The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - The Leader of the Official Opposition

00:00:00.000 hello and welcome once again to the blueprints it is canada's conservative podcast i'm your host

00:00:10.760 jamie schmail member of parliament for halliburton corps the likes brock thank you very much for

00:00:15.240 joining us once again we are not stopping even though we are leading up to the christmas holidays

00:00:19.980 we will continue with new content each and every tuesday 1 30 p.m eastern time so i thank you

00:00:25.800 for joining us today because today we have a very very special guest i'll keep you just in suspense

00:00:32.920 for two seconds as i remind you as always please like comment subscribe share this program help us

00:00:39.960 push back against the ever-moving liberal agenda if you can't watch us all today on facebook please

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00:00:55.380 platforms that may not have access to the conservative message that might be open to

00:00:59.580 hearing this conservative message that's why we need your help to do that and like i said

00:01:03.800 today's guest is someone i bet you've been waiting for the whole year long erin o'toole the leader of

00:01:10.000 canada's conservatives the member of parliament for durham my next door neighbor thank you very much

00:01:14.020 for joining us it's great to be with you jamie and i'm glad i finally make my uh a debut on the

00:01:20.660 blueprint this is exciting you've been a busy busy person so we completely understand now congratulations

00:01:27.260 on on winning the leadership i know we talked about it a lot on the show and and you've been

00:01:31.980 working very hard lately to kind of assemble the team and fight against the liberals and also prepare

00:01:37.360 for for the next election and then you unfortunately conduct you contacted covid which which kind of was

00:01:43.600 an interesting experience for you maybe can we start with that because that's something a lot of

00:01:47.740 people ask me about even on the street uh just what what it was like for you as a new leader having

00:01:53.360 to deal with that yes i'm i get asked about that a lot as well jamie you know here's my debut as a

00:01:59.600 conservative leader uh my victory because of ballot problems was at 1 30 in the morning so i gave a speech

00:02:06.340 at 1 30 in the morning to a largely empty room uh now my my kids and my parents my wife rebecca

00:02:12.920 were there and it was such an honor and i said i i would have waited till morning sunrise to give

00:02:18.520 that speech it's such an honor to lead canada's founding party and then i started the regular

00:02:24.200 course got teamed together started to go on the road a bit and then in my first month i got covid

00:02:30.240 and uh fortunately we i had a mild case i unfortunately did bring it home and and rebecca

00:02:38.040 came down with covid as well our children miraculously molly and jack avoided getting

00:02:43.800 it we social distanced in our home rebecca had what i would say it'd be a traditional flu 0.99

00:02:49.000 i had very mild symptoms so we were very lucky and we had great support from from public health but it

00:02:55.680 was it was perspective for us like we were in a lineup with with hundreds and hundreds of people

00:03:01.660 that got turned away after we were there for several hours so i got to experience the fact that

00:03:06.440 because we didn't have rapid tests as quickly as europe we saw huge backlogs a lot of uncertainty so

00:03:13.100 i at least have that perspective which as a leader if you've walked a few miles in in people's shoes you

00:03:19.000 can relate to them so we use it as a learning but i think my wife will be reminding me of the

00:03:25.400 for the next 60 years how i brought covid into our home right after the leadership since a lot of the

00:03:31.340 provinces are dealing with new restrictions on on uh to deal with the covid uh pandemic maybe let's

00:03:38.100 let's build on what you just said about the rapid tests and this is something uh you and members of

00:03:42.940 our team and shoot including our health critic michelle rempel have been pushing for is is faster

00:03:48.180 movement from health canada on approving rapid tests many of which are already in in operation in

00:03:53.800 countries like the european union often known as the gold standard and the united states but

00:03:57.980 some not here in canada yes in fact what i did in one of my first questions in the house of

00:04:04.620 commons when i did come back from covid was remind mr trudeau our european trade deal allows us to

00:04:10.180 actually accept regulatory approval for things like diagnostic tests as part of our european trade

00:04:16.540 agreement cita this is a diagnostic test it's not a drug that needs to be reviewed for safety and

00:04:24.140 efficacy um we know there's going to be a margin of error with any of these test kits but it is a

