Juno News - Scott Aitchison says Canada must recognize Taiwan as a country

00:00:00.000 I had the chance to, at the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference, sit down with Scott

00:00:13.300 Aitchison. This was the day after the debate. It was great. I got to see Leslie Lewis and Roman

00:00:18.680 Babber as I shared my chats with them in the previous show, and also Scott. Now, Scott, I

00:00:22.940 should say, not a front runner in terms of name recognition, but has run a really policy-heavy

00:00:28.600 campaign that's touching on a lot of things like ending supply management, which I just

00:00:33.300 so desperately wish other people would take up. I know it's like a strange hill to die

00:00:37.240 on, but believe me, it's important. All of these free market people that were just twisting

00:00:41.200 themselves into pretzels in Edmonton to say, well, maybe we don't need a free market when

00:00:45.820 we're talking about dairy and poultry, but everything else, free market. But also on foreign policy,

00:00:50.640 which we touched on a little bit in this chat. So this is my interview recorded in Ottawa with

00:00:55.600 Scott Aitchison. Joining me now is Conservative leadership candidate Scott Aitchison. Scott,

00:01:00.440 good to talk to you again in person this time. Great to be here. Yeah, thank you. So let's start

00:01:04.800 with the debate last night. This was the first official opportunity that all of the, well,

00:01:08.660 almost all of the candidates were on stage together in this leadership race. I know there's a lot of

00:01:13.720 prep that goes into it, but looking back now with a day's hindsight, what was your feeling about it?

00:01:19.080 Well, I spoke about last night, actually, that there's a lot of division and a lot of rancor and

00:01:23.420 sort of, you know, visceral partisan rhetoric back and forth and the tax. And I think that that's

00:01:29.180 actually bad for our party. It's bad for our politics. And I tried to try to lead by example

00:01:34.300 by being respectful. And I think we need to talk about ideas and not each other. Now, I mean,

00:01:39.280 your approach, and we heard this in your opening statement was, and I'm crudely paraphrasing it,

00:01:44.160 but it was, can't we all get along? I mean, you were really pitching unity. And is that enough of

00:01:48.520 a message? Well, certainly not for the whole race. I mean, I'm obviously talking about policy ideas as

00:01:55.140 well. Last night, of course, we were responding to questions, but the questions, you know, seem to

00:02:00.300 lead to every other candidate talking about each other, which was my point that, you know, we've

00:02:05.660 got to stop attacking each other, start talking about ideas and, you know, present those to Canadians

00:02:10.260 in a way that they can trust us to lead and govern. I know historically in leadership races or at the

00:02:15.380 local level nomination races, you, you get these sometimes bare knuckle brawls, but they're always

00:02:19.980 done respectfully. And at the end of it, everyone shakes hands and work together. Is your concern that

00:02:25.180 that can't happen or won't happen after this race? No, it can happen. But we have to choose to make it 0.81

00:02:30.740 happen. I used to say this all the time when I was mayor of Huntsville. I led a council that was engaged

00:02:35.580 and, you know, we would have some knock down, drag them out battles over issues and in the council

00:02:40.300 chamber, but we always would leave and, and we'd be friends. I would argue, you know, you can disagree

00:02:45.680 without being disagreeable. We'd often go for a pint after the council meeting just to say, you know what,

00:02:50.600 we can be on different sides of an issue, but at the end of the day, we're all here to move Huntsville

00:02:54.380 forward. And that's the same, same thing here. We are all here. Every single candidate up there last night,

00:03:00.380 you know, they're not taking time away from their families and their lives to do this for the, you know, just the good of

00:03:06.180 their health or for their entertainment value. They're here because they really truly believe in what

00:03:09.400 they're doing. They want to make our party better. They want to make our country better. So we need

00:03:13.540 to stop attacking each other and focus on ideas and that moves our party forward. It actually helps

00:03:19.840 us expand the tent and it helps us build trust with, you know, Canadians in those places where we haven't

00:03:25.160 been winning and we need to win. What are the ideas that you feel need to be front and center in the

00:03:30.180 race that aren't? Well, I think we need to be talking a little bit more about our foreign policy.

