Juno News - Trudeau goes off the rails against independent media

00:00:00.000 The Debates Commission is the biggest loser in last night's French debate, Trudeau goes off the

00:00:04.680 rail against independent media, and we'll talk about how strategic voting could be the

00:00:08.680 Conservatives' Achilles heel. I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.

00:00:17.140 Hi everyone, thank you for tuning into the podcast. Today it's a big day for us at True

00:00:21.540 North because we have a live broadcast coming up a little later on this evening. We're going to go

00:00:26.700 live and give you analysis and live reaction to the English debate. The English debate is

00:00:32.720 happening tonight from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern. We'll be live at 8 p.m. You can find us on YouTube

00:00:38.120 or Facebook, so make sure you check that out. Now today I want to talk about the French debate that

00:00:43.660 happened last night because really, let me just tell you, it was awful. It was awful. I watched it

00:00:48.780 and I sort of wish I didn't. I can't imagine how many people watched it. I don't think very many.

00:00:53.440 The format was terrible. There were way too many people on stage. Look, if we want to have a debate

00:00:58.520 about ideas where we invite all the candidates, all the national leaders, that's one thing. And we

00:01:03.620 can have a debate, definitely include Maxime Bernier. It was ridiculous that one poll yesterday

00:01:07.980 was showing that he was polling at 10% and yet he wasn't at the debate. Meanwhile, we have Anna May

00:01:13.100 Paul, the leader of the Green Party, polling somewhere around 2-3% and she was there. She was

00:01:18.080 really out of her place. Look, I sort of feel sorry for Anna May Paul. She has a pretty terrible 0.92

00:01:22.480 party that seems to be going after her for her Jewish heritage and it's just really ugly over

00:01:27.400 the Green Party. But watching her on the debate stage last night, she just seemed out of her

00:01:31.460 element. She didn't really have substantive ideas on most issues. I could say the same thing about 0.95

00:01:36.420 Jagmeet Singh. I could say the same thing about Yves Blanchet, the bloc leader. None of them really,

00:01:41.220 really had substantive ideas for the country. And looking at this at the stage last night with the

00:01:46.260 five leaders, they basically all agreed on most of the issues. Most of the things that they were

00:01:51.260 talking about, they all sort of agreed. They had little differences here and there with their

00:01:55.120 plans. And in order to really care about those differences, you actually have to trust the

00:01:59.120 politicians to actually follow through on their issues. It's totally irrelevant to hear what the

00:02:03.720 NDP thinks about an issue because they're never going to be, they're never going to form government.

00:02:07.940 Jagmeet Singh is not going to become the prime minister. So it's sort of irrelevant and it lost its

00:02:12.580 flow because there's just too many people on stage. So I would have much preferred to have two

00:02:16.260 different debates. One with just Trudeau and Aaron O'Toole, the two people who might actually

00:02:21.360 become prime minister and have a battle of ideas between the two of them where they really hold

00:02:25.080 each other to the fire. And then have another debate where we have all the party leaders and

00:02:29.220 let them talk about all their various different ideas. At least Maxine Bernier has a different 0.85

00:02:33.540 perspective on most issues. So it would have been a breath of fresh air to just have something

00:02:37.620 different on stage. But instead, we had more of the same. They spent half the night

00:02:41.500 completely bashing Canada's energy industry, all trying to one-up each other about climate change.

00:02:47.600 And it's really interesting because the issues that conservatives care about, the issues,

00:02:51.220 True North's own poll, we asked, and we found that the issues that conservative voters care most about

00:02:56.140 are government spending and debt and jobs in the economy. And those two issues were just barely,

00:03:01.060 barely touched upon in the debate last night. So it was a total failure. Now for me, I'll just say

00:03:06.640 the most interesting part of the debate wasn't the actual debate because the format was just,

00:03:11.080 like I said, so bad. There was barely any pushback. There wasn't really any holding anyone's feet to

00:03:15.480 the fire. There was sort of one passionate moment where Justin Trudeau really lost it at the bloc

00:03:20.260 leader and said that he's just as much of a Quebecer as the bloc leader. I mean, to anyone

00:03:25.360 outside of Quebec, you just kind of roll your eyes at how much these guys pander to Quebec and how

00:03:30.380 obsessed they are with their French Quebec identity. You know, this is supposed to be a national 0.65

00:03:34.380 debate. You're supposed to be prime minister of Canada. The most passionate moment from Trudeau was him

00:03:38.980 defending being a Quebecer. Like, okay, like, good for you. We all know you're from Quebec,

00:03:44.380 Justin Trudeau. But for me, the interesting part, again, is the scrums afterwards. That's when

00:03:49.660 journalists get to ask their own questions. Again, most journalists are just as boring as

00:03:54.040 these politicians. So most of the questions weren't that interesting. But of course, as you probably saw,

00:03:59.060 the Rebel News had an emergency court injunction and they were once again accredited at the last minute.

