Juno News - Liberal ministers crash Conservative convention

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

00:01:00.000 welcome to canada's most irreverent talk show this is the andrew lawton show brought to you by true

00:01:20.440 north hello and welcome to you all this is the andrew lawton show canada's most irreverent talk

00:01:31.340 show here on true north it is monday september 11th and it is 21 well no 22 now years since the

00:01:39.940 tragedy of 9-11 a period in history that stands out and was a period in which we must always

00:01:47.960 remember that terrorism is real and the threats against the West and civilization are very real.

00:01:54.880 And I don't wish to rehash what has been now more than two decades of political discourse on this.

00:02:01.580 I just wanted to take the opportunity to say that on this day and always, we remember. We remember

00:02:07.200 those whose only offense to those enemies of the West was living their life. And we certainly send 1.00

00:02:16.360 our thoughts and prayers to those survivors and family members of the victims who have

00:02:21.600 to relive this all the time.

00:02:24.740 And, you know, at True North, we've always taken it a bit more seriously than I think

00:02:27.980 some of the other media outlets in this country, just because it was, generally speaking,

00:02:32.880 a sacrifice that we thought was important to honor and continue to do so.

00:02:36.740 So it's always risky when you start the show off on such a somber note.

00:02:40.900 But nevertheless, we now segue into the subjects of this show, which include overwhelmingly coverage from the last few days of the Conservative Convention.

00:02:51.980 But I just want to, before we get to that, let you know that if you watch this show live, we are at a new time slot right now.

00:02:58.340 We are at 11 a.m. Mountain Time, 1 p.m. Eastern Time.

00:03:02.040 And assuming this goes well, which you never know, this will be our new time for the foreseeable future as we also shift into a bit of a new schedule.

00:03:09.620 So the Andrew Lawton Show is now going to be daily Monday to Thursday.

00:03:13.660 We'll have a little bit more content to fill, but hopefully we'll rise up to the challenge, rise up to the task, and you'll enjoy it.

00:03:20.100 I had the chance in Quebec City where I was covering the Conservative Convention to speak to a number of True North supporters, people who listen to this show.

00:03:29.580 It was an absolute pleasure, and thank you so much for all the kind words.

00:03:33.040 Although I must say, I've reached a bit of a weird point in my life where I'm the kind, like there was this one situation where, I hope this doesn't sound wrong, where like this lovely, lovely, lovely young lady came up to me and, you know, she was been waiting, very, very kindly and politely waiting, you know, to talk to me while I was chatting with someone else.

00:03:52.780 And, you know, that person ended and I went over and she came up and she's like, I just want to say my mom is a huge fan of yours.

00:03:59.880 And I'm like, oh, well, I think that's a compliment.

00:04:02.560 It's always weird because it's like you never want someone to come up to you and be like, hey, someone I know is a fan of yours.

00:04:07.940 But nevertheless, it was a lot of fun.

00:04:09.560 And I enjoyed meeting everyone here.

00:04:11.920 This is a bit of a turning point for the Conservatives.

00:04:15.480 This is now the one year anniversary of Pierre Paulyev being elected leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:04:21.520 It was the first opportunity he's had since then to really speak to conservative members and by extension to kind of set the tone for how he wants to speak to Canadians.

00:04:31.620 And the one thing that I'll say that makes this not particularly newsworthy is that there wasn't anything bold that came out of this that was a departure from what Pierre Polyev has already been talking about.

00:04:42.300 I've remarked in the past that one of the things he's doing quite well compared to, say, Aaron O'Toole and Andrew Scheer, his predecessors, is not pivot from his leadership messaging to the general campaign messaging.

00:04:54.540 He's still talking about Davos.

00:04:56.480 He's still talking about the CBC and the need to be funded.

00:04:59.420 He's still talking about a lot of these things that were really red meat issues for his base.

00:05:03.960 But he's added on top of that, of course, a bit more in the way of broadly appealing subjects like housing and affordability.

00:05:10.280 And this pervasive message in his campaigning now, the common people, common sense for the common people, the idea that working class folks across this country are not ordinary, but are extraordinary.

00:05:21.800 This is something we heard from Pierre and also from his wife, Anna, who I think is very quickly emerging, if she hasn't already, as a standout in this field.

00:05:31.200 But here's where things get interesting.

00:05:32.980 It wasn't just about 3,000 members of the conservative community in Canada coming together in Quebec City.

00:05:39.120 There were also a handful of liberals there and not just like random liberals who live in the neighborhood and wanted to pop by to see what the fuss was about, but like high ranking liberal cabinet ministers who were dispatched to Quebec City to be glorified hecklers and protesters at this event.

00:05:56.820 one of them was Stephen Gilbeau, who at like, I think it was at nine o'clock or something on

00:06:01.260 Saturday, we got word that he was going to be doing some press conference at 1030. And we're

00:06:05.900 like, that sounds a bit odd. And, you know, we walk out to where it's supposed to be. And I kid

00:06:10.500 you not, there was like a long black stretch limo outside. And I'm like, surely this can't be how

00:06:16.360 Stephen Gilbeau is showing up to the Conservative convention. It wasn't. I don't know who came in

00:06:20.180 the stretch limo, but it wasn't Stephen Gilbeau. And in any event, he showed up a little while

00:06:25.040 later and started speaking about how, you know, the conservatives don't have a plan for the climate

00:06:29.540 and Polyev has been the leader for a year and still doesn't have a plan for the climate and,

00:06:33.980 you know, yada, yada, yada. And I asked him a couple of questions. I mean, the first one I

00:06:38.360 asked him was about why Canada is the one that has to go into energy poverty and why Canadians have to

00:06:45.700 when we are less than 2% of global emissions, like 1.7, 1.8 usually, and China's investing in coal

00:06:53.620 and re-industrializing and ramping up production.

