The Candice Malcolm Show - What’s in store at True North in 2022？

00:00:00.000 It's the last episode of the year for The Candice Malcolm Show, the last episode of 2021,

00:00:04.640 so we'll look back and look at some of the biggest stories of the year, we'll look ahead

00:00:07.920 at what we have in store for 2022, and we will give the viewers a wholehearted thank you for

00:00:13.940 their support and the support of True North over the past year. I'm Candice Malcolm and this is

00:00:18.520 The Candice Malcolm Show. Everyone, thank you so much for tuning into The Candice Malcolm Show,

00:00:27.320 and this is the last show of the year, this is it, it's a big show, so I want to thank you for

00:00:31.380 tuning in and remind you that if you're watching over on YouTube, I'm going to stop you right now,

00:00:35.240 ask you to like this video, subscribe to True North, and hit that little notification bell so you never

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00:00:43.460 and head on over and like the True North page. Finally, if you are listening to this show in

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00:00:52.940 forget to subscribe to The Candice Malcolm Show and consider giving us a five-star review if you

00:00:57.180 like the content. It really helps us out. Alright, so here we are, the last show of the year, and to

00:01:01.940 help us break down the news of the past year and look ahead at the year to come, I'm going to bring

00:01:06.920 back my colleague Andrew Lawton. We had him on the show yesterday to talk about some of the issues

00:01:10.820 that the media just really got wrong, the biggest stories of the year, and I wanted to bring him back

00:01:15.200 to delve a little deeper into the work that True North has done. So Andrew, thank you so much for

00:01:20.540 joining the show again. Great to see you again. Hey, happy to be here as we count down to the new year.

00:01:24.920 Yeah, this is sort of our new year special since tomorrow's Friday we won't have a show,

00:01:30.020 so I figured today I would have you on again. Yesterday we talked about what we thought were

00:01:34.100 the biggest stories of the year that the media got wrong and the ones that the media blew out of

00:01:37.060 proportion. Today I wanted to focus a little bit more on what we do here at True North. So let's

00:01:42.380 talk about our own sort of coverage and what we focused on and what we did in the year that's

00:01:48.580 just wrapping up right now. So to you, what were sort of some of the biggest highlights

00:01:51.860 of the year in 2021 for you and True North? I know we touched on it a little bit yesterday,

00:01:57.640 but I'm going to say the election, and for two reasons. Number one, elections are just

00:02:01.820 like the Super Bowl for political wonks and media types. It's just, it's always non-stop content,

00:02:07.340 non-stop news. We get to flex our knowledge about current affairs and history and all of that.

00:02:12.740 But I'd say for True North especially, the last two federal elections have really been,

00:02:17.360 in my view anyway, where we've been able to shine as an organization. Like we did in 2019 election,

00:02:22.800 I think in a lot of ways, 2019 was our breakout moment to a lot of different groups. We went from

00:02:29.460 an organization that was doing a lot of great work to one that was doing more great work and with a

00:02:34.000 bigger audience. And we kept that up, I think, after 2019. And 2021 was no exception to that. I mean,

00:02:40.520 we had me on the campaign trail covering the Conservatives, covering the PPC. We had people at the

00:02:46.760 election night parties for the PPC and the Conservatives. We were accredited to cover

00:02:51.560 the debates in Gatineau, which again, we didn't even need to go to court this time. So even the

00:02:56.880 Leaders Debates Commission conceded this time that we were, in fact, real journalists. So it was a

00:03:02.240 really good, I think, moment organizationally for us, but also in the content we were producing. We had

00:03:08.020 an amazing team that was doing exclusive reports every day. Many of them were being picked up by other

00:03:13.440 media outlets. Some of them even made their way into party platforms and party talking points,

00:03:18.780 which isn't our goal, but it's a sign of our work being noticed and having an increasing influence.

