Juno News - September 08, 2021


Conservatives need to stop running away from their conservatism


Episode Stats

Length

39 minutes

Words per Minute

179.49893

Word Count

7,179

Sentence Count

351

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

7


Summary


Transcript

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.
00:00:12.720 Coming up, firearms flip-flops, the politics of integrity,
00:00:16.720 and Rod Taylor from the Christian Heritage Party.
00:00:20.480 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.
00:00:24.060 Hello and welcome. This is Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show here on True North.
00:00:31.740 The Andrew Lawton Show, Wednesday, September 8th, 2021.
00:00:36.760 Tonight is debate day, at least for the first official French language debate.
00:00:41.500 I know we had last week the TVA debate, but that was the unofficial French debate.
00:00:45.720 This is the official French debate, and then tomorrow we'll have the official English debate,
00:00:50.240 and, in fact, the only English language debate of the entire election campaign.
00:00:55.620 And I'm not going to tell you where to tune in, except for True North.
00:00:59.020 We are going to be broadcasting the debate live.
00:01:01.540 We have a pre-show starting up at 8 p.m. Eastern.
00:01:04.200 We'll have the debate live for you on all of our social media channels starting at 9,
00:01:09.020 and then we'll have some analysis after the fact.
00:01:11.540 And I'm going to actually be on the ground in Ottawa.
00:01:14.400 I'm actually on my way to... This is pre-recorded, if you hadn't been able to tell.
00:01:18.000 I'm actually on my way to Ottawa right now to be able to cover the debate,
00:01:22.180 the French language and English language debates,
00:01:24.260 and hopefully get some questions to the leaders in the post-debate scrums.
00:01:28.800 And you know what? I didn't even have to sue my way in this time.
00:01:32.080 You may remember in 2019, True North was not accredited,
00:01:35.580 so we had to go to federal court and have an emergency hearing,
00:01:39.240 and we were granted an injunction.
00:01:41.040 It was a very positive day, I'd say, for press freedom in court.
00:01:45.240 This year, we didn't have to.
00:01:46.400 The Leaders Debates Commission accredited us.
00:01:48.960 Now, they didn't accredit Rebel,
00:01:50.280 so Rebel is fighting it out in court and awaiting a decision.
00:01:54.560 But I will say that one of the big things I'm looking forward to at this debate,
00:01:58.400 if we get the chance to go into the scrums and ask the questions as we're expecting,
00:02:03.380 is to put the questions to the leaders that the mainstream media is not asking.
00:02:08.740 And a lot of the time, if you find you watch these press conferences,
00:02:11.660 whether it's Trudeau or O'Toole or Singh,
00:02:14.300 the media, generally speaking, asks questions that aren't always on the radar of what Canadians are thinking.
00:02:22.040 And that's why we think we have something to add there.
00:02:24.280 So that's a little bit of a plug for our debate coverage at True North.
00:02:27.640 I want to talk about one of the big developments in the campaign in the last few days,
00:02:31.800 and not a positive one for me as a gun owner and advocate for gun owners.
00:02:36.500 And that is Aaron O'Toole's flip-flop that was almost like a triple flip
00:02:41.140 and a huge whole bunch of flop on firearms.
00:02:44.880 Now, I want to go back a few weeks here first,
00:02:47.120 because you may remember I was actually in Ottawa when the Conservatives launched their platform.
00:02:51.700 And I was in, they call it a lock-up or an embargo,
00:02:54.740 where before the platform was announced,
00:02:56.600 I was able to look through and find the things that I thought were interesting
00:02:59.960 and cover them so that I was prepared when the platform was launched.
00:03:04.320 And one of the first things I looked up was what he was going to do on the firearms file,
00:03:09.520 because this is something that during the leadership last year, he was very clear on.
00:03:13.140 He said he was going to get rid of the Liberal Bill C-71.
00:03:16.500 He was going to repeal the order in council that the Liberals put in place last May,
00:03:20.960 which prohibited overnight more than 1,500 variants of firearms,
00:03:25.480 including the AR-15 and the Mini-14,
00:03:28.260 and other guns that the Liberals have called military-style assault weapons.
00:03:32.700 And in the general election campaign, I wanted to know,
00:03:35.360 was he going to be just as clear?
00:03:37.460 And he was.
00:03:38.140 It was spelled out right in the platform.
00:03:40.400 You can read it for yourself still.
00:03:42.660 We will start by repealing C-71 and the May 2020 order in council
00:03:47.700 and conducting a review of the Firearms Act with participation by law enforcement,
00:03:52.800 firearms owners, manufacturers, and members of the public.
00:03:56.460 And that's it.
00:03:57.140 That's perfectly clear.
00:03:58.400 And the Liberals decided to jump on that.
00:04:00.980 And I talked about it a little bit on the show last week.
00:04:03.740 It started in the TVA debate in Montreal
00:04:06.740 and then became the Liberals' message of the day every single day since.
00:04:11.780 Bill Blair has been doing press conference after press conference.
00:04:14.600 He's been doing the same press conference every day,
00:04:17.240 saying the same things every day,
00:04:18.940 saying that Aaron O'Toole is too cozy with the gun lobby and has a secret agenda.
00:04:23.460 And this is an election campaign,
00:04:25.560 so obviously the Liberals are going to keep attacking the Conservatives and vice versa.
00:04:29.520 But everything that Aaron O'Toole has done
00:04:32.500 has gotten the same reaction from critics.
00:04:35.920 When he said in the debate last week,
00:04:37.820 we're going to keep the ban on assault rifles,
00:04:39.940 the Liberals said, no, you're going to repeal it.
00:04:41.940 When O'Toole finally clarified his position,
00:04:43.980 the Liberals said, aha, we told you so.
00:04:46.200 And now that Aaron O'Toole has flip-flopped,
00:04:48.940 it hasn't done anything to ameliorate the concerns put forward by the Liberals.
00:04:55.780 What do I mean by flip-flop?
00:04:57.560 Well, Aaron O'Toole came out and said this.
00:05:00.620 Before I take your questions,
00:05:02.600 I'd like to respond to Justin Trudeau's latest attempt to divide Canadians.
00:05:07.760 So I want to make my position on firearms perfectly clear.
00:05:12.200 First, the ban on assault weapons will remain in place.
00:05:18.160 Second, the present ban on a number of other firearms that were reclassified in 2020 will remain in place.
00:05:26.320 Third, we will conduct a transparent review of the firearms classification process
00:05:32.480 to take the politics out of this process and engage the public in decisions with respect to public safety.
00:05:41.460 Justin Trudeau has been importing American-style politics throughout this election campaign,
00:05:47.260 and it is disappointing to see that continue.
00:05:49.620 There is no way to spin it.
00:05:51.280 There's no way to sell it.
00:05:52.300 There's no way to excuse it.
00:05:53.580 That is a flip-flop.
00:05:55.200 After days of saying that he was going to repeal the order in council,
00:05:59.160 after weeks of having that in the platform,
00:06:01.560 Aaron O'Toole came right out and said,