00:06:56.820 And then a little bit later on,

00:06:57.940 I had the opportunity in this scrum

00:06:59.600 to ask him this question

00:07:01.500 that shouldn't actually be a difficult one

00:07:03.880 because he was the guy standing up there

00:07:05.700 and saying that we need carbon taxes.

00:07:09.420 We need the liberal climate plan

00:07:11.060 because Canada is subject to wildfires

00:07:13.900 and Canada is subject to hurricanes

00:07:16.240 and extreme weather events.

00:07:17.260 So I thought this was a pretty fair question.

00:07:20.500 You mentioned extreme events like wildfires and hurricanes.

00:07:22.900 Why has your carbon tax not stopped those things, if that is the answer to these problems?

00:07:26.980 This question, which I've heard in the House of Commons by many Conservative Party members,

00:07:32.160 including Pierre Polyev, is yet another example of the fundamental disbelief

00:07:38.540 that you have in climate science, and in science full stop.

00:07:41.840 We won't solve climate change overnight, and we certainly won't solve climate change with empty slogans.

00:07:47.500 It's going to take years of hard work to tackle this environmental crisis,

00:07:51.280 And the fact that you believe that somehow we can flick a switch on a wall and everything's

00:07:55.920 going to be fine just shows how the total ignorance that you and many others have when

00:08:02.060 it comes to the issue of climate change. 0.99

00:08:04.620 Ooh, the total ignorance. 0.83

00:08:07.040 I think he meant ignorance, but I won't hold that against him.

00:08:09.520 He doesn't even look at me as he's making this accusation, by the way.

00:08:12.320 But the total ignorance that I have on climate change.

00:08:16.260 Well, I'm actually not ignorant to this.

00:08:17.960 Now, unlike him, I am not pretending that I am an expert on this field, but I listen to the experts and I pay attention to it.

00:08:24.620 And the Liberals, who time and time again tell us we need to tax our way out of the climate problems, have failed to answer the question of why BC, which has had a carbon tax for, what, 15 years now, has failed to stop wildfires with it.

00:08:38.420 Why Canada, which has now had a national carbon tax for four years, has failed to stop wildfires and extreme weather events with it.

00:08:45.180 And more importantly, why Canadians should bear the brunt of this.

00:08:49.400 And his answer to that question, which I won't make you suffer through it like I did,

00:08:53.720 was basically that, well, you know, how can we go to China and expect them to do stuff

00:08:57.780 if we're not doing it?

00:08:58.860 So we need to lead by example.

00:09:00.900 We need to cripple our economy to show them how it's done.

00:09:03.860 And again, China is laughing and profiting while Western countries twist themselves

00:09:08.980 into knots to literally de-industrialize.

00:09:11.820 That is the goal.

00:09:12.940 That is the focal point.

00:09:13.960 But it wasn't just Stephen Gilboa. Marcy Ian showed up and was touting how like 45 different feminist organizations were all descending on Quebec City. And they were all there to, you can probably see it for yourself. I mean, there weren't actually 45 different groups. I saw like nine people outside with a banner saying they're against the patriarchy and against colonialism and all of that.

00:09:37.480 But Marcy Ian was there, you know, the grandmaster of this protest in some way.

00:09:42.380 And then a little later on, Pablo Rodriguez came by.

00:09:45.440 He used to be the heritage minister.

00:09:48.120 Now he's transport minister, but I didn't really have a transport question to ask him.

00:09:52.060 I should have actually, knowing what I know now, that Justin Trudeau has like failed to be able to get his plane to take off from India.

00:09:58.380 I could have asked him about that, but we didn't know about that at the time.

00:10:01.540 So I decided to ask him about this report that we spoke about a little bit last week,

00:10:06.220 how C18, the Online News Act,

00:10:09.480 which is the one that's basically going to funnel money

00:10:11.380 from big tech to the media in Canada,

00:10:14.980 is going to make CBC the big winner.

00:10:18.460 The story on this was that experts who have analyzed this,

00:10:22.200 including our friend Peter Menzies,

00:10:24.240 have showed that it's going to be CBC

00:10:26.420 that gets the lion's share of the money

00:10:28.940 that this is going to put into media.

00:10:32.300 CBC, which is already a taxpayer-funded,

00:10:35.080 heavily subsidized outlet to the tune of 1.2 1.3 billion dollars a year and they're going to get

00:10:42.200 an additional subsidy from big tech so i asked pablo rodriguez about this the former vice chair

00:10:48.680 of the crtc said that it's the cbc that's going to get the lion's share of any money given under

00:10:53.400 the online news act so how is that supporting independent media creators in canada when it's

00:10:58.920 just increasing an already very generous subsidy that the cbc gets from the government well we've

00:11:04.360 based our bill on what we saw in australia and we took it and i think we made it better

00:11:10.280 but if you look at australia proportionally it's all the small media they got more than the rest

00:11:15.560 but that's not what experts are saying in canada will happen they're saying cbc

00:11:19.480 will get even more money of that those are against the bill but when you speak to the

00:11:23.720 people in australia and we brought some of their experts but these are canadian experts and they

00:11:27.560 went to the committees it's the same structure and they went to the committees and they said

00:11:31.000 proportionally on the small media government okay so it's australian experts and but what

00:11:39.960 about the canadian no no no let's listen to the australian experts so uh it's odd how the canadian

00:11:45.160 experts who know the canadian situation are not actually the folks that uh we should be listening

00:11:50.360 to here it's the australian ones which very conveniently the liberals flew all the way

00:11:54.360 into australia or maybe they zoomed in i can't remember uh to align with stuff the government

00:11:59.560 wants to do. A little bit funny how that works out. But nevertheless, it's a little bit odd to me

00:12:03.860 that we have a conservative convention where thousands of conservatives from across the country

00:12:08.220 are going. And then we have the big question here on liberals' minds, which is, hmm, how can we

00:12:15.320 gatecrash? Now, look, maybe conservatives throw a better party than liberals. I actually don't

00:12:20.040 know. I think liberals might actually know how to party pretty well. But what is it that they

00:12:24.480 wanted there? Now, I actually have been trying to figure this out. I've been trying to figure out

00:12:28.300 how it ended up that the Liberal ministers were going to be at the Conservative Convention.

