Vitor Marciano joins the show to talk about David Johnston's appointment as Special Rapporteur to investigate the ongoing Chinese Communist Party interference scandal, the Alberta election, and much, much more. Plus, a look at why David Johnston should have been fired from the Trudeau Foundation.
00:00:30.000Good day. Welcome to the Corey Morgan Show. I am Corey Morgan. This is my weekly playground to get out there to rant, rave, talk about federal issues, provincial issues, mostly political stuff, though I bounce around and kind of cover whatever's on my mind at any given time or any given week. Lots to cover this week as usual.
00:00:49.940For those who are joining us live today, be sure to use that comment scroll. I like it. I like seeing the interaction. I like seeing you guys chat with each other, throw questions my way, my guests' way.
00:00:59.640I see them all. I don't necessarily read them all out or put them to the guests, but I really like seeing it used. But again, keep things civil.
00:01:09.000And folks, if you're watching us on the Cowboy Network or RFDTV and some of those things, I'm afraid, yeah, the comments won't work there, but I will reference them when they come up.
00:01:18.580So, yes, today I'm going to have a guest on a little later, Vitor Marciano. He's a strategist. He's been involved in a lot of federal and provincial campaigns over the years, particularly in conservative circles.
00:01:29.940We're going to get a bit of a rundown on everything that's gone on on the Alberta election this time around.
00:01:34.660Boy, it's been a long three and a half weeks so far. Only a few days left, and Alberta's going to have, well, either a UCP government again or an NDP government again.
00:01:44.580There's no third party really to speak of in this one. Maybe we'll talk a little bit about that as well.
00:01:49.180On the federal front, boy, you know, we kind of expected it, but still, it's just maddening when we see it.
00:01:54.880So, I mean, let's talk about that with this special rapporteur.
00:01:58.540Some people were kind of surprised with the appointment of David Johnston as the special rapporteur to investigate the ongoing, and it's ongoing, Chinese Communist Party interference scandal.
00:02:09.840I mean, the boldness of Trudeau in appointing somebody as clearly personally compromised as Johnson to the position caught even the most cynical of people off guard.
00:02:18.840It wasn't surprising, I guess, that Trudeau would appoint a close friend to the position.
00:02:22.140But still, it was unexpected to see a statesman as experienced as Johnston jumping into such a clear conflict of interest.
00:02:30.880I mean, Johnston's been more of an uncle-type figure for Trudeau than a political colleague,
00:02:34.940and he's indicated as much in multiple interviews where he waxes on about his fond family ski trips with their Trudeau family and other gatherings.
00:02:43.540And, of course, most damning of all, Johnston was a board member with the Trudeau Foundation,
00:02:47.940which has been embroiled in this whole mess, it seems, every time something comes up with the CCP interference.
00:02:52.680Look at this, like, former Trudeau Foundation head Morris Rosenberg, he was tasked with checking for election interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections,
00:03:01.380and unsurprisingly, Rosenberg found no issues.
00:03:05.280Though we know CSIS had been raising flags about Chinese Communist Party interference in those elections,
00:10:51.620I believe, now I don't have the numbers in front of me, but it was a few years in a row, it didn't, like, to remain charitable status, to retain it, you have to spend a certain percentage.
00:11:00.280Like, it's not a lot, like 4% or 5% of your capital on the actual charity it's supposed to do.
00:11:05.560And the foundation hasn't made it 3 out of 4 in the past years, I believe.
00:11:28.420I don't know what benefits they get from that.
00:11:30.380But I suspect that that gives a bit of an answer to where all that money just keeps going.
00:11:36.000So, if you want to keep the liberal elite in Canada happy, if you want to get in their good books, if you want to make them smile at you, what's the best place to toss a few bucks to make the most bang for your buck?
00:11:46.520Well, that foundation's a good start, isn't it?
00:11:48.180So, yeah, Marilyn, you know, so she's a commenter.
00:11:53.980Marilyn Wall says, Danielle avoided a question.
00:11:55.920It's Danielle Smith at a press conference today on the fireworks just now.
00:11:58.720I believe it was Western Standard asked it.
00:12:00.360Do you think she should avoid talking about it right now?
00:12:02.820Yeah, I do think she should from a political point of view.
00:12:05.420I'm going to talk about a little more after the guest because I got a lot of ranting to do on that one.
00:12:09.600But politically, it's a municipal issue in the city of Calgary, and she's four days from voting day.
00:12:15.080I believe it was wise on Smith's part to stay out of that issue.
