00:01:17.400This seems to be part of a trend with this government.
00:01:20.240And this individual still had more than a year left of his tenure there.
00:01:23.780And it just seems like forcing out government previous heads of all these different agencies
00:01:29.720and replacing them with well-connected liberal insiders that are personal friends of Mark
00:01:35.160Carney and that have spotty track records, to say the least.
00:01:40.540So what do you believe, Barton, in your view, is unfit for this position?
00:01:44.480I mean, what specifically concerns you about him having influence over potentially billions of dollars worth of investment?
00:01:51.700Yeah, the short answer is simply his track record.
00:01:54.100So whether it was his time at McKinsey where he when he was a senior managing partner, I think one of the top top guys.
00:02:01.540This is at the same time where they were sued for their role in the opioid epidemic across North America, where they advised Purdue Pharmaceuticals of how to supercharge sales of that highly addictive drug, whether it's the previous time giving advice to this government on the Canada Infrastructure Bank or the Supercluster Strategy, both of which have cost hundreds of millions or billions of dollars without any obvious benefits to the Canadian people or the Canadian state.
00:02:31.540the Canadian Infrastructure Bank, of course, a perfect example, lending more than a billion
00:02:36.280dollars, low interest rate loans, not to support a Canadian business, but to bankroll the
00:02:43.080manufacturing, the building of ferries in state-owned shipyards in communist China.
00:02:48.520So when we look at his appointment, we see that as part of a trend within this government
00:02:55.420that I view as the form of crony capitalism, basically, where if you want to get ahead,
00:03:01.540The way to do it is being a well-connected liberal insider that's friends with the prime minister.
00:03:06.100We saw it also recently with the recent condo bailout announcement in Vancouver where they want to use over a billion dollars in taxpayer money to basically bail out billionaire condo developers whose products weren't moving on the market because they were priced too high.
00:03:20.440Well, Barton left McKinsey in 2018. So in terms of the responsibility, what do you believe he personally bears in terms of his firm's work or his former firm's work during the situation with Purdue Pharma and federal contracting problems that were actually later identified by the Auditor General? I mean, do you feel like he bears that much personal responsibility?
00:03:40.320Well, when it comes to the opioid crisis, that was going on for many years before that.
00:03:44.600If we're talking about the drug OxyContin that was being pushed at these pill mills across the United States.
00:03:50.740And again, McKinsey was was advising Purdue Pharmaceuticals and had to supercharge the sale of this addictive drug that's left more than 100,000 people dead across North America.
00:04:01.000So I think that's some questions that deserve answers.
00:04:04.600There's also deep personal connections that he appears to have through his former firm with many state-owned companies in communist China.
00:04:13.120So we see that they even went so far as in 2018, I believe it was 2018, they held their company retreat in the region of China where the Uyghur genocide has been happening.
00:07:50.420Whether it's on the infrastructure bank, the super cluster strategy, wasting taxpayer money, whether this crazy open border century initiative to increase Canada's population to a completely unsustainable 100 million people, whether it is, you know, again, when is the work at his former firm to supercharge the opioid crisis and supercharge sales of Oxycontin that's left 100,000 people dead.
