00:00:20.780Thank you, Andrew. I'm delighted to join you at True North.
00:00:24.060So this is, I think, a big question for a lot of people.
00:00:26.880You've obviously served in politics before, federally and provincially, going back several decades at this point.
00:00:33.020Why now? Why is this the moment that you want to come back and to this position, leading the federal Conservatives?
00:00:39.000Boils down to one word, Canada, the future of Canada.
00:00:42.600My whole life, Andrew, you know, the common theme of my whole, not just my political life, but my life has been the ideal of Canada.
00:00:50.440I'm among those who think that we won the lottery of citizenship in the world to be and live in this country.
00:00:56.120And I see a country that's way below its potential, but I also see a Conservative Party that I know and that I grew up with, by the way.
00:01:06.540I mean, that's the party that I grew up in.
00:01:08.460My father, my grandfather, my great-grandfather are Conservatives.
00:01:12.380And I see a political party that isn't living up to what Canadians want as a national political party, that needs to get itself together on preparing itself for the next election campaign to unite itself.
00:01:28.800And I have that firm belief that I'm the person who can do that, who can make that happen, given the experience I have.
00:01:38.280And there's a number of issues I care about, you know, Conservative values I espoused all my life, wherever I was, including in Quebec politics.
00:01:45.840So I'm looking at this race, and what I'm picking up, by the way, Andrew, on the street and talking to members, a lot of the comment is about we need an adult in the room, is a lot of what I'm hearing.
00:01:58.660And a lot of the membership of the party are tired of losing, and they want us to get organized.
00:02:05.560They want a leader who's going to bring us together under one tent, focus on the campaign, and win a majority national government.
00:02:13.840And my ambition, Andrew, I don't have a small ambition here.
00:02:16.940This is a government in which Alberta and Saskatchewan are at the table, not outside looking in, but shaping policy, and where Quebec is at the table.
00:02:24.780And where we, and this is very much a conservative, by the way, value, our view of federalism, or respecting jurisdictions.
00:02:34.020And I'm sorry if I'm going a bit long, Andrew, but I do want to add one thing.
00:02:37.100One thing I think I would bring to this is the experience I have at both levels, and the ability in Ottawa, it would be a breath of fresh air, to have a prime minister who actually knows how the federal system works, and how to make it work, to get things done, big things done.
00:02:54.020So that's part of what I would bring to all of this.
00:02:57.880The federal party that you led, the Progressive Conservative Party, no longer exists, at least not in that form.
00:03:04.140The provincial party you led, the Quebec Liberal Party, is a party that a lot of conservatives didn't feel, ultimately like they had a home in,
00:03:10.840which is why we've seen Quebec politics welcome new parties into the fold in the time since you were there.
00:03:16.360What makes you think that you have a place in the Conservative Party of Canada in its current form, and that the members of that party will find that you resonate with their values for the party and for the country?
00:03:28.560You know, political parties are living institutions.
00:03:33.120They don't just, in time, sort of be what they are, and then they don't.
00:03:39.720And look at the story of the Conservative Party, from the Conservative Liberals under Sir John A. McDonnell way back when, I mean, all the way to the Progressive Conservative Party, Reform Party, the Alliance, the merger, and the Conservative Party where it is today.
00:03:56.220So the political parties, and their leaders, by the way, leave a mark on the party, and when you take over the leadership of the party, Andrew, you assume that past, and your job as a leader is to be a fiduciary of the party.
00:04:11.480You don't own the party, and to grow it, and to make it a force based on the values that you share.
00:04:18.280Same is true for the Liberal Party of Quebec.
00:04:20.100When I went to Quebec, I mean, when you hear this ridiculous argument that Charest would be a Liberal, I mean, come on.
00:04:26.020I mean, you'd have to, you'd have to have been living on planet Mars, not to know that I was in, you know, press to go to Quebec to lead the Federalist forces in Quebec to fight the Separatists.
00:04:38.520And the Liberal Party of Quebec was the Coalition of Federalists.
00:05:02.020It's Mr. Trudeau was able to spend as much as he spent.
00:05:05.260It's because there was a government before him who gave him all this maneuvering room to actually be able to go out there and spend a load of money.
00:05:14.200And now, though, we're coming out of COVID.
00:05:17.060Now we need a government that's going to bring some order to all of this, focus on economic growth, and focus on the things that Conservatives really believe in.
