Juno News - Cancelling Bryan Adams

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.

00:00:06.740 This is The Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:12.800 Coming up, the growing movement to cancel a Canadian icon,

00:00:16.380 how elections bureaucrats are targeting pro-life activists,

00:00:19.580 and why does Peter McKay not want to talk to Conservatives.

00:00:24.820 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.

00:00:30.000 Hey, welcome along one and all to another edition of The Andrew Lawton Show,

00:00:35.420 Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show here on True North.

00:00:38.800 Great to have you aboard the program.

00:00:41.020 We have really a jam-packed show up ahead.

00:00:43.620 We'll be talking about Elections Canada's targeting of a pro-life political action group

00:00:49.460 and why it's such an unfair and imbalanced way of approaching any of these things

00:00:54.860 that we see happening in elections.

00:00:56.360 I'm also going to be talking later on in the program about Peter McKay's avoidance of independent media,

00:01:02.740 and I think this is an important one that cannot go without being called out.

00:01:07.500 So we're going to be talking about that later on in the show as well.

00:01:10.560 But first, I have to talk about this.

00:01:13.260 I'm not a huge Bryan Adams fan or detractor.

00:01:17.460 I have no strong opinions, or at least until now,

00:01:20.480 had no strong opinions on Bryan Adams one way or another.

00:01:22.940 I actually went to a Bryan Adams concert once.

00:01:26.960 It was a girl I was dating in high school whose mother was a big Bryan Adams fan

00:01:31.400 and bought us tickets, and the three of us went,

00:01:33.400 which is like a perfect date to go out with your high school girlfriend and her mother.

00:01:36.860 But it was a good show.

00:01:37.740 I enjoyed it, and, you know, I enjoy some of his songs.

00:01:40.340 But I've had no strong opinions of him one way or another.

00:01:43.520 But I know he's one of these people that Canadians like to claim.

00:01:46.720 So, cool.

00:01:47.500 Bryan Adams is Canadian.

00:01:48.620 But now, like, the entire Canadian left in media is wanting to disown Bryan Adams

00:01:54.580 because he is guilty of thought crimes for an Instagram post he put up on the weekend.

00:02:01.080 A cut like a knife, a song by me.

00:02:03.720 Tonight was supposed to be the beginning of a tenancy of gigs at the Royal Albert Hall. 1.00

00:02:08.320 But thanks to some effing, bat-eating, wet-market, animal-selling, virus-making, greedy bastards, 1.00

00:02:14.540 the whole world is now on hold, not to mention the thousands that have suffered or died from this virus. 0.99

00:02:20.100 My message to them, other than thanks a blanking lot, is go vegan.

00:02:25.600 To all the people missing out on our shows, I wish I could be there more than you know.

00:02:30.000 It's been great hanging out in isolation, yada, yada, yada.

00:02:34.400 So, this Instagram post went viral.

00:02:37.860 He had also tweeted it as well.

00:02:39.680 So, it wasn't just the Instagram post.

00:02:41.000 He also tweeted a link to the Instagram post and had most of the text in the tweet.

00:02:45.960 And then he was actually singing.

00:02:47.200 It was actually a musical post.

00:02:48.960 And he talked about nothing political in the song.

00:02:51.720 In the video itself, he just sang Cuts Like a Knife, the great Bryan Adams classic.

00:02:55.960 And what was fascinating about this is that how many people took this and called it a toxic rant,

00:03:03.560 a racist rant.

00:03:04.900 Not just a post, but a racist rant.

00:03:07.800 And this I found to be quite interesting because he was literally taking aim at meat more than he was taking aim at China.

00:03:17.920 And all of the people who look at this and say it's racist, I think are actually projecting something on there.

00:03:24.240 If you take racism, you're the one making a racial connotation there.

00:03:28.140 Now, Bryan Adams being a vegan, like vegans are generally speaking not the most adept at avoiding offending others.

00:03:36.260 Like vegans love to just like railroad their veganism down everyone's throats, whether you ordered it or not.

00:03:42.240 And Bryan Adams, I didn't actually know he was a vegan.

00:03:44.820 Like I said, I had no strong opinions on him one way or another.

00:03:47.380 But when I read this and he says literally in it, go vegan, I'm like, OK, so he just doesn't like the idea that this is something that was animal born, that humans ate.

00:03:57.100 When you go back to that whole early narrative that this might have come from a big steaming bowl of bat soup. 1.00

00:04:02.640 And this now has become this cultural linchpin where if you criticize bat soup, if you criticize eating bat, you're seen as racist.

00:04:14.320 Where all the early narrative in this was that, yeah, it probably came from one of these markets.

00:04:19.780 Now, we have no idea whether it was because someone ate it or whether it was someone that worked at the lab that was studying the virus that then spread it by going to a wet market.

00:04:28.140 But regardless of where the virus came from, these Chinese wet markets are just absolutely horrendous place. 1.00

00:04:37.260 It's not like your neighborhood fish market.

00:04:39.480 It's not like the Asian grocery store you frequent in Toronto, in Vancouver, in Ottawa.

00:04:44.260 It's not like that at all.

00:04:46.000 These wet markets are selling live animals that are kept in horrendous conditions.

00:04:50.420 And they're there for one purpose and one purpose alone.

00:04:53.980 And that is for people to just buy and consume.

00:04:57.520 And I'm not an animal rights activist.

00:04:59.860 I like animals.

00:05:01.040 I think animals need to be treated with some semblance of dignity, even if we are going to be eating them.

00:05:06.800 I don't think that's an improper way of looking at this.

00:05:10.280 But to stand up for animal welfare is always virtuous.

00:05:15.420 The left loves it.

00:05:16.280 The left loves animals more than people sometimes.

00:05:18.380 But when Brian Adams takes aim, or when anyone takes aim at the wet market, it's racist.

00:05:24.700 And it takes a stunning level of dissonance to have moved from, you know, standing up for animals is virtuous to now it's racist.

00:05:32.440 Because it's more important for us to appease this very small subset of the Chinese population that thinks, you know, you can just eat bats and keep them in cages and breed for the purposes of that and have them stacked on each other and not, you know, vaccinate animals and stuff like that. 0.96

00:05:49.260 The very small subset of the population that's responsible for these wet markets, we need to appease them. 0.98

00:05:55.420 And now Brian Adams, who's just, you know, going through his life thinking that, yeah, anywhere that sells food like this is bad.

00:06:01.540 And he would probably take aim at Costco for selling discount steaks, not just Chinese wet markets.

00:06:07.260 He's seen as racist.

00:06:08.720 Even though ethnicity was not mentioned, race was not mentioned, a country was not mentioned.

00:06:13.440 He was literally talking about a behavior that he objects to, which has nothing to do with race.

00:06:19.780 And by the way, all of the Chinese people that have been saying for months now, oh, bat soup, that's not us.

00:06:26.460 They should be criticizing.

00:06:27.800 I mean, they're actually endorsing what he's saying here, which is that the behavior is the problem, not the race of people, not the nationality.

00:06:36.680 So this whole thing is hilarious.

00:06:38.860 But what was so disgusting is that Brian Adams was not just given the slap on the wrist.

00:06:46.060 It was literally an orchestrated effort to cancel Brian Adams, starting as this thing was getting viral.

