Juno News - May 31, 2022


Ontario’s New Blue party commits to banning vaccine passports


Episode Stats


Length

19 minutes

Words per minute

182.321

Word count

3,593

Sentence count

143

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Jim Karajalios, the new leader of the New Democratic Party of Ontario, joins me on the show to talk about the party's platform and what it stands for in the upcoming election. We also discuss the new blueprint the party has put forward for the campaign, and why it's the best option for Ontario voters.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
00:00:00.000 We have a lot happening this week.
00:00:10.220 Ontarians go to the polls for the provincial election on Thursday.
00:00:13.780 Of course, advanced polls were already taking place,
00:00:16.760 so a lot of Ontarians have already voted.
00:00:18.340 But still, I think it's important to talk about the themes
00:00:21.340 that are coming out in this as Doug Ford
00:00:23.820 and the Progressive Conservative Party seeks re-election.
00:00:26.920 New Blue leader Jim Karajalios joins me back on the program here.
00:00:31.460 Jim, we talked a little while ago,
00:00:33.560 but I wanted to drill in to the policy aspect here.
00:00:37.000 Tell me about the new blueprint.
00:00:38.760 What is this?
00:00:39.720 Well, thanks for remembering the name of it, Andrew.
00:00:41.460 And we're really happy with the new blueprint.
00:00:44.000 It's the most important topics going into this election
00:00:47.640 for the new Blue Party and our candidates,
00:00:50.220 presented in six bullets,
00:00:52.420 in addition to the COVID-related legislation
00:00:55.920 that we've been pushing back on
00:00:57.360 since Belinda voted against Doug Ford's lockdown bill, Bill 195.
00:01:01.300 And we're really, really proud of it.
00:01:03.180 I'm happy to go over some of the key highlights for you.
00:01:06.320 But of course, we've been talking since last summer
00:01:08.940 about banning the use of vaccine passports,
00:01:13.600 not just making them optional in the public or private sector,
00:01:16.860 but banning them.
00:01:18.200 I was there.
00:01:19.360 I saw you in Ottawa at the trucker convoy
00:01:22.000 talking about restitution for some of those truckers
00:01:25.040 who had their businesses, 39 of them,
00:01:27.300 had their businesses shut down without due process.
00:01:29.800 And for some of the churches who had their doors shut
00:01:32.940 and their keys taken from them
00:01:34.580 and couldn't access their facility.
00:01:36.320 But we knew that the PCs were going to run away
00:01:38.940 from their COVID record
00:01:40.060 and make it sound like they had nothing to do with it
00:01:42.540 or wasn't their fault in the last two years.
00:01:44.160 And so we've been very diligent to make sure
00:01:46.840 that we're talking about fiscal, social and democratic issues.
00:01:50.300 We're the only party out there talking about scrapping
00:01:52.620 the per vote subsidy for the establishment political parties
00:01:56.340 that Doug Ford brought back and increased by 40%
00:01:59.340 over $100 million in 10 years has gone to the PCs,
00:02:02.880 the Liberals and the NDP.
00:02:04.100 We're talking about cancelling the Toronto Star's
00:02:06.480 online gambling license.
00:02:07.920 And we need one provincial party that fights for free press.
00:02:10.940 And we're talking about bringing down electricity rates
00:02:13.600 by getting rid of the wind turbines.
00:02:15.740 And I'm happy to get into that some more with you
00:02:18.260 because it's a complicated file.
00:02:19.660 And of course, we all remember Belinda was the only MPP
00:02:22.560 to vote against critical race theory in Bill 67.
00:02:25.960 And we launched that stopwoke.ca petition
00:02:29.320 that Belinda read on the last day of the legislature.
00:02:33.620 And in our platform, the new blueprint
00:02:35.640 is getting rid of critical race theory in our schools
00:02:38.080 and offering tax credits for those parents
00:02:41.360 who've chosen alternatives in education.
00:02:44.060 Let me go back to what you said at the beginning there, Jim,
00:02:47.020 which is preventing the government
00:02:48.600 from being able to do some of the horrific things
00:02:51.300 they've done in the name of public health and COVID
00:02:53.580 with vaccine passports and mandates and all of that.
