Juno News - May 19, 2022


Jason Kenney is resigning. What does it mean for Canadian conservatism？


Episode Stats

Length

49 minutes

Words per Minute

191.5105

Word Count

9,449

Sentence Count

421

Misogynist Sentences

1


Summary

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

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
00:00:00.000 lair
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00:00:10.720 soon
00:00:19.880 in
00:00:23.880 We'll be right back.
00:00:53.880 reverent talk show this is the andrew lawton show brought to you by true north
00:01:03.160 hello and welcome to you all this is the andrew lawton show here on true north and i believe i'm
00:01:08.920 hiding behind an email right now this is uh this is like the technical brilliance you can come to
00:01:14.040 expect from the andrew lawton show it looks like unless my uh my end is uh is all messed up here
00:01:19.240 But in any case, which is entirely possible, if you are seeing me, then I don't mind that at all.
00:01:23.780 I'm just getting a look at a different view than you are, possibly because one second ago, just before I got into my studio in the bunker here,
00:01:33.000 I like slipped down the stairs and I was holding my laptop in one hand and I managed to avoid breaking my laptop or my head,
00:01:39.660 one of which produces constructive things and it's not my head.
00:01:42.880 But I made it in here sitting down and ready to do this.
00:01:46.100 It is a big day and a big week for conservative politics in this country.
00:01:50.680 We're going to be speaking later on in the show about Jason Kenney and his resignation
00:01:56.060 as the, or forthcoming resignation, I should say, as the leader of the UCP and of the Premier
00:02:02.740 of Alberta.
00:02:04.180 And there are still some questions lingering about that.
00:02:07.160 Danielle Smith, who's already lined up to say that she is seeking the leadership of
00:02:11.020 the UCP and ultimately the premiership of Alberta is saying that this is a grassroots resolution.
00:02:16.800 People saying that they do not have confidence in the numbers you need to stay as the leader
00:02:22.400 in Jason Kenney's leadership. So that's actually something we'll be talking about at great length
00:02:27.360 later on. And we're covering different provinces today. I want to start with Ontario politics,
00:02:31.400 because this is, if you're in Ontario, you may or may not know, we're in the midst of an election
00:02:35.760 right now coming up in just a couple of weeks. It hasn't been the most riveting of elections.
00:02:40.720 admittedly it's been a bit sleepy and certainly for me because four years ago i was actually a
00:02:45.900 candidate in the ontario election so i'm glad to be sitting this one from the sidelines in media
00:02:51.740 but one of the unique attributes of this election is that you have some upstart conservative parties
00:02:56.360 that are positioning themselves to really be alternatives to doug ford's government one of
00:03:01.540 them is the new blue party which was founded by jim carahalios and has belinda carahalios who is
00:03:08.200 elected as a PCMPP, as an elected representative up until the writs were issued. And then you also
00:03:14.960 have the Ontario Party, another new party by someone who's been on this show before, Derek
00:03:19.340 Sloan, formerly a Conservative Party of Canada, leadership candidate and member of Parliament,
00:03:24.260 now leader of the provincial Ontario Party. And I thought it would be a great idea to actually get
00:03:29.200 Jim and Derek together on this show to talk about what it is that their parties are doing
00:03:34.660 in the landscape of Ontario politics and how they differ from each other. Because this is something
00:03:39.920 I've been getting emails from Ontarians saying, like, I don't know which of these is supposed to
00:03:44.400 be the party that I vote for. So I thought it'd be good to have a friendly collegial debate between
00:03:49.120 the two. Derek Sloan of the Ontario party accepted rather quickly. Jim Carajalios declined to
00:03:55.660 participate because he said that basically the spokesperson from his campaign said that the
00:04:00.620 Ontario party was not a real contender in their view. So instead, we have Derek Sloan on for a
00:04:06.400 one-on-one interview, but I wanted it noted that Jim Carajalios was invited to make this a broader
00:04:11.500 discussion and was not interested in doing it. But I do want to welcome Derek to the show. Derek,
00:04:16.460 it's good to talk to you again. Thanks for coming on today. Yeah, glad to be here. Thanks, Andrew.
00:04:21.080 So I touched on it a little bit in the intro here, but I think it is an important discussion
00:04:25.060 to be had because we talk all the time about the strategic aspects of this, you know, vote splitting
00:04:30.060 and strategic voting.
00:04:31.800 And there's also the more fundamental philosophical idea,
00:04:34.620 which is that conservatives oftentimes,
00:04:37.020 I think independence is the greatest frustration
00:04:40.200 they have to deal with
00:04:41.100 because you have a lot of groups
00:04:42.660 that are sometimes very difficult to rally together.
00:04:44.760 So why do we have, if we include the PC party here,
00:04:48.880 why do we have three parties
00:04:50.340 that are really going after, I would say,
00:04:52.840 and you can correct me if I'm wrong,
00:04:54.300 the same voters in a lot of ways?
00:04:57.200 Yeah, well, I would say that,
00:04:59.520 you know, I think that there is more room than just sort of poaching off the Conservatives for
00:05:04.380 votes. And I'll go into that a little bit later. But I think what we're seeing now is just
00:05:09.900 dissatisfaction with Doug Ford. There are many Conservatives, many people who voted for Doug
00:05:15.080 Ford, who are frankly appalled at what we've seen the last couple of years, and they want new
00:05:20.000 options. And the Ontario Party is one of them. In terms of, you know, succeeding as a new party,
00:05:25.560 I think that your goal, of course, has to be more than just taking votes from the Conservatives.
00:05:30.280 You have to be able to take votes from everybody.
00:05:34.020 We also live in a country where, you know, roughly half of the people vote, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.
00:05:40.680 There's a lot of people who don't trust anybody, who don't like anybody.
00:05:44.440 And I think we can reach those people, too.
00:05:47.380 So what is it that the Ontario Party is really trying to do?
00:05:51.140 It's not a party that has a conventional name that Canadians are used to that defines it, the Liberals, the Conservatives.
00:05:57.260 So what is the space that you think the Ontario Party occupies?
00:06:01.500 Well, you know, I think Ontarians and Canadians generally are looking for parties that they can trust.
00:06:07.260 And our party is a party that's based on, you know, truth, integrity, transparency.
00:06:12.540 And we walk the talk.
00:06:15.560 We have policies that really want to put freedom and choice back into the hands of Ontarians.
00:06:20.040 and we have a party structure that is based on free votes and openness and transparency
00:06:26.860 that the mainstream parties just don't have.
00:06:29.980 Let's talk a little bit about that gap that we touched on a few moments ago
