Juno News - October 06, 2021


Wuhan ordered PCR tests in bulk months before ＂first＂ COVID case


Episode Stats

Length

34 minutes

Words per Minute

179.43343

Word Count

6,277

Sentence Count

343

Misogynist Sentences

7

Hate Speech Sentences

15


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.
00:00:06.660 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.
00:00:12.900 Coming up, more proof China lied about COVID.
00:00:15.980 Universities are trying to force vaccinations, even on online students.
00:00:19.960 And the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is not thrilled with Erin O'Toole.
00:00:25.320 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.
00:00:30.000 Hello and welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.
00:00:35.520 This is the Andrew Lawton Show on Tuesday, October 5th, 2021.
00:00:39.560 Hope you're having an absolutely wonderful week so far.
00:00:42.420 Maybe you are on a beach in Tofino strolling along.
00:00:46.360 Well, I mean, if you're the Prime Minister, that's basically what you're doing.
00:00:49.320 It doesn't matter what.
00:00:50.080 I felt so bad because last week I had recorded this show.
00:00:53.520 As I shared, I was in Alberta speaking at the Canada Strong and Free Network Conference,
00:00:57.660 which was a lot of fun.
00:00:58.900 I had a great time listening to Dennis Prager, Danielle Smith, Chris Sims, Michael Binion,
00:01:04.060 all these great folks, many of whom have been on this show.
00:01:07.040 And because I was going out west, I pre-recorded my show, which every time you do, you are just
00:01:11.880 tempting fate because, of course, I record the show, I head to the airport, and by the
00:01:16.300 time I land, I realize that Justin Trudeau has also landed in Tofino as I just recorded
00:01:22.860 a whole show about the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and I realized, oh boy,
00:01:27.500 that's okay.
00:01:28.080 I had to get my shots in, so I did at the beginning of this show.
00:01:31.280 Let's turn our attention to China, though.
00:01:34.000 A new report, quite a bombshell, finds that China was ramping up its purchase of PCR tests
00:01:40.860 about six months before the first reported case of COVID-19 in Wuhan, in the Hubei province.
00:01:49.320 Now, Wuhan, of course, we know was the stated genesis of COVID-19, of this virus that has
00:01:55.080 wreaked havoc on the world, especially because of the response from governments it's elicited.
00:02:00.620 But China, who has continually denied it did anything wrong about this, is now looking pretty
00:02:07.320 darn sketchy.
00:02:08.840 So this report is from an Australian cybersecurity firm called Internet 2.0, and they've analyzed
00:02:15.240 procurement data specifically, and they found that China in the Hubei province specifically,
00:02:21.560 so that's where Wuhan is, in the summer of 2019, was spending 10.5 million US dollars
00:02:29.060 on PCR tests, double what they spent a year prior, starting in May.
00:02:34.860 Now, this is a full six-plus months before China first reported its case of COVID in Wuhan,
00:02:43.880 in December of 2019.
00:02:46.000 So these PCR tests, which we know very well by now, were starting to be ordered in such
00:02:52.060 large quantities in Wuhan six months before China admitted there was a problem.
00:02:56.400 Now, why would they be doing that if not because they were seeing evidence of some viral infection
00:03:01.580 that was spreading around, around the same time that they were getting all these tests?
00:03:06.720 This is not a radical concept to just look at based on the numbers specifically.
00:03:11.900 They were finding that orders for these tests doubled from universities.
00:03:16.080 They jumped five-fold from China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and ten-fold
00:03:21.160 from animal testing bureaus, while hospital purchases declined.
00:03:25.860 So that's a bit odd right there.
00:03:27.160 And they were looking at these data, which were monthly data they got on procurement,
00:03:31.260 and found that there was an absolute spike in orders specifically in May.
00:03:36.040 So this report has concluded that the increased spending suggests May as the earliest start date
00:03:41.140 for possible infection.
00:03:42.500 Again, almost seven months prior to when China admitted to have found a case that aligns with
00:03:49.060 what we now know is COVID-19.
00:03:51.420 And these purchases were rising all in Wuhan, which is very important here, from July through October.
00:03:58.780 The Wuhan University of Science and Technology spent 8.92 million Chinese yuan on PCR tests in 2019,
00:04:06.980 which is eight times its total for the previous year.
00:04:11.020 So the report is saying with high confidence that the pandemic began much earlier than China
00:04:16.660 informed the World Health Organization about COVID-19.
00:04:19.800 Now, the obvious response to anyone who's been paying attention is, well, yeah, obviously.
00:04:26.160 But even if it's self-evident, to have these data, to have these numbers supporting it,
00:04:31.240 I think is quite significant.
00:04:32.640 And let's bring this into a Canadian context.
00:04:35.880 Whenever anyone has asked the government, the federal government in Canada,
00:04:39.940 about China's handling of the pandemic, they have not wanted to weigh in.
00:04:45.040 And just to take a little blast through the past here, here is Justin Trudeau saying, well, now's not the time.
00:04:50.740 Why is your government so reluctant to acknowledge China's possible faults in this pandemic?
00:04:55.760 My job right now is to make sure that Canadians get the best support, the best protection,
00:05:02.880 and are able to get through this as best we possibly can.
00:05:06.880 That means getting the equipment that we need.
00:05:10.460 That means ensuring that the cooperation and the collaboration on the international stage is done properly.
00:05:18.320 That means focusing right now on today and tomorrow and how we're going to keep Canadians safe.
00:05:24.520 There will be plenty of time to point fingers, to ask questions, to draw conclusions,
00:05:31.760 and to make ensure that there are consequences for things that different countries may have done during this pandemic.
00:05:41.400 Right now, my job is to look out for Canadians.
00:05:45.420 And my personal favourite, if you ask about China's handling of the pandemic to Health Minister Patti Haidu,
