Juno News - Doug Ford is NOT a conservative

00:00:00.000 Hi, Juno News. Welcome back to another episode of Not Sorry. I'm your host, Alexander Brown.

00:00:07.760 I'm the director of the National Citizens Coalition. I'm a writer, a campaigner, a

00:00:12.020 communicator. I love doing these episodes with you now three days a week. And while you're here,

00:00:16.580 take advantage of our promo code, junonews.com slash not sorry for 20% off. And one of the

00:00:22.780 things we like to talk about here at the show, arguably ad nauseum, is Doug Ford, Ontario's

00:00:28.680 premier. We know him. We have issues with him. You love him, unless they're potentially one of

00:00:35.600 his lobbyists. He's in the past called my work through a group at Project Ontario and others

00:00:42.800 like me. He called us radical rights and yahoos. Have you seen this clip? On this Project Ontario

00:00:48.400 group, they're having a meeting tomorrow night. They're pushing for smaller government. They say

00:00:53.600 you don't have the will to kind of do what it takes to really cut down. They're also looking

00:00:59.400 for more private health care options, different options for independent schools. You've always

00:01:04.280 said you're open to ideas from various political parties. Are you open to any of their ideas?

00:01:08.860 I don't know who these guys are. They sound like a bunch of radical rights. You know, folks,

00:01:13.320 I'm not in favor of the radical left and the radical right. This government of Ontario or in Canada,

00:01:20.940 you know, we're prudent fiscal managers. First of all, I'm tough on crime. I'm a prudent fiscal

00:01:27.800 manager. I don't know who these yahoos are. It sounds like some radical right group probably tied to

00:01:33.400 maybe a federal party or something. I don't have a clue. Oh, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying

00:01:39.000 who knows who they're tied and tied to. But and I really don't care, to be honest with you. I don't

00:01:44.180 even know who these guys are. I'm going to focus on our agenda, protecting the people, protecting the

00:01:49.000 economy, creating, creating more jobs, building infrastructure, building the health care system.

00:01:53.740 That's what I'm focused on. So there are, of course, so many things to unpack there. It's

00:01:59.140 been covered so well in Juneau News, I believe, by Clayton Domain. But the implications there are that

00:02:06.160 criticism, conservative criticism of Ford, because Project Ontario, Matt Spoke, the co-founder, has joined

00:02:12.620 this show before to talk about it. It is a collection of the leading conservative third parties of media

00:02:18.700 influence-ers of top campaigners, of concerned politicians. We didn't all decide to get together

00:02:26.540 to suddenly be liberal. The fact that he even called something radical right in Yahoo and then

00:02:31.820 implied that it had ties to the federal party is sort of like he's implying that the federal party,

00:02:38.820 to him, who are conservative, are also radical rights in Yahoo's, which probably tells you just

00:02:44.120 how far left he's drifted. I spoke on stage at the Project Ontario conference in September at the

00:02:51.300 Gardner Museum, just steps down the street from Queens Park. And I was looking out at hundreds of

00:02:58.460 people, concerned parents, the hardworking folk, young people who can't find jobs and feel like

00:03:04.180 they have to move away. And I didn't see Yahoo's and radical rights. I saw conservatives who were going

00:03:09.720 home to the need for bollards in their driveways and security guards and kids who couldn't find work

00:03:16.560 and who were worried about crime and chaos and abdication on housing starts and affordability

00:03:22.240 and that cozy relationship with the federal liberals that one could certainly argue. And for him to make

00:03:29.500 this principled argument, to try to besmirch those with reasonable criticism, is perhaps ironic,

00:03:36.820 considering this is a group who, let's say when he's not pulling liquor off the shelves or talking

00:03:42.500 tough while handing out a record amount of subsidies, now more than Quebec, which is pretty

00:03:47.560 astonishing, they're in a little bit of hot water. They're clients of lobbying firms with close

00:03:53.600 connections to Premier Doug Ford, who have been hugely successful in applying to the province's

00:03:58.380 Skills Development Fund, a grant program that Ontario's Auditor General themselves recently

00:04:03.820 characterized as not fair, transparent, or accountable. This has been impactful reporting

00:04:09.660 from Trillium. Clients of a single firm have received more than $100 million from the Skills

00:04:15.160 Development Fund, according to this Trillium analysis of government spending logs and lobbying

00:04:20.660 records. That firm is owned by the Premier's campaign manager. So if we want to talk principles,

00:04:28.380 if we want to talk yahoos, I'm sorry, but there's a little bit of accountability that's missing there.

