Juno News - Andrew Scheer on leadership, social conservatism, and future of the Conservatives

00:00:00.000 welcome to canada's most irreverent talk show this is the andrew lawton show brought to you by true

00:00:09.800 north the andrew lawton show starts right now i'm sitting down with the outgoing leader of her

00:00:24.040 majesty's loyal opposition and of the conservative party of canada the honorable andrew sheer it's

00:00:29.360 good to talk to you again in person thank you very much for taking the time absolutely andrew it's

00:00:33.160 it's great that we can do this again and uh thanks very much for uh all your work and covering public

00:00:38.320 affairs here in canada well thank you i appreciate that you have had as far as what anyone could

00:00:43.220 expect in their final few months in your role probably the most eventful few months and not

00:00:48.980 just in terms of the political season in canada being kind of busy but also the importance of

00:00:54.320 having an opposition being strengthened how was that for you compared to when you first stepped

00:00:59.080 down to what really ended up dominating the last few months of your tenure well uh you're right you

00:01:05.100 know when when the covid pandemic hit it really changed everything it changed everything for a lot

00:01:08.860 of canadians unfortunately many people have suffered either with their health or with their businesses or

00:01:14.480 with their jobs and so it really did change the dynamic when we were planning kind of in january about

00:01:19.800 how best to leave the party and and and you know visits with some of the regions and some of the

00:01:26.040 people who have helped in the past uh that all changed when the pandemic hit and uh i never thought

00:01:32.100 i'd have to fight to get parliament to sit you know that that we take that so often for granted

00:01:37.740 as canadians that parliament will sit the house of commons will will function and yet here we were

00:01:43.480 thrust into this crisis because as early as april the the liberals were clearly signaling that they

00:01:49.020 wanted to govern this country through a pandemic without parliamentary oversight and we had to

00:01:52.940 work very very hard to fight to get what we did in terms of some kind of house of commons operation

00:01:58.460 to provide that oversight and uh i was proud of our team and proud of our efforts to make sure that

00:02:03.320 that the value of our parliamentary institutions were were defended during this pandemic anytime

00:02:09.580 parliamentarians have gone on a summer break or a winter break the narrative is always that

00:02:14.220 you know if an emergency happens they can all come back and we were in that emergency situation

00:02:18.880 and you're right there was this resistance to coming back and we saw that the government really

00:02:23.480 tried to circumvent the parliamentary process and the opposition pushed for that and even as the

00:02:28.960 pandemic has continued and as various government spending programs and such have come out the

00:02:33.280 opposition has been there at the same time i'm curious if you think there needs to be a re-evaluation

00:02:38.620 of the role of the opposition in canada because certainly anytime the opposition has held the

00:02:44.600 government to account we've then gotten from the government criticisms of polarization and of

00:02:48.860 violating what you had termed early on a so-called team canada approach well yeah you're right to

00:02:54.740 point that out uh back in late march early april the the liberals were saying hey let's all have a

00:03:00.600 team canada approach let's sit down and and and and meet and and develop programs to respond to the

00:03:06.360 pandemic we took them at their word we we started proposing concrete solutions act you know substantive

00:03:12.060 amendments to their programs we were aware of people falling through the gaps and we took them

00:03:17.140 at their word too when they said that if we if we pass the legislation quickly they would fix it after

00:03:22.800 the fact we agreed with them that said in order to get help out the door let's get the programs up and

00:03:27.540 running get help out to as many people as we can and then we'll make fixes as we go it's august and

00:03:33.320 they still haven't made the changes to the wage subsidy to the the uh small business loan programs

00:03:38.720 uh the serb people are still falling through crack here we are in august so um i don't know if we need 1.00

00:03:44.560 to rethink the role of the opposition but i think uh the opposition needs to find ways uh and and as

00:03:51.420 parliamentarians we all need to find ways to ensure that the part of the opposition voices are heard

00:03:56.240 and that their proposals are actually taken into account uh when when we're being criticized of

00:04:03.120 of being partisan when we're pointing out you know objective problems with their with their programs

00:04:08.340 it makes it more difficult for us to do a job and then that makes it more difficult for canes to get

00:04:12.760 better programs and you add to the general checks and balance checks and balances of the government

00:04:18.920 and their policies and you take the we scandal and throw that into the mix and now it's not just about

