The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - April 25, 2017


Full Episode： April 25, 2017


Episode Stats

Length

15 minutes

Words per Minute

154.9343

Word Count

2,468

Sentence Count

163

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

11


Summary

In the inaugural episode of The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast, we discuss the impact of the Liberal Budget on the middle class. We hear from John Broussard and Ronna Ambrose about the impact on the average Canadian.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 You're listening to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
00:00:09.000 Well, they thought they were going to have an easy day over there today, but not so fast, Mr. Speaker.
00:00:16.640 What is it going to take for the Prime Minister to have any respect for any laws in this country that may curb his out-of-control behaviour?
00:00:25.320 And now, here's your host, Tony Clement.
00:00:31.200 And welcome to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast, the inaugural edition here for not only Conservatives, but all the people of Canada as we talk about the issues, not only on Parliament Hill, but throughout this great land.
00:00:44.840 Of course, we are emerging from the rubble of the last Liberal budget, Budget 2017.
00:00:50.940 That'll be our first topic today.
00:00:52.560 Today, as we find out, as we found out, all of the new taxes, all of the abandonment of the middle class.
00:00:59.700 Middle class? What middle class?
00:01:01.520 After this budget, everybody's being taxed more.
00:01:04.380 And, of course, we had a lot to say about that as the official opposition and representing Canada's Conservatives.
00:01:10.960 We're going to first hear from John Broussard, our amazing MP from Barry Innisfil.
00:01:16.360 He's going to talk a little bit about why this budget is bad for the middle class.
00:01:21.580 We're going to hear his question in the House.
00:01:23.480 And then we're going to hear from Ronna Ambrose, our Conservative Party leader in the House of Commons.
00:01:28.420 She has a lot to say about how this impacts on the average Joe.
00:01:32.320 We are here for the average Joe and the average Josephine, I might add.
00:01:36.320 And we are going to be fighting for your rights and interests, of course.
00:01:40.340 But let's hear from our talented caucus on this issue.
00:01:43.420 And we'll get back to you right after that.
00:01:45.160 This weekend, I'll be in Niagara Falls for a year in hockey tournament with my Barry Tuesday night hockey team.
00:01:51.620 And unlike the Prime Minister and his champagne and caviar-loving highbrow friends,
00:01:56.720 my beer league buddies don't have taxpayers paying for their booze.
00:02:00.940 After this week's budget, not only did the tax on beer and alcohol go up,
00:02:05.060 but future annual increases are now tied to inflation.
00:02:08.060 This means that the tax on beer will increase every single year.
00:02:12.180 Mr. Speaker, why are Liberals taxing my beer league buddies and our 117 Marine team
00:02:17.580 to pay for the Prime Minister's jet-set lifestyle and private island vacations?
00:02:24.960 Mr. Speaker, let's talk about what this budget means for a hard-working taxpayer.
00:02:29.640 Let's call him Joe.
00:02:31.140 Joe takes the bus to work every day, and at the end of the day,
00:02:33.560 he likes to go to the pub with his buddies for a beer.
00:02:36.800 And he's a responsible guy, so he always takes an Uber home.
00:02:40.140 So what does this budget do for Joe?
00:02:41.840 Well, first of all, it taxes his bus pass.
00:02:44.580 It takes away his tax credit for his bus pass.
00:02:46.980 It taxes the beer he has at the pub.
00:02:49.300 And, Mr. Speaker, it even slaps a tax on his Uber.
00:02:52.380 But, Mr. Speaker, what exactly does the Prime Minister have against people like Joe?
00:02:57.000 Whether it's for beer, wine, or spirits.
00:02:59.240 But that's really ironic, because that same budget contains the tab for $1,700 worth of drinks and snacks
00:03:06.160 during the Prime Minister's three-hour flight to a private island getaway over the holidays.
00:03:11.960 What message does the Prime Minister think he's sending to a taxpayer like Joe
00:03:15.720 when he raises their taxes while helping himself to free drinks on the House?
00:03:19.960 Well, that tells a story right there, folks.
00:03:25.260 Here's a government that is concentrating on taxing people more, spending more on goodness knows what.
00:03:32.960 Obviously, the Prime Minister has some ethical issues that are being investigated by the Ethics Commissioner,
00:03:38.500 amongst others, on his billionaire island getaway.
00:03:42.100 That seems to be his focus when everybody needs an economy that is working,
00:03:48.700 when we need to make sure that there are jobs being created.
00:03:51.300 These are quality, meaningful jobs.
00:03:53.760 That's our focus as the official opposition, the Conservative Party of Canada.
00:03:57.680 And you saw that in spades with Ronna Ambrose's question and John Broussard's question.
00:04:01.720 You know, it really strikes me that we have a government that is really not focused on why they were elected in the first place
00:04:09.140 and on the issues that people really care about.
00:04:11.140 And we're going to see that time and time again.
00:04:13.740 It is going to be a theme of this podcast, but we're also going to hear about positive,
00:04:17.860 forward-looking solutions as they come forward.
00:04:20.440 And we've got an incredible caucus that is working incredibly hard on behalf of the taxpayer,
00:04:25.940 on behalf of the average Canadian, and that's going to continue on with this podcast.
