True North’s Investigative Reporting EXPOSES Critical Race Theory in Canada
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Summary
Sue Ann Levy is a two-time investigative reporting award winner and a nine-time winner of The Toronto Sun's Reader Choice Award for news writing. She recently retired after 30 years of investigative reporting and writing columns for the Toronto Sun and Post-Medium.
Transcript
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True North has been sounding the alarm bell about critical race theory, its presence in our schools
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and the threat posed by the woke left for a very long time. Today we'll talk to one of the
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reporters on the front lines of this issue. I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm
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Show. Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning in to The Candice Malcolm Show. I hope everybody
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is getting excited about Christmas. Christmas is almost here and we're going to be delivering
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content to you right up until Christmas Eve. We have lots of great interviews lined up
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for the final week as well as the week between Christmas and New Year's. If you're watching
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this video on YouTube right now, I'm going to stop you right now. I'm going to ask that
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you please subscribe to True North. Don't forget to hit that little red notification bell as
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like True North, drop us a comment and share this video. Finally, if you're listening to
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this podcast, please don't forget to subscribe to The Candice Malcolm Show and if you're on
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Google or Apple Podcasts, please leave us a five-star review if you enjoy the show. Okay,
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today I am pleased to be joined by one of the star reporters here at True North, Sue Ann
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Levy. Sue Ann is an investigative journalist and reporter with True North. She recently retired
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after 30 years of investigative reporting and writing columns for the Toronto Sun and Post
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Medium. Sue Ann is a two-time investigative reporting award winner and a nine-time winner of Toronto
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Sun's Reader Choice Award for news writing. Sue Ann Levy made a name for herself by advocating for the
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poor, the homeless, the elderly and long-term care facilities and others without a voice and for
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fighting against the rise of anti-Semitism and the BDS movement across Canada. Sue Ann,
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thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Candice.
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So we were talking before air and you informed me that you joined True North in July. I have to say,
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I thought it had been longer. It feels like you've been with us for much longer, Sue Ann,
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but you're such a great addition to our team and we really are fortunate to have you reporting for us.
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So let's talk about the last six months that you have been on staff with True North and reporting and
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doing your investigations for us. Let's go through some of the biggest stories that you have broken.
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So from your perspective, Sue Ann, what has been the biggest thing that you've uncovered for True North
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since running our team? Well, I think the explosion of anti-Black racism initiatives has taken even me
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by surprise. The selective, we'll call it racism, where Black students are singled out, even though they
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comprise a very small part of the populations of the school boards in the greater Toronto area. We're
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talking about Toronto school board. We're talking about the Peel school board and all the initiatives
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and all the pandering that has occurred and all the time and resources that have gone into
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developing special woke initiatives to deal with Black students and Black staff.
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So that has actually really surprised me, but I shouldn't be surprised because during COVID,
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during the pandemic, a lot of these things were percolating behind closed doors. And, you know,
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and then I guess parents, a lot of parents and a lot of people in the public have just woken up to
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the fact that this is occurring now that kids have gone back to school this fall.
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Well, it's interesting because it was all, from my perspective, it was all in response to the killing
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of George Floyd in the U.S. the previous summer. And that sort of launched this huge social movement
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across the U.S. and it spilled over into Canada, into the U.K., into Europe, probably into Australia
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as well, where, you know, we were having discussions about police brutality and some of the issues around
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that. And it just seems like this thing has taken on a life of its own, where it's the new trendy
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leftist thing, critical race theory, you know, there's teaching in critical race theory,
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this idea that somehow if you're Black, you deserve different treatment, which, to your point,
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that's the definition of racism, to single out a group of people. You know, Canada is an incredibly
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diverse country. Toronto is one of the most diverse cities in the entire world. And here we are
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cutting out different policies, different rules, different treatment for one group of people.
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I can't imagine it's going to end well. I can't imagine it's good for anyone. It's certainly not good
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for Black students who are told that they live in an oppressive system that's against them.
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What are some of the specific things that you've uncovered here at True North? And, you know,
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I know it makes your head shake, but maybe you can sort of walk us through some of the crazy
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things that they're doing. Well, Peel School Board, for example, only teachers who have,
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I guess, intervened in some act of oppression, and you have studied equity and diversity,
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specifically anti-Black racism, are being promoted to principal and vice principal. So there's a
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specific selective view of what comprises leadership, rather than academics, mentoring,
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that kind of thing. That has totally been ignored. And that's happening this fall at the Peel School
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Board. At the Toronto School Board, the new director who came from Peel and is a Black activist and
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allies yourself with a Black Lives Matter movement hired Desmond Cole to give a series of talks. In
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September, four talks for which he earned $16,000 of taxpayer money, and during which he deviated into a
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rant about Palestine, and a very anti-Semitic rant. He even brought up me that I was the most hateful
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columnist in Canada, because I had covered other anti-Semitism at the board, and went on and on and on
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to the shock and chagrin of many of the people who attended. The director never apologized to the
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Jewish community. It was a terribly anti-Semitic rant. He did it on the Monday, September 20th,
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and then was allowed to continue with the two talks on September the 23rd, which was shocking to me
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Yeah, I mean, that's wild, and I know that you and Desmond Cole have not quite seen eye to eye,
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but he seems a little bit obsessed with you, Sue Ann, I must say. The fact that he just sort of
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randomly brought you up there was a little bit strange. I think you live rent-free in his head.
