Where is Erin O’Toole？
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Summary
The Trudeau government is proposing the most authoritarian policy in the history of our country, and the leader of the opposition has said nothing about it? Where is Aaron O'Toole and why isn't he doing his job?
Transcript
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The Trudeau government is proposing the most authoritarian policy in the history of our
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country and the leader of the opposition has said nothing about it. Where is Aaron O'Toole
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and why isn't he doing his job? I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
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Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning into the podcast. Now here on The Candice Malcolm
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Show all week we've sort of been laying out the various issues with Justin Trudeau and his sort
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of recent troubling behavior. I think topping it off must be this policy that was sort of hinted
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about in the CBC and the health minister came out last Friday in the afternoon saying that the
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government was having conversations with the provinces and encouraging them to get ready to
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roll out a forced vaccination campaign. We're not talking about vaccines available for people,
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we're not talking about vaccine mandates in order to go to restaurants and maybe get into certain
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areas of society, we're talking about forced vaccinations. We're talking about a campaign
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where the government would by force impose a health mandate on people, inject something into
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their body that they do not consent to. That is beyond the conversation in a free society. We have
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never seen anything like that in this country. It's truly a radical and frightening idea and you
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would think that Canadians in lockstep would join to denounce this policy and say no this is too far,
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this is not something that happens in Canada. Instead we haven't heard a word from Aaron O'Toole,
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we've heard something, some comments from some of his MPs but nothing from O'Toole himself.
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Justin Trudeau continues to divide Canadians. We saw that clip resurface of him back in September
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calling the unvaccinated, calling them extremists, calling them misogynists and racists. Again,
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really, really intense rhetoric. We've seen him scapegoating and demonizing and vilifying the
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unvaccinated for months and months and months. This clip really just reemphasizes
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this sort of unhinged aspect and way that Trudeau is going about demonizing and trying to encourage
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people to get vaccinated. The whole issue of dividing Canadians, Trudeau is getting worse. I
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mean, just look at the example last week. A bunch of young Quebec influencers, teenagers and people in
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their 20s, young adults, off on a private plane, on a private trip, doing their own thing, minding their
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own business, having some fun. Justin Trudeau chimes in to say it's a slap in the face. Okay. He also
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called them idiots and barbarians. Some way for the leader of a country, for the prime minister to
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speak about people in his own country, to speak about his own citizens. That is completely unacceptable
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for a prime minister to be labeling people in his country, his own citizens, as idiots and barbarians.
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This just shows the low level of discourse with Trudeau and sort of the clear disdain that he has
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for the Canadian public. We've also seen elements of Trudeau coming unhinged and coming undone when
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he talks about the idea that kids must get vaccinated. That's a pretty nuanced conversation.
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And what you'll hear from a lot of health experts at the provincial level, doctors and people in the
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conversation, is that it's a choice. It's up to the parent if they want to vaccinate their child to
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protect other people in their household and sort of protect people around them. That's their choice.
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But it seems pretty clear from the science that kids don't need vaccines. Kids don't get sick from
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COVID. 99.9% of kids who get COVID recover with very few symptoms. So COVID doesn't affect kids the
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same way as it affects adults. So why would we have a medical intervention that's basically
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unnecessary? Well, Trudeau has been really adamant that kids must get vaccinated. You've got to sign
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up, you've got to vaccinate your kids. Again, all of this would present a great opportunity for the
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opposition of the country, the leader of the opposition, Aaron O'Toole. You basically have Justin
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Trudeau out there acting like a crazy person, coming undone, coming unhinged, really proposing
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crazy, radical things. And it seems like he's sort of losing his grip on what's acceptable and
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basically on reality. I think he's really, really out of line with the Canadian public on many of
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these issues. It's a great opportunity for Aaron O'Toole. Aaron O'Toole could be out there striking a
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different tone, showing a different path to Canadians, showing a moderate approach. He could be seen as a
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sort of reasonable, moderate person in the conversation. But instead, Aaron O'Toole is
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basically absent. You don't see him. You don't hear from him. He doesn't break through his comments
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and his press releases. They don't break into the media. We don't see stories about him. We barely
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hear anything. And when he finally does come out and give a press conference or make a statement,
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his point is like so blurred and mushy. And you don't really know what he's saying. You don't really
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know what he stands for. He's really failing in his role as the opposition leader to offer a
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meaningful critique of Trudeau. Meanwhile, Trudeau is lashing out at Canadians. And so to talk about
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this issue a little more and to get a little deeper into it, I want to bring on a True North
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reporter, Cosmin Xerja. Cosmin is originally from Romania. He's a graduate of the University of
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Waterloo, and he currently lives in Abbotsford, British Columbia with his wife and child. Cosmin is
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a senior researcher here at True North. He's a great investigative journalist. He has published
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some of the biggest and most important reports and stories in True North histories. He's been a big
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part of our success. And to date, his work has been referenced by CBC News, Rebel News, CTV News,
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Western Standard, and many other outlets, including outlets, international outlets and outlets all
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over the world. So Cosmin, thank you so much for joining the Candace Malcolm Show. It's great to have you
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on the program. Thanks for having me, Candace. Happy to be here. Great. Well, so this topic for
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the show today sort of came from this funny tweet and news story that you had over on True North. So
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back on January 4th last week, you tweeted, has anyone been more irrelevant than Aaron O'Toole in
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the past few weeks? Your tweet went viral, and then you wrote a piece sort of talking about the reaction
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to your viral tweet. So first, in your opinion, Cosmin, your estimation of, you know,
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closely following the news. What is the problem with Aaron O'Toole? Where has he been for the last
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few weeks? Well, I think that word, irrelevant, really strikes at the heart of the matter.
