Rex Murphy was a long-time columnist for the National Post, before that, the Globe and Mail. He was the host of CBC's Cross Country Checkup, when the show was still vibrant and relevant. In this episode, we pay tribute to him.
00:16:00.460The, so, I mean, we've seen the overall polling, right?
00:16:03.440Of conservatives leading in every part of the country, except Quebec.
00:16:08.440They lead in every age, income demographic, um, every educational demographic.
00:16:16.200And, and now Angus Reid did something interesting.
00:16:19.460Angus Reid Institute did a poll, 3000 people.
00:16:23.100Shows a 20 point lead for the conservatives nationally.
00:16:25.560So very in keeping with what we've seen already.
00:16:28.020But then they did something nobody else has done.
00:16:31.140They broke it down by religious faith or identity.
00:16:35.960You know, which, which religious group are you practicing or do you identify with?
00:16:41.340And 54% of Catholics say that they are going to vote for Pierre Pauliev and the conservatives.
00:16:50.840I, the Catholic vote used to be, I remember one campaign manager years ago telling me, you know, in Ontario, we've got Catholic schools.
00:16:59.280And they said, get me a copy of the Catholic school board, uh, voters registry.
00:17:05.060And I'll tell you where to put all my signs.
00:17:07.080And, you know, I, I, I know that over the years that has been broken a bit, but it's still one of the most reliable groups, uh, over 50% of Sikhs, 50% of Hindus, 50% of other Christians, uh, the plurality of Jews in Canada, all say that they're voting conservative.
00:17:26.560Uh, the only group that they're not leading with are Muslims and they've gone to the NDP.
00:17:31.140They've abandoned Justin Trudeau as well.
00:17:34.040Like, you know, back to Laura Stone's point for the good of your party, for the good of the country.
00:17:46.640Like, uh, I'm going to go down with the ship.
00:17:50.040That's not the sort of thing that, that, uh, politicians generally say.
00:17:52.920I mean, the, the Muslim vote is, is a fascinating one because to me, it wasn't so long ago that we were seeing some really interesting convergence on conservative issues between conservative Christians and conservative Muslims, like in terms of the parental rights discussion, um, all kinds of, well, broadly, very broadly speaking, socially conservative issues.
00:18:15.600And now until the war happened and then, yeah, and then October 7th, uh, and that's amazing.
00:18:23.340Like from, from what I've seen, that really did splinter whatever coalition was, um, was building there.
00:18:29.360And I guess if that's your number one issue or one of your major issues and you're not going to vote and, you know, there's lots of reasons not to vote, um, liberal, no matter who, no matter which religion you're from, you're just sitting tired of the guys.
00:18:43.180Because you're probably not going to go for the guy who's, who's the, the, the heaviest, um, in support of Israel.
00:18:51.200So I, it's, it's a, a, a fascinating, fascinating dynamic.
00:18:56.820Do you think that, you know, there's been a lot of commentary on, uh, Pierre Polyev's peak too soon, but some of that is from the same people that said Pierre Polyev was done last December.
00:19:07.200And then his, his numbers only went up.
00:19:11.040Steve McKinnon, the liberal house leader told me had a really bad week.
00:19:14.200It's over for the liberals or for the conservatives.
00:19:17.320Um, but I mean, how do you sustain this?
00:19:20.460Cause I don't see us going to an election before October, 2025.
00:19:24.940Now, you know, you've got, you've got all those MPs, not just Jagmeet Singh, but there's what 80 saw some odd MPs, 30 odd of them are, I believe, uh, block liberal or NDP who are awaiting their pension.
00:19:40.540They've extended the voting day, you know, a week later so that they can all qualify for their pensions, which there's no way these guys are voting against their pensions.
00:19:50.940It's like, you know, Turkey's voting for Christmas dinner, not going to happen.
00:19:55.560So how hard do you see it being for Polyev to sustain a, a significant lead over that?
00:20:04.360I, I mean, it's an interesting question is interesting strategic question because he, he, he really has one gear, right?