00:03:25.560 Right. You know, it's funny because in 2019, we sort of became the story and it wasn't that we

00:03:30.460 wanted to. We really just genuinely wanted to report and be able to break news and tell the stories

00:03:36.100 and connect with our audience in a way that journalists do. And for some reason, the Liberals

00:03:40.820 thought that that was illegitimate or thought that we were activists or something. Their explanation

00:03:45.000 didn't even really make sense. The media didn't bat an eye. They just said whatever. And we actually

00:03:50.300 had to go to court. And I think for me, that was almost a distraction because again, I would have

00:03:54.860 much rather been focusing during that election on breaking the news stories and sort of being at the

00:04:00.380 forefront of all that. But it was such a righteous battle and it was so important that you're right,

00:04:05.520 it did sort of put us onto the scene. So many people who hadn't heard of us before did,

00:04:10.480 and part of it was the sort of almost quasi negative way that the legacy media reported

00:04:14.840 on us. They always, you know, wanted to note that we were, we were right wing or some of

00:04:19.080 them even claimed that we were far right, which we're obviously not. But, but you know, that,

00:04:23.260 that, that, that helped with, you know, proving that we were really, we were here for the fight.

00:04:27.820 We weren't going to give up. We're going to roll over. We were, we were going to report we won.

00:04:32.220 And I think it was a victory for all Canadians for freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

00:04:36.640 This year, this time around 2021, we didn't even have to do that because we've clearly already

00:04:41.020 proven to the people who tried to block us in 2019. We've proven them wrong and proven that we

00:04:46.780 do have a right to be reporters. And that's what we do day in and day out. And so that was sort of

00:04:51.300 a relief and it enabled us to do the real journalism and the real work. And I must say it was, it was fun.

00:04:57.000 It was really fun to do, you know, to see you out on the campaign trail, Andrew. I started doing my daily

00:05:01.960 show for true north, which I continue to do. The Candace Malcolm show comes out Monday to Friday,

00:05:06.120 uh, every day at Western. I'm not, I'm not doing one tomorrow because it's, it's a holiday,

00:05:10.380 uh, new year's Eve, but typically, you know, every, every day. And it's great to keep my finger on the

00:05:15.680 pulse of what's going on and comment on a lot more things than I used to comment on. Um, but also those

00:05:20.740 live events that we did, we, we had a live event that the night that the, um, election was kicked off

00:05:25.680 and you were in Ottawa. And you know, that was great. Uh, we covered the debate. Uh, you again,

00:05:30.620 we're in Ottawa and Gatineau, um, covering it and we had the live team in Toronto and then we did our

00:05:35.620 big, um, election night special. We, we did that remotely. We had people all over the country, but

00:05:40.760 really, uh, yeah, exactly. So, you know, it was, it was fun. It was great. We got to show what we, what

00:05:50.500 we're made of. And I think we really grew our audience and we continue to grow our audience. So, uh,

00:05:55.520 definitely, um, I agree that the, the, the election was a big one, but, but there was a lot of other

00:05:59.680 things going on this year, Andrew. Why don't you talk about some of your other projects? Talk about

00:06:02.620 your documentary. I know that that was a big, um, focus for you. You spent a lot of time on it and,

00:06:07.380 uh, it was fantastic. If you haven't checked it out, um, go check it out. But Andrew, I'll, I'll let

00:06:11.060 you, I'll let you talk about it a bit more. Yeah. And it feels like so long ago now, but it was really

00:06:15.480 just in the, uh, the summer that this came out. So this goes back to May, 2020, when the liberals put

00:06:20.960 that order in council in effect, banning 1500 variants of firearms or what the liberals said were

00:06:26.520 assault weapons, but, but weren't actually. And I fast forwarded to April, March, April, May,

00:06:33.380 which was when we did most of the filming of this documentary assaulted Justin Trudeau's war on gun

00:06:38.500 owners. And I told a different side of the story, which is in and of itself, what true North does,

00:06:43.180 but I tried to explain the unintended consequences, or in some cases, perhaps intended consequences that

00:06:49.640 the liberals had in advancing and championing these restrictive measures on firearms. And at the time