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How many Canadians even know who Aaron O'Toole is, if you would ask them on the street, right?
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He hasn't been very visible. He hasn't been very vocal. And as you mentioned, this is a perfect
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opportunity for Aaron O'Toole to really stand out, to provide a vision to Canadians, an alternative
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vision to the one, to the divisive one that Trudeau is currently plunging us into.
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And so you put out this tweet because Trudeau, or sorry, O'Toole just wasn't really doing the job
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that he should be doing. And tell us a little bit about the reaction and what prompted you to write
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that news article about the sort of virality of the tweet and people commenting on O'Toole's absence.
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For sure. I mean, the most common reaction was who? Aaron O'who? And I think that that's the case for
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many people. They just don't have a sense of who he is. And if you just read the comments, that's the
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sense I'm getting from the majority. And it's also related in the polls, because if you look at the
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recent polls coming out, I think about half of his party doesn't approve of him. And he's the lowest
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polling leader out of all of the federal main party leaders. So I think that tweet was a reflection
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of just the general sentiment and attitude towards the leader of the opposition.
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Well, you know, we can give him a little bit of a break and assume, okay, maybe he was just having a
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slow start after Christmas. Maybe he was still, you know, out of his cottage or whatever he was doing
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in family mode and hadn't quite kicked back into political mode yet. Yeah, I think your tweet and your
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story, which was January 4, really kind of woke him up. Because after that came out, we did start to see
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a little bit more of a reaction from him. However, you know, it doesn't really seem to break through.
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So if you were the opposition leader, Cosmin, or if you were advising him, or if you were,
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you know, part of that team, what would you be saying? What could Aaron O'Toole be saying differently
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to kind of penetrate the media and, you know, the media narrative and actually say something that
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Canadians might want to join on board and follow his party over?
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Personally, if I was advising him or in that position, I would be a little bit more aggressive
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and going out into the media, you know, right now we're not in parliament. But there are plenty
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of opportunities to either take the message directly to voters using social media, or going out on radio
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and television and really blasting back some of the messaging that Trudeau and other Liberal Party
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members have been putting out and really putting it out there, so that Canadians can hear loud and
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clear what the government thinks about millions of Canadians in this country. And it's not a nice
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message, right? Trudeau has called them racist, extremist, misogynist, while speaking about people
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who have refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine. But that's not the beginning for Trudeau, because he's
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been doing this for a while, you know, his minister of, former minister of heritage was calling people
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extremists for simply opposing an internet censorship bill. So I think it's part of the brand for the
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Liberals and O'Toole's team could really, has a lot of material to work with out there, if they wanted
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to push back and really, you know, take down Trudeau a level.
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Absolutely. Well, I mean, there's so many opportunities, and I think no better an opportunity
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than the announcement or the story and the press conference that we saw on Friday and the story
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that came out afterwards, where the health minister is hinting and sort of encouraging provinces to bring
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about a forced vaccination campaign, not a vaccine mandate where you need to show your papers to get
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into certain press society, but forcing Canadians, like a mandatory forced vaccination campaign,
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which is, again, above and beyond anything that we're seeing anywhere in the world right now.
