Juno News - Pandemic Posturing

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

00:00:12.780 Coming up, political hypocrisy and travel witch hunts, the normalization of masks, and Mark Emery on his return to politics.

00:00:22.640 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.

00:00:26.200 Hello and welcome to another edition of Canada's most irreverent talk show, the Andrew Lawton Show here on True North.

00:00:35.560 Not broadcasting from Hawaii, not from Palm Springs, not from Mexico.

00:00:40.060 No, we're here at the Andrew Lawton Show, London Bureau of True North studio, as we have been for much of the past year.

00:00:47.580 Unlike the politicians who are telling us all to stay home and not leave, even for, you know, groceries if you want to go more than once a week or whatever.

00:00:55.600 The case may be. We'll talk about all of that and more in this edition of the program.

00:01:01.120 Last year we did, or last week, I guess it was last week and last year, come to think of it.

00:01:06.120 We did The Year of the Hypocrite, a show that looked at some of the early stories of politicians,

00:01:11.460 the ones who have been telling us to hashtag stay home, save lives, actually themselves deciding to travel.

00:01:17.720 And I have to revisit this because of how many more have been added to that list in the few days since the previous show.

00:01:27.500 We had just a small handful at the time from Ontario Finance Minister, I guess former Ontario Finance Minister Rod Phillips,

00:01:34.860 and Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard.

00:01:38.500 Both of them have now resigned.

00:01:41.300 But the list of MLAs and MPs that have been traveling, that have been going abroad, has actually become quite monumental.

00:01:48.680 We had to, at True North, put together an exhaustive list that has them all,

00:01:53.380 and we're continuing to update it when more emerge, of people who have, at some point in the last 10 months,

00:02:00.160 since we had these lockdowns put in place, have decided not to follow their own rules.

00:02:05.580 And it's not just about travel, by the way.

00:02:07.980 It's also about someone who had a Thanksgiving dinner with this person, an Easter dinner with this person,

00:02:13.480 Justin Trudeau going to visit his family in Harrington Lake when he was telling everyone else not to visit their family for Easter,

00:02:21.060 and Justin Trudeau going to the Black Lives Matter rally in Ottawa when, again, he was telling us to stay home and not do anything or go anywhere.

00:02:29.640 So in that sense, travel is not in a unique category.

00:02:33.560 Travel is just one of the ways in which political hypocrisy is manifesting itself.

00:02:39.560 And I do feel like a lot of people are kind of missing the point right now that travel itself is not the problem.

00:02:47.900 If someone who has been entirely consistent on this and says that,

00:02:53.080 hey, you know what, I think people can make up their own mind as long as they follow the rules,

00:02:56.420 if someone like that travels, that's a lot different than someone doing what the Ontario government is doing,

00:03:04.640 which is locking down everyone, telling everyone not to go, and then Rod Phillips saying,

00:03:09.280 hey, I'm going to go to St. Barnes or something like that,

00:03:12.380 which is why I was a lot more sympathetic to the Albertans,

00:03:16.240 a lot more sympathetic to the people in the Alberta government,

00:03:19.220 because Alberta has actually been fairly pro-travel.

00:03:23.440 So I was actually quite frustrated with the Jason Kenney response to this,

00:03:27.780 because on Friday, Premier Jason Kenney was saying,

00:03:30.760 you know what, I never told everyone not to.

00:03:33.040 Yes, I've asked everyone to come home,

00:03:34.960 but I'm not going to put any further punishments forward.

00:03:37.860 You fast forward to Monday, new year, new era,

00:03:41.020 and what's happened is Jason Kenney has fired people.

00:03:44.700 He's a chief of staff, he's asked him to resign,

00:03:47.240 his minister, his MLAs that were on committees that had legislative roles,

00:03:52.500 they've all had to resign as well,

00:03:54.260 all because they did what just a few days earlier,

00:03:57.280 Premier Kenney admitted he hadn't actually said not to.

00:04:02.500 So Jason Kenney's approach to this had been,

00:04:05.180 and the Alberta approach had been,

00:04:06.780 you know what, if you're going to do it, follow the rules,

00:04:08.600 follow the law, but do it safely.

00:04:10.160 And now that has flipped,

00:04:12.140 because there was a lot of backlash, a lot of outrage,

00:04:15.400 people that were pushing for these people to be fired,

00:04:18.280 whereas my view was kind of different from a lot of other people,

00:04:21.760 and I would say a lot of people on the right,

00:04:23.720 in that I was saying, let's not throw the book at these people,

00:04:26.480 let's actually just start ripping pages out of the book.

00:04:30.200 And that's an important distinction,

00:04:31.780 because I don't want the race to the bottom

00:04:33.620 of having everyone point the finger at everyone,

00:04:36.160 having everyone snitch on everyone,

00:04:37.600 and then having no one left who can do anything,

00:04:40.160 I would rather say, hey, let's use these politicians as an example,

00:04:44.220 which, you know, dangerous words,

00:04:46.140 but let's use them as an example to prove that,

00:04:48.160 yeah, people that are intelligent,

00:04:50.520 yeah, okay, politicians,

00:04:51.960 but, you know, let's use them as an example

00:04:53.720 that people can make their own decisions,

00:04:55.660 be safe, be healthy, and be responsible about it.

00:04:59.360 And that's the whole point of this.

00:05:01.200 So I don't want to throw the book at people,

00:05:02.960 because again, the book is just too heavy as it is,

00:05:05.240 and that's the fight that I've been waging for the last 10 months.

00:05:09.800 But if you look at the list here,

00:05:11.400 when I say that the media has kind of missed the mark on this,

00:05:15.020 what I'm talking about is the way that everything is being lumped into the same basket

00:05:19.040 and viewed as though they're all kind of on moral equal planes.

00:05:23.640 For example, a Brampton West MP, a liberal, Kamal Kara,

00:05:27.940 said she went to Seattle for a loved one's funeral,

00:05:31.560 and it was a socially distanced funeral that had fewer than 10 people there.

00:05:35.460 I don't really fault anyone for doing that.

00:05:38.800 Nikki Ashton as well said that on one hand, we need more lockdown. 0.53

00:05:43.080 She lives in Manitoba, which has been one of the most locked down parts of Canada.

00:05:47.460 She then went to Greece to visit a dying or ailing grandmother.

00:05:51.240 Now, again, I'm going to say that for someone who has been arguing for more lockdowns

00:05:56.320 for a broad strokes approach to this,

00:05:59.240 to say, ah, you know what, I'm going to pick up and leave the country,

00:06:02.080 that's probably not the best idea.

00:06:04.240 But for Kamal Kara, who went to a funeral in Seattle,

00:06:07.860 my issue for the whole period of lockdown in Canada has been,

00:06:11.600 how dare government deny people the right to grieve?

00:06:14.380 How dare government deny people the right to have funerals?

00:06:17.480 So I'm not going to fault anyone for wanting to go to a loved one's funeral if they've passed away.

00:06:25.120 So this is where I feel that, again, it brings home the point

00:06:28.360 that the travel itself is not the problem.

00:06:31.560 It is the hypocrisy behind this.

00:06:33.980 And if we lose sight of that aspect of this battle,

00:06:36.900 what we're doing is we're setting up a paradigm

00:06:39.980 in which there really isn't a way that anyone can emerge from this era unscathed,

00:06:44.480 unscathed, which isn't what we want.

00:06:46.620 It's not what I want anyway.

00:06:48.420 What I want is for all of us to have a responsible,

00:06:51.140 evidence-based approach to this thing.

00:06:53.120 You know that buzzword that Justin Trudeau loves using?

00:06:55.740 Evidence-based policy?

00:06:57.160 Well, where is it on lockdown?

00:06:59.220 We know that lockdowns are not working.

00:07:01.680 We know that blanket travel bans are not working.

