The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - Off to the Leadership Races

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome to a special prorogation edition of the Blueprint, Canada's Conservative

00:00:09.860 Podcast. And in spite of Justin Trudeau, we will have new content for you every single

00:00:14.180 Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. We ask that you like, comment, subscribe, and most importantly,

00:00:18.740 share this program. If you want Pierre Polyev to be the next Prime Minister, we need your

00:00:22.760 help to do that. Don't forget, you can subscribe on YouTube, hit the bell when new content

00:00:26.760 is made available. Tell your friends too. They can download it on platforms like CastBox,

00:00:30.740 iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. So the House of Commons has been shut down. Justin Trudeau

00:00:35.700 is residing as Prime Minister once a new leader is chosen for the Liberal Party. In the meantime,

00:00:41.040 Canada gets to sit and wait as new tariffs are on the horizon. To talk about this and much,

00:00:46.120 much more, we bring on Michael Barrett, the Member of Parliament for Leeds, Grenville,

00:00:50.160 Thousand Islands, and Rideau Lakes, and the Critic for Ethics. Thanks for coming on the show.

00:00:53.680 Great to see you. We have a lot to talk about.

00:00:55.500 It is a very busy time. Holy smokes. If not only because Justin Trudeau shut down

00:01:01.840 the House of Commons and has said that he's going to resign, we have an awful lot to talk about.

00:01:09.100 All right. So for those, I noticed on some social media and emails and calls we're getting in the

00:01:13.760 office, people are trying to figure out what does all of this mean? So let's unpack it first.

00:01:18.220 The House of Commons has been prorogued. Just give us a brief 30-second idea of what that is

00:01:25.640 and what has happened in the meantime until the March 27th return.

00:01:30.280 Sure. So the Governor-General, on advice of the Prime Minister, has prorogued Parliament.

00:01:36.360 And so that means that the House of Commons and the Senate aren't going to sit until the date

00:01:40.160 that the Governor-General has allowed. And that's at the end of March when a new speech

00:01:46.500 from the throne will be read by the Governor-General, kind of lays out what the government's, their plan is.

00:01:52.740 And in the meantime, there are no committee meetings, no sittings of the House, no, the Senate won't sit.

00:01:58.460 And it means that all legislation that was before the House is effectively dead, including my Common Sense

00:02:05.880 Conservative private members bill that would have had real penalties for people who perjured themselves

00:02:11.820 in front of Parliament, a $50,000 fine for contempt and mandatory six months in prison for perjury.

00:02:20.260 And it's no wonder Justin Trudeau prorogued. If he needed another reason, he was worried about his

00:02:24.440 friends having to be accountable with more Common Sense Conservative legislation on the way.

00:02:30.760 But it kills all of the bills, private members bills, government legislation, and it means that

00:02:36.640 the House doesn't sit and Justin Trudeau can continue to avoid accountability for the disastrous

00:02:43.360 consequences of his economic vandalism.

00:02:46.760 So just to lay it out even clearer, so those pieces of legislation that were quite controversial

00:02:53.900 in our eyes, in many Canadians' eyes, the censorship piece of legislation and others, the Liberals

00:02:59.600 would have to start over then at that point, unless, I guess, unanimous consent, but they

00:03:03.580 probably won't get it, I guess, if it was to survive the throne speech.

00:03:07.840 So they would have to start this whole process over again.

00:03:10.600 Right.

00:03:10.920 And the process when we come back is there's a speech from the throne which can be programmed

00:03:17.940 for a vote. But by the 26th of March, the Commons must vote on supply. They must vote to give the

00:03:24.800 government money. And that is a matter of confidence. So that'll be two days after the

00:03:30.860 House comes back. And I believe that it requires an opposition day in advance of that. So in the

00:03:37.740 first 48 to 72 hours after the House resumes, the government will face a vote of confidence and

00:03:43.980 we'll see if Jagmeet Singh, once he's satisfied that he's got his pension secured, if he's prepared

00:03:50.000 to put Canadians first, like Conservatives have been doing for months, if not years, in advance

00:03:57.560 of his selfish act.

00:03:59.700 And I think his pension gets vested the end of February. So I think he will be clear at that

00:04:04.360 end of February. And so once that date looked like it was clear, he suddenly had, he seemed

00:04:09.600 to have a lot more courage.