00:04:30.760 So stay tuned.
00:04:32.140 We're going to have a lot more to say about these issues in the days and weeks and months ahead.
00:04:36.720 But you can be sure that when it comes to representing the values and the interests of Canadians,
00:04:43.400 the Conservative Caucus is very focused on that,
00:04:46.400 and we're going to see evidence of that in the weeks and months ahead.
00:04:48.640 You're listening to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
00:04:57.360 Browse all of our episodes at podcast.conservative.ca.
00:05:01.620 And now, back to The Blueprint, and your host, Tony Clement.
00:05:08.540 And we're back on Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
00:05:16.920 I'm your host, Tony Clement.
00:05:18.220 I want to talk about another issue that's very topical in the news,
00:05:21.220 and that's the situation in Syria after the chemical attacks that were initiated by Assad
00:05:27.460 and his regime, and then the U.S. missile strike that occurred a few days later.
00:05:32.180 Of course, this Syria has been in the news for years now with the civil war,
00:05:36.820 meaning that hundreds of thousands of people have been killed.
00:05:39.820 It's just a terrible situation, a terrible human rights tragedy,
00:05:43.540 as well as a geopolitical mess because you've got all these interests that are preying in there,
00:05:48.660 of course, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia,
00:05:52.880 and, of course, the growth of ISIS in Syrian territory.
00:05:56.440 We've seen in the past warnings issued to Bashir Assad to not use chemical weapons.
00:06:04.480 Unfortunately, he again ignored that warning and just a few days ago
00:06:10.520 launched a chemical attack on his own people using the nerve gas sarin.
00:06:15.920 When that occurred, the U.S. government reacted with the missile strike involving 59 Tomahawk missiles.
00:06:23.500 And I want to tell you what the Conservative Party of Canada position is,
00:06:26.180 as an initial conversation starter on this, we did support,
00:06:31.020 we strongly supported the efforts of the United States to prevent Syria's military
00:06:36.860 from launching further chemical weapon attacks.
00:06:40.440 It's very clear that the way Assad's mind works,
00:06:43.400 if he gets away with something, he does it over and over again,
00:06:46.300 and that, of course, would create a war crime.
00:06:49.120 Use of chemical weapons is considered a war crime.
00:06:51.360 It has been so since the First World War.
00:06:53.940 And the global community cannot sit idly by when these deadly nerve toxins
00:06:59.560 are being deployed and unleashed on innocent civilians.
00:07:03.220 So that's our position.
00:07:05.040 It's a very clear position.
00:07:06.120 It's a very concise position.
00:07:07.560 Unfortunately, we are not really sure from day to day what the Prime Minister of Canada's position is.
00:07:12.100 Justin Trudeau, when first confronted with the evidence of the sarin attack by the Syrian government,
00:07:19.540 claimed that there wasn't enough evidence to make a decision as to whether Syria was responsible for the attack.
00:07:25.600 When that evidence was forthcoming, then he kind of scuttled away for a while.
00:07:32.340 Donald Trump and the U.S. government reacted.
00:07:34.640 And we weren't sure for a period of about 48 hours exactly what the position of the Canadian government was.
00:07:40.360 Eventually, he came out in support of Donald Trump's use of Tomahawk missiles to disable the airport from which these attacks originated.
00:07:52.180 And that's a good thing.
00:07:54.000 But we really need to know what the position of the Trudeau government is going to be going forward.
00:07:59.100 This is obviously a touchstone issue in the Middle East.
00:08:03.320 Syria is the fount of a lot of instability in the region.
00:08:08.220 There's no question about it.
00:08:09.460 And so we have to be clear.
00:08:11.200 The government, the Trudeau government, has to be clear on its intentions.
00:08:14.320 Where does it stand?
00:08:15.600 And, of course, what the impact is there going to be on that?
00:08:20.160 Because we do have Canadian troops in the region.
00:08:23.320 And, of course, it affects their ability to do their job as well as the Canadian government's ability to do their job as well.
00:08:30.480 So that's where we are on that.
00:08:32.140 And I think it's not too much to ask that we have a clearer position on this.
00:08:36.980 This situation is going to evolve over time.
00:08:39.060 There's no question about it.
00:08:40.540 And there are already calls for more intervention.
00:08:45.060 I thought that Donald Trump was actually fairly restrained on this.
00:08:48.180 Don't forget Hillary Clinton's position on this was bomb every airport and basically disable the entire Syrian air capacity.
00:09:02.080 Of course, that would have elicited some sort of response from the Russians, amongst others.
00:09:07.260 I think what the United States did was concise.
00:09:11.540 It was very focused.
00:09:13.160 It was commensurate with the issue at hand.
00:09:17.740 It wasn't going over the bounds.
00:09:20.480 And I think in that sense it was the most appropriate response.
00:09:24.380 So we'll see what happens in the future.
00:09:26.240 But when it comes to articulating an interest for human rights, for making sure that we're safe from terrorism,
00:09:34.740 Canada's conservatives are on the side of certainly working with our allies to reduce the terrorism that emanates from the region
00:09:44.200 and at the same time have a clear path to a change of government in Syria so that the civil war doesn't go on and on and on for years more,
