The Liberals’ Ongoing Vaccine Failure
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Summary
In this episode, our guest Michelle Rempel-Garner, the Shadow Minister for Health and a Member of Parliament for Calgary Nose Hill joins us to talk about why Canada is lagging behind other G7 countries on vaccines and why we need to do better.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprint. It is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your
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host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Corps with the likes Brock.
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Thank you once again for joining us. I know I say it each and every week, but we do have
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an amazing show lined up for you. I'll get to who our guest is in just one second. But
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remember, we need your help. We need your help to attract and reach this message to people
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reminder, if you can't watch it all today, right this second, please download it later
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on. Listen to us on platforms like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, you name it.
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It is out there. Now, to our guest, we welcome back to the show, Michelle Rempel-Garner, the
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Shadow Minister for Health. She's also the Member of Parliament for Calgary Nose Hill, a friendly
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face on the show. We thank you once again for joining us.
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All right. We're talking vaccines today. We're talking about procurement. We're talking about
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getting the economy back on track. Let's talk about vaccines first. A new poll coming out today
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shows 70% of Canadians believe the federal government is responsible for Canada falling
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behind on these vaccinations. What the heck is going on, Michelle?
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Well, Jamie, we're a year into COVID. And, you know, around the world, we've seen things
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like rapid tests, therapeutics and vaccines be developed so that we don't have to just be
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relying on lockdowns anymore. And I know a lot of people who are probably listening to this
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are just they've had enough. And so it is the federal government's responsibility to get those
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tools to the Canadians. Now, you know, I really wanted the federal government to succeed in this
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because, you know, I wanted us to go back to normal. But the reality is, is that anybody who's
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listening to this right now, if they wanted to go out and get a vaccine, there's not a lot
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available in Canada. And that's because the federal government has failed to secure the those
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life-saving products for Canadians. You know, what we've been focusing on now is figuring out a path
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forward. And, you know, I'm really glad to be on the show today to talk a little bit about how we got
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here and where we can go in the future so that, you know, Canadians have some hope.
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Well, it looks like according to the world rankings, vaccine doses administered per 100 people,
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Canada is behind, well behind Romania, and it's just ahead by a smidge,
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China and Russia. So that, what is, what has happened? How did we get to the point where we
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are being passed by countries and nothing, no disrespect to Romania, but to other G7 countries
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that are way ahead of Canada? Yeah. And I mean, congratulations to Romania, you know. Absolutely.
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Absolutely. I, so how did we get here? First of all, I, if you go back a year, I really don't think
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the Trudeau liberals took COVID seriously. Like you remember sitting in the House of Commons with me
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where, you know, they were repeating lines, like there's no evidence of, of human to human,
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human transmission of COVID, that the, you know, the masks don't work. We don't need to close the
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borders. So I really don't think they were taking it seriously. That's in those critical first couple
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of months. That's problem number one, because they weren't taking it seriously. I don't think that
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they approached the question of how do we get vaccines in any sort of way that resembled the
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type of leadership that you need to get the job done on a project like that. We didn't, most other
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countries, like if you look at the US, they had Operation Warp Speed, the European Union had these
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like big, fast moving task forces that got serious about that, that challenge. Canada didn't have a similar
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group until I think it was the summer. So, and during that time period, the Liberal government
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decided to invest only with a company that was essentially owned by the Chinese government. And
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that deal fell through. So what ended up happening long and the short of it is we wasted six valuable
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months. During that time period, we didn't invest in, in any sort of meaningful way, bolstering
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domestic manufacturing capacity here in Canada, which meant that we relate to the table negotiating
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contracts that the world had already negotiated with, with other, you know, the big pharmaceutical
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companies like Pfizer. And what that meant was, as you're seeing today, we're at the back of the line
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for receiving vaccines. We're completely at the mercy of other countries who are producing these
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vaccines for us to purchase, you know, which is why we're looking at, you know, potential export
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restrictions from the European Union on vaccines, which is where we get a lot of these vaccines.
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So we're not in a great position right now. You know, and I really, I think that our team,
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our party has done a really good job of saying we can't continue on this path, we need to admit
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that there's a problem, and then work to fix it. So that's been the focus of our team across our
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caucus, as you well know, over the last several months. And, you know, I'm glad to see that there
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is some movement, we need to succeed in this. But, you know, I, the Trudeau government should be held
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to account. I worry, Jamie, that like, you know, clearly, they failed on vaccines.
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I want them to succeed. But, you know, if they failed on vaccines so far, I worry about the
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economic recovery and what comes next. And I think, you know, I would just encourage anyone
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who's listening to this, regardless of how you vote, to really be holding the federal government
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Perfect. I'm going to get on the topic of recovering with the economy in just one second.
