Betrayal： Conservative MP crossing floor to Carney's Liberals (Budget Fiasco)
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Summary
In a massive betrayal of Canadian Conservatives, Conservative MP Chris D'Entremont has decided to resign from the party and is likely to join Mark Carney's new Liberal government. I break down all the details of this with you guys and then we will talk a little bit about the budget for an entirely different video.
Transcript
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Hey guys, Wyatt Claypool here. We have some breaking news to discuss right now.
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In a massive betrayal of Canadian Conservatives, Conservative MP Chris Dontremont has decided to
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resign from the party and is likely to join Mark Carney's Liberal government. He represents the
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riding of Acadianapolis in Nova Scotia and was, until today, the only Conservative MP from the
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riding. Now, I want to break down all the details of this with you guys and then we will talk a little
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bit about the budget, but I mainly want to preserve discussion of the budget for an entirely different
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video. We'll just kind of breeze over it because it kind of has to do with this potential floor
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crossing over to the Liberals. Again, he has resigned from the Conservative Party, but we don't know yet
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if he will go over to the Liberals. It seems pretty likely just based on his statements, but it still
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hasn't quite happened yet. But before I get into it, I just want to remind you guys, hey, if you like
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the channel, make sure to leave a like on this video. Subscribe if you are not yet a subscriber,
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and if you are a subscriber, please hit the notification bell. And of course, with a big
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shocking topic like this, let me know what you think in the comment section below. My first not even hot
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take, it is the coldest take you could possibly get. This is why we need recall legislation. When somebody
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just decides to up and leave a party for what we are about to get into being a very shallow reason,
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I think their voters should be able to recall them and have a new election. This wasn't somebody being
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kicked out of the Conservative Party because they ran in a certain way in the election, and then the
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party was telling them to do something they weren't comfortable with, and then they ended up getting
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kicked out. This is someone just looking at their watch saying, oh, look at the time, and then they just
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leave. You know, it might be easier to get elected as a Liberal next election, so what I'm going to go
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do? This is absolutely pathetic. Chris D'Entremont should never be re-elected again, no matter what
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party banner he is running under, because this was a big betrayal. Again, if you leave a party because
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there was an ideological schism, they, you know, it's like in British Columbia with Tara Armstrong leaving
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the BC Conservatives after they kicked out Dallas Brody. That was because of an ideological shift
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the party was going over, and she says, I never signed up for this. I'm going to keep representing
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the values that I signed on to represent in a new party that will actually let me do it. This
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is just nothing. It is just a popcorn fart of a reason, but we will now get into it.
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So, this all started in the morning with rumors being published in Politico, the online political
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magazine, saying that Conservative MP says he's considering joining Canada's Liberal government.
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And I just want to go down and jump to his reasons. The preamble here is everything I've already
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pretty much said at this point. So, Chris D'Entremont pointed to his narrow margin of victory in the last
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election. He beat the Liberal candidate by 1.1% and said he is looking at what's best for his
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constituents. If D'Entremont crosses the aisle and two additional Conservative MPs join the Liberals,
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Carney's majority would be secure. D'Entremont said the Liberals have been courting other
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Conservatives who view themselves as centrists but wouldn't disclose who. Quote, you don't have to ask
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them, he said. He also declined to say who was doing the courting and whether or not conversations
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included the Prime Minister's office. So, he's effectively just saying, at the same time, he
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makes a token effort to pretend that he cares about his constituents. He's saying that, well, you know,
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I barely won last time, so I'm going to go to a team that I think I'm going to be able to win with
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more easily next time. What a political hero. What a titan of principle and integrity. I'm simply going
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to leave because it might be easier to win with the other guys. And centrism, are you, sorry, representing
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centrism or are you representing your Conservative voters? Now, I don't require every person inside the
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Conservative Party to be as Conservative as me. You can be a little bit, you know, more liberal depending on the
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issue, as long as you generally have what I could see as a Conservative core to you. There are people out there,
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I would even say, are more of a red Tory. But based on their riding and based on the issues I think
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they're actually quite good on, I'm perfectly fine with them being in the party. But we have a problem
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in the Conservative Party of people who are only there because it was easier to get elected as a
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Conservative than the Liberals, but in fact they would be more comfortable being part of the Liberal
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Party that stands for nothing in particular other than keeping themselves elected. Now, yes, the Liberal
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Party is a very left-wing, woke party like the NDP. But for many Liberals, it's just an easy place,
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or for many just MPs, it's just an easy place to get elected with because it's a party that kind of is
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vague. It's not quite as left-wing as the NDP, it's not actually Conservative like the Conservative Party,
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and so you can kind of just be a complete do-nothing Liberal MP that doesn't believe in anything in
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particular but votes with the government and have a very long and fruitless career that other but
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is still paid for handsomely by the taxpayers. But I want to go a little bit further into this article
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because very much it seems like the strategy of Mark Carney is rather than doing a good job in
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government and making people like him to be able to maintain his government, he's going to try and
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maybe threaten the positions of some Conservative MPs and put them on his target list to see if he
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can make them cross the floor. So rather than actually having to win a government, he can threaten
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The Nova Scotia MP had a recent falling out with his party after his caucus refused to back him as
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Speaker of the House of Commons. A position, uh, Chris, I've already forgotten how to say his last name,
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D'Entremont? D'Entremont. There you go. D'Entremont has sought more than once. He previously served as a
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Deputy Speaker of the House. His views are more in step with Carney, who is seen as leaning further
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right than previous Liberal leaders. No, he's not. He's just, he's not Trudeau. He's always seems more
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Conservative in his temperament and style. He's still as Liberal, as left-wing as Trudeau, as he's just
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Temperament seems more Conservative. But the article goes on to say,
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he is also well-liked within the Liberal Party and is known to buy, not, uh, he is not known to
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buy into the right-wing populism movement that Conservative leader Pierre Polyev embraces.
