Juno News - March 17, 2024


Should Poilievre be encouraging protests outside Liberal MP offices？


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Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

186.27748

Word count

2,457

Sentence count

195

Harmful content

Misogyny

5

sentences flagged

Toxicity

1

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Summary

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

Chris Simons of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation joins us to talk about the call to action by Pierre Poliev to protest the carbon tax on Parliament Hill, and why he's right to do so. We also talk about a new poll that shows support for the Prime Minister's carbon tax is at an all-time low.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
00:00:00.000 We have Chris Sims joining us, our Monday commentator, the Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
00:00:15.880 Chris, you've seen and you and I have been talking about this for weeks now, Canadians are not on board with this.
00:00:21.940 What do you make of this call to action to actually go and protest MP offices that Pierre was giving his supporters yesterday?
00:00:30.000 I think it's really smart and it's, you know, spoiler alert, it's something that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has been encouraging now for many years.
00:00:38.340 Old photos of our magazines include us, you know, planting pig-shaped lawn signs on the front of Parliament Hill.
00:00:45.480 So we're all for a peaceful demonstration.
00:00:47.620 In fact, we just finished protesting a couple of months ago in front of Liberal members of Parliament constituency offices in chicken suits.
00:00:55.820 Because as, of course, you remember, it was the Atlantic caucus of the Liberal Party who had the spine, who weren't chickens and who stood up for their constituents.
00:01:04.420 And they got an exemption for the carbon tax on their home heating bills for three years.
00:01:09.620 Curious amount of years there to put them past the next election.
00:01:13.080 But it was only for Atlantic Canadians because they're basically the only ones who use home heating oil.
00:01:18.320 And it was just nothing but crickets.
00:01:20.300 We couldn't hear anything from the rest of the Liberal caucus across the rest of the country.
00:01:24.180 So we think it's a really great idea for Mr. Poliev to call to action, to email, to phone, to protest peacefully outside of constituency offices.
00:01:34.540 Because this is what makes them move, right?
00:01:38.020 Every now and then, I know you've covered this on Parliament Hill yourself, Andrew.
00:01:42.420 Everything seems like it's going to stay the same until it suddenly doesn't, right?
00:01:48.320 Everything kind of breaks loose at once.
00:01:50.480 I remember when I was at the CTV Bureau many eons ago, when then Finance Minister Paul Martin hesitated slightly in giving his support out loud verbally for Prime Minister Chrétien during a press conference.
00:02:06.980 And that's all it took.
00:02:08.240 All hell broke loose.
00:02:09.560 And then there was a leadership race and everything kind of fell into place.
00:02:12.960 So this is why we're urging and agreeing that all Canadians who oppose the carbon tax should definitely protest outside of the offices peacefully.
00:02:22.860 Don't give the anti-carbon tax movement a bad name, please.
00:02:25.920 And send in letters and emails.
00:02:28.300 If I can, though, I'd like to tack a little rider to that bill.
00:02:32.700 Okay.
00:02:33.020 Because something else is happening on April 1st.
00:02:35.940 And that is MP pay raises.
00:02:37.460 They're automatically getting a big pay hike.
00:02:41.600 So this means that the Prime Minister, I think, is going to be making over $400,000-ish.
00:02:47.400 A backbench Member of Parliament is going to be making around $200,000.
00:02:51.680 And it's a huge pay hike.
00:02:53.440 We're talking thousands of dollars per year.
00:02:56.140 That's also happening April 1st. 0.57
00:02:58.240 And that's, of course, people joke and call it April Fools.
00:03:00.780 It's, of course, because it's the start of the fiscal year.
