Jay Hill, former Conservative Party of Canada House of Commons Leader, joins me to talk about the housing crisis, immigration levels, and why we need to have a serious discussion about it. The Western Standard is a weekly show with the host, Corey Morgan, covering news, talking to guests, and general opinions on issues of the day.
00:00:30.000Good day. Welcome to the Corey Morgan Show. As the name would imply, I am indeed Corey Morgan. I'm going to bend your ear for the next hour and some. And as always, we've got lots to cover. This is our weekly show with the Western Standard covering news, talking to guests and hearing my general opinions and rantings on issues of the day. And there's always a lot of issues. It seems to get crazier by the day. I mean, the news is sometimes hard to even believe whether it's real or not. Fake news. You can see why the term has become popular.
00:01:00.200popularized so much. But unfortunately, it seems the craziest of the news out there tends to be the true stuff. We'll cover a whole lot of that. I got a good guest coming in today. It's Jay Hill. He's the former House Leader for the Conservative Party of Canada.
00:01:12.440Many, many years of experience in the House of Commons as a parliamentarian, as we do have a fall session coming up. We've got a lot of issues about to hit this fall with Justin Trudeau plummeting in the polls. We've got a housing crisis. We have all sorts of fantastic things going on.
00:01:31.280And we'll see how things are looking going into that season and what we can look forward to, I guess, as that goes.
00:01:37.800So for you guys tuning in live, hey, use that comment section. I see a few of you there, Northrun Grader and others. Absolutely. I love having that discussion going.
00:01:47.220Send those comments and questions my way or my guests' way. We'll try and get to them. I don't necessarily read them all out, but I do see them all and I appreciate it.
00:01:53.380Just keep things civil, guys. We don't have to be at each other's throats. We have Twitter for that.
00:01:58.580So let me get on to what has got me going today. I've got my usual opinion on things. And we do have a serious problem building on us right now.
00:02:09.960I mean, Canada, we need to have a serious discussion about our immigration levels. We have to have it fast.
00:02:16.100And it's a subject that conservative politicians, they shy away from as they're going to inevitably be accused of racism.
00:02:21.760And, of course, progressive politicians don't want to get into the issue because it's been such an effective wedge against the conservatives.
00:02:28.180The politics have to stop, though, and reality has to set in.
00:02:31.960Canada is heading into a socioeconomic crisis due to the current immigration policies.
00:02:37.200A lack of affordable housing is hitting crisis levels across the country.
00:02:40.320It's causing citizens and immigrants alike to suffer while politicians spin their wheels with discussions of everything from rent control to basement suites.
00:02:48.260But they won't dare touch the immigration issue.
00:02:50.680One provincial cabinet minister in Nova Scotia even hinted at encouraging people with spare rooms to take borders into your homes.
00:02:57.840Now, few politicians have the courage to state what's become the obvious.
00:03:00.960Canada needs to slam the brakes on immigration levels and hard.
00:03:04.680I mean, to add insult to injury, a recent memo was leaked to Key and Bextie's counter signal online
00:03:10.160that exposed that Prime Minister Trudeau was well aware of the crisis his immigration policies are fostering and he purposely chose to ignore it.
00:03:19.160I mean, people have accepted that Trudeau is far from the sharpest Prime Minister the nation's ever had.
00:03:23.800It was quite believable to think Justin truly didn't realize the damages his policies would cause.
00:03:28.140Not that we should forgive Trudeau for his acts of idiocy, but it's worse when he actually knowingly causes the damage rather than ignorantly.
00:03:36.000The numbers presented in the memo were chilling.
00:03:39.640Things are bad and they're poised to become much worse.
00:03:42.200Here's a quote direct from the report given directly to Trudeau and authored by Secretary of the Cabinet, Janice Charette.
00:03:48.700Look at CMHC, which is the Mortgage and Housing Corporation, projects that the housing stock in Canada will grow approximately 2.3 units between 2021 and 2030.
00:03:59.100When it incorporates economic factors alongside demographic factors, it projects an additional 3.5 million additional housing units are needed beyond the current projections to restore affordability.
00:04:43.860Well, there's no sense beating around the bush here.
00:04:46.120The reason Trudeau won't bend is because he's a self-serving narcissist who's using mass immigration to try and cover up his years of gross fiscal mismanagement.
00:04:54.620Trudeau and his finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, have been crowing of late about how Canada is among the world leaders in GDP growth since the pandemic.
