Off the Record - Liberals attack…road trips？

00:00:00.000 Are you guys wearing your menstrual hygiene bracelets?

00:00:04.360 Mine didn't come in the mail yet.

00:00:05.900 But Andrew, you got dressed up for the CBC, but didn't want to get dressed up for us here at Off the Record?

00:00:10.560 No, I didn't.

00:00:11.260 I didn't pack enough because I'm on the road and I like was originally just planning on being home today.

00:00:16.300 So I didn't like pack enough nice clothes to get me through this taping.

00:00:19.920 So you're lucky I'm wearing like even a shirt with a collar.

00:00:23.260 Yeah, we'll take that.

00:00:24.560 We're trying to run a serious operation here, though, you know.

00:00:27.280 Oh, it's funny.

00:00:27.620 I don't usually wear ties at home because it's weird when you're doing a remote interview.

00:00:32.480 I'm like because it's just like who wears a suit at home in their basement, but it's also television.

00:00:36.560 So I don't know.

00:00:37.180 Very, very difficult conundrum.

00:00:39.320 I don't think I've ever seen you in a tie, William.

00:00:42.400 I mean, when I worked in government, I wore a tie every day.

00:00:45.640 And there was something just awful about getting up at 5 a.m.

00:00:49.400 and, you know, getting into a suit and tie and having to wear it for 18 hours consecutively.

00:00:54.400 And, you know, now that I don't have to, I choose not to most of the time.

00:00:59.120 I think in general, there's just something awful about having to get up at 5 a.m.

00:01:02.120 Yeah, that was not a great part.

00:01:03.900 You can now follow the liberal lead with bow ties and sneakers in the house.

00:01:07.520 If they're wearing bow ties and sneakers, the staff can probably get away with a t-shirt and shorts.

00:01:12.800 I think we're leading with that one anyway.

00:01:14.500 So, all right, let's get this started.

00:01:15.540 Hello and welcome to you all.

00:01:26.360 This is another edition of Off the Record on True North.

00:01:29.880 It is Friday, May 31st, the end of the month of May,

00:01:33.920 which is a fact that is of zero relevance,

00:01:36.240 except that I just noticed it by looking at the calendar a moment before we began.

00:01:39.780 I am Andrew Lawton, joined by Harrison Faulkner and William Macbeth.

00:01:43.540 We are going to kick out the week that was in news and have a little fun in the process.

00:01:50.140 But, again, happy Friday to you both, Harrison and William.

00:01:53.000 What did you get up to this week?

00:01:55.360 Well, not much.

00:01:56.200 It's been a bit quiet.

00:01:57.000 It's been a quieter week for me.

00:01:58.460 I wasn't showing up at student protests in Charlottetown and, you know, poking around asking questions.

00:02:05.020 It was remarkably quiet, I have to say.

00:02:07.160 And by comparison, my weeks are never as interesting as yours and Harrison's,

00:02:12.960 so I really don't have a lot to add at this point.

00:02:15.560 I would like it noted that I had book launch events in both Calgary and Toronto this week,

00:02:19.700 and neither of you came to either of them, but that's okay.

00:02:22.640 I have bought your book, Andrew.

00:02:23.940 I'm waiting for Amazon to deliver it into my hot little hands so I can read it.

00:02:28.000 Okay, that's fine.

00:02:28.720 You're forgiven then.

00:02:29.520 All right, well, this is, speaking of interesting, this is a Liberal politician,

00:02:35.940 so that probably wasn't a good segue, but it is interesting that the Liberals have a

00:02:40.580 rather strange belief about a beloved family pastime, which is the Great Canadian Road Trip.

00:02:47.980 So just to set the stage here, the Conservatives are trying to get the Liberals to offer a bit

00:02:52.880 of a reprieve on the carbon tax.

00:02:54.500 They've been trying this for several months.

00:02:56.100 It's not working.

00:02:56.920 The Liberals have just decided to go all in on this.

00:02:59.040 They've not just backed the carbon tax, but they've continued to back increases to it.

00:03:04.080 The Conservatives decided they'll have one just like Hail Mary.

00:03:07.620 Will the Liberals give Canadians a summer break on the tax on fuel?

00:03:12.880 This is what Rachel Thomas, who's a Conservative member of Parliament, 1.00

00:03:16.200 tried to get a bit of a commitment from the government on in question period this week.

00:03:20.680 After nine years, this NDP Liberal government is not worth the hunger and homelessness

00:03:24.400 that it's causing so many Canadians across this country.

00:03:26.840 Many Canadians just simply look forward to a small summer vacation, a road trip perhaps.

00:03:31.520 It's normally a time where they can go and camp in the mountains or go to a national park

00:03:35.460 or visit loved ones.

00:03:36.860 But this year, many Canadians can't afford this simple delight because this government

00:03:40.740 has made life too expensive.

00:03:42.940 On Monday, this House will have the opportunity to vote on a common-sense motion to save Canadians

00:03:48.620 35 cents per litre on gas.

00:03:51.060 Will the Prime Minister vote with us, the common-sense Conservatives, so that Canadians can afford

00:03:55.440 a simple vacation?

00:03:56.540 Or will he force them to stay home?

00:04:01.440 The Honourable Minister of Health.

00:04:03.240 Mr. Speaker, good news, kids.

00:04:05.020 You can take a summer fun time vacation where you're locked in a car for 10 consecutive days

00:04:11.100 non-stop with no bathroom breaks and the Conservatives have a plan for you to have that summertime

00:04:16.060 fun and the cost?

00:04:17.580 Give up the future of the planet, right?

00:04:20.360 Don't worry, kids, about climate change.

00:04:23.280 Don't worry about taking action on the planet.

00:04:26.260 Enjoy your 10 hours in the car and let the planet burn.

00:04:29.820 So that was Mark Holland, the Health Minister, who there's a lot to unpack there.

00:04:39.960 Number one, I don't believe that every man is the image I take of the guy wearing a bowtie

00:04:46.600 talking about the ordinary Canadian family vacation.

00:04:50.180 Number two, I don't know if he's doing it right, if he keeps his kids locked in the car

00:04:55.300 for 10 days without letting them use the bathroom.

00:04:58.260 I feel that's actually a violation of the Geneva Convention.

00:05:01.940 And also the idea that the planet is burning without the liberal carbon tax, I find a little

00:05:07.220 bit frustrating.

00:05:08.040 I don't know.

00:05:08.820 Harrison, what's your take on this one?

00:05:10.960 Well, my first take on it was that Mark Holland must have had some really bad road trips when

00:05:16.640 he was growing up.

00:05:17.580 It's like some nightmare was just, you know, like brought into his head.

00:05:20.340 He heard road trip and he had that awful reminder of what his childhood road trips were

00:05:24.960 like.

00:05:25.140 His parents must have been, you know, they must have been the ones keeping him in the

00:05:28.240 car for 10 days straight, no bathroom breaks.

00:05:30.620 Just the horror.

00:05:32.440 I don't understand what he's trying to say here, right?

00:05:35.120 Like, is he saying that, you know, kids are going to sit in the car and the conservatives

00:05:40.100 aren't going to do anything for the planet or that the actual road trip is burning the

00:05:43.140 planet?

00:05:44.560 The best part about this was the reaction from the liberals around him.

00:05:48.860 The second that he just starts piping up about the road trip, you can see Seamus O'Regan

00:05:52.720 like look up and just not react at all.

00:05:55.000 There's no clapping.

00:05:55.980 He's just like shocked at what's going on here.

00:05:58.340 Yeah.

00:05:58.940 This is not the attack that we planned before, Mark.

00:06:01.540 Come on, figure it out.

00:06:02.860 So his province is where like families take their road trips too.

00:06:10.160 William, did you get the point out of this?

00:06:12.260 I feel like he was trying to do too much with that 30 seconds.

00:06:16.140 Yeah.

00:06:16.640 I mean, tell me you're completely out of touch with the economic reality of most Canadians

00:06:21.260 without directly saying so.

00:06:23.240 A lot of Canadians choose road trips because they're an affordable way to go on vacation.

00:06:28.740 And if you think about it, if you've got a mom and a dad and three kids, you might just

00:06:33.520 to get from one half of the country to the other be paying three or four thousand dollars

00:06:38.300 in airfare.

00:06:39.560 And that's not something that a lot of people can just drop easily.

