Well, there is never a dull moment in Canadian politics in 2626, and on Wednesday morning another conservative MP crossed the floor to join the Liberals. Marilene Gladue, a long time conservative MP from Sarnia, is now the fifth opposition MP and fourth conservative to cross the floor and join the liberal party.
00:01:24.880we've been talking about doing shows on the by-election but the by-elections have been so
00:01:29.440quiet like eerily quiet because you know we've been focused on the iran war we've been focused
00:01:35.940on all things in our lives and all the things on tv that are mainstream and they're pretty you know
00:01:40.940they're super important and so we got focused on that the by-elections have been quiet we haven't
00:01:47.320seen the leaders you know we've been watching them in texas you know podcasting yeah you know
00:01:53.440there's a lot of superstar celebrity stuff that our leaders do now that we're kind of fixated on
00:01:58.880i i just spent the other i spent two hours i mentioned to you coming into the show watching
00:02:04.000um another podcast the diary of a ceo with pierre pauliev a very interesting podcast right yeah and
00:02:10.720the funny thing about this is i just said to you before you announced it you just came walking in
00:02:16.560the room i said you know i watched the pierre pauliev uh podcast and to tell you the truth i
00:02:21.760learned a bunch of things that actually uh made me more interested now in following him because
00:02:29.600quite now i'm trying to understand the man and hear what he has to say well and i i'm getting
00:02:33.920a feel for his background i now understand why he is like he is yes he's telling us about his
00:02:39.120background his childhood the challenges he had the upbringing you know his parents divorcing all that
00:02:45.120stuff you know something oh that's interesting you know it's an interesting podcast the questions
00:02:49.520were good you know the answers were interesting you know very textbook i'm watching a person who's
00:02:55.200very bright talk to another person who's very bright and quite frankly it's it's interesting
00:02:59.760me so i leave that and then today he loses another uh pivotal member yeah in a uh conservative
00:03:09.920writing which has been conservative for years well you know i spent some time i built a project
00:03:15.040down in sarnia i mentioned to you yeah and uh really conservative quite frankly uh in the days
00:03:22.720when mike harris was in there was always a issue of whether point edward would be rolled up remember
00:03:28.960there was a challenge of whether point ember would be rolled up into the boundaries of sarnia
00:03:33.360and the conservatives on a provincial side wanted to keep it separate because there were two seats
00:03:39.360there yeah and so they fought and fought to keep point edward and sarnia sort of from not being
00:03:45.240amalgamated and that was always the issue with reboundering but um and they were both conservative
00:03:50.140seats they were both very interested you know the conservatives always spent a lot of time
00:03:54.600chemical value they always gave a lot of projects they made sure sarnia was always happy
00:03:59.660key border crossing all that good stuff and now she who has mostly conservative views right very
00:04:07.700conservative views yeah she just voted against the legislation for lgbtq um you know basically
00:04:15.620uh which is a liberal initiative big time yeah and and voted that you know about sex changes and
00:04:21.760things like that it was very controversial um and now she's crossing now the evening before
00:04:28.040this happened the tuesday evening there was an old candidates meeting in scarborough southwest
00:04:32.620And Dolly Begum, the provincial NDP candidate, now running federally liberal, was basically face-to-face with a lot of upset NDP supporters who voted for her provincially, who feel offended and betrayed because of what's happening in Palestine that she's joining Carney and the Liberals.
00:04:50.440And I've not seen constituents that worked out that angry at someone before.
00:04:55.800And there is a sense of anger amongst a lot of everyday Canadians feeling helpless.
00:05:26.980Well, you know, Dolly's an interesting one, quite frankly, because, you know, the gentleman who I think you're referring to that you showed me, he was actually verbatim repeating her statements.
