The Western Standard's own editor-in-chief, Michelle Rempel-Garner, joins the show to talk about the new Liberal Party leader, Mark Carney, and why he might have a shot at defeating Justin Trudeau in the upcoming election.
00:00:00.000Hi, I'm Derek Fuldebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard.
00:00:28.440We're heading to a likely election to be called next week.
00:00:32.300And so you're going to see a lot more of me writing a lot more, interviewing a lot more people in and around this election campaign that is going to be very important for Canada and for the West.
00:00:44.600Our first guest is going to be, in just a few minutes, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel-Garner, the MP for Calgary Nose Hill.
00:00:52.320But before we get into her, I want to just talk a bit about the new Liberal leader and Prime Minister-designate Mark Carney.
00:01:01.800Switching out unpopular leaders to stave off election defeat is an old and sometimes successful Canadian political tradition.
00:01:09.100Here in Alberta, it worked like a charm in the old PC party until it didn't.
00:01:13.280The most famous example of it most definitely not working was Kim Campbell's last minute tagging in for Brian Mulrooney as PC leader in 1993.
00:01:22.320The party had hemorrhaged its support into two new parties, the Reform Party in the West and the Bloc Québécois in Quebec.
00:01:29.460But Campbell's substitution suddenly reinvigorated the PCs, putting them in contention with Jean Chrétien's Liberals.
00:01:36.860The quick blood transfusion and support in the polls quickly evaporated, though, as people remembered that they still hated the PCs.
00:04:33.760Trump hasn't helped the conservative case either.
00:04:35.760His chaotic on-again, off-again trade war has deeply unsettled Canadians,
00:04:39.580including many who are otherwise sympathetic to him. However much the Liberals have dragged the
00:04:44.680Canadian flag through the mud over the last nine years, they appear to have successfully wrapped
00:04:49.380themselves in that flag and have caught some traction in labeling anyone who opposes them
00:04:54.220as traitors. Exhibit A, Albertans who are unwilling to sacrifice the oil industry as a pawn for the
00:05:00.360East. Polyev is no Trump, but he is a right populist, and that may be enough to convict
00:05:06.440him in the eyes of swing voters who want to be protected from the bad orange man. The Liberals0.90
00:05:12.100have given themselves a shot at survival here by switching out their leader. History has examples
00:05:16.920of both triumph and tears for what comes next. Will Canadians remember that they still hate the
00:05:21.400Liberals, or will they fall in line? Time will tell. All right, well, let's bring in our guest
00:05:29.980today uh michelle rempelgarner is the conservative mp for calgary nose hill uh thank you very much
00:05:37.400for joining us michelle thanks for having me all right uh i mean it's a pretty poorly kept secret
00:05:43.080uh some people that we both know who work in war rooms uh in the conservative war room have been
00:05:49.220all recalled as of about two weeks ago or even a bit more in some cases to ottawa to staff the war
00:05:54.620room. How likely is it that Canadians are going to see the writ drop and an election called next
00:06:00.860week? Well, we've needed an election for a long time. So, you know, just speaking on behalf of
00:06:07.240myself, I hope that the call comes sooner than later. You know, the Liberals should have taken
00:06:13.520Canada to an election a long time ago. And as you know, you were talking about the NDP ahead of time.
00:06:18.840The Liberals should have voted non-confidence in the Liberals, you know, months and months ago as
00:06:24.040well. So, you know, I can't purport to speak for the likes of Mark Carney and Justin Trudeau's
00:06:30.920inner circle, who have now taken up residence in his new office. But certainly we are on high
00:06:36.800alert for an election to happen. Is it safe to say that within the Conservative caucus and party
00:06:44.900in Ottawa, you guys are expected, you're expecting an election to be called by next week?
00:06:50.840Well, we've been preparing for an election for quite some time because we felt that it was necessary. You know, you've seen Conservative leader Pierre Polyev for months trigger confidence motion after confidence motion. So, yeah, of course, we're calling for an election and doing all.
00:07:13.180You're ready for one. You're calling for one. But let me put the question in another way to pin you down. Scale of one to 10. If you're putting money down, just personally, no insider information, what's the chances of an election on a scale of one to 10 being called next week?
