Juno News - Trudeau claims Albertans support his climate policies

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

00:01:00.000 welcome to canada's most irreverent talk show this is the andrew lawton show brought to you by true

00:01:20.420 north hello and welcome to you all this is another edition of canada's most irreverent

00:01:30.860 talk show the andrew lawton show here on true north on this wednesday october 4th you're already

00:01:36.320 halfway through the week so congratulations you made it through as i mentioned on the show

00:01:41.240 yesterday i am on the road this week hence the unusual environment from which i am broadcasting

00:01:47.360 I'm in the nation's capital of Ottawa, and after the show yesterday, I decided to take a little bit of a walk around, went down by the Parliament buildings, and I was there at the moment the question period had ended.

00:02:01.120 And why that's significant is because I was out in front of West Block in that building, which is, well, as the name suggests, on the west side of the Parliamentary Precinct, and a bunch of members of Parliament were coming out, Cabinet Ministers.

00:02:12.980 Justin Trudeau, I think he snuck out a back door, but all of these people, these very important

00:02:17.500 people in Canada's government and parliament were there. And when you come out, you walk south

00:02:23.620 towards Wellington Street, which you may be familiar with as the centre, the epicentre of

00:02:28.280 the Freedom Convoy protests a couple of years back. But yesterday, there was a different type

00:02:34.200 of truck on Wellington Street at that exact spot, this serendipitous moment I snapped a picture of.

00:02:40.560 let's throw that up there for those watching. Ah, yes, no one wants to freeze in the dark. That was

00:02:47.400 a truck being driven courtesy of the Alberta government, which has launched an $8 million

00:02:52.920 ad campaign opposing, among other things, the federal government's commitment to net zero,

00:02:58.160 a very aggressive pledge, which will have very real consequences for the economy. Now,

00:03:03.480 I don't know how many times that truck was circling the block, but he ended up,

00:03:06.920 it was a male. I'm not being like gender bias here. It was a male driver, ended up at that

00:03:12.680 perfect spot at that perfect moment where we will discuss, among other things, whether the people

00:03:18.860 that need to see that message are listening. Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schultz

00:03:23.340 joins us now. Rebecca, great timing on that, by the way. I don't know if you were the ones like

00:03:27.860 with the roadmap saying you got to turn on to Wellington at, you know, exactly 302, but it

00:03:32.520 worked? You know, we obviously didn't give that specific of direction. But I mean, it is an

00:03:39.260 important message for MPs from across the country to see, especially those who are part of the

00:03:46.580 federal liberal government, because Canadians right across our country, not just in Alberta,

00:03:51.580 but we're hearing this across the prairies in Atlantic Canada, that the draft clean electricity

00:03:57.120 regulations, not only are they wildly expensive, they're completely unrealistic, and they will risk

00:04:03.080 leaving Canadians in the dark. This is completely unacceptable, and that's why we launched this

00:04:08.800 campaign. You know, one of the challenges here is that this is a campaign that costs a fair bit of

00:04:15.980 money, and I know that when you're dealing with provinces and governments, the budgets are very

00:04:20.120 large, but $8 million, still not insignificant here. Why can you not just pick up the phone

00:04:25.340 and call your federal counterpart?

00:04:27.100 Why can Premier Danielle Smith not just pick up the phone

00:04:29.440 and talk to the federal government the way you'd hope

00:04:31.780 in a federation levels of government communicate and cooperate?

00:04:36.300 You know, unfortunately, what we've seen is that the federal government

00:04:39.540 has not listened to provinces, and they certainly haven't listened

00:04:43.100 to electricity providers on essentially why these regulations are so problematic.

00:04:49.680 They say that they consulted, but then when they came out

00:04:52.340 with draft one of the clean electricity regulations,

00:04:55.340 like very little, almost none of that feedback that was provided by provinces or our electricity

00:05:01.880 companies was listened to or included. And so, you know, from here, I mean, we are in discussions

00:05:08.860 with the federal government, we as in Alberta, about these specific regulations and other pieces

00:05:14.000 of legislation or regulations that the federal government is looking at that would impact

00:05:18.660 uh our economy jobs and the well-being of albertans but specifically here uh this is

00:05:25.140 something that will impact all canadians and if the federal government um you know first of all

00:05:30.420 they've showed that they haven't been listening to the provinces they haven't been listening to

00:05:33.480 companies i think that hearing from canadians is is one way that hopefully we can remind them of

00:05:40.360 who we're here to serve and why these regulations cannot go forward the way they've been presented

00:05:46.920 Albertans, Canadians, they do not want to see their electricity bills go up three, four, five times, right?

00:05:52.780 The cost estimates are up to $1.7 trillion.

00:05:56.260 Canadians will have to pay for that somehow on their taxes, on their bills.

00:06:00.540 We see other countries around the world.

00:06:02.380 We see also places like California, Texas, Germany, where they are actually facing rolling brownouts, blackouts, rationing power and going back to coal-fired generation.

00:06:13.080 We don't want that.

00:06:13.800 what we're saying to the federal government is be a partner. Let's have discussions where we put

00:06:19.240 ideology aside and use common sense and put Albertans and Canadians and their very real

00:06:24.440 concerns about affordability and reliability first. Justin Trudeau yesterday said that Albertans are

00:06:31.500 quote all in for what his government is doing on this. Now I would say given the narrative that

00:06:39.040 emerged during the last election campaign in which your UCP got a majority that Albertans are not

00:06:43.720 all in for the Liberal government's approach to this. But I mean, how do you even reconcile that

00:06:49.580 claim with the experiences that you're seeing from your constituents? Yeah, you know, it's

00:06:55.440 interesting that they pick and choose facts. And they do misrepresent, I think, the feedback that

00:07:01.420 they've been hearing from especially Alberta power companies. I mean, we've been meeting with

00:07:05.260 companies over the last number of weeks to understand why these regulations are so problematic.