00:20:11.880He just goes, goes, goes, goes, goes, um, is there a possibility that going for months after month, after month, after month, after month might, you know, people don't like politicians in their face too much, right?
00:20:26.660No matter who, no matter how much they might like the politician.
00:20:30.780Um, and I'm not suggesting he sort of take his foot off the gas or anything, but you know, it might be worth showing us some other people in the party a little bit, um, just calming down a little bit.
00:20:44.960I don't know, but these are just personal preferences, right?
00:20:47.020John Kretchen famously was all about not being in your face because his view was that, um, voters don't want to see their elected leaders all the time.
00:20:59.500So Kretchen view, Kretchen's view was the less he was on TV, the better.
00:21:04.220And you know who adopted that from Kretchen?
00:21:09.600The ultimate not to be, yeah, it's true, right?
00:21:12.420People always compare Polyev to, to Harper, but in that sense, they're very different.
00:21:17.020Uh, so, so I was a local radio reporter in Ottawa when Pierre Polyev was first elected and he used to call the radio station trying to get into every story there was.
00:21:27.120And I remember answering the phone one day and I said, oh, look, we can't have you commenting on everything.
00:21:53.400He sealed the deal with, I mean, he might not have sealed the deal with 43% of the population or whatever it's saying now, but he's, it looks to me like he sealed the deal with enough people to win for sure.
00:22:03.920So maybe you don't want to, it's tough.
00:22:08.920You've done that way in advance, um, of, of the election date, as you say.
00:22:28.820It's, it's, it's, I could see people advising him to, um, take it down a year, but then he doesn't seem to have surrounded himself with people who would say things like that from my, uh, observation.
00:22:40.720The, uh, the old, uh, world war one, uh, propaganda poster attack on all fronts that, that comes to mind.
00:22:48.180Uh, the, the Toronto star has a piece out from, uh, Susan Delacorte, um, attacking Polyev saying he's going to take away some of your rights.
00:23:01.200And I find this an interesting thing that, you know, there's not a big surprise that what Delacorte's writing mirrors what is coming out of the PMO,
00:23:08.100but their push is he's going to take away your rights.
00:23:14.100And this is because Polyev has said that he would be, uh, open to using the notwithstanding clause.
00:23:21.360If judges strike down any of his tough on crime legislation so far, he said, he's only going to use it for, um, serious, violent criminals.
00:23:30.900Uh, do, do you, do you think that the general public cares about the government overruling judges that constantly are, are, are saying, no, you, you, you've got to give this consideration and that consideration and let the criminal out sooner.
00:23:46.260I, I, I think that there would be a cross party consensus among everyday voters to say, yeah, lock, lock the SOBs up.
00:23:55.880Um, yeah, I, I think on that issue, and I think that's the, like, when he talks about, uh, uh, uh, Alexander Bissonnets, who was the, the Quebec city, um, mosque assassin, uh, and the fact that, that the court overturned, uh, his, um, sentences as, as, as being longer than his natural life could be.
00:24:21.660And therefore it was, you know, cruel and unusual punishment and Canadians would, Canadians would be appalled.
00:24:26.580You know, I can't read the exact language, but it literally said this would offend the Canadian conscience or something like that.
00:24:37.500Um, so I think that's a great example of where the notwithstanding clause should be on the table and should be, and should just be slapped down, um, without apology.
00:24:49.220Um, I do think, and I don't know what I'm basing this on, I, I, I'm thinking of polls that I've seen sort of out of Quebec on, uh, sort of cultural issues that it does seem to me that, that people have some trepidation about the idea of politicians just overruling the courts.
00:25:07.540And, and when I hear, when I hear, um, Paul, you have talked about it as sort of, um, almost like an, I will do this, you know, not, I will do this if necessary, but more like,
00:25:19.920he was talking to the police, I think, you know, I, I, you know, all my laws would be constitutional because I'm going to make them constitutional using the constitution.