00:05:52.400 well, you're just feeding conspiracy theories.
00:05:54.980 My colleague mentioned was that we don't rely on any one country's source of data.
00:05:59.960 In fact, it's the World Health Organization that coordinates the data from all countries.
00:06:04.800 Dr. Tam is a special advisor to the committee that's been working on the pandemic since the very early days.
00:06:09.820 Dr. Bruce Ellward led the World Health Organization committee to China to do the investigation of what was happening,
00:06:16.800 what they could determine on the ground in terms of China's capacity to have a full understanding of what was happening.
00:06:24.200 There's no indication that the data that came out of China in terms of their infection rate and their death rate was falsified in any way.
00:06:32.040 In fact, if you look at the death rate overall in China, it's much higher than the one we're seeing now.
00:06:36.880 And so we rely on the World Health Organization to do this important work because, of course, we're all in this together.
00:06:44.560 And I think one of the most important things to understand about this pandemic, this global pandemic,
00:06:49.520 is that as long as coronavirus exists in one country, and it exists in all of our countries,
00:06:54.440 that we actually have to work collectively as a world now to defeat this virus,
00:06:59.320 to find better ways to treat and then eventually prevent this virus through vaccination or other kinds of methods.
00:07:06.300 And that's going to take everybody working together.
00:07:10.240 Sorry, please let her finish.
00:07:14.120 So I would say that your question is feeding into conspiracy theories that many people have been perpetuating on the Internet.
00:07:26.540 And it's important to remember that there is no way to beat a global pandemic if we're actually not willing to work together as a globe.
00:07:34.400 We will have to come up with a global solution to this virus.
00:07:38.440 No country is an island.
00:07:39.860 And I am so proud of the Canadian researchers that are part of the World Health Organization Solidarity Project,
00:07:45.200 that are working on developing vaccines and treatments for this virus that undoubtedly are going to be a big part of the solution about how we all get ourselves out of the situation.
00:07:56.800 I've played that clip so many times, and every time, the indignation, I just have trouble believing.
00:08:02.660 I mean, I don't have trouble believing, but I do, if you get what I mean there.
00:08:06.080 So, Patty, hi, do you?
00:08:06.920 Yeah, you're just feeding conspiracies.
00:08:08.420 Justin Trudeau, yeah, I know.
00:08:09.420 We'll talk about China's handling later.
00:08:11.700 Well, maybe we should talk about it right now.
00:08:14.380 Now that we know that China was ordering millions and millions of dollars of these testing kits,
00:08:19.260 which, by the way, other countries had trouble getting in because China was dominating the supply.
00:08:25.680 So we were all sending them all our PPE.
00:08:29.140 Meanwhile, China had a six-month head start on this pandemic.
00:08:34.420 The evidence has grown significantly to support the idea that this leaked from a lab.
00:08:39.500 Now, people will attribute motive to that, which I don't know if we have enough evidence for,
00:08:44.260 as to whether this was just a lab accident or something that China deliberately released into the world.
00:08:49.680 Nothing would surprise me now.
00:08:50.980 And again, China has not deserved the benefit of the doubt.
00:08:55.620 China does not deserve the benefit of the doubt.
00:08:57.700 They don't deserve our trust.
00:08:58.780 They don't deserve the ability for us to say,
00:09:01.420 well, I'm sure they tried and they did their best.
00:09:03.620 No, absolutely not.
00:09:05.600 So it wouldn't surprise me if this were a weaponized virus,
00:09:08.600 and it also wouldn't surprise me if this were just massive incompetence on a large scale
00:09:12.900 that the Chinese government was trying to contain and trying to suppress.
00:09:18.900 Remember how China treated its early whistleblowers?
00:09:21.920 Again, this is almost two years ago now.
00:09:23.720 Actually, based on this, it was more than two years ago that this first started.
00:09:28.340 But we know that China was clamping down on anyone who was trying to speak about what was happening.
00:09:33.700 And this is one of the reasons that I've never been able to adopt the COVID truth or position,
00:09:38.320 that this is no big deal, because the bodies piling up in Wuhan were real.
00:09:42.160 The carnage that was being unleashed on communities in Italy, that was very real.
00:09:48.320 So all of this was done because China was trying to save face.
00:09:51.800 China was trying to protect itself and not admit that it had royally screwed up,
00:09:57.260 either because of incompetence or perhaps because of malice.
00:10:00.960 Again, you can't give them the benefit of the doubt for anything, and I'm not going to start now.
00:10:04.560 But since this report, there has been silence from the global community.
00:10:10.720 The World Health Organization has said not a darn thing.
00:10:13.340 The Canadian government has said not a darn thing about it.
00:10:16.140 China's foreign ministry has, of course, said that it is a so-called paper.
00:10:20.140 They think it's a serious scientific issue, virus traceability,
00:10:23.540 that can't be distilled down to those just Australian cybersecurity experts.
00:10:26.560 No, they're looking at this through the digital lens,
00:10:30.460 because China has not handed over a full and honest and transparent account of its health data.
00:10:37.260 So you can't have a scientific analysis when China is trying to craft a narrative.
00:10:42.520 And I remember there was a story, I talked about it a year and however many months ago,
00:10:46.200 from Barron's, which is a financial analytics firm.
00:10:49.720 And Barron's had found that the Chinese numbers that have been provided
00:10:53.200 were almost too statistically perfect to make sense.
00:10:57.920 They found that it almost looked as though someone had kind of backwards created a trend
00:11:03.260 that just couldn't exist in nature.
00:11:06.100 And that story has stuck with me,
00:11:08.020 because it is almost as though China has crafted a reverse narrative
00:11:11.580 to try to immunize itself from having any responsibility or any accountability.
00:11:17.240 That's the real immunization China's caring about right now.
