Juno News - Pandemic Political Correctness

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show. This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:14.980 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.

00:00:21.760 Hey, welcome to another edition of the Andrew Lawton Show, Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show here on True North.

00:00:27.860 It's good to have you aboard. Hope you are having a great Victoria Day or had a great Victoria Day.

00:00:34.060 I don't know when you're listening to it necessarily, but I hope you got to enjoy the long weekend and all of its long weekend splendor,

00:00:39.520 even if you can't really go anywhere or do anything or open up the cottage or go out for dinner or do all of these other things.

00:00:46.000 But hope you made the most of it, whatever it is.

00:00:48.440 And on a more official note, a happy official birthday to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

00:00:53.960 Even though she was born in April, her official birthday, for reasons that go back and are not as interesting as you might think,

00:01:00.820 is actually celebrated on Victoria Day in Canada.

00:01:03.760 So she's got official birthdays in every Commonwealth country.

00:01:06.700 So if you're a monarchist, you already knew that. If you're not a monarchist, you don't care.

00:01:09.860 So I guess I'll just move on.

00:01:11.800 In any case, I want to definitely start off by talking about this story from last week that has rubbed me the wrong way

00:01:19.140 and a lot of other people. And it's not a religious freedom story.

00:01:23.040 It's a government pandering story.

00:01:25.760 Now, as far as religious freedom goes, you may remember a couple of weeks ago,

00:01:29.020 we spoke to Pastor Henry Hildebrandt on the show,

00:01:32.440 and he's the pastor of the Church of God in Elmer, Ontario,

00:01:35.660 who decided to have drive-in services and really raised the ire of police

00:01:41.420 and was facing potential prosecution.

00:01:44.480 Now that's gone.

00:01:45.580 The police decided not to push it further.

00:01:48.780 The Crown decided not to prosecute.

00:01:51.280 And on the weekend, the provincial government in Ontario actually clarified

00:01:55.180 that it is possible for churches to have this.

00:01:59.620 So they clarified the law to say, yes, drive-in services are allowed.

00:02:03.160 So that was a victory.

00:02:04.480 Although there is from the Church of God a constitutional challenge going forward

00:02:08.760 that the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms is advancing.

00:02:12.740 And that's going to be basically on religious freedom grounds,

00:02:15.940 on charter protections for religious freedom.

00:02:18.860 So we have the fact that a church was facing potential prosecution,

00:02:23.540 that other religious institutions have been told they have to close down,

00:02:27.700 they've risked major penalties, even jail time, if they open up.

00:02:31.500 And then you have this story in Saskatchewan,

00:02:35.280 where a group of Indigenous people, the Beardies and Okamasas Cree Nation,

00:02:40.660 had a Sundance ceremony, a sacred ceremony in the Indigenous spiritual culture,

00:02:46.180 that the RCMP ended up intervening in because there were more than 10 people,

00:02:50.660 which is the limit in Saskatchewan for a public gathering at the time that it took place.

00:02:55.240 So the RCMP interrupted and said, this is not allowed.

00:02:58.860 They didn't press charges.

00:03:00.240 And it sounds like they just went away after and said,

00:03:02.980 listen, we've told you and now we've left.

00:03:05.940 But the Indigenous communities raised a great concern about this,

00:03:11.200 saying that it was basically going back to the era of government

00:03:15.480 trying to oppress and repress Indigenous culture.

00:03:19.080 They say it was really a reminder of that dark past of Indigenous Canadian relations,

00:03:23.680 where Indigenous people were being told by police, you can't do this.

00:03:27.880 And the problem with this is that they were being treated the same way

00:03:32.140 that any other group were in Ontario and would be in Ontario,

00:03:35.300 which is to say, hey, you can't have this mass gathering of 10 people.

00:03:38.960 So Scott Moe, who's the Premier of Saskatchewan, has said, listen, I mean, a ban is a ban.

00:03:43.680 If we're prohibiting gatherings of 10 people or more, this is something that's included.