00:04:23.760 making sure that this program is working and that program is working but but a true accountability

00:04:28.900 issue and a transparency issue and i'm curious for you if this was something that kind of frustrated

00:04:36.200 you not just as a canadian and as a conservative but as someone who is running against this party and

00:04:40.860 this prime minister in the last election to really have a lot of what the conservatives have been saying

00:04:45.320 about justin trudeau vindicated after the election with them re-elected yeah well you know uh during

00:04:50.400 the the the english language debate the only debate in english that justin trudeau showed up for

00:04:56.020 i told him that he was a phony and a fraud he didn't deserve to govern this country and that may 0.63

00:05:02.280 have been the truest statement i ever made in my political career and for him to use the pandemic as

00:05:08.540 cover to reward his friends you know it's it's it's normal for liberals to to to aspire to power to

00:05:16.040 reward their friends that's that's their it's really the raison d'etre if you look at their

00:05:19.940 entire history that's kind of what they do uh just drew to promise to be better he promised to do

00:05:25.140 things differently he said sunlight was the best disinfectant and then we see the hypocrisy of using

00:05:30.520 the cover of the pandemic to help his friends who were in trouble an organization that was in

00:05:34.700 financial trouble he used canadian taxpayers dollars to reward to bail out an organization that

00:05:40.460 provided provided him a massive political uh uh platform and uh i found that just just disgusting

00:05:46.560 you know uh we have disagreements on policy issues you know they think option a would work better than

00:05:51.060 our proposal when you're using your office the power that you canes have entrusted in you in a

00:05:58.220 moment like this that was just absolutely disgusting when you were putting that message to canadians in

00:06:03.840 the election and canadians still despite the conservatives getting more votes than the liberals under our

00:06:08.340 system of government in our system of elections they elected the liberals again what does that say

00:06:13.000 the canadians were willing to reward with all that had happened up until october keeping in mind they

00:06:17.920 didn't know what was going to happen since but but with a lot of what you had put forward and what people

00:06:21.820 knew prior to then what do you think it says that he got this mandate well look uh i think we have to

00:06:27.200 kind of take a step back and look at where we were in 2015 and after the 2015 election the the

00:06:33.600 conventional media narrative was that justin trudeau is going to win the next two or three elections

00:06:38.040 no problem you know majority governments for a decade was what we were facing with we had gone

00:06:42.600 from majority government to opposition they went from third to first we were wiped out in atlantic

00:06:47.160 canada so i i view the last election we fell short of our goals but major accomplishments major gains in

00:06:54.920 atlantic canada major gains in british columbia on the whole up in ontario it was tough to lose some

00:07:01.320 of the seats that we had in ontario but on the whole we were we were net positive virtually sweeping

00:07:06.700 the prairies i i when you look at a first-term majority government it's very rare in canadian

00:07:12.060 history that a first-term majority government would would lose government so bringing them to

00:07:15.900 a minority seeing several high-profile cabinet ministers lose their seat uh seeing us regain

00:07:21.500 our foothold in lantic canada there is a tremendous amount to build on there and i'm very very encouraged

00:07:25.900 by the results of the last election and every confidence that our next leader whoever that may be

00:07:31.020 is going to be able to build on that foundation and finish the job i was there in regina the night

00:07:36.140 of the election when you gave what sounded in many cases like a victory speech you talked about some

00:07:40.140 of the themes that you just brought up now i was also there the next morning when you indicated you

00:07:44.620 were staying on as leader and talked about wanting to make some more of these gains how do you feel

00:07:49.500 that it's not you that's going to build on that well um i recognize that this party has never been about

00:07:57.260 one person you know we're conservatives aren't about the cult of personality we don't look for

00:08:02.220 a promised one uh like the liberals do and make it all about their leader we are a movement that's

00:08:08.140 built on principles values freedom individual liberty free market economics uh democratic reform

00:08:16.540 those principles are bigger than any one person and at the end of the day i just want to see canada

00:08:21.500 be the best country it can be so if it's not me but i can play a role in helping someone else finish

00:08:26.380 that job i will be thrilled uh on election night in the next election if we're able to be successful

00:08:31.740 and uh i'm happy to contribute any way i can it's been an honor to serve as leader and uh and i am