00:06:34.480 between the New Blue Party led by Jim Carajalios and the Ontario Party
00:06:38.460 because the New Blue Party, to its credit, was the first party to really form
00:06:44.600 in the wake of this dissatisfaction with Doug Ford and the PCs.
00:06:48.900 And Jim Carajalio is a longtime activist in Ontario politics, going back to when Patrick Brown was the leader.
00:06:54.420 He was the first to carve this out.
00:06:56.100 He's made a big point about how he's running a full slate of candidates for his party.
00:07:01.360 So the first there, why was an alternative needed?
00:07:04.700 Why did someone else need to come along?
00:07:07.520 Yeah, that's a good question.
00:07:09.520 You know, the Ontario Party actually existed before the new Blue Party.
00:07:13.260 They were founded in 2018.
00:07:14.900 They ran candidates actually in the 2018 election.
00:07:17.360 But you are correct in the sense that the New Blue, you know, sort of became the first popular party to sort of counter Doug Ford in the minds of many people.
00:07:30.040 What happened in behind the scenes is that there was a variety of people who were trying to bring unity to the freedom movement here in Ontario.
00:07:37.700 So there was Randy Hillier who wanted to have a party.
00:07:41.300 There was other people who wanted to run a party.
00:07:43.940 Roman Babber, for a time, I know, was thinking of starting his own provincial party.
00:07:48.380 That's right.
00:07:49.020 So there was a group of people that wanted to bring some unity to this.
00:07:52.320 And to sort of go back even further, the Carajalos team there has persistently sort of avoided attempts at unity.
00:08:03.600 So there was a chance early on to work with Randy Hillier and others in the spring of 2020.
00:08:10.020 and both Belinda or Jim basically said if I can't run this thing I don't want any part of it
00:08:16.200 and so that sort of turned Hillier and some other people off the the expectation that Randy Hillier
00:08:23.360 had was that there was going to be a party that they were going to to run together and to my
00:08:28.000 knowledge and Randy would have to confirm this but from what I understand Randy was blindsided
00:08:32.520 by the announcement of New Blue so there's been sort of a persistent you know going ahead that's
00:08:37.320 left other people behind in the starting of parties. I can tell you that personally, in my
00:08:42.820 experience with all this, I was involved with a group of people that was trying to bring
00:08:47.220 New Blue and Randy Hillier together. And those efforts failed in large part because of the
00:08:52.900 attacks that were made by New Blue against Randy Hillier. So at that point, many people decided
00:08:59.240 that there needs to be another option that can maybe bring these folks together. That's at the
00:09:04.280 time that I decided to take over leadership of the new blue or sorry, leadership of the Ontario
00:09:08.540 party at the beginning of, go ahead. So at the beginning of taking over the leadership of the
00:09:15.660 Ontario party, we worked immediately to try and unite factions here in Ontario. So we spent several
00:09:21.740 weeks speaking to Randy Hillier and his team, and we were at the table together. There was other
00:09:27.440 people involved, Bruce Party, David Haskell, other people that have had long experience in Ontario
00:09:32.960 politics, trying to create alternatives to the mainstream parties. Jim was invited to those
00:09:38.700 meetings. He declined to come. After Randy's movement sort of fizzled in the early weeks of
00:09:44.780 this year, January, and then the trucker convoy started and Randy turned his attention to the
00:09:49.480 convoy, we then began to reach out to New Blue directly. We tried multiple different angles,
00:09:55.800 obviously reaching out to them directly. Rick Nichols reached out to them directly. We even had
00:10:00.920 a party or a riding president in Durham by the name of Jack, who's a new blue riding president.
00:10:07.760 He met me at the trucker convoy and he said, hey, you're always talking about working together with
00:10:12.520 Jim. Would you actually meet? I said, I'd be happy to meet with Jim and his team, Jack and some of
00:10:18.000 his friends started trying to arrange a meeting between Jim and our team. So we actually had a
00:10:23.620 date scheduled. That date was Monday, March the 7th. And we were expecting to meet with Jim there.
00:10:31.640 We had a couple of our team members. We drove all the way into Port Perry from where I live.
00:10:36.400 And the night before the meeting, Jim sent an email to the people that were organizing it,
00:10:43.160 saying that he would not be attending because, and he listed a variety of reasons that were
00:10:47.840 frankly outrageous one reason was that he said that that i did not have authority to meet that
00:10:53.840 i didn't want to meet with him anyhow that i was uh you know under the control of um uh tanya
00:11:00.000 granick allen that i had a a secret deal with o'toole just a long list of outrageous accusations
00:11:06.480 but it was very clear to the tool just to interrupt there derrick o'toole being the
00:11:10.080 guy who kicked you out of caucus that's correct so he claimed that i had a secret deal with the
00:11:14.720 the person who you know threw me out of the party um all of this was uh you know thinly veiled
00:11:21.280 a letter to say i don't want to meet basically that's that's how everybody interpreted you know
00:11:25.520 i don't want to meet i have no interest in meeting meaning jim had no interest in meeting
00:11:30.000 so we showed up at this meeting and our team was there we had a great conversation with the other
00:11:33.760 new blue supporters but jim and belinda did not want to come the very morning the very morning
00:11:40.160 that we went early that morning we sent over the proposal that we were going to present to them so
00:11:46.400 we we had gotten whiff of the fact that they weren't going to be coming and so we said you
00:11:50.400 know what let's send the proposal that we were going to discuss so in that particular proposal
00:11:55.360 we outlined a way that we could work together um obviously a merger of the parties you know a
00:12:00.400 couple of months before an election would probably be challenging but we said listen let's try and
00:12:04.240 and work together as best as we can. So at the very least, we should have a non-compete clause
00:12:10.980 where we don't run candidates against leaders and prominent members of the party. So we committed to
00:12:16.760 not run a candidate against Belinda, for example, and we're sticking to that commitment. So we do
00:12:23.100 not currently have a candidate against Belinda. We said that we should continue that strategy as
00:12:28.560 wide as possible. So maybe it wouldn't be 100% possible to work together in
00:12:34.100 every riding but but at least many ridings we could so this was a proposal that we sent out
00:12:39.300 the email that they sent privately to uh the the to the group there that wanted to meet
00:12:47.260 basically said that they didn't even believe that we wanted to meet and that if we did really want
00:12:52.180 to meet we should send a proposal from our official email so we did in fact do that and
00:12:57.460 the proposal that you just showed on screen is that particular proposal um later publicly we
