Juno News - December 16, 2025


Doug Ford CLASHES with DeSantis as trade tensions hit tourism


Episode Stats


Length

27 minutes

Words per minute

158.68787

Word count

4,328

Sentence count

331

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

7

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The leaders of Ontario and Florida are sparring over Premier Doug Ford s decision not to visit Florida this year. Meanwhile, angry Australians are lashing out at their own government s immigration laws after a terror attack in Sydney that claimed 15 lives.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 The leaders of Ontario and Florida are sparring over Premier Doug Ford's decision not to visit
00:00:10.760 Florida this year. This headline in the Toronto Sun, Ron DeSantis says Florida tourism is doing
00:00:18.420 just fine without Doug Ford. In his column, Brian Lilly writes as follows, Doug Ford says he won't
00:00:26.260 be going to Florida this winter and Ron DeSantis couldn't be happier. Florida's governor was
00:00:32.300 reacting to comments from Ontario's Premier claiming the Sunshine State's tourism industry
00:00:37.700 is hurting, a claim Florida's tourism numbers say otherwise. The online tiff started at a news
00:00:44.760 conference, Ford responding to a question about whether he plans to visit Florida this year or
00:00:50.560 not. Let's listen.
00:00:51.640 Canadians are no longer flying to Florida. They're snowbirds. Basically, it's dried up.
00:00:58.080 There's been an organic boycott of tourism into America. Do you support that? And are you
00:01:04.800 going to go to Florida this year?
00:01:06.940 Yeah. So let me tell you, it's going to be the first time I'm not going to Florida. But
00:01:11.040 I talked to so many people, don't let this guy, Trump, determine and ruin your life and everything.
00:01:16.880 So we'll get through this. But they're hurting down down there right now. They're hurting on all
00:01:21.880 fronts. They're hurting on their economy. President Trump is at the lowest rating that any government,
00:01:27.100 any president has been in the first year and God knows probably 100 years. So it's taking effect.
00:01:33.800 Yeah. Ford says Florida's hurting now because Canadians are allegedly boycotting the state
00:01:38.760 due to the ongoing tariff practice. Governor DeSantis, meantime, was not about to let that stand.
00:01:45.200 He posted this to X in a response. Actually, we continue to break tourism records and win
00:01:51.040 Stanley Cups. Florida broke its own record. Again, 34.4 million visitors to that state in the
00:01:58.800 second quarter. Now, Ford was in Niagara Falls announcing a multi-billion dollar plan to make
00:02:04.320 that city a world-renowned tourism destination, complete with more gaming and a new theme park.
00:02:10.700 Toronto Suns' Brian Lilly will be joining us to talk about all of that a little later on.
00:02:16.360 Angry Australians are lashing out at their own government's immigration laws after a terror 0.94
00:02:21.040 attack in Sydney that claimed 15 lives. Jews celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach on Sunday
00:02:28.200 were targeted by two ISIS-inspired gunmen, a father and son team. Former Aussie MP Bob Catter says,
00:02:36.260 gun control won't solve the immigration disaster the government created.
00:02:40.920 Now, the diversion has occurred because they don't want the finger to be pointed where it
00:02:47.760 should have been pointed at our immigration laws. I mean, if you allow a person not only to come into 0.69
00:02:56.000 this country from a wicked country where they murder people, intolerance and violence and 0.99
00:03:02.360 killings, the Middle East, North Africa, not only do you allow them to come in from that area, 0.82
00:03:08.720 but you don't check them out individually and you don't keep a watch on them. So diversionary tactics,
00:03:17.340 oh, let's blame the guns. Well, a gun doesn't shoot people. A person holding a gun shoots people. 0.63