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But the other piece of the puzzle, too, and you mentioned it earlier on, is the ability to
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create and produce our own vaccines domestically. And there have been a number of companies that
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have expressed willingness to do that here in Canada. But they've been, their requests have
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been basically falling on deaf ears in Ottawa. And one of the companies, I don't, you don't have
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to mention that specifically, but there's one company in Calgary that has tried to reach
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out many times to the federal government that said, yes, we can take over the facility in
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Montreal, we can have vaccines coming out of that facility, and nothing.
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Yeah, no, it's, it's certainly a challenge. I mean, I don't understand why the strategy from
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the federal government was just to try and get vaccines from other countries. I mean, it doesn't
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take a rocket scientist to figure out, like, even just looking back at the start of the pandemic,
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countries around the world were hoarding personal protective equipment. Remember, we had all that
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trouble getting masks and gloves, and we, to a certain extent, we still are. So vaccines shouldn't
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have been a stretch to imagine like we need our own capacity. We actually just had the company that
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you referred to, the Providence Pharmaceuticals out of Calgary, they have the capacity to produce
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the type of vaccine that is, according to recent data, the most effective against emergent variants.
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And, you know, the testimony that they had at committee was really quite shocking in that,
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you know, we asked them, what, did the federal government take your call? And the answer was
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just one word, it was no. And that's crazy. So I don't know who was giving the advice and who was
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taking the advice to only be looking at, you know, purchasing from other countries, we should have
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been bolstering this. And is it possible? Yes, the United Kingdom, they were in the same boat we were
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at the start of the pandemic, they invested, they scaled up technology, and now they're producing
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their own vaccines and distributing it. So, you know, I, again, I think that this is a question of
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leadership. I don't think that Justin Trudeau, he clearly didn't have the leadership capacity to
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manage through this. We need strong leadership to address these challenges so that we're not in the
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same, having the same conversation in a year. And to your point as well, like, we also need to be
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talking about recovery. And these two things go hand in hand. All right, let's talk about recovery,
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because even right at the beginning, if anyone's been following along piece by piece, and it's been a
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very long year, I think what you said at the beginning is true, people are sick of the lockdowns.
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If we were, if we were going right back from the beginning, in addition to the border being closed
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right away, you and our previous health clinic, Matt Jenneru, were talking very loudly and very often
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about rapid tests. And this is a very important piece to this reopening of the economy.
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Absolutely. I mean, when I started asking questions about rapid testing in September, the,
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the first, you know, response, it was very flippant, I got from the health minister was,
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well, nobody has applied. And it's like, well, these, these things are in the precious commodities
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around the world. And Canada is a relatively small market, we have a very complex regulatory process,
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the government should have been going out and sourcing these valid, vital tools. And now I just
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don't understand why they haven't been deployed in areas where, you know, they're prone to outbreak,
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especially given the questions that we have on vaccine rollout. So, you know, why isn't the
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federal government taking some leadership on ensuring that they're deployed in, let's say,
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long term care facilities, or food processing plants, or that they're available to, you know,
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even firefighters associations, I met with the Calgary area, you know, fire, firefighter union. And,
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you know, right now, if somebody has any symptoms, they basically have to shut down an entire fire
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hall for two weeks. So, like, there's tools at our disposal that are much more effective,
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and more efficient than just mass lockdown. And here we are. And I, what I, what I don't like is
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that the government is asking Canadians to sacrifice more, when in fact, they should be doing better
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themselves. And I just, I think, you know, we've had a lot of really cold, dark days, certainly here
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in Alberta, I'm not sure about you, Jamie, people are tired, people, mental health is a concern, people
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have lost their lives and businesses, we need a path forward. And, you know, just these continued
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delays, it's not acceptable, we need a real plan. And, you know, I'm, I'm looking forward to the
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leadership that our party leader could bring to that question, but also that our team, I know that
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our team of caucus would not be taking no for an answer, or saying this is good enough. And that's,
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that's step number one. Absolutely. And it, you know, we talked about the recovery, and we need
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the small businesses to be there when they, when the, when the lockdowns start to ease up, or when
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we have vaccinations, or when we have rapid deaths, but we need them to be there. Let's talk quickly
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about your province, and the kicking that it continues to get by this federal government,
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Keystone XL pipeline, just to name one in a series, the LC 69, the tanker ban, we're talking
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recovery, you need the anchors of our economy to be strong. And this government seems to have
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a real disconnect as to the lives that are being impacted by these decisions in Ottawa.
