Rebel News Podcast - Ezra Levant Show (March 19 2021) f Erin O’Toole loses against Trudeau — Bring back Stephen Harper!

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Today, the Conservative Party convention starts. It's not in any place. It's

00:00:06.000 in cyberspace, so I'm not sure how much fun or excitement will come from it. But one thing that

00:00:11.560 I'm interested in is the speech by Erin O'Toole. That's tomorrow night. Sheila Gunn-Reed and I will

00:00:15.780 do a live stream of it. But look, if things continue the way they are, Erin O'Toole is going 0.88

00:00:20.860 to get crushed like a bowl of eggs. What should the party do after? Should they just give them

00:00:27.120 another shot and then maybe another? I have a proposal to bring in a candidate with name

00:00:34.780 recognition, a track record of success, and the ability to unite different parts of the

00:00:41.540 Conservative coalition. I'll tell you who I think should start preparing for a leadership

00:00:48.380 run for the Conservatives if, in fact, Erin O'Toole gets crushed this spring, as I think

00:00:53.440 he will. So listen to my podcast for that. But first, hey, do me a favor and consider

00:00:58.880 becoming a Rebel News Plus subscriber. That's what we call our video version of this podcast.

00:01:04.620 It's eight bucks a month, and that basically gets you this video show. Sheila Gunn-Reed, 0.99

00:01:10.380 David Menzies, Andrew Chapados. And importantly, it keeps our lights on. We pay the bills with

00:01:15.840 that. Because as you know, we don't take a dime from Justin Trudeau's bailout. So please

00:01:20.400 go to rebelnews.com and click subscribe. It's just eight bucks a month. All right, here's

00:01:25.040 today's podcast.

00:01:40.320 Tonight, the Federal Conservative Party convention begins online. It's March 18th, and this is the

00:01:47.460 Ezra Levant Show.

00:01:50.400 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:54.160 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:58.260 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's

00:02:02.660 my bloody right to do so.

00:02:08.920 Well, no one knows for sure, maybe not even Justin Trudeau, but the official thinking, the

00:02:14.120 conventional wisdom is we're going to have a federal election this year. The question is

00:02:19.000 is it in the spring or in the fall? The fact that Justin Trudeau has totally flubbed the

00:02:24.280 vaccine process? Well, that looks bad even if you're an anti-vaxxer. It's embarrassing

00:02:30.860 for him, but I don't think anything can embarrass Justin Trudeau. I think we're going to have

00:02:35.140 an election in the spring.

00:02:36.760 Well, today, the Federal Conservative Party started its convention, its last chance to

00:02:43.040 meet as a party before going into that vote. Of course, because of the pandemic, the party

00:02:48.740 will not actually meet. It'll be all done via Zoom, an online conference, which isn't very

00:02:56.220 much fun, but they're going to do their best.

00:02:57.900 I want to tell you, I've gone through the conference schedule, and in fact, tomorrow

00:03:04.820 night at 5.15 p.m. Eastern Time or 3.15 p.m. Mountain Time, Aaron O'Toole is going to

00:03:12.000 have his big leadership speech. That's the moment. Now, normally that would be in front

00:03:16.760 of a big crowd and people would go wild and there'd be people with signs. It'll be interesting

00:03:20.800 to see how that works when it's really just a YouTube video. It's tough for any speaker to

00:03:27.140 get energy from an empty camera. Normally, you like crowds clapping, so it'll make it

00:03:32.520 a little bit of a tougher speech, but obviously the speech can be scripted and even filmed in

00:03:37.560 advance. It wouldn't surprise me if the speech for tomorrow night has actually already been

00:03:42.660 recorded, edited, and perfected. Sheila Gunn-Reed and I will be live streaming that speech for

00:03:50.560 you tomorrow. We'll start about 15 minutes before it, so 5 p.m. Eastern Time, 3 p.m. Mountain

00:03:56.140 Time. I'll be here in our Toronto headquarters. Sheila will be out west, and we'll have a

00:04:01.880 chat. We'll play the whole speech, then we'll come back and talk about it, and you can participate

00:04:07.760 too with what we call live stream super chats. So I don't know yet how the convention is going

00:04:13.860 to go, but there's a few things I can observe right away. First of all, Aaron O'Toole, the

00:04:19.320 leader of the Conservatives, is very much scared of this convention. I know that because of the

