The Candice Malcolm Show - Trudeau goes off the rails against independent media

00:00:00.000 The Debates Commission is the biggest loser in last night's French debate, Trudeau goes

00:00:04.180 off the rail against independent media, and we'll talk about how strategic voting could

00:00:08.420 be the Conservatives' Achilles heel.

00:00:10.200 I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.

00:00:17.180 Hi everyone, thank you for tuning into the podcast.

00:00:19.640 Today it's a big day for us at True North because we have a live broadcast coming up

00:00:24.180 a little later on this evening.

00:00:25.540 We're going to go live and give you analysis and live reaction to the English debate.

00:00:32.000 The English debate is happening tonight from 9pm to 11pm Eastern.

00:00:35.520 We'll be live at 8pm.

00:00:37.140 You can find us on YouTube or Facebook, so make sure you check that out.

00:00:40.880 Now, today I want to talk about the French debate that happened last night because really,

00:00:46.020 let me just tell you, it was awful.

00:00:47.540 It was awful.

00:00:48.200 I watched it and I sort of wish I didn't.

00:00:50.520 I can't imagine how many people watched it.

00:00:52.360 I don't think very many.

00:00:53.760 The format was terrible.

00:00:54.800 There were way too many people on stage.

00:00:56.600 Look, if we want to have a debate about ideas where we invite all the candidates, all the

00:01:01.840 national leaders, that's one thing.

00:01:03.440 And we can have a debate, definitely include Maxime Bernier.

00:01:06.060 It was ridiculous that one poll yesterday was showing that he was polling at 10% and

00:01:10.500 yet he wasn't at the debate.

00:01:11.980 Meanwhile, we have Anna May Paul, the leader of the Green Party, polling somewhere around

00:01:15.700 2-3% and she was there.

00:01:17.860 She was really out of her place.

00:01:19.420 Look, I sort of feel sorry for Anna May Paul.

00:01:21.160 She has a pretty terrible party that seems to be going after her for her Jewish heritage

00:01:25.820 and it's just really ugly over the Green Party.

00:01:28.400 But watching her on the debate stage last night, she just seemed out of her element.

00:01:32.300 She didn't really have substantive ideas on most issues.

00:01:35.380 I could say the same thing about Jagmeet Singh.

00:01:37.220 I could say the same thing about Yves Blanchet, the bloc leader.

00:01:40.180 None of them really, really had substantive ideas for the country and looking at the stage

00:01:45.640 last night with the five leaders, they basically all agreed on most of the issues.

00:01:50.340 Most of the things that they were talking about, they all sort of agreed.

00:01:53.140 They had little differences here and there with their plans and in order to really care

00:01:57.060 about those differences, you actually have to trust the politicians to actually follow

00:02:00.620 through on their issues.

00:02:02.320 It's totally irrelevant to hear what the NDP thinks about an issue because they're never

00:02:05.780 going to be, they're never going to form government.

00:02:07.960 Jagmeet Singh is not going to become the prime minister.

00:02:09.640 So it's sort of irrelevant and it lost its flow because there's just too many people

00:02:14.060 on stage.

00:02:14.440 So I would have much preferred to have two different debates, one with just Trudeau and

00:02:19.640 Erin O'Toole, the two people who might actually become prime minister and have a battle of 0.86

00:02:23.300 ideas between the two of them where they really hold each other to the fire and then have

00:02:26.980 another debate where we have all the party leaders and let them talk about all their

00:02:30.700 various different ideas.

00:02:32.160 At least Maxine Bernier has a different perspective on most issues.

00:02:34.900 So it would have been a breath of fresh air to just have something different on stage.

00:02:38.860 But instead, we had more of the same.

00:02:40.660 They spent half the night completely bashing Canada's energy industry, all trying to one

00:02:45.480 up each other about climate change.

00:02:47.640 And it's really interesting because the issues that conservatives care about, the issues,

00:02:51.280 True North's own poll, we asked and we found that the issues that conservative voters care

00:02:55.560 most about are government spending and debt and jobs in the economy.

00:02:59.280 And those two issues were just barely, barely touched upon in the debate last night.

00:03:03.280 So it was a total failure.

00:03:05.800 Now, for me, I'll just say the most interesting part of the debate wasn't the actual debate

00:03:08.960 because the format was just, like I said, so bad.

00:03:12.200 There was barely any pushback.