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His views are more in step with Carney? Then why didn't he run for the Carney Liberals? Or is it
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because he saw going into 2025, it was more likely that he was going to win as a Conservative? And now
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that he thinks that the, that the winds have shifted a bit, he's going to run as a Liberal. And also,
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oh my goodness, I can't believe the Conservatives didn't let me be the Speaker of the House.
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Well, of course they don't want you to be the Speaker of the House. They want the Liberals to have
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to put up the Speaker so that it's more difficult for them to pass things, because the Speaker tends
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to not be able to vote on actual pieces of legislation. And so by the Conservatives putting
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up the Speaker, it would actually get the Liberals artificially closer to being let all pass stuff,
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even though the government usually puts the Speaker up. It's also asinine.
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But now let's move on to some other stuff about this whole controversy.
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I want to just jump over to the letter, just because, you know, we should talk about the letter
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he released. It's extremely short, so you'll forgive me for moving on quite quickly.
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And it says right here, I'm not sure why it says Ottawa in November 2005. I assume that's
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a typo. Honorable Pierre Polyev, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, His Majesty's
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official opposition. Mr. Polyev, please accept this letter of resignation from the Conservative
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Party of Canada and the Conservative Caucus immediately. Sincerely, Chris.
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Yes. Yeah, absolutely pathetic. But now I just want to go on to talking about the coverage
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that came out of the media right in the midst of this, just to add some little bit of flavor
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to the way that this is being covered right now.
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OK, sorry, I just got an update on something else. Andrew, every time you talk, I get update
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from the Conservative Caucus. Chris D'Entremont resigned is what his office is not his office,
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what Mr. Polyev's office is telling me, that he has resigned. He is no longer a member of
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the Conservative Caucus. So, Lisa Wright, I'm going to come to you.
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Does that change things here at all, learning that Mr. D'Entremont resigned? Because obviously
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when you make those comments to Politico and spell out how you're feeling about things,
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Well, it sounds like you made a choice, right? And listen, making these choices is not easy.
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It's, you got to weigh out the fact that you're part of the Conservative family. We do think of
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ourselves as a family. And the people that you are very close to, suddenly you're not going to
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be as close to. I don't know if he's going to sit as an independent. I don't know if he's going to sit
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somewhere else in the House. But I'm sure he will reveal all at some point in time. Be interesting
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to see how he votes on the budget, to be honest. Maybe that's the beginning of it all.
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And if he votes to, and that's a good point from Lisa Wright, it's going to be interesting to see
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if he votes for it or against it. Because when he is described as a centrist, but he ran for the
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Conservative Party, we're not expecting him to be like a, you know, a red meat conservative on
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everything. Hey, he's in Eastern Canada. I get it. Some maritime MPs tend to be more socially liberal
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or so. But even on fiscal policy, where does he disagree with pure poly of the fact that we spend
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too much money and we need to actually take our debt seriously and we have far too much corporate
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welfare in our budget. We have far too much wasteful spending, stupid spending on DEI, very poor choices
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when it comes to foreign aid spending. What was his actual problem? He likes the liberal budget that
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although it's pretending like it's going to actually drink the size of government by laying off
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certain employees, it's actually just taking that money, reinvesting it elsewhere, meaning that
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nobody is really fired. You're just being redistributed to another area of government at the
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same time the government blows out the deficit. Because you can't say that you're more conservative
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like Politico tries to claim that Mark Carney is at the same time that the deficit and the debt is
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getting worse. In fact, debt service spending is $54 billion for the fiscal year 2025-2026.
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Ridiculous. $54 billion is what we're spending just on the debt servicing alone. More than we are
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planning on spending on defense is what we spend just to keep the debt in line.