00:13:03.420 released that proposal and said, listen, guys, you've been asking us to work together. We've
00:13:07.400 been trying. And it was challenging, of course, because publicly, Jim and Belinda would say,
00:13:11.540 oh, yeah, we do want to work together. But then privately, they would be shutting down the
00:13:14.560 meetings we were trying to create. So we did, in fact, send the proposal publicly. And then
00:13:20.200 their public response basically said, no, this is a backroom deal. You know, we don't want to meet,
00:13:26.500 blah, blah, blah. And, you know, again, for anybody who's watching this, it's frustrating
00:13:31.060 because, you know, how do you meet with someone other than asking them to meet? I mean, it wasn't
00:13:35.380 a secret meeting. It was leader to leader. We could have publicized it. We weren't trying to
00:13:41.820 hide it. We just didn't want to, you know, preemptively publish anything that they didn't
00:13:47.800 want us to publish. But we would have been happy to meet with them publicly or privately. We still
00:13:52.120 would be. But unfortunately, not only did they decline the offer to meet, they began to up the
00:13:57.960 rhetoric of defamatory attacks. And they sent out a very outrageous publication that basically
00:14:06.060 slandered multiple people in the freedom movement. It slandered Tanya Granik-Allen. It slandered
00:14:11.280 myself. Of course, they've slandered Randy Hillier and others in the past. They've attacked
00:14:16.920 Rick Nichols, Tom Morazzo, many important people in the freedom movement. So it was very clear to
00:14:23.800 us that they had no interest in meeting. They've had multiple opportunities to do that, and they've
00:14:28.780 basically just responded with smears and attacks. On our part, the Ontario Party believes that
00:14:36.940 there's been enough destruction in the last two years to last us for a lifetime. So you're not
00:14:41.340 going to see us throwing mud at anybody. I don't think Jim and Belinda are part of some giant
00:14:47.340 conspiracy or something like that. But the fact is, is they certainly have been very challenging
00:14:52.140 to work with and I think there's a track record and a pattern of that and you know here in the
00:14:57.320 freedom movement we have to operate in good faith we have to operate uh in in ways that that unite
00:15:02.960 the movement and unfortunately I've seen the opposite from them um and they've and they've
00:15:08.820 made a lot of very uh you know aggressive allegations about myself that that frankly have
00:15:13.700 have zero basis in fact uh you know think everything from you know the generic sort of
00:15:19.560 i'm in a conspiracy with doug ford to specific things like um you know i've i've never registered
00:15:26.460 a federal party which is which is false you can go on the elections canada website the party is
00:15:31.480 there my name is attached to it you know they claim that i was raising all kinds of money in
00:15:35.600 alberta and then bringing it over here to to found the ontario party that's illegal that's that's
00:15:41.200 election fraud uh there's there's that would be a crime to do that of course that was never done
00:15:46.220 all of our uh uh you know elections returns were filed publicly you can't you know andrew you have
00:15:53.180 a a decent understanding of how political parties work you can't just put a hundred thousand dollars
00:15:58.380 into a political bank account you need that you need to know exactly no it frustrates candidates
00:16:03.420 immensely you've got to raise it you know individual amounts at a time no and and i just
00:16:07.500 just to interrupt here right because this has gone on a bit long and there's a lot of detail here and
00:16:11.580 And this is why I wanted to have both you and Jim on the show to talk about this, because I think this is an important issue.
00:16:17.680 And I think for a lot of people who are not as as ingratiated in the conservative movement, they're just wondering, who do I vote for?
00:16:25.620 It makes everyone look quite bad.
00:16:27.980 So I want to just I'm going to invite just for those watching, I'm going to invite Jim on to the show next week to to address some of this and other things as well.
00:16:36.960 Like I said, I wanted to do a debate.
00:16:38.860 They didn't want to do that.
00:16:39.720 That's their prerogative.
00:16:40.720 But let me ask specifically here about where the Ontario Party sits, because one thing I've noted is that you, both you and Jim, actually, were at the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa.
00:16:51.220 You have a couple of people that were very involved in the convoy that are running as candidates.
00:16:55.740 Tom Marazzo, who's been on this show, Bridget Belton, who was, you know, ultimately the one whose idea that the convoy was.
00:17:02.020 Is there enough support for the convoy, in your view, to build a party that you want to really make a dent in provincial politics?
00:17:10.720 Well, I certainly think that the Freedom Convoy was a monumental and important event. And many of the people, as you said, that, you know, pretty much all of the major players that are involved in politics now have chosen the Ontario Party. And I think for good reason. But, you know, we have to go broader than that. I think that we have to, you know, reach people on various issues. And I think the Trucker Convoy is one of them. But we have to be broader and bigger than just the Trucker Convoy as an issue.
00:17:39.620 let's talk about you because obviously you were and we spoke i think for the first time when you
00:17:44.900 were seeking the leadership of the conservative party of canada in 2020 uh you carried on as a
00:17:49.460 conservative mp were expelled from from caucus and in a way that i i think was very very
00:17:54.980 reprehensible and we i said as much on the show uh but then you went out to alberta and you were
00:17:59.700 founding a federal party and then you were seeking a seat as an independent in alberta and you were
00:18:04.100 talking to people there saying no you're an albertan now then that election's gone you're
00:18:08.100 You're back to Ontario running a provincial party.
00:18:10.220 So, I mean, how do you square the questions that voters are asking about where your loyalties lie?
00:18:15.700 Because a lot of it looks, frankly, very opportunistic.
00:18:18.920 Well, I'll tell you that when it comes to being an independent politician or, you know, somebody in a non-mainstream party, there's no glamour and there's no opportunity.
00:18:28.760 Frankly, it's from conventional standards, it's a fool's errand.
00:18:34.300 You know, parties like our, you know, independents in Ontario, I think two independents have
00:18:38.660 gotten elected in the last 70 years or something like that.
00:18:42.020 It's very challenging and it's been very, you know, challenging on my family, but it's
00:18:46.540 been also rewarding as well in the sense that we get to meet amazing people and fight for
00:18:50.880 values that we all hold.
00:18:53.220 With respect to, you know, with respect to going to Alberta and then coming back here,
00:18:58.340 Of course, I never, you know, never used the words I'm an Albertan now, you know, things like that. But I certainly the reason that we went out there is because we were in the midst of touring across the country to promote, you know, ending the lockdowns and the freedom issues.
