“Lowlights” of the Media Party's terrible election coverage so far
Episode Stats
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Summary
In today's podcast, I examine a few vignettes to compare how the Media Party is covering the Conservatives and the Liberals, and show you just how bad it is. Here's a clip from six years ago, when Justina McCaffrey and Faith Goldie worked together at the Sun News Network.
Transcript
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Hey, Rebels. In today's podcast, I examine a few vignettes, I call them, to compare how
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the media party is covering the conservatives and the liberals. I try and take similar or
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even identical subjects, policy announcements, controversial candidates, and show you, or
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even, I think, how many questions the leaders take on their campaign trips. And I compare
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the media covering like with like. So I'm comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges. I'm
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trying to eliminate all the variables except for one to show you, to make my thesis, my
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hypothesis, that the media party is corrupt to the core. So that's what you'll see today,
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or at least hear it in podcast form. I'd love it if you saw it too, because I have video
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clips. I show you tweets. Obviously, you can't get that in a podcast, but please consider
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becoming a premium subscriber. You get the video version of all these podcasts. You know
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that. And you get Sheila Gunn-Reed's show and David Menzies' show. It's all just eight
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bucks a month, or 80 bucks for the whole year. You can even get a discount if you type in
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the coupon code podcast. And that's all at the rebel.media slash shows. I'd appreciate
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the support if you did that. All right, here's today's podcast.
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Tonight, how is the media party covering the election so far? I'll show you just how bad it
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is. It's September 16th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
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The only thing I have to say to the government, the why I'm publishing, is because it's my bloody
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Hey, can I show you a few vignettes from the past few days of election coverage?
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Here's the first one. It starts in the Liberal Party war room.
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It's some opposition research into a conservative candidate from Ontario named Justina McCaffrey.
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Now, six years ago, apparently, she made a video with our former employee, Faith Goldie,
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who was then, I think she was at the Sun News Network back then.
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They were talking about the Toronto social scene and how they were a couple of girls on the town.
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Banned from Facebook for spreading online hate, yet Faith Goldie is embraced by Andrew
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Shearer's conservatives. Shearer and Goldie spoke at the same rally this year, and today
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he campaigns with Justina McCaffrey, Faith Goldie's best friend. They even pitched a TV
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show together, Watch. So, it's a chatty, girly TV show that McCaffrey and Goldie proposed six
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years ago, and here's the devastating clip from it. I'm only going to play 30 seconds or so.
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Hi, everyone. My name is Justina McCaffrey, and I'm a wedding dress designer. I design the
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most beautiful dresses in the whole wide world, and I see brides and brides come in and come
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out of my life. So, I have my girlfriend, Faith, who's wonderful. We hang out, have glasses
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of wine, martinis. So, I just thought it might be an opportunity for you to get an idea of
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the show and how this all is going to play out. It's me, and my friends, and my kids,
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and we're just out there trying to find someone for me.
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Hi, my name is Faith Goldie. I'm here to help out my friend Justina McCaffrey, because we
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want to put together the coolest, the hottest new show on TV called A Wedding Dress For
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It goes on like that. Of course, Faith went on to work at the Sun News Network, so she didn't
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do this YouTube show. There is literally nothing in that clip about politics. Just showing the
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two of them. They were friends back then, and that's the liberal attack on the conservative
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candidate in 2019. They were friends six years ago. It's pretty laughable, but you see,
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you're thinking like a normal person. I mean, I have my beefs with Faith Goldie, too. As you may
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recall, I fired her in 2017 for going on an unacceptable podcast run by a neo-Nazi website. I fired her that
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moment. I had no idea she had done it. But in 2013, four years before that, for doing a girly
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society girl kind of YouTube thing, that's the big scandal the liberals have on a conservative
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candidate. What a laugh. But yeah, you see, the media party, and in particular the CBC, they take their
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marching orders directly from the Liberal Party. In fact, they don't even have to take the orders.
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They already know what to do. So if you can believe it, at a campaign event in Ontario where
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McCaffrey and Andrew Scheer were both speaking, the CBC broke away from Scheer when he was in the
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middle of his speech. I'm going to show you a clip. You'll hear him still speaking. To chase
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Justina McCaffrey into a car. Chase is a bit of a big word. You can see the journalist in question
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here just taking a few steps. But turning it into a major scandal, huge news story. Here's the tweet.