00:06:55.960 that I recorded this, you had had businesses that had been saddled with literally tens of thousands

00:07:01.380 of dollars, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory for months with no recourse

00:07:07.500 in sight. The buyback that the government has promised even now, a year and a half later has

00:07:12.360 not materialized. So businesses that are forced to hold on to this inventory, technically in May,

00:07:18.760 the government's amnesty period is ending. So I will be a criminal as of May, for my gun,

00:07:25.020 which the government says I need to sell back to the government, but isn't even giving me the means

00:07:28.540 to do it. So all of these things that have been missing from the media's coverage of the gun

00:07:32.920 issue in Canada, we delved into and it was originally going to be a just one part, and then it became two

00:07:39.180 parts. And eventually we had four parts, looking at the effect on sport shooters on business owners,

00:07:44.180 on a lot of other people, on crime and some of these areas that as well, we need to talk about,

00:07:50.080 but we certainly aren't. And I think it was an important, how would I put it? It was important

00:07:55.040 to just have an honest discussion about guns in Canada. Right, which is something that's just so

00:07:59.980 poorly missing from our civil society, from our political class. They don't even want to talk

00:08:05.440 about these issues. They all agree we should just do whatever the liberals say. And it was so great

00:08:10.040 to see you being able to do that. And again, from the perspective of True North, being able to

00:08:15.440 produce such a slick, professional-looking documentary that really did explore an issue

00:08:20.360 in depth, told the other side of the story, the people that you interviewed, in some ways it was

00:08:25.060 surprising because you kind of think you have a stereotypical view of a gun owner, and it's not

00:08:30.200 that there's anything wrong with that view. Those are the people who are lawful gun owners who have

00:08:35.300 just as much right to their property. But you also interviewed Olympians and women that use 0.99

00:08:41.000 weapons of self-defense. You really went into it and showed the story in a great way, and we really

00:08:46.420 appreciated that. Yeah, it was amazing. And again, this was a project that was a lot of work, not just

00:08:52.100 the work of being on the road, because we traveled much of the country doing it. We couldn't do Atlantic

00:08:57.060 Canada because at the time they were still closed, but we were in BC, we were in Alberta, we talked to

00:09:02.180 people from Saskatchewan, Ontario, and I think we did a lot, and I'm so proud we did it. So I don't

00:09:06.920 know what the next one's going to be. We'll have to, let me know if you have any ideas, but certainly

00:09:10.460 especially coming to May, more on the firearms file. Yeah, and absolutely. I think that there's

00:09:17.000 so many stories out there that sort of deserve a deeper dive into them, and I hope that True North

00:09:21.920 is able to do that. You know, I was looking through, I had our producer put together some suggestions

00:09:26.080 for the biggest stories of the year, Andrew, and something I almost forgot about, you know, you said

00:09:29.860 that the documentary felt so long ago, it was a summer, the We Charity Scanner. Do you remember

00:09:33.740 that? It feels like that happened like five years ago. But yeah, I mean, it was just this past spring

00:09:40.560 that we learned that the Trudeau government rewarded We Charity, a charity that pays members of the

00:09:46.960 Trudeau family to speak, and Trudeau himself has been involved with. They gave a federal contract

00:09:52.500 for $912 million to run this volunteer program. I don't know why you need $900 million to get Canadian

00:09:58.300 kids to volunteer, but that sort of blew up. And the interesting thing about this story

00:10:02.520 is that Trudeau prorogued Parliament to escape scrutiny, basically, to stop the investigation

00:10:10.060 by a committee into him. And yet, you know, we re-elected Trudeau to another minority, and

00:10:16.660 it seems like the story has just gone away. Do you know if there's anything in the works

00:10:20.480 to get to the bottom of the violations that occurred with this We Charity contract?

