Matt Jeneroux crosses to Liberals - Breaking his word not to cross!
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Summary
Matt Gennaro crosses the floor to join the Liberal Party of Canada. This is a massive betrayal of all the voters of his riding who have been electing him as a conservative since 2015. What does it mean for the future of the party and the country as a whole?
Transcript
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Hey guys, Wyatt Claypool here and welcome back to the National Telegraph YouTube channel.
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We have some big breaking news to talk about this morning, so we're just going to jump right into
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it. You may have already heard conservative MP for Edmonton Riverbend, Matt Gennaro, instead of
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resigning his seat like he said he was going to do in April, has now decided instead he is going
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to cross the floor and join Mark Carney's liberal government. This is a massive betrayal of all the
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voters of his riding who have been electing him as a federal conservative since 2015. Previous to that,
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he even spent a term as a progressive conservative MLA in Alberta's provincial legislature. And so
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this guy crossing is not really something where you could say, well, he was always kind of a
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centrist. He was always somebody who could kind of jump either way depending on the issue.
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No, he was a conservative. He was always a conservative. And him jumping over to the
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liberals is clearly not motivated by something ideological. Because if he had some ideological
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disagreement with the conservative party, you think he would have left a long time ago. This is
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obviously more in the vein of Chris Dontremont and Michael Ma. There's more news coming out on Michael
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Ma that we will be covering in the next couple of days because apparently he had a strong association
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with a CCP front group in Canada that the conservative party of Canada should have probably
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known about and vetted him out if it was obviously a concern. It obviously should be a concern. But in
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terms of like if it popped up on your radar that he was associated with this group, it should have
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concerned you and they should have bounced him out. But instead, it was probably looked at as,
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ah, it's just how things work in Markham Unionville. And it's not. It's not. In fact,
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the vast majority of Chinese Canadians are not in favor of the CCP. But people inside of parties can
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convince themselves of anything. Anyways, let's just get into the statement that Prime Minister Mark
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Carney put out. And then we will go through all the responses to this happening. And then I want to
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talk about the dynamics we currently have playing out in Parliament right now. How will Matt
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Gennaro crossing the floor affect things? Will the Liberals get a majority government? There's another MP
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who is actually likely to vacate their seats. And it is not a conservative or a liberal. We will be doing
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all that in just a second. But I also want to remind you guys, if you like the show, make sure to leave a
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like on this video, subscribe if you're not yet a subscriber, leave a comment about what you think about
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below the video and make a small contribution per month. So here we have our statement from Prime
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Minister Mark Carney. He says a bit of a longer statement. So bear with me. I am honored to
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welcome Matt Gennaro to our caucus as the newest member of Canada's new government. Building a strong,
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more resilient and more independent country will require ambition, collaboration and occasional
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sacrifice. I am grateful to Matt and his family that he will continue his service as a strong voice for
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Edmonton Riverbend in Parliament. For more than a decade, Matt has been entrusted by Albertans to
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help shape a strong future. He was first elected to Alberta's legislature in 2012 and Canada's
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Parliament in 2015, earning four consecutive mandates in the House of Commons. In Ottawa,
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he has taken out on portfolios that are central to Canada's economic strength, security and national
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resilience, including a shadow minister for supply chains, innovation, infrastructure, health and
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housing. He is a strong voice in international engagement and parliamentary diplomacy, having
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served as a vice chair of Canada-UK Interparliamentary Association and founder of the Canada-ASEAN
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parliamentary group and building direct working relationships with lawmakers across NATO, Europe,
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Asia, Africa, the United States and OSCE. As a new special advisor on economic and security
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partnerships, Matt's leadership will contribute to strengthening Canada's alliances and trade
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partnerships, advancing Canada's leadership in global security, cooperation and building our
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strength at home. The world has changed and Canada must change with it. This is the time to come
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together and together we will build a strong future for Edmonton, Alberta and all Canadians. Now him
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getting the new special advisor on economic security partnerships clearly is just kind of a front to make this
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all look like, oh no, no, no, no, no, guys. It makes sense that Matt's coming over because he can help
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the government in this way or that way. Do we really think that this is why he crossed the floor
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because he wanted to help the government? He's been on the other side of things for a decade. Now you could
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say maybe he's gotten restless over 10 years. I've never really heard that happening. Someone just getting
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restless being in opposition. And so no matter the ideology, they cross the floor to be part of the
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government. It's probably more of an internal heady issue between Matt Jennero and the conservative
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party sort of inner circle, I guess. And by the way, I wouldn't even let the inner circle off the hook
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on this one, because the fact they keep having people cross, it's not that they weren't nice
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enough to them. It's that these people probably should have never been running in the first place.