00:06:52.880 Just as quickly were tweets saying, I think the hashtag was Brian Adams is canceled.

00:06:57.560 People trying to get his Order of Canada revoked by, in one case, tagging Governor General Julie Payette,

00:07:03.040 as though she's just monitoring Twitter, waiting for, like, nominations for who to de-order of Canada.

00:07:09.200 People trying to get his shows canceled.

00:07:10.980 People trying to get all of these sponsors that he may have worked with to drop.

00:07:15.040 And this is the social media mob in action.

00:07:17.980 They don't just want to say, hey, that was wrong and I disagree.

00:07:21.120 They want to destroy everything you've ever done and everything you ever will do.

00:07:26.220 That's the social media mob.

00:07:28.220 Now, Brian Adams is in the Order of Canada.

00:07:30.280 He's got awards.

00:07:31.260 He's got hit records.

00:07:32.220 He's got all of these things.

00:07:33.640 He's going to be fine. 0.62

00:07:35.760 But the goal, nevertheless, was to destroy him.

00:07:39.380 The goal was to make it so that this guy is no longer going to be held up as a Canadian icon.

00:07:44.080 Where Brian Adams, instead of being synonymous with everything I do, I do it for you,

00:07:48.240 or Summer of 69, will instead be aligned with racism and bigotry.

00:07:53.460 That is the line that people were trying to draw.

00:07:56.900 And, of course, it works.

00:07:58.600 You know, you get whether Brian Adams himself or a publicity team, I don't know, responding

00:08:03.700 with something of an apology.

00:08:07.060 On Tuesday, Brian Adams posted another song and he had said that there's no excuse.

00:08:13.680 I just wanted to have a rant about the horrible animal cruelty in these wet markets being the

00:08:18.340 possible source of the virus and promote veganism.

00:08:20.880 I have love for all my people and my thoughts are with everyone dealing with this pandemic

00:08:24.880 around the world.

00:08:27.120 Now, given that the one had like two effings and the second had no effings, it stands to

00:08:32.400 reason he may not have written the second one.

00:08:35.040 But again, like that didn't work.

00:08:36.980 So even his apology and saying, listen, it's nothing to do with racism.

00:08:40.380 It's not what I meant to do.

00:08:41.480 I didn't want to offend.

00:08:42.360 Even that is not getting people to backtrack.

00:08:46.640 Then it just like furthers the anger.

00:08:48.980 So the social media mob is never going to be happy.

00:08:51.940 It's never going to be satisfied.

00:08:53.880 But more importantly, we shouldn't be capitulating to this idea that criticizing a bad practice

00:08:59.640 that happens to exist in another country is inherently racist because that isn't the case.

00:09:05.800 And we set ourselves up for a lot of problems down the road if that's the path that we want

00:09:10.780 to travel.

00:09:12.360 We really do.

00:09:13.800 So look, good for Bryan Adams.

00:09:15.980 It doesn't change what I think of his music.

00:09:18.140 But I think that it's so very important for people to not fall into these traps.

00:09:24.240 And I know with celebrities, the instinct, especially from people on the right, is to say, oh, who

00:09:29.720 cares what they think?

00:09:30.620 Come on.

00:09:30.960 But at the same time, people on the right tend to just seize any time a celebrity says something

00:09:36.720 they like.

00:09:37.760 And this has always bugged me.

00:09:38.900 So, you know, when Robert De Niro or Meryl Streep or Kanye, not Kanye West, I'll get

00:09:44.640 to Kanye in a second.

00:09:46.020 When, you know, Meryl Streep, I've lost knowledge of all celebrities now.

00:09:49.520 Like Robert De Niro.

00:09:50.420 Who's the other of the really preachy one?

00:09:52.060 Not Ed Begley Jr.

00:09:53.120 Sean Penn.

00:09:54.520 Ed Begley.

00:09:54.900 No one knows who Ed Begley Jr.

00:09:56.280 Is now.

00:09:56.860 I don't know why I gave him as an example.

00:09:58.820 But whenever these celebrities mouth off about whatever, the right always says, oh, who cares?

00:10:03.460 You know what?

00:10:03.860 Who cares what you think?

00:10:04.900 And then the second Kanye or Tim Allen or, you know, maybe Bryan Adams, who knows, says

00:10:11.420 something that they agree with.

00:10:13.020 It's all of a sudden, oh, listen to what Kanye had to say.

00:10:15.700 Listen to these.

00:10:16.520 And you set yourself up for failure if you put too much stock in what celebrities think.

00:10:21.920 I think they're people.

00:10:22.880 I think if they say something worth listening to, I'll listen to it.

00:10:25.720 But I'm not going to hold one up as being the oracle of all that makes sense in the world.

00:10:31.060 And similarly, I'm not going to boycott someone's movies or music because they're a bit nutty

00:10:35.260 on politics.

00:10:36.320 So yeah, I'll defend Bryan Adams against the mob.

00:10:39.520 But that's not because I think that he is this virtue of, you know, beacon or fountain

00:10:44.000 of wisdom that we all need to be listening to.

00:10:46.620 It's just because he said something that's sensible or at absolute worst, banal,

00:10:51.920 and irrelevant, but not evil, not racist, not worth all of the media coverage, by the

00:10:57.500 way.

00:10:58.560 Like CBC's story, he's drawn rebuke from a Chinese Canadian organization and social media

00:11:04.840 users or a CTV story focused on an anti-racism group's response to Bryan Adams.

00:11:10.380 And all of these stories that are based around not the depravity of the wet markets, but Bryan

00:11:15.980 Adams' supposed racism.

00:11:17.700 This is the narrative that's unfolding here.

00:11:20.240 And again, he will be fine.

00:11:22.560 I don't think we're talking about a guy here who's actually going to lose something.

00:11:26.860 And in fact, he's at that age where, and that point in his career where I think it's probably

00:11:32.760 very difficult to cancel.

00:11:35.180 But you look at the names that are going here.

00:11:38.140 By the way, I mean, Ozzy Osbourne was criticized for eating bats, and that was all fine.

00:11:42.460 But you can't criticize people in a Chinese wet market for having a bowl of bat soup, 0.96

00:11:47.500 apparently.

00:11:48.780 So look, he's given the apology.

00:11:51.220 It's not going to put it to bed.

00:11:52.700 The good news with the mob is that people will forget about this in all of like four

00:11:56.520 days, unless he says something else.

00:11:58.480 But by then, they'll move on to whoever the next victim of the mob is.

00:12:02.540 But it is fascinating to me that all it takes, all it takes is a bunch of no-name, numbered

00:12:09.980 Twitter accounts without avatars to start saying the word racist, and you've got dozens

00:12:16.220 of news stories available.

00:12:17.540 That's all it takes.

00:12:18.560 That's all it takes.

00:12:19.420 And the reaction story is probably one of the laziest forms of journalism imaginable,

00:12:25.120 because it's not actually journalism.

00:12:26.580 It's just looking on Twitter and saying, oh, so-and-so is saying this.

00:12:30.020 So I guess that's the story.

00:12:31.960 I guess this is what we're writing about.

00:12:33.580 And it's not about whether the criticisms have merit.

00:12:36.560 It's not about whether Brian Adams is actually racist, which no one has been able to present

00:12:40.860 any evidence to suggest he is.