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Conservative candidate Justina McCaffrey fled questions from Katie Simpson following a campaign
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rally with Conservative leader Andrew Scheer. Liberal candidates posted old videos of McCaffrey
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Saturday, one that includes friend Faith Goldie. Watch the video.
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Thank you very much, everyone. I think we have some questions from...
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Mrs. McCaffrey. Mrs. McCaffrey. Can we just ask you a really quick question? Can we just ask you
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really quickly? Can we just ask you really quickly? She's running for office.
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I don't actually think she ran away. I think she was about five feet away from her car.
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And the CBC said, can we ask you some questions? And she just got in the car. I don't even think
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Justina McCaffrey ran away. I think she was walking to the car and drove away.
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But that's the scandal. That's how a video six years ago of a couple of friends, that's how the
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liberals handled that. An apolitical chat with someone six years ago saying, did you see anything
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like that? The breathless coverage. Did you see Katie Simpson in an uncharacteristic sprint
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chasing down Justin Trudeau or Hassan Guy? Remember that anti-Semitic liberal candidate in Montreal?
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I said, not someone who said hello to an anti-Semite six years ago. Someone who is an anti-Semite
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himself today. I didn't see that coverage. Did you? The funniest thing was this tweet about Faith Goldie
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by David Akin from the Liberal Party, War Room Today, Part One, Re-Canada, Carlton candidate,
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Justina running against liberal incumbent, blah, blah, blah. He's trying to make that guilt by
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association thing. I guess my old colleague, David Akin, who works for Global News now, forgot that
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back in 2013, he also worked with Faith Goldie. In fact, we were all working together at the Sun News
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Network. Guilt by association and so tepid, so weak. Here's another comparison. This is, I think,
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even more persuasive. Take a look at this. This is the headline for the CBC covering a liberal
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announcement. Great picture of Justin Trudeau. Isn't that a great picture? It's just cut and paste,
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though, directly from the liberal press release. Liberals promise financial incentives lower fees
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to help entrepreneurs. What a gorgeous picture that is, too, right? I think that actually might have
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been word for word the liberal press release, and it might have been the handout picture from the
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liberal party. Now, compare that to their identical, analogous coverage of an Andrew Scheer policy
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announcement. So we're comparing apples and apples. Not exactly a great photo, but not terrible. And the
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headline is, Scheer's costly tax credit could boost public transit use, but likely not by much.
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So they're covering an identical thing, a political party's policy announcement. But with the
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conservative announcement, instead of reporting the news of the announcement, like they did for the
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liberals, the CBC goes straight to rebuttal mode. You couldn't have a more perfect comparison. All the
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elements are controlled. All the variables are controlled. The only thing different is liberal or
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conservative. Or look at this, look at this. Look how the CBC covers Andrew Scheer saying he's not going to
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throw out every single candidate who said something dumb on social media 10 years ago. Here. Here's the
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story by the CBC from Katie Simpson. Again, she's a loyal liberal. She wants so badly to end up in the
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Senate, doesn't she? Scheer will stand by candidates with racist, homophobic past comments as long as they
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apologize. And look at the leader has been dogged by, he's been dogged by social media. Oh, he's in
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defense. So again, I ask, was that written by the liberal war room or the CBC newsroom? And is there
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even any difference? So, so that's the headline. But is that what Scheer actually said? Or is that what
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Katie Simpson loyally wrote? Watch what Scheer said for yourself. Listen to this.
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Look, as long as someone takes responsibility for what they say, and, and, and, and addresses the fact
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that in 2019, some things that may have been said in the past are inappropriate today, that if anything
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that they've ever said in the past caused any type of hurt or disrespect to one community or another,
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and have apologized for that, I accept that. You know, I accept the fact that people can make
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mistakes in the past and can own up to that and accept that.
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So, so what the CBC headline is, is not what he said, was it? Taking responsibility, realizing that
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2019 is different. But here's how Jagmeet Singh and the NDP was reported for saying pretty much
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exactly the same thing as Andrew Scheer did. Here's a tweet from Althea Raj, who works for the foreign
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meddling website Huffington Post, but he's, she's also a regular pundit on the CBC and is actually a
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leader's debate moderator. Here's what she said. Identical comments by Jagmeet Singh.
