Rebel News Podcast - Front-runner Peter MacKay is turning out less like Harper and more like Scheer

00:00:00.000 Peter McKay described Andrew Scheer as someone who missed an empty net on a breakaway, but is

00:00:20.660 Peter McKay someone who has scored in his own net? It's February 5th, 2020. I'm David Menzies,

00:00:28.400 and this is the Ezra Levin Show. Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I

00:00:36.000 know? There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer. The only thing I have to say

00:00:41.720 to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:00:51.580 Last Saturday night, I experienced an uncanny feeling of deja vu. You see, I was at Toronto's

00:00:58.320 swank Old Mill for a meet-and-greet event with conservative leader hopeful Peter McKay. Now,

00:01:04.760 after the disaster that was the election campaign of Andrew Scheer, conservatives are hungry for

00:01:11.700 change. Andrew Scheer, aka Mr. Charisma, is yesterday's man as he fades into his rightful

00:01:19.220 place in Canadian history, namely footnote territory. As for Peter McKay, I think he came out of the

00:01:26.860 gates flying back in October post-election night. Who can forget his assessment of Scheer,

00:01:32.980 noting that his loss to Trudeau was akin to, quote, having a breakaway on an open net and missing the

00:01:39.440 net, end quote. It was so refreshing to see a leadership hopeful nail the failure that was

00:01:45.980 Scheer with straight talk and using a colorful hockey metaphor to boot. And it was accurate. Look,

00:01:52.800 Scheer was a weakling from the get-go, I grant you that. But given the long laundry list of scandals

00:01:58.600 and fiascos the liberals were responsible for, ranging from the SNC-Lavalin affair and the

00:02:05.460 persecution of ex-Vice Admiral Mark Norman to the India trip and the infamous blackface revelations

00:02:12.820 and the groping of Rose Knight, it seems almost impossible in hindsight that not only did the

00:02:19.240 Trudeau liberals win, but they very nearly got another majority mandate. In fact, it was worse

00:02:26.480 than missing an empty net. It was missing an empty net and then allowing the opposition to steal victory

00:02:32.220 from the jaws of defeat. Kind of like this hockey highlight for the ages. Check it out with Andrew

00:02:37.580 Scheer in the role of Patrick Steffen and Justin Trudeau in the role of Ailes Hemsky.

00:02:44.320 Give me one last gasp here for the Oilers.

00:02:49.500 Bergeron fans on a pass. Steffen steals and he'll ice it. Oh, at least I thought he was gonna

00:02:55.380 until he blew it. That's unbelievable. Here come the Oilers the other way and Hemsky's loose.

00:03:01.640 Hemsky, he scores! Can you believe what we just saw?

00:03:09.180 Uh, no, I don't believe it. Both the 2019 election results and that hockey highlight from 2007.

00:03:16.420 Poor Patrick Steffen. Poor Andrew Scheer. But the thing is, when McKay made the empty net analogy,

00:03:24.740 I thought it sparked some hope in the conservative base. Here was someone that appeared to be something

00:03:30.520 of a straight shooter. Someone not using polite $3 words to describe an electoral disaster. But

00:03:37.220 lately, one must take pause to ponder. Is the wannabe coronation of Peter McKay akin to

00:03:44.180 meet the new would-be boss, same as the old boss? Increasingly, that's what it's looking like to me.

00:03:52.480 For when I visited the old mill last Saturday night and was greeted by one of McKay's handlers,

00:03:56.900 the very first words out of his mouth were, there will be no questions tonight. Excuse me?

00:04:03.660 Sorry, but asking a journalist not to ask questions is akin to telling a dolphin not to swim.

00:04:10.000 This is a man who would be prime minister of our great dominion. This is a man who, as the prime

00:04:17.040 minister, would be routinely grilled with questions. And already, as merely a leadership hopeful,

00:04:24.500 he can't have a quick query or two from a news organization that has nearly 1.3 million YouTube

00:04:31.360 subscribers, most of whom are presumably red meat conservatives. Gee, where have we seen this 0.88

00:04:38.520 play out before? Oh yeah, it was the Sheer campaign, which suffered from an acute case of rebel derangement

00:04:45.540 syndrome as it reached out to the mean girls of the media, you know, the likes of the Toronto Star,

00:04:51.820 the Globe and Mail and the CBC in a disastrous quest to be loved by the Mandarins of the media party. 0.87

00:04:58.680 Love that went unrequited. Furthermore, a huge issue for conservatives is freedom of speech.