00:08:38.300 really grateful for that opportunity it's uh but you know i've never let this be about me it's about

00:08:44.300 what we're trying to accomplish i'm going to do everything i can to make sure that the next leader of

00:08:48.060 the party becomes prime minister but at first you did think it was going to be you seeing it through

00:08:52.700 not just as a an opposition leader but as a future prime minister or someone that would be heading

00:08:57.980 into another election as conservative leader i know that there were some dynamics in the party

00:09:02.460 that we'll we'll talk about uh soon but but what changed in your mind at what point did it become

00:09:07.660 apparent to you that you were not the one that could stay on and complete that mission well you

00:09:13.740 know in the early days keeping in mind that we always knew when i when i ran for leader in 2016 2017

00:09:20.940 we knew that often in game politics it it takes more than one crack at it you know you you you

00:09:27.500 make gains you build on those gains it's very very common for opposition leaders at the provincial or

00:09:32.220 federal level to uh to have a two-step process we think back to 2004 2006 with the previous conservative

00:09:39.500 leader with many examples at the provincial level uh so that that was my intention to say okay we

00:09:45.500 understand that we have to find out what we can do better and make some improvements but by and

00:09:49.900 large there was a a great deal to be optimistic about what happened in the next few weeks was

00:09:54.540 really just the realization of of what that would mean on my family side and when i ran for leader

00:10:00.860 my wife and i you know talked about how we would manage that how we would uh balance both the the demands

00:10:07.580 of being a father and being leader and uh but you can't really plan for it until you start doing it

00:10:12.860 and i just it was just uh becoming more and more apparent to me that with the way my family had

00:10:20.940 had had developed and and you know going you know getting older for those three years having a couple

00:10:25.980 of teenagers now and and uh all the things i had missed and looking at the next few months uh that that

00:10:32.860 laid ahead of me i just didn't see how i could keep that balance uh going and uh i i made a commitment to

00:10:40.620 jill when i proposed to her that i would always put her first and put my family first no matter what

00:10:45.100 and it just got to that point where i realized that it was best for the party if i if i if i took

00:10:50.700 that step back because if i couldn't give the party a hundred percent i had to hold something back

00:10:55.100 because i had to make sure that my family was okay and it wasn't fair to my caucus colleagues and

00:11:00.140 the rest of the party that i would not give them that hundred percent so i'm very much at peace with

00:11:04.380 that decision because i i know it was the right decision to make and that's really it's really

00:11:09.500 came down to you know i had a couple conversations with my kids i had one with my son kind of late

00:11:13.740 at night we were both getting snacks at the same time we ended up chatting for almost an hour and in

00:11:18.780 that conversation i just realized how much he had grown up in the past three years and i was finding

00:11:22.860 things out about him that i didn't know just in that conversation i just thought you know i've missed

00:11:26.780 a lot and i don't know if i can ask them if i can put them through that again and so i'm very much at peace

00:11:33.180 with that decision did you feel like you were able to be the andrew shear you wanted to be during

00:11:39.500 the election because it seems to me and to a lot of people that i've heard from that there was a

00:11:43.740 market shift in pre-election andrew shear to election share and then also post-election share

00:11:50.220 and it seems like you were a lot more restrained and i don't mean that in a way that you're bombastic

00:11:55.500 or radical or anything outside of the election but you were a lot more restrained and a lot of people

00:12:00.140 didn't feel like your personality sean is that something that you would view as a fair assessment

00:12:04.460 i think there's definitely something to that uh it's it's a normal human beings don't communicate

00:12:10.220 the way politicians do you know like you know normally you want to say something pick up the

00:12:14.140 phone you help with your friend we have to communicate through different filters you know we

00:12:17.980 have to speak to journalists we have to do interviews we have to put content on social media and

00:12:23.500 and so there i think over time you know you are trying to refine a message you are trying to

00:12:30.620 simplify a message stay focused on a message and sometimes over time you can it suddenly becomes well

00:12:36.060 this isn't really how you would put it or this isn't how what you act what your actual take on something

00:12:41.020 is and i i do think you know in retrospect if i look back uh uh i just you know i think of some of

00:12:47.260 the things that i've said or done after i announced i was stepping down when the pressure's off a