00:05:25.260You did, when you were Premier of Quebec and Stephen Harper was Prime Minister, I know you did butt heads on certain things.
00:05:31.400So just let me ask you, have you voted in the last three elections for the Federal Conservative Party?
00:05:50.100You know, when I reduced taxes after a federal transfer in 2007, Mr. Harper and the government of the day didn't agree with me, which I found to be highly unusual at the time.
00:06:01.680I thought, you know, Conservative government doesn't agree with Charest reducing taxes, which is what I did, and there were other instances where we disagreed.
00:06:12.280In 2005, 06, when he was running, I gave an interview that gave him a big boost in that campaign about the federalism that he was proposing, saying as Premier of Quebec that this is something that I thought was good.
00:06:24.140But I wasn't trying to put my finger on the scale for – I was just saying what I thought was good for Quebec and good for the country.
00:06:32.900And I never – I'm among those that never thought that being a Premier of a province means you're contradicting the interest of the country.
00:06:40.720I mean, it's – this thinking that you can either be one or the other, frankly, is pretty childish.
00:06:45.840The real challenge is to how do we align our interests together to do things together.
00:06:49.780There are three things here, and I'm trying not to make this seem like a barrage, but three consistent concerns that a lot of Conservatives have raised about your candidacy that I want to let you explain in your own words.
00:07:02.440And one of them is your connection to Huawei, and I know you commented on this at your launch in Calgary, and the other is your previous support for the long gun registry, and the third is your support for the carbon tax.
00:07:14.800So I want to give you time to do this, but let's start on Huawei, because the Conservative Party of Canada has taken, generally speaking, a very firm position against the Chinese government and against Huawei, and was very critical of a lot of what China did throughout that.
00:07:29.840So how do you defend your record in the private sector advising Huawei with what the Conservative Party and I think a lot of Canadians expect from a relationship with China and companies connected to the Chinese state?
00:07:42.520Well, Andrew, and that's an important question, and by the way, I'm very proud of the extensive private sector experience I have, and you know, in the last 10 years, I've worked a lot in the private sector with very interesting files at the highest level.
00:07:58.480And you said you were proud of your work with Huawei specifically, did you not?
00:08:02.020I want to, I want to answer very directly your question. I worked, I did not represent the Communist Party of China. I worked so that we could secure an agreement that would bring the two Michaels home. That's what I did. I worked with Veena Najibullah, who is the spouse of Michael Kovrig.
00:08:20.020We talked over the phone several times so that we could do everything possible to square away this issue and bring the Michaels home. And I'm very proud of that. I'm not, I'm not apologizing for that, not a minute, because I think that's what you do when, when you have this kind of responsibility and an opportunity to be helpful to your country.
00:08:42.020So that's what I did. So, and, and then on, I've never shied away. And, you know, I, I was on a panel after this was before the leadership race in Montreal.
00:08:51.020And I said very clearly what I thought of what this situation was with the Michaels. It was a government sanctioned kidnapping. That's what it was. Yeah. There's no other way to describe it.
00:09:03.020And I'm, I never shied away. And this is before you and I talked in this leadership race come up. So I've on the, on the issue of China, I've never shied away from saying what I think and what I believe.
00:09:14.500And that's the way I'm going to be as the leader of the party and as prime minister of the country.
00:09:19.180And let's turn to the long gun registry if we can. This is again, even the liberals have, have not proposed to reintroduce the long gun registry, given the colossal failure of a policy and the costliness of, of that as a policy.
00:09:30.840As Quebec premier, you supported it. What's your position on firearms?
00:09:34.980Well, I was in the house of commons when this long gun registry was being proposed and it was going to go to New Brunswick.
00:09:41.180And I remember very well us saying to the government at the time, you are going to just bust the budget on this.
00:09:48.180It is going to cost a fortune and it's not going to be as efficient as you actually think it is, or you're purporting that it's going to be.
00:09:53.800That was in 1997 when I led the party in the election campaign in 97.
00:09:58.140Now it ended up being that when, excuse me, when the Harper government decides to dismantle it, the police forces in Quebec say to us and to my government, if they're going to dismantle it, we would like to recuperate that information and put it into our, our system.
00:10:15.320And that was the position we took. We thought that made sense. It's there anyway. Money's been spent.