00:07:04.560 Oddly enough, the same government whose health minister,

00:07:07.400 Patty Hajdu, said that travel bans are borderline racist

00:07:10.500 earlier on in the pandemic, is now the same government

00:07:13.940 that's trying to lock everything down

00:07:15.400 and make it more difficult for people to move.

00:07:18.940 I mean, this latest restriction that they've put in place

00:07:21.280 where if you want to fly into Canada,

00:07:23.800 you need to have a test.

00:07:25.880 You need to have a negative test.

00:07:27.260 This is only serving to prevent people from traveling.

00:07:31.360 It's only trying to prevent people who are in Canada 1.00

00:07:33.880 from traveling outside of Canada.

00:07:35.800 Because if you are someone in, oh, let's say Red Deer, Alberta

00:07:39.400 or Toronto or Vancouver or wherever,

00:07:43.120 and you want to travel somewhere, fine.

00:07:44.920 A lot of the sunny destinations require you

00:07:47.140 to have a negative test before you can go there.

00:07:49.600 So that's fine.

00:07:50.460 You're in Vancouver.

00:07:51.260 You can get a PCR test.

00:07:52.840 You can have it come back negative.

00:07:54.160 You can get on a plane and go to the Bahamas.

00:07:56.480 Great.

00:07:57.000 Well, now in order for you to fly back to Canada,

00:07:59.820 you need to find on your sunny Bahamas beach a PCR 1.00

00:08:04.040 so that you can board your flight back to Canada.

00:08:06.680 A lot of these tests are not available

00:08:08.920 or at least not readily available,

00:08:10.820 or they're very expensive,

00:08:12.360 or the turnaround time is inconsistent.

00:08:15.380 So basically a lot of people will not travel

00:08:18.760 because they don't know if they're going to be able

00:08:20.500 to do what they need to do to get back.

00:08:22.800 And this is where we have to look at

00:08:24.340 what the government is doing here,

00:08:25.680 which is not banning travel,

00:08:28.080 but making it so prohibitive

00:08:30.260 that a lot of people simply won't be able to do it.

00:08:34.040 And this negative test result before you come back

00:08:37.260 really doesn't do all that much

00:08:39.120 because we already have a mandatory 14-day quarantine

00:08:41.860 upon your return.

00:08:42.940 So even if you do have it and you come back,

00:08:45.700 you're already going to dry out, so to speak.

00:08:47.880 So that negative test result

00:08:49.620 really doesn't do all that much.

00:08:51.220 It doesn't exempt you from quarantine.

00:08:53.240 All it does is give this illusion of security,

00:08:56.620 this illusion of control,

00:08:58.100 and this illusion of safety.

00:08:59.620 So when all of us in the country

00:09:03.640 are trying to figure out ways

00:09:05.180 that we can survive what's happening right now,

00:09:08.620 I don't fault anyone for saying,

00:09:10.360 you know what,

00:09:10.900 I think there's a safe and responsible way

00:09:12.900 that I can go to Hawaii.

00:09:13.940 If they're a politician, great.

00:09:15.140 If they're not a politician, great.

00:09:17.280 The problem is that we need to make sure

00:09:19.460 that behaviors are matching the rhetoric

00:09:21.940 because right now what government is trying to do

00:09:23.740 is make it so it's so prohibitive

00:09:25.200 and so difficult to travel that no one can do it

00:09:27.660 without actually saying travel is banned

00:09:29.860 because I don't even know if they could ban people

00:09:31.920 from leaving the country, let alone should.

00:09:34.480 I know they shouldn't.

00:09:35.540 Could they?

00:09:36.060 Well, I don't want to give them ideas.

00:09:37.800 But you look at the list here.

00:09:38.920 Conservative Senator Don Platt,

00:09:40.540 Fort McMurray, Wood, Buffalo, MLA, Tanny Yao,

00:09:43.500 Liberal MP Alexandra Mendez,

00:09:45.540 Liberal MP Lynn Bissette,

00:09:47.280 Liberal MP Patricia Letanzio,

00:09:49.780 Liberal MP Samir Zuberi,

00:09:52.440 Liberal MP Kamal Kara,

00:09:53.840 Conservative MP Ron Liepert,

00:09:56.620 Alberta MLA, Jeremy Nixon,

00:09:58.400 Calgary MLA, Tanya Furr,

00:10:00.440 Nikki Ashton, the NDP MP,

00:10:02.380 Tracy Allard.

00:10:03.400 The list goes on and on and on

00:10:04.860 of politicians from all parties,

00:10:06.820 from all regions,

00:10:07.740 who in some way have been part

00:10:10.420 of the advisory apparatchik

00:10:12.580 telling people not to go anywhere,

00:10:14.700 but themselves decided,

00:10:16.280 you know what, there was a way to do it.

00:10:18.640 Should these people resign?

00:10:20.080 Should they be punished?

00:10:21.000 Look, that doesn't bother me as much

00:10:23.560 as the underlying issue has,

00:10:26.680 which is if there is clearly a way

00:10:28.540 that we can live our lives,

00:10:29.860 why are we being denied that right?

00:10:32.480 Or why are we being advised against it?

00:10:35.660 Because I had a lot of response

00:10:37.100 to the previous show saying,

00:10:38.240 well, hang on,

00:10:39.000 you're missing the point, Andrew,

00:10:39.980 because travel's not against the rules.

00:10:41.840 If government is telling you not to do it,

00:10:44.820 whether or not they are banning you

00:10:46.780 from doing it,

00:10:47.520 they are using the arm of the state

00:10:49.400 to tell you not to do something,

00:10:51.700 to urge you not to do something.

00:10:53.360 So the idea of someone in violation of that,

00:10:56.560 a politician who's part of it, 0.75

00:10:58.300 doing that is still very much hypocritical,

00:11:00.700 even if the act itself,

00:11:02.220 the act of travel is quote unquote legal.

00:11:05.440 So I don't want to get too much

00:11:07.140 into the weeds on those parts of this,

00:11:09.220 because what we know

00:11:10.280 is that a lot of MPs and MLAs

00:11:12.840 who even tried to and succeeded

00:11:15.120 in sneaking out of the country months ago

00:11:17.100 are now owning up about this

00:11:19.120 because there is this travel witch hunt right now.

00:11:21.780 I mean, at a certain point,

00:11:22.680 we're just going to be demanding

00:11:23.640 to start looking through the passport pages

00:11:25.880 to make sure there were no stamps from 2020

00:11:27.860 on politicians' passports,

00:11:30.300 which, you know what,

00:11:31.340 maybe that's actually what we need to do

00:11:32.900 before Parliament resumes,

00:11:34.500 just to have a bunch of reporters

00:11:36.040 lined up on Ottawa

00:11:37.380 and they just have to check the passports.

00:11:39.100 And oh, well, you know,

00:11:39.760 you got a stamp from St. Lucia there.

00:11:42.180 You know what, 0.83

00:11:42.660 we got to throw you under the bus now too. 1.00

00:11:45.540 And listen,

00:11:46.360 I'm not one to defend politicians

00:11:47.980 because there is a high bar for ethics,

00:11:50.340 but we can't let this travel witch hunt

00:11:53.380 become a distraction

00:11:54.440 from the very real problems that exist.

00:11:57.000 I'm a lot more concerned

00:11:58.300 with politicians locking down free people

00:12:00.580 than I am with politicians

00:12:02.220 availing themselves

00:12:03.560 of the liberties of free people.

00:12:06.100 And that's the problem here.

00:12:07.600 If we get so focused

00:12:08.900 on what they are doing,

00:12:11.000 we lose sight of what they're telling us

00:12:13.600 we can't do.

00:12:14.800 And that is the real battleground.

00:12:17.040 And as we are now in 2021,

00:12:20.580 the year that we were supposed

00:12:21.880 to be free of all of this,

00:12:23.600 we cannot let ourselves

00:12:25.140 buy into the lockdown regime mentality.