00:03:13.680 There wasn't really any holding anyone's feet to the fire.

00:03:15.980 There was sort of one passionate moment where Justin Trudeau really lost it at the bloc leader

00:03:20.520 and said that he's just as much of a Quebecer as the bloc leader.

00:03:24.500 I mean, to anyone outside of Quebec, you just kind of roll your eyes at how much these guys

00:03:28.460 pander to Quebec and how obsessed they are with their French Quebec identity.

00:03:33.420 You know, this is supposed to be a national debate.

00:03:34.660 You're supposed to be prime minister of Canada.

00:03:36.160 The most passionate moment from Trudeau was him defending being a Quebecer.

00:03:40.820 Like, OK, like, good for you.

00:03:43.180 We all know you're from Quebec, Justin Trudeau.

00:03:45.740 But for me, the interesting part, again, is the scrums afterwards.

00:03:49.300 That's when journalists get to ask their own questions.

00:03:51.820 Again, most journalists are just as boring as these politicians, so most of the questions

00:03:55.740 weren't that interesting.

00:03:57.020 But, of course, as you probably saw, the Rebel News had an emergency court injunction, and

00:04:02.060 they were, once again, accredited at the last minute.

00:04:04.320 So if you followed True North for a while, you know that back in 2019, we were in the same

00:04:08.420 position.

00:04:09.060 Our reporter, Andrew Lawton, was also barred back then.

00:04:12.140 We took him to court.

00:04:12.920 I took him to court.

00:04:13.640 I was in the federal court in Toronto in 2019, and we won.

00:04:17.660 We got our journalists in.

00:04:18.620 And it was a great victory for us here at True North, but also for free speech and media

00:04:23.260 independence, free press all over Canada, journalists all over Canada.

00:04:27.920 So that was a great moment.

00:04:28.880 They did it again this year.

00:04:30.220 And once again, a federal judge said no to the Debates Commission.

00:04:33.780 No, you cannot pick and choose who is and who isn't a journalist.

00:04:36.760 The Rebel are just as much journalists, and they deserve to be there.

00:04:39.940 So it was great to see the Rebel. 1.00

00:04:41.440 They add a little bit of color, a little bit of character.

00:04:43.880 And unfortunately for the Rebel and their journalists, some of the politicians in the

00:04:49.460 debate last night just flat out refused to answer their questions.

00:04:51.840 So I'm talking about Jagmeet Singh, the NDP leader.

00:04:53.940 He was asked a very substantive question about his support of big pharma.

00:04:57.520 Traditionally, the left has not been big fans of big pharma.

00:05:00.620 And Singh himself rails into billionaires and big transnational corporations.

00:05:04.800 And yet, when it came to big pharma, he seems to be an ally.

00:05:07.820 So Rebel asked a good question.

00:05:09.760 Singh said he wasn't going to answer.

00:05:10.820 Unfortunately, for Singh, the very next question was also from another Rebel reporter who put

00:05:15.200 a great question to him and just said, look, this question isn't from me.

00:05:18.460 This question isn't from the Rebel.

00:05:19.760 This question is from millions of Canadians that want to know your opinion on this.

00:05:23.500 Don't they matter?

00:05:24.340 You know, you're the guy that says that we shouldn't marginalize people, that we should

00:05:27.980 be diverse and inclusive.

00:05:29.800 And yet here you are refusing to answer questions from someone because you perceive them as being 1.00

00:05:33.360 right wing and sort of made Singh look really stupid, made him look like the airhead 1.00

00:05:37.880 that he is. 1.00

00:05:38.620 Once again, he refused to answer that question. 0.99

00:05:40.240 So that was pretty pathetic to see. 0.93

00:05:42.020 Here we have a debate where they refuse to let a right wing leader in and they refuse to 0.96

00:05:46.120 answer questions from right wing media.

00:05:48.200 They're completely excluding part of the country.

00:05:51.080 And that's not good to see.

00:05:53.560 Now, Trudeau's own Andrew Lawton was in there.

00:05:55.560 He asked some great questions.

00:05:56.620 He got a question to Justin Trudeau where he asked about genocide in Canada's history,

00:06:00.680 whether Trudeau believed that we were committing genocide.

00:06:03.320 Of course, Trudeau gave a non-answer.

