Jay Hill, former Conservative Party of Canada House of Commons Leader, joins me on the Western Standard to discuss the housing crisis, immigration issues, and much, much more. The Western Standard is a weekly show with the host, Cory Morgan, covering news, talking to guests, and discussing general opinions and rants on issues of the day.
00:09:21.460But one of the great stories that's been sitting high up there on the Western Standard site there, westernstandard.news, is from Linda Slobodian. She writes fantastic columns, very prolific on the Western Standard. And saying, not enough soldiers to stand on guard for thee or anybody else. This is another problem happening in Canada. Our armed forces are, they're atrophying, they're shriveling. We've been hearing about this for years. And again, same sort of thing.
00:09:45.220The prime minister pays lip service to it. He loves flying overseas and pretending Canada's
00:09:49.720a player with NATO or other large nations. They don't take him seriously. They don't take Canada
00:09:54.300seriously. Part of it is we can't pull our weight when it comes to military spending. We won't
00:09:59.220pull our weight when it comes to military spending. So yeah, we're at 34,000 people now
00:10:04.200in our complete military forces, and it's expected to drop to 31,000. Again, and this was warned by
00:10:12.500our retired Lieutenant Colonel David Redmond. We've got a real problem as our forces continue
00:10:18.700to decline. And you know, it's not just for overseas peacekeeping, things like that. We have
00:10:21.880seen with emergencies, fires, a lot of domestic needs, having a large, you know, armed forces or
00:10:28.040people on the ground, it can be very, very good and, you know, beneficial for the country. But
00:10:32.780we're letting that lag. Again, this is the government, the nation of kicking the can down
00:10:38.100the road. They just don't want to make hard decisions. So these shouldn't even be hard
00:10:42.100decisions. But nah, we'll just put that off. We'll put that off. We'll put that off. It's going to
00:10:46.060be a big, big mess to clean up whenever the heck Trudeau's out of there. Let's see, something else
00:10:52.520to talk about, of course, the Tamara Leach-Chris Barber trial. That's been going on. So, you know,
00:10:58.900the full criminal trial started, I believe, yesterday in Ottawa and the courts there.
00:11:05.020They're quibbling over whether it was an occupation or not. It's going to be a little painful watching
00:11:09.580the defense and, you know, such going at each other. I mean, basically they're rehashing all
00:11:15.700of the discussions that we've heard over the last year, particularly with the bail hearings when
00:11:20.800they were inexcusably holding, you know, Tamara Leach without bail as if she was really going to
00:11:27.200present a threat of forming another convoy to go out to Ottawa or something like that. I don't
00:11:33.580think, as Cindy says, they're not going to get a fair trial. I don't know. You know, we'll see.
00:11:39.880There's some justices who do take their job seriously, but it's hard to say.
00:11:43.080I mean, there's definitely the government wants to make an example of them.
00:16:24.280What do you think, you know, I guess strategically, we can look forward to from the Liberals to try and reestablish themselves as this session hits.
00:16:31.080I mean, they've got to really try and take control.
00:16:34.300Well, they do. And I don't see anything on the horizon, Corey.
00:16:38.280I mean, we haven't heard of any new initiatives, any new government legislation.
00:16:42.700It's a bit early because we're still a couple of weeks out of the reconvening of Parliament on the 18th.
00:16:48.800So it's a little bit early to know exactly what legislation the government's going to be bringing forward when the House of Commons starts sitting again.
00:16:57.840But we haven't heard anything, you know, that would be sort of a piece of legislation, perhaps a bit controversial,
00:17:05.360but certainly with widespread support that could shift the focus, in particular, the focus of the
00:17:13.600media, but also of the opposition parties away from a secession of scandal. And as you were
00:17:21.620mentioning, just the immigration issue alone, just before I came on your program, there are so many
00:17:28.660issues. I was taking a look at it when I knew I was going to come on your show. And it's going to
00:17:33.640be very difficult for the opposition to focus and narrow it down to say two or three issues
00:17:39.380because there's so many that have been a minor crisis for Trudeau and his government and
00:17:47.700immigration is one. I mean, because it's directly linked to the housing crisis, right? As you were
00:17:55.340saying, is that why are we increasing immigration? We should be decreasing it, but why are we1.00
00:18:01.580increasing immigration when there are two major problems for new immigrants. One is to
00:18:08.480get some reasonably priced housing if they can find any at all. And the second one
00:18:13.860is the dismal state of our healthcare system. You know, are they going to be able to get a doctor
00:18:18.460for themselves and their families? And yet Trudeau seems to be oblivious to this. And that's just
00:18:24.580one of the crises that is facing this government. So it'll be interesting to see what's the focus
00:18:29.880of question period in particular. Yeah. Well, and it's really like when you look at the polls
00:18:33.940right now, what people say is their top issue, the main one that's hitting everybody, it's cost
00:18:37.840of living. And that kind of packs in food and housing, post-secondary education, you name it,
00:18:42.560everything's going through the roof. Owning a car is expensive right now. Everybody's worrying
00:18:46.560about that. And there are a whole pile of things contributing to that rising cost of living,
00:18:51.820whether it's interest rates being hiked, whether it's the immigration, whether it's
00:19:17.480Well, I think you've really hit it right, you know,
00:19:20.440the major issue right on the head here when you talk about it.
