Juno News - Conservatives are trying to put Quebec in play

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

00:00:06.660 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:13.000 Coming up, a look at where things stand in the busy and news-intensive 2021 election campaign.

00:00:19.740 Plus, I sit down with Conservative candidate Pierre Paulyev.

00:00:24.240 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.

00:00:30.000 Hello and welcome to another edition of Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.

00:00:35.120 This is the Andrew Lawton Show on True North, Wednesday, September 1st, 2021.

00:00:40.400 Hope you're having a great time as we are 19 days away to the September 20th election.

00:00:47.060 So we've started to see a little bit of movement.

00:00:49.700 I know right out of the gate, we talked about it last week.

00:00:52.420 Justin Trudeau dogged by Afghanistan, why there's an election at all.

00:00:56.280 Some other questions.

00:00:57.740 This week, it's been a little bit different.

00:00:59.540 Aaron O'Toole and the Conservatives have had to go on a bit of defense as well.

00:01:04.060 And we'll talk about that later on in the show.

00:01:06.440 This is a bit of an interesting show for me.

00:01:08.460 You may have noticed, if you had been following True North's coverage,

00:01:11.600 I was actually embedded in the Conservative campaign for the last, oh, five or six days or so.

00:01:18.140 And this was us media.

00:01:19.920 We had a number of journalists there, but I was the only one representing independent media.

00:01:24.060 And we went through Atlantic Canada, all of the...

00:01:27.440 It was actually quite a whirlwind.

00:01:29.280 We started in Ottawa, where all the tours start and end.

00:01:32.900 And then from Ottawa, we went to Deer Lake, Newfoundland.

00:01:35.480 From Deer Lake, Newfoundland, we went to Sydney, Nova Scotia.

00:01:39.020 And then from there, we went to Fredericton, New Brunswick.

00:01:41.940 And then we went to Charlottetown, PEI.

00:01:44.620 And that was all in the span of like 36 hours or something.

00:01:48.020 And then we did a couple of stops in Quebec and then went back to Ontario.

00:01:51.920 So it was like six provinces in four days.

00:01:55.080 And then I had to get back from Ottawa to where I live in London, Ontario.

00:01:59.340 Yesterday evening, I was talking to my wife and I just had a moment.

00:02:02.940 I'm like, wait, did I get back today?

00:02:05.960 Or I had no idea.

00:02:07.200 So it was a bit of a whirlwind.

00:02:08.620 But I think it was very important because the whole reason we set out to do that,

00:02:12.140 to be on the ground covering the campaign,

00:02:14.060 is to ask the questions of the Conservative campaign.

00:02:17.480 This week, that the mainstream media wasn't doing.

00:02:21.020 And more importantly, to get answers to questions on issues

00:02:24.040 that are very much relevant to a lot of our audience.

00:02:27.140 I mean, we've been fielding questions.

00:02:28.740 And I'm going to talk about the most common one.

00:02:31.640 But we've been fielding questions from you folks watching and reading

00:02:35.480 and listening to our content for weeks now saying,

00:02:37.980 you know, what are the Conservatives going to do about this?

00:02:39.840 What's the PPC going to do about this?

00:02:41.580 What are the Liberals going to do about this?

00:02:43.440 So we were trying to dig into that and actually have boots on the ground.

00:02:46.580 And I think there was a lot that came out of it.

00:02:48.720 And I'm going to share in this episode,

00:02:50.040 just some of what we ended up picking up well on the road.

00:02:54.180 We'll be talking to Pierre Polyev later in the show

00:02:57.520 and also talking about a little bit of the horse race stuff.

00:02:59.800 Now, I should say, I don't love the horse race as much on a podcast

00:03:03.960 because numbers change so quickly.

00:03:06.380 And as you always hear politicians say,

00:03:08.680 oh, the only poll that matters is the one on election day.

00:03:11.120 They only say that when they're behind in the polls.

00:03:13.360 But I do think these polls are interesting because of how decisive they are

00:03:17.420 and also because of how strong the People's Party representation is.

00:03:22.220 The PPC was supposed to have been in the debates.

00:03:25.700 If you were to look at the polls that have come out

00:03:27.940 since the Debates Commission made its decision.

00:03:31.040 The threshold was the People's Party had to have 4% in national polling.

00:03:36.280 They've had 6%, 7% pretty consistently,

00:03:39.660 but it took them a little while to get up to that point.

00:03:42.860 And the Debates Commission that puts on these nationalized debates

00:03:46.440 had taken its sample before that surge really happened.

00:03:50.320 So if they were to measure that today, the PPC would be in the debate.

00:03:54.340 But they don't.

00:03:55.100 They set it aside.

00:03:56.240 And the People's Party is saying it's an attack on democracy,

00:03:58.800 but they don't really have any mechanism to appeal

00:04:01.700 unless they were to take the Debates Commission to court.

00:04:04.220 But they've said that just wouldn't be worthwhile.

00:04:06.440 So they're just focusing on campaigning and trying to get their message out to voters other ways.

00:04:11.600 So yes, there is going to be a little bit this show

00:04:13.720 that focuses more on the Conservative campaign because that's where I was.

00:04:17.380 But rest assured, just like we spoke to Tarek El Naga from The Maverick last week, 0.99

00:04:21.760 we are covering all the candidates, all the parties.

00:04:24.500 I've got Rod Taylor from the Christian Heritage Party on the show next week.

00:04:28.240 We'll have PPC leader Maxime Bernier on the show.

00:04:31.200 He's on tour right now, so we haven't quite picked a date,

00:04:34.260 but that will be happening. And I want to hear from you.

00:04:36.900 What do you think the election issues are?

00:04:40.000 Here's the thing that's interesting.

00:04:41.420 One of the biggest issues, and I was getting nonstop emails,

00:04:45.240 ask O'Toole about this, ask O'Toole about this,

00:04:47.100 and like 90% of them were,

00:04:49.100 what's his stance on mandatory vaccination

00:04:51.240 and what's his stance on vaccine passports?

00:04:53.680 And I didn't actually ask those questions because he had already answered them.

00:04:56.660 So I just want to put it on record now

00:04:58.760 because I know this is the issue that so many of you care about.

00:05:02.100 He was asked about this a number of times,

00:05:04.160 actually right before I joined the tour.

00:05:06.900 And he was asked, and his answer for mandatory vaccination

00:05:10.240 is that he wants an alternative model to what Justin Trudeau's does.

00:05:14.860 Here's how he explains it.

00:05:15.960 We're seeing more private institutions and universities and so on

00:05:21.520 adopting mandatory vaccination.

00:05:24.120 Are you open to changing your position on that?

00:05:26.480 My position has not changed.

00:05:29.760 Vaccines are the most critical tool in this pandemic.

00:05:32.980 Every time I get to encourage people to take the vaccine,

00:05:36.040 talk about how safe and effective they are for use to fight COVID-19,

00:05:40.660 to stop the spread, I do so.

00:05:42.220 That's why my wife and I were very public in our vaccination process.

00:05:46.580 We also have tools like rapid tests that can be used on a daily basis.

00:05:52.500 We have masking, sanitation, all the things we've done as a country

00:05:56.540 we have to continue to do.

00:05:58.520 I will respect the personal health decisions of Canadians

00:06:01.160 and we can use rapid testing on a daily basis

00:06:04.760 to make sure we all do our part to fight COVID-19.