00:06:43.820 I suppose for many of the liberals who are used to vacationing on the shores of the Mediterranean

00:06:48.320 and the Greek islands or on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, then a road trip might seem distasteful

00:06:54.360 or something to be ridiculed.

00:06:57.120 But for a lot of Canadian families, the summer road trip is what they look forward to during

00:07:01.280 the year.

00:07:01.680 They work hard.

00:07:02.420 They pay their liberal taxes, you know, many, many taxes.

00:07:05.420 And with the little money they have left, they go on a road trip vacation, they go camping,

00:07:09.560 they go to the Okanagan in BC, they go look at some of the beautiful places that are in

00:07:13.940 Canada.

00:07:14.420 And of course, you've just seen that the government thinks you are contemptuous or contemptible

00:07:19.760 if you indulge in this particular Canadian pastime.

00:07:24.520 Yeah.

00:07:24.760 And the weird thing too, so he's doing two things.

00:07:26.880 He's saying that this is this like horrific assault on the climate, which is bizarre in a

00:07:31.060 way because it's far less carbon intensive to load four people in one car than it is

00:07:36.880 to fly an airplane.

00:07:38.900 So that's one thing there.

00:07:40.320 And also, he's just taking aim at the pastime itself, taking aim at the vacation.

00:07:44.520 It's one thing to say this is like a thing I would never do with your kids.

00:07:46.980 Great.

00:07:47.320 I don't think your kids want to be in a car with you, Mark Holland, if that's how you

00:07:50.340 behave.

00:07:50.740 I think the Liberals just gave the Conservatives an ad for the entire summer, right?

00:07:58.640 They're going to just roll, they should just roll this as much as they can all throughout

00:08:03.280 the summer.

00:08:03.780 They've just given them such great ammunition here.

00:08:06.340 Such an obvious example of liberal elitism and looking down on average Canadians. 1.00

00:08:12.260 It's pathetic. 1.00

00:08:13.240 It's unbelievable. 0.99

00:08:14.140 And it kind of goes to this whole thing we've been seeing, this trend we're seeing from

00:08:18.420 the Liberals, which is they just seem to be out of all arguments.

00:08:21.500 They have nothing really to say anymore.

00:08:24.640 And they're flailing, they're grasping at straws, and they're kind of, you know, they're

00:08:28.220 reacting on the fly.

00:08:29.700 This is like improv for them right now.

00:08:32.280 And Mark is suffering from a lack of skills in that department.

00:08:37.400 This is what they can do thinking on the fly.

00:08:40.120 It's quite a big indictment of what these guys are able to do when they actually have something

00:08:44.640 important to do, like governing this country.

00:08:46.240 I was also thinking just a moment ago of when the Liberals launched their campaign bus for

00:08:53.640 2025, the election.

00:08:56.240 It's like, this is just going to be some big, giant liberal road trip.

00:08:58.880 So, oh, all of a sudden now road trips are good if they're a cross-country tour.

00:09:02.660 Although maybe Trudeau won't be inviting Mark Holland on the tour bus if, you know, it means

00:09:06.260 10 days with no bathroom breaks.

00:09:08.780 Well, I seem to recall in the last election, didn't the Liberal campaign have two planes?

00:09:13.840 One for...

00:09:14.840 I think that was 2019.

00:09:16.240 I think that was 2019 campaign.

00:09:17.740 One for Liberal MPs or Liberal staffers and one for their luggage.

00:09:22.540 So, you know, if we're really going to talk about who's got the worst impact on the carbon,

00:09:27.520 a Canadian family of four taking a camping or road trip vacation, or the Liberal Prime Minister

00:09:32.960 who needs a whole separate plane for his luggage, I think that they have to bear the responsibility

00:09:37.840 for harming the climate themselves.

00:09:39.840 Yeah, well, it's funny you mention that because we haven't actually talked about the underlying

00:09:44.020 claim of Mark Holland's thing, which is that the Liberal carbon tax is preventing the planet

00:09:48.840 from burning.

00:09:49.900 Like, emissions have gone up for the entirety of the time that the Liberal carbon tax has

00:09:55.860 been in effect.

00:09:56.540 And by the way, the wildfires have not been caused by the absence of a carbon tax.

00:10:00.320 They've been overwhelmingly caused by arson.

00:10:02.000 Well, Andrew, you know, when you say that, we're going to get, we're going to get, who

00:10:07.220 is it, the press progress, anti-hate?

00:10:09.240 They'll start timing in.

00:10:10.220 We'll get two new viewers on off the record because the second we start talking about wildfires,

00:10:14.120 that's when they start showing up.

00:10:15.660 Let's be careful there.

00:10:17.040 We don't want to go and do any conspiracy theory territory with that.

00:10:20.100 We'll also get on you.

00:10:21.560 I suspect under, look, if you're watching on YouTube, look under the video.

00:10:24.820 I suspect right now there's a United Nations climate change PSA.

00:10:28.720 Every time you mention the carbon tax, you get, like, the link to, like, the UN.

00:10:33.460 It was either the WHO or the UN.

00:10:35.740 One of them on any episode is there and just...

00:10:38.700 The keyword is just climate change.

00:10:41.260 If you say it, you know, once or maybe twice, nice and clear, climate change.

00:10:44.460 Yeah.

00:10:44.960 Now it should show up, no problem.

00:10:47.480 William is still mad that I got us, like, banned from YouTube for interviewing the MyPillow 0.99

00:10:51.280 guy, who's, I don't even want to say his name now.

00:10:53.800 I think that gets you an automatic strike on YouTube.

00:10:56.600 The Pillow Man.

00:10:57.280 We're still carrying that warning, by the way.

00:10:59.040 Yeah.

00:10:59.440 What was that, Harrison?

00:11:00.680 We're still carrying that warning on our channel.

00:11:02.740 Oh, is it still there?

00:11:03.600 Okay.

00:11:04.020 It's still there.

00:11:04.900 And you hit the button and it says, your video in June 20th of 2021.

00:11:10.280 We're still going to hold it against you.

00:11:11.760 We're still punishing you for it.

00:11:13.540 Should have never wanted to do an episode about pillows.

00:11:16.020 All right.

00:11:16.300 So I think we can move on from Mark Holland and his road trip here.

00:11:22.260 This is a bit more of a serious story, but I think there's an underlying point that we

00:11:26.220 need to hammer here on the media that has been particularly relevant this week.

00:11:31.060 William, take it away.

00:11:31.800 Yeah.

00:11:33.880 I mean, I assume, Andrew, you're referring to the recent stories we had around the three

00:11:38.520 year anniversary of the residential schools announcement from Kamloops.

00:11:44.140 And yeah, it is an interesting story.

00:11:47.040 It's interesting how much the world has changed in the intervening years.

00:11:50.040 So when this first came out, when there was an announcement by the Kamloops indigenous tribes

00:11:56.060 there that they had found 250 unmarked graves and they believed it would be for the bodies

00:12:03.320 of missing children, the entire Canadian press, in fact, the entire world press collectively

00:12:09.120 lost their minds.

00:12:10.400 And they talked about how this was a mass grave, to use the terminology of the New York Times.

00:12:15.800 They talked about genocide.

00:12:16.840 Well, True North was really the only media company out there who actually said, wait a

00:12:22.160 minute, what are these, what are these ground penetrating radar surveys actually show?

00:12:27.480 Are these in fact graves?

00:12:29.380 And to the point where we were very proud to have published a book about this issue that

00:12:35.020 tried to take some of the emotion out of the, out of the argument, very slowly legacy media

00:12:40.040 changed how they covered it.

00:12:42.080 Well, except for, as it turns out, the good people of City News Vancouver, who once said,

00:12:46.840 once again, repeated the claim that there were 215 unmarked graves located at the site

00:12:52.160 of the former Indian residential school in Kamloops.

00:12:55.400 Thankfully, there was a lot of pushback on X.

00:12:59.000 You saw readers say, wait a minute, that's not true.

00:13:01.440 There's been zero evidence that there are any graves.

00:13:03.980 There have been no excavations.

00:13:05.740 No bodies have been found, let alone of children.

00:13:08.080 Why are you propagating this myth?

00:13:11.140 And City News did a quiet little edit job.

00:13:14.140 They removed the claim of graves.

00:13:17.180 They said, purported, I believe is the word they put in, purported graves.

00:13:21.700 And they took the author's by name off the article and they just said it was written by news staff.

