00:00:00.000just days after the bc conservative party leader carrie lynn finley announced her resignation
00:00:11.960ndp premier david eby trying to jump at the chance called a snap election david eby he's
00:00:18.860made it clear he is not campaigning against the bc conservatives he's not campaigning on his
00:00:23.700record as premier he is campaigning against donald trump david eby and the ndp are making
00:00:28.860a major gamble. They already have majority mandate. They have a few years left on that
00:00:33.500majority mandate. But the gamble is this, that after nearly 10 years of NDP rule in British
00:00:38.160Columbia, with an out-of-control spending crisis, with years of blocked natural resource projects,
00:00:44.680with radical drug decriminalization, DRIPA, as well as SOGI in education, that the British
00:00:51.720Columbia people are going to decide that they want to keep going down this path. But will the
00:00:57.280gamble pay off? Or will the NDP be in for a rude awakening? Conservative MP Aaron Gunge wants me
00:01:04.060next to talk about it. Buying a Juno News subscription is a lot more than just paying
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00:01:50.540are in this fight alongside us as always before you get into the show be sure to drop a like on
00:01:55.120this video subscribe to the juno news youtube channel and the comment question for the episode
00:01:58.840is this will david eb's big gamble pay off let me know your answer in the comments below and let's
00:02:05.480get into it right joining me now is the conservative mp for north island power river
00:02:10.480aaron gunn aaron always a pleasure to speak with you thank you for coming on the show
00:02:14.160thank you for having me all right so david eb's just called a snap election in your province
00:02:20.300trying to jump at the chance when the BC Conservatives have just lost their permanent
00:02:25.940leader. He seems to think he's got the upper hand, but is he going to be in for a rude awakening on
00:02:31.120election day, you think? Well, I think so far it's pretty much blown up in his face. I liken it to
00:02:37.860a hockey game where you go into the third period, you're up by three goals, and you kind of sit back
00:02:42.860and relax, and 10 minutes through the third, it's now 3-3, and it's game on. So I think that's
00:02:48.220what's happening right now in British Columbia. I expect once you start getting the first polls
00:02:53.980since the writ drop and maybe three or four days from now, you'll see a race,
00:02:59.120maybe one or two points between the main parties. And there's nothing that unites conservatives,
00:03:05.640Harrison, more than the prospect of four years of NDP government. And that's what we're seeing.
00:03:10.480So in the Premier's first remarks following the election call and the writ drop,
00:03:15.680he was channeling his inner Mark Carney. He basically spent the entire time campaigning
00:03:21.100against Trump and not campaigning on his record. What kind of record does he even have to run on?
00:03:27.180Because from my perspective, it seems to be one disaster after another with crime, with health,
00:03:33.420with the budget spending and the land cases. From your perspective, is that all he's got,
00:03:39.240donald trump well he's going to try to use uh every moment of this campaign to talk about
00:03:47.300anything other than his record as premier british columbia i honestly think you know i'm a student
00:03:51.880of history i think he might be one of the worst premiers in the history of this entire country
00:03:57.540whether it's the fact he's essentially tripled the provincial debt in in i don't know what is it
00:04:03.340four or five years. He has, his opioid crisis has exploded, the failed experiment to decriminalize
00:04:11.340and hand out hard drugs, including opioids. The healthcare system is a mess. You alluded to
00:04:17.700the radical legislation like DRIPA that has thrown private property rights into question,
00:04:22.320these new forever treaties that never actually settle anything that he's trying to ram
00:04:26.860through the legislature. The list goes on and on. Forest industry on the brink of collapse in
00:04:33.020British Columbia, so many things. It's really, it's a challenge to find anything good that he's
00:04:38.480done. So it's, yeah, I think he's going to use Trump as a distraction when, of course, it's not
00:04:44.080even really anything to do with the provincial government. I bet you Donald Trump has no idea
00:04:49.000who David Eby actually even is. So that is just an issue that we're going to try. I know as
00:04:54.980conservatives, I think I can speak for the candidates running that they're going to focus
00:04:58.820on David Eby's record and what they can actually do differently here in British Columbia.
