Juno News - Conservative Leadership Series： Pierre Poilievre

00:00:00.000 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:10.300 Coming up, the Conservative Leadership Series continues.

00:00:14.020 My conversation with Carlton MP and Conservative Leadership Candidate Pierre Pallier.

00:00:18.720 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.

00:00:22.680 Greetings and good day.

00:00:24.300 This is Canada's most irreverent talk show, the Andrew Lawton Show, here on True North.

00:00:29.400 We have always prided ourselves on this program and on this network, on this platform, True North,

00:00:36.200 of covering Conservative politics, and I say Conservative with a small c there,

00:00:41.400 in a way that matters to the people that identify as being on the right,

00:00:46.440 or at the very least have an open mind about understanding what these parties and politicians are all about.

00:00:52.580 And it's along that vein that we decided to bring to you the Conservative Leadership Series,

00:00:57.200 talking about issues that matter to the people who are going to be selecting the Conservative Party of Canada's next leader,

00:01:04.260 and also people that are more broadly in the Conservative movement in this country.

00:01:09.000 And we've had a number of these conversations so far,

00:01:11.780 and we're going to have all six candidates profiled by the time the series is over.

00:01:16.960 And it's my great pleasure to introduce the next installment of that series today,

00:01:22.060 my conversation with Carleton Member of Parliament and Conservative Leadership Candidate Pierre Polyev,

00:01:28.180 who was the first one to enter the race almost immediately after it was announced.

00:01:33.140 And a little bit's changed since then.

00:01:34.760 We spoke to him in the early days, but now that we're a little further along in the race,

00:01:38.440 we've got a bit more of a sense of policy, the dynamics,

00:01:41.360 and also what's been at times a little bit of tension in the race on the debate stage and off.

00:01:47.800 We talk about all that and more in my conversation with Pierre Polyev.

00:01:51.620 Carleton MP Pierre Polyev.

00:01:53.500 Pierre, thanks for sitting down with me today.

00:01:55.280 Thanks for having me.

00:01:56.260 You were the first candidate in this race.

00:01:58.800 You came out and we spoke not long after you launched.

00:02:01.840 Looking back on it, the field's gotten a bit more crowded now.

00:02:04.360 You've become presented as the frontrunner, and as a result, you've certainly got your punches

00:02:09.020 that have been lobbed towards you.

00:02:11.040 But just looking back at your time in the race, how are you feeling about it so far?

00:02:15.040 Nothing has changed.

00:02:16.280 The message that I launched when I announced my plan to run for prime minister is the same one I'm running on now.

00:02:22.620 I want to give people back control of their life, make this the freest country on earth.

00:02:27.480 I'm campaigning on economic freedom, letting people control their money,

00:02:30.720 have more freedom to start businesses, hire, serve customers.

00:02:36.980 I'm running on personal freedom like medical choice on vaccines, running on sound money and fiscal conservatism

00:02:47.520 to get our budget balanced and get inflation under control.

00:02:50.660 So those are the things I announced when I first ran, and really I haven't changed any of those things.

00:02:54.960 When you talk about your entry into this race, everyone saw the footage from your rallies that you had early on

00:03:02.980 over the course of several months, thousands and thousands of people out, especially in Calgary and Edmonton

00:03:07.940 and even areas where the Conservatives haven't done as well in the last couple of elections.

00:03:12.120 You know, my city of London.

00:03:13.740 When you look at the turnout there, what do you attribute that to?

00:03:17.460 Is there a particular demographic you saw?

00:03:19.760 Is it just, you know, people that haven't had anything to do in the last two years?

00:03:22.900 Is it an ideological cross-section?

00:03:25.100 Who are those people?

00:03:26.780 They're people who feel like they've lost control of their lives.

00:03:29.680 They are disproportionately young because I think the youth suffered the most because of government overreach during the pandemic.

00:03:38.060 They weren't able to do the things that kids love to do.

00:03:41.220 You know, go out to the gym, to a nightclub, go on a date, do some travel.

00:03:46.560 Those are the things young people do by nature.

00:03:51.020 And for two years, governments repressed that.

00:03:54.480 And so the message of freedom was particularly powerful and motivating for them.

00:03:59.240 But we had a lot of blue-collar people.

00:04:01.960 You know, we traditionally associate the Conservatives with being the party of business people, folks wearing suits and ties.

