Juno News - The Conservative strategy failed. There needs to be a reckoning.

00:00:00.120 Everyone lost in last night's election, but the biggest losers of all were the conservatives.

00:00:04.040 I'm Candace Malcolm, and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.

00:00:10.780 Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I hope you enjoyed our coverage and our

00:00:15.460 show that we did last night. We had a live election show. We were live for about five

00:00:19.680 hours up until around one o'clock in the morning, and we had a great time. It was a great show. It

00:00:23.380 was hosted by myself, True North senior correspondent Andrew Lawton, as well as True

00:00:27.720 North in-house pollster Hamish Marshall. We were there for the entire night. We had our

00:00:33.060 sort of raw reaction to the news as it came in. We were calling the seats. We talked about every

00:00:37.960 part of the country, every riding, really looked in depth at the Trudeau campaign, at the Erin O'Toole

00:00:43.640 campaign, and sort of broke it all down. We had Sue Ann Levy in Oshawa and our own Harrison Faulkner

00:00:49.160 out in Saskatoon. We also were joined by some wonderful, spectacular guests. So we had Andrew

00:00:54.840 Shire, former leader of the Conservative Party from the 2019 election. We're joined by Danielle

00:00:59.160 Smith, former leader of the Wild Rose Party out in Alberta and someone who's still very much involved

00:01:04.440 in the political scene. Out there, we had JJ McCullough, the popular YouTuber and columnist with

00:01:10.200 the Washington Post come and join us. We had a lot of fun. It was a great broadcast and just really

00:01:15.400 enjoyed it. We had a new format that we're trying out using, so I could actually see all of the comments

00:01:20.760 as we're coming in on social media on Facebook and YouTube. So it was just, it was really fun. It was

00:01:26.200 great to connect with our audience that way. And we really appreciate everyone who tuned in. If you

00:01:31.000 want to go check that out, you can find it over on YouTube or on Facebook. But like I said in the

00:01:36.760 intro, look, I think that the obvious loser in last night's election was Justin Trudeau. Justin Trudeau

00:01:42.280 made an absolute mockery and fool of himself. The entire purpose of this election was one reason and

00:01:48.520 one reason alone. And that was so that Justin Trudeau could try to get a bigger share of the pie. He

00:01:53.720 wanted a bigger share of the pie. He wanted his majority government. He wanted unmitigated power

00:01:58.200 to do exactly what he wants to do. He didn't want to have to bother with the hassle of working with the

00:02:03.720 NDP and the block, even though the NDP and the block were incredibly supportive of his left-wing

00:02:08.920 agenda. So Trudeau didn't have a very good reason to call the election in the first place. Other

00:02:13.480 than the fact that he wanted more power, he lost. He did not get that power. He didn't get the outcome

00:02:18.840 that he wanted, which was the majority government. If he were an honorable person, if he had any decency,

00:02:24.120 he would resign. He would look in the mirror. He would look at his party. He would look at Canadians 0.70

00:02:28.440 and say, I forced this unnecessary $600 million election. I created all this division in the country.

00:02:34.840 I pushed on these wedge issues. I bribed the media with more money, more taxpayer money.

00:02:40.600 I demonized people who protest against lockdowns and vaccines. I divided the country. Trudeau is to

00:02:49.080 blame. Trudeau is terrible. And again, if he had any sense of decency, he would resign and he would not

00:02:54.760 be prime minister. But of course, that's not true. Of course, Justin Trudeau doesn't have any decency.

00:02:59.160 He doesn't have any honor and therefore he twisted it and spun it in his victory speech last night,

00:03:05.400 saying that he was given a mandate, saying that it's clear, saying that he won and basically acting

00:03:11.640 as though he had just won a majority government, even though he hadn't. It was absolutely despicable.

00:03:16.040 Justin Trudeau is a big, big loser of the night and Canadians are worse off this morning because of it.