00:13:28.060 So that's always a sign that maybe you're not the most certain about your story when you take the

00:13:33.100 individual reporter's name off and say it was some unknown anonymous news staff who wrote it.

00:13:38.880 Yeah, and one of the things that I'd point out, too, is that the Kamloops band actually itself has walked back the claim.

00:13:46.460 They used to say that there was the discovery of bodies of children, and now they say they were anomalies.

00:13:52.860 And again, that's a very key distinction.

00:13:54.600 The New York Times was, I think, probably the most irresponsible in its coverage because a mass grave means something very specific.

00:14:01.280 A mass grave refers to a mass casualty event in which, you know, the 215 purportedly children were killed.

00:14:09.280 And I think in general, I had not, to be perfectly frank, before three years ago heard of ground penetrating radar.

00:14:15.020 I knew it existed, but I didn't know what it was.

00:14:16.920 And it was presented.

00:14:18.720 And again, I think a lot of this was the media, not the Kamloops band, presented as being far more specific and powerful than it actually was.

00:14:28.460 And people were told, oh, wow, ground penetrating radar.

00:14:31.460 And I think everyone was imagining it was like the airport body scanners, where you just look at it and you just see in perfect detail everything that's there.

00:14:38.460 And then you realize, as you learn about this, that it doesn't distinguish between rocks and bones and other disturbances or anomalies here.

00:14:46.920 And, you know, the media has, I think, changed its coverage on this.

00:14:50.560 But, Harrison, have you seen anything in the way of corrections, retractions, the media saying, hey, maybe we got this wrong?

00:14:59.100 Well, I don't think they'll ever actually say that.

00:15:01.240 If they do get caught, they'll do what City News Vancouver did, which was make that quiet edit.

00:15:05.160 First, it was an editor's note.

00:15:06.540 Then they took the poor writer's name off the article so she wouldn't suffer any abuse on social media.

00:15:11.800 And then they just took the entire tweet down.

00:15:14.240 You brought up the New York Times.

00:15:16.100 And the New York Times has the article up.

00:15:19.260 The headline still reads, mass grave of indigenous children reported in Canada.

00:15:23.460 It doesn't really.

00:15:24.280 They haven't changed that.

00:15:25.580 Nope.

00:15:25.960 And they have an editor's note.

00:15:27.340 But they don't actually have an editor's note that corrects the headline.

00:15:31.420 They have an editor's note, which they made, but it doesn't actually change the headline of the article.

00:15:35.580 So that just goes to show you the media are completely in line with this.

00:15:40.640 They played a major role in propagating this myth, this anti-Canadian myth that caused so much damage to our country and a real dark period in our country, which didn't have to be the case.

00:15:52.840 Let's look at the way X played a role in this, though, with City News Vancouver.

00:15:57.240 They were the ones that put up the community note, the fact check, which resulted in the article being taken down from Twitter, X, whatever you want to call it.

00:16:07.140 Imagine if we had a legitimate community notes service back in 2021 when these claims first came out.

00:16:13.200 We could have saved ourselves the six months of national flagellation.

00:16:17.580 It would have been remarkably different had that actually happened.

00:16:21.240 I have to bring this up, though, because that same news outlet, City News Vancouver, they invited B.C. Regional Assembly of First Nations Chief Terry Teaguey on to discuss this three-year anniversary.

00:16:33.000 They never pushed back on the claims.

00:16:34.920 They still went along with the discovery of mass graves, reported mass graves, children buried in these findings.

00:16:43.520 And then, when asked another question for a follow-up, the chief justified why there had not been any bones found with any of these claims by saying some of these schools had incinerators.

00:16:57.440 So he's making the accusation that these schools just burned the evidence, burned the bodies, so that we can never find them.

00:17:03.500 It is remarkable that there are some people who are still trying to push this myth, still trying to push this myth,

00:17:09.360 which I find quite harmful to First Nations Canadians, because the longer this goes on,

00:17:15.460 and the longer that a lot of these communities are still pushing this message,

00:17:18.680 well, Canadians aren't going to believe the actual problems that still face First Nations communities today.

00:17:23.640 It does them a big disservice when you have chiefs like this talking complete nonsense without backing it up at all.

00:17:30.440 Yeah, look, I've studied history. I love Canadian history.

00:17:33.860 And history has always been about studying the good, the bad, and the ugly.

00:17:36.620 And I do not take the view that the residential schools had a net positive,

00:17:40.840 but I do take the view that they were things that, again, it's so difficult to even talk about.

00:17:47.960 I take the view that the motivations and the outcomes were different,

00:17:51.820 and that tends to be the issue here when people try to look back in history

00:17:54.740 and project with modern sensibilities what had happened there.

00:17:57.900 But there has still not been any evidence of these many, many claims,

00:18:01.420 and it wasn't just Kamloops, because Kamloops started a wave of these claims,

00:18:04.420 and there has never been any support for these so-called discoveries.

00:18:10.200 And that's, I find, what is most concerning here,

00:18:13.200 in that there hasn't even really been a desire to inquire about it,

00:18:16.980 a desire to excavate and do all the other things that you would do

00:18:20.420 if there were some mass criminality that had occurred.

00:18:24.260 Yeah, I mean, here we are three years later with none of these questions answered.

00:18:30.320 There have been no publicly released excavations.

00:18:33.520 There has been no evidence presented by the indigenous groups

00:18:37.360 who have engaged in exploratory work,

00:18:40.220 and the claims for why that is have varied.

00:18:43.380 Look, overall, none of us believe, I think,

00:18:45.880 that residential schools had a positive outcome.

00:18:48.460 There were a lot of really terrible things that occurred at them,

00:18:53.060 and people did suffer.

00:18:54.800 But why diminish that suffering and that pain

00:18:58.660 by inventing falsehoods around things that never did happen?

00:19:03.820 And, you know, In Grave Error, a book, again, that True North published,

00:19:07.500 we go into some detail talking about what those soil disturbances could have been,

00:19:12.440 everything from the fact that there was an apple orchard there,

00:19:14.980 there was irrigation done, there were pits and trenches dug to do renovation work.

00:19:22.080 And, you know, instead of focusing on atrocities that are unprovable

00:19:28.620 and likely did not occur, why don't we focus on healing

00:19:31.720 and coming back from the incidents that we are aware of,

00:19:35.900 the pain that we know that happened?

00:19:37.460 So the fact that the media glommed onto it the way they did in an almost,

00:19:41.200 you know, they almost seem to be maybe not happy,

00:19:45.760 but the fact that they glommed on so hard

00:19:47.860 and put so much emphasis on this story,

00:19:50.240 I think is a real disservice, both to Canada as a whole and to our First Nations.

00:19:54.100 And before we move on to the next story,

00:19:55.840 it's important to make sure that this story,

00:19:59.140 these claims were directly linked to 100 churches being burned down.

00:20:03.840 And look at the way the media treated the claims made by these First Nations bans

00:20:09.020 versus the claims that were being made,

00:20:11.020 versus the evidence and the picture evidence of churches being burned

00:20:15.260 without really trying to investigate who the people were that are behind these burnings.

00:20:19.760 It is completely ridiculous that this story,

00:20:23.120 which resulted in so much damage to Christians in this country, 1.00

00:20:26.180 has been treated basically as though it doesn't matter.

00:20:30.240 And you can make these claims.

00:20:31.720 We don't need to really investigate them.

00:20:33.160 We don't need to admit that we made a huge mistake.

00:20:35.940 We can quietly correct our errors or not correct them at all,

00:20:38.320 like in the case of New York Times.

00:20:40.100 While that exact same kind of reporting,

00:20:42.920 that lazy reporting, the politicians who ran with it,

00:20:45.340 directly played a role in burning down 100 churches.

00:20:48.580 It is remarkable.

00:20:49.520 And I forget, did Justin Trudeau ever comment on the church burning?

00:20:53.520 I think he did once, once or twice.

00:20:55.980 But certainly not with the speed that, you know,

00:20:58.540 vandalism of a mosque comes from

00:21:00.600 or anything to do with the residential school announcements.

00:21:04.060 No, and I don't think he took a knee with a teddy bear

00:21:06.180 outside of a burned church as well,

00:21:08.220 like he did in the case of the Kamloops situation.

00:21:11.200 Yeah.

00:21:12.060 No, it's crazy.

00:21:13.120 And well, then you had, you know,

00:21:14.760 the burn it all down woman in British Columbia. 0.90

00:21:18.740 Sean has asked, didn't he say he understood?

