uh, compromised. So one principal said that, uh, we're receiving kids in kindergarten that can't talk very well.

Why? [00:18:00] Because they're on screens all the time and they don't have a lot of conversation at home.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: And they have kids of homeless parents and kids of all kinds with all kinds of problems. And so they said, you know, we're not trained as psychologists and doctors we're teachers, but yet we have to deal with all these social problems that kids are coming to school with.

And so, you know, I, I understand that. And we have to cut them slack, uh, for that and, and see them as kind of heroic in some ways. Uh, I toured a school, I'll tell you one story. I toured a school, it was an elementary school, and, uh, went into this class and the lights were out in the class. I met the teacher and, uh, very friendly.

And the teacher said, why are the lights out? Well, we're just trying to settle things down a bit. And then I notice a kid in the middle and he's yowling and reaching and struggling with an education assistant who's sitting beside him trying to shush the kid, and very disruptive. And the teacher said, this goes on all day.

And I think. [00:19:00] It's very sad for that kid to be shushed all day. The, the education assistant is trying to wrangle him all day. And sh that can't be, that can't be very fun. And the, the rest of the class has to deal with this. How did they learn anything? You know, it's very difficult. I, uh, toured with another principal, another elementary school, and uh, and I said, what happens if a child sort of loses it?

And he said, we have a policy of classroom clearing where we'll clear the classroom and everybody will walk around in the halls and they'll just wait for this kid to uh, to subside in anger. And then we'll go back into the class and start the class again. And to me, that just sends all the wrong messages, you know, the child.

Understands that he can rule the roost just by throwing a tantrum. The kids understand that there's no justice. The teacher understands that he or she is ruled by a little child and, and can't impart information. Really, I'm sure the rest of the day is wrecked after something like that. [00:20:00] But her teacher from Abbotsford told me that the same thing happens there.

This is a practice, I think, across our schools, that a kid will throw a tantrum, they'll clear the class, he'll snatch stuff off the walls, he'll overturn desks and basically wreck the place. And then you have to repair all that and then try and teach, you know, this is very tough for teachers, so I understand They're in a bad, uh, difficult position.

KYLE: Very different. Yeah.

LAURIE: And we have to,

KYLE: have you talked to teachers that have been tenured for 20, 30 years and, and have seen a big shift then in the kind of, the amount of kids that are coming in and the

Yes.

KYLE: The issues,

LAURIE: they, they say that in every school I toured, it would be a universal statement. This we're receiving kids who are far, uh, far less competent socially than they used to.

Uh, however, when I would, when I would tour classrooms. They seemed like classrooms that I would be in as a child. Uh, kids are rambunctious out in the playground, kids are running around, they're falling down, they're, you know, crying and getting up and

KYLE: Well, it's not the kids that are the issue, it's the environment that they're growing up in that's causing Yes.

Them to [00:21:00] show up that way. Yes. I mean, we can't blame a

LAURIE: kid

KYLE: for being a kid.

LAURIE: No. And a child is only a grade four child. You can't blame that. Like a grade four is only a small child. You can't blame that child if that child doesn't learn to read.

KYLE: Mm-hmm.

LAURIE: Um. He's only a little child. I think probably there needs to be a more regimented regime in grades one to four, so that you discipline them earlier to, uh, to be quiet and to listen to the teacher and to follow, uh, instruction and follow, uh, schedule and things like that.

I think things are pretty loose now. I think things are pretty loose if you want to, you know, anytime you wanna get, uh, up and go out of the class, you can wander around in the halls or whatever. And I think things are pretty loose in structure. And I think probably the school system needs to be more structured in the earlier grades so that by the time they get to grade 6, 7, 8, um, they're used to the routines of a, a more disciplined [00:22:00] classroom.

KYLE: Hmm. So I think, I mean, on this issue, it. Comes down to, I think the root of, like, the breakdown of the family and just the values of society as a whole. Right. Because it's not, you don't just see the problems here in school, but you see it in the, the homelessness issues or you see it in mm-hmm. You know, all the different mm-hmm.

Things that are happening to society. Mm-hmm. Right now it's like we're trying to put bandaids on stuff. Mm-hmm. When I think it's actually the root isn't being dealt with. Mm-hmm. Would you agree with that?

LAURIE: The root is the family. Absolutely. The family is the most important element in a child's life, and that, uh, that influence will project, uh, onto every stage, whether it be the school or playground or whatever.

And so it's, it's a, it's a worry, it's a concern and should be for all of us.

KYLE: Yeah. Only I think the silver lining somewhat is what we've seen in the, in the last election, how many more con, um, young people voted conservative than the boomers did?

LAURIE: Yes.

KYLE: And, and that they're seeing, Hey, what you, the boomers have been pushing

LAURIE: Yes.

KYLE: Is not. [00:23:00] Helping, right? Yes. Yes. It's, it's, they've gone against everything that's, you know, breaking it apart.

LAURIE: Yes.

KYLE: I even see it in, um, in the, the circles that I'm mainly in, is that like there's a even a higher value on family than, you know, the, the, the older people which valued work more. Mm-hmm. Or you know, and just getting ahead

LAURIE: and, and yeah, it, it's a, it's a different culture and, you know, the baby boomers sort of threw over the traces of their parents, and it seems that every young generation does that.