00:03:22.600 But as I said in my intro, I think that the conservatives are the big losers. The conservatives

00:03:27.480 are the big losers and I will spend this show explaining why. Look, when it comes to Aaron O'Toole,

00:03:33.240 I'll just be completely frank. He comes from the opposite side of the conservative movement and party

00:03:38.680 than me. I like to see a conservative who is strong in principles, strong on their values,

00:03:42.680 unapologetic, willing to defend conservatism, willing to live their values and have a distinct

00:03:48.920 difference between the liberals and the conservatives. That's just the kind of conservative that I am.

00:03:54.440 I think that typically in the party, those people, people like me are described as true blue,

00:03:59.240 people who really believe in conservatism, really believe in things like a smaller government,

00:04:04.600 a traditional role for families, strong families and a strong economy. And those things come first.

00:04:10.440 When it comes to the culture wars, yes, they're willing to defend, defend Canada, defend the West,

00:04:15.320 defend our pipelines and our energy industry and defend Canada, not be apologetic,

00:04:20.440 not pretend to be something that you're not, not buy into the sort of woke media landscape and the

00:04:26.360 narrative that is pushed that you have to repeat these woke lines that are being shoved down our

00:04:31.320 throat by a radical fringe left. I believe that a conservative should stand up against those things,

00:04:36.280 that they should be strong and firm. So look, Aaron O'Toole is not exactly my cup of tea,

00:04:41.560 but here at True North, I try to give him the benefit of the doubt and to cover him with an open mind.

00:04:46.760 So I wasn't overly critical of him during the campaign, even though there were a lot of things

00:04:50.760 that he did that I severely disagreed with. And that's because look, he has a different,

00:04:56.360 comes from a different side of the movement than me. And he had a different strategy. The whole idea

00:05:00.840 was that he was going to run as a moderate, run as a centrist, sort of try to court people in the

00:05:07.160 middle. So he basically ditched the entire social conservative wing of the party. He wasn't really

00:05:12.760 willing to take on any of the cultural war, cultural battles that are happening in our

00:05:17.640 country right now. He pretty much stayed silent on all of them. At one point, he did say that he

00:05:21.720 would raise the flag to full staff. That should be obvious that that's, yes, that's good. And it was

00:05:27.320 good to see him do that. I would have liked to see a lot more of that from him. But regardless,

00:05:33.160 he cut the social conservatives out of the party. He didn't let someone like Pierre Lemieux even run

00:05:39.240 in the first place. When it came to the vaccine passports, the same kind of thing. A conservative

00:05:44.040 should stand strongly against that kind of huge overreach and growth in government. The government

00:05:49.560 should not be given that kind of responsibility over our lives. We shouldn't entrust the government

00:05:54.280 to oversee something like that. A conservative needs to stand against that kind of thing. 0.95

00:05:58.760 O'Toole didn't. Okay, fine. It was his strategy. His strategy was that he was going to sort of mirror

00:06:03.480 Trudeau on that wedge issue so he didn't lose the campaign over it. Fair enough. When it came to the

00:06:08.440 sort of, again, more libertarian issues, he didn't make any effort whatsoever to appeal to the

00:06:14.440 anti-lockdown crowd. He sort of just let those people go to Maxime Bernier. Let Maxime Bernier

00:06:19.640 really own that issue. And by the end of the campaign, we had sort of conservatives angrily

00:06:24.520 saying a vote for Maxime Bernier is a vote for Justin Trudeau as if that was going to make the

00:06:29.320 difference. And as if they owned those votes, that it was mandatory that if you're a libertarian,

00:06:33.640 you must vote for the conservative party, even though the conservatives weren't offering

00:06:37.640 anything to try to appeal to libertarians, appeal to even conservative sensibilities on limited

00:06:43.080 government and putting freedom first. So again, disappointing to see those two things happen.