00:06:07.960 And here's how he's answered questions on vaccine passports.

00:06:11.280 I will be there for Canadians, for folks from coast to coast.

00:06:15.860 As a federal partner, we will respect the provinces and their decisions

00:06:20.180 with respect to health measures, with respect to balancing the needs

00:06:24.800 of keeping people safe and keeping the economy going.

00:06:28.900 And if the provinces make decisions on proof of vaccinations,

00:06:32.500 vaccine passports, we will support and respect what the provinces decide to do.

00:06:38.020 It is their decision to try and balance off making sure people are safe.

00:06:43.820 We fight the fourth wave of the pandemic together.

00:06:46.120 So you may like or dislike the answer, but he has answered.

00:06:48.520 On a mandatory vaccine, he wants people to subject themselves

00:06:51.980 to the question of vaccination or regular testing.

00:06:55.700 And on the question of vaccine passports,

00:06:57.580 he's saying it is a provincial responsibility,

00:07:00.140 which may be legally sound.

00:07:02.740 But I mean, my position on this, as you've heard on the show,

00:07:05.240 I'm very much against it.

00:07:06.380 I would love to see federal leadership on why this is not what Canada needs,

00:07:11.020 not what Canadians need, or not what they should want anyway.

00:07:14.240 But the reality is, it's a political hot potato.

00:07:17.180 So he's just saying, yeah, I'm not dealing with it.

00:07:19.480 Let Doug Ford deal with it.

00:07:20.940 Let Francois Legault and Jason Kenney, let them make up their minds.

00:07:24.380 But he's not going to force them one way or the other.

00:07:26.740 So that's where he stands on that.

00:07:29.180 Maxime Bernier has been a fair bit more forceful on that.

00:07:32.160 He's saying absolutely not himself.

00:07:34.380 Well, he himself has said that he's not vaccinated because he doesn't see a need to be.

00:07:38.560 And interestingly, that actually prevented him or is preventing him from going to Atlantic Canada

00:07:43.960 to campaign because many of the provinces there require you to be vaccinated if you don't want

00:07:49.120 to quarantine.

00:07:49.940 So he was able to go to New Brunswick, but he couldn't go to PEI or Nova Scotia this past weekend.

00:07:55.860 And that was the reason he cited.

00:07:58.680 I want to talk about Atlantic Canada for a moment here because this was the spot that

00:08:02.940 the Conservative campaign went.

00:08:04.680 And interestingly enough, the Conservatives have not done well there at all.

00:08:09.400 Just not at all.

00:08:10.440 There's one Conservative seat in Nova Scotia.

00:08:13.380 There are a couple in New Brunswick, none in PEI, and none in Newfoundland.

00:08:17.800 We hit all four in part because the Conservatives and all party leaders want to say,

00:08:22.120 yes, we're campaigning in all provinces, and they have to pretend that it's winnable.

00:08:25.980 They have to go and say, well, yes, you know, we really think it's going to be different here.

00:08:29.560 We really think we can win here.

00:08:31.220 What was interesting, though, is how little there was on very specific Atlantic issues

00:08:37.740 in the announcements.

00:08:39.220 We were in, where was it?

00:08:40.580 I think Cornerbrook, Newfoundland.

00:08:42.200 And it was a general announcement that was dealing with affordability.

00:08:45.960 We were in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

00:08:47.900 And it was, again, a fairly general announcement that fit in with the national campaign.

00:08:52.620 I caught up in Sydney, Nova Scotia with former Cabinet Minister Lisa Raitt.

00:08:56.700 And I was asking her about this.

00:08:58.100 Like, cut the nonsense here.

00:08:59.560 Is Atlantic Canada winnable for the Conservatives?

00:09:02.460 This was our brief conversation.

00:09:04.440 So let's talk about Atlantic Canada.

00:09:06.260 This is not an area the Conservatives have traditionally done well,

00:09:09.300 certainly not in the last couple of years.

00:09:11.840 Do you think things are different this time around?

00:09:14.000 And if so, why?

00:09:14.820 I do.

00:09:16.140 I do because this part of the world can definitely move from the Liberal side of the books

00:09:21.420 to the Conservative side of the books.

00:09:23.160 You just saw that happen here in Nova Scotia with the provincial election

00:09:26.780 where Tim Houston is the Premier-elect.

00:09:28.900 After 13 or 14 years with the Liberal government, Stephen McNeil and then Ian Rankin.

00:09:33.340 So yeah, they can definitely move in terms of where their vote is if it's the right issue.

00:09:39.380 They care about issues.

00:09:40.620 They care about certain things that matter to them.

00:09:43.000 And if the leader can connect on those, that's what's going to make a difference.

00:09:47.060 Are the Atlantic issues unique to Atlantic Canada?

00:09:50.300 Or do you think people in the Atlantic provinces, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, PEI,

00:09:54.160 are receptive to a lot of the broader economic realities and policies

00:09:57.840 that you'd put in a national campaign?

00:10:00.000 Normally, it's pretty much lined up with what voters in Ontario care about, except this time.

00:10:06.000 And this time, it's about health care.

00:10:07.680 And the reason being is that there's a very big demarcation in terms of health care

00:10:11.940 here in Nova Scotia, as there is in Ontario or any of the western provinces.

00:10:16.640 And they care about that.

00:10:17.760 And it's become a transactional matter in politics.

00:10:21.120 The first question you're going to get is on health care.

00:10:23.180 The second question you're going to get is on seniors.

00:10:25.400 That's the way the demographics are settling out here.

00:10:28.800 So leaders have to come to town with a real plan, not a fake one,

00:10:33.040 a real plan on what they're going to do.

00:10:34.680 And voters are keeping track, and they are taking count.

00:10:38.000 What is it you're seeing?

00:10:39.260 And I know you're out of politics now, so I'm putting you on the spot here.

00:10:41.620 But what are you seeing in the Conservative platform this time around

00:10:44.280 that you think is going to resonate and is going to hit on those nerves for Atlantic voters?

00:10:49.100 What I see is I see that there's policy being rolled out every single day.

00:10:54.900 And not a day goes by when you aren't hearing a fresh, new idea.

00:10:59.260 Now, you may not like the idea, but it's fresh, it's new.

00:11:01.860 And people understand that there is a plan, and that the plan is being executed on.

00:11:06.440 And what people see is discipline.

00:11:08.280 And when you see discipline, and you see execution, you have confidence in the leader.

00:11:13.120 And that's what this is all about.

00:11:14.300 Trudeau has made this election about him.

00:11:16.740 And Mr. O'Toole is doing a really good job showing that there is an alternative.

00:11:20.280 And the alternative is Erin O'Toole and the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:11:23.360 Now, Lisa was very quick to say that she is not at all affiliated with the campaign.

00:11:28.700 She's not running, she's out of politics, but she's still very much supporting Erin O'Toole.

00:11:33.160 She moderated a town hall of his.

00:11:35.360 She was at that event and got a special shout out at the North Sydney Firefighters Club in Sydney.

00:11:41.520 Well, North Sydney.

00:11:42.200 No, not in Sydney.

00:11:42.940 It was in North Sydney, which I'm told is like a whole different Sydney in Nova Scotia,

00:11:46.800 but up on beautiful Cape Breton.

00:11:48.800 And she's saying, yeah, that, you know, these people are really struggling.

00:11:51.960 And you could actually see that.

00:11:53.240 I've been to Sydney once before.

