Juno News - Doug Ford got another majority – now what？

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

00:00:05.080 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by TrueNorth.

00:00:10.440 Coming up, what does yesterday's Ontario election mean for Ontario and for conservatism in Canada?

00:00:16.920 Plus, a little bit of personal news to end the show.

00:00:20.060 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.

00:00:23.320 Hello and welcome to the Andrew Lawton Show, Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show here on TrueNorth.

00:00:30.400 It is Friday, June 3rd, 2022, the day after the Ontario provincial election

00:00:36.200 and perhaps the beginning of a big reckoning of where the political parties in this country

00:00:41.600 actually sit on the political spectrum, if they sit anywhere at all, which isn't necessarily a given.

00:00:48.160 Now, I promise you, I know we've been doing Ontario overload lately,

00:00:50.860 but I promise you we're going to be moving on from this.

00:00:53.320 After today's show, I do think it's important to talk about, though,

00:00:58.200 because we are right now looking at the re-election with the majority government of Doug Ford,

00:01:03.780 a leader who is not a conventional conservative by any stretch.

00:01:07.860 He's far more of a populist.

00:01:09.520 We know this by now.

00:01:10.420 It's not an original observation.

00:01:12.040 But it is important when you look at it in the context of what his opponents say he is,

00:01:16.880 because they all view him as being this far-right demagogue

00:01:20.000 when conservatives are looking at him and saying,

00:01:22.480 you know, I would be OK with far-right, but I'm not actually seeing far-right.

00:01:27.120 So that's the complexity that you tend to get out of this.

00:01:30.280 But the reason I bring this up now is because he won.

00:01:34.260 And it's interesting to see all of the fawning and adoration he's tended to get from very unique places.

00:01:42.500 Like we remember during the COVID pandemic how he and Chrystia Freeland and Justin Trudeau

00:01:47.300 had this sort of buddy comedy romance thing going on.

00:01:50.760 And then he wouldn't campaign for the conservatives, for the federal conservatives.

00:01:55.160 So he's kind of been in this little bubble of his own here.

00:01:59.440 And if you look at the last two years,

00:02:01.680 the COVID file has dramatically changed what his first term would have looked like.

00:02:06.420 I think Doug Ford elected in 2018 with a majority government without COVID

00:02:10.520 would have had some people saying,

00:02:12.520 well, you know, I wish he had done this.

00:02:14.020 I mean, I didn't love this.

00:02:15.200 I, you know, would have been great to have seen a bit more of this.

00:02:17.760 But ultimately, it wouldn't have been eventful.

00:02:20.360 It wouldn't have been a raucous affair, his tenure as premier.

00:02:26.340 And with COVID, it's a bit different because now he has to defend against his right flank and his left.

00:02:31.340 He's had an exodus of caucus members that he kicked out.

00:02:34.260 He kicked out Randy Hillier.

00:02:35.880 He kicked out Belinda Carajalios.

00:02:38.660 He kicked out Roman Babber.

00:02:40.620 There were others that were not running again that were not officially kicked out,

00:02:45.340 but we know were forced out or resigned because of pressures they were getting.

00:02:49.980 People like Toby Barrett and Jeff Urich and Christina Midas.

00:02:53.380 So you've got a large number of MPPs here that just didn't get along with the premier's office.

00:03:00.160 And one of those incidents, Toby Barrett, who is a longtime MPP in Haldeman Norfolk down in southwestern Ontario,

00:03:08.120 his riding is quite a fascinating one because Toby Barrett wasn't seeking re-election,

00:03:12.660 but his longtime executive assistant was seeking to run.

00:03:17.400 She wanted to run for the PC nomination and she wanted to run in his riding.

00:03:21.940 Now, she was, for whatever reason, not allowed to.

00:03:24.580 And I don't know all the ins and outs of it, but the party didn't give her a chance.

00:03:29.580 They appointed someone else summarily.

00:03:31.340 So it's not like she lost the nomination.

00:03:32.900 She actually just didn't get a chance to run at it.

00:03:36.720 So she decided she was going to run as an independent.

00:03:40.280 Bobbi Ann Brady's her name.

00:03:41.740 She won with 35% of the vote.

00:03:45.620 That is about four and a half points above the PC candidate, Ken Hewitt.

00:03:50.020 But she won that seat as an independent and she had the backing of Toby Barrett.