00:12:29.740 And that's the whole point.

00:12:31.060 Remember how the goalposts

00:12:32.700 have moved time and time again

00:12:34.160 from two weeks to flatten the curve

00:12:35.800 to just a little bit more

00:12:37.200 to just a little bit more

00:12:38.360 to then at September

00:12:40.280 when Justin Trudeau spoke,

00:12:41.780 it was, all right,

00:12:42.680 Thanksgiving's a write-off,

00:12:43.660 but we've got a shot at Christmas.

00:12:44.880 Christmas passed,

00:12:46.200 New Year's passed,

00:12:47.000 we're into 2021,

00:12:47.840 and we are still more locked down

00:12:50.020 than we have ever been

00:12:51.460 or at least as much.

00:12:53.320 The UK is plunging itself

00:12:54.840 into another lockdown.

00:12:56.560 Australia has been vaunted

00:12:57.960 as the success,

00:12:58.900 but Australia has had to deny

00:13:01.400 its own citizens,

00:13:02.940 their rights as citizens,

00:13:04.240 to get to where it is.

00:13:05.720 And that's not particularly sustainable

00:13:08.120 because at a certain point,

00:13:10.060 they're going to have to start

00:13:11.080 letting Australians back in the country. 1.00

00:13:13.180 And when that happens,

00:13:14.180 they're going to start dealing

00:13:15.300 with the same problems

00:13:16.280 that they've been pretending

00:13:17.520 don't exist.

00:13:19.180 So if you accept that we're in this

00:13:20.900 for the long haul,

00:13:21.880 which we are,

00:13:22.860 you need to accept

00:13:23.920 that we have to find ways

00:13:25.240 to live our lives.

00:13:26.500 And that is going to be

00:13:28.100 the real battleground

00:13:29.140 for the next month in particular

00:13:30.800 in 2021.

00:13:32.780 So let's not focus on the politicians

00:13:34.760 that wanted to live their lives.

00:13:36.380 Let's just make sure

00:13:37.280 all of us seek the right

00:13:38.660 to do so as well.

00:13:40.240 Back in a moment

00:13:41.080 with more of The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:13:42.900 Stay tuned.

00:13:44.720 You're tuned in

00:13:45.860 to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:13:49.740 Welcome back

00:13:50.540 to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:13:52.060 So when we talk about

00:13:53.040 the return to normal,

00:13:54.460 we can't lose sight

00:13:55.740 of what normal really is.

00:13:57.800 This was a column

00:13:59.180 in the Globe and Mail.

00:14:00.120 When the pandemic is over,

00:14:02.040 we should continue wearing masks.

00:14:04.440 It was written by

00:14:05.280 a Toronto journalist

00:14:07.100 or an expat journalist

00:14:08.160 now living in Paris,

00:14:09.220 Vivian Song.

00:14:10.740 And she says,

00:14:11.600 since late August,

00:14:12.960 masks have been mandatory

00:14:14.080 in public spaces in Paris.

00:14:16.560 She says,

00:14:16.940 the streets are filled

00:14:17.920 with half-covered,

00:14:19.380 semi-anonymous faces

00:14:20.460 serving as an omnipresent reminder

00:14:22.820 that we are living

00:14:23.600 under threat of a deadly virus.

00:14:26.080 She says,

00:14:26.680 in quick time,

00:14:27.360 it's become as normal

00:14:28.340 to grab your mask

00:14:29.480 when you head out the door

00:14:30.340 as remembering your house keys,

00:14:32.060 a part of a daily routine,

00:14:33.540 no longer an eccentric quirk

00:14:35.300 exclusive to Asian countries.

00:14:37.400 She says,

00:14:37.760 what if face masks

00:14:39.020 continue to be used

00:14:40.160 as a tool

00:14:40.700 in managing public health

00:14:42.340 during regular flu season?

00:14:44.980 What if we stop politicizing

00:14:46.480 the face covering,

00:14:47.360 which has been belied

00:14:48.200 as a muzzle

00:14:49.160 and a violation

00:14:49.860 of civil liberties,

00:14:51.080 and normalize the mask

00:14:52.440 as simply an effective barrier

00:14:54.220 to keep our harmful germs in

00:14:56.060 and deadly particle pollution out?

00:14:58.820 And she goes on

00:14:59.760 to basically say

00:15:00.520 that we should normalize the mask,

00:15:02.400 make it a part of everyday life

00:15:03.920 in perpetuity.

00:15:05.400 And this is a dangerous rhetoric

00:15:08.940 because it basically tells us

00:15:11.540 that we have to cover our faces,

00:15:13.720 which is something that people

00:15:15.880 in some parts of the world

00:15:17.300 actually die for wanting to do

00:15:19.700 and get punished 0.90

00:15:20.720 and thrown behind bars

00:15:21.860 for wanting to do.

00:15:23.420 It's to say that we should actually

00:15:25.120 cover our faces

00:15:26.380 and that's the way

00:15:27.000 we should live our lives.

00:15:29.020 And in a lot of ways,

00:15:30.260 it would be a first world problem

00:15:31.540 for some people to say,

00:15:32.480 oh, you know,

00:15:32.780 I don't want to wear a mask.

00:15:33.640 But there is a lot riding on this

00:15:35.700 because she mentions

00:15:36.780 that we should depoliticize the mask.

00:15:38.720 Well, she's actually putting forward

00:15:40.100 an argument

00:15:40.660 that is inherently political,

00:15:43.000 that we should deny people

00:15:44.720 the right to show their face

00:15:46.740 in public

00:15:47.420 if that's what they want.

00:15:49.700 Now, I don't believe

00:15:50.840 that it will be that uncommon

00:15:52.260 in future years

00:15:53.780 when masks are no longer mandatory

00:15:55.400 to see people wearing them voluntarily.

00:15:57.980 She is right that that has been

00:15:59.260 up until this point

00:16:00.380 a quirk in some Asian countries.

00:16:02.280 And you see people import 0.94

00:16:04.420 that quirk to Canada

00:16:05.640 and to elsewhere.

00:16:06.480 I see, for example,

00:16:08.080 I'm in a city

00:16:09.060 that has a high percentage

00:16:10.360 of Chinese students

00:16:12.220 because it's a university city.

00:16:13.820 And a lot of times

00:16:14.800 you'll see them wear masks

00:16:16.280 before it was cool to wear masks

00:16:17.780 or by cool,

00:16:18.720 I mean mandatory.

00:16:19.340 But that cultural normalization

00:16:21.580 is different than

00:16:23.140 the legal normalization

00:16:25.500 and basically the mandating of this.

00:16:28.360 And that's the concern

00:16:29.480 that I have

00:16:30.100 because at this point,

00:16:30.960 we know there's not going to be

00:16:32.220 one day where someone wakes up

00:16:33.680 and flips the switch

00:16:34.400 and says,

00:16:34.840 okay, the pandemic is now over.

00:16:37.120 So for unwinding

00:16:38.420 a lot of these civil liberties issues

00:16:40.400 that have come up

00:16:41.380 during the pandemic,

00:16:42.280 it's going to be very difficult

00:16:43.820 to foresee a day

00:16:45.320 when someone will say,

00:16:46.600 okay, you know what,

00:16:47.280 we're turning the switch off

00:16:48.820 and that's that.

00:16:50.660 Now, part of the thing

00:16:51.700 that makes it a little bit

00:16:53.320 more viable for that to happen

00:16:54.800 is that a lot of the structuring

00:16:56.880 of these rules

00:16:57.920 are that they have

00:16:58.920 natural sunset clauses in them.

00:17:00.980 So someone will put

00:17:01.680 an emergency order in place

00:17:02.980 the last 28 days

00:17:04.480 and they keep renewing it.