00:11:21.340 And one thing that's worth noting on that as well,
00:11:23.800 is that when the WHO team went to investigate,
00:11:27.060 now, I have many, many misgivings about the WHO,
00:11:30.780 but nevertheless, they were the ones there.
00:11:32.520 They were the ones on the ground.
00:11:33.860 And when they went to China,
00:11:36.700 China refused to hand over its raw data.
00:11:40.440 So this is when I talk about that Barron story.
00:11:43.240 China didn't want its raw data analyzed by the World Health Organization.
00:11:48.100 So China went there.
00:11:49.340 They wanted the early cases, the patient data.
00:11:51.680 China would only give a curated summary.
00:11:55.380 So thus not allowing medical investigators,
00:11:59.480 health investigators to do the report,
00:12:01.500 the research they would do in any other situation.
00:12:05.460 What are they trying to hide?
00:12:07.300 And again, the most concerning part of all this
00:12:11.280 is how no one in any position of leadership
00:12:14.120 seems interested in asking all that many questions.
00:12:18.700 Whether it's, you know,
00:12:19.680 Justin, it's not the right time, Trudeau,
00:12:21.540 or Patty feeding conspiracy theories, I do.
00:12:24.140 Paul at Bureau Patty,
00:12:25.000 as we've come to endearingly refer to her on this show.
00:12:27.580 The fundamental reality is that
00:12:29.780 all of the people who should be calling for answers here
00:12:32.780 are not there.
00:12:33.620 The U.S. State Department was,
00:12:35.080 the U.S. government prior to Joe Biden taking over
00:12:38.360 was interested in getting to the bottom of this.
00:12:41.260 They were the ones that were doing the investigation
00:12:42.960 and research into the lab leak thesis.
00:12:45.220 But then all of that seemed to go away
00:12:46.960 once Trump was no longer in the White House.
00:12:50.700 And now the new Biden administration
00:12:52.560 is more interested in cozying up with China
00:12:54.960 because they're going to be saviors on the climate file.
00:12:57.420 They don't want to do anything to rock the boat
00:12:59.140 on any other area, mainly COVID.
00:13:02.460 And why this is so important,
00:13:04.780 you may think, well, what's the big deal?
00:13:06.400 Is because for starters,
00:13:07.920 China will have completely proven it can't be trusted
00:13:10.440 more than as if we needed more proof,
00:13:12.880 but clearly some people do.
00:13:15.120 So understanding exactly why we got here
00:13:17.820 is very significant.
00:13:20.540 But the other dimension of this
00:13:22.400 is that we are still paying for this.
00:13:25.180 This was not just a pandemic
00:13:27.720 that went through people's immune system.
00:13:29.840 This was a pandemic
00:13:31.060 that eroded people's civil liberties.
00:13:34.200 And that's not China's fault.
00:13:35.700 I mean, that's something that's shouldered
00:13:36.980 by the governments of Canada, Australia,
00:13:39.880 the United Kingdom,
00:13:41.080 state governments in the U.S.
00:13:42.360 They own that, not China.
00:13:43.920 China just, you know, handed them the platter.
00:13:45.840 They were the ones that forced it down our throats.
00:13:47.940 Just to point out one example of this,
00:13:50.140 Mount Royal University in Calgary
00:13:52.100 has deregistered 11 students
00:13:55.220 for not declaring their vaccination status.
00:13:57.760 So this is a story that just infuriates me.
00:14:01.140 Mount Royal University,
00:14:02.180 like all universities and colleges in Ontario
00:14:04.340 and many others across the country,
00:14:06.620 has put in a vaccine mandate for students.
00:14:09.380 If you want to go there,
00:14:10.300 you have to be vaccinated.
00:14:11.860 And they had 22 students originally
00:14:13.940 that said they wouldn't declare,
00:14:16.320 which the school just took to mean
00:14:17.920 they're unvaccinated.
00:14:19.340 And then they said,
00:14:20.240 we're dropping you.
00:14:21.540 And then half of them said,
00:14:22.720 okay, fine, I'm vaccinated.
00:14:24.080 And then the other half,
00:14:25.460 11 of them are deregistered,
00:14:28.520 which means they're not able to be in class.
00:14:30.400 They're not able to attend campus.
00:14:32.380 They're not able to do anything
00:14:34.440 that would align with them being a student
00:14:37.440 until they get vaccinated
00:14:39.180 and tell the school they are vaccinated.
00:14:41.640 And they're supposed to have access
00:14:43.920 to a rapid testing program.
00:14:46.620 But even that sounds like
00:14:48.020 it's not entirely being enforced.
00:14:50.020 And this last week originally came up
00:14:52.120 because they had deregistered an online student,
00:14:55.140 a student who was doing her classes online.
00:14:57.380 They kicked her out of her student account.
00:15:02.640 And they've apparently rectified that.
00:15:04.940 I know she was working with the Justice Center
00:15:06.480 for Constitutional Freedoms.
00:15:07.820 And they, I think, put the fear of God
00:15:09.060 into the school and they re-registered her.
00:15:11.360 But the reality is this school
00:15:12.800 is more interested.
00:15:14.660 I mean, back in my day,
00:15:15.740 which I know I'm not that old,
00:15:16.940 but back in my day,
00:15:18.100 the academic offenses were,
00:15:20.060 you know, plagiarism and cheating
00:15:22.260 and doing stuff like that.
00:15:23.940 Now not being vaccinated
00:15:25.360 is like the most grave academic offense.
00:15:27.600 In fact, they're probably going to
00:15:28.780 kick you out of school faster
00:15:29.780 for not being vaccinated
00:15:30.800 than they will for plagiarism.
00:15:32.400 Not that I advise plagiarism
00:15:34.540 in any way whatsoever.
00:15:36.200 So what's happening here
00:15:38.080 is that students
00:15:40.440 are now being forced to choose
00:15:42.460 between their values
00:15:43.920 if they, for whatever reason,
00:15:45.120 don't want to be vaccinated
00:15:46.140 and their education.
00:15:48.920 Just turning to Ontario for a moment,
00:15:51.960 Wilfrid Laurier University,
00:15:53.260 where my colleague Lindsay Shepard went,
00:15:55.420 will not allow unvaccinated students
00:15:57.620 to take online courses.
00:15:59.820 This is absolutely insane.
00:16:02.420 If you are in class normally,
00:16:05.800 but you're transitioning to online
00:16:07.660 because of COVID or whatever reason,
00:16:09.340 you are not allowed to do that
00:16:11.180 unless you are vaccinated.
00:16:12.420 So if you want to sit and watch
