Juno News - Misinformation and Mismanagement (feat. Andrew Scheer)

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's most irreverent talk show. This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:13.060 Coming up on the Andrew Lawton Show, why Justin Trudeau is trying to avoid parliamentary oversight, misinformation legislation, and Conservative leader Andrew Scheer on Canada, China, and the WHO.

00:00:24.220 Welcome to the Andrew Lawton Show, Canada's most irreverent talk show here on True North.

00:00:38.520 Good to have you with us for the beginning of another week, another pandemic week, although one with a lot more of a sobering backdrop as we look at just the horror that took place over the weekend in and around Portapique, Nova Scotia.

00:00:52.260 I'm going to say right from the outset that I don't have a lot to say on this. In fact, I don't have anything to say on it at this point.

00:00:59.260 I'm a firm believer in the fact that with these sorts of tragedies, you always need to wait to see what the facts are before trying to extrapolate any sort of message or idea from it.

00:01:10.260 I think that the most important thing from my perspective is to accept that it's a tragedy, accept that it's horrific, and to pray and think of the victims, the survivors, and those in the communities impacted.

00:01:22.740 You know, I'm not one of these people that has this deep, long-standing connection to the East Coast.

00:01:27.760 In fact, I'd only been there for the first time back less than a year ago, I think, or two years ago, rather.

00:01:34.720 But it's an amazing community of people around there.

00:01:38.040 And, you know, I was in Nova Scotia just in February, and even in Halifax, which is a larger city.

00:01:42.980 You've got that community mentality, that small-town mentality, and to have something like this happen anywhere in Canada is horrible.

00:01:53.020 To have it happen in places like these that feel like they are just so insular and so safe is something that I can't even imagine.

00:02:01.300 So if you are in one of these communities, if you know anyone impacted, I'm so, so terribly sorry for your loss.

00:02:07.660 And also to the Constable Heidi Stevenson for her passing, we thank you for your service very much.

00:02:13.660 And that's not just from me.

00:02:14.720 That's from all of us at True North.

00:02:16.460 And I'd venture, I guess, to say pretty much all of us listening into this show.

00:02:20.540 It was awful, and I was glad that there was a response from all of the leaders in Canada about it.

00:02:27.520 People saying, listen, you know, we're just sending our thoughts and prayers out there.

00:02:32.580 It's so difficult for a lot of people to make sense of these things.

00:02:37.140 And like I said, there are so many questions.

00:02:39.900 There are more questions than answers.

00:02:41.220 I don't know if there's going to be more to say about it on Wednesday's show or even next week.

00:02:45.480 But I'm sure that something will come up.

00:02:47.300 But again, this is much bigger than politics, much greater than politics.

00:02:50.900 So I wanted to say that right from the outset of the show before we move on to the other things that we are going to talk about.

00:02:56.960 And there are a lot of them.

00:02:57.960 There are still a lot of things going on in spite of all of that.

00:03:01.860 And most notably, this standoff between Andrew Scheer and Justin Trudeau about when Parliament will reconvene, how it will reconvene, what it will look like, how often the meetings will be.

00:03:14.180 And let me first say, I don't think that politicians are as important as they think they are, generally speaking.

00:03:22.160 But it is important to have parliamentary oversight when government is spending money.

00:03:26.560 So the role of Parliament, which normally I would just say, all right, get off our backs, guys, is actually a pretty significant one.

00:03:34.020 And that's why I've been covering all of the political press conferences.

00:03:37.340 It's why I've been covering Andrew Scheer's press conferences.

00:03:39.940 Because as leader of the official opposition, he is, in many cases, the roadblock between what the government wants to do and complete, or let me clarify, to what the government really wants to do as far as unfettered, unrestrained, and what the government can get away with doing.

00:03:58.620 And we saw this a few weeks back.

00:04:00.360 So, and that's not just about Andrew Scheer.

00:04:02.900 That's the role of the official opposition in general.

00:04:06.280 Even though Justin Trudeau, with the other parties like the NDP and the Bloc Québécois, can have a majority in the House, there are a lot of things that require unanimity.

00:04:16.980 And that's where you get into what's happening in the last few days.

00:04:20.800 So, Justin Trudeau is content to just do his 11.15 a.m. daily press conferences outside Rideau Cottage, which get a bunch of softball questions from the media, only questions from the preferred chosen reporters are allowed.

00:04:36.720 And he does this, comes out for half an hour, then goes back into the shadows and, you know, plays Angry Birds or whatever it is he's doing in there.

00:04:43.400 Whereas in Parliament, you can get a lot more of an accountability measure because it is your opponents, your political opponents, people whose title is literally opposition, that get to ask you questions.

00:04:57.240 And also, they get to have a say in overseeing and managing the legislation that's being put forward.

00:05:04.040 So, that's the difference here.

00:05:05.880 Because Justin Trudeau's defense is, listen, we're talking to Canadians lots.

00:05:09.560 We're out having these press conferences.

00:05:11.460 We're talking to reporters.

00:05:12.420 Of course, Justin Trudeau's done a couple of interviews.

00:05:15.020 So, his rationale is that, yeah, we're being mightily transparent here.

00:05:18.800 Why do we need question period?

00:05:21.240 Whereas the conservatives are saying, listen, if you want to be doing all of these things, you want to be spending money, you want to be running these programs, you want to be doing all of this stuff, let us question you.

00:05:32.560 Let us ask questions.

00:05:34.360 Now, I do think that there is probably an overstatement of the role of question period here.

00:05:40.320 I think question period is, in many respects, completely theatrical.

00:05:44.820 I'm not sure that you can say it yields genuine answers.

00:05:48.840 But a lot of the time, what you do get from question period is the contrast between this is the question that was asked, this was the answer.

00:05:56.680 I don't think they're answering it.

00:05:58.240 So, I would say that the absence of an answer is sometimes, in and of itself, the answer insofar as question period is concerned.

00:06:07.560 But listen, as far as what's happening now, as it stands, Justin Trudeau has been saying that the conservatives have been trying to make it so that all 338 MPs have to be back in Ottawa, which just isn't the case.

00:06:20.760 There's no reason that the MPs could not reconvene as they did the last two times during the pandemic, which is to send a skeletal representation of the parties.

00:06:31.360 I forget the exact breakdown, but keep the proportion of MPs from the NDP, the Bloc, the Conservatives, the Liberals, and even a Green, but not actually do it in a way that packs up the House of Commons so that everyone's speaking moistly on each other and all that sort of stuff.

00:06:47.340 So, when the Andrew Scheer's party, the Conservatives, block the unanimous party, or what Justin Trudeau wanted to be a unanimous party consent to suspend the seating that was supposed to happen on Monday, no one was saying that all 338 MPs would have to come back.

