Juno News - December 30, 2021


What’s in store at True North in 2022？


Episode Stats

Length

24 minutes

Words per Minute

214.0062

Word Count

5,250

Sentence Count

253

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 It's the last episode of the year for The Candice Malcolm Show, the last episode of 2021, so we'll
00:00:05.040 look back and look at some of the biggest stories of the year, we'll look ahead at what we have in
00:00:08.820 store for 2022, and we will give the viewers a wholehearted thank you for their support and the
00:00:15.360 support of True North over the past year. I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:00:24.240 Everyone, thank you so much for tuning into The Candice Malcolm Show and this is the last show
00:00:28.820 of the year, this is it, it's a big show, so I want to thank you for tuning in and remind you that if
00:00:32.860 you're watching over on YouTube, I'm going to stop you right now, ask you to like this video, subscribe
00:00:36.860 to True North, and hit that little notification bell so you never miss an episode. If you're
00:00:40.560 watching on Facebook, don't forget to like the video, share the video, and head on over and like
00:00:44.440 the True North page. Finally, if you are listening to this show in podcast form on Apple Podcasts or
00:00:49.660 Google Podcasts or wherever you enjoy your podcasts, please don't forget to subscribe to The Candice
00:00:54.060 Malcolm Show and consider giving us a five-star review if you like the content, it really helps
00:00:58.600 us out. All right, so here we are, the last show of the year, and to help us break down the news
00:01:03.000 of the past year and look ahead at the year to come, I'm going to bring back my colleague Andrew
00:01:07.900 Lawton. We had him on the show yesterday to talk about some of the issues that the media just really
00:01:11.840 got wrong, the biggest stories of the year, and I wanted to bring him back to delve a little deeper
00:01:16.280 into the work that True North has done. So Andrew, thank you so much for joining the show again.
00:01:21.240 Great to see you again. Hey, happy to be here as we count down to the new year.
00:01:24.880 Yeah, this is sort of our new year special since tomorrow's Friday, we won't have a show. So I
00:01:30.420 figured today I would have you on again. Yesterday, we talked about what we thought were the biggest
00:01:34.460 stories of the year that the media got wrong and the ones that the media blew out of proportion.
00:01:37.740 Today, I wanted to focus a little bit more on what we do here at True North. So let's talk about our
00:01:43.160 own sort of coverage and what we focused on and what we did in the year that's just wrapping up right
00:01:49.320 now. So to you, what were sort of some of the biggest highlights of the year in 2021 for you and True North?
00:01:54.880 I know we touched on it a little bit yesterday, but I'm going to say the election and for two
00:02:00.140 reasons. Number one, elections are just like the Super Bowl for political wonks and media types. It's
00:02:05.300 just it's always nonstop content, nonstop news, we get to flex our knowledge about current affairs and
00:02:11.200 history and all of that. But I'd say for True North, especially the last two federal elections have
00:02:16.700 really been in my view, anyway, where we've been able to, to shine as an organization like we did in
00:02:21.720 2019 election, I think in a lot of ways. 2019 was our breakout moment to a lot of different groups, we went from
00:02:29.760 an organization that was doing a lot of great work to one that was doing more great work and with a bigger
00:02:34.160 audience. And we kept that up, I think after 2019. And 2021 was no exception to that. I mean, we had me on the
00:02:41.900 campaign trail covering the conservatives covering the PPC, we had people at the election night parties for the PPC and the
00:02:49.100 conservatives, we were accredited to cover the debates in Gatineau, which again, we didn't even need to go to court
00:02:55.240 this time. So so even the Leaders Debates Commission conceded this time that we were in fact real journalists. So it
00:03:01.880 was a really good, I think moment organizationally for us, but also in the content we were producing, we had an amazing
00:03:08.980 team that was doing exclusive reports every day, many of them were being picked up by other media outlets, some of them even made their
00:03:15.420 way into party platforms and party talking points, which isn't our goal, but it's a sign of our work being
00:03:21.460 noticed and having an increasing influence.