00:04:10.260 But my rallies have had more boots than suits.

00:04:13.740 Lots of working-class folks who have been demolished during the pandemic had had few voices speaking on their behalf.

00:04:22.460 And they found it refreshing that someone was finally standing up for them, for their purchasing power of their money,

00:04:27.500 for their personal freedom to make their own decisions, to get back in control of their lives,

00:04:34.700 and to have freedom of speech, which is more precious to working-class people these days

00:04:41.180 because they don't get their voice heard by the traditional mainstream media.

00:04:46.540 And that's why they more cherish the ability to speak freely and hear from others who do likewise.

00:04:52.740 When you talk about independent media, you've established that you want to get rid of the Trudeau government's media bailouts.

00:04:58.700 You want to defund the CBC.

00:05:00.620 We heard in the last leadership election, Aaron O'Toole say that he was going to defund the CBC.

00:05:06.220 And during the election, that had been walked back to really an unrecognizable point in the party's platform.

00:05:12.880 Specifically, what will you do with CBC in your first mandate?

00:05:17.060 Well, I will defund it to save a billion dollars.

00:05:19.820 To save a billion dollars, I think the only justification for a broadcaster, a public broadcaster,

00:05:29.760 would be to fulfill what the market can't provide.

00:05:33.600 Almost everything the CBC does can be done in the marketplace these days because of technology.

00:05:39.400 I would preserve a small amount for French-language minorities, linguistic minorities,

00:05:46.820 because they, frankly, will not get new services provided by the market.

00:05:52.460 And, you know, we have a gigantic sea of English in North America and only a small population, a Francophone population.

00:06:01.460 So I think there is a justification.

00:06:02.920 Because government really should only do what people cannot do for themselves.

00:06:07.180 And that's the justification for leaving a small part of the budget that currently is well over a billion dollars for the CBC

00:06:17.400 to provide for those things that the market is not doing for itself.

00:06:21.160 So the national, power and politics, CBC News Online, no funding for those under a PolyEv government. 0.99

00:06:27.060 Yeah, I don't think that the television service, the English language television service that CBC provides

00:06:32.940 or the digital provide anything that people can't get from the marketplace.

00:06:39.300 So let's, let's, government should only do what people can't do for themselves.

00:06:43.980 And almost everything English language CBC does is already available.

00:06:49.440 There are coverage of American politics, which is, is so overwhelming, even though we have, nobody in Canada has ever said,

00:06:58.620 geez, we can't get enough news about the U.S., right?

00:07:01.900 Where you stand in the political spectrum.

00:07:03.800 I've never met a Canadian who says, geez, it's really hard to find out what's going on in Washington.

00:07:07.320 And like, and when you listen to CBC's coverage of American politics, it's never through a so-called Canadian lens.

00:07:14.620 They always say, well, we need it because we need to have a separate Canadian viewpoint of what's happening and what.

00:07:20.780 Most of the time they don't even mention Canada.

00:07:22.940 They basically report what you could plagiarize from MSNBC or CNN, which Canadians can get online already.

00:07:31.940 So why we're spending a billion dollars to subsidize things that we can get from the marketplace, I've never understood.

00:07:38.940 I know on the related topic of media more broadly, we have the government right now pushing through this monumental regulatory expansion to control the Internet.

00:07:47.880 And this has a lot of independent publishers, whether it's outlets like True North or YouTube streamers like JJ McCullough, very concerned about this.

00:07:55.860 And I know you've been critical of C-11, but more broadly, do you see there as being a big assault from this government on independent media and on free speech?

00:08:07.580 Yeah. So here's the agenda.

00:08:09.820 Trudeau gets nearly universally positive coverage from the old mainstream media.

00:08:16.580 They campaigned hard to get him elected as prime minister, and he's hoping that they will continue to be the predominant voice on Canadian politics, not only to support his career, but his legacy.

00:08:29.780 And I think that's why he is trying to pass legislation that would reestablish a small, tightly knit group of news outlets that would be able to report on what happens.

00:08:44.080 Rather than having a wide-open free market where folks can choose through the clicks of their fingers, rather than the cliques on Parliament Hill, what they watch.

00:08:56.200 So that's what C-11 does.

00:08:57.620 It effectively gives the CRTC the ability to manipulate the algorithms of the Internet to favor certain coverage over others.