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Yeah, I mean, I just, I think there's a lot of people in my community who feel like
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parts of the country don't care about them. And I mean, it's easy to get to that conclusion,
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given all the things that you just mentioned. I mean, I mean, it's almost feels like Ottawa has been
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on a campaign against Alberta. And at a time when, you know, there's a lot of global uncertainty,
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to put it mildly, you know, you look at the tensions that we have with countries like China
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and Russia, the, you know, the recent political turmoil that the US has gone through, this is a
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time for our country to be united. And certainly not at least acknowledging that Alberta was in a
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massive, you know, economic crisis going into COVID should have been step number one,
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we've seen no acknowledgement of that from this Prime Minister. And that's, you know, people are
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furious out here, as they should be. But, you know, for me, it's, it's, yes, Trudeau is the problem.
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I also hope that people in every part of this country will stand up for my province, I want,
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I want other provinces to champion my province, I don't want people just to look at the workers in my
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community and go, Oh, your jobs are dirty, or this or that. It's, we're either united or we're not.
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And we're coming to a point in our country's history, where we need to decide who we are,
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and standing up for the right of the people in my community to work in their chosen jobs,
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is part of that conversation. So this is a time we need to get really serious about recovery across
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the country, every job matters. But with particular care and concern for the people in my province,
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who have worked so hard to support our private, our country through equalization,
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through the production of energy, it's time that the country stands up for us. We've been there for
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the country for forever. And let's remind Canadians, wherever they are watching, listening to this
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program, that a strong Alberta means a strong Ontario, strong Ontario means a strong British
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Columbia, if we're having clean tech development, and innovation coming from British Columbia,
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we're having manufacturing in Ontario, we're having strong resource development in Newfoundland,
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it all comes together, we are unified by that. But you can't do it when policies are being
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implemented in Ottawa by an ideological Prime Minister that is intent, I think, on hurting our
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resource industry. And it could be mining in Northern Ontario and British Columbia as well.
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It just doesn't have to be natural gas and oil.
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Absolutely. And I just, you know, I think, Jamie, this is a question of leadership. You know,
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we, right now, I feel like, like, this crisis that we're in, a lot of people like haven't gone
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through a crisis like this in our country, blessfully so, like, like, we've been so blessed
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as a nation to have long periods of economic stability and peace. And like, this, this is a
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major upheaval. But I just don't think that Trudeau understands that I think, you know,
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he went into being a Prime Minister for the Vogue cover spreads for the, you know, international
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speaking gigs for the we charity tours, right? This is a time where he needed to sit down and say,
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okay, forget how we do everything, forget, take no off the table, we are getting a vaccine,
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we're getting rapid tests out. I'm not pointing fingers at other people, I'm taking this
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responsibility on myself. I mean, like, it's sort of this Churchill moment, in a lot of ways that
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we're just not seeing that leadership from, from him with regard to, you know, how he's managing
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the country. And so I do think that we need, you know, somebody who can lead. And at a minimum,
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Trudeau needs to realize, like, what he's doing is not cutting it, coming out of Rideau Cottage,
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and, you know, smiling and giving, you know, lies to the Canadian public, and then having that carried
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on CBC every day, that is not going to get us out of this. This is serious. And I know we're treating
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it seriously within our party. But people want hope. And that's what we have to give to them
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Michelle, I know you have to go question periods coming up, you got a couple questions, I don't want
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to keep you too long. I don't know how else you can build on that. But I always give the guests the
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final word. The floor is yours. I know I kind of took it away from the health part of it. If you
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want to bring it back to there, talk about kind of the vaccines, the kind of rapid tests, the economic
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Yeah, I just, you know, Jamie, I think getting messages out like this, it's so important. And just
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to anybody who's listening, again, if, especially if you're listening to this, and you know, you're not
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really politically active, this is a time to be politically active. This is a time to demand better from
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government, from everybody who's elected, because we, we can't afford another year of inaction.
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And I just, I really hope that Canadians understand what's at stake with vaccines, with the recovery,
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with all of these things. And just, just say enough is enough from, from, from the Trudeau
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liberals. We need better. And that's what we're going to fight for today.
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I couldn't say it better myself. Michelle Rempel-Gardener, the Member of Parliament for
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Calgary-Nose Hill, the Shadow Minister for Health. We always appreciate your friendly,
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familiar face on the show. You will welcome back anytime. And we do really appreciate your
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message and your enthusiasm for not only getting Canada back on track economically,
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but health-wise as well. Awesome. Thanks, Jamie. All right. Make sure you stick around for
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question period. It'll be shared on Erin O'Toole, our leaders page very shortly. And in regards to
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this program, we do appreciate you coming on. We do appreciate your, your, your participation in
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