00:06:04.820 And he asked a good question to Jagmeet Singh, the NDP leader, about Singh's position on hate

00:06:10.260 speech and regulating free speech on the internet.

00:06:12.860 So head on over to tnc.news to check out those clips because you're going to want to watch them.

00:06:16.800 They're really great.

00:06:17.800 I want to show you one clip from the debate last night.

00:06:20.360 This is what it looked like when a rebel journalist got a question to Justin Trudeau.

00:06:25.160 And you can really see how Justin Trudeau turns and starts really just lashing out at this

00:06:30.800 reporter, blaming them for spreading misinformation, saying that they don't report the science.

00:06:35.660 And then how he pivots to start complimenting his friends in the media and really trying to,

00:06:40.820 you know, make them feel good, make them feel warm and fuzzy.

00:06:43.360 I mentioned this the other day on the show as well, that Trudeau loves to do this.

00:06:46.320 He loves to give a little shout out to the journalists, make them all know that he's on

00:06:50.280 their side, that he loves them.

00:06:52.180 It's not these journalists that are the problem.

00:06:54.280 Trudeau loves journalists.

00:06:55.280 He just doesn't like the right-wing journalists.

00:06:57.420 And he really, really demonizes, again, Canadians who don't want to get vaccinated, Canadians

00:07:02.240 who are skeptical of vaccines, Canadians who are sick of lockdowns.

00:07:06.040 You can see how he pivots and really starts demonizing, starts dividing and pitting Canadians

00:07:11.300 against each other.

00:07:11.880 So let's show that clip.

00:07:12.900 The only reason that I'm allowed to ask you this question is because today the federal

00:07:17.800 court ruled that the government doesn't have the right to determine who is or is not a

00:07:22.300 journalist.

00:07:23.440 This is the second election in a row that the court has to overturn your government.

00:07:28.520 Do you still insist on being able to make that decision and why?

00:07:33.840 First of all, questions around accreditation were handled by the press gallery.

00:07:38.820 Organizations like yours that continue to spread misinformation and disinformation on the science

00:07:47.900 around vaccines, around how we're going to actually get through this pandemic and be there

00:07:54.600 for each other and keep our kids safe is part of why we're seeing such unfortunate anger

00:08:02.220 and lack of understanding of basic science.

00:08:06.540 Your, I won't call it a media organization, your group of individuals need to take accountability

00:08:14.360 for some of the polarization that we're seeing in this country.

00:08:19.780 And I salute all extraordinary, hardworking journalists that put science and facts at the heart of what

00:08:26.960 they do and ask me tough questions every day, but make sure that they are educating and informing

00:08:34.640 Canadians from a broad range of perspectives, which is the last thing that you guys do.

00:08:39.900 So again, you can see Trudeau straight up blaming the rebel for the rallies, for the protests,

00:08:45.120 for the anger that he's seen on the campaign trail at his rallies.

00:08:48.840 Again, this is Trudeau just trying to divide Canadians, pit us against each other, and really

00:08:54.100 creating a boogeyman out of the rebel, saying that they're to blame for all the problems

00:08:57.700 in the world.

00:08:58.620 It's kind of scary to see a leader of a party, the prime minister of Canada, really targeting

00:09:03.800 and coming down on one specific organization.

00:09:06.580 Now, regardless of your view of the rebel, love them or hate them, if you think they're

00:09:09.820 legitimate journalists or you think they're just provocateurs, it's still a little scary,

00:09:13.720 a little disconcerting to see the prime minister of Canada, the leader of a political party,

00:09:18.240 really demonizing and coming down on one media outlet, sort of blaming them for all the troubles

00:09:23.940 in Canada.

00:09:25.260 That should make you feel uneasy, regardless of what you think of the rebel.

00:09:29.000 Now, I want to shift gears a little bit here.

00:09:31.640 So yesterday on the show, we told you about the exclusive, independent and scientifically valid

00:09:36.220 poll that True North commissioned about the election.

00:09:38.760 We told you about how the liberals blew a spectacular lead in the campaign and how it's too close

00:09:43.300 to call.

00:09:43.580 The election is too close to call.

00:09:44.880 Our poll had the conservatives up by two points, but the way that the vote is distributed,

00:09:48.960 really it could become a minority liberal government or a minority conservative government.

00:09:52.920 It's too close to call.

00:09:53.740 Right now, what we saw was that young male voters have really come over to support the conservatives.