00:03:25.620 Right, you know, it's funny, because in 2019, we sort of became the story. And it wasn't that we wanted to, we really
00:03:31.500 just genuinely wanted to report and be able to break news and tell the stories and connect with our audience in a way that
00:03:37.920 journalists do. And for some reason, the liberals thought that that was illegitimate or thought that we were
00:03:42.880 activists or something, their explanation didn't even really make sense. The media didn't bat an eye, they just
00:03:48.080 said whatever. And we actually had to go to court. And I think for me, that was almost a distraction, because
00:03:54.080 again, I would have much rather been focusing during that election on breaking the news stories and sort of
00:03:59.960 being at the forefront of all that. But it was it was such a righteous battle. And it was so important that
00:04:05.080 you're right, it did sort of put us onto the onto the scene. So many people who hadn't heard of us before did and part of
00:04:10.880 it was that sort of almost quasi negative way that the legacy media reported on us, they always, you
00:04:16.080 know, wanted to note that we were we were right wing or some of them even claimed that we were far
00:04:20.480 right, which were obviously not. But but you know, that that that helped with, you know, proving that we
00:04:25.920 were really we were here for the fight, we weren't going to give up, we're going to roll over, we were
00:04:30.080 going to report, we won. And I think it was a victory for all Canadians for freedom of speech and
00:04:36.000 freedom of the press. This year, this time around 2021, we didn't even have to do that, because we've clearly
00:04:40.080 already proven to the people who tried to block us in 2019, we've proven them wrong and proven that
00:04:46.560 we do have a right to be reporters. And that's what we do day in and day out. And so that was sort of a
00:04:51.280 relief and enabled us to do the real journalism, the real work. And I must say it was it was fun. It
00:04:56.960 was really fun to do, you know, to see you out on the campaign trail, Andrew, I started doing my daily
00:05:01.920 show for True North, which I continue to do. The Candace Malcolm show comes out Monday to Friday,
00:05:06.560 every day, sorry, I'm not I'm not doing one tomorrow, because it's a holiday, New Year's
00:05:10.960 Eve. But typically, you know, every every day, and it's great to keep my finger on the pulse of what's
00:05:16.080 going on and comment on a lot more things than I used to comment on. But also those live events
00:05:21.200 that we did, we had a live event that the night that the election was kicked off, and you were in
00:05:26.080 Ottawa. And you know, that was great. We covered the debate, you again, we're in Ottawa and Gatineau,
00:05:32.000 I'm covering it, we had the live team in Toronto. And then we did our big election night special,
00:05:37.200 we did that remotely, we had people all over the country. But really, yeah, exactly. So,
00:05:46.560 you know, it was it was fun. It was great. We got to show what we what we're made of. And I think we
00:05:51.840 really grew our audience and continue to grow our audience. So definitely, I agree that the election
00:05:58.160 was a big one. But there's a lot of other things going on this year. Andrew, why don't you talk about
00:06:01.200 some of your other projects, talk about your documentary, I know that that was a big focus
00:06:05.120 for you spent a lot of time on it. And it was fantastic. If you haven't checked it out,
00:06:09.680 go check it out. But Andrew, I'll let you I'll let you talk about it a bit more.
00:06:13.200 Yeah, it feels like so long ago now, but it was really just in the summer that this came out.