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And so, Sue Ann, you've covered some other big stories for us. The memorable one for me
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was this incredible story of the tent cities and the squatters who really took over Toronto parks.
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And, you know, I understand that the pandemic was a really rough time for a lot of people,
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and that a lot of people really struggled. The homeless population did increase, and it just
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seemed like a terrible way to deal with it by allowing people to live in parks. And as you reported,
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a lot of it devolved into crime. It wasn't even necessarily, you know, the people who were showing
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up weren't necessarily even the homeless people themselves. They were the hard-left activists
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that were just there for a fight against the police. And you covered this issue in depth. So,
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why don't you walk us through that story, and then let us know what the latest development is with
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these tent cities. Well, good news is that a number of the parks have been cleaned out for the winter.
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The bad news is that they're still occupying several parks in downtown Toronto. What happens is they
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move from park to park. And while I was, you know, with you, I had the fortunate occasion to go into
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Dufferin Grove Park, where there was a group of Indigenous people who chased myself and our videographer
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out of the park, screaming, you know, that we were filming their sacred fire. And for one thing,
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I didn't even know there was a fire there. But for the other, it really showed how these people have
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taken control of these parks and think they're their own, and they get very agitated because
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they, you know, they're upset with us coming in and writing about it when, in fact, they're public
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parks. The thing that concerns me is, aside from all the crime, the drug dealing, the unsafe conditions,
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unsanitary, the rats, there are hotel shelters that have been put in place across the city by the
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city of Toronto, costing $220 a night. There's one that has been very controversial down on the
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Esplanade of Toronto, which is a tourist area, a top tourist area, in the Novotel. Now, the owners of
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the Novotel, the Silver Hotel Group, have rented out several of their hotels, leased them out to the
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city during COVID because they, of course, weren't getting tourists. And that those hotels have been
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turned into a crime scene. It's absurd. So first of all, there are hotels where these people can go.
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And the fact that some are still in parks is just obscene, in my view. But then you've got these
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people in these upscale hotels, in tourist areas, in nice districts, law-abiding communities,
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just wreaking havoc on the communities. There's been crime. There's a group of people down by the
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Esplanade who live in, you know, very nice condo buildings attached to the Novotel who've documented
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weekly what's going on down there. Fires, arson, smash and grabs, bike. They have a whole bike ring
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operating out of the hotel. Drug dealing. I revealed a couple of weeks ago that they had found three long
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guns in the hotel. I mean, it's absurd, Candace, what is going on. And the mayor and council seem to
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be turning a blind eye to all of it. They put on a few extra police officers. But other than that,
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Well, the lawlessness is what is so striking, Sue Ann. And I remember when you went down to that park,
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Dufferin Grove, and you filmed it. You know, the attitude of the leftist sides, they're so anti-democratic,
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anti-freedom, that they didn't think that it was your right to film them. It's like, hey, look, I'm a journalist.
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I do have a right to be here. We're in a public park. Like, I can't imagine, you know, the alternative if
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a group of right-wing activists, you know, physically stopped journalists from recording them and tried to say
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that they don't have a right to do their journalism, what the response would have been. I know it would have been
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the biggest country, biggest story in the country, of course, when it happens to us, the other journalists
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don't bat an eye. But yeah, you alluded to something else that I think is a really troubling
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trend, and that is the enabling of hard drug use. And I know that this is a story that you've covered
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a lot. I know there was that crazy story out in Vancouver of a city councillor actually helping to
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hand out heroin and other very, very serious drugs on the streets of Vancouver. Where does this trend
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come from, Sue Ann? What is going on in the world where politicians enable this kind of hard
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drug use? It's wild. It is all coming up from the states, unfortunately. And our city, as I've pointed
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out in the past, is fast becoming like a Seattle, like a Portland, like San Francisco. Thankfully,
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there is a conservative mayor who's been voted in in Seattle who has vowed to clean up these
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encampments and the drug use. But here, unfortunately, we've got all these safe injection
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sites and harm reduction sites located in shelters, where homeless people are allowed to take their
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drugs, their illegal drugs, but safely. And they go into rooms and they're shot up with clean needles,
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then sent back out on the street. Or in the case of the shelters, they're allowed to roam the streets.
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And so they've taken their drugs, but safely. But what does this attract? This attracts drug dealers
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to these sites. And I've actually physically been down to some of these sites and seen where they
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operate. The drug dealers were operating out of a bus shelter at Dundas and Sherbourne, as I discovered
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a summer ago. So it's increased drug dealing. Of course, it's increased turf battles. And I take great
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exception to the enabling of drug addicts. They're supposed to be a component of rehab that's not
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included. The drug harm reduction industry is in just full throttle trying to intimidate those,
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including me, who speak up against this enabling philosophy. And you asked about what to watch.
