What’s in store at True North in 2022？
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Summary
In this final episode of the year, we look back at some of the biggest stories of the past year, and look ahead to what's in store for the new year. Andrew Lawton joins the show to talk about the biggest news stories the media got wrong, and the ones that the media blew out of proportion.
Transcript
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It's the last episode of the year for The Candice Malcolm Show, the last episode of 2021,
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so we'll look back and look at some of the biggest stories of the year, we'll look ahead
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at what we have in store for 2022, and we will give the viewers a wholehearted thank you for
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their support and the support of True North over the past year. I'm Candice Malcolm and this is
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The Candice Malcolm Show. Everyone, thank you so much for tuning into The Candice Malcolm Show,
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and this is the last show of the year, this is it, it's a big show, so I want to thank you for
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tuning in and remind you that if you're watching over on YouTube, I'm going to stop you right now,
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ask you to like this video, subscribe to True North, and hit that little notification bell so you never
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miss an episode. If you're watching on Facebook, don't forget to like the video, share the video,
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and head on over and like the True North page. Finally, if you are listening to this show in
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podcast form on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts or wherever you enjoy your podcasts, please don't
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forget to subscribe to The Candice Malcolm Show and consider giving us a five-star review if you
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like the content. It really helps us out. Alright, so here we are, the last show of the year, and to
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help us break down the news of the past year and look ahead at the year to come, I'm going to bring
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back my colleague Andrew Lawton. We had him on the show yesterday to talk about some of the issues
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that the media just really got wrong, the biggest stories of the year, and I wanted to bring him back
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to delve a little deeper into the work that True North has done. So Andrew, thank you so much for
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joining the show again. Great to see you again. Hey, happy to be here as we count down to the new year.
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Yeah, this is sort of our new year special since tomorrow's Friday we won't have a show,
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so I figured today I would have you on again. Yesterday we talked about what we thought were
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the biggest stories of the year that the media got wrong and the ones that the media blew out of
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proportion. Today I wanted to focus a little bit more on what we do here at True North. So let's
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talk about our own sort of coverage and what we focused on and what we did in the year that's
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just wrapping up right now. So to you, what were sort of some of the biggest highlights
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of the year in 2021 for you and True North? I know we touched on it a little bit yesterday,
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but I'm going to say the election, and for two reasons. Number one, elections are just
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like the Super Bowl for political wonks and media types. It's just, it's always non-stop content,
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non-stop news. We get to flex our knowledge about current affairs and history and all of that.
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But I'd say for True North especially, the last two federal elections have really been,
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in my view anyway, where we've been able to shine as an organization. Like we did in 2019 election,
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I think in a lot of ways, 2019 was our breakout moment to a lot of different groups. We went from
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an organization that was doing a lot of great work to one that was doing more great work and with a
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bigger audience. And we kept that up, I think, after 2019. And 2021 was no exception to that. I mean,
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we had me on the campaign trail covering the Conservatives, covering the PPC. We had people at the
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election night parties for the PPC and the Conservatives. We were accredited to cover
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the debates in Gatineau, which again, we didn't even need to go to court this time. So even the
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Leaders Debates Commission conceded this time that we were, in fact, real journalists. So it was a
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really good, I think, moment organizationally for us, but also in the content we were producing. We had
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an amazing team that was doing exclusive reports every day. Many of them were being picked up by other
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media outlets. Some of them even made their way into party platforms and party talking points,
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which isn't our goal, but it's a sign of our work being noticed and having an increasing influence.