00:06:17.520 So this goes back to May 2020, when the Liberals put that Order and Council in effect, banning 1500
00:06:24.080 variants of firearms, or what the Liberals said were assault weapons, but but weren't actually. And I
00:06:29.680 fast forwarded to April, March, April, May, which was when we did most of the filming of this
00:06:35.600 documentary assaulted Justin Trudeau's war on gun owners. And I told a different side of the story,
00:06:41.120 which is in and of itself what True North does. But I tried to explain the unintended consequences,
00:06:46.560 or in some cases, perhaps intended consequences that the Liberals had in advancing and championing
00:06:52.880 these restrictive measures on firearms. And at the time that I recorded this, you had had businesses that
00:06:58.640 had been saddled with literally 10s of 1000s of dollars, in some cases, hundreds of 1000s of
00:07:04.000 dollars of inventory for months with no recourse in sight, the buyback that the government has
00:07:09.680 promised even now, a year and a half later has not materialized. So businesses that are forced to
00:07:15.520 hold on to this inventory, technically, in May, the government's amnesty period is ending. So I will be
00:07:22.320 a criminal as of May, for my gun, which the government says I need to sell back to the government,
00:07:26.960 but isn't even giving me the means to do it. So all of these things that have been missing from
00:07:31.040 the media's coverage of the gun issue in Canada, we delved into and it was originally going to be a
00:07:36.640 just one part, and then it became two parts. And eventually we had four parts looking at the effect
00:07:42.160 on sport shooters on business owners, on a lot of other people on crime and some of these areas
00:07:47.840 that as well, we need to talk about, but we certainly aren't. And I think it was an important
00:07:52.160 how would I put it, it was important to just have an honest discussion about guns in Canada.
00:07:58.320 Right, which is something that's just so poorly missing from our, from our civil society, from
00:08:03.520 our political class, they don't even want to talk about these issues, they all agree,
00:08:06.640 we should just do whatever the liberals say. And it was so great to see you being able to do that. And
00:08:11.760 I, you know, again, from the perspective of True North, being able to produce such a slick,
00:08:16.880 professional looking documentary that really did explore an issue in depth, told the other side
00:08:21.200 of the story, that the people that you interviewed, in some ways, it was surprising because you kind
00:08:26.080 of think, you know, you have a stereotypical view of a gun owner, and it's not that there's anything
00:08:31.360 wrong with that view. Those are the people are lawful gun owners who have just as much right to
00:08:35.840 their property. But you also interviewed Olympians and women that use weapons of self-defense,
00:08:42.000 you really went into it and showed the story in a great way. And we really appreciated that.
00:08:47.680 Yeah, it was amazing. And again, this was a project that was a lot of work, not just the work of being
00:08:52.880 on the road, because we traveled much of the country doing it, we couldn't do Atlantic Canada,
00:08:57.360 because at the time, they were still closed. But we were in BC, we were in Alberta, we talked to
00:09:02.000 people from Saskatchewan, Ontario, and I think we did a lot. And I'm so proud we did it. So I don't know
00:09:06.800 what the next one's going to be, we'll have to let me know if you have any ideas. But certainly,
00:09:10.400 especially coming to May more on the firearms file.
00:09:14.320 Yeah, and absolutely. I think that there's so many stories out there that that sort of deserve
00:09:19.280 a deeper dive into them. And I hope that True North is able to do that. You know, I was looking
00:09:23.120 through, I had a producer put together some suggestions for the biggest stories of the year,
00:09:27.520 Andrew, and something I almost forgot about, you know, you said that the documentary felt so long
00:09:31.280 ago, it was the summer, the WE Charity Scanner. Do you remember that? It feels like that happened
00:09:35.520 like five years ago. But yeah, I mean, it was just this past spring that we learned that the
00:09:41.600 Trudeau government rewarded WE Charity, a charity that pays members of the Trudeau family to speak,
00:09:48.080 and that Trudeau himself has been involved with. They gave a federal contract for 912 million dollars
00:09:54.560 to run this volunteer program. I don't know why you need 900 million dollars to get Canadian kids to
00:09:58.560 volunteer. But that sort of blew up. And the interesting thing about the story is that Trudeau
00:10:04.160 prorogued Parliament to escape scrutiny, basically, to stop the investigation by a committee into him.
