Doug Ford abandoned Conservative voters in Ontario (ft. Jim Karahalios - New Blue Party)
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
187.20293
Summary
In this episode of The Wyatt Claypool Show, host Wyatt talks to New Blue Party Leader Jim Karahelios about the upcoming Ontario election, why the landscape in Ontario is so different from most other provinces, and what options people have in this election.
Transcript
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Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Wyatt Claypool Show.
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There are a lot of Conservatives out there who are feeling queasy about the Ontario provincial election.
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And quite frankly, it's because there's no real mainstream Conservative option on the ballot, at least to most people's knowledge.
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When I look at the polls in Ontario right now, I am seeing a heavy amount of overlap between the regions and demographics
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that usually vote for Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party, voting for Doug Ford's PCs.
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Because a lot of federal Conservatives just sit out provincial elections now
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because they're effectively voting for Justin Trudeau's best political ally in Doug Ford.
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And then you have the Liberals and the NDP who are extremely disorganized,
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and you can't really say that much different about them compared to the Ford PCs.
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But that's why I really like to talk about and bring up the New Blue Party every time I talk about Ontario politics.
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And I am very happy to have on today somebody I find is one of my favorite people in Canadian politics,
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someone who's actually inspired me to do a lot in the political scene,
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and that is New Blue Party leader Jim Karahelios.
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I wanted to have him on today to discuss what's going on in Ontario,
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what options do people kind of have in this election,
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and why the landscape in Ontario is so different from every other province.
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Most provinces, we have Conservative parties on the ballot.
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Yeah, no, it's been a couple of years, but I really wanted this to happen again.
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So it's great that we, I guess I can thank Doug Ford for a snap election,
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I can't believe it's been only two years because it went by in a flash.
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I was sick when we started the party, so we got a late start,
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but we had about a year to get into that election,
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One had to back out because their employer pressured them.
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And at the end of the day, we finished with the fifth number highest votes in Ontario.
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Our showing was the most votes and the greatest vote share
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that any political party in an Ontario provincial party has had since 1934,
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And then, but the follow-up from that election,
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We had 124 writing associations, 124 candidates.
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So we had to do audits and financial returns for all those.
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And then there were three or four audits of the new blue party
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for the campaign period, for the year in general.
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and that none of our candidates did not file or did not fail to file.
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So that ensured that they could still run again in the next election.
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And that takes a lot of work because most of our candidates had never run before.
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And then we organized a grassroots policy conference
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that led to the first policy declaration for the new blue party
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And then next thing you know, Doug Ford's saying,
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in the middle of a couple of snowstorms in Ontario.
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Yeah, and this isn't like a Jean Chrétien early election
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where it's like, you know, six months before it's supposed to happen,
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It's maybe a smart maneuver to do, a little unethical.
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And the whole purpose of the election, I think,
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has actually caused a lot of people just to disconnect
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because it was slated as being an election to protect Ontario
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and I don't even know what this whole thing is about.
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I attempted, and I did get through the whole thing,
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but it took me a few tries to watch the Northern Ontario debate
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And I was just left with feeling like nothing was said.
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And especially Doug Ford, he'll every once in a while
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but I never get the idea that the man is conservative.
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It's always that he brags about how much he ended up spending
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how much money he transferred to a specific area.
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I'm not sure of what you think about what was said in that debate,
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how the new blue party is standing in this election,
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Yeah, I mean, Doug Ford's calling an early election
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because he's hoping to get an extension on his mandate
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and pretty soon Ontario voters are going to realize
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the lack of economic production coming out of Ontario,
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It's not true that Doug Ford has not raised taxes.
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for industry to register their emissions very costly.
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And of course, the Greens, the NDP, the Liberals
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and some of the insider Queen's Park reporting,
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But we started taking in candidate applications.
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But unfortunately, a lot of people were thinking like me.
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a year and a half early in the middle of winter,
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the next thing you know, he's calling an election.
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And there was a bit of a scramble there, Wyatt.
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but a lot of people who were interested in running,
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And they finally started collecting the signatures.
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We had tough fights with returning officers on the ground
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and tried to file paperwork all got on the ballot.
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that makes up 96% of our vote from two years ago.
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almost 100% of our voters from the last election.
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We were really targeting our strongest ridings this time.
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We have some candidates that are running a second time.
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you know, what you would call a COVID election.
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not just, you know, to get elected to Queen's Park,
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but they're committed to moving the issues forward,
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in terms of a long-term vision to grow a party.
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you know, a quick couple of years to a majority.
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I always liked the quote that you have from Rob Ford.
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I think the interview only has like a few hundred views.