00:07:09.760 A number of those companies are and their representatives are actually in Ottawa providing that very real feedback.

00:07:16.600 You know, we saw Minister Guibeau say, for example, Capital Power is fully supportive.

00:07:21.960 Well, Capital Power also said that they can't do this before 2045.

00:07:25.940 So, you know, I think it's it's a little disingenuous, to be honest with you.

00:07:31.180 It's not 100 percent truthful.

00:07:33.020 we know that the way that these regulations are written right now absolutely cannot be implemented

00:07:39.780 in Alberta and even our independent system operator has raised concerns about grid reliability and

00:07:45.780 what I break that down to is I mean I represent a lot of young families we have a lot of seniors

00:07:51.920 when we're talking about rationing power think about that in other places they ration power at

00:07:57.460 areas of or times of high demand so 4 and 9 pm when i think about that i think about families

00:08:04.100 and the people i serve picking up their kids from school doing homework trying to have dinner

00:08:09.540 getting to kids activities and doing that in the dark while paying more for less reliable power

00:08:16.580 i just don't think that that's what anybody wants to see and you know when we look at the criminal

00:08:21.860 code aspects that Minister Guibault has suggested that there will be criminal code, essentially

00:08:28.860 sanctions under the Environmental Protection Act for powering our grid. That is a very real problem.

00:08:37.440 And I don't think that that's what Albertans or Canadians want to see.

00:08:40.480 You mentioned capital power, which I think raises an interesting and important point here. Is your

00:08:45.100 issue the timeline? Because the government has been on emissions reduction schemes in general,

00:08:49.800 very aggressive. And I think they keep rewriting the timeline and giving the country and the

00:08:54.340 provinces and everyone in it less and less time to do this. But so is that the issue? Or is it

00:08:59.540 the fundamental ask underlying it irrespective of the timeframe? I mean, first of all, of course,

00:09:04.880 this is an area of provincial jurisdiction. So this is another area where the federal liberal

00:09:10.700 government is infringing on an area of provincial jurisdiction. And I think the big issue here is

00:09:15.840 they fundamentally do not understand how power generation works in each of the provinces

00:09:20.960 and they're not treating the provinces as unique so where we're left is a situation

00:09:26.720 where their um prescribed regulations are just they're completely uh not feasible for a couple

00:09:34.960 of reasons one the technology does not exist the standards they put in place have not been tested

00:09:41.360 or proven anywhere in the world and we would have to develop them test them prove them and scale it

00:09:47.840 up across our whole system in just over 10 years that is completely unrealistic the other thing is

00:09:55.200 around the number of um hours that we can run peaker generation so that helps us especially

00:10:01.280 you know think winter it's cold right across canada not just in alberta uh throughout the

00:10:05.760 winter months now if we only have 18 days of peaker capacity where you know the wind isn't

00:10:12.160 blowing the sun isn't shining renewables are not generating the base load that we need and

00:10:16.560 you need natural gas peaker capacity to come in and essentially provide that base load natural gas

00:10:22.720 18 days does not get us through through the month of january that's that that is wildly unreasonable

00:10:30.560 for again not just alberta but right across the country and system operators across the country

00:10:37.040 are saying this just isn't feasible um and so you know i hope that this campaign urges on canadians

00:10:44.080 to tell the feds tell their mps why this is so problematic and you know i hope that mps are

00:10:52.000 are looking at those ads are hearing it on the radio and then are hearing from canadians just

00:10:56.800 how concerned they are are you getting support for this from other provinces you know here's what i

00:11:03.360 would say we've had provinces right across the country articulate um why these regulations are

00:11:09.680 so problematic i mean yesterday uh you know not necessarily specific to clean electricity but the

00:11:15.760 nova scotia um reports around energy poverty right when we talk about energy reliability and

00:11:22.880 energy poverty and why people are at risk because of um the federal government's ideological goals

00:11:30.720 you know reading reports of people asking how do i keep my home how do i keep my home how do i put

00:11:35.680 food on the table how can we afford this carbon tax that is is a problem i mean we've seen ontario

00:11:41.840 system operator also essentially say that the current draft regulations would be problematic

00:11:48.000 for their grid as well we've seen it here in alberta i know saskatchewan is opposed i think

00:11:52.480 a few months ago manitoba also had some concerns and so what we're asking for i think as provinces

00:11:58.080 is some common sense let's not use ideology let's listen to canadians whose top concerns right now

00:12:04.880 are affordability the cost of living obviously the carbon tax is driving um that to a huge extent

00:12:11.120 uh of course in inflation but let's listen to those very real concerns and make sure

00:12:16.000 that you know when when a mom wakes up in the middle of the night with baby that wasn't you

00:12:20.480 you know, too long ago, I remember what that was like. And could you imagine that mom waking up in

00:12:26.980 the middle of the night and not being able to turn on the lights? Like that is the reality of what

00:12:31.500 the federal government is putting forward. I am encouraging the federal government, we are

00:12:35.620 here across Alberta, encouraging the federal government to actually think about the Canadians

00:12:41.040 that this would impact, how it would impact them, and what that would mean in their day-to-day

00:12:46.560 lives, at a time when cost of living is already a top concern, increased electricity bills for

00:12:53.040 less reliable power. That just isn't something that I think Canadians want to see.