00:04:04.160 So if you followed True North for a while, you know that back in 2019, we were in the same position.

00:04:09.020 Our reporter, Andrew Lawton, was also barred back then. We took him to court. I took him to court. I

00:04:13.680 was in the federal court in Toronto in 2019. And we won. We got our journalists in. It was a great

00:04:19.040 victory for us here at True North, but also for free speech and media independence, free press,

00:04:25.140 all over Canada, journalists all over Canada. So that was a great moment. They did it again this year.

00:04:29.840 And once again, a federal judge said no to the debates commission. No, you cannot

00:04:34.400 pick and choose who is and who isn't a journalist. The Rebel are just as much journalists and they

00:04:39.020 deserve to be there. So it was great to see the Rebel. They add a little bit of color, a little bit

00:04:43.220 of character. And unfortunately for the Rebel and their journalists, some of the politicians in the

00:04:49.420 debate last night just flat out refused to answer their questions. So I'm talking about Jagmeet Singh,

00:04:52.940 the NDP leader. He was asked a very substantive question about his support of Big Pharma. Traditionally,

00:04:57.800 the left has not been big fans of Big Pharma. And Singh himself rails into billionaires and big

00:05:03.180 transnational corporations. And yet when it came to Big Pharma, he seems to be an ally. So

00:05:07.940 Rebel asked a good question. Singh said he wasn't going to answer. Unfortunately for Singh, the very

00:05:11.900 next question was also from another Rebel reporter who put a great question to him and just said,

00:05:16.680 look, this question isn't from me. This question isn't from the Rebel. This question is from millions of

00:05:21.300 Canadians that want to know your opinion on this. Don't they matter? You know, you're the guy that says

00:05:25.360 that we shouldn't marginalize people, that we should be diverse and inclusive. And yet here you

00:05:30.240 are refusing to answer questions from someone because you perceive them as being right wing

00:05:33.740 and sort of made Singh look really stupid, made him look like the airhead that he is. Once again,

00:05:39.140 he refused to answer that question. So that was pretty pathetic to see. Here we have a debate where

00:05:42.840 they refuse to let a right wing leader in and they refuse to answer questions from right wing media.

00:05:48.020 They're completely excluding part of the country. And that's not good to see.

00:05:52.720 Now, Trudeau's own Andrew Lawton was in there. He asked some great questions. He got a question to

00:05:57.380 Justin Trudeau where he asked about genocide in Canada's history, whether Trudeau believed that

00:06:01.700 we were committing genocide. Of course, Trudeau gave a non-answer. And he asked a good question

00:06:05.940 to Jagmeet Singh, the NDP leader, about Singh's position on hate speech and regulating free speech

00:06:11.900 on the internet. So head on over to tnc.news to check out those clips because you're going to want

00:06:16.280 to watch them. They're really great. I want to show you one clip from the debate last night. This is what

00:06:20.820 it looked like when a rebel journalist got a question to Justin Trudeau. And you can really

00:06:25.760 see how Justin Trudeau turns and starts really just lashing out at this reporter, blaming them

00:06:31.900 for spreading misinformation, saying that they don't report the science, and then how he pivots

00:06:36.580 to start complimenting his friends in the media and really trying to, you know, make them feel good,

00:06:42.240 make them feel warm and fuzzy. I mentioned this the other day on the show as well, that Trudeau loves

00:06:45.860 to do this. He loves to give a little shout out to the journalists, make them all know that he's on

00:06:50.240 their side, that he loves them. It's not these journalists that are a problem. Trudeau loves

00:06:54.640 journalists. He just doesn't like the right-wing journalists. And he really, really demonizes,

00:06:59.200 again, Canadians who don't want to get vaccinated, Canadians who are skeptical of vaccines, Canadians

00:07:04.640 who are sick of lockdowns. You can see how he pivots and really starts demonizing, starts dividing

00:07:10.140 and pitting Canadians against each other. So let's show that clip. The only reason that I'm allowed to

00:07:15.080 ask you this question is because today the federal court ruled that the government doesn't have the

00:07:20.180 right to determine who is or is not a journalist. This is the second election in a row that the court

00:07:26.220 hasn't over-carrying your government. Do you still insist on being able to make that decision and why?