00:07:09.300 Here was what Justin Trudeau claimed, however.

00:07:11.600 It would be irresponsible for the House of Commons to resume tomorrow as scheduled on April 20th with 338 MPs, their staff, support staff in the House of Commons, security, people coming in from across the country at this particular point.

00:07:28.240 Yeah, so Trudeau is pretending that the Conservatives basically want everyone there.

00:07:33.420 They want to load up, have MPs flying from Yukon, from British Columbia, from Red Deer, Alberta, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, from Charlottetown, PEI, have a descending from all parts of the country and shove 338 people into the House of Commons, when in actuality, it just meant carry on the way they did the last two times.

00:07:53.760 And Andrew Scheer, to his credit, called out on the weekend the fact that Justin Trudeau simply wasn't telling the truth.

00:08:02.500 And it was actually a question from yours truly, but here was that exchange.

00:08:06.300 Regarding the Prime Minister's claim that as it stands now, 338 MPs need to be back in Ottawa tomorrow, is he lying?

00:08:15.160 Well, he's saying something that's not true.

00:08:17.320 It's just false.

00:08:18.400 And we've already indicated for the past few weeks, since this crisis first hit, that we would not be, we would not be, that we would be respecting public health guidelines.

00:08:29.560 And that is our position, we've made that known to the other parties as well.

00:08:34.040 So I don't know why he continues to say that, it's certainly not the case.

00:08:38.020 And so when Canadians are judging each political party on its approach to these negotiations and how best to have Parliament operate, they need to keep in mind that what the Prime Minister's saying is just not true.

00:08:48.820 Now we'll have an interview with Andrew Scheer later on in the show.

00:08:52.020 So it's not going to be as focused on the parliamentary aspect, because there were some other things that I wanted to get into there.

00:08:57.580 And you'll hear those very shortly in the show.

00:08:59.860 But the reason I share that clip with you is twofold.

00:09:03.120 For starters, just call it like it is.

00:09:05.920 If Justin Trudeau is lying, say he's lying.

00:09:08.000 I think that would be the point that I would raise there.

00:09:10.360 But beyond that, there is a lot of truth in the accusation that Trudeau is not telling the truth, as circular as that sounds.

00:09:18.880 And the reason for that is that Trudeau is trying to basically make it seem like the Conservatives are being the reckless one.

00:09:26.700 The Liberals are trying to rebrand a parliamentary seating as though it's like running around licking Wuhan doorknobs.

00:09:34.000 That's basically how Trudeau is trying to do it.

00:09:36.100 So, oh my goodness, how dare he just play fast and loose with our lives and MP's lives and his own lives and our family's lives.

00:09:42.860 When I'm sitting here like, well, no, Parliament sitting doesn't have to look like a regular sitting any other day of the year.

00:09:50.320 It could just look like the other two emergency parliamentary sittings that have taken place.

00:09:56.020 And all of this begs the question of why is parliamentary oversight so important?

00:10:01.660 Why is it so important to have that oversight?

00:10:04.140 And it isn't just about grandstanding.

00:10:05.840 You know, Elizabeth May, who I think is just absolutely a shameless, shameless person, has now decided she's not content just criticizing Andrew Scheer for taking his family on that government jet from Regina to Ottawa.

00:10:21.240 But Elizabeth May has now said she never would have done the favor had she known he was just going to grandstand in Ottawa.

00:10:28.080 And if we have that tweet up there, you'll see.

00:10:30.460 And it's just a completely joyless and not just classless, but actually, I'd say malicious, about face she's done, trying to make it seem like all of a sudden she's worthy of sainthood.

00:10:43.860 And Andrew Scheer, you know, had roped his family on that plane through some sort of false pretense, which is just so far from the truth.

00:10:51.640 So you've got this accusation now that the Conservatives are the ones holding up public health.

00:10:58.640 The Conservatives are the ones that are the problem here.

00:11:01.080 When all the Conservatives are saying is, hey, last time the Liberals wanted unchecked power,

00:11:06.120 they were trying to ram forward a bill that would have given them the ability to spend money and raise taxes without parliamentary approval.

00:11:13.160 Hey, we think that if anything, this is evidence that Parliament should be sitting.

00:11:16.280 And yeah, if the Liberals are going to have to keep going back to the drawing board on legislation,

00:11:21.980 it stands to reason that you should have a mechanism in place for Parliament to be sitting

00:11:27.460 and for parliamentarians to be dealing with this and doing what is their job.

00:11:32.980 And remember that democracy doesn't get suspended in the midst of a pandemic.

00:11:37.480 It may look a little different.

00:11:39.260 Things are going to change in form.

00:11:40.940 But the substance of what democracy is supposed to be and what Canada's government system is supposed to be

00:11:47.560 should not change all that dramatically just because the realities have made it

00:11:54.180 so that you can't have 338 people in a room.

00:11:58.000 Now, I'm not resistant to the virtual parliament idea that Justin Trudeau has leaned on.

00:12:03.200 But there's a problem with it.

00:12:05.240 It just isn't there yet.

00:12:07.080 When we have the virtual parliament, when that's set up and running, fine.

00:12:10.940 We can reevaluate.

00:12:12.340 But that is not where we are yet.

00:12:14.360 And you have to, as Wayne Gretzky said, skate to where the puck is going, not where it is now.

00:12:18.660 But you don't hit the puck where it's going.

00:12:20.940 You have to hit the puck where it is right now.

00:12:23.400 And I know it's rare for me to do a soccer reference, but that's basically all I've got for you

00:12:28.460 as far as the sports stuff is concerned.

00:12:30.800 But listen, I mean, this whole thing is about Justin Trudeau not wanting to have oversight and accountability.

00:12:38.900 And there's a reason for that.

00:12:40.220 Look at the kind of stuff they're doing.

00:12:42.360 There was a report last week that didn't get nearly the mainstream media attention it should have been,

00:12:47.080 although there was a CBC story, and I'm very grateful for that.

00:12:51.220 Dominic LeBlanc, who's the president of the Privy Council,

00:12:53.780 has said that the government is considering legislation that will target coronavirus misinformation.

00:13:00.640 So if you knowingly spread misinformation that could harm people,

00:13:04.380 that could be a federal offense under a law that the liberals in Canada are considering putting in.

00:13:10.420 Now, I don't know how they would define misinformation.

00:13:14.020 And this is where it gets into that age-old problem of,

00:13:18.060 OK, if you want to go after it, that's fine.

00:13:19.780 But who's coming up with the definition?

00:13:21.820 And the reason I think this is so important is because a vast majority of the misinformation,

00:13:25.940 I'd say, has been coming from the government.

00:13:28.500 So is Theresa Tam going to be charged for saying that there's no human-to-human transmission of coronavirus

00:13:35.220 and that the risk remains low?

