The National Telegraph - Wyatt Claypool - December 20, 2023


Liberal MPs destroy themselves at their own press event


Episode Stats

Length

13 minutes

Words per Minute

190.41806

Word Count

2,496

Sentence Count

132

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary

Mark Gerritsen and Stephen McKinnon hold a press conference to respond to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's year-end interviews. But the whole thing falls apart when journalists ask tough questions that undermine the entire purpose of the press conference.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 I make no secret of the fact that I love embarrassing political communication strategies.
00:00:20.140 And in Canada, without a doubt, the party that's best at deploying self-defeating,
00:00:25.760 embarrassing political communication strategies is the Liberal Party of Canada.
00:00:30.000 But about 10 days ago, if I had to give out a big trophy to the worst communicator inside
00:00:34.860 the Liberal Party and I wasn't allowed to pick Justin Trudeau, I'd have to give it to
00:00:39.160 Karina Gould, the Liberal Party House Leader, because of her weird press conferences and
00:00:43.660 outbursts in the House of Commons during the month of December.
00:00:46.100 But in the last two days, two Liberal MPs have stolen that designation from Karina Gould
00:00:51.680 in just a singular press conference.
00:00:54.140 And those two MPs are Liberal MPs Mark Gerritsen and Stephen McKinnon.
00:00:58.880 It is quite impressive just how much they hurt their own reputations, as well as the
00:01:04.080 reputation of the Liberal Party in a single press conference.
00:01:07.380 And somehow, for some reason, Canadian legacy media journalists were actually doing a good
00:01:11.240 job pushing back on the two and asking tough questions that completely undermine the entire
00:01:16.460 purpose of their press conference.
00:01:18.620 Now, remember here, Parliament has already wrapped up.
00:01:21.380 It's been about three or so days where the Parliament hasn't been doing any business.
00:01:25.340 But for some reason, Gerritsen and McKinnon stuck around to rip on Polyev just for doing
00:01:30.880 end-of-the-year interviews talking about his vision for Canada.
00:01:34.180 They think that this is doing a really great job at undermining Polyev's momentum.
00:01:38.940 But with journalists just asking some probing questions, the entire strategy in this press
00:01:44.220 conference completely collapses, showing that they're just extremely desperate at the weak
00:01:49.400 position that the Liberal Party is in.
00:01:51.060 I talked about a couple of the clips of Mark Gerritsen yesterday, but there was so much
00:01:56.620 more to this press conference.
00:01:57.820 So I want to highlight some of the clips of Steve McKinnon, and then I want to talk a little
00:02:02.420 bit more about Mark Gerritsen, because this stuff's hilarious, especially this first clip
00:02:06.620 with McKinnon, where the journalists just ask if they seem desperate from even having held
00:02:11.620 this press conference in the first place.
00:02:13.240 Here it is.
00:02:13.720 What does it say about the fact that you're holding a press conference to respond to his
00:02:17.540 year-end interviews?
00:02:18.380 I mean, how far back on your heels are you that you feel the need to do that?
00:02:21.340 We haven't seen the Conservatives respond to any of the Prime Ministers.
00:02:23.600 Actually, what it says is that we have confidently, for four months in this House, put forward
00:02:30.060 plans, specific plans, detailed plans, on everything that I just talked about.
00:02:34.920 And Mr. Polyev arrives with these tropes and these slogans, and doesn't manage to get questioned
00:02:44.000 at all aggressively about his specific plans to improve the lives of Canadians.
00:02:49.060 What's your issue here, that he did some friendly interviews?
00:02:52.420 It's really embarrassing that their biggest point against Polyev in this entire interview
00:02:56.660 is that Polyev used slogans and tropes.
00:03:00.280 And I'm going to show you in another clip, Mark Gerritsen cannot, or maybe I won't
00:03:04.920 show this clip, but Mark Gerritsen couldn't actually justify why it's bad that Polyev has
00:03:09.800 not released a platform yet, when a reporter pointed out that Trudeau, when he became the