00:04:11.400 The spine grew back.

00:04:12.600 That's right.

00:04:13.080 And he's able to fight back, finally.

00:04:15.040 Yeah, his bank account looked like it was going to grow and his spine grew at the same

00:04:17.940 time.

00:04:18.080 Yeah, that's right. Exactly. Okay, so that's been dealt with. So at the same time, in less

00:04:22.680 than a week, we have a new President of the United States coming in, being sworn in next

00:04:27.540 Monday, with a threat of some major tariffs. So we have Parliament not sitting, we have a Prime

00:04:33.680 Minister in a lame duck situation, we have the Cabinet fighting within themselves to become

00:04:38.100 the next leader of the Liberal Party. All the while, we had a job report just a few weeks

00:04:45.280 ago, I guess now, that said the vast majority of jobs that are being created in Canada come

00:04:49.660 in the public sector, not on the private sector. So we have a whole bunch of little fires burning

00:04:55.380 here. And we just seem adrift at a time when we need some leadership. The Prime Minister should

00:05:03.600 have called an election, obviously, for selfish reasons, he didn't.

00:05:06.400 Yeah, and we can't look past at the very end of the last session, when Justin Trudeau,

00:05:14.300 when his finance minister quit, Christian Freeland quit the day of their fall economic update,

00:05:20.800 the one that Mark Carbon Tax Carney's fingerprints were all over. It blew past their massive $40

00:05:27.060 billion deficit promise, and was over $60 billion in deficit. And we still don't know how

00:05:35.960 they managed to do that. The Parliamentary Budget Officer looking for answers, Canadians looking

00:05:40.780 for answers, and we can't bring a finance minister to committee or bring witnesses before

00:05:46.480 parliamentary committees. Justin Trudeau is avoiding accountability after he and Carbon Tax

00:05:51.100 Carney blew past their fiscal guardrail by $20 billion into the red. And it's the exact wrong

00:06:02.540 time for the House of Commons to be shuttered, unless it were to take it to Canadians for them 0.96

00:06:08.100 to be able to vote in a carbon tax election.

00:06:10.560 I think there needs some stability, and I think a lot of Canadians are feeling that at the political

00:06:14.960 level, on the federal level, because now we have different premiers trying to fill that void. 1.00

00:06:19.800 You know, Daniel Smith, Doug Ford, and many others trying to step forward to have some kind of

00:06:24.840 relations with the United States and the governors at a time when massive tariffs, if they are imposed,

00:06:32.120 could cause hardship. Like, nobody's looking after Canadians. Liberals are looking after themselves.

00:06:37.940 That's right. They've put party before country on the eve of a promise from President-elect Trump

00:06:43.800 to bring in 25% tariffs across the board to the Canadian economy. This is a perfect storm

00:06:52.720 where we need real leadership. And premiers are now doing, as you said, more foreign affairs work

00:07:00.880 than they've ever done. And someone needs to. But it's not their job.

00:07:06.680 It's the job of the prime minister. And the foreign affairs minister, she was tangled up in whether or

00:07:15.600 not she wanted to run for Justin Trudeau's job or not, and fight with her cabinet colleagues about

00:07:22.080 who's going to step into the limelight. And Canadians are going to pay the price. It could result in

00:07:28.020 massive job losses and a real hit to our economy. It's, you know, Canadians are rightly concerned.

00:07:36.940 And I think that the frustration that I'm hearing from people about why Justin Trudeau chose now to do

00:07:44.820 this instead of, you know, having an election, instead having that resolved before the inauguration,

00:07:51.640 which would have been the responsible thing to do, putting country before party.