00:21:21.200 I think that was Jerry Butts. 0.84

00:21:23.160 Wasn't it Jerry Butts that said he understood why people would do it?

00:21:26.080 I might be wrong about that, but yeah, there was a lot,

00:21:28.860 there was a lot of equivocation about it.

00:21:30.700 And that was, I think, the key point.

00:21:32.160 It was that, oh no, apparently Trudeau did say that.

00:21:35.260 Yeah.

00:21:35.600 So all of a sudden it's about trying to be sympathetic to the church burners.

00:21:40.160 That's the way we do this.

00:21:41.540 Absolutely insane.

00:21:43.120 What else do we have going on here?

00:21:44.660 Oh yes.

00:21:45.080 Well, we couldn't, I mean, yes,

00:21:46.960 the announcement in Kamloops,

00:21:48.960 that was an anniversary this week,

00:21:50.240 but we have to honor every day on the calendar.

00:21:55.140 And I must admit, I missed this one,

00:21:57.460 but it was menstrual hygiene day this week.

00:22:01.020 Now you may think, well, don't worry, Andrew,

00:22:03.400 you probably didn't pay attention because you're a man,

00:22:05.040 but that doesn't mean anything in this day and age.

00:22:06.860 Everyone knows men can menstruate, women can menstruate. 0.65

00:22:09.460 They might as well start calling it manstruation.

00:22:11.500 But we had a lot of lecturing from liberal MPs about menstrual hygiene day.

00:22:17.940 Uh, Seamus O'Regan, uh, the minister who was unimpressed by Mark Holland,

00:22:22.620 he has his menstrual hygiene bracelet on there,

00:22:26.040 which I didn't know exists.

00:22:27.020 He'd said, people don't bring their own toilet paper to work,

00:22:30.440 so they shouldn't have to bring their own pads and tampons.

00:22:32.740 We changed that.

00:22:33.840 We put free menstrual products in federally regulated workplace. 0.98

00:22:36.900 This bracelet is for menstrual hygiene day.

00:22:40.440 Uh, then we have Marcy Ian, the liberal cabinet minister as well.

00:22:44.300 Periods are a fact of life.

00:22:45.580 Everyone deserves access to affordable menstrual products. 0.96

00:22:48.700 Thanks to the menstrual equity fund,

00:22:50.340 over 3 million people across Canada have been able to access this basic need.

00:22:54.360 Uh, Ahmed Hassan, the menstrual hygiene observer,

00:22:57.580 says he's committed to a future where women and girls who menstruate 1.00

00:23:00.980 can realize their full potential.

00:23:03.700 Wow.

00:23:04.280 It's a barrier for your full potential.

00:23:07.500 And, uh, then we have, uh, Terry Beach,

00:23:09.620 the liberal member of Parliament who decided to give us

00:23:11.680 the full PSA treatment on this.

00:23:13.360 Hi, everyone. Terry Beach, you're a member of Parliament

00:23:15.840 for Bernie Bernard Seymour.

00:23:17.080 This bracelet, uh, commemorates May 28th,

00:23:20.480 which is, uh, menstrual hygiene day.

00:23:23.520 Now, there are millions of women around the world 1.00

00:23:26.560 who are unable to reach their full potential,

00:23:29.680 uh, simply because they menstruate.

00:23:32.260 Uh, and so this day is about reducing the stigma.

00:23:35.200 As a father of two young girls,

00:23:37.460 I want to make sure that they,

00:23:39.880 along with billions of girls and women around the world,

00:23:43.600 have, uh, an equal opportunity that everybody else has.

00:23:46.280 It's also a massive affordability issue.

00:23:48.740 And that's why in all federal workplaces,

00:23:50.740 uh, menstrual products are now available for free.

00:23:53.440 In fact, if you come into my constituency office

00:23:55.380 and use the washroom, uh,

00:23:56.820 you will see that, uh, menstrual products

00:23:58.580 are available there as well.

00:23:59.700 So let's end the stigma and, uh, commemorate the day

00:24:02.900 and build a better world for women, uh, here in Canada, 0.98

00:24:06.380 but also right around the world.

00:24:08.120 What was it you said about that, uh, video, William?

00:24:11.240 Uh, well, I jokingly said he was manspreading

00:24:13.840 and mansplaining menstruation to, uh, to women 1.00

00:24:17.180 because who better than a bunch of men MPs

00:24:20.520 to talk about an issue that, uh, frankly,

00:24:24.600 uh, doesn't directly affect them.

00:24:26.000 It's not something that, uh, well,

00:24:27.760 and to be politically correct,

00:24:29.300 it doesn't affect the overwhelming majority

00:24:31.660 of, uh, of men.

00:24:33.520 Uh, you know, I, I would say, uh,

00:24:35.980 possibly people should take Mr. Beach up on his offer.

00:24:38.720 I'd like to see every woman in a 100 kilometer radius 1.00

00:24:42.300 who needs any form of menstruation product

00:24:45.660 go to Mr. Beach's office,

00:24:48.000 demand that they be given their free products.

00:24:51.620 And if he runs out, I say,

00:24:53.700 that's just a shine of how much he doesn't support women.

00:24:57.820 So I would encourage the tens of thousands of women 1.00

00:25:01.140 who live around that area to make sure

00:25:03.100 they get, they only get their products

00:25:05.860 to Mr. Beach's office going forward.

00:25:08.000 I, the, the weird, it's the epitome of a straw man,

00:25:10.660 which is like, you set up a thing,

00:25:12.680 you set up a bogeyman to attack,

00:25:15.280 but no one has actually made the point,

00:25:17.000 is that all of these liberal MPs,

00:25:18.780 it was insanely coordinated,

00:25:20.240 were tweeting about this stigma that doesn't exist.

00:25:23.040 And they're saying,

00:25:23.940 we need to break down the stigma.

00:25:25.300 What stigma?

00:25:26.100 Like people, like this is a bodily function.

00:25:29.140 There's no one that's embarrassed by this discussion.

00:25:33.820 You know, women can get tampons now 1.00

00:25:35.800 in men's washrooms on Parliament Hill.

00:25:37.880 Like you can get them anywhere you want.

00:25:39.480 So it was like weird.

00:25:40.540 And then it was women that were like complaining 1.00

00:25:42.140 on X and on Facebook about this.

00:25:44.180 Like, like, why do I need these men to tell me

00:25:46.640 it's okay for me to talk about periods?

00:25:49.580 Yeah, they're like making it,

00:25:51.220 they're making the stigma by making these videos.

00:25:53.700 This is the same government that puts tampons

00:25:56.060 in male washrooms in the military, right?

00:25:59.120 On every single military base in this country.

00:26:01.540 I looked at the Terry Beach video

00:26:03.260 and my first reaction to it was that

00:26:05.640 this was some sort of humiliation ritual, right?

00:26:07.820 I didn't see any other male MP,

00:26:10.580 male liberal MPs making a video except for Terry Beach.

00:26:13.960 Terry is, for all intents and purposes,

00:26:16.380 a no-name backbench liberal MP.

00:26:18.820 He doesn't really qualify to be a,

00:26:21.660 to be some sort of cabinet minister.

00:26:23.940 He doesn't really take off any of the diversity points.

00:26:26.360 So they basically said,

00:26:27.620 we're going to have you make this video

00:26:29.160 and it's going to be the most embarrassing thing

00:26:31.380 you've ever produced

00:26:32.240 and you'll have to live with it for the rest of your life.

00:26:34.580 It'll be out there for you.

00:26:35.980 Now, that's my, that was my read on it.

00:26:37.980 They picked the one guy who, you know,

00:26:40.200 had to do the humiliation ritual. 0.62

00:26:41.720 If you're going to wear the period bracelet,

00:26:44.340 if you're, if Terry Beach is going to wear

00:26:45.600 this period bracelet

00:26:46.420 because he needs to end the stigma around the world

00:26:49.380 for women and girls,

00:26:51.540 well, why would you take,

00:26:52.620 he has, he should wear that the entire year.

00:26:55.060 If he really cares about this,

00:26:56.480 cares enough to make a video about it,

00:26:58.140 like Ahmed Hassan as well.

00:26:59.300 They should keep that,

00:27:00.180 they should keep that bracelet on all the time.

00:27:02.500 Otherwise it's just, you know,

00:27:03.660 they don't, they don't care about it.