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Re, past intolerant comments from candidates. Singh says he'll judge any potential incidents
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on a case-by-case basis, but he believes that people can change. If someone apologizes and commits
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to changes, he could keep them. People can grow. This is how we build a better world. I love you.
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That last part was just perfect. People can grow. Hey guys, this is how we build a better world. I
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wonder why they didn't pin that little comment on the end of Andrew Scheer's reporting. But I think
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the most telling thing is how the media are reacting to how they're being handled by various
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parties. Here's the leftist Glenn McGregor complaining that Andrew Scheer isn't allowing
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supplementary questions to journalists on the campaign trail. As in, Andrew Scheer moves on to
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another journalist for another question instead of staying with the one reporter again and again.
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Andrew Scheer's conservative campaign is restricting reporters' questions by not allowing follow-ups in some
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cases. They took the mic away from me and Katie Simpson today for our second questions on his
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candidates. Oh, that's just devastating. It really, we're one step away from Hugo Chavez-style
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crackdown. And here's another one. This is another one. This is from years ago, though. You see,
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this is from the 2011 campaign. Remember this horror, Stephen Harper, 2011, when he only took five
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questions a day. Oh, the outrage. How cruel he was. How's Justin Trudeau doing? Well, here's a
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government journalist for the CBC named David Cochran, not just explaining why Trudeau wasn't
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taking any questions. I mean, zero. Not any, not five, not no follow-ups, zero. But David Cochran of the
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state broadcaster was promoting these as legitimate reasons, defending Trudeau to the world.
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Now, I had trouble finding the original tweet that Cochran made because he deleted it after being
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mocked. But that's what we call a gaffe, someone in politics accidentally saying something that's
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true. Now, David Cochran accidentally showed who he was, a liberal spin doctor, happy to be abused by
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the prime minister, knowing his proper place. But put that tweet back up for a second, because Norman
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Spector caught a bit of it before it was deleted. David Cochran had said, well, you know, it's fair for
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Trudeau not to take our questions, because they are focusing on rapid movement through
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writings on Saturday and Sunday. As in, that's why Trudeau couldn't take questions for five minutes.
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He was focusing on rapid movement, guys. Come on, guys. Stop being so mean. It's unbelievable.
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Cochran deleted his first most embarrassing tweet, but he still couldn't help himself. Here's what he
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said next. He said, so people are asking about Trudeau not taking questions for two days,
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implying the media is okay with it, and asking why we aren't howling with outrage. So here's a
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short thread as to what's happening on the bus with this. Yeah, you deleted what you said, mate,
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but here's the second. He said, we have all reported that it's been two days with no questions,
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so we have been transparent and disclosed. There are sometimes days incumbents without availabilities
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due to travel and time restrictions. We want that to be the exception, not the norm.
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Hey, guys. Full disclosure. We totally told you how we're being abused and disrespected by Trudeau,
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so we already said it, so stop being mad. And yeah, we're not howling with rage because,
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well, because why exactly? He didn't exactly say why he's not howling with rage.
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Because we all know why. Because he's bought and paid for or rented might be more accurate in the
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case of him. So it's so rushed, you see. You see, Trudeau's in a real rush, so he just can't make
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any time for questions, not even one. Look, we've been transparent. We told you that. It was so, so,
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so, so gross. Even other journalists criticized him. Here's someone from the Globe and Mail,
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Janice Dixon. But how does anyone make the travel argument when Andrew Scheer scrums until we run out
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of questions on his plane? That's a good one. Here's a journalist so close to Trudeau, she can
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kiss him, or in this case, praise his footwear. Trudeau has cowboy boots on? Hey, guys. I'm a
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reporter. Trudeau has cowboy boots on, and he's got a wonderful cologne. Maybe it's Axe body spray.
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She's that close. She can feel his warmth. But she couldn't quite bring herself to ask him a
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question other than, how come you're so dreamy? I mean, asking a question about any of the Trudeau
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scandals right now, that wouldn't be friendly. And look, there's $600 million in bailout money
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in the mix. Or this one. Look at this. This is my favorite. Cormac McSweeney.
