Juno News - April 01, 2019


Jody Wilson-Raybould's integrity doesn't make her a Conservative


Episode Stats

Length

4 minutes

Words per Minute

179.22012

Word Count

717

Sentence Count

30

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary

Former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould has been accused of colluding with the Prime Minister on the SNC-Lavalin affair, but why does she not cross the aisle to join the Conservatives?


Transcript

00:00:00.000 It should have already been apparent to most Canadians, and frankly, I think it was.
00:00:06.680 But lest there be any doubt, Jody Wilson-Raybould, the former Attorney General,
00:00:10.680 has once again proven that she is a woman of character and integrity,
00:00:14.780 values that are absolutely paramount if we are to get good government from the people who are elected to lead us.
00:00:21.760 Unfortunately, her commitment to honesty, transparency, and integrity is not one that seems to be shared
00:00:27.740 by many of her colleagues in the Liberal Caucus, and certainly not shared by Justin Trudeau.
00:00:33.480 Remember, Justin Trudeau has obfuscated, he's been dishonest, he has been inconsistent,
00:00:38.220 and the only one whose story has not changed through this is Jody Wilson-Raybould.
00:00:43.380 The SNC-Lavalin affair has revealed her to be the only one telling the truth consistently,
00:00:48.060 and lest there be any doubt about that, she's proven it.
00:00:51.740 The phone call that she released of her conversation months ago with Michael Warnick,
00:00:56.040 the former Clerk of the Privy Council, reveals that Jody Wilson-Raybould was in fact being pressured
00:01:01.900 by someone who was operating as an agent for the Prime Minister,
00:01:06.160 someone who was supposed to be Canada's chief civil servant,
00:01:09.160 the highest non-partisan public official in Canada,
00:01:11.960 but in actuality was running political interference for Justin Trudeau.
00:01:16.660 So the question that remains here is,
00:01:19.000 how on earth can Jody Wilson-Raybould still in good conscience run for the Liberals?
00:01:23.160 Not only is she sitting in the Liberal caucus still, and at this point no one has kicked her out of there,
00:01:28.600 but she's also insisted that she will be running again as a Liberal candidate in the 2019 election
00:01:33.940 in the riding of Vancouver-Granville.
00:01:36.000 It's possible this is a power play,
00:01:37.900 something meant to bait Justin Trudeau into kicking her out of caucus,
00:01:41.780 and rejecting her ability to be the candidate,
00:01:44.920 but there is a legitimate question here that many people have been asking,
00:01:48.360 which is, why doesn't she cross the floor?
00:01:50.780 And I think that would be a terrible idea,
00:01:53.420 both for Jody Wilson-Raybould and for the Conservatives or even the New Democrats,
00:01:58.320 if that was the party that she chose to cross to.
00:02:01.540 And here's why.
00:02:03.120 A political party is not meant to be a representation
00:02:05.640 of who you are siding with in a particular dispute.
00:02:09.660 It's meant to be an embodiment of the values that you hold dear
00:02:13.300 and that you'd assume are shared by that political party.
00:02:17.240 She ran as a Liberal for a reason.
00:02:19.020 She's continued to govern as a Liberal for a reason.
00:02:22.360 She wants to run again as a Liberal for a reason.
00:02:25.180 All of the Conservatives saying she should join the Conservative caucus
00:02:28.040 are undermining what it is that makes the Conservative Party of Canada
00:02:32.180 the Conservative Party of Canada.
00:02:34.500 And that is what's supposed to be, anyway,
00:02:36.300 a commitment to small-c Conservative values.
00:02:39.280 I shared many of these concerns when Leona Alislev,
00:02:42.200 the former Liberal MP,
00:02:43.540 decided last year to cross the floor to the Conservatives.
00:02:47.500 I said, okay, if she genuinely believes the Conservatives
00:02:50.840 are pushing for better policies, then yes.
00:02:53.800 But she needs to speak to whether she is, in fact, a Conservative.
00:02:57.660 Well, there is no doubt in anyone's mind that Jody Wilson-Raybould is not.
00:03:02.140 Just because she's a woman of unrivaled character and integrity,
00:03:05.840 which is a value shared by many people in the Conservative caucus,
00:03:09.160 does not mean that she is herself a Conservative.
00:03:11.800 We have to get out of this mindset of siloing political parties to such an extent
00:03:16.800 that they are not actually representative of ideologies,
00:03:20.420 but are just representative of people, personality conflicts, scandal,
00:03:24.540 or resistance to people, personality conflicts, and scandal.
00:03:28.200 Not liking Justin Trudeau doesn't make you a Conservative.
00:03:31.680 Believing in Conservative values does.
00:03:34.700 We can support her from afar.
00:03:36.580 We can support her from across the aisle.
00:03:38.400 We can support people of integrity in all parties
00:03:41.540 and recognize that there are good people and bad people across the spectrum.
00:03:45.740 But just because she finds herself at odds with Justin Trudeau on SNC-Lavalin
00:03:50.120 does not mean she is opposed to his agenda.
00:03:52.740 And this is something that a lot of the Conservatives
00:03:54.860 who are cheerleading for her to join them need to take heed of.
00:03:58.280 For True North, I'm Andrew Lutton.