00:13:36.980 She said that back in January.

00:13:38.560 Is Justin Trudeau going to be targeted for saying that travel doesn't need to be restricted?

00:13:44.240 Because that was misinformation.

00:13:45.920 What about all the public health officials who told us we don't need to wear masks,

00:13:50.260 and masks actually make things worse,

00:13:51.940 before saying that, hey, masks are recommended and for travel required.

00:13:56.080 All of these things were misinformation, apparently.

00:13:59.440 So are they going to get charged?

00:14:01.560 No.

00:14:02.060 So at best, you can say that information is fluid.

00:14:05.040 And as they learn more information, the recommendations change.

00:14:08.240 Which is why when government tries to take a black and white,

00:14:11.960 this is wrong and therefore it should be illegal,

00:14:15.040 you know it's going to go after people that are offering differing perspectives.

00:14:19.660 Take hydrochloroquine, for example.

00:14:22.040 I don't know a lot about it.

00:14:23.280 I'm not a pharmacologist.

00:14:24.480 All I know is what I'm reading.

00:14:27.280 And this has become a drug that is central to a culture war

00:14:31.020 that really has nothing to do with science.

00:14:32.920 You've got a lot of people in the media in the U.S.

00:14:35.300 that are against it because Trump was for it.

00:14:37.600 And Donald Trump actually made a really funny joke about this

00:14:40.760 at one of his press conferences last week,

00:14:42.900 where he said, and I don't know if I can find the clip for you,

00:14:44.980 but he had said something along the lines of,

00:14:47.340 oh, you know, I probably set it back by recommending it.

00:14:49.740 Because he realized that there are a lot of people that will be against it

00:14:53.360 just because he's for it.

00:14:54.960 But the FDA did its due diligence.

00:14:57.120 It's a malaria drug.

00:14:58.660 They saw, hey, maybe it has a role in this.

00:15:00.960 Now we've got some Canadian researchers looking into it.

00:15:04.240 I don't know about the briefings with the public health officials,

00:15:07.300 but I don't think Justin Trudeau has been asked one single question about it.

00:15:12.480 The only time we've really had a national discussion about drug coverage in Canada

00:15:17.280 was when Jason Kenney said, and we talked about this on the show last week,

00:15:21.940 that Alberta would look to peer countries like the U.S., like Australia, like the U.K.,

00:15:27.960 and not wait for Health Canada's heel-dragging approach.

00:15:31.100 But that was the only time we even got adjacent to the hydroxychloroquine discussion,

00:15:37.080 which, again, I'm not pushing for it.

00:15:38.940 I don't know.

00:15:40.020 But if someone shared an article that talked about the benefits of this

00:15:43.560 and Health Canada hadn't approved it,

00:15:45.460 would that be misinformation under the federal government's eyes?

00:15:49.360 Look, I'm not speculating because I'm trying to make it seem like it's worse than it is.

00:15:54.780 I'm speculating because I don't have faith that it won't be.

00:15:58.720 I honestly do not have faith in the government that it won't be that bad.

00:16:02.460 And that's why I'm very, very leery and actively resistant

00:16:07.680 to any of these so-called anti-misinformation efforts.

00:16:12.260 And I'm sorry, but if you can't even get something like a wage subsidy right,

00:16:16.820 I don't trust you're going to be able to get something as nuanced as misinformation laws right

00:16:22.300 without just throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

00:16:25.560 And I'm not even convinced there's that much bathwater there.

00:16:27.900 I know that websites like Facebook and YouTube have all gone completely guns blazing

00:16:33.420 on having these warnings that are popping up

00:16:35.740 and people are having posts deleted and all of that.

00:16:38.480 But the active misinformation and disinformation that they're supposedly combating,

00:16:43.300 I'm just not seeing.

00:16:44.540 Maybe you're seeing it more often than not.

00:16:46.440 It's just political articles that seem to be getting censored and shut down

00:16:50.380 that are not misinformation, that are just people's opinions

00:16:53.440 and openly stated as being opinions.

00:16:56.840 And that's the reality of it.

00:16:59.560 Now, there's Susan Delacorte, who I know she's someone

00:17:02.880 who I probably have a fair amount of political disagreements with,

00:17:06.120 but I do like her and get along with her.

00:17:08.380 She had a piece in the Toronto Star, and the headline I think is very apt,

00:17:12.600 Pierre Trudeau gave legal rights to Canadians.

00:17:15.560 Justin Trudeau is borrowing a few of them back.

00:17:18.540 Now this comes on the heels of, I think it was like the 38th anniversary

00:17:22.320 of the Charter of Rights and Freedom.

00:17:23.860 So hardly a milestone anniversary by any stretch.

00:17:27.680 But it is interesting that the anniversary falls while we are in a state of lockdown.

00:17:33.780 And Susan Delacorte's point is that you cannot maintain civil liberties

00:17:38.660 with all of the things that the government is doing right now.

00:17:41.720 Now, I think where people will disagree is whether that's justified,

00:17:45.300 whether all of these fall under that just absolutely abysmal, reasonable limits,

00:17:50.080 a section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that basically nullifies

00:17:53.560 the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

00:17:56.100 But it's a reminder that you do not have the right in Canada to just claim,

00:18:00.940 I'm a free citizen, because you aren't right now.

00:18:03.280 You absolutely aren't.

00:18:04.800 And the good news is, it seems we've had a bit of a slowdown

00:18:07.300 in the major ticketing that we were seeing.

00:18:10.440 I haven't heard of any really ridiculous stories from the last couple days

00:18:14.100 of people being ticketed for rollerblading.

00:18:16.100 Although the crackdown of people using parks still continues.

00:18:19.440 If you have a really funny one, send it my way.

00:18:22.160 And by funny, I mean just one that makes you want to pull your hair out.

00:18:25.800 I actually said on Twitter, I think it was Sunday or Saturday, whatever it was,

00:18:30.860 I had made a, I don't even know if it's a joke, I'll say semi-joking,

00:18:34.120 that who do I have to lobby to have bylaw officers declared non-essential workers?

00:18:40.060 And everyone liked it and was like retweeting it and sharing it,

00:18:42.780 except for a couple of bylaw enforcement officers

00:18:44.780 who didn't particularly like it,

00:18:46.820 and decided to get engaged and start responding to tell me how wrong I was.

00:18:52.140 Which I was actually very grateful for,

00:18:54.180 because the more time the bylaw officers spend fighting with me on Twitter,

00:18:57.620 the less time they're actually out there ticketing people for ridiculous things.

00:19:01.760 So in many ways, I may have saved a couple of people some $880 fines

00:19:06.420 just by baiting bylaw officers into Twitter fights,

00:19:09.800 which wasn't even my intention,

00:19:10.940 because I actually didn't even think that they were happy with what they were doing.