00:09:05.160 They have not been clear on how they define Canadian content, for example.

00:09:09.240 Supposedly, this bill is to protect Canadian content.

00:09:11.380 We don't know what, and the government won't tell us what Canadian content is.

00:09:16.180 Is it, you know, is it maple syrup?

00:09:18.840 Is it the Canadian geese?

00:09:20.660 What constitutes Canadian?

00:09:23.100 You know, for example, I met a young man who moved here from India, became a permanent resident, and did a YouTube series of traveling across Canada.

00:09:30.920 Apparently it was a big hit back in India.

00:09:33.320 Well, he's in Canada.

00:09:34.360 He's becoming a Canadian citizen.

00:09:36.760 He shopped, all the sites are in Canada, but he's just a permanent resident.

00:09:41.020 So would the CRTC consider that to be Canadian content?

00:09:43.940 I mean, nobody knows.

00:09:44.760 I doubt if you asked them, they could tell you, because they haven't decided, you know, they haven't been able to explain it.

00:09:50.800 So what you're going to have is an arbitrary discretion of bureaucrats saying that's Canadian and that's not.

00:09:57.600 And ultimately, we know that will be rife for political abuse.

00:10:01.920 So my view is leave the marketplace open.

00:10:04.100 Let people choose what they want to watch.

00:10:06.000 We have 37 million Canadian content regulators.

00:10:09.280 They're called citizens.

00:10:10.360 Let them choose for themselves.

00:10:11.460 When it comes to independent media, you're sitting down with me today and you've spoken to us previously, which we appreciate.

00:10:17.520 But you declined to attend the independent press gallery debate and your team at the time said it was because you were selling memberships.

00:10:24.820 But then after the membership cutoff, you also declined to do the Western Standard debate and were the only candidate to do so.

00:10:30.000 So for conservatives who often feel that independent media is the only way to really get content that's not through these media lenses, what are they to make of you not doing these two pretty significant independent media events in this campaign?

00:10:42.900 Well, first of all, we did three debates and a candidate forum already.

00:10:46.680 So that is a lot of debating.

00:10:48.780 And we decided that we were going to spend most of our time in direct contact with voters on the ground.

00:10:54.280 And the strong and free debate was moderated by independent media voices, including your own Candace Malcolm and Jamil Giovanni.

00:11:05.140 So they did have a stage.

00:11:06.500 I frankly would not have picked Tom Clark to do the English language debate.

00:11:10.200 I don't know what the party was thinking when they picked him.

00:11:12.360 He obviously is not friendly to the Conservative Party, but the party picked him for their own reasons to moderate the Edmonton English language debate.

00:11:21.940 I think that we should have probably picked it.

00:11:25.760 We should have picked someone either from the independent media or someone who was a non-aligned Conservative that had not backed any particular candidate.

00:11:33.500 But we had four debates.

00:11:34.920 I'm confident that I won them.

00:11:36.860 And I know the other candidates, they want, they're having a hard time getting crowds of their own.

00:11:43.520 And so they're struggling with that.

00:11:45.400 But we have, we continue to attract big crowds who hear my voice directly.

00:11:49.460 And that's what I'm going to continue sharing with them.

00:11:51.160 What would the access look like under a Polyev government for independent media?

00:11:56.720 Because this has been a big issue with, when you talk about gatekeepers, the parliamentary press gallery are really the media gatekeepers.

00:12:02.600 Yeah.

00:12:02.900 Well, I'd like to know more about that from you.

00:12:04.940 Like, are you able to come onto the precinct and report?

00:12:08.340 It depends.

00:12:09.200 I mean, for a journalist that's not a member of the PPG, you're at the mercy of them to give you a day pass.

00:12:14.120 Right.

00:12:14.440 And that's something you need to go through every single time you engage in that process.

00:12:18.460 And what about press conferences?

00:12:20.100 Like, do you, do they let you call in?

00:12:21.780 So the Prime Minister's office has a complete no-go for True North, and I'm assuming other similar organizations, at its press conferences.

00:12:28.340 In the debates, we've had to, in 2019, sue our way in.

00:12:31.720 In 2021, we were fortunate.

00:12:33.440 But the problem is that you have a very inconsistent approach that, right now, is from a government that has decided it only wants its invitees there.