00:25:27.260And I think, you know what I'm talking about.
00:25:29.240I, I, I don't want the notwithstanding clause used on principle.
00:25:32.500I want it used, I'm sorry, I don't want it used just for the sake of using it.
00:25:36.920I want to know what's going to be used when it's, when it makes sense.
00:25:39.580And I don't understand why, I don't understand why Paul Yeb would rule it out, um, except in cases of criminal law.
00:25:46.380There's lots of, I mean, some of the, some of the most unimpeachable uses of the notwithstanding clause have been outside of the realm of criminal law.
00:25:53.640You know, people, uh, were asking me why Doug Ford used the notwithstanding clause on back to work legislation for education workers a little while ago.
00:26:03.140And, you know, I've also received a ton of emails saying, oh, these guys should be made essential workers.
00:26:08.920Like the reason that he had to use the notwithstanding clause is that a couple of years ago, Rosalia Bella on the Supreme court said the time has come to recognize this as a right.
00:26:19.440Well, she didn't use a legal argument.
00:26:23.060Uh, she actually overturned decades of precedent, uh, established by courts that were at times liberal at times conservative and just said the time has come.
00:26:35.600Uh, and so she overturned decades of precedent.
00:26:38.760And she made a major imbalance in the system.
00:26:43.760That's where you would use the notwithstanding clause, uh, you know, as an example of outside of, uh, criminal justice.
00:26:50.280Uh, Chris, we should take a quick break here cause I'm over time, but when we come back, I want to talk about other crazy court, uh, uh, rulings, including on the encampments.
00:27:01.060Apparently McGill university cannot remove campers from their own property more when we come back.
00:27:07.800We've seen the encampments pop up across North America.
00:27:13.860And then of course we had copycat encampments on university campuses across Canada.
00:27:19.480What's fascinating to me, Chris, is that people who were all about cracking down on the freedom convoy in 2022, who said, you can't just set up a place to live.
00:27:30.720You can't camp there or suddenly defending this.
00:27:54.680Well, Quebec police are generally among the most willing to, uh, bust heads when, when it comes up to this.
00:28:02.380Not that I'm suggesting heads should be busted, but.
00:28:04.460Oh, let, let's not stereotype just based on past experience, Chris.
00:28:08.260Um, it's a fast, it's like the way you put it is, is, is, is good because there are so few people who are consistent about this.
00:28:20.320Like, this is what makes it so difficult to have this discussion when you have literally every, you know, you take the number of people who have strong opinions about the convoy and about the, uh, the encampments.
00:28:32.460And as you say, they're, they'll literally, they'll talk your ear off for an hour about how different they are, that the one thing has nothing to do with the other.
00:28:42.920I mean, they're not, they're not in the middle of downtown to be fair.
00:28:46.180One thing I find funny about the U of T encampment is that it's essentially invisible to anyone who doesn't go looking for it or doesn't work on campus or doesn't go to school on campus.
00:28:55.900Or walk their dog through there like I do.
00:29:02.460The full-blown crisis that Ottawa was.
00:29:05.540Look, I, I was a long time Ottawa resident.
00:29:07.880That was not the crisis that it was made to be, except that in my view, part of the reason that it was amplified the way it was, was it inconvenienced the National Press Gallery.
00:29:54.900So, so you and I are two of the people who are consistent on this, but they, you know, the National Press Gallery was just outraged that these dirty people were in their way.
00:30:22.860It's, and, and, and, you know, these are publicly, I mean, there's some gray area about how much a university is public property and how much of it is private property.
00:30:30.120But the fact is that these are publicly funded institutions.
00:30:36.040People, you know, students, faculty are there.
00:31:00.720Like it's, it's building from, you know, I don't think that the, the encampment people have taken any notes necessarily from the, uh, Ottawa convoy people.
00:31:10.760But the fact is that this keeps happening, right?
00:31:14.300And, and, and, and the more we don't do about it, the more we accept that you can just park yourself wherever you want.
