Juno News - December 30, 2021
What’s in store at True North in 2022?
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Summary
In this final episode of the year, we look back at some of the biggest stories of the past year, and look ahead to what's in store for the new year. Andrew Lawton joins the show to talk about the biggest news stories the media got wrong, and the ones that the media blew out of proportion.
Transcript
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It's the last episode of the year for The Candice Malcolm Show, the last episode of 2021, so we'll
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look back and look at some of the biggest stories of the year, we'll look ahead at what we have in
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store for 2022, and we will give the viewers a wholehearted thank you for their support and the
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support of True North over the past year. I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
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Everyone, thank you so much for tuning into The Candice Malcolm Show and this is the last show
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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
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you're watching over on YouTube, I'm going to stop you right now, ask you to like this video, subscribe
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to True North, and hit that little notification bell so you never miss an episode. If you're
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watching on Facebook, don't forget to like the video, share the video, and head on over and like
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the True North page. Finally, if you are listening to this show in podcast form on Apple Podcasts or
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Google Podcasts or wherever you enjoy your podcasts, please don't forget to subscribe to The Candice
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Malcolm Show and consider giving us a five-star review if you like the content, it really helps
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us out. All right, so here we are, the last show of the year, and to help us break down the news
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of the past year and look ahead at the year to come, I'm going to bring back my colleague Andrew
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Lawton. We had him on the show yesterday to talk about some of the issues that the media just really
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got wrong, the biggest stories of the year, and I wanted to bring him back to delve a little deeper
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into the work that True North has done. So Andrew, thank you so much for joining the show again.
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Great to see you again. Hey, happy to be here as we count down to the new year.
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Yeah, this is sort of our new year special since tomorrow's Friday, we won't have a show. So I
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figured today I would have you on again. Yesterday, we talked about what we thought were the biggest
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stories of the year that the media got wrong and the ones that the media blew out of proportion.
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Today, I wanted to focus a little bit more on what we do here at True North. So let's talk about our
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own sort of coverage and what we focused on and what we did in the year that's just wrapping up right
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now. So to you, what were sort of some of the biggest highlights of the year in 2021 for you and True North?
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I know we touched on it a little bit yesterday, but I'm going to say the election and for two
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reasons. Number one, elections are just like the Super Bowl for political wonks and media types. It's
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just it's always nonstop content, nonstop news, we get to flex our knowledge about current affairs and
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history and all of that. But I'd say for True North, especially the last two federal elections have
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really been in my view, anyway, where we've been able to, to shine as an organization like we did in
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2019 election, I think in a lot of ways. 2019 was our breakout moment to a lot of different groups, we went from
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an organization that was doing a lot of great work to one that was doing more great work and with a bigger
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audience. And we kept that up, I think after 2019. And 2021 was no exception to that. I mean, we had me on the
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campaign trail covering the conservatives covering the PPC, we had people at the election night parties for the PPC and the
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conservatives, we were accredited to cover the debates in Gatineau, which again, we didn't even need to go to court
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this time. So so even the Leaders Debates Commission conceded this time that we were in fact real journalists. So it
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was a really good, I think moment organizationally for us, but also in the content we were producing, we had an amazing
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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
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way into party platforms and party talking points, which isn't our goal, but it's a sign of our work being
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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
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just genuinely wanted to report and be able to break news and tell the stories and connect with our audience in a way that
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journalists do. And for some reason, the liberals thought that that was illegitimate or thought that we were
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activists or something, their explanation didn't even really make sense. The media didn't bat an eye, they just
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said whatever. And we actually had to go to court. And I think for me, that was almost a distraction, because
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again, I would have much rather been focusing during that election on breaking the news stories and sort of
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being at the forefront of all that. But it was it was such a righteous battle. And it was so important that
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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
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it was that sort of almost quasi negative way that the legacy media reported on us, they always, you
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know, wanted to note that we were we were right wing or some of them even claimed that we were far
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right, which were obviously not. But but you know, that that that helped with, you know, proving that we
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were really we were here for the fight, we weren't going to give up, we're going to roll over, we were
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going to report, we won. And I think it was a victory for all Canadians for freedom of speech and
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freedom of the press. This year, this time around 2021, we didn't even have to do that, because we've clearly
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already proven to the people who tried to block us in 2019, we've proven them wrong and proven that
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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
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relief and enabled us to do the real journalism, the real work. And I must say it was it was fun. It
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was really fun to do, you know, to see you out on the campaign trail, Andrew, I started doing my daily
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show for True North, which I continue to do. The Candace Malcolm show comes out Monday to Friday,
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every day, sorry, I'm not I'm not doing one tomorrow, because it's a holiday, New Year's
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Eve. But typically, you know, every every day, and it's great to keep my finger on the pulse of what's
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going on and comment on a lot more things than I used to comment on. But also those live events
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that we did, we had a live event that the night that the election was kicked off, and you were in
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Ottawa. And you know, that was great. We covered the debate, you again, we're in Ottawa and Gatineau,
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I'm covering it, we had the live team in Toronto. And then we did our big election night special,
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we did that remotely, we had people all over the country. But really, yeah, exactly. So,
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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
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really grew our audience and continue to grow our audience. So definitely, I agree that the election
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was a big one. But there's a lot of other things going on this year. Andrew, why don't you talk about
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some of your other projects, talk about your documentary, I know that that was a big focus
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for you spent a lot of time on it. And it was fantastic. If you haven't checked it out,
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go check it out. But Andrew, I'll let you I'll let you talk about it a bit more.
