The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - Canadians are hurting and losing hope for the future.

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your

00:00:10.020 host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Court, the likes Brock, with new

00:00:13.200 content for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. On today's show, 30 hours of weekend

00:00:19.220 voting, 135 confidence votes. Sadly, none of them passed. Also, we're going to talk about our

00:00:25.220 defence readiness. Please like, comment, share, and subscribe to this program. This is messaging

00:00:30.160 and information you're not hearing in the mainstream media. Tell your friends they can

00:00:33.480 download it on platforms. That's CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. You name it, it is out

00:00:38.140 there. Today, coming back is Pat Kelly. I apologize for not having him on a long, long time ago. The

00:00:43.940 Member of Parliament for Calgary, Rocky Ridge, and he did bring that to my attention that he has been

00:00:47.800 on the show. Lo and behold, you're on today. Well, thanks, Jamie. It's always a pleasure to be on The

00:00:52.260 Blueprint. It's a great show, and thanks for having me. Anytime, anytime. So, we did 30 hours

00:00:57.160 of voting. We started at 5.45 p.m. Thursday, went all through the night, continued to about 11 p.m.

00:01:04.400 on Friday evening, Eastern Time. You were there for pretty much all of it in person. We're trying to

00:01:10.840 get the confidence vote. Sorry, we're trying to get the Liberal government to scrap the carbon tax,

00:01:16.740 but each one of those votes was a confidence vote, which, if the government lost, would have triggered

00:01:21.420 an election. Yeah, that's right. We voted individually on each of the items in the estimates

00:01:28.140 because the government has refused to listen to Canadians and axe the carbon tax. The carbon tax

00:01:34.640 makes life less affordable for Canadians. It costs jobs. It's hard on consumers. It makes food more

00:01:41.580 expensive. It makes transportation more expensive. It makes home heating more expensive. We've demanded

00:01:46.280 for a long time that they axe the tax. They'd refuse to do so, and we wanted to see if the NDP will

00:01:54.120 continue to support the government or to side with Canadians. Well, let's get a clip of you in action

00:02:02.440 on the floor of the House of Commons. While that was all happening, you were asking for a recorded vote,

00:02:07.880 which, of course, is asked to ensure that we do have that standing vote, which we indeed wanted,

00:02:11.800 to show Canadians that we are working hard in terms of getting that carbon tax removed,

00:02:16.200 which the government still refuses to do. Let's queue up cut one, play cut one, Pat Kelly in action.

00:02:21.640 The Honourable Member for Calgary-Rocky Ridge is rising to request a recorded division.

00:02:26.840 Well, yes, Canadians have lost confidence in this government, so have I. So I do call for a recorded

00:02:32.520 division. I'm anxious to see if the NDP will side with Canadians or continue to prop up the government.

00:02:37.480 So we know the answer. They propped up the government. Yes. Each and every time. That's

00:02:42.120 right. And Canadians are fed up with this government, and I'm asked all the time by the people in my

00:02:48.120 community, you know, when will you be able to force an election and allow us to get rid of this tired

00:02:55.640 government that keeps piling on taxes, driving inflation, driving up the cost of living, driving up

00:03:01.160 interest rates, which drives up the cost of mortgage payments. But, you know, the NDP are absolutely

00:03:07.080 committed to sustaining this government, and it's a shame. And it's interesting, the Bloc Québécois was

00:03:11.880 dancing with the Liberals too, which I found kind of shocking, considering their whole public approach

00:03:16.280 is to oppose the Liberals. Well, really, we are the only party that is opposing this government. We're

00:03:22.520 alone. All of the other parties are complicit in the inflationary policies of this government that

00:03:30.440 drive up the cost of living, make life more expensive for Canadians in every way. Groceries,

00:03:35.720 home heating, interest rates. And Canadians are suffering, and they're ready for a change.

00:03:42.920 They're ready for a new government. We tried 135 times in a row to test the confidence of this

00:03:48.520 government, but these parties are absolutely committed to sustaining this government.

00:03:52.360 Yeah, these parties also have two speeds, big government and bigger government. They

00:03:55.880 don't seem to know that there is a way to actually get value for your dollar, and something we're

00:04:00.440 trying to keep pressing that messaging and reach out to Canadians more and more that are kind of

00:04:06.360 questioning what's going on in the world today, especially in Canada, and things just don't seem

00:04:10.520 right anymore, and things are broken. Let's get on to cut two. We're going to queue up cut two.