00:16:13.960 class lectures on your computer at home
00:16:16.600 where you're not getting
00:16:18.920 your unvaccinated germs on anyone else,
00:16:21.100 you are not allowed to do that.
00:16:22.460 And the school's rationale for this as well,
00:16:24.340 we hope to transition in the second semester
00:16:26.320 back to in-person learning.
00:16:28.380 So we, and we won't allow
00:16:29.600 unvaccinated people in class then,
00:16:31.160 so you can't be doing the online studies now.
00:16:34.540 This is what it's come to.
00:16:35.860 I mean, I used to think
00:16:36.900 that it was ridiculous
00:16:37.600 when schools would do
00:16:38.600 land acknowledgements for Zoom events
00:16:40.240 when you have no idea
00:16:41.360 what land anyone's on.
00:16:42.640 Now you need to be vaccinated
00:16:43.980 to sit in your own bedroom
00:16:45.420 and partake in education.
00:16:47.800 This is not about safety.
00:16:49.960 This is absolutely in no way about safety.
00:16:52.580 It is entirely about control.
00:16:54.520 You are not entitled to an education now
00:16:56.900 unless you get vaccinated
00:16:59.060 and want to disclose
00:17:00.480 that vaccination status to your school.
00:17:03.220 And incidentally,
00:17:05.800 schools are still forcing students
00:17:07.460 to wear masks.
00:17:09.140 They're still telling students
00:17:10.540 not to party
00:17:11.340 and not to get together.
00:17:12.340 So on one hand,
00:17:13.000 the schools are telling students
00:17:14.240 in Ontario,
00:17:15.400 certainly that,
00:17:16.540 yeah, you're vaccinated
00:17:17.680 and this is the only way
00:17:18.460 we can make campus safe.
00:17:19.540 But all these things that you do
00:17:20.700 if you were back to normal
00:17:21.780 with your friends,
00:17:22.600 you aren't allowed to do.
00:17:24.140 You can't walk around without a mask.
00:17:26.020 No, no, no.
00:17:26.440 It's not safe enough
00:17:27.220 to have parties with your friends.
00:17:28.600 Well, which is it?
00:17:29.200 Do vaccines work or do they not?
00:17:31.520 And why are you insisting
00:17:32.800 on controlling
00:17:33.560 every single aspect
00:17:35.200 of young adults' lives
00:17:37.000 under the auspices
00:17:38.880 of public safety
00:17:39.820 and public health
00:17:40.700 when you're clearly
00:17:42.440 not even prepared
00:17:43.380 to grant any freedom
00:17:44.840 as much as it pains me
00:17:47.360 to say that freedoms
00:17:48.120 need to be granted?
00:17:49.320 If someone wants to team up with me,
00:17:50.860 we can all throw in a few bucks
00:17:52.280 and create this new
00:17:53.140 completely online university
00:17:54.740 that only teaches one thing,
00:17:56.640 Civil Liberties 101.
00:17:57.800 And we'll even get free tuition
00:17:58.880 for all of these bureaucrats
00:18:01.180 and lawmakers
00:18:02.180 and university deans
00:18:03.720 because they clearly need it.
00:18:05.560 They clearly need to learn
00:18:06.860 about the importance
00:18:08.180 of individual choice,
00:18:09.220 which is in dwindling supply
00:18:11.100 these days.
00:18:12.040 We've got to take a quick break.
00:18:13.440 When we come back,
00:18:14.040 we'll talk about
00:18:14.560 the Conservative campaign's
00:18:16.100 economic record
00:18:17.060 and why the Canadian
00:18:18.220 Taxpayers Federation
00:18:19.100 thinks they might need
00:18:20.440 a new leader.
00:18:21.520 The Conservatives, that is,
00:18:22.480 not the CTF.
00:18:23.680 That's up next
00:18:24.440 here on The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:18:25.820 You're tuned in
00:18:28.520 to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:18:33.800 Welcome back
00:18:34.640 to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:18:36.160 Well, as was clear,
00:18:37.180 pretty much the day
00:18:38.060 after the election,
00:18:39.400 Aaron O'Toole's future
00:18:40.460 as Conservative leader
00:18:41.800 is not a certainty.
00:18:43.820 We know that caucus
00:18:44.960 is split from what we've heard.
00:18:46.800 Certainly the Conservative base
00:18:48.360 is split.
00:18:49.480 And a lot of people
00:18:50.220 are trying to paint this
00:18:51.560 as being something
00:18:52.640 that is really just about,
00:18:54.580 oh, well, you know,
00:18:55.340 maybe it's the social Conservatives
00:18:56.700 versus the red Tories
00:18:57.900 and whatever.
00:18:58.700 But I want to have
00:18:59.680 an honest accounting
00:19:00.640 of Aaron O'Toole's leadership
00:19:02.000 even on the fiscal issues,
00:19:03.660 which are supposed to be
00:19:04.700 the bread and butter
00:19:05.600 for Conservatives.
00:19:06.940 During the election,
00:19:08.120 the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
00:19:09.560 was a little bit perturbed,
00:19:11.740 I think I can say,
00:19:12.700 with the Conservative platform
00:19:14.900 on finances.
00:19:16.060 There was a promise
00:19:17.000 to balance the budget
00:19:17.900 within 10 years,
00:19:18.920 but not really a specific method
00:19:21.760 on how to get there.
00:19:22.860 And now Franco Terrazano,
00:19:24.860 the Federal Director
00:19:25.660 for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation,
00:19:28.080 has a great op-ed
00:19:29.160 in the Financial Post
00:19:30.060 talking about the credibility problem
00:19:32.080 that O'Toole has.
00:19:33.480 Franco Terrazano joins me now.
00:19:35.480 Franco, good to talk to you.
00:19:36.460 Thanks for coming on, as always.
00:19:38.180 Hey, thanks, Andrew, for having me.
00:19:40.100 So let's start here.
00:19:41.020 Where do you think
00:19:41.480 the credibility problem comes from?
00:19:43.600 Well, it comes from the fact
00:19:44.740 that O'Toole flip-flopped
00:19:45.940 on some of the biggest issues
00:19:47.940 when it comes to fiscal issues,
00:19:49.920 when it comes to issues
00:19:50.860 for taxpayers.
00:19:51.420 I mean, he flip-flopped
00:19:52.760 on the carbon tax.
00:19:53.840 He flip-flopped on reining
00:19:55.120 and out-of-control
00:19:56.000 government spending.
00:19:57.220 He flip-flopped on repealing
00:19:58.700 the Trudeau government's
00:19:59.760 ineffective and expensive
00:20:01.020 gun ban and buyback.
00:20:03.100 You know, it almost seems
00:20:04.700 like O'Toole was hoping
00:20:05.820 that voters and Canadians
00:20:07.220 wouldn't be paying attention
00:20:08.400 on these issues.
00:20:09.240 But unfortunately for O'Toole,
00:20:11.400 voters aren't stupid.
00:20:12.980 They held them accountable.
00:20:14.420 And now O'Toole has a very,