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Or in Matt Jennero's, in the case of Matt Jennero, I believe the man's living in Vancouver or Victoria
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right now. And he's only part-timing it in the riding that he represents in Edmonton.
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If they knew about all this stuff, that his wife and kids were in Victoria and he was representing
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in Edmonton riding, they probably just should have told him, sorry, you're just not running for us
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again. This is absurd that we're going to have a guy running who lives in a different part of the
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country. It makes us look bad, so why would we take on the bad press? But the problem is the
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conservative party runs too many bland consultant, bland lobbyist type, you know, HR personalities,
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way too many kind of boring people that they think won't rock the boat. And when they say
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won't rock the boat, they mean like doesn't say anything controversial. What is worse than maybe
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saying something controversial where someone could be right or wrong about it? I think it's worse that
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someone just up and crosses the floor and leaves you without another seat. That seems worse to me
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than having some more right-wing guy say something right-wing every once in a while that gets the
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media all hot and bothered. Anyways, but let's jump around to some other reactions here. I will first
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start off with the leader of the opposition, Pierre Polyev's response to all this. Also, although I had
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something else saved here and it's quite funny that this is all happening right after we had a really
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bad last, we just had a really bad food inflation report come out. I'll try to find it here.
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Mark Carney is trying to seize a costly liberal majority that Canadians voted against in the last election
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through dirty backroom deals. Matt Genereau has betrayed the people of Edmonton Riverbend
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who voted for affordable food, homes, safe streets, and strong resource sector. Conservatives will
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continue to fight, continue our fight for Canada that's affordable, safe, and self-reliant.
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And now there's a lot, there's been a lot of people obviously going around calling Matt Genereau
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a traitor. We will go through some of that. I don't want to belabor it too much because I think we kind of
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all get it here. Here is, as other people have pointed out, like we have,
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who do we have here? It's Yankee Pollack from Rebel News. He was the one who posted, reposted
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Matt Genereau's denial that he was crossing the floor from back in November. Here it says,
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I want to be clear that there was no coercion involved in my decision to resign. I consider my colleagues in
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the Conservative Party very close friends and I will miss them dearly. Since my resignation this
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evening, I had a great conversation with Pierre Polyev who wishes me all the best as I do him.
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I ran under his leadership in hopes we could form a government that would offer hope
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to Canadians and I wish him my and my colleagues all the best as they continue to raise cost-living
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issues facing Canadians. To reiterate, this long-standing decision reflects my desire to spend more time
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with my family. My exact date of departure will be determined at a later date but likely this spring.
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So apparently he doesn't like his family all that much because as soon as an opportunity arose for
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him to be the special advisor on economic security for Mark Carney, he jumped at it. But this is his
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newly revised statement that he just released this morning and it says here,
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statement by Matt Gennaro. As I wrote to constituents in Edmonton Riverbend last fall about my service in
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parliament, I recalled how I ran in the last election because I believe Canada stands at a turning point.