00:10:12.960 And yet, you know, we reelected Trudeau to another minority, and it seems like the story has just gone
00:10:17.920 away. Do you know if there's anything in the works to get to the bottom of the violations that occurred
00:10:24.320 with this WE Charity contract? I don't know. I mean, I remember that famous press conference of
00:10:30.640 Pierre Polyev and Michael Barrett, the Conservative MPs, standing up showing all the redacted documents
00:10:36.000 that they weren't being allowed to examine the unredacted forms of. And when Trudeau hit the reset
00:10:41.680 button to prorogued, it was very transparent what he was trying to do. He was trying to stop the
00:10:45.680 investigation. But he also managed to get the attention off of media stopped looking into it,
00:10:50.800 the opposition, they tried to, you know, stir up a stinky couple of times, but they couldn't really
00:10:55.760 get any traction on it. And then you fast forward, there's an election, and it's as though everyone's
00:11:00.080 forgotten it. It's the same model we saw in the lead up to the 2019 election with SNC-Lavalin. It's
00:11:05.440 all the rage, it's a scandal, even the legacy media is covering it, and then just eventually people move
00:11:10.320 on. And the idea of Teflon-Trudeau is still very much a constant in Canadian politics.
00:11:16.480 It's pretty wild that Trudeau is able to get away with so much, because even during the federal
00:11:21.440 election, we barely heard anything about the We Charity scandal. That's just not what the
00:11:25.040 Conservatives were focusing on. You know, they were trying to paint a positive picture of their
00:11:28.880 own party, but they, I think, missed the mark by not holding Trudeau to account for his own scandals
00:11:34.960 and the questionable things ethics-wise it does in government. All right, let's switch focus,
00:11:40.720 Andrew, and look at the year ahead. So 2022 is going to be a big year. We know that we have municipal
00:11:45.840 elections in Ontario. There will be the Ontario provincial election. There's big questions around
00:11:51.200 whether or not there will be a leadership review federally with Conservative leader Erin O'Toole.
00:11:55.280 There's been a movement for that to happen. Why don't we go through and talk about some of the big
00:12:00.080 stories? And I want you to specifically talk about a new initiative that you are running with
00:12:05.200 Danielle Smith, because you got me involved, and it was a great honour to be a little bit involved,
00:12:08.880 not very involved, but a little bit involved. So why don't you, well, let's start,
00:12:11.840 let's talk about Conservatives who care. Yeah, well, I hope you get more involved next time.
00:12:16.480 So this was a project that actually came about just over dinner in Alberta with Danielle Smith,
00:12:21.440 the former leader of the Wild Rose and now a veteran broadcaster in Alberta. And we were trying
00:12:26.320 to figure out at first a way of how do we get all these people in Canada that care about issues
00:12:31.600 pertaining to liberty together and to play ball. And then it became something else, which was how do we
00:12:37.360 actually have an impact greater than what we're doing already and put our heads together. And
00:12:42.080 this idea came up, Danielle Smith's been involved in a local charitable women's group in her part of
00:12:48.160 Alberta, where every three months, the 100 women get together and they all vote on a worthy cause.
00:12:54.400 And whoever they all whoever the majority votes for, every one of the 100 women gives $100 to so $10,000
00:13:02.000 in aggregate goes to whatever group this individual or this organization votes for. And they do this
00:13:08.240 every three months. So in the course of a year, they're putting $40,000 towards worthwhile causes
00:13:13.440 and initiatives. And we figured, well, what if we did that, but with groups that are doing things that
00:13:17.920 matter to Libertarians and Conservatives. And we formed these two companion groups, Danielle Smith is
00:13:25.040 helming Libertarians who care, I'm helming Conservatives who care. Now, truth be told,
00:13:29.360 there, there, there's no criteria for entry, we simply do it that way, because some people might
00:13:33.920 not identify and in one way, or they may not like the other name. But the reality is, these are our
00:13:39.280 groups that are focusing on on liberty. And we had our first meeting, and True North was one of the
00:13:44.000 nominees for Conservatives who care a second place by one vote, which is always, I mean, I tried demanding a
00:13:50.000 recount, but it didn't work. But ultimately, it's a way for for people to get together and agree that, you
00:13:56.400 know what, we need to do more and put some money behind groups that are not getting the big grant
00:14:00.160 donations, they're not getting the media attention, but they're doing things that people on the right
00:14:04.480 should care about. And, and I think the one of the big nominees was the Justice Centre for
00:14:09.120 Constitutional Freedoms, Canada Strong and Free was also nominated, and also some smaller groups and
00:14:14.640 individuals that are doing things of note. So I think True North will probably be nominated in the
00:14:19.280 future. And hopefully, we'll, we'll be able to win one of them. But it's a really exciting project.