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Liberal leader Justin Trudeau asked about the Leafs signing Mitch Marner. Says he's the wrong
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person to ask since he's a Montreal fan. Hey, guys. But he wishes Toronto the best of luck. So he
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likes both cities, okay? So vote for him in both cities, okay? That's accountability journalism in
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an election. I swear to God, that was the question put to him. Hey, do you like Toronto or Montreal better?
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I like both guys. He said he likes both. I don't know who's going to win the election on October 21st.
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I do not know. But I think there are a lot of great contenders to win the prize for the all-time
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lamest media party question ever asked of Justin Trudeau. Here's the reigning champ.
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The one that the entire country wants to know. What shampoo do you use?
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What a disappointing answer this is going to be. Whatever happens to be hanging around at the time.
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Oh, my God. That is so embarrassing. If I live to 101, I will never forget the cringe in that video.
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So who's going to knock Tom Clark out of his top position for cringiest question ever, ever asked
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of Trudeau? I think right now David Cochran of the CBC is in the lead. Don't you? Stay with us for more on this.
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Welcome back. Well, I have to tell you, the biggest media surprise of the day today for me
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was that the Globe and Mail, the newspaper of record for the Canadian establishment,
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they published an op-ed by me about the rebel and the liberal government censorship of it.
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I almost couldn't believe it. And I can only imagine how much backlash the editors have received from
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people who want to de-platform us. So I'm doubly impressed. That's a little shimmer, a little glimpse
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of good news. There's other news on the campaign trail, but I think in general,
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the media's coverage of the campaign has been disastrous. Joining us now for his point of view
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is our friend Andrew Lawton, one of the few independent journalists out there just like us.
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He's with TNC.news and he joins us now via Skype. Andrew, great to see you again.
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Likewise, and congrats on that op-ed. Hell has indeed, as you note, frozen over.
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That's right. Well, and I was happy to refer to you in that column because you were one of the
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journalists who was blacklisted by Chrystia Freeland at that London free speech conference. So
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you actually played a role in fighting for freedom. I was only too happy to mention your name.
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Yeah. And I will say on that note, because it is relevant, the Globe and Mail's reporter at that
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conference was one of the ones who, as you wrote about, with that little media gaggle there that
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said, you know what, we're not going to go along with this sham if Andrew and Sheila are not included.
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So I was very grateful for that. And I'm glad that commitment to press freedom on their part has
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continued. Yeah. Well, we've talked about a little flicker of good news. And I don't regard
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as good news simply because I had that column published in the Globe. I mean, that felt good
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personally. But I was glad that a legacy newspaper, a media party newspaper, as I say, actually fought
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for free speech by giving me some space. So it wasn't just the personal aspects. I'm glad
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that anyone did it about anything but free speech. But I think in general, the coverage of the campaign
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so far has been disastrously lopsided. I made some comparisons today. Trudeau absolutely taking
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no questions at all from journalists and them saying, oh, shucks, what can you do? Whereas when
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Stephen Harper limited himself to five questions a day in the last campaign, it was wall-to-wall media
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outrage. I think they're not even pretending to be neutral anymore, are they? Especially the CBC.