00:12:32.220 And I found, through accessed information, a copy of a video of Justin Trudeau

00:12:37.720 briefing Ministers Gilboa and Rodriguez before sending them out.

00:12:42.580 Take a look.

00:12:43.540 I want you at every Horns and every Russell event for the next 36 hours.

00:12:46.740 Obviously, Bob goes to the Russell events and John the Horns, you know, Bob, John.

00:12:53.300 We're making a serious point here.

00:12:54.980 We're trying to turn public opinion.

00:12:56.620 So no roughhousing, no tearing down signs, no excessive flapping of the wings.

00:13:03.740 Don't lie about what you're doing there.

00:13:05.900 Don't heckle.

00:13:06.920 If you get the chance, you ask humbly and respectfully, are you too chicken to debate the full field?

00:13:14.700 On a personal note, thanks for, you know.

00:13:21.040 Okay, sorry, I might have been mistaken.

00:13:23.460 Very similar, though.

00:13:24.500 And to be honest, Rodriguez and Gilbo probably could have done the chicken suit, make some new original Canadian content for us all.

00:13:31.300 But that's basically it.

00:13:32.640 They became the, you know, mascots, the hecklers, the paid protesters, the agents, provocateur, for no apparent reason, just showing up to protest.

00:13:43.360 Now, listen, I had some people at the convention asking me, like, what on earth is Gilbo doing here?

00:13:47.780 I said, you know, would you rather him here or in Ottawa?

00:13:49.560 And everyone said, you know what? Yeah, the more time he's spending not legislating, the better things are for the country.

00:13:54.920 But it was really a fascinating thing and not exactly the sign of a party that is feeling confident about his position.

00:14:02.120 The backdrop for all of this is that right now the Liberals are just plummeting in the polls.

00:14:08.620 The Liberals are pulling in like 24, 25 percent.

00:14:11.840 The abacus poll last week had the Conservatives at 40 percent.

00:14:15.180 And, well, yes, polling is not at all a perfect thing that we should all expect to predict future outcomes.

00:14:21.660 Polling has been very consistently showing the Conservatives riding high.

00:14:26.560 And it's telling that the Liberals have not managed to adapt to this.

00:14:30.740 This was Pablo Rodriguez's response to Pierre Polyev's hour-long speech.

00:14:36.780 The bigger picture here, though, what was your takeaway from the speech?

00:14:39.920 It was long. It was a very long speech.

00:14:42.400 with not much new, quite a traditional, I would say, Republican, you know, far-right speech,

00:14:50.200 where he confirmed that he's going to cut that. We know that he's going to cut a lot.

00:14:54.300 We don't know where, right? Is that going to be the seniors, dental care? We don't know.

00:14:59.260 We have hoped that he had the courage to say where he was going to cut,

00:15:02.980 but at least we know that he's going to cut, and we'll see.

00:15:07.020 Now, the one thing, and I actually wish the cameras had captured this when they were

00:15:11.740 doing that Pablo Rodriguez event but if you I don't know if it's possible to put up a still

00:15:16.520 of that or not if not it's no big deal but if you were to like stare at Pablo Rodriguez and turn to

00:15:22.280 the right you'd see the the window of the building there right inside that window there was a two and

00:15:29.740 like 20 minute long lineup for people to see Pierre Polyev and get a picture with him after

00:15:35.660 Pierre Polyev spoke he went and started taking pictures with anyone and everyone who came by

00:15:40.340 And that went for like almost two and a half hours after he finished speaking.

00:15:45.360 So Pablo Rodriguez is up there saying, oh, yeah, you know, the conservatives are far right.

00:15:49.640 And then you look over and there are literally thousands of people that were like so enamored by what Pierre Polyev was saying and doing that they wanted to get a picture with him.

00:15:58.160 Now, obviously, a bit of a sample bias there.

00:16:00.000 Those people are delegates or attendees of a conservative convention.

00:16:03.720 But talk about the contrast.

00:16:05.080 The liberals are still using the same talking points they've always used when Polyev is riding high.

00:16:11.060 I mean, look, if he's the far right guy, what does that say about the 40 percent of Canadians, many of whom may have been previous liberal voters that are saying they would cast their ballot with that guy?

00:16:23.040 Now, the next day, Rodriguez came back and he was doing like they they don't like that Kian Bextie and Rebel News and True North were able to ask him questions.

00:16:34.340 So when he came back, they did this like series of one-on-one interviews where they would just like with French outlets do a one-on-one and no scrumming, which is when other people jump in. And the thing about it that I found interesting is afterwards, I like, you know, just like try to throw a question at him. And then he was walking away and his press secretary tried to like hold me back under the, oh, why don't you give me your number and we'll arrange an interview as he's walking away. And I'm like, I'm not falling for this one.

00:17:01.600 And so, like, we ran after him and we didn't really get anything good out of it.

00:17:05.380 But I did ask him to try to get an answer.

00:17:07.740 What is it about the speech that was far right?

00:17:09.760 And he was like, oh, you know, cuts.

00:17:11.620 It's about cuts.

00:17:12.560 And then, you know, what is it about, you know, Canadians that support Pierre Polyev, that you would say.

00:17:17.660 And he basically just pivoted to abortion.

00:17:20.180 Like, this is the only thing the liberals have right now is this, like, panic that, oh, conservatives are pro-life and it's not working.

00:17:29.020 It absolutely is not working.