00:04:24.820 steps he's taken to weed out any socially conservative members of the party who posed

00:04:31.200 some sort of threat to him at the convention. I'm not sure what threat that was, but that

00:04:35.460 was the reason why Aaron O'Toole sacked Derek Sloan from the caucus and then proceeded to

00:04:42.560 dissolve Derek Sloan's local district association. I find that very unusual. But if you look at

00:04:50.040 what's been going on over the last few months, it fits a pattern. Aaron O'Toole eliminating anyone

00:04:55.420 who might be a rival. We've done a series of shows on this. I showed you the CBC story where

00:05:00.360 conservative lobbyists like Tim Powers talked about how Aaron O'Toole has to distance himself

00:05:05.920 from conservatives like Jason Kenney and from the hostility to the carbon tax that is a bedrock

00:05:12.820 of conservative viewpoints. And Aaron O'Toole indeed has talked about he's a net zero candidate,

00:05:18.600 which is impossible if you want fossil fuels. More recently, Aaron O'Toole demoted Pierre

00:05:25.240 Polyev, the finance critic for the Conservative Party and really the most effective MP in the

00:05:30.860 entire caucus. Other things along the way, insulting rebel news, which I don't think makes any sense,

00:05:37.040 but he did it. And just last week, a bizarre and shocking decision to throw out the party's age-old

00:05:43.920 policy plank that called for a reduction in foreign aid. Now, Canada's unemployment rate is

00:05:50.560 almost 10%. It's actually the worst out of all G7 countries. Trudeau's debt is staggering. It's in

00:05:59.620 the trillions now. And there's many problems that need pressing help if you're looking to help poor

00:06:06.540 people. Well, you could look at people within this country, even if you wanted to be woke about it,

00:06:11.240 getting clean drinking water and Northern Indian reserves that Trudeau once said was his high

00:06:16.260 priority. Imagine being in favor of diverting money to foreign countries, including, as you know,

00:06:25.060 Trudeau still gives foreign aid to China itself. Opposing foreign aid isn't just the right thing to do.

00:06:32.520 It's extremely popular with vast swaths of Canadian population. But Aaron O'Toole just threw away

00:06:40.140 that policy plank too. As you know, in recent weeks, O'Toole has hired the former vice president

00:06:47.960 of Huawei Canada and has quietly removed the ban Huawei petition from the Conservative Party page.

00:06:55.580 I'm worried about the direction the party is going. We'll see in his speech tomorrow how he wants to

00:07:02.600 present himself to the country. Really, this is his last chance, in my opinion, before the campaign

00:07:09.160 begins. And if you scroll through the party's official convention page, you'll start to see

00:07:17.480 what Aaron O'Toole's version of the Conservative Party looks like. Here's on screen a list of the

00:07:25.220 official speakers of the conference. You'll notice, obviously, Jason Kenney is not on there, but

00:07:32.240 neither is Pierre Polyev. Polyev, of course, was demoted and the Conservatives said, no, no,

00:07:39.840 we're putting him in an even better position. Really? He has no position on the Speaker's roster.

00:07:45.940 That's odd. He had an amazing week. Remember just the other day when the Kielberger brothers were

00:07:52.860 summoned to Parliament? Take a look at this exchange between Pierre Polyev and the Kielbergers. 0.99

00:07:56.980 What was the role exactly of Mr. Chen, Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister in setting up this

00:08:04.520 program? I don't think he had any role in it. Mr., is that the answer for both of you?

00:08:13.780 Yes, that's correct. Who are you referring to, sir? Can you remember Ben Chin? Ben Chin.

00:08:18.420 There was no role. Craig, no role? Not that I'm aware of. Then why did you send him a message on

00:08:25.040 LinkedIn on June 27th saying, hello, Ben. Thank you for your kindness in helping shape our latest

00:08:30.800 program with the government. Warmly, Craig. Sure. So I sent 100 messages because I only had

00:08:37.200 seven people, eight people on LinkedIn before that. And so that day, 100 messages went out. My EA

00:08:41.880 sent them to people to join on LinkedIn, and he was one of them. Yes. I actually didn't, but my EA did.