00:03:48.480 And enter Mark Miller, who's the Indigenous Services Minister,

00:03:52.220 the Federal Liberal Cabinet Minister on the Indigenous file.

00:03:56.300 He says the following about this.

00:03:58.660 The banning of spiritual and cultural practices like sun dances and potlashes

00:04:04.340 is a dark stain on Canada's history.

00:04:07.300 Even in the face of a global pandemic, Canada must not and will not prohibit these important practices.

00:04:13.660 Any decision to cancel or postpone them must remain the decision of community leadership.

00:04:19.920 My department will continue to work with First Nations

00:04:22.320 to provide the best available public health guidance to inform their decisions.

00:04:26.640 So there's not a lot to take from that.

00:04:28.980 It's very clear that it's part of a dark history of Canada to try to ban spiritual practices.

00:04:35.760 Even in the face of the pandemic, Canada must not and will not prohibit them.

00:04:39.720 And community leadership is the sole decision maker, he says,

00:04:43.340 on whether to cancel these events or postpone them.

00:04:46.300 So basically what the Indigenous Services Minister has done here

00:04:50.160 is given Indigenous people a pass on public health regulations 1.00

00:04:55.180 that everyone else in the country needs to follow.

00:04:57.700 If you're a Christian church, it's not your pastor's ability to decide whether church is cancelled.

00:05:02.440 If you're a Catholic church, it's not the priest's ability to decide.

00:05:05.800 If you are a Muslim mosque, it's not the imam's decision,

00:05:09.400 a synagogue, the rabbi, all of these things.

00:05:11.420 But in the case of these communities, their community leaders get to decide,

00:05:16.260 not the provincial government, not the federal government, not the police.

00:05:20.520 So all of a sudden you have two tiers of law

00:05:23.400 where certain people are able to be exempt from public health guidance for religious practices

00:05:30.380 and certain people are not.

00:05:32.160 So this proves one of two things.

00:05:34.760 Either there is a ban that is rooted in science

00:05:38.900 and they decided that political correctness matters more than science,

00:05:42.160 or the ban isn't rooted in science,

00:05:44.420 in which case no one should have to play by these rules, Indigenous or not. 0.82

00:05:49.340 But no matter what, they're proving that there is an inconsistency in their approach on this.

00:05:54.320 Either it's essential to public health to have these

00:05:56.440 and that everyone follows them or not.

00:05:58.940 And remember, Justin Trudeau, whenever this comes up,

00:06:01.240 just talks about how we all have to make our sacrifices and all of that.

00:06:04.340 But no, apparently some people don't have to.

00:06:07.660 And lest there be any doubt here, my issue is not with the Indigenous people.

00:06:12.280 They think they can do it safely, fine.

00:06:14.860 And if you read what they were doing, it sounds like they were being very conscientious.

00:06:18.740 They were taking temperatures of people going in.

00:06:21.240 They were keeping their distance at the actual Sundance.

00:06:24.160 They were not letting outsiders in that hadn't gone through their screening.

00:06:27.700 So it sounds like they were doing whatever they could to prevent an outbreak in their community.

00:06:32.220 But the problem is that other groups do not have the ability to do that.

00:06:37.360 If my church were to say, you know what, we're going to reopen

00:06:40.280 and we're going to go down to half capacity

00:06:43.100 and everyone who comes in is going to have their temperature taken,

00:06:46.060 everyone's going to have to sit in designated spots,

00:06:48.980 they would not have the right to do that.

00:06:51.420 So I think what this proves is that, yes, you are able to amend and adapt

00:06:56.060 and make it so that things that might not be safe if you did them the normal way are safe.

00:07:01.700 And to do that makes them so that you don't need to worry about it.

00:07:06.160 But the government is only giving the opportunity to these particular communities.

00:07:11.500 And I want to read a line that was in this CBC story about it.

00:07:15.980 Leslie Michelson, who's a spokesperson for Indigenous Services Canada,

00:07:19.840 said in a statement that her department, quote,

00:07:22.980 encourages First Nations leaders to consider public health guidelines

00:07:27.240 in their respective provinces and territories.