00:07:55.220 That's right. And let the new administration in Canada deal with the new administration in the United

00:07:59.760 States, have that stability, and have that mandate as well to negotiate. So we have that liberal

00:08:05.460 leadership. As you mentioned, the foreign minister, Melanie Jolie, tried to figure out whether or not she

00:08:10.520 was going to run. She isn't. And he didn't end the former Treasury Board Secretary, now Transport

00:08:15.040 Minister. She's said no. So that leads to, actually, before we get into that, I want to talk,

00:08:20.360 actually, I do want to talk to you about Justin Trudeau here going to the American media. Before

00:08:26.240 Christmas, he shut down all conversations with Canadian media about his future, all of that

00:08:31.220 stuff. So we have a couple of clips. Let's play, let's cut one. Again, CNN, we're going on with

00:08:36.360 Jake Tapper. Let's play cut one. The struggle that you were having domestically, your disapproval rating

00:08:42.920 had to do with, as I understand it, discontent with your government because of high inflation and

00:08:50.320 the economy. Seems like voters in both of these, you know, liberal democracies are sending a message

00:08:56.600 to left-wing parties, liberal parties, we don't like how you're doing the economy when it comes

00:09:01.500 to inflation. We don't like how you're doing immigration. There are a lot of feelings involved.

00:09:06.960 I mean, if you look at the actual numbers, inflation in Canada was lower, came down quicker. Our economy

00:09:12.800 bounced back faster after the pandemic than anyone else's, including the United States. We're projected to

00:09:18.880 grow faster than the United States and all other G7 countries next year. Our economy is doing very

00:09:24.120 well. The amount of delusion in that statement is quite impressive, but the fact that people feel

00:09:30.640 hungry or they feel broke, you know, it's just, you're just not understanding the Canadian people

00:09:36.300 just understanding how smart he is. And if you can just stick with them a little longer, utopia is on

00:09:41.400 the horizon. Well, this is exactly like Christopher Freeland saying, it's just a vibe session. So it's not,

00:09:46.020 you know, you're not really hungry. You're not really poor. You're not really in line at the

00:09:50.520 food bank or sleeping under a bridge or living in your car or living in a tent. It's just a vibe.

00:09:55.420 It's just a vibe. You're making it up.

00:09:58.000 It's just feel, they caught feelings. They didn't catch a bad break or the devastating consequences of

00:10:05.660 liberal policies in this country and liberal decisions for the last nine years. And going on

00:10:12.060 American media, well, last year, you know, Pierre Pauly, a leader of the opposition, taking many

00:10:18.680 orders of magnitude, more media questions than Justin Trudeau. Now the media would say that

00:10:23.080 Pierre doesn't speak to them, but the numbers tell a different story. But Justin Trudeau avoided

00:10:30.340 Canadian media much of the time last year. And then when he's on the ropes, he literally leaves the

00:10:35.380 country and goes and talks to the Americans. Now, Jake Tapper might forget, but the last time that

00:10:41.600 he covered Justin Trudeau, he actually coined the term truanon for all of the folks who,

00:10:49.920 you know, who live in the liberal delusion and probably need to go outside and touch grass.

00:10:56.500 But he was pretty, it was a pretty softball interview because, you know, but Jake Tapper

00:11:02.860 doesn't know the Canadians. There's no real pushback, right? Yeah. He doesn't know the

00:11:06.260 people who are lined up in the food banks and suffering from the consequences of Justin Trudeau's

00:11:10.920 policies. Exactly. So let's, the fun continued now with Jen Psaki, cue up cut two and play cut two. 1.00

00:11:16.220 Is it more of a global trend issue in terms of where your approval ratings are now, which is the

00:11:21.640 lowest they've been in your 10 years, nearly 10 years? Or is it a you issue as people should

00:11:26.740 understand it? I think it's probably a bit of everything. For me, where I lean in on is,

00:11:32.840 all the good things we were able to do. We've put forward policies that are going to make a

00:11:38.440 difference for decades to come in Canada. And I think right now we're seeing a time in politics where

00:11:45.420 emotions and social media is carrying an awful lot of weight in how people feel about things.

00:11:52.520 But I'm always going to lean back on what are the substantive things that are being done?