00:03:23.760 Now, police in that country are also facing criticism over their slow response to the attack.
00:03:29.680 Officers at the scene initially chose not to fire back at the two gunmen until reinforcements
00:03:35.160 showed up. Let's listen.
00:03:36.760 Bondi survivor Shmulik Skoury told the center network this morning he saw four police officers
00:03:41.880 at the scene in Bondi. None of them fired a weapon and he was saying he didn't understand why he's an
00:03:46.580 Israeli national. So, Mr. Skoury, what do you say to him that the police didn't do their job and fire
00:03:51.760 back at that gunmen? I can't comment in relation to that actual report. What I'll say is that I'm
00:03:56.780 incredibly proud of our police officers. They were confronted by two men armed with long arms.
00:04:02.720 Our police at the scene were armed with pistols. In Canada, meantime, pro-Palestinian demonstrators
00:04:08.680 were back on the street just one day after the attacks in Sydney.
00:04:12.240 The land of Jesus, where Jesus was born, has been under attack by the Zionist entity. 0.99
00:04:20.840 Jesus is Palestinian. And if Jesus is alive as of today, if Jesus is living in Palestine right now,
00:04:30.820 he will be living under an occupation.
00:04:34.320 Those critical of Canada's approach to rising anti-Semitism say it's much the same as Australia's
00:04:42.860 method of dealing with that and fear that the same approach will lead us down the same
00:04:47.900 deadly path eventually. Conservative Party leader Pierre Polyev says he's dealing with the defections
00:04:54.300 in his party by focusing on affordability. Here he is talking to the CBC's Rosie Barton.
00:05:00.060 What are you doing now to make sure other caucus members don't leave? What are you saying to them?
00:05:04.560 Affordability, affordability, affordability. Canadians cannot afford grocery prices because
00:05:10.600 of Carney's hidden liberal taxes on food. What unites all conservatives is the belief that you
00:05:17.460 should be able to have a full bank account, a full fridge, and a full stomach all at the same time.
00:05:22.960 Something that's not possible after 10 years of liberal.
00:05:25.060 Liberal pundits in the media say one more defection from the Tory ranks could doom Polyev's bid
00:05:32.960 for, well, to secure the party's support at the Leadership Review next month.
00:05:38.840 Our guest today is Brian Lilly, columnist with the Toronto Sun. Welcome, Brian.
00:05:45.220 Good to be with you.
00:05:46.600 Good to be with you as well. This headline in the Toronto Sun, Ron DeSantis says,
00:05:50.500 Florida tourism is doing just fine without Doug Ford.
00:05:55.060 Doug Ford says he won't be going to Florida this winter, and Ron DeSantis couldn't be happier.
00:06:01.120 As it reads in your column, Florida's governor was reacting to comments from Ontario's premier
00:06:06.640 claiming the Sunshine State's tourism industry is hurting, a claim Florida's tourism numbers say
00:06:12.560 otherwise. Great story, and good catch on the DeSantis post.
00:06:17.180 Obviously, he's staying tuned on what Ford is saying.
00:06:22.320 I mean, Doug Ford has a big platform, and when he says something, you know, Ron DeSantis is paying attention.
00:06:30.600 I guess that was one of my takeaways from that. What do you think?
00:06:33.640 Well, what I will tell you is from speaking to people across the American political spectrum,
00:06:40.960 or let's be honest, in the U.S., I don't speak to Democrats.
00:06:45.400 Here in Canada, I speak to people across the political spectrum.
00:06:48.600 In the United States, I speak to Republicans.
00:06:51.460 And they've been paying attention to Ford for a long time, for good or for bad.
00:06:57.780 And at one point, I remember when the rhetoric coming out of the Trudeau camp before he left was very negative.
00:07:05.700 And the Trump guys were telling me, like, you know, Ford was going all in on, you know,
00:07:11.100 we're going to fight the tariffs, we're going to be tough.