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No. And the five-question rule that Harper had at the time was just so egregious. And how dare he? And
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it was he was compared to like some state censored dictator. And now zero questions is somehow just,
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oh, it's all par for the course. And it's a busy campaign. And, you know, we'll get to him when we
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get to him. And this is important because oftentimes media bias is not as brazen or as obvious as people
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would like to think it. It's not as obvious as, you know, some outlets saying, you know, Justin
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Trudeau, good, Stephen Harper, bad. It's a lot more insidious than that. And oftentimes a lot more
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apparent in what isn't covered. And right now we're seeing no coverage of the process. And the process
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stories were all that the media liked to write about when Stephen Harper was prime minister, about
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how he did this to journalists, he did this and so on. Yeah. Yeah, you're so right about the process
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stories. You know, that one clip I showed earlier, before I brought you on about Katie Simpson of the
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CBC literally chasing down a conservative candidate about some friendship video she did six years ago,
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compared to their absolute obsequiousness with, for example, Hassan Ghié, the anti-Semitic candidate in
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Montreal. It couldn't be more stark. I don't know. I guess my main question for you is you and me follow
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this stuff very closely. So we're attentive and we detect these differences. But I think most severely
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normal people, they're not really applying the acid test to what they get from the media party. So
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if all they see is Katie Simpson chasing down someone who was obviously very bad and they and then they
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see tweets about how cool Justin Trudeau's cowboy boots are, maybe they're just, maybe if someone's
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not really dialed in to politics, they'll say, oh, so the conservatives are on defense, they're full of
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haters, and Justin Trudeau is just as stylish as ever. So I'm worried that it's working, maybe not
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with people who are really, really interested in politics, but with severely normal people who have
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normal lives and aren't obsessing about these things. Yeah, and I am of two minds on this. I mean,
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many of your viewers may know I was a candidate in last year's provincial election in Ontario, and I was
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absolutely pilloried by a lot of the same people that are going after Andrew Scheer and his candidates
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in this round. What I found most interesting about it is how little of that made it through to ordinary
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Canadians in a lot of respects, to the people that I would meet whose doors I was knocking on. So there is very much
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a media bubble mentality here, where the media loves to just talk to each other on Twitter and
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write these stories that most Canadians aren't seeing at first. And I say at first because eventually
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when it goes on long enough, people are going to start to pay attention. Even the least engaged voters
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who in the last few days of the campaign start reading the news are going to see whatever is still
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being covered there. So that is the caveat of this. And what we're seeing right now is that the Liberal
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War Room is digging up, you know, some 370 year old tweet that some candidate in, you know,
00:22:15.220
a bit to be Timiska Mang posted at the dawn of the millennium, say. And then what's happening is that
00:22:21.420
instead of this just being a Twitter sensation, every single one of these Liberal War Room tweets
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is transitioning into a question from a mainstream media reporter. It used to be that reporters would
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ignore the political propaganda from all sides and focus on the stories that are actual stories.
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Whereas right now what the media is doing is creating none of their original reporting.
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They're just asking whatever the Liberal War Room is tweeting about. And that's dangerous.
00:22:49.920
Yeah. Now, I want to tell you what I think the biggest media story of the day is. And that is,
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by whatever means, and I don't quite know how, Maxime Bernier has in fact been accepted
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into the next all party leaders debate. Now, I think it was a scandal that he was kept out by
00:23:06.540
Justin Trudeau's handpicked debates commissioner, David Johnston. But through whatever, whatever means,
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he's back in there. And here's the thing. I think that statistically speaking, it is impossible
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for Maxime Bernier to win this next election. I just do not think that that is, I think that's a
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one in a thousand chance of that. I think he may win his own seat. I don't even know where a second
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seat to punch through would be. I could be wrong. But the great value, in my view, Andrew, and I like
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your reaction to this, of having him in those debates is that he is the only one of the party
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leaders who will bring the populist point of view on issues like global warming, political correctness,
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and open borders immigration to light. Even Andrew Scheer steers clear of those for fear of the media
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party. So I don't know how many votes Maxime Bernier would peel off of the conservatives or whatever.
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That's the concern on the right. But having him there to talk about those issues, I think, is cracking
00:24:07.060
open the conversation in a wonderful way. I've been a firm believer since the beginning that Maxime
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Bernier should be in the debates, not because I have any endorsement or support for Maxime Bernier.
00:24:20.420
I'm not supporting any party in this election, but because I think ideological diversity in these
00:24:25.580
debates is important. And I also think that it's important to acknowledge that the PPC is a player
00:24:30.580
in the election. Now, I share your assessment, Ezra, that he's not going to win. And PPC people may not
00:24:36.520
like that, but that's just not the numbers that I see right now. However, you don't need to be able to win
00:24:42.740
to be able to shape the election campaign. And I think the Bloc Québécois is a great example of this.
00:24:48.140
The BQ has a statistical impossibility of winning. Even if the BQ won every single seat in which it's running
00:24:55.040
a candidate, it would not win the election because it's only running candidates in Quebec. So the reason this is
00:25:02.060
important is because we've already abandoned this idea that you need to be able to form government to be in the
00:25:07.520
debates. We've determined that the Bloc Québécois is a player. The Green Party, we know, which gets
00:25:12.380
single digits and has only ever elected two MPs, and one of them was very recent, has been included
00:25:18.400
in debates. And even in 2006, before the Green Party had ever elected an MP, it had a representative
00:25:26.020
in the debate, in Elizabeth May. So if you look at the precedent on this, Maxime Bernier very much should
00:25:31.660
have been included from the get-go. I was not optimistic that the debate commission would review its
00:25:37.300
position and change its position, but it did. So I have to give credit where it's due there.