00:07:32.100 First of all, questions around accreditation were handled by the press gallery. Organizations like

00:07:40.780 yours that continue to spread misinformation and disinformation on the science around vaccines,

00:07:49.620 around how we're going to actually get through this pandemic and be there for each other and keep

00:07:55.360 our kids safe is part of why we're seeing such unfortunate anger and lack of understanding of basic

00:08:05.700 science. Your, I won't call it a media organization, your group of individuals need to take accountability

00:08:14.320 for some of the polarization that we're seeing in this country. And I salute all extraordinary hardworking

00:08:22.820 journalists that put science and facts at the heart of what they do and ask me tough questions

00:08:28.920 every day, but make sure that they are educating and informing Canadians from a broad range of

00:08:36.500 perspectives, which is the last thing that you guys do. So again, you can see Trudeau straight up

00:08:42.260 blaming the rebel for the rallies, for the protests, for the anger that he's seen on the campaign trail

00:08:47.360 at his rallies. Again, this is Trudeau just trying to divide Canadians, pit us against each other,

00:08:53.460 and really creating a boogeyman out of the rebel, saying that they're to blame for all the problems

00:08:57.660 in the world. It's kind of scary to see a leader of a party, the prime minister of Canada,

00:09:02.920 really targeting and coming down on one specific organization. Now, regardless of your view of the

00:09:08.080 rebel, love them or hate them, if you think they're legitimate journalists or you think they're just

00:09:11.440 provocateurs, it's still a little scary, a little disconcerting to see the prime minister of Canada,

00:09:16.620 the leader of a political party, really demonizing and coming down on one media outlet, sort of

00:09:22.060 blaming them for all the troubles in Canada. That should make you feel uneasy, regardless of what

00:09:27.760 you think of the rebel. Now, I want to shift gears a little bit here. So yesterday on the show,

00:09:32.560 we told you about the exclusive, independent and scientifically valid poll that True North

00:09:37.040 commissioned about the election. We told you about how the Liberals blew a spectacular lead in the

00:09:41.520 campaign and how it's too close to call. The election is too close to call. Our poll had the

00:09:45.480 Conservatives up by two points, but the way that the vote is distributed, really, it could become a

00:09:50.080 minority Liberal government or a minority Conservative government. It's too close to call.

00:09:54.040 Right now, what we saw was that young male voters have really come over to support the Conservatives.

00:09:59.020 Meanwhile, the Liberals have maintained their support of older women, women over 55. And we also

00:10:04.780 tapped into that huge gain of support by the PPC, by the People's Party and Maxime Bernier's party,

00:10:10.400 as he's seen a big grow in his popularity at the expense of the other protest parties, the ones that

00:10:16.260 were included in the debate while Maxime Bernier was excluded. Well, today, we're going to dig even

00:10:20.440 deeper into that national poll. And to do that, I am joined by Hamish Marshall. Hamish, nice to see you.

00:10:25.780 Great to see you, Candice.

00:10:27.260 So one of the issues that you asked Canadians about and you identified was what issues do they care about

00:10:32.880 in this election? What issues are driving the vote in 2021? So why don't you help us by breaking that

00:10:37.940 down, Hamish? Sure. So we asked people what are the two issues that they think are most important

00:10:42.200 facing Canada today. Number one, probably not a giant surprise, is getting through the COVID-19

00:10:48.620 pandemic. 30% say that climate change in the environment is one of the most important issues,

00:10:56.440 followed by government spending and debt at 25%, and then affordability and the cost of living behind

00:11:01.660 that, and jobs in the economy. But what's really interesting about this, actually,

00:11:05.820 is what issues you care about varies a great deal depending on who you're voting for.

00:11:11.860 So conservatives care a lot about government spending and debt. It's their number one issue

00:11:16.160 by a long way. 51% of conservatives say it's one of those two most important issues,

00:11:20.740 followed by jobs in the economy at 32%, and then COVID comes third at 28%. Whereas liberals care about

00:11:29.960 something else entirely. Liberals really care about the COVID pandemic. And that's actually one of the

00:11:34.600 reasons, 52% of them say it's the most important issue. What's actually interesting about that is

00:11:39.640 that is liberals who are most concerned with the pandemic. And I think that's one of the reasons

00:11:43.600 why calling an early election has backfired in Trudeau and turned off some liberal voters or dampened

00:11:49.180 some enthusiasm, perhaps a little bit, because they're the ones that care the most about it,

00:11:54.240 and holding an election in the middle of it maybe doesn't jive with that. They also care awful

00:12:00.160 about climate change in the environment. 45% say it's one of the top two issues. And then health

00:12:05.300 care outside of excluding COVID is the number three issue. The other thing that jumped out for me is

00:12:11.440 that issues that have been talked a lot about in the media aren't necessarily cutting through to

00:12:16.760 Canadians. So obviously, we've had a big blow up in Afghanistan and the fall of the Taliban and

00:12:22.420 foreign affairs in the front pages of the newspapers leading the newscasts for much of the last month,

00:12:27.420 but only 2% of Canadians say it's one of the two most important issues. And then Indigenous

00:12:33.540 reconciliation, which we heard an awful lot about in the spring, and a lot of pundits were saying

00:12:37.520 was going to be a dominant issue of the campaign. Again, only 7% say it's one of the most important

00:12:43.020 issues. So that it shows that often media driven issues aren't what people actually care about.