00:11:54.640 And it's a fairly industrial town.

00:11:58.200 It's an old coal town, which like a lot of other coal towns, not doing too, too well in 2021.

00:12:03.440 So people are hurting.

00:12:04.620 The cost of living is very important there.

00:12:06.800 And interestingly enough, there did seem to be,

00:12:09.660 and I just got this talking to a few people around town,

00:12:12.540 a sense that they've been forgotten by politicians.

00:12:15.220 Now, whether they can break this years-long tradition of voting liberal,

00:12:18.960 especially in Newfoundland, stands to be seen.

00:12:22.140 But certainly there was a sense there that what they have now is just not working for them.

00:12:27.840 Aaron O'Toole had actually called the Newfoundland MPs, the Liberals, the Silent Six.

00:12:32.440 He said that's how they're viewed by Newfoundlanders,

00:12:34.740 because they get elected, they get sent to Ottawa,

00:12:36.980 and then they end up doing nothing for Newfoundland.

00:12:39.740 But the question of whether the Conservatives can do well regionally there, I'm not sure about.

00:12:43.780 One riding, if you check out True North's ridings to watch list that I'm going to be paying a little bit of attention to,

00:12:50.180 is Fredericton.

00:12:52.060 And I just find Fredericton interesting because you had a very strong green showing in 2019

00:12:56.720 that elected Green MP Jenica Atwin.

00:12:59.540 Fast forward to 2021, Jenica Atwin is now a Liberal seeking re-election,

00:13:04.160 but there still is a strong green base there.

00:13:06.520 And I saw one poll or projection about a week or so back

00:13:10.620 in which the Conservatives were actually poised to either win or come very close to winning

00:13:15.580 because of a green-Liberal vote split.

00:13:18.420 So stranger things have happened.

00:13:20.560 And vote splitting is going to be a very big issue this election,

00:13:23.480 which is why you're already seeing a lot of people talking about strategic voting,

00:13:28.040 which historically just advantages the Liberals

00:13:30.440 because they're often the most winnable alternative to the Conservatives.

00:13:34.260 But interestingly enough, I think we are going to see a lot of very narrow wins

00:13:40.560 that may have been because of a vote split of two other parties.

00:13:44.280 And that's certainly the case in Quebec, possibly.

00:13:47.080 I was in Quebec for a brief period of time on the campaign

00:13:51.080 because Erin O'Toole has made a very significant and a very concerted effort to court Quebec voters.

00:13:57.220 Not just Quebec voters, but Quebecois voters.

00:14:00.600 He's offered a contract with Quebec and he wants to give Quebec very, very wide latitude

00:14:08.060 on a range of things on how federal funds are spent, how programs are delivered.

00:14:13.800 He wants to give Quebec the right to assert itself on more language rights.

00:14:18.800 So basically further ingrain the French language in Quebec culture and institutions,

00:14:22.920 even beyond what it is now.

00:14:24.880 And a lot of Anglo-Quebeckers, even Conservatives I've talked to, are very annoyed by this.

00:14:30.660 They see it as being political pandering and really appealing to the sovereigntists

00:14:35.140 in an effort to court bloc voters.

00:14:38.120 I spoke to Erin O'Toole about this at his announcement in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec.

00:14:43.940 And I asked him, listen, I mean, first off, why are you giving them so much power

00:14:48.200 when this is a province that has historically wanted to leave Confederation?

00:14:51.800 And hey, if you think this is how provinces should be, would you extend the same rights

00:14:56.580 to other provinces?

00:14:58.120 This is that exchange.

00:14:59.780 Andrew Lawton, True North.

00:15:01.240 The Quebec government wants to collect federal and Quebec taxes on a single tax return

00:15:06.020 or remit the federal portion to Ottawa.

00:15:08.620 Your platform seems to open the door for this.

00:15:11.340 This is a province that has held two referenda on secession,

00:15:14.720 does not recognize the legitimacy of many federal institutions.

00:15:18.360 Should they have the right to do this?

00:15:19.540 We need to work with provinces to make things more streamlined, easier,

00:15:25.660 and to make sure that we can deliver more streamlined tax delivery system,

00:15:32.380 the tax form for Quebec, without sacrificing jobs in parts of the regions,

00:15:38.560 in Schwinnigan and Jean-Claire.

00:15:40.080 So we've taken a very balanced approach to say we're going to work with Quebec on this

00:15:44.040 and make sure, particularly after COVID-19, we're not seeing more job disruption,

00:15:49.820 more dislocation at a time every single job really counts to get the country back on its feet following COVID.

00:15:57.040 Your proposed contract with Quebec offers wide latitude to the province on language, immigration,

00:16:04.340 a law that runs contrary to religious freedom, opting out of federal programs, the list goes on.

00:16:09.380 Are you prepared to offer the same deal to any other province that wants to assert a bit more independence from Ottawa or just Quebec?

00:16:15.540 I want to make sure that our country gets back on track after COVID-19.

00:16:21.320 I want to make sure the federal government stops interfering in areas of provincial jurisdiction

00:16:26.360 and has a federalism of partnership.

00:16:29.660 That means respecting autonomy and partnering.

00:16:32.800 And in some cases, if provinces can help deliver a program even better,

00:16:38.500 we should have shared or cooperative federalism.

00:16:40.900 That will be my approach.

00:16:42.560 It's why we're going to tackle the unfair ideological measures that have held back Alberta and Saskatchewan, for example.

00:16:49.220 It's why we're going to give Quebec more autonomy and immigration

00:16:52.820 to preserve the importance of the French language

00:16:55.320 and to tackle the huge shortages in the labour market we see in this province.

00:17:00.200 The last thing we need is more years of Justin Trudeau and Ottawa knows best.

00:17:07.440 It's leaving us less prosperous and more divided as a country.

00:17:10.640 So he doesn't come right out and say it, but he seems to be indicating there

00:17:15.220 that yes, he supports finding a winning formula with provinces to work within Confederation

00:17:20.460 and perhaps deliver more programs themselves if they can do it more efficiently.

00:17:25.040 Now, if you're an Albertan tuning in, you may think,

00:17:27.480 okay, yeah, he's just pandering to Quebec.

00:17:28.980 But actually pay close attention to that because if he's offering a deal to provinces,

00:17:34.520 to any province, to allow themselves to have a bit more autonomy,

00:17:37.720 that could square very well with a lot of the pushes for Western independence

00:17:41.620 that we've been talking about on this show

00:17:43.640 and that certainly people in Western provinces have been talking about,

00:17:47.520 not just in the election, but for the last several years.

00:17:50.540 I spoke with Pierre-Paul Hu, who is a Conservative candidate, a long-time MP.

00:17:55.920 He's seeking re-election in Charles-Bourg-aux-Saint-Charles about this.

00:18:00.640 We caught up at a rally in Trois-Rivières and I wanted to ask him about that.

00:18:05.140 Listen, you're a Quebec Conservative, but you're also a Canadian Member of Parliament.

00:18:08.460 What do you say to people who think this platform is just pandering?

00:18:12.180 Here's our exchange.

00:18:13.460 So let's talk about how things are going in Quebec.

00:18:15.420 This is not an area where Conservatives have historically done really well.

00:18:18.940 What makes you think this election is going to be different?

00:18:21.620 Actually, on the ground, it's clear that some things happen right now.