00:11:57.440 A severe housing shortage, a housing bubble. We have record lines at the food bank. We have an

00:12:05.240 economy that's very unstable at the moment. Debt levels going out of control. Inflation hurting

00:12:12.000 family budgets. A carbon tax that keeps punishing business and farmers. And the list can just keep

00:12:16.740 going on. Absolutely. Gun crime having doubled. It's violent crime in our cities. We have an opioid

00:12:24.480 epidemic. We have people dying by the tens of thousands with the drug policies that he's

00:12:32.020 responsible for. It's delusion. What the effects of the policies of the Trudeau NDP liberals will be

00:12:42.020 felt in this country for a very long time. He's absolutely right about that. Look at what they've

00:12:48.440 done. And it's no wonder that he ran across the border to, you know, to take refuge with some

00:12:54.500 softball interviews. Yeah. Like Justin Trudeau and his status, he will never be hungry, right? He will

00:13:00.360 always have everything he needs. He'll just travel around the world and lecture everyone else about

00:13:04.380 potentially having enough money for a vacation. All right. Liberal leadership race. We have, as I

00:13:09.260 mentioned, a couple that have dropped out. Looks like Mark Carney is inching towards that. He's on the

00:13:14.400 Daily Show yesterday, I believe, with Jon Stewart, saying that he was the outsider. This guy is the

00:13:20.100 most elitist person. This guy's incredible. Carbon tax Carney is so well connected to this

00:13:28.980 liberal leadership that it's hard to know where to begin. But he was the economic advisor to the head

00:13:40.120 of Justin Trudeau's economic task force, a task force of one, well, the one person being Mark Carney.

00:13:46.000 And the first liberal financial document that came out after he became the advisor was one with a

00:13:56.200 $61 billion deficit blowing past their $40 billion, massive $40 billion deficit promise. So that's his

00:14:05.120 most recent contribution to the economic vandalism of the Trudeau NDP liberals. But he's been hand in

00:14:12.720 glove with Justin Trudeau for years. He was an advisor to him during COVID. Justin Trudeau said that he

00:14:20.800 worked very closely with Mark Carney during that time. And Mark Carney supports all of the same policies

00:14:26.240 that Justin Trudeau advances. He is just like Justin. Oh, exactly the same.

00:14:31.040 He, there's a reason we call him carbon tax Carney. He's been peddling the same policies that have

00:14:38.200 wreaked the economic despair that Canadians are feeling raising the price of gas groceries and

00:14:43.200 home heating, just like Justin Trudeau. And he's trying to impose that carbon tax on countries around

00:14:47.560 the world, right? On developed countries around the world, trying to get them to instill a hardship

00:14:52.880 amongst their citizens. Luckily, people are pushing back against this, especially here in Canada.

00:14:57.320 Canada. So Telsat, a Quebec company, got $2.14 billion to connect those in Canada who have not

00:15:05.200 been connected to the internet. So of course, this is a company that really doesn't have a satellite yet,

00:15:09.660 that is kind of designing and figuring out how that would work. And of course, there's a tweet of

00:15:14.300 yours asking Elon Musk, who has Starlink, and how much that would cost to connect every Canadian.

00:15:19.980 And you'll see the answer. It's just on that. Elon Musk said the answer was less than half

00:15:25.440 of the $2.14 billion. And liberals went wild that I had the audacity to ask someone that wasn't this

00:15:34.300 very special company, why did they want to protect this company that was getting this loan that doesn't

00:15:39.420 have a constellation of satellites and doesn't have receivers in place for consumers to use,

00:15:45.520 doesn't have the infrastructure. And it's because the owner of the company is buddies with Carbon Tax

00:15:52.060 Kearney, Conflict of Interest Kearney. This is a friend of his. So just like this shady deal,

00:15:59.960 as soon as Carbon Tax Kearney was appointed, officially appointed the economic advisor to the

00:16:06.480 prime minister, all of this good fortune started landing in the laps of people who were connected

00:16:11.680 to Kearney. Whether it was getting Brookfield a seat at the table to get their hands on 10 billion

00:16:17.480 in Canadian pensions, pension dollars, or this deal, the special deal with Telesat, or for

00:16:26.080 bank fees when he wasn't going to play ball with some changes to bank fee regulations, all of the things

00:16:34.920 that are going to benefit his bottom line. And it's just liberal elites and insiders helping

00:16:42.520 themselves while Canadians need help. And leading up to the December break at the end of the last

00:16:49.400 session before we were prorogued and that disappeared, we were trying to get the documents to figure out

00:16:54.200 the green slush fund, right? Hundreds of millions of dollars given out to liberal buddies and we were

00:17:00.040 trying to get the inside track on what exactly happened and any potential criminal activity