00:19:24.280it really truly is government by ideology. I mean, I've never seen anything like this. You haven't
00:19:30.300seen anything like this, Corey. I would argue we've never had anything, a government that is
00:19:35.860so driven ideologically to impact every segment of the economy, everything to do with people's
00:19:45.020everyday way of life. And finally, it's starting to resonate even outside of Western Canada. I mean,
00:19:49.980And the West is always the first to really support the freedoms and our democracy.
00:19:57.160But it's finally starting to sink in a little bit down in East, in Central Canada as well.
00:20:03.300Now, whether this government can shift at all, I don't believe they can.
00:20:06.480They certainly haven't shown any sign of it for eight years.
00:20:10.600We have to remember he has been in office, he being Justin Trudeau, for eight long years now.
00:20:17.520And it really boggles the mind that this guy could not only get elected with it originally in a majority and then twice more with a minority, but effectively a majority because of the weakness of Jagmeet Singh.
00:20:30.780There's going to be some major issues.
00:20:32.420As you know, the trial of Chris Barber and Tamara Leish, that travesty of our justice system is underway right now.
00:20:41.120And it's scheduled to complete roughly about the time when the House will start sitting.
00:20:47.540And regardless of how the verdict goes for those two individuals, I think it's going to be incredibly damaging for the government.
00:20:55.040Because it's really going to point out the failure of this prime minister and this government to properly address the concerns of everyday Canadians.
00:21:05.080Yeah, and it's just rehashing, I guess, another segment.
00:21:08.800That was an indication of a government in a panic, a government that had lost control of its own citizens and its own city, for crying out loud.
00:21:15.740and it's just nothing else that they need to distract themselves with as this session comes
00:21:20.600forward. But the, as you pointed out as well, like the shift, I think that stands out the most when
00:21:27.460we're looking at polling anyways, it's not just one outlier. It's been pretty consistent. The
00:21:31.000liberals are in free fall right now. We haven't seen anything like that since they got in.
00:21:34.480The demographic breakdown, I mean, so conservatives have typically been popular, most of them with
00:21:39.360Folks like us, you know, gray in the hair, Westerners and into a little past 40.
00:21:45.360But I mean, this isn't the growth of that demographic in support for the conservatives.
00:21:49.460The youth are turning towards the conservatives.
00:21:51.700Women who typically didn't support conservatives are turning towards conservatives.
00:21:55.600That's showing more of a sea change, a shift in the mood of the nation that, again, I can't believe the liberals.
00:22:03.240I mean, they're usually astute political players.
00:22:05.940They can't seem to see this trouble coming on the horizon.
00:22:07.860Yeah, no, I agree completely. It'll be interesting to see what the backroom boys are saying, if it leaks out what they're saying to Trudeau, as far as advice on that front. Because as you say, their voting pool, as it were, is shrinking.
00:22:30.240There was a great article in National Post, Corey, today about 12 conservatives, I believe it was, up-and-coming conservatives to watch.
00:22:39.540And it shows the depth of the conservative party.
00:22:43.160Because as you know, you and I have been around a long time with this political business.
00:22:48.400it shows that that despite the fact that governments are usually defeated not elected
00:22:54.000there is a wealth of depth to the existing conservative caucus and there's a lot of young
00:23:01.080people as you say and I think that's a big reason like not only do they have a young leader in Pierre
00:23:06.140Polyev but they have people like Shuv Majumder that was just elected in Calgary Heritage with
00:23:13.560a massive mandate, I would argue. And Shoev is that age, you know, around the 40. He's got a lot
00:23:20.240of experience, but he's still, you know, compared to some of us, young. And so there's a real wealth
00:23:27.820of experience there for Canadians to take a look at, so that they're not just voting out a corrupt,
00:23:35.660incompetent government, but they're going to elect some great people.
