Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Polyev roasted Laurentian elites this weekend, and said the recently resigned cabinet minister Stephen Guilbeau fits in with the NDP s brand of crazy next to the furries and queers for Palestine. A new poll finds that without a family doctor, Canadians are more than twice as likely to struggle accessing the rest of Canada s health care system, including early screening for cancer.
00:00:00.000Conservative leader Pierre Polyev roasted Laurentian elites this weekend and said the
00:00:10.760recently resigned cabinet minister Stephen Guilbeau fits in with the NDP's brand of crazy
00:00:17.840next to the quote furries and queers for Palestine.
00:00:22.240Following the resignation of Stephen Guilbeau last week, Mark Miller has been appointed to
00:00:26.840Prime Minister Mark Carney's cabinet to assume the role of Canadian culture minister.
00:00:31.580A new poll finds that lacking a family doctor could mean Canadians are more than twice as
00:00:36.540likely to struggle accessing the rest of Canada's health care system including early screening for
00:00:42.660cancer. Hello Canada it's Tuesday December 2nd and this is the True North Daily Brief. I'm Cosmin Georgia
00:00:49.500and I'm Jeff Knight. We've got you covered with all the news you need to know. Let's discuss the top
00:00:55.720stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.
00:01:02.520Conservative leader Pierre Polyev roasted several politicians and members of the media during the
00:01:08.640annual parliamentary press gallery dinner over the weekend taking shots at Prime Minister Mark Carney,
00:01:15.500former Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeau and Green Party leader Elizabeth May. Comedian Chris
00:01:22.040Wilson was giving a speech impersonating Polyev during the dinner on Saturday night as he routinely
00:01:28.840does on CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Over the weekend Wilson roasted the conservative leader on
00:01:36.360losing his seat, cabinet turmoil, his new riding and being disliked by the media. Polyev then crashed the
00:01:43.880performance to give a roast of his own with Wilson handing him an apple before exiting the stage as a nod to
00:01:51.480Polyev's now infamous encounter with a journalist at a British Columbia apple farm. Polyev opened with a joke
00:01:58.640calling Wilson the quote team you version of me while saying that he was also the most expensive comedian
00:02:06.680at the CBC and the most expensive on a quote cost per laugh basis. He then touched on former environment
00:02:15.160minister Stephen Guilbeau who resigned from his role as Canadian identity and culture minister last week
00:02:21.640after Ottawa and Alberta signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at advancing major infrastructure
00:02:28.520projects including a potential pipeline to the west coast. The whole thing has us all thinking about
00:02:35.160caucus management. I think that Stephen Guilbeau would actually agree that this is very important. I hear that the NDP
00:02:42.280actually rejected having Guilbeau join their caucus. What an ego blow. Come on Don. Is Don Davies here tonight?
00:02:49.960Don, come on man. Beggars can't be choosers and surely Stephen Guilbeau's brand of crazy would fit in right
00:02:59.320between the delegation of furries and the queers for Palestine. The conservative leader then took aim at
00:03:06.920the CBC and the prime minister saying that if he defunded the state broadcaster they could always move
00:03:13.320their quote head office to a Caribbean tax haven so that Brookfield could pay for it. Polyev added that another
00:03:20.520method the CBC could use to fund itself outside of taxpayers would be for CBC anchor David Cochran
00:03:28.680to quote start charging for the water he carries for the Liberal Party. So Jeff this seems to be in
00:03:36.040good humor Polyev was in good spirits when he did this obviously there's some playful jabbing on both
00:03:44.280parts. What other jokes did Polyev say during this appearance that stood out? Yeah it was pretty
00:03:51.400it was pretty funny. There was a few standout jokes from Polyev that really kind of got me cracking up
00:03:57.640when he called Wilson the Timu version of himself the most expensive comedian on a cost per laugh basis
00:04:05.240but my favorite was when he was going after Elizabeth May and he referenced Carney's disastrous
00:04:12.280appearance at the Grey Cup and said that he got more booze than Elizabeth May's liquor cabinet.