00:19:16.020 And as you've stated, I did register a federal party.
00:19:19.440 The party was, in fact, approved a couple of months ago.
00:19:22.040 But it took Elections Canada months and months to approve it.
00:19:25.800 And, of course, it was not approved in time for the election.
00:19:30.700 Our original intention, having that party, was to run candidates in both the West and the East.
00:19:35.840 We wanted to have strong candidates in the West, strong candidates in the East.
00:19:40.020 And, you know, looking back, it's easy to see when the election was called, but nobody really knew exactly when it was going to be called.
00:19:46.100 There was rumors, but there's always rumors.
00:19:49.040 You know, the last two years, there's always rumors there's going to be an election.
00:19:52.820 So we were in the middle of a tour in Alberta when the election was called.
00:19:56.320 And we decided to be able to run some candidates in the East and the West.
00:20:02.200 Ultimately, my wife actually ran in the riding that I held.
00:20:05.140 And I ran in a Banff Airdrie in Alberta, which in fact was held by the conservative whip. And I was making a double point, one, you know, to kind of target the conservatives in their homeland, but also to make the point that, you know, that particular whip of the party was the person who was enforcing discipline and keeping so many conservative MPs quiet during one of the biggest crises we've ever had in this country.
00:20:29.760 But then why not continue building a federal party?
00:20:33.060 Why, when that didn't work out, do you jump into another party?
00:20:36.420 Yes, that's a very good question.
00:20:38.240 So after the election, our party had still not been approved.
00:20:41.680 So our party was only approved in February.
00:20:44.180 And I've always made the commitment to Canadians and the pledge to fight for freedom wherever I possibly can.
00:20:53.580 We all admit, or anybody who's in the freedom sphere admits, that we need to revitalize politics municipally, provincially, and federally.
00:21:01.940 So the Ontario election was the next election on the docket, so to speak.
00:21:06.740 You know, it's June 2nd, so only a couple of weeks away.
00:21:10.140 Initially, I had planned to basically support behind the scenes, you know, whatever party was available in Ontario.
00:21:17.680 So there was the New Blue Party.
00:21:19.360 Randy Hillier was talking about forming something.
00:21:21.300 so I had the intention of helping out one of those two parties and so I spoke a little bit
00:21:27.880 with Jim I spoke a little bit with Randy Hillier and I was involved with a group of people that
00:21:33.060 was trying to bring both of those two movements together and so multiple meetings were set up to
00:21:40.000 try and do so and you know frankly both both of those people but particularly Jim you know
00:21:46.120 sewered those meetings by going haywire against Randy Hillier. And he put out a litany of tweets
00:21:51.140 accusing Randy of, you know, some very horrible things, you know, basically being a fake and a
00:21:55.780 fraud. And that's, you know, that's not a nice thing to say. That's the worst thing you could
00:21:59.620 say about somebody in the freedom movement. So those meetings failed. And at that point,
00:22:06.460 the group of people that was trying to bring that together said, listen, they didn't expect
00:22:12.020 that randy would be able to get something off the ground in time for the election and that they were
00:22:17.060 correct in that and they also felt that that jim's behavior was was divisive and was creating
00:22:22.820 problems within the freedom movement so they thought by creating a new option or bringing a
00:22:27.220 new option to the table it might provide a way to bring people together and so that's what we
00:22:31.940 basically have attempted to do from the beginning of that so you know in terms of um in terms of my
00:22:38.500 you know uh career so to speak in politics i'm hoping to be effective wherever i can
00:22:43.220 and i and i felt that at this time in ontario i could provide a positive option for ontarians and
00:22:48.580 best case scenario bring some people together or work together or heal some rifts in the movement
00:22:53.540 and you know in some go on that derek do you have a plan then beyond this one election to
00:22:58.820 lead the ontario party so i don't believe in leader-centric parties i believe that parties
00:23:05.060 need to be able to outlive their leaders and not just be focused on a cult of personality.
00:23:10.900 I have, you know, I'm obviously planning on leading the party through this election,
00:23:16.100 but I don't plan on leading the party forever. And that's not saying that I'm, you know,
00:23:20.260 have a date that I'm going to step down or anything like that. But what we're trying to
00:23:23.660 do is build a movement that's not just based on a Jim or a Derek or whatever, but is an open party
00:23:29.860 that has democratic principles that can thrive and prosper. So that's what I'm going to be creating
00:23:35.780 here with the Ontario party. And that will outlive my tenure as leader. But I'm afraid that some of
00:23:42.780 the other- You're not ruling out. I mean, if there is an opening to lead an Alberta-focused
00:23:46.680 freedom party or go back into federal politics, that's not something that you're ruling out in
00:23:51.120 the next few years. Yeah. So all of those things are possible. I'm not saying that I have a
00:23:56.360 definitive plan to do those. I only, you know, whatever I choose to do, I do it with all my
00:24:01.400 heart. And right now I'm leading the Ontario party and I'm going to continue doing that with
00:24:05.900 all my heart until I feel that I will be better, of better use somewhere else. But no, I don't
00:24:12.140 think we should wed ourselves to any particular, you know, party for the rest of our lives. And
00:24:18.860 some of my concerns with some of the other freedom parties just generally in this country
00:24:22.900 is that they're doing a lot of good things, but they're really focused on kind of the leader and
00:24:27.060 a cult of personality. And we have to move beyond that. You mentioned earlier, I think quite
00:24:32.740 unfortunately accurately, that the non-establishment parties and candidates have a very rough go in
00:24:38.320 Canada and in Ontario specifically. What do you consider for an upstart party that doesn't have
00:24:43.620 any representation in the legislature that's been elected to the legislature? I know Rick Nichols
00:24:48.220 did join the Ontario party.
00:24:49.900 What do you consider a win
00:24:51.040 in this election on June 2nd?
00:24:54.000 Well, I think it would be very ideal
00:24:56.880 for us to win a bunch of seats.
00:24:59.280 And even though that would be challenging,
00:25:01.340 we're hoping that that could be a possibility.
00:25:03.800 It would be great to have a high vote percentage as well.
00:25:08.820 Already in some of the polls,
00:25:10.820 our party is basically in spitting distance
00:25:13.660 of the Green Party.
00:25:14.820 I'd love to blow right past the Green Party 0.82
00:25:16.740 and win a couple of seats.