00:08:47.700 Craig, this is your message. It's signed by you. And if I could be clear, it doesn't just say,

00:08:53.080 I wish you well. It says, Ben, if you choose me, thank you for your kindness in helping shape our

00:09:00.660 latest program with the government. Warmly, Craig. You sent that. Did you not? Yeah, I don't dispute

00:09:08.140 that that was sent. Sorry, sorry. You got yourself in a lot of trouble here. You've just said a moment

00:09:13.880 ago, you thought that the Prime Minister's Senior Advisor, Mr. Chen, had no role in the establishment

00:09:20.800 of the program. But I have correspondence where you thanked him for helping shape that very program.

00:09:28.380 It's rare that a political committee meeting is that riveting, that gripping, just for sheer

00:09:34.740 entertainment and wow factor, let alone for actually achieving conservative goals.

00:09:40.480 Pierre Polyev is a star, which is maybe why he was left off the roster.

00:09:45.700 Well, look who's on the roster. As you can see, one of the speakers is named Waleed Solomon.

00:09:52.540 He's not an MP. Who's he? Well, he works for one of the largest law firms in the world.

00:09:58.820 He was best known as Patrick Brown's best friend and ally in his disastrous pro-carbon tax leadership

00:10:07.060 of the Provincial Conservative Party. Waleed Solomon has also been accused of being soft on

00:10:13.080 Islamism. He's denied that and sued anyone who said that about him, including other conservatives.

00:10:20.860 Having Waleed Solomon on the platform of speakers and banning the likes of Jason Kenney and Pierre

00:10:26.860 Polyev says a lot about the direction of Aaron O'Toole. If you click on related events on the website,

00:10:34.920 the first thing that comes up is another scary indicator. Again, these aren't official party events,

00:10:41.960 but these are events that the party is promoting on their website, advertising to people to join.

00:10:46.940 And you can see it's by a group called Clean Prosperity. What's that? Well, you can probably

00:10:54.100 guess that's a global warming activist group. I don't know how they got on this list. I assume

00:11:00.700 they paid money to Aaron O'Toole. And of course, Aaron O'Toole is proud to be associated with them,

00:11:06.320 unlike, say, Rebel News, Pierre Polyev, or Derek Sloan. I find it deeply troubling. These little

00:11:13.840 indicators we'll see in the speech tomorrow night. I'm not prejudging it, but recent events tells me

00:11:20.000 I should have a low expectation. Tomorrow's speech is at 5.15 p.m. I imagine there'll be a little

00:11:28.720 preamble video, a prepared, produced video that shows the great successes of Aaron O'Toole's six

00:11:35.900 months as party leader. Well, if that were the case, it would be quite a short video. This is when he

00:11:40.860 needs a bump. Parties often have a bump in the polls from their conventions because the conventions give

00:11:47.080 them a chance to showcase themselves on their own terms, and the media often covers them. I doubt that's

00:11:53.340 going to happen here. There's not a lot to show, and most of the proceedings are not going to be

00:11:58.320 made available to the public. In fact, there's a frequently asked questions section on the page

00:12:04.720 that says, will any of these sessions be available online for viewing? And the party explicitly says,

00:12:11.120 no, they will not. It's almost like it's a secret convention. I presume the party's leadership

00:12:18.560 speech tomorrow night will be made public, but I don't expect there to be a bump in the polls.

00:12:25.600 In fact, if you look at that CBC poll aggregator that we've looked at before, and again, I don't

00:12:30.520 trust the CBC as far as I can throw them, but all they've done here is simply aggregate all the polls.

00:12:36.760 So they're just putting it all together in one place, and they're extrapolating from that, based on

00:12:41.580 region and province, how many seats they expect each party to get. You can see there's a bit of a

00:12:46.160 bandwidth there, but they predict that the conservatives will lose a dozen seats if Aaron O'Toole

00:12:52.680 stays on course, and they say that the likelihood of a Liberal Party majority is 46%. The likelihood of

00:13:01.120 a Liberal Party minority, again, is another 44%. That's a 90% chance of a Liberal victory, only a 10%

00:13:10.340 chance of a Conservative victory, and that would only be a minority. So what happens if, let's think a few

00:13:18.700 months into the future, what happens if those poll predictors come true? If Waleed Solomon, the

00:13:25.320 mastermind behind Patrick Brown's success in Ontario, becomes the mastermind of the same disaster for Aaron

00:13:32.700 O'Toole. What happens if he, in fact, rolls the party back and gives Justin Trudeau a majority win? Well, some might

00:13:40.680 say Aaron O'Toole simply didn't have enough time. He'll want to hold on and get a second chance and run for the