00:12:42.960 So that's why I'm putting it on you as a prospective Prime Minister.

00:12:45.780 What would you set out as the terms for journalists, and not just right-leaning journalists, but for all non-PPG journalists, to cover your campaign?

00:12:53.820 Yeah, listen, I think that, like I'm here today talking with you, I haven't been doing a lot of sit-downs with the traditional media because I find that they, the point of my campaign is to get out of the Ottawa bubble and talking to normal people.

00:13:10.040 I find that the independent media is a good way to reach a lot of folks who don't feel that their voice is heard in the press gallery.

00:13:19.940 I think that all journalists should have equal access to the parliamentary precinct, and that there should be an independent way to verify whether someone is, in fact, working in journalism.

00:13:29.740 Because, obviously, you can't just have some guy who's a protester or someone come in and invent a phony media pass.

00:13:35.380 But there should be a way to allow non-aligned independent media the same access to the parliamentary precinct as everyone else.

00:13:44.580 We should remove the gatekeepers.

00:13:46.780 The reality is that the press gallery doesn't own Parliament Hill, nor does the CBC or any particular news outlet.

00:13:55.200 It is owned by the people of Canada equally, all 37 million of them.

00:13:59.280 And all of the media voices should have equal access to cover events on the precinct and around politics.

00:14:07.040 You mentioned earlier your opposition to vaccine mandates.

00:14:09.960 I know in the Edmonton debate, Lesley Lewis accused you of being a convoy supporter of convenience.

00:14:15.560 I think she had said that you weren't actually on Parliament Hill or something to that effect.

00:14:19.800 You have spoken out against vaccine mandates, but in the last election, the Conservatives were relatively silent on this as a party, certainly from the leadership.

00:14:27.520 So, for Canadians who have been struggling with this issue since the very beginning, I think a lot of them voted for the People's Party in the last election.

00:14:35.000 We saw a surge there.

00:14:36.780 When did you start caring about this issue, and when did you first speak out about it?

00:14:40.920 Well, I spoke out about it in the first week after Trudeau announced it.

00:14:45.500 That was one of my first public comments, I think, in the local newspaper in my riding.

00:14:50.180 And I think, if I'm not mistaken, it was around July, just before the elections.

00:14:57.280 You remember, there was no federal vaccine mandate until day two or three of the federal election, when Trudeau suddenly reversed himself, having earlier said that it would be a matter of personal choice.

00:15:09.720 As soon as he flip-flopped on that, I took the position that it should be voluntary.

00:15:13.080 And I defended that position, including in my Ottawa riding, at Ottawa area candidate debates, even though, if you look at the polling, at the early stages, mandates were quite popular.

00:15:24.900 And I defended the right of public servants to make their own decisions on that throughout.

00:15:29.560 And as for the convoy, I mean, I showed up at the overpass in the west part of my riding to support the convoy driving in.

00:15:40.800 And then I showed up on Parliament Hill and met with peaceful protesters who were on site there as well.

00:15:49.040 So, the irony was that in the debate, where Dr. Lewis criticized me for that, the same debate, Joshua Ray was criticizing me for saying that I was too supportive of the convoy.

00:16:02.960 So, people have to decide what their criticism of me is on this.

00:16:07.580 You had about 20 of your Conservative colleagues in caucus meet James Tom, a veteran marching across Canada to protest vaccine mandates in Ottawa.

00:16:16.320 Where were you?

00:16:16.720 Well, I reached out to try and connect with him because I wasn't able to be at that particular meeting.

00:16:23.220 I gather he's coming back to Parliament Hill as he finishes the walk from, he's somewhere around Toronto or Belleville now.

00:16:30.680 And I'm happy to connect with him when he comes back to Ottawa.

00:16:33.560 We weren't able to line up schedules when he was there.

00:16:37.040 So, you're not against meeting with Mr. Topp?

00:16:39.960 No, not at all.

00:16:41.100 Look, I think we have to be able to meet with people of all different stripes and different backgrounds.

00:16:47.140 This man has come a long way to make a point.

00:16:51.080 For me, the point of free choice is what I agree with.

00:16:54.920 I personally got vaccinated, but I respect the right of other people to make a contrary decision.

00:17:01.280 And I think that, as I understand it, is the cause that he's advancing.

00:17:05.220 It's one that I support.