00:17:31.600 And when you look at what Canadians are seeing right now, and by the way, like, it was difficult to not get caught up in the enthusiasm and excitement, which is true of any party convention. I mean, maybe the NDP conventions are a little bit more lethargic, but you're seeing people that are out there that are excited and enthusiastic.

00:17:48.800 But this was the first time in, I'd say, eight years that I've seen a level of enthusiasm from conservative Canadians.

00:17:57.960 Like conservative Canadians tolerated Andrew Scheer's leadership.

00:18:01.500 They tolerated Aaron O'Toole's leadership.

00:18:04.340 They've had good moments.

00:18:05.500 But this was the first time there was really an electricity where people seem to feel, yeah, this is it.

00:18:11.280 We've got this.

00:18:12.060 Now, that doesn't mean they can't blow it.

00:18:13.580 Conservatives have certainly blown their fair share of elections.

00:18:16.720 but they're feeling right now like they're over the target,

00:18:20.460 which is, I think, a very, very different place for them to be in.

00:18:23.600 And you can just see some of the reactions online.

00:18:26.900 For example, Kaliyev was on a WestJet flight from Quebec City to Calgary,

00:18:32.340 which apparently WestJet only added this flight

00:18:36.060 to help conservative delegates get out of Quebec City without having to connect.

00:18:39.440 I had to connect in Toronto yesterday, and it was terrible

00:18:41.880 because I had to run into Jagmeet Singh at Pearson Airport.

00:18:44.520 So direct flights are always better.

00:18:46.720 And because it was like either almost all or all conservative delegates,

00:18:50.800 they let Polyev address the plane.

00:18:53.760 And he gave what was a decent little like pep talk you can see here.

00:18:58.640 Everyone, this is Pierre Polyev.

00:19:01.220 Happy to join you for a wonderful West Strait flight back in my hometown of Calgary.

00:19:06.860 Who's ready for a home you can afford?

00:19:10.780 Who's ready for some common sense?

00:19:14.240 Who is it for the commonsense?

00:19:16.720 Who's ready to give a big thank you to the WestJet pilots and crew?

00:19:24.720 This is your captain warning.

00:19:27.720 A little bit of turbulence, but it will only last about two years.

00:19:32.720 The wind's shine. We'll have a totally new crew and pilot in charge of the plane.

00:19:38.720 We'll pierce through the storm, safely land, in our home, the country we know and love.

00:19:44.720 your home, my home, our home. Let's bring it home.

00:19:52.480 And I only share that to contextualize how unhinged the like anti-WestJet tweets were

00:19:58.940 after the fact. You had people saying like, oh, WestJet needs to be held to account. This is

00:20:02.780 unacceptable. And I'm like, you know what, with all the nonsense that you have to see and listen

00:20:06.740 to when you get on a plane, I don't think, you know, a conservative leader or any politician

00:20:10.340 and speaking for, you know, 58 seconds or whatever it is in front of a friendly crowd is the most

00:20:15.040 offensive or egregious thing there. But the unhinged reaction to what happened at the

00:20:20.080 convention is par for the course. One of the most notable developments was the passage of

00:20:25.360 these two motions, these policy resolutions that are taking aim at gender ideology. One of them

00:20:31.940 says the conservatives are against sex changes for kids. Again, a pretty reasonable mainstream 0.92

00:20:37.400 position you'd expect. And the other is a conservative party believes in the protection

00:20:43.300 of single sex basis. So the conservatives believe that a woman is a female person. Shouldn't be 0.98

00:20:50.000 controversial, but apparently it is. But the level of nastiness that these resolutions have elicited

00:20:57.180 from people has been quite astonishing. There was this tweet from Sherry De Novo, a former Ontario

00:21:03.580 provincial parliamentarian who said, no LGBTQ person should ever vote conservative after the

00:21:09.560 attack on all of us at their convention. First, they came for the trans as they did in the 1930s. 1.00

00:21:17.520 Now, I know a little bit about the history of the 1930s and 1940s, and I do not believe we could say

00:21:24.320 that that was an attack on trans people first and foremost. So shame on you for trying to inject 1.00

00:21:29.840 your own political views into an awful chapter in history. And I'm not saying that, you know,

00:21:35.100 people who were sexual minorities were not affected by the Nazis. But again, that was not

00:21:40.460 first and foremost. The Holocaust was not first and foremost over pronouns. And it's disgusting

00:21:44.860 for you to try to claim that it is in some roundabout way. You have Laurel Collins here,

00:21:49.880 a liberal MP who says the rising hate directed at trans people is terrifying. And conservative

00:21:55.180 leaders are stoking this hate with dangerous discriminatory policies. And then there's like

00:21:59.660 a 97-point plan on how conservatives are evil and the liberals are better. And then you had this

00:22:06.200 story in CTV. Now, CTV, to its credit, shared my question to Stephen Gilboa about why carbon taxes

00:22:14.200 aren't stopping wildfires. But any good favor they earned then, they lost with this story here.

00:22:19.960 During the Conservative Party's policy convention in Quebec City, delegates voted in favor of

00:22:25.060 prohibiting medicinal or surgical interventions for transgender children under 18 as a future

00:22:31.900 government policy. So they say in their framing of this that the Conservative Party is trying to

00:22:38.760 deny medical care to transgender kids. No, the Conservative Party members are saying they do not

00:22:44.740 believe government should facilitate sex changes for children, irreversible surgery and hormone 0.76

00:22:51.640 treatments for children. That is what conservative members said. They had said nothing about denying

00:22:56.840 mental health care or physical health care or pharma care. They said, we do not want to give

00:23:02.360 them irreversible treatments to change what is fundamentally a question of biology. And then you

00:23:10.100 have this unhinged narrative from this that flows where people are saying this is going to kill

00:23:14.720 people, people trying to pretend there is going to be a direct death toll because of what conservative

00:23:19.840 delegates voted for. A position, by the way, shared by millions of non-conservative people