00:12:22.340She's got enough issues and things to juggle as it stands right now.
00:12:26.180And I understand it was the Western Standard to throw that question out there.
00:12:28.760But why take on more than you need to?
00:12:31.420It is an enraging municipal issue, and I'm going to go on about it.
00:12:34.900But for Premier Smith to wade into it at this point would have just been asking for more trouble than was worth.
00:12:42.440So she sort of, you know, the question was asked in two parts.
00:15:33.400And so, there's a – you know, if you're a left-wing activist, it's something you've been working on for four years, and they're really lit up and ready to go.
00:15:43.280There's an awful lot of people sort of who are new to politics, who are voting UCP, who are kind of new to the entire process.
00:15:50.800And they got lit up and worked up by the pandemic.
00:16:38.840And frankly, the Liberal Party of Alberta has ceased to exist as a meaningful entity.
00:16:43.440The Alberta Party remains some sort of weird debating society that can't find candidates.
00:16:48.260You know, the fringe parties have become fringier and fringier and fringier and now, you know, fight each other out for weird things.
00:16:58.640Like, there's so many of them, and it's like they can't assemble enough people to get along with each other,
00:17:08.220let alone be a legitimate force in the election.
00:17:10.900So, basically, it is the center-right party and the center-left party.
00:17:16.280And as these things play out, you know, the activists are always on the left and the right rather than the center part of those two parties.
00:17:24.820So, it's been a pretty intense campaign.
00:17:28.340So, something I kind of worry about, I guess, is a consequence, and there's nothing that parties and activists can kind of do about it.
00:17:34.040But what I see growing, when I talk to non-political people, and it's something I really hate to hear from apathy,
00:17:38.940I don't like hearing from people in general, but what I'm hearing now is cynicism.
00:17:42.660And, boy, that's a dangerous attitude to see growing.
00:17:45.360It's not good for any of us when people become sour on the entire process like this.
00:17:49.360I hope we don't cause more damage than good in this election.
00:17:53.080Listen, I mean, this election is going to be what it's going to be.
00:17:55.840There is some value to, after the election, you know, the side that wins, and I honestly believe it's going to be our side.
00:18:05.260We have to do a little bit of reaching out.
00:18:06.980You know, there are people on the center-left who aren't too far from the people who are on the center part of the center-right.
00:18:12.700And we have to be a government for all Albertans.
00:18:18.020You know, in the long run, there's no value in antagonizing your opponents to the level that they'll walk across broken glass to fight you.
00:18:27.060And so these are the things that, you know, that they'll be part of what Premier Daniel Smith will have to do starting, you know, May 31st or May 30th.
00:18:37.360Yeah, and the days are approaching quickly.
00:18:40.420So I imagine as far as the campaign goes, we saw another press conference today with a vow from Premier Smith to, you know, not raise any taxes with anything shy of a referendum.
00:18:50.840But I don't anticipate there's going to be a lot of big promises or developments in the campaign at this point.
00:18:57.000I mean, it's kind of into a maintenance mode, hoping there's no any explosions or things blowing up until voting day and focusing on the get-out-the-vote campaigns.
00:19:04.420Well, there's a lot of get-out-the-vote activity happening already.
00:19:07.860There'll be lots of reinforcing of messages talking about things that matter.
00:19:12.380You know, I know that we're going to keep talking about the fact that the massive NDP tax hike is an investment killer.
00:19:19.540It's investment that has turned the Alberta economy around, money coming in from other parts of the world, global companies choosing to expand in Alberta.
00:19:39.500Literally, you know, an all-time record for the first day of advanced polls in voting.
00:19:43.740I can tell you that they're going strong already today.
00:19:46.940You know, I can also tell you that we're pretty happy with our results.
00:19:49.420A disproportionate number of those people who have voted early are people that we know have been supporters of the party over the course of their lifetime.
00:20:00.600And I mean, it's been kind of slowly building and developing, but the advanced voting is getting bigger and bigger as a factor in elections.
00:20:07.600I mean, now it's more of an election week rather than election day with an exception prior to it.
00:20:11.840I think it's really aiding with turnout, though.
00:20:14.000I mean, if it's impractical on one day for a person to vote, they could vote on another.
00:20:17.980You know, turnouts have always been sort of slowly dropping over the years.
00:20:20.520But now this advanced sort of thing has really turned that over.
00:20:25.180I think it's an interesting way to get people to pay more attention, to be more respectful of their time and their attention.
00:20:34.180It also has the effect of changing the nature of the campaigning.