00:23:39.760Yeah. And just to sidetrack, since you brought up Shuv, I've known Shuv a while. I love the guy and he's brilliant. I mean, I'd really like to see a conservative government, if only to see him working within foreign affairs. We're talking somebody with talent, not Melanie Jolie or something like that.
00:23:52.880to actually start speaking on an intellectual level with foreign dignitaries leaders and things
00:23:58.140such as that. She's been on the show a number of times. And just as you said, that sort of depth,
00:24:03.040I mean, he wasn't elected as a political token by any means or anything. He's a very smart guy
00:24:10.360who's going to do some good stuff if he gets the chance and gets out of the position.
00:24:12.680Yeah, he isn't like some of the parties of the left that are just attracted to nominating
00:24:17.560candidates because they're a visible minority. I mean, he is that, and proudly so. But he was
00:24:24.920really nominated and elected, I would argue, on the depth of his experience, the way he's so
00:24:32.320articulate, the way he can explain in-depth policy in the way that an average Canadian can understand.
00:24:37.980And if we had a cabinet made up of people like Shubma Jumder instead of the disastrous group of people that Trudeau is attracted, we would see Canada start to revert from being the embarrassment we've become and return to a cabinet of experienced and capable people like we had under Stephen Harper.
00:25:03.340Well, yeah, that's the, Trudeau's backed himself into a corner.
00:25:06.820I mean, if you're going to try and reinvent yourself through a cabinet shuffle and change
00:25:10.480things, fair enough, it happens in politics.
00:25:13.020But you should be looking based on merit.
00:25:15.200And he binds himself with, well, I'm going to make sure I check all those, you know,
00:25:20.560social gesturing off and I got to have half of them being women.
00:25:23.800And it's not saying women aren't, you know, fantastic cabinet ministers at times.1.00
00:25:28.320But if you have fewer of them in caucus than you do men, you have a smaller pool to draw0.64
00:25:32.360from. And he hasn't based his cabinet typically on merit. He's done it just on filling boxes and
00:25:38.780that won't help turn the tide right now. Well, I think, you know, having been involved on the
00:25:43.580periphery with Stephen Harper, when he went through his cabinet selection process, I know it's a
00:25:49.740terribly, terribly difficult job. But as you say, there is a balance between doing sort of what is
00:25:56.300socially acceptable, you know, the number of women, you have to have regional representation,0.96
00:26:01.760You know, at least one cabinet minister from each of the 10 provinces, that type of thing.
00:26:07.160But the underlying thing should always be competence, I think.
00:26:12.300And certainly that has not been the case for eight years now.
00:26:15.780And it's been eight long years because of it and embarrassing years at the federal, international level.
00:26:21.920Well, Trudeau's cabinet has been a reflection of himself as far as depth goes.
00:26:47.340And people called it fickle and so on.
00:26:49.520But, you know, it seems to be resonating.
00:26:51.300And that latest ad, I saw even some liberal commentators who said,
00:26:54.940But that was a really good ad because it was reaching out, wasn't condescending, and he's reaching to, again, as he said, you know, the common people, the folks on the ground, the ones who are struggling to pay the bills.
00:27:09.400I mean, that's the people that have to be won, not the elites in Toronto or, you know, the others that the ideologues have been targeting for so long.
00:27:16.020And, again, I think this is where the Liberals are dropping the ball and Poliev's party.0.86
00:27:21.080Well, as you said, Corey, the number one issue, we can never forget that is the economy and how
00:27:26.740it affects people's wallets. And people are struggling right now. They're really struggling.
00:27:32.440Families are making tough choices. Kids are just going back to school. Are they wearing hand-me-downs
00:27:37.300or can they actually afford to get a new set of clothes for little Johnny to go to grade one?
00:27:42.320You know, these are tough choices. And the cost of groceries, we talked about it the last time I
00:27:48.540on your program, it's only got worse. Inflation is largely driven, in my belief, by continued
00:27:54.640government overspending. This government has wasted billions upon billions upon billions of
00:28:00.700dollars, and they continue to. And that drives up inflation, that type of wanton spending on the
00:28:07.580part of our government. And yet they take no responsibility for the crisis they've committed.