00:04:29.860 critical tool that europe who had them five months earlier was able to keep some travel and some of the

00:04:36.100 tourism industries going by the effective deployment of rapid tests canada was really

00:04:41.480 kind of the last major oecd country to even roll them out and miraculously after we started

00:04:48.440 hammering them in the house regularly suddenly they accelerated the approval so as you've seen jamie

00:04:54.720 i think the opposition has done our job we find the liberals approach to be secretive uh often very

00:05:02.840 confused always late whether it was the border rapid tests or even the vaccines our job is to push

00:05:08.360 for transparency push for better attack some of the corruption that we saw with we and that's the

00:05:13.880 opposition doing its job as best it can in a pandemic and i think some of the the results in

00:05:18.400 terms of the early vaccine samples for example were the direct result of our pushing and pushing and

00:05:23.840 pushing so michelle rempel garner our our whole team did a very good job on on rapid tests in particular

00:05:30.360 yeah i think i agree with you a lot uh especially when you're saying that the opposition was really

00:05:36.460 pushing the government to to move on a number of these files because you're right there there wasn't much

00:05:41.840 in the terms of conversation about rapid tests or their vaccines or you know a whole wide range of

00:05:49.820 issues and and and finally during you know countless questions in question period and other methods we were

00:05:57.440 finally getting to see some movement for canadians and then the answers started to come up instead of

00:06:02.240 the the constant stonewall that you get in question period from this government absolutely and i've said many 0.93

00:06:09.360 times at several of my press conferences um three key tools exist in a in a pandemic rapid test and

00:06:17.500 diagnostic uh finding out how many people are are caught vaccinations obviously a tool that can

00:06:25.740 inoculate people and start us turning the corner but the third tool jamie is information the fact that

00:06:31.920 the the trudeau government you know shut down parliament uh refused to provide details was very secretive on

00:06:39.180 on uh the china deal they had for a vaccine with can sino all of that adds to confusion about when will

00:06:47.800 the vaccines be available who will get them first how much safety review has been done um if people

00:06:53.500 like myself uh came down with covid and recovered do i have the antibodies therefore i don't need a vaccine or

00:07:01.080 am i going to be later why was the government refusing to have a public plan that was that was

00:07:06.020 detailing some of this public education i think information has been a tool that because of mr trudeau's

00:07:12.300 uh lack of of transparency has suffered and and it's leading to more vaccine hesitancy it's leading to

00:07:20.940 people uh doubting whether they will be able to keep their business open past spring for example

00:07:26.460 so i think our our continued push for planning for faster response for transparency is part of an effective

00:07:34.240 opposition now one of the other things just before the break for the christmas break in parliament one of the

00:07:40.680 things we were as a team as a caucus as the opposition was really hammering the liberals about was their

00:07:48.080 relationship with china and the number of failures that they've had with that communist country that has 0.99

00:07:54.920 actually hurt canadian interests in so many ways absolutely in fact just last friday as you know

00:08:02.280 um our deadline of our motion passed where we had asked we'd given the liberals several weeks

00:08:09.020 to come up with a public statement on whether huawei should be banned or not from the 5g as you know for

00:08:15.840 years it's been our position that a state-owned chinese enterprise should not build out our digital

00:08:21.500 economy the plumbing of our future economy we also in that motion asked for a public plan

00:08:27.940 to combat the rise in in chinese influence operations in canada harassing even threatening

00:08:35.260 uh hundreds of canadians uh influence operations to try and influence public opinion uh canadians need

00:08:42.620 to not only know that that's happening but have to see a way for the government to tackle it through

00:08:47.860 immigration through through the immigration system cbsa rcmp all the tools of government

00:08:52.780 the liberals failed to do both things bill player blair uh issued some milquetoast uh press release

00:08:59.480 and the prime minister who promised a decision on huawei a year and a half ago still wouldn't come

00:09:06.400 through with it so canadians know that the trudeau government has been inappropriately close to the

00:09:12.120 chinese regime from day one um we're the only five eyes country that has not made the huawei decision

00:09:19.620 we're often seen as as out of step with the rest of the western world on china we found out that mr

00:09:25.840 trudeau and miss freeland were fighting for the canadian armed forces to train the chinese military on

