Juno News - August 16, 2023


Media accuse Conservatives of "courting the far-right"


Episode Stats

Length

32 minutes

Words per Minute

163.80556

Word Count

5,369

Sentence Count

226

Misogynist Sentences

4

Hate Speech Sentences

4


Summary

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

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
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.
00:01:20.420 This is The Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True Norton.
00:01:30.000 so here the andrew lawton show here on true north on this wednesday august 16th midway through the
00:01:38.340 week hoping is a good week for you at the very least a tolerable and not insurmountable week
00:01:44.520 we are going to be talking to dalbir singh bala a little bit later on in the show now this is going
00:01:52.560 to be a very fun interview i hope because this is a guy who i'm my mic is doing the same thing it
00:01:59.860 did yesterday we might have to to look into uh why this has gone on i've done the thing that
00:02:04.400 supposedly fixed it yesterday but i don't know why it fixed it but uh delbir singh bala is the
00:02:10.080 the gentleman you may have seen in a number of news stories who has uh he did what we were all
00:02:16.020 being told to do which is get an electric vehicle and he took it on a big road trip thinking it was
00:02:22.260 going to be great for his family and ended up having to abandon it in the united states and
00:02:26.720 rent a gas-powered, I think it was a RAV4, to get home. So we'll talk to Delbir in just a little bit
00:02:32.440 of time. But I want to turn our attention to Prince Edward Island, first and foremost, where
00:02:36.420 this morning, Pierre Polyev, the leader of the Conservatives, did a press conference,
00:02:41.240 and a poor, unsuspecting reporter who has been around and should have known better,
00:02:47.020 set him up for the perfect throwdown. She should have seen him do this before and know this was
00:02:54.120 going to happen when she framed the question the way she did. She did the thing that a lot of
00:02:59.780 reporters do, and it doesn't really work, especially against a guy like Pierre Polyev or
00:03:03.920 Ron DeSantis in the U.S., that the old people say or experts say trick. And this was the
00:03:10.200 exchange. Now, admittedly, a little bit awkward to watch, but this is Pierre Polyev being Pierre
00:03:15.360 Polyev in PEI. Hello, Mr. Polyev. A number of your own comments and actions have been
00:03:22.500 um characterized as dog whistling to the far right by who by a number of different but i
00:03:29.460 think it's been characterized by that way but are you trying to are are you trying to clarify sorry
00:03:34.820 i just need to clarify by who by a number of different experts and a number of who are the
00:03:40.100 experts who work who to work in this okay well i think it's been established that this is this is
00:03:46.020 a concern are you trying to court the far right though i'm sorry who are these experts you say
00:03:50.500 that there are experts who are saying this who are they my question is are you trying to court
00:03:54.820 sorry i i'm sorry your question uh seems to be based on a false premise you can't even
00:04:00.820 tell me who these experts are it sounds like it's just a cbc smear job thank you but but what about
00:04:06.980 the question about whether the answer is that i'm i have a common sense agenda to axe the carbon tax
00:04:13.300 bring home powerful paychecks clear the way to build affordable homes to put those uh put people
00:04:18.340 in housing that they they can afford that is a common sense mainstream canadian agenda and i
00:04:25.480 know that justin trudeau's supporters are so desperate to distract from that because his
00:04:30.400 political career is falling apart so we're seeing uh we're seeing an attempt here to distract
00:04:36.360 and protect justin trudeau from his extremely unpopular carbon taxes and other failing policies
00:04:42.980 but we won't let him or others distract from that reality.
00:04:47.800 So thank you.
00:04:49.580 That was Conservative leader Pierre Polyev
00:04:53.180 accusing a reporter who incidentally wasn't even with CBC
00:04:56.280 of asking a question that sounded like a CBC smear job.
00:05:00.940 The question, in case you missed it there,
00:05:03.200 are you courting the far right vote?
00:05:06.160 Now, there was zero, zero justification for the question
00:05:10.640 apart from what unnamed experts say and experts say he's dog whistling to the far right experts
00:05:17.040 say which experts well experts you know uh people people are saying it people experts you know it's