00:17:06.620 We have record levels of inflation.

00:17:08.760 You and I actually spoke about this during the election campaign in your riding.

00:17:12.680 And it was swelteringly hot, so I'm glad we're inside today.

00:17:15.860 But let me ask about this, because you were the finance critic.

00:17:19.280 You know that Canadians have been struggling with this.

00:17:21.620 And in a lot of ways, it only was when Statistics Canada started giving the numbers that I think

00:17:26.300 some of the media paid attention to what Canadians were seeing at the grocery store.

00:17:31.020 We heard the Justin Trudeau say that it's not his job to think about monetary policy.

00:17:35.660 But Canadians are struggling.

00:17:37.620 So, what solution could you bring, beyond firing the Bank of Canada, Governor, to inflation,

00:17:42.820 to this insane cost-of-living crisis on multiple fronts?

00:17:46.220 Right.

00:17:46.700 Well, there are a number of solutions.

00:17:48.240 First, we should get rid of the carbon tax.

00:17:49.900 Whenever you drive up the cost of energy, then you drive up the cost of everything,

00:17:53.840 because everything has to be shipped.

00:17:56.380 Secondly, we need to phase out the deficit.

00:17:59.600 The deficits increase the money supply.

00:18:02.240 There's more dollars chasing fewer goods, which leads to higher prices.

00:18:05.200 Governments are competing with consumers for a scarce supply of goods.

00:18:11.960 And so, more money chasing those goods will always mean higher prices.

00:18:15.300 Inflationary deficits drive up inflation, and inflationary taxes drive up inflation.

00:18:19.120 Why are taxes and deficits so high?

00:18:21.540 Because spending is so high.

00:18:22.760 And I put forward a proposal to cap government spending with a pay-as-you-go law.

00:18:28.040 This would require government to find a dollar of savings for every new dollar of spending.

00:18:32.940 That's how households work. 1.00

00:18:34.200 You know, the Jones family has $2,000 for recreation.

00:18:38.560 They can spend it on a $2,000 porch or a $2,000 vacation, but they can't double their budget.

00:18:45.160 So, what do they do?

00:18:46.020 They either pick between the two or they find a deal on each.

00:18:49.540 But they have to live within their budget.

00:18:51.100 The pay-as-you-go law would do the same.

00:18:52.600 If a politician comes forward with a new spending measure of $1 million, he'd have to go and

00:18:57.820 find $1 million of savings to pay for it.

00:19:00.340 That would cap the cost of government.

00:19:02.900 And, you know, look, in the last two years, the Trudeau government has brought in $200 billion

00:19:07.820 of new spending measures that are not even linked to COVID.

00:19:11.420 This is just total discretionary spending that is not core to government, nor is it related

00:19:17.440 to COVID.

00:19:17.900 But it's under the cover of COVID, is it not?

00:19:19.740 No.

00:19:20.020 Is that not how they're justifying?

00:19:22.420 That's an addition to the $200 billion.

00:19:24.680 They've done a half a trillion dollars total.

00:19:27.280 The parliamentary budget officer said of the half trillion in new measures the government

00:19:31.300 has brought in, about $200 billion was not COVID-related.

00:19:35.860 So, if you had had a pay-as-you-go law that requires them to find a dollar of saving for

00:19:40.660 every new dollar of spending, well, I suspect that much of that spending never would have

00:19:44.200 happened.

00:19:44.680 And you can build into the law safeguards and exceptions for wars or natural disasters or

00:19:53.200 other national emergencies.

00:19:55.160 Even if you had done that, though, we would have been able to contain the cost of government

00:19:58.820 and we would have much lower inflation today.

00:20:01.040 You know, you say the media never talked about it.

00:20:03.460 Well, I was talking and predicting inflation back in spring of 2020 because I saw the money

00:20:09.420 printing.

00:20:10.020 I was sitting there at the Finance Committee and we had the Bank of Canada coming in and saying

00:20:13.420 they're going to increase the money supply by hundreds of billions of dollars.

00:20:17.980 And I said at the time, whenever this has been done, it has led to inflation.

00:20:23.360 They said, oh, this time is different.

00:20:25.040 The bigger risk, they said, was deflation.

00:20:27.580 And, of course, I was right about that.

00:20:29.500 And my solutions now are the right ones, which is to say, get rid of the inflationary taxes

00:20:35.620 and deficits.

