Juno News - February 03, 2022
What’s next for the Conservatives?
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Summary
The Freedom Rally scores another victory as the Conservative Party of Canada dumps their Liberal leader, Erin O'Toole. What's next for the Conservative party of Canada? I m Candice Malan, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
Transcript
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The Freedom Rally scores another victory as the Conservative Party of Canada dumps their Liberal
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Light Leader, Erin O'Toole. What's next for the Conservative Party of Canada? I'm Candice Malcolm
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and this is The Candice Malcolm Show. Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning in. So ever since
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the news broke that a freedom convoy was heading to Ottawa, to the Canadian Parliament, to the
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capital of Canada, to protest against government overreach, to protest against mandates specifically
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on truckers, but also just generally protests against government overreach, the suspension of
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our charter over the past two years, that really has galvanized the country in support of these
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truckers. And let me just say the truckers are winning. I know that the media is working in
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overtime to try to smear them, to try to derail them, to try to discredit them. But I think more and more
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people are tuning out from that noise and more and more people are focusing on the task at hand,
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which is getting our country back, getting back on track with freedom. And we are seeing little
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victories along the way. And so I think that, you know, a couple of big victories that we saw,
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Quebec announced that it was going to drop its absurd, ridiculous decision that it had announced
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earlier that it was going to add an additional tax to unvaccinated people. So the vax tax is gone.
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That is a victory. Saskatchewan came out and announced that they were lifting all of their
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restrictions. Restrictions are gone. They're now living with COVID. It is an endemic. It is not a
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pandemic. Manitoba likewise announced that they are loosening their restrictions. And Alberta announced that the
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restrictions in that province will soon be gone. We are hearing more and more voices coming out
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opposing lockdowns, including Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, former leader of the PC party in Ontario,
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which is significant because this guy used to run the run the party. This guy used to run the party
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that Doug Ford now runs. And he's out there really vocally saying, let's put an end to these lockdowns.
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We've seen public opinion polling. So that report came out that 54% of Canadians agree with the truckers.
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They want all restrictions gone. They want people who are sick to take responsibility for themselves,
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personal responsibility to isolate, stay home, people who are vulnerable, personal responsibility,
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protect yourselves, no more lockdowns. And there was this really, really interesting study that came
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out from Johns Hopkins University. We covered it over at tnc.news at True North. And they basically said
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that lockdowns didn't work. This is the most comprehensive study that we have seen to this
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point. I'm just going to read a bit from it because it is really something. It is really something.
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So here is a headline over at TNC. It says, lockdowns did not reduce COVID mortality rates,
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according to Johns Hopkins researchers. Johns Hopkins is one of the best research universities
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in the world. So a groundbreaking report from Johns Hopkins University researchers has concluded that
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lockdowns did little to nothing when it came to reducing COVID-19 mortality rates and instead had
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devastating effects on the social and economic fabric of our society. The study titled a literature
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review of meta-analysis of the effects of lockdowns on COVID-19 mortality reviewed 18,590 research
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reports to arrive at its conclusion. Like I said, I think this is the most comprehensive review that
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we have seen so far. Lockdowns were defined as at least one compulsory non-pharmaceutical intervention,
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including limiting internal movement, school and business closures, bans on international travel,
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and more. Overall, we conclude that lockdowns are not an effective way of reducing mortality rates
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during a pandemic, at least not during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers wrote.
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In Edmonton, Canada, isolation and quarantine were instituted. Public meetings were banned,
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schools, churches, colleges, theaters, and other public gatherings were closed, and business hours
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were restricted without obvious impact on the epidemic. So no, lockdowns do not work. We're
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seeing more and more evidence that all of the things that the Liberals said that were science,
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that you had to follow the science, you had to listen to the science. If you weren't, it was because
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you were wrong, because you're stupid, because you hated liberalism and modernity. All of those slurs
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are proving to be wrong. At this point, it's so obvious. We know that the vaccines don't stop the
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spread of COVID. That is why all these people who are triple vaccinated, including our own Prime
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Minister Justin Trudeau, have COVID. So the whole justification for these lockdowns, and specifically
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the vaccine mandates, that the idea that you can't go to restaurants or movie theaters, our own
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public, if you're not vaccinated because you could spread COVID. That's just not true, because
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everyone can spread COVID. It doesn't matter if you're vaccinated or not. And here we see that the
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big solution proposed by governments across Canada to lock down, well, it didn't actually save lives.