00:17:05.700 But it's not like something

00:17:06.980 is on the books permanently

00:17:08.120 until they choose to rescind it.

00:17:10.500 It's that they have to

00:17:12.140 eventually keep renewing it

00:17:13.500 or stop renewing it.

00:17:15.460 So in that sense,

00:17:16.900 yeah, there will be a day

00:17:17.880 when they decide,

00:17:18.640 okay, we're not going to renew it.

00:17:20.160 But even so,

00:17:21.060 I can't imagine

00:17:22.440 we are going to get to it

00:17:23.900 all anytime soon.

00:17:25.060 That day where someone says,

00:17:26.260 you know what,

00:17:26.980 no longer is a mask

00:17:28.700 required in public.

00:17:29.800 No longer does a business

00:17:30.900 need to amend

00:17:31.720 its way of doing things.

00:17:33.560 No longer does society

00:17:35.880 have to adapt

00:17:37.180 around this thing.

00:17:39.080 So that's not going to happen,

00:17:41.180 which means that

00:17:41.980 there's going to be

00:17:42.520 a lot more of a push

00:17:44.180 for things like

00:17:45.360 what Vivian Song 0.98

00:17:46.060 is pushing for here,

00:17:47.120 which is trying to make

00:17:48.480 the present reality

00:17:50.240 the new normal,

00:17:51.460 which we have to push back against.

00:17:53.480 We can't accept

00:17:54.400 that this is something

00:17:55.380 that is how life manifests.

00:17:57.940 We cannot accept

00:17:58.600 that this is a situation

00:17:59.680 that we should be embracing.

00:18:01.220 No, this is a crappy

00:18:03.020 period of time.

00:18:03.940 I'm not denying that.

00:18:05.300 And I know I differ

00:18:06.160 from a lot of you watching

00:18:07.320 in that I think

00:18:08.080 the COVID-19 pandemic

00:18:09.360 is real

00:18:09.940 and does need

00:18:10.760 to be taken seriously.

00:18:11.780 But that doesn't mean

00:18:12.840 we have to put our lives

00:18:14.200 on hold indefinitely.

00:18:16.200 We work around it,

00:18:17.340 but these are workarounds.

00:18:19.000 This is not how life is now.

00:18:21.060 I mean,

00:18:21.340 just as an amusing aside to this,

00:18:23.180 even cows have to wear masks now.

00:18:25.820 Yeah, this is a story

00:18:26.960 on ctvnews.ca.

00:18:29.660 A UK company has developed

00:18:31.180 a burp catching device

00:18:33.120 for cows

00:18:33.840 in hopes that the invention

00:18:35.520 will curb greenhouse gas emissions.

00:18:37.800 So you know that

00:18:38.880 flatulent cows

00:18:39.740 are apparently the greatest threat

00:18:40.980 to global warming.

00:18:42.220 Well, we may not be able

00:18:43.200 to catch the gas

00:18:44.320 coming out of the rear end,

00:18:45.520 but we can catch it

00:18:46.300 coming out of the front end

00:18:47.360 with a muzzle-like contraption

00:18:49.100 that monitors the percentage

00:18:50.820 of methane being released

00:18:52.200 by a cow

00:18:52.820 when it detects

00:18:54.500 an excessive amount of gas.

00:18:55.880 It converts methane gas

00:18:57.200 into water and CO2

00:18:58.800 and releases it

00:18:59.780 from the device.

00:19:01.340 So apparently,

00:19:01.880 this is going to be

00:19:02.640 how we save the planet.

00:19:04.280 AOC is just going to be

00:19:05.360 so thrilled about this.

00:19:06.880 But here's the point.

00:19:07.860 When even the cows

00:19:08.560 are wearing masks,

00:19:09.560 we can say that

00:19:10.620 the new normal

00:19:11.180 has become a little bit

00:19:12.340 do normal for my liking.

00:19:14.300 Well, one thing's

00:19:14.900 returning to normal

00:19:15.620 and that is

00:19:16.160 we are getting back

00:19:16.940 into politicking mode

00:19:18.420 with a potential election

00:19:19.720 on the horizon.

00:19:20.780 We'll talk about that

00:19:21.440 up next with Mark Emery

00:19:23.100 here on The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:19:24.560 Stay tuned.

00:19:27.100 You're tuned in

00:19:28.040 to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:19:31.740 Welcome back

00:19:32.780 to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:19:34.140 I know everyone

00:19:34.640 has been in pandemic mode,

00:19:36.600 lockdown mode,

00:19:37.440 except for all those politicians

00:19:38.620 that decide

00:19:39.360 they don't want to follow

00:19:40.480 the rules that they're

00:19:41.320 forcing us to comply with.

00:19:42.780 But remember,

00:19:43.660 there is still the possibility

00:19:44.780 in Canada of an election

00:19:46.120 at any point,

00:19:47.020 which means all political parties

00:19:48.400 are in the process

00:19:49.460 of looking for candidates,

00:19:51.560 MPs seeking re-election,

00:19:53.040 first-timers entering the fray,

00:19:54.640 and in some cases,

00:19:55.840 long-time veterans

00:19:56.740 of the political process

00:19:57.860 getting back into it.

00:19:59.280 One name that scrolled

00:20:00.560 across my Twitter feed

00:20:01.640 in this regard

00:20:02.300 is Mark Emery,

00:20:03.620 the Prince of Pot,

00:20:05.000 who said he's going

00:20:05.720 to be seeking a nomination

00:20:06.920 for the People's Party

00:20:08.720 of Canada

00:20:09.260 in the upcoming election.

00:20:10.900 Mark Emery joins me

00:20:12.040 on the line now.

00:20:13.440 Mark, good to talk to you again.

00:20:14.580 Thanks for coming on today.

00:20:16.120 Nice to see you, Andrew.

00:20:17.160 So you've run,

00:20:18.540 I think,

00:20:18.780 at all levels of government,

00:20:19.940 if I'm not mistaken,

00:20:20.840 provincially.

00:20:21.680 Oh, 12 times.

00:20:22.660 Yeah, so why do you want

00:20:24.420 to suffer through this again?

00:20:26.200 Well, because it's necessary.

00:20:28.800 And I don't actually,

00:20:29.980 I enjoy campaigning.

00:20:31.440 Don't get me wrong,

00:20:32.000 I've run for 12,

00:20:33.180 I've run in 12 campaigns.

00:20:35.380 My first was running

00:20:36.580 for the Libertarian Party

00:20:38.560 of Canada in 1980.

00:20:39.800 I ran for Alderman

00:20:40.680 and Ward 3 in London

00:20:41.860 in 82 and 85.

00:20:43.960 Those were probably

00:20:44.580 the most enjoyable campaigns

00:20:46.240 because it's worth

00:20:47.620 going door to door

00:20:48.580 and meeting everybody.

00:20:50.020 And I only lost

00:20:50.660 by about 500 votes

00:20:51.960 in each one of them.

00:20:52.920 So, you know,

00:20:53.920 you have a way better chance

00:20:55.400 if you're running municipally.

00:20:56.860 That having been said,

00:20:58.400 the most work involved

00:21:00.040 in politics

00:21:00.580 is in municipal office

00:21:01.920 because people live

00:21:03.060 by you there

00:21:03.780 and they can get hold of you

00:21:05.020 and they complain about stuff.

00:21:06.740 I remember when I was

00:21:07.540 campaigning in Ward 3,

00:21:09.180 you know,

00:21:09.680 I would,

00:21:10.140 people didn't really want

00:21:10.900 to talk about

00:21:11.380 the billions of dollars

00:21:12.560 the government spends.

00:21:13.480 They wanted to talk about

00:21:14.300 the flooding

00:21:15.000 that happened to block away

00:21:16.280 or the neighbor beside them

00:21:17.940 that's got trash

00:21:18.660 built up on the driveway.