00:07:30.000 So this line is great because it has everything.

00:07:33.340 So the government encourages leaders to consider public health guidelines.

00:07:40.600 So it's not even like we would like them to consider,

00:07:43.260 it's we'd encourage them to consider.

00:07:44.760 They don't have to consider.

00:07:46.020 We're not even encouraging them to follow them.

00:07:47.900 We're encouraging them to consider following them.

00:07:51.380 Whereas you or me or our families, our religious communities,

00:07:55.780 our school groups, whatever, they are not encouraged to consider.

00:07:59.380 They are threatened with prosecution if they don't not just consider,

00:08:03.600 but actually go whole hog and adopt them.

00:08:06.720 Now, the double standards in this are where the real problem is.

00:08:10.480 The hypocrisy is where the real problem is.

00:08:13.060 Because again, this is not about science at this point

00:08:16.340 when you're deciding to pick and choose who gets to follow them and who doesn't.

00:08:19.720 And this is not discounting the history that Mark Miller is talking about

00:08:24.340 with Indigenous communities.

00:08:25.820 It's not discounting the history of Indigenous cultural practices

00:08:29.560 that didn't have a friendly place in Canada.

00:08:32.040 It's about recognizing that if you are going to draw a line

00:08:35.440 and say that religion and cultural practices,

00:08:38.120 spiritual practices are non-essential, which is what governments have done, 0.98

00:08:42.920 then what you are doing is you are saying that all of them have to be fine.

00:08:48.100 That all of them have to be not fine or fine.

00:08:52.420 And that's where the problems are here.

00:08:54.380 And by the way, there's another aspect of this.

00:08:56.740 And I mentioned this on True North Update last week with Candace Malcolm,

00:09:00.000 that the government, when it came to rail blockades,

00:09:03.040 was saying we don't direct the RCMP.

00:09:04.900 They're on their own.

00:09:05.760 They're autonomous.

00:09:06.960 And now we have the Indigenous Services Minister, Mark Miller,

00:09:10.360 saying that basically the RCMP is being called off from doing this.

00:09:14.880 When he says in response to a story about the RCMP going in

00:09:18.100 that the RCMP or that the government will not ban or prohibit these practices,

00:09:23.140 he's effectively saying that even when a province like Saskatchewan

00:09:26.940 has put a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people,

00:09:30.400 police that are technically under a federal police force,

00:09:34.620 but they're operating as a provincial police force at that moment,

00:09:38.440 are not allowed to listen to the provincial government.

00:09:41.140 They're going to listen to the federal government instead.

00:09:43.600 So now we've got not only political correctness,

00:09:46.380 not only double standards,

00:09:47.760 not only inconsistent health advice,

00:09:49.920 but we've also got the federal government

00:09:53.040 directing the RCMP to ignore the law.

00:09:57.180 After, for months, they've been saying,

00:09:59.700 oh, no, we don't do that.

00:10:00.800 We can't do that.

00:10:01.600 The RCMP is autonomous.

00:10:03.040 They follow the law and all of that.

00:10:04.660 And by the way, I mean, we didn't believe it at the time.

00:10:06.740 When they were going after rail blockades,

00:10:08.600 we didn't believe that the government

00:10:10.540 wasn't telling the RCMP commissioner what to do or what not to do.

00:10:14.200 We didn't believe it.

00:10:15.140 But that was what they said.

00:10:16.400 That was the line that they committed to.

00:10:19.080 And now, of course, they've just completely abandoned that.

00:10:22.160 Now it's, no, no, no.

00:10:23.480 If the RCMP does this, we're going to condemn them

00:10:25.840 from the level of a cabinet member

00:10:27.840 because that's what we're doing.

00:10:29.480 This is just in Trudeau's Canada.

00:10:30.980 So I would say, let's all take a lesson

00:10:32.900 from the Beardies and Okavassas Cree Nation

00:10:35.760 and say, yes, if there's a way we can get back to normal,

00:10:39.000 as much of a normal life as possible

00:10:41.340 with amendments and with caveats and with stipulations,

00:10:44.740 then let's do it.