00:06:49.080 But the reason I was willing to entertain it is the idea that perhaps Aaron O'Toole had tapped into

00:06:54.040 this strategy that he was going to run as a red Tory. He was going to run as a centrist. He was going to

00:06:58.520 appeal to all of these people in the middle who vote liberal, but maybe they were disaffected with

00:07:03.640 Justin Trudeau and they had nowhere else to go because all of the other parties are fringe and

00:07:08.360 far left. So that was a strategy, kept an open mind. And I think that the results last night

00:07:14.040 speak for themselves. Aaron O'Toole's strategy did not work. It did not work. He did not make any

00:07:20.360 inroads in Toronto. In fact, he lost several seats in the 905 that the conservatives had won under Andrew

00:07:26.440 Scheer. So Andrew Scheer, open socially conservative, Catholic guy, family guy, didn't apologize for his

00:07:31.320 conservative values. Andrew Scheer stood strongly against UN overreach. He maintained his conservative

00:07:37.080 principles. And yes, I wish there were some areas where he was even more strong and would push back

00:07:41.480 even more like the Paris declaration. But regardless, in comparison, Andrew Scheer seems like a much,

00:07:47.480 much more conservative candidate than Aaron O'Toole. So the idea that Aaron O'Toole didn't even gain seats

00:07:54.680 in Toronto, he didn't even win the 905, the suburban belt around Toronto, that it seemed like his entire

00:07:59.800 campaign was geared toward. But not just that, the conservatives got decimated in the lower mainland,

00:08:04.920 in British Columbia. They basically, from our analysis and what Hamish Marshall was saying last

00:08:09.560 night, they lost the Chinese vote, the ethnic inroads that had been made under Harper are

00:08:14.920 continuing to fade away. So you're losing the vote of new Canadians. And so at this point, you have to

00:08:20.280 stop and say, wait a minute, what was it all for? Aaron O'Toole ran a campaign where he basically

00:08:26.280 threw the conservatives in his party under the bus. He shunned social conservatives. He shunned

00:08:30.600 freedom-loving libertarians. He ran as a centrist. He ran basically as a liberal light candidate. And

00:08:37.400 he didn't even make the inroads that he needed. It seemed like his entire campaign was geared towards

00:08:43.400 appeasing the media and trying to appeal to people who, let me be frank, are never going to vote for

00:08:48.280 conservatives. You're never going to win over these people, no matter how much you try to act like

00:08:52.200 Justin Trudeau. You cannot out-Trudeau Justin Trudeau. And this is an incredible failure of

00:08:58.440 judgment and failure of strategy. And I think there needs to be a reckoning with Aaron O'Toole

00:09:03.720 as the leader of the Conservative Party within the Conservative movement, because his strategy didn't

00:09:07.960 pan out. It didn't work. He didn't win. Instead, he alienated the entire Conservative base, including

00:09:14.360 people who trusted him that he was going to run. Remember, he ran as a true blue. He said that

00:09:19.240 throughout his leadership campaign, the options for leadership of the party were Peter McKay,

00:09:24.600 who was a known red Tory, and Aaron O'Toole. And the idea why so many people threw their support

00:09:29.400 behind Aaron O'Toole was because they believed that he was the more conservative option. It turned

00:09:35.080 out that that wasn't the case. And this became evident throughout the campaign. I want to read a post

00:09:39.960 that Aaron O'Toole put on his Facebook in the final days of the campaign, because I think it's just

00:09:45.400 incredibly telling of the kind of strategy that he had, the kind of campaign he led, and the kind

00:09:50.440 of man that he is. So let me read this right here. I want to talk to the many Canadians who are tuning

00:09:55.560 into this election, and maybe hopefully looking at the Conservatives for the first time. I know some of

00:10:00.440 you are hesitant because of things you may have heard or impressions that are a little out of date.

00:10:05.320 I know that you may not hear all that much from Conservative politicians. I understand that for years

00:10:09.960 you've been let down by the Liberals. Okay, so far, so good. I guess he's trying to talk to people who

00:10:14.760 don't typically vote for Conservatives. So let's see what he has to say here. He says,

00:10:20.200 but really, if we're being honest, you've been let down by parties of all stripes, mine included.