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It's truly authoritarian. We saw some reaction, Cosman, from a couple of MPs. So I'll read those
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tweets. Michael Cooper, who's the MP up in St. Albert, Edmonton. He says, this is outrageous.
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Justin Trudeau's government is entering into truly dangerous authoritarian territory. State imposed
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involuntary medical interventions are un-Canadian and have new place in a free and democratic society.
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That's absolutely right. I couldn't agree more. And it would have been nice to hear that from Aaron
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O'Toole himself. Instead, you know, he's got his MPs out there who are probably just saying this on
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their own. Garnett Janis, likewise, said, no, vax rates are very high in Canada. Provinces are backing
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off vax requirements for essential workers because they need the workers. Even if this were desirable in
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principle, which it's not, we have no capacity to enforce this. And again, another MP, Jeremy Patser,
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an MP from Cypress Hill Grasslands in Saskatchewan, says, extremely ignorant and frankly shocking that
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the health minister of a democratic country would say this. Vaccine mandates were wrong from the very
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beginning. It is increasingly clear that they are a public policy failure. They are ruining livelihoods,
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clogging supply chains, stifling our economy, eroding medical privacy, dividing society, all the while
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doing very little in the way of actually combating COVID. So pretty strong words from three of his
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MPs. But I haven't heard anything from Aaron O'Toole on this. Has he chimed in? Does he have any
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message about this potentially very, very scary and dangerous policy?
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Absolutely not. The line he's been going with right now is Trudeau is normalizing lockdowns,
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which in my eyes is totally milquetoast and off the mark, right? Trudeau is not putting people into
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lockdowns, factually speaking. It's the premiers. And I just find normalizing lockdowns doesn't really
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get at the heart of the matter. As those MPs, some of those MPs have mentioned, right? This is an
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authoritarian move. I think if we go down this path, the Canada that comes out on the other side will be
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completely different than the one that entered. And I'm not so sure we can call it a liberal
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democracy anymore after we've given up the notion of bodily autonomy for our citizens. So yeah, no,
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no clear messaging from O'Toole as expected. And he's a little late to the mark on this one.
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Right. I mean, you know, normalizing lockdowns, look, we've been locked down on and off for two years
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now. Like the normalization of lockdowns happened a very long time ago. And if that's the best you
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have at this point in the game, it's just, you're absolutely right. It's so weak. And even, I mean,
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I've got the CBC story in front of me where they talk about how Trudeau accuses, sorry, O'Toole
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accuses Trudeau of normalizing lockdowns by failing to provide rapid tests. It's like, that's such a
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muddled criticism because it's like, are you criticizing him for lockdowns, which are of course,
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provincial jurisdictions, the provinces that are locking down, not the, not the prime minister.
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He's bringing in his own slew of horrible policies, but, but the lockdowns are the provinces. So if
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O'Toole wanted to criticize lockdown, he should be criticizing Francois Legault, Doug Ford, Jason
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Kenney, and the people who are actually doing the lockdowns. And, and, and, and then, and then saying
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that he's normalizing lockdowns by failing to provide enough rapid tests. What, what does one have
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to do with the other? I mean, it doesn't even seem like he has a coherent message here.
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Right. It's very confusing. He needs something much stronger, much clearer that, that Canadians can get
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behind. And you would think, you know, the conservatives recently have been quite media savvy,
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and you would think with a media team and his advisors behind him, he could pull something out
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that was consistent. And, and, and people wanted to hear and, and, and to see in their leaders.
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But I, I haven't seen that yet. And, you know, the clock is ticking. He's, you know, we're likely to
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head into another election in the next year or two. He's heading towards a leadership review, which
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is on, on, uh, unstable ground, his leadership. So he, he's got, uh, it doesn't have that much time
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left. So I'd, I'd like to really see, uh, what he has to offer and whether he's got some sort of
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secret weapon, uh, that we're all waiting for. I think if he had a secret weapon, we would, we
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would have seen it by now. I mean, look, if you, if you go back to the election campaign, it's like
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he, he did a pretty decent job of remaining discipline. He, he, he wouldn't really get off of his
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message. He was really focused on the issues that mattered to him. But as we saw throughout the
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campaign, part of the issue was that he just wasn't really clear in his positions. He often
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came across as condescending and he, he switched his position on major issues. And I, and I feel
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like he's running into that same problem now with mixed messaging and, you know, what is his position?