00:10:45.740 But let's not go down this road

00:10:48.180 of picking and choosing which groups.

00:10:50.000 Imagine if the government were to say,

00:10:51.620 okay, private schools can reopen, but not religious ones.

00:10:56.480 You know, we're reopening private schools,

00:10:57.920 but only secular ones.

00:10:59.020 Or if they said, you know what?

00:11:00.420 Catholic schools can open, but not public schools.

00:11:02.600 Or restaurants can open, but only vegan restaurants,

00:11:05.620 not non-vegan restaurants.

00:11:07.740 I mean, drawing these lines will not only expose this

00:11:10.820 as being kind of an exercise of futility,

00:11:13.100 but it would also undercut the very freedoms

00:11:16.880 that governments are supposed to protect.

00:11:20.420 And whether you like or agree with certain cultural practices,

00:11:24.380 whether it is a Christian practice,

00:11:26.940 an indigenous cultural practice,

00:11:28.620 a Muslim practice, whatever,

00:11:30.400 the whole point of religious freedom

00:11:32.160 is that we don't have a state religion in Canada.

00:11:35.160 The government cannot pick favorites.

00:11:36.880 So if you're going to draw a line and say,

00:11:39.620 no, these experiences that these people are doing,

00:11:43.920 these sun dances are non-essential,

00:11:46.800 then all of them have to be non-essential.

00:11:49.240 And similarly, if you say one has to be essential,

00:11:51.700 which is what the government has basically done now,

00:11:54.260 everything has to be,

00:11:55.400 which means confirmations, confessions,

00:11:58.580 bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs,

00:12:00.300 all of them now have to be fine

00:12:02.180 because that's what the government is saying about this one.

00:12:05.140 And the fact that they don't realize this,

00:12:08.860 realize this hypocrisy or realize this double standard,

00:12:11.780 or the fact that even worse than that,

00:12:13.940 they may realize it, but not care.

00:12:16.120 I think that's more problematic

00:12:17.520 is because what they're doing

00:12:20.220 is now picking and choosing

00:12:21.640 which groups have this protected status.

00:12:24.120 And we know they do this,

00:12:25.400 but to do it so brazenly,

00:12:27.440 and I cannot stress enough

00:12:29.680 that my issue is not with the indigenous community

00:12:32.100 because they were the ones saying here,

00:12:33.580 listen, we've found a way to do this safely.

00:12:35.940 We're gonna do it.

00:12:36.700 This is who we are.

00:12:37.780 And that's the same thing

00:12:38.880 that Pastor Henry Hildebrandt did a few weeks ago

00:12:41.100 by having his drive-through services.

00:12:43.200 He says, listen, we wanna have church.

00:12:44.960 This is a way we can safely and comfortably do it.

00:12:48.000 And I want every group that can to do it.

00:12:51.140 Like I see no reason if you're in a town

00:12:52.920 that has a drive-in movie theater,

00:12:55.260 that the drive-in movie theater

00:12:56.600 shouldn't be able to open up

00:12:57.880 given that everyone is staying in their car.

00:13:00.000 I mean, maybe they closed the concession stand,

00:13:02.560 but even then restaurants are open for takeout now.

00:13:05.040 So I don't think it would be that dissimilar

00:13:07.200 to things that are happening all the time.

00:13:10.460 And this is not to say that people should flout the law.

00:13:13.480 It's to say that the law itself

00:13:15.580 and the government itself should be encouraging

00:13:18.380 people finding ways to get back to normal

00:13:21.940 as much as possible.

00:13:23.180 And we know that provinces

00:13:24.420 are all doing this at their own speed.

00:13:26.440 I live in Ontario where this coming week,

00:13:28.840 some more things are opening up.

00:13:30.780 And the problem now that we're facing

00:13:32.740 is that things have opened up

00:13:34.260 and there's this floodgate approach.

00:13:36.380 So, you know, I'm doing a bit of a home renovation right now,

00:13:39.380 a very minor one.