00:06:13.240Well, and the interesting thing, these by-elections,
00:06:15.700you know as the leaders of the parties are actually flying around the world i think they
00:06:21.600had both conceded that it was this was what i found interesting until you were telling me about
00:06:26.500dolly today i think the leaders are kind of conceded they knew the way it was going to go
00:06:30.560they're going to liberals will do a three and oh sweep and they'll have the majority and it was
00:06:34.880done and i think they had kind of wrapped it up pierre was traveling he's like okay i can't win
00:06:39.180these i'm not going to bother i'll plan my next step exactly which is very odd to tell you the
00:06:43.500truth. It's very odd that a leader doesn't come into the by-election ridings and campaign with
00:06:48.360the people they're running. It's a little demoralizing. I actually found it odd because
00:06:52.260if I was in their shoes and I was putting the time and the money and the effort and my personal
00:06:56.680reputation at play, I would be a little disappointed that the leadership didn't come in and help me a
00:07:02.220little more. I have seen Carney and Terrebonne because it's such a coin flip riding in Quebec
00:07:06.860between the Bloc Quebecois and the Liberal. It'll come down again to a handful of votes,
00:07:11.160But as far as the other ridings in Rosedale and Scarborough Southwest, I'm like, it just seems like it's just candidates posting stuff on their social media.
00:07:18.620And then this explosive all candidates meeting that happened on Tuesday.
00:07:22.080So maybe to your point, maybe they got cold feet.
00:07:24.400They said maybe it's not going to go as well as we thought.
00:07:29.280And so they started, you know, getting on their horse and having conversations in Sarnia.
00:07:56.880I mean, for God's sake, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, the so-called conservative premier
00:08:02.320was campaigning i saw that openly campaigning for cardi to have a majority yeah yeah and you know
00:08:09.880that that hasn't gotten better you know and one of the big issues in the conservative party
00:08:14.300federally and provincially is that relationship has not mended and i think it's worse it's worse
00:08:19.780and and quite frankly i don't know why i don't know why that wasn't a key initiative coming out
00:08:24.240of it to kind of get together break and figure out what was going on and at least agree not to
00:08:30.020impede each other not to work together for each other's benefit well even if you didn't work to
00:08:34.480even if your personalities didn't jive at all which i can see how they wouldn't yeah you know
00:08:38.700it'd be at least i'd ask for you to abstain from any yes activity yeah pierre wasn't even able to
00:08:48.460get that no he wasn't able to even reach a resolution to get him to stand on the sidelines
00:08:53.120so now he is out actively again this is the second time you know it's going on in ontario
00:08:58.500you know and so quite frankly what do we do now because now we're going to basically de facto
00:09:04.560have a majority government which I think on previous shows we did talk about we kind of
00:09:09.760agreed that you know that's going to happen anyway but it is kind of an odd this one is I think
00:09:16.080given the values of the candidate it's a really hard one for even liberal party members to swallow
00:09:24.180now so you had dolly who's far far left now running to be liberal and maryland who's hard
00:09:30.860right right joining the liberals and so carney's taking them from all sides and you know there are
00:09:37.300members of the liberal party and members of the liberal media are like wait a second what's going
00:09:42.520on here and some people are quite upset not just because she crossed but they're some of them are
00:09:47.560not welcoming her with open arms as carney is on the social media that'll be an interesting caucus
00:09:52.980meeting when some people for years who have butted heads with maryland yeah in legislation and voting
00:09:58.660and just philosophy of how to run the country now they're supposed to be all best friends for the
00:10:04.180next few years it seems to be it's interesting because you know the the way they're describing
00:10:09.540you know this is a official opposition description so the way we're starting to describe some of these
00:10:15.780to and froing in politics is you know my job is to be the official opposition right and hold them to
00:10:22.500account account i find that very interesting and you know it is a very uh technical definition of
00:10:28.980what the opposition does but you know there has to be a little emotion in it there has to be a
00:10:34.340little feeling in it like that's the passion part of it and what i think we're starting to see is