00:12:43.400 And then for all of this, for all of this, we in society lose out because it creates this

00:12:48.860 culture, this toxic cancel culture, where it's not just where cancellation is a byproduct

00:12:56.100 of it, but it's actually the goal.

00:12:57.880 When I logged on to Twitter and I saw Brian Adams is cancelled, trending, and you click

00:13:03.440 on that, and it's people that are trying to destroy him.

00:13:06.740 People who love his music, they have his albums, maybe they've been to the concerts, and they

00:13:10.800 say, oh, no, I guess we can't like him anymore.

00:13:13.020 Why?

00:13:13.860 Think for yourself. 1.00

00:13:15.280 Think for yourself, you idiots. 1.00

00:13:16.900 And I'm sorry, but if we're going to start turning on celebrities for being vegans, we're 1.00

00:13:20.440 going to leave a lot of them that we're no longer able to listen to, including Pamela

00:13:25.100 Anderson, and I don't know who the other ones are, but that's the most notable vegan, I

00:13:29.900 think.

00:13:31.180 And for people, it's like, listen, you've got to separate the personal from the political,

00:13:35.700 and I'm just going to listen to the song, Cuts Like a Knife, because it's a good song.

00:13:39.840 So there we go.

00:13:40.880 We'll be back in a couple of moments with more of The Andrew Lawton Show here on True

00:13:44.420 North.

00:13:44.940 Stay tuned.

00:13:47.060 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:13:49.620 Welcome back to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:13:53.400 So if you've ever volunteered on a political campaign, you know that volunteers are the

00:13:57.940 lifeblood of them.

00:13:59.280 I mean, as someone who's run for office, I can tell you firsthand, even though I didn't

00:14:02.920 win, you don't get anywhere without volunteers.

00:14:05.640 And when people talk about their frustrations with the politicians that are representing them,

00:14:11.520 the big question is, okay, what have you done about it?

00:14:13.740 Have you helped out on a campaign?

00:14:15.020 Have you tried to get someone elected?

00:14:16.460 And there's a fantastic group in Canada called Right Now, which has done exactly that.

00:14:21.940 It's made by two pro-lifers, Alyssa Golob and Scott Hayward, who, and I've known both of

00:14:26.720 them for years, frustrated that pro-lifers weren't really moving the goalposts down the

00:14:31.580 road and having more people represented in politics and in parliament.

00:14:35.300 So they said, let's connect volunteers with pro-life candidates, pro-life volunteers with

00:14:40.500 pro-life candidates.

00:14:41.340 And I, in the interest of disclosure, had support from Right Now volunteers when I ran for office

00:14:46.600 a couple of years ago.

00:14:47.980 And I don't blame them for my loss.

00:14:50.060 Don't worry, Scott.

00:14:50.880 But the fact of the matter is they are now being targeted by the Commissioner of Canada

00:14:55.120 Elections for possibly violating election law for helping candidates in the federal election

00:15:00.960 in 2019.

00:15:01.980 We haven't heard of anything like this being directed towards the many left-wing groups like

00:15:06.780 labor unions, for example, that were doing very similar things for left-wing parties.

00:15:11.540 Scott Hayward, one of the co-founders of Right Now, joins me on the line now.

00:15:15.400 Scott, good to talk to you.

00:15:16.400 Thanks for coming on today.

00:15:17.660 Yeah, thanks for having us, Andrew.

00:15:18.900 Really appreciate it.

00:15:20.340 So let's be very frank here.

00:15:22.920 The third party rules, I know, changed the way that a lot of organizations had to navigate

00:15:28.720 just election law.

00:15:30.500 You complied with all of these regulations.

00:15:32.880 What is the problem right now?

00:15:34.460 Yeah, so the amendments to the Canada Elections Act came in basically to detail under the last

00:15:40.680 Parliament late spring of 2019.

00:15:44.380 So we are already actually involved in getting ready and getting volunteers ready to actually

00:15:51.000 participate in the 43rd general federal election when the legislation came in.

00:15:55.360 So we took a look at it to make sure that we were in compliance of it.

00:15:58.520 And, I mean, we don't know what the allegation says.

00:16:01.740 Elections Canada won't reveal that to us or who made the allegation or the basis of the

00:16:05.880 allegation.

00:16:06.940 But what little we know from Elections Canada is that the allegation essentially states that

00:16:13.200 we violated the Canada Elections Act by providing volunteers to pro-life candidates, winnable

00:16:20.160 pro-life candidates.

00:16:21.060 So the main crux of the issue, I suppose, is that within the Canada Elections Act, it

00:16:27.880 says that a registered third party cannot provide non-monetary contributions to political parties

00:16:34.700 or to candidates in our case.

00:16:38.180 But back in the summer, when I took a look at the new legislation, it specifically said

00:16:43.020 under the definition of non-monetary contributions that volunteers were excluded from that definition,

00:16:49.280 meaning that a third party could provide volunteers to, you know, candidates.

00:16:54.360 And so I reached out to Elections Canada back in the summer of 2019 to make sure that this

00:16:59.680 was fine, what we were about to engage into.

00:17:02.060 They got back to me.

00:17:03.580 They didn't give me a definitive answer, but it heavily indicated that it should be all

00:17:07.380 right.

00:17:08.220 It seemed to be okay by reading the legislation for what it is.

00:17:11.360 It seemed to be okay by reading through their 70-whatever-page guide for registered third parties.

00:17:18.940 And so we were quite surprised when we received the letter in mid-February.

00:17:23.140 And knowing that a lot of other organizations out there, such as a number of unions, were

00:17:28.520 engaging in same or similar things, we were, you know, quite surprised that we received

00:17:33.420 that letter and that they were investigating us.

00:17:35.300 And I think that the two real points of offense here, not only that you're being investigated

00:17:40.620 for just engaging in the political process, but that you have to defend yourself against

00:17:46.300 an allegation that you're not quite clear on.

00:17:48.560 So I know that this letter I read in the National Post has compelled you to produce documentation.

00:17:54.000 Well, how do you even know what they're looking for if you're not seeing the scope of the

00:17:57.640 investigation?

00:17:58.140 Yeah, precisely.

00:18:00.080 It makes it very difficult to cooperate.

00:18:01.980 So to give a bit of a timeline to everyone out there, we received a letter in mid-February

00:18:06.760 from Elections Canada saying that these allegations were made and that they'd be opening up an

00:18:10.740 investigation.

00:18:12.180 They would not be pursuing criminally.

00:18:14.820 And the conclusion of that investigation could include monetary penalties against right

00:18:21.240 now.

00:18:21.520 So they were asking for documentation on the allegation.

00:18:25.620 So we said, that's great.

00:18:27.000 What is the allegation?

00:18:28.160 So we can provide the documentation to defend ourselves against the allegation.

00:18:32.320 Also, are you looking into these other organizations, such as a number of unions that are basically

00:18:37.340 doing the same or similar things?

00:18:38.980 And often cases went above and beyond what we did in terms of providing, you know, in terms

00:18:45.440 of providing support to a variety of candidates across the country.

00:18:48.820 I mean, Elections Canada got back to us, you know, late April, basically reiterating the

00:18:55.160 same thing.

00:18:55.900 And then we got back to them the next day with the same kind of the same answer, saying

00:19:01.800 we're happy to cooperate, but we're needing to know, you know, what the allegation is, who

00:19:06.880 made the allegation and the basis of the allegation before we know what to provide you.