00:25:42.520
And what they've really leaned on is that the PPC gave five ridings where it feels it has the best
00:25:48.720
shot at electing someone. And the debate commission did polling for the PPC, basically, and found that
00:25:56.280
there was a significant chunk of the voters in each of these ridings that would consider voting for the
00:26:01.740
PPC. And, you know, we were looking at anywhere from, I think, 20, low 20s to low 30s of people
00:26:09.000
that would consider voting for the PPC candidate in a few of these ridings. And that's all you need
00:26:14.760
to win a seat in the Canadian system when you have so many parties represented. So all they need to do
00:26:20.380
is show a good enough response in even a couple of ridings. And they'll have done as well as the
00:26:28.640
Isn't that interesting? I think it's rather weird, pitiful, micromanaging, and too much government
00:26:32.780
that a government-appointed government debate commission is doing government polls on whether
00:26:39.700
or not to blackball an opponent to the government. I think it's about five layers of gross there.
00:26:46.420
But the fact that that gross system produced a free result, I think that's good news.
00:26:54.200
And I think immigration, global warming, that Greta Thunberg girl, the crazy, over-the-top
00:27:02.300
political correctness, I think these are things that Canadians care about just as much as the
00:27:07.520
officially approved debates where you can have the entire spectrum of opinion from A to B.
00:27:12.760
I think Maxime Bernier is going to shake it up. And I don't think it's resolved yet who he will shake
00:27:18.860
votes away from. I think one of the reasons the Greens have polled well recently is because in
00:27:25.420
British Columbia, Justin Trudeau has alienated people and they're going to the Green Party as a
00:27:31.920
sort of protest vote. It could be that Maxime Bernier gets some of those former liberal votes too. I mean,
00:27:38.440
it makes sense that he would get votes from conservatives. He used to be a conservative
00:27:42.000
until a year ago. But who knows where a populist candidate would get votes from. It's not yet
00:27:48.600
resolved that it would be only splitting Scheer's vote. I'm just very interested in how it goes down.
00:27:55.820
And I think it's a small blow for freedom. Last word to you, my friend.
00:28:00.040
Well, I will say that I'm less interested in the PPC contribution to the debate specifically,
00:28:05.540
as much as I'm interested in pushing back against this idea of state gatekeepers of political
00:28:11.560
discourse. And whether it was Elizabeth May, whether it was Jagmeet Singh, whether it's Maxime
00:28:16.560
Bernier, I don't like that idea at all of government bureaucrats deciding who Canadians have a right to
00:28:23.440
hear from. And we see a couple of private sector debates right now, the Monk debate or last week's
00:28:29.320
McLean debates. And they made the decision to exclude Maxime Bernier. I still think it's wrong,
00:28:34.260
but I have a lot less time when it's the state that's doing that because the state is telling
00:28:38.660
people this is the official debate. Yeah. Well, very interesting days. And I salute you
00:28:44.500
and your friends at TNC.news. We know them and we love them, whether it's Anthony Fury or Candace
00:28:50.440
Malcolm. You got a lot of good people over there and we support you. And we think you're one of the
00:28:56.340
good guys out there, independent journalists, not on the government payroll. So you keep up your great
00:29:01.400
election coverage. We'll keep an eye on you and hope to have you back on. Happy to. Thanks a lot,
00:29:06.260
Ezra. All right. Thanks, my friend. Well, there you have it. Andrew Lawton not only covers Canadian
00:29:10.920
politics, but you might recall he actually visited the UK with me a couple of times to cover Tommy
00:29:15.560
Robbins' trial. And actually, he was there crowdfunded on his own dime to attend the Media Freedom
00:29:21.380
Conference in London. Very, very interesting times we live in. Stay with us. More ahead on The Rebel.