00:27:04.600 Let's, let's make it like a mark of,

00:27:06.580 a mark of shame. 0.84

00:27:08.200 You know, if you're going to be that weird,

00:27:10.000 you have to wear this bracelet everywhere

00:27:11.460 so people can know that you're just that creepy.

00:27:13.760 Can you put up the,

00:27:17.180 the Seamus O'Regan graphic again, Sean?

00:27:19.560 I should explain the symbolism.

00:27:21.240 So apparently it's got 28 beads

00:27:23.920 and five red ones.

00:27:26.080 The five red ones are supposed to 0.82

00:27:28.680 honor the five days in a 28 day period

00:27:32.620 that women are menstruating. 0.94

00:27:34.620 And I had one woman tell me,

00:27:36.020 well, this is actually offensive to women 1.00

00:27:37.260 who, you know, menstruate for six or seven days,

00:27:39.160 which is getting into a level of specificity.

00:27:41.660 I will confess to not be an expert in.

00:27:43.760 But the thing that I find interesting about this

00:27:46.120 is that like what other bodily functions

00:27:48.220 do we need a bracelet for?

00:27:49.960 Like, do we get like the brown diarrhea

00:27:51.640 awareness bracelet?

00:27:52.920 Do we do the, you know, a yellow one?

00:27:55.040 Do we do like a dark yellow one

00:27:56.380 when you're not hydrated enough

00:27:57.840 and your urine is coming a little dark? 0.69

00:27:59.860 Like, like what, how many bodily fluids

00:28:01.800 need their own commemorative bracelets

00:28:03.440 is the question.

00:28:04.460 You know, they sold a lot of these bracelets

00:28:05.800 and I'm wondering if maybe a,

00:28:07.320 a wife or a husband of a liberal

00:28:09.620 that member of parliament

00:28:10.700 is manufacturing these bracelets

00:28:12.180 and they're, they're somehow managing

00:28:14.000 to get, get a workaround

00:28:15.280 and finding, finding a way

00:28:16.880 to make some money off this.

00:28:18.200 Well, Terry Beach said he had his daughter.

00:28:20.580 Yeah, Terry Beach had two daughters.

00:28:21.960 So maybe one of his daughters

00:28:22.940 had just started doing beading

00:28:24.360 and he realized that, you know,

00:28:26.480 screw girl guide cookies. 1.00

00:28:27.540 We can make a lot of money

00:28:28.420 just selling like every member of parliament

00:28:30.300 in a menstrual hygiene bracelet.

00:28:31.580 It is, you know, a case of just such crass politics

00:28:36.640 where the liberal government,

00:28:38.720 who is so bereft of policy solutions

00:28:41.540 and anything to talk about

00:28:42.540 that they are trying to pick the few issues

00:28:45.720 where they think they still have

00:28:47.560 some sort of political advantage.

00:28:49.160 You think back to, you know, last week

00:28:52.300 where they were once again railing about abortion.

00:28:55.260 You know, you've now got gun control

00:28:57.720 back on the agenda with a plan

00:28:59.280 to have Canada Post be part of taking guns

00:29:03.300 off the streets.

00:29:04.200 They can barely get mail in mailboxes.

00:29:06.420 So I don't know how they expect

00:29:07.580 to be able to get guns off streets.

00:29:09.740 And now you've got this.

00:29:11.180 And the fact is people can't afford groceries.

00:29:13.440 They can't afford gas.

00:29:14.780 They can't afford their rents.

00:29:16.000 They can't afford to buy houses.

00:29:17.780 I don't think anybody's going to go

00:29:19.040 into the next election and say,

00:29:20.940 oh, but don't worry.

00:29:21.940 I'm voting for the party

00:29:23.060 that's good on menstruation. 0.95

00:29:25.900 Yeah, that's, well, you know,

00:29:28.060 I'm not allowed to take a road trip.

00:29:29.620 And actually, maybe how Mark Holland

00:29:32.500 is not being minstrily aware

00:29:34.360 if he's keeping kids in his car

00:29:36.220 for 10 days, you know, you never know.

00:29:40.120 Maybe this is all.

00:29:41.280 So here's the segue we'll find.

00:29:42.920 Maybe this is an example of men 0.99

00:29:45.040 undergoing the behavioral change

00:29:46.920 that they're seeking in Australia.

00:29:48.840 Why don't you take it away, Harrison?

00:29:50.520 Yes.

00:29:51.020 So there is a new cabinet post

00:29:53.000 in the province of Victoria in Australia,

00:29:56.940 which is now for men's behavior change.

00:30:00.060 It is now an official cabinet post,

00:30:01.960 Australia's first minister

00:30:04.120 of men's behavior change

00:30:06.620 in an attempt to try to stop domestic violence.

00:30:11.440 And a recent rise in the killing

00:30:15.060 of women in Victoria.

00:30:16.740 They somehow think that this is going

00:30:18.480 to really solve this problem.

00:30:21.520 The problem is when they announced

00:30:23.480 this position,

00:30:24.740 the entire world mocked them for it.

00:30:27.120 And they probably pushed back

00:30:28.920 the objectives of this ministry

00:30:30.680 by like five or six years

00:30:32.780 just by announcing the ministry itself.

00:30:34.480 Because everybody thinks

00:30:35.620 it's a complete joke.

00:30:37.380 3.6 thousand replies.

00:30:39.220 This is the ratio here.

00:30:40.600 So we're going back to my bread and butter.

00:30:42.480 Let me just address the ratio here

00:30:43.720 on this guy's tweet.

00:30:44.660 Tim Richardson,

00:30:45.240 he's the new men's behavior change minister.

00:30:48.500 3.6 thousand replies to 724 likes.

00:30:52.600 He has been getting absolutely destroyed

00:30:55.160 in the comments.

00:30:56.320 And rightly so.

00:30:57.480 I'm not quite sure

00:30:58.260 what they intend to achieve here

00:30:59.780 by creating this position.

00:31:02.660 It's like, you know,

00:31:03.280 there's a problem

00:31:04.920 and they've created a cabinet post

00:31:07.060 which won't do anything at all.

00:31:08.440 But it'll make them appear

00:31:09.660 like they're taking it seriously.

00:31:11.380 It really is remarkable.

00:31:13.280 What do you guys think?

00:31:14.460 Yeah, I mean,

00:31:14.900 I think domestic violence

00:31:16.240 is atrocious

00:31:17.420 and I think it's very serious

00:31:18.620 and I know Australia

00:31:19.300 has had a problem with it.

00:31:20.580 And the way you deal with that

00:31:21.880 is certainly by enforcing the law.

00:31:23.800 And I think there are ways

00:31:25.100 that you can instill education

00:31:26.560 and all of these things.

00:31:28.480 And even if the core of the problem

00:31:31.120 is that you need to get certain men

00:31:32.840 to change their behaviors,

00:31:34.800 the way that this has been criticized

00:31:36.280 is that you're basically saying

00:31:37.860 that all men are the problem 1.00

00:31:39.080 and that all men need to do this.

00:31:40.780 And it really,

00:31:41.880 when people were looking at the headline,

00:31:43.200 a lot of people didn't even know

00:31:44.660 it was about domestic violence.

00:31:45.780 They thought it was like

00:31:46.560 this woke crusade

00:31:47.500 against toxic masculinity

00:31:48.720 like the Gillette ads

00:31:50.240 a couple of years ago.

00:31:51.160 So when people just inherently tune out,

00:31:53.180 it means that you've missed your mark.

00:31:55.940 Yeah, I mean,

00:31:56.720 I'm a big fan of Margaret Thatcher's approach

00:31:58.760 that, you know,

00:31:59.720 rarely does putting a minister

00:32:01.060 in charge of a problem

00:32:02.080 actually fix it.

00:32:03.420 In fact,

00:32:04.000 it's a pretty certain way

00:32:05.400 of guaranteeing

00:32:06.180 there'll always be a problem,

00:32:07.620 especially if a minister's job

00:32:09.100 depends on the problem

00:32:10.560 keeping existing.

00:32:11.460 But no,

00:32:12.220 you're absolutely right

00:32:12.900 that, you know,

00:32:14.200 the problem of domestic violence

00:32:15.580 is huge

00:32:16.580 and made worse,

00:32:17.380 by the way,

00:32:18.120 when we allow biological males

00:32:20.500 to enter women's spaces, 0.99

00:32:22.620 women's shelters

00:32:23.320 and things like that,

00:32:24.300 which the progressives

00:32:25.200 have said is

00:32:26.340 it's intolerant

00:32:27.660 to try and discriminate

00:32:29.000 against these people

00:32:30.060 from using those facilities.