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Right. You know, it's funny because in 2019, we sort of became the story and it wasn't that we
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wanted to. We really just genuinely wanted to report and be able to break news and tell the stories
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and connect with our audience in a way that journalists do. And for some reason, the Liberals
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thought that that was illegitimate or thought that we were activists or something. Their explanation
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didn't even really make sense. The media didn't bat an eye. They just said whatever. And we actually
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had to go to court. And I think for me, that was almost a distraction because again, I would have
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much rather been focusing during that election on breaking the news stories and sort of being at the
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forefront of all that. But it was such a righteous battle and it was so important that you're right,
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it did sort of put us onto the scene. So many people who hadn't heard of us before did,
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and part of it was the sort of almost quasi negative way that the legacy media reported
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on us. They always, you know, wanted to note that we were, we were right wing or some of
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them even claimed that we were far right, which we're obviously not. But, but you know, that,
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that, that, that helped with, you know, proving that we were really, we were here for the fight.
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We weren't going to give up. We're going to roll over. We were, we were going to report we won.
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And I think it was a victory for all Canadians for freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
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This year, this time around 2021, we didn't even have to do that because we've clearly already
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proven to the people who tried to block us in 2019. We've proven them wrong and proven that we
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do have a right to be reporters. And that's what we do day in and day out. And so that was sort of
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a relief and it enabled us to do the real journalism and the real work. And I must say it was, it was fun.
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It was really fun to do, you know, to see you out on the campaign trail, Andrew. I started doing my daily
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show for true north, which I continue to do. The Candace Malcolm show comes out Monday to Friday,
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uh, every day at Western. I'm not, I'm not doing one tomorrow because it's, it's a holiday,
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uh, new year's Eve, but typically, you know, every, every day. And it's great to keep my finger on the
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pulse of what's going on and comment on a lot more things than I used to comment on. Um, but also those
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live events that we did, we, we had a live event that the night that the, um, election was kicked off
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and you were in Ottawa. And you know, that was great. Uh, we covered the debate. Uh, you again,
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we're in Ottawa and Gatineau, um, covering it and we had the live team in Toronto and then we did our
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big, um, election night special. We, we did that remotely. We had people all over the country, but
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really, uh, yeah, exactly. So, you know, it was, it was fun. It was great. We got to show what we, what
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we're made of. And I think we really grew our audience and we continue to grow our audience. So, uh,
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definitely, um, I agree that the, the, the election was a big one, but, but there was a lot of other
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things going on this year, Andrew. Why don't you talk about some of your other projects? Talk about
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your documentary. I know that that was a big, um, focus for you. You spent a lot of time on it and,
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uh, it was fantastic. If you haven't checked it out, um, go check it out. But Andrew, I'll, I'll let
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you, I'll let you talk about it a bit more. Yeah. And it feels like so long ago now, but it was really
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just in the, uh, the summer that this came out. So this goes back to May, 2020, when the liberals put
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that order in council in effect, banning 1500 variants of firearms or what the liberals said were
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assault weapons, but, but weren't actually. And I fast forwarded to April, March, April, May,
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which was when we did most of the filming of this documentary assaulted Justin Trudeau's war on gun
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owners. And I told a different side of the story, which is in and of itself, what true North does,
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but I tried to explain the unintended consequences, or in some cases, perhaps intended consequences that
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the liberals had in advancing and championing these restrictive measures on firearms. And at the time
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that I recorded this, you had had businesses that had been saddled with literally tens of thousands
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of dollars, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory for months with no recourse
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in sight. The buyback that the government has promised even now, a year and a half later has
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not materialized. So businesses that are forced to hold on to this inventory, technically in May,
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the government's amnesty period is ending. So I will be a criminal as of May, for my gun,
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which the government says I need to sell back to the government, but isn't even giving me the means
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to do it. So all of these things that have been missing from the media's coverage of the gun
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issue in Canada, we delved into and it was originally going to be a just one part, and then it became two
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parts. And eventually we had four parts, looking at the effect on sport shooters on business owners,
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on a lot of other people, on crime and some of these areas that as well, we need to talk about,
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but we certainly aren't. And I think it was an important, how would I put it? It was important
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to just have an honest discussion about guns in Canada. Right, which is something that's just so
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poorly missing from our civil society, from our political class. They don't even want to talk