00:23:25.220 from all faith groups, of no faith group at all, with provinces around the country starting to

00:23:31.700 talk about this. New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta to some extent. And it's

00:23:37.120 going to continue from there because that is where parents are. Parents are saying, hmm,

00:23:41.960 maybe we should look after our children and support them not by going to the hills to defend

00:23:48.260 sex changes for them. So that's what's happening here. And obviously we've had a fair bit of

00:23:53.740 coverage on this, but I want to go back to some of the other themes here. And I mentioned at the

00:23:58.280 beginning of this show, we have a new time slot. We are doing things a little bit more differently

00:24:02.860 on this show than we have in the past. So we thought we would introduce a new feature, which

00:24:08.180 is to promote every Monday. Chris Sims, who is with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, is no

00:24:13.940 stranger to viewers of this show. And we're so glad she's agreed to give us a little bit of her

00:24:18.620 Monday. So we decided we'd start with her today. Chris, always good to talk to you. Thanks for

00:24:22.740 coming on today. So stoked to be here, Andrew. Congratulations on your new time slot.

00:24:27.320 Hey, thank you. Let's start off with this CBC thing. So Pablo Rodriguez, who had the heritage

00:24:32.840 file for much of the time that C11 and C18 have been in the pipeline, comes out and says, despite

00:24:40.020 what every expert in Canada who's looked at this is saying, it's going to be the independent media

00:24:45.620 outlets that are benefiting from C-18, when we know that CBC will, and we also know that independent

00:24:51.540 outlets like us, who never wanted to be a part of this, are being silenced as a result of C-18.

00:24:57.580 Yeah, what a dog's breakfast. I think this is another example, Andrew, of this government just

00:25:03.300 winging it. Like a lot of times it seems as if they've had no prep, no research. They just do

00:25:09.860 stuff because they see other people doing it and then we all pay for it. So for folks who don't

00:25:15.920 know the difference between something like C-11, which was a major censorship law, and this new

00:25:20.760 C-18, basically this is why you can't post a link on Facebook right now for a news site because

00:25:28.080 there's a huge fight between the government and the tech bros. So for the longest time,

00:25:33.920 we were kind of staying out of it because that was a fight between the government and the tech

00:25:38.080 bros. It didn't necessarily affect taxpayers directly, but now we're coming off the bench

00:25:44.020 because now it turns out, spoiler alert, yeah, CBC is going to apparently been getting the lion's

00:25:52.400 share of the money from said tech bros. And of course, the CBC is the government. So this is a

00:26:00.560 tax. So this is where we're coming at this from. The CBC already takes $1.2, $1.3 billion from us

00:26:09.160 every single year. By the way, folks, that would build you a brand new hospital with all of the

00:26:14.820 equipment inside of it every single year. That's how much you're paying for the CBC. And now,

00:26:19.740 lo and behold, they're going to be getting the lion's share. And you mentioned Mr. Menzies. I

00:26:25.560 spoke with him just last week, and this is how it's apparently going to go. It's the link volume.

00:26:32.020 It's volume. It's how many links are posted on said media platforms that then translates into

00:26:38.880 money, gets that cash. And of course, the CBC online in their print format has been eating the

00:26:46.120 lunch of local print newspapers now for years. And they actually get a lot of links posted to

00:26:52.440 their printed versions of their news stories. So guess what? They're going to be the ones

00:26:57.320 benefiting the most from this new law if the tech companies cave and start paying.

00:27:02.860 You know, the one thing that I've always said has been problematic about this government's

00:27:07.900 approach to the internet file is that they're trying to muddy the waters on this. And, you know,

00:27:12.300 one example we saw a few years ago the 600 million dollar slush fund effectively for media outlets

00:27:17.780 which a lot of taxpayers didn't like now they're trying to just continue subsidizing but saying oh

00:27:23.240 no no it's not tax dollars that's doing it we're making these you know big evil scary tech companies

00:27:27.660 do it whereas in the cbc case it is government that is the beneficiary so it's literally a

00:27:33.320 backdoor subsidy it's the government looking at cbc and saying oh we'll give you an extra 50 60

00:27:38.200 million, however much it works out to be, will give you this extra money without ever having

00:27:42.860 to own it, without having to put it on a balance sheet, without having to get Canadians to endorse

00:27:47.380 that. And it's a very backhanded, or underhanded, I should say, approach to just forcing more

00:27:53.660 subsidization of CBC. Yeah, for sure. It definitely feels like a backhand to the faces of taxpayers.

00:27:59.220 And people need to remember, number one, journalists shouldn't be paid by the government,

00:28:04.900 Period.

00:28:05.760 We don't care if you're a right-wing, left-wing space alien. 0.75

00:28:08.500 A journalist is supposed to hold the powerful to account.

00:28:12.180 Pretty tough to do that if you're counting on the powerful for your paycheck.

00:28:16.420 That's number one.

00:28:17.420 Number two, this is a huge waste of money.

00:28:19.840 On top of the $1.2, $1.3 billion, like you said, Andrew,

00:28:24.100 it's around $600 million or so on top of that for journalists outside of the CBC.

00:28:30.680 When you do the math, that breaks down to about $13,000 per reporter coming from the government.

00:28:39.100 And so for folks who are kind of curious, if you've never worked in journalism, do a little thought process.

00:28:44.400 Imagine your reporter on Parliament Hill, 13 grand of your paycheck and maybe the very existence of your job counts on that minister.

00:28:54.440 How on earth are you supposed to hold him to account, ask those tough questions like you were just a few minutes ago and shove a mic in his face?

00:29:02.900 It's human nature. You're not going to be able to do that.

00:29:06.060 You cannot call that game straight if you're a ref taking bets on the side.

00:29:10.420 So now, lo and behold, C-18 is just another way for them to extort money, in this case from a private company, directly into government coffers that happen to be labeled CBC.