00:05:03.020What were you hearing at the doors in your riding at a provincial level and also at a federal level? I imagine you spent the summer talking to your constituents. Do you think that they're geared up and ready for this chance? And what have you heard from them about just the day-to-day issues impacting the lives of your constituents?
00:05:23.200yeah well i definitely nobody saw this election coming i mean it's one of the most opportunistic
00:05:29.980i mean maybe ironically if it blows up in his face election calls just because the opposition
00:05:35.200was going through a tumultuous time obviously as you as you mentioned but people are people
00:05:41.020are struggling people are struggling with affordability in british columbia people are
00:05:45.060struggling with the large increases in violent crime as i've talked about a lot this is a
00:05:49.600combination of federal, liberal and provincial NDP policies. People are struggling with collapsing
00:05:55.780our critical industries, especially forestry, where we've had more than a dozen mills closed
00:06:02.060on the coast over the past few years. This has nothing to do with tariffs. These started closing
00:06:06.380before Donald Trump even became president. And then you have, again, these radical policies like
00:06:13.160DRIPA, these new treaties that have made the question, made people who own their home question
00:06:21.120if they actually own the land on which their home is built on, and these treaties that don't solve
00:06:26.240anything and just leave to this kind of forever reconciliation industry. So I think that those
00:06:32.480are the issues that we're hearing at the door. People are hearing about affordability, safe
00:06:37.220streets and the issues concerning private property let's talk about the conservative
00:06:42.980party of bc a party that you were deeply involved with reviving you know it well and the people
00:06:48.580involved there lauren dorkson the the new interim leader seems to be off to a flying start um he's
00:06:56.180also just announced that if he wins the election he will stay on as leader i want to give you the
00:07:00.820chance to react to that news which has basically just been released yeah i think there was those
00:07:08.580around the campaign have been talking about this for a while from from my perspective um it's it's
00:07:14.420it's necessary i mean we're not the ones that forced this election that was the ndp obviously
00:07:18.820but if you're going to campaign to british colombians you need to present a credible
00:07:22.180alternative and you need to present a leader who's actually campaigning to be premier
00:07:26.580Otherwise, you just open up, I think, too many avenues of attack where the NDP can basically campaign against whoever they want that could conceivably come after him.
00:07:34.960So I think it's a smart move. I think it's a necessary move.
00:07:38.240And I agree with you. I think Lauren is off to a fantastic start.
00:07:42.800I talked to him the other day. This is obvious. This is, you know, he's like the the Jon Snow of B.C. politics.
00:07:50.360He didn't want the job. He didn't apply for the job, but the rest of his caucus pushed him through unanimously to be the interim leader through this tumultuous time, and obviously for good reason.
00:08:00.000He knows his stuff. He's a good guy. It's impossible, I think, for the NDP to demonize, and it's going to then neutralize that element of the campaign and allow us to focus on the NDP's horrible record.
00:08:12.800the party also has been able to attract some of the previous defectors just over the past
00:08:19.440few months it's been a real whirlwind from afar at least watching it um but i think
00:08:25.360it showed a united front for the conservative party of british columbia
00:08:30.320um what have you made of the way the party seems to be rallying back together and getting the band
00:08:37.140back together just in time for this election call. Has that surprised you at all based off
00:08:42.820of what we saw just a month ago? Well, I mean, I think it may be just the speed and the thoroughness
00:08:49.820of how it happened. Although, as I mentioned earlier, you know, nothing after the last,
00:08:56.620you know, five or so years of David Eby, you know, nothing got conservatives together on the
00:09:01.800same page more than the thought of having to deal with them for four more years.
00:09:07.140And that's really allowed Conservatives to coalesce.
00:09:10.960There are definitely differences within the party as there are within any political party.
00:09:16.440But, I mean, we would, I think, take a strong Conservative government 100 times out of 100 compared to this NDP train wreck that we've seen.
00:09:25.340And as I mentioned, that's on so many different issues and so many different fronts.
00:09:30.500So, yeah, Conservatives have gone together. We're on the same page.
00:09:33.140David Eby has given us tons of ammunition to run with.
00:09:36.360And when we step up to the mics and we start talking, we're pointing out their failures.