00:25:18.220 Of course, we're not just fighting to win one seat, we're fighting to win the whole thing.
00:25:22.940 But as you and I both know, that would certainly be challenging.
00:25:27.040 Derek Sloan, leader of the Ontario Party.
00:25:29.160 Good to talk to you, Derek.
00:25:29.880 Thanks for coming on today.
00:25:31.300 Really glad to be here.
00:25:32.080 Thank you.
00:25:33.300 Thank you.
00:25:34.020 And again, like I said at the beginning, I'm going to, right after the show's done, send an email to The New Blue and invite Jim Carajalios to come on the show next week.
00:25:41.620 The reason I'm speaking to Derek now is because I invited the two of them, trying to have a debate between the two.
00:25:47.500 It wouldn't have been a formal, I wouldn't have been asking them about their Netflix preferences.
00:25:51.460 It wouldn't have been an Edmonton Conservative Party of Canada debate.
00:25:54.000 But I was going to have a discussion between the two, but New Blue declined.
00:25:57.980 So it just ended up being Derek that joined.
00:26:00.480 But I'm very glad he did.
00:26:02.040 And like I said, I mean, there's a lot happening in Conservative politics in general this week.
00:26:06.500 What happened last night in Alberta is quite significant, not just in the development and
00:26:11.620 landscape of Alberta politics, but also in, I think, the conservative movement, the lower case
00:26:17.160 C conservative movement more broadly. Just to bring you up to speed, here is the clip of Jason
00:26:22.620 Kenney announcing his forthcoming resignation. Friends, tonight the members of our party
00:26:29.740 completed a democratic exercise in accountability. The result is not what I hoped for or frankly
00:26:36.200 what I expected. But I've been clear from day one that I will respect the decision of the members
00:26:42.200 in this leadership review. And I expect all members of our party to do just that.
00:26:55.940 Friends, while 51 percent of the vote passes the constitutional threshold of a majority,
00:27:07.440 it clearly is not adequate support to continue on as leader.
00:27:11.920 And that is why tonight I have informed the president of the party of my intention to
00:27:16.240 step down as leader of the United Conservative Party.
00:27:21.520 I'm sorry, but friends, I truly believe that we need to move forward united.
00:27:26.540 We need to put the past behind us.
00:27:28.680 And our members, a large number of our members, have asked for an opportunity to clear the air through a leadership election.
00:27:35.160 And I recommended, therefore, that the provincial board schedule a leadership election in a timely fashion.
00:27:42.820 So as you heard there, the room itself seemed to be very pro-Kenny and very surprised that he was considering and contemplating stepping down.
00:27:51.520 And the reason I think in part, and I don't have the clip handy, but Jason Kenney, when he was on
00:27:55.820 this show, what was it, two or three weeks ago, said that he considered 50% plus one a win. He
00:28:01.240 said if he got that narrow, narrow, narrow margin of victory, just over 50%, he would consider that
00:28:07.240 the threshold at which he was able to remain the leader. And I said on the show then, and I've said
00:28:12.080 since that functionally, you do not get to do that without severely, severely, severely alienating
00:28:19.140 your party, because it means that some of those are not even that enthusiastic. They were just
00:28:23.180 like, yeah, I guess I'll vote for him. So if you have 50% plus one, or I think as he got 51.4%,
00:28:29.940 it really isn't a significant mandate to lead. And I think he understood that very quickly.
00:28:35.940 And I want to speak about Jason Kenney, because I know when I've had him on,
00:28:41.220 especially in the COVID era, I've had a lot of people reach out quite angry at me for not being
00:28:46.400 angry at him. They look at the lockdowns that he said would never happen, the vaccine passports he
00:28:51.340 said would never happen, the jailed pastors, and a litany of other things, which I am on side with
00:28:56.400 you in hating and condemning. And they want me to hate Jason Kenney. They want me to yell at Jason
00:29:02.800 Kenney. They want me to scream at him. And anything short of yelling at him is not good enough for
00:29:07.660 people. And I know that. And I probably have gotten more nasty emails about my interviews
00:29:13.920 with Jason Kenney than about anything else I've done in quite a while. And I understand
00:29:18.920 the frustration and I have put it to him. I mean, I'm not an angry person.
00:29:23.820 My goal in an interview, as I've always said, is I want to get an answer. Once I get an answer,
00:29:27.720 I'm not trying to convince the person I have on the line. I'm not trying to berate them or
00:29:31.280 punish them. I'm trying to put to them so people can hear the question, hear the answer and decide
00:29:36.500 for themselves. And I've always, always going back years in politics, had an appreciation
00:29:42.100 for Jason Kenney.
00:29:43.960 He's always been a principled conservative.
00:29:46.220 He's always been a tremendously hard worker,
00:29:48.860 a consummate professional.
00:29:50.080 And he's always made the time to come on this show.
00:29:52.980 I cannot tell you the last time.
00:29:54.880 In fact, I don't think it's ever happened
00:29:56.300 where I've requested an interview with Premier Kenney
00:29:59.000 and it has not happened at some point
00:30:01.060 within the next couple of months.
00:30:02.100 Now, I haven't abused that
00:30:03.120 and I haven't invited him on for a weekly segment
00:30:05.640 or a morning call every day or something like that.
00:30:08.040 But I've always asked
00:30:09.380 and sometimes it takes a little while to schedule,
00:30:11.780 but they've always said yes. That interview I did with him last week at the Canada Strong and
00:30:16.260 Free Networking Conference, that was set up on about 30 minutes notice just by reaching out.
00:30:21.360 I said, he's here. Will he do a sit down? And for all the frustrations I have about political
00:30:28.060 candidates, specifically conservatives who talk a big game about being annoyed with the mainstream
00:30:32.820 media, but don't actually make the time for independent media, Jason Kenney has never been
00:30:37.780 like that. Even when he knows that he is unpopular with the very people who watch this show,
00:30:43.800 he has taken the time to speak to the audience of this program. Now, has it won him any support?
00:30:49.500 Has it earned me any affection? I don't know. But he's done that. And I think it takes a tremendous
00:30:55.940 amount of self-confidence to do that. Maybe hubris to some people, but I think self-confidence
00:31:01.760 and self-assuredness. And the one thing I've never doubted about Jason Kenney is that he's
00:31:06.760 principled. And I think that he has served this country and I think he served his province
00:31:11.780 in a tremendously good way. Now, does this mean he has not done things that I find abhorrent and
00:31:18.320 his government has not done things that I find abhorrent? Absolutely not. And I'm a firm believer
00:31:24.060 in never defining people by their worst traits and their worst characteristics and their worst
00:31:29.120 decisions. I think people need to be decided on balance. I'm not an Albertan. It's not for me to