00:04:34.360 And it sure seems like there are conservative principles that are missing there. I hope they

00:04:38.100 find their way. I really do. Because we're talking to Bobby Ann Brady. She is an incredible story,

00:04:43.240 an independent MPP. That's her party. Those are her people. She was cast aside, and she's won twice

00:04:50.180 anyway. Thrilled to have her on the show. She has proven Ford and is inner circle wrong. And join us for

00:04:56.540 this chat. Joining us now on the show is Bobby Ann Brady. Bobby Ann is a Haldeman Norfolk independent

00:05:02.300 MPP, a second-term member of provincial parliament who has proven Premier Doug Ford and is inner circle

00:05:08.780 wrong in a pretty tremendous way. And I'm excited to share her story. Bobby Ann, thanks for joining us.

00:05:14.360 Thanks for having me. Happy Friday.

00:05:16.060 Yeah, happy Friday. Happy you have your local, your fair and your riding this week, don't you?

00:05:21.380 One of Ontario's oldest county fairs, Norfolk County Fair and Horshow. It operates seven days

00:05:29.880 straight, all day long, all night long. So this tired face is all, I'm almost fared out, but it's

00:05:36.820 one of the best weeks in our area's year. And one of the things that we always look forward to.

00:05:45.660 That's terrific. I think of like a great county fair. Like, I think of food. Like,

00:05:50.240 what's like, what's the item for you? What have you perhaps like overindulged in? What's the oddity?

00:05:55.260 I don't overindulge in fair food. I'm one of those people who, you know, eats before she goes to the

00:06:02.480 fair because I don't want to be tempted. But if I, if I had to pick one thing, maybe it'd be the

00:06:06.760 elephant ear. Oh, wow. That's, now what would that be? So it's just a big piece of pastry and you can put

00:06:12.900 like icing sugar on it. It's like, um, like a beaver tail. Oh, terrific. Okay. Yeah. It's like never

00:06:18.500 shop, uh, never grocery shop when you're hungry. It's like the same rule. Right. And so, and one of

00:06:23.180 the other, we have some pretty cool, um, food vendors locally here. One of, one of which I love

00:06:28.960 is called fork and pierogies. And so it's, you know, all different, like pork on pierogies or

00:06:35.200 all different toppings on, on, you know, some pierogies. It's one of the, one of the best

00:06:40.420 places to grab a bite to eat. A lot of our local festivals. Good to hear. We love our local

00:06:45.840 businesses. We love our local festivals. The, the locals love you, you, you have been a popular

00:06:52.040 two-term, uh, MPP and it almost didn't come about because you have this really interesting story where

00:07:01.860 let's just say the, the Ford PCs meddled, uh, in, in the riding and meddled in, in what the

00:07:10.140 constituents expected of the electoral process to come. Tell us a little bit about, about what the

00:07:16.300 heck happened there. Yeah. So we're, we're backing up to 2022 and, you know, in 2022, 2023, I told this

00:07:22.220 story so many times that, uh, you know, it was, I could do it in my sleep, but I'm a bit out of

00:07:27.200 practice. So if we, if we rewind to 2022, um, I was the Hilderman Norfolk PC riding association

00:07:34.440 president and I had been for over 20 years. I that's constitutionally wrong. Um, but nobody,

00:07:41.080 nobody wanted to be, uh, the president. Toby Barrett had been the, the member for the PCs for 27 years

00:07:47.500 here. People were very complacent that, you know, Oh, you know, Bobby Ann will do the work on the

00:07:52.680 association and, and everything will be hunky-dory and Toby will continue to get reelected. So we had

00:07:57.900 a hard time attracting new members, but I was the president for over 20 years. And, um, if we,

00:08:06.720 if we go back to January, 2022, I, I said to the party, look, you know what, we all know Toby,

00:08:13.400 after the 2018 election had gone to the premier's office and he had said, look, this is my last run.

00:08:18.080 I want to keep it private, but I'm letting you guys know that, um, we need a succession plan.