00:20:36.920 Get the Bank of Canada back to its core mandate, which is stable prices, not funding government.

00:20:42.460 And we'll get costs under control so people can afford to eat and heat and live their lives.

00:20:48.720 In 2019, the Conservatives under Andrew Scheer at the time ran on a platform that included

00:20:54.180 a balanced budget law that would have bound the government to balance the budget within

00:20:59.260 four years, I think it was at the time.

00:21:01.420 Obviously, spending has ballooned since then, before COVID, during COVID, since COVID.

00:21:07.000 Realistically, when would you balance the budget?

00:21:10.240 And again, I'm aware that you've been left with, if you inherit the reins of government,

00:21:14.180 a significant run of deficits that I think the worst estimates are to be 50 years before

00:21:18.920 it can be paid off.

00:21:19.860 But if a Conservative government comes in and wants to do this and fix it, when could that

00:21:24.400 budget be balanced?

00:21:26.080 Well, listen, I think of myself as kind of like a janitor, right?

00:21:29.320 If I went up to a building and you said to me, how long is it going to take you to clean

00:21:33.600 up the mess inside the building?

00:21:35.820 Well, I'd have to say I'd have to go walk around the building and figure out how bad the

00:21:38.880 mess is.

00:21:39.740 We don't know how bad the mess will be when Trudeau leaves office.

00:21:43.640 We won't know until we get closer to the election, but we could be two or three years

00:21:49.520 away.

00:21:50.040 So it would be very hard for me to tell you how bad the mess will be in two or three

00:21:55.180 years and therefore how much longer after that it would take me to balance the budget.

00:21:58.920 I'm not trying to be evasive.

00:21:59.920 It's just that I don't know the, I don't, you, nobody knows the magnitude of the mess

00:22:05.240 that we're going to inherit.

00:22:06.600 So I'm not going to make a promise right now on a timeframe for a balanced budget, because

00:22:10.900 when I do make that commitment, I intend to hit it.

00:22:14.160 So I have to be damn sure that I know what the numbers are before I start making promises.

00:22:20.640 Do you support that law from 2019 that the Conservatives proposed binding future governments

00:22:25.600 and, I mean, theoretically your government to balance the budget?

00:22:28.500 Yeah.

00:22:28.620 I think outside of wars and recessions and national emergencies, I don't see any reason

00:22:34.700 why you should ever allow a deficit to occur.

00:22:38.580 Would you include pandemic in those categories?

00:22:40.400 I, if you look, if there, you know, there's no question that we, we, a deficit was unavoidable

00:22:45.980 over the last couple of years, but the magnitude of our deficit was not unavoidable.

00:22:50.300 We could have helped people get through the difficult times without, as I said, adding $200 billion

00:22:56.840 of non-COVID spending to our budget.

00:23:01.840 And we could be, we could have been on track to eliminate the deficit in the short to medium

00:23:08.440 term, had we shown some discipline.

00:23:11.520 There's been a bit of animosity in this leadership race.

00:23:14.580 I know Jean Charest has said that your support for the convoy disqualifies you from being prime

00:23:19.860 minister.

00:23:20.680 Patrick Brown, as well, has made a lot of criticisms of you.

00:23:23.700 Someone on your campaign, Jenny Byrne, accused him of being perpetually dishonest.

00:23:28.320 Would either of those men be able to stand as candidates under you if you're the leader?

00:23:33.700 I don't think, I wouldn't make a judgment on that right now, but I mean, Patrick Brown

00:23:38.300 was denied the chance to even run for the PCs in Ontario because of his track record and his

00:23:44.920 past ethical scandals.

00:23:46.860 He's got scandals that are erupting now at Brampton City Hall.

00:23:51.240 I think he's had to suppress the city council's ability to even hold meetings because they're

00:23:56.860 worried that they might, he's worried that they might investigate the money that he spent

00:24:01.260 on a non-existent university.

00:24:03.920 So frankly, I have a hard time seeing why, I don't even know if conservatives would even

00:24:11.720 be prepared to nominate him in any particular riding.

00:24:14.480 But with what you've just said, why would you, would it even be a consideration then to

00:24:18.400 sign his nomination?

00:24:19.020 Look, I don't think Patrick Brown could get approved to be a candidate for any major national

00:24:24.000 political party, given his track record of scandal.