00:12:51.900 little bit nothing to lose yeah you know yes let andrew be andrew you know and and uh sometimes i

00:12:56.860 kind of feel yeah geez i wonder if we could have done more of that you know that there's you know

00:13:01.260 you do want to you know polish a message and and and and make sure that there's a clear contrast between

00:13:07.580 your party and the other guys so there's a need for that but sometimes i did think that uh in looking

00:13:12.940 back that maybe i wasn't always able to connect in a in an authentic way that and let my my own

00:13:18.940 personality come through because i think that's what canadians i think all voters are looking for

00:13:22.540 that and that's one of the things you know challenged myself and did i always was i always

00:13:27.180 able to do that and you know i i think there's something to be said for sometimes just throwing

00:13:32.220 away the notes and and uh and just you know saying saying what comes in your head i know you've been

00:13:38.220 deliberately neutral throughout the conservative leadership race and i won't ask you to betray that

00:13:42.460 tempting as it is but in a more general sense what is it that you feel the next conservative

00:13:47.180 leader needs to embody or what's something that you think they need to learn or could learn from

00:13:51.820 your experience and your time as leader well there's there's a few things there i think

00:13:55.900 first and foremost uh the new leader has to has to not take party unity for granted you know we are

00:14:03.420 a party that has a long history of breaking apart coming together reforming you know different

00:14:09.260 iterations of the conservative party have existed throughout our history so it takes an effort we can't

00:14:14.220 take any part of our of our party for granted uh we have to have a leader that always shows respect

00:14:19.900 to the different kinds of conservatives that help our candidates get elected that believe in our party

00:14:24.140 that keep it going strong so making it a conscious effort to make sure every member of our party and

00:14:29.580 by member i mean card holder and member front feels valued and respected and has a has an opportunity

00:14:34.940 to voice their concerns that's that's going to be essential secondly they're going to have to find a way to

00:14:41.020 connect in some of the areas that that we weren't successful in in the last election so whether

00:14:44.460 that's a a regional message or just a different way to to reach out to you know gta uh residents

00:14:51.180 versus where we've had success uh that's certainly going to be a focus but perhaps even larger than

00:14:57.100 that i think there's a big problem facing the world and the next leader conservative party here is going

00:15:03.100 to have to find a way to do in canada what i think every conservative has to do around the world and that is

00:15:08.860 re-win the battle that we've won in the past uh we won the argument in the 80s for small government

00:15:15.020 for free markets for uh you know lower taxes free trade free trade yes yes yes free trade we we won

00:15:23.020 the argument i believe we won the argument in large part we had great ambassadors like reagan and thatcher

00:15:29.420 great ambassadors for the cause but we also had the world's biggest living laboratory experiment

00:15:36.460 we had eastern europe and the soviet bloc countries where we could point to and say do you want to see

00:15:41.660 where government intervention the economy leads you you know where are their bread lines are their bread

00:15:45.500 lines in moscow or paris you know their bread lines in london or in krakow and how many people got shot

00:15:52.940 trying to get over the wall into east berlin nobody uh so we were able to you know we were able to convince

00:15:59.660 people here that free trade free markets uh limited government low taxes that is the recipe for

00:16:05.180 prosperity that's what lifts people out of poverty that's what increases the quality of life in a

00:16:10.140 country the problem was when we won we went home and the left didn't you know they they they changed

00:16:17.500 the names of their policies they they found different leaders to advocate for them and now we see the

00:16:23.420 same arguments creeping back in that government knows best that the only way to come out of this

00:16:27.740 recovery is for more government intervention and more government programs and government control

00:16:32.860 so we need to we need to kind of go back to basics i know that there are young canadians who have

00:16:37.580 never heard the free market arguments that won the day a generation ago so we have to

00:16:43.740 we have to recommit ourselves and and win that argument again otherwise we're going to see

00:16:47.660 a sharp turn to the left in a lot of areas one of the narratives that has emerged through the

00:16:53.020 leadership race now is that your personal social conservatism cost the conservatives the election

00:16:59.500 in 2019 and i'm almost hesitant to ask about it because this was the only thing that the media has

00:17:04.540 wanted to ask you about at certain points but i hope you'll indulge me if i i frame it in a different

00:17:08.940 way because what happened to you through the election i i think would be to most people fairly chilling