00:29:21.800 so again this is why folks need to really pay attention to this yeah and you see it especially

00:29:28.180 with radio canada like they won't stop reporting on pierre polyev's pledge to defund cbc and in

00:29:33.620 their case they're trying to figure out what it's going to mean for them will radio canada get a

00:29:37.620 little bit of a carve out and there's a bit of a dispute even within the conservatives about this

00:29:41.640 like quebec conservative mps are saying oh no radio canada is fine pierre polyev himself hasn't

00:29:46.920 said that but it is interesting and you're right these journalists who are writing about their own

00:29:51.560 future and their own livelihood here and not really acknowledging that that's what they're

00:29:56.060 doing. And I think it's the same with this bailout as well. You're right. Yeah, they have to at least

00:30:00.700 they should declare at the very least, they should declare right up front that either, you know,

00:30:06.040 whatever company it is, company ABC or reporter job, this is subsidized by the state, is subsidized

00:30:13.060 by the government. This reporter is counting with their paycheck on this government's largesse.

00:30:18.760 Otherwise, how are you supposed to cover that straight?

00:30:22.140 And we also need to keep in mind that this is a massive waste of money.

00:30:26.380 And it also, when combined with the government paying journalists, when combined to something like C11, which is a form of online censorship,

00:30:34.400 we are in really uncharted territory here when it comes to free expression and a free press here in Canada.

00:30:41.760 One other issue I wanted to bring up, not the same in terms of dollar value.

00:30:45.900 But again, when we're talking about government waste, there is a bit of a connection here.

00:30:50.040 This came from your colleague, Ryan Thorpe, over at the CTF this morning.

00:30:54.400 Apparently, the federal government has spent $420,000 since 2018 subsidizing edible crickets.

00:31:02.580 What on earth is going on?

00:31:04.760 I'm sorry. 0.52

00:31:05.540 I just find that so gross.

00:31:07.080 I mean, like if you're into eating crickets, anybody watching this, power to you.

00:31:10.800 Go right ahead.

00:31:12.520 You probably don't like me eating beef or whatever it is your thing is.

00:31:15.240 So yes, this is a huge waste of money. It's over $400,000. And this is all that we've seen so far. There's probably plenty below the surface that we're not aware of. $400,000 since 2018. And what this is, is it's basically corporate welfare, okay, being handed out to what they call cricket farms. And I've seen videos of these things, Andrew, they're like these massive buildings, and I can just imagine the noise. And they're all in these little habitats, right? And you turn them into paste.

00:31:44.920 Now, I have to be clear. They've been putting crickets and bugs and stuff into pet food for

00:31:50.040 years. It's a high protein thing. You're putting it into kibble. Who cares? If you do care,

00:31:56.600 whatever. But it's going into pet food. This is different. This is $400,000 to turn crickets into

00:32:03.340 powder and paste and stuff so humans can eat it. Again, if you want to do that and you want to make

00:32:10.400 a company doing that, give her. But don't take dollars from taxpayers. We're opposed to corporate

00:32:15.880 welfare, and this was definitely something that jumped out at us. But no, it isn't just paste. I

00:32:21.900 was reading from the report over at taxpayer.com that a portion of it has been earmarked for

00:32:28.500 cricket steaks, sausages, and falafels. Now, I have not seen a cricket steak, a cricket sausage.

00:32:35.860 I could kind of imagine a cricket falafel but it's like a falafel is already vegetarian like

00:32:40.940 why do you need crick peas instead of chickpeas in falafel it's no longer vegetarian though

00:32:46.260 if you make it yeah you're right you're you're making it you're making it worse you're like

00:32:50.320 adding you're adding something in it that like even the vegans wouldn't have cared

00:32:53.760 about this is one of the funny little secrets just to let people in on it when they're talking

00:32:59.140 about you know cows and horses because I was raised around cows and horses being you know

00:33:03.300 herbivores. Actually, they eat a lot of bugs, like so many bugs on their grass that they're

00:33:09.460 kind of omnivorous. But yeah, all this is to say, I think what they do, and this is just me winging

00:33:14.020 it. I think they take the paste and they shape it into a steak. And then they must like, I don't

00:33:21.540 know, use some sort of binder in order to keep it looking like a steak shape. I will say, Andrew,

00:33:27.540 I sent your producer this and maybe we can chat about it next time. This isn't just about product

00:33:32.420 producing food. I don't know how much money we spent on this but last year my kid was sent home

00:33:38.180 from public elementary school in British Columbia with four pages of cricket propaganda for him to

00:33:45.540 fill out as an assignment and it was chatting about this massive grocery store chain, the same

00:33:50.980 one we gave millions of dollars to to pay for refrigerators, putting cricket powder and cricket

00:33:56.340 paste on the shelves and why this is the wave of the future for farming and actually super funny

00:34:02.100 how ai is helping to raise these crickets like it pushed all my buttons and it's like it's like

00:34:09.220 they've literally just like they've taken like the wef agenda for the year and they took like

00:34:15.300 every buzzword and came up with something like let's take crickets and throw in ai and we'll

00:34:20.420 throw in censorship and find like a battery powered vehicle and we'll just like it's the

00:34:24.260 battery-powered uh cricket plant with the recipes made up by ai it makes them happy klaus schwab

00:34:29.540 comes out and you believe the bugs they could have made it so that the carbon tax goes up to

00:34:36.180 in conjunction with building these barns but really i want to know and i put in foys on this

00:34:41.380 stuff and it's super hard to get information out of the government uh ryan thorpe our investigative

00:34:45.860 journalist is brilliant at this way smarter than me on that stuff and so i've sent him i sent him

00:34:50.580 a screenshot from when i was so mad i took a picture of it with my phone so we're going to

00:34:54.420 find out how much money we spent on getting this and this was in the public school curriculum of

00:34:58.580 elementary school in bc for folks watching i would be super curious if your kid was sent home with

00:35:03.620 cricket propaganda we'd like to know too yeah i would also like get very nervous if they put

00:35:09.460 falafel in the school cafeteria there as well given that we know there's like apparently a

00:35:13.380 new recipe for it well uh chris sims from the canadian taxpayers federation we will see you

00:35:18.420 next monday read your labels folks thanks all right thanks for that chris uh we had the opportunity

00:35:25.140 to sit down with a bunch of interesting people

00:35:27.120 at the Conservative Convention in Quebec City,

00:35:29.620 spoke to a couple of MPs

00:35:31.000 and also a couple of people

00:35:32.580 who are part of the Conservative movement.

