Supply Chain Issues
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Summary
Our first guest of the new year is newly elected Member of Parliament for the riding of Cumberland, Colchester in the amazing province of Nova Scotia, Stephen Ellis. Dr. Ellis is also the Special Advisor on COVID-19 and the Deputy Shadow Minister for Health. In this episode, we discuss the need for mandatory vaccination in Canada, the dangers of such a mandate, and the benefits of not having a mandate.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm
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your host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Corps, the likes. Brock, bringing
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you new content for 2022, our very first episode. We've got a great topic for you, something
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everybody is talking about. But first, with this content, we ask that you'd like, subscribe,
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comment, share this program, help us push back against the ever-moving Liberal agenda.
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And as always, if you cannot listen or watch the entire program right now, you can download
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it, listen to it on platforms like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, you name it,
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it is out there. And again, new content every single Tuesday, 1.30pm Eastern Time. Our first
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guest of the new year, a very important guest, I might say, and someone who was newly elected
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in the class of 2021 in the riding of Cumberland, Colchester in the amazing province of Nova
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Scotia, we have Dr. Stephen Ellis. He is that Member of Parliament. He's also the Special
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Advisor on COVID-19 and the Deputy Shadow Minister for Health. We appreciate you giving up your
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It's absolutely my pleasure, Jamie. And this is such an important show for all Canadians.
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And the topics we'll discuss today, I hope they find them equally as important because I know
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And let's just talk a bit about your background as well. You've been in the healthcare field,
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you've also been the Canadian Armed Forces, maybe we can start with that, because I'd give
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some contents to the next conversation about COVID-19 vaccines, etc.
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Sure. You know, I've been a family doctor for 26 years. Four of those I spent in the Royal
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Canadian Air Force on both coasts, so Shearwater and Comox. And the last 22 years, I've been here
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in Toronto, Nova Scotia. In the first 16 months of the pandemic, I was the lead here for our
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inpatient COVID unit in northern Nova Scotia. So I've seen this illness up close and personal.
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Well, the beginning of the pandemic, it was kind of nobody knew what was going on, really,
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we're trying to do the best. I think all governments of all stripes are around the world,
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we're trying to figure this out in the best steps forward. Since then, we've learned a lot.
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And we've been evolving our rules and regulations and practices, whether healthcare or government,
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etc, or we're supposed to anyway. So this past week, actually, last week, we had the federal
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minister of health, say that he probably want to get this quote, right, personally, would support
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mandatory vaccination in Canada. What was your reaction to that when you heard that?
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Well, I think the big thing, Jamie, for me is that as a physician, you know, if people were hesitant
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for any type of treatment, whether it be vaccines or medication, etc, you know, our job would be to
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really build a bridge across that gap to help people understand better, you know, why we would
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recommend certain treatments, how it would benefit them, what the potential downsides are. And, you know,
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in my experience, as a legislator, which I know has been very short, not compared, you know, to someone
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experienced like yourself, but I think hitting people over the head with bigger and bigger mandates
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is, is certainly un Canadian, in my opinion. And certainly, you know, when you look at the
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scientific literature around, you know, people are hesitant for certain treatments, that those those
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things are not necessarily going to persuade them to change their mind. So from those two perspectives,
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I think that that's going down the wrong path. I also don't, I don't understand how they would
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implement this if they so decided to go down this path, would they kick down someone's door and hold
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you down and give you the needle? I just don't understand the comments, because it could take
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us down a very dark and dangerous path. You know, certainly, it's a direct contradiction to those
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things that I mentioned, which, you know, in the, you know, in an analogy is building a bridge,
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I agree with you totally that that nobody's ever come out aside from perhaps some provincial
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leadership to say that they may, you know, present fines and things like that. But people have
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suffered significantly, people have suffered during the pandemic, in terms of their their,
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obviously, their ability to socialize, their mental health has suffered, their physical health
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has suffered, people have lost their jobs, people are now, in most provinces, unable to go to a
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theater or a restaurant. They've had their their personal freedoms suffering from that. So as you
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mentioned, you know, what are the next steps? What possibly could we negatively do to people to enforce
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a vaccine mandate? It seems a little draconian to me.
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And now we've also heard news, the government did relinquish for one day only, and that was
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thankfully for our conservative team pushing on this. But now, truckers now are required to have
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vaccinations in order to do their job. And in many cases, these truckers work alone, they drive
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alone, they eat alone, they sleep alone. We have a supply shortage, a very severe supply shortage as it
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is. This is another government made decision that is going to cause yet more problems that they are
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then going to have to try to figure out how to solve. And I don't know how they do it, especially
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during this labor shortage. I think it's a it's a sad reflection of the inflexibility when liberal
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parties have this ideology of, of how they think they should approach something that they will have
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absolutely no exceptions to it. As you mentioned, I mean, I've spoken to lots of truckers and in my
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riding, especially people who drive as they might say in their language, pin to pin, their interactions
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with others, as you mentioned, is pretty much zero. And I think that the, you know, the other side of
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that is, is I've seen some studies that would suggest the likelihood of them having COVID, of course,
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because of the lack of contact with others is very minimal. The government, again, the liberal
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government doesn't want to acknowledge that they just want to have, you know, their ideologies push
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forward on Canadians, and create this kind of cookie cutter approach, which, as you mentioned, is going to
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negatively affect our supply change, and further exacerbate this, this cost of living this, this
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just inflation that we have now already, that's going to continue to increase and folks, then it's
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not going to just be inflation, it's going to be, there's just not things on the shelf either.