00:12:58.400 But, and I think you're very right when you point out how all provinces, and certainly a few in

00:13:03.340 particular, have a shared interest in this. But in terms of going to the extent that Alberta is,

00:13:08.700 you know, maybe not necessarily with an ad campaign, but really asserting provincial

00:13:12.000 jurisdiction here, are you seeing the support from other provinces that you need or would like?

00:13:16.560 You know, I think that we are. I mean, we hear other provinces across the country saying that this is just unreasonable and unrealistic.

00:13:25.180 I mean, I certainly felt like this campaign was something that was needed to make sure that the federal government is hearing those concerns and that we're focusing on, you know, what's really at the heart of the issue, which is the people that we are elected here to serve.

00:13:39.600 and they're very real concerns around affordability and reliability.

00:13:42.500 And, you know, I think what we're seeing out of Atlantic Canada

00:13:44.940 and, of course, across the prairie provinces

00:13:47.320 shows that this isn't just from Alberta.

00:13:50.040 This is an across Canada issue.

00:13:52.040 And it's also why I think the federal government

00:13:54.160 really needs to respect provincial jurisdiction

00:13:56.380 and take the feedback from provinces

00:13:59.540 on what makes their systems unique.

00:14:02.240 Well, I think the last few years has shown

00:14:03.900 that you can certainly make a point by bringing a truck to Ottawa.

00:14:06.360 I know you're doing a different type of truck on Wellington Street there.

00:14:09.760 We had that image.

00:14:11.000 It certainly was noticed by people, whether they'll heed the words on it.

00:14:16.140 And in the radio ads and billboards, time will tell.

00:14:18.940 Minister Rebecca Schultz, always good to talk to you.

00:14:21.200 Thanks for coming on today.

00:14:22.780 You as well. Anytime. Thanks, Andrew.

00:14:24.400 All right. Thanks very much.

00:14:25.940 And I should just point out on this, I'll play this clip because this came up last night.

00:14:30.660 I was chatting. I was meeting with someone I know in Ottawa who's from Alberta.

00:14:34.920 and they were telling me I wasn't invited to it,

00:14:37.240 but there was some Alberta reception last night.

00:14:39.060 And I was like, oh, what's that?

00:14:39.880 Not that I expected to be invited to the big fancy galas in Ottawa

00:14:43.680 or anything like that.

00:14:44.960 But it was interesting.

00:14:46.460 All of these Alberta business leaders were getting together

00:14:48.900 and some of them, of course, are very supportive of the Liberal government

00:14:52.700 and whether that's just jockeying to support whoever's in power, I don't know.

00:14:56.780 But others were bringing very real concerns

00:14:58.800 and not just from the oil and gas sector.

00:15:00.860 So it was very interesting to hear Justin Trudeau make this claim last night.

00:15:05.700 We have a lot of work to do, but the world has a lot of work to do.

00:15:10.800 And as we figure out these solutions, yes, it's about meeting the challenge that we need to meet

00:15:16.980 to face down climate change and ensure a stronger future for our kids.

00:15:22.320 But it's also about putting good jobs in our communities, putting food on the table,

00:15:27.320 and building that bright future for future generations that is the capacity that i know

00:15:33.720 albertans are all in for albertans are all in for the federal government's emission reduction scheme

00:15:43.460 well if that were the i mean maybe all in is a bit of a stretch i mean at the very least there

00:15:47.320 wouldn't be an eight million dollar ad campaign that is on your doorstep if that were the case

00:15:52.460 But even then, I'd say talk to some real Albertans. Talk to people in this province. And when I say that, I'm not just talking about people who are politically conservative and don't like the government for ideological reasons. I'm talking about people, and Minister Schultz made this point very clearly, I think, that are being forced to care about politics when they otherwise wouldn't because of energy issues, energy prices that are continuing to go up.

00:16:16.380 a federal government that is in the face of record inflation levels, a federal government that is

00:16:23.500 imposing a carbon tax that continues to go up, it's an escalator of a tax, and doing so

00:16:30.640 completely unconcerned with the increase that has on cost of living. Now, I don't know if you saw

00:16:38.100 today or yesterday, I think it was, one of these Bank of Canada guys was giving a talk and he was

00:16:44.500 speaking about how inflation is going to cause inflation, where that companies that have to

00:16:50.120 increase their prices to deal with the rising costs of their goods will then have to increase

00:16:56.040 their prices to cover that. And then people will go in it. He said it causes a feedback loop,

00:17:01.320 which is kind of a dumb and obvious point at the same time, because, well, yes, obviously,

00:17:05.840 the rising cost of things causes more things to go up. But that's not a bug of inflation.