00:13:47.220 party again. I can understand there would be some fatigue in the party from having leadership races. There was just one

00:13:53.700 six months ago. But if Aaron O'Toole can't even muster party support now in his, quote, honeymoon phase, how is he

00:14:00.820 going to do it later? Would Pierre Polyev throw his hat into the ring? And by that, I mean, would he

00:14:07.760 challenge Aaron O'Toole's leadership if Aaron O'Toole loses the seats he's expected to do? I'm not an expert in the

00:14:15.040 Conservative Party constitution, but I expect one of the reasons O'Toole's having his conference now is so that

00:14:21.240 there's no legally required leadership mandate for quite a while. Again, I'm not an expert in the

00:14:26.540 rules. Pierre Polyev briefly threw his hat into the ring, at least in an exploratory sense, in the last

00:14:33.560 leadership race before suddenly dropping out. I was very sad that he did. I thought he was excellent.

00:14:39.000 Perhaps something was brought to an attention, some opposition research designed to embarrass him, perhaps

00:14:44.220 some personal scandal. I simply don't know, but I was sad that he dropped out and I hope he reconsiders.

00:14:49.400 But what if he doesn't? Or what if he does and the party just can't win? Peter McKay, who came in

00:14:57.160 second in the last leadership race, was no winner either, I believe. Is the Conservative Party doomed

00:15:03.180 to an eternity in opposition? Could Justin Trudeau do what his father Pierre Trudeau did and govern

00:15:11.880 pretty much for 16 years? That was Pierre Trudeau from 1968 to 1984. There's only a brief break in there

00:15:21.040 for Joe Clark. What should Conservatives do? Who has the policy smarts? Who has the true Conservative

00:15:31.360 beliefs that would unite the party, both fiscal Conservatives and social Conservatives,

00:15:37.460 populists and downtown Toronto fancy pants? Who can do that? Who's strong enough to stare down the media

00:15:45.380 when they're just giving them a rough time? Definitely Aaron O'Toole is not. Who has the name recognition

00:15:52.020 to instantly take a jump in the polls and whose personal temperament, whose personality is a fit for these

00:16:00.660 troubled times? I know a guy. His name is Stephen Harper. He was the most successful Conservative

00:16:09.700 leader in a generation. He put back together a fractious Conservative movement that had split

00:16:16.260 amongst the Conservative Party and the Reform Party. He wasn't beloved by journalists, but he was respected

00:16:24.000 by them. In this era of wasteful spending, his penny-pinching approach and his economist's pedigree would serve him

00:16:32.320 and our country well. And more to the point, he's a winner. He didn't win his last election, but by then I think

00:16:39.660 people were fatigued and the media and the perfect storm in the campaign gave it to Trudeau, but just barely.

00:16:45.520 Well, now it's Trudeau's perfect storm of incompetence, debt, and high unemployment. I say,

00:16:53.520 bring back Harper. Let him put things together again. Is he really enjoying himself being a consultant?

00:17:02.080 Unlike Brian Mulroney, Stephen Harper doesn't crave status and pedigree. Unlike Brian Mulroney,

00:17:07.920 Stephen Harper doesn't crave money. I think he's enjoying talking to Israel's leaders and India's

00:17:14.400 leaders and people he finds genuinely interesting, but I've got to think that whenever he turns on the

00:17:20.320 TV and sees Trudeau muck it up again, or see Trudeau being a lightweight at the G7 or the G20, 0.59

00:17:28.560 that a part of Stephen Harper thinks, I should be there, not that chump. So I say, 1.00

00:17:35.840 let Aaron O'Toole give his speech tomorrow and Sheila and I will give you our true and honest reaction.

00:17:41.280 And I say, let Aaron O'Toole run in the next election. It's too late to change it.

00:17:45.760 But if he does what everyone thinks he'll do, blow it. I think the answer isn't to give him yet another

00:17:52.480 try or even just to ask the party to go through yet another leadership with candidates of no count.