00:32:31.860 But ultimately,

00:32:33.300 being tougher

00:32:34.100 on the crime

00:32:35.520 of domestic violence,

00:32:36.440 having real sentences,

00:32:38.140 real consequences

00:32:38.980 for engaging in

00:32:40.000 is one of the ways

00:32:41.280 we ensure

00:32:42.020 it isn't repeated

00:32:43.460 by those who are,

00:32:45.180 you know,

00:32:45.660 are repeat offenders.

00:32:46.560 So you think back in Canada

00:32:47.720 where the policy is

00:32:49.160 to get arrested

00:32:49.980 and within 24 hours

00:32:51.600 we make sure

00:32:52.260 you're back on the street

00:32:53.360 able to re-offend again.

00:32:56.120 Well,

00:32:56.400 of course we're going to see

00:32:57.360 repeat offenders

00:32:58.000 in areas like domestic violence.

00:32:59.760 We're going to see

00:33:00.340 these people

00:33:00.940 who have beaten one woman

00:33:02.620 beat another woman.

00:33:03.540 So the key is

00:33:04.180 to not let them back

00:33:05.060 on the street

00:33:05.520 where they're beating women.

00:33:06.400 Andrew,

00:33:07.520 do you remember

00:33:07.940 the story of

00:33:08.920 in London

00:33:09.540 when Sadiq Khan

00:33:10.980 made this campaign

00:33:12.340 and it was called

00:33:12.920 the mate campaign,

00:33:14.300 say mate

00:33:14.900 to try to stop

00:33:16.600 domestic violence

00:33:17.880 and harassing women 0.91

00:33:19.300 on the street?

00:33:20.040 I have a feeling

00:33:20.660 that this position here,

00:33:22.160 as we've discussed,

00:33:22.800 is not going to do anything

00:33:23.600 to fix the situation,

00:33:24.680 but they're just going

00:33:25.500 to come up with

00:33:26.020 new campaigns.

00:33:27.960 It probably will be like

00:33:29.960 say mate,

00:33:31.560 crikey,

00:33:32.920 whenever you see

00:33:33.480 something bad.

00:33:34.140 They're going to come up

00:33:34.900 with some nonsense graphics

00:33:36.880 and campaigns

00:33:37.800 that aren't going

00:33:38.180 to do anything.

00:33:39.620 Yeah, it's going

00:33:40.320 to be a PSA

00:33:41.100 and at a certain point

00:33:42.040 you're talking

00:33:42.480 about a violence issue,

00:33:43.500 you're talking

00:33:43.820 about a justice issue,

00:33:44.800 you have to look

00:33:45.380 at the underlying causes,

00:33:46.580 but the people

00:33:47.380 that are causing

00:33:48.060 these problems

00:33:48.800 are not going

00:33:49.360 to be like,

00:33:50.160 well, I don't know,

00:33:50.960 that Aussie bloke

00:33:51.700 on TV told me

00:33:53.180 I need to change

00:33:53.820 my behavior.

00:33:54.720 So yeah,

00:33:55.620 everything's good now.

00:33:56.760 Thank you. 0.81

00:33:58.220 Yeah, it's ridiculous. 0.77

00:33:59.500 And what rules 0.95

00:34:00.320 are in place

00:34:02.500 that are not being enforced

00:34:03.660 when it comes

00:34:04.200 to this stuff

00:34:04.640 are they going

00:34:05.220 to create

00:34:05.580 more laws

00:34:06.280 about this stuff?

00:34:06.940 I'm sure

00:34:07.300 that domestic violence

00:34:08.620 is against the law

00:34:09.980 and abuse

00:34:11.340 of your spouse

00:34:12.940 is against the law

00:34:13.640 in Australia.

00:34:14.320 So why can't

00:34:15.140 they just enforce

00:34:15.900 the laws?

00:34:17.020 Well, one of the

00:34:17.660 challenges

00:34:18.060 in this discussion

00:34:18.840 is that like

00:34:19.520 the way you protect

00:34:20.920 women is by giving 1.00

00:34:21.740 them spaces to go.

00:34:22.800 You give them

00:34:23.220 shelters to go to.

00:34:24.120 You fund those shelters

00:34:25.500 and there's a contingent

00:34:26.620 of the population

00:34:27.260 that says,

00:34:27.900 well, hang on,

00:34:28.480 that's missing the point.

00:34:29.380 We need to get men 1.00

00:34:30.200 to stop abusing women. 0.54

00:34:31.820 Well, yeah,

00:34:32.260 but you also need

00:34:32.940 to provide women

00:34:33.660 opportunities

00:34:34.200 to get out

00:34:34.940 of these situations.

00:34:35.800 And again,

00:34:36.660 I don't know

00:34:37.260 the state

00:34:38.640 of the shelter system

00:34:39.420 in Australia.

00:34:40.100 I think your point,

00:34:40.740 William,

00:34:40.960 is very valid,

00:34:42.140 making sure

00:34:42.560 these shelters

00:34:43.260 actually stay

00:34:44.600 as safe spaces

00:34:45.480 for women.

00:34:45.980 Yeah, I mean,

00:34:48.180 I'm sure there are

00:34:49.600 more things

00:34:50.140 that can be done

00:34:50.860 and I would hope

00:34:52.660 that, you know,

00:34:54.020 I don't like to argue

00:34:55.400 for higher government

00:34:56.300 spending because I think

00:34:57.260 so many of our tax dollars

00:34:58.440 are badly spent,

00:34:59.900 but funding things

00:35:01.280 that have a material

00:35:02.360 impact on helping

00:35:03.300 women be safer 1.00

00:35:04.700 and to have places

00:35:06.000 where they can go,

00:35:07.220 systems that allow

00:35:08.100 them to more easily

00:35:09.460 report domestic violence,

00:35:11.900 have it investigated,

00:35:12.560 and not result in women

00:35:15.200 who do leave

00:35:16.480 their husbands

00:35:16.980 being, you know,

00:35:17.920 in abject poverty

00:35:19.020 or something like that,

00:35:20.800 I think are all valid.

00:35:21.880 But certainly,

00:35:22.720 the idea that

00:35:23.620 we're going to treat

00:35:24.680 all men as the problem,

00:35:26.160 I think,

00:35:27.360 just starts off

00:35:28.380 on the foot

00:35:29.000 of making most men

00:35:30.300 feel unreceptive

00:35:31.900 to any form

00:35:32.960 of the changes

00:35:33.520 that the government

00:35:34.380 might suggest.

00:35:35.060 you don't like

00:35:35.700 being told

00:35:36.460 that you're a problem

00:35:38.400 or that you're,

00:35:39.800 because of something

00:35:40.380 you can't control,

00:35:41.580 that you are a suspect.

00:35:43.080 And then certainly,

00:35:43.980 the terrible people

00:35:45.220 who engage

00:35:45.740 in domestic violence

00:35:46.820 are very rarely

00:35:48.060 receptive to

00:35:49.060 public service announcements.

00:35:50.860 It's the same way 0.70

00:35:51.920 that the gun registry

00:35:54.060 didn't reduce

00:35:55.360 illegal gun crime

00:35:56.460 because if you're

00:35:57.180 willing to steal

00:35:58.600 a firearm 0.99

00:35:59.280 and murder someone 1.00

00:36:00.380 with it, 0.99

00:36:00.780 you're probably willing

00:36:01.740 not to fill out

00:36:02.720 the government form

00:36:03.680 to register your weapons.

00:36:05.800 So it makes about

00:36:06.660 as much sense

00:36:07.400 as the gun registry,

00:36:10.440 which is why

00:36:10.800 the gun registry

00:36:11.380 was not widely popular

00:36:12.800 here in Canada.

00:36:13.820 Indeed.

00:36:14.520 All right,

00:36:14.940 we will close things out

00:36:16.180 on a self-indulgent note

00:36:17.660 on my part.

00:36:18.300 So as I've talked about

00:36:19.260 on my show,

00:36:19.880 my new book

00:36:20.600 came out this week,

00:36:21.620 Pierre Paulyevre,

00:36:22.780 A Political Life.