00:31:33.480 say whether he should stay or go. And I don't know for sure if he is going. One of the interesting
00:31:38.740 things I would point out here about Jason Kenney is that he hasn't actually said when he's going
00:31:44.120 to step down. There's some speculation. And I don't know, I've been on air for the last half
00:31:48.580 hour. I don't know if it's changed then. Some speculation he could run for the leadership
00:31:52.500 of the UCP. He could actually end up replacing himself, depending on what happens in the next
00:31:57.960 few weeks and months. The party has about a year until the next election. I think it's like May
00:32:02.960 well it's may something in in 2023 so there's about a year to go until albertans are going
00:32:08.200 back to the polls who knows stranger things have happened jason kenny could be on the ballot
00:32:12.380 then but whatever issues i've had with him and i i've called a spade a spade when they have arisen
00:32:19.960 i i think he is a very decent person and a very good leader and unfortunately that good leadership
00:32:26.900 didn't manage to hold in his own caucus.
00:32:30.700 And that was a big thing.
00:32:32.200 I think that one of his great failings,
00:32:34.080 just as an outsider looking in,
00:32:36.160 was his inability to manage his caucus.
00:32:39.860 And I don't mean manage in the sense of control.
00:32:42.280 I mean, manage in the sense of make sure
00:32:43.760 that people in his caucus feel included
00:32:46.060 and feel heard and feel listened to.
00:32:48.200 I mean, the UCP allows more dissent in caucus
00:32:51.420 than a lot of other parties do generally.
00:32:53.320 I mean, Doug Ford, he was kicking out people.
00:32:55.320 I think on average, he kicked out like one and a half MPPs a year from the PC caucus.
00:32:59.640 If you take a look at all the independents that were stepping aside just before this
00:33:04.460 election compared to people that were in the PC caucus after the last election, whereas
00:33:08.960 Jason Kenney, he had people in his caucus that were tweeting for him to resign and they
00:33:12.500 still remained in his caucus.
00:33:13.880 So I mean, part of that is that he didn't want to take a heavy handed approach to these
00:33:17.320 people and then have more pop up in their place.
00:33:20.720 But the reason I'm bringing all of this up is just to say, do not let your hatred, do
00:33:27.580 not let your hatred cloud what is a very distinguished career that has lasted many years.
00:33:33.680 And yeah, I'm going to say to Jason Kenney, thank you for your service.
00:33:38.160 Whatever happened in the last few years, however it ended, thank you for your service.
00:33:41.660 I don't think people should be defined by their worst traits and their worst characteristics.
00:33:45.380 But I do think, looking at the bigger picture here, we are in the midst of a tremendous reckoning in the conservative movement right now.
00:33:52.900 You look at Pierre Paliève, who is, I think, very much reshaping the traditional conservative coalition.
00:33:59.360 He's trying to do what Maxime Bernier and the PPC did in the last election, which is appeal to people who genuinely feel left behind by the establishment, left behind by Canadian politics.
00:34:10.540 And I hate Trump comparisons because I find them so lazy, but it is similar, I guess I'm doing this, but it's not lazy now. It's similar to Trump in that Trump did not win because he had conventional Republican support. He won because he moved the base and he changed the rules of the game and he changed the playing field entirely to something else.
00:34:31.420 Pierre Polyev is doing that in his rallies.
00:34:33.440 Now, Jean Charest, to his credit, is doing something in the opposite way.
00:34:38.020 He's still trying to reshape the boundaries, but he's also trying to avoid the conservative
00:34:44.240 base in a way that Pierre Polyev is not.
00:34:46.000 Pierre is leaning into the conservative base.
00:34:48.000 Jean Charest is trying to talk to all these other people saying, listen, the only way
00:34:51.020 we're going to win is if you have a guy like me in the running, if you have a guy like
00:34:54.480 me leading the party.
00:34:55.460 But we time and time again go back to this question of what conservative politics is supposed to be and what the conservative movement is supposed to be.
00:35:06.560 And I want to play a couple of clips for you here.
00:35:08.840 These are just impromptu interviews I did when I was in Edmonton last week covering the conservative leadership race.
00:35:14.900 The first is with Drew Barnes.
00:35:16.260 Now, Drew is one of those MLAs who was kicked out of the UCP caucus by Jason Kenney.
00:35:22.240 And Drew was a very outspoken advocate for independence in Alberta, an advocate speaking out against lockdown and evidently had a little bit too much independence for Jason Kenney's liking.
00:35:33.820 Here's my chat with Drew.
00:35:36.840 Let's start with the elephant in the room here. You were kicked out of the United Conservative Party caucus.
00:35:41.080 Here you are at a Conservative Party of Canada leadership debate.
00:35:44.500 Do I take from that that you haven't thrown in the towel on the established Conservative parties in this country?
00:35:48.940 Well, the UCP, of course, the big data in the UCP is May 18th, the vote on Jason Kenney's failed leadership.
00:35:55.660 We all saw how he twisted and turned and took away members in Albertans' chance to vote.
00:36:00.180 So the UCP, that's a big separate problem.
00:36:03.680 But the Conservative Party of Canada, of course, is the closest opportunity we have here in Alberta, in Cyprus Medicine Hat,
00:36:10.720 to having meaningful power and meaningful legislation to get some economic freedom and some individual opportunity.
00:36:16.700 So I'm grateful that these people, again, are going across Canada and expressing their ideas.
00:36:23.900 I'm hoping tonight, though, to hear what's in it for Alberta.
00:36:27.020 Who's going to break that sacred cow of equalization?
00:36:30.700 Who is going to give us fairness when it comes to the Supreme Court of Canada,
00:36:35.300 representation in the House of Commons, and the Senate?
00:36:38.000 I want to hear some talk about that and some meaningful action.
00:36:40.800 So, and yeah, I mean, my constituents, I was grateful to be on the Fair Deal panel two years ago.
00:36:47.220 It's 80% of Albertans that are demanding from Ottawa a fair deal, one shape or another.
00:36:52.940 And I hope I'll hear some of that tonight.
00:36:55.260 Obviously, candidates have generally come out in favour of oil, in favour of pipelines, against Justin Trudeau's handling of it.
00:37:01.860 I think a lot of times people mistake having a solid energy policy with having a solid Western Canada policy when the two aren't synonymous.
00:37:08.660 There are other concerns in the West.
00:37:10.660 I haven't heard them brought up in the leadership race so far,
00:37:13.360 and we don't have any candidates that are from the West.
00:37:15.660 I know Pierre Polyev was born out here, but doesn't represent here.
00:37:18.700 So do you think it is possible to have a really Western Canadian-focused platform
00:37:23.440 from any of these candidates and then from the party moving forward?
00:37:26.640 Well, I'd say it's to their detriment, and it's at their risk if they don't.