00:17:59.280 I think the answer is to draft Stephen Harper. He's still young enough. He's still engaged enough. He's

00:18:05.600 still smart enough. And I think maybe he's the only guy who can bring the conservative party's

00:18:11.680 confidence back. You know, we had a petition for Stephen Harper a few years back. I don't know if

00:18:16.960 you remember. When he retired, we put up a petition to name the Calgary International Airport

00:18:23.520 Harper International Airport. The story got a little bit of buzz, but it didn't happen. Did you really

00:18:28.880 think Justin Trudeau was going to give him that? Well, let's stop talking about airports and let's

00:18:34.880 actually petition the man himself. You know, I've known Stephen Harper for quite a while

00:18:41.040 and I know one thing about him. He's thought about government and governing as a conservative

00:18:46.320 his whole life. I don't believe his true purpose is to be a lobbyist or a consultant or a jet setter

00:18:53.440 for its own sake. I believe his purpose is to give conservative leadership to Canada. And I believe

00:19:01.360 that his whole family would support him, especially now that his kids are grown up and he can focus all

00:19:06.240 his attentions on the job at hand. If you agree with me that Stephen Harper should start wrapping up his

00:19:13.600 career and think about coming back to serve the country, obviously that's a personal decision for

00:19:20.080 him to make, but he's a man with a public spirit. If you think he should decide to come back, then I ask you

00:19:27.440 to go to bringbackharper.com and sign the petition. I want to get thousands of conservatives to sign the

00:19:37.760 petition that we will deliver that petition to Stephen Harper and tell him, boss, you're not done yet.

00:19:44.800 You got one more mission to save this country. If you agree with me, go to bringbackharper.com and sign the petition.

00:19:53.840 Stay with us. More ahead.

00:19:55.280 Well, if you want to talk about conservative politics, you've got to talk to Andrew Lawton.

00:20:10.880 He knows his stuff. He's one of our favorite guys and he works for True North. He joins us now via Skype.

00:20:17.040 Andrew, great to see you. The Conservative Party convention is on and normally you'd be there,

00:20:22.240 but there's no there. It's all an online conference, isn't it?

00:20:26.880 Yeah, and my approach to this is kind of yet another virtual event. It's difficult a year in

00:20:31.520 to get excited about too many Zoom events, but this is the era in which we're living.

00:20:36.320 Yeah, I don't blame anybody for this. I mean, the conservatives probably couldn't hold this event

00:20:42.400 anywhere in Canada. They'd have to fly down to Florida to find a place that would allow them to meet.

00:20:47.120 And of course, that wouldn't work with the quarantine. I'm not as interested in the virtual

00:20:54.000 nature of the convention as I am. A few little signs of the party's direction. Let me give you

00:20:59.760 a couple examples. Clean Prosperity, which is sort of a global warming think tank, is having an official

00:21:07.040 event. I don't see the Taxpayers Federation there. You have speakers like Waleed Solomon, Patrick Brown's

00:21:16.080 former top aide. But Pierre Polyev isn't the speaker. And I'm worried that these are little

00:21:22.720 signals and symbols of the party's direction. What do you think?

00:21:27.200 Yeah, it's a bit concerning that conventions, and I'll take a step back on this actually,

00:21:32.240 because the problem with political conventions is that they are more about theater than they are

00:21:37.280 about substance historically. Despite debates on policy resolutions, a lot of the outcomes are very

00:21:43.360 scripted. And under normal circumstances, why people go to these things is to schmooze, people want to

00:21:49.200 hobnob, people want to do all sorts of things. And yes, you have special interest groups that want to be a

00:21:53.920 part of it by hosting their hospitality suites and all that. But there is a big issue right now, because

00:21:59.360 this is, despite the virtual nature of it, Aaron O'Toole's coming out party to the conservative base

00:22:05.760 as leader. You may remember it was in August that he became the leader. He gave his victory speech at,

00:22:10.880 you know, three in the morning or something like that. But this is his first time to really address

00:22:15.600 the base, address the party membership since that night. And in doing so, he's addressing people

00:22:21.440 that voted for Derek Sloan, who voted for Leslyn Lewis, who voted for Peter McKay. And the thing about

00:22:27.360 that is that of the four candidates in the race, Derek Sloan's now out of caucus. Peter McKay's not

00:22:33.360 running again. So there's a lot lacking in the coalition. And his thing has to be,

00:22:40.080 can I keep this party together? So I think that's the big narrative out of here. And it is

00:22:44.720 interesting to go back to your question about who the party is choosing to really make as part of

00:22:49.680 that coalition. Yeah. I remember when I briefly ran for office some 20 years ago, Stephen Harper

00:22:57.520 was the new leader. And I watched him rebuild the conservative party. The first thing he did is he

00:23:02.960 brought back the breakaway MPs, Monty Solberg, Deborah Gray, Jay Hill, who went into something called the

00:23:09.360 Democratic Representative Caucus. So the Canadian Alliance had fractured. He put that back together.