00:03:14.040 Liberal Party leader in 2013, also never released a platform until the 2015 election.
00:03:18.540 So their entire point makes no sense.
00:03:20.660 And again, it is absolutely true that when Parliament's wrapped up and you can go back
00:03:25.260 to your families for the holidays, and these two are still sticking around Parliament and
00:03:28.440 won't shut up about Polyev, it demonstrates that they're like desperate and sweaty to land
00:03:33.400 a blow on Polyev, and they just don't have any ammunition to fire at him.
00:03:38.140 It's the old adage that when your opponent's making a mistake, you don't interrupt them.
00:03:43.060 And the reason why they're trying to interrupt Polyev is not because Polyev's making a mistake,
00:03:46.420 it's because they know that Polyev is succeeding, and they're trying to derail his momentum.
00:03:50.860 It's not working whatsoever.
00:03:52.480 But in a second, I'll get to Mark Gerritsen's clips here, and I want to talk about him because
00:03:56.980 I love Mark Gerritsen.
00:03:58.480 He is easily the most desperate man in Ottawa, and it's so transparent that what he wants
00:04:03.460 is a cabinet seat before the Liberal government collapses.
00:04:07.240 But before that, I need to make a shameless plug because I am running for the Calgary Signal
00:04:11.760 Hill Conservative Party nomination.
00:04:14.300 There's other current MPs retiring.
00:04:16.300 I'm running to replace him as the Conservative nominee in the riding.
00:04:19.400 Super safe seat.
00:04:20.500 So the nomination is like the real election for the area.
00:04:23.120 I'm an actual consistent Conservative.
00:04:24.620 So if you live in the riding or you know someone who lives in the riding, make sure you and
00:04:29.040 your household sign up for memberships and vote for me number one on your ballot.
00:04:32.600 I don't know when the nomination date is yet, but make sure you have your membership way
00:04:36.520 in advance.
00:04:37.420 Based on the viewership I get on these videos, easily a few dozen of you live in the riding,
00:04:42.380 you know, because every 338 views, easily one person lives in the riding.
00:04:46.760 And I guarantee I have a disproportionate viewership out west.
00:04:49.440 But anyways, I want to get back to Mark Gerritsen, the sweatiest and most desperate man in all
00:04:55.000 of Parliament.
00:04:56.280 I don't get what he's actually trying to do here.
00:04:59.120 Mark Gerritsen's personality is of a water buffalo going wild.
00:05:03.760 He is just trying to take sway, like make haymaker swings at poly of all day long, just
00:05:09.320 trying to get in to the Liberal Party cabinet.
00:05:12.600 And what's so ironic about what he's about to say here is he's acting like the Conservative
00:05:16.420 Party has changed and become radical.
00:05:18.360 When Aaron O'Toole was the leader, he was making the same stupid attacks.
00:05:22.980 Mark Gerritsen is the one who keeps changing.
00:05:27.260 It doesn't matter who his opponent is, he will always shift and claim that whatever their
00:05:31.660 new position is, is somehow too far right.
00:05:34.180 The man is a broken record and is constantly shifting his standards on what far right means.
00:05:40.420 Far right basically means you're opposing Mark Gerritsen's plan.
00:05:44.000 It is the meme of everyone slightly to the right of the Liberals is a Nazi that kind of
00:05:49.120 came out of the Freedom Convoy.
00:05:50.900 But here's a compilation of some of Mark Gerritsen's embarrassing moments from this press conference.
00:05:55.440 We will continue to work hard for Canadians.
00:05:57.420 But at the same time, we're going to continue to point out where Mr. Polyev continues to
00:06:02.320 misinform Canadians on what his plans are.
00:06:06.740 Because we know at the end of the day, Mr. Polyev's approach is exactly like Donald Trump's
00:06:12.240 approach from the United States.
00:06:13.760 It's all about feeding in and feeding off of the emotions of people to try to get the
00:06:18.780 better of them.
00:06:19.320 This is why Mr. McKinnon and I think it's so important to keep, you know, to make sure
00:06:26.120 that Canadians are informed, to make sure that they have all of this information, because
00:06:29.900 it's absolutely critical.
00:06:31.680 It's about a new Conservative Party of Canada.
00:06:34.080 It's about a Conservative Party of Canada that is more based like the mega alt-right Republicans