00:03:03.120 That's why all these things change on April 1st.
00:03:05.380 But I will put a bug in Pierre Polyev's ear.
00:03:09.700 We need some leadership from Members of Parliament in the House of Commons to oppose these MP pay hikes.
00:03:16.000 Prime Minister Stephen Harper froze MP pay hikes.
00:03:19.400 And we think it's really important to encourage other MPs, in particular the opposition MPs, to speak out against MP pay hikes right now.
00:03:28.520 Yeah, I would say that it's very valid.
00:03:32.040 And I want to dig into that and also talk about the Governor General in a moment.
00:03:34.920 But just going back to the carbon tax increase here for a moment, Chris, there was a poll that came out.
00:03:41.040 Now, obviously, polling you have to take with, you know, 3,000 grains of salt here.
00:03:44.620 But Main Street poll, 46% support for the Conservatives, 25% Liberal, 15% NDP.
00:03:53.080 MPs are people.
00:03:54.260 It pains me to say that because a lot of the time they don't act like it.
00:03:57.460 But MPs are people.
00:03:58.660 And a lot of them are, despite however partisan and ideological they are, they're very, very concerned about their future right now.
00:04:05.820 And if you're a Liberal Member of Parliament in a Toronto riding, let's say, you're in Mississauga, you're in Whitby, your Newmarket, whatever, like you know that these numbers are bad news for you.
00:04:16.260 So when you have people that are outside your office saying, hey, we can't afford to live right now, stand up and do the right thing.
00:04:24.220 I do think that some Liberal MPs' insecurity about their seats may actually allow for some action here.
00:04:31.120 The caveat is that Justin Trudeau has done a very good job in the last eight years of quelling any dissent.
00:04:36.560 I think you're bang on there.
00:04:39.000 And it takes years of observation to notice this.
00:04:42.080 And you're right.
00:04:42.820 I can't remember the last time I saw the Conservatives at over 40%.
00:04:48.840 Like you said, polls are polls.
00:04:51.600 There's always give and take.
00:04:52.860 But that is a huge number.
00:04:54.940 And so polls like that make other MPs feel like dinosaurs 65 million years ago, and they've looked in the sky, and here comes the asteroid.
00:05:07.360 That's what those feel like.
00:05:09.600 And it ripples through the office on Parliament Hill.
00:05:12.860 People start phoning the Constit saying, hey, is anybody coming in to meet with the MP over the break week?
00:05:18.180 Anything like that happening?
00:05:19.560 That's what gets them really nervous.
00:05:21.280 And to your point, I think that polls like this really matter, and I think it's things like the carbon tax that really matter.
00:05:29.140 So keep in mind that we've got the carbon tax that he's hiking up that, of course, makes our food more expensive because it increases the cost for farmers.
00:05:37.780 It increases the cost for shipping.
00:05:40.060 Just imagine diesel, diesel fuel, which is the lifeblood of our economy.
00:05:44.860 It moves everything we eat and use, is now going to have 21 cents per litre tacked onto it.
00:05:53.160 If you take a look underneath a trucker's door, they've got those huge cylindrical tanks.
00:05:58.100 Those things hold more than 1,000 litres.
00:06:00.860 Do the math.
00:06:01.780 Times 21 cents.
00:06:03.780 Like, this is a huge cost for people, and it trickles down and ripples down through the rest of the economy.
00:06:09.000 And here we have people, to your point, who are literally saying, we can't afford the basics of life.
00:06:16.420 So energy, heat, shelter, and food.
00:06:20.040 Like, wakey, wakey, folks.
00:06:22.100 This is a participation sport, politics.
00:06:24.600 And these MPs are going to have to respond to this.
00:06:27.460 So I think you're right, Andrew.
00:06:28.720 I think that they could break rank on this issue.
00:06:31.400 Yeah, and when you mention 40%, I should just give a bit of context here.
00:06:35.880 Stephen Harper won his majority in 2011, and it was a pretty strong, decisive majority.
00:06:41.920 That was 39.62% of the vote.
00:06:44.520 So that majority was, I mean, yeah, if you round it up, it's at 40, but was less than 40% in absolute votes.