00:20:16.780 very serious credibility problem.
00:20:18.420 Yeah, and when you talk
00:20:20.980 about these flip-flops,
00:20:21.980 I'm a firm believer
00:20:22.840 in the importance
00:20:23.600 of a clear and concise
00:20:25.160 and consistent message.
00:20:26.960 And I feel that if you have
00:20:28.380 a clarity in your message
00:20:29.600 and you're consistent
00:20:30.380 in your message,
00:20:31.260 even if not everyone
00:20:32.120 agrees with you,
00:20:32.960 they can at least respect you
00:20:34.220 for knowing where you are.
00:20:36.900 By the end of the campaign,
00:20:38.040 it was unclear
00:20:38.820 where the conservatives
00:20:40.260 would end up
00:20:41.220 if they were in government
00:20:42.020 on a lot of key issues.
00:20:43.080 Yeah, it was about
00:20:43.960 as clear as mud, wasn't it?
00:20:45.940 But I mean,
00:20:46.980 these were just complete
00:20:48.260 180s on some of these.
00:20:49.520 Let's start with the carbon tax.
00:20:51.100 You know, for a while,
00:20:52.920 O'Toole rightly railed
00:20:54.560 against carbon taxes, right?
00:20:56.380 He saw this as an issue
00:20:57.860 that reduces affordability.
00:21:00.080 He even signed
00:21:00.900 the Canadian Taxpayers
00:21:01.820 Federation's pledge
00:21:02.940 when he was running
00:21:04.020 for Conservative Party leader.
00:21:05.660 And the pledge
00:21:06.280 was unequivocal.
00:21:07.220 It said that he would
00:21:08.080 scrap the Trudeau government's
00:21:09.900 carbon tax
00:21:10.480 and then he would
00:21:11.240 replace it with nothing
00:21:12.560 so that he would
00:21:13.440 fight carbon taxes.
00:21:14.840 And then just months
00:21:15.840 before the SNAP election
00:21:16.840 was called,
00:21:17.480 he did a complete 180
00:21:18.680 and announced that
00:21:19.580 he would be hammering families
00:21:20.940 with a carbon tax of his own.
00:21:23.080 And Andrew gets worse
00:21:24.240 because he also said
00:21:25.380 that he would be bringing in
00:21:26.620 what amounts to
00:21:27.320 a second carbon tax
00:21:28.540 through fuel regulations.
00:21:30.360 So when it's all said and done,
00:21:32.160 O'Toole's carbon taxes
00:21:33.480 would have hammered a family
00:21:35.500 for nearly $20
00:21:36.780 every time they fueled up
00:21:38.860 their minivan.
00:21:40.380 This was a big one
00:21:41.980 because you're right
00:21:42.880 and I remember that.
00:21:43.680 I remember with your predecessor
00:21:45.140 Aaron Woodrick,
00:21:46.100 Aaron O'Toole signing
00:21:46.940 that no carbon tax pledge
00:21:48.540 very clear against the carbon tax
00:21:51.180 and the Conservatives
00:21:52.460 tried to spin their plan
00:21:53.740 as not being a carbon tax
00:21:55.180 because they said
00:21:55.800 that the government
00:21:56.360 wasn't keeping the money.
00:21:57.540 But I mean,
00:21:58.120 my view on this
00:21:58.780 was that if you're forcing
00:21:59.620 consumers to pay more
00:22:00.680 for something,
00:22:01.760 it's a tax through and through.
00:22:03.500 But I mean,
00:22:04.100 the worst thing
00:22:04.880 is that it didn't even work.
00:22:06.280 There's a gamble
00:22:06.880 that okay,
00:22:07.320 if we put this forward,
00:22:08.500 the Conservatives
00:22:09.120 will ingratiate themselves
00:22:10.820 in the hearts
00:22:11.340 and minds of Canadians
00:22:12.240 and it's not even like
00:22:13.140 they had a win to show for it.
00:22:15.200 Oh, you're absolutely correct
00:22:16.780 on so many issues there, Andrew.
00:22:18.920 I mean,
00:22:19.320 where do we start?
00:22:20.540 Well, the first part,
00:22:21.720 of course it's a carbon tax.
00:22:23.340 If the government
00:22:24.080 is going to force consumers
00:22:25.380 to pay more at the pumps,
00:22:27.300 that is a tax.
00:22:28.820 Now on that issue,
00:22:29.700 I mean,
00:22:30.060 O'Toole was trying to pretend
00:22:31.240 that this wasn't a tax.
00:22:32.980 Well,
00:22:33.540 if you're going to do a 180,
00:22:34.960 if you're going to hammer families
00:22:36.600 with a carbon tax of your own,
00:22:37.880 at least have the spine
00:22:39.320 to admit it
00:22:40.400 rather than play word games
00:22:42.280 and insult Canadians' intelligence.
00:22:44.740 Now,
00:22:45.200 the second issue
00:22:45.920 is that of course
00:22:46.840 this was going to raise
00:22:48.000 affordability for Canadians,
00:22:49.560 O'Toole's flip-flop
00:22:50.440 and carbon tax.
00:22:51.460 Now,
00:22:51.880 here's where things
00:22:52.900 really go wrong
00:22:54.000 for O'Toole.
00:22:54.820 One of the key issues
00:22:55.760 that all Canadians
00:22:56.680 coast to coast,
00:22:57.520 no matter what demographic,
00:22:59.160 were concerned
00:23:00.080 about affordability.
00:23:01.280 Well,
00:23:01.500 O'Toole completely lost
00:23:02.740 the leg to stand on
00:23:03.700 on affordability,
00:23:04.580 right?
00:23:04.760 Because how can you talk
00:23:05.960 about improving affordability
00:23:07.900 on the one hand
00:23:08.900 and then on the other hand
00:23:10.000 hammer families
00:23:10.980 with a carbon tax
00:23:12.240 which would mean
00:23:12.840 that they would pay
00:23:13.640 nearly $20 extra
00:23:15.340 every time they fill up
00:23:16.280 their minivan.
00:23:17.020 I mean,
00:23:17.320 you can't
00:23:17.960 and really that's where
00:23:19.180 O'Toole missed the mark.
00:23:21.600 Sarah Goodman
00:23:22.540 who is in the Prime Minister's office,
00:23:24.660 one of the chief climate advisors
00:23:26.140 for Justin Trudeau
00:23:27.140 said on Twitter
00:23:27.760 after the election results
00:23:29.540 that the re-elected
00:23:30.720 Liberal government
00:23:31.340 is a sign
00:23:31.940 that the government
00:23:32.500 has a mandate
00:23:33.220 to do more on climate
00:23:34.480 and to do it faster.
00:23:36.340 Is there not an argument
00:23:37.500 that by sending
00:23:38.340 Justin Trudeau
00:23:39.100 back to Ottawa,
00:23:39.980 by re-electing
00:23:40.660 a Trudeau government
00:23:41.340 even in a minority,
00:23:42.360 Canadians are
00:23:43.000 either tacitly
00:23:44.540 or explicitly on board
00:23:45.740 with the carbon tax?
00:23:47.200 No,
00:23:47.880 I don't think so.
00:23:49.220 I mean,
00:23:49.420 even look at how
00:23:50.280 the Trudeau government
00:23:51.260 brought in
00:23:51.920 its massively increasing
00:23:53.380 carbon tax
00:23:54.000 to $170 per ton.
00:23:55.660 In the lead up
00:23:56.480 to the 2019 election,
00:23:58.260 then Environment Minister
00:23:59.420 for the Trudeau Liberals,
00:24:01.060 Catherine McKenna,