00:03:54.140 She had the backing of a lot of people that had been longtime conservatives in that riding.

00:03:59.280 And good for her.

00:04:00.200 It is very, very difficult in Canadian politics and within that Ontario politics to get elected

00:04:07.060 as an independent and she did it.

00:04:09.560 So this speaks to how there is some, and again, you may say it's an isolated case,

00:04:14.340 but it speaks to how there is very much some frustration with the status quo right now

00:04:19.460 and frustration from conservatives, from people on the right with Doug Ford.

00:04:25.280 And if at the end of it, he's got a majority, he's increased his majority,

00:04:28.860 he did it without running on a particularly conservative platform.

00:04:32.640 I understand the concern there that he's kind of proving the concept

00:04:36.840 that you don't need to be a conservative and offer anything specific to conservatives to win.

00:04:41.940 And I think that there are two reasons why that's wrong.

00:04:45.660 Number one, provincial politics and federal politics are different animals.

00:04:49.820 The political cultures are different.

00:04:51.800 The themes are different.

00:04:52.960 The parties are very different.

00:04:55.380 So that's part of it.

00:04:56.580 The other thing that I would add that I think is important to keep in mind here

00:05:00.540 and to have a little bit of context for this

00:05:03.380 is that low voter turnout generally favors the incumbent

00:05:07.760 because change is a significant motivating factor.

00:05:11.520 So if you've got a high turnout election, that means that, okay,

00:05:14.500 people are probably motivated by something.

00:05:17.300 Whereas this was an election where it almost became a punchline,

00:05:20.500 the Seinfeld election, the election about nothing,

00:05:22.980 even more so than the last federal election.

00:05:26.720 So in that, I mean, through that perspective, right now,

00:05:30.180 what we see is an election in which no one was really motivated to come out

00:05:34.620 and vote Doug Ford out.

00:05:36.260 But similarly, Doug Ford supporters weren't really all that motivated to come out.

00:05:40.400 I mean, I look at the riding in which I ran four years ago in 2018

00:05:44.300 and the number of votes that I got, it was just, I think, about 30% of the vote.

00:05:49.100 And the candidate who ran for the PCs this time around won fewer votes,

00:05:55.200 but a slightly higher percentage of the voting share.

00:05:58.440 And that's just because so many, so few people were voting this time around.

00:06:03.420 I think this was the lowest turnout of any provincial election in Ontario's history,

00:06:08.460 which is not a record you want to keep.

00:06:11.340 And that's not an endorsement of any party.

00:06:14.300 That's not an endorsement of Doug Ford.

00:06:16.120 That's not an endorsement of Andrea Horvath and the NDP.

00:06:19.080 It's not an endorsement of Stephen Del Duca and the Liberals,

00:06:21.920 the latter two of whom have gone now.

00:06:24.540 They've resigned because they realized they don't really have futures leading their parties.

00:06:29.720 So right now we have three parties that are not grounded in any particular ideology.

00:06:36.140 They're not grounded in anything that is really rallying their base.

00:06:41.100 No one's excited to be a provincial progressive conservative.

00:06:44.520 No one's excited to be a provincial liberal in Ontario.

00:06:47.000 No one's excited to be an Ontario NDP supporter.

00:06:51.120 And in fact, the Ontario NDP is getting a lot of the same criticism from the left

00:06:55.140 that Doug Ford is getting from the right of like, you know,

00:06:58.300 a party that's just chasing votes instead of truly advancing a cohesive, solid vision.

00:07:04.760 Now, their vision is, of course, one that's a lot further left

00:07:07.380 than the vision that small C conservatives are pushing on Doug Ford.

00:07:11.400 But I share that with you just so you know that no one right now in Ontario politics

00:07:15.880 seems happy with the options.

00:07:18.460 And I think that's why you had an independent, Bobby Ann Brady, who was able to win.

00:07:22.820 And if you look at New Blue and Ontario Party, two parties that we focused on a fair bit,

00:07:27.560 not because I was predicting they were going to come in and form government,

00:07:30.600 but because they were a part of the story.

00:07:32.400 They were a part of the story of the conservative movement.

00:07:35.540 They were a part of the story of the Ontario election.

00:07:38.320 And combined, I'm just looking at the numbers here.

00:07:40.640 I want to make sure I get the math right here.

00:07:42.620 I think they're combined at like 4.7% of the overall vote.

00:07:48.320 So Ontario Party had 1.8% of the vote, so not huge.