00:36:23.840 It's a banger

00:36:24.680 of a biography

00:36:25.340 about the Conservative Party

00:36:26.740 of Canada leader.

00:36:27.740 And I've been very grateful

00:36:28.600 that there's been

00:36:29.120 a tremendous amount

00:36:30.260 of interest from the media.

00:36:31.700 It was on my colleague,

00:36:32.860 Rachel Emanuel,

00:36:33.440 I've been interviewed

00:36:35.240 on newspapers,

00:36:36.180 radio, podcasting,

00:36:37.380 and even,

00:36:38.340 don't hold it against me,

00:36:39.760 CBC.

00:36:41.280 CBC's Power in Politics

00:36:42.660 with David Cochran

00:36:43.780 very kindly had me on

00:36:45.080 for a relatively long interview.

00:36:47.280 And I spoke about

00:36:48.400 my experiences

00:36:49.180 writing the book

00:36:49.900 and some of the conclusions

00:36:50.900 I've taken away

00:36:51.700 and had a nice chat

00:36:52.740 with David Cochran.

00:36:54.040 Well,

00:36:54.440 this has been converted

00:36:55.980 into a liberal attack ad,

00:36:58.540 believe it or not.

00:36:59.160 Take a look.

00:37:00.440 How aggressive

00:37:01.640 do you think

00:37:02.220 he will be

00:37:03.000 should he win?

00:37:04.540 I mean,

00:37:04.820 one friend of his

00:37:05.620 that I quote in the book,

00:37:06.820 Adam Dyfala,

00:37:07.760 predicts a Mike Harris

00:37:09.440 first term.

00:37:10.640 Just a year

00:37:11.120 into its mandate,

00:37:12.100 the Harris government

00:37:12.920 began implementing

00:37:13.960 a series of drastic reforms

00:37:15.860 in the hospital sector.

00:37:16.080 I like the scary music.

00:37:17.100 operating budgets were cut

00:37:18.620 by almost $1.3 billion.

00:37:21.320 The result?

00:37:22.280 A lot of staff

00:37:23.220 lost their jobs.

00:37:24.420 Mike Harris seems determined

00:37:25.680 to tell the people of Ontario

00:37:27.040 that it's business as usual,

00:37:28.960 that the government

00:37:29.820 is determined

00:37:30.600 to carry on

00:37:31.480 with its deficit-slashing,

00:37:33.320 tax-cutting agenda.

00:37:34.500 But what I remember

00:37:35.860 are all the cuts

00:37:37.860 and deregulation.

00:37:40.580 And of course,

00:37:41.080 I remember Walkerton.

00:37:42.820 In Walkerton,

00:37:43.680 seven people died

00:37:44.800 and thousands became sick

00:37:46.420 when E. coli bacteria

00:37:47.980 entered the local water system.

00:37:49.720 A judicial review

00:37:51.020 found cuts

00:37:51.740 to the Ministry of Environment

00:37:53.040 were partly to blame.

00:37:54.960 predicts a Mike Harris

00:37:56.480 first term.

00:37:57.560 Now, by the way,

00:38:01.140 you may recall,

00:38:02.300 just to go back

00:38:03.220 a couple of years,

00:38:04.280 CBC sued the Conservatives

00:38:06.240 for using CBC footage

00:38:08.060 in an ad.

00:38:10.020 So I don't know

00:38:10.880 if the CBC

00:38:12.120 is going to sue the Liberals

00:38:13.300 for using their footage

00:38:14.120 in this one.

00:38:15.320 I find this just hilarious.

00:38:17.080 I mean,

00:38:17.280 now I've had the privilege

00:38:18.420 of starring in two attack ads.

00:38:20.100 I was in a Conservative attack ad

00:38:22.340 against the PPC once

00:38:23.620 and I've now been

00:38:24.400 in a Liberal attack ad.

00:38:25.420 So I just need Jagmeet Singh

00:38:26.500 to, you know,

00:38:27.320 pluck me in an ad

00:38:28.120 and then I'll have

00:38:28.620 the trifecta.

00:38:29.980 But William,

00:38:31.280 what's your take on this?

00:38:32.560 I mean,

00:38:32.700 because you were actually around

00:38:33.520 when Mike Harris was,

00:38:34.720 you know,

00:38:35.180 this very popular figure

00:38:36.840 in the Conservative movement.

00:38:38.560 Yeah, I mean,

00:38:39.280 my political background

00:38:40.340 means I do love

00:38:41.260 a good attack ad.

00:38:42.520 I, you know,

00:38:43.280 nobody likes to watch them,

00:38:44.380 but I do.

00:38:44.920 I have a cache of them

00:38:46.940 on my computer

00:38:47.940 that I sometimes rewatch

00:38:49.740 for nostalgia's sake.

00:38:51.260 But I think

00:38:51.860 one of the problems

00:38:52.520 with this ad

00:38:53.260 is something you just hit on

00:38:54.480 where a huge number

00:38:55.780 of people are going

00:38:56.340 to watch that

00:38:56.880 and go,

00:38:57.880 right,

00:38:58.560 and who's Mike Harris?

00:39:00.000 Because he hasn't been

00:39:01.420 Premier in a long,

00:39:03.240 long time.

00:39:04.240 And the fact that

00:39:05.280 they're having to go back

00:39:06.280 that far

00:39:07.180 just shows that they...

00:39:08.880 It was literally

00:39:09.260 29 years.

00:39:10.760 29 years since he was elected.

00:39:12.160 30 years.

00:39:13.400 And,

00:39:13.560 you know,

00:39:14.860 so people who were

00:39:15.920 who were 18 or 20

00:39:17.860 are now going to be 50

00:39:19.440 to remember it.

00:39:21.320 And so,

00:39:21.940 I don't know,

00:39:22.580 to me,

00:39:23.360 it shows that

00:39:24.540 they're on pretty thin ice.

00:39:26.000 That the fact that

00:39:26.580 you have to reference

00:39:27.260 something 30 years ago

00:39:28.780 in order to try

00:39:29.960 and make an attack ad

00:39:30.940 shows that the well

00:39:31.920 is pretty dry

00:39:32.920 when it comes

00:39:33.960 to attack ads.

00:39:35.360 That being said,

00:39:36.160 I'm sure that the

00:39:37.000 10 or 12 people

00:39:38.480 who watch

00:39:39.260 David Cochran's

00:39:40.740 power and politics show

00:39:41.700 will be absolutely

00:39:42.700 outraged

00:39:43.320 by the comparison

00:39:45.400 to Mike Harris.

00:39:47.780 Well,

00:39:48.340 I hear,

00:39:48.900 you know,

00:39:49.560 massive cuts

00:39:50.760 to a bloated government.

00:39:52.120 I feel like that sounds

00:39:53.000 like a pretty good time.

00:39:54.000 I feel like I missed

00:39:54.640 a good time back then.

00:39:56.080 I wish I was around

00:39:57.060 to enjoy it in Ontario.

00:39:58.260 We could certainly

00:39:58.780 deal with that now.

00:40:00.260 I found it interesting,

00:40:01.220 Andrew,

00:40:01.340 at the beginning

00:40:01.840 of the interview

00:40:02.420 you had with David Cochran,

00:40:04.140 he made the point

00:40:04.800 that he said,

00:40:05.720 I wonder what

00:40:06.600 the True North audience

00:40:07.580 is thinking

00:40:08.040 having you join us

00:40:09.680 on CBC

00:40:10.320 and the CBC audience

00:40:11.600 is going to freak out

00:40:12.420 having the dangerous

00:40:14.200 conservative Andrew Lawton

00:40:15.640 on CBC.

00:40:17.100 I don't think

00:40:17.820 the True North audience

00:40:18.700 actually was too upset

00:40:20.580 that you were on CBC.

00:40:21.500 No, no.

00:40:21.940 Everyone's like,

00:40:22.400 oh, great, good for you.

00:40:23.360 Yeah.

00:40:23.500 I think they would

00:40:24.440 like us to see

00:40:26.620 us go on CBC

00:40:29.080 and challenge them

00:40:29.940 face-to-face more often.

00:40:31.780 If we were on CBC

00:40:32.880 and they invited us,

00:40:33.900 we could have

00:40:34.280 some debates with them.

00:40:35.560 That would make

00:40:35.940 for some great content.

00:40:36.980 It might actually

00:40:37.480 increase the views

00:40:38.640 of the CBC as well.

00:40:39.700 It's a win-win

00:40:40.240 the way I see it.