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For instance, when it comes to vaccine mandates, even during the election, it was like, is he, is he
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for them? Is he against them? It was kind of this brilliant strategy that Trudeau announced
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that he was going to, uh, call for mandatory vaccines in the civil service, thinking it would
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be this big wedge issue of the election. And then O'Toole kind of agreed with him. And there was like,
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you know, the, the, there was the gap between what they both believed. It was like a, a difference
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without a distinction or distinction without a difference. And it, you know, I see that still right
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now. I'm just going through some of the headlines here. It's like, okay, uh, first Aaron O'Toole,
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urges reasonable accommodation for the unvaccinated. So he's kind of, uh, standing up for them saying
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that they shouldn't be fired from jobs like truck drivers because we can't have more problems in the
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supply chain. Uh, you know, we've seen, we've seen lots and lots of healthcare workers, uh, fired from
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their jobs, especially nurses because they're unvaccinated only to be brought on later because
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the healthcare system is so desperate for workers. So, so, you know, here's Aaron O'Toole on January 6th
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calling for reasonable accommodation. Uh, but then, you know, on the same day, he's saying that,
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you know, everyone must get vaccinated. It's your responsibility. You know, you can get your
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questions answered. Uh, you know, it's, it's, it's just not clear what he's saying. And then,
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and then, and then the same day he defends the vaccine mandate for Canadian armed forces. So he's
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saying that making sure as many people are vaccinated as possible, um, needs to be the first
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priority of the Canadian armed forces. So it's like, even now, you know, that he ran into that
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problem during the election. It's now four months later in January, 2020, and he's still providing a
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totally bland mixed messaging. What do you make of it? Where do you think Aaron O'Toole stands on
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vaccine mandates? Well, that's a difficult question because, um, I mean, there's a difference between
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where one personally stands on an issue and where one officially stands on an issue. I think Aaron O'Toole,
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from what we've seen, he's playing some sort of middle flip-flopping game. I'm not sure what the
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strategy is behind it. It goes all the way back to the election, you know, painting himself as a true
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blue conservative, but then, uh, going red in, uh, once things started to get tough, uh, you know,
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he flip-flopped on guns, he flip-flopped on, um, the CBC, uh, and as you mentioned, even on the
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mandates, when they introduced, um, uh, the mandate for parliamentarians, he was flip-flopping back then
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as well. So if Aaron O'Toole, the flip-flopper, that's, that's where he stands in my eyes.
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That's too bad. The other thing I find kind of interesting is that sometimes on social media,
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I'll see like a very strong message from the conservatives. I know if you get their emails,
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it's like their emails read, like you, they really have a different view and a different worldview and
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different perspective from the liberals. Like, uh, you know, a tweet that came out on January 10th,
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Canadian conservatives want to see an end to lockdowns, restrictions on your liberty,
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and the ongoing impact of mental wellness in our society. That's a, that's a much stronger message
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than what Aaron O'Toole himself says. So why do you think there's this gap between the sort of,
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you know, general messages of the party, some of the stronger points put out by members of parliament,
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and then, and then when it comes to O'Toole itself, it's like, you can't muster the, uh,
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courage to say these kinds of things in, in plain language.
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I think that's a reflective of a general sort of division within the party, you know, uh, people
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who want to stick to conservative values, uh, versus people who want to bring the party, uh, closer to
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the center, uh, closer to the liberals, uh, to the point where they're indistinguishable. So I think
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we're seeing it, uh, spill out into their very messaging, uh, but it is a, an issue of, of division.
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And what, where this party goes, uh, from here on out, because it really is a matter of, of the very
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identity of the conservative party. Uh, and I don't think, uh, Aaron O'Toole is a positive version of
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It's too bad because they have such a good opportunity with this prime minister and with
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the direction they're going. So many Canadians would want to have an alternative, but it's like,
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they don't really see an alternative with O'Toole because his messaging isn't very strong. And,
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you know, it's like, it's like Aaron O'Toole doesn't want to go offside with like the legacy
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media and the sort of fancy people. So, so he wants to stay very much in the center and, and, and it's
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too bad because there's, there's a huge missed opportunity. Well, Cosmin, I really, uh, appreciate
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the work that you do here at True North. You're a great reporter. And, uh, yeah, thank you so much
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for joining the show. We'll have to have you on again, uh, at some later point.
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All right. That was Cosmin Giorgio with True North. I'm Candice Malcolm,