00:18:26.080 So I've been elected for six years now from Quebec City

00:18:30.580 and with my other colleagues, Conservative MP,

00:18:34.920 we actually understand how it works and it's crazy.

00:18:39.540 We have good momentum.

00:18:41.640 People are looking for a Renault tool and they say,

00:18:43.840 OK, it's different, we like this guy.

00:18:46.980 So people are in Quebec.

00:18:48.720 I can't imagine, I can't say we will be, I don't know, 20, 30 MPs,

00:18:54.060 but there's some things happen on the ground.

00:18:56.860 Nationally, the campaign is very much about Justin Trudeau versus Aaron O'Toole,

00:19:00.980 the Liberals versus the Conservatives.

00:19:02.840 In Quebec, things are very different.

00:19:04.400 You have some ridings that are Conservative-Liberal,

00:19:06.440 others that are Conservative-Bloc Québécois.

00:19:08.340 How does the message really resonate in those ridings

00:19:11.860 when it's not Liberal votes you're after, but Bloc Québécois votes?

00:19:16.280 That's true.

00:19:17.120 In Quebec, we have the Bloc Québécois and we have a lot of ridings.

00:19:20.120 The fight is between us and the Bloc. 0.98

00:19:21.860 So the things people have to look at is who can do things.

00:19:25.600 So actually, with the plan we have, the contract Aaron O'Toole have with Quebec,

00:19:29.700 it resonates strongly with people because they trust him, they trust us,

00:19:34.200 and it's OK.

00:19:35.000 So now, if you want something real, we have to have a party who will be in government

00:19:39.980 to change things and to support Quebec government.

00:19:42.300 And the Bloc Québécois can do this.

00:19:43.620 There have been a lot of Conservatives, especially out West,

00:19:46.940 that view that contract with Quebec as political pandering.

00:19:50.680 What's your message to them?

00:19:51.900 I mean, when we are in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Minto,

00:19:56.200 we have to look at things to help people over there with their own issues.

00:20:00.160 In Quebec, we have our own issues.

00:20:01.700 So if Aaron O'Toole wants to work with us, to work with the Conservative MP from Quebec,

00:20:07.060 to make sure that our people are OK with different things, with the language,

00:20:11.180 especially it's French for us.

00:20:13.460 As you can see, my first language is French,

00:20:15.500 but we don't have a fight with English people we work with.

00:20:18.640 So in the House of Commons, as a Quebec MP,

00:20:22.660 I was always there to help my colleagues from Alberta, B.C.,

00:20:25.640 to help them with the oil, whatever they want.

00:20:29.260 So it's a teamwork for us.

00:20:32.080 A lot of the economic issues that have been dominating on the campaign,

00:20:35.360 support for families, recovery from the pandemic,

00:20:37.980 are these truly national issues,

00:20:40.160 or do they have different, unique elements in Quebec

00:20:43.480 that are kind of separate from the national discussions on these things?

00:20:47.880 Not really, because the economic recovery is for everyone.

00:20:51.380 So with the pandemic, it's the same message all across Canada.

00:20:55.820 Everyone is upset with Justin Trudeau.

00:20:57.620 Everyone sees that it's crazy to have a debt over $1 trillion.

00:21:01.680 So we have to do something, and we have to do it now.

00:21:04.840 So it's why people are actually very upset with Justin Trudeau.

00:21:08.500 They say, OK, we need to change.

00:21:10.280 And the taste, but the will to change is very strong,

00:21:14.280 and it's strong in Quebec too.

00:21:15.280 Now, interestingly enough, only by my read,

00:21:20.820 only the People's Party of Canada has pledged to review and reduce equalization.

00:21:25.960 This is timely because there is an Alberta referendum coming up in October on equalization.

00:21:31.160 If it passes, the federal government will have to negotiate,

00:21:34.840 at the very least, negotiate with Alberta on equalization,

00:21:38.620 on amending the Constitution.

00:21:39.860 But so far, there's been no commitment from the Liberals, the Conservatives, the NDP

00:21:44.240 to actually take that negotiation in good faith and give Alberta what it wants.

00:21:49.980 Only the People's Party has.

00:21:51.300 In a release put out on August 31st,

00:21:54.000 Maxine Bernier said in Red Deer

00:21:55.820 that equalization was supposed to be about ensuring access to a similar level of services

00:22:00.740 across the country, but now it's unfair and inefficient.

00:22:04.240 It disadvantages some provinces and also is based on a formula that simply isn't working.

00:22:10.400 So, but ultimately, there hasn't been a lot of talk about equalization

00:22:13.740 because the provinces where all the votes are,

00:22:16.560 are oftentimes the recipients of equalization payments.

00:22:20.420 So you can't go to Atlantic Canada and say,

00:22:22.540 we're going to stop sending Alberta money to you.

00:22:24.880 You can't go to Quebec and say,

00:22:26.160 we're going to start transferring less federal money.

00:22:28.700 So it's a very dangerous political position to take,

00:22:31.920 but one I think that very much needs to be at the very least discussed.

00:22:36.200 So that's how equalization is factored in.

00:22:39.180 But we are seeing these regional breakdowns here

00:22:41.920 where there's a lot of attention, as always, in Quebec and Ontario,

00:22:46.000 and Erin O'Toole really seems to be driving a Quebec strategy. 1.00

00:22:50.120 So will this come at the expense of other provinces?

00:22:52.900 That's the big fear that everyone has.

00:22:54.720 Certainly, we all hope it's not the case,

00:22:56.560 but I was trying to get a sense of that as we were talking on the campaign trail.

00:23:01.320 There was a fair bit of access on the campaign because, you know,

00:23:04.540 every journalist who was traveling with the tour got to put their two questions to Erin O'Toole every day.

00:23:09.900 I won't go and play the litany of them for the last week,

00:23:12.400 but you do have to check out the coverage that we've been publishing at True North if you're interested.

00:23:16.980 I do want to focus in on one, though, because one of my big priorities going into this

00:23:22.380 was trying to square some of the distinctions between Erin O'Toole in last year's leadership race

00:23:28.660 and Erin O'Toole in the general election campaign now. 0.73

00:23:32.800 There's always a difference.

00:23:34.260 There's always a difference.

00:23:35.560 You always want to play to the base in one and then try to play to the mainstream population in the other.

00:23:40.220 But on very specific things, like we spoke about a week and a half ago, CBC funding, for example.

00:23:46.780 In the leadership race, it was defund and privatized.

00:23:49.560 In the general election platform, it's,

00:23:51.380 well, let's maybe talk about possibly reviewing the mandate,

00:23:55.380 seeing if maybe there's an alternative business model that might work.

00:23:59.440 So quite a significant distinction.

00:24:01.440 One that I've really wanted to dig into, though,

00:24:04.420 and I don't know if I have an answer to give you,

00:24:06.580 but I want to show the answer that I got anyway,

00:24:09.020 is where Erin O'Toole stands on free votes. 1.00

00:24:13.640 So this is, I think, a very important question,

00:24:15.540 because in the leadership race, his success from social conservatives

00:24:19.660 came from the fact that he was saying,

00:24:21.220 listen, I'm not one of you.

00:24:22.420 I'm pro-choice.

00:24:23.200 I'm not going to vote pro-life.

00:24:24.380 I don't want this to be a party that puts forward pro-life legislation.

00:24:28.480 But I will let you vote your conscience.

00:24:30.640 I will let you vote freely.