00:09:40.640And when David Eby steps up to the mic, he's just talking about Donald Trump, who is not on the ballot in this election.
00:09:45.620So I think that choice will be clear to British Columbians when they go to vote here in a couple of weeks.
00:09:51.700How much involvement will you and your Conservative Party of Canada colleagues have in this campaign?
00:09:59.020I know there's been some issues with previous provincial elections where the party has not wanted to be involved directly or keep things at arm's length, if you could put it that way.
00:10:12.160Are you planning to be on the ground, door knocking?
00:10:17.140What can you provide in terms of insight into how the federal party is going to engage with this provincial election?
00:10:25.020Yeah, I don't want to speak for all of my colleagues.
00:10:27.940i can speak for myself and those that i've spoken with which is that we are we are animated and we're
00:10:32.740we're here to help now we're not looking to get into the way or run the campaign or anything like
00:10:37.060that and you'll probably see us uh lending a hand to to candidates and conservative mlas that that
00:10:44.260we know and that we respect and that we want to see get elected uh but the truth is you know we're
00:10:49.460we're conservative members of parliament yes we're in ottawa that is our job but we're also residents
00:10:54.180of british columbia and we are beyond frustrated just as private citizens at the the lack of the
00:11:01.380just the horrid level of governance again whether it's on this decriminalization experiment the
00:11:07.860handing out of free drugs the tripling of the debt the higher taxes the the collapsing forest
00:11:13.380industry or healthcare system we've we've like so many british columbians we're we're fed up we've
00:11:17.940We've had enough and we're here to help in any way that we can.
00:11:21.000It does seem that a provincial British Columbia government that is willing to accept natural resource projects from Alberta out to the Pacific coast and that is willing to crack down on crime can have a real, a real significant change in the country across the board.
00:11:39.760um this this this election does seem to be of significant national importance not just for the
00:11:47.760people of british columbia but but for the rest of the country is that part of the pitch that
00:11:52.760you will be making at the doors and that you imagine the conservative party of british
00:11:56.500columbia will be making that this is this is bigger than just british columbia
00:12:00.120yeah look i know uh we've chatted a bit offline i know we're big uh fans of canada could i'm
00:12:08.520comfortable with the framing of nationalists. I imagine you probably are too. A strong Canada
00:12:15.600needs a strong British Columbia. This is the third largest province. It is endowed with such an
00:12:22.600incredible wealth of resources, whether in oil and natural gas in our northeast, our forests that
00:12:27.480cover almost every inch of the province, the vast mineral wealth underneath our feet. And we've had
00:12:32.880government that has basically been intent on shutting all of these industries down. And in
00:12:38.760some cases, when it comes to blocking critical resource pipelines, actually shutting down the
00:12:44.180industries of other provinces. So a strong Canada needs a strong British Columbia and a 100% that's
00:12:51.780going to be part of the message that we're delivering at the doorstep. Is there any concern
00:12:56.340that you have right now about potential vote splitting from the centre-right regarding Centre
00:13:02.160BC and 1 BC. Is that on the radar? And is that of concern to you at all?
00:13:10.020Well, I don't know how Oregon, I mean, if the Conservative Party was taken off guard by the
00:13:15.520snap election, I'm sure these smaller parties are going to have an even more difficult time
00:13:19.080fielding candidates. We'll see what happens. Center BC, I mean, they just announced today
00:13:23.760the former leader of the Green Party as their star candidate. So I think actually they're more
00:13:29.640likely to take votes um from the ndp uh since those conservative mlas uh the vast all but one
00:13:36.680have returned to the conservative fold uh 1bc could present um could present that challenge
00:13:42.040in some ridings but we'll see and at the end of the day on the core issues um really that drove
00:13:47.5601bc's prominence such as opposing drippa and opposing these these never-ending uh treaties
00:13:53.320that don't actually solve anything uh the conservative party is right there and it's
00:13:57.000one of their top priorities if actually they believe warren dirksen said uh his top priority
00:14:02.600so um i hope that we can again it's like anyone i enjoy a good philosophical debate but i honestly
00:14:10.200do not know if this province can survive another four years of the ndp so i think this is a critical
00:14:15.080election i think it's the most important election in a generation and um i'm hoping that the
00:14:20.360campaign can succeed succeed and conservatives can find a reason to to get behind uh the party
00:14:26.920let's switch gears and focus back in in ottawa and what your party's agenda will be for this
00:14:34.040upcoming parliamentary session how you plan to oppose the government and where you might be
00:14:39.400seeing weaknesses that you can start attacking the liberal government on yeah i mean our focus
00:14:46.600is going to be on on saving canadians money on on making their streets safe and putting canada first
00:14:52.840and um you know affordability across the country continues to get worse we know the prime minister
00:15:01.160enjoys uh uh jet setting around the world which is fine but um it's not solving the problems here
00:15:08.280at home so we're going to be focusing on the the real issues of real people uh the prime minister
00:15:12.920I always like to say during the election, he'll be judged by the price at the grocery store.