00:10:27.340 I don't know. I mean, I remember that famous press conference of Pierre Paulyev and Michael

00:10:32.140 Barrett, the Conservative MPs, standing up showing all the redacted documents that they weren't being

00:10:36.720 allowed to examine the unredacted forms of. And when Trudeau hit the reset button to prorogued,

00:10:42.900 it was very transparent what he was trying to do. He was trying to stop the investigation,

00:10:46.280 but he also managed to get the attention off of. Media stopped looking into it. The opposition,

00:10:51.840 they tried to, you know, stir up a stinky couple of times, but they couldn't really get any traction

00:10:56.620 on it. And then you fast forward, there's an election, and it's as though everyone's forgotten

00:11:00.540 it. It's the same model we saw in the lead up to the 2019 election with SNC-Lavalin. It's all the rage,

00:11:06.140 it's a scandal, even the legacy media is covering it, and then just eventually people move on.

00:11:10.660 And the idea of Teflon Trudeau is still very much a constant in Canadian politics.

00:11:17.220 It's pretty wild that Trudeau is able to get away with so much, because even during the federal

00:11:21.600 election, we barely heard anything about the We Charity scandal. That's just not what the

00:11:25.180 Conservatives were focusing on. You know, they were trying to paint a positive picture of their

00:11:29.000 own party, but they, I think, missed the mark by not holding Trudeau to account for his own

00:11:34.060 scandals and, you know, the questionable things ethics-wise he does in government.

00:11:39.380 All right, let's switch focus, Andrew, and look at the year ahead. So 2022 is going to

00:11:44.380 be a big year. We know that we have municipal elections in Ontario. There will be the Ontario

00:11:48.640 provincial election. There's big questions around whether or not there will be a leadership

00:11:52.620 review federally with Conservative leader Erin O'Toole. There's been a movement for that

00:11:57.100 to happen. Why don't we go through and talk about some of the big stories? And I want you

00:12:01.640 to specifically talk about a new initiative that you are running with Danielle Smith, because

00:12:06.020 you got me involved, and it was a great honour to be a little bit involved, not very,

00:12:09.380 involved, but a little bit involved. So why don't you, well, let's start. Let's talk about

00:12:12.620 Conservatives who care.

00:12:14.680 Yeah, well, I hope you get more involved next time. So this was a project that actually

00:12:18.320 came about just over dinner in Alberta with Danielle Smith, the former leader of the Wild

00:12:22.860 Rose and now a veteran broadcaster in Alberta. And we were trying to figure out, at first,

00:12:27.820 a way of how do we get all these people in Canada that care about issues pertaining to

00:12:32.380 liberty together and to play ball. And then it became something else, which was how do we

00:12:37.460 actually have an impact greater than what we're doing already and put our heads together.

00:12:42.100 And this idea came up. Danielle Smith's been involved in a local charitable women's group

00:12:47.400 in her part of Alberta, where every three months, 100 women get together and they all vote on 1.00

00:12:53.040 a worthy cause. And whoever they all, whoever the majority votes for, every one of the 100

00:12:58.860 women gives $100 to. So $10,000 in aggregate goes to whatever group this individual or this

00:13:06.300 organization votes for. And they do this every three months. So in the course of a year, they're

00:13:10.180 putting $40,000 towards worthwhile causes and initiatives. And we figured, well, what if we

00:13:15.540 did that, but with groups that are doing things that matter to libertarians and conservatives?

00:13:21.320 And we formed these two companion groups. Danielle Smith is helming libertarians who care. I'm

00:13:27.200 helming conservatives who care. Now, truth be told, there's no criteria for entry. We simply do it

00:13:32.960 that way because some people might not identify in one way or they may not like the other name.