00:24:31.840 And I will let you represent the things that you need to represent.

00:24:35.460 That was his pitch.

00:24:36.640 And for social conservatives, they said,

00:24:38.100 all right, it's not ideal, but it's either him or Peter McKay.

00:24:41.400 And Peter McKay wants to sell us down the river.

00:24:43.880 They all voted for Derek Sloan or Leslie Lewis first,

00:24:46.920 but then they put Erin O'Toole down their ballot. 1.00

00:24:49.380 And that was what gave him the victory.

00:24:51.500 Free vote.

00:24:51.960 If you could kind of distill his leadership campaign

00:24:54.620 into one single promise,

00:24:56.820 that would, for me, be it.

00:24:58.240 Free votes.

00:24:59.440 That was the flagship promise,

00:25:01.400 because that was the one that allowed him to say,

00:25:03.340 I'm the big tent conservative candidate.

00:25:05.920 I'm representing all of the parts of the conservative party.

00:25:09.920 Well, this past weekend, it became candidate day,

00:25:12.720 where all of the opposition parties, the media,

00:25:15.000 started to pluck all these different things from different candidates

00:25:18.000 and try to throw the battle tool and say,

00:25:19.960 well, how do you respond to this?

00:25:21.540 How do you respond to this?

00:25:22.540 One candidate in Dartmouth-Coal Harbour actually had to step down

00:25:26.460 because of sexual harassment or sexual assault allegations,

00:25:30.940 which the party responded to very promptly.

00:25:33.900 You also had Cheryl Gallant, a longtime MP,

00:25:37.040 formerly an Alliance MP in Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke,

00:25:40.880 who was maligned by a lot of opposition voices

00:25:44.580 because she said that the same people that brought us the COVID lockdown

00:25:48.460 could bring us a climate lockdown. 0.66

00:25:50.960 And this was something that, again, everyone got into a tizzy about.

00:25:54.180 And I'm thinking, well, that sounds reasonable enough

00:25:56.940 because absolutely the whole point of the pandemic lockdown

00:26:00.200 is that the term emergency was used to justify any range of restrictions.

00:26:05.760 So she was pointing out in a video that's now been deleted

00:26:08.740 that, well, the same people are saying that climate change is an emergency.

00:26:12.260 So what are they going to do under the auspices of its emergency status?

00:26:16.780 That was the point that she was raising.

00:26:19.020 But in any case, the media was asking,

00:26:22.140 well, why does she get to stay as a candidate? 1.00

00:26:24.460 Like, where's the line?

00:26:25.940 And later on, Aaron O'Toole put out a statement.

00:26:30.000 He was firstly talking about his climate plan in the statement,

00:26:32.560 but then he said,

00:26:33.240 I want to make it clear, this is the plan I'm running on.

00:26:36.300 It is the plan conservatives are running on, all of them.

00:26:39.400 If I am elected prime minister, it is the plan I will implement.

00:26:43.060 If there are any candidates who don't support it or any other part of Canada's recovery plan,

00:26:49.620 they won't be sitting in the caucus of a future conservative government.

00:26:54.220 So there's a little bit to unpack there.

00:26:56.300 So Canada's recovery plan is the name of Aaron O'Toole's platform.

00:27:00.220 It's what he calls the platform.

00:27:01.600 It's the little book that he takes out on the campaign trail and holds up at every stop.

00:27:05.540 That's the entirety of the platform.

00:27:07.120 In that are things about economic recovery, health care, things about seniors,

00:27:12.420 the climate plans in there, moving the embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem's in there,

00:27:17.340 and not introducing pro-life legislation is in there.

00:27:22.860 This is why it's important.

00:27:24.780 Because he's saying in this statement,

00:27:26.220 if there are candidates who don't support the climate plan or any other part of the platform,

00:27:32.020 they will not be able to sit as conservatives.

00:27:34.580 So is he saying here that he's walking back his commitment to free choice and free votes?

00:27:43.240 Now, I asked him about this in King City, Ontario at a campaign stop on Sunday.

00:27:48.100 Okay, lay it out.

00:27:49.380 Which votes are going to be free votes?

00:27:51.620 This is the exchange.

00:27:52.700 Andrew Lawton, True North.

00:27:54.180 During your leadership race last year,

00:27:56.240 you committed often to allowing free votes in caucus.

00:27:59.480 You spoke numerous occasions about the importance of having a Big Ten party.

00:28:03.540 Yet in your statement yesterday,

00:28:05.160 you said if MPs and candidates don't get on board with the climate plan

00:28:08.720 and every single aspect of your platform, they'll be booted from caucus.

00:28:13.120 So specifically, sir, on which issues will you allow free votes?

00:28:16.220 And on which issues will you demand a vote in favour of a particular proposal?

00:28:22.080 We are running on a plan.

00:28:24.280 Canada's recovery plan,

00:28:25.940 which the country needs to get back on its feet.

00:28:28.220 On the first full day of the campaign,

00:28:32.000 we launched our plan.

00:28:33.980 All of our candidates are committed to the plan.

00:28:36.600 It's exactly what the country needs.

00:28:39.720 Jobs, accountability, mental health leadership,

00:28:43.900 preparing ourselves for the next pandemic,

00:28:46.960 and a commitment to getting the budget balanced over the next decade.

00:28:50.760 Everyone will be focused on that plan and a positive campaign.

00:28:54.180 So as you hear there, not really an answer,

00:28:57.000 not a clear answer anyway on,

00:28:59.060 are you committed to free votes?

00:29:00.260 And if so, on which issues?

00:29:01.540 Is it only going to be on social issues?

00:29:03.780 Is it going to be on other things?

00:29:05.000 Or is it going to be on nothing at all?

00:29:07.160 So that would be a question that I'd have.

00:29:09.260 And that's one I'd actually like to hear answered

00:29:11.320 as the campaign progresses.

00:29:13.540 So I wanted to give a cross-section.

00:29:15.380 And interestingly enough,

00:29:16.580 I've been simultaneously accused,

00:29:18.900 oftentimes within minutes of each other,

00:29:20.480 in the last week of being a shill for O'Toole

00:29:22.920 to then being like a shill for Bernier

00:29:24.700 to being a liberal hack.

00:29:26.700 I've been called everything,

00:29:27.720 which I guess means I'm doing something right

00:29:29.200 if people think my coverage is landing on all sides.

00:29:32.000 I'm about the facts.

00:29:32.940 My loyalty is not to a party.

00:29:34.740 I have beliefs.

00:29:35.840 I have issues that I care about.

00:29:37.400 But I'm not here because I want to get

00:29:38.820 a particular color represented.

00:29:40.320 I'm trying to get you the information you need

00:29:43.200 and you want to make a decision.

00:29:45.360 So that's my commitment.

00:29:46.540 If you think I'm on your team or not on your team,

00:29:48.740 that's not the fight that I'm in right now.

00:29:51.260 I'm here to get the facts for you

00:29:52.700 and to bring the debates,

00:29:54.740 bring the election into a realm

00:29:56.280 that the legacy media simply isn't doing

00:29:59.140 on the issues that I know a lot of you care about.

00:30:01.860 So that's the goal.

00:30:02.940 Let me know what you think about it.

00:30:04.520 And we got to take a quick break here.

00:30:06.060 When we come back,

00:30:06.840 we'll talk to Pierre Polyev here on The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:30:09.780 Stay tuned.