00:09:32.620 our soil just ridiculous to think that that would be a priority for the trudeau government when they're

00:09:38.140 holding our citizens hostage the two michaels when they're uh disrupting trade when they're 1.00

00:09:44.200 posing a police state in hong kong the situation with the uyghurs it's time for canada and our our 0.99

00:09:50.400 democratic allies to take a united and principled position to combat the influence of communist china

00:09:56.480 it's it's almost as if they're doing a piece by appeasement strategy here with with the uh the

00:10:02.840 government of china it's it's kind of frustrating when you see well we saw uh you know about this

00:10:09.200 time last year or thereabouts was the the issues that we had with our agriculture not being able

00:10:14.760 to move our product out on a moment's notice and the list went on but yet there really isn't some

00:10:19.740 concrete action this government is taking to stand up for themselves and stand up for canada against china 0.98

00:10:24.780 you're right jamie in fact last uh beginning of december i think it was

00:10:30.140 our government and myself at the as the foreign affairs shadow minister at the time passed that

00:10:36.440 motion to create a new parliamentary oversight committee for canada china relations to shine

00:10:42.560 some light on the mismanagement of of that critical foreign policy issue by the liberals remember

00:10:48.920 justin trudeau handpicked an ambassador john mccallum his former minister to go there mccallum had to

00:10:56.880 resign in disgrace a month or so after uh the the the two michaels were taken and there's just been no

00:11:05.760 clear coherent uh strategy with respect to china so we passed this motion it was the first defeat

00:11:12.200 of the trudeau government ever because it was a the first opposition win in a minority parliament

00:11:18.980 and that canada china committee once it resumed after the the pandemic closure of parliament

00:11:24.640 has been really shining the light on on some concerning trends and the fact that the the

00:11:29.800 trudeau liberals always seem to only care about trade with china for some of their big corporate

00:11:35.320 friends and interests and i often say can't canada our values are not for sale we're free traders but

00:11:41.800 we can't turn a blind eye to to some of the human rights and and and trade disruptions by china 1.00

00:11:48.320 now let's talk quickly just back to the the covid recovery plan and how the liberals are are dealing

00:11:56.120 with with you know a whole bunch of files up in the air and a lot of it had to be done very very

00:12:01.380 quickly besides the part about parliament not being in session so we can actually have some say on some

00:12:08.060 of these programs and have improvements brought in quicker in in a meaningful fashion to help canadians

00:12:14.520 to to help canadian businesses we were the only party that was consistently calling for parliament

00:12:19.800 to stay in session during the pandemic so that we could actually bring relief to canadians quicker

00:12:26.280 than what was actually happening in in this delayed fashion the liberals gave us you're right one thing

00:12:34.380 canadians need to remember is the conservatives have put our country first that we we put partisanship

00:12:41.520 aside whenever it came to helping families and businesses whether particularly in the first wave

00:12:47.520 but the the knee-jerk reaction for mr trudeau and his group to to just ignore democracy and ignore parliament

00:12:55.520 has been terrible in fact it was our pushing that turned the wage subsidy from just a 10 wage subsidy

00:13:03.520 that wouldn't have saved any jobs quite frankly we pushed to get it to 75 the very fact that the liberals took weeks

00:13:10.520 to do that is a big reason why we have several hundred thousand more people unemployed than needed

00:13:18.520 businesses were worried so they put everyone onto the serve rather than take the wage subsidy in many cases

00:13:24.520 since last may we pushed as you know jamie for changes to the to the rent subsidy program because we all

00:13:32.520 in all of our ridings you're riding my riding coast to coast we heard about how many landlords were not

00:13:38.520 passing on the benefit to their to their tenants and you had small often family-owned businesses struggling

00:13:44.520 had they not uh had they listened faster and then had trudeau not prorogued parliament

00:13:50.520 that the bill that is is going through now to to fix that program we had proposed it last spring

00:13:56.520 just think of how many thousands of small businesses might have survived if they had actually listened

00:14:02.520 and that's what the opposition's meant to do and so we we have voted with them sometimes as you know with very little uh debate

00:14:10.520 it's hard for conservatives fiscal conservatives like us to to vote on a 50 billion dollar package with only five hours of debate

