Juno News - November 11, 2020


What can the Conservative Party of Canada learn from Trump’s Republicans？

Topics
conservative party structure in Canada
Mentioned
Donald Trump Andrew Scheer Erin O'Toole
Is the cure worse than the disease？ What is Canada's pandemic objective？

Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

221.6

Word count

1,326

Sentence count

62


Summary

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

In this episode, I talk about the state of conservative politics in Canada and why it's not as solid as it is in the United States. I also talk about why the Republican Party in the U.S. was able to win so many seats in the House of Representatives.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Let's talk about the state of conservative politics in Canada. Now I was inspired to make
00:00:10.000 this video after reading a lot about what's been going on in the United States and I'm not talking
00:00:13.800 about Donald Trump and the recounts and legal proceedings. I'm talking about the fact that
00:00:17.280 the Republicans picked up a number of seats in the House. Now that got me thinking how did they
00:00:21.520 manage to do that when Trump was so divisive according to many people? Well one of the reasons
00:00:26.520 it seems is because they were very clear on what they stood for. They were promoting conservative
00:00:31.020 values in a very clear fashion, something that a number of people either accepted or rejected,
00:00:35.920 but at the very least it was clear on what they stood for. Now the Americans have a number
00:00:40.700 of benefits over Canadian conservatives because in the United States they have things like
00:00:44.760 the constitution, the first and second amendments, so free speech and the right to bear arms.
00:00:48.800 There's the appointment of judges, there's a lot of foreign affairs stuff that we simply
00:00:52.580 don't have to deal with, there's immigration and build the wall, that kind of thing. And
00:00:56.300 so there are a number of issues that really just divide between left and right in the United
00:00:59.940 States and things that conservatives can rally around and so it doesn't really matter what
00:01:03.860 walk of life you come from, there are a number of things which you can agree on. Socially
00:01:07.800 conservative issues are also very prominent in the United States, whereas in Canada they're
00:01:11.260 sort of on the back burner and it's not because these views are not necessarily widely held,
00:01:16.240 it's because many conservative politicians don't really want to talk about them because
00:01:19.600 they feel it's too dangerous for their electoral chances. And in many ways it is, these issues
00:01:23.700 are not the same as they are in the United States because the United States, the country
00:01:27.060 is simply just more socially conservative than in Canada. Now, one of the main issues here
00:01:32.660 is that the conservatives don't have those things to rally around. It's not in the last
00:01:37.320 election that they really focus on fiscal conservatism, which is obviously very important, it's important
00:01:42.160 to have a balanced budget and a strong economy, but the focus on fiscal conservatism is not
00:01:46.620 enough because if I wanted liberal extract to bake my cake, I would use liberal extract.
00:01:52.380 I wouldn't use artificial liberal extract if I wanted to do the same thing. Now, this is
00:01:57.500 one of the reasons why, again, the Republicans were successful is because they were very clear.
00:02:01.740 When we're looking at Canada, it's very difficult for the conservatives to get those type of issues
00:02:06.220 because again, structurally we don't have the same system. Further, when you're looking at
00:02:10.940 a big tent, you have a social conservative and a fiscal conservative, maybe who's super pro-abortion.
00:02:16.700 Those two people don't necessarily get along. They don't necessarily agree on what government is,
00:02:21.580 what they want government to do, or what type of things they would like to see from that conservative
00:02:26.220 party. So as the tent gets bigger, you have more and more people that you have to get to agree.
00:02:31.500 And so relying on fiscally conservative issues, which again, they're, they're strong conservative
00:02:35.900 issues. You can't dump them, but relying on that as the only thing that is bringing these people
00:02:39.900 together, it's not enough. It's not exciting. It's not energetic enough. There's nothing really there.
00:02:44.700 And the liberals can also talk a good game about doing the things that are responsible and, you know,
00:02:49.420 maintaining the budget. Uh, you know, of course, you look, you have the budget will balance itself
00:02:53.020 and these kinds of gaps, but by and large, I don't think a lot of Canadians really feel that the liberals,
00:03:00.300 especially now with the pandemic that, you know, they're obviously taking advantage of a lot of
00:03:03.500 the pandemic spending. You don't know if that fiscally conservative message is penetrating to
00:03:08.140 the number of Canadians that you really need if you want to win an election. Now, the other issue is
00:03:14.060 when you have that big tent, it's not just the fiscal and social conservatives. It's also people who are
00:03:19.420 just anti left people who don't like social justice, don't like progressivism. These people are going to
00:03:24.700 try and make your party their home. And sometimes these people may not be the type of people you
00:03:29.660 actually want in your party, either because they just have views that are totally opposite or
00:03:32.860 antithetical to the party. They might be bigoted or racist people that just have nothing to do
00:03:37.420 with anything that's remotely conservative, but because they are anti left, they are either
00:03:42.140 lumping themselves or the media is lumping them into the right. And we see that a lot when conservatives
00:03:46.140 get painted as, you know, racist or bigoted by and large, there may be people who are simply
00:03:50.300 anti left. And so because they're not on the left, they are automatically on the right,
00:03:54.620 according to the media. And that is a huge challenge. Now, altogether, because the
00:03:59.740 Conservative Party is a big catchall, the main question is, and I don't have the answer,
00:04:04.060 but the main question is, are you making policy to get elected? Or are you trying to get elected so
00:04:09.340 that you can make policy? And this is something that Conservative Party leaders will have to address.
00:04:13.660 There are a number of challenges coming up. And I think we've seen with Andrew Scheer that being
00:04:17.900 fiscally conservative, kind of neutral on a number of issues is not enough to get things going.
00:04:22.700 There are a lot of challenges facing different parts of the country, challenges out West, which,
00:04:26.620 you know, as someone who lives in Toronto and Ontario, I can't even begin to understand a lot
00:04:30.540 of the things because I don't live them on a day to day basis. I just, you know, I read what you guys
00:04:34.540 post and I read what my colleagues talk about and I read the news because I'm concerned about these
00:04:39.180 issues and they're very important to me as a Canadian. But there are a number of things that the
00:04:43.420 party must address and they must address it in a very clear and concise fashion. And I hope they do so
00:04:48.220 because it's very important that we do have a clear alternative to the Liberal Party.
00:04:52.540 Or else we're just going to get stuck with more and more and more Liberals.
00:04:56.300 Now, Aaron O'Toole just got elected. He's the new leader of the Conservative Party. And so in many
00:05:00.300 ways, it is a new party. They just updated their website. But I got to say, when looking at the
00:05:05.340 GOP website right on the front, they have 11 principles for an American renewal. That's 11 sort
00:05:11.500 of foundational ideas that they can build a policy on. When I look again at the Conservative website,
00:05:16.300 I don't see that very clear cut stuff. And that, you know, perhaps that means it's coming,
00:05:20.060 but I would like to see some more of these clear cut and very prominently placed issues and values
00:05:25.900 that the party is going to bring forward, how they're going to govern and what I can expect
00:05:29.100 from a Conservative Party should I vote for them in the next election. So a lot of stuff to think
00:05:33.340 about, a lot of stuff to watch out for. But, you know, hopefully you enjoy this video and let's see
00:05:37.900 what you guys think. Where do you think the fate of the party is? And what do you think we're going to
00:05:42.220 see in the near future with regards to Conservative politics? So for True North, I am Sam Ashkenazi. Thank you so,
00:05:47.180 so much for watching. Don't forget to subscribe and have yourselves a great day. Take care.