00:13:40.700 And Home Depots have opened up.

00:13:42.620 And I'm like, that's great.

00:13:43.320 Yeah, we can just run to Home Depot.

00:13:44.540 And you go there and it's like an hour

00:13:45.700 to get into the store.

00:13:47.100 And then once you're in the store,

00:13:48.280 it's not much better.

00:13:49.800 So people are still adapting to this,

00:13:52.420 which is why I think that whenever haircuts

00:13:54.240 are allowed again,

00:13:55.380 whenever haircuts are not gonna, you know, 0.98

00:13:57.100 kill every grandmother and grandfather 0.53

00:13:58.760 in the country, apparently. 1.00

00:14:00.440 There's going to be such a long line

00:14:02.080 that it will be as though haircuts are still banned.

00:14:04.300 So I don't know if you can tell,

00:14:05.600 I'm kind of like really getting to the point

00:14:07.700 where it's gonna look just mangled

00:14:09.220 and I'm gonna look like Tom Hanks on Castaway,

00:14:11.220 probably in a couple of episodes.

00:14:12.780 So I know my video editor

00:14:16.020 is going to put up a picture of Tom Hanks in Castaway.

00:14:18.500 Do the side by side if you're gonna do it at least.

00:14:20.560 So people can see what will be

00:14:21.900 the before and after picture of me.

00:14:23.660 Yeah, so the one on the right there,

00:14:25.400 that's the Andrew Lawton show

00:14:26.540 in a couple of weeks time if things don't open up.

00:14:30.440 But this is what I find fascinating about this

00:14:33.260 because all of us are trying to get back to normal.

00:14:36.300 All of us should be trying to get back to normal

00:14:38.520 if we aren't.

00:14:39.560 And in many respects,

00:14:40.740 the group that doesn't want to is the government.

00:14:44.200 It's government that seems to not want this.

00:14:46.640 And part of it's caution, I get that.

00:14:48.720 It's not about downplaying or diminishing

00:14:50.380 the threat of COVID-19 and the coronavirus.

00:14:53.700 It's about recognizing that

00:14:55.500 when the focus is on public order over public health,

00:14:58.820 which has become a recurring theme

00:15:00.400 of all of these examples of going after people

00:15:03.080 for visiting their relatives in nursing homes

00:15:06.060 through windows or ticketing rollerbladers,

00:15:08.320 shutting down parks, all of this.

00:15:09.960 When that is the priority,

00:15:12.080 no one takes it seriously.

00:15:14.260 And we're at the point now where people have said,

00:15:16.160 okay, we're through the worst of it.

00:15:17.560 We want to just do things that can be done safely.

00:15:21.260 And everyone seems to realize now

00:15:23.340 that you can all be outside

00:15:25.060 and not have any real threat.

00:15:28.020 I mean, if you're spitting in each other's faces

00:15:29.560 and speaking moistly on each other outside,

00:15:31.660 it's a bit different.

00:15:32.580 But if you're just walking outside

00:15:33.980 and people seem to be loosening up about it,

00:15:36.440 which is good.

00:15:37.940 I'm not seeing the abject fear

00:15:39.980 in a lot of people that I was seeing a few weeks ago.

00:15:43.700 And some people are saying this means

00:15:45.240 that people are too comfortable.

00:15:46.340 No, I think it means

00:15:48.060 that we've done a bit better a job

00:15:50.080 than we did early on.

00:15:51.520 Now that we have a bit more knowledge about this

00:15:53.700 in basically drawing the lines and say,

00:15:55.940 okay, what are the risky things?

00:15:57.400 What are the non-risky things?

00:15:58.760 Still wash your hands,

00:16:00.080 still wear a mask when you're out,

00:16:01.520 if it makes you more comfortable,

00:16:02.560 still do all of these protocols

00:16:04.220 like wiping down carts at grocery stores

00:16:06.620 and things like that.

00:16:07.680 But we don't need to make it

00:16:09.460 so that everyone is so scared

00:16:12.040 to be out into the world.