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about these issues. They all agree we should just do whatever the liberals say. And it was so great
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to see you being able to do that. And again, from the perspective of True North, being able to
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produce such a slick, professional-looking documentary that really did explore an issue
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in depth, told the other side of the story, the people that you interviewed, in some ways it was
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surprising because you kind of think you have a stereotypical view of a gun owner, and it's not
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that there's anything wrong with that view. Those are the people who are lawful gun owners who have
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just as much right to their property. But you also interviewed Olympians and women that use
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weapons of self-defense. You really went into it and showed the story in a great way, and we really
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appreciated that. Yeah, it was amazing. And again, this was a project that was a lot of work, not just
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the work of being on the road, because we traveled much of the country doing it. We couldn't do Atlantic
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Canada because at the time they were still closed, but we were in BC, we were in Alberta, we talked to
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people from Saskatchewan, Ontario, and I think we did a lot, and I'm so proud we did it. So I don't
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know what the next one's going to be. We'll have to, let me know if you have any ideas, but certainly
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especially coming to May, more on the firearms file. Yeah, and absolutely. I think that there's
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so many stories out there that sort of deserve a deeper dive into them, and I hope that True North
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is able to do that. You know, I was looking through, I had our producer put together some suggestions
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for the biggest stories of the year, Andrew, and something I almost forgot about, you know, you said
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that the documentary felt so long ago, it was a summer, the We Charity Scanner. Do you remember
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that? It feels like that happened like five years ago. But yeah, I mean, it was just this past spring
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that we learned that the Trudeau government rewarded We Charity, a charity that pays members of the
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Trudeau family to speak, and Trudeau himself has been involved with. They gave a federal contract
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for $912 million to run this volunteer program. I don't know why you need $900 million to get Canadian
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kids to volunteer, but that sort of blew up. And the interesting thing about this story
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is that Trudeau prorogued Parliament to escape scrutiny, basically, to stop the investigation
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by a committee into him. And yet, you know, we re-elected Trudeau to another minority, and
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it seems like the story has just gone away. Do you know if there's anything in the works
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to get to the bottom of the violations that occurred with this We Charity contract?
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I don't know. I mean, I remember that famous press conference of Pierre Paulyev and Michael
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Barrett, the Conservative MPs, standing up showing all the redacted documents that they weren't being
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allowed to examine the unredacted forms of. And when Trudeau hit the reset button to prorogued,
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it was very transparent what he was trying to do. He was trying to stop the investigation,
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but he also managed to get the attention off of. Media stopped looking into it. The opposition,
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they tried to, you know, stir up a stinky couple of times, but they couldn't really get any traction
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on it. And then you fast forward, there's an election, and it's as though everyone's forgotten
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it. It's the same model we saw in the lead up to the 2019 election with SNC-Lavalin. It's all the rage,
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it's a scandal, even the legacy media is covering it, and then just eventually people move on.
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And the idea of Teflon Trudeau is still very much a constant in Canadian politics.
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It's pretty wild that Trudeau is able to get away with so much, because even during the federal
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election, we barely heard anything about the We Charity scandal. That's just not what the
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Conservatives were focusing on. You know, they were trying to paint a positive picture of their
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own party, but they, I think, missed the mark by not holding Trudeau to account for his own
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scandals and, you know, the questionable things ethics-wise he does in government.
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All right, let's switch focus, Andrew, and look at the year ahead. So 2022 is going to
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be a big year. We know that we have municipal elections in Ontario. There will be the Ontario
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provincial election. There's big questions around whether or not there will be a leadership
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review federally with Conservative leader Erin O'Toole. There's been a movement for that
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to happen. Why don't we go through and talk about some of the big stories? And I want you
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to specifically talk about a new initiative that you are running with Danielle Smith, because
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you got me involved, and it was a great honour to be a little bit involved, not very,
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involved, but a little bit involved. So why don't you, well, let's start. Let's talk about
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Yeah, well, I hope you get more involved next time. So this was a project that actually
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came about just over dinner in Alberta with Danielle Smith, the former leader of the Wild
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Rose and now a veteran broadcaster in Alberta. And we were trying to figure out, at first,
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a way of how do we get all these people in Canada that care about issues pertaining to
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liberty together and to play ball. And then it became something else, which was how do we
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actually have an impact greater than what we're doing already and put our heads together.