00:28:14.180look at the growth in carbon tax. You know, there's a growing awareness amongst all Canadians
00:28:20.300that we are not going to solve climate change if there is such a thing as man-made climate change.
00:28:27.440We're not going to solve it by taxing ourselves. We're heading into a winter season soon,
00:28:32.820unfortunately, in my opinion, and people are going to have to turn up the thermostat.
00:28:37.700How are they going to be able to afford to do that with the price of groceries? And so these
00:28:42.100are the issues that I hope that Pierre continues to focus on because they're the issues that really
00:28:47.340matter. That's it and I mean I said it before on Twitter a little while back though I think I used
00:28:52.520a couple you know obscenities as I do prone to on Twitter but basically saying people don't care
00:28:56.940about climate change if they can't pay the rent or can't feed their kids. Yeah exactly. Even the
00:29:01.940most liberal of Trudeau loving individuals I mean when you get your household priorities
00:29:06.020and you are still worried about climate change fine and you still really love the liberals but
00:29:10.100boy, if you can't make the bills, you're going to reevaluate. You have to. We're getting into
00:29:14.760necessity. If the chunk that not only the government through taxation, carbon tax is an
00:29:19.080example, is taking is bigger and bigger of their take-home pay. If the chunk the banks are taking
00:29:24.780through increased interest rates is bigger and bigger, those are going to be the things rightfully
00:29:29.800so that the average Canadian focuses on. Yeah. I mean, it's just everybody has to cope with
00:29:36.300these things. What happened, Corey, you know, speaking about issues that need to be resurrected,
00:29:41.460what happened to the investigation into the Chinese interference in our democracy?
00:29:47.500Yes, I wrote a note on it because I'd forgotten about it there and I wanted to hit on that.
00:29:52.340So, I mean, like, where did that go? Trudeau made another promise. Well, you know, just wait,
00:29:57.380folks, just, you know, hold your horses. We'll have a proper investigation. The one thing I want
00:30:02.500to make sure I get in before I'm off the program, Corey, is this issue. Because it ties directly
00:30:07.380with this bogus trial that Tamara and Chris are going through right now as we sit here.
00:30:17.240What happened to the proper analysis of COVID and the steps that all governments took? I've never
00:30:25.260found out. I'm sure you've never found out. It should be properly analyzed by now. What worked?
00:30:32.500and what didn't there's there's talk now about new strains new variations of covid and are we
00:30:38.660supposed to be worried are we worried that governments will re-enact lockdowns and
00:30:43.620restrictions and emergencies act and you you name it like what did we learn as a nation
00:30:50.580about how in my opinion governments overreacted with the first round of the so-called pandemic
00:30:57.780the COVID, because we could be facing it again, even as early as this winter. And yet there's
00:31:04.300been no release of a public investigation of what was done and what worked.
00:31:13.180Just an unvarnished one. I mean, during the pandemic, when things were happening,
00:31:16.580that's something I was screaming into the wind, like we need to do a cost benefit. There's a cost
00:31:21.780with every action of the government. Is there a benefit? If they could demonstrate somehow that,
00:31:27.240okay, you know, giving a vaccine passport to restaurants somehow inexplicably is going to
00:31:32.680save, if you could demonstrate, it's going to save tens of thousands of lives, hundreds of
00:31:37.040thousands of lives, as they tried to claim, I might start moving to that side if it really was
00:31:41.860the bubonic plague or something going on like that. But it comes at a cost, they act as if it
00:31:46.000didn't, you know, these restaurants lost customers, these restaurants lost revenue, they, you know,
00:31:52.000people weren't coming in, and it has to be weighed. I mean, that if it saves one life logic is one of
00:31:57.000the dumbest things you could ever hear from somebody, right? But that's how we worked on it,
00:32:00.600basically. If we could claim that we saved one life, we could claim the amount of freedom
00:32:04.480infringements. It's beyond the pale. So you're right. I mean, a review just to look back and no,
00:32:08.840there hasn't been a sign of that yet. And I would think that there's a perfect opportunity. As a
00:32:13.020former politician and serving longer in opposition than I did in government, twice I was tasked with
00:32:20.700organizing question period first for the reform party and later for uh prime minister harper
00:32:27.040and um you know when i look at question period and what they should be focusing on i would argue
00:32:33.680that the clear opposition the conservative party should be focusing on this because they can tie
00:32:39.680it quite neatly into this trial that's going on that's front and center foremost in people's minds
00:32:44.820Okay, we're seeing this every day play out in the media about Tamara and Chris Barber.