00:21:20.180 It was all these small

00:21:21.340 kind of concerns

00:21:22.080 that you could actually

00:21:22.740 probably do something about

00:21:24.200 as opposed to

00:21:25.660 the larger issues

00:21:26.720 where one MLA

00:21:28.140 or one MP

00:21:28.860 really in the modern era,

00:21:30.440 same with the United States

00:21:31.320 and Congress

00:21:31.780 has absolutely no power

00:21:32.960 whatsoever

00:21:33.500 to influence anything.

00:21:35.500 It's all done

00:21:36.280 from the PMO's office

00:21:37.580 or the Premier's office

00:21:38.900 and then a diktat

00:21:40.300 comes down

00:21:40.960 and, you know,

00:21:42.300 tells people

00:21:42.780 what they're supposed

00:21:43.660 to vote for

00:21:44.360 and think.

00:21:45.400 So for me,

00:21:46.320 the last time I ran

00:21:47.300 was of all things

00:21:48.160 for the Green Party

00:21:49.320 of British Columbia

00:21:50.000 in 2009.

00:21:52.140 I don't really regret

00:21:53.440 any campaigns.

00:21:54.500 I actually even supported

00:21:55.440 Trudeau in 2015

00:21:56.800 because he promised

00:21:57.980 to legalize pot

00:21:59.140 and although I have

00:22:00.380 an incredible long list

00:22:01.800 of complaints

00:22:02.400 about the legal

00:22:03.980 cannabis regime,

00:22:05.460 the fact that I'm going

00:22:06.140 to be working

00:22:06.600 at my brother's shop

00:22:07.700 selling legal cannabis

00:22:08.880 in a few months

00:22:10.800 is kind of a testament

00:22:12.000 to at least

00:22:12.620 that turned out

00:22:13.380 to be okay.

00:22:15.500 You know,

00:22:15.700 there's over 1,100

00:22:16.920 legal stores in Canada.

00:22:19.280 There's 250 legal producers.

00:22:22.260 You know,

00:22:22.520 so and there's far

00:22:23.640 fewer criminal offenses

00:22:24.820 being made anymore

00:22:25.980 and charges.

00:22:27.880 So, you know,

00:22:28.320 to some degree,

00:22:29.140 that was a very effective

00:22:30.680 thing to do,

00:22:31.980 legalizing cannabis,

00:22:32.960 but it was done

00:22:33.600 in such a cynical,

00:22:34.620 horrible way

00:22:35.340 that it made me realize

00:22:36.840 that every bit

00:22:37.500 of legislation

00:22:38.280 is done corruptly,

00:22:39.840 cynically.

00:22:40.540 It's meant to reward

00:22:42.460 party faithful insiders

00:22:44.900 because, you know,

00:22:46.180 they basically gave

00:22:46.960 the entire cannabis industry

00:22:48.200 to a bunch of corporate

00:22:49.740 money men

00:22:50.960 who have nothing to do

00:22:51.880 with legalizing cannabis

00:22:52.940 and really didn't know

00:22:53.840 anything about cannabis.

00:22:55.080 But that, you know,

00:22:55.960 that was the government's plan,

00:22:57.160 right?

00:22:57.400 Take it away

00:22:57.900 from the activists

00:22:58.820 to put the money

00:23:00.040 in the hands

00:23:00.600 of the controllable,

00:23:02.040 regulatable,

00:23:02.800 corporate elite.

00:23:03.880 And, you know,

00:23:05.000 so it's been a struggle

00:23:05.920 for me

00:23:06.400 because I'm not legally

00:23:07.260 allowed to own

00:23:08.000 a cannabis store

00:23:08.820 because I have

00:23:09.520 a criminal record

00:23:10.220 for cannabis.

00:23:11.700 You know,

00:23:12.300 I had been waiting

00:23:13.240 seven months

00:23:13.800 just to get my

00:23:14.580 retail cannabis

00:23:16.260 manager's license

00:23:17.340 to manage a shop

00:23:19.040 that's run

00:23:19.520 by someone else.

00:23:21.220 And I've been waiting

00:23:22.260 seven months

00:23:22.880 and I've had

00:23:23.320 three interviews

00:23:23.920 with the Ontario

00:23:25.000 Provincial Police.

00:23:26.280 I had to answer

00:23:26.860 135 written questions.

00:23:28.860 I had to supply

00:23:29.920 tax information.

00:23:31.600 And this is to work

00:23:32.340 in a, I mean,

00:23:32.940 and I'm not trying

00:23:33.440 to deal with this.

00:23:33.980 This is to have a job

00:23:34.880 in a retail outlet.

00:23:35.780 Yeah, to have a $20

00:23:37.020 an hour job

00:23:38.340 as a manager,

00:23:39.620 I've had to wait

00:23:40.700 seven months

00:23:41.340 and I had $750

00:23:42.500 for that license

00:23:43.500 too, by the way.

00:23:44.560 And like I say,

00:23:45.740 I had to give them

00:23:46.360 tax returns

00:23:47.120 for the last four years,

00:23:48.600 my credit card statements,

00:23:50.280 my bank statements

00:23:51.240 for the last year.

00:23:52.580 Like I say,

00:23:53.020 three interviews

00:23:53.960 with the OPP,

00:23:55.400 135 written questions,

00:23:57.420 a very intrusive

00:23:58.780 nature too.

00:24:00.600 Just so I can work

00:24:02.100 in someone else's shop.

00:24:04.740 Yeah, you should be running

00:24:05.840 on an anti-red tape platform

00:24:07.380 just on this alone.

00:24:08.600 But actually,

00:24:09.140 I have to ask you

00:24:09.660 about that.

00:24:10.060 There'll be a lot of,

00:24:10.900 that will be part

00:24:11.800 of the platform

00:24:12.300 because in order

00:24:12.780 to get Canada

00:24:13.380 started again,

00:24:14.660 we're going to have

00:24:15.260 to strip down

00:24:16.000 a lot of regulations.

00:24:17.920 Because you actually

00:24:18.940 staked considerable,

00:24:21.180 you know,

00:24:21.840 periods of your life,

00:24:22.960 not just advocating,

00:24:24.100 but serving times

00:24:24.900 behind bars,

00:24:25.760 trying to get marijuana,

00:24:27.200 not just legalized,

00:24:28.940 but I'd say normalized

00:24:29.840 in a lot of ways as well,

00:24:31.300 beyond what it was already.

00:24:33.020 Here you are,

00:24:33.760 you have a criminal record.

00:24:35.260 You were proven right

00:24:36.220 in many regards

00:24:37.020 because the government

00:24:37.820 did eventually legalize it

00:24:39.560 despite these issues

00:24:40.520 that we were just talking about.

00:24:42.020 But are you politically

00:24:43.320 a one-trick pony?

00:24:44.520 I mean,

00:24:44.620 is that the only issue

00:24:45.660 you care about even now?

00:24:46.780 Well, I've never just

00:24:48.640 cared about cannabis.

00:24:49.740 I mean,

00:24:49.940 I read Ayn Rand's

00:24:50.980 Atlas Shrugged

00:24:51.680 in October 1979.

00:24:53.580 I think October 17th

00:24:55.080 I started it.

00:24:56.240 And that's a red letter day

00:24:57.260 in my life

00:24:57.880 because it changed everything.

00:24:59.700 So, of course,

00:25:00.680 really what I'm really concerned

00:25:02.120 is what I call

00:25:02.760 the COVID dictatorship

00:25:03.800 that we're under

00:25:04.540 at all levels of government

00:25:06.180 where there's no opposition

00:25:07.460 except for wonderful

00:25:08.880 Randy Hillier.

00:25:10.120 But there's essentially

00:25:11.000 no opposition

00:25:11.800 to the complete state control

00:25:13.740 of our entire way of life.