00:14:20.520 we were putting the country first and we really hoped the liberals would fix gaps in these programs

00:14:28.520 time after time again it showed they they they didn't care and they they favored large corporate interest over the small and medium

00:14:36.520 sized player way too many times and i think we're going to see a prolonged recession because of of their slow and and

00:14:44.520 unstrategic approach to the recovery programs well i think that that that delayed response that delayed recovery

00:14:52.520 might be hindered also the fact that they've decided they are going to push forward with massive increases to the

00:14:58.520 carbon tax they've already increased taxes a number of times during the pandemic the carbon tax went up the escalator

00:15:04.520 tax on on alcohol which doesn't require parliamentary approval which is something i i just can't even explain how frustrated about

00:15:12.520 that i am uh but uh the there's no time to if in my opinion there's no good time to increase taxes during a pandemic

00:15:20.520 doing it multiple times is actually one of the worst things you can do and and actually hurts the most vulnerable the

00:15:27.520 people that they say that they they are fighting so hard to protect the carbon tax actually hurts them more

00:15:33.520 yes and this is something that mr trudeau and the liberal government doesn't seem to understand they feel that massive

00:15:41.520 government interference and massive taxation is is somehow going to set a groundwork for rehiring and investment in Canada

00:15:48.520 in fact they were raising taxes and running big deficits before covid we now know they were running a 40 billion dollar deficit

00:15:56.520 in good economic times before covid hit and they had raised taxes on people on small businesses on the escalator tax on alcohol they tax the

00:16:08.520 sharing economy um it's driving jobs and investment out of Canada especially the carbon tax a manufacturer in

00:16:17.520 lindsay or in bowmanville that may be making something for the auto industry or or specialized fabrication

00:16:25.520 they're competing against shops and mills in ohio pennsylvania all of these border states that don't have an input price for carbon

00:16:32.520 so now mr trudeau is going to double or triple that you'll see the giant sucking sound of jobs and investment running to the south we're

00:16:41.520 already seeing that 160 billion dollars of capital investment has left Canada under mr trudeau's watch pre covid so if we want to recover if we want all

00:16:54.520 families and businesses to crawl up out of the covid hole that we're in we need jobs we need investment we need risk taking

00:17:01.520 and we're not going to welcome that if we're vastly out of whack with the u.s if we're not seen as a place where you can invest get projects built and and earn a return for your capital so uh when we win the next election and we will we will earn the trust of Canadians ahead of that we will earn the trust of the Canadians ahead of that we will earn the trust of the

00:17:23.520 we need to really make sure the economic recovery is focused on jobs for Canadians doesn't matter what part of the country doesn't matter what industry we need people working

00:17:33.420 i've often said in this show that jobs aren't just created because a politician said so or bureaucrat says so or because they they believe so badly that something's going to happen

00:17:44.080 the the environment has to be correct to allow private sector growth to succeed and what you've seen you mentioned a number of examples

00:17:50.780 uh but also in our oil and gas industry our mining industry uh you know in so many decades past that has been the staple of our economy the anchor that which we could build from and have spinoff jobs and and opportunities and economic activity and all of them have been stifled because of this government and their priorities

00:18:11.260 100 percent yes in fact Canada's early wealth and prosperity was generated from our resource economy going back 100 years the incos the falcon bridges

00:18:24.020 i worked in downtown toronto in the financial community bay street we would not have that financial center if Canada didn't become an early place

00:18:33.460 for the exploration and financing of prospecting developing exploration and here we are now jamie now we are a resource exporting country energy softwood lumber minerals including rare earths we have the potential there we are the most ethical producer in the world there's only two energy

00:18:56.460 uh exporting uh exporting uh democracies right now canada and the united states and we have the largest commitment to carbon intensity reduction indigenous partnerships so the world will be consuming more and more resources and we need to say they should be canadian resources if you care about how something was extracted or developed if you care about partnerships with indigenous businesses if you care about

00:19:25.080 companies companies that will reduce their carbon intensity and have a transparent regulatory system where where you can actually trust what the provincial and federal regulators say

00:19:35.720 it should be our resources that should be the world standard and we can develop our resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the same time