00:02:56.680 I mean, the federal government has a constitution
00:02:58.980 which theoretically, and I mean, there's a big debate
00:03:02.060 we could have about the efficacy of the courts here,
00:03:04.060 but theoretically constrains future government's actions.
00:03:07.060 If you were to get in and you were to pass this,
00:03:09.800 what's to stop a government from basically doing
00:03:11.840 what the Doug Ford government did,
00:03:13.660 which is ripping up the law and ripping up all of this
00:03:16.520 and saying, we're doing it anyway.
00:03:17.960 I mean, a government that can impose a restriction on itself
00:03:20.720 could also remove that restriction
00:03:22.260 when it was expedient to do so, couldn't it?
00:03:24.640 And it's kind of a similar question on a variety of policies,
00:03:27.820 even in Doug Ford's industrial carbon tax
00:03:30.040 that we're talking about, that's part of the new blueprint.
00:03:32.140 But I've always said that these are not just legal questions,
00:03:36.020 these are political questions.
00:03:37.480 And I remember, Andrew, when I was in law school in Ottawa,
00:03:40.800 I hope the viewers forgive me for going to law school.
00:03:44.000 Belinda did when she met me.
00:03:45.540 But I remember some of the judges that we had met
00:03:48.460 admitted that when they make some of these charter decisions
00:03:51.540 or constitutional decisions,
00:03:52.820 they do look at public sentiment
00:03:54.440 and they do look at what the debates are in the legislature.
00:03:58.240 So it's not just a legal answer.
00:04:00.960 And lawsuits are necessary in advocacy,
00:04:04.720 just as are protests and rallies and petitions.
00:04:08.020 But the other piece is having a political party
00:04:10.760 fighting to change legislation
00:04:12.600 and pushing back when legislation is changed in the future.
00:04:16.620 So we saw the government throw away a lot of the,
00:04:21.200 what we thought were constitutionally protected rights
00:04:23.940 and freedoms.
00:04:24.440 And we saw Doug Ford take emergency powers
00:04:27.540 that we traditionally thought
00:04:29.400 were only for a period of time of under a month
00:04:32.280 and expand it to two years.
00:04:34.160 And you're right.
00:04:35.020 A future government can do that
00:04:37.800 under the current political climate that we have here.
00:04:41.400 But we need a political party to say,
00:04:43.280 it's not enough to just walk away
00:04:45.660 and say vaccine passports are going to be optional now.
00:04:49.060 We need, government created this problem.
00:04:50.900 We need the pushback to be government
00:04:52.780 is going to solve this problem.
00:04:54.040 And it starts with advocacy from the new blue party
00:04:56.880 saying we're going to ban vaccine passports,
00:04:59.400 public or private sector.
00:05:01.000 And I think that's an important step
00:05:03.080 in ensuring that future governments
00:05:04.480 know not to try this again.
00:05:07.100 The pessimism that I had through a lot of the pandemic
00:05:10.940 came from the fact that it seemed like
00:05:12.640 a lot of Ontarians welcomed restrictions.
00:05:15.260 A lot of Ontarians welcomed vaccine passports.
00:05:18.180 I mean, how do you square what you're proposing
00:05:20.320 with what I fear was at times in the pandemic,
00:05:23.540 a democratic will for some of these things?
00:05:26.340 Well, I think in the early going,
00:05:28.200 there was a lot of fear that came over.
00:05:30.980 And even when Belinda voted against Bill 195,
00:05:34.880 we saw a lot of politicians vote in favor of it
00:05:39.880 who later cheated.
00:05:41.000 And so sure, the public was afraid.
00:05:44.060 And part of the problem, I think,
00:05:45.400 is that the government was,
00:05:48.200 I've said this publicly,
00:05:49.760 it's nefarious that St. Joe's and Hamilton
00:05:52.560 had early treatment for COVID.
00:05:54.800 And it wasn't readily being promoted and expanded,
00:05:59.460 whether it's monoclonal antibodies
00:06:02.160 or other early treatments.
00:06:03.340 It wasn't expanded across Ontario.
00:06:05.080 So the public's fear was there's no treatment for this.
00:06:08.360 Nothing can be done.
00:06:09.300 And that gave the government some early leeway.