00:17:10.980 that is a feature of inflation and of all of the monetary considerations and economic considerations

00:17:16.940 that go into inflation that go into why it is that we are seeing this not just in Canada but

00:17:24.060 elsewhere as well governments have to be very careful about the things that they have control

00:17:30.720 over the things that they can control you can't sometimes put the genie back in the bottle on

00:17:36.400 some of these aspects but what the government can do is not impose new taxes not impose new

00:17:41.980 regulations and new restrictions and new burdens and this is like it's such a fundamentally obvious

00:17:50.580 point you cannot look around in this country and not see that people are hurting that people are

00:17:57.400 struggling that people are going to be driven into bankruptcy if they have not been already

00:18:02.820 that people are genuinely choosing between whether they heat their home or whether they just wrap

00:18:08.940 themselves in a blanket because they cannot afford to do the former certainly not the way they should

00:18:14.340 and if you were to look and maybe i'll have to take some time and read some of these emails look

00:18:19.640 at the emails i've gotten and by the way i've seen this before in ontario many years ago hydro rates

00:18:25.420 electricity were massively concerning for people it had been going up and up and up they had doubled

00:18:30.900 in a very short period of time and a lot of people who lived in in condos and some folks had to rely

00:18:37.540 on electricity to heat their home i mean at the very least they needed electricity to power their

00:18:42.260 air conditioners but people were struggling and people were saying i'm not going to do laundry

00:18:48.260 as often i'm not going to keep my lights on i'm going to unplug these appliances because

00:18:52.820 they could not afford to do it they could not afford to do these things that were so fundamental

00:18:58.260 Heating is not a luxury item, certainly if you live in Alberta.

00:19:01.760 And if you live elsewhere, maybe you don't realize how acutely problematic it is.

00:19:06.160 For example, I was in Edmonton with someone once, and I can't remember what it was.

00:19:10.400 I try to avoid Edmonton as much as I love Alberta.

00:19:13.160 And we were at some public parking lot, and they were looking at these little boxes at all the parking spaces.

00:19:18.080 And they said, what are those?

00:19:19.420 And I said, well, here's a story for you.

00:19:21.500 It's so cold in the winter that people have to plug in their cars at times so that they'll be able to start them up again.

00:19:28.260 and that was to this person a completely foreign concept as it was to me the first time

00:19:33.300 i saw it and this is again one of these things that illustrates how different life is for people

00:19:40.180 in alberta from people in ontario people in the north versus people in the south of canada

00:19:48.020 and this is i think a fascinating fascinating tale that i would marvel at if it weren't so

00:19:56.180 devastating for so many people in this country a government that has zero interest a com a

00:20:02.820 government that has zero interest in the plight of ordinary people especially in parts of the country

00:20:07.460 where the liberals have no vested interest there is no need for the government of canada

00:20:12.660 to worry about what people in alberta are dealing with because people in alberta are never going to

00:20:17.060 vote for the liberals but i think what was being brought up here what was being brought up by

00:20:25.460 rebecca schultz for example that this is not just an alberta versus ottawa thing is important now i

00:20:31.780 think she was being very charitable and very diplomatic i don't want to put words into her

00:20:35.460 mouth but i actually don't believe other provinces have joined up to fight this the way they should

00:20:40.580 have remember a few years ago when the federal carbon tax was under the microscope you had

00:20:44.900 ontario that was leading the charge with a court battle you had saskatchewan that was fighting it

00:20:49.300 you had alberta that was fighting it new brunswick kind of got a little uh got a little cowardly on

00:20:54.820 it and they just joined one of the not even joined they kind of intervened in one of the other fights

00:20:59.460 but nevertheless you had four country four provinces that where there's a freudian slip

00:21:03.460 calling them countries some may wish but you had four provinces that were taking the federal

00:21:07.460 government to court over this now the problem is a lot of those kind of just shut up after they lost

00:21:12.900 after the supreme court of canada ruled and that supreme court of canada decision said yeah the

00:21:17.780 federal government can do what it wants on mandating a carbon tax most provinces just said

00:21:23.620 okay and they carried on. Alberta though is still making a claim to provincial jurisdiction. Now

00:21:29.120 these electricity regulations not the same as the carbon tax although I think the federal government

00:21:34.460 will probably rely on a very similar argument which is to say that climate change is a national

00:21:39.900 issue because now they have this as it's called raised judicata that it's already been adjudicated

00:21:45.540 they're going to say oh yes the supreme court already ruled that climate change is actually

00:21:49.640 a federal responsibility. So all of these things that we do to fight it, therefore our hours.

00:21:55.100 And, you know, it's one thing to see Alberta run this ad campaign. And I think, you know,

00:21:59.640 power to them. If they think that's a worthwhile use of Alberta taxpayer dollars, that's something

00:22:04.100 Alberta citizens can decide. But the point that I would raise beyond that is that they need to

00:22:10.200 be prepared to do more. And Alberta Premier Daniel Smith has already spoken about making this an

00:22:15.820 opportunity to flex the Sovereignty Act, which is the bill, a very controversial bill, the media

00:22:21.520 can't stand it in Alberta, but a bill, I should say a law now, because it's been adopted, that

00:22:27.360 asserts provincial jurisdiction when Alberta feels it has a claim to it, and I think this is

00:22:32.200 incredibly, incredibly important, which is why the federal government is talking about criminal

00:22:37.500 power, because the, again, and you have to understand their endgame here, the Constitution

00:22:41.900 says criminal law is a federal matter. It's very clear on that. So by making this criminal in

00:22:48.160 nature, the federal government is trying to just pull all of this into its constitutional

00:22:54.300 jurisdiction. And I think Alberta is right to say, no, no, no, this is an energy issue. This is a

00:22:59.040 resource issue. This is a provincial matter. So that's going to be what is going to continue

00:23:04.320 happening here. My thanks again to Rebecca Schultz for coming on the show. We all need to do our part,

00:23:09.920 we're told, right? There was this great piece in the Globe and Mail, and by great, I mean infuriating

00:23:14.780 but entertaining at the same time. Road trips can be environmentally friendly, and the effort is

00:23:21.580 worth the impact. Now, I don't particularly like driving. I find driving to be very tiresome,

00:23:28.240 especially because I live along the 401, which is a highway in Ontario that is a parking lot more