00:07:14.000 And I said, well, are you guys upset with this rhetoric?
00:07:17.680 Oh, no, we're good with this rhetoric because he's not being personal against the president.
00:07:23.840 Now they're worried that he is personal against the president.
00:07:27.820 And they're worried that he is or they believe that he is personal against the United States.
00:07:34.440 And you see that with his comments on Florida.
00:07:37.880 Doug Ford is someone, you know, his whole family owns a bunch of condos in and around Fort Lauderdale.
00:07:44.020 I mean, these aren't luxurious places.
00:07:45.600 They're just somewhere for you to go, spend some time in the sun, enjoy yourself.
00:07:50.720 I'm not saying it's poppers, but like it's not a Kennedy compound.
00:07:55.500 It's not that type of thing.
00:07:57.080 But they've got some places down in Florida.
00:07:59.920 And he says he's not going.
00:08:02.900 And then he said that Florida is really hurting on the tourism front.
00:08:08.200 So Ron DeSantis clapped back and said, no, we're doing great.
00:08:14.080 He he included a a portion of a news release from last August that showed the second quarter numbers.
00:08:22.080 So over the first six months of the year.
00:08:24.380 And remember, Donald Trump started threatening the 51st state and the massive tariffs on November 25th, 2024.
00:08:35.480 I remember that because I was just about to head to the United States.
00:08:38.980 And I saw that and I said, OK, I'm leaving.
00:08:41.720 I'm going to get some cash.
00:08:43.100 You know, I had to go down to to do a cruise out of Tampa with my mother for 80th.
00:08:48.620 And I said, I'm getting cash now before the Canadian dollar craters tomorrow.
00:08:53.860 Thankfully, it didn't.
00:08:55.660 But that date is burned into my mind.
00:08:59.020 And the the Americans were were looking at us and saying we've got to put tariffs on them.
00:09:07.280 They were looking at us and saying we're a problem on fentanyl, on other things.
00:09:10.940 And we're just saying there's there's nothing to see here.
00:09:14.360 Um, Doug Ford at the beginning was willing to play ball.
00:09:18.580 Now he is a walking bar brawl looking to fight with Donald Trump at every turn.
00:09:24.560 So DeSantis sees this and sees that Ford says that Florida's tourism numbers are cratering.
00:09:31.960 And he replies with the August 19th, 2025 numbers for the second quarter showing they're at an all time record.
00:09:41.940 They've had about 76 million people come in the first six months to Florida.
00:09:48.040 That is well above the you know, if you track it in all of 2024, they had 143 million people come.
00:09:57.100 If you know, even if you say, OK, well, in the third quarter, it's not going to be as big in the fourth quarter.
00:10:04.000 It will be big.
00:10:05.480 They're going to surpass their 2024 numbers.
00:10:09.240 Canadians are dropping.
00:10:10.500 By the way, they track it.
00:10:11.800 They track it as domestic, international and Canadian.
00:10:16.440 And the Canadian numbers are dropping, but the overall numbers are going up.
00:10:21.920 So Ron DeSantis not only saying, hey, we've won more Stanley Cups than you, but we're also bringing in more tourists.
00:10:29.980 The Stanley Cup numbers.
00:10:31.600 That hurts.
00:10:32.340 And Premier, yes, it absolutely does.
00:10:34.720 And Premier Ford hasn't really had a comeback to that that I have heard.
00:10:38.840 I mean, has he just gone quiet now or is he?
00:10:43.220 Well, you know, he hasn't been out.
00:10:45.100 I'm sure he'll have something to say.
00:10:46.780 You know, you know, Doug Ford, as I do, he's not someone to stay quiet.
00:10:52.940 He's not someone to, you know, be a wilting violet.
00:10:57.580 He's going to say something back to the American governor.
00:11:02.540 But the fact is, the numbers back up DeSantis' claim, which is that the tourism numbers for Florida are still doing great.
00:11:12.880 Are there other parts of the United States that are not?
00:11:15.860 But I've looked into this.