00:06:12.860 But if you look now,
00:06:14.440 the PCs have been running away from their record
00:06:16.760 and they're scaring the public
00:06:18.840 about these types of mandates and lockdowns,
00:06:21.220 saying that the NDP might do
00:06:22.840 exactly what Doug Ford did a few times.
00:06:25.320 So I think it's important with advocacy,
00:06:28.540 the public responds.
00:06:29.820 And the public mood may shift,
00:06:32.300 depending on more information that comes out.
00:06:34.280 And so maybe in the beginning there was skepticism,
00:06:37.480 but I think largely the more people find out
00:06:39.900 about treatments for COVID
00:06:41.300 and the studies that have come out
00:06:43.620 and in discussion that the lockdowns did nothing
00:06:46.220 to curb the spread. 0.72
00:06:48.240 And there was no such thing as COVID zero.
00:06:50.480 And the same with the vaccine passports.
00:06:52.940 I think the public comes around.
00:06:55.120 And I would also remind people on this
00:06:57.040 that the government and their public health advisors
00:07:00.000 have not ruled out the return of these things.
00:07:03.540 I mean, it's all well and good during an election
00:07:05.240 to see everyone mask-free, vaccine passport-free.
00:07:08.340 But Kieran Moore has gotten up there and said,
00:07:10.600 you know, once winter comes around,
00:07:12.080 who knows what's going to happen.
00:07:13.860 And we've got to,
00:07:14.600 that's why the new blue party
00:07:15.540 is just getting started on June 2nd.
00:07:17.300 It's no conclusion.
00:07:18.500 We need a political party
00:07:19.820 in every corner of this province, Andrew,
00:07:22.040 that when the establishment parties,
00:07:24.140 and we know, it's not even if,
00:07:25.620 we know that they're not going to stick
00:07:27.660 to their commitments and especially the Ford PCs.
00:07:30.100 We're going to be there.
00:07:30.740 The new blue party outside the legislature,
00:07:32.420 hopefully inside the legislature
00:07:34.240 to keep advocating and keep pushing.
00:07:36.840 And one of the things that COVID brought up
00:07:38.780 in the last two years,
00:07:39.660 you'll know this, Andrew,
00:07:41.280 that the power that some of the local bureaucrats
00:07:44.140 have in the name of public health.
00:07:45.840 So you can have specific regions
00:07:47.960 just declaring without any due process,
00:07:50.560 without any debate in the legislature,
00:07:51.960 they're going to shut down businesses.
00:07:53.600 And part of the new blueprint
00:07:54.600 is doing a comprehensive review
00:07:56.500 of what those legal powers are
00:07:59.460 of local bureaucrats
00:08:00.440 in the name of public health.
00:08:01.980 They have no idea what it's like
00:08:03.340 to operate a church
00:08:04.740 or worship
00:08:05.560 or run a small business.
00:08:07.460 They shouldn't have that power
00:08:08.620 in many instances
00:08:09.960 to shut down small businesses
00:08:11.280 and tell people how many people
00:08:12.860 they can have over for Christmas
00:08:13.920 and Thanksgiving.
00:08:15.320 Yeah, I mean,
00:08:16.000 there was a time not that long ago,
00:08:17.720 I guess two years and a bit,
00:08:19.220 where the public health officer
00:08:20.880 was the one telling you
00:08:22.020 about getting your malaria shot
00:08:23.740 before you go to Africa,
00:08:25.220 teaching people about
00:08:26.120 the importance of safe sex
00:08:27.620 and, you know,
00:08:28.720 making sure that there were
00:08:30.080 drug overdose responses available.
00:08:32.420 I mean, these things
00:08:33.020 that most people associate
00:08:33.960 with public health.
00:08:35.040 The amount of power
00:08:36.260 that we've learned
00:08:37.060 was always there,
00:08:38.120 but has only more recently
00:08:39.280 been deployed
00:08:39.920 is shocking to people.
00:08:41.880 And I guess the question is,
00:08:43.520 how big of an overhaul
00:08:44.900 do we need to rein that in?