00:29:27.500
Hey there. On my special interview with Tommy Robinson, right after he was released from
00:29:42.460
prison, Paul writes, the arrest and imprisonment of Tommy is a black mark on British history and
00:29:47.480
undermines the credibility of human rights groups like Amnesty International. Great to see him out
00:29:51.360
and still fighting. All the best to Tommy and his family going forward. Yeah, I was right there when
00:29:59.180
he walked out of prison. And within two minutes, the Daily Mirror, a hard left-wing alt-left publication
00:30:05.340
was pounding him. And he was pounding right back. And I like that because it showed me that Tommy
00:30:09.780
wasn't too screwed up after being in solitary confinement for 66 days, unlike being kept in a
00:30:16.080
little box like he was in Onley prison. So that made me feel good. Mike writes, riveting. Great
00:30:22.800
interview, Ezra. Thanks for just listening and letting Stephen unload. Pulitzer material. The
00:30:27.040
British establishment is watching what they hope to be ashes produce a Tommy Phoenix. Of course, Stephen
00:30:33.180
is the real name of Tommy Robinson, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. I was glad to be out there. It felt meaningful to
00:30:38.780
me to see him returned to freedom in one piece because he certainly was damaged physically and
00:30:44.760
psychologically the last time. I feel like Rebel viewers had a role to play in that by allowing
00:30:49.080
us to make four prison visits to ensure his proper treatment and then to be there when he got out or
00:30:55.500
felt good. Liz writes, so glad Tommy is looking so fit. I would not want to be his mother or his wife.
00:31:02.680
His wife must be an exceptional woman to go through all this for him. I hope he can stay safe and they
00:31:07.240
don't trump up any charges to throw him back into jail. I've had the pleasure of meeting Jenna,
00:31:12.700
his wife many times, and his three lovely kids, and they are impossibly great. And his kids,
00:31:18.160
they remind me of those rosy-cheeked cherubs and all those Rubens paintings. They're unbelievably
00:31:23.600
cute kids. And I don't know if you saw the clip of the video where Tommy was home. The kids thought
00:31:31.180
he was getting out Sunday or Monday. He got home Friday. Of course, we immediately took him to a
00:31:36.160
McDonald's to get a quarter pounder. Then we took him for a haircut because the kids were still at
00:31:40.140
school because he got out about 10.30. And I think his wife was working. So then he got home
00:31:44.520
and he was sitting there, all cleaned up. And his kids were coming home from Friday school. They
00:31:49.980
thought, okay, it's going to be two or three days until dad comes home. And there he was.
00:31:54.380
And that, I mean, you had to have a heart of stone not to feel something when you saw those kids
00:32:01.140
reunite with their dad. You know, there's that human side of things. And it was quite something.
00:32:07.700
So that's my report for today of our news in Canada. I can tell you that it felt important for
00:32:14.900
me to go to London for Tommy's release from prison, given that we followed it so closely
00:32:19.160
these past 66 days. But I don't expect to see myself going to the UK for many weeks because,
00:32:26.880
of course, he's not in prison. There are more legal battles that he's fighting. And I enjoy live
00:32:30.640
tweeting them. And millions of people follow me when I do. I mean, the last time I live tweeted
00:32:35.720
Tommy's day in court, I think I had 6 million views of that in one day, which tells me there's
00:32:41.640
an enormous demand for that. I feel compelled to go back for any of his trials. But so I don't expect
00:32:48.040
to be making any trips out there in the next month. The focus for the rebel is going to be our
00:32:56.000
Canadian election. We love covering things in the US. We loved going to Hong Kong in the personage of
00:33:00.720
Avi Yamini a few weeks ago. It was fun to send Jessica to Greenland. We've been covering the US
00:33:05.920
pretty well. But until October 22nd, I think you, October 21st, the election, I think you will see
00:33:11.440
our great focus being on the Canadian election. I think it's our time to shine. And I think we will
00:33:16.300
do it very well. By the way, if you haven't checked it out yet, go to the Globe and Mail.
00:33:20.260
Well, my op-ed on freedom of speech for the rebel was so popular today. This is sort of startling to
00:33:27.340
me. It was trending on Twitter. I think it was the number three trending subject on Twitter in
00:33:32.380
Canada that I had an op-ed in the Globe. How funny is that? I tell you, the rebels on the move. People
00:33:38.400
are watching us. They love us or hate us, but they don't ignore us. I'm glad you're a supporter.
00:33:42.200
Thanks for being here. Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters,
00:33:45.900
to you at home, good night. Keep fighting for freedom.