00:23:33.680 often than not. But nevertheless, I understand the romanticization of the open road. My dad,

00:23:38.680 many years ago, used to always fantasize about driving Route 66, which I think is now like

00:23:43.540 Interstate 40 or something, which lacks the charm. But nevertheless, the thing that I find

00:23:49.180 fascinating here is that this is a column that is an ode to the road trip. And I'm like, okay,

00:23:56.100 this is fantastic. And then you read it. And I get concerned with the premise that the author

00:24:02.540 brings to this, which is that there is an issue if you want to have a road trip, but you also want

00:24:07.920 be environmentally conscious i live a beef-free kid-free reasonably car-free life i don't invest

00:24:15.920 in fossil fuels i'm a minimalist i only own one pair of jeans but i like to travel

00:24:21.920 oh this is terrible how is she gonna travel when she is committed to all of these things well

00:24:28.640 there is a way that you can travel and save the planet at the same time just a few simple steps

00:24:35.120 I'm going to share for you. I'm going to read from the Article 1. You should only travel to

00:24:39.340 destinations that are part of the C40, a network of cities that are united to confront climate

00:24:45.040 change. You get 40 cities in the world. I don't know what they are. I'm assuming that some of

00:24:49.820 the more fun places might be on the list. Many might not be. You can also buy carbon offsets

00:24:54.680 if you need to fly somewhere. So you know those air travel things that are seeing an increase in

00:24:59.820 price. Yeah. You've got to voluntarily pay more at checkout to get your carbon credits so that you

00:25:06.440 can sleep at night, apparently. And oh, and you also had to go in a place where you can avoid

00:25:11.440 charger anxiety. So you have to drive and only take routes where you can charge your electric

00:25:17.000 car, which means, of course, it's unstated. You need to make sure you buy or rent an electric

00:25:21.240 car first. Remember that guy we spoke to a few weeks ago on the show who tried to do the right

00:25:25.640 thing by buying an electric truck and then found that he had to like just ditch it on the way

00:25:29.880 on this road trip because there was no way he could reliably charge it yeah that's the part

00:25:35.280 that's not mentioned in this column uh what else do you need to do here make environmentally

00:25:40.200 friendly choices you can go to hotels that have an environmental certification and uh there were

00:25:47.480 a few other tips here there's a website that were recommended that lists local restaurants that

00:25:52.200 uh, eliminate food waste. So, uh, you can of course, lower your environmental impact there.

00:25:57.920 Uh, what else? Some electric vehicle, car rental services.

00:26:02.980 And we got an increase to charger anxiety hotels that are committed to net zero. So I, my Dennis

00:26:09.980 Miller, the comedian had a great bit once he said, the great thing about hotels is that you can just

00:26:14.200 like churn through, uh, towels like Kleenex, which is a very app. Like I use more towels when I'm in

00:26:20.180 hotel for one night than I used in my entire life otherwise. But this is the thing. So you can take

00:26:26.260 a road trip and eliminate 397 kilograms of carbon too. So here's another thing you could do. Just

00:26:32.680 get in the car and go. This is the thing. I mean, the environmentalists have overcomplicated every

00:26:39.120 aspect of your human existence. And it's one thing to make a choice to not have children, to not eat

00:26:44.560 beef, to drive an electric car. It's another thing to take this prescriptive approach, which is the

00:26:49.660 danger here and you wonder about what's going on here because some people may say oh why are you

00:26:54.100 beating up on this column it's just a woman that made a choice this article was sponsored by

00:26:59.620 destination canada which is the government's tourism agency so this is like a narrative of

00:27:06.360 travel that the government of canada is pushing that we're all supposed to travel in a way that

00:27:11.020 monitors our environmental footprints so uh my goodness this is i i am i've never met anyone

00:27:17.500 that pays the carbon offset on their airplane ticket. Ontario has this thing. When you pay

00:27:23.980 your Ontario income tax, there's a section that you can voluntarily pay down the provincial debt

00:27:30.880 in. So you could say, I wish to donate my tax refund to the Ontario government. And every day,

00:27:37.060 believe it or not, people do this. And they raise, I don't know, it's a few hundred thousand,

00:27:40.440 maybe it's a couple of million dollars. People do this. And I'm like, who on earth is voluntarily

00:27:44.680 giving their money to the government? This is the same question. Who on earth is voluntarily

00:27:48.320 paying a carbon offset? I'll tell you who. Liberal cabinet ministers when they travel because,

00:27:53.400 and I'll say it loud for the people at the back, it's not their money. Anyway, last night we had

00:28:00.680 the Manitoba election. Now, I don't pretend to be an expert in Manitoba politics. One of the

00:28:05.720 members of our team is from Manitoba, which is fortunately for me a reminder that Manitoba exists

00:28:11.780 as a province. I have nothing against it. It's just not one I've ever been to. It's the only

00:28:15.960 province, in fact, I've never been to. And some people say maybe I should on principle avoid

00:28:20.640 Manitoba. But no, if there's a reason to go, I will go. But every time I make fun, every time I

00:28:26.320 talk about Manitoba, I end up making fun of Manitoba. And I get like complaints from two

00:28:30.020 people from Manitoba. I think it's the same people. But nevertheless, nothing against Manitoba. I have

00:28:34.780 some fun at its expense from time to time. But last night, the NDP won a fairly decisive majority

00:28:40.640 government, taking over after seven years of PC rule, much of which was governed by Brian

00:28:46.660 Pallister, the very tall man who loved lockdowns more than he loved his pad in Costa Rica,

00:28:52.360 and then he was replaced by Heather Stephenson, who I don't know particularly well or at all,