00:08:47.060 We need a comprehensive overview
00:08:48.660 of the laws and the regulations
00:08:50.460 on the books
00:08:51.000 for the local bureaucrats,
00:08:52.180 in addition to repealing
00:08:53.460 all of the laws
00:08:54.740 that Doug Ford put in
00:08:56.160 under the guise of,
00:08:57.200 you know,
00:08:58.060 lockdown mandate
00:08:59.100 related legislation,
00:09:00.320 including Bill 100
00:09:01.400 that he put in
00:09:03.260 near the end
00:09:03.920 of the legislative sitting
00:09:04.960 that allows him
00:09:05.640 to go after people
00:09:06.520 without due process
00:09:07.300 and shut down businesses.
00:09:08.920 It's got to be
00:09:09.640 a comprehensive overview
00:09:10.780 of the last two years
00:09:12.040 of COVID lockdown
00:09:13.700 related legislation
00:09:15.140 and mandate
00:09:15.700 related legislation
00:09:16.720 and proactive legislation
00:09:18.980 because of the problem
00:09:20.600 the PCs have created
00:09:21.880 in many instances
00:09:23.340 where Doug Ford
00:09:24.500 is now saying
00:09:25.140 it's an option
00:09:25.940 for people
00:09:26.680 or facility operators
00:09:28.520 whether they want to use
00:09:29.460 the COVID vaccine passport.
00:09:30.760 But a few months ago
00:09:31.680 when Belinda was standing
00:09:33.080 in the legislature
00:09:33.740 challenging them on it,
00:09:35.540 whether it was
00:09:36.060 a liberal private members bill
00:09:37.380 or otherwise,
00:09:38.740 the PCs were advocating
00:09:39.960 for it publicly
00:09:40.680 and in the legislature
00:09:41.720 telling facility operators
00:09:44.260 to impose COVID vaccine passports
00:09:46.860 and the nurses 1.00
00:09:47.500 that were terminated
00:09:48.420 from their jobs.
00:09:49.300 It's only increased
00:09:50.020 the backlog of procedures,
00:09:51.520 the new blueprint calls
00:09:52.480 for rehiring those nurses.
00:09:54.280 So there's a lot of work to do
00:09:55.840 but it starts with ensuring
00:09:57.220 that the discussion continues
00:09:58.980 and the advocacy
00:09:59.780 in the right direction continues
00:10:01.480 and that's what
00:10:02.340 the new blue party
00:10:03.040 of Ontario was started
00:10:03.920 for two years ago
00:10:05.080 and we're just getting started
00:10:06.160 on June 2nd.
00:10:07.400 You've gone in the new blueprint
00:10:08.900 back to basics
00:10:09.720 on I think conservative
00:10:10.920 fiscal policy here,
00:10:12.160 a reduction in the HST
00:10:13.600 from 13% to 10%.
00:10:16.080 So that's a pretty significant
00:10:17.500 reduction in the provincial
00:10:18.780 portion of that.
00:10:19.680 I'm not even going to pretend
00:10:21.320 that I'm opposed to that.
00:10:22.500 I think that's wonderful.
00:10:23.600 I'd say bring it on.
00:10:24.780 How would you pay for it though?
00:10:26.660 The payment's got to be
00:10:27.840 through economic growth.
00:10:28.940 I mean conservatives
00:10:29.600 in the past, Andrew,
00:10:30.680 would say we don't have
00:10:32.040 a spending problem,
00:10:33.180 we have a revenue problem.
00:10:34.740 Well, under 20 years
00:10:35.960 of liberal and PC governments,
00:10:37.580 we have a spending problem
00:10:39.000 and we have a revenue problem
00:10:40.540 because the economy's growing
00:10:41.700 at over 1%
00:10:43.060 and we all know that
00:10:44.140 the more you increase taxation,
00:10:46.300 the economy's not going to pick up
00:10:47.820 and we saw it with Doug Ford
00:10:49.320 put in an industrial carbon tax
00:10:51.240 that's part of the same tax relief
00:10:53.060 we're promising
00:10:53.680 in the new blueprint
00:10:54.920 and every time you add
00:10:56.720 one of these taxes,
00:10:57.540 you're just slowing down
00:10:58.460 the economy.
00:10:59.520 Our new blueprint
00:11:00.180 has the best plan
00:11:01.040 to get the economy going again.