00:05:22.880 yeah you know what i'm talking about when he says no i don't tell me she's like well i mean my my
00:05:27.840 question is are like so so the whole point of a question is that when you're a reporter you can't
00:05:32.720 just go and pull something out of thin air and get an answer on it or expect an answer on it you can't
00:05:38.880 go at a press conference and uh say oh are you uh oh i don't know are you robbing any banks
00:05:45.200 because it would be a little odd if you don't give justification for why you are asking that
00:05:50.240 question for example perhaps your premise is well a report has said that you might like to
00:05:55.600 be robbing banks so is it true are you robbing banks so in this case she's coming with accusations
00:06:01.360 that are based on what unnamed unsighted experts are saying i assume she's talking about the story
00:06:08.400 we were discussing yesterday on the show in which CBC and, well, sorry, the Canadian press
00:06:13.600 actually quotes unnamed experts saying that Pierre Polyev talking about the World Economic Forum
00:06:18.860 is dog whistling to the far right or something. But she doesn't even say that in her question.
00:06:24.520 She's not even referring to explicitly the World Economic Forum. And Pierre Polyev has done what
00:06:30.680 the last two conservative leaders have failed to do, which is refuse to play the media's game when
00:06:37.360 they ask questions like that. Aaron O'Shear. There's a Freudian slip. Aaron O'Toole and Andrew
00:06:43.200 Scheer. And I should say about Andrew Scheer, he's acknowledged that this was a bit of a shortcoming
00:06:47.860 when he was the conservative leader. And he's been a lot more forceful in his engagements after
00:06:54.280 being the conservative leader. But those two, when they were campaigning and the media asked
00:06:58.560 them very loaded questions, would kind of just go along with them. They wouldn't really push back
00:07:03.580 against these very charged premises.
00:07:06.200 And what Pierre Polyev did when I looked at it
00:07:08.540 reminded me of this old interview
00:07:11.000 that was done by Australian broadcaster George Nagas
00:07:15.400 with Margaret Atwood.
00:07:17.140 Margaret Thatcher, I'm mixing up my name.
00:07:19.080 George Nagas did not interview Margaret Atwood
00:07:21.140 and Margaret Atwood was not the British Prime Minister.
00:07:23.760 Margaret Thatcher, I would much rather Margaret Thatcher
00:07:26.040 than Margaret Atwood.
00:07:27.240 In fact, I think Margaret Thatcher
00:07:28.240 might've even done a better job
00:07:29.340 at writing The Handmaid's Tale than Margaret Atwood.
00:07:31.980 But George Nagus had interviewed Margaret Thatcher in Britain.
00:07:37.140 He was from Australia.
00:07:38.380 He had come to the UK and he had just been on assignment in Central America and was sitting
00:07:44.660 down with Margaret Thatcher and having literally just come from the airport, was dropping the
00:07:49.660 people in Britain say shtick.
00:07:51.880 And this is how Margaret Thatcher handled it.
00:07:54.860 Why do people stop us in the street almost and tell us that Margaret Thatcher isn't just
00:07:59.480 inflexible?
00:08:00.140 She's not just single minded.
00:08:01.540 on occasion, she's plain pig-headed and won't be told by anyone.
00:08:05.320 Would you tell me who has stopped you in the street and said that?
00:08:07.960 Ordinary Britons.
00:08:08.920 Where?
00:08:09.320 In conversation.
00:08:10.180 But I thought you'd just come from Belize.
00:08:12.100 Oh, this is not the first time we've been here.
00:08:13.600 Will you tell me who and where and when?
00:08:16.120 Ordinary Britons in restaurants, in camps.
00:08:19.340 How many?
00:08:19.940 I would say at least one in two.
00:08:21.660 I'm sorry, it's an expression I've never heard.
00:08:24.780 Tell me who has said it to you, when and where.
00:08:27.440 These are people that we meet in passing.
00:08:29.660 but we obviously raised the question of the state of their country with them and they tell us yes
00:08:34.300 we have a tough prime minister but she's a little bit pig-headed she won't be told by anybody
00:08:38.940 isn't this interesting even the tone of voice you're using is changing from what you used earlier
00:08:44.540 that was the iron lady establishing why it is she was so deserving of the name the iron lady and if
00:08:52.900 a reporter is going to do the whole people say thing they should be prepared to show the receipts
00:08:57.560 Now, some people have said that Margaret Thatcher was being a little bit unfair there.
00:09:01.740 Well, you know, how is he supposed to know the names of people?
00:09:03.940 And there is some truth to the idea that there can be a current that exists in society,