00:10:26.440 I just want to say upfront that I know my party has ground to make up. And so I'm here to listen to

00:10:32.440 you. I want to know your thoughts, hopes, fears, and dreams. And I hope when Monday rolls around,

00:10:37.800 even if you're a little uncertain about your vote, you'll look at Canada's Conservatives a little

00:10:42.360 differently, a little differently. So basically what he's saying here is he's apologizing for the

00:10:47.240 Conservatives in his party. He's apologizing for the Conservative positions his party has taken in the

00:10:51.800 past. And he wants you to know that under his watch, the Conservatives are different. Okay, so let's

00:10:57.400 continue reading. From the first day of my leadership, my priority has been to build a

00:11:02.920 Conservative movement where every Canadian feels at home, inclusive, diverse, forward-looking,

00:11:10.280 socially progressive, and worker-friendly. As you look ahead to voting this election,

00:11:16.920 I ask for your support. Okay, so we have all the left-wing buzzwords that he's included there. He

00:11:21.960 wants you to know that the Conservative Party is now diverse and focused on diversity and inclusion,

00:11:28.280 which we know is sort of left-wing academic buzzword. Look, the Conservative Party has always been

00:11:33.000 diverse. Ever since I first went to a Conservative Party event, which was probably about 15 years ago

00:11:39.240 in Vancouver, the first thing you notice about the room is that it's diverse. There's people of all

00:11:44.360 backgrounds, all walks of life, all ethnicities. We were talking about this last night, that the whole

00:11:49.640 idea that Conservatives are innately homophobic or anti-gay is just obviously untrue. If you get,

00:11:57.320 if you work in Conservative politics or you're around Conservative politics, you recognize very

00:12:01.720 quickly that there are a lot of people who are gay in the Conservative movement, a lot of people who

00:12:06.280 identify as LGBTQ, a lot of people from different walks of life. Again, so the idea that Conservatives

00:12:13.000 oppose that has always been nonsense, always been a media lie. But again, here, Erin O'Toole is repeating it,

00:12:19.160 and basically cementing those negative left-wing media stereotypes about Conservatives,

00:12:24.280 admitting that they're true, and promising and pledging to be better. So here he says he wants to

00:12:29.720 be forward-looking, socially progressive, and left-wing. So again, he's applying that he wants

00:12:36.120 to be forward-looking, which implies that the former Conservative Party was, what, backwards-looking.

00:12:40.760 He wants to be socially progressive, which means socially left-wing, it means woke. So why is Erin O'Toole

00:12:46.600 pledging to be woke in the final week of the campaign? If you're a Conservative in this party,

00:12:50.840 who has long voted Conservative, who has been loyal to the party, and you see something like that,

00:12:55.160 you read something like that, that was the focus of his campaign in the final week. He was giving

00:12:59.400 speeches to that end, that was what he was talking about, apologizing for the Conservative Party,

00:13:04.360 saying that the past, they were wrong, and he wants to move it in a more left-wing direction. Well,

00:13:09.320 I've got news for you, Erin O'Toole. When you talk like that, when you campaign like that,

00:13:13.640 when you say those kind of things, when you run on a campaign trying to please the media, trying to

00:13:17.480 please the left, and to get those people to win over, what you're really doing is you're throwing

00:13:22.120 your own base under the bus. You're making Conservatives who have long supported and voted

00:13:26.200 for your party feel like you don't want them, and that you're ashamed of them, and that you are basically

00:13:30.920 apologizing for them. So look, Erin O'Toole didn't do what he said he was going to do. He didn't

00:13:35.960 make the inroads that he was hoping to. He didn't make the progress that he wanted. Instead, he alienated his

00:13:41.640 base. He didn't pick up seats and make the ground by picking up those moderate or those liberal voters,

00:13:46.920 and instead, he let the entire Conservative movement down. There needs to be a reckoning.

00:13:51.640 I'm Candace Malcolm, and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.

Juno News - September 21, 2021

The Conservative strategy failed. There needs to be a reckoning.

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