00:24:01.720 she said that the government
00:24:02.700 had no intention
00:24:03.560 to raise the carbon tax
00:24:05.180 beyond $50 per ton.
00:24:06.980 Now,
00:24:07.480 after that Liberal government
00:24:08.680 was elected,
00:24:09.520 they waited until,
00:24:10.440 what,
00:24:10.620 two weeks before Christmas
00:24:11.880 of 2020,
00:24:13.320 months before the next election
00:24:15.020 to announce
00:24:15.560 that they would be
00:24:16.220 raising the carbon tax
00:24:17.500 all the way up to
00:24:18.120 40 cents per litre
00:24:19.180 of gasoline by 2030.
00:24:20.760 So even the Liberals,
00:24:22.200 of course,
00:24:22.660 have not been telling the truth
00:24:23.960 when it comes to carbon taxes.
00:24:25.660 And I think it's because
00:24:26.640 they know that Canadians
00:24:27.740 really have no appetite
00:24:28.920 to be seeing their cost
00:24:30.220 of living going up.
00:24:31.220 Now,
00:24:31.960 one thing I want to go back
00:24:33.140 on O'Toole's carbon tax
00:24:34.700 because you kind of
00:24:35.380 brought up a good point,
00:24:36.400 but I didn't follow through
00:24:37.300 on it.
00:24:38.160 And that's this whole idea
00:24:39.900 of the O'Toole savings account,
00:24:42.180 right?
00:24:42.440 The fact that you're going
00:24:43.260 to pay a higher price
00:24:44.300 at the pump
00:24:44.820 and then somehow
00:24:46.340 this money is going
00:24:47.180 to be put into
00:24:47.740 a savings account
00:24:48.560 which you can only be using
00:24:49.800 to buy some green
00:24:51.420 government-approved swag.
00:24:53.000 Now,
00:24:53.220 Andrew,
00:24:53.620 you know that the
00:24:54.360 Canadian Taxpayers Federation
00:24:55.500 has been hammering
00:24:56.520 the Trudeau government's
00:24:57.460 carbon tax.
00:24:58.020 We're going to continue
00:24:58.560 to hammer that carbon tax.
00:25:00.080 It's really just
00:25:01.040 a thinly veiled
00:25:02.000 redistribution scheme.
00:25:03.460 But at least
00:25:04.580 under the Trudeau government's
00:25:06.360 carbon tax,
00:25:07.040 some people will get
00:25:07.960 some of their money back
00:25:09.100 in actual cash.
00:25:10.780 The O'Toole carbon tax
00:25:12.220 was a complete disaster.
00:25:13.440 It was so paternalistic.
00:25:14.800 Yeah,
00:25:16.860 I mean,
00:25:17.260 this is the whole thing.
00:25:18.040 Forget about the lack
00:25:19.380 of clarity
00:25:20.480 on what you could
00:25:21.400 spend your money on.
00:25:22.520 This idea that
00:25:23.300 you're going to get
00:25:24.240 this rewards account,
00:25:25.940 this O'Toole bucks account
00:25:27.000 that then you can use
00:25:28.160 for green purchases.
00:25:30.180 So you can buy a bicycle,
00:25:31.500 maybe.
00:25:32.040 You can buy some
00:25:32.900 energy-efficient windows.
00:25:34.640 But having this money
00:25:35.800 sitting in an account
00:25:36.580 that you can't access,
00:25:37.300 I mean,
00:25:37.500 that's been like
00:25:37.940 my Petro Points card,
00:25:39.160 basically,
00:25:39.680 where it's all sitting there
00:25:41.420 and I can't really
00:25:42.220 do anything with it
00:25:42.940 unless I just want
00:25:43.680 to buy gas.
00:25:44.340 That's the one thing
00:25:45.320 that I can do with that.
00:25:46.580 But at least I had a choice
00:25:47.500 in enrolling in that program.
00:25:49.700 Yeah,
00:25:50.020 O'Toole's carbon tax flip-flop
00:25:51.600 was really a disaster
00:25:52.620 from beginning to end.
00:25:54.380 Really,
00:25:54.840 hey,
00:25:55.040 don't worry everyone
00:25:55.980 out there in Calgary.
00:25:57.100 Yeah,
00:25:57.300 you're going to be facing
00:25:58.160 higher fuel bills,
00:25:59.160 but hey,
00:25:59.560 you'll be able to cart
00:26:00.620 your groceries home
00:26:01.860 in the middle of January
00:26:02.780 with your new e-scooter.
00:26:04.220 It was just a complete disaster.
00:26:06.540 I want to turn
00:26:07.460 to the other aspect here,
00:26:08.560 which was the balanced budget thing.
00:26:10.320 Now,
00:26:10.500 I had asked Aaron O'Toole
00:26:11.580 about this.
00:26:12.080 I think it was the very first day
00:26:13.180 of the campaign.
00:26:13.920 You say that you're going
00:26:15.000 to balance the budget
00:26:15.680 in 10 years.
00:26:16.500 We've seen the economic
00:26:17.420 situation Canada's in.
00:26:19.160 How are you going to do that?
00:26:20.740 And throughout the campaign,
00:26:21.900 we heard certainly
00:26:23.340 specific promises,
00:26:24.660 but I never saw
00:26:25.840 what are you going to do
00:26:28.200 to in 10 years
00:26:29.840 balance the budget.
00:26:30.960 And the caveat here
00:26:32.020 is that because of the spending
00:26:33.260 that we've seen in Canada,
00:26:34.460 not just over the last year
00:26:35.700 and a half,
00:26:36.120 but over the last six years
00:26:37.480 of the Liberal government,
00:26:38.580 balancing the budget,
00:26:39.920 belting the tight.
00:26:41.540 Tightening the belt
00:26:42.260 is going to be a challenge,
00:26:43.660 but I never really
00:26:44.840 by the end of the campaign
00:26:45.880 saw how that was going to happen.
00:26:48.020 Yeah,
00:26:48.400 I mean,
00:26:49.040 this was a tough one,
00:26:50.700 right?
00:26:51.000 This is very tough
00:26:51.900 for Canadian taxpayers.
00:26:53.120 It's really the
00:26:53.900 $1 trillion elephant
00:26:55.620 in the room
00:26:56.020 is the federal government's debt.
00:26:57.480 Now,
00:26:57.740 maybe we give
00:26:58.700 the Conservatives
00:26:59.400 a little bit of credit
00:27:00.480 because they were
00:27:01.240 the only major party
00:27:02.620 that was at least
00:27:03.280 talking about
00:27:04.300 balancing the budget,
00:27:05.140 but make no mistake about it,
00:27:06.780 the O'Toole
00:27:07.360 so-called budget balance plan
00:27:09.380 was not credible.
00:27:11.440 So,
00:27:12.020 we remember the data
00:27:13.160 that came out
00:27:13.680 of the Parliamentary Budget Officer,
00:27:15.240 right?
00:27:15.460 That under
00:27:16.060 the current trajectory,
00:27:17.820 we wouldn't see
00:27:18.640 a balanced budget
00:27:19.420 federally until 2070.
00:27:21.140 Well,
00:27:21.300 that was before
00:27:22.140 all of the massive
00:27:23.200 spending promises
00:27:24.120 in this election.
00:27:25.780 Now,
00:27:26.060 somehow,
00:27:26.840 O'Toole wanted to spend
00:27:28.400 about $50 billion
00:27:29.720 more than that last
00:27:31.240 Liberal government budget
00:27:32.360 and he thought
00:27:33.500 that he could balance
00:27:34.540 the budget decades sooner.