00:35:35.080 One of them was Roman Babber.

00:35:37.960 The last time I sat down with this gentleman,

00:35:40.100 he was running for the leadership

00:35:41.840 of the Conservative Party of Canada

00:35:43.700 after having served a term

00:35:45.280 as a member of Provincial Parliament in Ontario,

00:35:48.080 first as a Progressive Conservative

00:35:49.760 and later, as we discussed in that interview,

00:35:52.360 as an Independent.

00:35:53.080 And the trajectory there was quite shameful.

00:35:56.260 It was for standing up at its core for freedom, the freedom of Ontarians against restrictions and mandates.

00:36:02.660 And it's a bit interesting now how things shake out.

00:36:05.200 You weren't successful in the leadership race, but you are now the Conservative candidate in York Centre.

00:36:11.040 Roman Babber, it's good to talk to you.

00:36:13.340 Let's just start right out of the gate.

00:36:14.740 When you and I sat down during the leadership race, I asked you if you weren't successful, if you would be seeking a seat federally.

00:36:20.400 And your answer was pretty much no at the time.

00:36:23.620 You really were leaning against it, it sounded like, or at the very least uncertainty.

00:36:27.300 So what changed?

00:36:28.240 What made you want to get back in?

00:36:30.100 Well, there was a little bit of uncertainty at the time.

00:36:32.400 But I think that my nomination speaks volumes to the fact that when Pierre Polyev talks

00:36:38.340 about freedom of speech and making Canada the freest country in the world, he means business.

00:36:44.020 So I'm very grateful to be here.

00:36:46.300 I am very energized for the future of our party and our country.

00:36:50.400 And I can't wait for the next federal election.

00:36:54.640 I never wanted to win an election this badly, Andrew.

00:36:58.080 And I'm optimistic about success.

00:37:00.600 When you were ejected from caucus in Ontario, and I don't want to relitigate the past,

00:37:05.100 but was there a part of you that thought that was kind of the end of your political career,

00:37:09.500 just given the party system?

00:37:11.040 And you fast forward to now where you are representing the Conservatives in York Centre.

00:37:16.140 It was certainly, I think, a vindication for you that what you were saying was not outside of political discourse.

00:37:23.140 But I'm curious how your journey has been in that regard.

00:37:27.040 Of course, it's been a very challenging couple of years.

00:37:29.460 Nevertheless, we're here now in Quebec with 3,000 energized conservatives looking forward to winning the next election and putting our country back on the right path.

00:37:40.720 And so, again, as I said, I'm very gratified to Pierre and the management team and York Centre voters for welcoming me back, representing Conservative ideals and fighting for affordability, for freedom and everything that our party stood for.

00:37:59.700 I'm very excited.

00:38:00.580 York Centre is a very challenging riding.

00:38:02.840 I mean, federally, the Conservatives have held it once in recent memory, and that was when Stephen Harper won his majority.

00:38:08.320 Provincially, you were able to get it in 2018.

00:38:11.840 But what is it that's needed to get that riding back for the Conservatives?

00:38:16.780 Well, I think after eight years of Justin Trudeau, Canadians feel that he's out of touch and they're out of money.

00:38:24.260 And that includes many York Centre residents.

00:38:27.040 I'm very confident that Pierre's message is resonating with York Centre.

00:38:32.100 And I hear it everywhere I go.

00:38:34.800 during my nomination i i spoke to countless conservative and non-conservative members

00:38:40.960 and the feeling is that we desperately need a change the york center is located in north toronto

00:38:48.800 housing's unaffordable pricing's unaffordable food's unaffordable and i i think that

00:38:57.040 york center and the country as a whole are ready to embrace change and that means electing pierre

00:39:03.360 Pierre Polyev is our next prime minister in a strong conservative majority.

00:39:06.700 The Conservatives have gone through in the last few years some pretty significant changes.

00:39:11.300 I mean, in the span of just a few years, you've had three leaders, I mean, interim leaders on top of that.

00:39:17.240 But you've had Andrew Scheer, Aaron O'Toole, now Pierre Polyev.

00:39:20.480 You've had two unsuccessful elections in 2019 and 2021, in both of which the Conservatives had the popular vote.

00:39:27.160 But as we know, that and a couple of dollars gets you.

00:39:29.260 Well, actually, a couple of dollars doesn't get you anything now.

00:39:30.920 But the thing is, the Conservatives have gone down this road before where Justin Trudeau is dealing with popularity issues, but the Conservatives have still lost.

00:39:39.940 So why do you think it's going to be different this time?

00:39:42.000 What is it you see in the party or in Pierre Polyev that makes you think they can do it this time?

00:39:48.640 I think, first of all, we have to have the courage to be ourselves.

00:39:53.540 And without question, Pierre has articulated a vision for the Conservative Party that is resonating with Canadians.

00:39:59.580 And that means that we should not be afraid to speak about issues such as the carbon tax,

00:40:05.640 something that the former leader shied away from.

00:40:09.420 With respect, all the carbon tax does is compound on misery and price.

00:40:16.680 And so I look forward to axing the tax.