00:04:15.960 This is the Prime Minister. After the voting had ended, a couple things were very interesting. I

00:04:20.280 took away from it. We'll get your comments on this too. One, he was very arrogant as he came out,

00:04:25.000 his answer to the reporters. And two, our viewers and listeners will hear this, what he says, but he

00:04:31.480 finally acknowledged that the price on carbon, as he likes to call it, is in fact a tax. Play cut two.

00:04:37.560 Do you have any intention on axing the carbon tax like the Conservatives want? Are you going to back down?

00:04:41.800 No, we're not axing the tax. What did you take from that? Well, here we have a smug Prime Minister

00:04:49.400 glibly telling the cameras that he has no plan to ax the tax that is making life unaffordable for so

00:04:55.080 many Canadians. And the rising prices everywhere, it's not hurting him. He is not feeling the impact

00:05:02.760 of his policies. No, this government is just so hopelessly out of touch. I don't think they have

00:05:07.480 any idea what is going on at ground level where Canadians are really struggling. They're struggling

00:05:12.440 with the price of food. They're struggling to heat their homes in a cold Canadian winter. They're

00:05:17.400 struggling with the price of gasoline, which also affects the price of bus tickets and transit fares.

00:05:22.440 And all of this, the taxation and the deficits they're running are driving inflation, which drive

00:05:32.600 up interest rates, which make housing even more unaffordable. We've watched, there's a new report,

00:05:39.000 in fact, out right now that living with a roommate is as expensive now as living on your own would have

00:05:47.000 been at the beginning of this government, that splitting the rent with a roommate is now just

00:05:53.560 as expensive as it would have been to rent a one-bedroom apartment when this Prime Minister took

00:05:58.360 office. They don't understand why they don't understand just how they are harming Canadians

00:06:03.320 with their inflationary policies. That really is incredible because you would graduate high school,

00:06:08.280 sometimes go to college, university, you'd room for the first year or two, maybe four,

00:06:13.160 doesn't, you know, see how it goes, how you relate to others and get along. Then you get out on your

00:06:17.800 own and get a place on your own after that. But now people are having to continue that lifestyle

00:06:23.720 going forward. So you don't even have the ability to have your own place. And that is, I think,

00:06:27.400 frustrating a lot of younger voters. Yeah, that's right. People, when they're 40 years old,

00:06:30.920 they want to leave the college lifestyle behind and have some space on their own. And it's just not

00:06:36.040 affordable for so many Canadians under this Liberal government. And unfortunately it won't get any

00:06:40.360 better because you have a government that's fundamentally opposed to helping Canada's

00:06:44.920 energy industry. We have a piece of legislation, C50, being debated in Natural Resources Committee

00:06:51.560 called, well, known by, on our side, the Just Transition, talking about ways that they're going

00:06:57.240 to impact the energy industry. So I want to get a thought or two from you because your community is

00:07:02.120 affected by this. We have a video, so we'll queue up cut three and then we'll go into greater detail.

00:07:07.000 So, let's cut three. Let's play cut three. 0.86

00:07:11.800 The Liberals just dropped their Just Transition bill. In 30 seconds, I'm going to go over what

00:07:16.760 you need to know, why it's going to cost you more, and why it's bad for Canada. Here we go.

00:07:22.120 One, the Liberals' Just Transition is going to make electricity, transportation, and home heating

00:07:27.720 more expensive. Two, based on the Liberals' failed coal transition, it's going to cost at least 40

00:07:34.120 billion taxpayer dollars. Three, it's going to weaken Canada's GDP and make us less competitive

00:07:40.200 globally. Four, this Just Transition concept has failed in every country it's been attempted. And

00:07:46.280 five, it's going to kill 170,000 jobs in Canada's energy sector. And if that sounded bad, it's just

00:07:53.320 going to get worse. That was Shannon Stubbs, Member of Parliament for Lakeland, also our critic for

00:07:58.040 Natural Resources. Your thoughts on this? Well, I think Shannon nails it, and you're right. In my

00:08:03.240 community, this is really important. This government has spent its entire time over the last eight years

00:08:11.400 years, waging a war against the energy industry. And this has affected countless members of my