00:27:36.280 So,
00:27:36.460 he wanted to spend
00:27:37.240 tens of billions
00:27:37.960 of dollars more
00:27:38.800 and thought he could
00:27:39.840 balance the budget
00:27:40.520 decades sooner.
00:27:41.560 Well,
00:27:41.760 Andrew,
00:27:42.400 the math doesn't add up there.
00:27:44.640 And what's so unfortunate
00:27:46.000 about this Conservative Party
00:27:47.820 platform is that
00:27:48.900 for a long time,
00:27:49.940 they've rightly been talking
00:27:51.040 about the dangers
00:27:51.900 of the Trudeau government's
00:27:54.320 runaway spending.
00:27:55.860 We have more than
00:27:57.160 a trillion dollars in debt.
00:27:58.780 Even before the pandemic,
00:28:00.280 the Trudeau government
00:28:01.020 brought per-person spending
00:28:02.680 to all-time highs
00:28:04.200 and even under
00:28:05.160 those scenarios
00:28:06.220 which we are living through,
00:28:07.960 the O'Toole platform
00:28:09.360 still couldn't find
00:28:11.320 any meaningful savings.
00:28:13.500 Yeah,
00:28:14.080 and the reality is
00:28:15.100 you have to either
00:28:15.940 increase revenue
00:28:16.820 or cut spending
00:28:18.040 and both of those things
00:28:19.640 are very politically
00:28:21.600 dangerous,
00:28:23.320 some might say,
00:28:23.980 but at the same time
00:28:24.740 they're also necessary.
00:28:26.280 You don't want to be
00:28:26.840 the one running
00:28:27.580 on cutting the budget.
00:28:28.760 You don't want to be
00:28:29.160 the one running
00:28:29.980 on raising taxes
00:28:31.060 and that's the thing.
00:28:32.180 So,
00:28:32.360 if you're trying to say
00:28:33.060 you're balancing the budget
00:28:33.840 but you're not
00:28:34.380 articulating
00:28:35.040 which of those two
00:28:35.700 you're going to do,
00:28:37.100 you're missing a key part
00:28:38.320 of the arithmetic here.
00:28:39.620 Yeah,
00:28:39.900 there's a few things there.
00:28:41.220 Andrew,
00:28:41.580 I'm just going to push back
00:28:42.520 slightly on what's
00:28:44.760 politically popular.
00:28:46.020 Well,
00:28:46.200 I think it actually
00:28:47.140 is politically popular
00:28:48.460 for some governments
00:28:50.380 to actually find
00:28:51.480 some savings
00:28:52.020 and to actually stop
00:28:53.600 with this crazy spending.
00:28:55.100 For example,
00:28:55.720 I think it would be
00:28:56.440 very politically popular
00:28:57.800 if one of these parties,
00:28:59.800 O'Toole,
00:29:00.460 for example,
00:29:01.180 were to have come out
00:29:01.980 and said,
00:29:02.400 hey,
00:29:02.840 we are going to reverse
00:29:04.420 the two pandemic pay raises
00:29:06.520 that all members
00:29:07.560 of parliament received.
00:29:08.640 I think that would have
00:29:09.500 been very popular.
00:29:10.780 I think it would have
00:29:11.400 shown Canadians
00:29:12.300 that,
00:29:12.660 you know what,
00:29:13.200 maybe these politicians
00:29:14.120 do kind of get
00:29:15.820 what we're going through.
00:29:17.460 And there's other areas
00:29:18.740 of the budget
00:29:19.140 they could have cut.
00:29:20.680 I think it would have been
00:29:21.540 popular for these politicians
00:29:22.840 to say,
00:29:23.340 we are going to put an end
00:29:24.240 to corporate welfare.
00:29:25.360 We don't need to be giving
00:29:26.500 hundreds of millions
00:29:27.680 of dollars
00:29:28.220 to the Ford Motor Company,
00:29:29.560 for example.
00:29:30.700 I think it would also
00:29:31.680 have been very popular
00:29:32.740 to say,
00:29:33.400 hey,
00:29:33.640 we are going to force
00:29:34.600 all political parties
00:29:35.820 to pay back the wage subsidy
00:29:37.440 that was never meant for them.
00:29:38.920 So,
00:29:39.120 Andrew,
00:29:39.740 you know,
00:29:40.020 I agree with you to an extent,
00:29:41.540 but I think it would have been
00:29:42.780 very popular
00:29:43.780 for parties
00:29:45.040 to actually come out
00:29:45.960 and be like,
00:29:46.620 look guys,
00:29:47.460 there is definitely
00:29:48.320 some fat
00:29:49.100 up here in Ottawa
00:29:50.040 and we're going to do our best
00:29:51.380 to trim that fat.
00:29:52.700 No,
00:29:52.860 and I very much agree with that.
00:29:54.280 And I should qualify
00:29:55.200 by saying
00:29:55.860 the landmines
00:29:56.980 that are being set
00:29:57.680 by opposition
00:29:58.360 whenever you talk about cuts
00:29:59.600 makes it politically risky.
00:30:01.340 But you're right,
00:30:01.800 if you are very clear
00:30:02.660 about what it is
00:30:03.320 you want to do,
00:30:04.180 I don't think most Canadians
00:30:05.260 would say,
00:30:05.700 yeah,
00:30:05.880 I think they'd all agree with it.
00:30:08.140 Just very briefly here,
00:30:09.180 Franco,
00:30:09.480 let's talk about affordability.
00:30:10.720 You mentioned it before
00:30:11.580 in the context
00:30:12.180 of the carbon tax.
00:30:13.360 We've seen skyrocketing inflation.
00:30:15.540 I didn't see a lot
00:30:17.040 of discussion
00:30:17.780 in general about this,
00:30:19.220 about how to rein in
00:30:20.440 inflation
00:30:21.260 from any of the parties.
00:30:22.820 Yeah,
00:30:23.120 it's really quite unfortunate.
00:30:24.840 And I think the reason is
00:30:26.700 is because
00:30:27.200 a politician
00:30:28.200 cannot credibly talk
00:30:29.900 about improving affordability
00:30:31.200 without taking
00:30:32.220 a very hard look
00:30:33.480 in the mirror
00:30:34.000 and looking at
00:30:35.220 what the federal government
00:30:36.340 is doing
00:30:36.980 to reduce affordability.
00:30:38.880 Now,
00:30:39.200 we've already talked
00:30:39.900 about taxes.
00:30:40.720 Of course,
00:30:41.180 we've talked about
00:30:41.740 the carbon tax.
00:30:42.580 That is an obvious way
00:30:43.640 that the federal government
00:30:44.680 drives up the cost of living.
00:30:46.000 But of course,
00:30:46.660 there's a myriad
00:30:47.180 of other different types
00:30:48.260 of taxes.
00:30:49.240 Even during the pandemic,
00:30:50.860 the average Canadian family
00:30:52.180 paid about 36%
00:30:53.760 of its budget
00:30:54.820 to taxes,
00:30:55.540 which is more
00:30:56.420 than what that
00:30:57.300 average Canadian family
00:30:58.400 paid for things
00:30:59.660 like housing,
00:31:00.380 food and clothing combined.
00:31:02.200 So certainly,
00:31:03.000 tax relief,
00:31:03.940 which we didn't see
00:31:04.720 any broad-based tax relief,
00:31:06.400 would improve affordability.
00:31:08.200 But Andrew,
00:31:08.900 the second thing
00:31:09.900 which some members