00:06:50.580 So when you have conservative polling at 46%, we're getting like Brian Mulroney, John Diefenbaker,
00:06:56.400 supermajority territory there, depending on the distribution of it.
00:06:59.940 But you mentioned MP pay raises going up.
00:07:03.060 Governor General also, that quintessential, incredibly important, valuable, relevant figure in Canada.
00:07:10.040 She's getting a raise. 1.00
00:07:12.260 Yes, and I want to be very clear.
00:07:15.240 This isn't about the person.
00:07:16.760 This is about the office.
00:07:18.340 All that being understood.
00:07:20.260 Now, I think I might be alone at the Taxpayers Federation.
00:07:24.660 I don't want to tell tales out of school.
00:07:26.240 But I think I'm one of the only quasi-monarchists among us.
00:07:30.880 And that is only because in the same way that Winston Churchill basically said democracy, you know,
00:07:36.440 it's ugly, but it's the best system we've got, better than all the others.
00:07:39.680 Very similar here because we have a constitutional monarchy.
00:07:43.920 This is how things work in Canada.
00:07:45.540 I understand folks for who are monarchists.
00:07:48.260 I understand the role.
00:07:49.620 Okay.
00:07:49.900 The Governor General is His Majesty the King's representative in Canada.
00:07:54.140 In order to pass law, we need this royal literal stamp of approval.
00:07:58.360 But, but we should not have to be paying through the nose like this.
00:08:03.380 A Governor General literally lives in an all-expenses-paid mansion.
00:08:07.420 They have a team of housekeepers, drivers, and cooks. 0.98
00:08:10.920 They, like, the place is just opulent.
00:08:13.160 And now the Governor General, just because they exist, they're getting an $11,000 pay hike this year.
00:08:22.760 Again, so this is well over $300,000 now per year that this position is now paid.
00:08:28.700 It's a huge waste of money.
00:08:30.680 This is, yes, it's important legally to get our laws passed, but it's largely ceremonial.
00:08:36.540 This, this does not require, you know, massive law degrees and a ton of heavy lifting and, you know, wise, sober second thought.
00:08:45.020 And so this is why we're encouraging people to, and I don't know why my camera just went out on you again, Andrew.
00:08:51.660 I'm, I'm blaming Bill C-11.
00:08:53.560 I don't know if we can, but I'm, there we go.
00:08:55.620 Honest, I'm not kidding.
00:08:57.440 This only happens on your show and one other.
00:09:01.020 And it ain't on CTV.
00:09:02.860 I'll put it that way.
00:09:03.760 This is so strange.
00:09:04.600 But the thing, when you mentioned the quality of life though, Chris, like they're living like monarchs themselves, but they're career bureaucrats and washed up journalists.
00:09:14.720 I mean, that's the bizarre part is that, you know, she was a diplomat.
00:09:18.160 I mean, very well decorated.
00:09:19.660 Julie Payette was an astronaut.
00:09:21.380 I mean, McHale Jean was a journalist, but I mean, all these people, like they're just average, ordinary people that all of a sudden get to live a royal life.
00:09:27.700 That's the part that I find offensive is that they, they, they want to do all the ceremony and we're paying for it.
00:09:34.080 And, and look, the issue that the CTF has been quite strong on in this regard is the lifetime of payouts, which often we don't realize.
00:09:40.620 I mean, Adrienne Clarkson is still cashing checks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for all this administrative support. 1.00
00:09:46.740 Meanwhile, she's making money as a public speaker for, you know, being a former governor general, but we're still supporting that.
00:09:53.340 Yeah, exactly.
00:09:54.720 Um, once you get that gig, you're rolling in it for life, uh, courtesy of the taxpayer.
00:09:59.260 And to your point, we understand this is administrative.
00:10:02.820 Look at the provincial levels, the left tenants, which occupy the same role.
00:10:08.020 They rubber stamp as well.
00:10:09.780 They don't spend a fraction of what it costs.
00:10:12.180 Well, they don't have official residences in most province.