00:05:06.680 And just days before the McKay meet and greet weird Ezra's shocking report regarding his interrogation

00:05:14.340 by those ex-cop bureaucrats who now do the bidding for the commissioner of Canada elections.

00:05:21.200 Ezra's crime? Well, he wrote a book about Trudeau. Oh, correction. He wrote a critical book about Trudeau.

00:05:28.700 You see, puff pieces about Trudeau. Oh, those are allowed. In fact, they're even encouraged.

00:05:33.620 But a critical book about Prime Minister Blackface? Well, that is apparently an illegal campaign activity.

00:05:41.780 Check out this snippet of the interrogation Ezra endured at the hands of ex-mountee Dudley Doeright,

00:05:47.920 or I mean Tim McCann.

00:05:49.480 You did a blurb online that I watched, and you speak about, of course, that it was released in time for the election.

00:05:57.020 Which, if that's your position today, that wouldn't allow you to have the exemption for advertising for a book.

00:06:06.320 Um, I think I need to check my GPS. Was that office located in Ottawa or Pyongyang?

00:06:12.880 Anyway, this was surely the story of the week.

00:06:16.440 And I'm not just saying that out of bravado. After all, after that video aired, Ezra's book,

00:06:21.460 The Libranos, soared to number one on Amazon.ca.

00:06:25.520 Hey, this story has even received international media attention.

00:06:29.400 So I wanted to see how much of a free speech champion Peter McKay is

00:06:34.460 by simply asking him his opinion regarding the electoral interrogation of our beloved commander.

00:06:41.460 To use a baseball analogy, my question was akin to a softball floating across home plate

00:06:47.640 just begging to be hit out of the ballpark.

00:06:49.820 But when I finally got past McKay's handlers to ask my query, here's how things went down.

00:06:57.760 So David, there's no questions.

00:06:58.760 I'm just going to see if I can ask him one.

00:07:01.420 There's no questions.

00:07:02.140 There's no questions.

00:07:03.140 No questions.

00:07:03.200 You guys are preventing me from interviewing.

00:07:06.260 I just want to ask one question, not even an interview.

00:07:08.780 There's no media.

00:07:09.600 It's a question on freedom of speech.

00:07:11.740 You're welcome to get a photo.

00:07:12.860 There's no questions.

00:07:13.920 So under Peter McKay, it'll be the same as Andrew Scheer, that the rebel is not allowed to be here?

00:07:20.120 You're here, aren't you?

00:07:21.180 Excuse me.

00:07:21.700 I'm here, but I'm going to ask a question.

00:07:24.480 Hi, Mr. McKay.

00:07:25.800 How are you doing?

00:07:26.360 I just want to ask you, sir, what do you feel about Ezra Levent being interrogated by the elections commissioner?

00:07:34.260 I don't like anybody being interrogated, including right now.

00:07:37.460 But this is a very important freedom of speech issue, Mr. McKay.

00:07:42.740 I don't even know why it hasn't been raised in the House by your conservative colleagues.

00:07:46.580 Do you have a comment on that?

00:07:47.540 Well, you should talk to those conservative colleagues.

00:07:50.080 I'm not in the House of Commons, so I don't have an opportunity to raise it.

00:07:54.180 What is your opinion of the elections commissioner going after Ezra Levent simply for writing a book during an election campaign about a prime minister?

00:08:01.460 Well, I don't have any of the evidence.

00:08:02.920 I don't have any of the information other than what I've read.

00:08:05.280 So we'll see.

00:08:06.380 You haven't heard about this?

00:08:07.580 I have heard about it, just briefly, but I don't have any of the facts.

00:08:10.260 Thank you, sir.

00:08:11.100 Okay, I'm being shocked.

00:08:12.120 Really, Mr. McKay, you were unaware of this story?