00:12:50.480 The other thing that we asked, I think was very interesting is we asked people,

00:12:54.920 what about the lockdowns? Had lockdowns changed their view about government? And we basically give

00:13:01.660 them the choice between choosing between lockdowns made them more concerned about the power of

00:13:05.780 government. 35% of Canadians say that lockdowns made them more concerned about the power of government,

00:13:10.640 but 65% say that they are, they've made them, lockdowns made them grateful that government has

00:13:18.760 the power to take steps to look after them. So not a super strong result, but it is encouraging that

00:13:25.060 there's 35% of Canadians that have that freedom focused approach. What's most interesting about that

00:13:30.720 is Quebec, where we've seen some of the biggest anti-lockdown protests. Actually, that number who are more

00:13:35.740 concerned about the power of government has risen is even greater. It's 48% of Quebecers are more

00:13:42.440 lockdowns and get them more concerned about the power of government. Maybe that's because historically, Quebecers 1.00

00:13:46.940 have been more okay with the power of the state, and they've got bigger room to grow in terms of concern. But it

00:13:53.000 certainly makes an interesting point that what's going on in Quebec, in terms of the big protest is real and is

00:13:59.120 concerned to a lot of people. And maybe just maybe that can that can help Maxine Bernier and the PPC,

00:14:04.740 especially in his own riding. He's got a long way to go. So we'll see it's I'm not making a prediction

00:14:09.640 that he's going to run off of that. But it does show that there's a fertile ground for his message

00:14:13.980 there. Well, and everyone was circulating that poll yesterday that showed that the PPC was at 10%

00:14:19.380 nationally. Now, I know that our poll showed something a little different. I think we were

00:14:23.380 something around 4% or maybe 6%. I can't exactly remember, but still definitely growth and a lot more

00:14:31.820 appetite for Bernier's message than in 2019. Oh, one of the one of the interesting things that you

00:14:38.320 tapped in on in this poll, Hamish is the idea of strategic voting. So every every election,

00:14:43.820 especially when it looks like a conservative is doing well, and they might even win, we fall back

00:14:48.740 to that old liberal strategic tactic of scaring progressive voters and getting them to strategically

00:14:55.140 vote in favor of the liberals. And you asked a couple questions about this in the poll. So what did what

00:15:01.240 we hear about strategic voting? So we asked everybody who said they were voting either

00:15:05.620 green or NDP, we said, if it looks like the conservatives are going to win, would you vote

00:15:10.380 for the liberal candidate in your writing in order to stop a conservative government or conservatives

00:15:16.460 from winning? And the answer is, on the whole, a lot of the would 20% say they're very likely

00:15:22.900 to do so. Another 21% say they're moderately likely to do so, which means overall is 59% who

00:15:28.900 say they're not really likely to do so. But, you know, we've taken the NDP vote and the

00:15:32.920 green vote combined, even if just that 20% say they're very likely to do that to stop the

00:15:37.780 conservatives, they'll move to the liberals, that works out to 4.6% of the vote. If that

00:15:42.300 you add 4.6% of the popular vote on where the liberals are sitting today, we're in an environment

00:15:47.320 where the liberals will be able to win the election by two or three points, assuming that everything

00:15:53.040 else stays the same. So that's going to be a huge focus of the liberal campaign over the

00:15:57.440 over the next 10 days. It's going to be a big focus of Trudeau in the debate tonight in

00:16:03.820 order to drive those voters over. We've already seen the NDP vote drift down. We've got them

00:16:09.720 at 20% previous polls earlier in the campaign of a 22, 23. So I think somebody once had them

00:16:15.140 at 24. So they're already drifting down. The liberals have got a little bit of their mojo

00:16:19.900 back. If they can continue that trend, pick up another three or 4%, it's going to be very,

00:16:25.420 very difficult. It faces a big, big strategic issue for O'Toole.

00:16:30.880 Wow, that's really interesting. And again, yeah, the final week of the campaign coming

00:16:34.300 up next week, that's something that we're definitely going to be watching. Well, Hamish,

00:16:38.020 I really appreciate you joining us to break down. The poll is really interesting. And tonight is the

00:16:42.700 big night. We're going to be going live during the debate before and after. Hamish will be there

00:16:47.220 with me the whole night to break everything down and to provide that analysis. So make sure

00:16:51.000 you tune in starting at 8 p.m. Eastern. Thank you so much, Hamish, for joining us.

00:16:55.900 My pleasure. And tonight's going to be a lot of fun.

00:16:57.960 Absolutely. All right. Thank you so much for joining us and see you again later tonight.

00:17:01.000 I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.

Juno News - September 09, 2021

Trudeau goes off the rails against independent media

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