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I think we're seeing that in many parts of the country already supply shortages, people, they want to
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build something for their house, their their months along, you know, the appliance shortage, you name it,
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it is, it is very real. And these individuals, the truckers, transport goods and services from
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community to community across the border, and they keep the economy going and to take
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thousands, potentially thousands of truckers, when they're already aren't enough out of the
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I agree with you totally, you know, and I think that it's going to become very, very clear to Canadians
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very, very quickly, that it's, it's not only going to be things that are perhaps optional, it's going to
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be things in your grocery store, right, things that you you you see every day there, thankfully,
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we're, you know, we're usually well stocked. But I think when you go there, and you show up, and you
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say, Hey, where is this? Why do I have no choice? Why don't I have, especially, you know, I would
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suggest that in Canada in the winter, it's going to be fresh produce, that's going to be one of the
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things that are going to negatively affect us the most, which, of course, as a physician is going
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to negatively affect my, my health, you know, I want to eat healthily, as you do, I know, and,
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and all Canadians strive to, but as the costs go up, and the choices go down, then we're going to be
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in a very much more even significant problem than we are now, which is bad enough as it is.
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And, and of course, last week, the numbers for inflation, almost 5% inflation, this,
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this is real, and it in most of its government made, because, of course, the Bank of Canada
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started to print money to cover the debts, the spending of the actual government and the
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finance department, Justin Trudeau deciding he wants to throw all this money out in the
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atmosphere. But I would say, I think there was a crisis in healthcare before COVID. This is
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exasperated it. But yet, they're all this extra spending, a lot of it inflated a whole bunch of
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things, including the housing market. But a lot of the spending besides the CERB, the wage subsidy,
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etc, is all things couched in the language of COVID, but have absolutely nothing to do with COVID.
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Now, it's, it's, it's very, very sad. You know, as you mentioned, one of the things we had an
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emergency health committee meeting, at which the Minister of Health appeared yesterday,
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you know, when you look at the studies, Jamie, 91.6% of hospital beds in Canada were,
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were full most of the time before this pandemic. And again, what has the government done about that?
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They have done absolutely nothing. They promised to hire 7,500 healthcare workers,
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including, in their terminology, nurses, family doctors and nurse practitioners.
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When I asked Minister Duclos about that specifically, he could not provide an answer as to how many they
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hired. Was it one? Was it 21? Is it zero? He has really no idea, even though, as you know,
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in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister promised the exact same thing, we are going to have these 7,500
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people. They've had four months to do it. They've, again, they really have have not delivered on their
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Well, it's like they're promised to build, or sorry, plant two billion trees, and they've only
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planted a couple thousand. It's absolutely the level of failure in this government. And yet,
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I would say that the media, for the most part, protects them and their supporters talk away their
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failures. It absolutely is quite amazing. But going on to this topic here about what the next steps are,
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how are we continuing going to get the message out about what the government's decisions are doing,
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what some of these mandates are doing to our economy, to our currency? You know, how are we
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going to continue to push back? And what plans do you have as Associate Health Critic?
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You know, I think, Jamie, the Canadian needs to know that this is a failure of leadership.
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Yeah, all of these things that they begin to talk about are too little too late. When we as
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Conservatives, I wasn't there, I know you were, Jamie, recommended vaccines early on in the pandemic,
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they dismissed the idea out of hand. When the Conservatives recommended early in the pandemic,
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the introduction of rapid tests, their use, their procurement, their domestic production,
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again, dismissed out of hand. When we talk about domestic production of personal protective
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equipment, dismissed out of hand. When we, again, talked early on about antiviral medications,
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dismissed out of hand. And a long time to, when they did actually agree to it, a long time to
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actually approve that medication. And now we're in this situation, of course, where some people in
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certain parts of the country, you need a PCR test in order to be prescribed this medication.
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Well, if it has to be prescribed within five days of your symptoms to be most effective,
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and you don't get your result back for four days, and then you have to access a healthcare provider to
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get a prescription in a system that's already loaded, overworked, and not recognized, then
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again, we're going to continue to have problems. So from those perspectives, Canadians out there need to
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know what the real story is. And that's why I love this program, that we're able to get this word out
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to Canadians and be able to tell what the truth is. Oh, absolutely. And let's touch on some of the
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issues you just mentioned. I think, correct me if I'm wrong, as a physician, there's always a wide
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variety of methods to treat a certain illness or what have you, and you pick the best one.