00:11:17.680 New York State, you know, you and I are in Southern Ontario.
00:11:21.800 You know, you talk to people in the Buffalo, Niagara Falls region.
00:11:25.480 They're feeling it.
00:11:26.460 You talk to people in Washington State area, just south of Vancouver.
00:11:32.040 They're feeling it.
00:11:33.120 New England, they're feeling it.
00:11:36.020 Florida is different.
00:11:38.280 It's sunshine.
00:11:39.820 It's lollipops.
00:11:41.660 It's amusement parks.
00:11:43.300 It's people are willing to say, you know what?
00:11:47.060 I don't I don't care if I'm angry and some people are angry at Donald Trump.
00:11:51.580 Some aren't.
00:11:52.380 But I don't care if I'm angry.
00:11:54.120 Like my kids want to go to Disney.
00:11:56.040 My kids want to go to Universal.
00:11:57.700 Or if you're a snowbird, you're saying, I can't take the winters.
00:12:02.620 I need to go south.
00:12:04.020 I'm getting to that age, Mark.
00:12:06.100 I'm not sure how many winters I've got left in me where I'm going to be sitting here saying, yeah, I'm good with frozen sidewalks and frigid temperatures.
00:12:16.200 Yeah.
00:12:16.420 It gets old after.
00:12:18.000 Oh, and I get old and and I'm willing to say we all are.
00:12:23.160 I don't want to do this.
00:12:24.600 All right.
00:12:25.260 Well, here's the other part of this.
00:12:26.420 Of course, he was in Niagara Falls announcing a multibillion dollar plan to make that city a world renowned tourism destination.
00:12:32.980 So you were on the subject of tourism anyway, and we're talking about more gaming operations, a new theme park.
00:12:39.960 It's a lot of money being spent.
00:12:41.620 They're looking to attract somewhere in the neighborhood of is a 25 million people a year.
00:12:49.840 So about 14 million people a year go to Niagara Falls right now, and they want to more than double that or they want to about double that.
00:12:59.300 Look, I think this is a good thing.
00:13:00.660 You know, I think Niagara Falls is an underutilized tourism destination right now.
00:13:07.260 You know, I grew up in Hamilton and, you know, immigrant parents, every time an auntie or a granny or some relative came to the country, what did they want to see? 0.99
00:13:22.560 Niagara Falls.
00:13:23.480 I hated going to Niagara Falls by the time I was 10.
00:13:26.940 I was like, oh, we got to go there again.
00:13:28.980 Well, now as an adult, I look at it and I was like, oh, this this place is great.
00:13:34.220 This is fantastic.
00:13:35.680 Like, we should go there more often, but there needs to be more there.
00:13:39.900 And so on this run, I actually agree with Ford.
00:13:43.020 Like, there's great potential.
00:13:46.000 So what can the government do to incentivize that?
00:13:51.020 Now, this is not government money going in and saying we're going to build a casino.
00:13:55.340 We're going to build an amusement park.
00:13:57.420 We're going to build, you know, a Ferris wheel, all these things that they're talking about.
00:14:02.880 But are they able to do things that can make it more attractive for private sector investment to go in?
00:14:10.880 And if they're able to do that in the way they're describing, I think that's a good thing.
00:14:17.080 One of the things they want to do is expand the runway.
00:14:20.060 Now, that is a government operation.
00:14:22.160 Like, I think we've run our airports the wrong way in Canada.
00:14:27.080 Everything's on the traveler.
00:14:28.180 It's not seen as a, you know, an infrastructure project the way that it is in the United States and other countries.
00:14:38.260 So every single cost goes back on the traveler.
00:14:42.560 Well, that makes it more expensive for tourists to come here.
00:14:46.960 And so you can say, yeah, but the business traveler is the one that should be paying for it.
00:14:51.620 Sure, but you want the tourist traveler to come here as well.
00:14:55.060 So they want to expand the Niagara Falls Airport.
00:14:58.400 They want to expand the runway so that more direct flights can go there.
00:15:03.080 I think that's a good thing.