00:28:58.240 but I know some of the people around her, and I thought she had a decent enough team,

00:29:02.860 did not seem like an inspiring campaign in the least. The issues they were talking about

00:29:09.140 were not big picture issues there was no real broad appeal to conservative principles and

00:29:14.660 despite maybe saying a couple of things that would be agreeable to a lot of people watching

00:29:19.020 or listening to this show there was really nothing offered that was all that compelling

00:29:24.120 now I could point out from a campaign strategy perspective a lot of the reasons why Heather

00:29:29.200 Stephenson and the PCs lost but I will tell you one reason that we cannot blame is the one that

00:29:35.460 some of the commentators in the media have been pushing. One notable example is Rachel Gilmore,

00:29:41.880 a TikTok influencer who used to work at my old company, Global News. She tweeted about the PC

00:29:48.020 loss, making the claim that it was effectively a result of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and that the PCs

00:29:56.040 put that on with their parental rights BS. And as Rachel Gilmore writes, if the results so far are

00:30:03.060 any indication anyone betting on anti-LGBTQ hate as a winning political strategy, and there are many

00:30:09.220 might want to reconsider. Now, there's a lot to unpack in that. I mean, I won't even dignify the

00:30:15.820 part about how standing up for parental rights is hateful or anti-LGBTQ, because I won't accept

00:30:21.780 and do not accept that premise. But the idea that standing up for parental rights cost the PCs the

00:30:26.740 election is a viewpoint that oftentimes you hear when conservatives are going through their own

00:30:32.240 leadership changes, this belief that being conservative is what cost the election, when

00:30:36.660 the reality is the parental rights policies are pretty much the most popular policies that right

00:30:43.340 of center governments, provincially or conceivably the federal party are pushing for right now. These

00:30:49.180 things are tremendously popular, which is why Blaine Higgs is finding so much support in New

00:30:54.060 Brunswick, why Doug Ford, who has typically shied away from anything conservative, has started to

00:30:59.280 talk about parental rights, why Saskatchewan is invoking the notwithstanding clause to defend

00:31:04.600 provincial rights, and why in Alberta this has always been a live issue that unites even a lot

00:31:10.280 of non-conservative politicians. So all of this is to say you can't blame the Manitoba PC's loss

00:31:18.260 on standing up for parental rights. And I think it's going to be a very inconvenient narrative

00:31:22.980 when we look at literally any other election that takes place by a party that has taken such a

00:31:30.380 position. And I think the opposite is true. If there is a party that is going to oppose this,

00:31:36.340 a party that is going to stand against parents and stand against parental rights, I think they

00:31:41.240 will find a very difficult time being relevant. They will find a very difficult time being

00:31:46.280 re-elected. And this is why I think, look, we can talk about whether politicians are leaders or

00:31:52.760 followers. I used to think that we needed to devote considerable effort and energy into electing the

00:31:58.740 perfect politician, find the perfect candidate, find the perfect leader, the perfect platform,

00:32:03.360 the perfect party, all of that. And as you can understand, I've been waiting a little while.

00:32:08.120 I had the great privilege on the weekend of chatting with the Libertarian Party of Canada

00:32:14.960 convention. They were meeting in my hometown. They sent me an invitation. I've never voted for

00:32:19.200 the Libertarian Party of Canada, but I believe that, you know, I am more libertarian than most

00:32:24.100 people. So I think they have a lot of good things to say. And I was happy to have a chat with them.

00:32:27.900 And if any other party were to invite me, I would similarly accept. If the communists want to have

00:32:32.340 me as their keynote speaker, I say, bring it on. You might not like what I have to say, but I will

00:32:37.020 come. But I'll expect to be paid, which the communists might not agree with. Nevertheless,

00:32:41.280 less. We'll wait in the bread line together. But the point of this that I find to be really

00:32:47.060 interesting here is that I said that old Milton Friedman line that I am going to butcher, and I'm

00:32:54.460 not quoting directly, I'm paraphrasing, that I learned about from Mark Stein of basically making

00:32:59.200 the conditions so that even the wrong people will do the right thing needs to be the priority.

00:33:05.400 And I think there's a lot of truth to that with the parental rights discussions that are underway

00:33:10.220 right now. We're politicians that are typically a lot more tepid in their support or willingness to

00:33:16.320 go into cultural battles are coming out in favor of this. Politicians that would not identify or

00:33:21.460 align with social conservatives that are standing up for parental rights. And beyond that, politicians

00:33:27.340 that I think otherwise are wanting to see where the wind blows are finding that, hey, maybe the

00:33:32.300 wind is blowing in this direction. And I've heard a lot of complaints from people about politicians

00:33:38.940 that got involved in the COVID mandate fights

00:33:42.200 only when the Freedom Convoy came to town.

00:33:44.920 The politicians that didn't really speak out

00:33:47.120 against mandates or lockdowns or restrictions

00:33:49.540 that when the convoy came and made it popular

00:33:52.320 decided to get involved.

00:33:55.940 Now, I would say that's not a bad thing.

00:33:59.380 I would say that's a very good thing.

00:34:00.880 I mean, yes, it would be ideal

00:34:02.140 if people could come to it on their own

00:34:04.360 without needing an event like that.