00:13:37.620 But the reality is, these are our groups that are focusing on liberty. And we had our first meeting

00:13:42.600 and True North was one of the nominees for conservatives who care. Second place by one

00:13:47.740 vote, which is always, I mean, I tried demanding a recount, but it didn't work. But ultimately,

00:13:52.400 it's a way for people to get together and agree that, you know what, we need to do more and put some

00:13:58.200 money behind groups that are not getting the big grant donations. They're not getting the media

00:14:02.240 attention, but they're doing things that people on the right should care about. And I think one of

00:14:07.140 the big nominees was the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. Canada Strong and Free

00:14:11.700 was also nominated. And also some smaller groups and individuals that are doing things of note. So

00:14:16.780 I think True North will probably be nominated in the future, and hopefully we'll be able to win one

00:14:21.380 of them. But it's a really exciting project. And, you know, I'm just basically steering this group,

00:14:27.580 but it's the members that decide where the money goes.

00:14:30.880 Well, I just think it's such a great idea because, you know, it feels really good to

00:14:35.120 donate $100 to charity. It feels even better to know that you're part of a group that has been

00:14:40.220 able to raise, in this case, you know, thousands or tens of thousands, potentially, because that has

00:14:45.320 such a big impact beyond. So the kind of idea of like coming together as a community, I thought it was

00:14:50.240 great. And it was an honour to be selected to be alongside some of those sort of giants of the

00:14:54.800 Conservative or Libertarian movement. So I applaud you for that. I think, you know, we should all be

00:15:00.320 a little more charitable, and we should all work for others, not always just ourselves. So this is a

00:15:06.560 great model. And I look forward to participating again. And I want to join as well and throw in

00:15:11.900 $100 to whichever group wins. So can you tell us how can we get involved? How can we join your

00:15:18.740 Conservatives Who Care group?

00:15:20.680 Yeah, so basically, if we're still setting up, I mean, this is very grassroots, we're still setting

00:15:25.160 up a lot of the infrastructure to formalize it. But Danielle Smith has kindly agreed to maintain

00:15:30.940 the list. So if you're interested, you can email Danielle, who's at Danielle at DanielleSmith.ca,

00:15:37.480 or me, who's Andrew at AndrewLawton.ca. And we'll get you put on on the list. So Andrew at

00:15:43.220 AndrewLawton.ca is the way I can make sure you get on there. But it's a lot of fun. And we're

00:15:47.600 working in the next couple of weeks at actually getting up a database that's a little bit more

00:15:51.160 structured. But we wanted to see who would actually come and who would participate. And

00:15:55.440 that first session, I think we raised about $15,000. So a lot of uptake, and we're really

00:16:00.840 happy to see where it goes.

00:16:02.640 I was honestly impressed that you had whatever it was 60 or 70 people on a zoom call in the

00:16:07.560 middle of the day on a Saturday, you know, just just that alone was impressive. But then

00:16:10.760 it's like, wow, all these people are given $100 as well. It's great. So congrats. Okay,

00:16:15.360 let's go back to the news. Andrew, let's talk about what will be the biggest stories of the

00:16:19.700 year. So I listed off a couple there with some elections and leadership review. What are you

00:16:23.200 specifically looking forward to in 2022?

00:16:25.860 I think civil liberties will continue to be a big issue. I know that a lot of these court

00:16:30.420 cases that have been launched for pandemic related measures have been kicked down the

00:16:34.880 road because of judicial economy, they call it, you know, what courts can actually withstand

00:16:39.200 as far as their bandwidth. But I know in the coming year, there are going to be a number

00:16:43.120 of these big cases scheduled and we're certainly going to be covering it. I also think the China

00:16:47.880 relationship is going to be a big one with Canada here because we've had a little bit

00:16:52.980 of a shift, not a huge shift, but a little bit of a shift since the release of the two

00:16:56.680 Michaels in the way that the Canadian government wants to address China. And I don't want to

00:17:00.860 give Justin Trudeau too much credit, but he has taken a bit of a tougher line in a couple

00:17:06.080 of comments relative to where he was even a few months ago. So I think that's going

00:17:11.240 to be a bigger picture topic certainly, but one that I think we'll have some very specific

00:17:17.100 reanimations of in the coming months and in the year ahead.