00:10:14.580 I mean, uh, you know, Elizabeth Dowds or whoever it is in Ontario now, I mean, just lives where they lived before they were appointed. 0.96
00:10:20.180 And that seems to work fine.
00:10:21.680 Exactly.
00:10:22.220 Which gets us, can I shamelessly promote our, our current campaign?
00:10:26.580 Go for it.
00:10:27.520 Gets us to the point of what would you need to be the governor general?
00:10:31.660 And so we've got these t-shirts that are at cost.
00:10:34.100 Oh, that's a better one.
00:10:35.040 So that's in front of our left bridge, which is the longest trestle train bridge in Canada, which is in North America.
00:10:40.500 In fact, it was on the last of us.
00:10:42.940 So if you've seen that weird post-apocalyptic gross zombie movie, and there's that burning bridge that's halfway across that was in Lethbridge.
00:10:49.280 And they, um, so all this is to say, we've got this cool thing going on where you can go to our website, taxpayer.com.
00:10:55.920 We're not making the money off of it.
00:10:57.340 It's all just at cost.
00:10:58.540 And you can order t-shirts like this.
00:11:00.720 I am my, I would be governor general for a loonie.
00:11:03.480 So I would skim over, you know, what the Senate.
00:11:06.100 And I'll even, I'll even pay the loonie.
00:11:07.620 It won't even go on taxpayer dime there.
00:11:10.200 For free really then.
00:11:11.760 And so I hear, I, I, as soon as I told Sean to get that picture, I was thinking, you know, we probably won't even need the picture.
00:11:16.440 She's probably just going to wear the shirt, but anyway.
00:11:18.680 Well, I'm glad you grabbed the picture because I had to dig this out.
00:11:21.860 The laundry monster is crazy in this house right now.
00:11:24.020 So yes.
00:11:24.960 So you can get this one for a loonie.
00:11:26.560 I think Franco says I would do it for a poutine as they pronounce it out here in Western Canada.
00:11:31.080 Yeah, but you can't get a poutine for a loonie in this economy. 1.00
00:11:33.600 No, you sure can't.
00:11:34.960 It's largely because of the carbon tax.
00:11:36.600 So we're encouraging people.
00:11:38.580 This is why we're doing this is because you either laugh or cry because of everything being so expensive right now.
00:11:43.180 And this is key, politicians and hoity-toity bureaucrats hate it when you mock them.
00:11:50.380 Like they get really upset really fast.
00:11:53.480 And so we should mock them a lot.
00:11:55.740 And so the average Joe and Sally six-pack Canadian should go to our website, find this t-shirt, pick the one they like, take a picture of yourself, post it on the interwebs.
00:12:06.100 And this is our way of sticking a thumb in the eye of the elites and saying, you know what, the governor general should not be paid this kind of crazy amount of money.
00:12:15.300 And they certainly shouldn't be getting an $11,000 raise just this year.
00:12:19.660 I'll have to whip out my, I mean, it's a dated reference now, but I have one of the old 2000, well, no, it would have been 2008.
00:12:26.380 The Stefan Dion shrug t-shirts that say, do you think it's easy?
00:12:30.420 Well, you can't see my shrug there.
00:12:31.920 Never mind.
00:12:32.920 Do you think it's easy to set priorities?
00:12:34.400 I've got to make priorities. I've got that on a shirt. I'll have to whip that out.
00:12:36.880 And we'll do like, you know, novelty, political lore, a t-shirt day on casual Friday on the Andrew Lawton show.
00:12:41.340 Is a puffin involved in that one? I can't remember.
00:12:44.360 Oh, I can't remember. I have to, I have to dig it.
00:12:45.860 It's like way at the bottom of the hamper now.
00:12:47.540 Cause I don't want to, you know, I don't want to actually wear it to, uh, you know, cause then it will, you know, lose out the color and the shine.
00:12:53.340 And also I don't want to have to see Stefan Dion's face every time I look in the mirror.
00:12:57.140 It's bad enough seeing my own face when I look in the mirror.
00:12:58.980 So, all right, Chris Sims, we will see you next Monday.
00:13:02.660 You betcha.
00:13:03.160 Thanks for listening to the Andrew Lawton show.
00:13:06.000 Support the program by donating to true north at www.tnc.news.