00:24:27.540 And Jean Charest, you've said he's a Liberal.

00:24:29.080 Obviously, he was the former Quebec Liberal Premier.

00:24:31.600 Would he have a place on your team if he wanted?

00:24:33.980 Ever, you know, I think he, Mr. Charest and I disagree on a lot of issues, but if he wants

00:24:38.940 to play a role and in the event that I'm blessed to win the leadership, I would welcome him and

00:24:44.920 others to participate.

00:24:46.080 Do you think that social conservatives who certainly now are always under the gun for

00:24:52.000 the mainstream media and you've said would have a place in your party?

00:24:55.080 Do you have a way to describe what that place would be?

00:24:58.580 You've been clear that you would not vote for any legislation that restricts abortion, but

00:25:02.000 what role would they have and could they be in your cabinet, for example?

00:25:06.600 Well, listen, social conservatives should have the freedom to speak their mind and offer

00:25:12.680 their perspective.

00:25:14.220 I think that there's a lot of overlap between small government, libertarian-minded people

00:25:22.520 and social conservatives in the sense that they just want government to leave them alone.

00:25:27.020 People should have the freedom to raise their families with their own values, to preach their

00:25:32.100 faith without censorship, to protect children against harm and, you know, act in countless

00:25:42.040 other ways to protect the autonomy of their families.

00:25:46.100 And that is what social conservatives are fighting for.

00:25:48.740 I'm being honest.

00:25:49.440 I'm not going to pass an abortion law when I'm prime minister.

00:25:54.380 I support same-sex marriage.

00:25:56.840 I think people should have the freedom to make their own decisions when it comes to whom they

00:26:00.900 love and marry.

00:26:02.560 That said, the social conservatives with whom I speak, what they really want right now is

00:26:07.720 for the government to leave them alone so that they can raise their own families and

00:26:11.300 preach their own faith without interference or coercion.

00:26:14.740 Leslyn Lewis has brought forward, and she is an avowed pro-life candidate for leadership.

00:26:19.120 What she believes is a moderate and widely palatable view on abortion.

00:26:24.340 One of them is access to adoption and crisis pregnancy support centers and things like that.

00:26:29.300 We've also had one of your colleagues in caucus try to restrict sex-selective abortion,

00:26:33.500 Kathy Wagenthal.

00:26:34.660 These things, if members of your caucus put them forward, you said you wouldn't pass them.

00:26:38.400 Does that mean that you wouldn't personally vote for them, or you would ensure they didn't

00:26:41.700 pass?

00:26:42.140 So, you know, let's take the issue of adoption.

00:26:45.080 I believe we should support adoption.

00:26:47.380 I am personally adopted myself, and I believe that adoption is a wonderful gift by both the

00:26:54.140 birth mother and the adoptive parents.

00:26:55.900 And I think there's more we can do to make it easier for women who want to bring a child

00:27:03.280 in the world and put it up for adoption to bear the obvious burden that comes along with

00:27:08.680 it, whether it's the time, the way that they lose from their work, and therefore the income

00:27:15.640 that they lose, whether it's giving more fairness under EI parental benefits, or whether it's

00:27:21.860 protecting the ability of not-for-profits to provide counseling and other supports, regardless

00:27:30.000 of the political viewpoints they might have, they should be free to do that.

00:27:34.740 So that's an area of common ground.

00:27:36.820 I think, frankly, I think all Canadians would believe that a woman who makes her own independent

00:27:42.140 choice to put a child up for adoption should get support for that choice.

00:27:46.100 And so that's an area I think we can find a lot of common ground within our caucus.

00:27:50.560 But on the caucus management issue, I just want people to understand what you mean when

00:27:54.160 you say you will not pass something.

00:27:55.580 Are you talking about how you will vote, or what outcome you will ensure happens?

00:27:59.680 Well, look, I think that the reality is that I don't think a bill of that that would

00:28:06.200 restrict or ban abortion would pass.

00:28:10.040 And that is just an obvious fact.

00:28:11.840 And it didn't pass in 10 years as Prime Minister Harper was Prime Minister.

00:28:19.040 He had a majority even for four of those years, and no such legislation passed.

00:28:25.240 And that is why I think that we should focus on doing things that help women who find themselves

00:28:33.740 in a difficult pregnancy, but who want, for example, to bring a child into the world.