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The events of the past year and even the recent weeks have presented Canada with unprecedented new
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global pressures on our prosperity and accelerated threats to our sovereignty and unity. Like so many
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families across Canada over the holidays and since, my family has had several conversations around the
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kitchen table about how we can best be there for each other and stand up with a country that we all
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love to which we all belong. Those conversations have been honest, difficult, and deeply personal at
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times, but they also led me to reflect on the gravity of the moment that our country is living through,
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which our Prime Minister addressed head on in his speech at Davos. For Canada, this is a moment that
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demands steady leadership, constructive collaboration between all parliamentarians,
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and a willingness to stand up and serve even when the path is not easy. After further reflection with
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my family and the conversations with colleagues and constituents, I will be continuing to serve in
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parliament and I will be working with Prime Minister Mark Carney as part of his new government to help
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build our country's strength as we face the challenges ahead. I don't think we need to go
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through that many more. I love one they said, I've talked to my constituents. Which ones? Which ones did
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he talk to? The liberal ones? He says he talked to his family. We had a lot of kitchen table discussions,
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a lot of discussions around the kitchen table. No, you didn't. I always hate whenever politicians act
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like somehow, like, my goodness, don't blame it on your spouse. Don't blame this stupid move on your
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spouse. This is all on you, Matt. The whole idea that, no, no, I wasn't going to do it. But then,
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you know, Fred from the bakery down the street told me to do it. And then my wife, Janet, told me to do
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it. And then, you know, a bunch of random constituents walked up to me and said, Matt, did you not hear Mark
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Carney's Davos speech? Did you not hear the power in his voice, the earnestness? You have to cross the
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floor now and be his special trade economic security advisor, whatever that thing is. I'm
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just some random person at a bus stop. You have to do it, Matt. Like, no, he probably again has a
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petty fight behind the scenes with Pierre Polyev, Polyev's staff and some other senior MPs. And to
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show them up, he's going to cross the floor, even though he has run multiple times for the conservatives,
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like Chris Dontremont. And there's no indication that ideologically he is on side with Mark Carney.
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Anyways, so I want to go through a couple more of these posts here. And then I want to talk about
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the implications for parliament. So we have here, I'm just going to highlight my friend Gerv's post.
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Gerv posts this. Matt Gennaro has crossed the floor. To all the CPC MPs that cross, this is the last time you
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will ever be elected to office. Enjoy it. You betrayed your constituents. You betrayed the
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people who dedicated themselves to your campaign. You are keeping Canada in managed decline. You
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sold out the youth. You are a sellout. We'll be happy to fire you in the next election. Good luck.
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And in a riding like Edmonton Riverbend, the liberals are probably going to lose that one. Like,
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I don't want to, you know, I do want to bet against them, but I'm not trying to be rude about it or
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anything, but you're not going to win Edmonton Riverbend as, as Matt Gennaro crossing the floor.
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Let's just quickly look up what that riding looks like right now. It is considered a toss up at the
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moment, but considering that this is also based on really overheated polls that are showing Matt,
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like the showing the liberals, like almost tied with the conservatives in Alberta. I really don't
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believe it. But yeah, this isn't exactly like a guaranteed seat. In fact, it still leans over to
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the conservatives. And this is with really crappy polls on 338 accounted for like ECOS and liaison
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and whatnot. It's probably more like a, you know, seven or 8% victory for the conservatives in terms of
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the vote. And it's probably more like a 80% chance that the conservatives end up winning the seat back,
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just like they would probably win back Chris D'Entremont's riding at the Annapolis. I think
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Michael Maas is probably vulnerable too, because I don't think a lot of the Chinese voters in that
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riding like the idea that the CCP basically just owns them. And it doesn't matter who they elect,
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they will still get the CCP guy anyways. I want to go back now to just another thing that's a bit of
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a extra rub in all of this. By the way, this is why it's such a big deal that the Terrebonne riding in
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Quebec was overturned. Because this means that while yes, the conservatives had another person
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across the floor, it doesn't really affect as much as you would think. So here we go.
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This guy, Canada Politico, I'll bring up on screen here in just a second.
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Some fun math. There are 169 Liberal MPs and three by-elections. University Rosedale, safe Liberal.
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Scarborough Southwest, safe Liberal. Terrebonne, leans Bloc Québécois. There is one more seat that
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may vacate, Rosemont. Liberals need three for a majority. If Rosemont goes, it'll be a Liberal flip.
