Juno News - September 19, 2021


Maverick Party wants to be the Bloc Québécois of the West

Topics
independence for Western Canada Western representation and interests
Mentioned
Andrew Lawton Show Erin O'Toole Jason Kenney Maverick MPs Jay Hill Maxime Bernier Belle Meredith John Brennan Westerner
The legacy media regurgitates Liberal talking points again and again Maverick candidate says Ottawa needs to leave the West alone

Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

154.99

Word count

2,185

Sentence count

133

Harmful content

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Jay Hill, the interim leader of the Maverick Party, joins the show to talk about his vision for the future of the Western independence movement, and why he thinks a Western party can win in the upcoming federal election.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Traditionally, it used to be that the West wanted a seat at the table.
00:00:10.740 Now a lot of people and more and more people are saying we want independence.
00:00:14.580 In October, there is a referendum on equalization.
00:00:18.360 That is a stepping stone, a lot of people think, towards independence.
00:00:22.380 The question comes down to whether an independence mindset can be pursued at the federal level
00:00:28.800 a la the Bloc Québécois.
00:00:31.320 Jay Hill thinks it can.
00:00:32.840 He is the interim leader of the Maverick Party.
00:00:35.640 He's not actually seeking a seat, and we'll talk about that in just a moment.
00:00:39.320 But the Maverick Party, which originally was called the Wexit Party but changed its name,
00:00:44.220 is seeking a number of kind of conservative proposals.
00:00:47.660 But at its core, they want a better deal for the West.
00:00:50.920 And if they can't get that, they want out.
00:00:53.460 And with that, I want to welcome into the program the interim leader of the Maverick Party, Jay Hill.
00:00:58.800 Jay, good to talk to you again.
00:00:59.960 Thanks for coming on today.
00:01:01.920 My pleasure, Andrew.
00:01:03.360 So let's first off talk about where the Maverick Party fits into this.
00:01:06.760 I've spent a lot of time on the show talking about Western alienation, the growing Western 0.93
00:01:11.300 independence movement.
00:01:12.620 A lot of that has really been coming from people that want to make changes at the provincial
00:01:16.660 level, whereas the Maverick Party is running candidates in a federal election.
00:01:20.960 What's the goal here?
00:01:22.100 Well, as we explain on our website, Andrew, it's really a twin-track approach.
00:01:28.860 We're trying to ensure that most Westerners would feel welcome in a federal home led by
00:01:35.300 the Maverick Party as a partisan political movement.
00:01:39.720 What we're suggesting is that either we need to have a renewed arrangement with the rest
00:01:48.720 of Canada that treats the West fairly under Confederation, and that's why we've proposed
00:01:55.000 five constitutional amendments to accomplish that, or alternatively, we need to work towards
00:02:01.440 greater autonomy and independence for Western Canada.
00:02:05.200 And just to make this clear for people, when you're talking about the West and Western Canada,
00:02:12.140 you're not talking about Alberta specifically?
00:02:15.380 No.
00:02:16.120 Well, we're talking about all four Western provinces, and indeed, in the future, potentially
00:02:21.420 the three Northern Territories.
00:02:22.980 So basically, everything West and North of the Hudson's Bay.
00:02:27.740 Explain why you think there can be a solution at a federal level here, because even if you
00:02:32.920 were to have every seat west of Ontario say, there still is going to be an Ontario and Quebec
00:02:39.240 dominance in Parliament.
00:02:40.860 So what could a slate of Western MPs, keeping in mind you're not running them in every Western
00:02:45.820 riding, but what could even the full slate of Maverick candidates getting elected really
00:02:50.020 do with those odds against you in the House of Commons?
00:02:54.120 Well, that's an excellent question, Andrew.
00:02:56.240 Andrew, and what we've suggested to Westerners is to look to Quebec and the example of the
00:03:02.560 Bloc Québécois as an answer to that question.
00:03:06.220 I would argue, having spent my entire 17 years in the House of Commons with Bloc members, that 1.00
00:03:14.340 their strategy is very simple.
00:03:16.460 They actually communicate it very forthrightly.
00:03:19.260 They don't try to hide the fact that they are there strictly to represent Quebec and Quebec's
00:03:24.140 best interests.
00:03:24.860 So what I'm suggesting is that what we need in the House of Commons is a group of Western 1.00
00:03:31.880 members of Parliament, very similar to the Bloc, that would be there only to represent Western
00:03:37.760 interests.
00:03:39.280 And that's what we're endeavouring to do with this first election.
00:03:43.200 We're, as you say, we're barely a year old, so we're only running in 29 ridings where
00:03:49.020 the Westerners in those ridings will have that option of supporting a Maverick candidate.
00:03:54.860 On Monday.
00:03:56.740 And we'll see whether they participate in that alternative.
00:04:01.080 I just spent a couple of days covering Maxime Bernier's campaign for the People's Party in