00:17:04.600 that may have conspired in that whole sequence of events. But again, we have it for all to see,

00:17:11.080 right? Mark Carney's buddy gets rich. And it seems that just in Justin Trudeau's whole mandate,

00:17:17.400 it hasn't really been about actually producing, right? Like it's not about results, it's how much can

00:17:22.360 we spend, right? The question should be, are we getting results for that 2.14 billion? Well,

00:17:28.360 the answer would be no. Can we do it quicker, right? It just seems to be, how can we spend more

00:17:33.240 rather than actually getting people connected? But connected should be number one. Absolutely. And no

00:17:38.120 government has ever spent so much to achieve so little, unless the achievement that you're looking

00:17:46.760 for is the betterment of the bank accounts of liberal insiders. And whether it was arrive scam,

00:17:58.120 or the green slush fund, or all of these sweetheart deals, like we see with carbon tax,

00:18:05.160 Kearney, liberals, they always put their friends and insiders first. Well, then we also have

00:18:10.600 Chrystia Freeland, who looks like she is going to be joining that race. She's no hero for stepping 1.00

00:18:16.200 down as finance minister, right? She was actually fired on the Friday before she was supposed to read

00:18:21.480 that horrific fall economic update given in the winter. She's no hero. She had no problem

00:18:29.400 ringing, right? You know, driving up the debt while she was in charge, right? Like she is just as bad

00:18:37.560 as carbon tax. Kearney, she is just as bad as Justin Trudeau. It's like the liberals in their

00:18:44.040 search for a new leader, they're just trying to change the bus driver, right? It's the same bus,

00:18:48.840 it's the same bus company, it's the same route, right? The change in the bus driver will not fix

00:18:53.880 what is ailing Canada right now. Any of the names that have been floated to take over,

00:18:59.080 to run as liberal leader, they're all Trudeau 2.0. Christopher Freeland voted to increase the

00:19:03.960 carbon tax. Chrystia Freeland voted in favor of running up these massive deficits. And you're 0.97

00:19:10.200 absolutely right, she's certainly no hero. All of the economic devastation, all of the effects

00:19:18.680 that Canadians are seeing, whether it's home prices or crime in their communities, and the

00:19:24.440 April 1st, the carbon tax is going up again. So we might be, we might see an election this spring,

00:19:31.080 we're going to see a new liberal leader, we don't know what's going to happen after prorogation,

00:19:35.160 but you know what you can guarantee with Justin Trudeau and whoever his successor is,

00:19:40.680 and that's that the carbon tax is going to go up. Why? Because every single one of them

00:19:44.760 voted in favor of it, they are just like Justin. And this is the sickening part too,

00:19:49.800 with the liberals trying to force out Justin Trudeau. They voted for all of this. They said,

00:19:56.040 yes, Justin, keep going. Raise the carbon tax. Deficit spend to your heart's content, right?

00:20:02.280 They voted for all of this and stood behind every scandal that was produced out of it. They defended

00:20:08.520 it all. There is no difference. That's right. None. The only reason that the liberal MPs wanted

00:20:13.480 a change in leadership is because they saw that their electoral fortunes were declining. They were

00:20:19.400 worried about their paychecks and worried about their pensions. They were not worried about

00:20:23.720 what was happening on the streets with Canadians. It wasn't enough when Canadians were lined up at 0.99

00:20:30.360 food banks in record numbers. It wasn't enough when Canadians were choosing between heating and

00:20:34.920 eating. None of that mattered to them. It was only when it looked like they might lose their jobs or

00:20:41.480 they might not qualify for a pension that suddenly said, well, we need a new leader. Do you need any new

00:20:46.360 policies? Well, we'll see what the new guy says, but they're just looking to save their jobs. 0.98

00:20:51.560 Yeah. And then what do you say? Like, oh yeah, we change our position on the carbon tax or whatever

00:20:57.080 they are going to say to try to save face here. Then how do you defend punishing Canadians for that

00:21:03.000 the past 10 years, right? Like it'll be an interesting line to balance, but I don't think

00:21:07.000 Canadians are going to fall for it at all. Well, no, I think that Canadians are exhausted. I think that

00:21:13.000 they are desperate and I think that they're not going to be fooled by Trudeau 2.0. This is going to be