00:15:05.020 Niagara Falls is, you know, an incredible spot that most people want to see at least once in their lifetime as opposed to, you know, 185 times like I've seen it.
00:15:17.440 But they want to see it.
00:15:19.120 And then what the premier was talking about is right now, the average stay is about 1.5 days.
00:15:27.060 And they want to turn that into four to seven days.
00:15:30.500 Well, if they can do that, then that's good.
00:15:33.860 I mean, think about it.
00:15:34.920 If you went to Vegas for 1.5 days, well, Vegas wouldn't be Vegas.
00:15:40.340 But if you, you know, if you're going to Vegas, in my view, Vegas, the optimal time is five to six days.
00:15:47.360 Seven's too long.
00:15:49.100 You know, you want to go there for a certain amount of time, but not too long.
00:15:55.960 You know, if you can get people there for four to five days in Niagara Falls, that's going to be great for tourism.
00:16:02.100 And then they come up, they spend a few days in Toronto, then they fly back to whatever country they come from.
00:16:07.620 That's a good thing.
00:16:08.420 Yeah, I agree with you.
00:16:09.940 I mean, you've got the falls there anyway.
00:16:11.840 So people are going to, it's a great destination to see the falls.
00:16:15.640 And then you're thinking, okay, well, what else is there?
00:16:18.020 You look around and, well, you see a few things.
00:16:20.420 They've got that.
00:16:21.160 You see Clifton Hill.
00:16:22.700 That takes three hours until your kid's worn out.
00:16:27.880 Yeah.
00:16:28.520 And so, I agree that it's a good thing.
00:16:31.340 And maybe by the time this whole rollout happens, you know, our relationships with the Americans will have been fixed by then.
00:16:39.680 But I'm wondering if there are any issues.
00:16:41.700 I mean, you've got a premier who's openly hostile with the president of the United States.
00:16:45.640 You could say that he's justified in doing so or not.
00:16:48.660 But to what degree would that have an impact on discouraging Americans to come north?
00:16:53.800 I mean, they still do.
00:16:55.560 And I'm not saying they'll stop.
00:16:57.640 But they may actually start to get a little turned off because they'll start to see it as a hostile feeling on their part, on America's part.
00:17:06.540 And all I have to do is allude to the booing of the national anthem, that kind of thing.
00:17:10.040 That made huge news in the United States.
00:17:12.860 And so, you know, a lot of Trump voters, you know, you've got a lot of Trump voters in places like Michigan, which went with Trump.
00:17:19.000 You have in Ohio, in Wisconsin, even upstate New York, as you know.
00:17:24.320 You go to the whole area around Buffalo.
00:17:27.840 Like, Buffalo voted for Kamala Harris.
00:17:31.160 Buffalo is very definitely a Democratic spot.
00:17:34.240 But the entire area around Buffalo went for Trump.
00:17:41.380 Riverside County in California, where I'm going to be spending the next few weeks, it went for Trump.
00:17:48.540 You know, mildly, but it went for Trump.
00:17:50.980 There were a lot of places that were not expected to go for Trump that did.
00:17:54.880 But so, yeah, you've got you've got to be concerned about that and what it means for how people react to you for how they will come or not.
00:18:09.680 Look, Canadian travel to the United States.
00:18:12.680 The last numbers I saw was down about 25 percent.
00:18:16.760 Now, that doesn't include Florida.
00:18:18.980 Florida is special.
00:18:20.080 They've got Disney.
00:18:21.120 They've got Universal.
00:18:22.460 They've got sunshine all year long.
00:18:24.580 But if you're a tourist operator in New England, if you're in Washington State, if you're in upstate New York, you're seeing fewer travelers.
00:18:36.880 You know, so are those same people going to come?
00:18:41.500 I was down in Niagara Falls earlier this year, I think in August.
00:18:48.720 And I was running into a lot of Americans who were not saying that they were turned off by that.