00:05:03.180The reason, though, Canada is experiencing modest GDP growth, by the way, is because the massive numbers of immigrants have been brought into the country.
00:05:11.640Immigrants bring resources and skills, and they do help spur the economy.
00:05:14.920It gives the nation an injection of economic activity and bumps the overall GDP.
00:05:19.920The problem is, though, the GDP per capita is falling.
00:05:24.320See, while the nation as a whole is reporting growing economic numbers, citizens as individuals are becoming poorer.
00:05:30.120The economic bump from immigration isn't enough to cover the spreading of the wealth among more people.
00:05:35.280I mean, think of the examples this way.
00:08:54.280Because, again, his ideology, his hopes for a legacy, something like that, put it beyond, you know, imposing any reality on it.
00:09:06.560Let's see, you know, let's see what else we've got.
00:09:08.640Looking at the Western Standard, I'm afraid Dave Naylor, our news editor, usually comes in at this time and gives us an update and everything else that's going on out there.
00:09:18.740So you're stuck with me for the whole thing, at least until J.Hale gets in here.
00:09:21.980But one of the great stories that's been sitting high up there on the Western Standard site there, westernstandard.news, is from Linda Slobodian.
00:09:29.240She writes fantastic columns, very prolific on the Western Standard.
00:09:32.680And saying, not enough soldiers to stand on guard for thee or anybody else.
00:09:35.880This is another problem happening in Canada.
00:19:17.520Well, I think you've really hit it right...
00:19:20.020You know, the major issue right on the head here when you talk about it.
00:19:24.320It really, truly is government by ideology.
00:19:27.780I mean, I've never seen anything like this.
00:19:29.580You haven't seen anything like this, Corey.
00:19:32.220I would argue we've never had anything, a government that is so driven ideologically,
00:19:38.300to impact every segment of the economy,
00:19:42.460everything to do with people's everyday way of life.
00:19:46.260And finally, it's starting to resonate even outside of Western Canada.
00:19:49.880I mean, the West is always the first to really support the freedoms and our democracy.
00:19:57.200But it's finally starting to sink in a little bit down in East, in Central Canada as well.
00:20:03.340Now, whether this government can shift at all, I don't believe they can.
00:20:06.460And they certainly haven't shown any sign of it for eight years.
00:20:10.660We have to remember, he has been in office, he being Justin Trudeau, for eight long years now.
00:20:18.080And it really boggles the mind that this guy could not only get elected with originally in a majority,
00:20:24.380and then twice more with a minority, but effectively a majority because of the weakness of Jagmeet Singh.
00:20:30.060There's going to be some major issues.
00:20:32.540As you know, the trial of Chris Barber and Tamara Leash, that travesty of our justice system is underway right now.
00:20:41.220And it's scheduled to complete roughly about the time when the House will start sitting.
00:20:46.840And regardless of how the verdict goes for those two individuals, I think it's going to be incredibly damaging for the government because it's really going to point out the failure of this prime minister and this government to properly address the concerns of everyday Canadians.
00:21:04.640Yeah, and it's just rehashing, I guess, another segment of that 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.
00:21:15.900And it's just nothing else that they need to distract themselves with as this session comes forward.
00:21:21.780But as you pointed out as well, like the shift, I think that stands out the most when we're looking at polling anyways, it's not just one outlier.
00:22:10.860It'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.
00:22:19.780Because as you say, their voting pool, as it were, is shrinking.
00:22:30.260There was a great article in National Post, Corey, today about 12 conservatives, I believe it was, up and coming conservatives to watch.
00:22:38.980And it shows the depth of the conservative party.
00:22:43.240Because as you know, you and I have been around a long time with this political business.
00:22:49.140It shows that despite the fact that governments are usually defeated, not elected, there is a wealth of depth to the existing conservative caucus.
00:22:58.960And there's a lot of young people, as you say.
00:23:04.120Not only do they have a young leader in Pierre Poliev, but they have people like Shuv Majumdar that was just elected in Calgary Heritage with a massive mandate, I would argue.
00:23:16.760And Shuv is that age, you know, around the 40.
00:23:19.540He's got a lot of experience, but he's still, you know, compared to some of us, young.
00:23:24.400And so there's a real wealth of experience there for Canadians to take a look at, so that they're not just voting out a corrupt, incompetent government, but they're going to elect some great people.