00:07:52.200 New Blue had 2.7%.

00:07:54.320 So between the two of them, that is 4.5% of the vote, which is not nothing.

00:08:00.640 I mean, just to put that into context here,

00:08:02.580 the Green Party had 6% of the vote province-wide.

00:08:06.800 And New Blue and Ontario Party combined two first-time parties

00:08:10.160 that no one had ever heard of before this election combined have about 4.5%.

00:08:15.240 And that's more than the PPC got in its first election in 2019.

00:08:20.940 So that's the federal party.

00:08:22.380 But again, I'm just going to show that these things are,

00:08:24.800 they're small numbers and they may be electorally insignificant,

00:08:27.580 but they're not politically insignificant in terms of what it is they represent.

00:08:32.280 Now, I spoke to Jim Carajalios and Derek Sloan both,

00:08:37.000 and I know that Derek has said he doesn't know what he's going to do.

00:08:40.260 He may stick with the Ontario Party.

00:08:41.860 He may go back to federal politics.

00:08:43.920 Maybe he'll do municipal.

00:08:44.840 Like, he's not committing to any path.

00:08:46.920 Whereas Jim Carajalios has said,

00:08:48.760 no, no, no, he is focused on building the New Blue, 0.96

00:08:52.320 building this party as an alternative to Doug Ford and the PCs in Ontario.

00:08:56.940 And they had Belinda Carajalios, who was originally a PC MPP.

00:09:02.960 And by the end of it was a New Blue MPP, 0.78

00:09:05.500 which speaks to the leadership challenges that the PC party had internally with Doug Ford.

00:09:11.080 So I don't know how much of that is going to be a thing moving forward.

00:09:14.560 I suspect it may be.

00:09:15.940 I mean, certainly a lot of people who were the so-called problems

00:09:19.740 or perceived as the problems have been turfed.

00:09:23.160 But I think there is something to be said about how, for the most part,

00:09:28.040 this is still going to be a situation where Ford's got to provide something for his base.

00:09:34.820 Because for the people that just decided they were going to grin and bear it,

00:09:38.900 the people that didn't love it,

00:09:40.160 that certainly weren't happy with the last two years,

00:09:42.280 but understood that, well, the Liberals and the NDP wouldn't have done anything better,

00:09:46.440 and they might have actually been worse,

00:09:48.400 they'll say, okay, I don't want them in, so I'll vote PC.

00:09:51.620 And I don't know if you want to call that strategic voting

00:09:55.320 or if it's just choosing the lesser of evils

00:09:57.560 or if it's just prioritizing electability over anything else.

00:10:01.940 That's the calculation that a lot of people made.

00:10:04.720 And I heard from people that genuinely were struggling.

00:10:07.980 They're like, you know, I would have said three months ago,

00:10:10.080 I'm never in a million years voting for Doug Ford.

00:10:12.920 But, you know, now that it's coming and now that it's a little less theoretical,

00:10:16.120 I'm thinking, well, do I want to let a Liberal or a New Democrat win?

00:10:20.500 And most people were saying no.

00:10:24.760 So I think the danger here is that after the last two years,

00:10:29.700 when you had vaccine mandates and vaccine passports and lockdowns

00:10:33.460 and no real opposition from it,

00:10:35.420 the only opposition was coming from people like Andrea Horvath and Stephen Del Duca

00:10:39.340 that said we need more vaccine mandates, more mask mandates, more vaccine passports.

00:10:43.580 No, don't lift restrictions.

00:10:44.880 Put more on. 1.00

00:10:45.540 The only thing, yes, be a moron is right. 0.99

00:10:48.840 But the only reason, the only reason a lot of people voted for the Conservatives 0.99

00:10:53.700 is because they didn't see there as being a viable alternative.

00:10:57.080 And I know that New Blue was running candidates in all ridings.

00:11:00.500 They saw themselves as an alternative.

00:11:02.040 But people know it takes time to build these things up.

00:11:06.120 I mean, just look at the Green Party as a great example of this.

00:11:08.720 The Green Party didn't win a single seat in Canada until, I think, Elizabeth May in 2006,

00:11:15.420 which was, you know, more than 20 years after this party had been started fielding candidates.

00:11:19.920 But every election, they were taken seriously.

00:11:22.520 The media would even put them in the debates.

00:11:24.620 The media would give them attention.