00:37:30.080 We saw PPC do fairly well last time.
00:37:33.380 Maverick Party didn't do as well, but had a lot of good candidates.
00:37:36.480 so there's a lot of there's a lot of good solid Albertans and Westerners that
00:37:41.040 are stepping up to demand fairness to demand a greater voice in our country
00:37:44.660 or or other consequences of course in my fair deal panel dissenting report one
00:37:50.460 of the things I said is we should have a independence referendum down the road
00:37:54.100 give Ottawa two or three years to give us a fair deal and then let Albertans
00:37:57.820 hold Ottawa accountable to whether or not they've done that so my being here
00:38:01.260 tonight is part of that to see what's in it in it in it for Alberta the oil and
00:38:06.240 gas thing is amazing. You know, we see that even though it wasn't a great huge amount in terms of
00:38:11.200 the world, 100 million barrels of oil used per day, the fact that Canada was buying some oil
00:38:16.360 from Russia, the fact that America was buying, I think it was almost a million barrels a day from
00:38:20.440 Russia, and the fact that, you know, the governor of Michigan almost ended energy security for Canada,
00:38:26.860 and the fact that we all know the hypocrisy. If we could get a northern gateway or the
00:38:32.140 Trans Mountain Pipeline twinned the getting more of our good oil and gas to to Asia would be the
00:38:38.480 best thing to improve air quality in the world and and how that hypocrisy continues is beyond me
00:38:43.520 so uh yeah let's uh you know let's see some some real action hey maybe tonight they'll talk about
00:38:48.700 Trudeau saying he's going to appeal the uh appeal court of Alberta's decision that that constitutional
00:38:53.340 overreach on the no more pipelines uh the the uh Emissions Accountability Act uh yeah let's let's
00:38:59.900 stay focused on a strong Canada but that comes from a strong Alberta. And just lastly if Jason
00:39:05.620 Kenney is not successful in his leadership review and that party goes through a reckoning would you
00:39:10.600 want to be welcomed back into the UCP? I'm certainly going to weigh all my options. I've
00:39:15.440 been talking to a lot of my UCP colleagues, past colleagues this week. We've gone for a lot of
00:39:20.380 walks, lunches and coffees and yeah there's a lot of similar values there. There's a lot of people
00:39:25.320 that share the same frustrations as I do,
00:39:27.720 even though they weren't ejected from caucus.
00:39:30.160 But Andrew, let's be clear.
00:39:31.520 If Jason Kenney isn't gone on the 18th,
00:39:34.200 the chances of it being Premier Rachel Notley next time are so high,
00:39:37.760 and the chances of devastation for Alberta and our next generation
00:39:41.060 is very, very high.
00:39:43.480 Everywhere I go, Premier Kenney,
00:39:45.840 people tell me it's time for Premier Kenney to go.
00:39:47.940 He got 55% of Albertans voting for him last time.
00:39:51.080 Now he's unlikely to get 55% of his own club,
00:39:53.800 his own members voting for him.
00:39:55.040 It is so time for him to do the right thing and get out of the way and give other Albertans a chance to make Alberta the freest and most prosperous place in Canada.
00:40:03.100 Thank you.
00:40:04.840 Now, that was recorded a week and one day ago, and it ended up proving rather prescient from MLA Drew Barnes,
00:40:11.580 although he was tight-lipped on whether he would be the one who would jump up and actually seek the leadership himself or try to rejoin the party.
00:40:20.060 This morning, Danielle Smith had a press conference in which she spoke about her bid to replace Jason Kenney as UCP leader.
00:40:26.640 You also have Brian Jean.
00:40:28.440 And again, like I said earlier, you have the federal conservative leadership race going on as well.
00:40:32.640 Also at that debate in Edmonton, I ran into Andrew Scheer, who is a former leader of the Conservative Party of Canada himself.
00:40:39.980 Now, he's backing, I should say, Pierre Polyev here.
00:40:42.600 So he's not a neutral arbiter in this race.
00:40:45.540 But we did speak a little bit about the importance of conservatism in conservative politics,
00:40:51.220 which shouldn't sound like a radical concept, but I think it's one that needs restating every now and then.
00:41:00.860 Andrew, you've done this before, the leadership debate.
00:41:03.160 Now, you had, I think, a lot harder because you were up against like 12 other candidates when you ran in 2017.
00:41:09.640 But realistically, when you are in a leadership race and you're appealing to Conservative members,
00:41:15.140 not necessarily Canadians as a whole, how do you approach this without alienating yourselves
00:41:19.900 from the Canadians whose votes you're going to be seeking later on?
00:41:22.440 Well, you know, the key is to be who you are and be authentic.
00:41:26.200 And that's what I did when I was leader.
00:41:27.860 And I was very pleased to see Pierre do that tonight.
00:41:31.000 And one of the great things about Pierre is he's been saying the same things his entire life.
00:41:35.340 You know, when he was a university student, he was writing essays about making Canada the freest country in the world.
00:41:42.840 And he was doing that his entire career as a member of Parliament.
00:41:45.920 And that's what we heard again tonight.
00:41:47.840 So it's important in a leadership race that you are honest, you're up front,
00:41:51.780 and that people believe that you're going to do what you say you will.
00:41:55.980 And that's something that is incredibly important when Conservative members are thinking about who to cast their ballot for,
00:42:01.820 who will actually do the things that they're saying they will do during this race.
00:42:05.340 and Pierre has that advantage over the other candidates.
00:42:09.020 You and I spoke when you were about to depart
00:42:11.640 as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada
00:42:13.600 and you had said something that stuck with me
00:42:15.060 about how you wished you had pulled some more punches
00:42:18.520 or not pulled punches, I guess, and been a bit more yourself.
00:42:21.440 What's your advice to whoever is the next leader
00:42:23.540 on how they can stay grounded
00:42:25.160 when you have all of the consultants and campaigners
00:42:27.760 and polling data and all of that in your ear
00:42:29.520 that is kind of trying to push you in a different direction?
00:42:32.820 Well, you know, at the end of the day,
00:42:35.180 Advice is good to listen to, to consider,
00:42:37.280 but you can't find yourself in a position where you're just in a,
00:42:41.760 you're completely a fabrication of something, you know,
00:42:44.540 and a lot of people give advice, you know, don't pick a fight on this,
00:42:48.520 don't pick a fight on that, but Canadians want to see contrast.
00:42:51.260 Our members want to see contrast.
00:42:53.060 Our members want to see how you're going to be able to handle yourself
00:42:55.520 in a general election campaign.
00:42:57.120 You know, there's some people complaining about some of the exchanges
00:43:00.620 in this leadership race.
00:43:01.720 Believe me, this is tame compared to what the liberal war machine is going to do to the next leader.
00:43:07.860 It's tame compared to what the corporate media is going to do.