Maybe the newest generation is throwing over the bad traces and, and saying, Hey, we need to get down to brass tacks again and, you know, raise a, raise a proper family.

KYLE: Yeah. I wanna go to move on to why you chose to step down from the school board after, after a year. Can you, what, what was your, your reasoning for that?

LAURIE: Uh, sure. I, I did it both as a protest and a protection. Uh, on February 10th, there was a massacre in Tumblr Ridge. I wanted to say something about that, [00:24:00] but you had to give it a few days. You know, you, you can't do it immediately at the time. But as a school trustee, I felt a responsibility to respond to that in some way.

Uh, then on the 17th, one week later came out the judgment against Barry Neufeld, $750,000 plus interest. And

KYLE: Barry Newfield was a former school.

LAURIE: He was a former school trustee for decades

KYLE: on, on the same board that

LAURIE: you said, on the same board. And yes, he didn't run again. And, uh, but somebody, um, laid a complaint against him, a human rights complaint, and he was convicted, if you can use that word.

I think you used that word in with the, um, human rights tribunal. But he posted 30 Facebook posts that were found to have breached the, uh, the human rights code. And so they assessed him a fine of $750,000, which is an unbelievable amount of money. I, when I, when I first saw that, I thought, I can't be true.

KYLE: It's like 10,000 American.

LAURIE: Yeah. So I don't, I don't think [00:25:00] Barry even makes 30,000 a year. I, you know, the interest on that.

KYLE: Yeah, yeah.

LAURIE: Um, but it's 750,000 plus interest. And so I thought I should read this judgment. And a cold chill went up and down my spine when I read that, because I thought I have said many of the things that Barry has said in a different tone and not all of the things, but some of the things that Barry said, I said in the legislature, because I made four speeches in the legislature on gender issues and, um, someone could point to that.

So I have a past. If I were to make a, uh, a remark that upset somebody in the district, and again, there are 2,500 employees in the district, the bar is low for discrimination in the place of employment. And as a school trustee, you are an employer. And so if I said something that offended somebody or made someone feel uncomfortable, they could make a.

A complaint. And in with a precedent that has been set and with the current [00:26:00] climate of, of political opinion, uh, I could go through a two year ordeal like Barry did and be assessed at a larger fine, because they would think Thrones can afford it maybe more than Barry. And so we're gonna really teach 'em a lesson and then I could lose basically everything.

And so I really had to sit back and say, am am I willing to, to undergo that? And so I felt, I want to say something, I'm going to say something about Tumblr Ridge because somebody needs to say something. It's my responsibility to do that, but I need to separate myself from the workplace in order to do that so that I can't cause discrimination in the workplace, which is one of the grounds on which, uh, Barry Neufeld was, uh, was cited.

So, so I handed in my resignation after a lot of thought and sleepless nights and. It was a very difficult thing to do. The easy thing to do would be to say nothing and collect my check, you know? And because I had not engaged at all on [00:27:00] social issues, I had engaged only on academics, really. Uh, I made a few comments here and there, uh, but nothing that ever came out in the press or anything like that.

I just decided I wasn't gonna fight those battles. Those battles had been fought and, and won and lost. So, um, so I felt I had to say something, uh, about Soji and the obvious thing about Soji. And so I had it in my resignation and, uh, the superintendent didn't want to accept it. He felt I had been somewhat effective in pushing academics, which is needed in the district.

Um, but I just felt that I was in, in grave jeopardy, honestly, that if I said what I felt I needed to say, that I could lose everything. And if it were about my faith, I would die. But if it's about a pronoun, I don't know if I'm willing to sacrifice everything for that. And so, and so I made my statement, I sent a press release, I made my statement.

It resulted in a few stories, uh, around the [00:28:00] province and one story in the national post. And then the waters sort of close over you. You know, you make a ripple in life, but the, the ripples go away pretty quickly,

KYLE: especially here in Canada, which just puts, yes. You did a great interview with, uh, Jonathan Marin on the Bridgehead and, and, and talked more about just like the media in Canada.

Um, and uh, if anybody wants to check that out, but what would you say to someone else that's considering running for. Yes, the school board. Now, would you, would you say, Hey, if you believe these things, you, you probably shouldn't?

LAURIE: No. No. And I would say you should. And, and I would say I'm different because I have a past.

Uh, as I said, I made four speeches in the legislature. I was vilified for it, and I lost my seat because of it, uh, in a, in in large measure. And, uh, so if a person wants to run today, I think they need to be bold. They need to be careful in their speech, but they need to be there. And the reason is that in politics, and I've learned this over many years, the landscape is always [00:29:00] changing.

It's always undulating. We always think all things being equal, uh, projecting into the future. All things are never equal. In politics, conversations are always changing, trends are changing, minds are changing. Uh, thoughts are changing. And so people of, um, of conservative persuasion, social, conservative, persuasion, need to be there.