00:19:11.420 Because we're not just going to give carte blanche to an outside organization of everything

00:19:15.380 that's within our organization.

00:19:16.880 That's so, so important.

00:19:20.440 And I know that Ezra Levant is facing something very similar, where he sat down with investigators

00:19:24.860 and had no idea what it is they were actually looking for.

00:19:28.280 And I know other people have had similar frustrations with this investigative body.

00:19:33.060 I have to ask you, when they are investigating you, and you may not know the answer to this,

00:19:38.760 but is this just them checking off their box because they got a complaint?

00:19:41.940 Or do they have the ability to say, when they receive a complaint, this is a nuisance, we're

00:19:46.020 not going to advance it?

00:19:47.760 That I actually don't know.

00:19:49.140 I don't know if Elections Canada has the ability to, whether or not to decide they're going to

00:19:55.020 pursue an investigation when an allegation is made by an individual or by another registered

00:20:00.520 third party or political party.

00:20:01.880 I actually don't know the answer to that.

00:20:04.180 It seems to me by reading the letter that it was a decision of the commissioner to pursue

00:20:10.000 an investigation.

00:20:11.280 So I'm thinking there is a little bit of leeway there, but I don't 100% know the answer.

00:20:15.780 What is the impact if something like this proceeds in your view?

00:20:21.180 Because I know that there could be by-elections coming up, there could be another election at

00:20:25.540 any point.

00:20:26.320 And for any group, not just yours, how do you take what's happening?

00:20:31.300 Yeah, well, that's a very good question because I think there's two different sets of what impacts

00:20:37.520 are going to be.

00:20:38.100 There's internally for our organization what the impact will be, and there's externally for

00:20:41.960 our organization and everyone else.

00:20:44.580 So internally for our organization, we're small, but we're mighty.

00:20:49.080 We have two people on staff.

00:20:50.840 The reason why we have two people on staff is because that's all we can afford.

00:20:54.420 We were founded just over four years ago.

00:20:56.600 Since then, we've had tremendous success.

00:20:58.340 But we're an organization that brings in just over $200,000 a year.

00:21:02.540 We're not a multi-million dollar organization.

00:21:05.180 So internally, what this impact will have on us is making sure that we have good legal counsel.

00:21:11.800 I'm a charter professional accountant.

00:21:13.460 I'm not a lawyer, nor is my colleague, the other co-founder.

00:21:16.820 So we have to retain good legal counsel.

00:21:19.620 And if you want good legal counsel, that does come with a bit of a price, which is fair

00:21:23.400 enough.

00:21:24.280 And if there are any monetary penalties set against us, we'll decide what to do at that

00:21:30.540 point when, if it comes to that, you know, there comes a real cost with that.

00:21:34.500 So that's what happens to us internally.

00:21:36.720 Externally, if the decision by Elections Canada is that we are, in fact, in contravention of

00:21:41.380 the act, which I don't know how, given how the act is written, it will have a chilling effect.

00:21:45.940 And I agree with Andrew Scheer on that.

00:21:47.360 I think it will have a chilling effect on not just our organization, other pro-life organizations,

00:21:52.800 but other organizations who might be pro-abortion, other organizations that specifically only

00:21:57.820 support one political party.

00:21:59.800 So it could be unions supporting, you know, liberals and NDP candidates or environmental

00:22:04.820 groups supporting Green Party candidates.

00:22:06.720 It could have a chilling effect right across Canada as to whether or not people actually

00:22:12.620 want to engage in the political process by knocking on doors for, you know, candidates

00:22:16.960 that support their values and support policies that they like.

00:22:19.860 And I think that's a very dangerous road to go down in a democracy.

00:22:23.940 And it quickly leads to a country, you know, not really being a full democracy.

00:22:28.760 So I think it does have some quite, it could have some quite significant negative impacts,

00:22:34.760 both internally and externally.

00:22:37.700 And I obviously don't want to downplay the financial toll that this could take.

00:22:41.560 And I mean, just by virtue of fighting, it will take on right now.

00:22:45.140 But I think that the bigger point here, and I think you've touched on that very well, is

00:22:49.780 that it's meant to shut people up.

00:22:51.440 I mean, worse than you having to fundraise to pay a penalty is you not being able to do

00:22:55.760 the work that you set out to do.

00:22:57.640 Yeah, and we'll go down that road if it comes to it.

00:23:01.600 We'll cross that bridge.

00:23:02.500 So it's really an Elections Canada court right now as to what they're going to do with this.

00:23:08.760 I would not be surprised if they do come down with penalties and say, well, you were in

00:23:14.500 violation of the Act.

00:23:15.420 I don't understand how any organization out there, whether they be a union, whether they

00:23:19.920 be pro-abortion, pro-life, an environmental group, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, firearms

00:23:26.300 groups, I don't understand how any of our organizations can get involved politically.

00:23:30.680 And if our organizations, who represent the interests of hundreds of thousands, if not

00:23:35.440 millions of Canadians, can get involved in the political process, then our democratic

00:23:41.000 function as a country is really, really going to go downhill, I think.

00:23:47.240 Well, and the fact that the Act, as you understand it, specifically excludes volunteers is the most

00:23:52.700 important part here.

00:23:53.640 There seems to be an understanding with this that volunteers are the backbone of elections.

00:23:58.880 And that's why if someone volunteers on a campaign, it isn't something that's an in-kind

00:24:03.660 contribution.

00:24:04.600 It's not something that has to be declared.

00:24:06.260 It's just there.

00:24:07.660 So the idea of even if a group's facilitating it, I don't think it is changing it that much.

00:24:12.860 I know that with my campaign and with other campaigns I've seen, it's not all that uncommon

00:24:18.000 for a group from a church or from some community organization all band together and say, hey, we're

00:24:22.440 going to go out and knock on doors.

00:24:24.460 And that's not a gray area.

00:24:26.380 That's just how campaigns work.

00:24:28.880 Yeah, and I think it's really important.

00:24:31.220 Like you said, Andrew, ask any candidate, regardless of political party who's ran for

00:24:36.140 public office, how much they rely on volunteers, specifically volunteers from various organizations

00:24:42.680 and various groups out there.

00:24:45.540 That those candidates represent those values and represents those policy positions that

00:24:52.440 those particular groups find supportive.

00:24:55.120 And that's how a lot of campaigns operate.

00:24:57.900 Again, whether it's a Conservative Party of Canada, Canada, Liberal Party of Canada, Canada,

00:25:02.060 it doesn't really matter what political party.

00:25:04.360 They do, to a large extent, rely on a variety of groups and issue-based organizations out there

00:25:10.320 to provide volunteers for their campaigns in order for them to seek and win public office.

00:25:17.480 So what's the timeline that you have on this now, the next steps in this process with the

00:25:22.980 Commissioner of Canada elections?

00:25:24.300 We really don't know.

00:25:25.860 So we sent a letter dated April 23rd.

00:25:29.480 They said in their letter to us, dated the day before April 22nd, that they give us two

00:25:34.800 weeks to cooperate.

00:25:36.580 And we sent a letter back the next day saying we'd like to cooperate, but in order for us

00:25:40.360 to cooperate, we need to know what we're cooperating with.

00:25:43.440 We need to know what the allegation says.