00:06:03.300 anything that's banned now will remain banned.
00:06:07.800 Now, did the Liberals say,
00:06:09.260 oh, well, problem solved.
00:06:10.760 All good.
00:06:11.540 No.
00:06:12.380 The Liberals jumped on to the other thing in the Conservatives' platform here,
00:06:16.680 which is that he's conducting a review.
00:06:19.240 And the Liberals are now pointing out that,
00:06:21.020 oh, well, you know what?
00:06:21.900 He's just promising a review,
00:06:23.480 which means he's going to legalize it anyway,
00:06:25.260 but he's not going to say it.
00:06:27.060 So the flip-flop has not won Aaron O'Toole any good favor
00:06:31.280 from the people who insist on peddling these bad faith and disingenuous arguments
00:06:36.180 about the previous Conservative Firearms Plan.
00:06:40.620 And if you want to understand more about why this order in council was so dangerous,
00:06:45.140 I don't want to rehash everything here,
00:06:46.680 I would encourage you to go and look up
00:06:48.460 Assaulted, Justin Trudeau's War on Gun Owners.
00:06:51.540 Specifically, I want you to look at the episode
00:06:54.060 where we looked at those in the gun business,
00:06:56.340 in the firearms industry.
00:06:58.040 I talked to a number of gun entrepreneurs,
00:07:00.600 business owners, people in the import space,
00:07:03.020 retail space,
00:07:03.920 who are out tens of thousands of dollars.
00:07:06.760 Because the Liberals in May of 2020 overnight banned 1,500 plus types of firearms,
00:07:14.140 making it illegal for these people to do anything with them.
00:07:17.460 They're still sitting on this inventory more than a year after the order in council
00:07:21.740 with the promised buyback not having yet materialized.
00:07:25.220 So understandably, a lot of people were looking to the Conservatives and saying,
00:07:30.000 throw us a friggin' bone here.
00:07:31.400 What are you going to do for us?
00:07:33.600 And when Aaron O'Toole comes out and says,
00:07:35.740 okay, anything that's banned now will remain banned,
00:07:39.180 there are two interpretations of it.
00:07:41.200 Number one, he's completely rolled and sold out the gun owners.
00:07:44.960 Number two, he realizes this is what he has to say to make the bleeding stop.
00:07:50.640 This is what he has to say to make the attack stop to win the election.
00:07:55.440 And if you look at gun owners online who are very engaged and mobilized on this,
00:08:00.000 you'll see a lot of them are split.
00:08:01.500 Some of them are saying, that's it, I'm voting for the People's Party.
00:08:04.460 Others are saying, no, no, no, just guys, just come on.
00:08:06.880 He's with us here.
00:08:07.700 He's with us.
00:08:08.960 I want to read the statement put out by the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights,
00:08:13.000 a group that actually donated a considerable amount of money to produce Assaulted.
00:08:17.220 Tracy Wilson does fantastic work for firearms owners.
00:08:20.500 And this is the statement that the CCFR put out.
00:08:23.120 In our view, Mr. O'Toole is reacting to Justin Trudeau's attempt
00:08:26.420 to make an unnecessary election during a pandemic about gun control.
00:08:30.620 Gun control has always been a political wedge issue to the Liberals,
00:08:33.920 not a matter of public safety.
00:08:35.860 We agree with Mr. O'Toole that the classification of firearms
00:08:38.980 should not be a political process.
00:08:41.540 Mr. Trudeau has used this issue to divide Canadians
00:08:44.320 and a transparent public consultation would bring better understanding
00:08:48.320 of this topic to all Canadians.
00:08:50.460 We would welcome an opportunity to depoliticize this topic
00:08:53.720 and focus on public safety, unquote.
00:08:56.700 So what the CCFR is basically saying there
00:08:59.800 is that they're almost happy about it.
00:09:03.600 The fact that they're not coming out guns blazing,
00:09:06.280 no pun intended, and saying this is it,
00:09:08.040 this is a deal breaker, suggests they're either optimistic
00:09:10.920 that Aaron O'Toole is still going to do what he said he was going to do,
00:09:14.100 or they simply realize that he's certainly going to be,
00:09:17.520 even if he walks this part back, better than Justin Trudeau.
00:09:21.260 Both are entirely defensible positions.
00:09:23.840 If I'm a gun owner, which I am, I would look and say that,
00:09:26.960 you know what, no matter what, Justin Trudeau
00:09:28.920 has proven that he has zero interest in firearms owners,
00:09:32.380 zero interest in sports shooters,
00:09:34.360 zero interest in preserving and protecting this part of Canada.
00:09:37.820 So I understand the gun owner saying,
00:09:40.120 you know what, anyone is going to be better than the Liberals.
00:09:44.100 Even a lot of NDPers, by the way,
00:09:45.800 are better than the Liberals on this,
00:09:47.500 especially those in rural areas.
00:09:49.160 Nikki Ashton in particular is one example of this.
00:09:52.420 So here's the battleground right now.
00:09:54.800 And again, as I've said time and time again,
00:09:57.260 vote Conservative, vote PPC, vote Maverick,
00:09:59.780 vote Liberal, vote NDP, do what you want.
00:10:02.100 I'm not here to tell you how to vote.
00:10:04.240 I'm here to lay out the issues, lay out the facts,
00:10:07.000 and I'll give you my opinion.
00:10:08.060 I'll give you my analysis on these things,
00:10:10.080 which is why I want to unpack the firearms flip-flop
00:10:13.560 in a good amount of detail here.
00:10:16.240 I've said this before,
00:10:17.260 but just in case you're not aware of this,
00:10:19.860 one of the biggest sources of confusion last week
00:10:22.720 when the media still couldn't quite figure out
00:10:24.460 what O'Toole's position was,
00:10:25.940 and even now,
00:10:26.800 is that there's no universal definition of assault rifle.
00:10:30.000 What an actual assault rifle is,
00:10:31.920 the type of gun that's been banned in Canada
00:10:33.740 for, what, 44 years,
00:10:35.300 is different than what the Liberals call assault rifles,
00:10:38.680 which are basically any firearms they want to ban.
00:10:41.280 They call them an assault rifle,
00:10:42.580 and public buy-in goes through the roof
00:10:44.820 on whatever they want to outlaw.
00:10:47.100 But this game of semantics
00:10:48.500 is very difficult in an election.
00:10:50.720 So if the population is not on board with an AR-15,
00:10:54.240 you don't want to have to be the guy campaigning
00:10:56.280 to tell the people of Canada
00:10:57.580 why the AR-15 isn't as scary as they think it is.
00:11:00.180 If you're doing that,
00:11:01.200 you're going to have an uphill battle,
00:11:02.600 and the Liberals are simply going to win.
00:11:04.380 I get that.
00:11:05.800 And it's why a lot of gun owners I've spoken to
00:11:07.760 have said that they would be happy
00:11:09.480 if firearms didn't come up in the election at all.
00:11:12.360 People that have said to me,
00:11:13.360 well, you know what,
00:11:13.940 I know how the conservative politicians are on this.
00:11:16.520 I don't want them to have to, you know,
00:11:18.420 take any guff from the voters.
00:11:19.960 I'm happy if they never mention it,
00:11:21.680 we get them elected,
00:11:22.540 and then they just do it.
00:11:23.480 That's what a lot of gun owners would want,
00:11:25.460 because they realize that culturally,
00:11:27.680 these issues are very challenging to win on.
00:11:30.120 And the last week in the campaign has showed why,