00:23:16.080 Then he put it together with the conservatives. He did that deal with Peter McKay. So just watching

00:23:21.520 Harper rebuild the coalition, there was room for social conservatives. There was room for fiscal

00:23:26.960 conservatives. There was room for Western conservatives. Like, you could see it in real

00:23:30.880 time as he literally brought people in one by one. You could feel it. I don't feel that with Aaron O'Toole.

00:23:39.360 I see him pushing aside Derek Sloan. I think he pushed aside Pierre Polyev. Like, I just don't buy the

00:23:47.440 excuses that he was repositioning Polyev. Where is he in the lineup? I just, I'm worried about him. I don't

00:23:54.880 think it's going to win. And even if it did win, I mean, I mentioned in my monologue, O'Toole just came out in

00:24:01.040 favor of maintaining foreign aid at Trudeau levels. That's the most un-conservative thing I ever heard. It's not a

00:24:07.520 political winner. I think he's just afraid of being conservative. Anyway, I'm ranting. What do you think?

00:24:13.600 It's funny, when you mention foreign aid, I used to, in the before times, travel a fair bit for the nature of my work.

00:24:19.360 And, you know, everyone who's ever been on an airplane has heard that whole, you got to put your

00:24:23.040 own mask on. It's a different kind of mask than what we're used to now. But you got to put your

00:24:26.960 own mask on before you assist others. And that's the reality, is that countries have to look out for

00:24:31.440 their own interests before they help others. And in great times, yes, Canada may have had some extra

00:24:36.000 money that it could spare to other countries around the world that were struggling. But the one thing we

00:24:40.720 saw in the pandemic is that we actually, as a country, have not been able to look after ourselves. We

00:24:45.280 weren't able to shore up personal protective equipment. We aren't able to produce any vaccine

00:24:50.000 at all domestically. We aren't able to import at a rate that is anything to be proud of vaccine

00:24:56.000 from elsewhere in the world. And it's other countries that have now had to come to Canada's

00:25:01.280 benefit on this. So I think the foreign aid discussion in the COVID era is a very interesting

00:25:07.520 one. When Canada could not look after itself in a time of crisis, why are we talking about maintaining

00:25:13.120 foreign aid to other countries that, by the way, I would say has not been particularly effective?

00:25:19.520 And I don't think this is a contentious issue in the Conservatives. I think if you were to put

00:25:23.840 ending foreign aid 100% on a ballot question at a Conservative Party of Canada convention,

00:25:30.480 it would probably pass 90%. So I find it odd that this is the one he's choosing to go against the base on.

00:25:37.280 Yeah. Well, and as I said in my monologue, I just think it's the latest in a series of things.

00:25:43.520 He's scaring me on a few things. I'm worried he's going really wobbly on the carbon tax.

00:25:48.560 And even if he says the words, I'm against the carbon tax, I feel like de facto he's approving

00:25:54.640 a carbon tax by other names. It scares me. Can I throw one crazy idea at you? I don't think you

00:25:59.760 heard my monologue because I just recorded it before you came on. I said, look,

00:26:04.240 I want a Conservative to win. I want Trudeau to lose. I think that's obvious for anyone who knows me.

00:26:10.800 But I also am realistic. I look at the polls. O'Toole has not had a bump in his six months as

00:26:16.240 leader. I just don't see him getting traction. And I feel like he's demoralizing part of his base.

00:26:21.840 Maybe I got it wrong, but that's how I see it. I think he's cruising for a bruising. Go ahead.

00:26:27.120 Yeah. I guess the challenge is that right now the message seems to be,

00:26:31.440 hi, I'm Aaron. Let me introduce myself to you. And he's been somewhat, I think,

00:26:36.000 self-aware in that sense from the day he took the stage in August and accepted,

00:26:40.160 and even some of the videos and messaging he's put out since then of just being candid.