00:16:13.500 And that's where I think

00:16:15.620 we can do a much better job

00:16:17.120 if people have found,

00:16:19.160 I don't even want to call them workarounds

00:16:20.760 because a workaround makes it sound

00:16:22.240 like you're doing something bad.

00:16:23.520 But if people have found ways

00:16:25.420 to do things safely,

00:16:26.820 then we should be encouraging that.

00:16:29.560 And if we're encouraging ingenuity

00:16:31.100 of companies like Canada Goose

00:16:33.340 retooling to make masks and gowns,

00:16:35.480 then surely we can respect the ingenuity

00:16:37.520 of stores that find ways to safely open

00:16:40.240 or groups that find ways to safely congregate.

00:16:42.640 And whether it's taking temperatures

00:16:44.460 and keeping distant

00:16:45.480 or whether it's going on Zoom

00:16:47.480 or Skype or whatever,

00:16:48.980 I mean, that's your choice.

00:16:50.980 But I think we should be encouraging that,

00:16:53.140 not discouraging it.

00:16:54.980 We're doing a short show today

00:16:56.240 because of the holiday.

00:16:57.260 But before I end,

00:16:58.560 I want to talk about this CTV story

00:17:00.360 that is indicative of just

00:17:03.460 not even kicking someone when they're down,

00:17:05.560 but beating a dead horse,

00:17:06.820 I think is more appropriate here.

00:17:09.260 Scheer didn't follow through

00:17:10.480 on renouncing US citizenship.

00:17:12.220 Now, this is from Rachel Aiello

00:17:14.000 at CBC or at CTV, rather.

00:17:16.720 She says that a conservative leader,

00:17:18.260 Andrew Scheer,

00:17:18.760 still holds US citizenship

00:17:20.280 after stating during the 2019

00:17:22.040 federal election campaign

00:17:23.400 that he was in the process

00:17:25.060 of renouncing it.

00:17:26.360 This comes from an interview

00:17:27.580 with Evan Solomon

00:17:28.460 on CTV's Question Period.

00:17:30.440 Let's roll that clip. 0.89

00:17:31.380 Can you just give us an update

00:17:32.380 of something that was an election issue?

00:17:34.260 Your dual citizenship.

00:17:35.860 Have you made,

00:17:36.820 have you continued your steps

00:17:38.000 to renounce your US citizenship?

00:17:39.300 After making the decision

00:17:41.720 to step down,

00:17:43.220 knowing that I won't be prime minister,

00:17:45.000 I discontinued that process.

00:17:46.940 Oh, why did you discontinue it

00:17:48.420 out of interest?

00:17:49.160 But just for personal reasons, Evan.

00:17:51.960 You don't want to tell us

00:17:53.040 why you discontinued it?

00:17:53.900 When did you do that?

00:17:57.580 I'd have to go back and check.

00:17:59.340 So Scheer's answer

00:18:00.180 is pretty straightforward.

00:18:02.000 Knowing that I won't be prime minister,

00:18:03.600 I discontinued that process.

00:18:04.980 So his aversion to having US citizenship

00:18:07.740 was that he didn't want to be

00:18:09.260 the prime minister of a country,

00:18:10.760 have a loyalty to Canada,

00:18:12.420 and also have this loyalty

00:18:14.240 to another country,

00:18:15.700 which is how the dual citizenship narrative

00:18:17.780 would play if you are

00:18:18.900 the head of government.

00:18:20.240 So his point that he made

00:18:21.760 when this all came out

00:18:22.860 was that, you know,

00:18:23.840 he was just in the process

00:18:24.880 of getting rid of it.

00:18:26.180 And now that he doesn't have

00:18:28.640 being prime minister

00:18:29.620 as something in front of him,

00:18:31.500 what's the point of discontinuing it?

00:18:33.500 By doing so,

00:18:34.820 he loses the opportunity

00:18:36.100 to go and work there

00:18:37.640 if he wants,

00:18:38.220 to live there later on,

00:18:39.220 to do it.

00:18:39.820 And it probably hurts

00:18:40.660 his kids' opportunities as well.