At that time so that when the opportunity comes and the conversation changes, they will be there to guide in a positive direction, a positive direction for kids and for disabled kids and for, uh, for, uh, gender sensitive kids, uh, or gender dysphoric kids. We need to think of everybody and accept everybody, and I've always said this, that we need to accept kids just the way they are.

The question is, or the question, uh, how they perceive themselves. The question is, what do we teach kids about themselves and about their bodies?

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: And that. That to me is, is the, the rub of the issue.

KYLE: Okay. So to [00:30:00] clarify then, because you had had a whole bunch of content that's publicly available already online, uh, because of your previous career as an MLA in the BC legislature, you felt that's because of that reason you were in, in jeopardy?

LAURIE: I was especially vulnerable to a complaint

KYLE: to, to the human Commission. So I would've, if someone would've ran that had no history and is on the board now and then made the comments about Tumblr Ridge, for example, that I want to get to. They would still be at the risk of the tribunal coming after them then, right?

LAURIE: Well, the tribunal in its 143 page judgment for Barry Neufeld said that there is still freedom of speech and you can oppose Soji and so on if you want. Uh, you just can't be hateful or discriminatory in the way you do that. But you know, you have to be the, the three people who were deciding that case were legal experts, lifetime legal experts, people on school boards are not legal experts, and so they're going to not know just when their speech might become [00:31:00] discriminatory or hateful or judged by those people to be discriminatory or hateful.

That means in the face of a $750,000 slap down, they're gonna be totally silent. And so that $750,000 judgment, uh, which I think was an injustice against Barry Neufeld, uh, shut down free speech across the province, totally. Among school board members for sure.

KYLE: Okay. Okay. So you are saying then, even though you believe other people should run, that they're gonna be in the same predicament.

LAURIE: They, they would have to be very careful in what they spoke in, in what they said, and maybe even, and I don't know if this is possible, but to run it by the tribunal first to find out. Is this, is this an acceptable thing? I don't know. Or get good legal advice perhaps. Uh, but I think people in the future have to be very careful because the, uh, the tribunal laid down as a baseline.

Uh, all of the things that conservatives, social conservatives do not believe. [00:32:00] So they laid down as a baseline that there is no connection between biology and gender. They laid down as a baseline that to misgender someone is to discriminate against them, uh, they dis they laid down the baseline that you cannot erase somebody by, uh, by speaking, uh, badly about their transition or something like that.

And so, so I think people have to be very careful in their speech today. And you just look at Bill C nine and the federal government, um, where some portions of the Bible can now be seen as hate speech. You can see the direction, the way things are going, and that's a scary thing. Uh, the encouragement. The feeling, the encouraging feeling that I have from the BC conservative race that's ongoing now in this province is that some people have pledged to, um, to make changes to, uh, to curriculum and so on, to loosen up free speech.

And so I think that's a positive development. And as I said, the political landscape is [00:33:00] always undulating. It's always changing. So in the next government, uh, I expect there will be a huge desire for change from the NDP. And we might have a different government, a more conservative government that will be influenced more by social conservatives where there will be that freedom, uh, to speak.

KYLE: Yeah. So you talk about the tribunal having this power because you're technically an employer and it's gonna be discriminatory. What about if you were an MLA or if you're in the position, I am here as like a, a public podcast host. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. If I make those same comments, can I be charged by that same per tribunal or can, can a political figure?

Or is this specifically just as the, um, the employer side?

LAURIE: Well, an MLA is, uh, speaking in the legislature. And the legislature is a constitutionally protected body because it's not created by statute, it's created by the Constitution. And so speech within the legislature is constitutionally protected. An MLA that's speaking outside the legislature still has to be kind of wary, but I think the tribunal would be loath to, uh.

To bring a [00:34:00] complaint against an MLA, uh, for a private individual, um, who is not an employer, there still is the possibility of, uh, creating, uh, discrimination, uh, against people or, um, doing, uh, speaking hate speech against people. And so I think even you, Kyle, have to be careful in what you say, and I think, I think it matters.

Um, and it would be really instructive to read the, to read the, uh, judgment because it, it is very closely reasoned and, uh, so you would know better where you stood if you read that. But, um, I think a lot of it is in tone. You have to, you have to adopt a tone. Um, and I think, uh, tone in politics matters as much as content.

And so

KYLE: tone as in how you say something.

LAURIE: Yeah. It's, it matters just as much as what you say. And so if you, um, if you're gonna say nasty things about people, and, [00:35:00] um,

KYLE: yeah, I'm curious if, if you would've said everything that Barry had said in content, but in the way that, you know, with the heart of kindness, I, I believe you have.

From what I know about you, man, I don't know you that

LAURIE: way. I I took great pains to do that.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: To, to speak in kindness. I absolutely did.

KYLE: There would probably be a difference. Like I, I know when Barry was doing, um, the speeches that he did, I mean, he, he didn't come across always in the greatest way.

LAURIE: Barry lacks filters.

Barry is, is a, uh. Is an ambulant personality, you know, and, uh, and he's getting older. Uh, we will all lack filters as we get older. And he did not hold back in anything he said. But, you know, he said some things in contact that context that I would not have said, for instance, he said that there was a conspiracy to groom children and so on.