00:19:14.780 But it's not that, by the way, they aren't the problem.

00:19:18.180 It's the bylaws themselves.

00:19:19.740 But if you create a bureaucracy and you create a mechanism to enforce it,

00:19:24.280 you're going to focus on enforcement more than anything else.

00:19:27.700 And the problem is that when you create an apparatus to do this sort of stuff,

00:19:31.820 it's going to fill its own purpose.

00:19:34.340 It's going to fulfill its own mandate by just continuing to really drive revenue.

00:19:40.620 So yeah, I'm not saying that no bylaws are relevant,

00:19:43.040 but the vast majority of them we could probably live without

00:19:45.560 and on the whole be a fair bit happier.

00:19:48.700 So that was my Twitter fight of the week,

00:19:50.880 which isn't actually a segment, but maybe it should be.

00:19:53.160 In any case, we have got to take a break.

00:19:55.300 When we come back, more of The Andrew Lawton Show here on True North.

00:19:58.300 If you're an animal lover, you may want to tune out for the next 60 seconds here.

00:20:09.980 A German zoo, which is facing a revenue crunch,

00:20:13.320 because like anything else that's recreational, they've had to close down,

00:20:16.900 is looking at a proposal to possibly feed animals to each other

00:20:21.320 as a way to fulfill the mandate that they need to feed animals that are expensive to feed.

00:20:27.220 This is from a zoo in northern Germany, the Neumunster Zoo,

00:20:34.180 which has a list of animals they'll have to slaughter first

00:20:37.760 in the event of like an apocalyptic scenario.

00:20:41.380 And they are finding that the animals have very large appetites.

00:20:46.180 The zookeeper, Verena Kaspari, says it would be a last resort, it would be unpleasant,

00:20:51.000 but even that would not solve the financial problems,

00:20:53.820 because they would have to find other things to do long term.

00:20:57.600 So the seals and penguins need large quantities of fresh fish.

00:21:01.700 She says that they don't want to let animals starve.

00:21:04.220 At worst, they would have to euthanize some animals and feed some to the others.

00:21:09.220 So zoos, which have like in many people's minds been cemented as kind of like the movie Madagascar,

00:21:14.320 where all the animals are just singing and dancing,

00:21:16.400 are actually going to be like a bloodthirsty and bloodbath type scenario here.

00:21:22.120 Some animals are like trying to be the cute ones that they couldn't possibly take care of.

00:21:27.180 I feel bad if I'm like a warthog or a hippo or something.

00:21:31.580 You're like an ugly animal that I don't think anyone actually goes to the zoo to see. 0.92

00:21:35.360 Like the otters are fine and the leopards are fine because everyone loves them. 0.98

00:21:39.380 But, you know, you got to be careful if you're like a hippo or a warthog. 0.91

00:21:42.600 So in any case, and also the biggest animal, I mean, so I mean, maybe the elephant,

00:21:46.800 people like elephants, but maybe the elephants need to be worried

00:21:49.100 because, you know, one elephant could feed, you know, a lot more people,

00:21:53.200 whereas you need like, I don't know, like 700 meerkats to feed as much as one elephant could.

00:21:58.160 So cost benefit analysis, but only in Germany, and I said this to someone the other day,

00:22:04.240 only in Germany can donate or will have to kill all the animals,

00:22:08.680 constitute a charitable fundraising pitch.

00:22:10.740 Like True North's a charity, and we try to tell people, you know,

00:22:13.560 all the things we're doing that warrant donations.

00:22:15.580 We have not done, you know, if you don't donate,

00:22:17.580 we're going to slaughter animals and feed them to each other. 0.97

00:22:20.120 So maybe if the zoo does well, maybe there's something to that.

00:22:23.040 But in any case, on a more amusing note,

00:22:26.400 an Australian family was supposed to have a European vacation before COVID-19 hit.

00:22:32.780 And like many other people with their travel plans, they had to cancel things.

00:22:36.440 So what the family did was recreate their 15-hour holiday flight in their living room.

00:22:43.220 Now, this is a family from Newcastle, and Kirstie Russell and her husband Nathan

00:22:48.280 came up with the idea of, in their home, outfitting it with security checks,

00:22:53.240 flight attendants, custom-printed boarding passes,

00:22:55.960 and they ended up doing 15 hours in these chairs, which have been reconfigured.

00:23:01.500 And I don't know if they were supposed to be flying in business class.

00:23:04.100 It looks like one of the girls there in the photo has gotten like one of those lie-flat seats. 0.98

00:23:08.580 So good for her that she's actually done it.

00:23:11.180 You've got the dad there playing on his iPad in his chair.

00:23:14.200 It's funny, though, because the things that they've recreated are like the worst parts of air travel.

00:23:18.920 But they managed to do it.

00:23:20.220 So they started it as a joke and said it was completely fun.

00:23:23.260 They were live-tweeting it.

00:23:25.720 So as you see on Twitter here, Kirstie Russell said they were three hours into their flight.

00:23:29.960 They set up the lounge room as a cabin.

00:23:31.980 The kids got all the legroom, and the adults were stuck in the back seat.

00:23:36.520 So choosing seats was apparently not done the best way.

00:23:40.120 The 16-year-old son was the security officer.

00:23:42.700 The 9-year-old daughter did baggage check.

00:23:45.340 A 14-year-old daughter welcomed on board.

00:23:47.400 Then they all became passengers.

00:23:48.680 And when you can get a 16-year-old boy into this sort of a role-play scenario, you know that everyone's bored.

00:23:54.560 Like when you can get him to be in there, he was like the Australian equivalent of the TSA.

00:23:58.860 So if they tried to bring any bottled water to their chairs, they surely wouldn't have been allowed to do it.

00:24:04.740 But I love that.

00:24:05.460 And they even had, if you can see there, I think it's McDonald's or something.

00:24:08.200 They had had like meals on trays.

00:24:09.840 So everyone got the same thing, assembly line style.

00:24:12.800 I love this.

00:24:13.900 I actually think this is a really good idea.

00:24:15.460 So if you have kids and you want to keep them busy for a while, pick like the longest flight imaginable from, I don't know, Toronto Airport or Vancouver Airport.

00:24:23.720 So send them on like a Toronto to Bangkok living room flight or a Vancouver to Sydney living room flight and then just have at it.

00:24:31.340 And maybe you can be in the business class cabin in the next room and they can all be slumming at an economy and watching whatever movies they want.

00:24:37.680 But good on the Russell family for making the best of a bad situation.

00:24:41.940 I hope you get to have that vacation at some point after all.

00:24:45.480 So we can claim a bit of vindication now because for weeks we've been saying very clearly four words.