00:08:18.840 community. I've had grown men in their fifties reduced to tears in my office, the desperation over

00:08:25.400 job loss. I mean, this was especially kind of from 2015 to 2018 especially. But just as there has been

00:08:34.920 some recovery in the industry, this government comes in with more bad legislation, more regulation

00:08:42.600 that is calculated specifically to drive away investment in the energy industry. The only kind

00:08:50.440 of investment we seem to have in this country right now under this government is that that comes along

00:08:54.920 with government subsidy. We see the use of subsidy to just pick winners and losers in industry and

00:09:01.800 between industry players. And it's no wonder that they've driven out some estimates 200, say 200

00:09:10.840 billion dollars in investment has been driven out of the energy industry during this government's watch.

00:09:18.360 And this bill is just more of the same calculated, deliberate attack on the energy industry in Canada.

00:09:28.600 As we said before, subsidies and just ramping them up, it only delays the inevitable because it's not

00:09:34.680 a market-driven choice, right? You have a false marketplace. And that can be danger for those

00:09:39.960 people that may have a job related to that. So you should be, I think, trying to allow the market to do

00:09:46.120 what it does best and lower the barriers to competition, allowing small companies to

00:09:50.680 to, you know, provide a better quality product service and more choice for the consumer. While

00:09:56.200 at the same time, if we want to, if we want to lower the price, yes, you can get rid of the carbon tax.

00:10:02.360 That's a very important piece. And we've confirmed that in committee and report after report.

00:10:07.320 The other thing they could do is add to the supply, add more supply to the marketplace.

00:10:12.520 Yeah, I mean, this is just it. The world is crying out for Canadian energy. We've seen the desperation

00:10:20.200 in Europe to get off of Russia's gas supply. We know that the world needs natural gas. And we've had

00:10:30.360 no projects approved since this government has taken office. And that trickles down to jobs in my

00:10:38.920 community. So we are we are refusing to be the supplier of ethical, clean natural gas to the world

00:10:49.640 at a time when they desperately need secure supplies from from a country like Canada to get off of

00:10:56.840 dictator oil from from so many of these other odious sources of energy that that are filling the gap

00:11:03.960 from created by our refusal to develop our own resources.

00:11:07.160 So we have the the war continuing on between Russia and Ukraine. You're on the defense committee.

00:11:12.600 So we want to touch on this before we have to wrap up. The chief of defense staff actually,

00:11:17.480 well, had an interview a few weeks ago now talking about the actual readiness of Canadian,

00:11:24.360 the Canadian military. And and his remarks were quite, for me, I heard the interview and couldn't

00:11:31.960 believe it. But you're on the committee. You had to deal with that. You had you're looking into it a

00:11:36.360 little further. Tell us a bit more about it, because it's it's pretty eye opening.

00:11:40.040 Well, the the general air really raised a number of alarms, alarm bells at committee talked about

00:11:46.520 readiness. He talked about his being, you know, kept awake at night, really concerned about our

00:11:53.400 readiness in so many ways. We talked a lot about the production of ammunition. And there has been no

00:12:01.400 change or ramping up of basic production of ammunition in Canada since the war began in

00:12:11.640 since the full invasion of Ukraine began, you know, coming up on two years ago. And there's just

00:12:18.600 it's it's it's mind boggling that we couldn't go on to a war production footing, ramp up production so

00:12:27.640 that we can replace the supplies that we have given to Ukraine and be able to create more supply for

00:12:33.800 Ukraine, more supply for our own defense. There are concerns that we only have a few days of ammunition

00:12:39.000 available to us in some of our deployments. And that's just unacceptable. We have to have

00:12:44.600 the supplies in place. And then we we saw even more recently the video put out by Admiral Topchi,

00:12:50.200 the chief of the Navy, who said we may not be able to meet our force posture and readiness

00:12:57.240 and operational commitments starting next year in 2024. So that is quite an astonishing

00:13:05.320 concern to be raised by the chief of of the Royal Canadian Navy. And this government is going to have

00:13:14.040 to step up and address these issues. But so far, all they've done is said they're going to cut a

00:13:19.400 billion dollars in the Department of Defense. They say they're going to do it from things like executive

00:13:23.800 travel and consulting contracts. And it's like, so they've either let a billion dollars in excess travel

00:13:34.840 and sweetheart consulting contracts creep into the system, or they are going to inevitably affect our

00:13:44.360 force operational and readiness capabilities with this cut. So it's it's quite astonishing the the

00:13:53.880 lack of care and attention that this government has given to our national defense.