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So shame on everyone who are pushing these things. It is time to end this thing. It is time to do what
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the truckers want us to do and end the pandemic, go back to life as normal, as they are doing in so many
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countries around the world, the UK, most of Scandinavia, most US states now. It's like Canada
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is the one holdout here, just gripping onto the power of forcing citizens to comply and do things.
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And Canadians are standing up, saying enough is enough. Now I want to cover this sort of big story
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of the day here. The Conservatives have removed their leader, Erin O'Toole. So we covered this in
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depth here at True North. I did my show on Tuesday, sort of leading up to it, I talked to a bunch of MPs
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off the record to sort of get the feeling on the ground, get the pulse of the party and what was
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going to happen. It was pretty obvious to me after talking to those MPs and after putting that report
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out that O'Toole was finished, that this was a foregone conclusion, he was going to be removed. And
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that is pretty much exactly how it played out. My colleagues and I, myself, Andrew Lawton and Harley
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Sims, we jumped on a live yesterday. And so you can go find that and see all of our reaction. We recorded
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the show live at one o'clock. So like five minutes after we learned that Erin O'Toole
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was getting removed. So you can see all of that analysis and reaction in that video there. But
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I'll just kind of go through a little bit of what happened. So there was that letter, 35 MPs initiated
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this saying, let's review this guy's leadership. Let's get him out right now. So in response,
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Erin O'Toole put out a pretty firm letter saying, I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to fight for my job.
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And this is my party. I want to continue to lead it. Obviously, he hadn't really read and had a good
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understanding of where the MPs were at that point, because I think that letter just turned more people
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against him. It was pretty divisive. And basically, he was calling the people in the party that were
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going against him angry and divisive and extreme. And then he was leaking stories to the CBC and the
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Toronto Star saying that the people who wanted him gone were like this anti-LGBT coalition within the
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party. Well, that's pretty devastating to say about your own party on the way out. He kind of had a change
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of tone, change of heart, because we had the story in the global news saying that O'Toole tells his MPs
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he's open to changing policies if he survives the caucus for evil, which had a lot of people
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chuckling. It's a little bit ironic. O'Toole was known as a conservative leader who didn't really
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stand for anything. He flip-flopped on almost every single issue he ever talked about. He ran as being
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a true blue conservative in the leadership race. And then he presented himself as a liberal during the
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election campaign and flip-flopped on like every major issue. And I'm not even exaggerating,
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be it carbon tax, defunding the CBC, his position on firearms, his position on mandates,
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his position on balancing the budget. Like anything you can think of policy-wise, O'Toole has had both
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positions. He's a flip-flopper. And so him coming out saying, hey guys, I'm open to changing my
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policies if you let me stay, just re-emphasize all the reasons why so many people wanted him gone.
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He couldn't make up his mind. He couldn't, he didn't stand for anything. He couldn't articulate his,
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his views. He didn't have conviction. He didn't really believe in anything.
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And politicians who don't believe in anything are never going to stand up for what is right.
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They, they, they, they're always going to look to the polls to figure out what they should,
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where they should stand on position. And then when you have something like the Freedom Convoy
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coming into town, representing the working class and the people that the conservatives should be
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representing. But then you have the fancy people in the media saying, no, no, no, these people are
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bad. It, it, it emphasized again O'Toole's biggest flaws is that he couldn't make a decision.