00:30:13.060 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:30:17.760 Welcome back.

00:30:18.740 to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:30:20.220 Just before I hopped on

00:30:21.540 the Conservative campaign plane last week,

00:30:23.760 I took a trip out to Carleton,

00:30:25.800 which is just outside of Ottawa,

00:30:27.820 to sit down with its longtime MP.

00:30:30.540 And now the Conservative candidate there

00:30:32.160 seeking re-election, Pierre Polyev,

00:30:34.420 wanted to chat with him

00:30:35.480 about how his campaign's going,

00:30:37.220 but also what he thinks the big issues are.

00:30:39.800 He's been, I'd say, next to Aaron O'Toole,

00:30:41.960 the most prominent voice

00:30:43.560 in the Conservative Party right now.

00:30:45.680 In fact, some would argue

00:30:46.600 he's been more prominent

00:30:47.860 than Aaron O'Toole at certain points.

00:30:49.960 He served as the Employment Minister.

00:30:51.860 And I know anytime we've had him on the show,

00:30:54.540 everyone always wants to hear what he has to say.

00:30:56.760 So here's my sit down

00:30:57.880 at a park in Greeley, Ontario

00:31:00.220 with Pierre Polyev,

00:31:02.060 Conservative candidate for Carleton.

00:31:03.560 This was an election that certainly everyone knew

00:31:07.000 was coming at some point.

00:31:08.420 Minority governments are not particularly stable.

00:31:11.040 I think the question was more of one

00:31:13.300 about when rather than if.

00:31:15.020 But if you had to characterize

00:31:16.800 the election themes where we are now,

00:31:20.320 I know a lot of people thought

00:31:21.400 it was going to be a pandemic election,

00:31:22.980 but now we have this Afghanistan crisis.

00:31:25.080 When you're knocking on the doors,

00:31:26.200 what is the election actually about to people?

00:31:28.140 Well, people are trying to figure that out

00:31:29.620 because Trudeau caused this election to occur

00:31:32.740 and his campaign has been a Seinfeld campaign,

00:31:36.100 a campaign about nothing.

00:31:37.820 People are sort of waiting.

00:31:39.500 You called this election.

00:31:40.780 Do you have something to tell us?

00:31:42.840 Do you have a big agenda

00:31:44.560 that you have to ask our support for?

00:31:48.020 And the answer is no.

00:31:48.940 He has absolutely nothing new to say.

00:31:51.920 He simply called the election in retrospect

00:31:54.300 because he thought he could get away

00:31:56.960 with securing a majority

00:31:59.740 while in the immediate aftermath

00:32:02.640 of spending a half trillion dollars

00:32:04.440 while people were still afraid of COVID.

00:32:06.860 So I joked earlier today,

00:32:09.080 his slogan should have been quick.

00:32:11.620 No one's looking.

00:32:12.920 Because I think that's how he thought this would go.

00:32:15.680 He'd just call a snap election,

00:32:17.460 partly in the middle of the summer,

00:32:19.260 partly while farmers are out

00:32:20.640 getting ready for harvest.

00:32:22.460 And that people just wouldn't have any time

00:32:25.620 to think or scrutinize

00:32:26.660 and would accidentally secure his majority mandate.

00:32:29.640 And it's not turning out that way at all.

00:32:31.200 There's been a massive backlash against him

00:32:33.200 for calling this election.

00:32:35.740 And then not only that,

00:32:37.640 this is the worst run election campaign

00:32:41.060 the Liberals have ever done.

00:32:41.980 He's gone from the wonder boy to the blunder boy.

00:32:46.180 Every day it seems there's a gaffe,

00:32:48.300 whether it was Liberals saying

00:32:51.260 that the Taliban are their brothers 0.99

00:32:54.780 or him true to us admitting

00:32:57.620 he doesn't know anything about monetary policy now

00:33:00.160 when we have among the highest inflation in decades

00:33:04.100 and people can't afford to buy a home.

00:33:06.940 Or this recent gaffe

00:33:08.560 where they are now saying,

00:33:09.840 admitting for the first time

00:33:11.900 that we knew all along,

00:33:13.480 which is that they're going to tax gains

00:33:15.740 on primary residences.

00:33:17.560 These are massive gaffes,

00:33:19.220 any one of which should cost him the election.

00:33:21.380 We've seen this government

00:33:24.180 skate through a lot of pretty difficult things

00:33:28.600 without really being challenged on it.

00:33:31.060 You look at SNC-Lavalin

00:33:32.160 and they followed that by a victory in 2019.

00:33:35.520 Sure, coming down to a minority.

00:33:37.360 The We scandal as well

00:33:38.520 had legs for a while, as we say,

00:33:40.340 but then the government proroged parliament

00:33:42.020 and it seemed like a lot of the scrutiny

00:33:44.200 on that went away.

00:33:45.440 And I remember, as a lot of Canadians do,

00:33:47.100 that press conference

00:33:47.800 where you were showing all of these documents

00:33:49.260 that the government had redacted.

00:33:51.260 And still, I haven't heard We brought up

00:33:52.840 a single day on this campaign.

00:33:55.140 What do you think needs to be done

00:33:57.060 to get Canadians,

00:33:58.480 and by extension, I guess the media,

00:33:59.960 to care about these things?

00:34:01.660 Well, the media will,

00:34:02.760 the mainstream media

00:34:03.600 will never care about any of them

00:34:05.260 because they almost,

00:34:07.420 almost unanimously support Trudeau

00:34:10.100 and want to see him re-elected.

00:34:12.120 Of course, he bought them off

00:34:13.600 with the half-billion-dollar media fund.

00:34:16.240 Let's not forget, though,

00:34:17.200 that the Conservatives won more votes

00:34:19.120 than the Liberals in the last election.

00:34:21.260 He got the lowest share of the votes

00:34:22.620 of any prime minister

00:34:23.700 to be re-elected in Canadian history.

00:34:26.240 So it's not as though

00:34:27.600 he's a particularly popular prime minister.

00:34:30.220 You'd think he was

00:34:31.220 if you just watched the CBC National.

00:34:33.740 But if you look at the data,

00:34:35.360 he's actually quite an unpopular prime minister

00:34:37.800 who's been very lucky

00:34:39.220 about the distribution of vote

00:34:40.660 that has allowed him to preserve power

00:34:42.800 with a very small,

00:34:44.780 but less than a third of voters

00:34:46.680 backing him.

00:34:47.480 So let's talk a little bit

00:34:50.100 about what the Conservative answer

00:34:52.020 to that corruption allegation is

00:34:54.220 because I know the platform this year

00:34:55.680 has some stuff to crack down

00:34:57.360 and give a lot of these conflict of interest

00:34:59.440 and ethics violations

00:35:00.500 that are found to have happened

00:35:02.640 to a bit more teeth

00:35:03.820 in the response to them.

00:35:04.940 But how can you really combat that in practice?

00:35:08.340 Because, I mean, in general,

00:35:09.320 there's, I think, a malaise

00:35:10.340 and a distrust of politicians,

00:35:11.640 but what could a Conservative government

00:35:13.900 do better that would make it

00:35:15.120 so these things don't happen with impunity?

00:35:18.380 Well, for one,

00:35:19.760 there has to be more consequences

00:35:21.140 for guilty findings,

00:35:23.140 particularly compounded

00:35:25.180 and serious guilty findings

00:35:26.480 for politicians

00:35:27.640 violating the Conflict of Interest

00:35:29.680 and Ethics Act.