And, you know, I, I don't believe that. I believe that, you know, the, uh, lgbtq plus movement is a [00:36:00] movement. It's not a conspiracy. There's no, you know, one person directing it from some throne somewhere.

KYLE: Yeah,

LAURIE: it is, it is a movement. It's a social movement that runs along the river of society and there's many influences on that.

And, uh, and that will change in the future, just as I think, you know, everything in the eighties and nineties was about lesbians and gays, and it isn't anymore. Today it's about trance.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: It's not, uh,

KYLE: but it seems like the issues keep getting more extreme. No, like, I mean, it's not about gays and lesbians anymore because it's fully accepted here in Canada as the norm basically.

LAURIE: It is, it is. Um, but it's generational. And I wonder if there will be in the future as many people who identify in that way as there will be in the past. Uh, there is some social, if you like, social contagion. Uh, here, uh, I talked to a, uh, uh, grandpa whose grandson was in high school in Chillowak and said that every girl in that class [00:37:00] identified as bisexual.

Are they all bisexual? I don't think so.

KYLE: Hmm?

LAURIE: I don't think so. I think it's a trend. It's a social trend. And you see this I think with trans to some extent as well.

KYLE: Yeah. Yeah. Shows you the power of the media.

LAURIE: It really does.

KYLE: Do you think that there's, um, a misalignment among parents of, of what. They think their kids are being taught versus what's actually being taught.

LAURIE: Uh, there is a policy of not disclosing to parents, uh, when a child decides to transition. And I don't think there's a lot of disclosure about what is taught in the classroom. Mind you, Soji is not part of the provincial curriculum. It is a learning resource for teachers, and teachers have sovereignty in the classroom, and there was a Supreme Court decision that gave them that.

And so a teacher can choose whether or not to teach that cur that, uh, that program in their class. Uh, they're encouraged to do so. They're supposed to be a [00:38:00] soji lead in every school that will go around to teachers and say, Hey, can I teach Soji in your class? Will you give me time? And things like that.

But there are some, uh, I saw a news story in Abbotsford, uh, where the chair of the school board said that not many teachers use Soji in Abbotsford. And so it's up to teachers to decide what, what they ought to do, and. That to me is kind of encouragement. So when something like Tumblr Ridge happens, a teacher might say, you know, I'm a little bit worried about JI'S impact, and maybe I won't teach that this semester.

Or maybe I'll teach parts of it and maybe I'll just concentrate on anti-bullying or something like that, which I would certainly agree with. And, uh, and so things happen in a subterranean way. It's not always according to law, but certainly because of Tumblr Ridge, there will be calls for more soji because the left always doubles down the left, never backs off.

If there are thousands [00:39:00] of people dying of drug overdoses, what is the answer to that? It's more drugs. More drugs. Safer drugs, free drugs, prescription quality drugs, drugs at any time. And then thousands continue to die. And the same thing is gonna continue with sogi. Once the coroner's report is, is, is through.

And I hope they have an inquiry, probably there will be calls for more. So G mandatory. So G, so G in every classroom, in every discipline at every grade, I can see that happening because that's always the answer of the left. It's never to reverse course, never to reconsider, never to think, you know, maybe we're making a mistake, maybe we ought to back off here.

It doesn't go that way.

KYLE: It makes you, makes me think of the verse. Um, we don't fight against, um, people, but against principalities and powers and, and of the unseen world. You know, there's, there's gotta be a level of like demonic involved here because. Rationally. Even someone that doesn't have, you know, uh, the basis of Christianity can see that, you know, these aren't long term helpful

LAURIE: [00:40:00] things.

Like you, you would think, you would think if there was a chemistry program across bc, an advanced chemistry program that resulted in a high school explosion that resulted in nine deaths, what would happen to that program? It would be immediately suspended.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: Until there was a searching inquiry to find out if it was just a student error or if the program had something to do with it.

Not so with gender, gender gets a pass on everything. There's no, there's no, uh, you know, sober. Second thought Yeah. Or abundance of caution when it comes to, it's just full pal mail on, and I don't really, I don't really understand that there is, uh, there is an impulse behind that. Hmm.

KYLE: Did, I dunno if you're a student of history or not, but, uh, and I know a little bit about the fact that throughout history, that when, um, you know, kingdoms came and went, that usually at the peak of their power or, or on the decline, that usual, usually it's the, the sexual revolution that kind of is a sign that [00:41:00] it's, you know, dying.

You know, if you look at Rome and, and all the stuff that happened there, it was like when all this, you know, the sexual revolution stuff started happening. That's really when stuff, stuff started going south. You think this is just kind of where we are as a society in the western world that this is a result of.

Um, you know, we did not having as the major problems that other societies have, like in, in, uh, in, in Africa, they're, they're thinking about, well, what, what are we gonna have for dinner? Um, yeah. And, and because of the, you know, the affluence we've had or whatever it is mm-hmm. That this is just, you know, we're just on, on this part of the wave.

LAURIE: You know, there's an S-curve with every society. There is an apex to that society. So I was just in Paris. I came back from a little holiday, and it's clear when you walk through Paris that the height of the French Empire was 150 years ago.

KYLE: Mm-hmm.