00:17:15.180 for anyone of any faith whoever wants to seek political office that all of a sudden personal

00:17:20.380 religious beliefs that are shared by millions of canadians across different religions would be

00:17:25.340 really deemed something that is inherently disqualifying and we even heard this from some

00:17:29.900 people in the conservatives that's you know the famous quote that social conservative was an albatross

00:17:34.540 or a stinking albatross so how do you reconcile that now well i i firmly believe that uh as you point

00:17:42.060 out this was a media obsession uh i've always been very clear when i ran for parliament 2004 throughout my

00:17:48.780 career when i started running for leadership of the party to the my final day as leader i said i have

00:17:55.340 personal views on a variety of of social issues as do millions of canadians it's very normal in

00:18:00.620 in canadian life to know people who have a difference of opinion on any number of social

00:18:04.220 issues uh and that's part of what makes this country great is that we can hold those views and

00:18:08.940 we can believe what we choose to believe uh and uh but my commitment was i wasn't going to reopen

00:18:14.540 those divisive uh issues that have divided our party in the past and there was clearly no consensus

00:18:19.820 in canadian in the canadian public for us i made that commitment that as prime minister

00:18:24.540 we would not reopen these issues and and and and the status quo would not change uh for for those

00:18:29.500 things clear concise easy to understand message throughout the campaign of course the many members

00:18:36.220 of the media tried to uh make it an issue and it was always frustrating uh you know to see i would

00:18:42.380 the only people that were asking it were were members of the media and then they would write

00:18:46.860 the articles like sheer was questioned again today i said well yeah because you did you know it's not

00:18:51.660 that not that people were bringing up at the doors or my candidates weren't telling me that it was it was

00:18:56.220 literally just a thousand different ways to to ask the question and um but i do but but i do believe

00:19:02.780 if you go back and look uh look at the look at the message that liberals were putting forward in the last

00:19:07.900 couple weeks of the campaign that that i think canadians were were okay that that that a leader

00:19:13.740 might have a different view on something i think they wanted to hear that commitment that some of

00:19:17.020 these issues wouldn't be reopened and i believe i did so it's important the next leader recognizes that

00:19:22.620 social conservatives not only have a place in our party but uh you know that they're a valuable part

00:19:28.380 of it and i think back to some of the work we did in the previous concerto government

00:19:31.660 um for example uh when we raised the age of consent from 14 to 16 that that came primarily

00:19:38.540 from the social conservative part of our caucus but it was quickly embraced by everybody because

00:19:43.980 you know of course of course we need to protect young children and it became an issue that that

00:19:49.180 everybody could agree on and it was a it was one of those issues that that everybody in the party

00:19:54.540 could rally around so that's my message to the next leaders find those opportunities to to to make

00:19:59.420 sure that every part of our member is is part of the conversation and feels valued and it is

00:20:03.980 interesting when you talk about the media's role in that that the people who claim that conservatives

00:20:09.260 won't get off of those issues are often the ones that bring it up the most and even in the last

00:20:13.260 few months we have a bill before parliament bill c8 from the liberals seeking to ban conversion

00:20:18.940 therapy which if you accept that terminology people will conjure an image in their mind of what that

00:20:23.660 is and the interesting thing is that the letter of the law that they're proposing has nothing to

00:20:28.540 do with really the stated purpose of it and i know that some of the socially conservative members of

00:20:33.500 the conservative caucus have done a lot of work on trying to push back against this and shine a light

00:20:38.380 on on why they're really going after in many cases just private faith-based counseling or even family

00:20:45.900 conversations what's your response to that as a conservative leader who has socially conservative views when

00:20:52.300 the liberals are putting what seems like a wedge bill forward mm-hmm well uh you know i will agree

00:20:58.860 with the the point you made that often it's the conservatives have a clear position on something and

00:21:03.660 it's the media that that uh that that tries to you know re-litigate it or analyze it from a thousand

00:21:09.820 different ways on this particular issue let me first and foremost say that uh the conservatives are opposed

00:21:15.500 to any so-called practice that would uh belittle dehumanize bully uh someone in to coerce someone

00:21:23.100 in to try to change their their sexual orientation we've been very clear about that many members of our

00:21:29.100 of our of our caucus i've heard a lot of feedback uh from many canadians about this are concerned with