00:24:52.840 China lied. 0.77

00:24:53.800 People died.

00:24:54.600 China's numbers could not be trusted. 0.97

00:24:56.400 And even though we had, of course, the Canadian government parroting China's line and China's lies by extension,

00:25:04.120 Politburo Patty, the health minister saying that there's no indication China's numbers can't be trusted.

00:25:10.120 Justin Trudeau saying, oh, now's not the time to deal with that.

00:25:13.080 Well, last week on Friday, Wuhan itself revised its numbers.

00:25:18.180 Wuhan, the first epicenter of this, the birthplace of this, the place that may have actually had the virus leak from a lab, 0.76

00:25:26.460 has said that, oh, its death numbers were actually 50% higher than originally indicated.

00:25:33.020 50%.

00:25:33.500 Now, this is, in the grand scheme of things, an increase of about 1,200 fatalities.

00:25:38.500 Now, I still don't buy into it.

00:25:40.180 But the fact that they admitted to being wrong again, and by the way, Wuhan and China more broadly have had a string of recalculations and changing numbers again.

00:25:51.120 But the fact that they've admitted these numbers were wrong makes it look all the worse that Politburo Patty was so confident in China's numbers.

00:26:00.160 So now, and I mentioned this last week with Candace on True North Update,

00:26:04.300 this means that Canada's health minister, the Canadian government, had more confidence in China's numbers than apparently China has in China's numbers.

00:26:12.880 So when Politburo Patty, you may remember, criticized a reporter asking about it of feeding conspiracies,

00:26:19.420 does this mean that the Chinese regime is now feeding conspiracies?

00:26:22.700 Are they in on the conspiracy?

00:26:24.200 Are they part of this?

00:26:25.140 Has it ballooned that far out of control?

00:26:27.020 So at this point, the only one who's right is Politburo Patty, and everyone else is wrong.

00:26:33.520 So this is not surprising to me.

00:26:35.560 And I don't, by the way, award China any brownie points or gold stars for doing this. 0.83

00:26:40.140 I think they probably looked at their numbers and said,

00:26:42.080 ah, no one's going to believe those, so let's change them a bit.

00:26:44.720 But now that they've revised it, all of these people that were shilling for the Chinese communist regime look completely terrible once again.

00:26:52.320 So, interestingly, Donald Trump at a press conference last week was pointing to these numbers,

00:26:59.080 and I think he said pretty candidly, does anyone believe these?

00:27:01.960 He was talking about China's numbers and Iran's numbers.

00:27:05.460 And I wrote a column about this last week.

00:27:08.100 Iran is another place where the numbers are just so vastly different from the real story on the ground.

00:27:15.080 But the thing when I saw Donald Trump's presser that I found so fascinating is that,

00:27:20.140 yeah, I actually think there are a ton of people that do believe those numbers,

00:27:25.340 and they all seem to be in the Canadian government.

00:27:28.280 So how bad that China has admitted its numbers were wrong,

00:27:32.040 the numbers that the liberals in Canada were like,

00:27:34.200 oh, no, you can't criticize these, you can't question those.

00:27:36.600 And it goes down to this complete deference to the World Health Organization.

00:27:42.800 And that is such a disaster for Canada, for Canada's autonomy, for Canada's credibility,

00:27:48.280 and for the credibility of the people that are supposed to be steering the ship in Canada right now.

00:27:53.880 We've got to take a quick break.

00:27:55.160 When we come back, my interview with Conservative leader Andrew Scheer.

00:27:59.660 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:28:06.600 Welcome back to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:28:08.740 Certainly, we've been doing our part to hold the government to account throughout this crisis

00:28:12.540 and beyond the crisis as well.

00:28:14.740 But the person who has the official task at hand of doing that is Andrew Scheer,

00:28:19.060 the leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:28:23.520 He joins me on the line now from Ottawa.

00:28:25.880 Mr. Scheer, good to talk to you again.

00:28:27.160 Thanks for coming on the show.

00:28:28.440 My pleasure.

00:28:28.900 Thanks for the invitation.

00:28:29.960 So let's talk first off about what your role is here,

00:28:32.940 because I think there's a lot of, I'll say, concern from people

00:28:37.120 that whenever you criticize the government,

00:28:39.800 you're violating what the government has established

00:28:42.400 and what you've established as being that Team Canada spirit.

00:28:47.160 Well, of course, in a crisis like this,

00:28:49.980 when Canadians want to see their institutions work

00:28:52.760 and they want to see collaboration and people put aside differences,

00:28:56.760 of course, the nature of the opposition has changed as well.

00:28:59.920 Now, we're keeping our focus on the health crisis, on the pandemic,

00:29:04.040 the economic fallout from that.

00:29:06.240 But that doesn't mean that it's not healthy to be challenged or to be corrected.

00:29:10.780 We've had a number of examples where the Liberals have announced a program,

00:29:15.320 major shortcomings and gaps.

00:29:17.080 We've called for action.

00:29:18.420 We've raised our voice, represented people who are falling through those cracks,

00:29:22.660 and we've seen the government amend their approach.

00:29:25.180 So it's still essential.

00:29:27.620 It's not just healthy.

00:29:28.540 It's essential in a democracy to have the government being challenged

00:29:32.340 and held to account to make sure that they get it right.

00:29:35.800 Let's talk about how they're not doing that, in your view,

00:29:38.920 because one of the big problems I've been seeing and talking,

00:29:41.700 especially to small business owners,

00:29:43.220 is that all of these relief measures that have come out,

00:29:45.880 whether it's the emergency response benefit, the wage subsidy,

00:29:48.960 the emergency business account,

00:29:50.520 For starters, the graduation of this.

00:29:54.060 It's not all been about, here's a program, apply for it.

00:29:57.440 Every step of the way, it seems like the programs needed to be rejigged and revamped.

00:30:01.700 But even still, with every one of these changes,

00:30:05.040 there are huge swaths of Canadians,

00:30:07.220 sole proprietors in particular,

00:30:08.740 that seem to be excluded from these programs.

00:30:10.840 And I know that you're in a bit of a tricky situation,

00:30:13.460 in that you're in an opposition role,

00:30:15.820 so you can ask the government to change it,

00:30:17.860 and you can vote against stuff, theoretically, when Parliament is sitting.

00:30:21.720 But what's your read on this?

00:30:23.460 I mean, do you think that there are too many Canadians

00:30:25.440 that are in between these programs?

00:30:28.660 For sure.

00:30:29.840 And one of our frustrations is that the government makes an announcement.

00:30:35.600 We start pointing out gaps.

00:30:37.620 They say, well, we'll look at that.

00:30:39.080 And then a week or two later, they make the changes.