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And this idea came up. Danielle Smith's been involved in a local charitable women's group
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in her part of Alberta, where every three months, 100 women get together and they all vote on
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a worthy cause. And whoever they all, whoever the majority votes for, every one of the 100
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women gives $100 to. So $10,000 in aggregate goes to whatever group this individual or this
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organization votes for. And they do this every three months. So in the course of a year, they're
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putting $40,000 towards worthwhile causes and initiatives. And we figured, well, what if we
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did that, but with groups that are doing things that matter to libertarians and conservatives?
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And we formed these two companion groups. Danielle Smith is helming libertarians who care. I'm
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helming conservatives who care. Now, truth be told, there's no criteria for entry. We simply do it
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that way because some people might not identify in one way or they may not like the other name.
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But the reality is, these are our groups that are focusing on liberty. And we had our first meeting
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and True North was one of the nominees for conservatives who care. Second place by one
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vote, which is always, I mean, I tried demanding a recount, but it didn't work. But ultimately,
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it's a way for people to get together and agree that, you know what, we need to do more and put some
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money behind groups that are not getting the big grant donations. They're not getting the media
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attention, but they're doing things that people on the right should care about. And I think one of
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the big nominees was the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. Canada Strong and Free
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was also nominated. And also some smaller groups and individuals that are doing things of note. So
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I think True North will probably be nominated in the future, and hopefully we'll be able to win one
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of them. But it's a really exciting project. And, you know, I'm just basically steering this group,
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but it's the members that decide where the money goes.
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Well, I just think it's such a great idea because, you know, it feels really good to
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donate $100 to charity. It feels even better to know that you're part of a group that has been
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able to raise, in this case, you know, thousands or tens of thousands, potentially, because that has
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such a big impact beyond. So the kind of idea of like coming together as a community, I thought it was
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great. And it was an honour to be selected to be alongside some of those sort of giants of the
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Conservative or Libertarian movement. So I applaud you for that. I think, you know, we should all be
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a little more charitable, and we should all work for others, not always just ourselves. So this is a
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great model. And I look forward to participating again. And I want to join as well and throw in
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$100 to whichever group wins. So can you tell us how can we get involved? How can we join your
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Yeah, so basically, if we're still setting up, I mean, this is very grassroots, we're still setting
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up a lot of the infrastructure to formalize it. But Danielle Smith has kindly agreed to maintain
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the list. So if you're interested, you can email Danielle, who's at Danielle at DanielleSmith.ca,
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or me, who's Andrew at AndrewLawton.ca. And we'll get you put on on the list. So Andrew at
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AndrewLawton.ca is the way I can make sure you get on there. But it's a lot of fun. And we're
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working in the next couple of weeks at actually getting up a database that's a little bit more
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structured. But we wanted to see who would actually come and who would participate. And
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that first session, I think we raised about $15,000. So a lot of uptake, and we're really
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I was honestly impressed that you had whatever it was 60 or 70 people on a zoom call in the
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middle of the day on a Saturday, you know, just just that alone was impressive. But then
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it's like, wow, all these people are given $100 as well. It's great. So congrats. Okay,
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let's go back to the news. Andrew, let's talk about what will be the biggest stories of the
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year. So I listed off a couple there with some elections and leadership review. What are you
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I think civil liberties will continue to be a big issue. I know that a lot of these court
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cases that have been launched for pandemic related measures have been kicked down the
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road because of judicial economy, they call it, you know, what courts can actually withstand
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as far as their bandwidth. But I know in the coming year, there are going to be a number
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of these big cases scheduled and we're certainly going to be covering it. I also think the China
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relationship is going to be a big one with Canada here because we've had a little bit
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of a shift, not a huge shift, but a little bit of a shift since the release of the two
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Michaels in the way that the Canadian government wants to address China. And I don't want to
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give Justin Trudeau too much credit, but he has taken a bit of a tougher line in a couple
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of comments relative to where he was even a few months ago. So I think that's going
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to be a bigger picture topic certainly, but one that I think we'll have some very specific
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reanimations of in the coming months and in the year ahead.