00:25:45.440 And we haven't heard back from Elections Canada.

00:25:47.360 So it's really in their court.

00:25:49.600 I have no idea what the timeline is.

00:25:52.120 I don't think there's any timeline that's laid out in the Act or in the regulations to

00:25:57.060 the Act.

00:25:58.300 So we're really in a dark place in that regard for the timeline.

00:26:03.040 Now, would your ideal scenario here be that they just kind of rip up the letters, rip up

00:26:08.140 the file and pretend it never happened?

00:26:09.820 Or are you looking for a fight just to kind of make that point that what you do and what

00:26:14.400 groups like you do is not only important, but really essential to the political process?

00:26:20.120 I think that if they interpret the Act objectively and reasonably, the way it is written in the

00:26:26.820 spirit of it, that this case would be closed already.

00:26:30.340 And I think that would probably be the best thing, both internally and externally.

00:26:34.280 Like the fight is already out there.

00:26:35.740 The media, such as yourself and others, are already picking up on it.

00:26:38.460 And if they don't pursue the case, then obviously that would be an indication that the type

00:26:44.840 of activities that we and other organizations out there they're engaging in are within the

00:26:50.520 confines of the Act, that we're operating legally within the Act.

00:26:53.700 And that's probably the easiest, quickest, cleanest way for everyone to move forward here.

00:26:59.460 And just to be clear, there's no advertising component of this, as far as you know, because

00:27:03.760 that was the area of the third party rules that most people were focused on.

00:27:07.940 And certainly that was the area that I was paying attention to when we saw the rules come out in

00:27:12.400 the first place.

00:27:13.780 Yeah, the big thing for creating the whole point of registered third parties for general federal

00:27:19.460 elections were with advertising, for advertising, whether it be on Facebook, TV, newspapers,

00:27:25.080 all that sort of stuff.

00:27:26.760 Our organization didn't engage in any advertising in the rip period.

00:27:30.280 So we didn't have to declare any.

00:27:32.480 But there was a bunch of other things that we had to declare.

00:27:36.040 And we didn't spend a whole lot of money on the election.

00:27:38.900 Our return is on the Elections Canada website.

00:27:41.460 It was under $10,000.

00:27:42.860 So, you know, it was quite cumbersome.

00:27:45.900 I'm not going to lie.

00:27:46.600 It was quite cumbersome to do the reports, to file the reports, to go through the reports,

00:27:50.820 to go through the Act, to go through the Guide, which was more confusing than helpful.

00:27:56.320 And I say that as a chartered professional accountant, by the way.

00:27:58.860 But it's quite cumbersome for a lot of groups to go through all these, you know, bureaucratic

00:28:03.540 loops to just engage in the political process on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of

00:28:09.120 people that we represent.

00:28:10.580 So, yeah, it's interesting for the advertising, because that's, to me, seemingly why all this

00:28:16.780 stuff was brought in.

00:28:18.020 But the side effect of it is that it affects quite a few different organizations out there

00:28:22.660 that aren't really that interested in advertising when it comes to getting involved in federal

00:28:27.620 elections.

00:28:29.120 Now, I know that you don't just deal with elections, general and by-elections, but also internal

00:28:34.300 races like nominations and leadership races.

00:28:36.940 I just, before we wrap up here, you're involved in the conservative leadership race through

00:28:42.200 looking at the candidates and talking to them.

00:28:44.680 If you want to give a plug to how people can find your information, I know a lot would

00:28:48.020 probably appreciate it.

00:28:49.660 Yeah.

00:28:49.880 So, with the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race, obviously one needs to be a member of

00:28:54.380 the party, which costs $15, and they have until May 15th, so a couple of days here until

00:29:01.620 midnight local time to purchase a membership.

00:29:03.460 So, I encourage all pro-lifers out there, whether you normally vote for the Conservatives in

00:29:08.120 an election or not, to get involved, to make sure that the pro-life candidates who are running

00:29:12.220 for the leadership race actually win, because that's the only way to vote for them.

00:29:16.100 So, you can visit our website.

00:29:17.820 It starts right now .ca.

00:29:19.220 We have a tab there called CPC Leadership 2020.

00:29:23.340 It has all the information there for the leadership race, timelines, how it works, how the point

00:29:29.820 system works.

00:29:30.760 But a cool thing that I think that we do is that we interview all the candidates, or at least

00:29:35.500 the ones that are willing to talk to us, for the leadership race, and we interview them

00:29:39.160 on kind of, you know, a little bit of personal stuff about them individually, but also, you

00:29:43.380 know, what they plan to do for our pro-life issues, so their pro-life platform and policies.

00:29:49.900 We have on their voting records from their time as a member of parliament, or a member

00:29:53.440 of provincial parliament, or whatever provincial legislature they've sat in, as well as their

00:29:57.620 winnability factor.

00:29:58.560 You know, how many caucus members do they have supporting them?

00:30:00.900 Have they been a, have a parliamentary leadership role, like a cabinet minister or speaker of

00:30:06.180 the House?

00:30:07.040 You know, how big is their social media following?

00:30:09.360 So, we have all that together, and we weight it together, have a little score system, come

00:30:14.180 up with a score, and come up with a recommended ranked ballot, because it's a ranked ballot

00:30:18.340 system.

00:30:18.820 So, if you want more information on that and how to get involved, that's the place to go.

00:30:23.520 All right.

00:30:24.080 Well, thank you for that.

00:30:24.800 Co-founder of Right Now, Scott Hayward, joining me on the line.

00:30:27.720 And best of luck fighting against the bureaucrats in this, which is an important fight.

00:30:32.360 I know we've said it, but it bears repeating.

00:30:34.400 It's not just about you.

00:30:35.300 I think all groups and individuals that want to engage in the political process, this affects.

00:30:40.180 So, thank you very much, and all the best to you, Scott.

00:30:43.280 Thanks, Andrew.

00:30:43.800 Thanks for the opportunity.

00:30:45.680 I will say, and I've talked about Right Now in the past, an organization that is really

00:30:49.760 driven by results, which I think is very important.

00:30:53.020 If you are pro-life, definitely important.

00:30:55.280 And if you aren't pro-life, I think you have to respect the way that they're engaging and

00:30:58.640 focusing on nominations.

00:30:59.940 Because a lot of the time, people focus on the leaders of the parties, which is obviously

00:31:04.180 important.

00:31:04.960 But leaders are, in many respects, followers.

00:31:08.540 And they have to respond to where their caucus is.

00:31:11.740 So, you have to create a climate, not just culturally, which is what we do here at True

00:31:15.820 North and in the media and other stuff like that, but even just that infrastructure as

00:31:20.020 well.

00:31:20.340 So, my thanks to Scott for that.

00:31:22.080 And he mentioned Andrew Scheer's response.

00:31:24.260 I want to play a clip here.

00:31:25.740 Andrew Scheer had a press conference, I think it was on Monday, when I asked about this and

00:31:30.900 got what I thought was a very solid answer from Andrew Scheer about this investigation

00:31:35.300 into Right Now.

00:31:36.300 Here's that exchange.

00:31:37.620 Right Now, a pro-life activist group is being investigated by the Commissioner of Canada

00:31:42.840 election after connecting volunteers with close to 50 pro-life candidates in the last

00:31:48.880 election, all Conservatives.