00:18:55.360 But, you know, Premier Ford's rhetoric has become more anti-American as things have gone on.
00:19:01.840 He says he's just anti-Trump.
00:19:03.700 I would say he's more anti-American.
00:19:05.780 That's how the Americans will take it.
00:19:08.080 That could have an impact on us.
00:19:10.160 And I don't think that's a good thing.
00:19:11.680 Yeah, I mean, if you would reverse it and say, you know, you had a government in the United States that was openly hostile towards our prime minister, whether you like him or not, doesn't matter.
00:19:23.640 I mean, there might be some Canadians that say, you know what, I don't feel comfortable now going to the United States because we've got the president of the United States who is leveling as many shots as he can at our leader.
00:19:34.820 And like him or not, he's still our guy.
00:19:36.860 You know, he was elected.
00:19:38.140 He's still the prime minister of our country.
00:19:39.660 It might lead to a little bit of discomfort there, at least from my perspective.
00:19:44.020 So it's a good chunk of my family that will not go to the United States because of Donald Trump.
00:19:52.100 That's not my view, but that is the view of an awful lot of Canadians.
00:19:56.560 About, you know, 20 to 25% of the Canadians that used to go to the United States are not going now.
00:20:03.400 I want to ask you while I got you here on your view on the whole poly of ongoing controversy around there.
00:20:10.080 What are you hearing?
00:20:11.640 Because of course, a good chunk of the media seems to be obsessed with the floor crossing and it's a big deal.
00:20:17.860 Don't get me wrong.
00:20:19.080 He's lost three members right now.
00:20:21.560 There are some rumors that he may lose more.
00:20:23.580 We've got the leadership review coming up next month, which he's expected to pass, but I guess all of that could change.
00:20:32.640 I suppose this situation may change.
00:20:36.200 If for instance, there's any more floor crossers, what do you make of this issue? 1.00
00:20:40.220 So my view, and I put this in a column at the Toronto Sun and continue to write about this at the substack of prionlily.com, is that if.
00:20:52.880 If Pierre Polyev loses one or two more MPs that cross over to the liberals before the leadership review in January, then I'm not sure how he survives.
00:21:07.960 Maybe the base shows up and says, no, we still love you.
00:21:12.040 We still want to support you.
00:21:13.900 This is an Ottawa bubble issue.
00:21:16.920 We're going to back you to the hilt.
00:21:18.700 Okay, well, sure, that may happen.
00:21:22.960 But you know what else may happen is that the caucus may turn against them.
00:21:29.300 And that's what happened to Andrew Scheer.
00:21:31.880 That's what happened to Aaron O'Toole.
00:21:33.540 Uh, and if the party can't fundraise, if the party can't recruit good candidates, if all these problems are getting in the way, then the caucus may remove Polyev, even if the base doesn't.
00:21:51.640 What does that do to the party and the base?
00:21:54.060 Well, that's, you know, a question for another day.
00:21:57.140 But, look, I think that Polyev is on the right issue at the moment, and that is affordability.
00:22:05.560 We saw the stats hand-can numbers come out yesterday showing that, uh, while core inflation is at 2.2%, okay, not great, but manageable, um, food inflation is at 4.7% year over year.
00:22:21.900 In the last five years, your grocery bill has gone up more than 27%.
00:22:26.420 How many of us can look at that and say, yeah, my, uh, my income's gone up by 27%.
00:22:32.320 I can afford to feed my family, uh, at the same way that I did five years ago.
00:22:37.700 This is great.
00:22:39.120 Um, not many.
00:22:41.080 And so Canadians are looking for a party and a government that will deal with that.
00:22:48.300 And right now, when they look at it, it's not the carny liberals that they're looking to.
00:22:53.920 The latest polling from abacus, A, shows that the parties are effectively tied neck and neck.