00:31:20.200If, if your cause is righteous, the worst it's going to get.
00:31:23.120Like someone has to draw a line and apparently it's not judges.
00:31:25.500I was actually quite surprised by the, the judge's ruling on this.
00:31:30.260And, and I think it's a horrible precedent.
00:31:32.460Um, but then again, I, I think that about an awful lot of judicial rulings, we, we have this mistaken belief in Canada that our courts are not political.
00:31:42.720And anyone that spends any time reading court rulings can see the politics at play.
00:31:47.960Look, look, we all come to how we view things with a particular mindset, a worldview, and that informs how we would rule on something.
00:31:57.180If we were in that position, um, how you can tell a university that you don't have the right to remove people from living on your property is beyond me.
00:32:06.580But I was down at U of T the other day and a group called the, uh, council of Muslims against antisemitism was trying to bring in a truck.
00:32:17.160They wanted their truck to be on the U of T campus.
00:32:20.200And U of T was saying, no way, Jose, you're not getting on there.
00:32:23.580Uh, the truck was one of these ones with a video billboard on the side.
00:32:28.080And it was playing a clip on loop of a Palestinian man from Gaza who wrote a piece in use week saying, stop glorifying Hamas.
00:32:39.940Hamas is horrible for the Palestinian people.
00:32:42.980I can't believe how many people in the West don't know this.
00:32:46.020U of T would not allow that on there, but they allowed trucks onto campus to drop off porta potties for the campers.
00:32:53.980So they now have professional port-a-potty facilities for them that are obviously emptied at some point.
00:33:35.820I mean, you know, you could argue, uh, well, one, one could argue that, that, so the, the, the, the, the protesters at U of T, like they have this, their, their narrow point.
00:33:49.820Some of them will tell you is we, we just want the university to disclose its investments and divest from anything in Israel.
00:33:56.940Now, of course, their, their, their demands go on from there to include, you know, no association with Israeli universities.
00:34:03.560Well, hang on, what, what, like, what does that have to do with, with anything?
00:34:09.360But, um, it, it's turned into this huge thing.
00:34:13.520Like if, if they can't claim that it's grassroots, I think that's one of their credibility problems.
00:34:18.960That doesn't impact their rights necessarily, or the lack of the rights to occupy a public space.
00:34:24.080But this is clearly, you know, not just a student movement, not just looking to, to divest, um, for the university to, to divest itself.
00:34:36.220It's, it's a, it's the organized anti-Israel mashup.
00:34:42.240There are more Palestinian flags in that one little area of U of T than there are Canadian flags across the campus.
00:34:50.080And it's not like they don't fly the Canadian flag at U of T. They absolutely do.
00:34:54.360I'm not criticizing them for that, but those flags, there were dozens and dozens of flags brought in and they, they weren't brought in by students.
00:35:03.040The video was posted online by the groups doing it.
00:35:06.380I think they said that we're going to bring a hundred.
00:35:08.500I don't think there's a hundred up there right now.
00:35:11.340Um, maybe I have to go back and count, but these were professional organizers, protesters who have been at the McGill encampment.
00:35:20.080At the U of O encampment, at the U of T encampment, these aren't students at any of these schools.
00:35:48.660What does that have to do with anything?
00:35:51.880I mean, it's, it's, yeah, it's, it's really frustrating and it makes it.
00:35:55.600And when even the media can't, I say even the media, but I mean, when even media can't even try, it looks to me to be consistent about these things.
00:36:05.300And that just makes it, that just makes it all the worse because it reinforces this, this, this instinct that we have to excuse things, uh, from people we like and causes we like.
00:36:18.560And, and there's no way that that's, that's never going to resolve itself unless someone puts it, draws a line in the sand and says, this is, you know, what you can do.
00:36:30.720If you're consistent with the rule of law, then you're going to be fine.
00:36:34.640And yeah, well, except that, well, everyone will still claim you're not being consistent, but, but at least you can, at least you can claim righteously to have been consistent.