00:07:30.180You know, I wish I could give you that answer, and I'll tell you why it's difficult not to be able, or it's hard to be able to do that.
00:07:39.100You know, you had the NDP last fall at a time where the Liberals were basically at a historic low, and the NDP propped them up.
00:07:49.300So it's hard to get into the minds of these left-wing politicians.
00:07:54.060They're going to do whatever is best for them, not what's best for the Canadian who's struggling with rent or to buy groceries.
00:08:01.780So certainly it's our position as a party that, you know, we don't have confidence in the Liberal government, no matter who's in charge, because it's largely the same team.
00:08:11.680Right. So I'm certainly hoping that there's one coming soon, that we're going to get one soon.
00:08:17.300But Derek, who knows what these Liberals will do?
00:08:20.040okay uh the conservative party has had a record fundraising for several years now you guys
00:08:28.580uh i won't go on too long because i know you want to raise some more money but
00:08:32.480but you guys have a war chest ready to fight i think a couple of campaigns here
00:08:37.140at this point uh i'm not sure if all i don't think all of the conservative candidates are
00:08:41.740selected but most there's a there's a few nomination races i think outstanding which
00:08:46.120I'm kind of surprised they've not been wrapped up yet, but okay.
00:08:50.320But how prepared is the Conservative Party for an election if it were to be called next week?
00:08:57.060Well, you know, I always start the answer to that question with,
00:09:00.800do we have a message and a plan that's going to resonate with Canadian voters, right?
00:09:04.660That really is where election preparedness starts from.
00:09:08.000And you've seen Conservative leader Pierre Polyev start to roll out major policies
00:09:13.320that have been in that platform, like removing the GST on new home builds to address the housing
00:09:19.560crisis. He's been out over the last couple of weeks talking about our Canada first plan to
00:09:25.460secure the Canadian border to shore up the Canadian economy after 10 years of liberal
00:09:30.620ruination, which has left the Canadian economy very vulnerable to American tariffs. So, you know,
00:09:37.780I could spend the entire show talking about that. But on point number one, I'm really excited to see the policies that we've been rolling out that make a lot of sense and that I think we've seen have resonated with Canadian voters and will continue to do so.
00:09:52.040And then, you know, we have seen, like you ask about some of the other preparedness things like fundraising, like candidates. I think it's because we started that with that foundation of a solid plan that resonates with a lot of the issues that have been facing Canadian voters, that we've seen a lot of interest in folks wanting to run for us, that we've had a lot of folks reach out to us with financial support because they understand that change has to happen.
00:10:17.840You know, the Liberals are asking for a fourth term. They've had 10 years in government. They've doubled the debt. You know, they put us into an inflationary crisis. You know, I could go through all of the problems, but people understand that when the Liberals are asking for a fourth term, it's going to make life a lot harder on them.
00:10:33.820So I think that, you know, some of the other metrics that you talked about there, they're a result of us having a strong plan and people saying, yeah, we want change. Let's work together on that. So, again, it's time for an election.
00:10:48.440So, you know, you talked about having the message ready.
00:10:52.600And that's where I want to go with this, because, I mean, six months ago, everything was cost of living.
00:12:22.580how is the Conservative Party adapting itself
00:12:25.660to the shift in narrative away from cost of living,
00:12:29.540which is not going to go away as an issue,
00:12:31.420but I think it's being eclipsed as the dominant issue.
00:12:34.900How is the Conservative Party adapting its platform
00:12:37.600and its messaging from cost of living,
00:12:40.640carbon tax issues towards trade war, 51st state annexation rhetoric from Trump.
00:12:47.760There's so much to unpack there. I want to get into the carbon tax, but
00:12:52.260you kind of made an assertion that cost of living isn't top of mind right now.
00:12:57.680I guess I'll ask you a question. Do you think that your viewers would think that
00:13:01.140rent magically got cheaper in the last two months?
00:13:04.300No, but I think it's fair to say it's gone from the overwhelming dominant issue to at least
00:13:09.820roughly equal with the issue of the trade war.
00:13:13.980Would you say that your listeners would think that groceries have gotten magically more affordable
00:13:18.460in the last few months? None of these things have gotten better, but in terms of what's top
00:13:22.340of mind and voters' minds and a lot of the polling out there,
00:13:26.640the trade war has become a massive issue.