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He always had to look at the polls in order to guide him as to where to stand, where he stood on an
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issue. He didn't have time. And so he waffled and flip flopped on the trucker issue. And by that
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point it was like, okay, this guy has to go. He doesn't even know what he stands for. So again,
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a little bit, a little bit sad that, that at the point where here we were on Tuesday evening,
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it was pretty clear that O'Toole was going to get removed from office. And he's basically begging and
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pleading for his job, saying anything, he'll do anything. More stories along those lines saying,
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Aaron O'Toole was calling MPs and leaving voicemails, promising an earlier leadership
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than August, 2023, if they vote to keep them on. It's interesting because after the election in 2021,
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when O'Toole lost any, and he lost ground for the conservatives, like they lost, they won the
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popular vote against Trudeau. That's great. But they lost their share of the popular vote. They lost a
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bunch of seats, including in sort of target areas in around Toronto and Vancouver. O'Toole's strategy
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was to run as a liberal in order to win over voters in big cities, in urban areas like Toronto
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and Vancouver. And yet he didn't gain any ground. He didn't gain any ground in Quebec. He lost seats. So,
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so O'Toole lost the election, but afterwards he came out as if he had won. He was, he came across
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really arrogant, really sure of himself. He was continuing to malign conservatives. He had that
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line saying that conservatives have to have the courage to change. And a lot of people took that
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to heart because I think it seemed like what he was saying was that the courage to change to become
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more liberal, more progressive, and they didn't want to hear that. And we didn't really see a lot of
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reconciliation, a lot of humility from O'Toole at that point. I'm talking about in September and October
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after the election. And then all of a sudden here he is at the 11th hour saying that he's open to
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changing, saying that he'll have a leadership review earlier, making all the concessions that
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probably if he had made right after the election, he would have continued to be leader. However,
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at this point it was just too little, too late. So Wednesday morning, we have the vote to remove
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Aaron O'Toole. It took a lot longer than people thought. It's supposed to start at nine o'clock
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and we were supposed to get the results by like 11. Instead, it sort of turned into this long,
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drawn out affair. Now this was completely off the record. It was a private meeting
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and it was done virtually. So MPs were on their computers. So we don't know exactly what happened
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in the room because it wasn't public. But according to leaks that came out from MPs and journalists
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that were talking to people, basically got drawn out because MPs were making speeches for and against
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O'Toole. O'Toole made a passionate plea, basically begging for his job and saying that he wanted to
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stay. But again, too little, too late. So finally at around 12.45 in the afternoon on Thursday, members voted.
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And we were told that the final tally was 73 to 45. So it wasn't even close. Conservatives voted to
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remove Aaron O'Toole, fire him from his position. And he is no longer the leader of the party.
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Later in the day, it took took all night, basically, but the Conservatives elected an
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interim leader who is going to be Candace Bergen, the MP from Manitoba. She's fantastic, by the way.
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I sort of wish that she would run for leader of the party, but I think she'll make a great,
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a great interim leader in the meantime, while they continue to search for a new leader.
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So that's the big question on everyone's mind, who is going to replace Aaron O'Toole? Well,
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we haven't really heard a lot yet. But there's lots of lots of speculation. I think the front runner,
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the first person on everyone's mind is Pierre Polyev. Pierre Polyev is a fighter. He has so many
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of the skills that Aaron O'Toole did not, right? When I was talking about conviction, and being sure of
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yourself, being confident, being able to decide where you stand on an issue without reading the polls,
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without caring about what the elites in the legacy media have to say. Pierre is just that. He is
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incredibly well-spoken. He is fierce. He believes in what he says. He knows where he stands on issues.
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And you can see him. You saw him out at the Freedom Rally. Here we have all these journalists and
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all these liberals and all these bureaucrats trying to tell you that the Freedom Rally was made up of
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the far right and their extreme, and they had these Confederate and Nazi flags everywhere. Pierre wasn't
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buying any of that. He was there. He was supporting them. He was cheering them on. He was saying,
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this is what we need in this country. And I think a lot of people were really impressed and proud that
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Pierre was so willing to get out there in front of the issue when some other MPs, including the
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leader of the party at the time, Aaron O'Toole, was afraid to do that. So I think he's definitely
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the front-runner. Leslyn Lewis is another name that's being thrown around. She ran for leader
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last time around. She was very unknown at the time. People, you know, she was new to politics,
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and she really got a lot of support. She ended up winning the vote in the province of Saskatchewan,
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and becoming an MP over in Halton in Ontario. And so she's another person to watch. And then there's
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a bunch of people that everyone's kind of speculating upon. This might be like a wish list,
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but people are saying maybe Brad Wall will jump in, Michael Chong. There's talk of Patrick Brown,
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who was the mayor of Brampton, jumping in. So regardless of who puts their name forward as a
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potential leader of the party and who wins, there are two things that the new leader must do that
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Aaron O'Toole failed to do. Number one, they must connect with the grassroots. They need to get
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out there, talk to the supporters, talk to the base of the party to know what people are concerned
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about. What are their issues? What are they worried about? How can the conservative party
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represent them and speak to them and speak for them? What can they do to connect those people?
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It is just so incredibly important to connect with the grassroots. And the second thing is that
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they need to be an authentic communicator who believes in and can champion conservative values
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and conservative ideas. That is something that Aaron O'Toole was never able to do.
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You must believe in what you say if you're going to leave this party.
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I'm Candace Malcolm and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.