00:30:41.400 What we'd like them to do is to show us their legislation,

00:30:44.340 show us their programs.

00:30:45.320 While it's still in the design phase,

00:30:48.520 we, and I'm not just talking about conservative MPs,

00:30:51.280 every single MP is hearing from small business owners,

00:30:54.860 contractors, owner-operators,

00:30:57.700 and they're getting that feedback in real time,

00:31:00.320 saying, you know, my company's not eligible for that,

00:31:02.300 or I'm not eligible for that.

00:31:04.020 While these programs are still being designed,

00:31:06.460 members of Parliament are the best focus group there is

00:31:08.960 when it comes to this type of thing,

00:31:10.560 because we're in our communities,

00:31:12.340 we're hearing from people directly.

00:31:13.420 So we'd like to see them bring us in on the front end.

00:31:15.820 We believe that would provide more clarity.

00:31:18.140 And one of the toughest things right now

00:31:19.320 is when you talk to people and they say,

00:31:21.580 I haven't paid my rent this month.

00:31:23.040 We're halfway through.

00:31:24.640 I don't know what my landlord's going to do to me.

00:31:26.840 I don't know what I'm going to be eligible for.

00:31:29.220 I don't have any cash flow,

00:31:30.160 because I haven't had a customer in over 30 days.

00:31:32.820 The government tells me not to worry that more is coming,

00:31:35.320 but my credit card's getting maxed out.

00:31:37.240 And I just, you know, like, it's a real,

00:31:39.500 there's a real sense of urgency here.

00:31:41.020 And that's what we're going to continue to push for

00:31:42.620 is getting it right the first time as much as possible.

00:31:46.080 One of the big things right now, of course,

00:31:48.140 you and the Conservatives pushing for more parliamentary oversight,

00:31:51.620 having more sessions like the couple of emergency sessions

00:31:54.660 we've had thus far with a more pared down,

00:31:57.460 bare bones caucus arrangement from all parties.

00:32:00.240 The concern that I have with this is that given it is taking so long

00:32:04.580 to get it right and multiple drafts, multiple revisions,

00:32:08.140 does pushing for these sessions not prolong the gaps here

00:32:12.040 and ultimately make it more difficult for Canadians

00:32:14.920 in need of these supports to access them?

00:32:17.680 Well, I actually believe it can have the opposite effect.

00:32:20.420 When you have regular question periods,

00:32:22.180 when you have ministers in the chamber,

00:32:25.040 you're allowing for members of parliament to get up on a Monday

00:32:28.160 and say, hey, I've got a letter here

00:32:29.760 from a constituent who says that they're ineligible.

00:32:33.040 We need to do something about this.

00:32:35.060 They'll hear that in public.

00:32:36.860 They'll see the other MPs saying the same thing.

00:32:40.120 And throughout the week, they can come back with the fixes.

00:32:42.660 What's happening now is that there's very little ability

00:32:45.840 to communicate directly with the ministers.

00:32:48.800 You know, we've had in the past month or so,

00:32:51.940 we've had a few conference calls.

00:32:54.000 We've had a few appearances at committee here in the House.

00:32:58.280 So regular accountability sessions,

00:33:00.760 I actually believe will speed up the development process

00:33:03.780 of these programs and get them right the first time

00:33:05.900 because the members of parliament will be doing

00:33:08.320 a lot of the work for the government.

00:33:09.960 We'll be identifying the gaps for them,

00:33:12.000 saying, hey, these are the types of people

00:33:13.620 that need assistance here.

00:33:14.980 And that can help on the front end,

00:33:17.360 design these programs in a better way.

00:33:18.860 A couple of weeks ago,

00:33:20.720 Health Minister Patti Haidu said her words,

00:33:23.340 no indication, unquote,

00:33:25.440 that the numbers from China about the death toll

00:33:28.280 and infection rate of COVID-19 there couldn't be trusted.

00:33:31.820 This morning, of course,

00:33:32.760 we have acknowledgement from Wuhan

00:33:34.400 that their numbers were wrong.

00:33:36.340 They've revised them and increased them by 50%.

00:33:39.060 So quite a significant correction here.

00:33:41.280 And still, when asked,

00:33:43.360 Justin Trudeau would not address

00:33:45.460 the lack of really reliability of China's numbers.

00:33:50.160 And that was at his Friday press conference.

00:33:52.060 Now, I know you have been very skeptical of China on this

00:33:55.000 and on many things,

00:33:56.140 and I think is necessary in Canada.

00:33:58.060 But what do you make of it that the government,

00:34:00.460 even when China admits its numbers were wrong,

00:34:02.900 still won't accept that China's data

00:34:05.300 are anything less than trustworthy?

00:34:06.760 It is outrageous.

00:34:09.940 And I think the former ambassadors from Canada to China

00:34:13.880 put it best when they said,

00:34:15.640 this is an embarrassing posture.

00:34:17.380 It's an embarrassing position for Canada

00:34:20.480 to be more apologetic for the Chinese regime

00:34:23.220 than the Chinese regime itself is.

00:34:25.340 But, you know, this is all part of Justin Trudeau's view.

00:34:30.040 You know, he admires the basic dictatorship of China.

00:34:32.480 He went to China seeking a free trade deal

00:34:34.960 when our free trade with the U.S. was being threatened.

00:34:39.580 He, you know, he refuses to respond to the fact

00:34:43.020 that there are two Canadians being held illegally.

00:34:45.420 China's put blocks on our exports of canola.

00:34:49.000 This government has yet to respond in any way.

00:34:51.220 I don't trust anything coming out of a communist government.

00:34:55.060 I don't trust anything that comes out of a government

00:34:57.680 like the regime in China on anything.

00:35:00.960 Now we're making life and death decisions

00:35:04.040 about how we're going to respond to the pandemic here.

00:35:06.320 And the source information is coming from China.

00:35:09.020 So I think it's time to ensure that our decisions

00:35:12.300 are based on a more broad sources of information

00:35:17.120 much more broadly than just the WHO.

00:35:20.260 At this time, there are Canadian experts

00:35:21.680 who have called for different action earlier.

00:35:25.040 The Canadian military intelligence report

00:35:26.680 that warned us that this virus was going to be big.

00:35:29.820 So it's continuing, it's just very confusing.

00:35:33.640 It's not confusing, it's outrageous,

00:35:35.240 it's unacceptable for the government

00:35:36.620 to continue to vouch for China.

00:35:39.500 Minister Haiji was asked specifically

00:35:41.180 about the quality of the data.

00:35:43.760 She vouched for the government of China. 0.95

00:35:45.580 It's ridiculous. 0.92

00:35:46.940 Well, and that's ultimately been, I think, 0.92

00:35:48.640 the stopgap here that a lot of people have said as well,

00:35:51.520 the World Health Organization numbers,

00:35:53.360 not China's numbers.