00:09:59.080 Meanwhile, the liberals have maintained their support of older women, women over 55.

00:10:03.620 And we also tapped into that huge gain of support by the PPC, by the People's Party and Maxine

00:10:09.420 Bernier's party, as he's seen a big grow in his popularity at the expense of the other

00:10:14.240 protest parties, the ones that were included in the debate while Maxine Bernier was excluded.

00:10:19.200 Well, today we're going to dig even deeper into that national poll.

00:10:22.280 And to do that, I am joined by Hamish Marshall.

00:10:24.640 Hamish, nice to see you.

00:10:25.820 Great to see you.

00:10:26.440 See you, Candice.

00:10:27.040 So one of the issues that you asked Canadians about and you identified was what issues do

00:10:32.320 they care about in this election?

00:10:34.060 What issues are driving the vote in 2021?

00:10:36.460 So why don't you help us by breaking that down, Hamish?

00:10:38.800 Sure.

00:10:39.140 So we asked people what are the two issues that they think are most important facing Canada

00:10:43.260 today.

00:10:44.520 Number one, probably not a giant surprise, is getting through the COVID-19 pandemic.

00:10:49.540 30% say that climate change and the environment is one of the most important issues.

00:10:56.000 30% followed by government spending and debt at 25% and then affordability and the cost

00:11:00.980 of living behind that and jobs in the economy.

00:11:04.180 But what's really interesting about this actually is what issues you care about varies a great

00:11:09.920 deal depending on who you're voting for.

00:11:11.900 So conservatives care a lot about government spending and debt.

00:11:15.440 It's their number one issue by a long way.

00:11:16.880 51% of conservatives say it's one of those two most important issues, followed by jobs in

00:11:22.860 the economy at 32%, and then COVID comes third at 28%.

00:11:27.820 Whereas liberals care about something else entirely.

00:11:30.960 Liberals really care about the COVID pandemic.

00:11:33.560 And that's actually one of the reasons, 52% of them say it's the most important issue.

00:11:38.020 What's actually interesting about that is that liberals were most concerned with the pandemic.

00:11:41.960 And I think that's one of the reasons why calling an early election has backfired in Trudeau and

00:11:47.260 turned off some liberal voters or dampened some enthusiasm, perhaps a little bit, because

00:11:51.920 they're the ones that care the most about it, and holding an election in the middle of it

00:11:55.700 maybe doesn't jive with that.

00:11:59.020 They also care awful about climate change and the environment.

00:12:01.460 45% say it's one of the top two issues.

00:12:03.440 And then health care, outside of excluding COVID, is the number three issue.

00:12:09.660 The other thing that jumped out for me is that issues that have been talked a lot about in

00:12:13.280 the media aren't necessarily cutting through to Canadians.

00:12:17.700 So obviously, we've had a big blow up in Afghanistan and the fall of the Taliban and foreign affairs

00:12:23.060 in the front pages of the newspapers, leading the newscasts for much of the last month.

00:12:27.900 But only 2% of Canadians say it's one of the two most important issues.

00:12:32.320 And then Indigenous reconciliation, which we heard an awful lot about in the spring, and

00:12:36.740 a lot of pundits were saying it was going to be a dominant issue of the campaign.

00:12:40.240 Again, only 7% say it's one of the most important issues.

00:12:44.380 So that shows that often media-driven issues aren't what people actually care about.

00:12:52.260 The other thing that we asked that I think was very interesting is we asked people, what

00:12:55.940 about the lockdowns?

00:12:57.940 Had lockdowns changed their view about government?

00:13:00.720 And we basically give them the choice between choosing between lockdowns made them more

00:13:04.520 concerned about the power of government.

00:13:06.540 35% of Canadians say that lockdowns made them more concerned about the power of government.

00:13:11.220 But 65% say that lockdowns made them grateful that government has the power to take steps to

00:13:20.580 look after them.

00:13:21.780 So not a super strong result.

00:13:24.160 But it is encouraging that there's 35% of Canadians that have that freedom-focused approach.

00:13:29.080 What's most interesting about that is Quebec, where we've seen some of the biggest anti-lockdown

00:13:33.140 protests.

00:13:34.320 Actually, that number who are more concerned about the power of government has risen, is

00:13:38.260 even greater.

00:13:39.300 It's 48% of Quebecers are more, lockdowns have been more concerned about the power of government.