00:31:50.660 I was wondering what your response to that is.

00:31:52.040 Well, I think it's obviously very concerning.

00:31:56.680 Anytime grassroots organizations who support particular positions or candidates are, obviously

00:32:04.800 we're very concerned about any type of negative signal that sends to people who are trying

00:32:09.560 to be engaged in the electoral process and volunteering in elections campaigns.

00:32:14.080 I would be curious to know whether or not Elections Canada is also going to investigate Unifor,

00:32:20.100 a large union which specifically targeted defeating Conservatives, whether or not they are going

00:32:27.400 to be investigating other groups like Lead Now and other groups who have made their priority

00:32:35.100 very well known, their express purpose of their activities to defeat Conservatives and elect Liberals.

00:32:42.120 So I look forward to Elections Canada showing that kind of fairness and applying the same logic to all groups.

00:32:52.960 Yeah, Scheer made the point there that I think is an essential one, which is where's the investigation into Unifor?

00:32:59.100 Where's the investigation into Lead Now?

00:33:00.980 And by the way, I don't think the elections bureaucrats should be investigating Lead Now or should be investigating Unifor.

00:33:08.780 But the point is, if we're talking about groups that are supposedly giving a non-monetary contribution,

00:33:15.460 how about Unifor declaring itself the resistance to Andrew Scheer?

00:33:20.120 How about Unifor declaring itself a group that was going to fight tooth and nail to defeat Conservatives?

00:33:26.200 Not even just to advance an idea, but to defeat a specific party, a specific leader.

00:33:32.060 That's what Unifor set out to do.

00:33:33.900 And I mean, whether Unifor succeeded or not, I don't know.

00:33:36.380 But ultimately, that was what they set out to do.

00:33:39.860 And they were very proud about that.

00:33:41.740 And by the way, ask anyone who's a member of Unifor,

00:33:44.440 employees across the country who were getting politically charged, anti-conservative material sent to them.

00:33:50.940 I don't know if it was every single member of Unifor, but certainly in many sectors,

00:33:55.120 they were getting this political propaganda.

00:33:57.320 Now, that's free speech.

00:33:58.380 I'm all for it.

00:33:59.520 But I don't like the weaponization of these elections agencies

00:34:03.600 to only target groups that are the ideological opponents of the left,

00:34:08.220 which is what seems to be happening here with right now

00:34:10.460 and with the investigation into Ezra Levant for writing a book, The Lebranos.

00:34:15.420 When, just like what Scott Hayward said about volunteers being excluded from this,

00:34:19.880 in Ezra's case, the books were excluded.

00:34:22.700 Books and book marketing were excluded from the ban on advertising.

00:34:27.020 And still, they're going after him.

00:34:29.840 So this is absolutely sending a chill.

00:34:32.280 And this needs to be fought.

00:34:33.680 And we'll be following this as it proceeds.

00:34:35.740 So thanks very much again to Scott for coming on.

00:34:37.960 We'll be back in a couple of moments with more of The Andrew Lawton Show,

00:34:41.200 Canada's most irreverent talk show.

00:34:42.860 Stay tuned.

00:34:46.000 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:34:48.680 We are back.

00:34:53.640 And as mentioned earlier on in the show, in just two days,

00:34:57.020 if you're listening to this the day it comes out,

00:34:58.760 so on Friday, May 15th,

00:35:00.820 the membership cutoff to join the Conservative Party

00:35:04.120 to vote in the leadership race happens.

00:35:06.500 Now, this is a non-partisan show.

00:35:08.800 Obviously, we're philosophically and ideologically conservative,

00:35:11.740 but we aren't aligned with a political party.

00:35:14.580 But still, we're covering the leadership race

00:35:16.500 because it is important to all Canadians,

00:35:18.360 particularly those of a Conservative persuasion.

00:35:21.720 And I want to talk about this here.

00:35:23.500 And it's going to be a little bit personal,

00:35:25.600 but you'll understand why in a moment.

00:35:27.400 The poll that came out from Main Street via iPolitics

00:35:31.200 is that Peter McKay is the leading candidate.

00:35:33.860 He's the first choice for more people than anyone else.

00:35:37.400 But it looks like Aaron O'Toole would win on the second ballot

00:35:41.600 because of the support from Leslie Lewis and Derek Sloan

00:35:45.080 when most of those people are going to be putting O'Toole

00:35:48.020 as their second choice rather than McKay.

00:35:51.260 Now, it's not like 2017 when there were...

00:35:54.260 How many candidates were there?

00:35:55.460 Like 14 candidates by the time of the final ballot,

00:35:57.880 maybe 13.

00:35:59.040 And it's not going to be like that.

00:36:00.820 Now, with that, the first like seven

00:36:03.620 were all like under 1%, I think.

00:36:05.620 And then it got to the point

00:36:06.840 where you started to see real movement on it.

00:36:08.840 But what I will say is incredibly, incredibly relevant here

00:36:13.680 is to look at the specific numbers

00:36:15.700 because Aaron O'Toole,

00:36:16.640 and we talked to him on the show on Monday,

00:36:18.600 is positioning himself as being the natural successor

00:36:21.700 for down-ballot support from Leslie Lewis and Derek Sloan,

00:36:25.520 which means if Lewis and Sloan are able to do fairly well

00:36:29.240 in signing up new members and getting support from members,

00:36:32.560 and we interviewed both of them.

00:36:33.620 You can go, if you want to listen to those,

00:36:35.360 back into the archives a few weeks.

00:36:38.040 Then Aaron O'Toole will win.

00:36:39.540 Just as Doug Ford won

00:36:41.100 because of Tanya Granik-Allen's support

00:36:42.900 and Andrew Scheer won

00:36:44.420 because of Brad Trost and Pierre Lemieux's support,

00:36:47.200 the idea of social conservative as kingmaker

00:36:50.320 is very important in leaderships

00:36:52.520 and in ranked ballot situations.

00:36:54.560 And the fact is,

00:36:55.400 Peter McKay is just not popular

00:36:57.580 with that wing of the party,

00:36:58.880 and he's done nothing.

00:37:00.400 He's made no overtures to that wing of the party.

00:37:02.860 And I think this needs to be called out.

00:37:05.360 Now, I have been deliberately keeping my mouth shut

00:37:07.980 about offering commentary

00:37:09.760 on a lot of the leadership candidates

00:37:11.620 for the last couple of months.

00:37:12.980 And it's actually been counterintuitive for me

00:37:15.480 because the whole point of having a talk show

00:37:17.360 is you talk about the things that you're feeling

00:37:19.640 and thinking and your analysis and all of this stuff.

00:37:22.860 And I've actually been a little bit restrained.

00:37:25.360 And the reason is because I did not want,

00:37:28.200 while I was interviewing candidates,

00:37:30.180 for there to be anyone that could say

00:37:32.420 that I was going into it with an agenda

00:37:34.300 or going into it with a bias.

00:37:36.060 And in all honesty,

00:37:37.060 I set out for the conservative leadership series

00:37:39.620 genuinely with an open mind.

00:37:41.780 I did not have a first choice, a second choice.

00:37:44.380 I didn't have any choice

00:37:45.280 when I started interviewing candidates.

00:37:47.560 And I don't even now necessarily

00:37:49.360 have a definitive ranking in mind.