00:20:37.640You don't get late election surprises anymore because, frankly, by this weekend, a significant proportion of the ballots will already be in the box.
00:23:17.680You're pretty confident, you know, that it'll be the Conservative Party or the UCP.
00:23:21.340We do have a very regional divided province, more so than we've ever seen before, too, though.
00:23:27.500I mean, Edmonton, if things go the way they look, may be completely shut out from government seats, or at least we'll have very few, whereas the rural areas will dominate that.
00:23:38.520But it's a bad position for Edmonton citizens to be in.
00:23:41.900So, I mean, the government really is going to have to do some outreach to make sure that citizens up there feel confident they're represented.
00:23:47.520You know, it's one of these things where, you know, I haven't given up hope on winning lots of seats in Edmonton and the area.
00:23:54.600There's four or five, six seats in the Edmonton area where we're competitive enough to keep the NDP at home working hard on their seats.
00:24:04.300We're feeling quite good about the seats in what's called the donut, the writings that surround Edmonton.
00:24:10.000But, yeah, I mean, ultimately, one of the things that we need to, as a government, you know, starting at the end of May after the election,
00:24:17.480is work on rebuilding our approach and our conversations with Edmonton.
00:24:23.900I mean, in many ways, this government's been very fair to Edmonton, but we haven't been particularly good at selling that.
00:24:30.820And, you know, Edmonton's gotten their fair share of capital financing.
00:24:36.520Edmonton's gotten their fair share of activities.
00:24:39.300I mean, in all honesty, we've treated public service better than the NDP.
00:24:43.620Yeah, it's just that perception if you don't have the UCP government than before.
00:24:49.460So there's all of these things that we need to do a better job of selling stuff.
00:24:53.860A lot of this is just attitude and messaging.
00:24:56.800And, you know, there's room for improvement on that side.
00:24:59.400Yeah, there's going to be, I guess, a lot of correcting the record.
00:25:03.500I mean, the amount of just stuff has just been thrown out, thrown out, thrown out.
00:25:08.300And the first period for the new government is just going to have to be clarifying, I mean, all of this, this mud that's been thrown in this last month.
00:25:17.080I mean, citizens aren't going to really know what they're in for until they've seen it in action.
00:25:20.460I mean, ultimately, I think citizens need to understand that most elections result in most things staying the same.
00:25:30.440On about 94, 95 percent of the activities of government, there isn't much difference between the parties.
00:25:36.840On the remaining four or five percent, six percent, yeah, there's a difference.
00:25:40.800But usually it's a difference in style and approach rather than a significant difference in substance.
00:25:46.580You know, do these things matter over 20 years, 30 years?
00:25:50.240You know, having a pro-development, pro-business, pro-economic growth, conservative party win, election after election, changes Alberta in the long run.
00:26:00.100But one election changing things dramatically overnight, that just never happens.
00:26:06.060And so much of what the NDP is out there selling is just this crazy scaremongering.
00:26:10.640It's like, no, you're not going to have to pay for health care.
00:26:17.140Daniel Smith never actually said that.
00:26:18.980You know, no, nothing's going to change on your pensions without you being dramatically consulted at length and actually getting to vote on it.
00:26:28.360All of these things are things that, you know, this election's been sort of weird.
00:26:33.120It's, you know, the NDP tells big lies and they don't get fact checked.
00:26:37.240And the UCP puts out a number and there's 47 people fact checking whether or not the exact nuances of the number are correct.
00:26:45.040When, you know, even the directionally, the number is accurate, symbolically, the number is accurate as how people felt things, the number is accurate.
00:26:53.280So it's one of those things that we'll have to keep working on.
00:26:56.000It's been a frustration, like the hospital sales thing, for example.
00:27:01.020I watched it and I listened to it at worst.
00:27:04.240And it was very clear when she said in it, we're talking about possibly privatizing the management at most, if that's what she was even talking about.
00:27:11.300And that's not in the campaign platform anyway.
00:27:13.300Nobody was talking about selling hospitals.
00:27:15.200Yet the press repeated that as if that was a, I mean, it's kind of an embarrassment on the part of the media.
00:27:21.800It's, you know, one of the things that started to happen, and I'm kind of a rare conservative on this front.
00:27:27.860I'm really worried about the fact that we have less and less and less media.
00:27:30.740Because when we have less and less and less media, there's less competition between the media.
00:27:38.160And therefore, reporters, editors, publishers get to feel like they can play games.
00:27:46.560And, you know, there's been a little bit of that happening in this election.