00:11:03.340 It starts with reducing
00:11:04.340 electricity rates
00:11:05.420 by taking down
00:11:06.140 and decommissioning
00:11:06.880 those wind turbines
00:11:07.740 and reducing the HST
00:11:09.420 will also have
00:11:10.340 an economic impact
00:11:11.800 and that's how
00:11:12.700 we're going to pay
00:11:13.260 for tax relief
00:11:15.140 and for social services
00:11:17.220 going forward
00:11:17.800 and social services
00:11:18.600 are in trouble
00:11:19.200 because if we keep
00:11:20.240 growing this economy
00:11:21.180 at a fraction
00:11:22.360 of what our spending increases,
00:11:24.120 we're going to have
00:11:25.280 a big problem.
00:11:25.780 But I'll say one more thing,
00:11:26.840 Andrew,
00:11:27.100 I said this to someone
00:11:28.280 who interviewed me
00:11:28.920 the other day
00:11:29.480 from a publication.
00:11:32.160 When it's time
00:11:33.580 for the PCs
00:11:34.140 or the liberals
00:11:34.760 to spend money
00:11:35.660 like Doug Ford just did,
00:11:37.000 he spent more money
00:11:37.800 in the last four years
00:11:38.700 than any government,
00:11:40.140 he's run greater deficits
00:11:41.620 excluding COVID spending
00:11:43.000 than any government
00:11:44.400 in the history of Ontario.
00:11:46.040 It's amazing
00:11:46.560 that the establishment press
00:11:47.700 never says,
00:11:48.640 how are you going
00:11:49.160 to pay for that?
00:11:50.080 It's just like,
00:11:50.820 it's a bottomless pit
00:11:51.880 of money
00:11:52.660 when it comes to spending,
00:11:54.020 when it comes
00:11:54.640 to $6.9 billion
00:11:55.720 to try to keep
00:11:57.440 hydro rates down.
00:11:58.340 But when it comes
00:11:58.880 to tax relief,
00:12:00.080 the left is all
00:12:01.060 over the place
00:12:01.640 and the establishment
00:12:02.260 media are screaming,
00:12:03.420 you can't pay for it.
00:12:04.340 Well, the best way
00:12:05.080 to afford tax relief
00:12:07.140 is by doing a tax relief
00:12:08.600 and getting the economy going.
00:12:10.900 Are there any
00:12:11.360 big significant expenditures
00:12:13.440 that you see?
00:12:14.320 I mean, obviously,
00:12:14.700 you're not in there
00:12:15.440 and you don't have access
00:12:16.540 to the full books
00:12:17.320 in the sense that you would
00:12:18.600 if you were the premier,
00:12:19.780 but are there things
00:12:20.660 going into it
00:12:21.340 that you know you could cut
00:12:23.060 that are big ticket items
00:12:24.260 or that you would
00:12:24.760 at least look at for cuts?
00:12:26.660 Well, one of the ways
00:12:27.480 we reduce spending
00:12:29.400 is through the alternative
00:12:30.460 schooling tax credit
00:12:31.860 and other wasteful spending
00:12:34.360 like the $100 million
00:12:35.180 a year that Doug Ford's
00:12:36.520 been doing
00:12:37.100 for the political parties
00:12:40.080 over the last 10 years.
00:12:41.100 He didn't do the $100 million,
00:12:42.360 but the establishment party
00:12:43.480 set it in motion.
00:12:45.060 But the other big spending,
00:12:46.720 $6.9 billion a year
00:12:48.280 of taxpayer money
00:12:49.060 being used
00:12:49.780 to artificially deflate hydro rates
00:12:52.220 when the solution
00:12:52.980 is to take down
00:12:53.720 the wind turbines.
00:12:54.720 And we just saw him
00:12:55.720 for two months
00:12:56.480 make promises
00:12:58.420 in the billions,
00:13:00.760 hundreds of millions
00:13:01.580 of dollars worth
00:13:02.900 of green energy,
00:13:05.460 electric vehicle subsidies.
00:13:07.240 And I hate using
00:13:07.980 the term green energy
00:13:08.780 because it's not.
00:13:09.660 It's not green energy.