00:31:11.400 of Parliament
00:31:11.880 are talking about
00:31:12.660 is the inflation tax,
00:31:14.400 right?
00:31:14.600 When the government
00:31:15.220 prints more dollars,
00:31:16.760 your dollars buy less.
00:31:18.180 Now,
00:31:18.560 some members of Parliament
00:31:19.760 are talking about it,
00:31:20.840 but if we really want
00:31:21.800 to have a legitimate
00:31:22.800 conversation about
00:31:23.820 how to improve
00:31:24.640 affordability on Canada,
00:31:26.120 we have to talk
00:31:27.380 about the government's
00:31:28.620 printing press.
00:31:30.420 Yeah,
00:31:31.020 no,
00:31:31.220 very much agree with that
00:31:32.620 and this is again
00:31:33.980 something that
00:31:34.680 if we are talking about
00:31:36.000 to go back
00:31:36.460 to the Conservative leadership,
00:31:37.820 what the party does
00:31:38.580 moving forward
00:31:39.180 or any party,
00:31:40.200 I'd like to see them
00:31:40.780 take these things seriously.
00:31:42.000 I mean,
00:31:42.180 if you're going to say
00:31:42.740 that the Conservative Party
00:31:43.720 is going to have
00:31:44.860 this one-track focus
00:31:46.360 on the economy,
00:31:47.180 on taxes,
00:31:47.740 on affordability,
00:31:48.740 great,
00:31:49.260 do it and do it well.
00:31:50.700 Franco Terrazano,
00:31:51.680 Federal Director
00:31:52.280 for the Canadian
00:31:53.220 Taxpayers Federation,
00:31:54.320 always a pleasure,
00:31:55.000 good sir.
00:31:55.780 Hey,
00:31:56.060 thanks for having me on.
00:31:57.660 That was Franco Terrazano
00:31:59.520 of the CTF,
00:32:00.360 always a great advocate
00:32:01.200 for taxpayers,
00:32:02.360 even if he has to drop
00:32:03.260 what may be some
00:32:04.140 uncomfortable truths
00:32:05.500 about politicians
00:32:07.040 and political parties.
00:32:08.600 I mentioned in that
00:32:09.780 exchange there
00:32:10.660 with Franco,
00:32:11.240 Sarah Goodman,
00:32:11.960 who's a senior advisor
00:32:13.060 on climate
00:32:13.660 and the environment
00:32:14.400 for Justin Trudeau
00:32:15.700 and there's the tweet there.
00:32:16.780 She says very clearly
00:32:17.640 that the government
00:32:18.240 now has a mandate
00:32:19.320 to do more faster
00:32:21.380 on climate.
00:32:22.600 Now,
00:32:22.740 if you're a Canadian taxpayer,
00:32:23.860 that means hold on
00:32:24.540 to your wallet
00:32:25.080 because something
00:32:25.900 is going to be
00:32:27.120 or a couple of hands
00:32:27.880 are going to be in there
00:32:28.440 trying to pluck it out.
00:32:29.500 I do want to mention it
00:32:30.560 because I brought that up
00:32:31.360 to Jason Kenney
00:32:32.200 last week
00:32:33.000 at a press conference
00:32:33.800 and asked him,
00:32:35.100 what is this going to mean
00:32:35.780 for Alberta
00:32:36.280 if the federal government
00:32:37.260 thinks it has a mandate
00:32:38.540 to just aggressively
00:32:40.040 ramp up
00:32:40.940 its climate efforts?
00:32:42.180 This is what he said
00:32:43.060 in response to that.
00:32:43.920 Well,
00:32:46.420 that's a peculiar
00:32:47.020 kind of mandate
00:32:47.600 where you actually
00:32:48.360 lose votes
00:32:49.340 and have the smallest
00:32:51.400 percentage
00:32:52.060 of popular vote
00:32:53.800 for a government
00:32:55.060 since 1867
00:32:57.020 in the history
00:32:57.620 of the Federation.
00:32:59.060 I would,
00:32:59.980 I think,
00:33:01.460 I think that
00:33:03.460 perhaps should result
00:33:05.160 in a perhaps
00:33:06.000 a bit of humility
00:33:06.640 rather than hubris
00:33:07.720 to say that
00:33:09.460 it is a huge endorsement
00:33:10.840 of the government's
00:33:11.740 direction.
00:33:13.060 I think what most
00:33:14.280 Canadians are concerned
00:33:15.240 about
00:33:15.560 once we get past
00:33:17.700 the COVID crisis
00:33:19.020 is economic recovery
00:33:20.940 and stability
00:33:22.760 and a federal government
00:33:25.340 attacking the largest
00:33:26.920 sector of Canada's economy
00:33:28.840 does not help us
00:33:31.000 advance national prosperity,
00:33:33.380 job creation
00:33:34.080 or economic stability.
00:33:36.960 And market realities
00:33:39.080 are now coming to bear
00:33:40.180 with a growing scarcity
00:33:42.160 of availability
00:33:42.980 of energy.
00:33:45.080 You see gas prices
00:33:46.140 in Europe
00:33:46.840 and in many parts
00:33:47.740 of the world
00:33:48.180 skyrocketing
00:33:49.140 because there has been
00:33:50.460 a lack of investment,
00:33:51.740 of upstream investment
00:33:53.020 and there's been
00:33:53.920 so much obstruction
00:33:54.860 of pipelines
00:33:56.080 and other export
00:33:57.360 opportunities.
00:33:58.680 So,
00:33:59.540 if Canadians
00:34:01.220 are going into
00:34:01.960 a long,
00:34:02.680 cold winter
00:34:03.260 paying sky-high
00:34:05.320 gas prices
00:34:06.220 in a country
00:34:07.720 that has one
00:34:08.340 of the largest
00:34:08.800 gas reserves
00:34:09.520 on earth,
00:34:10.940 I think they're
00:34:11.700 going to be asking
00:34:12.460 Ms. Goodman
00:34:13.440 and Mr. Trudeau
00:34:14.340 why the federal
00:34:16.200 government has been
00:34:16.920 impairing that industry.
00:34:18.740 So,
00:34:18.980 I think
00:34:19.820 it's our hope
00:34:21.880 that the federal
00:34:23.120 government
00:34:23.480 will take a step
00:34:24.220 back
00:34:24.640 and realize
00:34:25.380 that people
00:34:25.800 need financial
00:34:26.520 security
00:34:27.320 but also
00:34:27.800 energy security
00:34:28.660 and Alberta
00:34:29.060 will be a key
00:34:29.680 partner in that.
00:34:30.500 As you can see there,
00:34:31.500 Premier Kenney
00:34:32.040 kind of sees the writing
00:34:33.080 on the wall
00:34:33.600 and knows that
00:34:34.120 Alberta is about
00:34:35.040 to get hosed
00:34:35.660 although he used
00:34:36.600 more diplomatic
00:34:37.720 language than that.
00:34:39.320 We've got to end
00:34:39.940 things there.
00:34:40.380 My thanks to all
00:34:41.060 of you for tuning
00:34:41.920 into the show.
00:34:42.560 We'll be back
00:34:43.000 in just a couple
00:34:43.720 days' time
00:34:44.220 with more of
00:34:44.820 Canada's most
00:34:45.980 irreverent talk show.
00:34:46.980 This is the
00:34:47.600 Andrew Lawton Show
00:34:48.280 on True North.
00:34:49.140 Thank you,
00:34:49.620 God bless,
00:34:50.160 and good day
00:34:50.560 to you all.
00:34:51.580 Thanks for listening
00:34:52.300 to the Andrew Lawton Show.
00:34:53.720 Support the program
00:34:54.540 by donating to
00:34:55.360 True North
00:34:55.780 at www.tnc.news.