00:08:17.820 Really, Peter, you felt like you were being interrogated by me simply for posing a question?

00:08:25.180 Come on, man, give your head a shake.

00:08:27.260 But let's give Mr. McKay the benefit of the doubt, folks.

00:08:30.680 Let's pretend he never had heard about this story.

00:08:33.300 Okay, so here's how I would have answered that question if I were in his shoes.

00:08:39.240 I would have prefaced the response with,

00:08:41.540 If what you're saying is truthful and accurate, and then I would have added,

00:08:46.880 Then this was an outrageous attack by bureaucrats in a grotesque attempt to shut down freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

00:08:54.560 And furthermore, should I become prime minister, this business of using Elections Canada bureaucrats as attack dogs to go after authors critical of a government will no longer be tolerated.

00:09:06.880 Bingo!

00:09:08.280 That is the right response.

00:09:09.840 That is a response that would resonate with the party faithful.

00:09:14.320 Instead, we got the Sergeant Schultz shtick.

00:09:17.560 I don't see nothing. I know nothing.

00:09:20.320 And since that night, things have gone from bad to worse.

00:09:23.280 Indeed, a couple of days later, Peter McKay consented to an interview with CTV.

00:09:28.840 And this happened.

00:09:29.960 After the 45-minute tour, McKay agreed to discuss his return to politics.

00:09:34.400 I'm at a point now with some further private sector experience and some reflection.

00:09:39.140 That I would like to do politics a little differently.

00:09:42.060 And everybody says that.

00:09:44.040 But having been in and left and coming back to it, I think I bring a new level of compassion, a new level of understanding of perhaps how things could work a little better at a practical level.

00:09:57.060 And I'd also like, and everybody says this, but I would like to see some civility.

00:10:02.600 You say civility.

00:10:04.380 I noticed there was a video put on Twitter talking about Justin Trudeau's yoga expenses.

00:10:10.760 And is that civil, though?

00:10:12.340 I mean, highlighting $800 and some odd in yoga expenses?

00:10:17.160 No, it isn't.

00:10:17.980 And that was something that happened that I'm not proud of.

00:10:22.840 So I don't have the opportunity always to vet every single thing that goes on that social media account.

00:10:28.920 So we're going to do better.

00:10:30.580 And in that, I think we'll die.

00:10:31.920 So that you just went way over.

00:10:33.560 I'm sorry.

00:10:33.940 At that moment, his team abruptly ended the interview.

00:10:37.120 I, that's, that's quite, he said civility, I mean.

00:10:41.380 She's just doing her job.

00:10:42.220 She's a journalist.

00:10:42.740 I'm doing my job, guys.

00:10:43.620 The tweet has been viewed more than 700,000 times, with many reminding McKay about his own expense controversy

00:10:51.880 when, as Minister of Defence, he used a search and rescue helicopter to pick him up from a fishing lodge.

00:10:58.020 The price tag, an estimated $16,000.

00:11:01.400 We've made a decision that we'd like to stop the interview.

00:11:05.500 Okay.

00:11:06.440 Oh, that's awkward.

00:11:09.160 And did you catch the line about McKay not vetting all the tweets that go out in his name?

00:11:15.640 So, A, he's not writing his own tweets.

00:11:18.480 And B, he threw a member of his team under the bus for the yoga tweet.

00:11:22.660 And finally, C, sorry, Peter, you hired and approved members of your team.

00:11:27.100 So, yeah, the buck does stop with you.

00:11:30.320 And so it is that the frontrunner for the role of the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada

00:11:35.040 has quickly devolved from stud to dud.

00:11:37.980 And he's coming across as less Stephen Harper and, inexplicably, more like Andrew Scheer.

00:11:45.820 And I don't say this with any amount of glee, folks.

00:11:49.080 In fact, I'm feeling kind of like Linus Van Pelt these days.

00:11:52.960 You know, little Linus, the Peanuts character who goes out to the pumpkin patch every October 31st,

00:11:58.520 awaiting the arrival of the great pumpkin.

00:12:01.240 And just like Linus, I so want to believe that a miracle is going to occur,

00:12:07.240 namely that the next Conservative hopeful will be a contender as opposed to a pretender.