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And Chris, whatever, this is the problem. Don't put apostrophes in your name or Wyatt will forget how to
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say it. But Chris apparently thinks that's great and he might go over and vote for it now. But now
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let's just jump over quickly to conservative House leader Andrew Scheer reacting to the news in front of
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the media at the Parliament. Mr. Scheer, before I get into your action budget, I got to ask you, we just
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got into our inbox. An MP of yours, Chris D'Entremont, has quit caucus, has resigned from caucus. Your
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reaction to that and what it says about your party? Well, it's disappointing that Chris D'Entremont has
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decided that he doesn't want to fight for a more affordable life for Canadians, that he doesn't want
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to fight inflationary deficits that are driving up grocery prices in his riding. You know, he's now
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telling constituents that he just got their votes just a few months ago, that now he's in favor of
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the industrial carbon tax on things like farm equipment and fertilizer, driving up food costs,
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that he's in favor of fuel standards that the Liberals are imposing that's going to increase
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gasoline by 17 cents a litre. So, you know, he'll have to go back to the supporters in his riding that
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dug deep into their own pockets to support his campaign, explain why he took their precious time
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and resources and then turn their back on them just a few months later. And the funny thing with
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this is based on what Scheer is saying, it's not like a shocking revelation, but do you think that
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the Conservatives, if Chris D'Entremont actually decides to stick around and run for re-election,
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that he will be re-elected as anything above dog catcher in his area? Or do you think that the
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Conservatives, having still more money than the Liberal Party when it comes to their war chest,
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are going to dump $200,000 into that riding and make sure that Chris does not get re-elected,
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even if the Conservatives can't win it? Although it is mostly just a Liberal Conservative riding,
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so there's no way of splitting it to another party, but you get my point. They're going to be out for
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blood for him. And yeah, the narrative doesn't even really make sense for Chris, because he would
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have spoken out, even as a very centrist Conservative, he would have spoken out against so many things that
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the Carney government is currently doing that he said were bad and why you should vote for him,
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because he's not going to do it. But now he's doing it. Might it be that he doesn't think your
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party's solutions are the correct ones now? You know, he ran on them in the platform. He saw our
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platform and he said, yes, I support all this back in April when Conservatives were offering hope to
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young Canadians who couldn't find jobs, who had to move back in with their parents, back into their
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parents' basement. Our platform offered hope for young Canadians. Mark Carney's message is one of
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sacrifice, that Canadians who have been hammered hard by the cost of the living crisis are going to
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have to sacrifice even more to feed an ever-growing budget, a deficit that's going to add billions to
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the national debt that has to be paid off with interest. So Mr. Dontremont's going to have to explain
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that to his constituents. And I hope you have definitely requested an interview, and I'll be asking him
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those questions. But ultimately, what does it say that there might be enough in this budget and the
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way in which this Prime Minister is governing to satisfy someone who ran just a few months ago as
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a Conservative? Does that not say something more largely than your party? I wouldn't read too much
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of that. I know Mr. Dontremont has had some personal grievances about the fact that he didn't get elected
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Deputy Speaker. He's been kind of upset about that. So I'm disappointed that he let his own personal
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grievances get in the way of his commitment to his constituents, that he would fight for a more
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affordable budget to bring down the cost of living to lower the tax burden on Canadians. But again,
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he's going to have to explain to all the people that he looked in the eye, took their donations,
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put signs on their lawns, and then explain why he betrayed them just a few months later.
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And again, when you actually look at the dynamics of a riding like that, the Conservatives are in fact
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doing better in Atlantic Canada in the polling than they did on Election Day. And they won that
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riding. Obviously, Chris Dontremont was elected as a Conservative at the time.
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So does he not think that his Conservative replacement, with an energized base of ticked
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off people who now want to stick it to him, aren't going to be able to elect a different
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person, a younger Conservative person as the representative of the riding? I'm trying to
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find the Atlantic numbers here. But yeah, although it's like rated as potentially more liberal
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leaning, generally speaking, when you actually shake out the results in a real election, it's
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probably going to go Conservative. A lot of pollsters have this problem where they weigh
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over all the Liberals in Atlantic Canada. And I'm not just saying that. Look at the Newfoundland
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and Labrador provincial election. Liberals leading by sometimes 20 points in certain polls. And I don't
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even blame the pollsters. It's just a very difficult part of the country to pull accurately.
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Liberals leading provincially 20 points, 14 points, 13 points, 16 points, and they get blown out by the
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PC party and they win a majority government. Now they're not the most Conservative party,
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the PCs in Newfoundland. But still, it's not like the actual Liberal brand is that bulletproof when
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it comes to the Maritimes. And when you actually correct for some of the really bad pollsters in
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Atlantic Canada, some are far more realistic. Acadianapolis is very likely to just go back
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to the Conservatives, no matter what political maneuvering goes on here. But anyways, that
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should be pretty much it for this story. I don't think you need me to keep harping on about how much
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of a betrayal this is. It is. He's probably going to get punished by the voters for it.
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Mark Carney may be trying to cobble himself together a majority government here, but now it's probably
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time for Conservative Party leader Pierre Polyev to put the pressure on anyone else who would think
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about leaving. And so that they know whenever the election happens, whether it be in a full four
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years or it be in the next year, they're not going to get re-elected if they decide to make the jump.
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What are you really getting other than you get to say that you're a part of the government when you
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lose all of your integrity and respect from the people that got you into office? It's absolutely
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stupid. But anyways, with that all being said, thank you guys for watching and I'll see you all next time.