00:19:44.940 mr trudeau's approach is to shut everything down to reduce emissions our approach is to partner to be smart and i think that's something i look forward to the conservatives putting some bold vision

00:19:55.060 out on many people might realize or might remember that the asian infrastructure bank which has taxpayer dollars is actually building pipelines uh across uh parts parts of china but yet we are hampering our own industry our own energy industry where the world could use more like you said could use more of canadian energy and and sends a message to the bad actors to up their game but yet again this government through policies like the tanker band bill c69 which is also hurting the mining industry in a certain

00:20:24.880 certain parts um these are just all cascading effects because of bad policy decisions and with the carbon tax you know this erin in ontario we've seen that disaster which was the ontario green energy plan which made ontario have some of the most

00:20:40.380 highest energy rates in north america pushing manufacturing out the door and pushing more people into energy poverty than ever before and those same geniuses are now in ottawa making policy again

00:20:52.640 you've described it perfectly the same people that ran the ontario vehicle uh into the ditch uh under the mcginty and win regimes are now behind the wheel of the semi-trailer a canadian economy and and there's even more damage that they're doing and what it is is it's ideological it is kind of saying mr trudeau

00:21:17.300 doesn't doesn't like it if you work uh and get your hands dirty in the resource sector in forestry we despite his bromance with barack obama we have no softwood lumber agreement he had several years to extend the agreement conservatives had negotiated

00:21:32.500 um he also in southwestern ontario told uh canadians that work in the auto and the manufacturing sectors that ontario needs to move past manufacturing

00:21:42.800 this is where you see the prime minister is totally disconnected from the dinner tables of haliburton or of durham where he doesn't realize that families the well-being of that family

00:21:53.680 often centers upon whether mom or dad have full-time work if if if they're paying their bills if they could save a little bit for a vacation when we can go on those again

00:22:04.220 um and the wellness of the families can contribute to strong communities whether they're small towns suburbs or cities and then that builds a strong country if you don't allow the opportunity for families to have employment opportunities you're really setting people back so

00:22:20.740 trudeau's approach of picking and choosing what jobs are good jobs what jobs they approve of is slowly not just dividing the country it's also eroding

00:22:31.560 our prosperity and we're going to be handing our prosperity and we're going to be handing our children debt deficits and very little opportunity

00:22:38.020 i've said many times before and anyone listening to the show uh now will will recognize this um when when the government

00:22:46.220 chooses or believes what they think is product uh progress or what they believe is the end goal the funding goes towards projects

00:22:57.540 it's almost like predetermined innovation rather than opening up to the private sector and allowing the

00:23:02.640 market to decide which which will inevitably create the best product for the best price and the best service

00:23:09.340 but yet with with the predetermined innovation you almost slow that down because everybody tries to

00:23:14.840 change their model to meet what the government wants which might not actually be the place you want to go

00:23:19.680 and end up in yes and you know nothing shows the failure of the trudeau government uh and when it

00:23:27.220 comes to picking winners and losers in the economy better than their war on small business and their

00:23:33.900 super cluster strategy you know a term that comes from the the 1990s actually uh with kitchener waterloo and

00:23:41.120 the mars center in in uh toronto which was funded with early investments by the mike harris government

00:23:47.220 uh that is going back a generation they're now going to say with the super clusters here's where we're

00:23:53.420 going to see innovation that ottawa is choosing trying to rather than to say let's encourage investment

00:23:59.660 let's encourage risk taking let's have some unique tax programs to incentivize capital into that area

00:24:05.280 um they've come up with an ottawa knows best buzzword super cluster scene that's been a disaster i was

00:24:12.600 talking to tech uh entrepreneurs last week and and people roll their eyes at minister bain's program

00:24:19.060 it's like right out of a rewind of the 1990s and what did they do by attacking small business

00:24:25.520 they were trying to call small business tax cheats and they forgot that two-thirds of canadians work for

00:24:33.440 a smaller medium-sized business so when you're actually causing those businesses to hold on to their

00:24:39.340 investments or capital more restructure or even move you're actually encouraging fewer jobs to be

00:24:45.340 created so this ottawa knows best tinkering with liberal insiders picking what companies they approve