00:13:57.720 What is the NATO standard for ammunition when you said that we have three days? What's the

00:14:01.560 We're supposed to we're supposed to have 30.

00:14:04.680 So three days, 30 days. So we're supposed to. Yeah, yeah, but we have three days.

00:14:08.440 That's absolutely incredible. I don't think many people know that.

00:14:11.640 Well, we've heard this at the committee. Well, I know you have. I'm not doubting you. I saw the video.

00:14:16.760 This is absolutely incredible. When we are a NATO partner here, we have obligations that we are

00:14:23.480 supposed to be upholding. We do. We have a whole series of obligations. And that goes also to the

00:14:28.760 Navy talking about our force posture and readiness. We have obligations to our allies to maintain force

00:14:34.360 posture and to have to have ships and have deployment capability. The same with our with our air force.

00:14:42.680 And the the concern is that we that we do not have these the readiness that we've committed to our allies.

00:14:50.440 Former General Hillier called the Khrushcheon years the decade of darkness. It looks like we're entering 1.00

00:14:55.160 another one of those are actually in the middle of it, hopefully the end for crying out loud.

00:14:59.560 At the same time, what what can we do for their military? I know it's very difficult. It seems

00:15:04.200 very difficult. I'm not sure why to actually buy anything in this in this country military wise.

00:15:09.240 Well, the procurement system is clearly broken. It's being studied at the defense committee.

00:15:13.400 And, you know, the the current Minister of Defense seems to have just recently woken up to this and

00:15:20.280 testified that there might be some kinks in the in the production or in the in the procurement system.

00:15:26.440 And this is, of course, things that that committee after committee, the operations committee, other

00:15:31.000 parliamentary committees have commented on this over the years. And yet after eight years, this government has

00:15:36.520 done nothing to improve our our ability to procure kit and supplies on a timely basis when when needed.

00:15:45.480 Wasn't there an article a little while ago that Canadian soldiers were buying their own

00:15:49.800 rations? I think it was in Poland?

00:15:51.400 There were there were they were not reimbursing our troops and our troops were having delays in

00:15:58.840 getting reimbursed for for meals reports of of troops buying pieces of equipment on the private market as

00:16:07.160 well. So yeah, there are and you know, we're studying the abysmal state of housing on bases right now. There

00:16:14.360 are just so many ways that that we need to do better to support our troops. We recruitment is down

00:16:22.920 where there are 16,000 vacant positions right now. We're concerned about how long it takes to go through

00:16:30.280 the recruitment process to to take in new volunteers. There are also believed to be 10,000 soldiers who are

00:16:40.600 not fit for deployment right now. So you combine that we're 26,000 personnel short. That's for for

00:16:49.080 deployment on on missions. That's incredible. Pat, we got to get out of here. So the guests always get

00:16:56.520 the last word. So the floor is yours. Well, thanks for having me. And, you know, I just would would

00:17:02.280 encourage your audience to, boy, tell your friends and and be ready to to to vote for for change and a

00:17:14.280 new conservative government that that will have the the willingness and the determination to tackle

00:17:19.240 these these these terrible problems that we're confronted with, whether it's inflation, the the

00:17:24.920 deficit, the inflation crisis, national defense, and of course, axing the tax. Pat Kelly, member of

00:17:31.160 Parliament for Calgary, Rocky Ridge. We appreciate your time and we appreciate yours as well. Don't

00:17:36.520 forget, if you want to see more Pat Kelly, please let me know in the comments. You can also like

00:17:41.000 and subscribe. And of course, as always, share this program. Tell your friends it's on Spotify,

00:17:46.840 iTunes and Google Play as well. Download it. Get this message out. Let's ensure Pierre Paulieff is

00:17:51.560 the next Prime Minister of Canada. New content every Tuesday, every single Tuesday, 1 30 p.m.

00:17:56.360 Eastern time until next week. Remember low taxes, less government, more freedom. That's the blueprint.

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - December 12, 2023

Canadians are hurting and losing hope for the future.

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