00:11:32.720 because there's so much misinformation,
00:11:35.180 and in politics,
00:11:36.020 you can't be the great educator-in-chief.
00:11:38.520 You can't change people's hearts and minds on issues
00:11:41.320 when misinformation is so ingrained.
00:11:45.120 And a lot of that is the media,
00:11:46.640 which is why I think media literacy on firearms
00:11:48.700 needs to be a continued priority
00:11:50.940 for anyone that cares about this issue.
00:11:52.480 But I digress.
00:11:54.000 If the election is about guns,
00:11:55.780 Justin Trudeau wins,
00:11:56.840 Aaron O'Toole loses.
00:11:57.680 And I think Aaron O'Toole knew that.
00:12:00.300 However, I'm not defending the flip-flop for a second.
00:12:04.400 And here's why.
00:12:05.600 O'Toole decided to put it in the platform.
00:12:08.300 O'Toole's team put it very specifically in the platform.
00:12:12.700 And I read the section of the platform in question for you earlier.
00:12:16.540 I should note that now it's been amended.
00:12:18.920 There's a little footnote there,
00:12:20.160 a little teeny tiny footnote.
00:12:21.700 All firearms that are currently banned will remain banned.
00:12:27.020 So just understand this here.
00:12:29.280 We will start by repealing the May 2020 Order and Council.
00:12:34.500 And the footnote on that sentence says
00:12:36.500 anything that's banned will remain banned.
00:12:38.340 So they're going to repeal an Order and Council banning guns
00:12:41.760 while simultaneously keeping anything banned, banned.
00:12:47.140 This shows that there hasn't been a lot of thought
00:12:49.800 that has gone into this.
00:12:52.300 They had to do something.
00:12:54.400 And now they have an incomprehensible position.
00:12:56.840 And incidentally, I remember a couple of weeks back
00:12:59.780 when Aaron O'Toole put out this statement
00:13:01.680 about Cheryl Gallant at the time
00:13:03.220 in which he said that any candidate
00:13:05.260 who doesn't back the Conservative platform
00:13:07.420 in its entirety would not be allowed
00:13:09.680 to sit as a Conservative caucus member.
00:13:11.660 And I had a couple of people point out on Twitter,
00:13:13.500 does this mean that Aaron O'Toole
00:13:14.680 has to kick himself out of caucus?
00:13:16.540 Because he's no longer a supporter
00:13:18.760 of the platform that he put out.
00:13:20.320 A little bit of a cheeky political joke for you,
00:13:22.600 but one that will basically have you crying
00:13:25.140 if you can't find a way to laugh about it.
00:13:27.260 So here's the big problem.
00:13:29.900 He decided to campaign on this.
00:13:32.560 Now, sure, maybe it was to tell gun owners,
00:13:34.540 yes, I've got your back.
00:13:36.340 But if you can't own up to that
00:13:38.080 and defend that at the first sign of backlash,
00:13:41.060 why were you campaigning on it in the first place?
00:13:43.940 So there's a bigger point there.
00:13:46.680 A lot of people I know would be content to say,
00:13:49.360 listen, if he gets elected on the economy
00:13:51.040 and on jobs and on COVID recovery,
00:13:52.880 not on guns, I'm fine with it
00:13:54.740 as long as he does the gun stuff,
00:13:56.940 as long as he does the repeal
00:13:58.240 and goes with Bill C-71 repealing and all of that.
00:14:01.340 I don't take that view.
00:14:03.740 And here's why.
00:14:04.600 I take a very romantic view of democracy.
00:14:06.920 I know elections can be a street fight at times.
00:14:09.120 I get it.
00:14:10.700 But as it stands now,
00:14:12.220 he has told Canadians something
00:14:14.020 that if he goes back on it,
00:14:16.380 will be a broken promise.
00:14:18.080 I don't have time for wordplay.
00:14:19.720 I don't have time for semantics.
00:14:21.300 I can't stand it when Justin Trudeau does it.
00:14:23.380 So I'm not going to abide by it
00:14:25.160 when a conservative politician does it.
00:14:27.840 So if he has stopped the bleeding
00:14:29.800 and tried to get the media office back
00:14:31.380 and the liberals office back
00:14:32.460 by saying that everything that's banned
00:14:33.940 will remain banned,
00:14:35.360 anything he does against that
00:14:37.560 will simply not be a good faith effort.
00:14:40.920 Now, look, I'll support the policy
00:14:42.460 because I've been a long time on record supporter
00:14:46.320 of repealing these gun control measures
00:14:48.500 that don't do anything.
00:14:50.120 But I can't support the path to get there
00:14:52.480 if it happens in an underhanded way.
00:14:55.140 As it stands,
00:14:56.660 Aaron O'Toole would have no democratic mandate
00:14:59.520 to repeal the order in council
00:15:02.860 and to unprohibit the AR-15 and the Mini-14
00:15:06.560 if he wins an election
00:15:07.700 because he's now told people that he won't.
00:15:11.700 So there would be no democratic mandate to do it.
00:15:14.300 And I honestly believe
00:15:15.560 that winning an election at all costs
00:15:18.480 is not the goal.
00:15:19.820 You need to win
00:15:20.720 because people voted for you for a reason.
00:15:24.720 You need to win
00:15:25.720 because people endorsed your vision
00:15:27.480 or perhaps they found you to be the lesser of evils.
00:15:29.880 That's fine too.
00:15:31.780 But they need to vote for you
00:15:33.300 knowing that you're going to do something,
00:15:35.220 not because you just hoodwinked them into it.
00:15:39.140 And this is why,
00:15:40.540 as Margaret Thatcher always said so famously,
00:15:43.100 first you win the argument,
00:15:44.920 then you win the vote.
00:15:47.480 People on the right need to lay the groundwork
00:15:49.700 between elections in a long-term way
00:15:52.360 so that when elections come around,
00:15:55.680 conservative positions are not so quickly marginalized
00:15:58.960 and becoming so toxic
00:16:00.920 that overnight they need to be abandoned
00:16:03.700 by the politicians
00:16:04.620 who should be waving
00:16:05.640 the conservative banner vigorously.
00:16:09.480 Aaron O'Toole's flip-flop
00:16:10.740 is a failure of the conservative campaign
00:16:12.680 in one of two ways.
00:16:13.960 It's either a failure of the conservative campaign
00:16:15.960 to stick to their guns
00:16:17.340 or a failure to foresee
00:16:19.120 that this was going to be an issue.
00:16:20.960 Stick to your guns,
00:16:21.740 I meant in the figurative way,
00:16:23.240 but I guess it also works in the literal way.
00:16:24.860 It's either a failure of them to hold firm
00:16:27.360 or a failure of them to foresee
00:16:29.520 that something was obviously going to be an issue.
00:16:32.080 Of course the liberals were going to run
00:16:33.780 on the conservatives like assault rifles.
00:16:36.060 What did we expect them to do?
00:16:37.700 All they have are these half-baked emotional ideas,
00:16:41.320 which is why when Justin Trudeau
00:16:42.760 appeared behind a lectern
00:16:44.100 that had a so-called assault rifle on the sign,
00:16:47.320 on the placard with a line through it,
00:16:48.720 I'm like, of course,
00:16:49.620 the liberals have probably had that printed off
00:16:51.420 for six months,
00:16:52.480 just waiting for the right day
00:16:53.900 for them to trot it out.
00:16:57.520 But conservatives cannot be the cowards.
00:17:03.360 Conservatives have to stand for something,
00:17:05.620 and if conservatives say they're going to do something
00:17:07.620 and they're going to stand for something,
00:17:09.120 they have to be prepared to not cower
00:17:11.380 at the first sign of blowback,