00:03:34.380 Under the last seven years of the Trudeau government, I think Canada, we're a bit of an embarrassment on

00:03:39.820 the world stage. We're not a reliable partner and we need to be spending 2% of our GDP on our defense

00:03:46.340 system. I mean, NATO, we haven't lived up to our commitments in NATO almost since the inception of

00:03:51.560 the organization. And our allies are forming new partnerships and new alliances without us because

00:03:56.740 we're just not showing up. And so we obviously need to spend more on defense and we need to have a more

00:04:02.440 principled stand on, you know, issues like Huawei, for example. We didn't ban Huawei. We've got to

00:04:08.740 stop dithering on these things. We need, you know, we've got to stand up to, you know, countries like

00:04:13.760 the, like China and their, and their communist regime and their bullying. And, you know, it's a 0.81

00:04:17.740 security threat. We've got to stop dithering on these issues. We've got to, and so these are issues

00:04:21.320 that I think conservatives can lead on and should be leading on. We should be talking about them.

00:04:26.840 Canadians want to hear about these issues. But when we're just busy attacking each other,

00:04:30.280 we're not talking about those ideas. And those are the things we need to be discussing.

00:04:32.920 So just on the, on the defense funding there and NATO spending, do I take from that that an

00:04:38.140 NHSN budget brings defense up to 2% of Canada's GDP? Absolutely. And when you talk about Canadian

00:04:43.200 leadership, I mean, Canada failed to secure a seat on the United Nations Security Council

00:04:47.500 after relentless lobbying and campaigning by the Prime Minister on that. I know there was a story in

00:04:53.760 Bloomberg some time ago about how the Prime Minister was trying to be the one to broker the EU

00:04:58.640 Northern Ireland deal. And again, no one was taking the call. No one wanted Canada to play

00:05:02.960 a role. The Foreign Minister, Melanie Jolie, has talked about how our place is convening,

00:05:06.960 but no one seems to want to sit at the table. So how do you restore Canada's legitimacy on the

00:05:11.920 foreign stage when people have tried it? I mean, that was Justin Trudeau's big pitch,

00:05:15.520 Canada's back. How do you do that though? Yeah, but Justin didn't really try it at all.

00:05:20.960 He thought he could just charm the world with his name and, you know, and that would somehow do

00:05:25.440 something. We have to be a reliable partner. I mean, we need to live up to our commitments in

00:05:30.480 NATO. We need to live up to our commitments on foreign aid. These are, you know, countries that

00:05:35.520 are going to rely on Canada. And if they can't rely on Canada, no matter how much charm offensive

00:05:41.200 Justin Trudeau does around the world, they're not going to care. And so principled leadership

00:05:46.000 and building the relationships that we need to build around the world. Prime Minister Mulroney was a

00:05:50.320 master at it. He built relationships with world leaders all over the globe and Canada had a really

00:05:56.800 valuable presence and a voice in the world when he was Prime Minister because of the power of his

00:06:00.400 personal relationships. You know, we got to back up what we say with real dollars, real investment.

00:06:07.760 We got to stop playing games with procurement for our military. The whole procurement for fighter jets

00:06:13.920 has been a joke. It's been an embarrassment. You know, the process to try to get the shipbuilding strategy

00:06:19.120 up and going. Thankfully, Prime Minister Harper started that program, and now it's going. We

00:06:23.040 need to maintain that now. I tell people, you know, it's not rocket science, actually. Well,

00:06:29.440 in some cases, maybe it is rocket science. But this is really no different than a municipal mayor

00:06:34.640 putting together a procurement plan for a fire truck. You know, I don't argue with the fire chief

00:06:39.200 on how many pumps that truck needs. He tells me what we need to serve the needs of our community,

00:06:42.960 tells me it's going to cost us much money, and I need it by this date. And so we put money away,

00:06:47.600 prepare for it, get ready, and we have a whole plan to replace that vehicle when the time comes.