00:04:06.840 Alberta, and a lot of voters there were asking him, listen, I want to vote Maverick or PPC.
00:04:12.060 How do I decide?
00:04:13.060 And the message that he was giving them is that the Bloc Québécois has never really done
00:04:18.100 anything for Quebec.
00:04:19.440 Only the Parti Québécois has.
00:04:21.220 So he's basically trying to say that a federal party cannot get results for a province.
00:04:26.240 What's your response to that?
00:04:28.060 Well, I think that's absolute nonsense.
00:04:30.220 I think where we've failed in Western Canada ever since Confederation, and certainly for
00:04:35.100 the last hundred years or so, Andrew, is that we've never done what Quebec has done in the
00:04:41.300 sense of playing the independence card, if you will.
00:04:44.800 Even today, Jason Kenney and other provincial politicians are reticent to do that.
00:04:53.200 They're very reluctant.
00:04:54.600 In fact, they say they don't even want to talk about independence.
00:04:57.540 My view, having spent, as I say, 17 years of my life in the House of Commons trying to
00:05:03.360 make things work in Parliament for the West is that until we actually suggest that we're
00:05:11.760 ready to leave, we're never going to get a fair deal.
00:05:15.100 And that's the message we're carrying.
00:05:17.740 And in the short term, Maverick members of Parliament operating similar to the Bloc would
00:05:23.200 carry the message of true Western representation.
00:05:26.340 I argue now that the Conservatives, the Liberals, the NDP, Greens, and even the PPC are not going
00:05:34.220 to accurately represent the best interests of Westerners.
00:05:38.220 So that's my argument to Max Bernier.
00:05:40.180 I would suggest that Max should be refocusing these last few days on his own riding in Quebec
00:05:45.740 if he's serious about re-entering Parliament and win that riding instead of being out here
00:05:52.460 in Alberta telling Albertans how to vote.
00:05:55.380 As you mentioned, the Mavericks are only fielding 29 candidates here.
00:05:59.780 So I don't think it's going to come as a shock to say that you aren't going to be forming
00:06:02.800 a majority government come Monday or forming a government at all.
00:06:06.940 But with that, it's also interesting to me that you as the interim leader are in an election
00:06:12.200 campaign not seeking a seat yourself.
00:06:14.420 You're not a permanent leader.
00:06:15.980 You are an interim leader.
00:06:17.460 What are voters to make of this, that you're a party that doesn't even really have a leader
00:06:21.940 that's standing with their other candidates wanting to seek a seat?
00:06:26.460 Well, I would suggest they look at my personal history, Andrew.
00:06:29.960 I've put in a big part of my adult lifetime in Parliament already.
00:06:35.180 You know, I guess if I was an ex-con, I'd say I've served my time.
00:06:41.460 And so, you know, there's myself and three of my former Reform Party colleagues.
00:06:48.680 Between us, we have over 60 years of parliamentary experience.
00:06:52.700 The four of us are not seeking seats back in Parliament.
00:06:56.600 As I say, we've served our time down in the House of Commons.
00:07:00.600 And we're trying to mentor this new crop of candidates that have stepped forward to run
00:07:06.980 for the Maverick Party.
00:07:08.140 So it's a transition period.
00:07:11.040 I would ask all voters looking at alternatives to look at our website at maverickparty.ca.
00:07:20.120 Look at our twin track mission statement.
00:07:22.220 Look at our eight guiding principles and our policies and our platform.
00:07:27.180 Our constitution, unlike the PPC, we actually have a party constitution.
00:07:32.280 We have a governing council and their bios are all on there.
00:07:36.460 This is not a one-man party like Maxime Bernier.
00:07:40.360 And as you said, I quite proudly identify as the interim leader.
00:07:45.160 It's my intention to try to help the party establish credibility.
00:07:49.260 But from that point on, Andrew, we're looking to hand it over to the next generation of younger folks.
00:07:56.420 We know that during the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race,
00:08:00.360 Aaron O'Toole was very much trying to align himself with the West.
00:08:04.140 Not pretend to be a Westerner, but he had Jason Kenney's endorsement.
00:08:07.500 He did a lot of campaigning in Alberta.
00:08:09.680 In the federal election campaign, and I've been following it fairly closely,
00:08:12.960 I've not really heard Western interests brought up all that much at all.
00:08:16.860 They didn't factor into the debates.
00:08:18.640 There have been some Western-adjacent topics in the context of pipelines,
00:08:23.760 but there really hasn't been much oxygen given to Western interests, in my view.
00:08:28.180 And I'm curious what your thoughts about that are.
00:08:30.960 Well, I would completely agree, Andrew.
00:08:33.420 It's not only during the campaign, but I would argue,
00:08:36.540 ever since Aaron O'Toole won the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada,
00:08:41.020 he has singularly focused on Central Canada, on the needs of Toronto and surrounding area,
00:08:48.080 and even more so on Quebec.