00:09:08.600 and you are asking a question that is accurately reflecting that current.
00:09:13.100 But even so, more often than not, when journalists are doing people say,
00:09:17.100 what they're actually saying is,
00:09:19.000 I think, but I can't just say this and attribute it to myself because I'm supposed to be impartial.
00:09:23.780 So when they defer to experts or people that are unnamed, that are unsighted, they're trying to kind of hide their own perception of a person.
00:09:33.500 I mean, if the reporter in this case had just come out and said, listen, when you do this and this and this, it looks to me like you are doing X.
00:09:41.280 You are courting the far right vote.
00:09:42.860 What say you, sir?
00:09:44.060 Or to use the old line of British barristers, I put it to you, sir, that when you say X, you are courting the far right vote.
00:09:51.880 What do you say to that?
00:09:53.320 But that's not what happened. Instead, we defer to experts who are supposedly authorities on what the conservative leader stands for and says. And Pierre Polyev's response to this was that I'm not playing that game. And I think it was, if you look at the reaction on Twitter, he seems to be winning that exchange very much.
00:10:12.640 We'll get back to this in a little bit of time, but I want to draw our attention to this story.
00:10:17.800 Very fun story in some ways because it just speaks to what a lot of people kind of feel is the inevitable outcome of this rapid and extreme pivot to electric vehicles.
00:10:30.020 But we're all told electric vehicles are the future.
00:10:32.620 It's the way we do something for the planet.
00:10:34.740 We're told electric vehicles are just as good as gas-powered vehicles or diesel-powered vehicles.
00:10:39.920 you'll save money and more importantly you won't have any issues getting around the country you
00:10:45.100 won't have any issues because we've got all these charging networks uh you've done it you do your
00:10:49.500 part for the planet well delbir singh bala thought he was doing exactly that he spent over a hundred
00:10:56.180 thousand dollars to buy a ford pickup truck that was electric you can even get an electric pickup
00:11:02.200 truck so it's not even like you're stuck with this little you know crappy prius you can actually get
00:11:06.720 a big manly electric truck and he did that and took his family on a vacation to chicago uh they
00:11:14.060 were able to get there but on the way back they ran into problem after problem delbir singh bala
00:11:20.340 joins me now uh delbir it's good to talk to you thanks very much for coming on today
00:11:24.940 oh thanks for having me so first off why did you decide to get an electric truck
00:11:30.680 okay so uh first of all uh for newer technology cleaner energy so i bought that idea
00:11:40.140 and i'm in trucking so we and i use my truck for going out to do recreational work so i need to
00:11:50.680 haul something trailers rv boat so and i change my truck every four years so it's just okay this
00:11:57.880 thing comes out let's try this one so it's a ford f-150 lightning you you paid 115 000 for it you
00:12:06.080 did the thing we're all told we're supposed to do here uh you had to spend more money on that as i
00:12:11.000 understand it your own house to uh get like the you know the charger put in place uh but what
00:12:16.780 happened when you were trying to drive home from chicago oh actually you don't have to correct you
00:12:22.360 uh the problem happens on the way to chicago not coming back on the way to chicago on the way okay
00:12:28.680 yeah we started our trip on july 27th on thursday morning 5 p.m we were like three families like
00:12:36.840 old friends with our kids and uh so it's a first stop for hours was wisconsin delts we have to stay
00:12:44.520 there for three days for you know water parks and so we figured out this it was around 1050 kilometers
00:12:51.240 to wisconsin tells and to my experience driving this truck i was driving doing around 450 kilometers
00:12:59.560 in city range so we decided to okay we can charge the couple times 350 kilometers and then another
00:13:08.520 after 350 kilometers and we'll get to wisconsin tells and we have a charger at our resort over
00:13:14.760 there and at our first stop in fargo we already researched before we were going to charge and
00:13:24.440 range was like actual advertised range on this clock is around 515 kilometers but to my experience
00:13:33.080 it was going 450 so okay that's why we plan to charge for three after 350 kilometers when we
00:13:39.240 When we got to Fargo, that level 3 charger, which was available, that was at their West