00:11:26.380 And the same courtesy has not been afforded to upstart right-of-center parties,

00:11:31.720 which is not at all surprising.

00:11:34.000 But I think it's something that people need to pay attention to.

00:11:37.080 So the media likes to just create this myth that the Green Party is a thing.

00:11:41.260 And then once they finally elect someone, it, like, justifies to them,

00:11:44.480 oh, yeah, we got to focus on the Green Party.

00:11:46.060 The Green Party is a real player.

00:11:47.440 Well, here we are.

00:11:48.200 Everyone was wondering if the Green Party in Ontario would pick up a second seat.

00:11:51.580 Ooh.

00:11:52.100 But it didn't.

00:11:52.900 It didn't.

00:11:53.360 They were behind the PCs in Paris-Stale, Muskoka.

00:11:57.260 So there was no Green second seat.

00:11:59.920 And Mike Schreiner, the leader, won his seat again in Guelph.

00:12:02.600 OK, great, congratulations.

00:12:05.120 But it's not a party that is this game changer that it's often presented as.

00:12:12.520 So that, I think, is where we have to understand that the media has a direct role

00:12:19.200 in deciding which things are taken seriously, which parties are taken seriously,

00:12:24.160 which leaders are taken seriously.

00:12:25.960 And that's a significant agenda-setting role they have.

00:12:29.120 I want to bring into this discussion Sue-Ann Levy, who, like me, has had the misfortune

00:12:34.200 of running as a PC candidate in a provincial election and losing.

00:12:37.720 So she knows that feeling very well.

00:12:40.160 And she's my colleague at True North.

00:12:41.920 Sue-Ann, it's good to talk to you.

00:12:43.120 Thanks for coming on today.

00:12:44.820 Oh, you're welcome, Andrew.

00:12:45.880 How are you?

00:12:46.780 I am doing well.

00:12:48.120 I mean, I can't say it's all that surprising what happened.

00:12:51.460 I think that everyone at the beginning of the election, as I said earlier, knew what was

00:12:55.020 going to happen.

00:12:55.600 And the question was really just about what the numbers were going to be.

00:12:59.360 And, you know, were they going to pick up this seat or not?

00:13:02.060 For you, any surprises last night?

00:13:05.500 Yes, my own riding.

00:13:07.980 Not in terms of the PCs winning a majority, but my own riding of St. Paul's in Midtown Toronto.

00:13:13.060 I really thought the Liberal candidate had it, but the NDP candidate won on the backs of

00:13:21.280 anti-Black racism, unfortunately, because I didn't think she did a good service for the

00:13:27.320 riding the first four years.

00:13:29.620 However, we are in that woke culture, you know, and we're in the midst of all of that.

00:13:36.560 And, you know, it's a runaway train that we can't quite catch yet.

00:13:42.440 Yeah, and that's, I think, the big thing here, because there's been a lot of hand-wringing,

00:13:47.380 I think, about what the parties stand for.

00:13:49.640 And I think Conservatives can and are justified in asking the PC party, are you really a Conservative

00:13:54.560 party?

00:13:55.000 I think the Liberals are justified in asking their party, what do you really stand for?

00:13:58.680 The NDP seems to be grappling between, okay, do we try to be this centrist, liberal alternative,

00:14:04.680 or do we try to be the uber-woke, critical race theory party?

00:14:09.260 And, I mean, it seems like that side's winning out, that latter side is winning out.

00:14:13.900 Andrea Horvath had to go.

00:14:15.820 She's had four runs at it, and, you know, I remember chasing her in 2018 when she had

00:14:20.740 a series of questionable candidates running for office, particularly in Toronto.

00:14:25.700 But I think with her gone, she kind of kept the party in line that way, and I fear that

00:14:34.200 with some of the people who have been elected, particularly my own MPP, and Kristen Wong-Tam

00:14:40.200 in downtown Toronto, that there's going to be fight.

00:14:44.080 And I think that they are going to veer further to the left and become more woke.

00:14:48.940 Kristen Wong-Tam is a real radical, radical lesbian feminist. 1.00

00:14:53.500 And as is Jill Andrew, here in my own riding.

00:14:59.060 So, let's talk about leadership contenders then.

00:15:01.920 Because do you think, I mean, I saw someone, I think, on Twitter this morning, not that

00:15:04.960 Twitter is always the, you know, the oracle of truth, but I saw someone suggesting that

00:15:08.860 Kristen Wong-Tam might be a contender for a leader.