00:34:06.080 But that I think is the power of the convoy

00:34:08.440 as a protest, as a movement, is that it gave enough public support and it gave enough momentum

00:34:14.560 that people that didn't want to take up that fight were prepared to take up that fight. The

00:34:19.340 people that otherwise were too afraid or too nervous or didn't know about the issue or didn't

00:34:23.720 realize the potency of it would get involved, would stand up and say, okay, I'm here with you

00:34:29.640 now. And let's not forget that there is an argument and people may not like it, but there's

00:34:35.200 an argument that we have a one-party system on some issues. And that was never truer than during

00:34:40.140 COVID. When you had all the leaders before that one debate during the 2021 election, recording a

00:34:45.680 PSA telling everyone to get vaccinated, you had everyone that was just going along with the

00:34:50.760 requirements for a time. And when that started to chip away, when that started to erode,

00:34:56.920 that was where the conditions had changed, where people started to do the right thing because

00:35:02.000 of a reflection of the time, because those conditions had changed. And I think that's

00:35:08.600 a very important thing to note here. And on the parental right side of things,

00:35:12.860 the Manitoba PCs made a bunch of tactical errors. They had a leader that didn't really seem to

00:35:18.700 resonate with the electorate, a leader who had never been elected as premier. She won her party's

00:35:24.440 leadership. And if I recall, it was very narrowly her win over Shelley Glover. I can't remember the

00:35:29.920 numbers, but never really resonated with Manitobans. And, you know, just because she said the right

00:35:34.960 thing on parental rights does not mean that was an issue she owned. And in fact, I'd say it's one

00:35:39.580 she's not. Scott Moe in Saskatchewan and Blaine Higgs in New Brunswick are the most vocal. I had

00:35:46.940 always included what Manitoba's PCs were doing as somewhat of an afterthought to that discussion

00:35:53.240 and to that dialogue. So I guess all of this is to say that we cannot blame, we cannot reverse

00:35:59.780 engineer a narrative to explain away an election result like this, just based on this very, very

00:36:07.660 narrow thing that we care about. And I think there's a risk, especially for people who live

00:36:12.380 in that vortex of the internet, people that define reality based on what happens on Twitter and

00:36:17.540 TikTok, there's a very real risk of trying to extrapolate from Twitter events that are far

00:36:25.940 larger and far more complicated than that. And I've been spending a little bit of time

00:36:31.120 on Twitter lately, ever since they monetized it. And now there's like a financial incentive to be

00:36:36.440 tweeting. And then I sort of pulled back because I realized, what am I doing for like, I don't know,

00:36:40.020 $25 every two weeks or whatever, courtesy of Elon Musk. But nevertheless, it's why independent

00:36:45.880 of media is important because you have to have that bridge between the social media world and

00:36:51.160 the real world. You can't just get everything from Twitter. Although I will point out that

00:36:56.260 there was this tweet from Elon Musk that I kind of agree with in principle here. Elon Musk was

00:37:03.400 defending X, which I can't call it Twitter anymore because he's rebranded it to X. But if I say X,

00:37:09.120 I don't think people would know what I'm talking about. He writes, I almost never read legacy news

00:37:14.280 anymore? What's the point of reading a thousand words about something that was already posted on

00:37:18.580 X several days ago? And that is, I think, incredibly true here. We are seeing a declining

00:37:25.040 relevance in the legacy media. The legacy media is picking up at stories for the same places that

00:37:31.460 independent journalists are. And when I say independent journalists, I'm not just talking

00:37:36.020 about independent media outlets like True North. I'm also talking about citizen journalists.

00:37:40.860 This is the one thing that people in media fail to forget is that we are not given some special license or special permission for us to be journalists. We are human beings with the same right to speak freely, the same knack for investigation, the same curiosity that anyone can have, that anyone can exhibit.

00:38:00.820 it. And I think that one of the big challenges that a lot of people are effectively saddled with

00:38:07.760 here is that the media has tried to gatekeep truth. They've tried to gatekeep journalism.

00:38:16.840 And in doing so, they are leaving out huge, huge swaths of the population. And I mentioned this

00:38:25.900 on the show yesterday and i wanted to revisit it this moment that was captured on the weekend

00:38:31.400 pierre polyev was having a very somber interaction at it was on the national day for truth and

00:38:37.600 reconciliation with an inuit elder and uh this became this rather flurry uh this rather flurry

00:38:45.460 of media attention on this when you had the liberal minister uh mark miller uh you know try

00:38:50.840 to be like well actually and say well actually she's inuit and not algonquin when polyev was

00:38:55.620 just saying in his tweet that he met with Algonquin people and this woman was also there and then you

00:39:01.160 had the Canadian press pick it up and Pierre Polyev tried to talk to the Canadian press about

00:39:07.100 this in a very Polyev-esque way yesterday but I wanted to go right to the source on this the

00:39:13.300 woman who was in that photo is a very well-known and very well-respected elder and she joins me

00:39:19.720 now, Manitok Thompson. Wonderful to speak to you. Thanks for joining me today.

00:39:23.860 Oh, thank you. Thanks for giving me the opportunity. Actually, I'm an Inuit knowledge

00:39:29.900 keeper, and I'm a leader. And at that capacity, when I was there, I didn't go there as an elder.

00:39:40.580 I went there because I wanted to speak to somebody about Inuit issues, and Pierre Pauly was there.

00:39:48.820 The Liberal government has, it seemed, often tried to think or pretend that it is the party that speaks to these issues.

00:39:56.920 And it's the only party that speaks to these issues.

00:39:59.060 And ideally, every politician would respond to issues of Inuit people, of Métis people, of First Nations people.

00:40:06.860 So how did you feel when you talking to a leader of a party became this political fight between the Liberals and the Conservatives?