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Very interesting. Yeah, those will definitely be things to watch. And again, just continuing,
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I said yesterday that the biggest story of the year was just COVID, the fact that it's still
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a huge feature in our lives and seeing how or if or whether the government is willing to
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lessen its grip on society and whether we can fight and get civil liberties back. Certainly,
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I agree that's going to be a big one for me. I think I'm really curious about how the elections
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are going to go, especially just considering the sort of departure that we've seen from so many
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conservative leaders from core principles, whether it's Jason Kenney in Alberta, Doug Ford
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in Ontario, Aaron O'Toole is probably the worst defender federally, where the way that they lead,
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the policies that they take, the positions they stand on, have no real connection to principled
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conservatism. We don't see that sort of defense of first principles, the defense of the idea of,
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you know, conservative parties supposed to be different than a liberal party. They're supposed
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to take different positions. They're supposed to be able to defend, you know, the idea of limited
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government, the idea of free markets, the idea of reducing government spending, the idea of opposing
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heavy-handed government lockdowns and measures. And I'm curious to see, Andrew, whether there
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will be any sort of revolt by grassroots members of these parties, because I know just from my
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own conversations with friends, both in Alberta and Ontario and federally, people aren't happy with
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leadership. People aren't happy with the way that the Alberta government was arresting pastors in
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Alberta or the way that Doug Ford said adamantly he doesn't want to live in a split society with a
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vaccine mandate. And then a few weeks later, he introduced his own vaccine mandate. We now live in
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the society where we have a lower class, lower class citizens, we have first world citizens and
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second class citizens. And I think that for a lot of people, it's just not okay. So I'm curious whether
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there will be any kind of reviews in the leadership of someone like Jason Kenney or Aaron O'Toole,
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and whether the conservative base will show up at all for Doug Ford, given what he's done over the last
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two years. Yeah, those are two huge questions. Jason Kenney, just as a primer here, is set to be,
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have his leadership reviewed in April. So again, you know, a lot can happen in a couple of months.
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I know at the convention they had in November, there wasn't a leadership review, but there was
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some tension leading up to it of presidents of local associations not happy with Jason Kenney. So
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whether he can hold on to his own leadership in April is going to be a big story. And I'm going to
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be there, I'm going to be on the ground in, I think it's in Edmonton, covering that. So that'll be
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one to watch. And then yeah, going back to the fall or the summer, the Ontario election.
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I wonder what you think, though, about Aaron O'Toole. I don't think I've had this conversation
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with you, Andrew. I've been very open and let it be known that I was really unhappy with the
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direction that he took the Conservative Party in the last election and he abandoned principles. I
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think that he took a risk, he took a concerted effort to say, I'm going to swing to the left,
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I'm going to really hug Justin Trudeau on as many policies as I can. I'm not going to defend
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Conservatism. I'm going to really emphasize my progressive personal Liberal values. And the bet
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didn't pay off. It didn't pay off. The Conservatives lost. They lost worse than they did in 2019.