00:15:11.700 Do you see that as being viable?

00:15:13.280 And otherwise, who else do you think is on deck to really try to take the reins of this

00:15:18.760 party, the provincial NDP?

00:15:19.960 Well, that would be a big mistake if they put Kristen Wong-Tam in as leader or Jill 1.00

00:15:25.180 Andrew, because I also saw the same thing for her.

00:15:28.760 I liken it to what's happening with the Democrats in the states, you know, in terms of that,

00:15:33.800 those forces of the far left.

00:15:37.220 And I guess so far, Biden and Kamala Harris have been able to keep them in check, although

00:15:42.480 they have moved further to the left, that party itself, but not entirely crazy on the Bernie

00:15:48.900 Sanders left.

00:15:50.820 I think that they need somebody who is moderate.

00:15:54.000 I really think that they, you know, have to look at somebody who, like Andrea Horvath, tried

00:15:59.860 to keep the party in check.

00:16:02.080 I don't know who that candidate may be.

00:16:04.120 Maybe you have some ideas.

00:16:06.540 Matthew Green was one name that I heard bantied about, but I don't know.

00:16:11.840 I don't know.

00:16:12.420 But to put the radical left lefty feminists, lesbian feminists in charge, and I say that 1.00

00:16:19.520 because I'm gay so I can get away with it, would be a big, big mistake. 0.99

00:16:24.000 Yeah, and I guess the big question, too, is what the future of the Liberal Party is, because

00:16:30.680 right now, it doesn't look like they have much of a future.

00:16:33.240 They had a dismal showing in 2018, and a lot of people were prepared to say, well, that

00:16:37.980 was just because they were still paying for the crimes of Dalton McGinty and Kathleen Wynne,

00:16:42.820 and maybe they would, with a new leader, rebuild, so they get that new leader in, Stephen

00:16:46.900 Del Duca.

00:16:48.360 I mean, just a complete wet blanket, no charisma, no momentum, no original ideas.

00:16:53.700 The Liberals, you know, picked up a little bit of support from 2018, but hardly any.

00:16:58.520 If the Liberals continue to not resonate with voters, I mean, the NDP could do quite well

00:17:04.520 in the future, but again, not if they decide to be this really far left party that you're

00:17:08.620 alluding to.

00:17:09.800 Well, the problem is that every party is moving further to the left, and Ford, in order to

00:17:15.480 win, I believe, has sacrificed some of his conservative principles and, you know, has become

00:17:22.440 Woker, he did not take on the education file, which is a big issue, and which I write about

00:17:27.780 a lot for True North.

00:17:29.600 The pandering to the woke, critical race theory, gender ideology, doubt very much he'll do that.

00:17:36.440 So everybody keeps shifting a little further to the left.

00:17:39.900 I don't know where Liberals stand anymore.

00:17:42.720 They certainly seem to be searching for a purpose.

00:17:48.120 And yes, you're right, with Stephen Del Duca was a huge mistake.

00:17:51.820 He did not rebuild the party.

00:17:53.960 You need somebody with, you know, a little bit more charm, less baggage, and I don't know

00:18:00.820 who that might be.

00:18:02.400 There was talk, Mitzi Hunter was asked last night about that.

00:18:05.880 I mean, I think that also would be a huge mistake.

00:18:09.920 She has considerable baggage herself, and I don't happen to think she's that sharp or

00:18:16.980 competent to lead the party.

00:18:18.940 I mean, you can say what you want about Kathleen Wynne, but she was sharp and personable.

00:18:26.320 She just made a mess of the finances and did some really awful things. 0.98

00:18:31.760 Yeah, and that's the thing.

00:18:35.040 I mean, with bad leaders, they always tend to, in hindsight, look better and better, and

00:18:40.320 people who hated them come around them.

00:18:42.060 Like, you look at how so many American leftists now think George Bush is like the gold standard

00:18:46.600 for what a president is supposed to be when, you know, he spent eight years being Hitler, 0.55

00:18:50.460 and I think even Kathleen Wynne.

00:18:51.980 Now, I always liked Kathleen Wynne personally.

00:18:54.240 She always took the time to come on my show. 0.92

00:18:56.340 I always had amiable conversations, but I just fundamentally objected to everything that

00:19:00.860 she was doing as leader, but she is also considerably more moderate than what I fear is coming down

00:19:07.420 the pipeline now, and you are right.