00:10:39.540it's a it's a little more of a business than it is a a calling okay right because now we're
00:10:46.500starting and you know uh pierre you know when he did the podcasting yeah and and he's describing
00:10:52.020sort of his role in government he's describing it almost like a job description and so quite
00:10:57.820frankly what's kind of becoming apparent is as they walk across this is a little bit of a job
00:11:03.020description and my role is to play this role so i'm going to come out these are my and then when
00:11:07.880it's time to switch that off and switch my role i walk over and my value system doesn't really
00:11:13.720matter anymore i switched to a new value system because i'm in a new role that's really you know
00:11:19.800now we're getting into a really odd definition of what their their job or what their role is
00:11:26.320because you are supposed to if you join the conservative party you're supposed to stand for
00:11:31.300something well the values of the conservative party if you're a liberal you're supposed to
00:11:35.680stand for the values of a liberal party that's kind of what you're um not fighting for but you're
00:11:41.280passionate about to help the country move forward and and that's the to and fro of the debate that
00:11:47.220should make for the best country right that's you know i agree i believe in this you believe in this
00:11:52.040at some point we have to concede to get the best outcome for the country so that's that's what it's
00:11:57.040supposed to be it's not supposed to be a job description it's not supposed to be uh we just
00:12:01.440got a raise you know and if i move over there i go from 232 thousand dollars a year to 262 thousand
00:12:09.160dollars and if we win again i get an extra four years therefore i get a pension i get that everyone
00:12:14.680is you know everyone you know looks at their best interests i understand that but there comes a point
00:12:20.040where you have to say am i in this for the betterment of canada or am i in this just as a job
00:12:25.240now here's the my big concern out of all of this is the average canadian is feeling so disconnected
00:12:31.800from ottawa so dissatisfied we have a real problem in the last 10 to 15 years in this country with
00:12:38.360voter turnout municipal election provincial and federally what is going to take someone who's on
00:12:44.360the fence about voting get out there and vote next federal election when your vote may not count
00:12:49.400because the party and the person you vote for could just walk across the floor for a better deal
00:12:55.240like they're working in a company and moving from one firm to another well and you know it's
00:12:59.880interesting we just we have a new podcaster board he's a great guy and we just did a podcast and
00:13:05.080you know before we asked him you know do you follow politics when we met him and we were kind
00:13:10.200of interviewing for the for the show and the funny part is he said no absolutely not he says i come
00:13:16.840from a country quite frankly where politics is so corrupt and misguided that i left my interest in
00:13:23.480politics you know left me a long time ago i came to canada and i saw no reason to pick it up again
00:13:29.480so i i've abandoned it which is you know it's it's interesting because it should be a mandatory
00:13:36.680it should be mandatory for every canadian to vote in australia i believe it is it is they have rules
00:13:41.960that you have to vote yeah so and and most countries quite frankly they take give people
00:13:46.600a day off they go vote and you know if we were ever going to give mandatory holidays to any
00:13:52.840canadian it should be to vote yeah right so we don't do that but it should be mandatory that we
00:13:58.360all vote and regardless of you know how much you follow it you do take the time to figure out which
00:14:05.080x to put in the box which check to check and quite frankly we're not doing that and therefore
00:14:10.520by doing it this way you are gonna you're gonna turn so many people off that they're not interested
00:14:15.080and that's my concern is carney is looking at this is a majority i don't have to worry about
00:14:20.200elections for the next few years i can do what i want with my caucus and with my cabinet ministers
00:14:26.520But I don't know if they're really thinking about the damage it's doing to the Canadian psyche about elections and voting and politics.
00:14:34.180It's already a fragile thing right now.
00:14:37.500People are quite fed up with politicians and conflict of interest and them getting rich and living a life that is more and more so distant from the average Canadian.
00:14:48.400They can't even dream about living that life.