00:40:20.640 Also, it's clear that Pierre's message is resonating with young Canadians.

00:40:24.440 You know, an average detached house in the 416 is $1.6 million.

00:40:30.940 It's an unthinkable figure.

00:40:32.600 York Centre is not much behind.

00:40:34.800 And the sense of hope that the party is now offering young people

00:40:39.060 that we can get out of this mess by building, by firing the gatekeepers,

00:40:45.840 by ensuring that we zone transit stations appropriately for high density,

00:40:51.800 those are resonating with Canadians.

00:40:53.700 And finally, Pierre's message of freedom, the fact that we respect individual choice

00:40:59.920 and we also respect Canada's integrity in being free from foreign interference.

00:41:05.960 I think that all of those resonate with Canadians, which will lead to electoral success.

00:41:10.800 During the leadership race, you were one of the only candidates that took a position

00:41:15.180 that's kind of counter to where the Conservatives have historically been on supply management

00:41:18.540 and that you were very pro-consumer on that.

00:41:21.160 Now, that's not the position that the party has right now, and that's not Pierre's position.

00:41:25.880 Is that an issue that you would do something about kind of using your own autonomy as an MP if elected?

00:41:32.320 Look, I think that it's important that we focus on affordability, right?

00:41:36.200 Life is truly unaffordable, and that means generally by removing gatekeepers.

00:41:41.780 At the same time, I respect the will of the membership, and Pierre has a resounding mandate given to him by the leadership.

00:41:51.160 by the membership and my thinking is that we now need to conceive as many ways possible and and

00:41:58.600 probably the best way uh in addition to axing the tax and reducing income tax thereby making

00:42:06.360 uh growing canadian paychecks is is to encourage federal competition you know the other day we saw

00:42:13.080 that rogers is now back in court uh fighting for uh increase in tariffs this is after philippe

00:42:20.280 Champagne said that prices after the merger are going to go down. And obviously, surprise.

00:42:27.600 So encouraging competition in airlines, in banking, in telecom, that is probably the best way to go.

00:42:37.960 And I'm glad that the Conservative Party is looking in that direction.

00:42:41.040 There was a brief period where you were a bit of a pariah in Ontario politics. And I just wondered,

00:42:46.420 now that we kind of take a forward-looking approach here.

00:42:48.940 How have you felt by the conservative community

00:42:51.540 that you're now a part of federally?

00:42:55.980 I've been embraced, and I'm back with my party, back home,

00:43:01.640 and I am ecstatic for the future of our party and our country.

00:43:06.500 You know, it's been a very difficult few years, Andrew,

00:43:09.200 for many people, including myself,

00:43:12.260 but we are resolute and we have to remain positive and optimistic about the

00:43:20.120 resiliency and the character of Canadians. Trust Canadians to welcome our

00:43:30.080 message of hope and turn this country around. York Centre Conservative

00:43:34.780 candidate Roman Babber, thank you very much. It's good to be with you Andrew.

00:43:38.300 That was Roman Babber. Now, I actually wanted to write a bit of a column about Roman. So I don't want to give too much of my thoughts about him right now. But I will say that.

00:43:49.300 do i have audio now this is the great thing about oh that's very weird for whatever reason

00:43:57.620 in this live system it reverted my microphone to being my iphone which is like

00:44:02.800 four feet away from me anyway uh sorry but i got very i got very confused there i was just about

00:44:08.540 to make like a somber serious point start again i call him this but i want to say about roman

00:44:16.420 Baver, when he was first running provincially, I didn't know him. I knew of him. And when he was

00:44:20.820 first elected, I never heard anything from him that I would have said was all that impressive

00:44:24.980 or unique. And in fact, I had always, I don't want to say written him off, but I'd always viewed him

00:44:28.580 as being one of the more moderate members of the progressive conservative party in Ontario. And

00:44:34.660 maybe he is, or maybe he isn't. I fully, fully prepared to admit that I might've taken too

00:44:39.820 simplistic a view but when he stood up to Doug Ford and spoke out against lockdowns and when he

00:44:47.860 spoke out against restrictions he did so at tremendous personal risk because he basically

00:44:54.380 ended at the time his political career he became an independent and it's virtually impossible not

00:45:01.240 impossible as we learned in 2022 to win election as an independent but very very difficult and he

00:45:07.500 took the principled position, the principled stand and had a tremendous risk and burden that he took

00:45:13.640 up as a result. And when he ran for the leadership of the Conservatives, I never thought he was going

00:45:17.160 to win, but I thought he had deserved a place to be there. And the fact that he's being welcomed

00:45:21.280 into a mainstream political party, once again, I think is tremendously valuable. And I'm, and I'm

00:45:26.900 so pleased to say that I was wrong about him because we do need people who are courageous in

00:45:31.600 politics. And Roman Babber absolutely is one of those people, even if you disagree or agree with

00:45:36.840 him on a particular issue. So he was there when it counted. And that's more than can be said for

00:45:41.620 a lot of other politicians, certainly in Ontario. That does it for us. We will be back tomorrow in

00:45:46.640 our new time slot, 1 p.m. Eastern or 11 a.m. Mountain. That means 2 p.m. Atlantic, 2.30 p.m.

00:45:53.060 Newfoundland. It is noon central. And just to finish the whole landscape of Canadian time

00:45:59.860 zones here, it is an early 10 a.m. for those of you in British Columbia. And I met many of you

00:46:04.440 in Quebec City this past weekend.

00:46:06.520 So thank you again for all your support.

00:46:08.280 We will talk to you tomorrow.

00:46:09.380 Thank you, God bless, and good day to you all.

00:46:12.560 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:46:15.080 Support the program by donating to True North

00:46:17.140 at www.tnc.news.

00:46:34.440 We'll be right back.

00:47:04.440 We'll be right back.

Juno News - September 11, 2023

Liberal ministers crash Conservative convention

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