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Yeah, it feels like so long ago now, but it was really just in the summer that this came out.
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So this goes back to May 2020, when the Liberals put that Order and Council in effect, banning 1500
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variants of firearms, or what the Liberals said were assault weapons, but but weren't actually. And I
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fast forwarded to April, March, April, May, which was when we did most of the filming of this
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documentary assaulted Justin Trudeau's war on gun owners. And I told a different side of the story,
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which is in and of itself what True North does. But I tried to explain the unintended consequences,
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or in some cases, perhaps intended consequences that the Liberals had in advancing and championing
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these restrictive measures on firearms. And at the time that I recorded this, you had had businesses that
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had been saddled with literally 10s of 1000s of dollars, in some cases, hundreds of 1000s of
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dollars of inventory for months with no recourse in sight, the buyback that the government has
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promised even now, a year and a half later has not materialized. So businesses that are forced to
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hold on to this inventory, technically, in May, the government's amnesty period is ending. So I will be
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a criminal as of May, for my gun, which the government says I need to sell back to the government,
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but isn't even giving me the means to do it. So all of these things that have been missing from
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the media's coverage of the gun issue in Canada, we delved into and it was originally going to be a
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just one part, and then it became two parts. And eventually we had four parts looking at the effect
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on sport shooters on business owners, on a lot of other people on crime and some of these areas
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that as well, we need to talk about, but we certainly aren't. And I think it was an important
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how would I put it, it was important to just have an honest discussion about guns in Canada.
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Right, which is something that's just so poorly missing from our, from our civil society, from
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our political class, they don't even want to talk about these issues, they all agree,
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we should just do whatever the liberals say. And it was so great to see you being able to do that. And
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I, you know, again, from the perspective of True North, being able to produce such a slick,
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professional looking documentary that really did explore an issue in depth, told the other side
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of the story, that the people that you interviewed, in some ways, it was surprising because you kind
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of think, you know, you have a stereotypical view of a gun owner, and it's not that there's anything
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wrong with that view. Those are the people are lawful gun owners who have just as much right to
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their property. But you also interviewed Olympians and women that use weapons of self-defense,
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you really went into it and showed the story in a great way. And we really appreciated that.
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Yeah, it was amazing. And again, this was a project that was a lot of work, not just the work of being
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on the road, because we traveled much of the country doing it, we couldn't do Atlantic Canada,
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because at the time, they were still closed. But we were in BC, we were in Alberta, we talked to
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people from Saskatchewan, Ontario, and I think we did a lot. And I'm so proud we did it. So I don't know
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what the next one's going to be, we'll have to let me know if you have any ideas. But certainly,
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especially coming to May more on the firearms file.
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Yeah, and absolutely. I think that there's so many stories out there that that sort of deserve
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a deeper dive into them. And I hope that True North is able to do that. You know, I was looking
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through, I had a producer put together some suggestions for the biggest stories of the year,
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Andrew, and something I almost forgot about, you know, you said that the documentary felt so long
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ago, it was the summer, the WE Charity Scanner. Do you remember that? It feels like that happened
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like five years ago. But yeah, I mean, it was just this past spring that we learned that the
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Trudeau government rewarded WE Charity, a charity that pays members of the Trudeau family to speak,
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and that Trudeau himself has been involved with. They gave a federal contract for 912 million dollars
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to run this volunteer program. I don't know why you need 900 million dollars to get Canadian kids to
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volunteer. But that sort of blew up. And the interesting thing about the story is that Trudeau
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prorogued Parliament to escape scrutiny, basically, to stop the investigation by a committee into him.