00:17:14.100 which you know is going to happen,
00:17:15.580 you know is coming.
00:17:17.280 This is not like one of these weird attacks
00:17:19.420 that just came out of nowhere
00:17:20.480 that you didn't know was going to happen,
00:17:21.980 like if someone started to just like,
00:17:23.700 you know, declare war on Aaron O'Toole's
00:17:25.840 animal welfare plan or something.
00:17:27.360 No, they knew this was coming.
00:17:30.140 Why did they not have a better defense?
00:17:32.280 Why has Aaron O'Toole not been spinning this
00:17:34.480 to Justin Trudeau
00:17:35.360 and asking the very firm
00:17:36.820 but very necessary question,
00:17:38.240 Prime Minister, define assault rifle.
00:17:40.320 Well, I know Aaron O'Toole is going to get hit on this
00:17:44.060 in the debate.
00:17:44.700 He's going to get hit on it in the French debate.
00:17:46.560 He's going to get hit on it in the English debate.
00:17:50.080 And I'm guessing his answer is going to be,
00:17:52.700 well, yes, you know, we're going to do a review
00:17:54.260 and he's just going to try to say as many words as he can
00:17:57.520 until his time runs out.
00:18:00.120 Instead of actually trying to move the ball on this issue,
00:18:02.440 it's going to be difficult.
00:18:04.080 But, you know, the old thing that I've said
00:18:05.560 time and time again
00:18:06.420 that I think people need to be reminded of here
00:18:08.220 is that you're going to get a tax for this anyway.
00:18:11.660 You as might as well live up to what you believe
00:18:14.520 and what your authentic position is.
00:18:16.480 The liberals are going to be the gun crazy gun nuts
00:18:18.860 to the liberals anyway.
00:18:20.060 So they might as well be that
00:18:21.760 because that's how they're going to be defined
00:18:24.320 by the liberals.
00:18:26.800 And you know what?
00:18:27.540 There's a level of comfort
00:18:28.520 if you just sort of release it and say,
00:18:29.900 they're going to accuse me of this anyway
00:18:31.820 so I might as well do it.
00:18:34.700 They're not going to do that, of course.
00:18:37.160 And this is why the Andrew Breitbart position,
00:18:39.580 the politics as downstream of culture,
00:18:41.560 while not radical,
00:18:42.720 is still not entirely understood.
00:18:45.860 There are so many issues
00:18:47.140 where a position that is a sensible, normal,
00:18:49.760 and I would argue mainstream position in some ways
00:18:52.100 will not be argued
00:18:53.640 and will not be advanced by conservative parties
00:18:55.760 because the institutions are against them.
00:18:57.960 The liberals, all of these NGOs,
00:19:00.680 all of these groups that rally together
00:19:02.460 and take an undeniably left-wing position
00:19:05.620 on so many issues under the sun,
00:19:07.560 whether it's healthcare,
00:19:08.520 whether it's firearms, whatever.
00:19:11.320 And you see this in the debates.
00:19:13.400 Just look at the topics
00:19:14.520 for the English language debate.
00:19:15.980 Not a single topic on foreign policy.
00:19:18.740 Reconciliation,
00:19:20.060 you have economic recovery post-COVID.
00:19:22.860 These are good topics,
00:19:24.100 but undeniably,
00:19:25.460 they are topics where the liberals
00:19:27.900 will have an advantage.
00:19:31.080 And so often,
00:19:31.980 the premise of questions put to politicians
00:19:33.980 is an inherently left-wing premise.
00:19:36.940 What are you going to do about X
00:19:38.840 is based on a left-wing premise
00:19:41.180 that every problem has a government solution.
00:19:44.780 And conservatives are always disadvantaged in this way.
00:19:48.140 Conservatives are disadvantaged
00:19:49.340 because when everyone wants to know
00:19:51.220 what you as the prime minister,
00:19:52.620 what you as the leader of a government,
00:19:53.940 are going to do,
00:19:54.980 conservatives who traditionally
00:19:56.520 are the low-tax, small-government party,
00:19:59.140 conservatives' instinctual response
00:20:00.920 will be nothing.
00:20:02.180 I'm not going to do anything
00:20:03.320 which doesn't exactly win you votes.
00:20:06.280 But you have to be prepared to own that.
00:20:10.220 I get the whole get-in-there mentality.
00:20:13.240 I do.
00:20:13.580 I really understand that.
00:20:14.960 I've gotten tired
00:20:16.020 when I used to work in partisan politics.
00:20:18.120 I got tired of losing.
00:20:19.740 You work hard.
00:20:20.780 You know your ideas are better,
00:20:21.840 but you know what, you lose.
00:20:23.100 I ran for office once.
00:20:25.280 I'm kind of glad I lost retrospectively
00:20:27.500 knowing what happened to Ontario politics
00:20:29.800 and what happened from the party
00:20:31.120 in which I ran as a candidate.
00:20:32.480 But glad to have put that behind me.
00:20:34.360 The reality is it sucks to lose.
00:20:37.820 So if someone comes along and says,
00:20:39.560 well, you can win,
00:20:40.220 but you have to say this,
00:20:41.300 say this, say this, say this,
00:20:42.960 you have no accountability
00:20:44.780 to your beliefs
00:20:46.800 or to the beliefs of the people behind you
00:20:48.720 if you do that
00:20:49.580 because you haven't actually got elected
00:20:52.380 on anything that matters.
00:20:56.160 And whenever anyone says,
00:20:57.700 well, if you don't vote for X,
00:20:59.600 you're just sentencing Canada
00:21:00.860 to four more years at Trudeau,
00:21:02.120 I say, listen,
00:21:03.280 I'm completely on board
00:21:04.560 if someone wants to make a decision
00:21:05.980 for themselves
00:21:06.600 because they feel that the alternatives
00:21:08.560 are not giving them anything
00:21:10.060 that's fundamentally
00:21:10.920 or substantively different.
00:21:13.040 People can debate and talk about
00:21:14.640 whether that's actually the case, of course.
00:21:16.200 People can talk about whether,
00:21:18.500 oh, you know,
00:21:19.000 Aaron O'Toole, Maxine Bernier,
00:21:20.940 Jay Hill,
00:21:22.240 or Justin Trudeau,
00:21:24.360 Jagmeet Singh,
00:21:24.960 all of these people,
00:21:25.600 they can talk about
00:21:26.260 what the differences and similarities are
00:21:28.260 and that's a debate we can have
00:21:29.460 in a free and democratic society.
00:21:32.280 But I'm never going to begrudge anyone
00:21:33.900 for making a decision
00:21:35.000 if they feel they're not getting something
00:21:38.200 from the person
00:21:40.100 who's holding themselves up
00:21:41.280 as an alternative.
00:21:42.780 And my message to Aaron O'Toole,
00:21:44.560 to the conservatives,
00:21:45.240 to any party,
00:21:46.900 to any party seeking votes.
00:21:49.020 Get people to vote for your vision
00:21:51.160 and don't prove that your vision
00:21:54.060 is not something you care
00:21:55.200 all that much about.
00:21:57.460 If you don't care about the firearms file,
00:21:59.520 that's fine.
00:21:59.980 I realize that gun owners
00:22:00.960 are a minority in Canada.
00:22:03.220 But I would look at O'Toole
00:22:04.600 and say, okay,
00:22:05.660 well, you have this platform
00:22:07.900 that you put out three weeks ago,
00:22:09.980 three weeks and two days ago.
00:22:11.160 If you're prepared to roll on this platform,
00:22:14.700 this one particular section of a platform,
00:22:16.740 what else are you prepared to roll on?
00:22:19.520 Are you prepared to roll on this tax cut
00:22:22.260 or this government program?
00:22:23.740 Are you prepared to roll on this?
00:22:25.080 Whatever the case,