00:37:51.400 So people that say,

00:37:52.660 oh, this one's your favorite,

00:37:53.760 that one's your favorite,

00:37:54.680 you don't know that

00:37:55.760 because I don't even know that.

00:37:57.820 But here's the thing.

00:37:59.400 I think it's important to do these candid,

00:38:02.160 frank, and cordial interviews

00:38:04.240 because these candidates need to be introduced

00:38:06.340 in a way to Canadians

00:38:08.140 that is different from the way

00:38:09.360 that the mainstream media is introducing them.

00:38:11.820 The mainstream media cares about doing,

00:38:13.860 you know, 45 minutes on abortion and gay marriage

00:38:16.600 when conservative members are actually concerned

00:38:19.380 with a lot of other things.

00:38:21.180 And I'd say almost entirely other things

00:38:23.320 for the most part.

00:38:24.160 So what I wanted to do with this series

00:38:26.880 was have these conversations,

00:38:28.820 go in depth and give you the opportunity

00:38:31.500 to hear what these people stand for.

00:38:33.520 And I'd give a little bit of pushback.

00:38:35.160 It's not meant to be a free ride,

00:38:36.820 but it's also not meant to be a combat session.

00:38:39.580 So we did this.

00:38:40.640 We did it with Marilyn Gladue and Rudy Husney,

00:38:43.040 and they unfortunately didn't make the final ballot.

00:38:45.340 We did it with Leslyn Lewis,

00:38:46.840 Derek Sloan and Erin O'Toole.

00:38:48.620 And the series is at this point,

00:38:50.780 I'm going to say over

00:38:51.780 because one of the four candidates,

00:38:54.380 Peter McKay,

00:38:55.160 has not replied to us at all.

00:38:58.660 At all.

00:38:59.300 Now this is going back months.

00:39:01.580 This is going back months.

00:39:02.740 The second the race opened, actually,

00:39:04.420 we started making a headway with campaigns saying,

00:39:07.380 this is the series we'd like to do.

00:39:09.060 These are the interviews we'd like to do.

00:39:10.820 And originally we were insisting

00:39:12.760 they all be done in person

00:39:13.920 because we wanted it to be

00:39:15.040 that real face-to-face conversation.

00:39:17.400 We had to amend that given the pandemic,

00:39:20.660 which was fine.

00:39:21.420 Thankfully, we had already recorded

00:39:22.760 two of the four candidates.

00:39:25.160 Erin O'Toole we did by Skype last week.

00:39:27.440 And Peter McKay,

00:39:28.080 we would have interviewed

00:39:28.800 however and wherever he wanted

00:39:30.480 because he is a candidate

00:39:32.240 in this race that we are covering.

00:39:35.160 And I have to,

00:39:36.880 as I said earlier,

00:39:37.860 call out the non-response

00:39:40.420 from the Peter McKay campaign

00:39:41.860 because I honestly believe

00:39:43.820 there is something else happening here.

00:39:45.860 because it is crunch time.

00:39:48.120 They have until Friday

00:39:49.280 to sign up new members.

00:39:50.540 So if there are people out there

00:39:51.660 that are conservatives

00:39:52.380 that haven't yet been given a reason

00:39:54.200 to join the conservative party,

00:39:56.060 candidates have until Friday

00:39:57.280 to try to get those people

00:39:58.320 to pony up the $15 to write,

00:40:00.580 to write in,

00:40:01.420 to support them,

00:40:02.160 to join the party.

00:40:03.420 And he has done

00:40:04.240 mainstream media interviews.

00:40:05.540 Peter McKay has done CTV, CBC.

00:40:07.900 He's done them all,

00:40:08.740 but has not had time

00:40:10.180 for any independent media.

00:40:11.760 And that includes True North,

00:40:13.900 the only candidate to not sit down

00:40:15.780 with us

00:40:16.200 and to not even give the courtesy

00:40:18.320 of a reply to our requests.

00:40:21.360 And this is important

00:40:22.540 because we're either talking

00:40:24.500 about a campaign team 0.99

00:40:25.500 that's so inept 0.99

00:40:26.280 it can't even manage 0.98

00:40:27.060 to find the reply button

00:40:28.200 on an email

00:40:28.700 or rather a campaign team

00:40:31.040 that's made a concerted

00:40:32.500 and specific decision

00:40:34.060 to ignore or avoid

00:40:36.180 independent media.

00:40:37.420 And if you are

00:40:38.360 a conservative leadership candidate,

00:40:40.600 you should be embracing

00:40:42.480 conservative media,

00:40:43.620 not fleeing it.

00:40:45.500 Because the audience here

00:40:47.200 is a lot more better aligned

00:40:49.520 with the audience

00:40:50.460 that he needs to win over

00:40:51.800 to win the leadership

00:40:52.720 than the audience

00:40:53.940 of CBC or CTV.

00:40:55.520 And if you win

00:40:56.420 a conservative leadership

00:40:57.400 by getting people

00:40:58.340 who are watching CBC

00:40:59.560 to vote for you,

00:41:00.780 I'm sorry,

00:41:01.340 but you're probably

00:41:02.040 not the best candidate

00:41:03.040 to lead a conservative party.

00:41:05.440 Not if you want to keep

00:41:06.480 a conservative party

00:41:07.500 actually conservative.

00:41:08.800 And this isn't just

00:41:10.840 about True North.

00:41:11.820 Rebel was ejected

00:41:13.040 from a Peter McKay event

00:41:14.940 when David Menzies

00:41:15.920 tried to have

00:41:16.700 an impromptu interview.

00:41:17.980 I didn't do

00:41:18.600 the David Menzies thing

00:41:19.600 showing up with a microphone.

00:41:20.920 I tried to go through

00:41:21.800 the proper channels.

00:41:22.900 And I've done this for years.

00:41:24.620 When the 2017

00:41:25.760 conservative leadership

00:41:26.860 race happened,

00:41:27.820 I sat down with almost

00:41:29.080 every one of the 14.

00:41:31.080 And I think there were

00:41:31.800 only two that I missed

00:41:32.800 and it was because

00:41:33.360 of their travel schedules.

00:41:34.520 They couldn't actually get

00:41:35.360 to London where I was doing

00:41:36.900 the interviews from in person.

00:41:38.800 In the Ontario PC race

00:41:40.740 in 2018,

00:41:41.380 I interviewed all

00:41:42.780 of the candidates face to face.

00:41:44.640 So the whole point of this

00:41:46.260 is that candidates

00:41:47.200 who are seeking

00:41:48.000 the leadership of a party

00:41:49.380 need to be speaking

00:41:50.760 to the party's base.

00:41:52.320 And I'm not going to say

00:41:53.200 that I'm representative

00:41:54.160 of the conservative voter base,

00:41:56.100 but I am representative

00:41:57.360 of what a lot of

00:41:58.280 conservative Canadians

00:41:59.360 are talking about

00:42:00.340 and what they care about.

00:42:02.220 And for Peter McKay

00:42:03.140 to not even have

00:42:04.500 the interest in replying

00:42:06.500 to decline,

00:42:07.460 shows a gross 0.81

00:42:10.300 ignorance to the base 0.99

00:42:11.460 that he needs 0.72

00:42:12.720 to have there

00:42:13.860 to get him elected,

00:42:15.200 not just as leader,

00:42:16.120 but even to a prime minister

00:42:17.900 if he is successful

00:42:18.980 in seeking the leadership.