00:08:23.680 And I want you to know that I've been grooming my EA for a number of years. Um, so, so that's that.

00:08:29.920 So we left it there. January, 2022. Um, you know, I go to the party and I said, look, we need to

00:08:35.920 start planning for a nomination night. Well, Bobby Ann COVID is, is, uh, you know, has just reared its

00:08:42.380 ugly head. Once again, we can't do, um, nominations, which was really interesting to me because at the

00:08:48.060 time I lived with third in command at the Ontario PC party, and he was going out the door and running

00:08:53.840 nominations elsewhere in this province where COVID was more prevalent than Haldeman Norfolk.

00:09:00.680 And so that didn't make sense to me. So February comes along. I ask again, nope, nope, nope.

00:09:06.760 Mars comes along. Nope, nope, nope. And, um, April 9th, I remember the day well, because, uh,

00:09:12.400 my mom's birthday is in April. And on April 9th, I cooked all day long for her birthday.

00:09:16.860 Uh, it's a real feat for me. And, um, so we were just sitting down to dinner and Toby called me and

00:09:21.980 he says, um, I've got some bad news. The premier is going to appoint, um, mayor Ken Hewitt as the PC

00:09:28.600 candidate. And I said, Toby, I don't have time for games right now. Like I'm, you know, I've been

00:09:32.000 cooking all day. He goes, no, it's, this is the truth. And, um, that was like a kick to the gut.

00:09:39.020 Number one, um, Mr. Hewitt was not seen as a conservative. Um, I, I knew that because I ran the

00:09:46.700 PC association for 20 years, he had run, um, as a federal liberal prior to that. So I said,

00:09:53.900 you know, eventually I said to Toby over my dead body, are we going to allow this to happen?

00:09:57.440 No personal offense to Mr. Hewitt, but the process is terrible. And the party will say,

00:10:02.360 you know, my detractors, any, anybody who still exists with, with, uh, you know, the

00:10:07.900 Haldeman Norfolk PC association today, which they're all new members. No, I don't think there's

00:10:12.000 one that is on that board that was there when I was the president, they will say, Oh, well,

00:10:16.860 Bobby, and if you were appointed, no, no, I never wanted to be appointed. I wanted a fair,

00:10:22.680 open, honest, transparent nomination. And so we kept going back after, after the premier had told

00:10:28.540 this to Toby, we kept going back and saying like, run your guy. If you think he's your champion,

00:10:33.280 run him against me. Right. I'll take them on in a nomination. And the proof became when they decided

00:10:38.540 they were not going to run the nomination because they knew I'd clean the floor with the guy. Um,

00:10:42.880 you know, I, I went to Toby one day and Toby was like, I don't know what to do anymore. And I said,

00:10:46.280 well, I know what to do. He's like, what's that? I said, I'm going to challenge one challenge their

00:10:51.080 guy on the ballot as an independent. And that'll be my nomination. And, um, Toby said, you're bleeping

00:10:59.860 crazy, but if you're willing to do it, then let's do it. So, um, I did. And, um, I was told by the

00:11:07.900 party, I would be a political embarrassment. I would get less than 5% of the vote. I would commit

00:11:13.320 political suicide. And I said, that's fine. Like, what do I have to lose? Right. So, so I become a

00:11:18.600 political embarrassment. I commit political suicide. That means God has another plan for me and I'll go

00:11:23.260 find employment somewhere else. Like, but I'm not going to allow the people of Haldim and Norfolk to

00:11:28.060 be, to be dealt a crappy hand. I have worked with these people for over 23 and a half years. At that

00:11:34.960 point, I'd worked for Toby for 23 and a half years. I said, I love my community. I love the people and

00:11:40.740 they don't deserve to be disrespected. And the rest is history. The rest is history. And then I

00:11:48.420 believe it was in February, your share of the vote was like 63.7% or something like really remarkable.