00:23:40.220Yeah, and just to sidetrack, since you brought up Shuv, I've known Shuv a while.
00:23:44.620I mean, I'd really like to see a conservative government, if only to see him working within foreign affairs.
00:23:49.280We're talking to somebody with talent, not Melanie Jolie or something like that, to actually start speaking on an intellectual level with foreign dignitaries, leaders, and things such as that.
00:23:59.100Shuv's been on the show a number of times, and just, as you said, that sort of depth.
00:24:03.080I mean, he wasn't elected as a political token by any means or anything.
00:24:07.860He's a very smart guy who's going to do some good stuff if he gets the chance and gets out of the position.
00:24:12.740Yeah, he isn't like some of the parties of the left that are just attracted to nominating candidates because they're a visible minority.
00:24:23.820But he was really nominated and elected, I would argue, on the depth of his experience, the way he's so articulate, the way he can explain in-depth policy in the way that an average Canadian can understand.
00:24:38.020And if we had a cabinet made up of people like Shuv Majumder, instead of the disastrous group of people that Trudeau is attracted, we would see candidates start to revert from being the embarrassment that we've become and return to a cabinet of experienced and capable people like we had under Stephen Harper.
00:25:02.740Well, yeah, Trudeau's backed himself into a corner.
00:25:06.860I mean, if you're going to try and reinvent yourself through a cabinet shuffle and change things, fair enough, that happens in politics.
00:25:13.100But you should be looking based on merit.
00:25:15.240And he binds himself with, well, I'm going to make sure I check all those social gesturing off, and I've got to have half of them being women.
00:25:23.820And it's not saying women aren't, you know, fantastic cabinet ministers at times, but if you have fewer of them in caucus than you do men, you have a smaller pool to draw from.
00:25:32.820And he hasn't based his cabinet typically on merit.
00:25:36.700He's done it just on filling boxes, and that won't help turn the tide right now.
00:25:40.460Well, I think, you know, having been involved on the periphery with Stephen Harper, when he went through his cabinet selection process, I know it's a terribly, terribly difficult job.
00:25:52.200But as you say, there is a balance between doing sort of what is socially acceptable, you know, the number of women, you have to have regional representation, you know, at least one cabinet minister from each of the 10 provinces, that type of thing.
00:26:06.360But the underlying thing should always be competence, I think.
00:26:12.320And certainly that has not been the case for eight years now.
00:26:15.820And it's been eight long years because of it, and embarrassing years at the federal, international level.
00:26:21.960Well, Trudeau's cabinet has been a reflection of himself as far as depth goes, and it's just not served Canada well.
00:26:28.560So, I mean, certainly chomping at the bit, and you can tell it's already got a campaign feel to it, though we might very well probably be two years away from a campaign yet.
00:26:35.600But Paulyev has, you know, been rebranding a bit himself.
00:26:38.460The glasses are gone, you know, the shirt and tie is a little...
00:26:43.580You can see the biceps and the pipes are showing.
00:26:47.380And people called it fickle and so on.
00:26:49.540But, you know, it seems to be resonating.
00:26:51.340And that latest ad, I saw even some liberal commentators who said, gee, that was a really good ad because it was reaching out, wasn't condescending.
00:26:59.880And 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.
00:27:09.440I 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.
00:27:16.160And, again, I think this is where the liberals are dropping the ball.
00:28:16.360You know, there's a growing awareness amongst all Canadians that we are not going to solve climate change if there is such a thing as man-made climate change.
00:28:27.520We're not going to solve it by taxing ourselves.
00:28:30.580We're heading into a winter season soon, unfortunately, in my opinion.
00:28:34.200And people are going to have to turn up the thermostat.
00:28:37.740How are they going to be able to afford to do that with the price of groceries?
00:28:41.580And so these are the issues that I hope that Pierre continues to focus on because they're the issues that really matter.
00:29:15.420If the chunk that not only the government through taxation, carbon tax is an example, is taking, is bigger and bigger of their take-home pay.
00:29:23.240If the chunk the banks are taking through increased interest rates is bigger and bigger.
00:29:27.840Those are going to be the things, rightfully so, that the average Canadian focuses on.
00:30:39.720Are we worried that governments will reenact lockdowns and restrictions and emergencies act and you name it?
00:30:47.780Like, what did we learn as a nation about how, in my opinion, governments overreacted with the first round of the so-called pandemic, the COVID?