00:40:15.060 I think that's so childish. Just a bunch of children playing games with each other when

00:40:22.580 there's other, there's lots of priorities in Canada that has to be dealt with and I'm so glad.

00:40:29.460 I had a photo with Pierre Pollyot. I'm very glad he was there. It was the Algonquin that led the

00:40:36.900 ceremonies. There were lots and lots of Algonquin people, Inuit, but why would we take pictures of

00:40:45.380 when people are hurting and praying and doing their ceremonies? The only photo that shows is me

00:40:52.100 with Pierre Polliette. And so when he put a statement out that he was happy to meet with the

00:41:00.500 Algonquin elders and leaders, it was very clear that he doesn't mean we're all Algonquin.

00:41:11.460 Because when I met him, when I said I wanted to talk to him, he was very open, a very sincere person.

00:41:19.620 And he said, hello. I said, I'm Anita Thompson. He said, you were the minister in Nunavut and NWT.

00:41:28.420 so he knew who he was talking to

00:41:31.260 and I talked about the Inuit issues

00:41:33.880 he knew exactly who he was talking to

00:41:37.040 but of course the liberal public

00:41:39.400 have twisted that to their advantage

00:41:43.060 but you know

00:41:44.320 it's the most spoken photo right now

00:41:49.520 and I'm very very glad to be in the photo

00:41:52.140 with a conservative

00:41:53.120 and you're saying this not as a woman who has always

00:41:56.640 or perhaps ever identified as a conservative?

00:41:59.220 You wanted to be a liberal candidate at one point.

00:42:02.060 I was a minister in the Nunavut territory.

00:42:06.820 And when I got out of it, I tried for the Liberal Party.

00:42:11.420 I went through all the steps and I visited a lot, a lot of homes.

00:42:21.100 And I know there were a lot of people that signed up for the Liberal Party because of me.

00:42:25.860 But at the end of the day, they didn't accept me.

00:42:30.040 They didn't accept my nomination.

00:42:33.060 They didn't want me.

00:42:34.180 So why are they complaining now?

00:42:37.600 Do you feel that Inuit issues are often left out of broader discussions of Indigenous issues?

00:42:46.720 Well, actually, down here, yeah, because we're so isolated.

00:42:51.140 So whenever I have a chance, because I live in Calton Place, whenever I have a chance, I go to any gathering.

00:42:59.900 And if there's a leader there, I make sure I get close to them and try to get an audience with them.

00:43:06.720 And in this case, Pierre Polliet was very willing to talk to me.

00:43:12.940 And he gave me time to talk to him and he listened to all the issues.

00:43:18.680 The reason why I do it is because we just have one chair in the Parliament of Canada.

00:43:25.480 There's nobody else over there.

00:43:27.980 And for so many years, we had liberal MPs, Inuit, two Inuit MPs for years and years.

00:43:37.600 And we were backbenchers for all that time.

00:43:41.100 And I believe we were just being used as an extra motion person.

00:43:46.800 that chair was being used just for the motion to put more numbers on, one more number.

00:43:53.600 But when the Conservative got an MP, Leona Agluka, they made her a cabinet minister.

00:44:01.760 They respected Inuit. And I was very glad, I'm very glad that there's been a lot of attention

00:44:10.240 and put on that photo, and I'm glad I was with Pierre Paulyat.

00:44:15.400 Now, I mean, I get the sense from what you're saying

00:44:17.940 that you're the type who will speak to anyone

00:44:20.440 and who will have these conversations,

00:44:22.520 but are you a conservative supporter now?

00:44:25.360 Are you a Pierre Paulyat supporter now?

00:44:28.000 I will support him because I've been sworn at,

00:44:33.860 I've been told off, I've been harassed

00:44:36.920 by the liberal public out there, through messages.

00:44:41.660 I was open to any leadership to talk to me.

00:44:47.560 I've always been like that.

00:44:50.060 I'm not there for a selfie.

00:44:52.260 I'm not there to get a photo taken with whoever.

00:44:56.580 But in this case, I was very happy afterwards

00:44:59.680 that I have a photo with Pierre Paulyat

00:45:02.820 because he was willing to listen.

00:45:06.580 And, you know, I really appreciated that because of all the negative harassment I'm getting, I will support this man.

00:45:20.200 Are you thinking of maybe getting back into politics yourself with a federal election coming up?

00:45:25.080 Would you run for his party?

00:45:27.680 Actually, I've been asked by some of the public down here.

00:45:34.620 And I'm not sure at the moment what I will do, because every day I walk into these gatherings and I just speak to whoever can listen to the Inuit issues.

00:45:53.400 And that would be very interesting, wouldn't it be?

00:45:57.360 If I was invited to be nominated in one of the writings down here,

00:46:02.700 that would be something else to have an Inuk member in Parliament

00:46:08.000 representing you, wouldn't that be something else?

00:46:10.420 Well, and hopefully if you do run,

00:46:12.480 they won't treat your nomination papers the way the Liberals did.

00:46:16.220 Well, it was a delight to speak to you, Ms. Thompson.

00:46:19.460 Thank you so much for joining me today.

00:46:20.920 thank you for this time all right thank you that does it for us for today this is canada's most

00:46:27.960 irreverent talk show back tomorrow in just 23 hours and 15 minutes here on true north thank you

00:46:34.020 god bless and good day to you all thanks for listening to the andrew lawton show

00:46:38.580 support the program by donating to true north at www.tnc.news

00:46:50.920 We'll be right back.

00:47:20.920 We'll be right back.

Juno News - October 04, 2023

Trudeau claims Albertans support his climate policies

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