00:11:54.660 Like I, I'm not sure the audience realizes like just how rare that is, how difficult that is to pull

00:11:59.700 off now and provincial or, or federal politics, like pretty, pretty astonishing stuff. And that

00:12:05.520 was in spite of the fact that, uh, you know, Ford at Queens park, you know, once, once said to you,

00:12:12.280 you know, you're not going to have a job next election. Yeah. He, he got mad at me one day when

00:12:17.600 I asked him if he would follow in the footsteps of Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe and, and stop

00:12:22.860 collecting, um, carbon tax on home heating. And, and I had worked out three, three answers for him. I was

00:12:29.440 like, he's, he's going to go one of three ways and he didn't go any of the ways. He just took the

00:12:34.460 opportunity to tell me that he was going to make sure that I was going to be out of a job. He took

00:12:38.240 it very personally. And, um, I just, I'll never forget that day actually. It was fantastic because

00:12:45.000 everybody's leaving the house and they're like, Oh my gosh, Bobby. And we're so sorry. Like that was

00:12:49.200 so inappropriate. You can wipe the smile off my face. And people were like, why, why do you find this

00:12:54.700 funny? And I said, that guy just got me 5,000 votes. I said, I will play that clip. I will loop

00:13:00.940 that. And I will play that from now until election day, because the people called him in Norfolk

00:13:06.300 obviously are very different. Um, this is a traditionally conservative writing who has now

00:13:12.760 set like made history twice. They've made history by choosing an independent. And I said, him telling me

00:13:20.060 I would be out of a job that is going to make the people of Haldeman Norfolk dig their heels in more

00:13:24.220 saying, who's this guy from Toronto telling us, you know, our girl's going to be out of a job.

00:13:30.060 We'll, we'll pick her. We're the only ones who can make her unemployed.

00:13:35.260 And I know, I know that name calling pretty well recently. We, we met at the project Ontario event

00:13:39.820 at the end of September at the, at the Gardner museum. We were thrilled to have you thrilled to

00:13:43.260 have you on stage. This is a collection of, of not radical rights. Like, like you've been such a

00:13:49.660 terrific conservative, independent MPP. I, I was looking across at folks from the major leading

00:13:55.740 third parties, like top industry advocates, like luminaries in the field, people I really look up

00:14:01.020 to like concerned parents, uh, esteemed and distinguished campaigners. And because we put

00:14:07.740 this little thing together, because we've all been kind of in essence, serving in opposition the way you

00:14:12.380 have, because a conservative government doesn't seem to be acting all that conservative instead of

00:14:17.980 interfacing with that, instead of listening to us, instead of, I don't know, maybe trying to write

00:14:23.020 the, write the ship on some of those principles, we get called names. It's at Yahoo's and radical

00:14:29.740 rights. You've gotten, you know, threats to your job. Yeah. Which is, which is funny. Um, I posted it

00:14:36.380 on, uh, on my social media. I said, um, this is funny that the premier says, I don't know who these

00:14:43.020 yahoos are, but I know they're far right. Well, if you don't know who they are, then how do you know

00:14:48.700 that we're far right? And you're, you're exactly bang on when you say like, there was a cross section

00:14:53.420 of people there that night. And it's just because we're disenfranchised. It's not because we're left,

00:14:58.300 right, whatever. We're more in the, in the middle of people who just want common sense returned

00:15:04.300 to Ontario instead of, you know, a premier who was making policy decisions based on the poll that

00:15:11.100 morning. Yeah. And it's, gee, it's like, there's so many conversations you can have about the role

00:15:16.620 of the consultancy there and evidently what's being fed to him because he knows, like he knows who we

00:15:22.860 are and he knows, you know, he had those insults all lined up to try to sort of smother this in the

00:15:28.380 crib. And like, it just, that it was the Streisand effect. It just brought more attention to the project,

00:15:32.780 which is great. And then we had a wonderful sold out event with all kinds of wonderful,

00:15:36.780 small C people. I'm pretty sure he knew I was going that night. I'm sure like,

00:15:42.060 like I loved what Greg Brady said when he kicked off the night and he said, you know,

00:15:46.780 the premier is so preoccupied by who is in this room tonight. And I, like, I just chuckled because

00:15:52.620 I'm like, yeah, he's bang on. But I'm pretty sure he knew I was going to be there because that

00:15:59.180 morning there was a real stunt. I think a stunt pulled on me. So one of the things that the

00:16:03.820 premier always says when we, when we rise from the house for the summer, for an extended period

00:16:09.500 of time, he's like, and you'll be sure that if I'm coming through your riding or any of my cabinet

00:16:14.460 ministers are coming through your riding, you guys will be the first to know, and you'll be invited.