00:26:44.320 You don't know me. Here's who I am. But at a certain point, you have to ask,

00:26:48.240 why are you still introducing yourself? What is it that's missing? And is it just that

00:26:52.400 Canadians aren't paying attention to politics? Perhaps. We know, and I know from being a candidate,

00:26:57.360 a lot of the time people do not start paying attention until the last couple of weeks of the

00:27:01.280 campaign. But when you look at, okay, we have a prime minister right now that's been pretty mired

00:27:06.960 in scandal. You've got government spending that's up to just untold levels, some of which can be

00:27:12.640 attributed to spending programs that people would welcome. But other spending is just stuff like the

00:27:18.320 we scandal. And you've got a new, fresh conservative leader who you think would get a bit of momentum just

00:27:23.920 by virtue of being new, of being a fresh face. So yeah, there is the question of where are you

00:27:29.760 going to get that support from? Are you going to get it by introducing yourself to undecideds? Are

00:27:34.320 you going to peel support from the Liberals, from the NDP? I know Aaron O'Toole has focused a fair

00:27:39.040 bit on Quebec as the goal to get some support from the bloc from there. And I haven't yet seen the plan

00:27:45.120 as to where they want to grow. Yeah. You know, this whole, let me introduce myself to you line.

00:27:50.240 Um, let's think about another industry. Let's say a film actor or a pop singer. You don't care about

00:27:58.400 an actor or a singer who says, hi, let me tell you who I am. You say, oh my God, who's singing that

00:28:03.760 song? Who's that? Or wow, I just saw an amazing movie. Who's that? So you look at what they do before

00:28:10.560 you care about who they are. I think politics is the same way. Some guy just saying, oh, hi,

00:28:15.600 can I introduce myself? You don't need to introduce yourself if you're really coming out with powerful,

00:28:21.680 motivating, articulate, visionary statements. People get to know who you are pretty quick if you

00:28:28.000 give them a reason to. I mean, I'm thinking of Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida. No one said,

00:28:34.920 who's the governor of Florida? They said, who's the guy who's got the lockdown right? So it's what he did.

00:28:41.480 Let me come back to my monologue. If O'Toole loses, and I'm not saying he's going to, but boy,

00:28:48.080 it looks so annoying. I got an idea and it's, maybe it's crazy. I want to throw it at you.

00:28:55.160 Who's got name recognition? Who's a true conservative? Who has the respect, if not the like,

00:29:02.760 of the media? Who can build a party, put the pieces back together? What do you think of a petition

00:29:09.340 to bring back Harper? To say, look, buddy, we know you're not loving being a lobbyist consultant.

00:29:14.980 It's not your thing. You're not like Brian Mulroney, who wants status or money. You love

00:29:20.080 conservative leadership. Come back. Heal the conservative party and beat Justin Trudeau.

00:29:27.020 What do you think of that? There's precedent. There's precedent. If you look at Pierre Trudeau,

00:29:30.300 that's what he did. He left, he was out, and then he came back. And, you know, ultimately,

00:29:34.420 his most successful term politically was that term that he came back for now. That's a great point.

00:29:38.900 That's also the term in which he did the most damage. But for him, politically, that was

00:29:42.640 his most successful time. Charter of Rights, National Energy Program, things that you and I hate.

00:29:47.560 He got it all done in his bonus term. Imagine Harper comes back. Boy, I'm warming to the idea.

00:29:52.880 Harper comes back. He's only 61. I just checked. He's 61. That is a very young man in Paris.

00:29:58.940 Donald Trump's 74. Harper's 61. His kids are grown up, so he doesn't have to worry about little ones

00:30:05.760 at home. He comes back in, and he's just sort of like, guys, I told you so about Trudeau. I told

00:30:11.500 you so about everything. He's made a fool out of us. He's blown all the budget. Bring back the grown-up. 0.99

00:30:17.380 Bring it. Put the grown-up in. I think the media would actually like it, or if they hated it, at least

00:30:24.060 they would respect it. How could he possibly do worse than Aaron O'Toole? Absence has made

00:30:30.780 the heart grow fonder. He's been away for five years. People miss him.

00:30:35.340 Well, you become a statesman when you've been out of it for a while, and that's something. I mean,

00:30:39.440 I remember when George W. Bush was Hitler, and now George W. Bush is like the model Republican 0.77

00:30:44.500 that the left holds up as, why can't all Republicans be like George Bush? And I'm like, where were you

00:30:49.540 guys in 2006 or 2008? Well, it sounds like you like my idea a little bit. It sounds like maybe

00:30:54.920 a little bit. Are you serious? You like my idea? I don't think it's going to happen, but I think

00:30:59.240 it would be interesting. And I will say to Stephen Harper's credit, one of the things that was

00:31:03.460 interesting is that when he left office, he didn't do what everyone else did, which is get a do-nothing

00:31:08.100 role on a law firm where you take no clients, you cash a big check every year. His book even wasn't the

00:31:14.020 memoir of like, oh, yes, my endeavors for public service began on a park bench in Calgary in 1962.