00:25:15.080 We've lost every constitutional guarantee

00:25:17.520 in the last year

00:25:18.980 of assembly,

00:25:20.040 of speech.

00:25:21.240 Censorship is rampant.

00:25:22.980 We can't go visit family.

00:25:25.360 We can't,

00:25:25.640 you can't even breathe legally,

00:25:27.060 really,

00:25:27.460 without wearing a mask,

00:25:28.560 to me.

00:25:28.940 It's highly inhibiting.

00:25:30.640 It means you're breathing

00:25:31.680 in your secondhand exhaust

00:25:33.460 all the time.

00:25:34.760 It's uncomfortable.

00:25:36.300 It's humiliating.

00:25:37.360 It's demeaning.

00:25:37.980 And I think largely ineffective

00:25:39.460 at controlling COVID.

00:25:41.520 Whatever the government's been doing

00:25:42.920 hasn't been working.

00:25:43.740 And now they're ratcheting it up.

00:25:45.600 So, you know,

00:25:46.200 they're forcing businesses

00:25:47.180 to close.

00:25:47.880 To me, that's illegal.

00:25:49.100 I would never,

00:25:49.940 I wouldn't close anything.

00:25:51.260 When I'm campaigning,

00:25:52.200 I'm going to tell people,

00:25:53.280 you know,

00:25:53.540 a free society,

00:25:54.920 you have to be responsible.

00:25:56.280 So you're responsible

00:25:57.360 for your own health.

00:25:58.560 So I wouldn't close the stadiums.

00:26:00.440 I wouldn't close the arenas.

00:26:01.620 I wouldn't stop concerts.

00:26:02.980 I wouldn't close restaurants.

00:26:04.300 I wouldn't do any of that.

00:26:06.140 I would let people make decisions.

00:26:07.840 You want to stay quarantined?

00:26:09.140 You say quarantine.

00:26:10.340 But I wouldn't be offering

00:26:11.240 all this free money either.

00:26:13.020 That's a terrible burden

00:26:14.280 for future generations

00:26:15.520 to have to pay,

00:26:16.280 what,

00:26:16.680 $400 billion?

00:26:17.980 We went into debt

00:26:18.840 in the last 12 months

00:26:20.200 in dealing with COVID.

00:26:21.120 That's a staggering burden

00:26:22.600 to generations yet to come.

00:26:24.700 It's a horrible thing.

00:26:27.900 Deficit financing

00:26:28.880 was probably the worst thing,

00:26:30.240 along with the income tax,

00:26:31.480 that modern governments

00:26:32.660 have ever indulged in.

00:26:34.660 So we have a lot of crises

00:26:36.100 in Canada coming up.

00:26:37.820 And I'm not going to get nobody,

00:26:39.440 you know,

00:26:39.600 I'm going to campaign seriously.

00:26:41.020 I'm going to try and raise $10,000

00:26:42.700 and launch at least

00:26:44.400 a credible campaign.

00:26:45.840 But let's face it,

00:26:46.780 most of the country

00:26:47.520 supports the dictatorship.

00:26:49.980 They are endorsing

00:26:51.860 these horrible new ways

00:26:54.320 of life in Canada

00:26:55.360 because a lot of people

00:26:57.000 are still getting money.

00:26:58.200 They're still getting paid.

00:26:59.520 There are government workers,

00:27:00.760 doctors, medical,

00:27:02.040 you know,

00:27:02.420 all the people

00:27:03.120 who work for government,

00:27:04.380 they're doing a lot less work.

00:27:06.140 Well, yes,

00:27:06.580 it's that old Margaret Thatcher line

00:27:08.100 that a government

00:27:08.920 that relies on Peter to pay Paul

00:27:10.700 will always have Paul's support

00:27:12.120 or something along those lines.

00:27:14.200 And it was a brilliant line too.

00:27:16.060 And so I haven't actually

00:27:17.920 participated much

00:27:18.920 in the cannabis debate

00:27:20.160 because it's cynical

00:27:22.620 and corruptly written.

00:27:24.400 But nonetheless, it's done.

00:27:26.420 It's the way it is.

00:27:27.520 The regulations over time

00:27:28.740 will evolve to slightly improve.

00:27:31.100 And I'm going to be working

00:27:32.200 every day in a legal cannabis shop.

00:27:34.380 Doing things that I'm not

00:27:35.700 particularly fond of,

00:27:37.660 like selling government

00:27:38.460 regulated cannabis.

00:27:40.040 There's four taxes on top of it

00:27:42.000 that keep the price

00:27:42.880 higher than it should be.

00:27:44.660 I pity the producers

00:27:46.100 of cannabis in Canada.

00:27:47.200 They have such a tremendous

00:27:48.780 amount of regulation

00:27:49.760 that's added so much cost

00:27:51.260 and caused a lot of them

00:27:52.760 to go bankrupt or suffer.

00:27:55.800 That was also cynically done.

00:27:57.840 So a lot of the wrong people

00:27:58.840 got into that business

00:28:00.000 who had no business

00:28:01.560 getting into cannabis

00:28:02.560 and don't know anything about it.

00:28:04.140 But anyway, no,

00:28:04.840 I've always been

00:28:05.720 a champion of liberty.

00:28:07.820 When I've run for elections

00:28:09.240 in the past,

00:28:10.080 I did organize 79 candidates

00:28:13.400 for a full slate

00:28:14.240 in British Columbia

00:28:14.940 in 2001

00:28:16.320 for the BC Marijuana Party,

00:28:18.380 which was a wonderful campaign

00:28:19.900 and legendarily executed.

00:28:23.640 We had a lot of libertarian

00:28:24.840 type people

00:28:25.540 working on that campaign.

00:28:27.740 You know, so I've run

00:28:29.480 for mayor of Vancouver.

00:28:30.880 I've run for provincial office

00:28:32.300 in two provinces.

00:28:33.820 But I'm really excited

00:28:34.980 to come back home to London.

00:28:36.880 And I'll be living

00:28:37.740 in the London Fanshawe riding

00:28:39.080 on Hamilton Road.

00:28:40.060 So I'm really excited

00:28:41.240 to run and go door knocking

00:28:42.600 in my own community.

00:28:44.240 That feels good.

00:28:45.740 And if I can,

00:28:46.520 my target is 10%.

00:28:48.020 If I get 5%,

00:28:49.240 I'll be content.

00:28:50.500 If I get 10% of the vote,

00:28:51.980 I'd be extremely happy.

00:28:53.460 Only Max Bernier

00:28:54.620 got more than 10%.

00:28:55.960 He got 33% in his riding

00:28:58.080 in the last election.

00:28:59.960 And I'm hoping he gets

00:29:01.120 his seat back

00:29:02.380 in Beauce, Quebec again.

00:29:04.380 That's really the biggest thing

00:29:06.400 I would like to do

00:29:07.400 is draw attention

00:29:08.600 to Max Bernier

00:29:09.960 and the party

00:29:10.700 and bring new members aboard.

00:29:14.740 It was in London

00:29:15.560 that you really fought,

00:29:17.960 again, a very important crusade

00:29:19.380 against the Sunday shopping ban

00:29:21.020 in which government

00:29:21.680 was telling people

00:29:22.940 that they couldn't open

00:29:24.040 their businesses

00:29:24.560 one out of seven days.

00:29:25.960 Did you ever imagine

00:29:27.340 that fast forward

00:29:28.640 a few decades

00:29:29.400 and we'd now be seeing

00:29:30.760 governments telling businesses

00:29:32.300 they have to shut down

00:29:33.280 seven days of the week?

00:29:35.500 Well, it's actually

00:29:36.660 a holocaust 0.96

00:29:37.500 of business proportions.

00:29:39.320 It's a terrible thing

00:29:40.220 where we lose

00:29:40.680 10,000 restaurants

00:29:42.300 in the last year.