00:06:39.160 that we see in the United States, like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
00:06:42.780 That seems to be who they're heavily influenced by now.
00:06:46.600 That's who Canadians are supporting.
00:06:47.800 Pardon me?
00:06:48.560 Then you're saying that's who Canadians are supporting.
00:06:50.260 No, what I'm saying is that Mr. Polyev is trying to give you the impression that he's
00:06:54.500 something that, quite frankly, he's not.
00:06:56.240 Why do you think their message is resonating?
00:06:57.820 Last question.
00:06:59.020 Why do I think their message is resonating?
00:07:01.280 Well, I think that their message is resonating because of what I said earlier.
00:07:05.500 Mr. Polyev is playing off people's emotions.
00:07:08.080 He's playing off people's fears.
00:07:09.760 And he's trying to translate that into telling people that he will actually be there for them.
00:07:16.600 But if you listen to what he's saying, which is the entire point of us coming to talk to
00:07:20.720 you today, if you actually listen to what he said in these interviews leading up to today,
00:07:25.340 he's said nothing about what he will actually do for people.
00:07:28.700 He's only continued to reinforce and play into people's emotions, to play into people's fears
00:07:34.180 in order to try to scare them away from something else.
00:07:37.500 Thank you.
00:07:37.840 I love that little injection that the reporter made because it's 100% true what Mark Gerritsen
00:07:45.080 was doing there.
00:07:45.720 And for one thing, Mark's like with like this information that me and McKinnon are delivering
00:07:49.320 is very important for Canadians to know.
00:07:50.720 They literally delivered zero information.
00:07:52.340 They basically just said, Polyev's not saying nothing.
00:07:54.740 And Canadians need to know he's being empty.
00:07:57.060 That wasn't information at all.
00:07:59.000 And the reporter's right.
00:08:00.700 Effectively, what he's doing is either implying that Canadians are also racist alt-right people
00:08:06.160 for supporting the Conservatives, or they're a bunch of idiots because supposedly they're
00:08:10.260 being tricked by Polyev who's playing on their emotions.
00:08:13.480 And let me just say, every politician is obviously going to play on the emotions of voters.
00:08:18.620 What?
00:08:18.880 Is a politician going to talk about issues that voters do not care about?
00:08:22.680 An issue that voters are emotional about or something that is emotionally resonant with
00:08:29.240 voters is something that they're usually passionate about.
00:08:31.960 Is Mark's problem that Polyev isn't boring?
00:08:35.160 Because every politician tries to play on the emotions of voters because the things that,
00:08:39.940 again, voters are emotional about is the things that voters want talked about.
00:08:43.640 Does Justin Trudeau not talk about things that make voters emotional?
00:08:47.840 diversity, inclusion, you know, trying to give money to the poor and stuff like that.
00:08:53.320 Isn't Justin Trudeau's general vague platform, although most of its platforms are lying, isn't
00:08:57.740 his platform trying to elicit emotional responses from people and make them passionate liberal
00:09:02.840 supporters?
00:09:03.880 Obviously.
00:09:04.640 I don't think Justin Trudeau is doing anything wrong.
00:09:06.860 No politician who tries to appeal to voters is doing anything wrong, unless they're lying.
00:09:12.360 And he can't actually point out anything like Polyev's lying about.
00:09:15.620 And Polyev, it's not his duty to release a platform a whole year and a half in advance
00:09:20.600 of an election cycle so that Mark Gerritsen can complain about it.
00:09:24.340 It doesn't matter what is in the platform.
00:09:26.660 Mark Gerritsen will say that somehow Polyev's still being dishonest or he's not being detailed
00:09:31.080 enough or somehow certain elements of the platform are bigoted or whatever, because he did the
00:09:35.180 same thing to Aaron O'Toole, the most liberal conservative leader that the Conservative Party has
00:09:39.520 had probably in 30 years since Brian Mulroney.
00:09:41.880 Mark Gerritsen is just trying to get his way into the Liberal cabinet.
00:09:46.460 And I wish, and it maybe would have been too biased of a question or too, you know, direct
00:09:51.380 and political of a question.