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We've seen little rumblings here and there. I know you had Senator Denise Batters on your show,
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but there hasn't been any kind of a big caucus revolt. And the Conservative members I talked to,
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they, some of them say, oh, I agree with you, that we know we should be more Conservative,
00:20:45.780
but we support Aaron O'Toole, we support Aaron O'Toole. Contrast that with just conversations I
00:20:50.160
have with like regular people. I was talking to a neighbor of mine the other day. I didn't know
00:20:54.140
she was Conservative at all. And she was just talking about how, what a horrible leader the
00:20:58.680
Conservatives had selected because he was so condescending and his attitude was so arrogant
00:21:03.100
and he spoke down to people. And this is someone that's pretty apolitical. And that was her
00:21:06.820
oppression of the leader of her own party. So I just, I just don't really see him connecting
00:21:11.820
with people. And yet the sort of party apparatus has really dug in to defend him. So anyway, long
00:21:18.240
question, but what do you think of Aaron O'Toole's chances of surviving and what do you think of the
00:21:23.620
leadership style that he's had for the party? Well, he's had, I think, and you note that
00:21:28.360
obviously Denise Batters has been the most prominent critic of his, but he's had a fairly ironclad
00:21:33.940
grip on his caucus. There has not been much in the way of criticism from his caucus. A
00:21:38.540
couple of Alberta MPs, Chris Workington and Shannon Stubbs have made some comments about
00:21:43.020
leadership and they were of course punished by not being given shadow cabinet spots. But
00:21:47.080
for the most part, there's been nothing. Everyone has just shut up. And you know what, that may
00:21:51.520
vote well for him if he's not getting the call from within the house and anyone feels like
00:21:56.200
if they criticize him, they'll be kicked out and they don't want to face that. They don't want
00:22:00.000
to have to confront that. So I do think that internally he can hold on. But remember, it's
00:22:05.500
the members who get the final say and that convention, he has the benefit of time because
00:22:10.120
it's not scheduled for him until 2023, which has been why Denise Batters and Mike Burt
00:22:15.380
Chen were trying to move it up because they know that the anger is fairly palpable now.
00:22:20.220
Well, exactly. And the whole point is that if you wait until 2023 and that anger doesn't
00:22:25.220
go away, it doesn't subside. And there's still people who, you know, the base, the people
00:22:29.040
who want to see conservatism defended are disappointed. And then, you know, the example
00:22:33.800
of someone like my neighbor who doesn't really pay much attention to politics, but when she
00:22:36.940
does, she noticed that this guy has kind of like a bad demeanor and that she didn't relate
00:22:42.700
to him. She didn't find him electable. You know, if all of a sudden you have that bubbling
00:22:47.340
over in 2023 and you want a leadership review, you could be cutting it pretty close to a general
00:22:51.920
election where you are in a minority situation. Minority governments tend to last two years tops.
00:22:56.500
And so it just seems like a bad strategy for the conservatives to wait that long.
00:23:01.440
Yeah, it does. And what they're doing or what Aaron O'Toole is doing, rather, is being able
00:23:06.480
to say when 2023 comes, oh, well, hang on, you got to keep me around because there could
00:23:09.780
be an election at any given moment. So it's delay, delay, delay. And in doing so, the imminence
00:23:14.860
of an election is really his greatest trump card for why no one should get rid of him and
00:23:21.140
Well, if that does happen, Andrew, he better win that election. He better do everything he
00:23:26.940
possibly can to win, because if he doesn't, then I don't even need to say it, but his political
00:23:32.740
career won't be going on for much further after that. All right, Andrew, well, as always, it's
00:23:37.540
such a pleasure to have you on the show. Thanks for helping us break down what the big stories
00:23:41.800
were and look ahead to 2022. We really look forward to the work that you're going to do
00:23:47.340
I can't wait. Happy New Year to you and keep well, everyone, you and those watching.
00:23:52.920
Thank you so much. And yeah, to everyone watching, thank you so much for your support of True
00:23:56.960
North throughout the year. We really couldn't do it without your support. It's so exciting
00:24:00.540
as a journalist to see Canadians willing to reach into their own pocket and fund media,
00:24:05.840
fund independent, honest media. And it's really heartwarming to say, you know, this is the
00:24:09.620
last show of the year. So I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone
00:24:13.020
who has supported True North or even just the people who continue to listen to our material,
00:24:17.940
listen to my podcast, share it, like it, all of those things. It's all good. It all helps
00:24:21.640
with the momentum and the movement and True North Nation. So thank you so much. Happy,
00:24:26.600
happy new year to you and your family, and we will see you again next year.