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And yet, you know, we reelected Trudeau to another minority, and it seems like the story has just gone
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away. Do you know if there's anything in the works to get to the bottom of the violations that occurred
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with this WE Charity contract? I don't know. I mean, I remember that famous press conference of
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Pierre Polyev and Michael Barrett, the Conservative MPs, standing up showing all the redacted documents
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that they weren't being allowed to examine the unredacted forms of. And when Trudeau hit the reset
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button to prorogued, it was very transparent what he was trying to do. He was trying to stop the
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investigation. But he also managed to get the attention off of media stopped looking into it,
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the opposition, they tried to, you know, stir up a stinky couple of times, but they couldn't really
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get any traction on it. And then you fast forward, there's an election, and it's as though everyone's
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forgotten it. It's the same model we saw in the lead up to the 2019 election with SNC-Lavalin. It's
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all the rage, it's a scandal, even the legacy media is covering it, and then just eventually people move
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on. And the idea of Teflon-Trudeau is still very much a constant in Canadian politics.
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It's pretty wild that Trudeau is able to get away with so much, because even during the federal
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election, we barely heard anything about the We Charity scandal. That's just not what the
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Conservatives were focusing on. You know, they were trying to paint a positive picture of their
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own party, but they, I think, missed the mark by not holding Trudeau to account for his own scandals
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and the questionable things ethics-wise it does in government. All right, let's switch focus,
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Andrew, and look at the year ahead. So 2022 is going to be a big year. We know that we have municipal
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elections in Ontario. There will be the Ontario provincial election. There's big questions around
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whether or not there will be a leadership review federally with Conservative leader Erin O'Toole.
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There's been a movement for that to happen. Why don't we go through and talk about some of the big
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stories? And I want you to specifically talk about a new initiative that you are running with
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Danielle Smith, because you got me involved, and it was a great honour to be a little bit involved,
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not very involved, but a little bit involved. So why don't you, well, let's start,
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let's talk about Conservatives who care. Yeah, well, I hope you get more involved next time.
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So this was a project that actually came about just over dinner in Alberta with Danielle Smith,
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the former leader of the Wild Rose and now a veteran broadcaster in Alberta. And we were trying
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to figure out at first a way of how do we get all these people in Canada that care about issues
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pertaining to liberty together and to play ball. And then it became something else, which was how do we
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actually have an impact greater than what we're doing already and put our heads together. And
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this idea came up, Danielle Smith's been involved in a local charitable women's group in her part of
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Alberta, where every three months, the 100 women get together and they all vote on a worthy cause.
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And whoever they all whoever the majority votes for, every one of the 100 women gives $100 to so $10,000
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in aggregate goes to whatever group this individual or this organization votes for. And they do this
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every three months. So in the course of a year, they're putting $40,000 towards worthwhile causes
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and initiatives. And we figured, well, what if we did that, but with groups that are doing things that
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matter to Libertarians and Conservatives. And we formed these two companion groups, Danielle Smith is
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helming Libertarians who care, I'm helming Conservatives who care. Now, truth be told,
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there, there, there's no criteria for entry, we simply do it that way, because some people might
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not identify and in one way, or they may not like the other name. But the reality is, these are our
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groups that are focusing on on liberty. And we had our first meeting, and True North was one of the
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nominees for Conservatives who care a second place by one vote, which is always, I mean, I tried demanding a
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recount, but it didn't work. But ultimately, it's a way for for people to get together and agree that, you
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know what, we need to do more and put some money behind groups that are not getting the big grant
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donations, they're not getting the media attention, but they're doing things that people on the right
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should care about. And, and I think the one of the big nominees was the Justice Centre for
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Constitutional Freedoms, Canada Strong and Free was also nominated, and also some smaller groups and
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individuals that are doing things of note. So I think True North will probably be nominated in the
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future. And hopefully, we'll, we'll be able to win one of them. But it's a really exciting project.
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And you know, I'm just basically steering this, this group, but it's the the members that decide
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where the money goes. Well, I think it's a great idea, because, you know, it feels really good to
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donate $100 to charity, it feels even better to know that you're part of a group that has been able
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to raise in this case, you know, 1000s or 10s of 1000s, potentially, because that has such a big impact
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beyond. So the kind of idea of like coming together as a community, I thought it was great. And it was an
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honor to be selected to be alongside some of those sort of giants of the conservative or libertarian
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movement. So I applaud you for that. I think, you know, we should all be a little more charitable,
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and we should all work for others, it's not not always just ourselves. So this is a great model.
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And I look forward to participating again. And I want to join as well and throw in throw in $100 to
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which whichever group wins. So can you tell us how can how can we how can we get involved? How can we join
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your your conservatives who care group? Yeah, so basically, if we're still setting up,
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I mean, this is very grassroots, we're still setting up a lot of the infrastructure to to formalize it.