00:13:44.980 Maybe that's because historically, Quebecers have been more okay with the power of the state,

00:13:49.700 and they've got bigger room to grow in terms of concern.

00:13:52.140 But it certainly makes an interesting point that what's going on in Quebec in terms of

00:13:57.680 the big protests is real and is concerned to a lot of people.

00:14:01.260 And maybe, just maybe, that can help Maxime Bernier and the PPC, especially in his own

00:14:06.460 riding.

00:14:07.320 He's got a long way to go, so we'll see.

00:14:08.760 I'm not making a prediction that he's going to run off with it.

00:14:10.720 But it does show that there's a fertile ground for his message there.

00:14:14.920 Well, and everyone was circulating that poll yesterday that showed that the PPC was at

00:14:18.520 10% nationally.

00:14:20.100 Now, I know that our poll showed something a little different.

00:14:22.980 I think we were something around 4% or maybe it was 6%.

00:14:26.000 I can't exactly remember.

00:14:27.060 But still, definitely growth and a lot more appetite for Bernier's message than in 2019.

00:14:35.540 Oh, one of the interesting things that you tapped in on in this poll, Hamish, is the

00:14:40.920 idea of strategic voting.

00:14:42.500 So every election, especially when it looks like a conservative is doing well and they

00:14:46.160 might even win, we fall back to that old liberal strategic tactic of scaring progressive voters

00:14:53.620 and getting them to strategically vote in favor of the liberals.

00:14:58.240 You asked a couple questions about this in the poll.

00:15:00.760 So what did we hear about strategic voting?

00:15:02.500 So we asked everybody who said they were voting either Green or NDP, we said, if it looks like

00:15:07.800 the conservatives are going to win, would you vote for the liberal candidate in your

00:15:12.420 writing in order to stop a conservative government or conservatives from winning?

00:15:17.520 And the answer is, on the whole, a lot of them would.

00:15:21.160 20% say they're very likely to do so.

00:15:23.900 Another 21% say they're moderately likely to do so, which means overall it's 59% who say

00:15:29.060 they're not really likely to do so.

00:15:30.320 But, you know, if you take the NDP vote and the Green vote combined, even if just that

00:15:35.180 20% say they're very likely to do that to stop the conservatives, they'll move to the

00:15:39.020 liberals, that works out to 4.6% of the vote.

00:15:42.080 If you add 4.6% of the popular vote on where the liberals are sitting today, we're in an

00:15:47.080 environment where the liberals will be able to win the election by two or three points,

00:15:51.680 assuming that everything else stays the same.

00:15:54.020 So this is going to be a huge focus of the liberal campaign over the next 10 days.

00:15:59.380 It's going to be a big focus of Trudeau in the debate tonight in order to drive those

00:16:05.560 voters over.

00:16:06.420 We've already seen the NDP vote drift down.

00:16:09.280 We've got them at 20% previous polls earlier in the campaign of a 22, 23.

00:16:14.240 So I think somebody once had them at 24.

00:16:16.060 So they're already drifting down.

00:16:18.560 The liberals have got a little bit of their mojo back.

00:16:20.300 If they can continue that trend, pick up another 3% or 4%, it's going to be very, very

00:16:25.640 difficult.

00:16:26.600 It faces a big, big strategic issue for O2O.

00:16:30.880 Wow, that's really interesting.

00:16:32.400 And again, yeah, the final week of the campaign coming up next week, that's something that

00:16:35.900 we're definitely going to be watching.

00:16:37.520 Well, Hamish, I really appreciate you joining us to break down the poll.

00:16:40.460 It was really interesting.

00:16:41.720 And tonight is the big night.

00:16:43.140 We're going to be going live during the debate before and after.

00:16:46.200 Hamish will be there with me the whole night to break everything down and to provide

00:16:49.820 that analysis.

00:16:50.600 So make sure you tune in starting at 8 p.m. Eastern.

00:16:53.760 Thank you so much, Hamish, for joining us.

00:16:56.040 My pleasure.

00:16:56.660 And tonight's going to be a lot of fun.

00:16:57.980 Absolutely.

00:16:58.520 All right.

00:16:58.820 Thank you so much for joining us and see you again later tonight.

00:17:01.040 I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.

The Candice Malcolm Show - September 10, 2021

Trudeau goes off the rails against independent media

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