00:09:52.660 affecting more hundreds of thousands or millions of people.
00:09:55.160 So that's our position.
00:09:56.900 Very interesting issue.
00:09:58.620 Very heartfelt issue for a number of Canadians.
00:10:00.640 I know I was getting a lot of emails and other communications on this.
00:10:05.340 But I think that ultimately our position is the right position.
00:10:09.260 And we certainly hope that it has an impact on the ability of Bashir Assad to attack his population again using deadly nerve toxins.
00:10:19.140 And now, back to the Blueprint and your host, Tony Clement.
00:10:39.320 Welcome back to Blueprint Canada's Conservative Podcast.
00:10:46.820 I'm your host, Tony Clement, here with you in beautiful downtown Ottawa.
00:10:52.280 But obviously, through the wonders of the internet, you can download us and you can share us as well.
00:10:57.340 Share us on Facebook or whatever means you can because it is important we have this dialogue with as many Canadians as possible.
00:11:03.980 Topic right now is China.
00:11:05.400 There was a recent article in McLean's magazine entitled China is no friend to Canada.
00:11:10.900 And boy, that is a point to be made because, of course, China and its leadership in particular are going to look after Chinese interests.
00:11:17.340 This is something that the Trudeau government doesn't seem to get.
00:11:19.960 Remember when Justin Trudeau, before the last election campaign, said that his next best model for governance was the People's Republic of China?
00:11:28.820 Remember that little snafu?
00:11:30.200 Well, of course, it's coming home to roost now, now that the Liberal government is well ensconced in power.
00:11:36.240 And we're seeing now how Beijing, how the official Chinese Communist Party, is trying to dictate the terms of engagement with the Canadian government on a whole host of issues.
00:11:47.120 Whether it's trade, whether it's bilateral issues, whether it's human rights issues.
00:11:51.520 China is trying to dictate to the Canadian government, to the Trudeau government, exactly how things are going to go.
00:11:57.740 And we see a bunch of examples of that.
00:11:59.980 Most recently, Canada's new ambassador to China, Lu Shea, for instance, arrived in February.
00:12:06.760 He was saying, you know, we're going to have a trade agreement with Canada, but here's what we're not going to discuss.
00:12:11.900 We're not going to discuss human rights.
00:12:13.280 We're not going to discuss China's record on the broader issues of what's happening in the South China Sea, for instance, where China is literally building islands from scratch to create a sovereignty issue and, of course, infringe upon other allies of the West.
00:12:33.400 So that's the Chinese agenda, and they're saying, we can have trade with Canada, but it's going to be on our terms and only our terms.
00:12:42.740 We've also seen that in the most recent example of a takeover of a Canadian company.
00:12:48.120 This is called the O-Net controversy.
00:12:50.080 O-Net was a Hong Kong-based company, but controlled by the Chinese government as a state-owned enterprise.
00:12:57.100 They buy a Canadian company which has the ability to use laser technology in defense contracts and in other commercial fields.
00:13:08.220 When the Harper government was in charge, we said, wait a minute, this might infringe upon our national security interests.
00:13:14.560 We disallowed the investment.
00:13:16.500 The liberals come along and totally reverse that process.
00:13:19.260 They allow the investment to take place against the concerns of the national security establishment.
00:13:29.260 Again, Beijing being favored over Canada's national security interests.
00:13:34.480 We're seeing this time and again, and it is not a good sign, certainly, when we see this out of the liberal government.
00:13:41.620 You know, there's a lot of business interests I know that are Canadian business interests that do some business in China.
00:13:47.020 Look, China is a commercial country.
00:13:50.260 We should do business with China, but we shouldn't do it at the expense of either human rights concerns that we have or the national interest, the security interest of our country.
00:14:00.060 I'm the Conservative Party's national security and public safety critic, and I see these issues time and again where China is on the offense in this country, hacking into our systems, including government systems as well as commercial systems, and advancing the Chinese interest.
00:14:16.200 We've got to have a government that is looking out for us in these negotiations, not trying to defer to Chinese interests all the time.
00:14:25.320 So this is an issue.
00:14:26.800 If you think it's an issue too, write to us in whatever social media means or send us a message, however you want to do so.
00:14:34.740 We want to hear from you too.
00:14:35.820 But let's make sure that we are there for Canada's interests, not the interests of the government of China.
00:14:43.480 And I place the emphasis on that.
00:14:45.740 Not the people of China.
00:14:46.860 That's a different story.
00:14:47.780 But the government of China has its own interests, and we should be looking after Canadian interests.
00:14:52.300 If you agree or disagree, send us a line, and we'd be happy to hear from you.
00:14:55.780 Thank you for listening to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative podcast.
00:15:08.940 To find more episodes, interviews, and in-depth discussions of politics in Canada,
00:15:13.260 search for The Blueprint on iTunes or visit podcast.conservative.ca.
00:15:17.620 Thank you.
00:15:25.780 Thank you.