00:23:01.440 And B, that the conservatives are viewed as more favorable to deal with the issue of cost of living.
00:23:10.320 The number one issue for Canadian voters is the cost of living.
00:23:14.660 The number one issue within the subset of cost of living is, uh, the cost of groceries.
00:23:21.640 So Pierre Polyev needs to keep hammering on that between now and January.
00:23:26.640 And then needs, if he survives in January, needs to keep hammering on that past that.
00:23:34.240 But if he keeps losing MPs, then the question really becomes, can you manage your own caucus?
00:23:43.100 And look, we've got, you know, I'm sitting steps away from Queens Park where the Ontario liberals are leaderless and people keep saying Nathaniel Erskine-Smith is the next great savior for the, uh, the Ontario liberals.
00:24:01.460 Well, he's a renegade in his own federal liberal caucus.
00:24:05.480 And I keep saying, how can you lead a caucus if you can't be in one?
00:24:09.400 He's that much of a, a wild ride that he can't be within a caucus.
00:24:14.900 Well, if you can't manage a caucus, how can you be party leader?
00:24:18.820 Um, and if Polyev keeps losing MPs, then yeah, there's gotta be a big question about whether he's the guy to take them into the next election.
00:24:30.980 Um, and you know, Western Canadians may look at this and say, well, it's all Eastern Canadian MPs, Michael Ma from Toronto, Chris Dantremont, but Matt Jenner is from Edmonton.
00:24:43.600 So there's, there's going to be a lot of questions around how things are, are working for the conservatives.
00:24:51.160 If Polyev loses one or two more MPs, which is the rumor.
00:24:55.140 And also, you know, look for whether, um, uh, Idlok from, uh, Nunavut, the new Democrat MP, uh, stays in the NDP caucus or moves to the, the liberals.
00:25:08.640 Cause that is one of the rumors happening as well.
00:25:11.860 Hmm.
00:25:12.780 Interesting.
00:25:13.600 We're going to wrap this up in a minute, but I do have to ask you, what exactly is their problem with Polyev?
00:25:18.860 I mean, I've heard the usual terms, you know, he's divisive, but he's not, uh, you know, part of team Canada.
00:25:26.900 He's just doing, as far as I could see, he's doing his job as opposition.
00:25:30.460 Do you know what the issue is inside caucus as far as, uh, Polyev is concerned?
00:25:39.500 Well, inside caucus is very different than the electorate.
00:25:42.780 Right.
00:25:43.860 So among the electorate, you keep hearing things like he's divisive.
00:25:47.720 Um, he, uh, he's angry all the time.
00:25:52.040 Um, and I hear claims about him that don't resonate with the guy that I know, but I know Pierre Polyev on a way, you know, I first met him on his first election campaign.
00:26:02.640 I was local reporter when he was a new local MP, I, I've known him on a very different level.
00:26:10.660 Um, how that works out for, you know, the general public is different.
00:26:16.440 Now, as far as caucus, that becomes a different issue.
00:26:21.380 Is he listening to their concerns?
00:26:23.520 One of the phrases that I've heard he has used is in caucus meetings, you can have your say, but you can't have your sway.
00:26:32.460 Even in caucus, he's got slogans.
00:26:35.820 Um, and so if you're telling MPs, yeah, I'll listen to you, but I'm not going to listen to you.
00:26:42.280 That's going to turn them off.
00:26:44.120 Hmm.
00:26:44.880 Yeah.
00:26:45.280 I guess it would.
00:26:45.920 How do people find you online, Brian?
00:26:49.360 Uh, find me on, basically on X on Facebook, uh, at Brian Lilly is the handle or Brian Lilly.com is the, uh, the sub stack.
00:26:59.160 And of course, Toronto sun.com.
00:27:01.040 Check out Brian's terrific reporting in the pages of the Toronto sun.
00:27:04.440 Thank you, Brian.
00:27:05.240 Great chatting.
00:27:05.740 Thank you.
00:27:07.560 And that is it for this edition of straight up.
00:27:11.280 Appreciate you tuning in.
00:27:12.440 Let's do it again soon.
00:27:13.320 Shall we?
00:27:14.020 Bye bye for now.
00:27:15.920 Bye bye.