00:13:11.280 So right there
00:13:12.300 with his commitments
00:13:13.240 that he's promised,
00:13:14.580 totally opposed
00:13:16.040 to the electric vehicle subsidies,
00:13:17.900 corporate welfare
00:13:18.520 going to create
00:13:20.160 these industries
00:13:21.540 that are entirely
00:13:22.720 going to be dependent
00:13:23.480 on government funding.
00:13:25.400 And the minute
00:13:25.920 the government can't afford
00:13:27.040 to fund them anymore,
00:13:28.060 those industries
00:13:28.660 will collapse.
00:13:29.860 So there's a lot
00:13:30.800 of wasteful spending
00:13:31.560 that the Ford PCs
00:13:32.520 have continued
00:13:33.720 in continuing
00:13:34.880 the McGuinty-Winn legacy
00:13:36.180 and trying to create
00:13:37.480 a provincial paradigm
00:13:39.160 here in Ontario
00:13:40.600 of whatever
00:13:41.060 Justin Trudeau wants federally.
00:13:43.440 Things like accountability
00:13:44.920 are not
00:13:45.720 or should not
00:13:46.360 be left-right issues.
00:13:47.960 The COVID handling,
00:13:49.160 I've seen a lot
00:13:49.800 of criticism
00:13:50.380 towards what Doug Ford's
00:13:52.080 done here from the left
00:13:53.080 and from the right.
00:13:54.280 And I think increasingly
00:13:55.220 from people
00:13:55.760 that aren't even political
00:13:57.020 or aren't even
00:13:57.560 on the political spectrum.
00:13:59.080 So let me ask
00:13:59.740 how you envision
00:14:00.780 your party fitting
00:14:01.680 into the political
00:14:02.340 landscape here.
00:14:03.140 Are you trying to be
00:14:04.060 an alternative
00:14:05.040 for conservative voters
00:14:06.320 or do you actually
00:14:06.980 see something in here
00:14:08.060 that's going to attract
00:14:09.440 votes from
00:14:10.140 former liberal voters,
00:14:11.840 NDP voters,
00:14:12.780 Green voters,
00:14:13.540 and non-voters?
00:14:15.240 One of the biggest
00:14:17.120 components of our supporters
00:14:19.080 are people who have
00:14:19.820 stopped voting
00:14:20.600 for a long time.
00:14:22.660 We get it
00:14:23.220 in Kitchener-Conestoga
00:14:24.780 and Cambridge
00:14:25.320 and across Ontario,
00:14:26.280 people who have said
00:14:27.600 they gave up
00:14:28.740 on the establishment
00:14:29.640 parties because
00:14:30.260 they're all the same
00:14:31.100 and whether it's
00:14:32.880 we are talking
00:14:34.040 about issues
00:14:34.820 that voters
00:14:36.640 previously would have said,
00:14:38.240 you know,
00:14:38.500 I consider that
00:14:39.300 a right-of-center issue
00:14:40.740 or they thought
00:14:42.140 that that was not
00:14:43.040 a right-of-center issue
00:14:43.960 and they're coming around
00:14:44.860 and realizing
00:14:46.320 that's actually
00:14:46.960 a good solution
00:14:47.780 or whether we're
00:14:49.920 talking about
00:14:50.640 the things
00:14:51.280 on accountability
00:14:52.520 and democratic reform
00:14:54.160 and not wasting money
00:14:55.240 that a lot of voters
00:14:56.760 used to think
00:14:57.380 was common
00:14:58.360 amongst all the parties.
00:14:59.500 For example,
00:15:00.480 the idea
00:15:01.020 that you're subsidizing
00:15:02.080 a political party
00:15:03.000 for their operations,
00:15:04.440 I don't think
00:15:05.040 there's a voter
00:15:05.640 out there
00:15:06.140 on the left
00:15:06.660 or the right
00:15:07.320 that thinks
00:15:08.020 that's a good idea
00:15:08.960 or very few at least.
00:15:10.180 The idea that,
00:15:11.000 you know,
00:15:11.580 the PCs
00:15:12.160 would not allow
00:15:13.700 Belinda's private members
00:15:15.020 bill to pass
00:15:15.960 in 2019
00:15:16.800 and they parked it
00:15:18.400 at a committee.
00:15:22.700 Oh,
00:15:23.340 I think we,
00:15:23.960 I think you froze there.
00:15:25.320 Do we still have Jim?