00:13:30.620So obviously what voters are talking about has changed.
00:13:34.320What about crime? Has downtown Calgary LRT gotten magically
00:13:38.460safer in the last two months? No, no. It's a disaster. The point I'm trying to make is
00:13:45.960I have been doing this job a hot minute, and I know when certain legacy media outlets try to
00:13:52.840tell me something is the most top of mind issue for Canadians. I'm not saying that tariffs aren't.
00:13:57.920They're a problem. But what is top of mind for Canadians is the fact that rent has not magically
00:14:02.920gotten cheaper in the last two months, that the streets have not gotten safer, and that people
00:14:07.920still can't afford to eat. So for me, when I look at the tariff issue, the reality is, is that Canada
00:14:14.080has been left vulnerable. Canadians have left been left in a position where they can barely
00:14:19.100afford to make ends meet. They're in, you know, experiencing extremely unsafe situations in
00:14:24.700virtually every part of the country, because of liberal crime policy. So the tariffs, what they've
00:14:30.000done is exacerbated the impact of 10 years of disastrous liberal policies. And, you know,
00:14:36.160Of course, the Liberals, of course, the Liberals, Derek, want people to forget that it was them that caused these problems, that it was them that left Canada vulnerable.
00:14:46.560And then somehow believe that they just by changing the figurehead on Justin Trudeau's team, like the hood ornament on Justin Trudeau's team, that's all that they've done, that somehow those issues will magically go away.
00:14:56.440And I think it's actually really irresponsible for people who are considering running in a federal election to assert somehow that rent has gotten cheaper, that crime has gotten better, and that groceries are more affordable.
00:15:08.940So we have to simultaneously address those problems.
00:15:11.760The Liberals don't want to because it doesn't help their electoral prospects, right?
00:15:16.440They want people to forget where these things came from.
00:15:20.140So that's why, you know, you've seen conservative leader Pierre Polyev come out and say, no, Canadian voter, Canadian citizen, I understand where you're at.
00:15:28.300I understand that the immigration system is broken, that the Liberals are broken.
00:15:31.380I understand that the Liberals' catch and release policies have made crime unsafe, that their drug policies have created an even worse opioid crisis, right?
00:15:40.360And propose solutions for those issues, too.
00:15:42.860The Liberals, you've got, see, now with Mark Carney, you've got this guy who, I don't think, like, I don't think he's ever knocked a door in his life, right?
00:15:50.140And he's being told by Justin Trudeau's advisers what they think, where they think they need to lead the mainstream media to fool Canadians into voting them for another term.
00:16:00.160And we're not going to go there because it's not, you know, that's not a that's not a productive path to correct the damage that the Liberals have inflicted on the country.
00:16:08.800Now, again, of course, tariffs are a huge problem.
00:16:11.780That's why you've had Pierre Polyev out talking about our Canada First plan to address those issues and strengthen the economy.
00:16:17.440And then just very briefly on the carbon tax. I mean, Derek, he, Mark Carney was the arch priest of net zero up until what, five minutes, literally five minutes ago. So pardon me if I don't believe that he's changed his stripes magically overnight. And, you know, the proof's in the pudding. Even since he announced his leadership bid, he went on Atlantic television, mocked the steel industry, said, well, how much steel does anyone use?
00:16:42.460proposed a new tax on the steel industry in the middle of the tariff crisis, right, related to
00:16:47.600carbon pricing. And like, just like, pardon me for not believing that a liberal who is the arch
00:16:54.160priest of net zero policy is going to somehow change his stripes overnight. And that's why I
00:16:59.780think, you know, we have such a compelling narrative to the Canadian voter that we take
00:17:04.000these issues very seriously, but we also have a serious plan and a track record of authenticity
00:17:37.700A lot's going to depend on who people want to be the prime minister, the personality and the big chair.
00:17:47.020The Conservatives had done a very good job in holding up a mirror to Justin Trudeau and Canadians were obviously done with him.
00:17:55.880That led to bad numbers that eventually led to his caucus very, very belatedly getting rid of him when it was far too late to actually do it in a way that would be any good for the country.