00:04:18.040He got her again when he said that she's so eco-focused that even her liquor cabinet runs on
00:04:22.840solar power. It's like a running theme with Elizabeth May here I think. He also went after
00:04:28.840Stephen Gilbo's resignation quipping that Gilbo finally found a job where he could hug a tree without
00:04:33.960getting arrested and of course many of you will remember how Gilbo got arrested trying to climb the CN
00:04:40.200tower for I believe it was for Greenpeace. For the CBC closer he suggested that if he defunded the CBC
00:04:45.800they could relocate the head office to a Caribbean tax haven so Brookfield could foot the bill. It kind
00:04:51.560of reminded me of Ricky Gervais famous opening monologue at the 2020 Golden Globes and according
00:04:57.000to commenters on X Pierre's stand-up was way funnier than the Wilson routine.
00:05:01.080Prime Minister Mark Carney has shuffled his cabinet in the wake of Stephen Gilbo's resignation from
00:05:10.360his portfolio with the Prime Minister appointing Montreal MP Mark Miller as the new Minister of
00:05:15.720Canadian Identity and Culture. The swearing in took place on Monday at Rideau Hall with Governor
00:05:20.520General Mary Simon presiding. Miller's return to the cabinet marks a notable reversal for the Carney
00:05:25.800government. A long-time ally of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Miller previously held
00:05:30.680several senior posts including Immigration, Crown Indigenous Relations and Indigenous Services
00:05:37.160before being removed from cabinet earlier this year when Carney took office. His reinstatement
00:05:41.880restores him to a cabinet role that oversees the Liberal government's online streaming act which has
00:05:47.000been dubbed censorious by civil liberties groups. At a late October meeting of the Justice Committee,
00:05:53.080Miller argued that the Bible includes hateful passages that should be prosecuted
00:05:58.040when deciding how to deal with hate crimes. Conservative leader Pierre Polyev attacked Miller
00:06:02.840in response to the news of a Liberal bloc deal removing religious exemptions from the government's
00:06:08.040Combating Hate Act, Bill C-9. Carney also reassigned Public Works and Procurement Minister
00:06:14.040Joel Lightbound, naming him Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement,
00:06:20.120and elevating him to Quebec Lieutenant. Lightbound, first elected in 2015, received his first cabinet
00:06:26.360role only after April's election but will now serve as the Prime Minister's senior political
00:06:31.080representative in the province. Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie de Bruisen's title has
00:06:36.520been expanded to include responsibility for nature, reflecting a consolidation of federal
00:06:41.560conservation files. So, Cosmin, what does this cabinet shuffle tell us about the state of the Liberal
00:06:46.840Party right now? Yeah, Jeff, I think it would be a good time to go into a little bit of a recap
00:06:53.000of Mark Carney's cabinet, because we have to remember he's only been in office since March.
00:06:59.160And from day one, he sort of signaled this idea that he wanted a very different looking team.
00:07:07.800His first cabinet was unveiled back in March, and this is before the election,
00:07:13.400when he was essentially when he after he became liberal leader and essentially took over former
00:07:20.600Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's role. And they made a big show about this as being like a dramatic reset,
00:07:28.360a leaner group of just 23 cabinet ministers, you know, cutting quite a few. It was a substantial
00:07:35.560downsizing. And he at the same time, he brought in quite a few loyalists to Trudeau. So you saw Francois
00:07:44.680Philippe Champagne come back. He remains in Carney's cabinet. And importantly, right, we saw Stephen
00:07:55.080Gilbeau hold over from the Trudeau cabinet, where he took on his role as culture and identity minister.
00:08:02.040And then comes the election. So the Liberals scrape by with their minority. And Carney actually expands
00:08:11.000his cabinet by a few positions. He actually got a lot of blowback during his initial cabinet choices,
00:08:18.920one of them being because he removed the Minister of Women entirely. But he reintroduces that and also
00:08:27.400expands his cabinet a little bit and introduces 10 secretaries of state, bringing in quite a few
00:08:33.560rookies, mind you. Additionally, he moves Anita Anand to Foreign Affairs, David McGinty to Defense,
00:08:41.400Sean Fraser also gets shifted. And then there's a new AI minister with Evan Solomon.
00:08:48.040But here we are now with a mini shuffle. It's not a huge cabinet overhaul, which indicates that he's
00:08:57.800actually trying to continue with the same team he's assembled to some degree. But he brings in Mark
00:09:04.600Miller to replace Gilbeau. Now, to me, that's actually an indication of closer ties to his predecessor,
00:09:13.640given the fact that Mark Miller was actually an attendee at Justin Trudeau's wedding. If I'm
00:09:21.160not mistaken, I think he was actually one of the groomsmen at the wedding. You can see there's
00:09:27.000pictures of him holding Justin Trudeau and like they're all together. So it tells us two things.