00:19:09.760 I mean, this is a broader problem that isn't just about the so-called progressive parties.

00:19:14.940 The PCs are facing this as well, and I guess I'll ask you then along that vein about the

00:19:20.480 conservative offshoots that we saw this time around.

00:19:23.000 The New Blue and the Ontario Party didn't elect any members, but combined, I think they had just

00:19:28.740 shy of 5% of the vote.

00:19:30.940 I mean, do you think that is a win for these parties?

00:19:34.200 I do.

00:19:34.780 I think that, you know, they made some traction.

00:19:37.880 I actually spoke at the New Blue conference, and I think they were desperately searching

00:19:44.480 for a position on the spectrum, and they were trying to appeal to people who feel that they

00:19:49.800 have been abandoned by the progressive conservatives.

00:19:53.520 And some people I saw on social media last night were saying, well, you might as well

00:19:57.280 call them progressive.

00:19:58.980 And, you know, when the, I'll tell you the true test is when the MSM, the lefty mainstream

00:20:05.980 media and people like, you know, the people on CTV and God, his name escaped me, but he

00:20:14.820 was fawning over Doug Ford and that this was the dawn of a new era.

00:20:20.600 And they were just going crazy about the idea that he has moved further to the left.

00:20:27.400 And I thought, oh my God, when they give him kudos, we've got a problem.

00:20:31.600 In fact, I tweeted that Houston, we've got a problem that, you know, whatever happened

00:20:37.000 to true conservative values and, and fighting on the basis of that.

00:20:42.440 Yeah.

00:20:43.040 And I wouldn't say that there's, I mean, it's tough to say because we know he's not an

00:20:47.500 ideologue.

00:20:47.960 He's more of a populist.

00:20:49.520 He likes being liked.

00:20:50.480 But one thing I would point out about Doug Ford, which is, is interesting here is that

00:20:54.920 he spends a lot of time praising people that just hate him, like praising Justin Trudeau

00:21:01.060 and praising Chrystia Freeland and they're never going to like him.

00:21:04.160 And, you know, he didn't lift a finger in the last two federal election campaigns to support

00:21:08.540 the conservative leaders, either Andrew Scheer or Aaron O'Deule.

00:21:11.160 So it does seem like he's, he's campaigning for that affection that you mentioned, but

00:21:16.480 again, that's not, I mean, he's got a majority government now.

00:21:19.620 He doesn't have to deal with the COVID file in the same way that he did last time around.

00:21:24.220 If you're a conservative voter that's expecting conservative policy from him, he doesn't have

00:21:28.660 anywhere to hide right now.

00:21:29.760 Yes, that's true.

00:21:32.900 But I think that I really am concerned that he's not going to take on the teachers unions,

00:21:39.840 for example.

00:21:40.760 He hadn't in the first four years.

00:21:42.500 I think Stephen Lecce was a mistake as the education minister.

00:21:48.660 I don't, you know, I have my doubts that that will be tackled.

00:21:52.620 And I think they just don't want to wade into that.

00:21:57.080 And well, you know, whatever you say, I mean, he's abandoned some of the principles that I

00:22:02.220 hold dear.

00:22:03.540 In some respects, he's been a good conservative.

00:22:06.440 In some respects, I think he's taken a knee to the woke crowd.

00:22:09.840 And that really, really concerns me as they all shift in order to appeal to, you know,

00:22:18.880 when he talked about inclusivity in his acceptance speech last night, that was the most important

00:22:25.180 thing, inclusivity, sorry, you know, what happened to conservative values of being fiscally

00:22:35.420 responsible, which he isn't and hasn't been.

00:22:38.560 And, you know, law and order, those sort of things.

00:22:41.380 He's funded safe injection sites.

00:22:43.500 I think he's done a lot of stuff to pander to that vote that he didn't think he would

00:22:49.020 get in the past and to pander to the mainstream media.

00:22:52.600 Well, on that vein, Sue Ann, let me ask you about labor, because that was the one thing that

00:22:57.280 the conservatives really did differently this time.

00:22:59.240 They actively and aggressively courted labor.

00:23:02.180 I was getting the PC party press releases, and pretty much every day they were announcing

00:23:06.500 the new endorsement from a new labor union, some larger, some smaller.

00:23:10.900 We know the labor minister, Monty McNaughton, was doing a lot of work to cultivate this.