LAURIE: And, and the same is true. I used to to live in England for a while in London.

It's, it's also true all the massive buildings and everything. It, [00:42:00] when you look, it's clear that the Victorian area was era was the high point of English society. And it is in a state of decline from there. And I think it's true with Western society in general. And you see that across the board. You see it, uh, you see it in our schools, you see it demographically.

You see it in the family. Uh, you see it. And perhaps the sexual revolution is part of that too. And that accelerates that decline because it certainly breaks up the, that unit of, uh, strength in society, which is the family. Hmm.

KYLE: Hmm. What did you want to say about Tumblr? Rage? So that was the shooting that happened here in northern bc?

LAURIE: Yeah. Yeah. That was where a young, uh, trans person, um, exploded in rage and shot eight people and then, uh, and then shot, uh, shot him or herself. I'm not sure how to, how to term that person. Um. And, uh, what I wanted to say that Soji needs to be suspended across BC until an inquiry is [00:43:00] done.

KYLE: So how do you associate so g with that?

LAURIE: Well, Soji is, is the teaching, uh, in my mind. You know, I've been through the lessons in Soji, that's all online and it's clearly a, uh, a teaching tool to, uh, encourage children to question their own identity. And, uh, it is the only teaching tool that is available that does that. Uh, and so this child questioned when he was a young boy, he questioned his identity.

And I don't know if Soji impacted that child at all. Um, but I think we need to find that out and find out just what impact that. That program may have had on that child and maybe having on other children. It needs to be, there needs to be a focus there. Uh, of course that's not gonna happen, and I knew that that wasn't gonna happen, but I knew that somebody had to say something and that I would have to pay a price to say it, and so I said it.

KYLE: Hmm. The, the BC [00:44:00] conservative, um, party right now, um, seems to be split between moderates and, and, uh, the social conservatives. And can those groups actually work together? You have history in this and or is that just a marriage already sleeping in separate bedrooms?

LAURIE: Well, you know, the, the, the social credit party and then the BC liberal party, and now the conservative party is, is a marriage of convenience of social liberals and social conservatives on the financial aspects.

Everybody is united. There's no. Dis discord there within the conservative party, but within the center, right. There has always been a split between social conservatives and social liberals. But they get together because if they're, they're not together, then the NDP win. And, and, uh, and so there's always been a, a rule that you could say whatever you wanted in the BC liberal party, but you had to tell everybody ahead of time what you were gonna say.

And then there would be meetings and there would be, you know, discussions in caucus and things like that about what you would [00:45:00] say. And I think that's very healthy. But, um, we will need to have a leader, uh, coming up who can. Is tall enough to straddle that divide and that divide is growing. It didn't used to be so, so wide, but it is growing.

And, uh, there needs to be a leader who can embrace both sides. And two of the, uh, two of the leadership contestants, uh, Carrie Lynn Finley and Yuri Foamer reached out to me and had a conversation with me. And I so appreciated that. And I told them both the same thing. I said, the, your job as a leader if you win over the next four years, uh, is not policy.

That's secondary important, but secondary of primary. Importance is, is unity. You have to do whatever you need to do to get everybody in the tent. Because in 2017, over 2 million votes, there was a thousand votes between the NDP and the BC liberals. A thousand votes. That is a razor thin major [00:46:00] majority of a razor thin majority.

It's a, it's an amazingly closed vote. And we lost one riding in Comox by 189 votes. And that decided the government, that we would've had a BC liberal government if 189 people would've made a different decision in that election, that means unity is priceless. Unity is everything. And in 2024 election where the BC conservatives almost won within a seat or two, they were united.

And that because, um, because the BC liberals bowed out. And I think that was very big and an excellent decision and very wise of Kevin Falcon to do that so that the right could be united And now. The right is Disunited and that is the killer. And that will give us another NDP government. So whoever the new leader is, has to unify the party, uh, through, you know, embrace, through threats, through cajoling, through reasoning, through whatever it takes, twist themselves into a policy pretzel, [00:47:00] that's fine.

Everybody has to be in the tent, and that is the number one and perhaps the only job of a new leader. And I impressed upon them both, and I saw that Yuri Fulmer has made a deal with one BC, with Dallas Brody, uh, to bring her back into the fold. And I think that's great. Uh, now he just has to make a deal with the others, uh, who are outside.

KYLE: Okay. Who do you support in their light race?

LAURIE: Uh, I've, I've not thrown my support behind anybody. I'm still looking. We have until May 30th. And, uh, I'm looking at what people say.

KYLE: I ran into Ian Black the other day, who, who's running, uh, what I liked about. Very, very little I know about him. Is that Uhhuh?

He's been in the private sector for a while. Uhhuh, um, I think he was in MLA up until 2011 and now he's been running just private companies and tech companies trying to turn them around.

LAURIE: Uhhuh,

KYLE: which I don't, would you know him? Well,

LAURIE: I don't know Ian Black at all. I became an MLA in 2013, so I'd never met him actually.

But, uh, and I had only met Kerry, uh, Lynn Finley for the first time and, uh, and Yuri Fulmer for the first time when I spoke to them [00:48:00] recently. Uh, but, uh, yeah.