00:09:52.540 I would have asked him if, Mark Gerritsen, what cabinet role do you want?
00:09:56.520 Because that's really what this poll press conference is about.
00:09:59.040 He might as well have tattooed on his forehead, please notice me, Justin.
00:10:02.740 I really want Veterans Affairs even.
00:10:05.300 Just give me urban development.
00:10:07.360 Give me diversity and inclusion cabinet position.
00:10:09.540 I'll do it, please.
00:10:11.080 That's all this press conference was about, was Mark Gerritsen begging Trudeau to pay attention
00:10:15.680 to him.
00:10:16.540 He actually is at risk of losing his seat.
00:10:18.780 Not a massive risk, but Mark Gerritsen is in a very safe Liberal riding.
00:10:23.040 And now the Conservatives have like a 10, 15% chance of winning that riding because Mark
00:10:27.500 Gerritsen won't shut his mouth and his own constituents are getting tired of him.
00:10:31.360 The provincial Liberals in Ontario are a far weaker party than the federal Liberals are in
00:10:36.020 Ontario, and yet the provincial Liberal in that seat has a better chance of getting reelected
00:10:40.980 than Mark Gerritsen.
00:10:42.300 Because at some point, being a loudmouth smear merchant makes your own riding constituents
00:10:48.700 hate you.
00:10:49.360 Because I guarantee Mark Gerritsen is not the type of person who's incredibly responsive
00:10:52.660 to his own constituents.
00:10:54.460 He is proving it here by wasting his time on useless nonsense like this, trying to attack
00:11:00.140 Polya for things Justin Trudeau literally does, and that is not wrong for anybody to
00:11:05.100 do.
00:11:05.880 Regardless, this was a record-breaking press conference at the end of the year, the most
00:11:10.860 useless, embarrassing press conference I have ever seen delivered.
00:11:14.620 So I guess we can give Mark Gerritsen and Stephen McKinnon a big pat on the back because
00:11:19.820 they have definitely made my Christmas with this little clip show that I got to watch today.
00:11:25.100 But other than that, I have my Give, Send, Go link in the description of this video below.
00:11:31.160 I'm being sued by a billionaire.
00:11:32.640 I'm winning that lawsuit, but it's cost me over $25,000 to fight this completely frivolous
00:11:37.500 defamation suit.
00:11:38.580 They have no evidence that myself and TNT did anything wrong or reported anything unfactual.
00:11:43.440 The article they're taking issue with, the only reference to the big man suing us was based
00:11:48.240 off of Globe and Mail reporting that was already previously out, but he's only suing us because
00:11:52.740 he thought we wouldn't be able to defend ourselves, unlike what the Globe and Mail would obviously
00:11:56.760 be able to do.
00:11:57.820 So I'm probably going to win this, but any money you can contribute does help me out,
00:12:01.920 defend myself and pay for my legal fees.
00:12:04.800 And other than that, I also have my website for my campaign linked in the description of
00:12:09.420 this video below.
00:12:10.440 Again, if you live in the riding of Calgary Signal Hill, buy a conservative membership.
00:12:14.620 Make sure your family and friends in the riding have conservative memberships and vote for
00:12:18.080 me number one on your ballot if you're a conservative member in the riding, whenever the
00:12:21.220 nomination comes around.
00:12:22.540 And I would encourage everyone, regardless if you live in Calgary or not, check which
00:12:26.600 riding you live in because it helps you engage in your political community when you know
00:12:31.240 which provincial riding you live in, federal riding and ward of your city or town.
00:12:36.000 You'd be shocked out there.
00:12:37.600 Most people could not even name their own riding.
00:12:40.020 So the better and acknowledgeable you are with the own political territory you live in, the
00:12:44.340 better able you are to actually get things done in this country.
00:12:47.280 But other than that, I hope everyone has a fantastic day.
00:12:50.660 Feel bad for me.
00:12:51.600 It took me like 50 tries to record this video.
00:12:55.160 And I think I got like 10 minutes in multiple times and had to go back.
00:12:58.820 But I got through it.
00:13:00.380 And we're all going to get through the rest of this year together, just like I got through
00:13:03.540 this video.
00:13:04.140 So have a great day, everyone.
00:13:05.320 We'll be right back.