00:22:25.600 I'm not even thinking of specific items.
00:22:27.100 I'm just saying that
00:22:27.660 if you're prepared to walk that back,
00:22:29.400 what else in your platform
00:22:30.620 are you prepared to walk back?
00:22:32.240 And I'm not telling you
00:22:35.380 that the flip-flop was justified, unjustified.
00:22:38.060 I'm not telling you
00:22:38.740 it will hurt the conservatives in the polls
00:22:40.620 because you know what?
00:22:41.300 It probably will help them.
00:22:43.960 But the point that I'm making here
00:22:45.840 is that I'm tired of politicians and parties
00:22:48.440 who are unable and or unwilling
00:22:51.280 to actually stand up
00:22:53.060 for the things we know they believe
00:22:55.800 and stand up for the people
00:22:57.640 who are supposed to be behind them
00:22:59.280 and they need to be behind them.
00:23:00.760 I'm kind of tired of politicians looking
00:23:02.500 and saying,
00:23:03.220 no, no, no, just trust us.
00:23:04.380 We just need to get in first
00:23:05.760 and then we can do this.
00:23:07.460 And then the this may never materialize.
00:23:11.340 We've got to take a break
00:23:12.380 when we come back.
00:23:13.240 More of The Andrew Lawton Show
00:23:14.380 here on True North.
00:23:15.400 Stay tuned.
00:23:17.620 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:23:21.320 Welcome back to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:23:23.520 As I've said a few times now,
00:23:25.420 we obviously have given a lot of attention
00:23:27.480 and continue to to the major parties
00:23:29.340 and major themes that come up.
00:23:31.380 But one of the things we do differently
00:23:32.880 is also shining a light
00:23:34.180 on some of the candidates and campaigns
00:23:36.640 that aren't getting as much attention
00:23:38.460 in the mainstream media.
00:23:40.460 And with that prelude,
00:23:41.740 I wanted to bring into the show
00:23:43.180 Rod Taylor,
00:23:44.020 who is the Christian Heritage Party leader
00:23:46.360 and also the party's candidate
00:23:48.320 in Skeena-Bulkley Valley
00:23:50.080 in British Columbia.
00:23:52.260 Rod, it's good to talk to you again.
00:23:53.600 Thanks for coming on today.
00:23:55.380 Yeah, it's great to be on with you.
00:23:56.860 Thanks, Sandra.
00:23:57.520 Now, I think the name slightly gives it away,
00:24:00.220 but I'll still let you describe it
00:24:01.560 in your own words.
00:24:02.860 What is it that the Christian Heritage Party
00:24:04.540 is all about?
00:24:05.740 Our campaign theme is life, family, and freedom.
00:24:08.780 So we support the protection
00:24:10.700 of innocent human life.
00:24:12.400 We support, of course,
00:24:13.700 marriage between one man and one woman,
00:24:16.160 traditional family values,
00:24:17.940 parental rights, that type of thing.
00:24:19.580 And we stand for freedom.
00:24:21.020 And freedom in 2021
00:24:23.080 has become a pretty big issue
00:24:24.800 in terms of, you know,
00:24:26.600 now they're talking about vaccine passports
00:24:28.620 and that type of thing.
00:24:30.060 But freedom of speech,
00:24:31.560 we've seen social media
00:24:33.560 even becoming a place
00:24:36.020 where other opinion is limited.
00:24:38.640 And so we have to stand up for that.
00:24:40.460 The right of parents
00:24:41.780 to counsel their own children,
00:24:43.060 there's a lot of freedoms
00:24:43.780 that are under attack.
00:24:44.900 We saw churches shut down
00:24:46.300 earlier in the year.
00:24:47.200 So freedom has become
00:24:49.260 kind of the front line
00:24:51.160 because if we don't have
00:24:52.840 freedom of speech,
00:24:53.680 we can't defend
00:24:54.560 any of the other human rights.
00:24:56.640 You listed there
00:24:58.200 your top three items,
00:24:59.580 protection for the unborn,
00:25:01.340 restoring a traditional definition
00:25:02.840 of marriage,
00:25:04.080 and freedom.
00:25:05.320 And I'm curious, Rod,
00:25:06.300 how you square number two
00:25:07.680 and number three
00:25:08.540 because the freedom
00:25:09.920 for people to enter
00:25:11.380 into same-sex marriages
00:25:12.480 is not seemingly
00:25:13.740 one of the freedoms
00:25:14.460 you're upholding.
00:25:15.140 How do you juxtapose those two?
00:25:16.860 Well, you know,
00:25:18.380 to us,
00:25:19.120 just marriage is between
00:25:20.200 a man and a woman.
00:25:21.040 It's, you know,
00:25:22.140 we could create, you know,
00:25:23.560 the freedom for a father
00:25:25.760 to kill their children
00:25:26.580 or whatever.
00:25:26.980 We could, you know,
00:25:27.580 talk about that as a freedom.
00:25:31.440 But, you know,
00:25:32.220 there are certain freedoms
00:25:33.580 that are inherent,
00:25:34.520 rights and freedoms
00:25:35.220 that are inherent
00:25:35.940 in human condition
00:25:37.340 given by God.
00:25:38.240 Of course,
00:25:38.660 government doesn't create rights.
00:25:41.220 Human rights,
00:25:42.480 real human rights
00:25:43.440 are given by our creator.
00:25:45.300 And government can either
00:25:46.700 ignore those
00:25:48.340 and violate them
00:25:49.240 or it can honor them
00:25:50.300 and uphold them.
00:25:51.160 So, you know,
00:25:52.720 we just don't see
00:25:53.740 that there is such a thing
00:25:54.760 as the freedom
00:25:55.460 for men and women
00:25:56.540 to, you know,
00:25:58.200 for same-sex marriage.
00:26:00.160 That's, I think,
00:26:01.840 a so-called right
00:26:03.200 that has been created
00:26:04.680 by the left.
00:26:06.020 There's a funny way
00:26:06.940 of putting it,
00:26:07.400 but we don't see
00:26:09.840 that we're violating
00:26:10.420 anything at all.
00:26:11.480 Now, we are not trying
00:26:13.340 to move against people
00:26:15.920 who live a different lifestyle,
00:26:17.500 but we think it's,
00:26:18.700 the government
00:26:19.260 has no business
00:26:20.100 to endorse something
00:26:24.060 and call it marriage
00:26:25.100 that isn't a marriage.
00:26:26.200 That's how we look at that.
00:26:27.940 Now, why is it
00:26:28.840 the government's role,
00:26:30.060 and I say this as a Christian,
00:26:31.360 to endorse a Christian ethic
00:26:33.460 and the government's role
00:26:34.820 to endorse Christian law
00:26:36.660 and basically God's law
00:26:38.000 as opposed to saying
00:26:38.900 that this is a free country,
00:26:40.480 you as an individual
00:26:41.280 have the right
00:26:41.920 to live your life
00:26:42.600 in accordance with Christianity?
00:26:44.000 Why is that an area
00:26:45.240 where you think a government
00:26:46.520 and, by extension,
00:26:47.540 a political party
00:26:48.520 needs to put a,
00:26:50.720 really put this forward?
00:26:52.680 Well, you know,
00:26:53.900 the preamble
00:26:54.360 to the Charter of Rights
00:26:55.120 and Freedoms
00:26:55.620 as Canada is founded
00:26:56.580 on principles
00:26:57.300 that recognize
00:26:57.940 the supremacy of God
00:26:59.040 and the rule of law.
00:27:01.020 And the, yeah,
00:27:02.360 there are certain,
00:27:03.020 you know, Christians,
00:27:03.940 we don't think everyone needs,
00:27:05.240 you know,
00:27:05.580 we're not trying to impose
00:27:07.140 a Christian theology
00:27:08.880 on this nation
00:27:10.000 that everyone needs
00:27:10.920 to go to church
00:27:11.540 or anything like that,
00:27:12.440 but there are certain basics,
00:27:14.080 you know,
00:27:14.900 don't lie,
00:27:15.460 don't steal,
00:27:16.060 don't kill,
00:27:17.500 you know,
00:27:17.700 don't commit adultery.
00:27:18.680 Those are ethics