00:43:11.160 You know, all the media outlets that are subsidized by Justin Trudeau are going to be a lot tougher on the next conservative leader than the people up on stage here tonight.
00:43:20.760 So I think it's important for Keynes and our members to see who can handle themselves under pressure with that kind of sparring back and forth.
00:43:28.240 And I actually enjoy that contrast.
00:43:30.780 Elections are about contrast, about differences.
00:43:33.160 We've got leaders who are advocating for some policies,
00:43:36.280 and we've got others advocating.
00:43:38.100 That's the nature of a debate.
00:43:39.420 So I'm glad to see some of that coming out in this leadership campaign.
00:43:43.720 You know the story better than anyone else.
00:43:46.000 The media tends to go to the same old bag of tricks.
00:43:48.540 Even when you have candidates that are very much pro-choice,
00:43:51.220 they're still asking about abortion and stuff like that.
00:43:53.380 So how do you keep the big tent together?
00:43:55.960 And I know you're supporting Pierre Polyev,
00:43:57.560 so let's say that your candidate wins.
00:43:58.920 How does Pierre Polyev keep the so-called Big Blue Ten together, keep the social conservatives happy, keep the red Tories, the libertarians, keep all of that together,
00:44:06.460 while also making it so that people feel like they have a place and they're getting some policies on offer?
00:44:11.600 Yeah, well, this is a critical component to it.
00:44:14.140 Party unity doesn't happen just because the leader runs around yelling at people to stay united.
00:44:20.160 We've seen that with other conservative leaders at different times at different levels.
00:44:24.820 And the key is to engage with all the different types of conservatives in our coalition and find that common ground.
00:44:31.940 And one of the reasons why I decided to endorse Pierre was because of his message about uniting around freedom.
00:44:38.020 I think that's very important.
00:44:39.140 I know that's very important, that you can have a difference of opinion.
00:44:42.540 You know, I might think one thing, you might think another.
00:44:44.460 But if we have a government that's going to give us the freedom to disagree and live our own lives
00:44:49.400 and make our own decisions with ourselves or our family, then we can agree on that.
00:44:53.160 And we can both live out our life the way we want to.
00:44:56.460 And so that's the way to do it, is to find that area of common ground
00:45:00.140 and treat all those people with respect.
00:45:03.580 And that's something that I know many people in our party are looking for
00:45:06.700 in the next leader to say, okay, I just want to make sure my voice is heard,
00:45:09.900 that when I get up at a convention, when my member of parliament speaks
00:45:13.760 in the House of Commons, that they're not going to be punished
00:45:15.840 because they have a different view than the leader may have.
00:45:19.300 Thank you.
00:45:19.960 Thank you very much.
00:45:20.640 that was former Conservative Party of Canada leader Andrew Scheer caught up with him in
00:45:26.180 Edmonton as well I believe he's on the debate prep team for Pierre Polyev if memory serves I
00:45:31.640 couldn't actually tell you where I learned that from but I'm pretty sure someone told me maybe
00:45:34.660 it was Andrew maybe it was someone else who knows I don't think I made it up I try not to do that
00:45:39.000 on the show but nevertheless thanks very much to all of you for tuning in that does it for today
00:45:43.520 but just one plug before we go if you missed yesterday's program I'll tell you again I am
00:45:48.120 off on actually today's thursday so tomorrow tomorrow i am off to davos switzerland for the
00:45:54.860 world economic forum's annual meeting i am going to be there to cover it no don't worry i'm not
00:46:00.460 selling out i'm not joining uh klaus schwab's global anti-capitalist organization i'm going
00:46:05.720 because i want to separate conspiracy theory and all of the people that dismiss it all as conspiracy
00:46:11.460 theory from the reality in their own words in their own thoughts in their own programming and
00:46:16.780 planning, their own agenda, what it is they seek to do globally and in a number of countries like
00:46:22.800 Canada, whose Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, sits on the advisory board. And that's
00:46:27.740 the whole point here. This is not about capitulating to conspiracy theory. It's about
00:46:31.600 shining a light on an organization that if you take it at its word, take it at face value,
00:46:37.060 wants to do drastic and in some cases, draconian things to free market economics and to capitalism
00:46:44.980 and basically to the global order as we know it.
00:46:49.700 And this is not about one guy
00:46:51.300 sitting in the Swiss mountains pulling the strings.
00:46:53.640 It's about bringing all of these leaders together
00:46:56.240 who seem to be buying into a lot of these things.
00:46:59.420 I mean, the book that I'm reading right now by Klaus Schwab
00:47:01.600 is his latest work called The Great Narrative.
00:47:04.140 And I'll have more on this next week
00:47:05.640 as we see the conference shape up.
00:47:07.380 But I've had a lot of people that have reached out to me
00:47:09.660 since I announced on the previous show that I was going
00:47:12.220 that have said, you know, we'll be praying for you,
00:47:14.360 best of luck. I'm really pulling for you. So thank you for that. It is truly important. And
00:47:18.660 I think it's important to be there and cover this because I can't tell, I could not tell you the
00:47:22.780 last time, if ever, an independent journalist has gone into the lion's den like this to report on
00:47:28.580 what's happening there. And like I've said, I don't even know what my coverage is going to look
00:47:31.720 like yet. I know they don't want me there. I know I'm a little bit crafty though. I'm not going to
00:47:35.440 break any laws, but I am going to try to ask some people some questions and really figure out what's
00:47:40.060 going on there and I still have not been able to learn who the Canadian delegation is going to be
00:47:44.520 so if the government won't give me the list I might have to just walk around and look for
00:47:48.200 you look Canadian you look Canadian you yeah okay yeah you look Canadian all right who are you and
00:47:52.020 what are you doing here so that'll be coming up next week so do stay tuned on that and truly if
00:47:56.840 you want to pitch in and support our coverage you can do that by going to donate.tnc.news
00:48:03.240 donate.tnc.news and you can jip in a few bucks as you're able to and we will absolutely
00:48:09.660 absolutely be so appreciative of that. I know I will as we head out on this. It'll be a bit of
00:48:14.280 an adventure, but I'm looking forward to it. So with that, we will talk to you soon. I'm going
00:48:17.960 to have another show tomorrow. I'm trying to pack them in this week before I head away,
00:48:21.840 so don't miss that, but we'll talk to you soon. Thank you, God bless, and good day to you all.
00:48:28.120 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:48:30.560 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.
00:48:39.660 We'll be right back.
00:49:09.660 We'll be right back.