00:16:19.500 Hmm. Tuesday morning, I'm tip tapping out my notes for, for Tuesday night, downtown Toronto.

00:16:27.100 And all of a sudden my phone starts buzzing. Where are you? Where are you? All these, all these,

00:16:31.020 um, count county counselors from Haldeman. And I'm like, what do you mean? Where am I? I'm,

00:16:36.060 I'm at home working on, on a project for tonight. And they're like the premiers at a truth and

00:16:43.020 reconciliation march in Hagersville, like in my riding. So every day, the premier and the cabinet

00:16:50.780 minister's calendar comes out through Queens Park briefing. And, and, you know, Monday,

00:16:55.340 it said that he was going to be in Hamilton with Andrew Horvath. And that happened Tuesday.

00:17:00.540 His calendar was blank. Yeah. He really didn't want Bobby and Brady to find out. So then,

00:17:06.780 you know, one of his guys, former, former candidate who ran against me in 2022 is the

00:17:12.940 first one to post on social media. Wow. You wouldn't believe who was missing from the truth

00:17:17.260 and reconciliation in March today. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Unbelievable.

00:17:22.460 I, it strikes me as just so peculiar because I think we all want to be big tent people. Like I,

00:17:31.500 as a third party guy, I'm the director of the national citizens coalition. I lucky to work here with

00:17:36.220 Juno on a few projects is, is maybe it's like a holier than thou thing. Cause I'm like not inside

00:17:42.220 of it, but it's like, I, I generally view conservatism and common sense minded policy

00:17:47.580 advocacy. It's like, we're all part of, you know, a big tent trying to, to give that social license to,

00:17:52.940 to prevent like the really damaging things that we've seen, for example, over the last 10 years. But

00:17:58.060 when it comes to the project Ontario event, when I was on stage, I mentioned to people like Mike Harris

00:18:04.780 would tell you, and he would tell the third parties during the common sense revolution that

00:18:09.100 every day in office, they tell me I can't do something. And I, and I try to do it anyway.

00:18:13.660 And, and he would meet with these groups. He would meet with the kinds of people who are in that room

00:18:17.980 with, with that's right. Independent MPP is like you, he wouldn't have kicked you out of course.

00:18:22.620 Right. But, and, and say, you know, you're actually by holding us to account or by, you know,

00:18:27.820 reminding us of our principles and our values, you are giving us the license to go out and do this work

00:18:35.180 to, to actually, you know, not just take it from the left and have to abdicate on all these key

00:18:41.580 issues. And the fact that that is now just met with hostility is unique to me. And I, and I know

00:18:47.580 it's unique to you because you're sitting there going, this is my party. These were my people.

00:18:51.420 This is, this is my family, right? This is my second family. 23 and a half years

00:18:56.860 means zero. And one of the things that Toby Barrett instilled in me was that sense of loyalty,

00:19:01.660 right? It was actually, it was actually an interview question. Um, it still is. I use it

00:19:06.140 in my interview process now is like of all these words, what is the most important for working in,

00:19:11.260 in a political environment? And the answer has to be loyalty because if you're loyal,

00:19:15.980 everything else falls into place. And so here, you know, in 2022, we have the premier,

00:19:21.660 Toby Barrett was the first MPP to support Doug Ford in his bid for leadership, the very first MPP to

00:19:29.100 support the guy. And then in 2022, when Toby says, Doug, this is a really bad idea. Like that

00:19:34.860 your, your champion is not a champion. Yeah. I was like, I don't need to listen to you,

00:19:40.140 Toby. Right. I don't need to listen to you. And, and the fact that they continue to come after me,

00:19:45.580 like, it does not feel like this campaign has ended. It did not end in February. I have been

00:19:50.860 dragged into integrity commissioner reports through the municipality that I have had nothing

00:19:55.580 to do with, uh, his, his group of, uh, conservatives locally. I, and I use that

00:20:01.020 conservative word loosely. I've never seen them before in, in the political,

00:20:05.020 in the conservative political circles. So I suggest they're, they're, they're opportunists. Um,

00:20:10.300 they come at me every single day, like, like the campaign hasn't ended.