00:08:51.080 And, you know, why is Aaron O'Toole and all of his Western Conservative members of Parliament silent
00:08:57.940 on how they would advocate people respond to Jason Kenney's equalization referendum next month?
00:09:05.240 We haven't heard in that regard.
00:09:08.180 I certainly know how Maverick feels.
00:09:10.400 We'll be urging everyone associated with Maverick Party to support that referendum question.
00:09:18.020 In other words, vote yes, that that should be removed from our Constitution in Canada.
00:09:23.740 It's unfair to the West.
00:09:25.540 It's always been unfair, and it's even more so today with the struggles of our primary industries
00:09:32.200 and Albertans in particular, but indeed people across the Prairie West.
00:09:38.240 So there's a multitude of issues from carbon tax flip-flop to his willingness to have a contract with Quebec
00:09:47.920 to ensure that Quebecers get everything that they want,
00:09:51.440 and yet no mention, as you say, Andrew, of what the West needs and indeed deserves.
00:09:58.740 And that's where the Maverick Party comes in
00:10:00.640 and why we believe that only a Maverick member of Parliament will represent what is best for the West.
00:10:07.700 I know the Maverick Party does have a platform that deals in some specifics on things like the carbon tax
00:10:14.660 and some of the pipeline bills and parliamentary ethics and all of these things,
00:10:18.100 but generally speaking, I think you've summed up the party's overarching vision as being a voice for the West
00:10:24.180 and advocating for Western interests.
00:10:26.460 With that, I'm curious, is this a left-right issue, this idea of standing up for the West
00:10:32.340 and having a Western focus in representation?
00:10:35.860 Are you only getting votes from the political right, or is this something that cuts across traditional partisan lines?
00:10:41.560 Well, certainly the majority of our 29 ridings that we're contesting, Andrew,
00:10:47.480 we're looking to draw the majority of our support from Conservatives.
00:10:51.960 There's a reason, of course, why we chose to run in the strongest-held Conservative ridings.
00:10:57.740 It's because then it comes down to those Western Canadians having a choice between voting for the status quo,
00:11:06.300 supporting in most cases their incumbent Conservative member of Parliament.
00:11:09.940 They know exactly what they're going to get.
00:11:11.700 They're going to get silence from them on a lot of issues because they run contrary to the best interests of Toronto or Montreal.
00:11:19.840 Or they can vote for a Maverick candidate and get true Western representation,
00:11:25.100 which is our core message, as you suggest.
00:11:28.480 So that's the big difference between Maverick and the Conservatives.
00:11:33.040 Having said that, we don't view ourselves as right, left, or centre.
00:11:36.940 We view ourselves very much as good old-fashioned Western common sense,
00:11:42.820 which, unfortunately, is not all that common anymore.
00:11:47.020 So with that here, I mean, what's the dream scenario for you at the end of this?
00:11:51.740 Is it that you want to just have a couple of Maverick MPs elected,
00:11:55.580 or is there a particular outcome that you think is best for Western interests
00:11:59.640 that Maverick MPs could then be advocates within?
00:12:02.320 Well, I think you've named it there, is that ideally we can elect some Maverick MPs.
00:12:08.720 We recognise that it's going to be very, very difficult.
00:12:12.620 A party less than a year old, only running in 29 ridings,
00:12:16.480 only recently getting organised, short on resources, both financial and human resources.
00:12:22.800 We don't have the thousands of volunteers we'd love to have
00:12:26.140 to carry the message, Andrew, across Western Canada.
00:12:29.940 Having said that, we've also recognised that this is a stepping stone,
00:12:35.760 and it is a building block for Maverick,
00:12:38.360 very similar to what the Reform Party did in 1988,
00:12:42.280 when myself and Belle Meredith first ran for the party.
00:12:46.480 We stayed involved for the years in between.
00:12:49.300 And then, of course, we wiped out the progressive Conservatives in 93.
00:12:53.340 Does history repeat itself? It could very clearly.
00:12:56.020 To move to independence, we support the majority of the Fair Deal panel recommendations
00:13:03.100 that that panel made to the Alberta government.
00:13:06.660 We believe that many of those recommendations could also work in Saskatchewan
00:13:10.300 and the other two Western provinces.
00:13:13.340 We recognise that's provincial purview,
00:13:16.080 but we're very supportive of moving towards greater autonomy
00:13:19.780 along the same lines that Quebec has achieved for itself.
00:13:23.820 Jay Hill, Interim Leader of the Maverick Party
00:13:28.100 and former Cabinet Minister and long-time Member of Parliament
00:13:31.460 at the federal level.
00:13:32.340 Jay, good to talk to you.
00:13:33.120 Thanks very much for coming on today.
00:13:35.100 Thank you, Andrew, and I always appreciate being on your show.
00:13:38.860 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:13:40.900 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.
00:13:46.380 Thank you.
00:14:01.620 Thank you.
00:14:03.240 Thank you.
00:14:05.800 Thank you.