00:18:05.140But perhaps it'll be good for the Liberal Party.
00:18:07.700But, you know, as I said in my opening remarks, Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney are very, very similar on the policy front.
00:18:22.840But I think it's fair to say, at least for now, Mark Carney's less annoying.
00:18:27.960He doesn't have that backfifengashecht, a punchable face.
00:19:03.560For anyone without a sense of humor, I suppose you have to say that.
00:19:08.820But in all seriousness, Carney has really built his own narrative around his interchangeability with Justin Trudeau by virtue of his senior role with the Liberal Party over the last several years, right?
00:19:24.400I mean, just even dating back to the pandemic, he was, I think his title was, I'd have to look, something like the Build Back Better advisor.
00:19:31.140So he was part of the senior advisory team that really built a lot of the inflationary spending that Justin Trudeau put in place, right?
00:19:43.000He was named a senior economic advisor.
00:19:45.920And he's been the global architect of a lot of the policies that the Liberals implemented, particularly around net zero and the disastrous consumer carbon tax.
00:19:56.560So there is a big record to litigate on Mr. Carney.
00:20:00.540But, you know, the reason why I think a lot of people are just starting to become familiar with him is because the Liberals probe Parliament for a reason, right? They shuttered Parliament to prevent people like me raising some of these issues in forums like Parliamentary Committee or in the House of Commons, where Canadians typically see clips of these things in the House of Commons.
00:20:23.540They shut us off for a reason, right? Because they don't want Mark Carney to be vetted. And in fact, a lot of the Canadian mainstream media has not vetted Mr. Carney. Since he announced his leadership bid, he's only taken, what, a handful of questions? And he's only gone on, you know, American softball, like, late night shows.
00:20:42.960So I think that under the glare of an election campaign, when Canadians are getting coverage of all of the leaders at the same time and really starting to weigh their choices, particularly for casual observers who might not think about politics on a day to day basis, Mr. Carney's track record is going to be litigated.
00:21:02.520it will be. The other thing that I'll say is that when you watch Mr. Carney, when he does,
00:21:09.660when in his few handful of public appearances over the last couple of months, he the minute
00:21:15.720that he's not reading a teleprompter, his true self comes out, right? So for example, I look to
00:21:21.080his very flaccid speech that he gave after winning the leadership race on on Sunday night, the one
00:21:30.460time he went off the teleprompter, he mocked, he openly mocked derisively the request that he
00:21:38.680disclose his sizable financial assets to the Canadian public in order to understand what
00:21:43.580his conflicts of interest were. And then again, I'll reference that disastrous interview he gave
00:21:49.620with CTV Atlantic, where he mocked putting an additional carbon tax on steel producers during
00:21:55.020a time of, you know, American tariff threat. So I think that you're probably going to see more of
00:22:00.420his inexperience and frankly, out of touchness with the Canadian public. Somebody who has
00:22:06.480knocked doors and who has their finger on the pulse of the average person who can't afford to
00:22:11.900buy groceries or pay their rent wouldn't be so dismissive of these types of concerns or wouldn't
00:22:16.920give off such elitist vibes. So I think there's going to be a lot of vetting to be done of Mr.
00:22:23.560Carney over the next few months. I'm sure that the mainstream media, I'm sure that the CBC doesn't
00:22:27.480want to do that. That's why outlets like yours are important to give alternative viewpoints
00:22:32.540as opposed to a narrative that might just be, you know, sort of pumping his tires.