00:23:15.900 Is this, in your view, expanding the conservative base in the way that we want to, as people

00:23:21.160 on the right, see it expanded?

00:23:22.900 Or is this along that vein of pandering like you were talking about?

00:23:27.240 Well, let's be honest here.

00:23:29.140 I mean, he got the support of labor because, you know, the cynical me says that he's talking

00:23:34.500 about building infrastructure.

00:23:35.860 He's talking about building more subways.

00:23:38.100 He's talking about building, you know, the highway 413.

00:23:42.820 So labor stands, those unions stand to benefit considerably from that.

00:23:48.020 So, you know, why wouldn't they support them?

00:23:50.740 And the problem is, Andrew, and I see it out my own door, there's no accountability.

00:23:56.500 You can talk all you want about building infrastructure, but there's absolutely no

00:24:01.180 accountability.

00:24:02.640 I mean, you've got Metrolinks, you've got Crosslinks building this Eglinton Crosstown

00:24:06.960 LRT.

00:24:07.580 It's now in its 12th year.

00:24:08.840 I lay the blame squarely on the Ford government for not being more accountable and letting

00:24:16.520 Metrolinks run with it.

00:24:18.360 There have been problems with Metrolinks.

00:24:20.120 So yeah, all well and good that you've got the support of the labor unions, but what about

00:24:25.060 actually making them accountable for the builds and not letting them run, you know, two, three

00:24:33.400 years behind?

00:24:34.520 Yeah, and I think that was the big thing.

00:24:39.500 If you look back at 2018, when he won, his big pitch was open for business.

00:24:44.580 And I think there were some private sector unions that were on the fence about supporting

00:24:49.280 the PCs.

00:24:49.960 They certainly weren't happy with the liberals that time.

00:24:52.380 And then COVID comes and it sort of puts a damper on anyone's agenda.

00:24:56.000 You can just ask Jason Kenney, Doug Ford, and so on.

00:24:59.540 But you are right.

00:25:00.340 I mean, ultimately speaking, these are their interests align with their members' interests,

00:25:04.300 especially with private sector unions.

00:25:06.300 They need jobs.

00:25:07.240 They need money.

00:25:07.940 They need stuff being built.

00:25:09.520 And we don't know what was offered to these groups.

00:25:12.020 And I'm not suggesting anything untoward happened.

00:25:14.260 But we don't know if it was just they bought into the general vision or if there were very

00:25:18.780 specific projects.

00:25:20.180 Yeah, we want this bridge.

00:25:21.360 We want this highway.

00:25:22.400 And so on.

00:25:23.120 And we may never know.

00:25:25.340 Yeah.

00:25:25.880 And, you know, you know, the classic thing is to overbid and then come within the budget

00:25:31.040 and say, oh, we've met the budget, but we've added 20% or 30% or whatever.

00:25:36.340 I mean, that's exactly what's happening in my own neighborhood.

00:25:38.460 But, you know, again, I get back to you want to build infrastructure.

00:25:44.000 Don't put the entire province in a huge debt situation doing that.

00:25:47.680 If you don't prepare to be accountable, then infrastructure, like you just can't go out

00:25:53.180 there and build these things and then just leave them to their own devices.

00:25:58.360 I mean, you know, I'm just shocked at the lack of accountability on these projects.

00:26:03.060 Lack of accountability when it comes to fiscal, you know, being fiscally careful, fiscal

00:26:09.260 management, because that's not happening.

00:26:12.440 So, yeah, listen, earning these votes that he did last night, earning that huge majority,

00:26:18.920 great, but it came with a price.

00:26:20.720 It came with a price to you, to me, to all Ontario taxpayers.

00:26:25.160 Very well said.

00:26:26.460 Sue Ann Levy, always a pleasure.

00:26:27.920 Thanks so much for coming on today.

00:26:29.460 Thanks, Andrew.

00:26:31.040 Thanks very much.

00:26:31.940 Always great to catch up with the lovely and wonderful Sue Ann Levy.

00:26:36.040 You can catch her work at True North like the rest of us here.

00:26:39.940 But again, she knows what it's like to be in the trenches running, and she also knows what

00:26:44.160 it's like to be on the outskirts covering it.

00:26:46.240 And I had people asking me, believe it or not, because there was a riding near me that

00:26:50.720 was vacated and had a PC.