00:15:26.760 Which was to,
00:15:28.260 for the first time,
00:15:30.260 Yeah,
00:15:30.540 sorry,
00:15:30.740 we got you back now.
00:15:31.600 We're carrying on there.
00:15:32.740 So,
00:15:33.340 in Ontario's history,
00:15:34.800 there's never been a law
00:15:35.960 against voter fraud
00:15:37.140 in internal party elections
00:15:38.560 and Belinda proposed 0.95
00:15:39.980 that private members bill
00:15:41.080 and she got
00:15:41.620 unanimous support
00:15:42.960 from all the parties
00:15:43.860 in the legislature
00:15:44.540 because the Greens,
00:15:45.840 the Liberals,
00:15:46.280 the NDP,
00:15:46.820 they all know
00:15:47.400 that their voters
00:15:48.360 wouldn't be in favor
00:15:49.200 of voter fraud
00:15:49.740 but the Doug Ford PCs
00:15:50.960 just parked at a committee
00:15:52.480 never allowed
00:15:53.220 that private members bill
00:15:54.340 to become law.
00:15:55.380 I mean,
00:15:55.540 what kind of party,
00:15:56.440 Andrew?
00:15:56.760 wouldn't pass into law
00:15:58.180 a bill against voter fraud
00:16:00.000 in internal party elections
00:16:01.200 and a lot of voters
00:16:02.480 in Ontario,
00:16:03.240 whether it's Cambridge
00:16:03.820 or otherwise,
00:16:05.060 they had no idea
00:16:06.580 that there are no laws
00:16:07.800 on the books
00:16:08.360 against voter fraud
00:16:09.480 taking place
00:16:10.020 in a leadership
00:16:10.620 and a nomination
00:16:11.520 at a party convention
00:16:13.000 and of course,
00:16:14.480 the other promise
00:16:15.580 we've made
00:16:16.060 is to scrap
00:16:16.660 the Toronto Star's
00:16:17.540 online gambling license
00:16:18.620 and Andrew,
00:16:19.640 you're one of the best
00:16:20.920 read on this stuff.
00:16:21.640 you'll see a lot of
00:16:22.960 left-leaning commentators
00:16:25.200 writing articles
00:16:26.260 on this stuff
00:16:26.920 saying this is a terrible idea
00:16:28.440 to mix online gambling revenues
00:16:30.700 with print media
00:16:31.880 is a terrible idea
00:16:33.020 and there's other local issues
00:16:35.440 that we've been fighting for
00:16:36.380 like Belinda's been standing up
00:16:37.540 against a drug injection site
00:16:38.740 in Cambridge
00:16:39.240 and voters
00:16:40.960 that traditionally
00:16:41.840 may have voted
00:16:42.420 on the left
00:16:42.920 or the right
00:16:43.440 or never voted
00:16:44.260 are coming around
00:16:46.700 and saying
00:16:47.020 I agree with that.
00:16:47.740 So we are talking
00:16:48.560 about the things
00:16:49.280 that the establishment parties
00:16:50.760 and others
00:16:52.020 in the political process
00:16:53.320 are not talking about
00:16:54.400 and that's where
00:16:55.420 we've been building
00:16:56.020 our support
00:16:56.560 for the last two years
00:16:57.460 and even before that
00:16:58.360 since I started
00:16:59.980 the Acts of Carbon Tax campaign.
00:17:01.720 I know about 15 years ago
00:17:03.680 Ontarians voted
00:17:04.580 in a referendum
00:17:05.360 on electoral reform
00:17:07.040 on introducing
00:17:07.920 mixed member
00:17:09.000 proportional representation
00:17:10.180 which would have allowed
00:17:11.320 for some proportional
00:17:13.180 representation
00:17:14.020 in the legislature
00:17:15.120 which would have allowed
00:17:16.620 for newer parties
00:17:17.660 and upstart parties
00:17:18.580 to have a bit more
00:17:19.400 of a direct path in.
00:17:20.500 Is that something
00:17:21.020 you'd support
00:17:21.920 or you have a position
00:17:22.940 on as leader of New Blue
00:17:24.080 electoral reform?
00:17:26.240 It's not in the new blueprint.