00:22:39.080Well, I just want to point out that Mark Carney has refused on multiple occasions to allow
00:22:44.400Western Standard reporters into his events, including reporters who are accredited with
00:22:48.460the various press galleries across the country here. He has allowed exclusively only regime
00:22:54.100subsidized media into his events. He's clearly uncomfortable. I mean, he didn't even have to
00:23:00.640let my reporters ask questions. He just wouldn't even let them in the door to take a picture and
00:23:04.860stand in line to not get a question. That's ridiculous. And I think it was the Canadian1.00
00:23:09.740Association of Journalists actually came out and supported you, right? And pointed this out,
00:23:14.980that this is it was insane so um you know again just underscoring that he's not making himself
00:23:20.140available to the public for a reason it's because he doesn't want his record litigated he wants
00:23:24.880people to forget that he was the architect of many of the policies that led Canada to this place and
00:23:30.820uh you know just just hope that people will forget but I don't think Canadians are that dumb
00:23:34.720well I the last uh last section I want to go to here I want to talk about the party that
00:23:41.220no one's really talking about anymore that's the NDP um the NDP have got as I said my opening
00:23:49.060remarks at least I think in public perception not in reality but in public perception the NDP have
00:23:53.960actually are carrying more of Justin Trudeau's stench around them than the liberals right now
00:23:59.620the liberals have got a new leader but Jagmeet Singh has been tied at the hip to Justin Trudeau
00:24:04.700in policy uh so both substance uh and perception uh for six for at least six years now depending
00:24:12.220on how we're defining this but conservatively six years um and you know there's the polls are drunk
00:24:20.440it's impossible to tell who's right out there and who's wrong uh but there's been at least some
00:24:25.960uptick in in liberal support which is very common when you switch out the leader but uh in all of
00:24:30.940those polls most of the that new support for the liberals is coming at the expense of the NDP
00:24:36.480not maybe life isn't fair guys but it's come at the expense of the NDP but traditionally a strong
00:24:45.200NDP has been helpful to a conservative campaign when you have kind of the hard left vote split
00:24:51.860between two parties how come the conservatives yeah maybe I'm not watching closely enough but
00:24:59.840it seems to me that the conservatives uh aren't talking about jay meet singh anymore they're done
00:25:04.540with him uh you know he's that he's kind of thrown in his lot with with the liberals and he'll keep
00:25:10.160i actually think because of the polling support jay beat singh would vote to keep carney in power
00:25:15.080through the spring if he uh if carney wanted it like indications are that carney's just gonna
00:25:19.960yeah i think indications are carney wants to take this bump in support however big or not it is
00:25:24.560and just roll the dice now so i think the one who doesn't want an election the most is actually
00:25:29.020Jagmeet Singh. But how come the Conservatives, at least to me in appearance, don't seem to be
00:25:36.060talking about the NDP and Jagmeet Singh anymore? Well, you know, Derek, I often think that people
00:25:41.840think that there's this magical five-dimensional chess that happens with regard to, you know,
00:25:47.940political positioning ahead of a campaign. And it's actually, and you know this, you have to
00:25:52.740have your own plan and focus on your own political strategy. And that's why, you know, you've seen
00:25:57.660Pierre Polyev focus very much on the crisis issues that the countries are facing right now.
00:26:03.880So you talked about tariffs earlier. Pierre has been out talking, Mr. Polyev has been out talking
00:26:07.900about our Canada First plan, border security measures, economic, you know, bolstering the
00:26:14.280economy measures, all very tangible things. He's been out there trying to reassure Canadians
00:26:18.800that there is an adult in the room and it's him. And that's showing he's getting a lot of really
00:26:23.620good feedback from that. You know, I hate to try to, you know, you're kind of asking me an
00:26:29.360impossible task, which is to get into Jagmeet Singh's head and understand what he's doing. I
00:26:34.620mean, this is not a party that has, you know, been the smartest on the political tactics side.
00:26:39.940But I will, like, I can't believe I'm saying this, give them one sort of positive kudo.
00:26:44.560And that's in the last week, they've decided finally to start litigating the Liberals, which
00:26:49.400which they should have been doing the whole time, given that their role is an opposition party.
00:26:54.100But they've been litigating the Liberals on the issue of Brookfield had a lot of,
00:26:57.780this is Mark Carney's, the former multi-billion,
00:27:01.020it's a multi-billion dollar everything corporation that he chaired up until just a few weeks ago.
00:27:05.560And they've been raising questions about some of their accounting practices and taxation practices
00:27:10.540and what role Mark Carney had in that.
00:27:13.500And when I saw that, I was like, yes, you're doing your job.
00:27:17.660So, you know, I can't purport to speak on, you know, on behalf of the NDP, but they need to figure out that their job is an opposition party and that the governing liberals that they've propped up for so long has a lot to be held to account for.
00:27:31.600And so, you know, Godspeed to them on those issues.
00:27:36.420Well, learning that they should act like an opposition party a week out from a potential election.