00:08:13.680we think people should be judged on their track records and right now it seems that the only
00:08:19.180thing that you need on your resume to be appointed to a senior position in this government is to be
00:08:24.700a member of this kind of so-called liberal club one of these well-connected liberal insiders it
00:08:31.600doesn't matter how many scandals you have it doesn't matter if you've been right on any of
00:08:36.880your previous policy positions that you've openly opined on it just matters are you part of this
00:08:41.160club are you friends with the prime minister if so we have a cushy job for you well given
00:08:46.040marconi's background you know central banking and given his you know academic accolades and
00:08:50.760probably the kind of rooms he would have access to and the kind of people didn't know
00:08:54.260you you could allege it of course he's appointing insiders here but don't these people typically
00:08:58.980liaison and engage with each other in the private sector naturally i mean wouldn't you say dominic
00:09:03.420barton is a competent accomplished individual perhaps levied interests on the political side
00:09:09.480or ideology or shared objectives in some other topic but don't you think Mr. Barton would be
00:09:16.080a qualified individual to hold that role? Well it depends I guess what you mean by qualified if
00:09:21.200you mean we're certainly not you know opposed to to individuals being appointed that have gone to
00:09:26.560good schools or have worked at successful companies but when we look at somebody's
00:09:33.020resume or track record we want to see what has been the political advice that they have offered
00:09:38.160in the past and how is that political and policy advice held up over time and whether it's the
00:09:44.780century initiative as we discussed that open borders increase canada's population to 100
00:09:51.780million completely discredited um policy whether it is the the pushing for the canada infrastructure
00:09:59.760bank that has wasted huge amounts of taxpayer money without delivering results which is
00:10:04.700offshore jobs to China, of all things, when its mandate was supposed to be to create jobs and
00:10:11.020economic growth here in Canada, whether it's the failed supercluster strategy, a billion dollars
00:10:15.060out the window, or whether, again, it's his work at his former firm to supercharge the opioid
00:10:21.200crisis, as well as its connections with state-owned companies and communist China. So we've got
00:10:25.600concerns across the board, but we think that is how individuals who are being appointed to lead
00:10:30.760these organizations should be judged. It should be judged on their track records and on their
00:10:36.520former pronouncements and recommendations on public policy and how those have held up
00:10:40.820over time. Regarding Mr. Barton's track record, you may end up just in the last answer right now,
00:10:46.260the Canada Infrastructure Bank and the Federal Supercluster Program. What would it consider the
00:10:51.220government to do differently to attract private investment, which is ultimately the goal of those
00:10:54.460programs? And of course, without using what you call carve-outs, bail-outs, hand-outs, corporate
00:11:00.180welfare? Yeah, well, we would first of all, make Canada one of the most attractive
00:11:05.060countries for investment in the entire world by getting rid of the onerous bureaucratic state and
00:11:13.600regulatory regime that has suffocated our economy over the past 11 years. What we wouldn't do is we
00:11:20.120wouldn't use a vehicle like the Canada Infrastructure Bank to offshore jobs to a state-owned
00:11:24.960shipyard in china when those ships should have been built right here in canada so we believe in
00:11:31.280all sorts of different investment strategies to attract investment here in canada of course but
00:11:35.000we don't think we should be doing it through this this prism of crony capitalism capitalism
00:11:40.400where basically you're just rewarding those with with good insider connections to the government
00:11:46.400a good example again is this condo bailout where they want to reward developers who built condo
00:11:52.820units at prices and price them at prices that people could not afford. It's built up a surplus
00:12:00.160of supply. Now prices are about to come down, but rather than let their developer friends
00:12:04.360lose a little bit of money after making billions over the past few decades, they want to
00:12:08.300come in with a handout from taxpayers. And we think that is wrong. And we think instead the
00:12:14.620market should be allowed to correct itself to a more affordable level and allow people the homes
00:12:20.980they can afford. Briefly, you raised the expected departure of the head of the new defense investment
00:12:26.420agency. Do you believe that the resignations that are happening are connected and what information
00:12:31.000are you seeking about that situation? Well, we want to know. It seems like you have for both of
00:12:35.680these agencies, you have very important moments in time coming up. So we likened it to a coach
00:12:43.040getting replaced just before you head into the Stanley Cup finals. And what we basically have
00:12:49.080our questions that we think we deserve that not we but we think canadiens deserve answers to to
00:12:55.240why are these individuals leaving are they being pushed out by the prime minister's office and if
00:13:00.520so under what justification so those are the questions that we have that's why we wrote the
00:13:04.520letter and um we uh obviously encourage the uh the prime minister in his office to to shed some light
00:13:10.840and transparency on the situation mp aragon thank you so much for your time today thank you for having