00:27:20.540 that are shared
00:27:21.260 by pretty well
00:27:22.260 every population group
00:27:24.520 in the country,
00:27:25.400 Christian or non-Christian.
00:27:26.880 And I tell people,
00:27:28.280 even if you are not a Christian,
00:27:29.900 you have a Christian heritage
00:27:31.180 because this nation
00:27:32.720 was founded
00:27:33.280 on Christian principles.
00:27:34.380 and the farther away
00:27:36.540 we depart from that,
00:27:38.040 you know,
00:27:38.360 the tougher it gets
00:27:40.640 for everybody.
00:27:41.460 I mean,
00:27:41.660 we think that the principles
00:27:43.020 of love your neighbor
00:27:43.880 as yourself,
00:27:44.660 do unto others
00:27:45.160 as you'd have them
00:27:45.780 do unto you,
00:27:46.720 that these are principles
00:27:47.680 that would make this country
00:27:48.800 a great place
00:27:49.480 and they don't involve
00:27:50.740 imposing any theological,
00:27:52.320 you know,
00:27:53.320 construct on Canadian citizens.
00:27:56.920 Yeah,
00:27:57.420 and certainly a lot
00:27:58.340 of the values
00:27:59.120 are shared by Jews,
00:28:00.880 they're shared by Muslims,
00:28:01.940 they're shared by Christians,
00:28:02.980 they're even,
00:28:03.560 in many cases,
00:28:04.320 shared by people
00:28:05.060 of no faith at all
00:28:05.960 that just have this moral code
00:28:07.640 that may align with it,
00:28:08.860 but it still is
00:28:09.660 a Christian heritage party
00:28:11.540 and in a country
00:28:12.880 in which it seems like
00:28:14.120 through a combination
00:28:14.880 of immigration
00:28:15.980 and education
00:28:16.880 and lots of other factors,
00:28:18.800 people are moving
00:28:19.420 further and further away
00:28:20.440 from identifying
00:28:21.160 as Christian,
00:28:22.260 how is there,
00:28:23.100 in your view,
00:28:23.800 a place for a Christian
00:28:25.500 first political party
00:28:27.040 or where are you
00:28:27.900 finding that space,
00:28:28.780 I guess,
00:28:29.120 is a better way
00:28:29.780 of putting it?
00:28:30.320 Yeah,
00:28:31.160 well,
00:28:31.980 we sometimes
00:28:33.560 feel like
00:28:34.740 a voice in the wilderness
00:28:35.700 because our society
00:28:37.020 is largely,
00:28:38.080 has largely abandoned
00:28:39.580 not only
00:28:41.220 Christian faith
00:28:42.440 but also
00:28:43.660 Christian principles,
00:28:45.180 Christian values.
00:28:46.680 I mean,
00:28:47.080 even,
00:28:47.720 you know,
00:28:48.520 it's,
00:28:49.180 when we talk about
00:28:49.780 moral values,
00:28:50.500 it's not just sexuality
00:28:51.480 and family things
00:28:52.960 but how you spend
00:28:54.460 taxpayers' money,
00:28:56.320 I mean,
00:28:56.660 that's a moral value
00:28:58.080 that we think
00:28:58.760 the scriptures say
00:29:01.160 don't steal
00:29:02.160 but I think everyone
00:29:03.080 understands that
00:29:03.900 it's wrong to steal
00:29:04.620 what we're actually
00:29:05.280 stealing money
00:29:06.360 from our grandchildren
00:29:07.260 right now
00:29:07.960 or the government
00:29:09.000 is handing out money
00:29:10.980 that it doesn't have
00:29:12.040 but it's going to have
00:29:13.080 to be repaid
00:29:13.820 by our grandchildren,
00:29:15.120 great-grandchildren.
00:29:17.060 Christian values,
00:29:18.180 I think,
00:29:18.900 just supersede
00:29:20.440 basically any theological
00:29:22.140 construct.
00:29:24.700 Again,
00:29:24.960 as I mentioned,
00:29:25.900 we think that
00:29:27.920 loving your neighbor
00:29:29.320 as yourself
00:29:29.840 would be good
00:29:30.540 for every Canadian
00:29:31.620 and the government
00:29:33.220 of course
00:29:33.660 can't force people
00:29:34.580 to be good
00:29:35.580 but the government
00:29:36.300 can set a pattern
00:29:37.860 and put forward
00:29:39.880 principles that align
00:29:41.580 with,
00:29:42.200 you know,
00:29:43.160 biblical principles
00:29:43.900 and certainly align
00:29:44.760 with our Charter
00:29:45.380 of Rights and Freedoms.
00:29:47.020 Now,
00:29:47.620 looking at your platform,
00:29:49.040 I know you have
00:29:49.460 a couple of items here
00:29:50.440 like wanting to
00:29:51.220 balance the budget,
00:29:52.380 enforce border protection,
00:29:54.160 eliminate carbon taxes
00:29:55.440 and in the interest
00:29:56.520 of disclosure,
00:29:57.260 I agree with all three.
00:29:58.300 So all three of those
00:29:59.120 are wins for me
00:30:00.360 but I'm just curious
00:30:01.960 where the Christian basis
00:30:04.280 is of that
00:30:04.840 because these are not
00:30:05.760 things that people
00:30:06.940 would inherently associate
00:30:07.960 with religion.
00:30:09.400 They're, I think,
00:30:10.120 good policies
00:30:10.740 but I'm just curious
00:30:11.740 where you've decided
00:30:13.380 as the leader
00:30:13.900 of the Christian Heritage Party
00:30:15.180 to approach these issues from.
00:30:16.580 Well,
00:30:17.700 the carbon tax
00:30:18.740 I think is a matter
00:30:19.480 of following science
00:30:21.120 and, you know,
00:30:22.480 just following the truth.
00:30:24.600 You know,
00:30:24.780 a lot of people
00:30:26.000 have fallen
00:30:26.500 into a political correctness
00:30:27.960 and now it's,
00:30:29.640 you know,
00:30:29.900 many people think
00:30:30.680 if you're,
00:30:31.620 you know,
00:30:31.920 don't agree
00:30:32.900 with the theory
00:30:34.220 that carbon dioxide
00:30:35.660 is ruining the planet
00:30:38.060 that there's something
00:30:40.240 wrong with you
00:30:40.840 and we think
00:30:41.560 we just stand up
00:30:42.220 for the truth
00:30:42.720 and that goes along
00:30:43.600 with, you know,
00:30:44.400 the vaccine mandates
00:30:45.540 and that type of thing
00:30:46.420 as well.
00:30:48.420 I guess
00:30:49.200 maybe the backside
00:30:51.160 of that is
00:30:51.780 some people have accused us
00:30:52.960 of being,
00:30:53.500 you know,
00:30:53.780 a one-issue party
00:30:54.680 because we are,
00:30:55.800 you know,
00:30:56.280 the only pro-life party
00:30:57.420 at this point in time
00:30:58.240 in Canada
00:30:59.280 actually standing up
00:31:00.440 for the protection
00:31:01.160 of innocent human life
00:31:02.140 in the womb
00:31:02.580 and we say,
00:31:04.520 no,
00:31:04.680 we're not a one-issue party
00:31:06.420 but abortion
00:31:07.760 is a one-party issue.
00:31:09.360 We're the only ones
00:31:10.520 willing to talk about it
00:31:11.640 but these other issues,
00:31:13.540 I mean,
00:31:13.800 you can't be
00:31:14.360 a national political party
00:31:15.520 without addressing
00:31:16.660 all the issues
00:31:18.240 that are on the table there.
00:31:19.600 I mean,
00:31:20.040 and I think
00:31:20.940 people would rightly
00:31:22.260 reject us
00:31:22.920 if we would only talk
00:31:23.960 about abortion
00:31:24.680 or euthanasia
00:31:25.620 or marriage.
00:31:26.640 We do have
00:31:27.600 a fairly broad
00:31:29.100 platform.
00:31:30.420 We're working on it
00:31:31.020 all the time
00:31:31.460 to make it better
00:31:32.160 but,
00:31:32.580 you know,
00:31:34.380 we take stands
00:31:35.420 on things
00:31:36.100 and I guess
00:31:37.300 other people,
00:31:38.480 maybe sometimes
00:31:39.200 even Christians
00:31:39.800 might disagree
00:31:40.400 with us on things
00:31:41.160 and I have told
00:31:42.120 my candidates,
00:31:43.360 the other candidates
00:31:44.140 that are running
00:31:44.660 in this election.
00:31:45.880 I mean,
00:31:46.580 on life,
00:31:48.100 family,
00:31:48.560 and freedom,