00:13:45.280 Acres mall parking lot, it took 2 hours and 5 minutes to charge it.
00:13:53.740 And more than that, to my surprise, I never expected that it would be that expensive,
00:13:59.020 it took $56 US to charge it.
00:14:04.700 that comes surprise to me so but uh we were on the trip and uh we got together we hardly planned
00:14:12.120 after months of planning all of all the locations everything so you know what okay let's go ahead
00:14:17.960 with that trip we'll see it after what is going to happen so to our second stop where we have to
00:14:23.640 charge in albertsville melissa right in outlet mall they have a parking they have a charger in
00:14:30.820 parking lot over there so that charger was 40 like it didn't connect to the truck and my truck was
00:14:39.300 showing it inside it as a 40 connection so we called the number on the charger to get it going
00:14:46.660 so but uh it was just a call center they said some technician will give me call nobody got the call
00:14:53.060 so that and after that that closest level three charging station was around 10 miles away
00:15:03.700 so i went there to my surprise that charger was out of commission
00:15:10.260 and at that point uh it was late evening we started around 5 a.m it was around 4 35 o'clock
00:15:17.300 already in the evening all everybody of us was like kind of frustrated and you know distracted
00:15:24.580 about only going through this thing right so uh our range for the truck only remains at around
00:15:32.340 10 or 12 miles at the time right and the closest level 3 charger was 20 miles away
00:15:39.380 so we decided you know what we had a week-long trip so you know what make me decide that you
00:15:46.100 you know what, let's leave it here.
00:15:48.140 So we took our rental car
00:15:49.740 and tore that truck to the Ford dealership over there.
00:15:54.100 And we completed the trip with our car.
00:15:56.760 And on our way back,
00:15:58.000 we picked up the truck and come back.
00:16:00.180 So you were able to get the truck back at least on that.
00:16:02.940 You were able to get it charged to bring it back home.
00:16:05.700 Yeah, after we spent,
00:16:08.520 like from July 27th,
00:16:11.080 we came back on August 3rd.
00:16:13.440 So August 3rd night,
00:16:14.440 i returned the rental and you know minnesota right beside elk river picked up the you know
00:16:21.240 truck and came back i know you've had a huge amount of interest in your story from canada
00:16:26.680 and from the us here and i'm curious and people that have reached out to you were you just really
00:16:31.880 really unlucky or is this a common problem for electric vehicle owners uh you know what i've
00:16:39.320 been receiving a lot of messages and phone calls it is very very common problem and especially with
00:16:47.160 the pickup truck i can say like why we need a pickup trucks i'm not talking about small cars
00:16:54.120 why we need a pickup trucks we have it because it has a more use to it right we have to haul
00:17:01.160 rv boat you know all the like that we're trucking we have to hold the parts tires so we have the
00:17:09.000 pickup trucks have the more use to it that's why we need them right but it doesn't solve
00:17:16.040 all any problem like purpose of a pickup truck and now lack of infrastructure even the
00:17:22.680 infrastructure is built if you go on a trip who would be who want to charge every three hours
00:17:31.160 Who want to wait every two hours for charging every three hours?
00:17:35.960 Well, I mean, that's the most incredible part of this is that even when it worked, when the charger worked, it took you over two hours.
00:17:43.300 Whereas, you know, I had to, you know, fill up my gas can or fill up my gas tank the other day.
00:17:48.360 And I was at the gas station for, I think, you know, 90 seconds filling it up and then, you know, a minute to pay for it.
00:17:54.120 And then I was on the road in two and a half minutes, whereas you were there for over two hours.
00:17:58.480 And that was when it worked the way it was supposed to work.
00:18:01.160 Oh, yeah, because, you know, I've been driving on the road, and I love to travel. My in-laws are in Edmonton. I've been driving there last 18 years. Every year, we go there once or twice. So that's around 1400 kilometers, and we are able to make it in a day over there. But I can't imagine to get there in a day over there with this one.
00:18:23.300 yeah and i'm not even confident a lot of people have raised is that you know electric vehicles
00:18:29.420 maybe are fine for driving around the city but for people like you that are driving for longer
00:18:34.480 distances it wasn't working and now this this truck that you spend 115 000 on you're only