00:14:23.760 And you know, I'm just basically steering this, this group, but it's the the members that decide
00:14:29.200 where the money goes. Well, I think it's a great idea, because, you know, it feels really good to
00:14:34.960 donate $100 to charity, it feels even better to know that you're part of a group that has been able
00:14:40.320 to raise in this case, you know, 1000s or 10s of 1000s, potentially, because that has such a big impact
00:14:46.560 beyond. So the kind of idea of like coming together as a community, I thought it was great. And it was an
00:14:50.640 honor to be selected to be alongside some of those sort of giants of the conservative or libertarian
00:14:56.640 movement. So I applaud you for that. I think, you know, we should all be a little more charitable,
00:15:01.200 and we should all work for others, it's not not always just ourselves. So this is a great model.
00:15:06.960 And I look forward to participating again. And I want to join as well and throw in throw in $100 to
00:15:13.280 which whichever group wins. So can you tell us how can how can we how can we get involved? How can we join
00:15:18.160 your your conservatives who care group? Yeah, so basically, if we're still setting up,
00:15:23.360 I mean, this is very grassroots, we're still setting up a lot of the infrastructure to to formalize it.
00:15:28.000 But Danielle Smith has kindly agreed to maintain the list. So if you're interested, you can email
00:15:33.920 Danielle, who's at Danielle at Danielle Smith.ca, or me who's Andrew at Andrew Lawton.ca. And we'll get you
00:15:41.200 put on on the list. So Andrew at Andrew Lawton.ca is the way I can make sure you get on there. But
00:15:46.400 it's a lot of fun. And we're working in the next couple of weeks at actually getting up a database
00:15:50.400 that's a little bit more structured. But we wanted to see who would actually come and who would
00:15:54.560 participate in. And that first session, I think we raised about $15,000. So a lot of uptake, and we're
00:16:00.480 really happy to see where it goes.
00:16:02.400 I was honestly impressed that you had whatever it was 60 or 70 people on a zoom call in the middle
00:16:07.600 of the day on a Saturday, you know, just just that alone was impressive that it's like, wow,
00:16:11.520 all these people are given $100 as well. It's great. So congrats. Okay, let's go back to the news.
00:16:16.320 Andrew, let's talk about what will be the biggest stories of the year. So I listed off a couple there
00:16:20.880 with some elections and leadership review. What are you specifically looking forward to in 2022?
00:16:25.680 I think civil liberties will continue to be a big issue. I know that a lot of these court cases that have
00:16:30.880 been launched for pandemic related measures have been kicked down the road because of judicial
00:16:36.320 economy, they call it, you know, what courts can actually withstand as far as their bandwidth.
00:16:40.480 But I know in the coming year, there are going to be a number of these big cases scheduled,
00:16:44.560 and we're certainly going to be covering it. I also think the China relationship is going to be a big
00:16:49.600 one with Canada here, because we've had a little bit of a shift, not a huge shift, but a little bit of a
00:16:54.880 shift since the release of the two Michaels in the way that the Canadian government wants to address
00:16:59.760 China. And I don't want to give Justin Trudeau too much credit, but he has taken a bit of a tougher
00:17:05.200 line and a couple of comments relative to where he was even a few months ago. So I think that's going
00:17:11.040 to be a bigger picture, a topic certainly, but one that I think we'll have some very specific
00:17:17.760 reanimations of in the coming months and in the year ahead.