00:31:49.860 we're united.
00:31:51.040 If someone has
00:31:51.880 a different opinion
00:31:52.680 about,
00:31:53.360 you know,
00:31:54.780 supply management
00:31:56.480 or about,
00:31:57.540 you know,
00:31:58.020 how to handle
00:31:58.660 the border crisis,
00:31:59.940 I mean,
00:32:00.280 they're allowed
00:32:00.760 to express that.
00:32:02.720 We're not going
00:32:03.620 to be 100%,
00:32:04.800 we're not carbon copy
00:32:06.420 images of each other,
00:32:07.820 right,
00:32:08.140 cookie cutter images,
00:32:09.820 but we are
00:32:11.360 unique individuals
00:32:12.220 and we come
00:32:12.680 to conclusions
00:32:13.460 based on our
00:32:14.400 own personality
00:32:15.480 but if they're
00:32:16.840 not,
00:32:17.220 you know,
00:32:17.480 supportive of
00:32:18.080 the protection
00:32:18.460 of innocent human
00:32:19.000 life,
00:32:19.380 well,
00:32:19.600 they really
00:32:19.920 probably would
00:32:20.500 be in the wrong
00:32:21.040 party,
00:32:21.440 right?
00:32:21.700 So that's how
00:32:22.860 we sort of
00:32:23.320 divide that up
00:32:23.960 but we hope
00:32:24.980 to have
00:32:25.420 a broad discussion.
00:32:26.780 We are actually,
00:32:27.380 we are going
00:32:28.620 to have a convention
00:32:29.600 next week,
00:32:30.320 the last week
00:32:30.840 of the campaign,
00:32:32.180 a pre-planned
00:32:33.540 convention,
00:32:34.560 our triennial
00:32:35.100 policy convention
00:32:36.160 in Calgary,
00:32:36.860 so I'll be
00:32:38.460 down there
00:32:39.220 for the
00:32:39.840 last week
00:32:41.240 of this campaign
00:32:41.980 but then
00:32:43.080 back home
00:32:43.620 in time
00:32:43.920 for voting day.
00:32:45.560 One of the
00:32:46.260 interesting things
00:32:47.140 I will say
00:32:47.940 is that in
00:32:48.480 Conservative Party
00:32:49.500 of Canada
00:32:50.080 politics,
00:32:51.260 it's very
00:32:51.960 difficult,
00:32:52.640 not impossible,
00:32:53.380 but difficult
00:32:53.820 to be elected
00:32:54.440 as a leader
00:32:55.000 without being
00:32:55.620 pro-life
00:32:56.240 or without
00:32:56.900 in some way
00:32:57.540 appealing
00:32:58.080 to social
00:32:59.080 conservatives.
00:32:59.820 We've seen
00:33:00.220 this with
00:33:00.560 Erin O'Toole,
00:33:01.260 we saw it
00:33:01.660 with Andrew Scheer,
00:33:02.620 we saw it
00:33:03.100 with Stephen Harper
00:33:03.840 because social
00:33:04.520 conservatives
00:33:05.020 make up
00:33:05.440 such a huge
00:33:05.920 portion
00:33:06.320 of the
00:33:07.100 Conservative Party's
00:33:08.000 base.
00:33:08.360 You need
00:33:08.820 their support
00:33:09.340 at least
00:33:09.720 in some
00:33:10.460 way.
00:33:11.140 So you are
00:33:11.900 I think
00:33:12.200 right to
00:33:12.700 point out
00:33:13.240 here that
00:33:13.680 there is
00:33:14.080 an appetite
00:33:14.860 for a
00:33:15.420 party that's
00:33:15.880 going to
00:33:16.060 take a
00:33:16.360 stand for
00:33:16.740 that,
00:33:17.220 but as
00:33:17.540 we so
00:33:17.840 often see
00:33:18.480 the Conservative
00:33:19.080 Party of
00:33:19.520 Canada
00:33:19.840 sometimes runs
00:33:21.200 away from
00:33:21.660 that once we
00:33:22.220 get into
00:33:22.600 a general
00:33:23.280 election campaign
00:33:24.180 which is
00:33:24.620 where we've
00:33:25.060 been in the
00:33:25.640 last couple
00:33:26.080 of weeks
00:33:26.400 on the
00:33:26.680 issue.
00:33:27.760 Right,
00:33:28.100 yeah,
00:33:28.580 and of
00:33:29.260 course
00:33:29.440 Erin O'Toole,
00:33:30.680 the current
00:33:31.260 leader of the
00:33:31.740 Conservative Party
00:33:32.380 was crystal
00:33:33.040 clear when
00:33:33.700 during their
00:33:35.420 campaign,
00:33:35.980 he wanted
00:33:37.380 to give the
00:33:37.800 impression that
00:33:38.400 he would
00:33:38.720 allow and
00:33:39.920 work with
00:33:41.300 social
00:33:41.640 Conservatives,
00:33:42.380 but he
00:33:43.040 said,
00:33:43.380 I'm pro-choice,
00:33:44.200 I'm supportive
00:33:45.560 of what they
00:33:47.000 call a woman's
00:33:47.640 right to
00:33:47.960 choose.
00:33:48.340 I don't like
00:33:49.100 that phrase,
00:33:49.820 but that's
00:33:50.900 the kind of
00:33:51.840 phraseology they
00:33:52.660 use.
00:33:53.120 and he voted
00:33:55.180 against Kathy
00:33:56.700 Wagenthal's
00:33:57.560 sex-selective
00:33:58.440 abortion bill,
00:33:59.220 C-233.
00:34:00.700 I mean,
00:34:00.980 so his
00:34:01.420 position is
00:34:02.500 not unknown.
00:34:03.120 I'm actually
00:34:03.500 surprised that
00:34:05.040 anyone,
00:34:05.900 I'm surprised
00:34:06.580 that anyone
00:34:07.000 is surprised
00:34:07.840 that he is
00:34:08.800 not supporting
00:34:09.800 pro-life
00:34:10.940 activities.
00:34:12.800 And even
00:34:13.060 you go back
00:34:13.480 to Stephen
00:34:13.880 Harper,
00:34:14.400 who I think
00:34:15.120 was,
00:34:16.380 well,
00:34:16.860 I like
00:34:17.400 Stephen Harper
00:34:17.860 in many ways,
00:34:18.500 but he
00:34:20.120 personally,
00:34:21.560 and with his
00:34:22.440 inner core
00:34:23.140 of the
00:34:24.740 party,
00:34:25.620 resisted
00:34:26.500 four different
00:34:27.440 efforts by
00:34:28.380 his own
00:34:29.120 backbenchers
00:34:29.900 to bring
00:34:30.260 forward pro-life
00:34:31.020 legislation.
00:34:32.940 So I think
00:34:34.000 people who
00:34:34.760 think that
00:34:35.880 the Conservative
00:34:36.700 Party is
00:34:37.320 somehow going
00:34:37.840 to come
00:34:38.100 through in
00:34:38.440 the end
00:34:38.740 and do
00:34:39.040 something
00:34:39.460 pro-life
00:34:40.420 are mistaken.
00:34:42.040 And the
00:34:42.380 idea that,
00:34:43.180 well,
00:34:43.440 I'm just
00:34:43.860 writing a
00:34:44.360 communique on
00:34:44.980 it now
00:34:45.260 about the
00:34:45.720 big blue
00:34:46.080 tent.
00:34:47.000 It's
00:34:47.560 bigger,
00:34:48.500 but are
00:34:50.200 there any
00:34:50.560 tent pegs
00:34:51.140 holding it
00:34:51.560 down?
00:34:51.940 That's
00:34:52.140 kind of,
00:34:52.640 you know,
00:34:52.880 where are
00:34:53.600 the anchors
00:34:54.180 for moral
00:34:55.460 values,
00:34:56.080 right?
00:34:56.400 So with
00:34:57.700 him,
00:34:58.600 of course,
00:34:59.600 now we
00:34:59.940 see there's
00:35:00.360 going to
00:35:00.560 be,
00:35:01.300 he's going
00:35:01.840 to get
00:35:02.060 rid of
00:35:02.340 Trudeau's
00:35:02.840 carbon tax
00:35:03.460 if he
00:35:03.720 has the
00:35:04.020 opportunity,
00:35:04.520 but he's
00:35:05.040 going to
00:35:05.220 introduce
00:35:05.540 his own,
00:35:06.200 right?
00:35:07.500 That type
00:35:08.360 of thing.
00:35:08.820 He doesn't
00:35:09.880 like the
00:35:10.380 concept of
00:35:11.680 vaccine
00:35:12.580 passports,
00:35:14.040 but he's
00:35:15.380 going to
00:35:15.960 have some
00:35:17.640 national
00:35:18.040 system
00:35:18.440 for tracking
00:35:19.000 vaccination
00:35:19.720 and alternatives
00:35:20.660 and whatever.
00:35:21.240 So I think
00:35:22.580 he's trying
00:35:23.020 to, you
00:35:24.040 know,
00:35:24.700 stay close
00:35:25.340 to the
00:35:25.620 middle line,
00:35:26.180 but unfortunately
00:35:26.860 that's where
00:35:28.920 there's a lot
00:35:29.400 of road
00:35:29.660 killing along
00:35:30.320 the middle
00:35:30.620 line.
00:35:31.020 You know,
00:35:31.180 you can't
00:35:32.040 please everybody
00:35:32.720 and if you're
00:35:33.280 trying to
00:35:33.800 please everybody,
00:35:34.320 I think you're
00:35:34.900 going to
00:35:35.040 actually end
00:35:35.560 up pleasing
00:35:35.960 nobody.