00:27:49.060We've seen national players put their thumb on the scale and, you know, offer up opportunities for criticism of our government that have never been offered up before.
00:27:57.620You know, I've never seen an opponent getting, you know, get to write a column on ctv.ca nationally about the Alberta election.
00:28:07.500That's a brand new one that happened this time.
00:28:09.600There's a couple of places where things have been a little odd, and we'll have to keep working on it.
00:28:14.540You know, we need to return to an environment where there's lots of media, successful media, competing with each other so that voters get a chance to actually hear the truth
00:28:25.240because they get to see the competition between the different people who are trying to set the agendas.
00:32:04.820But she was a person who suffered from cancel culture and character assassination a couple of years ago in ways that, you know, were unimaginable.
00:32:14.740And she's made a documentary showing what she went through and what happened and humanized it.
00:32:19.140But Press Progress was one of the main ones behind that.
00:32:45.640You need to hear it from a number of areas.
00:32:47.220If you're hearing a bunch of media sounding different from each other, putting out different opinions, different facts, then you might start saying, well, one of them is obviously wrong.
00:32:55.900And maybe some of them will start correcting their own stuff.
00:32:58.420But when none of them, for example, would correct themselves on that baloney that Daniel Smith said she was going to sell hospitals, for example, because it was such an easy, clear one to correct.
00:33:07.420This wasn't, you know, there was no ambiguity about what she said.
00:33:38.240But, yeah, Singh, you know, speaking of political cowardice, right, this is his quote, saying, I disagree with the finding when he's talking about Mr.
00:33:46.280I respect his work, but he's wrong not to declare a public inquiry.
00:33:49.640I'll let the prime minister know we've got the tools and we're going to use all those tools at our disposal to continue to push for an inquiry.
00:33:55.760And no, you won't, because you've got the tools.
00:34:27.400But I saw that in Calgary where they, you know, most cities, they hold big firework displays on Canada Day.
00:34:32.240And it's always been a fun one in Calgary.
00:34:33.540I remember that from when my kids were little.
00:34:35.780It was a cheap thing to go out and drive and park on Scotsman Hill.
00:34:38.640If you're a family that doesn't have much for bucks, but you want a nice night out and you watch the fireworks on the hill, you know, for Canada Day, it's a good time out.
00:35:14.400They're saying Canada is such an odious, shameful, nasty nation that having fireworks and showing an actual one day out of 365 days to say we're going to celebrate this nation.
00:35:24.760We're going to get together and be happy about what Canada has done right.
00:35:28.600Yes, Canada has done some things wrong, but can they not have one day to say we love what Canada did right?
00:35:37.960They said in the fireworks, we're going to hold this little sound and light show down there.
00:35:43.140You have to go in in person and we'll hold land acknowledgements and, I don't know, perhaps some aboriginal chanting and things.
00:35:49.600But we're supposed to hang our heads in shame.
00:35:51.800We're not allowed to celebrate Canada Day.
00:35:54.240And it's not just hyperbole on my part saying that, because once this became an issue, yeah, the column I wrote went viral and it took off.
00:36:02.040Now there's been a petition within two days.
00:36:04.820A group is holding a petition, as we can see on that, has received close to 10,000 signatures.
00:36:09.160That's just in a couple of days saying, hey, bring the bloody fireworks back.
00:36:58.320But she said, Courtney Penner, the one, and the other one's Courtney Walcott, that, yes, reversing this decision would be upholding colonialism and racism.
00:37:49.120In fact, it didn't even go through council.
00:37:50.480But she took it upon herself, though, to say, because it is in the hands of council, they can overturn these sorts of things.
00:37:55.520To say that, no, this is important, and again, to reverse it, would be upholding colonialism and racism.
00:38:03.620And you've got to remember, the reason Calgary's city council is so woke, the reason it's so dysfunctional, the reason they're so crappy, not just council, but administration, is 12 years of woke city councils and mayors.
00:39:33.180Well, as I said, the city level is horrible and the provincial level is terrible and the federal level is the federal level.
00:39:39.980The Treasury Board confirmed it doesn't know how many federal employees work from home.
00:39:45.640In fact, they said it's not possible to find out.
00:39:48.180We are paying literally billions of dollars for tens of thousands of federal workers.
00:39:54.540In fact, a whole whack of them went on strike recently to demand more money from us, even though they never missed a single day of work through the pandemic.
00:40:01.540And then we look at how well these guys are managed.
00:40:03.920They don't even know how many are working from home.
00:40:06.560That was one of the demands of these workers.