Juno News - Marc Dalton says he's principled and unafraid to take a stand

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.

00:00:05.300 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:10.600 Coming up, Conservative leadership candidate Mark Dalton on firearms, freedom and vaccine mandates.

00:00:18.140 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.

00:00:23.920 Hello and welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.

00:00:27.680 This is the Andrew Lawton Show here on True North.

00:00:30.320 It is fantastic to have you aboard as we head into the weekend and continue our look at Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidates.

00:00:38.860 Now, it all started very soon after Aaron O'Toole's departure with Pierre Polyev announcing he was running.

00:00:45.100 And then we had more and more candidates enter the race, Jean Charest and Leslyn Lewis.

00:00:50.120 And we have some outsiders like Joseph Borgel and Bobby Singh.

00:00:54.600 And we've got some lesser known but still very passionate Conservative MPs like Scott Aitchison and Mark Dalton.

00:01:00.620 And then Leona Alislev, the former Liberal MP, then the Conservative Deputy Leader, now running for the Conservative leadership.

00:01:07.800 So there's a lot happening in the race.

00:01:09.560 We're trying to profile the candidates so you can hear from themselves in their own words who they are and what they stand for.

00:01:15.340 And one of those names I just mentioned, Mark Dalton, is the Member of Parliament out in British Columbia for the riding of Pitt Meadows Maple Ridge,

00:01:24.140 who launched his campaign last week with a very succinct video talking about a couple of big themes.

00:01:29.500 Wanted to get Mark on the show and he joins me now.

00:01:32.060 Mark, good to talk to you.

00:01:33.020 Thanks for coming on today.

00:01:34.500 Yeah, glad to be here.

00:01:35.340 Now, as far as this race is concerned, there have been a number of candidates in already by the time you threw your hat in the ring.

00:01:42.680 So what was it that made you decide this was something you wanted to do to seek the leadership of the Conservative Party?

00:01:48.700 Well, to tell you the truth, it's been on my mind for two decades.

00:01:52.460 OK, so this hasn't been something new.

00:01:54.940 It's been quite a process.

00:01:56.920 I actually considered I considered about the first time when Aaron and Peter McKay and Leslie Lewis ran,

00:02:03.640 but I felt I wanted to get more experience at the federal level and wait till the next time.

00:02:09.580 And that is right now.

00:02:10.800 And so I've been a, you know, I've been engaged in politics for a lot of years.

00:02:15.660 I was MLA in British Columbia for two terms for eight years.

00:02:20.040 I first volunteered under Brian Mulroney in 1984 when he when he won that election.

00:02:26.100 But I've been part of the Conservative movement right since it's been unified in two in 2004 and have run in various capacities.

00:02:34.920 And and so it's even when I was a when even when I was in provincial politics, I maintained my my Conservative membership and was engaged.

00:02:44.680 So, yeah, it's important to me.

00:02:46.780 When you looked at the existing candidates and included in that list are some people that have very high name recognition, very high profile.

00:02:53.620 What is it you felt you would add and offer as an alternative to members that they didn't already have from the existing pool of candidates?

00:03:01.120 Well, you know, every one of us were different.

00:03:04.040 You know, we're we're not just like, oh, this has this person has a checklist of all.

00:03:07.780 You know, he has this policy, that policy or it's so we bring different things to the table and I bring something different to the table.

00:03:14.000 My life experience is different.

00:03:15.260 I'm I am I'm a grandfather, you know, but you know what?

00:03:18.740 I still got a fire in me.

00:03:19.880 OK, so it's and I've got you know, I've been in the military.

00:03:24.260 I was a pastor.

00:03:25.300 I was a teacher, a public school teacher for many years.

00:03:29.180 I've been in the teamsters for for a decade, working as a, you know, blue collar worker.

00:03:33.820 So a lot of life experience I've lived across Canada wasn't like I was in the military myself as a reservist.

00:03:40.880 So broad life experience didn't come from a wealthy home, know what it means to, you know, to struggle to to pay to pay the bills, to raise enough money to to support your family and go forward like that.

00:03:52.140 So so I know we got some strong field, we do have a strong field out there, it's something I felt I needed to do, and I'm hoping to during this time to be able to introduce myself to Canadians and to those who are going to support the Conservatives and hope they'll see in me someone that that works together, that, you know, has stands on principle and I do stand on principle.