KYLE: What do you say to someone that's thinking about going into politics? Or what would you say to a, you know, um, someone like me, a younger conservative guy that sees what's going on and it's just like, well, you know, some might have to step up.

Would, would you, what advice would you give?

LAURIE: Absolutely. Get into politics. That's, and uh, when I was wondering what I wanted to do with my life, I watched an interview with, with Deen Bakker on tv and they said, what would you advise young people? And he said, get into politics. So that would be my advice to you too.

Get into politics and, you know, the, the people who win are the people who are there. And it's, it's tough to lose and I've lost a number of times and I've won a few times. It's great to win. It's tough to lose, but, uh, the more often you run, the more likely you are to win and, and have an influence on what goes on in society.

But remember [00:49:00] that politics is about the legislature, and the legislature is about law. And law does not change hearts, politics. Does not change the hearts of a nation. Uh, people, people change because they're persuaded of an ideal that's greater than them. And so, you know, when I first became, uh, interested in politics, I was in Bible college studying to be a pastor, and I had to decide between being a pastor and or going into politics.

And I felt that I would be more influential for good if I went into politics. And I wonder in retrospect if that's true. I wonder if I could not have been more influential for good and for God if I were to have been a pastor. Uh, you can never know these things. You know, you never really know if you made the right decision, but you live with what you did.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: And, uh, I tried to be influential for good as much as I could.

KYLE: Do you think you can be a politician today and [00:50:00] also be open about your faith, or do you think you have to keep

LAURIE: No, I think you, I think you need to be open about your faith. And I always was, I always told people exactly where I was from, uh, uh, in my first election in 2012, which I lost.

Uh, we sent around pamphlets with the thing that I graduated from Baba College and I told people I'm a federal conservative and, uh, and. I, and I always told myself that in this writing, I had to out conservative the conservatives. I had to be more conservative than the conservatives so that I would get the, the conservative vote because I needed the conservative vote as well as the small liberal vote to win.

And so, uh, and, and so I was very clear about where I came from, but in a caucus like the BC liberal caucus or the BC Conservative Caucus, everybody has to take a little water with their wine. And so people tend to be certain levels of ideologic, uh, sort of, of ideology. And this is always true in the Federal Reform [00:51:00] party as well.

They, there were people who wanted to be ideologically pure and people who wanted to win, and you couldn't be both. And so, you know, and when I was a BC liberal, I supported the carbon tax. I was not a fan of the carbon tax, but I said, that's part of the program. It's not an issue I wanna die on. And, uh, it's not a moral issue.

And um, so I find that in politics

KYLE: you don't think tax is a moral issue. Feels like theft to me. No, I'm just kidding.

LAURIE: When it gets to a point, I think it is theft. Yeah. I'm

KYLE: extra riot at 10%. So now it's at 50.

LAURIE: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, taxes are bad and everything. Uh, taxes were lower when I was in government.

How was about, how about that? So, um, so

KYLE: what, what about the, the political system as a, as a whole? And, and, uh, the reason I ask about that is when during the last federal election, I asked Mark Straw to come on the podcast here and be interviewed on him. He is my MP here. Yes. Yes. And, and he said no, because it wasn't allowed from the Federal Party in Ottawa.

LAURIE: Oh, really?

KYLE: [00:52:00] And I'm like, what do you mean? Like, who do you represent? Do you represent me or do you represent Per pev?

LAURIE: Yeah.

KYLE: Like, why can't you speak freely? But they were, you know, very tightly controlled. Mm-hmm. And I can, I can understand why in today's political climate where like mm-hmm. You know, you'll get absolutely.

For lack of better words on Good Friday crucified. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. For, for saying anything that doesn't, you know Yeah. To toe the line. Yeah. But I think, well long term, how is that system ever really gonna work? People wanna know what you believe, like

LAURIE: yes,

KYLE: I don't care. Like you're representing me. Yes.

That's how the system works.

LAURIE: Caucus can be very difficult to deal with. Uh, for example, there's a March for Life every May in the legislature in bc and I'm a pro-lifer, so I wanted to go out and speak to them for two minutes, very positive, not condemning anybody or anything like that. And, uh, and one of Christy Clark's top people came to me and said, oh, Lori, please don't do this.

And there were many meetings and, and I said, look, there are hundreds of thousands of pro-lifers in bc. Why wouldn't you be asking me to do this? So that everybody knows that they have a reason to vote BC liberal, that there's [00:53:00] somebody in the inside who believes as they do. Why wouldn't you? And it wasn't about politics, it was about ideology, but they wanted to control my speech.

But finally, I insisted because we had a policy, you could say what you want as long as you gave notice. And so I went out and spoke three or four times in a row. And it was never, it was never controversial at all. There was never any press story about it or anything like that, but I just let people know what I believed.

And so, you know, um, if, if you are, uh, if you press on your beliefs and make your case, uh, you can sometimes get around caucus discipline. But caucus discipline is a very real thing because everything you say impacts every other member of caucus. And people would come to me and say, Lori, people are asking me, why do you allow that thrones to speak about pro-life stuff?