00:35:36.380 I know this
00:35:38.000 is one of
00:35:38.340 the most
00:35:38.620 frustrating
00:35:39.200 questions that
00:35:40.300 a leader of
00:35:41.320 a party can
00:35:41.940 get, but I
00:35:42.600 do have to
00:35:43.280 ask, so I
00:35:43.800 hope you'll
00:35:44.100 indulge me on
00:35:44.700 this, vote
00:35:45.480 splitting.
00:35:46.060 It sounds like
00:35:46.900 with the issues
00:35:47.400 that you're
00:35:47.700 taking on, a
00:35:48.460 lot of the
00:35:48.980 votes that
00:35:49.780 you're seeking
00:35:50.360 are going to
00:35:50.940 be with voters
00:35:51.720 that probably
00:35:52.760 would otherwise
00:35:53.500 vote conservative
00:35:54.260 for some other
00:35:55.880 right of center
00:35:56.580 option.
00:35:57.320 And whenever
00:35:57.740 this comes up,
00:35:58.480 the question
00:35:58.820 people are
00:35:59.300 confronted with
00:36:00.000 is, well,
00:36:00.740 is this just
00:36:01.540 eventually leading
00:36:02.340 to more
00:36:03.340 Trudeau
00:36:03.960 elections, more
00:36:04.720 Trudeau
00:36:05.040 victories?
00:36:05.700 How do you
00:36:06.500 square that?
00:36:07.760 Well, there's a
00:36:08.180 few different
00:36:08.600 answers for that.
00:36:09.380 One is, if you
00:36:10.820 don't want to
00:36:11.280 split the vote,
00:36:12.880 I mean, North
00:36:14.380 Korea and China
00:36:15.280 and Cuba are
00:36:15.900 places where you
00:36:16.460 don't really split
00:36:17.040 the vote because
00:36:17.680 you only have
00:36:18.280 one choice,
00:36:18.820 right?
00:36:20.080 Our system is
00:36:21.480 designed, whether
00:36:22.580 it's a perfect
00:36:23.120 system or not,
00:36:23.900 it is designed
00:36:24.740 to split the
00:36:25.540 vote.
00:36:25.780 People are, if
00:36:26.880 people actually
00:36:27.540 voted for what
00:36:28.200 they wanted instead
00:36:29.220 of voting against
00:36:30.500 what they don't
00:36:31.240 want, or
00:36:32.320 or pragmatically
00:36:33.160 thinking, well,
00:36:34.100 my neighbor's
00:36:34.880 probably going to
00:36:35.380 vote this way,
00:36:35.980 so I better
00:36:36.380 vote that way,
00:36:37.960 right?
00:36:38.220 Or whatever.
00:36:39.720 I think we
00:36:40.540 would have a
00:36:40.980 lot closer
00:36:41.620 representation of
00:36:42.700 the views of
00:36:43.280 Canadians in
00:36:44.020 Parliament today.
00:36:44.920 But people have
00:36:45.740 tended to base
00:36:47.440 their voting
00:36:49.460 habits, they
00:36:50.960 vote out of
00:36:51.440 fear instead of
00:36:52.280 out of hope,
00:36:53.020 I guess.
00:36:54.200 And, you
00:36:55.780 know, so
00:36:56.540 vote splitting,
00:36:57.760 I think if
00:36:58.280 people voted
00:36:59.240 for what they
00:36:59.800 wanted, we
00:37:01.000 would actually
00:37:01.480 have a better
00:37:01.980 idea of what
00:37:02.580 Canadians want.
00:37:04.740 You know, I
00:37:05.160 think there's
00:37:05.600 many more
00:37:06.040 people, I've
00:37:06.740 been told many
00:37:07.520 times, people
00:37:07.960 would, oh, I'd
00:37:08.540 love to vote for
00:37:09.140 you, but I
00:37:09.720 don't want to
00:37:10.220 split the vote.
00:37:11.040 Well, in my
00:37:11.540 writing, Skeena
00:37:12.240 Bulkley Valley,
00:37:13.660 the Conservatives
00:37:14.400 have lost in the
00:37:15.280 last six
00:37:16.260 elections.
00:37:17.240 So the idea
00:37:18.500 that they're
00:37:18.940 going to get
00:37:20.040 rid of our
00:37:20.420 NDP member by
00:37:21.620 voting for a
00:37:22.380 Conservative who's
00:37:23.040 going to lose,
00:37:24.160 and somehow that's
00:37:25.020 going to take
00:37:26.260 power away from
00:37:27.140 Justin Trudeau's
00:37:28.000 Liberals, it's
00:37:29.660 just not logical,
00:37:30.420 but people think
00:37:31.180 that way.
00:37:32.100 We ask people to
00:37:33.280 just vote for
00:37:34.120 what they believe
00:37:34.940 in, and if
00:37:35.960 they did that,
00:37:37.460 our numbers would
00:37:38.500 be much higher
00:37:39.120 than they are,
00:37:40.220 and that would
00:37:40.660 give people hope,
00:37:41.520 right?
00:37:42.700 Christian Heritage
00:37:43.480 Party leader Rod
00:37:44.680 Taylor joining me
00:37:45.420 now.
00:37:45.660 Rod, thanks so
00:37:46.200 much for your
00:37:46.500 time today, good
00:37:47.040 to speak with
00:37:47.440 you.
00:37:48.060 Thank you,
00:37:48.700 Andrew, really a
00:37:49.440 pleasure being with
00:37:50.100 you, and all the
00:37:51.000 best during the rest
00:37:51.940 of this election and
00:37:52.660 on through.
00:37:53.600 Take care.
00:37:54.480 Thank you, God
00:37:55.080 bless you.
00:37:55.900 Yeah, take care.
00:37:56.780 That was Christian
00:37:58.640 Heritage Party leader
00:37:59.920 Rod Taylor.
00:38:00.920 As I said in the
00:38:01.820 lead-up to that
00:38:02.380 segment, we are here
00:38:03.420 at True North going
00:38:04.140 to pay attention to a
00:38:05.560 lot of the candidates
00:38:06.240 and parties that the
00:38:07.180 mainstream media is
00:38:08.100 not paying attention
00:38:08.980 to, not just because
00:38:10.400 they're not paying
00:38:10.960 attention to them, but
00:38:11.780 because a lot of
00:38:12.440 these people still have
00:38:13.700 something to say, and
00:38:14.580 even if you agree or
00:38:15.740 disagree with it, it
00:38:16.580 doesn't really matter.
00:38:17.820 They're a part of this
00:38:18.560 country and a part of
00:38:19.640 this process, and we've
00:38:20.800 actually gotten a lot
00:38:21.480 of requests from our
00:38:23.120 viewers to have an
00:38:24.580 interview with Rod
00:38:25.480 Taylor, so glad we
00:38:26.300 could accommodate
00:38:26.800 him in the midst of
00:38:28.380 the writ period here.
00:38:29.680 And I'm actually going
00:38:30.440 to be later this week
00:38:32.160 on the road with
00:38:33.260 Maxime Bernier covering
00:38:34.680 the PPC campaign.
00:38:36.380 I spent a few days
00:38:37.260 with the Conservative
00:38:38.120 Party last weekend, or
00:38:39.640 I guess about a week
00:38:40.520 and a week and a few
00:38:41.360 days.
00:38:41.680 Time stands still for
00:38:42.860 me in elections, so
00:38:43.820 it's everything was
00:38:44.740 simultaneously like
00:38:45.900 yesterday and three
00:38:47.240 years ago, but we
00:38:48.920 covered the
00:38:49.440 Conservatives.
00:38:50.260 We're also going to
00:38:51.340 be out West, actually
00:38:52.460 covering the PPC and
00:38:53.680 the Mavericks as well.
00:38:54.760 So lots of time left
00:38:56.200 in the campaign to
00:38:57.080 get things done here.
00:38:58.220 I want to thank all
00:38:58.800 of you who have sent
00:38:59.780 me tips and feedback
00:39:01.060 and all of this other
00:39:02.360 sort of stuff.
00:39:02.940 If you want to, my
00:39:03.820 email address is
00:39:04.820 andrew at
00:39:05.580 truenorthcanada.com.
00:39:07.900 We will wrap things
00:39:09.060 up here.
00:39:09.580 Enjoy the debates.
00:39:10.540 True North's live
00:39:11.480 debate show is
00:39:12.220 tomorrow, Thursday,
00:39:13.380 starting at 8pm
00:39:14.240 Eastern, and I'll be
00:39:15.440 on location from the
00:39:16.660 debate site in
00:39:17.580 Gatineau, Quebec.
00:39:18.800 We'll talk to you
00:39:19.340 soon, folks.
00:39:19.960 Thank you, God bless,
00:39:20.960 and good day to
00:39:21.600 you all.
00:39:22.380 Thanks for listening
00:39:23.020 to the Andrew
00:39:23.640 Lawton Show.
00:39:24.460 Support the program
00:39:25.280 by donating to
00:39:26.080 Truenorth at
00:39:26.780 www.tnc.news.
00:39:29.700 We'll be right back.