00:31:20.380 No, he wrote about policy. He wrote about a lot of things that matter. And you look what he's done

00:31:25.260 going into work with the International Democrat Union. So no, he likes being in the game. I would

00:31:30.820 imagine that he's not interested in jumping back. But there is something that I would bring up,

00:31:35.700 Ezra, which is that if Aaron O'Toole does lose, that would make Justin Trudeau one of the most

00:31:41.540 successful Canadian politicians in Canadian history. He would have dethroned three conservative

00:31:48.480 leaders in a row, one of whom was a prime minister. And despite whatever misgivings people in Canada

00:31:54.960 have about Trudeau, that is a metric of success that would be very dangerous for the conservatives

00:31:59.900 to come back from. Yeah. Wow. Well, you know what? I'm going to think more about this. We got a

00:32:05.040 petition at bringbackharper.com. We love our petitions over here, Andrew. But I think that you said,

00:32:09.800 I'm not even kidding. You plunked down 20,000 names on Stephen Harper's desk saying,

00:32:16.420 we want you back, buddy. We need you back. Not even want you. Everyone wants something.

00:32:21.180 We need you back. I don't know. I think it's compelling. We'll see what happens. Great to see

00:32:28.700 you. Thanks for taking the time. Thanks. All right. There you have it. Andrew Lawton,

00:32:31.940 one of the best guys around. I recommend the Andrew Lawton show. He's over there with our friends at

00:32:36.660 tnc.new. So the, excuse me, those are the True North guys in Yale. He's doing a great job. Stay

00:32:43.020 with us. More at home.

00:32:55.040 Hey, welcome back on my show last night. Tammy writes,

00:32:57.520 It's ridiculous. 10% should be very enough for recall. This bill is a sham. Yeah. You know,

00:33:03.580 the California constitution says 12%. And they haven't had recalls all the time. They've only

00:33:09.800 had one successful recall in recent memory. They've had a few attempts, but you know,

00:33:15.540 the threat is real enough that it causes politicians to be better behaved. 40%. You know,

00:33:21.760 I haven't studied it very deeply, but I doubt there's a single jurisdiction in the world

00:33:25.940 with 40% of the total electors, not just the number of voters. I doubt there's a single

00:33:31.700 jurisdiction in the world that has ever met that standard. Paul writes, this recall smoke

00:33:38.540 and mirror nonsense goes to show that Alberta needs a viable opposition party. The UPC is going

00:33:43.660 down the same road that got the NDP elected. Yeah. Look, I don't understand the point. If you don't

00:33:49.140 want to recall legislation, then don't have one. But having a fake recall legislation, that's

00:33:54.000 literally impossible. And not just that, invites the poison pill approach. I told you that because

00:33:59.180 you can only attempt to recall someone once every turn, some faker, some agent provocateur,

00:34:06.040 some agent of an unpopular MLA can start a petition for recall, let it lapse, and then the MLA is home

00:34:13.980 free. Look, if you're going to do that, why not just don't do it? Bringing in this shoddy recall

00:34:19.700 legislation is really just another way of trying to trick conservatives into thinking that their

00:34:25.060 policies are being enacted. Laurel writes, I'm happy for Pastor Coates, his family and congregation.

00:34:31.800 Let's hope the government's unholy and unjust persecution is finished and they have seen the

00:34:35.940 light. Kudos to the hardworking legal team. I'm very pleased with the success that John Carpe and his

00:34:42.320 group have had. It's frustrating that the pastor was in prison for a full month, but it sounds like

00:34:47.180 he'll be out as soon as tomorrow. We will continue to report on the story at Grace Life Church because

00:34:52.820 I can only imagine if the pastor didn't bend the knee after a month in prison, he's surely going

00:34:58.700 to make his way to the church on Sunday. That's going to be amazing. Well, that's the show for today.

00:35:03.880 Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, see you at home. Good night

00:35:08.660 keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - March 19, 2021

Ezra Levant Show (March 19 2021) f Erin O’Toole loses against Trudeau — Bring back Stephen Harper!

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