00:17:20.560 Very interesting. Yeah, those will definitely be things to watch. And again, just continuing,
00:17:26.080 I said yesterday that the biggest story of the year was just COVID, the fact that it's still a huge
00:17:29.840 feature in our lives and seeing how or if or whether the government is willing to lessen its
00:17:36.720 grip on society and whether we can fight and get civil liberties back. Certainly, I agree that's going
00:17:42.640 to be a big one for me. I think I'm really curious about how the elections are going to go, especially
00:17:48.800 just considering the sort of departure that we've seen from so many conservative leaders from core
00:17:54.160 principles, whether it's Jason Kenney in Alberta, Doug Ford in Ontario, Erin O'Toole is probably the
00:17:59.120 worst offender federally, where the way that they lead, the policies that they take, the positions
00:18:04.000 they stand on, have no real connection to principled conservatism. We don't see that sort of defense
00:18:10.080 of first principles, the defense of the idea of conservative parties supposed to be different
00:18:14.480 than a liberal party. They're supposed to take different positions. They're supposed to be able to
00:18:18.400 defend the idea of limited government, the idea of free markets, the idea of reducing government
00:18:24.320 spending, the idea of opposing heavy-handed government lockdowns and measures. And I'm
00:18:30.800 curious to see, Andrew, whether there will be any sort of revolt by grassroots members of these parties,
00:18:36.160 because I know just from my own conversations with friends, both in Alberta and Ontario and federally,
00:18:42.000 people aren't happy with the leadership. People aren't happy with the way that the Alberta government
00:18:46.320 was arresting pastors in Alberta or the way that Doug Ford said adamantly, he doesn't want to live
00:18:52.240 in a split society with a vaccine mandate. And then a few weeks later, he introduced his own
00:18:57.360 vaccine mandate. We now live in a society where we have a lower class, lower class citizens. We have
00:19:02.880 first world citizens and second class citizens. And I think that for a lot of people, it's just not
00:19:07.200 okay. So I'm curious whether there will be any kind of reviews in the leadership of someone like
00:19:12.000 Jason Kenney or Aaron O'Toole, and whether the Conservative base will show up at all for Doug Ford,
00:19:17.600 given what he's done over the last two years. Yeah, those are two huge questions. Jason Kenney,
00:19:23.120 just as a primer here, is set to be have his leadership reviewed in April. So again, you know,
00:19:29.280 a lot can happen in a couple of months. I know at the convention they had in November, there wasn't
00:19:34.160 a leadership review, but there was some tension leading up to it of presidents of local associations,
00:19:39.600 not happy with Jason Kenney. So whether he can hold on to his own leadership in April is going
00:19:44.240 to be a big story. And I'm going to be there, I'm going to be on the ground in, I think it's in
00:19:48.160 Edmonton, covering that. So that'll be one to watch. And then, yeah, going back to the fall or the
00:19:53.200 summer, the Ontario election. I wonder what you think, though, about Aaron O'Toole. I don't think
00:19:59.040 I've had this conversation with you, Andrew. I've been very open and let it be known that I was
00:20:04.800 really unhappy with the direction that he took the Conservative Party in the last election and he
00:20:08.640 abandoned principles. I think that he took a risk. He took a concerted effort to say,
00:20:13.200 I'm going to swing to the left. I'm going to really hug Justin Trudeau on as many policies as
00:20:18.720 I can. I'm not going to defend conservatism. I'm going to really emphasize my progressive,
00:20:24.560 personal, liberal values. And the bet didn't pay off. It didn't pay off. The Conservatives lost.
00:20:29.280 They lost worse than they did in 2019. We've seen little rumblings here and there. I know you had
00:20:33.680 Senator Denise Batters on your show. But there hasn't been any kind of a big caucus revolving.
00:20:39.200 The Conservative members I talked to, some of them say, oh, I agree with you that we know we
00:20:44.320 should be more conservative, but we support Aaron O'Toole. We support Aaron O'Toole. Contrast that
00:20:48.800 with just conversations I have with regular people. I was talking to a neighbor of mine the other day.
00:20:53.600 I didn't know she was conservative at all. And she was just talking about what a horrible leader
00:20:58.400 the Conservatives had selected because he was so condescending and his attitude was so arrogant.