00:30:58.880Because we could be facing it again, even as early as this winter.
00:31:03.180And yet there's been no release of a public, you know, investigation of what was done and what worked.
00:31:24.500If they could demonstrate somehow that, okay, you know, giving a vaccine passport to restaurants somehow inexplicably is going to save, if you could demonstrate it, it's going to save tens of thousands of lives, hundreds of thousands of lives, as they tried to claim.
00:31:38.740I might start moving to that side, if it really was the bubonic plague or something going on like that.
00:32:08.580And no, there hasn't been a sign of that yet.
00:32:10.640And I would think that there's a perfect opportunity.
00:32:12.860As a former politician and serving longer in opposition than I did in government, twice I was tasked with organizing question period, first for the Reform Party and later for Prime Minister Harper.
00:32:28.040And, you know, when I look at question period and what they should be focusing on, I would argue that the clear opposition, the Conservative Party, should be focusing on this.
00:32:38.580Because they can tie it quite neatly into this trial that's going on, that's front and center, foremost in people's minds.
00:32:44.860Okay, we're seeing this every day play out in the media about Tamara and Chris Barber.
00:32:51.300So they can tie that in and say, okay, set aside the trial.
00:32:55.900What have we learned about everything that unfolded during that COVID period?
00:33:03.440And what are we going to do different if there's another round?
00:33:06.980What are we going to do different next time?
00:33:08.640Are we going to treat citizens the same way?
00:33:10.500Because, you know, you're right, there is a cost.
00:33:13.080We seldom talk about the cost of delayed surgeries, delayed cancer treatments.
00:33:18.300How many people did we lose from that?
00:33:21.000Because we were so worried about, you know, overpopulating our emergency departments in our hospitals,
00:33:30.640our, you know, our emergency part of the hospital, that we cut off any surgeries that were necessary.
00:33:38.680People died waiting, there's no doubt about it.
00:35:27.820Well, like I said at the start of the interview, the difficulty, speaking from somebody that has been there for many years,
00:35:35.600the 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.
00:35:48.420Hopefully, 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,
00:36:03.540when they're trying to pay the bills, when they're trying to turn the thermostat up in the home,
00:36:07.240the things that really matter to the standard of living of Canadians.
00:36:12.200Hopefully, you know, they can zero in on some of those issues and remind Canadians,
00:36:17.780constantly remind Canadians of the failures of Justin Trudeau.
00:36:22.040Well, and along with that as well, the trap all positions can fall into when you smell the blood in the water.
00:36:26.320Sometimes it's still being on them too much.
00:36:28.120But don't forget, okay, but what are you going to do that's better?
00:36:30.880You've got to put out the solutions as well.
00:36:32.640Well, we might find out a little bit about that starting tomorrow because the Conservatives are having a policy convention down east.
00:36:42.560And hopefully out of that, we'll see some indication of some new direction for the Conservatives worthy to form our next government.
00:36:51.080Great. Well, let's hope that some good, reasonable minds come up with some solutions.
00:36:55.020In the meantime, we'll just keep picking at it and telling them how it's done.
00:36:58.440Well, there's a few that are more knowledgeable than you, Corey.
00:38:16.600Strategically, though, they seem to be doing very well right now.
00:38:19.240The other question is, and we're seeing that asked more, is Trudeau going to resign?
00:38:24.380I mean, for everybody looking at it, I think with common sense, and I predicted as much on, you know, Twitter and so much, but it's easy to predict.
00:38:32.540Because if I'm wrong, I just won't mention it later, and if I'm right, I'll retweet it later and say, I told you so.
00:38:37.060But I do think Trudeau is going to step back in the next few months.
00:38:40.440I don't think he wants to, but where he doesn't know how to turn it around.
00:38:45.480And people say he won't do it because he's so vain he'll stay to the end.
00:39:52.520I mean, sure, it would crush the Liberal Party.
00:39:54.240But, boy, they could really crush the country in that two years leading up to it.
00:39:57.880And if he comes to a point of no return, again, he's that vain.
00:40:00.580It's as I talked about with the immigration thing.
00:40:02.100I'm probably misquoting it, but there's an old statement about, you know, a true dictator, what, being willing to burn a nation to the ground to rule over the ashes.
00:40:10.460And Trudeau might be vain enough to do that, not just stop carrying all together what happens.