00:28:39.180 We can support them either to help them keep the child or put it up for adoption without

00:28:44.520 bringing in laws that restrict or ban abortion.

00:28:47.720 We spoke a little bit earlier on about your rallies and, you know, the makeup of the Pierre

00:28:52.300 Polyev supporter that you're meeting on the road.

00:28:54.260 What do you find is the issue that people are most resonating with?

00:28:58.600 And it perhaps might even be a surprising one to you, given the things you have talked about.

00:29:01.800 But what is it you find is that people are coming up and saying, I love your stance on X?

00:29:06.340 Well, the number one issue that young people bring up is they can't afford a house.

00:29:13.880 And like when I say, you know, everybody knows of the 35-year-old living in their parents' basement.

00:29:20.860 It's funny.

00:29:21.620 There's always like three or four people in the audience that actually put their hand up.

00:29:26.080 And sometimes it's the kid.

00:29:27.080 They admit to it.

00:29:27.840 But sometimes it's the kid.

00:29:29.260 Sometimes it's actually the parent.

00:29:30.800 And so we get these.

00:29:34.380 But we have lineups because I invite everyone to come shake my hand after the rally's over

00:29:38.960 and say a quick hello and tell me their thoughts.

00:29:42.160 And the most common story when I get a young person is I'm that guy or that girl who's 31, 32,

00:29:51.740 stuck in my parents' basement because, you know, I live in Brampton and it's $1.2 million for your average house

00:29:58.560 or, you know, $900,000 for a modest townhouse.

00:30:03.060 And there's no way that they can come up with the down payment, let alone the monthly bills, to pay for it.

00:30:11.080 And so the fact that I talk about removing the gatekeepers to allow more housing construction,

00:30:15.180 selling off 15% of federal buildings so that folks can convert those into housing

00:30:21.820 or ending the money printing so that we no longer have this monetary inflation of our asset prices,

00:30:27.980 these sorts of things, connect with people because they see it playing out in their real lives.

00:30:33.460 Pierre Polyev, thank you very much.

00:30:34.740 Great to be with you.

00:30:35.440 Thank you.

00:30:36.460 That was my sit down with Pierre Polyev in the Conservative Leadership Series.

00:30:41.500 If you're enjoying this series and you want to see more of it, I know we're almost done,

00:30:45.240 but we still could very much use your support.

00:30:47.520 Head on over to donate.tnc.news.

00:30:50.860 Donate.tnc.news.

00:30:52.620 And you can throw a few dollars our way as we are traveling around to meet these candidates where they are.

00:30:58.320 And I've got a videographer with me.

00:31:00.020 So there are certainly some costs in putting this together.

00:31:02.680 But I also think these conversations are tremendously important, regardless of who you're supporting.

00:31:07.420 And even if you're not voting in the leadership race, whoever wins this race is going to be vying to be Canada's next prime minister alongside the other party leader.

00:31:16.520 So certainly important to the Canadian political future, if I may say so here.

00:31:22.020 So we do appreciate all of your support.

00:31:24.000 We'll have this series wrapped up in the next couple of weeks or so.

00:31:26.780 But I do hope you get a chance to watch all of the conversations just to see where the things are.

00:31:32.100 And I had someone ask me if I'm going to be asking the same questions to all candidates.

00:31:36.140 And I said, well, that would be no fun because by the time I get to the sixth one, they already know what the interview is going to be.

00:31:40.740 So each discussion is very fluid.

00:31:42.780 Obviously, we try to tailor it to what the candidates have said.

00:31:46.340 But also, as I've mentioned before, what they haven't said.

00:31:49.700 And I think that's oftentimes where some of the value comes from these conversations.

00:31:53.900 But they are a lot of fun to do.

00:31:55.380 Always good to do an interview that you aren't confined to like a three or four minute block on.

00:31:59.460 So the series continues.

00:32:01.100 Stay tuned to The Andrew Lawton Show and lots of the other stuff we're doing over at True North.

00:32:06.220 We'll talk to you soon on Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.

00:32:09.820 Thank you.

00:32:10.360 God bless.

00:32:10.980 And good day to you all.

00:32:11.780 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:32:14.060 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - July 06, 2022

Conservative Leadership Series： Pierre Poilievre

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