00:21:34.140 the way the liberals drafted the legislation so we can agree with the goal you know we we know but

00:21:39.180 we we're all opposed to uh scenarios of young people being subjected to belittling bullying type

00:21:47.260 of uh treatment but the way the liberals have have drafted the legislation is the definition of that

00:21:52.540 is very vague and so what i don't want to see is you know conversations being criminalized or legitimate

00:21:58.620 conversations that parents might have with uh with children that people might want to have with their

00:22:02.220 friends you know or seek any kind of guidance or counseling for any reason we don't want to see

00:22:07.500 those types of legitimate conversations being criminalized the way the liberals have drafted

00:22:13.180 the bill so there's an effort underway uh to fix the definition of that legislation so that we make

00:22:18.460 a clear distinction between dehumanizing unacceptable behavior and legitimate conversations that people

00:22:23.900 may want to have in a free society and i know that it'll be a free vote it's very important for our

00:22:29.180 part our party we have free votes on these types of matters it's something our members guard very

00:22:34.380 jealous jealously so i i will be supporting efforts to to fix that definition have the liberals been

00:22:39.500 receptive to that no and you know it's it's this frustrating thing that they you know they explain

00:22:46.460 on the justice department website what they mean to do with the bill and so we said great put that in

00:22:52.140 the bill you know why put that up on a website why not have that incorporated into the language it's a

00:22:57.740 little bit like what they do with the firearms yeah regulations you know the letter of the regulations

00:23:02.620 have made a whole bunch of types of uh hunting shotguns illegal well the minister says no no that's

00:23:08.300 not what we mean what we mean by that so we say well great put that in the regulations and and we see

00:23:14.220 this before we've seen this time and time again with the liberals where they they word things either

00:23:19.340 clumsily or purposefully to be vague and ambiguous and there is a lack of clarity and then people do find

00:23:26.300 themselves running afoul of the law with with with no intention of doing so uh so uh that's why we're

00:23:35.580 there are many of us that are focused on trying to clarify that definition so that we're we're not

00:23:41.100 criminalizing types of things that nobody ever conceived of or or meant to criminalize you mentioned

00:23:46.140 earlier the importance of winning the argument and and this is something that for me as a conservative

00:23:50.780 that's working in a media environment is an important thing what do you think you've done

00:23:55.900 throughout your tenure as leader to advance small c conservatism well uh i think back to the first issue

00:24:02.380 that i really had to deal with as leader was when the liberals were raising taxes on small businesses

00:24:07.260 and you go back and look at the language they were using it was pure envy politics you know it was

00:24:13.100 tearing people down it was uh you know anybody was this the famous tax yeah yeah exactly yeah you know

00:24:19.980 calling small business owners tax you not paying their fair share yes and we were able to show

00:24:25.340 canadians during that time it said like one of the most positive messages about the concert of free

00:24:30.700 market economics is that prosperity spreads it's contagious we all do well it's it's it's rising tide

00:24:38.620 economics you know and it's it's when when i worked for a small business the small business owner

00:24:45.420 made money but i had a job thanks to their hard work investment and taking a risk and

00:24:49.900 and all of that so we need to cultivate a society that that wants to replicate that we don't want to

00:24:55.740 punish that and make people feel like their tax sheet so we were able at the time the liberals were

00:24:59.820 using very divisive language really trying to pit one canadian against another and a different class

00:25:05.340 of canadians and we were able to say like yes everybody should pay their fair share absolutely but

00:25:10.700 let's not take away legitimate tools that small businesses have used to grow and expand and create

00:25:16.540 more opportunities not not because not not because we were only worried about the business owner but

00:25:21.660 because the workers will suffer and we were able to make that link that i had a job as a waiter because

00:25:27.020 somebody else owned a restaurant i had a job in an insurance office because somebody else owned that

00:25:31.020 that that that office and we were able to to make that connection that more low-income canadians would be

00:25:38.140 harmed by these policies than there would be help so i think back to that that was a you know we're very

00:25:44.460 successful there i think i believe the the markers that we put down as a party on foreign policy

00:25:50.460 when we talk about the conservative party's position on china we're the only voice standing

00:25:55.100 calling for canada stand up for itself and recognize the threat that this current communist