00:14:50.960and now politicians who you voted for maybe you volunteered for maybe you put a sign in your yard
00:14:57.760for because you believed in them what they stood for just walk across the floor to join carney and
00:15:03.040the liberals you know it's it's it's interesting you say that because i've been at a few political
00:15:07.840events over the last month and i was with a friend of mine we met each other and we've known each
00:15:14.000other for 20 years and he came to the same event i was at just by happenchance we were leaving
00:15:20.720and he said to me you know this reminds me of the 90s huh i said what do you mean he says remember
00:15:26.320we used to go to the events and he said there'd be no one but the politicians there right and i said
00:15:31.840yeah this one does remind me of the one we were leaving quite frankly there was no one there
00:15:35.920there was no just average person no there's no one there there's only political staff
00:15:40.080yeah and them and he said yeah you remember the 90s after things were bad in the early 90s we
00:15:45.920used to go to these things and quite frankly we used to walk in and you knew all the staff members
00:15:50.720and they were the only ones there and then you used to say hello to everyone they used to give
00:15:56.880this speech to their staff members they used to videotape it so it looked like people were there
00:16:01.580yeah it's starting to look like that again and it it is because you're disconnecting from the public
00:16:07.000the public doesn't want to take the time because they they're thinking that the outcomes the outcome
00:16:12.140is already predetermined you know it's like it's like a game where you know the odds and so you as
00:16:17.680canadian feel like you have no say okay it's a the democrat you know the democratic process
00:16:23.920the democracy that we were promised as canadians that i believe in something i vote for a candidate
00:16:30.160they enter the house of commons and they fight for me and my constituents seems to be going away
00:16:35.600right but the internet it does seem to be going away the interesting thing is um you know i don't
00:16:40.960know how this is gonna go but she's gonna she's gonna well she has she's walked across so now
00:16:47.840she's gonna finish up in ottawa head home and you know i guess she's gonna meet her
00:16:55.040past constituents and now the office goes blue to red now red yeah i don't know how that's gonna go
00:17:00.480i don't i honestly start to wonder like how are these all gonna go with people and you know
00:17:06.000hopefully you know now we say this you know hopefully we come out of this well i hope yeah
00:17:11.840i hope you know the this crazy economic uh malaise that we're in right now hopefully it all kind of
00:17:18.480straightens out we kind of right size and all this is kind of just a you know we do a podcast and
00:17:24.880we talk about it later and say thank goodness everything right sized and we made the right
00:17:28.640decisions it what happens in these cases is if things don't go well people then start to get
00:17:34.080very upset that their decisions were second guess people made decisions on their behalf
00:17:38.720and that's when it's not so good and quite frankly i think part of this is not contingency
00:17:44.000planning for that to happen and you know so you know i hope i hope for the best interest of canada
00:17:50.160it doesn't go that way but i'm going to ask you something so say you're paul micucci and you're
00:17:55.040one of the power brokers in the canadian conservative party and you have six or seven
00:18:01.840women uh really successful bright wealthy people who are the money and the power behind the party1.00
00:18:09.040is it time to have a secret conversation with each remaining member of the conservative party
00:18:14.960in ottawa and say do you stand behind pierre paulia oh yeah yeah i think now yeah time you
00:18:21.680know and the funny thing is coming into the show you and i like i said we were having this
00:18:26.800conversation about how we're starting to understand him more but sometimes in business in life you're
00:18:33.280just too late the damage is done right yeah so you know and that's the calling it's kind of the
00:18:38.640colin powell uh you know rule of of war uh you know you only you have to make the decision when
00:18:46.320you have 85 of the information if you start making decisions when you have 100 the opportunity has
00:18:51.920passed you by interesting so him kind of starting to disclose his personal background and us getting
00:18:58.160to know him and everything happening now it's great it's probably it's probably too late because
00:19:04.240your opposition has picked up too much steam you've done a lot of damage with your existing
00:19:09.680membership and therefore to right size that they're probably not looking at it the same right
00:19:14.720they're like ah not feeling it with this party not feeling the leadership not feeling i'm part
00:19:19.840of anything not feeling i have a direction or course or goal or business plan that i can get
00:19:25.760behind okay i'm going to start to make personal decisions and and therefore yeah you probably
00:19:31.280at this point you probably start looking and saying hey you know i know we had the leadership
00:19:36.800uh but he's not the guy not the guy because at the end of the day you know you you are losing
00:19:42.880the majority you are having people every month or two walking across so if you keep at this pace
00:19:49.040think about it, Jim, if you keep at this pace for the next year, we're what, six or seven more
00:19:54.420people? I mean, according to some of the insiders in Ottawa, that's not an impossible scenario.