00:18:40.540 using to basically go to work and back in in your own city right yeah wow so do you think the
00:18:49.000 problem then is that we need to just spend more money and invest more in building more chargers
00:18:55.060 because that's what electric vehicle fans have said in response to your story is that well this
00:18:59.360 just means we need to put more work into it and we need to you know make more of an effort
00:19:04.580 to my understanding with my little experience and a little time but i got
00:19:11.600 like i live in winnipeg and uh there's a lot of rural spaces we go out for camp and go hunting
00:19:20.540 and that area so like every two hours if you're hauling something because this if this truck goes
00:19:27.320 350 kilometers on a highway if you're driving on a highway we don't know how much it will go
00:19:34.660 if you have a board behind it then I couldn't find any data because they said
00:19:41.340 it's been affected by the you know now it's a how many places you will create
00:19:47.380 that infrastructure like every every two hours in every direction and somebody
00:19:55.000 who will drive it I my understanding would be super organized to plan it
00:20:02.280 somebody who will be super organized,
00:20:04.920 they can plan it, maybe drive in a city.
00:20:09.100 Yeah.
00:20:09.660 Yeah, the days of the old impromptu road trip
00:20:12.460 of just let's just get in the car and go somewhere
00:20:14.740 are gone when you have an electric vehicle.
00:20:17.580 Well, I'm glad you were able to make it home
00:20:20.360 and I'm glad you were able to salvage your holiday
00:20:23.300 with your family.
00:20:25.020 It wasn't ideal, but you adapted
00:20:26.920 and a good old gas-powered car was there to save the day.
00:20:30.960 Delbir Singh Balas, president of Al-Toba Freight Systems.
00:20:33.520 Thank you so much for coming on, Delbir.
00:20:35.600 Thank you very much.
00:20:36.760 All right.
00:20:37.420 Thank you very much.
00:20:38.800 We had, I realized his video was frozen near the end of that.
00:20:42.580 And I can only surmise that he just has very bad luck with technology.
00:20:45.780 Maybe it was the same company that made the electric vehicle chargers in Minnesota had
00:20:50.300 done the webcam or the internet connection there.
00:20:52.460 But we got Delbir on and I'm glad he was there.
00:20:55.480 And, you know, I will say talking to real people that have gone through this is great
00:20:58.860 Because, you know, everyone says, oh, yeah, you know what?
00:21:01.220 Anyone who doesn't like electric vehicles is because they've never tried them.
00:21:04.380 And this guy's like, yeah, I'm going to do it.
00:21:05.980 He spent the money he planned.
00:21:07.580 He was so fastidious about making sure, okay, we're going to go to this charger.
00:21:11.280 And if that didn't work, we'll go to this one.
00:21:13.220 And then eventually he only had enough range to, like, get back.
00:21:16.580 I know he had to tow it, but he, like, only had enough range to do nothing
00:21:20.100 and maybe get to the car rental place to rent a car that he could then take down to Chicago to enjoy his trip.
00:21:27.020 Poor guy.
00:21:27.380 but I'm glad he salvaged that very much. One thing I want to say is that when you talk about
00:21:33.600 environmental initiatives and green initiatives, it is amazing how virtue signaling triumphs over
00:21:39.820 facts and triumphs over science. And this story I found to be somewhat delightful. Do you remember
00:21:45.340 back in the 2019 election, Justin Trudeau made this very audacious pledge to plant two billion
00:21:52.540 trees. This was the tweet that he put out. It was a 2 billion tree promise. We'll plant 2 billion
00:21:59.440 trees over the next 10 years. That's it. That's the tweet. Now that was in September of 2019,
00:22:06.480 which means by September 27th of 2029, we are supposed to have 2 billion new trees that have
00:22:13.060 been planted by the federal government. Now, if you work that out, that's about 200 million a year.
00:22:19.140 Now, for the first couple of years, the government hadn't really gotten around to planting any, and then they were supposed to plant 60 million, but only planted 22 million.
00:22:28.180 And it's a little bit odd that all of this really bold planning on tree planting has not come to roost.
00:22:36.280 Now, this is not just something that Justin Trudeau tweeted about once and forgot about.
00:22:40.980 This is something that he has pledged time and time again.
00:22:44.080 in October of 2019, we're going to plant two billion trees in the next decade so we can leave
00:22:49.920 them a cleaner, greener planet. January 11th, 2021, we're planting two billion trees. April 22nd,