00:09:33.240First, Carney is able to patch holes pretty quickly. I mean, Gilbeau has been
00:09:38.920a holdout from the Trudeau era, but now he's gone. But he brings back in Miller, who I would say is
00:09:46.360actually a much better representative of the Trudeau era than Gilbeau in the sense that he was way
00:09:54.840closer to Trudeau than Gilbeau was. Gilbeau was more of a ideological fellow traveler. And additionally,
00:10:03.960Miller knows the cultural and language file pretty well. He once served as the immigration minister,
00:10:12.440and he's got a lot of background and sway within the Liberal Party. But additionally, it also shows
00:10:20.120how reactive Carney has been. And he's had to have been on his feet this whole time because of the
00:10:25.960constantly shifting internal dynamics within his party. A new poll reveals a stark reality that one
00:10:36.440in five Canadians lack a family doctor, making them more than twice as likely to struggle with early
00:10:42.760cancer screenings and non-emergency medical care. A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute,
00:10:49.960conducted in partnership with the Canadian Cancer Society, found that 19% of Canadians
00:10:56.280do not have a family doctor, and another 30% have a doctor but find it difficult to get an appointment.
00:11:04.680The study also found that a lack of access to a family doctor has a rippling effect on access to
00:11:10.520other parts of Canada's health care system. More than a quarter of Canadians, 26%, report chronic
00:11:18.280difficulty accessing health care, while a third of respondents said they face some challenges.
00:11:25.080Only 16% said they were comfortable accessing health care in the last six months.
00:11:31.480Of those with a family doctor, 31% found it difficult or very difficult to book an appointment for early
00:11:39.000detection or cancer screening. In stark contrast, 76% of those without a family doctor reported difficulty
00:11:46.440accessing the same service within the last six months. Similarly, 30% of those with a doctor
00:11:53.080reported difficulty accessing non-emergency treatment in the last six months, compared to 74% of those without
00:12:00.200a family doctor. Canadian health care is in a troubling situation and in dire straits, Jeff. When we look at the
00:12:09.240opinion polls, that reflects that. People are not having a good experience, an efficient experience. But aside just from the polls, what are some objective statistics or data points that
00:12:23.240demonstrate the state of our health care system? Well, Kosman, for starters, a 2ndstreet.org study from FOI requests across provinces showed that at least 23,746 patients died on wait lists for surgeries.
00:12:27.240and diagnostic scans in the 2024-2025 fiscal year alone. That's up 3% from the previous year in regions with comparable data, and it brings the total, since 2018, to over 100,000 deaths while waiting for care.
00:12:49.240Extrapolating for gaps in reporting, like full data from Alberta, the real number could be closer to 50,000 for last year.
00:12:59.240Wait times are brutal, too. In July 2024, an Ontario doctor reported referring a patient to an ENT specialist only to get slapped with a three-year wait, which is par for the course in a system where 6.5 million Canadians, about one in five, don't have a family doctor.
00:13:15.240Retention's another killer. A leaky bucket 20-25 report from the Institution for Canadian Citizenship found that 36% of immigrant healthcare workers leave Canada within five years of arriving, often due to endless red tape
00:13:33.240credentialing hurdles that trap over 13,000 internationally trained physicians in limbo, unable to practice despite shortages of 23,000 GPs and 60,000 nurses.
00:13:45.240Health groups like the Royal College of Physicians and the College of Family Physicians have testified that Ottawa never consulted them on how ramping up immigration
00:13:54.240medication, 395,000 permanent residents this year alone, slams the system without the capacity to integrate them.
00:14:01.240And don't get me started on drug shortages. Over 1,800 different types of medicine are in short supply, forcing folks like a Crohn's patient in Oshawa to drive 300 kilometers, call 20 pharmacies a day, and cross into New York eventually for life-saving medicine.
00:14:16.240Chemo patients are jetting abroad too, and the uptick in border runs has doubled in recent years.
00:14:22.240It's a total mess. Preventable deaths, brain drain, and folks rationing time and cash just to stay alive.
00:14:28.240That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by subscribing to The Daily Brief on iTunes and Spotify.
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