00:12:13.560 Alas, in the case of Linus, the great pumpkin never does appear,

00:12:17.840 and the kid endures yet more humiliation.

00:12:20.280 And meanwhile, back in Conservative land, we are apparently being courted by those

00:12:25.420 who seemingly channel the persona of Joe Who or Mr. Charisma.

00:12:31.140 And that's the crux of the matter.

00:12:33.500 Moving forward, prior to the Conservative Convention in June,

00:12:37.060 before this party even decides who it wants as its leader,

00:12:40.860 I think this party has to decide what it actually wants to be.

00:12:46.980 Disturbingly, the Conservative Party of Canada seems to be going down a rebranding road,

00:12:52.220 reimagining itself as Liberal Light.

00:12:55.480 Sorry, guys, that sort of new coke strategy is not going to work. 0.98

00:13:00.180 Because when it comes to those who are left of centre,

00:13:03.900 why would they choose to vote Liberal Light when they can have Liberal Classic?

00:13:08.120 Granted, there's still plenty of time for Peter McKay to reboot and recover,

00:13:14.020 should he choose to do so.

00:13:16.040 And maybe, just maybe, my personal great pumpkin,

00:13:19.840 that being Stephen Harper, will come out of retirement and save this party from itself.

00:13:25.760 Hey, I can dream, can't I?

00:13:28.180 But in the early going, McKay has been a profound disappointment.

00:13:32.300 It's not so much that Peter McKay has failed to score on an empty net on a breakaway,

00:13:37.600 rather, to use another hockey analogy, McKay has scored into his own net.

00:13:44.200 He is indeed the author of his own misfortune.

00:13:47.320 Say, folks, in case you're wondering where our commander is, Ezra Levent,

00:14:02.800 well, he's stateside meeting up with Glenn Beck.

00:14:06.460 Now, Glenn Beck is connected to the Nazarene Fund,

00:14:09.100 and that is where all the money you donated to our campaign,

00:14:13.000 called Save the Christians, is going.

00:14:15.720 This was about helping out the Christian community in Iraq.

00:14:20.060 Now, if you still want to make a contribution to help Sheila Gunn-Reed

00:14:24.100 pay for her trip and accommodation over to Iraq,

00:14:27.840 please visit SaveTheChristians.com.

00:14:30.460 That's SaveTheChristians.com.

00:14:32.840 And kick in a buck or three.

00:14:34.080 And now, here is Ezra's interview with Glenn Beck.

00:14:38.760 Let me go back to your help on the Nazarene Fund, which I find amazing.

00:14:43.080 You have used your platform to do good and raise money every month,

00:14:46.840 and you're sending the Nazarene Fund $5,000 every month,

00:14:50.060 which I've known you for how long have we known each other?

00:14:52.980 Well, I meet you once, and then I go away for months.

00:14:56.580 And I meet you once, and I've enjoyed it for years.

00:14:58.740 You introduce yourself every time, and I think I say every time,

00:15:01.680 I know who you are.

00:15:03.580 What do you mean, so many people?

00:15:04.620 I know.

00:15:05.240 And I found out, somebody said to me last time we met,

00:15:10.080 somebody said, do you realize what he's doing for the Nazarene Fund?

00:15:12.500 I said, no idea.

00:15:14.060 You never said a word about it.

00:15:15.980 Well, because it's not me.

00:15:17.240 It's our viewers.

00:15:18.120 No, I know.

00:15:18.700 I mentioned we went to Iraq, and we saw this terrible situation.

00:15:21.760 Yeah.

00:15:22.900 And so we raised some money, but it's a very low-trust society.

00:15:27.120 That's a very friendly way of saying a corrupt place.

00:15:29.940 And the first three people we went to, we wanted to give it to a pharmacy.

00:15:34.120 We wanted to give it to a charity.

00:15:36.780 I could feel that it was going to be purloined, stolen.

00:15:41.440 In fact, we delivered some food on our first trip there,

00:15:44.580 and we were charged quadruple the price in the market.

00:15:48.420 Yeah, yeah.

00:15:49.320 Everyone's ripping you off.