00:04:12.480 I'm willing to take risks.

00:04:13.620 I'm willing to stand up, but at the same time, what is really important for me is collaboration.

00:04:18.060 I recognize that we need to remain a big tent party.

00:04:21.060 Okay, we can't just say, well, this part is conservative, this part isn't, you know, I really, that's really important.

00:04:28.500 Like I, I am a moderate social conservative, okay, that's part of my, my, my values, I think that resonates with a lot of millions of Canadians, a lot more than than even vote for conservatives from the ethnic communities for from foreign community from new immigrants from from right across, I think, and I think a lot of values, you don't even have to be a, you know, per se, a person of faith.

00:04:51.060 But I think a lot of the things that I represent that are strong, important to me resonate with Canadians in general, because it just makes sense.

00:04:58.100 So those are, those are, those are some of the reasons I'll throw out there.

00:05:01.980 I'll get back to the social conservatism aspect, because I think that's important.

00:05:05.720 But when you talk about courage, and principles, one thing that I found very notable is that in your launch video, it's just a little over two minutes, you said that you would want to as leader of the conservatives and as prime minister tackle, not just an inquiry into COVID and the government's response to it, but also vaccine injuries.

00:05:23.040 Now, this is something that for a lot of people throws up alarm bells, because it gets linked into being anti vaccine, which doesn't apply to you, you are vaccinated, and you also support choice in this.

00:05:34.260 But but talking about these issues is something we've not heard from any other Canadian politician.

00:05:38.800 You haven't heard from anybody, you know, that I know of, as far as the federal and the and the provincial side of things.

00:05:45.160 Now, let me just before I address that, I've, I launched right away, because I only had two minutes, you know, and you got to get people's attention right at the beginning.

00:05:52.780 So I put that public policy first, I feel that's an important policy, an important promise, because it resonates.

00:06:01.560 I mean, the first thing I talked about is, you know, we doubled our debt during this period of time.

00:06:05.820 So I think that Canadians have a right to know where, how was the money spent?

00:06:09.300 Was it spent wisely?

00:06:10.420 We put, you know, this is a debt that's going to go on for generations, unless you get a conservative government that can help to bring that in.

00:06:16.860 So that needs to be looked at.

00:06:18.160 The next thing I said was, as far as how much of this was on public policy, as are on public on health, as opposed to political opportunism.

00:06:29.660 And so I'm not quoting just the opposition, I'm quoting people that are in the in the liberal ranks that are saying there is problems here, that this is what you know, a lot of what we did was was for that.

00:06:39.800 And even the whole area of coercion, of coercion, how much is coercion and, and taking away some of the rights, you know, I talked about charter rights, you know, this is we've gone through

00:06:48.160 some real erosion of our rights over this past time, and I know that there is in the Charter, you can, you can take away some of these rights for public good, but what about it?

00:06:59.620 And I did bring up vaccine injuries, because you know, it is a very real thing, I hear, and I'm not just making this up, I have, I have many people that that have contacted me, that have, you know, medical people, I've that, I talked to one doctor going door to door.

00:07:14.160 And he went when I was in the last campaign and saying, you know, I cannot say the things I've seen, you know, because I lose, you know, I'd be delighted I would lose my license.

00:07:24.060 So those are those are things I've, I've, you don't have time right now for me to give you a few examples, but there are numerous examples.

00:07:31.060 And I think we just need to look at that, because there's a lot of concern.

00:07:35.520 You know, I have a daughter, for example, okay, that she's in her early 30s, she has a toddler at home, since she's taken the vaccine, she has had nonstop headaches.

00:07:46.100 And she phoned me a few days ago and saying, dad, you know, what is it ever going to stop, she was crying, the her neurologist has said that it's probably vaccine related, and that it is serious, and that not to not to have kids for the time being.

00:08:01.060 So that's one example.

00:08:02.360 I mean, I'll give you another example of, of a lady that lives in my riding, her mother had had a was vaccinated, and within 15 minutes had died of amphalachic shock. 0.71

00:08:13.400 So, I mean, so there's, I have many stories like this.

00:08:17.140 Now, again, I'm not saying don't get vaccinated.

00:08:20.220 Okay, do I encourage my wife to get vaccinated. 1.00

00:08:22.140 So I'm not saying that I am saying that we really need to let people, you know, people are adults, it's their own body, they need to be able to do the research themselves and make the decision.