00:21:19.320 a very interesting race, but unfortunately, Canada has to suffer in the meantime. Who knows what's

00:21:24.440 going to happen next week and if the tariffs are coming? Who knows? We had that press conference

00:21:29.720 that where Donald Trump, you know, I think a lot of people thought he was joking when he talked about

00:21:34.840 the 51st state. Then he does the press conference that said he can crush Canada economically,

00:21:39.320 which is absolutely scary and the fact Parliament's prorogued and the fact the Liberals have a lame

00:21:46.760 duck Prime Minister and they're fighting amongst themselves for the leadership. This is a very

00:21:52.360 dangerous time, I think. Yeah, it absolutely is. And whenever we talk about these kinds of things,

00:21:59.480 it can seem, you know, to people who are watching, like, well, you know, should we give up? You know,

00:22:06.280 what do we do? And you and I both know very well, having worked closely with him, that what we're

00:22:12.040 seeing on offer from Canada's Common Sense Conservatives with Pierre Polyev is hope and the restoration of

00:22:19.240 that promise for Canada. Because life wasn't like this before Justin Trudeau and it's not going to be like

00:22:25.240 this after Justin Trudeau or Trudeau 2.0, whoever, you know, whoever fills his seat after he does

00:22:32.920 resign. And that promise of Canada can be restored and it will be restored, but we need to have that

00:22:40.120 election first. And Canadians deserve, they deserve leadership that will put country before party and

00:22:49.320 that's obviously not what they're getting with the NDP Liberals and Trudeau and all of his

00:22:55.240 all of his successors or those who aspire to succeed him. But really, there's a bright future

00:23:04.440 ahead for Canada and it'll be in a partnership with our friends south of the border. But right now,

00:23:09.720 in the situation where there's so much disarray, where we have a lame duck prime minister and a

00:23:15.400 pro-rogue parliament, it's no wonder, it's no wonder that our trade partners who are looking to cut deals

00:23:21.400 with us are taking advantage of weakness that's been created by a weak prime minister and a weak

00:23:28.040 NDP Liberal government. And Canadians can rightly blame Jagmeet Singh and Justin Trudeau

00:23:36.680 for allowing that weakness. Oh yeah, it's all been self-inflicted. We did go a bit long, but I figured

00:23:41.400 usually when we do the show, we're rushing out of here to go to question period. However, of course,

00:23:45.960 we don't have to do that. So as you know, the guests get the last word and it was a good way

00:23:51.560 to close it out just there. But if you have anything more to say, the floor is yours. No,

00:23:54.760 it's so great to have the conversation, Jamie, and you're right. I think you and I have great

00:23:58.760 conversations. Usually we end up, last time I think we didn't even get to run the clips because we were

00:24:03.080 just having the conversation. Canadians just need to get involved. They need to get engaged at this

00:24:08.360 really critical time. If they live in a riding that's held by a Liberal or an NDP member,

00:24:13.240 they need to put pressure on them that there must be an election. And it doesn't need to wait until

00:24:18.280 March. Canadians are not obligated to see the Liberals through their vanity project right now.

00:24:24.280 There is a head to the Liberal Party. It is the Prime Minister and he's the one who's responsible

00:24:27.560 for what's happened to Canada. So let's get to an election. Let's restore that promise of Canada.

00:24:33.080 And common sense Conservatives are ready to deliver on that promise. I hope so. You heard him.

00:24:40.120 Michael Barrett, the Member of Parliament for Leeds, Grenville, Thousand Islands, and Rideau Lakes,

00:24:44.120 also the Ethics Critics. Thanks for coming on. I really appreciate that. Yeah, pleasure. It's

00:24:47.720 good your riding is nice and close to Ottawa as well. To his point, please like, comment, subscribe,

00:24:53.560 and share this program. Get that message out. Hit the bell on YouTube. Be notified when new content is

00:24:59.160 made available. Also, you can download this and tell your friends about that too on platforms like

00:25:03.880 CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. You name it, it is out there. Until next week,

00:25:08.600 with new content at 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time every single Tuesday. Remember, low taxes,

00:25:13.560 less government, more freedom. That's the blueprint.

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - January 28, 2025

Off to the Leadership Races

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