00:20:14.700 And I find this government, I find the Doug Ford government. Um, and, and when I say that,

00:20:20.620 I'm not talking about all of the cabinet ministers because there are some wonderful,

00:20:24.860 wonderful, really wonderful, like bears repeating. And I, I very much feel the same.

00:20:28.940 There's some terrific people in there. Yeah. But then there are some people in the very inner circle

00:20:33.740 who are extremely vindictive and that's the problem. Yeah. And I think we're seeing that

00:20:39.500 play out and I think we're seeing versions of favoritism. If one were to check the news right

00:20:43.900 now, there is perhaps that ethics, uh, send one of those guys in the direction of a lobby group or

00:20:50.540 two. And so is there anything conservative about this government to you? Because I talk to people

00:20:56.220 about this all the time and I can appreciate that they now win these apathy elections because the

00:21:01.100 opposition, you know, can't get its, can't get it to, you know, what together. Yeah.

00:21:06.140 When you look at any of the recent work of, of the Ford government, like, can you point to anything

00:21:11.340 that feels conservative to you? I, nothing comes to mind. I mean, the, the premier has said some

00:21:17.900 conservative things. And when he does say conservative, I actually go out on social media and say,

00:21:23.100 Hey, like, you know, being able to defend your property, being able to defend your, your family

00:21:29.900 on your own property, hands down, premier that dude, I, I can, I can support you every single

00:21:36.300 day of the week on that. Yeah. And a few days later, he says something like, Oh, we're going to

00:21:40.540 give, you know, asylum seekers work permits when, when our kids, my, my 20 year old can't get a part

00:21:46.380 time job. Yeah. It makes no sense. And so like, it's just all over the place. It's like developing

00:21:53.820 policy on the back of a napkin. Well, it, it, it strikes me every day is like

00:21:58.860 an issues management exercise. But when you're just, when you're just putting out fires that you

00:22:04.140 start, you know, where's the, where's the plan? Like, where's the, you can't execute the ground

00:22:10.220 game when it's, you know, Oh, the feds are pulling, you know, the funding for, for the asylum shelters.

00:22:15.660 And so it's like, I got a bright idea. 800,000 new guys into the work market. When it's record

00:22:21.100 high youth unemployment, your son can't find a job. I talked to, to, to young people every

00:22:28.460 single day who are like, I'm on my 200th resume. I don't see a prep, like a path to prosperity here.

00:22:33.580 Like I got to move to Alberta, you know, heck I might move to Mexico. Like this is, you know,

00:22:38.060 I thought this was going to be my, my forever home. And it's, it's as if it doesn't want me.

00:22:41.980 That's right. Yeah. And especially I think if you are a young male, right. I mean, we are just like,

00:22:49.020 shove your hands in your pockets, put your head down and don't ask any questions. And,

00:22:53.180 and that is really tough from a, from a mom's perspective. I have a 24 year old daughter and

00:22:57.900 a 20 year old son. And, you know, I, I just don't know what to tell my son. Um, you know,

00:23:04.460 you want to be hopeful, you want to be optimistic, but when you don't see the things happening that

00:23:10.220 should, um, that, you know, would set my son up for, um, success, you're at a loss as to what

00:23:16.140 to say to them. Right. And that's where many of us as conservatives have become very disenfranchised

00:23:21.340 when we see these things. And, um, we're seeing them, you know, in our small communities as well,

00:23:26.860 which is really scary because a lot of people, traditional conservatives would say, well, no,

00:23:31.180 it hasn't looked like that in Haldeman Norfolk, or it hasn't looked like that in Brant, but now it's

00:23:35.580 looking like that right across the province. And that's when people are like, wait a minute.

00:23:39.740 And, you know, I said to somebody after, um, we were, you know, offstage at Project Ontario,

00:23:45.660 I said to someone, look, you know what, the premier could be in trouble. Like,

00:23:50.060 I get so tired of hearing, um, you know, the heckling from conservatives who are like,

00:23:56.700 oh, we got the super majority and like the, the boasting and the arrogance. And I'm like,

00:24:03.180 you know what, that can fall apart just like that.