00:15:18.280Well, those prices aren't coming down by any stretch of the imagination.
00:15:21.560We're also going to be looking to continue to hold the Liberal government to account
00:15:26.140on their various pieces of legislation that expand the size and scope of government
00:15:32.740that I think jeopardize the civil liberties of Canadians and individual freedoms.
00:15:38.180And we're going to make sure that we're a loud voice on that front as well.
00:15:41.000so a whole bunch of issues we're going to continue to to talk about and we'll see what legislation
00:15:47.460they introduced they just introduced a new bill i think this week but it's it's 240 pages so we
00:15:52.720got to work our way through it and uh and see what we think but you know they've been they've
00:15:57.760been talking about back to when we worked with them to pass bill c5 about building things in
00:16:02.100this country i think in the words of the prime minister at speeds and never seen uh before in
00:16:07.500canada and we haven't seen that happen yet so we want to start building things here again we want
00:16:11.560to build we want to bring jobs home we want to get these critical infrastructure projects built
00:16:16.440like pipelines and right now we've seen some rhetoric from the liberal government but we
00:16:21.040haven't seen any results so that's what we're going to keep pushing for i've noticed that
00:16:26.380your colleagues have been focusing a lot of time in the house on telling stories of individual
00:16:33.680canadians and personalizing some of the issues that canadians are are experiencing and forcing
00:16:39.460the government to respond to stories of of of individuals is is that that seems to be a conscious
00:16:46.460strategy from your side uh tell us more a little bit about what what the plan is for that and how
00:16:51.940you hope that that's going to leave leave a mark on the government yeah well it actually goes back
00:16:59.300to this uh this summer where uh you know we're talking internally and listening to pierre he
00:17:03.860wanted us to all go out uh in our ridings in the communities that we represent knock on doors and
00:17:09.220talk to real canadians to gather these stories and then uh deliver them in the house of commons to
00:17:14.420get the government to respond we think like i said on some of these big issues their rhetoric
00:17:20.180has changed they've set some some aspirational goals which is fine but we haven't actually seen
00:17:26.420tangible results and tangible changes in the lives of everyday ordinary canadians they're
00:17:32.020still struggling with the affordability crisis they're still struggling uh you know to put food
00:17:36.820on the table and afford a home in the communities that they grew up in i always i tell the story
00:17:41.860when my grandfather came to this country back in 1957 as a refugee fleeing communism he didn't
00:17:46.980know the language started out at pretty much the lowest possible job working on the railway
00:17:51.620Yet on that near minimum wage salary, he was able to afford a home, a nice piece of property, right on Vancouver Island, raise a family of three on a single income, and have that home paid off in less than 10 years.
00:18:05.340And that would be totally impossible anywhere in Canada today, obviously.
00:18:11.080And despite the fact that with the advances in technology and our incredible resource wealth, we should be wealthier than ever before.
00:18:16.400So we're going to keep pushing these stories as well as the people that have been victims of violent crime and repeat violent offenders to, you know, in some cases maybe do the job that we wish the media was doing on their own.
00:18:29.880Well, absolutely. Aaron, I appreciate you speaking to us. We'll have to leave it there.
00:18:33.980Thank you for giving us insight into what's going on in British Columbia and the plan in Ottawa.
00:18:38.220Always a pleasure to speak with you. Thank you.