00:15:50.400 And I had, I mean, in the end, I found the Nazarene Fund,

00:15:55.940 and I did my due diligence.

00:15:57.460 I read your IRS filings.

00:15:59.960 I read as much as I could.

00:16:01.480 Yeah.

00:16:02.300 And at the end of the day, it was Iraq.

00:16:04.520 I was going overseas to find a place to trust.

00:16:06.760 It was actually here in North America that I found the one charity I trust

00:16:09.980 not to waste the money, not to pocket the money.

00:16:12.800 And so we just baby-stepped, started giving, started giving.

00:16:16.280 And I wanted to keep it low-key.

00:16:18.140 And then we sent one of our reporters over there in November

00:16:21.800 just to see with her own eyes, what are you guys doing on the ground?

00:16:24.980 And she put together a bunch of videos.

00:16:27.440 Oh, I don't think I've even seen these.

00:16:28.880 Well, we have them up on our website, rebelnews.com.

00:16:33.220 In fact, we just strung them all together, about 45 minutes worth of video.

00:16:36.860 Just one of our reporters on her own with a selfie stick and a cell phone 0.99

00:16:40.200 spent two or three days with your guys,

00:16:42.780 watching the families being taken in.

00:16:46.200 And so we made it our Christmas drive.

00:16:49.400 Our reporter went there in November.

00:16:51.280 And in December, we said to our viewers,

00:16:52.920 hey, let's chip in, let's make this our Christmas drive.

00:16:55.140 And so I have here a check from our viewers.

00:17:00.240 Now, it's in Canadian mini-buck, so it's slightly...

00:17:03.400 So it's about a third of flesh.

00:17:05.300 It's not that bad.

00:17:06.440 But I'm delighted to give you a check for $30,907 from viewers of Rebel News.

00:17:13.100 Our reporter, Sheila Gunn-Reed, went there, checked you guys out.

00:17:17.300 I'll be honest.

00:17:17.840 I said, check them out.

00:17:18.640 Make sure they're doing what they say they're doing.

00:17:20.980 Yeah.

00:17:21.260 We want you to.

00:17:22.560 And Sheila, I said, be skeptical because, you know, we're giving some dough.

00:17:27.660 Yeah, it's funny.

00:17:28.540 Sheila came back and she said, these are the best guys doing work in extremely difficult circumstances.

00:17:37.080 And I thought, well, I'm in.

00:17:38.720 Well, thank you.

00:17:39.260 So there's almost 31 grand there and we'll continue our monthly support.

00:17:43.980 And it's because we trust you.

00:17:45.680 Thank you.

00:17:46.200 Thank you for that.

00:17:47.100 Thank you for that.

00:17:47.640 Let me just say this.

00:17:49.360 Simon Wiesenthal Center came to me about five years ago.

00:17:55.520 He said, could you please stop talking about the coming persecution of the Jews?

00:17:58.580 And I said, what?

00:18:02.140 And he said, for this reason, I have to convince Jews to help the Christians because, mark my words, 0.56

00:18:10.320 they're coming for you first this time.

00:18:12.600 They'll get to us.

00:18:13.720 But I've got to get the Jews to pay attention to the beginning. 1.00

00:18:18.100 And this time they're coming for you first.

00:18:21.000 And it was shortly after that, that we saw the beginning of ISIS.

00:18:26.120 And so you, as a Jew, standing up for the Christians is just so great.

00:18:36.620 Well, thank you.

00:18:38.060 Most of our viewers are Christian.

00:18:40.660 I know.

00:18:41.200 But you care.

00:18:43.720 Well, I mean, I've been to the Holocaust Memorial in Israel and there's a concept called the righteous Gentile.

00:18:49.840 Someone like Oskar Schindler, who at great personal risk, would save Jews for no other reason than it's right. 0.99

00:18:55.000 He wasn't a Jew himself.

00:18:56.620 And I thought, surely it's time for all of us to be righteous towards.

00:19:02.800 And these are the most ancient Christians in the world.

00:19:05.200 They still pray in Aramaic.

00:19:07.120 That's the language Jesus prayed in.

00:19:09.700 And it sounds very much like Hebrew.