00:35:30.500 Secondly, I think we have to toughen up

00:35:35.200 the whistleblower protection

00:35:36.880 so that it's easier

00:35:38.120 for people to speak out

00:35:40.020 when they see corruption.

00:35:42.280 But third, I think the people of Canada

00:35:44.160 have to exercise accountability

00:35:45.840 at the ballot box.

00:35:46.880 Ultimately, that's the way our system works.

00:35:49.120 We have a system

00:35:51.340 of democratic accountability

00:35:53.140 more than bureaucratic rules.

00:35:58.700 You know, it is one thing

00:35:59.460 to have public authority

00:36:02.760 like the Ethics Commissioner

00:36:03.880 examine behavior

00:36:05.620 and then compare it to a law

00:36:07.060 and issue a finding,

00:36:08.080 but it's not quite another

00:36:09.120 for the voters to say

00:36:11.020 they've had enough

00:36:11.740 and throw the guy out.

00:36:12.920 And I think that's the ultimate accountability

00:36:14.360 that we can show on Election Day.

00:36:17.540 Let's talk about

00:36:18.300 the financial situation here.

00:36:19.820 We've all seen that PBO report

00:36:21.260 that says we're on track

00:36:22.380 to run up deficits

00:36:23.400 for the next 50 years.

00:36:24.920 At that point,

00:36:25.700 it doesn't even become relevant

00:36:27.000 because it's just

00:36:27.860 so many billions

00:36:28.880 and trillions of dollars

00:36:30.140 of debt

00:36:30.780 and debt service payment

00:36:31.940 and all of that.

00:36:33.340 Realistically,

00:36:34.280 how is a fiscally conservative approach

00:36:36.940 even possible

00:36:37.980 when you're coming in

00:36:39.100 if a conservative government's elected

00:36:40.560 with that much baggage?

00:36:42.240 I know your platform

00:36:43.080 is to balance within 10 years,

00:36:44.680 but practically,

00:36:45.680 how does that actually happen

00:36:47.100 when things are as dire

00:36:48.800 as they are now?

00:36:49.840 Right.

00:36:50.100 Well, good question.

00:36:51.120 I mean,

00:36:51.320 first of all,

00:36:52.420 I don't think it's just practical.

00:36:53.920 I think it's going to be unavoidable.

00:36:56.380 The current deficit

00:36:58.440 is driving inflation.

00:37:01.580 Whenever you create crash,

00:37:02.940 you inflate the price of things.

00:37:05.060 And the government

00:37:06.020 has created

00:37:06.880 $400 billion

00:37:07.800 of M2 money supply,

00:37:10.700 which is to say coins,

00:37:12.700 bills,

00:37:13.400 and bank deposits

00:37:14.280 in just over a year,

00:37:15.640 which is the biggest increase

00:37:16.700 increase in money supply ever.

00:37:19.580 In percentage terms,

00:37:20.660 it's the biggest since 1974.

00:37:23.440 And we remember what happened

00:37:24.620 in the late 70s.

00:37:25.640 We had hyperinflation

00:37:27.160 in the double digits,

00:37:28.680 followed by massive interest rate hikes

00:37:30.820 to nearly 20%.

00:37:32.520 That is,

00:37:33.700 we don't know exactly

00:37:35.580 what the future will bring,

00:37:36.560 but we know that the history

00:37:37.600 of money printing

00:37:38.620 has been a runaway inflation.

00:37:41.560 So,

00:37:42.120 whoever forms government

00:37:43.680 is going to have to rein that in

00:37:44.800 unless we want to continue

00:37:46.160 to see out-of-control

00:37:47.220 price increases

00:37:48.440 that destroy the middle class, 0.75

00:37:52.080 drive the poor

00:37:53.360 deeper into poverty,

00:37:54.560 and inflate the wealth

00:37:56.260 of the super rich.

00:37:58.020 I think we probably,

00:37:59.160 when we look back on this

00:38:00.040 and the data comes up,

00:38:00.940 we'll see that

00:38:01.600 this money printing binge

00:38:03.240 the government is on

00:38:04.140 will lead to

00:38:05.840 probably the biggest

00:38:07.540 expansion of the wealth gap

00:38:10.060 in Canadian history

00:38:11.280 as wealthy asset owners,

00:38:14.880 people who hold gold,

00:38:16.300 real estate,

00:38:17.960 stocks,

00:38:19.420 bonds,

00:38:19.940 and other appreciating assets

00:38:21.800 saw their net worth skyrocket

00:38:23.600 while the wages

00:38:25.220 of the working class

00:38:26.360 are chewed up by inflation.

00:38:28.480 So,

00:38:28.620 the answer to that,

00:38:29.280 of course,

00:38:29.580 is to stop printing money

00:38:31.260 and start creating

00:38:32.520 the stuff money buys,

00:38:33.960 build more houses,

00:38:35.040 grow more nutritious food,

00:38:36.520 build pipelines

00:38:37.220 to bring Canadian energy

00:38:38.640 to Canadian consumers.

00:38:40.520 That way,

00:38:41.240 we actually produce

00:38:42.840 the things that dollars buy

00:38:44.400 and thereby increase

00:38:46.120 the value of our dollar

00:38:47.520 relative to the goods

00:38:48.420 we need to purchase.

00:38:49.860 So,

00:38:50.040 we're going to have to get

00:38:51.400 spending back to normal

00:38:52.420 pre-COVID levels

00:38:53.400 as quickly as possible,

00:38:55.540 bring in a pay-as-you-go law

00:38:57.020 to ensure that

00:38:57.840 every new dollar

00:38:58.500 of unbudgeted spending

00:38:59.560 is met with a dollar

00:39:00.520 of savings,

00:39:02.240 and unleash

00:39:03.480 the free enterprise system

00:39:04.760 so businesses and farmers

00:39:06.080 can make more

00:39:06.860 here in Canada.

00:39:08.280 We heard

00:39:08.980 Justin Trudeau say

00:39:10.200 that he doesn't think

00:39:11.320 about monetary policy,

00:39:12.780 and the answer...

00:39:13.940 I believe him.

00:39:15.520 Who doesn't believe him?

00:39:16.660 Like,

00:39:17.000 I don't believe a lot of things.

00:39:18.100 He says,

00:39:18.340 that one I believe.

00:39:19.900 What I found more interesting

00:39:21.340 than that was

00:39:22.100 what he said

00:39:22.980 in response,

00:39:23.980 or kind of to justify it,

00:39:25.120 he said,

00:39:25.260 I don't think about

00:39:25.760 monetary policy,

00:39:26.500 I think of families.

00:39:27.620 What I'm thinking,

00:39:28.080 well,

00:39:28.200 hang on,

00:39:28.740 how does monetary policy

00:39:30.240 not affect families?

00:39:31.380 But there is a question

00:39:32.580 in that,

00:39:33.040 though,

00:39:33.220 which is that,

00:39:33.940 do you think Canadians

00:39:34.800 understand and care

00:39:37.240 about these inflationary issues

00:39:38.680 you're bringing up?

00:39:39.340 Because,

00:39:39.600 again,

00:39:39.820 it does get in the weeds,

00:39:41.120 and a lot of Canadians

00:39:41.860 are thinking,

00:39:42.380 cut the nonsense,

00:39:44.140 what's it going to mean for me?