00:24:52.940 of you know the we contract frank bayless they give contracts to their insider friends canadians have

00:25:00.220 had enough of that we we need to have a level playing field a competitive economy we want people to

00:25:05.720 invest here we've got the most talented workplace we're strategically centered with trade agreements

00:25:11.000 around the world and a great relationship with the united states canada should be a leading

00:25:15.140 jurisdiction for investment we just have to show that we're open to it so we only have a few more

00:25:21.140 minutes left and and it's too bad because i have a whole slew of questions but uh topics uh just

00:25:26.360 crossing the headlines here um justin trudeau the prime minister in his year-end interview seemed to be

00:25:33.420 hinting a lot like he is leaning towards a federal election uh very soon uh what are your thoughts

00:25:41.040 on that i i i know your articles quotes have said you're not exactly looking forward to one here

00:25:46.500 because we are in the middle of a pandemic but uh justin trudeau seems to be hinting at it at least

00:25:51.480 well sadly i've seen how the trudeau team operates enough uh to know that they're always going to put

00:25:59.940 their own self-interest ahead of the national interest as conservatives we'll always put the

00:26:05.400 country's interests the well-being of canadians first that's why we voted with some of the government

00:26:11.560 programs to provide help we tried to improve it why we've pushed for a faster response you'll remember

00:26:18.400 jamie in october the liberals tried to use an opposition motion to create a committee

00:26:24.660 as a grounds to create an election by making that committee creation a national confidence vote

00:26:31.740 that you know the government was going to fall over creating a committee um they've been trying to

00:26:37.760 game the system to have an election amidst a pandemic when people are really gathered around

00:26:44.760 the flag and they want the government to succeed they want us to get past the health crisis they want

00:26:49.880 us to start focusing on the economic crisis not to have an election you know there's families in

00:26:56.020 ontario and across the country can have very limited christmas time with families should we be lining up in

00:27:02.440 a month from now for for elections come on so i've said let's put the interests of the country first

00:27:08.200 um clearly mr trudeau let it slip that bill morneau resigned because he didn't want to be part of an

00:27:14.560 election it all slipped out inconveniently for mr trudeau and i i think canadians will see through

00:27:20.700 the cynicism if he tries to orchestrate his own election uh the next election should be based on

00:27:26.780 who is best suited to build canada out of this economic mess we're in uh most of it created by the

00:27:35.680 by covet to be fair but also there was already a drift and an uncompetitiveness in canada because of

00:27:43.100 mr trudeau over the last four years the country is also quite divided particularly in the west

00:27:47.920 who's best able to unite and get the country moving again i'm going to say to canadians it's

00:27:53.760 us and the conservatives we helped canada weather the last global recession we now need a serious

00:27:59.440 government focused on the economy and the well-being of of canadians for the next 10 years

00:28:04.320 not what happened over the course of the pandemic that was absolutely fantastic i always give people the

00:28:12.180 final word all every guest gets the final word so aaron i don't know how you build on that and

00:28:16.880 improve to that but uh any final words uh glad you're doing well well i'm just so proud of our

00:28:23.220 team jamie we're we're we're really a government in waiting we're united we're pushing for better

00:28:28.620 ideas for canada better response we're optimistic about our country it is the greatest country in the

00:28:34.220 world we've got some challenges but they're not insurmountable and we've got amazing men and women as

00:28:39.880 our mps we just need to add and have more after the next election so i'll end with just saying

00:28:45.000 thank you for what you're doing with the blueprint uh and merry christmas happy holidays and best of

00:28:50.480 health in the new year to to you julia and to to all families out out there uh from rebecca molly jack

00:28:57.480 and wexford and i excellent thank you very much erin o'toole leader of canada's conservatives

00:29:03.560 also the member of parliament for durham i've thus lost my voice thank you very much for being on the

00:29:08.700 blueprint we'll have to get you back on the show again i know you're busy but we do appreciate the

00:29:13.100 time thank you jamie excellent and remember we are not stopping new content every single tuesday

00:29:20.120 1 30 p.m eastern time please help us push back against the ever moving liberal agenda please comment

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00:29:43.480 thanks for joining us

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - December 23, 2020

The Leader of the Official Opposition

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