00:29:43.900 Now, restaurants are high risk

00:29:45.200 and they tend to go under.

00:29:46.560 But when a government

00:29:47.140 orders a restaurant to close,

00:29:48.780 that's going to increase

00:29:49.920 the mortality.

00:29:50.220 Yeah, there's the natural

00:29:51.080 market risk

00:29:51.880 and then there's the boot

00:29:52.740 of government saying

00:29:53.660 you've got to close.

00:29:54.600 Well, listen,

00:29:55.500 you can't make money

00:29:56.320 on takeout anything.

00:29:58.320 All the cannabis shops

00:29:59.440 in Ontario

00:30:00.460 are under lockdown

00:30:01.440 and so they have to do

00:30:02.800 delivery or curbside.

00:30:04.100 That's going to cut

00:30:04.660 their business in half

00:30:05.860 and send a lot of people

00:30:07.420 back to their friends

00:30:08.260 in the black market.

00:30:09.840 So that's a very

00:30:10.720 unwise decision

00:30:11.840 from a prohibition

00:30:13.640 versus free market

00:30:14.840 point of view.

00:30:15.740 If you're going to

00:30:16.520 lock down all these shops,

00:30:17.940 you're going to send people 0.53

00:30:18.800 to alternate places

00:30:20.400 to acquire substances

00:30:22.160 like cannabis.

00:30:24.580 Except now we need

00:30:25.620 like bootleg clothing stores

00:30:27.120 and bootleg sporting goods

00:30:29.940 stores and all these

00:30:30.680 other things.

00:30:31.380 I mean, because now

00:30:32.100 everything, everyone's

00:30:32.900 being told you can't work.

00:30:34.460 Well, the problem is

00:30:35.320 we're enriching Amazon

00:30:36.660 and all the big box

00:30:38.200 retailers.

00:30:39.480 And this is also very bad

00:30:41.020 because the innovation

00:30:43.580 you know, and the

00:30:45.240 and the neighborhood

00:30:46.080 the neighborhood

00:30:49.260 reflection, you know,

00:30:52.140 to me, all of this is bad.

00:30:54.080 Working from remotely

00:30:55.580 at home is bad

00:30:56.460 because eventually

00:30:57.720 in the old days,

00:30:59.220 you know, the only people

00:30:59.900 you had to compete with

00:31:00.740 were the people

00:31:01.140 who lived in your neighborhood

00:31:02.100 who could make that office

00:31:03.680 physically in 20 or 30 minutes.

00:31:05.640 Some realistic amount of time

00:31:07.220 it takes you to get to work.

00:31:08.580 So you'd hire people

00:31:09.740 from the community,

00:31:10.660 from the neighborhood.

00:31:11.200 But if you're working remotely

00:31:12.800 from home,

00:31:13.820 it doesn't matter

00:31:14.400 where you live.

00:31:15.060 You could be in India,

00:31:16.080 Bangalore.

00:31:16.880 You could be in Pakistan, 0.91

00:31:18.240 Nigeria, any number

00:31:19.700 of places around the world

00:31:20.620 where they speak English

00:31:21.620 and do that job.

00:31:23.000 So I think Canadians 0.89

00:31:23.840 are going to be dislocated

00:31:24.960 from these office jobs

00:31:26.780 by the hundreds of thousands

00:31:28.280 over the next few years

00:31:29.500 because it's a lot cheaper

00:31:31.200 to get someone in Nigeria

00:31:32.920 or Pakistan or India

00:31:34.820 or any place

00:31:35.580 where they speak English,

00:31:36.720 the Caribbean.

00:31:38.060 And there's English speakers

00:31:39.400 everywhere in the world.

00:31:40.420 And, you know,

00:31:41.680 $5 an hour

00:31:43.020 would be a lot

00:31:43.900 for a lot of people,

00:31:45.060 you know,

00:31:45.400 in these countries.

00:31:46.460 So the idea that employers

00:31:48.140 under these onerous circumstances

00:31:50.040 or for these big corporations

00:31:51.580 that are always looking

00:31:52.500 at the bottom line

00:31:53.440 and not so much

00:31:54.620 what's good for the neighborhood

00:31:56.000 are going to be entertaining

00:31:57.900 the idea of getting

00:31:59.060 a lot of foreign workers

00:32:00.400 doing all this

00:32:01.520 remote office stuff.

00:32:03.780 I will ask you, Mark,

00:32:04.500 why do you think the PPC

00:32:05.620 is the answer

00:32:06.340 to a lot of these issues?

00:32:07.360 Because after the last election,

00:32:08.980 a lot of people

00:32:10.080 who thought the People's Party

00:32:11.480 and Maxime Bernier

00:32:12.440 had a little bit of momentum

00:32:13.480 saw the party

00:32:14.720 didn't really make a blip.

00:32:15.920 Maxime lost his seat.

00:32:17.400 Why do you think

00:32:17.880 that party can answer

00:32:18.880 some of these challenges

00:32:19.800 you've expressed?

00:32:22.000 Well, I think

00:32:22.640 the Conservatives

00:32:23.560 got that one shot

00:32:24.820 to prove themselves

00:32:25.840 and they blew it.

00:32:28.640 And the bottom line

00:32:29.560 is I think

00:32:30.140 the People's Party

00:32:30.920 will become much more popular

00:32:32.340 because they're

00:32:33.140 a clear alternative

00:32:34.080 to the Conservatives,

00:32:35.120 Liberals, Greens,

00:32:36.220 NDP.

00:32:36.620 Those four parties

00:32:38.000 of the last year

00:32:38.980 have endorsed

00:32:40.140 the same totalitarian

00:32:41.360 authoritarian measures.

00:32:43.040 They've all been part

00:32:43.800 of the COVID dictatorship.

00:32:45.600 At the local level

00:32:46.920 in Toronto,

00:32:47.520 it's been horrific.

00:32:48.380 The provincial levels,

00:32:49.680 terrible dictatorship

00:32:51.340 type governance.

00:32:53.160 And all four major parties

00:32:55.160 in the Parliament

00:32:56.000 have supported

00:32:56.760 these actions.

00:32:58.140 Only Pierre Polivre

00:32:59.180 has been really critical

00:33:01.540 and even then

00:33:02.900 only of parts,

00:33:03.840 not of the dictatorship

00:33:05.200 itself because

00:33:06.780 the Conservatives

00:33:07.420 ultimately would behave

00:33:08.420 just the same

00:33:09.100 as the Liberals

00:33:09.780 with some minor

00:33:10.960 tinkering differences.

00:33:12.540 There's absolutely

00:33:13.260 no difference

00:33:14.020 between Aaron O'Toole

00:33:15.100 and Justin Trudeau

00:33:16.520 except for some reason

00:33:17.720 Aaron O'Toole

00:33:18.340 looks 20 years older

00:33:19.560 and he's younger

00:33:21.260 than Trudeau

00:33:21.820 which is very strange.

00:33:24.640 I mean,

00:33:25.100 for me,

00:33:25.340 Aaron O'Toole

00:33:25.800 looks older than me

00:33:26.900 and I'm 62.

00:33:28.760 He reminds me

00:33:29.880 of like my great uncle

00:33:30.960 or something like that

00:33:31.820 which to me

00:33:32.480 is a very bad image.

00:33:33.740 A 42-year-old

00:33:36.360 who looks 42

00:33:37.140 would be an ideal

00:33:37.980 looking candidate.

00:33:39.020 That's why I like Max.

00:33:40.180 Max is brilliant.

00:33:41.400 He's principled.

00:33:42.460 Wonderful guy.

00:33:43.320 I've met him many times.

00:33:44.760 I've supported him

00:33:45.540 from the outset.

00:33:47.380 It's the only time

00:33:47.920 I've been a member

00:33:48.440 of the Conservative Party

00:33:49.400 is when he ran

00:33:49.980 for the leadership.