00:36:43.800Uh, uh, speaking of excusing things that you don't like, Chrystia Freeland, um, Trudeau's deputy prime minister, finance minister was asked recently.
00:36:55.480This is a news conference where Trudeau showed up, did the whole announcement and then walked out without asking, answering a single question.
00:37:03.660And, uh, bizarrely, there was no, you know, protest from the media to walk out as, you know, as would happen with other politicians.
00:37:10.380But Freeland took the questions and she was asked about the, the man, I'm forgetting his first name, Mr. Singh, who is the guy who was trying to avoid arrest by police in Durham region, just east of Toronto.
00:37:27.560He's in a rental van after I I'm, it's not clear if he actually did rob the LCBO or attempted to rob the LCBO, but he gets in a van evades police for a while and ends up going through, uh, the wrong way on the 401, uh, a baby and two grandparents were killed.
00:37:46.520Turns out this guy was out on bail, not once, but twice.
00:37:51.120So Chrystia Freeland's asked about it and she says, it's not very Canadian to bring that up.
00:38:00.780I would say it would be jaw dropping, would have been jaw dropping nine years ago.
00:38:06.500Um, but this is, this is who this government is.
00:38:09.420I mean, I, I recall the incident where, um, uh, because rivers were complaining about Terri Lynn McClintock being trans, uh, the murderer of eight year old Terry Stafford being transferred to an indigenous healing lodge that had no security.
00:38:26.440And I believe it was at that point that Justin Trudeau sprinted out of the commons, uh, towards waiting reporters to say that they were an ambulance chasing politics.
00:38:35.140Uh, he saw an advantage there in standing up for a, uh, a killer.
00:38:42.200Um, there is, it's, it's an example of just absolutely terrible instincts and just pure arrogance on, on, in terms of, like, Oh, we mustn't talk about that.
00:38:54.920And that's just so Canadian, um, in so many ways.
00:39:00.140I wasn't sure if she was trying to avoid talking about this guy's past because Singh was in Canada as a, an international student from India.
00:39:09.140And I was, you know, I thought, well, is she trying to, to, to imply that to ask about this is somehow racist?
00:39:16.060Well, the, the two grandparents that he killed were visiting from India.
00:39:20.260They had come from India to see their grandchild, just three months old.
00:39:24.740They're driving along with them in the car, probably proud as punch.
00:39:38.800My mind didn't even go there when I heard it, but that now that you say it, I can see that, that instinct, uh, sort of creeping into a liberal mind.
00:39:55.320It's, um, well, we, we get, we get the idea of Christian Freeland replacing Justin Trudeau.
00:40:00.980I mean, does that sound like a viable, um, replacement?
00:40:06.580Someone who would stand up there and say that we mustn't talk about bail conditions for, you know, I mean, the fact is that guy probably would have been out on bail anyways.
00:40:16.340Well, I mean, they're saying that they've done bail reform.
00:40:19.480They have, and they haven't, they've done it for repeat convicted offenders, but this guy was out on bail for a series of robberies, including violent one.
00:40:29.120And then he breaches his bail conditions by doing exactly what he was out on bail for.
00:40:37.260Because, because the law still says that for guys like that, even after their bail reform, you are supposed to release them as soon as possible under the least onerous conditions.
00:40:46.620And meanwhile, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of cases get thrown out because the justice system can't process the trials quickly enough.
00:40:54.080I mean, to me, this, the whole justice system needs a top to bottom examination, um, and revamp.
00:41:02.540Um, you know, this, this, this, that incident brings up so many contemporary issues in Canada.
00:41:11.780Like, you know, do we just, we shouldn't try to stop shoplifters.
00:41:47.780This episode was produced by Andre Pru with theme music by Bryce Hall.
00:41:51.840Kevin Libin is the executive producer.
00:41:53.960Remember, you can subscribe to full comment on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music, wherever you get your podcasts and help us out by giving us a rating or leaving a review and tell your friends about us.