00:06:52.480 It's a capital asset management plan. Let's take the politics out of it and just get it done. 0.78

00:06:56.640 You mentioned China earlier. What would you take as your position on Taiwan, which has been,

00:07:01.520 in a lot of cases, a sticking point where no one in the world, I should say few people in the world,

00:07:05.840 are prepared to really deal with this head on? Well, I think it's time for us to be honest. I mean,

00:07:10.640 the one China policy is, it's not really true. It's not happening. Taiwan is a vibrant democratic

00:07:20.240 country. It's a market country, capitalist country. We need to recognize Taiwan for the beacon of

00:07:29.200 freedom that it is. And I think it's time for us to recognize them. You know, Taiwan has said they

00:07:34.960 would like to be members of the World Health Organization. I think we need to recognize

00:07:39.840 that. It's time for us to stop sort of dancing around at. That's another way that Canada can

00:07:45.200 have a principled stance in the world. If we're going to be champions of freedom, then let's stand

00:07:49.440 up for those countries that are crying out for their own freedom.

00:07:51.680 Now, would that basically be recognizing Taiwan as an independent sovereign state?

00:07:56.320 Yes, absolutely. Is that a position that would be disqualifying to a large section of voters? I mean,

00:08:03.840 we saw in the last election how there were concerns by some of your former colleagues that Chinese

00:08:10.320 influence campaigns were being run against people for their positions. I don't think that leaders take

00:08:15.600 positions based on the politics of it. Leaders do what's right, even when it's hard. Another foreign 1.00

00:08:21.600 policy question. Would you relocate Canada's embassy in Israel to Jerusalem? Absolutely. Israel is

00:08:27.840 a most vibrant democracy. It's the only democracy in the Middle East. It's a vibrant, multicultural

00:08:33.360 nation. They are an important ally of Canada's. Jerusalem is the capital, and absolutely our embassy

00:08:39.680 should be there. I know the interim leader, Candice Bergen, in her video remarks this morning mentioned

00:08:45.440 that a flat tax is a policy that would be a legitimate, viable conservative policy. And I don't want to

00:08:50.880 write your platform for you. But have you given any thought to some of these larger structural issues

00:08:56.560 that deal in the tax system? Yeah, we'll have a lot more to say about tax in the coming days.

00:09:01.920 Obviously, what I have talked about so far is eliminating the carbon tax. Fundamentally, this comes

00:09:07.120 down to affordability for Canadians. That's, I think, the most important issue we need to address.

00:09:11.360 And if there are changes we can make to our tax system to help make life more affordable for Canadians,

00:09:15.600 we need to seriously look at that. I find that, I mean, in the past, this was something that

00:09:19.600 the Conservative government editor Stephen Harper did with a lot of the boutique tax credits, which

00:09:23.920 certainly make for good politics. But at the end, I don't feel they simplify the tax system for large

00:09:29.120 sections of Canadians. Is that something that you'd like to see, a tax system that's a lot simpler?

00:09:34.240 Yeah, simpler. But we really do need to do a proper review of it, right? You don't make tax policy,

00:09:40.960 I think, on the fly. I think some thorough analysis and some, you know, some real work going into it,

00:09:46.240 and some thoughtful discussion about it is important. So I guess one thing I'd ask you,

00:09:50.080 just while you're here, looking around at this conference, we haven't had one in the last two

00:09:53.760 years, because of COVID. What's your assessment of the state of the Conservative movement right now?

00:09:58.240 Well, I think there's, there's some fault lines. But I think that's one of the reasons why it's

00:10:02.240 important for us to talk about coming together. I said over and over again, that unity isn't uniformity.

00:10:06.800 We don't all have to agree, we don't have to all believe the same thing. We have to listen to each

00:10:10.880 other. We have to respect each other. I think Conservatives, the movement is, they're craving

00:10:16.160 that conversation. I was chatting with the organizers yesterday, and they didn't just sell out,

00:10:22.320 they oversold. It's great. It's great to see as many people here as there are. They want to have

00:10:28.080 that conversation. I think that those of us running in the leadership race should respect that and have

00:10:32.800 a conversation instead of attacking each other. Scott Acheson, thank you. My pleasure, thanks.

00:10:36.480 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show. Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - May 17, 2022

Scott Aitchison says Canada must recognize Taiwan as a country

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