00:35:54.320 Well, when the World Health Organization

00:35:55.920 is populating its data from the numbers received

00:35:58.740 from China without question,

00:36:00.020 we have to look at their reliability problem.

00:36:02.940 And I guess the question that I would put to you,

00:36:05.680 Mr. Scheer, is if you were prime minister now,

00:36:07.820 what would you do to reevaluate that relationship,

00:36:10.680 not just with China, but with the WHO?

00:36:12.740 Because there's been a lot of deference

00:36:14.160 to them as an international body

00:36:16.960 that right now I don't think squares up

00:36:19.160 with where most people would say their credibility is.

00:36:22.400 Exactly.

00:36:22.980 And remember, this is the same agency

00:36:24.560 that a few years ago hired Robert Mugabe

00:36:26.780 to be the Goodwill Ambassador.

00:36:28.620 So these organizations,

00:36:30.200 especially the ones that come through the United Nations,

00:36:33.840 when we look at the types of countries

00:36:35.760 that have so much influence at the United Nations

00:36:38.120 and the institutions that are affiliated with it,

00:36:41.680 they don't share our values.

00:36:43.260 They don't share our democratic principles.

00:36:45.600 We have to view things that come out of that

00:36:47.780 with a great deal of skepticism.

00:36:49.320 And as you say, when the World Health Organization data

00:36:52.320 is populated by data from China, 0.99

00:36:54.840 garbage in, garbage out. 0.99

00:36:56.160 You know, we have to have a healthier dose of skepticism 0.99

00:37:00.600 when we're looking at that.

00:37:01.840 That's why when we have our domestic agencies,

00:37:04.760 our military intelligence warning us,

00:37:06.400 we have to give greater weight.

00:37:09.380 We have to take that more seriously

00:37:11.080 when it's coming from our experts here

00:37:12.780 that we can trust, that we know

00:37:14.180 don't have a political agenda

00:37:15.960 when they're providing raw data to officials.

00:37:19.740 And what I would like to see is this government

00:37:21.780 ensure that Canadian officials at the WHO

00:37:24.340 answer further actions.

00:37:26.100 Remember, it was a Canadian official

00:37:27.600 in a press conference

00:37:28.940 who pretended that he didn't hear a question about Taiwan,

00:37:32.260 but whether or not Taiwan would be included

00:37:33.920 in the WHO's efforts.

00:37:36.480 Just absolutely bizarre to watch.

00:37:39.220 It was like something out of an old movie

00:37:42.460 from the Soviet Union,

00:37:44.060 pretending not to hear the question,

00:37:45.160 pretending that there was difficulty on the connection,

00:37:47.440 then moving on to the next question.

00:37:48.920 Why would a Canadian official act like that?

00:37:51.860 Are Canadian officials trying to protect

00:37:54.120 the government of China?

00:37:56.140 Why not stand up for Taiwan 0.91

00:37:57.820 and its need to have participation

00:38:00.540 in the global fight against this pandemic?

00:38:02.600 So a lot of serious questions,

00:38:04.040 and our government needs to be held accountable

00:38:05.720 for their dependence on the WHO

00:38:08.320 and their refusal to hold China accountable.

00:38:11.280 I think a lot of that brings us to skepticism

00:38:13.800 that I think is growing with Dr. Theresa Tam as well.

00:38:16.600 And I think it's important to note

00:38:17.980 that she's not a politician,

00:38:19.300 or at least not supposed to be a politician,

00:38:21.020 but she does have a seat at the WHO. 0.98

00:38:24.260 She's been very linked to the WHO

00:38:25.960 through a number of committees and other projects.

00:38:28.460 She's also the most vocal member

00:38:30.860 of the Canadian government,

00:38:32.480 apart from Justin Trudeau, I'd say,

00:38:34.240 and Chrystia Freeland on matters

00:38:36.480 of Canada's response to the coronavirus.

00:38:38.940 Do you think there is a conflict of interest there,

00:38:41.060 that this woman is beholden to the WHO 0.94

00:38:43.380 as well as to Canada?

00:38:45.660 Well, we certainly want to get answers

00:38:47.580 as to why there is so much contradictory information.

00:38:51.040 Early on, the recommendation

00:38:53.940 from our own agencies here

00:38:56.580 was not to impose travel restrictions.

00:38:59.060 Early on, the instructions from Dr. Tam

00:39:01.700 was that, you know, not to wear masks.

00:39:03.760 So there certainly have been contradictory messages.

00:39:06.940 We need to look at how China has influence

00:39:09.060 on many different types of institutions.

00:39:10.880 Obviously, the WHO is front and center right now.

00:39:13.780 In addition to that, you know,

00:39:16.200 there's been a lot of alarms raised

00:39:19.000 about influencing universities.

00:39:21.480 There's been intelligence reports

00:39:23.260 about how the government of China influences

00:39:26.660 other types of civil society.

00:39:28.160 There's been warnings from countries like Australia

00:39:30.220 about how they perceive the threat of influence

00:39:33.560 from the government of China.

00:39:35.140 I think anytime you have Canadian officials

00:39:36.600 that are wearing two hats

00:39:38.440 or are involved in two or three different organizations,

00:39:40.640 we have to be very sure

00:39:41.640 that there are accountability measures put in place.

00:39:44.640 I don't believe that we should let

00:39:46.380 the government off the hook

00:39:47.360 and let them pin all the blame on Dr. Tam here.

00:39:50.280 There needs to be common sense filters applied to things.

00:39:53.500 We had a shocking news story this week

00:39:55.840 that the government after the 2015 election,

00:39:59.780 the Liberal government dumped millions of pieces

00:40:02.260 of personal equipment from the pandemic stockpile.

00:40:05.620 The previous Conservative government

00:40:07.060 had built up this stockpile,

00:40:08.720 regularly rotated, making sure that it was all up to date

00:40:11.420 and none of it was expired.

00:40:13.360 This government cut by tens of millions of dollars

00:40:16.860 the budget for that,

00:40:17.700 dumped material without replacing it.

00:40:20.000 So this is the same government

00:40:21.080 that can find $50 million to give to MasterCard,

00:40:24.100 $12 million to Loblaws,

00:40:25.840 but when it comes to making sure

00:40:27.300 that we have enough masks and gowns and gloves

00:40:29.880 in case of a pandemic,

00:40:31.280 from the very department

00:40:32.400 that is responsible for planning a pandemic, 0.98

00:40:34.900 it's ridiculous and outrageous. 0.98

00:40:36.300 So I don't want this government 0.95

00:40:38.260 to be able to scapegoat anybody.

00:40:39.740 They're the ones that didn't apply the common sense test

00:40:42.440 to many of these decisions.