00:08:32.360 And what is very key is this.

00:08:34.740 And this is from, you know, there's a letter from the Vancouver Coastal Authority to the UBC, because they were going to basically prevent students from continuing as students.

00:08:46.780 And the Vancouver Coastal Health said this, she said, they said that whether you're vaccinated or not vaccinated doesn't make the difference whether you're going to get it.

00:08:56.080 Okay, so you can't be, it's not going to be, it doesn't make a difference of transmitting or of getting it.

00:09:01.660 What makes a difference is the person that's vaccinated, there is the probability that you'll be less, it'll be less, the symptoms will be less.

00:09:09.780 So that's, that's an important factor.

00:09:12.400 The Conservative Party, your party has gone through a bit of a transformation, obviously, because that's why there's a leadership race.

00:09:18.620 And a lot of people, certainly in the last election, did not feel the Conservatives were adequately representing a lot of the people that were talking about these things, talking about vaccine mandates, talking about vaccine passports.

00:09:29.900 And, and this was a lot of the frustration we saw on the convoy, which was in Ottawa, up until about a month ago.

00:09:36.080 Is this you responding to that?

00:09:38.680 Or are these things that you've always tried to advocate for within your party?

00:09:42.800 Yes, I've been advocating for these things for ever since I've been elected.

00:09:46.360 And I'm a person that will speak out.

00:09:48.780 For example, two weeks ago, I sent a letter to the Premier of British Columbia, because there were going to be a lot of chiropractors, massage therapists, all these people, professionals, medical professionals, doctors, that were going to lose their license.

00:10:01.000 And nobody was speaking up on this.

00:10:02.660 And I said, you know what, I'm hearing from my constituents, I wrote a public letter to the, the, the, the Prime, to the Premier, and, you know, CC'd all the, the news outlets, got picked up.

00:10:14.200 And even though Bonnie Henry had said at one o'clock, we're not changing, at two o'clock, I sent the letter that night, they made some changes, they reversed, they made some, you know, they reversed things.

00:10:24.880 So it's like, I'm, I like to think that I might have an influence there.

00:10:29.380 So, but I'm willing to step out, even though it is, you know, not necessarily popular.

00:10:34.900 And you're talking about not listening to the base.

00:10:36.920 That's really, I don't think that we were listening.

00:10:38.800 I think we were maybe guiding too much of my polls.

00:10:41.260 And I, you know, we need to listen to the base.

00:10:44.980 I met earlier today with the Firearms Association.

00:10:47.700 And that's, you know, you know, the Liberals, they will try to make firearm, licensed firearm owners as the boogeyman.

00:10:55.840 When, if you look at it, the real problem is the firearm, licensed firearms owner, it is the criminals.

00:11:02.040 But they won't do anything with the criminals.

00:11:03.380 They focus on those that are law-abiding firearm owners owner.

00:11:06.520 And so we flip-flopped on that.

00:11:07.880 And I think that really discouraged a lot of our supporters.

00:11:10.280 We need to be consistent and, and strong.

00:11:12.920 And so that I will be.

00:11:14.920 One thing that I find interesting in all of this is that you've said in a Canadian press interview, you know, you have an uphill battle ahead of you.

00:11:23.100 And, you know, you've got to raise the $300,000 and get the signatures and do all that.

00:11:26.520 Markdalton.com.

00:11:27.840 All right, markdalton.com.

00:11:29.540 But at the same time, you've also put forward, and we were just talking about it, some pretty concrete policy here.

00:11:34.580 So if you're not successful at winning the leadership, is this something that you hope the winner of the leadership does take up as a policy?

00:11:41.820 This idea of having a really robust COVID inquiry that looks at all the things we were just discussing?

00:11:47.500 Oh, certainly.

00:11:48.120 I will be continuing to push forward on this.

00:11:50.360 And are you in it to win it, or are you in it to raise that policy?

00:11:53.900 Yeah, no, I am in it to win it, but I understand the obstacles, okay?

00:12:00.720 So that said, quite often the frontrunners don't win, okay?

00:12:05.920 So it's, I mean, just look at, you know, both you're in the Conservative Party or the Liberal or provincially.

00:12:11.100 Because we have a preferential ballot, it is sometimes a person that's third or fourth can win because of down ballot support.

00:12:18.240 So that's something.