00:39:45.320 But do you find

00:39:45.980 that that is a discussion

00:39:46.780 that is taking place

00:39:47.680 in Canadian households?

00:39:48.780 Oh,

00:39:48.900 it's taking place

00:39:49.760 in shopping aisles,

00:39:51.320 it's taking place

00:39:52.280 in home showings

00:39:54.880 for,

00:39:56.380 with real estate agents,

00:39:57.600 it's taking place

00:39:58.740 at the gas station

00:39:59.720 when people are filling up

00:40:00.620 their cars.

00:40:01.760 And that's why

00:40:02.480 this deficit issue

00:40:03.360 has gone from the abstract

00:40:04.520 to the highly vivid

00:40:06.240 and practical.

00:40:07.320 People are actually witnessing

00:40:08.800 what deficits do

00:40:09.780 to their cost of living.

00:40:11.460 Whereas,

00:40:12.160 you know,

00:40:12.360 a few years ago

00:40:12.960 it was an abstraction,

00:40:13.880 the consequences

00:40:14.580 were not yet visible.

00:40:16.180 Now,

00:40:16.800 people see

00:40:17.600 what it's doing

00:40:18.700 to their lives.

00:40:19.400 It's chewing up

00:40:20.240 their dollars

00:40:22.260 in the present.

00:40:24.320 So,

00:40:24.800 there's no doubt

00:40:25.560 people make the link

00:40:26.900 between overspending

00:40:28.140 and inflation.

00:40:29.760 They live it,

00:40:30.500 they see it,

00:40:30.960 they feel it.

00:40:32.240 And the fact,

00:40:33.320 I think one of the reasons

00:40:34.040 why Trudeau's in free fall

00:40:35.440 in the polls

00:40:35.940 and why Conservatives

00:40:36.940 are gaining

00:40:37.520 is because people know

00:40:39.100 that if Trudeau's re-elected

00:40:40.280 there will be

00:40:40.900 a continued explosion

00:40:42.540 in inflation

00:40:44.060 and a cost of living crisis.

00:40:46.100 You mentioned earlier

00:40:47.280 that this election

00:40:48.120 you think is about

00:40:48.940 Trudeau seeking a majority.

00:40:50.960 He's had relatively

00:40:52.420 unchecked power

00:40:53.340 with the NDP

00:40:54.020 and the bloc

00:40:54.860 backing him

00:40:55.440 for the last

00:40:56.000 couple of years.

00:40:56.980 But realistically,

00:40:58.060 what do you think

00:40:58.420 the consequences

00:40:59.140 of a Trudeau

00:41:00.100 liberal majority

00:41:00.940 would be?

00:41:01.860 A massive debt crisis.

00:41:03.940 Right now,

00:41:04.560 Canada has about

00:41:05.520 $8.7 trillion

00:41:06.700 of debt,

00:41:07.920 personal,

00:41:09.220 corporate,

00:41:10.300 and government

00:41:10.860 debt combined.

00:41:12.240 That means we have

00:41:13.080 $4 of debt

00:41:14.280 for every $1

00:41:15.720 of GDP.

00:41:18.100 So,

00:41:18.860 a one percentage point

00:41:20.220 increase

00:41:20.700 in the effective

00:41:21.320 interest rate

00:41:22.160 on all debt

00:41:23.140 and Canadian

00:41:23.660 economy

00:41:24.280 will cost

00:41:25.420 $87 billion

00:41:26.260 every year.

00:41:27.180 One percentage point.

00:41:28.180 Or it will cost

00:41:29.600 4% of GDP.

00:41:30.960 Just put that

00:41:31.460 into perspective.

00:41:32.200 Imagine one percentage

00:41:33.440 point increase

00:41:34.380 in the effective

00:41:35.760 interest rate

00:41:36.540 that we all pay

00:41:37.400 on all our debts

00:41:38.280 would cost

00:41:39.500 4% of GDP.

00:41:42.040 At a federal level,

00:41:43.620 a 1%,

00:41:44.400 just in terms

00:41:45.380 of the federal debt,

00:41:46.700 a 1% increase

00:41:47.840 in interest rates

00:41:48.840 means $12 billion

00:41:49.840 in extra costs.

00:41:51.100 That's much more

00:41:53.660 than a one point

00:41:55.160 increase in the GST.

00:41:56.980 So,

00:41:57.460 you start to think

00:41:58.640 about the enormous

00:41:59.680 costs that we're

00:42:00.700 going to face

00:42:01.340 when interest rates

00:42:02.120 eventually rise.

00:42:03.960 That problem

00:42:04.820 will only worsen

00:42:05.440 if we re-elect

00:42:06.240 a Prime Minister

00:42:07.000 who's determined

00:42:07.660 to further

00:42:08.420 in debt the nation.

00:42:10.000 We will face

00:42:11.720 a serious debt crisis

00:42:12.940 and that will bring

00:42:13.980 a catastrophic

00:42:15.200 human tragedy.

00:42:16.980 So,

00:42:17.380 what we need to do

00:42:18.340 is make a shift

00:42:19.480 now away from

00:42:20.300 a credit card

00:42:20.860 economy

00:42:21.240 to a paycheck

00:42:21.820 economy

00:42:22.440 to unleash

00:42:23.440 the productive

00:42:23.940 forces of our

00:42:24.720 economy

00:42:25.140 to make more

00:42:26.660 costs less

00:42:27.760 paychecks

00:42:28.460 not debt.

00:42:30.060 Thank you very much.

00:42:31.000 Thank you.

00:42:31.360 Great to be with you,

00:42:32.040 Andrew.

00:42:32.640 That was Conservative

00:42:33.560 candidate for Carlton

00:42:35.060 Pierre Polyev

00:42:36.160 here on The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:42:37.580 Great sitting down

00:42:38.200 with him

00:42:38.580 in eastern Ontario.

00:42:40.680 That does it for us

00:42:41.880 for today.

00:42:42.660 We will be back

00:42:43.280 with more of

00:42:43.980 Canada's

00:42:44.480 Most Irreverent Talk

00:42:45.480 show on Friday

00:42:46.380 and following

00:42:47.420 not just the election

00:42:48.300 but I'm also going to

00:42:49.040 dig in on Friday

00:42:49.840 to Ontario's

00:42:50.860 vaccine passport

00:42:52.200 announcement

00:42:52.740 which came out

00:42:53.800 today.

00:42:54.780 This is a

00:42:55.620 very big one

00:42:56.580 and one that I think

00:42:57.560 will need to be

00:42:59.080 delved into

00:42:59.640 in a lot of detail

00:43:00.360 but there was so much

00:43:01.320 to talk to

00:43:01.820 election-wise today.

00:43:02.800 I figured I'd

00:43:03.220 actually take the time

00:43:04.040 to go through it

00:43:04.740 and bring that up

00:43:05.820 on Friday

00:43:06.240 but that is coming.

00:43:07.300 Thanks so much

00:43:07.800 for all of you

00:43:08.320 for tuning in.

00:43:09.420 We'll talk to you soon.

00:43:10.180 Thank you.

00:43:10.580 God bless and good day.

00:43:11.640 Thanks for listening

00:43:12.820 to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:43:14.360 Support the program

00:43:15.080 by donating to True North

00:43:16.320 at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - September 02, 2021

Conservatives are trying to put Quebec in play

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