00:19:11.880 I went to Hebrew school so I could understand.

00:19:13.980 I thought, oh, my God, look at this.

00:19:15.380 You could see, you know, what Pope John Paul called the Jews are our older brothers.

00:19:19.740 And I thought, look at that.

00:19:20.720 They're praying in a language so close to Hebrew.

00:19:22.860 And they've been there for 1,400 years in some of these towns.

00:19:25.940 And then, like the Holocaust would wipe out an entire Jewish town and just make it a rumor.

00:19:32.020 That's how it is in the Nineveh Plains.

00:19:34.540 Yes.

00:19:35.120 And I'm of the belief that the only safe future for many of these people is to leave.

00:19:41.660 And that's so hard to say.

00:19:42.800 But they don't have enough of contiguous territory to be protected.

00:19:47.260 Right.

00:19:47.420 It's a little village here and a little town there.

00:19:49.440 It's not like Israel that at least has borders that they can defend. 0.84

00:19:52.220 But it's so amazing how they won't because they're like, we can't leave this.

00:19:56.120 It's their roots in the land.

00:19:57.780 It's their land.

00:19:58.880 And they're the ones protecting this holy site that the apostles were on.

00:20:04.480 And they're like, we can't leave it.

00:20:06.100 They'll destroy everything.

00:20:08.240 And part of me says stay and fight.

00:20:10.680 But another part of me looks around and ISIS is gone.

00:20:13.680 There's a new militia called Hashtal Shabi.

00:20:15.840 It's an Iranian battle.

00:20:16.940 And it's never ending.

00:20:18.560 I truly believe that the Nazarene Fund has the right balance.

00:20:21.960 And part of that is getting them out of there just to live on.

00:20:26.340 Well, Canada's not really been a part of that.

00:20:29.300 You'll take in everybody from everywhere.

00:20:34.260 But Trudeau put a limit on Christians, didn't he?

00:20:36.880 Yeah.

00:20:37.100 The previous prime minister, Stephen Harper, had a special track for Christian refugees of persecution.

00:20:43.020 It was amazing.

00:20:44.360 Trudeau, one of his first acts was to stop that.

00:20:47.700 Why would you stop that?

00:20:49.240 I mean, we want the lambs, not the wolves.

00:20:51.460 Trudeau will bring in the wolves from these places. 0.96

00:20:54.720 Some of the largest sources of immigration to Canada are Muslim countries. 0.68

00:21:00.040 And that can be fine.

00:21:02.500 But can we please sort the wolves from the lambs?

00:21:04.940 It would be as if in the 30s and 40s, the West was taking Germans but didn't sort the Nazis from the Jews. 0.76

00:21:11.000 Can we take the lambs, please?

00:21:12.620 I'm happy to take the lambs from Iraq and Iran and Egypt where they're being persecuted.

00:21:17.840 And China, they're persecuting Christians.

00:21:20.040 Can we sort?

00:21:20.840 And China is persecuting Muslims.

00:21:22.720 Yeah, the Uyghurs. 1.00

00:21:23.460 Yeah.

00:21:24.380 Anyway, it's incredible.

00:21:25.620 I wish, I mean, I love Samaritan's Purse and I love the Nazarene Fund.

00:21:30.260 And we're proud to be supporters.

00:21:31.920 And thanks for letting me hang out with you today.

00:21:34.220 Good to see you.

00:21:34.820 Thank you so much.

00:21:35.400 You too.

00:21:43.700 Well, that wraps up another edition of the Ezra Levent Show.

00:21:46.820 Thanks for putting up with me.

00:21:48.740 Have a great evening.

00:21:50.260 Good night.

00:21:53.600 Good night.

00:21:55.800 Good night.

00:21:57.420 Good night.

00:21:59.340 Good night.

00:22:02.580 Good night.

00:22:02.820 Good night.

00:22:05.220 Good night.

00:22:06.780 Good night.

00:22:10.540 Good night.

00:22:20.500 Good night.

00:22:21.940 Good night.

00:22:22.440 Good night.

Rebel News Podcast - February 06, 2020

Front-runner Peter MacKay is turning out less like Harper and more like Scheer

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