00:12:19.600 And so, yes, I am hopeful, but I know the polling numbers.

00:12:25.140 But you know what?

00:12:25.980 If I didn't take risks, I'd never be in the position that I'm in right now.

00:12:29.600 I would never have got elected in the first place because, you know, there's too many risks involved.

00:12:32.940 So I am sticking my neck out right here.

00:12:35.260 This is, you know, if you want to call it fate, yeah, it's fate.

00:12:37.660 I'm stepping out.

00:12:38.840 And it's something I feel that I need to do.

00:12:42.260 It's something I would, I feel that I didn't do it, even if all the obstacles, whether it be organization or financial,

00:12:48.760 I'm a person that will listen to, really listen to my heart in collaboration with other, with wise counsel.

00:12:54.160 And I think I would really have regretted this, okay, in the future if I hadn't stepped out.

00:12:59.320 So it's something I got to live with myself.

00:13:01.420 And I, and that's very much a factor in me stepping out right here and knowing that this is something I want to do.

00:13:10.140 And I'm putting my name out there.

00:13:12.720 You mentioned firearms.

00:13:14.240 You're not far from Surrey, which I spent a bit of time in last year filming a documentary about firearms.

00:13:19.200 And obviously Surrey has a gang problem, which is quite significant.

00:13:23.100 And I know it ebbs and flows.

00:13:24.520 But I would encourage a lot of those in the Liberal government to talk to the people in cities like Surrey and in other areas,

00:13:32.380 including police, who have been saying exactly what you've been saying,

00:13:35.200 that law-abiding gun owners are not the problem when you look at gun crime.

00:13:38.620 Yeah.

00:13:38.960 No, exactly.

00:13:40.080 And now I live in the suburb, okay, of Vancouver.

00:13:43.460 So I'm not somebody that lives in a rural part of Canada, even though there are rural areas in my riding.

00:13:51.800 I'm someone in the suburbs, and I think it is important.

00:13:54.480 And it's an important issue.

00:13:55.540 And I think that as conservatives, we can still win the election and hold on to these policies of common sense and rights.

00:14:03.020 Because I find that the Liberals, basically, they have some boogeyman topics.

00:14:08.000 When Trudeau was out before the public, what did he do?

00:14:11.180 He said he had this sign showing an AK-47, which has been illegal forever, and a big slash upon it.

00:14:17.840 And it's funny.

00:14:18.400 You mentioned Surrey.

00:14:19.320 I went to, in Surrey, there was an airsoft firearms location.

00:14:27.280 I talked to them.

00:14:28.220 And yeah, okay, maybe it looks scary, but they're pellet guns.

00:14:30.860 And these pellet guns could barely, sometimes they wouldn't even knock over this little tin target.

00:14:35.540 So it's like, I'm sorry, let's be real.

00:14:38.420 And Surrey, again, they've had a lot of, you know, there's been a lot of problems.

00:14:41.680 It's a growing community.

00:14:43.020 It's going to be British Columbia's largest city in the next little while.

00:14:46.220 But, you know, facing, let's tackle crime.

00:14:50.760 I found, I have found this.

00:14:53.060 One of the strongest supporters that I found, as far as the constituents, whenever I met somebody that was in the police force.

00:15:02.060 Because they saw that, they saw so much of what Liberal policy is, is just smoke and mirrors and puff.

00:15:10.220 And it doesn't really impact.

00:15:11.600 So we need to get serious about the safety of Canadians and protection about Canadians and not having a revolving door of accommodation to those that are criminals.

00:15:23.520 We need to think of victims.

00:15:25.500 We need to think of our communities and safety.

00:15:28.420 It's a big deal.

00:15:29.660 And just lastly, Mark, what is this moderate social conservatism you said defines your approach on these issues?

00:15:35.180 Well, I understand that, you know, I am, you know, I'm a Christian.

00:15:39.940 I'm a pastor.

00:15:40.600 I've not been 30 years.

00:15:42.920 It's been a long time since I was.

00:15:44.460 So, you know, obviously, I am going to have a, I have a pro-life position.

00:15:49.120 You know, I believe that the life begins at conception.

00:15:51.860 However, you know, that's not where Canada is at.

00:15:54.780 But are there, can we not have conversations?

00:15:56.540 Because right now, Canada is the only Western democracy that doesn't have any, any constraints whatsoever.