00:32:52.020So they can tie that in and say, okay, set aside the trial.
00:32:56.100What have we learned about everything that unfolded during that COVID period?
00:33:03.420And what are we going to do different if there's another round?
00:33:06.940What are we going to do different next time?
00:33:08.600Are we going to treat citizens the same way?
00:33:10.720Because you're right, there is a cost.
00:33:12.660We seldom talk about the cost of delayed surgeries, delayed cancer treatments.
00:33:18.260How many people did we lose from that?
00:33:20.960Because we were so worried about, you know, overpopulating our emergency departments in our hospitals,
00:33:30.540our, you know, our emergency part of the hospital, that we cut off any surgeries that were necessary.
00:33:40.880Or the social cost. Children at the most influential of age, developmental, had their
00:33:48.020school disrupted for two years. It was a mess and they were scared. They were in, they were out.
00:33:52.760That's going to cost for generations. And again, and the worst part with that one is we should
00:33:57.800examine, we got lucky and we weren't allowed to say it earlier, but there's truth to it. Kids are
00:34:01.880immune from COVID. I'm going to say it. They're immune from COVID. I mean, we got lucky, you know,
00:34:06.160aside from some who were already ill or something, typically they did. So, I mean,
00:34:10.620they were the ones we really never should have locked down. Yet here we were closing playgrounds
00:34:15.060and arresting them for playing hockey. So in question period, shouldn't the opposition be
00:34:21.340demanding of the government to say, what is your plan? What steps would you take if we're faced
00:34:28.560with another COVID epidemic, right? I mean, is it just going to be focused on the old folks home1.00
00:34:34.900and protecting the elderly like a lot of us believed it should have been the first time
00:34:39.300around or are you going to go beyond that because we want to know we demand to know
00:34:44.760what your plan is and we've never seen that we've never seen a proper analysis and so how can you
00:34:51.620have a proper plan so all we can end up assuming is they're going to respond the same way if it
00:34:55.680happens again and obviously there's we should be able to respond a heck of a lot better no matter
00:34:59.900what side of it you're on, the only way to do so is to sit down and say, okay, let's...
00:35:03.820Like, take partisan politics out of it, just as a big issue for the nation.
00:35:08.040We should be able to coalesce behind something that makes sense.
00:35:13.200Well, we'll see what comes up in this session.
00:35:15.760Again, there's no indications of the Liberals seem to want to turn, so
00:35:19.840Poliev's going to have a lot to work with, I guess, if he wants to take control
00:35:24.080of the agenda, and we'll see what happens.
00:35:27.340Yeah, well, like I said at the start of the interview, the difficulty, speaking from somebody that has been there for many years, the difficulty for the opposition and for Pierre is going to be to focus the public's attention on one or two or three perhaps issues when there's probably a dozen major issues out there.
00:35:49.100Hopefully it's things like, you know, demanding a COVID plan.
00:35:52.800Hopefully it's things like, you know, how are you going to properly address the growing crunch for everyday Canadian families when they're at the grocery store, when they're trying to pay the bills, when they're trying to turn the thermostat up in the home.
00:36:07.020The things that really matter to the standard of living of Canadians.
00:36:12.160Hopefully, you know, they can zero in on some of those issues and remind Canadians,
00:36:17.740constantly remind Canadians of the failures of Justin Trudeau.
00:36:22.000Well, and along with that as well, and the trap oppositions can fall into when you smell the blood in the water sometimes,
00:42:07.380That's what they were trying to do. That is the definition of an insurrection. It really is. And I don't want to go down the rabbit hole of whether the election was fair or corrupted or not or whatever. The bottom line is when you've had an election and a group of people try to overturn it by force, that's an insurrection.
00:42:25.000that never happened in Ottawa that never happened with the convoy that was never the intent of the
00:42:31.180convoy the the only thing close was it was some goofy memorandum of understanding on a Facebook
00:42:37.520page I hope that comes up in the courts if you say look at this they're talking about going to
00:42:41.340the governor general and turning over the prime minister oh yeah that was realistic you know I
00:42:45.440don't get ET to come back home and fix things for guys it wasn't going to happen it was some nut
00:42:49.540bar on Facebook who has absolutely no understanding of the government of Canada had nothing to do