00:17:27.920 It's something
00:17:28.460 that we're always looking at
00:17:29.640 ways to strengthen
00:17:30.600 our democracy
00:17:31.340 but in the immediate future
00:17:33.520 we're fighting for
00:17:34.820 a cleanup
00:17:35.860 of the internal party process.
00:17:38.380 So I think
00:17:39.860 that's the immediate thing
00:17:40.960 that needs fixing
00:17:41.740 and tinkering
00:17:42.480 with the general election system
00:17:44.200 is kind of, you know,
00:17:45.720 jumping a few steps ahead
00:17:46.980 federally
00:17:48.240 you remember
00:17:48.940 in 2005
00:17:49.840 Stephen Harper
00:17:50.660 brought forward
00:17:51.340 the Accountability Act
00:17:53.080 and he made a clear line
00:17:55.540 between lobbyists
00:17:56.500 getting involved
00:17:57.100 in internal party politics.
00:17:59.000 Provincially
00:17:59.400 we've seen
00:18:02.060 those same guys
00:18:03.560 like Doug Ford's
00:18:04.380 campaign manager
00:18:04.940 taking advantage
00:18:05.720 of the fact
00:18:06.240 that in Ontario
00:18:07.100 there are not
00:18:08.320 as strong laws
00:18:09.260 against that
00:18:09.960 and we've seen
00:18:11.340 lobbyists
00:18:11.980 or reported lobbyists
00:18:13.260 on the PC side
00:18:14.200 jumping on caucus calls
00:18:15.560 and telling caucus
00:18:16.980 how they should be voting
00:18:18.360 and the entire
00:18:19.420 internal party system
00:18:20.780 in Ontario politics
00:18:21.960 is totally broken
00:18:24.040 not just damaged a bit
00:18:25.720 where it's entirely driven
00:18:27.200 by the leader
00:18:27.900 and whoever
00:18:28.540 the gang in the back is
00:18:29.760 so the focus
00:18:30.720 has to be on
00:18:31.520 cleaning up
00:18:32.060 the internal party system
00:18:33.220 first
00:18:33.620 I think
00:18:34.460 before we start
00:18:35.160 tinkering with
00:18:35.860 how the general election
00:18:37.980 model works.
00:18:39.140 Now I mean
00:18:39.500 just one last question
00:18:40.580 Jim
00:18:40.760 if that happened
00:18:41.860 is a party
00:18:42.540 like the New Blue
00:18:43.260 needed
00:18:43.680 if the major parties
00:18:45.300 or the established parties
00:18:46.740 are subject
00:18:47.580 to the rules
00:18:48.180 that you've proposed?
00:18:50.080 Well that's just
00:18:50.960 one element of it
00:18:51.940 but the New Blue Party
00:18:52.860 of Ontario
00:18:53.780 I worked really hard
00:18:54.900 and Belinda
00:18:55.260 worked really hard
00:18:55.980 and there were
00:18:56.460 thousands of others
00:18:57.420 that really worked
00:18:58.480 very very hard
00:18:59.220 for many years
00:18:59.840 to influence
00:19:00.560 the Ontario PC party
00:19:04.580 work from the inside
00:19:06.240 is what they said
00:19:07.040 to push for the solutions
00:19:08.460 that the establishment parties
00:19:10.080 don't want to talk about
00:19:11.120 and June 2nd
00:19:12.420 is just a starting point
00:19:13.400 for us
00:19:13.800 we're not going away
00:19:14.640 we've balanced the narrative
00:19:16.540 we've changed the course
00:19:17.920 and we've challenged the left
00:19:19.060 for the last few years
00:19:20.380 and we're going to continue
00:19:21.140 to do that.
00:19:23.060 Jim Carajalio is leader
00:19:24.380 of the New Blue Party
00:19:25.420 I know it's a big week
00:19:26.220 with the election
00:19:26.720 coming up Thursday
00:19:27.520 so thanks very much
00:19:28.360 for joining me again.
00:19:29.520 Thanks Andrew.
00:19:30.020 Thanks for listening
00:19:30.600 to the Andrew Lawton Show
00:19:31.800 Support the program
00:19:33.060 by donating to True North
00:19:34.320 at www.tnc.news
00:19:40.080 www.tnc.news.gov.au