00:26:00.140 regime poses a very principled foreign policy and our platform was uh was full of

00:26:07.740 free market ideas and ways to encourage uh private sector growth so i believe we we accomplished a

00:26:13.260 lot we certainly uh have more work to do to form government but i'm going to do whatever i can to

00:26:18.620 help the next leader accomplish that so you've served as a member of parliament as speaker of the

00:26:23.420 house as leader of the official opposition how do you see your role in public service if there is a

00:26:29.500 role in public service moving forward i know you've talked about supporting the next conservative

00:26:33.900 leader but what does that look like well honestly that's up to the next leader fair enough

00:26:38.140 yeah uh i i want to do whatever i can to help um i love my riding in saskatchewan regina capella is

00:26:45.020 a mixed urban rural riding i've got the northeast corner of regina and then a lot of

00:26:51.500 rural communities around it lots of issues that i'm very passionate about we've seen our energy sector

00:26:56.380 devastated by this liberal government our agriculture sector we had a harvest from hell

00:27:00.700 in the fall it was a wet harvest and many farmers didn't get their crop off to the spring that's caused a

00:27:05.500 cash flow crunch that this government's not paying any attention to so being a loud voice and a strong

00:27:11.340 advocate for my own constituents is is my primary goal apart from that i've got a lot of interest

00:27:17.100 in policy i i think that a lot more attention needs to be paid to things like our monetary policy in

00:27:24.540 this country the bank of canada is printing five billion dollars a week of new money out of thin air

00:27:30.620 well they're not even printing it because they're creating it digitally well that's going to have

00:27:34.620 consequences over time and that's not getting a lot of attention so you know finding some policy

00:27:39.100 issues i can sink my teeth into uh would be very rewarding but honestly whatever the next leader

00:27:44.380 would like me to do i'm happy to play any part i can so is your goal to stay on as member of parliament

00:27:49.820 and run again in the next election absolutely i i as i said i love my riding i'm honored to have

00:27:56.220 received their trust in the last few elections and uh hopefully i can uh regain that trust in the next

00:28:01.660 election you'll re-earn that trust uh in the next election and i i will absolutely run in the next

00:28:06.060 election what would you like your legacy to be as party leader because i mean this has been three

00:28:11.260 years of your life it's been a very pivotal three years in the the landscape of canadian politics and

00:28:16.700 also people forget that the conservative party of canada in its current iteration is a young party

00:28:21.100 you're the the second elected leader the third overall if we include your former colleague rana

00:28:26.060 ambrose what would you like to see your contribution to that story as being honestly the the the biggest

00:28:32.060 validation for my time as leader of the party will be if we're successful in the next election

00:28:37.100 uh because then i can i can look and say you know i got us inside the 20 and uh somebody else

00:28:43.020 carried the ball over the goal line that's fine in a team sport it doesn't matter who who crosses

00:28:47.900 the line it's it's about the w at the end of the game and if uh if we win the next election that

00:28:52.060 i believe will be a uh strong reflection on the my time as you say you know it's i'm only the

00:28:57.820 third leader of the party it's not a guaranteed for the conservative party of canada to a stay united

00:29:02.300 it's not a guarantee for the conservative party of canada to win 10 seats in quebec it's not a

00:29:05.980 guarantee for us to to do as well as we did in brisk only even in western canada when justin

00:29:10.780 trudeau won seats in calgary and edmonton that that conservatives have never had rarely lost before

00:29:15.420 so regaining those back are are never something that we can take for granted so there's a very strong

00:29:20.380 foundation there for the next leader to build on and you'd be comfortable serving under any of the

00:29:25.340 four candidates leadership i i i'm going to run the next election i will support the next leader

00:29:30.060 whoever he or she may be this is a party that belongs to our members it's not we are not a

00:29:35.100 party run by the laurentian elite we don't have a small group of people who decide who should or

00:29:39.980 shouldn't be leader that's the job of our members that's their right as members and i respect that so

00:29:45.980 i will respect their choice thank you for your time and thank you for your service thank you very

00:29:50.460 much andrew thanks for listening to the andrew lawton show support the program by donating to true

00:29:55.340 north at www.tnc.news

Juno News - August 14, 2020

Andrew Scheer on leadership, social conservatism, and future of the Conservatives

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