00:10:20.960So if it's spent and the information is there, then we should transfer it over and it'll be done.
00:10:26.000Government of the day didn't agree with that. Well, that's fine. But that was the position we took.
00:10:30.460And where is your stance now? Because firearms owners have been very critical of restrictions that Justin Trudeau has put in place.
00:10:39.100In the last election, the Conservatives had proposed to roll that back. Is that something you would do as Conservative leader as well?
00:10:46.140And, you know, are you surprised, Andrew? Is there anyone who is, you know, listening in or surprised that the Liberals keep taunting the Conservatives on this issue?
00:10:55.300I mean, this is the oldest movie in the world, really. They keep coming back to it.
00:11:00.640Now, what I see in both Toronto and Montreal in particular is a real issue of handguns and illegal entry of land guns.
00:11:09.380I'll tell you something I think the Conservatives should do is invest resources and money at the border to be able to stop the fact that handguns are coming in illegally to the country.
00:11:18.980If we want to deal with the real issue, that's where the problem is.
00:11:21.460It isn't up in northern Saskatchewan that we're having a problem with this.
00:11:25.900That's where the real, real issue is. And that's where I would put the efforts of the Conservative government.
00:11:31.280Would you would you roll back any of the restrictions that Justin Trudeau has put in?
00:11:36.020Well, we wouldn't be putting in any new restrictions for sure.
00:11:39.400And we would look seriously at what has been put in to make sure it makes common sense for Canadians who live in rural areas and who have nothing to do with the violence or the, you know, the sad stories we see in urban areas.
00:11:50.500So let's, let's just use common sense, but it speaks, as you know, Andrew speaks to a real divide.
00:11:55.720This was the case in 1997 between rural Canada and urban Canada.
00:11:59.540Why is it that we can't make a difference?
00:12:01.180We can very well make a difference, distinguish between two very different realities and just apply common sense policies that allow us to, to, to apply to, you know, whatever it is that needs to be done to restrict violence.
00:12:15.880And allow hunters to, uh, and, and farmers to go out and use their, their guns as they do safely.
00:12:22.700And let's talk if we can, uh, about carbon taxes, obviously Quebec under your leadership had a cap and trade program.
00:12:30.320The conservatives last time ran on a very unique model of a, of a carbon price and ultimately weren't successful on this.
00:12:38.040I I've heard you talk about the importance of finding solutions to environmental challenges that aren't rooted in taxation.
00:12:44.720You've talked even in our chat now about being someone who supports lower taxes.
00:12:49.020So how do you propose to tackle environmental issues that you have identified are important without a carbon tax, if that is your approach?
00:12:55.960And, and if it's not, what form of a, of a carbon tax would you proceed with?
00:13:00.240Andrew, I have a long history, as you know, dealing with this.
00:13:03.020I was in Rio in 1992 when Canada signed the climate change convention.
00:13:06.660And, uh, when we signed it, we didn't sign it as, and no one thought back then it was to be used as a club to hit the oil and gas industry over the head with.
00:13:16.580In fact, when I did that, and I'll tell you one fundamental difference on all these policies is if you want to get anything done.
00:13:22.340When I did that in Rio, Jack, uh, McLeod of Sunco of, uh, no shell was with us.
00:13:28.500And you cannot make up these policies if you take the oil and gas industry and they're outside of the room or the provinces, and that's what the liberals do.
00:13:38.340That's what Mr. Trudeau has done because you can't operationalize the policies.
00:13:42.960You can't actually implement them and make them commonsensical if you, they're outside of the room.
00:13:49.440That's the difference between the conservatives and the liberals.
00:13:51.460We did, conservatives did the Montreal Protocol on CFCs, HCFCs, the most successful environmental treaty in the world.
00:13:59.200We did the Clean Air Act on SO2 emissions in 1990, very successful.
00:14:03.920So conservatives do things, liberals talk.
00:15:02.660We have to be able, as a party, to get something that makes sense, resonates, that Canadians understand that it's fairly simple and straightforward.
00:15:11.480And if we meet that test, we're going to form a national government.
00:15:19.920Conservatives, three leaders in a row, three elections, have not been able to unseat Justin Trudeau, or I guess the last two, unseat Justin Trudeau.
00:15:27.920So why are you the guy that can turn that around?