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We talked about early on, as you mentioned, a bunch of pieces to this puzzle on how to deal with
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the pandemic, one of which was the rapid tests. And this was even before there was a vaccine,
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we didn't know how long it was going to take. But we talked about rapid tests, and we were just
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missed out of hand that we were, you know, just making things up that this would not be a path
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forward. And now, the government just all of a sudden decides, yeah, you know what, rapid tests are a
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good idea. The problem is, a lot of companies that have stockpiles in Canada started to move those
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stockpiles out of the country, because there wasn't a market here. And all of a sudden, the government
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saying, yeah, you know what, we probably should have used them. Does anybody have any left? No? Well,
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now we're in a shortage. Now we're competing with every other country, just like everything else.
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You know, it is those ongoing failures. And certainly, rapid tests has been, you know, our, our, perhaps,
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you know, as a diagnostic test, the most important thing that we have talked about as conservatives,
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that that's not to dismiss vaccines, because vaccines are a very, very important, the most important tool
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to treat COVID and prevent it. That being said, knowing who has an illness can really help you
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self isolate, it can help you, obviously avoid gatherings that you shouldn't be at, etc, etc. So
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from that perspective, it's very important. I think the other thing that's disappointing to me,
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and as I looked at some of the research around this, you know, in the 1940s, Canada mobilized
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our population to support the war effort. In the 1940s, we were able to build a 10,000 ton ship,
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which is the same size as a Canadian frigate in 107 days. And can anyone then tell me why we do not
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have domestic production of those things that we need to fight COVID-19, we do not have any domestic
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production of vaccines, we have very minimal domestic production of rapid tests. And we have,
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as far as I know, no domestic production of antiviral medications. So, again, it's these ongoing
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failures of leadership that people need to know about and, and, and to understand that this
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government really does not have your back. Well, I think a lot of that, well, first of all,
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I will say the news came out, I think, a week or so ago that the planned, I think, over $100 million
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for this research center to do our own vaccines in Montreal, that's delayed. No idea when that's going
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to start back up, no idea when that's going to be completed. But also, I think governments,
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you know, liberal governments, especially, you know, in the province of Ontario, we've seen it
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firsthand, 15 years of liberal rule. They have made the atmosphere to, to, to start, create,
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establish a business, you know, very cost productive, to the point where businesses aren't
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even looking at Canada as a jurisdiction to do operations. And that, and this is just steamroll
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to the, to your point, why we can't get anything built in this country, why we can't have domestic
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manufacturing, because the rules, regulations, red tape, government policy, taxes are just out
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of control, where they just go to jurisdictions, where they can get things built and done quickly
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in a responsible manner, in some cases, not all. Absolutely. And I think that's so important
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as a Canadian, you know, Canada historically has been a leader on the world stage and innovation
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and intelligent people in, in business startups. And, you know, I would suggest that even again,
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I'll go back to my second world war story is that Canada played a leading role in, in both wars,
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really, let's be honest. And now, you know, when we stymie development here, then we, then we run
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into problems, you know, Canada was important in, in talking about a multitude of things during the
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Second World War, like how to prevent ship's hulls from, from rusting, those things we looked at,
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very other important innovations around penicillin and its stability and its use. So, I mean, from
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everything from the Navy to medical innovations, Canada was important during the Second World War.
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During, you know, this event, where 30,000 Canadians died, 42,000 Canadians died in World War II,
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we are absent on the world stage. And sadly, we're also absent domestically.
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I don't want to keep you too much longer. I've already kept you over time. We've gone a bit long.
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I did post on social media last week, about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, that it must never slumber,
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especially during a crisis, that if that happens, there will always be a crisis, right? So we should
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be using that as the framework of our way out. Well, and certainly we see those rights being
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trampled upon. If Canadians who are traveling are not allowed back in our country, that's one of the
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tenets of the Canadian Charter is that you can enter and leave your country of Canada whenever you decide.
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And I think that the Canadians, again, as you suggest, need to be aware of how are your rights
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and freedoms being manipulated during this pandemic. And that's important to us conservatives. I know
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it's important to you. It's important to me. And that's something that we want to stand up for
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Canadians for. All right. I always give the guests the last word. I don't know if you want to,
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you know, you said that perfectly, but I should have started my last comment on that. But if you want
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to do the last word, the floor is yours and we'll wrap up. Well, thanks. Thanks for this, Jamie.
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You know what? It's been an honor and a privilege to be part of this conservative government. I think
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that we are working very hard to hold this government to account. And I think that Canadians
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need to know that and that we do have an agenda to ensure that their rights and freedoms are being
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protected out there and to give them the best shot at coming out the other side of this pandemic
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in an appropriate and well manner. That is Dr. Stephen Ellis, the member of parliament for
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Cumberland, Colchester in the beautiful province of Nova Scotia, one of the best dressed MPs on the
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conservative benches right there. He's also the deputy shadow minister for health and the special
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advisor on COVID-19. We appreciate his time. We did go a little long. I wanted to get in more depth
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on some of my questions, but unfortunately, this is only supposed to be a 12 minute segment. We've
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come way over 12 minutes. We'll have him on again. We'll start to address some of the other
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issues about the vaccines and that sort of thing and COVID-19, the path forward. We do thank you,
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Dr. Ellis, and appreciate your time. We appreciate your time for tuning in. New content every single
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Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern time. We ask that you like, comment, subscribe, share this program
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at your leisure. We do appreciate your time. And again, as always, low taxes, less government,