00:17:21.640 Very interesting. Yeah, those will definitely be things to watch. And again, just continuing,

00:17:26.300 I said yesterday that the biggest story of the year was just COVID, the fact that it's still

00:17:29.580 a huge feature in our lives and seeing how or if or whether the government is willing to

00:17:35.840 lessen its grip on society and whether we can fight and get civil liberties back. Certainly,

00:17:41.900 I agree that's going to be a big one for me. I think I'm really curious about how the elections

00:17:47.560 are going to go, especially just considering the sort of departure that we've seen from so many

00:17:52.640 conservative leaders from core principles, whether it's Jason Kenney in Alberta, Doug Ford

00:17:56.700 in Ontario, Aaron O'Toole is probably the worst defender federally, where the way that they lead,

00:18:02.400 the policies that they take, the positions they stand on, have no real connection to principled

00:18:07.380 conservatism. We don't see that sort of defense of first principles, the defense of the idea of,

00:18:12.500 you know, conservative parties supposed to be different than a liberal party. They're supposed

00:18:15.660 to take different positions. They're supposed to be able to defend, you know, the idea of limited

00:18:20.540 government, the idea of free markets, the idea of reducing government spending, the idea of opposing

00:18:26.280 heavy-handed government lockdowns and measures. And I'm curious to see, Andrew, whether there

00:18:32.340 will be any sort of revolt by grassroots members of these parties, because I know just from my

00:18:37.300 own conversations with friends, both in Alberta and Ontario and federally, people aren't happy with

00:18:43.140 leadership. People aren't happy with the way that the Alberta government was arresting pastors in

00:18:48.100 Alberta or the way that Doug Ford said adamantly he doesn't want to live in a split society with a

00:18:53.900 vaccine mandate. And then a few weeks later, he introduced his own vaccine mandate. We now live in

00:18:58.540 the society where we have a lower class, lower class citizens, we have first world citizens and 0.99

00:19:04.060 second class citizens. And I think that for a lot of people, it's just not okay. So I'm curious whether

00:19:09.240 there will be any kind of reviews in the leadership of someone like Jason Kenney or Aaron O'Toole,

00:19:13.760 and whether the conservative base will show up at all for Doug Ford, given what he's done over the last

00:19:19.280 two years. Yeah, those are two huge questions. Jason Kenney, just as a primer here, is set to be,

00:19:25.740 have his leadership reviewed in April. So again, you know, a lot can happen in a couple of months.

00:19:31.040 I know at the convention they had in November, there wasn't a leadership review, but there was

00:19:35.680 some tension leading up to it of presidents of local associations not happy with Jason Kenney. So

00:19:41.280 whether he can hold on to his own leadership in April is going to be a big story. And I'm going to

00:19:45.900 be there, I'm going to be on the ground in, I think it's in Edmonton, covering that. So that'll be

00:19:50.600 one to watch. And then yeah, going back to the fall or the summer, the Ontario election.

00:19:56.220 I wonder what you think, though, about Aaron O'Toole. I don't think I've had this conversation

00:20:00.280 with you, Andrew. I've been very open and let it be known that I was really unhappy with the

00:20:05.880 direction that he took the Conservative Party in the last election and he abandoned principles. I

00:20:09.980 think that he took a risk, he took a concerted effort to say, I'm going to swing to the left,

00:20:14.640 I'm going to really hug Justin Trudeau on as many policies as I can. I'm not going to defend

00:20:20.220 Conservatism. I'm going to really emphasize my progressive personal Liberal values. And the bet

00:20:27.560 didn't pay off. It didn't pay off. The Conservatives lost. They lost worse than they did in 2019.

00:20:31.340 We've seen little rumblings here and there. I know you had Senator Denise Batters on your show,

00:20:36.200 but there hasn't been any kind of a big caucus revolt. And the Conservative members I talked to,

00:20:41.120 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 0.94

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

00:23:19.500 plunge the party into a leadership review.

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

00:23:45.680 for us in the next year.

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.

The Candice Malcolm Show - December 30, 2021

What’s in store at True North in 2022？

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