00:22:57.200 2021, we are banning harmful single-use plastics and we're planting two billion trees. What do we
00:23:05.540 have here? June 5th, 2021, we're planting two billion trees, hashtag World Environment Day,
00:23:10.820 because it's not a real environmental pledge
00:23:12.700 unless you put a hashtag on it.
00:23:14.920 August 9th, 2021, planting 2 billion trees and much more.
00:23:19.880 We'll keep doing everything we can to fight climate change
00:23:22.760 and create good middle-class jobs for Canadians.
00:23:26.340 Oh, I mentioned to the middle class, take a shot.
00:23:29.060 Oh, October 21st, 2021, yada, yada, yada,
00:23:32.060 and planting 2 billion trees,
00:23:33.980 something about kids and grandkids.
00:23:36.140 October 31st, 2021, we're planting 2 billion trees
00:23:40.220 and banning harmful single-use plastics.
00:23:43.840 Well, if you ban harmful plastics, I believe you outlawed Justin Trudeau.
00:23:47.560 Nevertheless, this is what we have been promised time and time again by the Prime Minister.
00:23:54.200 We are planting two billion trees.
00:23:59.080 Well, then we look at this headline in CBC.
00:24:01.580 Ottawa using creative accounting on its two billion tree pledge, environmental watchdog says.
00:24:07.500 As you see, if you read the fine print of it, it's not the government actually planting 2 billion trees.
00:24:12.100 They're trying to take credit for trees that are already being planted by other organizations, other divisions and existing government programs and say that those all fall under the banner of the 2 billion tree pledge.
00:24:26.200 For example, in August, Natural Resources Canada has revised its numbers.
00:24:30.980 They were supposed to have planted 90 million trees by 2022, and now they say they've planted
00:24:37.280 110 million trees. But initially, they had said they'd only planted 29 million trees in 2021.
00:24:46.000 When you look at the way they've done this, they've actually added millions of trees that
00:24:51.280 were planted through other programs, through other departments, and they've decided to say
00:24:56.400 that these are now trees that they're going to claim under the 2 billion. So it's like basically
00:25:03.300 COVID numbers where they just like look and find anything they can to just say, oh, this is a COVID
00:25:08.200 case. So if you've planted a tree in your backyard, let the government know because they're going to
00:25:13.320 just include that in their numbers, even though they didn't do it. So essentially their argument
00:25:18.700 here is that, oh, when we said we were going to plant 2 billion trees, we really, really,
00:25:23.440 really didn't want you to take it literally.
00:25:25.820 It is just pure virtue signaling
00:25:28.140 and government incompetence all wrapped up into one.
00:25:31.120 And not that I live and breathe
00:25:32.500 by what the environmental watchdogs
00:25:34.120 who think the government's not doing enough
00:25:35.600 on climate change say,
00:25:36.940 but I believe that they're the only ones
00:25:38.660 being particularly honest here
00:25:40.160 when they look at the government figures
00:25:41.660 and say that it just doesn't add up,
00:25:44.620 that the government is not holding up
00:25:46.540 its end of the bargain.
00:25:49.040 And you might even say they are pining over it.
00:25:52.240 I'll see myself out.
00:25:53.440 Anyway, just as we wind things down here, I want to go back to the discussion I had at the outset about Pierre Polyev and his far right criticism that he was getting from the media.
00:26:06.100 And I've had a number of people on Twitter that have pointed out to me over the course of the last little while that this has been going around that the reporter herself actually outed herself.
00:26:16.080 She tweeted about not getting a question from Pierre Polyev on this or not getting an answer from Pierre Polyev.
00:26:23.900 And oddly, I was trying to look her up on Twitter, and I don't know if they weren't loading up for me a second ago, but I pulled them up again.
00:26:32.120 And then she was also lamenting that she didn't get a chance to ask him about giving the wrong name of PEI in French.
00:26:40.740 I missed this part of it, but apparently Prince Edward Island in French, he called it the island of St. Edward instead of the island of Prince Edward.
00:26:49.380 And this was pointed out by a reporter.
00:26:51.900 And then Teresa Wright said, I was going to ask him about this, but I wasn't having much luck with my attempts to ask questions.
00:26:58.400 So we were back to just trying to get an answer on whether he's courting the far right vote.
00:27:03.580 And this is an interesting question that I feel no one is asking but the media.