You know, that's, that's wrong. And so I'm getting flack about that. They would say. So I would say, well, thank you for bearing with me. You know, I get flack about stuff that you say too.

Yeah.

LAURIE: And, uh, and [00:54:00] so yeah, you live and die together in a caucus.

KYLE: What do you think about, uh, Pierre Pev? Do you think he has a, a chance in the next federal election?

LAURIE: Oh, it was so stolen from him.

KYLE: It was,

LAURIE: yeah. You know, I feel so bad about that. I, I have met Pierre Pev in when I, because I used to work on the hill. And, uh, he was a very insistent, very strong politician. Uh, I would not want to be a bureaucrat on the other side of him, but I want, would want him to be my MLA or my mp.

Like he, he's, he's a very strong will, and I think that's very key for. A Prime Minister, you have to have a very strong will because the bureaucracy is massive and extremely powerful, and you can be led around the nose by a massive bureaucracy. For instance, in agriculture, when I was with Chuck Straw, there were 14,000 employees.

You know, um, they know all the ropes. They spent their lifetime in the [00:55:00] department. Uh, if, if you don't exercise a strong will, you can accomplish nothing. And so Pierre Poly have has a strong will. And you know, I think I, I think that in the future, uh, the concerts have a, have a huge chance. Uh, it's been now what, 14, 12 years, uh, of liberal government.

And we absolutely need a change. Uh, I think personally that maybe Trump, uh, spoke for Kearney because he felt that Paul Ev was a tougher opponent.

KYLE: I mean, I don't know why there any other reason be besides that, but, um, uh, it was crazy how, how big the swing was.

LAURIE: Yeah. And driven by baby boomers.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: Not by young people,

KYLE: which are mainly watching the news.

I I, I found this during, during, uh, COVID when I seen that the older generation, including my parents, uh, weren't, were saying things about, you know, the restrictions and things that were going on, which just blew me away. And I was like, like, wait a minute. They don't have Twitter on their phone. They have C, B, C.

LAURIE: Yes. [00:56:00] And,

KYLE: and if that's what you're listening to, you're gonna be influenced by it. Yes. Like, and I think that the baby boomers are main, are still watching mainstream media, which I almost, and most of my peers my age also never watch because it's just useless.

LAURIE: I rarely watch, watch TV at all. Uh, maybe sports.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: I, I watch YouTube for the things I like to see.

KYLE: Yeah. Yeah, I did see that Pierre Poly F recently went on Joe Rogan's podcast. And then, uh, I saw that a couple days ago again on the diary of a ceo EO Okay. With Steven Barett and, and, uh, spoke around, around two, two and a half hours on both those podcasts at, at length.

And, and Steven Barett actually said he was impressed, um, by the fact that, uh, um, Pierre said there was no top topics, off limits. And he, he talked about anything and I seen, um. After he'd be on Rogan that Christie Clark was on a panel, um, commenting on it and said, when I was in politics, I would never have gone on a pol a podcast for two hours and just talked.

'cause you're gonna, you know, for sure say something wrong. Yes. Whatever.

LAURIE: Yes. And

KYLE: that's kind of how like the, seems like politics and at least in [00:57:00] politicians in Canada kind of have, uh, have operated and, and they'll very much curate what they're, what they're doing. And so do you think there's a, a shift in what's going on there?

Because he didn't go on these podcasts during the last election and now he seems to be a lot more open to it and I don't know if he just has less to lose now, or,

LAURIE: I, I think that may be part of it. I think you're more controlled if you're in a very tight race, you're less controlled if you're not in a tight race and he's not in a tight race right now.

If there were an election, it would not go well for the conservatives, which to me is staggering.

KYLE: Mm-hmm.

LAURIE: You know, I don't understand that with all that's happened. Um,

KYLE: no, I mean, it can only be the media as, as the, as the explanation. No. Because with, with what's happening, I mean, I mean, uh, Carnie said recently on a pod, uh, on somewhere that affordability isn't really an issue.

I can't remember the exact words, but I'm like, what, what,

LAURIE: how could you say that?

KYLE: Like, have you seen what's gone on the last 12 years? Like everything has gone backwards. Like

LAURIE: the, the media is certainly, and, and Canada is [00:58:00] a small illiberal nation. It's always the default government and has been for like a hundred years.

So they come in, they bring in the conservatives when they're tired of the liberals, but they vote out the liberals, they don't vote in the conservatives. Uh, so, and the media are, you know, they, they are taught in liberal universities. Um, they're, they grew up in a liberal culture and so they foster liberalism wherever they go.

KYLE: Hmm.

LAURIE: And so you will not find in BC a conservative journalist, maybe there's one in Chillowak.

KYLE: Well, you won't be a journalist very long

LAURIE: and you will not be a journalist for very long. Yeah. They, they, I, I always like to think that they hunt in unison, they bay in unison and, and if they latch onto somebody as they latched onto me in 2020, you can do no good.

You know, you're an evil person and that's that. Uh, and I remember in the election in which, uh, Stephen Harper lost, it was a 72 [00:59:00] day election period, and I did not see one positive story about Harper in 72 days.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: And that, that is incredible. An indoctrination that is beyond belief and very hurtful to the nation.