00:18:42.500 I don't know their situation.

00:18:43.940 But I mean, I just don't care.

00:18:45.840 Like, I think that

00:18:46.440 when you're a head of government,

00:18:47.460 yes, you can't have dual citizenship.

00:18:49.060 This came up with

00:18:50.460 Stéphane Dion most recently.

00:18:52.500 But I also think that

00:18:53.720 if you're not that,

00:18:54.560 I have no issue

00:18:55.100 with other Canadians having it.

00:18:57.960 I do question sometimes

00:18:59.400 whether people have

00:19:00.660 Canadian citizenship

00:19:01.620 just as their add-on.

00:19:03.140 Like, that's my concern.

00:19:04.080 I don't like when people

00:19:04.900 don't live in Canada, 0.99

00:19:06.200 don't care about Canada,

00:19:07.360 but the second something happens

00:19:08.900 in their home country,

00:19:09.660 it's, oh, no, no, no,

00:19:10.260 but I'm a Canadian

00:19:10.960 and that's what they do.

00:19:12.460 But the whole point of this

00:19:14.160 I find interesting

00:19:14.980 is that there's that

00:19:16.420 old tall poppy thing

00:19:17.560 where you want to, you know,

00:19:18.400 cut the tall poppies down

00:19:19.900 so they come down to your level.

00:19:21.780 But, you know, Andrew Scheer,

00:19:23.140 and I don't want to denigrate

00:19:24.060 or downplay Andrew Scheer

00:19:25.320 because I like him.

00:19:26.240 I get along with him.

00:19:26.980 We had him on the show

00:19:27.640 a few weeks ago.

00:19:28.720 But he's not exactly

00:19:30.020 a tall poppy right now

00:19:31.540 in politics.

00:19:32.120 It's not like he's running

00:19:33.260 in an election.

00:19:34.360 He's serving as the official

00:19:35.760 leader of the opposition,

00:19:36.820 but he's not doing much

00:19:38.840 in a way that threatens anyone.

00:19:40.460 So I don't get why

00:19:41.820 continued investigating

00:19:43.620 of things that were

00:19:44.700 political issues

00:19:45.720 that don't really matter

00:19:47.100 to his role

00:19:47.880 as official opposition

00:19:48.860 is the role of the media.

00:19:50.500 Like, at this point,

00:19:51.160 I think the media

00:19:51.660 just wants to finish the job.

00:19:53.060 I mean, they were focused

00:19:53.780 on painting him 0.92

00:19:54.620 as this backwards troglodyte 0.98

00:19:56.460 during the election,

00:19:57.280 and now they find

00:19:58.980 he has a little bit

00:19:59.560 of life yet.

00:20:00.140 People are liking him

00:20:00.860 just a little bit too much,

00:20:01.880 so let's just, you know, 0.68

00:20:02.920 kick one more time. 0.76

00:20:04.000 But this is, I think,

00:20:05.660 the point that I find

00:20:06.580 interesting here

00:20:07.340 and needs to be understood.

00:20:09.360 Whenever conservatives

00:20:10.400 start talking

00:20:11.140 about wanting to

00:20:12.380 rush to the middle

00:20:13.320 or get the media

00:20:15.020 to like them,

00:20:15.640 get the left

00:20:16.100 to like them

00:20:16.780 and be the consensus builders,

00:20:19.140 there's nothing wrong

00:20:20.100 with consensus,

00:20:20.940 there's nothing wrong

00:20:21.740 with taking

00:20:22.240 all different perspectives,

00:20:23.320 but they're never

00:20:24.740 going to like you.

00:20:26.020 This is a great reminder

00:20:27.440 of how the media

00:20:28.320 tends to like

00:20:29.200 treating conservatives.

00:20:30.520 And by the way,

00:20:31.320 I think it's a fair question

00:20:32.820 to ask someone,

00:20:34.200 hey, you said

00:20:34.600 you were going to do this,

00:20:35.260 are you doing it?