00:24:07.020 Yeah. And it's, it's, what are you proud of at this point? Like,

00:24:11.420 I can appreciate a big electoral machine that runs on a lot of our money. I can appreciate that

00:24:18.860 winning is important, but like very much in the, at what cost phase where if you ask the average

00:24:25.260 person, if their life was the, you know, the classic election question, which is like,

00:24:28.140 is your life better now than it was pick a date? Like even like Matt Lau in the, in the national post

00:24:34.300 this week wrote, like, it's like when in McGinty, we're beating him on spending and crime, like,

00:24:38.940 like in keeping that one on the rails. And so congratulations, this has gone well for, you know,

00:24:44.860 all your guys and the inner circle. But if you, when we looked around that room at, at, at our,

00:24:50.620 our families and friends and fellow professionals, like I didn't see a whole lot of people who,

00:24:56.380 you know, felt positive about the direction of the province.

00:24:59.100 No, we wouldn't have been there had, had we felt positive and, you know, with respect to law and

00:25:05.100 order, you know, crime and law and order, you know, I asked the tough question one day, you know,

00:25:11.740 to Mr. Kersner and, and I said, like, look, are, are you going to tell the, to the, tell the feds that

00:25:18.300 you will not, you know, use OPP, you will not use police in this province to go door to door and ask

00:25:24.380 people about gun ownership and, and, you know, what's in their safe. And, and he had the opportunity

00:25:29.660 to very conservatively say, no, these are not. Of course not. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no, no. And,

00:25:36.540 and I spent a lot of time, my, my liberal colleagues to their credit were more, um, because I think Mitzi

00:25:43.420 Hunter stood up that morning and she, uh, she was still in the house at the time and she had spoken

00:25:47.420 about, uh, there had been a shooting at a school in, in her writing. And so she, and, and I said,

00:25:53.740 that's, you know, do I ask this question today? Because she's just, and I went ahead with it.

00:25:59.260 And then I, I took the, my liberal friends and they came to my desk and I said, look, you know what,

00:26:04.380 the gun being used at that school is not a law abiding gun owners gun. Like I gave them the education

00:26:12.460 they were interested in it. The conservatives, of course, know that what I'm seeing is correct,

00:26:18.140 but yet they won't do the right thing and just say, no, you know what, we're not going to abet

00:26:22.220 bad policy that makes for a sexy headline on the six o'clock news. Well, they're awfully chummy with

00:26:28.060 the federal liberals. Right. And so very, very disappointing what the premier did to Pierre.

00:26:34.620 Yeah. Well, I mean, that's, that could be a whole other episode. I'm not sure we have time today

00:26:38.940 because I find it a little bit ironic, of course, that I think part of the criticism of

00:26:44.460 yourself and part of the criticism of, for example, Project Ontario has been this, like,

00:26:49.020 you're supposed to keep it in the tent guys. And it's like, where was that during the federal

00:26:52.700 election? Where was that? This, this daily planting of media stories, these daily liberal podcasts,

00:26:58.460 these daily distraction cycles. Yeah. And, and if we're supposed to keep it in the tent,

00:27:03.340 then at least let us come in the tent. You got kicked out of the tent. I got kicked out of the

00:27:07.180 stinking tent and I'm not allowed back in. I'm a, I'm a Yahoo. Yeah. So, so when you start,

00:27:14.220 like, I don't understand this. So we're allowed, Doug Ford's allowed to have just like, you know,

00:27:19.340 go across the political spectrum and, and, you know, abet somebody like Trudeau and abet somebody

00:27:24.700 like Carney, but yet he's not willing to listen to those of us with conservative thoughts. So we're not

00:27:30.140 allowed to have dissenting views within the tent. And as soon as you have a dissenting view within the tent,

00:27:34.700 boom, you're gone. You're kicked right out. But yet he'll go, he'll go outside the tent

00:27:39.260 and solicit advice and policy from people outside the tent. It makes zero sense.

00:27:44.540 So it inexplicably falls to us to continue to be the opposition of Bobbi Ann.

00:27:50.140 Yeah. And we will. Bobbi Ann on, I think it was your last election night. You said that courage is

00:27:53.820 contagious. And so that is, those are, those are important words to live by. And thanks so much

00:27:59.100 for joining us today. Oh, thanks for having me.

Juno News - October 11, 2025

Doug Ford is NOT a conservative

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