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But Danielle Smith has kindly agreed to maintain the list. So if you're interested, you can email
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Danielle, who's at Danielle at Danielle Smith.ca, or me who's Andrew at Andrew Lawton.ca. And we'll get you
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put on on the list. So Andrew at Andrew Lawton.ca is the way I can make sure you get on there. But
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it's a lot of fun. And we're working in the next couple of weeks at actually getting up a database
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that's a little bit more structured. But we wanted to see who would actually come and who would
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participate in. And that first session, I think we raised about $15,000. So a lot of uptake, and we're
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I was honestly impressed that you had whatever it was 60 or 70 people on a zoom call in the middle
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of the day on a Saturday, you know, just just that alone was impressive that it's like, wow,
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all these people are given $100 as well. It's great. So congrats. Okay, let's go back to the news.
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Andrew, let's talk about what will be the biggest stories of the year. So I listed off a couple there
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with some elections and leadership review. What are you specifically looking forward to in 2022?
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I think civil liberties will continue to be a big issue. I know that a lot of these court cases that have
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been launched for pandemic related measures have been kicked down the road because of judicial
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economy, they call it, you know, what courts can actually withstand as far as their bandwidth.
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But I know in the coming year, there are going to be a number of these big cases scheduled,
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and we're certainly going to be covering it. I also think the China relationship is going to be a big
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one with Canada here, because we've had a little bit of a shift, not a huge shift, but a little bit of a
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shift since the release of the two Michaels in the way that the Canadian government wants to address
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China. And I don't want to give Justin Trudeau too much credit, but he has taken a bit of a tougher
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line and a couple of comments relative to where he was even a few months ago. So I think that's going
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to be a bigger picture, a topic certainly, but one that I think we'll have some very specific
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reanimations of in the coming months and in the year ahead.
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Very interesting. Yeah, those will definitely be things to watch. And again, just continuing,
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I said yesterday that the biggest story of the year was just COVID, the fact that it's still a huge
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feature in our lives and seeing how or if or whether the government is willing to lessen its
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grip on society and whether we can fight and get civil liberties back. Certainly, I agree that's going
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to be a big one for me. I think I'm really curious about how the elections are going to go, especially
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just considering the sort of departure that we've seen from so many conservative leaders from core
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principles, whether it's Jason Kenney in Alberta, Doug Ford in Ontario, Erin O'Toole is probably the
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worst offender federally, where the way that they lead, the policies that they take, the positions
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they stand on, have no real connection to principled conservatism. We don't see that sort of defense
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of first principles, the defense of the idea of conservative parties supposed to be different
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than a liberal party. They're supposed to take different positions. They're supposed to be able to
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defend the idea of limited government, the idea of free markets, the idea of reducing government
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spending, the idea of opposing heavy-handed government lockdowns and measures. And I'm
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curious to see, Andrew, whether there will be any sort of revolt by grassroots members of these parties,
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because I know just from my own conversations with friends, both in Alberta and Ontario and federally,
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people aren't happy with the leadership. People aren't happy with the way that the Alberta government
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was arresting pastors in Alberta or the way that Doug Ford said adamantly, he doesn't want to live
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in a split society with a vaccine mandate. And then a few weeks later, he introduced his own
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vaccine mandate. We now live in a society where we have a lower class, lower class citizens. We have
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first world citizens and second class citizens. And I think that for a lot of people, it's just not
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okay. So I'm curious whether there will be any kind of reviews in the leadership of someone like
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Jason Kenney or Aaron O'Toole, and whether the Conservative base will show up at all for Doug Ford,
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given what he's done over the last two years. Yeah, those are two huge questions. Jason Kenney,
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just as a primer here, is set to be have his leadership reviewed in April. So again, you know,
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a lot can happen in a couple of months. I know at the convention they had in November, there wasn't
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a leadership review, but there was some tension leading up to it of presidents of local associations,
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not happy with Jason Kenney. So whether he can hold on to his own leadership in April is going
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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
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Edmonton, covering that. So that'll be one to watch. And then, yeah, going back to the fall or the
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summer, the Ontario election. I wonder what you think, though, about Aaron O'Toole. I don't think
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I've had this conversation with you, Andrew. I've been very open and let it be known that I was
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really unhappy with the direction that he took the Conservative Party in the last election and he
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abandoned principles. I think that he took a risk. He took a concerted effort to say,
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I'm going to swing to the left. I'm going to really hug Justin Trudeau on as many policies as
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I can. I'm not going to defend conservatism. I'm going to really emphasize my progressive,
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personal, liberal values. And the bet didn't pay off. It didn't pay off. The Conservatives lost.
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They lost worse than they did in 2019. We've seen little rumblings here and there. I know you had
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Senator Denise Batters on your show. But there hasn't been any kind of a big caucus revolving.
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The Conservative members I talked to, some of them say, oh, I agree with you that we know we
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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,