00:27:09.920 And it really says a lot more about the people who bring it up than it does about Pierre Polyev, when he's accused of really taking very reasonable arguments about whether it's the WEF or housing or inflation.
00:27:23.760 And this is something that we then shoehorn into this narrative of being far right.
00:27:28.320 When I hear about Pierre Polyev from normies, from people that aren't like me, from people that don't live and breathe politics, it's actually not the mainstream medias and liberals framing of him that they're getting.
00:27:41.120 It's the videos on housing that they saw on Instagram that someone they know shared that are getting through to them.
00:27:48.220 And this is, I think, if you're following Canadian politics really, really closely, you'll see probably all sides of it. But if you're not, stuff that's breaking through is not, oh, he's scary and he's talking about defunding the CBC and, oh, he's talking about the World Economic Forum and all of that.
00:28:03.380 The stuff that's breaking through from the conservatives right now on their campaign strategy is the stuff that really resonates with people.
00:28:11.460 And right now we have a housing crisis.
00:28:13.880 We have an affordability crisis.
00:28:16.240 When you look at that clip, I don't know if we can put up, Sean, a still of the Pierre Polyev clip we played earlier without playing the clip.
00:28:24.580 I don't know if that's something we're technically able to do.
00:28:26.900 If it is, put it up.
00:28:27.780 But the one thing I find the most interesting about it is not that he is smacking down the
00:28:34.620 reporter and saying, well, you know, that sounds like a CBC smear job.
00:28:39.140 The part that I find to be the most incredible about it is if you look in the background
00:28:43.420 right over, I think it's his right ear, gas is 185 cents a liter.
00:28:50.740 That to me is the part of this story that should shock people, that this is an entirely
00:28:55.300 normal thing that gas is $1.85 a litre, $1.85.8. So we're actually, let's round it up to $1.86
00:29:02.160 if I won't get jumped on by the media for fudging the numbers, but almost $1.86 a litre. And that
00:29:08.780 is not the most expensive gas is in the country at any given moment. I'm going to look up right
00:29:14.360 now, I didn't plan to do this, the price of gas in Vancouver right now, because that's always a
00:29:19.540 spot. At the Canco in Surrey, British Columbia, $1.94 a litre. At the Co-op on 104th Ave in
00:29:27.500 Vancouver, $1.99. You go to the Chevron in Aldergrove, BC, and you're spending $2.029 a
00:29:35.480 litre. You go to the Petrocan in Pitt Meadows. I don't know if I've been to Pitt Meadows. I don't
00:29:40.520 think so, but that is $2.059 a litre. And this is now an entirely normal way of living. We have
00:29:48.220 that clip now or that still now you can put that up there sean a buck 85.8 a liter that to me is
00:29:54.220 the most outrageous part of that clip not that pierre polyev said to a reporter that a very
00:29:59.380 loaded and very thinly supported question or actually completely unsupported question was
00:30:06.120 sounding like a cbc smear job it's that we have an affordability crisis a cost of living crisis
00:30:11.920 pierre polyev right now is the only leader of the main three that is talking about anything that
00:30:17.140 matters. And that is something that the media does not seem to get. That does it for us for
00:30:23.440 today. We'll wrap things up there and return on Friday with a very special episode delving in
00:30:28.640 depth to the so-called safe supply of drugs and more broadly the drug crisis in this country.
00:30:34.580 You won't want to miss that. We have three fantastic guests. One of them is Dr. Sharon
00:30:39.200 Koivu. Another is Dr. Julian Summers and Adam Zeebo, the National Post columnists. I hope you
00:30:45.220 will tune into that. And also just a bit of a reminder, as I said yesterday, True North is
00:30:50.040 headed back to Davos. We are going to return to cover the World Economic Forum, report on this
00:30:55.620 and why their own policy objectives are not actually conspiracy theories, but are things
00:31:00.620 they're very proud of and will be on the ground. And if you want to chip in and support our coverage
00:31:04.580 of that, you can donate.tnc.tnc.news, donate.tnc.news. Hope you have a great rest of the day.
00:31:11.500 We'll talk to you on Friday. Thank you. God bless and good day to you all.
00:31:15.220 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:31:18.020 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.
00:31:45.220 We'll be right back.
00:32:15.220 We'll be right back.
00:32:45.220 We'll be right back.