00:20:36.120 But the idea of turning

00:20:37.240 that into a story

00:20:38.280 and turning it

00:20:39.140 into an attack,

00:20:39.800 and if you look

00:20:40.200 at some of the things

00:20:40.920 that people are saying

00:20:42.320 about Andrew Scheer

00:20:43.760 on Twitter,

00:20:45.540 and you'll notice

00:20:46.860 exactly how this

00:20:47.980 is being taken.

00:20:48.820 It's not being taken,

00:20:49.700 I mean, a lot of people

00:20:50.320 are saying who cares,

00:20:51.480 but a lot of people,

00:20:52.160 I mean, Jenny Byrne,

00:20:52.800 for example,

00:20:53.460 a former high-ranking member

00:20:54.920 of Stephen Harper's government,

00:20:56.140 also someone I get along with

00:20:58.020 and have a lot of respect for,

00:20:59.600 but she's sharing this story

00:21:01.280 and saying that it's proof

00:21:02.700 that Andrew Scheer

00:21:03.360 doesn't even deserve

00:21:04.180 to be leader

00:21:05.080 of the conservatives

00:21:05.760 right now,

00:21:06.420 that caucus needs to find

00:21:07.640 an interim leader.

00:21:09.400 So I don't see,

00:21:11.020 and maybe I'm wrong here,

00:21:12.080 I don't see how

00:21:12.860 this is disqualifying.

00:21:14.360 I kind of read the story

00:21:15.760 and I shrugged,

00:21:16.980 I was like,

00:21:17.380 well, he's not running anymore,

00:21:18.440 he's not the PM,

00:21:19.720 who cares?

00:21:20.980 But let me know

00:21:21.560 what you think,

00:21:21.900 andrew at andrewlaughton.ca

00:21:23.360 and again,

00:21:24.480 try not to decide

00:21:25.720 these things

00:21:26.320 based on whether

00:21:27.140 you like or dislike Scheer,

00:21:28.440 because that's one

00:21:29.360 of the most annoying

00:21:30.000 traits in politics,

00:21:30.960 where anything that

00:21:32.160 someone you don't like

00:21:33.080 does is bad

00:21:34.180 and anything someone

00:21:35.140 you do like does

00:21:36.380 is at best good

00:21:37.360 or at worst,

00:21:38.300 that's okay,

00:21:38.960 I can live with.

00:21:39.680 So in any case,

00:21:41.280 we have to wrap things up

00:21:42.720 for today.

00:21:43.520 I want to give a big thank you

00:21:44.460 to all who tuned in

00:21:45.340 to this little

00:21:45.820 miniature holiday edition

00:21:47.780 of the Andrew Lawton Show,

00:21:48.960 and again,

00:21:49.340 I hope you did get

00:21:50.000 some peace and comfort

00:21:50.880 and perhaps even relaxation

00:21:52.380 on this Victoria Day long weekend.

00:21:55.060 Normally,

00:21:55.640 the unofficial kickoff

00:21:56.880 of summer,

00:21:57.980 but or even the official kickoff,

00:21:59.380 no,

00:21:59.560 the official kickoffs in June,

00:22:01.100 but I actually had like snow

00:22:02.360 and rain all weekend

00:22:03.200 down in my part of the country,

00:22:04.360 so I don't think

00:22:05.300 it was too summery,

00:22:06.500 but you know what?

00:22:07.420 It's all about staying

00:22:08.660 indoors sometimes,

00:22:09.680 so as we've been getting

00:22:11.220 very much used to.

00:22:12.360 We'll talk to you

00:22:13.000 in a couple of days

00:22:13.760 with a more full-length edition

00:22:15.120 of the show on Wednesday.

00:22:16.640 You're tuned in to

00:22:17.540 Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.

00:22:19.700 Thank you,

00:22:20.220 God bless,

00:22:20.700 and good day, Canada.

00:22:21.980 Thanks for listening

00:22:22.660 to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:22:24.100 Support the program

00:22:24.920 by donating to True North

00:22:26.160 at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - May 18, 2020

Pandemic Political Correctness

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