'cause if Stephen Harper would've been our Prime minister today, we would be flying high.

KYLE: Yeah. We would be,

LAURIE: things would be fantastic.

KYLE: Or a lot better. At least in

LAURIE: Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely.

KYLE: Yeah. I mean, you see some of the, um, debates, I, I've seen some of the debate clips pop up of when he was running for the last time and lost against, uh, um, who was it?

The, the NDP guy that passed? Um,

LAURIE: uh, yeah. Um, don't ask me names. Jack

KYLE: Clayton.

LAURIE: Jack Clayton.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: Jack Clayton.

KYLE: Jack Clayton. Yeah. And, and, uh, and Trudeau. And, you know. I think Harper was saying, if these guys get in, they're gonna open the borders and we're gonna have a hundred thousand immigrants and, you know, introduce us.

That's not gonna happen. And, you

LAURIE: know,

KYLE: look what

LAURIE: happened during that election because I knew Stephen Harper from from the Hill. Uh, he was in a rally in Abbotsford and I went in the back, I was invited into the [01:00:00] back to meet him and just say hello. 'cause we had chatted in different occasions and I, and I said, I, I think you're gonna win in the election.

He says, well, you know, maybe I will, or maybe I won't, but if I lose, then I'll be fine. It'll be the country that'll be screwed. And he was absolutely right in what he said.

KYLE: Yeah. Yeah.

LAURIE: So it was, yeah, it was a great loss to the country.

KYLE: Any, any last closing thoughts, uh, for the listeners, uh, just in general regarding the issues of politics and kind of where Canada's headed?

Do, do you feel hopeful? Do you feel, um, you know, like what, what advice would you give to the, the listeners, which I know of my podcast here are mostly conservative.

LAURIE: Um, I would give encouragement to young people to get involved in politics. Uh, the, the political landscape, as I say, is always changing, and it may look difficult and bad today, tomorrow it may look very different.

Tomorrow, the conversation may may change. And in order for you to grasp the opportunity to enhance and impel that [01:01:00] change, you need to be there. And if you are there, then you'll be able to grasp the tools of, of change that we have in society. And so I would encourage people to run, uh, for small office, for large office, uh, to become a member of a political party and to donate to that party.

I'll tell you as an MLA, to have a member of a political party was gold because people do not wanna become members. If you have a member of a party, that member will be influential far beyond the proportion of their numbers. Uh, because people just don't become members anymore. They're not joiners. So if you are a joiner, you are influential from the word go.

KYLE: Hmm.

LAURIE: So I would encourage involvement.

KYLE: And you would even say that, um, in light of your earlier comment, that you're not sure if it was the right decision to go into politics rather than the pastor.

LAURIE: The Lord knows, you know, I leave it up to the Lord, I did what I felt was the Lord's leading, and so I have to trust that he's led me and will lead me in the future.

KYLE: Fair enough. Well, [01:02:00] I, I appreciate you coming on again and taking the time. Um, it was, uh, it was insightful. I enjoyed our chat here. And, uh, if anybody, uh, is listening, can they reach out to you? Are, are you, what are you, you future plans?

LAURIE: Sure. I'm Facebook. Uh, I'm not sure what to do next. I, I'm honestly just assessing Old

KYLE: Testament.

LAURIE: Yeah. I'm not sure. Maybe, maybe, uh, yeah, I'm doing a lot of volunteer work.

KYLE: Okay.

LAURIE: And so I'll certainly continue that.

KYLE: Awesome.

LAURIE: Yeah.

KYLE: Thank you very much. I

LAURIE: appreciate the opportunity, Kyle. Thanks for having me on.

KYLE: You bet. Guys, if you enjoyed this episode, uh, like, comment, share, or subscribe, uh, it's uh, hugely appreciated and I will catch you on the next one.

Peace.

LAURIE: Okay. That was easy.

KYLE: Yes,

LAURIE: it's done. You're, you're a good interviewer.

KYLE: Softballs, baby.

LAURIE: Well,

KYLE: what makes, what makes a good interviewer?

LAURIE: Leading questions.

KYLE: Leading questions.

LAURIE: Yes. Questions that, that give opportunity for a person to talk and, uh, [01:03:00] yeah. And catching things that they say and asking questions that take up on that.

KYLE: Yeah.

LAURIE: We did get to talk about demographics, which one day I would like to talk about.

KYLE: Yeah, we talked

LAURIE: about that privately. I mean, because that has been upset. Upset

KYLE: population collapse

LAURIE: that has been obsessing me, and it is just getting worse all the time. Last year in Greece, they closed 750 schools in September because there are no more kids and their birth rate,

KYLE: so isn't, isn't all the immigrants coming in have huge families.

LAURIE: Uh, they quickly become like us. So the, so the birth, so the birth rate in Greece is 1.3. Birth rate in BC is one, and that includes immigrants. And so if it were not for immigration, our schools would be plummeting in numbers.

KYLE: And what, what it's coming, what, what year, what year do you see, see it like where it's gonna be?

Um,

LAURIE: I think within 10 years, all of our schools would be half full. Right now of 30 schools, [01:04:00] seven of them are the.

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