00:16:03.540 And I think it's, and part of that's just because it's political discourse.

00:16:06.720 You look at all the other Western democracies and say they got some, some boundaries.

00:16:12.640 So, you know, I think, can we not have conversations?

00:16:14.700 Like I voted in favor of against sex-selected abortions.

00:16:18.420 And I think there's a lot of people that are pro-choice that would say, yeah, you know what, you know, generally aborting a fetus because it's female, the fetus is female, that isn't appropriate.

00:16:29.700 So we can, can we not have these conversations in Canada?

00:16:32.220 I think we can.

00:16:33.440 And you know what I disagree with totally?

00:16:35.480 We, what made Canada so rich in many ways culturally is that we, we, the whole thing about accepting people from different countries, different faiths, different perspectives.

00:16:47.380 And that's good that we can be united doesn't mean uniformity and uniformity means what you just have to, you have to believe this.

00:16:54.760 You have to follow this.

00:16:55.560 It's called the cancel culture.

00:16:57.100 Let's, you know, I'm against this whole cancel culture. 1.00

00:16:59.260 Let's, let's be able to talk as Canadians because the whole way that, that the whole way that the liberals run is basically on wedge issues, on divisiveness.

00:17:09.060 Oh, you're a Westerner or you're in the, you make your money because you're in the resource sector or you're a farmer or in the rural Canada that is divisive.

00:17:15.720 Oh, you're social conservative.

00:17:16.820 Oh, you know, forget that.

00:17:17.980 Can we not be Canadians?

00:17:19.440 When I grew up, I remember, you know, going through elementary school and high school, Canada was described as a mosaic.

00:17:25.200 But I, I, I get the feeling that, that the liberals are taking the different pieces of the mosaic and say, well, this, this doesn't belong in the mosaic and this doesn't belong in the mosaic and this doesn't.

00:17:33.840 And you know, what are we getting?

00:17:34.740 It's not Canada. 0.61

00:17:35.900 And, you know, I'll say one last thing here.

00:17:37.520 Well, you may have another question.

00:17:38.740 Our time is far running out.

00:17:39.580 You know, the, the, the people that were most concerned about what's going on were the people I met from Eastern Europe.

00:17:49.520 Those that have been in communist countries.

00:17:51.700 And they said, what is going on with Canada?

00:17:54.440 What is going on?

00:17:55.780 What type of prime minister do we have here?

00:17:57.740 Like, this isn't good.

00:17:58.760 It's terrible for Canada.

00:18:00.020 And I've been, you know, if you look at some of my Facebook posts, I've been, I've been, I've been, I've been, I've spoken passionately.

00:18:04.580 But this is not right for Canada.

00:18:06.800 And I'm very disturbed about the NDP liberal coalition, because you know what?

00:18:10.960 This means that they're going to drag this out longer.

00:18:12.940 We need a new government.

00:18:13.780 We need it now.

00:18:14.780 And hopefully we'll be as prime minister.

00:18:16.640 Yeah.

00:18:17.220 Diversity is supposed to be our strength, as Trudeau often says, but that never extends to ideological diversity of political opponents.

00:18:24.500 Mark Dalton, conservative MP and conservative leadership candidate.

00:18:27.600 Thank you so much for your time, Mark.

00:18:28.940 Thank you, Andrew.

00:18:29.900 That'll do it.

00:18:30.540 As I mentioned at the top of the show, going to be talking to all of the leadership candidates.

00:18:34.980 And we have quite a few now.

00:18:36.080 I think we're up to the math that I came up to at the beginning was 10 candidates in the race.

00:18:41.800 So obviously not all of those are going to make it on the ballot.

00:18:44.200 So we're going to keep an eye out on that process.

00:18:46.080 But I'm not trying to get bogged down in the boring stuff, trying to focus on the candidates themselves.

00:18:50.540 So my thanks to Mark Dalton.

00:18:51.700 And the series will continue in the next few shows here on The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:18:56.360 With that, I will bid you adieu.

00:18:57.760 Thank you so much for tuning in.

00:18:59.080 I hope you have a fabulous weekend.

00:19:01.200 This is The Andrew Lawton Show on True North.

00:19:02.860 Thank you.

00:19:03.440 God bless and good day.

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Juno News - March 25, 2022

Marc Dalton says he's principled and unafraid to take a stand

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