00:26:53.520 I mean, the PCs were going to win it no matter what.

00:26:55.740 So the candidate who run there got over like 50% of the vote.

00:26:58.520 And when that riding was vacant, I had people asking me, knowing I ran.

00:27:01.940 Four years ago, oh, Andrew, you're going to run.

00:27:04.060 And I was like, I didn't need, I wasn't even tempted.

00:27:06.500 Like there wasn't even a moment where I was like, you know, it would be nice.

00:27:11.340 I'd be an MPP.

00:27:12.340 I'd be in there.

00:27:13.160 Like just absolutely.

00:27:14.220 Now, not that they would even take me as, not that they would even let me run.

00:27:17.720 But if they did, I wondered whether I would go for that.

00:27:21.580 And no, I absolutely was not interested.

00:27:23.920 And it's not to say I would never at some point in the future run for office.

00:27:27.100 But I have far more of a cynical view of the process.

00:27:31.680 So something would very much need to change where I'd need to feel confident like I could

00:27:35.660 actually have a say in what was happening.

00:27:38.780 And I could actually wield some influence.

00:27:40.340 And right now I feel quite frankly, and this isn't to, you know, thump my chest or anything,

00:27:44.300 like I'm able to wield more influence outside of the halls of government than inside just

00:27:48.880 because of the, how responsive or non-responsive, I should say, political parties are to their

00:27:55.420 base and how responsive they are to what the mainstream media seems to want to prioritize.

00:28:01.240 And this is why from an independent media perspective, I think it's so important to

00:28:05.180 have voices that are proving that, yeah, there is a right flank on these issues.

00:28:10.580 There's a left flank too, but we need to have all these sides represented so that people

00:28:14.360 can understand what these issues actually are.

00:28:17.680 And that's my pitch there.

00:28:18.880 And we'll have more analysis on some of the bigger picture themes emerging in Canadian

00:28:23.000 politics more broadly next week.

00:28:24.700 But I had to do something of a recap of the Ontario election the day after here.

00:28:28.900 So if you don't care about Ontario at all, I thank you very much for indulging if you

00:28:32.880 did.

00:28:33.540 Before I say a gif for today, though, I do want to end on a particularly shameless self-promotional

00:28:39.540 note here because I'm very excited to share with you that I have just announced this week

00:28:43.980 the release of my first book, the upcoming release of my first book, The Freedom

00:28:48.840 Convoy, the inside story of Three Weeks That Shook the World.

00:28:52.420 You can see the cover there.

00:28:54.360 This has been a project I've been immersed in since the end of the Convoy's time in Ottawa

00:28:59.720 back in February.

00:29:01.220 And at first I was saying to a friend of mine in particular, you know, someone needs to

00:29:05.660 write a book about this because I learned there was so much behind the scenes and below the

00:29:10.580 surface that wasn't captured in media coverage.

00:29:13.440 And I eventually I kept saying this and then I realized, well, you know, who better to write

00:29:16.820 this book than me?

00:29:18.040 Because I have been interviewing these people and I have been spending time in Ottawa and

00:29:22.240 I've been pointing out what it is that the mainstream media has been getting so wrong

00:29:26.060 about this and so wrong about the Convoy.

00:29:29.160 So I decided to buckle down and say, you know what, I'm going to write this book and I did

00:29:33.700 and it's going to be coming out on June 24th.

00:29:35.760 So we just announced it and made it available for pre-order this week.

00:29:39.540 It's being published by Sutherland House, which is a great independent publisher in Canada

00:29:45.000 and you can get it on their website at SutherlandHouseBooks.com or you can also get it on Amazon.

00:29:50.860 Either way, I'd very much appreciate it.

00:29:52.800 And I want more people telling the story.

00:29:54.400 I don't claim to have the monopoly on this.

00:29:56.960 I want more people telling the story of the Convoy because there's a story there that the

00:30:00.720 mainstream media just kept getting wrong.

00:30:03.040 So June 24th is one of my books coming out and I do hope you read it and enjoy it.

00:30:07.860 So with that, we've got to end things there.

00:30:09.580 My thanks to all of you for tuning into the show today.

00:30:11.940 We'll talk to you next week.

00:30:13.860 Hope you have a great weekend.

00:30:15.240 Thank you.

00:30:15.680 God bless and good day to you all.

00:30:17.380 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:30:19.620 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - June 04, 2022

Doug Ford got another majority – now what？

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