00:40:41.580 So I was also,

00:40:42.620 when was it?

00:40:43.200 I think it was on,

00:40:43.760 I recorded it on Sunday

00:40:44.860 and it came out on Tuesday.

00:40:46.040 I was on Peter Mansbridge's podcast.

00:40:47.900 So Peter Mansbridge,

00:40:48.740 the longtime CBC guy

00:40:50.260 has a podcast now

00:40:51.280 and we had a very lovely chat.

00:40:52.940 He had me on for,

00:40:53.660 I think it was like

00:40:54.020 40 minutes or so

00:40:54.900 and oh my goodness,

00:40:57.000 his audience

00:40:58.080 has not forgiven him.

00:40:59.640 You want to see

00:41:00.140 a ratio, Harrison?

00:41:01.480 I've seen the comments.

00:41:02.740 Look at the tweet

00:41:03.480 for Peter Mansbridge

00:41:04.420 announcing that I was

00:41:05.380 on his show.

00:41:06.180 I feel bad for the guy

00:41:07.280 because he's thinking,

00:41:08.040 oh, great,

00:41:08.440 I'm going to reach

00:41:09.380 across the aisle

00:41:10.140 and talk to this

00:41:10.820 conservative author

00:41:11.740 and show that

00:41:12.260 I'm a fair newsman

00:41:13.520 and now his people

00:41:14.520 are like,

00:41:14.840 I'm unsubscribing.

00:41:15.900 I'm never,

00:41:16.280 how dare you have

00:41:17.080 Andrew Lawton on?

00:41:17.840 It was even more

00:41:18.700 unhinged than the CBC audience.

00:41:21.060 Don't you think

00:41:21.660 that says something though

00:41:22.580 that our audience

00:41:23.840 would be like,

00:41:24.740 would be super pumped

00:41:25.760 when we get to go on these,

00:41:26.980 like,

00:41:27.340 obviously the interview

00:41:28.180 you had with Mansbridge

00:41:29.100 wasn't a confrontational interview,

00:41:31.240 but had it been,

00:41:32.980 you know,

00:41:33.440 had it been the sort of thing

00:41:34.380 where they wanted to challenge us

00:41:35.620 on certain issues,

00:41:36.460 I think our audience,

00:41:37.940 the conservative audience,

00:41:38.840 they'd be like super up for it.

00:41:40.240 They'd,

00:41:40.460 they'd tune in,

00:41:41.220 they'd be super into it.

00:41:42.660 And the,

00:41:42.960 the,

00:41:43.260 the current audience

00:41:44.280 on these legacy media platforms,

00:41:45.680 those that are hanging on

00:41:46.680 to the podcasts

00:41:47.560 of Peter Mansbridge

00:41:48.380 and the CBC,

00:41:50.260 they can't,

00:41:50.860 they can't even handle that.

00:41:51.700 They don't want the platform

00:41:52.400 to be given.

00:41:52.960 They don't even want to be

00:41:53.620 pushed back on the ideas.

00:41:54.600 They don't want to be exposed

00:41:55.460 to new ideas.

00:41:56.460 It says a lot.

00:41:57.740 Yeah,

00:41:57.880 it happened when,

00:41:59.060 when my Convoy book came out

00:42:00.660 two years ago,

00:42:01.960 I went on Justin Ling's podcast,

00:42:03.800 who's a,

00:42:04.460 I'd say a left-wing journalist.

00:42:05.580 I don't think he would

00:42:06.080 reject that,

00:42:07.220 that description.

00:42:08.620 And we had a great chat.

00:42:09.860 He had me on

00:42:10.500 and was the only,

00:42:11.220 one of the only non,

00:42:12.420 right-leaning people

00:42:13.280 to interview me for that book.

00:42:14.620 And then I had had him

00:42:16.020 on my show

00:42:16.620 about something else

00:42:17.440 around the same time.

00:42:18.720 And exactly what you just described

00:42:20.520 there happened, Harrison,

00:42:21.420 where his audience,

00:42:22.260 a lot of them were like,

00:42:23.120 you know,

00:42:23.280 how dare you platform

00:42:24.220 this Andrew Lawton guy?

00:42:25.560 And my audience was like,

00:42:27.100 well,

00:42:27.300 I don't like Justin Ling,

00:42:28.180 but that was a good chat.

00:42:29.060 Or,

00:42:29.240 oh,

00:42:29.260 I'm glad you,

00:42:29.900 you had him on.

00:42:31.080 People actually appreciated

00:42:32.520 that dialogue.

00:42:33.740 And I think that's one of the

00:42:34.620 profound differences

00:42:35.420 between the left and the right.

00:42:36.560 And it's why the free speech fight

00:42:37.900 is so important

00:42:38.960 because we want to engage

00:42:40.040 in the debate.

00:42:40.820 A lot of them want to shut down

00:42:42.020 the debate.

00:42:43.440 I mean,

00:42:44.100 I think it's such an interesting

00:42:45.640 comparison to

00:42:47.280 even today's,

00:42:48.780 the issue of

00:42:50.360 Palestinian protests

00:42:51.300 and the fact

00:42:52.340 that there are groups

00:42:53.100 out there

00:42:53.460 trying to de-platform

00:42:54.780 anybody who has

00:42:56.200 any association

00:42:56.980 with Israel

00:42:57.640 or anyone

00:42:59.440 who has dared

00:43:00.840 to be associated

00:43:02.680 with a Jewish person.

00:43:04.120 and I think

00:43:04.860 I read an article

00:43:05.700 that said

00:43:06.240 in Chicago

00:43:07.540 there was a list

00:43:08.460 of a group chat

00:43:09.880 or a conversation

00:43:10.660 amongst therapists

00:43:11.560 and they said,

00:43:12.500 well,

00:43:12.600 who here could treat

00:43:13.900 a Zionist 0.98

00:43:15.640 who's having mental issues? 0.94

00:43:17.880 And anybody

00:43:18.300 who responded

00:43:18.960 to that group chat

00:43:19.620 saying they would,

00:43:20.680 they got put on a list

00:43:21.820 of these are the Zionist 0.87

00:43:23.820 supporters in our ranks.

00:43:25.440 And the idea

00:43:26.800 that if you disagree

00:43:29.100 with someone politically,

00:43:30.200 they're not just wrong, 0.96

00:43:31.360 but they're evil

00:43:32.580 and they need to be removed 0.78

00:43:34.740 and frankly, 0.91

00:43:35.860 a lot of them think killed,

00:43:37.620 I think is the intolerance

00:43:39.600 of the progressive left

00:43:40.700 that is now really showing

00:43:42.040 its face

00:43:42.600 in things.

00:43:43.640 And I think most recently

00:43:44.480 in the ongoing

00:43:45.780 protests

00:43:47.120 regarding

00:43:47.760 Palestine

00:43:48.440 and the Hamas attacks

00:43:51.580 of October 7th.

00:43:52.900 Yeah.

00:43:53.360 Very well said.

00:43:54.480 All right.

00:43:54.720 Well,

00:43:54.820 that does it for us

00:43:55.980 for another Off the Record.

00:43:57.420 Thanks to Harrison Faulkner

00:43:58.600 and William Macbeth

00:43:59.640 as always

00:44:00.040 for your contributions.

00:44:01.500 I'm Andrew Lawton.

00:44:02.260 Have a wonderful weekend,

00:44:03.720 everyone.

00:44:11.980 He got me off

00:44:13.360 before I did the tagline.

00:44:14.560 I was supposed to say

00:44:15.300 and everything was

00:44:15.860 Off the Record.

00:44:16.500 Oh, well.

00:44:16.760 I'm waiting for my invitation

00:44:18.920 to join Rosie Barton's 0.98

00:44:20.620 Sunday panel

00:44:21.340 so I can go head-to-head

00:44:22.340 with Andrew Coyne.

00:44:23.700 When are they going

00:44:24.160 to give me my invitation?

00:44:25.260 When are they going

00:44:25.540 to let me loose?

00:44:26.500 Sean's now fighting me.

00:44:27.440 He says that was a clear cue.

00:44:28.960 Well, okay, yes.

00:44:29.880 In fairness,

00:44:30.400 I had forgotten to do it,

00:44:31.380 but I had remembered

00:44:32.080 and then the outro was going

00:44:33.840 and oh well.

Off the Record - June 01, 2024

Liberals attack…road trips？

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