00:42:21.500 So conservative-minded

00:42:22.840 journalists are enough

00:42:24.020 of a rarity in Canada

00:42:25.260 that it's important

00:42:26.900 to pay attention to them.

00:42:28.260 And again,

00:42:28.620 this isn't about me.

00:42:29.600 It's True North.

00:42:31.180 It's Post Millennial.

00:42:32.240 It's Spencer Fernando.

00:42:33.400 It's all of these people

00:42:34.380 that are speaking

00:42:35.460 to a voice

00:42:36.540 that just doesn't exist

00:42:38.500 in that large a quantity.

00:42:41.380 So the mainstream media

00:42:42.820 is not there

00:42:44.820 for the conservative base

00:42:46.380 in Canada.

00:42:47.740 So why focus on them?

00:42:49.580 Why focus on getting

00:42:51.400 those people to like you?

00:42:53.060 And this is one

00:42:53.600 of the greatest flaws

00:42:54.660 that a lot of people

00:42:55.780 on the right make,

00:42:56.620 thinking that they can just

00:42:57.520 win over the mainstream media,

00:42:58.860 win over the CBC crowd,

00:43:00.380 win over the CTV crowd.

00:43:01.920 And you'll hear this

00:43:02.920 if you talk to people,

00:43:03.780 a whole bunch of people

00:43:04.800 in Canada that are not conservatives,

00:43:06.500 that have no conservative bones

00:43:07.940 in their body,

00:43:08.620 that are saying,

00:43:09.220 well, you know,

00:43:09.620 I'm not conservative.

00:43:10.340 But, you know,

00:43:10.820 if Peter McKay were the leader,

00:43:12.300 and none of these people

00:43:13.580 actually vote conservative

00:43:14.940 when all is said and done.

00:43:16.580 We saw this in Ontario

00:43:17.920 with Patrick Brown.

00:43:19.020 We see it in Alberta

00:43:20.800 where people said,

00:43:21.700 oh, well, no,

00:43:22.160 if Jason Kenney

00:43:22.880 weren't the leader,

00:43:23.640 I'd vote.

00:43:24.480 And look,

00:43:25.000 Jason Kenney wins a majority.

00:43:27.140 You get people federally

00:43:28.100 that say,

00:43:28.480 oh, well, you know,

00:43:29.280 I'd vote for the conservatives,

00:43:30.420 but not with Andrew Scheer.

00:43:31.460 No, all of these people,

00:43:32.600 they just moved the goalposts.

00:43:33.960 They're never going

00:43:34.860 to vote conservative.

00:43:36.180 So don't use them

00:43:37.520 as the benchmark

00:43:38.260 for how to craft

00:43:39.660 a conservative party.

00:43:41.220 When you say

00:43:42.140 that we have to move

00:43:43.300 to the center,

00:43:44.160 when you say

00:43:44.620 that you have to just

00:43:45.420 appeal to moderates,

00:43:46.740 yeah, that's fine.

00:43:48.140 But not if it comes

00:43:49.420 at the expense

00:43:50.260 of losing the people

00:43:51.380 that you know

00:43:52.140 actually might support you

00:43:54.180 or will support you

00:43:55.700 unless you give them

00:43:56.520 an active reason not to.

00:43:58.480 Now, as far as

00:43:59.320 the non-response

00:44:00.360 versus the reply

00:44:02.340 to decline,

00:44:03.240 the only thing

00:44:04.140 that I can think of

00:44:04.960 for why McKay's team

00:44:06.080 didn't decline

00:44:07.520 is because they tend

00:44:08.440 to have to reverse

00:44:09.220 everything that they say

00:44:10.440 within two days.

00:44:11.500 So if they declined

00:44:12.240 within two days,

00:44:12.940 they'd have to accept,

00:44:13.840 whereas by not responding,

00:44:15.260 there's nothing

00:44:15.780 they can flip-flop on.

00:44:16.900 That's like one

00:44:17.320 of the many things

00:44:18.060 that the McKay campaign

00:44:19.140 has done wrong.

00:44:20.360 It's just everything

00:44:20.900 they say,

00:44:21.620 you just have to reverse

00:44:22.700 it in a couple of days,

00:44:24.080 which is why McKay's Twitter

00:44:25.260 is great because you get

00:44:26.120 both sides of the argument

00:44:27.160 without actually having

00:44:28.480 to stray very far.

00:44:29.660 So here's the point

00:44:30.960 that I made in a column

00:44:32.060 about this.

00:44:33.100 McKay's avoidance

00:44:34.180 of the Conservatives

00:44:35.160 engaged in Canada's

00:44:36.380 cultural battles

00:44:37.180 demonstrates his unwillingness

00:44:39.140 to advance a genuine

00:44:40.360 Conservative agenda.

00:44:41.680 If McKay were going

00:44:42.780 to do something

00:44:43.520 for Conservatives,

00:44:44.440 he would want to tell

00:44:45.340 Conservatives about it.

00:44:46.660 This hasn't happened,

00:44:47.600 and if my empty inbox

00:44:49.020 is any indication,

00:44:50.080 it won't happen.

00:44:51.660 Now, I want to stress,

00:44:53.180 this is not about

00:44:54.260 pettiness on my part.

00:44:56.120 The invitation still stands.

00:44:57.780 If Peter McKay calls me up

00:44:59.020 and says,

00:44:59.320 Andrew, I'm sorry,

00:45:00.060 this was a,

00:45:00.760 you know,

00:45:00.960 we had like the most

00:45:01.800 restrictive spam filter

00:45:03.280 in the history of Canada.

00:45:04.440 We'll happily do your show now.

00:45:05.980 Let me know.

00:45:06.640 The invitation is there.

00:45:08.140 I will have Peter McKay on

00:45:09.220 before the May 15th cutoff

00:45:10.680 or after,

00:45:11.860 but I'm not going

00:45:12.900 to let him slide

00:45:14.060 for what I would say

00:45:15.740 is taking for granted

00:45:17.020 that a certain portion

00:45:18.500 of the country

00:45:19.120 is just going to go for him

00:45:20.540 because he's been there

00:45:21.820 the whole time.

00:45:22.560 That is not what people want,

00:45:24.400 and if you look at the comments

00:45:25.680 on anything we've written

00:45:26.920 about Peter McKay,

00:45:27.940 you'll see that a lot of people

00:45:29.420 are not buying into that hype.

00:45:31.760 So when Aaron O'Toole

00:45:33.000 said on Monday

00:45:34.120 that the Peter McKay coronation

00:45:35.780 is no longer an idea,

00:45:37.380 I think there actually

00:45:38.520 is some truth to that.

00:45:39.980 We've got to wrap things up here.

00:45:41.300 My thanks to all of you

00:45:42.320 for tuning into the show.

00:45:43.860 We'll be back next week

00:45:45.200 with more of Canada's

00:45:46.140 most irreverent talk show.

00:45:47.680 Thank you.

00:45:48.280 God bless and good day, Canada.

00:45:49.600 Thanks for listening

00:45:50.640 to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:45:52.160 Support the program

00:45:52.900 by donating to True North

00:45:54.120 at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - May 13, 2020

Cancelling Bryan Adams

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