00:20:01.140There could be two more, there could be six more. And if we get to that point, I don't think
00:20:06.820it's an untenable situation for the Conservatives and Pierre Polyev, no matter if he's softened his
00:20:12.660tone, if he's changed his attitude and his style in the House of Commons, if he's become more open
00:20:18.220and join these podcasts it he may still stay in politics and still be a member of parliament and
00:20:24.100a cabinet minister sure like joe clark i mean joe clark was the prime minister got beat by trudeau
00:20:30.580after a confidence vote and stayed on the conservatives for years as a very respected
00:20:35.180member of parliament and maybe that's his future but they may need another leader if they're
00:20:40.520actually ever going to win an election well it's interesting you bring up joe clark because you
00:20:44.920know listening to pierre pauliev on this last podcast you know the thing i thought great
00:20:49.740podcast learned a lot of insight but he is a professional politician so the way he presents
00:20:55.720himself is you know i basically you know had this happen to me this happened to me and then i found
00:21:01.320politics and i think from his early 20s exactly and then i fell in love with it and so that's all
00:21:06.020i've ever done yeah and he has a photographic memory he's very bright he does uh you know he
00:21:11.860He remembers passages of books and theories and everything, which is great.
00:21:18.400It's all very, you know, and so sometimes for people who are practical and have lived life and have life experiences, jobs, you know, more things in their background, it's hard for you to relate to someone who's very theoretical because you're dealing on practical situations.
00:21:34.180Your background and things you've done have taught you are sort of rules that you live by and, you know, the philosophies of life.
00:21:42.800So then you're meeting someone who's so now you're not able to find a common ground, a common link.
00:21:49.420And that, I think, is a little bit of the challenge right now that he's having.
00:21:52.120He's not able to kind of link into these people to share that background and the philosophies and where he's going.
00:21:59.380Because I'm thinking Jean Critchin was a pretty successful corporate attorney for 25, 30 years.
00:23:02.360Because if you run a centralized approach and a centralized government, you isolate people who are sitting on the side of that sometimes.
00:23:09.760And they start saying, well, I'm not really part of this.
00:23:12.500So there must be something going on that's making them feel like they're isolated or not part of this philosophy or team.
00:23:19.740I know in sports, there's been history where coaches and GMs have taken over whatever sports team.
00:23:26.840And so, look, if you don't want to be here, if you don't want to be part of this,
00:23:30.460we'll set it up and we'll trade you or give you a release and buy out your contract.
00:23:35.440But Pierre Pauly, it might be at the point where they call everyone together.
00:23:38.180Look, if people don't want to be here, sit as an independent or cross the floor.
00:23:42.680We are going to sit with the people that want to be here and part of this.
00:23:46.460Because right now, it's almost a fait accompli that Mark Carney had by, well, I mean, nine, not even, in six days, he has a majority in the House of Commons.
00:23:57.540So the Conservatives will have a couple more years sitting in opposition before they have to worry about a next election.
00:28:18.680And so after all of this, we assume it's going to be a majority.
00:28:24.460But there will be work to be done by all levels of politics to repair the damage to a lot of people who feel like they're calling them traitors.
00:28:35.280They feel like they've been double-crossed.
00:28:37.100and for people to heal that wound so they turn out in big numbers for the next election won't
00:28:43.800be easy paul no no we're not we're going to see the damage of it all now yeah the only condition
00:28:49.720i put on that is if it goes well which i for all of us in can fingers crossed fingers crossed i
00:28:55.680hope it does if it doesn't you will see a huge turnout right because they'll be so upset yeah