00:40:44.200 They need to be held accountable.

00:40:45.480 I just want to make sure I understand the point

00:40:47.320 you made earlier in that response though, Mr. Scheer.

00:40:49.680 Are you saying that the Canadian government

00:40:51.160 or elements of the Canadian government

00:40:52.820 are, in your view,

00:40:54.000 under the influence of the Chinese government,

00:40:56.000 of the Chinese regime?

00:40:57.560 What I'm saying is that there have been warnings

00:41:01.400 from our security partners

00:41:03.240 about how the government of China

00:41:04.600 tries to influence civil society in Canada,

00:41:07.620 try to influence the conversations about it.

00:41:09.740 everything from news outlets

00:41:14.780 in terms of some of the publications

00:41:19.980 that have connections to mainland China.

00:41:24.480 So those are the types of things that we say,

00:41:26.400 look, we have to take a look

00:41:28.420 at our relationship with China.

00:41:29.760 This is a regime that has continually showed

00:41:32.580 that it does not share our values.

00:41:34.480 It abuses human rights at home.

00:41:36.180 It has acknowledged that it has engaged

00:41:39.420 in hacking exercises of other governments.

00:41:42.260 It is not being upfront and open and transparent

00:41:44.960 in the middle of a health crisis.

00:41:46.500 Oh, and let's not forget,

00:41:48.720 if we're holding two Canadians hostage.

00:41:51.240 So, you know, we've got Canadians

00:41:52.380 literally being held illegally in China.

00:41:55.260 We've got all this body of evidence

00:41:57.660 that they are not a trusted ally,

00:42:03.740 not a trusted partner.

00:42:04.760 And so many of these things,

00:42:07.060 they're an important trading partner.

00:42:08.460 We need to have,

00:42:09.540 we need to recognize that we can,

00:42:11.240 we can benefit from trade with them.

00:42:14.140 But I think it's time that we have a rethink

00:42:15.980 of how much confidence and dependency

00:42:19.200 this government seems to place in that regime.

00:42:21.680 One final question I have for you here.

00:42:24.200 Obviously, this has been a very different year

00:42:26.540 than a lot of people,

00:42:27.520 including the Conservative Party of Canada,

00:42:29.600 thought it was going to be

00:42:30.640 the leadership race put on hold here.

00:42:32.600 Does anything like that really change

00:42:35.880 the decision that you had made to step down?

00:42:38.260 Or do you think that when the leadership race

00:42:40.080 is restarted, if it is,

00:42:41.260 there's going to be an entirely new scenario

00:42:43.860 that might make you reevaluate

00:42:45.440 your role in the Conservatives?

00:42:47.780 Well, you know,

00:42:48.500 when I made the decision to step down,

00:42:50.080 it really was because

00:42:51.140 I could see the months ahead

00:42:54.340 and the toll that the last three years

00:42:57.540 had taken on my family.

00:42:58.580 And I knew I couldn't do both.

00:43:00.760 I couldn't be a good dad

00:43:01.900 and a good leader of the opposition

00:43:03.440 that would have been required

00:43:06.160 to do all the things

00:43:08.120 I had been doing for the past few years.

00:43:09.780 When I ran for the leadership the first time,

00:43:11.780 I think many people did expect

00:43:12.980 that it would probably take two elections

00:43:15.200 back in 2015.

00:43:16.880 If you had to hold Conservatives

00:43:18.160 that we hold the Liberals to a minority

00:43:20.660 in the next election,

00:43:22.160 that would have been seen very positively.

00:43:24.180 Obviously, expectations were raised

00:43:26.080 and the party,

00:43:28.440 while we did very well in many areas,

00:43:30.540 fell short of our goal,

00:43:31.700 which was to form the government.

00:43:33.140 I am very much at peace

00:43:35.000 with the decision I've made.

00:43:36.400 I'm working very hard leading this caucus,

00:43:38.500 making sure that we stay united and focused

00:43:40.540 and ready to hand over the keys

00:43:41.840 to the next leader

00:43:43.040 in a position that will make sure

00:43:44.580 that we can win the next election.

00:43:45.840 But I'm also really enjoying

00:43:46.960 being able to spend time with my family

00:43:49.240 and going to their...

00:43:51.360 Well, I'm not going to so many

00:43:52.560 of their activities right now,

00:43:53.800 but before the health crisis hit,

00:43:56.560 it was great to be the one

00:43:57.820 to take them to school events

00:43:59.220 and things like that.

00:44:01.340 So I'm very much looking forward

00:44:02.900 to handing the reins over

00:44:04.840 to the next leader.

00:44:05.780 Yeah, the silver lining of all of this

00:44:07.160 is even more time with the family

00:44:08.420 than you would imagine.

00:44:09.400 So I appreciate very much that response

00:44:11.800 and your time today, Andrew Scheer,

00:44:13.360 Leader of the Conservatives.

00:44:14.340 Thank you.

00:44:15.520 Thank you very much, Andrew.

00:44:17.140 That was Andrew Scheer,

00:44:18.440 Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada

00:44:20.480 here on the Andrew Lawton Show.

00:44:21.860 So we'll wrap things up

00:44:23.000 in just a couple of moments here.

00:44:24.480 Stay tuned.

00:44:26.060 You're tuned in to the Andrew Lawton Show.

00:44:30.840 My thanks to Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer

00:44:33.240 for coming on the program.

00:44:35.100 And as you can tell from my shirt,

00:44:36.440 that was pre-recorded.

00:44:37.480 We weren't pretending it was live

00:44:38.700 or pulling one over on you.

00:44:39.840 In fact, we released it

00:44:41.040 as a standalone earlier

00:44:42.080 just to make sure

00:44:42.820 it wasn't going to be dated.

00:44:43.900 But that was from Friday

00:44:45.660 for anyone who was wondering.

00:44:47.260 But my thanks to Andrew Scheer,

00:44:48.560 to all of those who tuned into the show,

00:44:50.420 who've written in,

00:44:51.000 who've sent me emails.

00:44:52.100 My email address,

00:44:52.880 if you want to touch base,

00:44:53.800 is andrew at andrewlawton.ca.

00:44:56.220 We'll be back in a couple of days

00:44:57.580 with more of Canada's

00:44:58.820 Most Irreverent Talk Show.

00:45:00.360 Thank you.

00:45:00.820 God bless.

00:45:01.460 And good day, Canada.

00:45:02.680 Thanks for listening

00:45:03.480 to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:45:04.920 Support the program

00:45:05.740 by donating to True North

00:45:06.980 at www.tnc.nc.com

00:45:09.660 analyst.

00:45:09.780 We'll be right back.

Juno News - April 20, 2020

Misinformation and Mismanagement (feat. Andrew Scheer)

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