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Now, I'm not sure if Rosemont would be a Liberal flip, but the funny thing is that although we have a
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lot of things changing, everything is pretty much staying the same. Like, nothing has really changed
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since November. If Matt left in November, it would have been a really big deal, and then having
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a Michael Ma leave would have given the Liberals a majority. But Matt General leaving now means that
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the Liberals are still a couple short of a majority anyways. Now, Rosemont, we will be getting to that
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in a second, that's a riding that just this morning basically became in play potentially, because that
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is the remaining Quebec seat that is held by the NDP, and the guy who occupies it may go run for
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Quebec, a Quebec provincial party. It says here, breaking Alexander Bollars, the only NDP MP in
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Quebec, is considering resigning to run provincially for the declining left-wing nationals party Quebec
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Solidaire in the riding of Goon in the October Quebec election. Although, remember, that means he's
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going to be still sticking around, but that is one more seat the Liberals might be able to rely on at
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least later on in the year to win in order to get their majority. Now, maybe there are other
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Conservative MPs who are also going to leave. Maybe someone else already left now. If I was advising the
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Conservatives right now, I would say what you need to do is you need to run on bolder policy. You need
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a 20% or copy us at 1BC a 25% across the board tax cut, including corporate, including the GST.
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We need big policies to run on. You need to run on basically restricting hormone therapy and trans
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surgeries for children in Canada's health code. You have to run on actually deporting illegal migrants in
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large numbers, in slashing TFWs and student numbers further, making sure that we get rid of people who
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are exploiting social services. That's immigration. Deregulate heavily in a lot of areas of government.
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You need to run on something that makes the next election a referendum between Mark Carney's managed
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decline and your big, bold policy reform agenda. Because right now, the Conservatives, I find,
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are in a bit of a holding pattern. And when you're in a holding pattern, you're letting Mark Carney
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define what a next election would look like, whether it's in 2029, or it's a snap election
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sometime this year. You're letting him make it all about Donald Trump. You need to have really,
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really big policy proposals that you put on the field that basically completely sidestep anything
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Mark Carney wants to make the election about, making the election about what you want to run on.
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That is what the Conservatives need to do. Run on something so big that you can't possibly
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not talk about it. But anyways, that should be it for me in this video, guys.
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Uh, you know, hope everyone has a good day except for Michael Ma,
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Matt Jenneru, and Chris Dontremont. I know people are in the comments are going to say,
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well, we should ban floor crossing. The problem is, is you can't really ban floor crossing,
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because you could just sit there as a Conservative MP and just vote with the Liberals the entire time.
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You would need different policies that make it less interesting to cross the floor, but you can't
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really ban crossing the floor, because someone could just go and sit in as an as an independent,
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but be a de facto Liberal MP. I've always actually favored the idea that you can cross the floor,
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but you cannot run for a different major party in the next election, unless you get a certain
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amount of signatures from your constituents. So you can cross the floor, you can vote with the
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government all you want, but if another election hits, if you have not gotten the correct amount
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of signatures in order to get approval to run for the new party, then you're not allowed to do it.
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So if, you know, Matt Jenneru now crossed the floor and becomes a Liberal, now he needs to go
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and get 15% of people at Edmonton Riverbend in 60 or 90 days to sign off on him being able to run
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as a different major party candidate in the next election. Now, they wouldn't want to do that,
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because then they would actually have to face their voters, and for those who don't really
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know much about politics, they actually have to announce to them that I was elected as a
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Conservative, you probably voted for me as a Conservative, but now I'm leaving to become a Liberal.
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That would be a very hard sell, and it would only ever succeed at a time when people understand why
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you have to leave, like your party's deeply corrupt, or they took a massive turn on a policy,
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and so, you know, you as a Conservative are joining this or that party, or you as a Liberal are joining
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this or that party. Anyways, well, that should be it for this video, truly. Sometimes I say this
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should be it, and then I just keep talking anyways, but thank you guys for watching. Like, share,
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subscribe, consider hitting the join button, and I will see you all later.