00:33:51.080 I joined.

00:33:51.740 I've never actually voted

00:33:52.600 for the Conservatives

00:33:53.320 in a federal election

00:33:54.300 and as soon as Max

00:33:56.300 formed the People's Party

00:33:57.680 I was on board.

00:33:58.560 I'm probably one

00:33:59.040 of the first 10 people

00:34:00.140 to sign up for that party

00:34:01.960 and I've never been disappointed.

00:34:03.740 I wasn't disappointed

00:34:04.560 with the election results.

00:34:05.860 I've never been disappointed

00:34:06.680 with anything Max has said.

00:34:08.460 Everything Max says

00:34:09.440 I agree with entirely.

00:34:10.960 I'm more extreme of course.

00:34:12.600 You know,

00:34:12.800 I think we should be

00:34:13.480 very cautious

00:34:14.180 about the Communist Party

00:34:15.400 of China.

00:34:16.360 I think the loyalties

00:34:17.700 of many people

00:34:18.400 who call themselves Canadian

00:34:19.520 are suspect

00:34:20.560 from a variety of reasons

00:34:22.260 because they put their own

00:34:23.600 background before

00:34:26.440 the good of Canadians.

00:34:30.080 To me,

00:34:30.620 we're all Canadians

00:34:31.420 we all benefit

00:34:32.900 by a free society

00:34:34.080 and I think

00:34:35.900 we have a lot

00:34:36.900 of people in Canada

00:34:37.700 who don't really

00:34:38.500 want a free society

00:34:39.500 and we've got

00:34:40.760 a lot of advocates

00:34:41.540 in government

00:34:42.140 for that,

00:34:42.820 you know,

00:34:43.060 like the Greens

00:34:43.940 and the NDP 0.93

00:34:45.060 are terrible

00:34:45.720 for these woke

00:34:46.580 kind of issues

00:34:48.180 of critical race theory,

00:34:51.460 gender ideologies,

00:34:53.180 all these things

00:34:53.800 I'm opposed to

00:34:54.520 and I will bring up

00:34:55.600 in the campaign.

00:34:56.340 So I'm going to be

00:34:57.360 offending people

00:34:58.240 whenever I get a chance to

00:34:59.660 because,

00:35:00.620 you know,

00:35:00.940 I'm totally opposed

00:35:01.920 to the trans ideology.

00:35:03.560 I'm totally opposed

00:35:04.340 to critical race theory.

00:35:05.800 I don't think Canada

00:35:06.560 is at all

00:35:07.340 a racist society.

00:35:08.800 I think it's one

00:35:09.340 of the most beautiful,

00:35:10.360 most completely

00:35:11.680 integrated societies

00:35:12.900 in the world.

00:35:13.920 If somebody said

00:35:14.640 Canada was a racist society,

00:35:16.280 I would say, 0.91

00:35:16.900 well,

00:35:17.020 tell me one

00:35:17.520 that's less racist

00:35:18.960 because I don't believe

00:35:20.200 there is a country

00:35:20.920 in the world

00:35:21.340 that's less racist

00:35:22.200 than Canada.

00:35:22.900 I've been to 40 of them

00:35:24.240 in my life

00:35:25.320 and I can tell you

00:35:26.100 that most of them

00:35:26.900 are homogenous communities.

00:35:28.560 They don't welcome

00:35:29.280 outsiders to settle permanently.

00:35:31.480 You go to Japan, 1.00

00:35:32.360 you only see Japanese people.

00:35:33.720 You go to China, 1.00

00:35:34.320 you only see Chinese people.

00:35:35.840 You go to Nigeria, 1.00

00:35:36.880 you only see Nigerian people.

00:35:38.520 You go to India, 1.00

00:35:39.300 you see only Indian people.

00:35:40.620 You don't see

00:35:41.440 the cosmopolitan range

00:35:42.900 of hundreds of races

00:35:44.020 and ethnicities

00:35:45.160 that you do in Canada

00:35:46.120 who've all managed

00:35:47.200 to get along

00:35:47.820 but what we have

00:35:48.540 is governments

00:35:49.140 that stoke the fires

00:35:50.740 of division,

00:35:52.060 stoke the fires

00:35:52.820 of separation,

00:35:53.660 of resentment

00:35:54.820 and put us

00:35:56.760 against each other

00:35:57.600 which is the number one

00:35:59.280 classic political ploy

00:36:00.600 of all governments

00:36:01.340 is divide and conquer.

00:36:03.160 Get the people

00:36:03.700 fighting each other

00:36:04.600 and make the government

00:36:05.320 look like they have

00:36:06.000 the solutions

00:36:06.640 to our conflicts

00:36:07.960 but they are creating

00:36:08.980 these conflicts.

00:36:10.120 They don't solve conflicts.

00:36:11.680 So I've got

00:36:12.440 probably more issues

00:36:14.620 I'd like to discuss

00:36:15.500 in an election campaign

00:36:16.600 than Max would

00:36:18.160 probably even endorse

00:36:19.440 although I'm pretty sure

00:36:21.320 he would agree

00:36:21.800 with them all.

00:36:22.220 I would never say anything

00:36:23.100 I didn't think

00:36:23.960 the People's Party

00:36:24.740 would fundamentally support

00:36:26.480 but you know what

00:36:28.240 I still have to get

00:36:28.860 that nomination.

00:36:30.000 I still have to fill out

00:36:30.860 all the paperwork.

00:36:32.080 You know when I list

00:36:32.680 all my criminal offenses

00:36:33.780 I've got 40 appearances

00:36:35.520 in prisons and jails.

00:36:37.080 I've been jailed

00:36:37.880 for cannabis

00:36:38.640 in every province.

00:36:40.200 I did time

00:36:40.980 in six states

00:36:41.780 of the United States.

00:36:42.360 Did you do the territories?

00:36:43.280 I was arrested

00:36:45.440 in the Yukon

00:36:46.820 but that was dropped.

00:36:48.400 So I can't say

00:36:49.500 I've been put in jail

00:36:50.340 overnight there

00:36:51.140 but certainly

00:36:52.100 every other province

00:36:53.160 and multiple times

00:36:54.520 in some

00:36:54.980 and so I need

00:36:56.780 the nomination

00:36:57.280 I'll need Max's endorsement

00:36:59.060 that'll make him nervous

00:37:00.160 even though he likes me

00:37:01.400 personally

00:37:01.840 and what have you

00:37:03.060 but I'm not an easy guy

00:37:04.180 for any leader

00:37:04.920 to have to

00:37:06.060 stand behind

00:37:07.300 because I don't feel

00:37:08.580 that inhibited

00:37:09.240 about what I say.

00:37:11.200 Alright well best of luck

00:37:12.240 on the campaign trail

00:37:13.400 Mark Emery

00:37:14.000 seeking the PPC nomination

00:37:15.700 in London Fanshawe

00:37:17.600 down in my neck of the woods

00:37:18.700 in southwestern Ontario.

00:37:20.320 Mark best of luck

00:37:21.080 and thanks very much

00:37:21.740 for coming on today.

00:37:22.920 Thanks Andrew.

00:37:24.240 That was Mark Emery

00:37:25.560 and that does it for us.

00:37:26.840 For today

00:37:27.340 we'll be back

00:37:27.920 in just a few days

00:37:28.760 with more of Canada's

00:37:29.700 most irreverent talk show

00:37:30.800 here on True North.

00:37:32.140 This is the Andrew Lawton Show.

00:37:33.780 Thank you.

00:37:34.260 God bless and good day Canada.

00:37:35.880 Thanks for listening

00:37:36.540 to the Andrew Lawton Show.

00:37:38.080 Support the program

00:37:38.780 by donating to True North

00:37:40.020 at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - January 05, 2021

Pandemic Posturing

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