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Well, the Toronto Board of Health is looking to get some sort of approval from the government of Canada
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to make illegal drugs, you know, to decriminalize illegal drug use in the city. So this is something
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we've got to watch over the next couple of months. And knowing Trudeau, and knowing his government,
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It's like, it's like they all outdo themselves to find out who can be the most progressive and
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the most insane. I mean, the idea that we're enabling drug use and saying it's okay, and
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facilitating it and creating incentives for it, Sue Ann, what does that say about us as a society? I
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mean, wow. You mentioned that Seattle elected a new mayor that was more on the conservative side.
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That's interesting. I know we have a couple of elections coming up in Ontario in 2022. So I'm
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looking forward to your coverage already, Sue Ann, but why don't you walk us through what those
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elections are? And, you know, who's running? Do we have any new candidates running for mayor in
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Well, not at the moment, but we are really crying for somebody to come in and clean up the city.
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I am not, as I've made it clear, a fan of the current mayor or the current council. I think
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they've bent over backwards to the special interest groups, and the city has deteriorated immensely.
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The roads are a mess. We've got drug addicts roaming the downtown core. We have, you know, as I've
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talked about, encampments. And this whole enabling philosophy has just taken Toronto down a very dark
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path. And there are a lot of people who would agree with me. But it sounds like John Tory is thinking
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of running again. And I think he needs a strong conservative to come up against him, someone like
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the gentleman in Seattle who came. And I think people are crying for that kind of change. So I'm hoping
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to see over the next couple months, someone come out of the woodwork. I'm calling, I'm calling for
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candidates. As far as Ontario is concerned, this is going to be, and I'll just backtrack to John Tory
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for a minute. Because here he is spending his time pushing vaccines for small children, instead of
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dealing with the real issues of the city. The man has become a vaccine cheerleader. It's actually
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sickening to watch his social media feed. And they've all succumbed to this pandemic. I don't know, they,
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they're so absorbed by the pandemic that nothing else matters. And the same for Doug Ford, although he's a
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little bit better with some other things. And I think that the election, the Ontario election is
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going to be a real test of how he's dealt with the pandemic, how he's dealt with leadership. Of course,
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what's haunting him is how terribly the long term care homes were afflicted by pandemic. I myself lost
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my father to COVID in a facility, not one of the worst ones, one of the better ones. But I mean, how many people
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lost their lives, it was 1000s of seniors lost their lives in these terrible long term care facilities. And I don't
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see much movement, frankly, in terms of how they've improved over the last year, lots of talk, not a lot of action. That
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should be one of the top issues. I'm not sure it will be because, you know, seniors don't really
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matter. It'll be, you know, how many crumbs he provides in terms of daycare, whether he appeals to
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the woke crowd, you know how it works. Absolutely. Well, Doug Ford is usually pretty good about not going
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down that path. Although when it comes to policy, he's much more susceptible to flip flopping where he'll,
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you know, he came out and he said no to the vaccine passports. He said he didn't want to divide society
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up that way. And then a few weeks later, he kind of came around to the expert opinion that that was
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the only way to go. And that's just one example. It has happened many times. So who are the major
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contenders against Doug Ford? Because, you know, he's got the name recognition. He's done a pretty good
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job, you know, just generally speaking. And, you know, we have a new liberal, a new liberal leader
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that's perhaps not as well known, and an NDP leader that's a little bit stagnant. So what, you know,
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do you think that either of those contenders have a real shot against Ford?
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No, I don't think so. I actually don't think so. I mean, the unions will try. They've always tried
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to rule Ontario, particularly the teachers unions. But I see their pushback very weak in terms of on
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social media and things like that. Andrea Horvath really should step down at this point and find a
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more inspiring leader. She's run a couple of elections. And I mean, last election was the election she was
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supposed to win or come close to winning. She didn't even come close. She's not inspiring.
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Steven Del Duca is just, I don't know where he is. He is just totally uninspiring, uncreative. He's not,
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he's not leadership material. And look at, they have a caucus of what? I don't know, six people,
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maybe. Kathleen Wynne is going to call it quits. Thank goodness she's not running again. And
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you know, who do they have? Who is going to run? It boggles my mind that the federal liberals did so
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well in Toronto, really, when the provincial liberals were just basically shut out. I can't
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understand. It's a great disconnect. Well, it's all that conventional wisdom that people in Ontario are
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so middle of the road that they're happy to vote. You know, if they vote federally for the liberals,
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are going to vote provincially for the Tories, or maybe it's because all the talented politicians
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for the liberals have gone federal because they have a better shot at winning there. Well, Sued,
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thank you so much for joining us at TrueNorth. It's so great to have you part of the organization,
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part of the team, and I know you're going to do great things for us in 2022. So thank you.
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All right. Thank you so much for tuning in. I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.