00:21:03.120 And he spoke down to people. And this is someone that's pretty apolitical. And that was her
00:21:06.720 oppression of the leader of her own party. So I just don't really see him connecting with people.
00:21:12.480 And yet the sort of party apparatus has really dug in to defend him. So anyway, long question,
00:21:18.480 but what do you think of Aaron O'Toole's chances of surviving? And what do you think of the
00:21:23.520 leadership style that he's had for the party? Well, he's had, I think, and you note that
00:21:28.640 obviously Denise Batters has been the most prominent critic of his, but he's had a fairly
00:21:33.120 ironclad grip on his caucus. There has not been much in the way of criticism from his caucus. A
00:21:38.400 couple of Alberta MPs, Chris Warkington and Shannon Stubbs, have made some comments about leadership.
00:21:43.520 And they were, of course, punished by not being given shadow cabinet spots. But for the most part,
00:21:47.920 there's been nothing. Everyone has just shut up. And you know what, that may bode well for him if
00:21:52.800 he's not getting the call from within the House and anyone feels like if they criticize him,
00:21:57.600 they'll be kicked out and they don't want to face that. They don't want to have to confront that.
00:22:01.040 So I do think that internally he can hold on. But remember, it's the members who get the final say
00:22:06.880 and that convention, he has the benefit of time because it's not scheduled for him until 2023,
00:22:12.720 which has been why Denise Batters and Burt Chan were trying to move it up because they know that the
00:22:17.200 anger is fairly palpable now. Well, exactly. And the whole point is that if you wait until 2023,
00:22:24.080 and that anger doesn't go away, it doesn't subside. And there's still people who,
00:22:27.920 you know, the base, the people who want to see conservatism defended are disappointed. And then,
00:22:32.880 you know, the example of someone like my neighbor who doesn't really pay much attention to politics,
00:22:36.480 but when she does, she noticed that this guy is kind of like a bad demeanor and that she didn't
00:22:42.240 relate to him. She didn't find him electable. You know, if all of a sudden you have that bubbling
00:22:47.280 over in 2023 and you want a leadership review, you could be cutting it pretty close to a general
00:22:51.760 election. We are in a minority situation. Minority governments tend to last two years tops. And so
00:22:57.040 it just seems like a bad strategy for the Conservatives to wait that long.
00:23:00.240 Yeah, it does. And what they're doing, or what Erin O'Toole is doing rather, is being able to say
00:23:06.800 when 2023 comes, oh, well, hang on, you got to keep me around because there could be an election at any
00:23:10.560 given moment. So it's delay, delay, delay. And in doing so, the imminence of an election is really his
00:23:16.400 greatest trump card for why no one should get rid of him and plunge the party into a leadership review.
00:23:22.080 Well, if that does happen, Andrew, he better win that election. He better do everything he
00:23:26.800 possibly can to win, because if he doesn't, then I don't even need to say it, but his political career
00:23:33.920 won't be going on for much further after that. All right, Andrew, well, as always, it's such a
00:23:37.600 pleasure to have you on the show. Thanks for helping us break down what the big stories were
00:23:41.920 and look ahead to 2022. We really look forward to the work that you're going to do for us in the next
00:23:46.480 year. I can't wait. Happy New Year to you and keep well, everyone, you and those watching.
00:23:52.960 Thank you so much. And yeah, to everyone watching, thank you so much for your support of True North
00:23:57.040 throughout the year. We really couldn't do it without your support. It's so exciting as a
00:24:00.720 journalist to see Canadians willing to reach into their own pocket and fund media, fund independent,
00:24:06.400 honest media. And it's really heartwarming to say, you know, this is the last show of the year.
00:24:10.400 So I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has supported True North,
00:24:14.480 or even just the people who continue to listen to our material, listen to my podcast, share it,
00:24:19.200 like it, all of those things. It's all good. It all helps with the momentum and the movement
00:24:23.920 and True North Nation. So thank you so much. Happy, Happy New Year to you and your family,
00:24:28.320 and we will see you again next year.