Cory Morgan with Éric Duhaime
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
197.57205
Summary
The leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec, Eric Duhame, comes on the show to talk with me about his new party and what it means for the future of the country. He also talks about why he decided to start a new party, and why he thinks it's a good idea.
Transcript
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Welcome to the Cory Morgan Show. I've got a good one for today. I've got the leader of the
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Conservative Party of Quebec, Eric Duhame, coming in, and he's talking with me one-on-one. He's
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out in Alberta. He just won the leadership of the party, and I know people are saying,
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Conservatives in Quebec? What? Where the hell are they there? Actually, they are, and it's a very old
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party in Quebec. It's been there since almost the beginning of Confederation, but it's fallen by
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the wayside, I guess, kind of like the Conservative Party in BC and things like that. Our parties
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come and go and change, and Mr. Duhame has taken the helm of it, and he's had some great success.
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He's vastly increased their membership numbers into the tens of thousands. He's taken them from
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1% support in Quebec up to 11% support in Quebec. They now have a seat in the National Assembly,
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and they're coming into an election this October. So, you know, we can all benefit. The more
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Conservatives we have in Canada, the more common sense, individual, liberty-minded, small government
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people we can get, the better. So I know we love to grouse about Quebec. We love to get upset with
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their politics and their politicians, but we've got an exception coming out here, and it's not that
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much of an exception. If you look at Quebec, actually, they've always had a good underlying
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core of Conservative support out there. There's a lot of common sense Quebecers. There's a lot of
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Quebecers who want smaller government, who want to develop their local natural resources,
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and they haven't had a party to be able to express that for some time, and it looks like that's going
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to be changing. So before I get to that interview, though, I just have to come out again and thank
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our members for being there, for subscribing to the Western Standard. That's how we can keep doing
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this. This is how we do this without getting any money from the federal or provincial or municipal
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governments. They're not offering any. We aren't taking it, but it keeps us totally independent so
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we can cover these subjects and issues that other media isn't. One of the interesting things from Eric
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when I spoke with him, the mainstream media, like somebody with so many Conservative movements,
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won't touch him. He can't get airtime with them. We're more than happy to speak to him, and you'll
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be impressed. I mean, this is a bright guy. I would be very happy to see a Premier in Quebec such as him.
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So for those members who have been helping us so far, thank you again. And for those who haven't
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taken out a membership yet, by all means, go to thewesternstandardonline.com. Check it out.
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You can take out a trial membership for a couple of weeks. It gives you full access to all the articles,
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the columns, the things as they break, and you'll find it well worth your while. You know, you don't have
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to keep it going after your couple of week trial, but I suspect once you've gotten full access to
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things and realize the product you're getting for just 10 bucks a month, you're going to realize it's a
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good deal and you're going to keep on with it. And it keeps us going and we can keep making more of this
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kind of content. So with all of that out of the way, let's get on to talking with Monsieur Duhame and the
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All right. Well, welcome to Calgary, Eric and the Western Standard offices. Thank you very much for
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So I'm going to get right into it. I mean, as soon as we ran across you yesterday and my interest was
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piqued immediately, Quebec Conservative Party, you've been resurrecting it and bringing it out and with
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some great success. We'll just start with there. What inspired you to get that party involved, take the
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leadership and get rolling? I was an ADQ historically. I worked for a small right-wing
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party in Quebec politics. We merged with the CAC, the Coalition for the Future of Quebec that is in
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government right now. And unfortunately, I have to say that Francois Legault betrayed a lot of us
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and he turned left a lot over the last few months, particularly on energy that might interest people
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here in Alberta and out west. And so last year I've decided on November 22nd that it was time to move on
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and to create, not create because the party already existed, but jump into a leadership race.
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And within a year, the party went from 500 members to 38,000 currently. We went from 1% in the polls to
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11%. We're the party that has the most, the biggest amount of donors in 2021 right now in Quebec.
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We now have a first member in the National Assembly for the last 86 years. We have a member from Iberville
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who jumped ship from the CAC and she joined us over the summer. So I think we can say we're a growing
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party. We're now ahead of the Party Quebecois in the polls, ahead of the Liberals among Francophones,
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and we're still working hard to keep doing better. That's excellent. There always has been,
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in my view, an understated conservative core population in Quebec. And Mario DuPont,
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you brought up the ADQ. You worked very hard for a lot of years and made some breakthroughs,
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but had other challenges moving along. So what would be different this time than the past efforts
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with the ADQ? Well, I think that first off, the constitutional issue is not on the table
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anymore. It's irrelevant. We don't vote. It's not a referendum in the elections in Quebec anymore.
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There's no yes and no side. That's why the Liberals and the PQ are melting.
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The second thing is that we went over the last 20 months through a huge crisis. And we saw the
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government taking a lot of our liberties, our freedoms. And we also saw the democracy being
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on pause. And I think that many of us cherish that. And we don't believe that the government should,
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you know, deprive us from those civic rights so easily. And so, you know, being a true
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small-c conservative or libertarian or right-winger or call it like you want,
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is first and foremost to respect people and individual choice. And we didn't see a government
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doing that right now. And so we, you know, there's something that unites us that is much stronger
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than what it used to, because now we see how fragile democracy and liberties could be.
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Yeah. Individual liberty. A classical liberal. I mean, it's been a lost term.
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Yeah. Well, that's why we're campaigning right now.
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Yeah. And like I said, I was so happy to see that there's some movement coming along. So in your
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election cycle, you're coming into a general election probably next October, I believe.
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Yeah. October 3rd next year. So we still have like a little bit more than 10 months left.
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And so now we're just at our party convention, adopted a new program. In January, I'm going to
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start announcing new candidates. We're also building constituency associations. We have already 90 out
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of 125 that are done. So we're working very hard to be present on the ground. And there's also going
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to be a by-election called in early next year. So that's all going to be a first test for our
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organization and our party. So you might be able to double your caucus in the National Assembly.
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Maybe. It's a tough seat. If we win that seat, we're going to win a lot of seats. Let me tell you.
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Yeah. By-elections. Yeah. It really depends on where it is, but it's something to look forward to
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and watch. So, and you touched upon quickly, and it's something in the West we've always been
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interested in. And a lot of the sparks we've had fly between Alberta and Quebec is over economic
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independence and resource development. And there's, as we've been finding, a fantastic natural
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gas deposit in Quebec that could be developed and exploited, but it sounds like the government
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currently wants to shut that down. I think all of us would be happy to see more development.
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Well, it's very disappointing because you have to know that Quebec Premier François Legault,
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when he was in opposition, wrote his biography and he gave a full chapter to the importance to
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develop our natural resources in Quebec, particularly gas and oil. He even said that he wanted Quebec to
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become the Norway of America with the richness of our fossil fuels. Well, unfortunately, he went to
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Glasgow a few weeks ago and he completely flipped flop. He became a green giant, as we call him. And now he
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wants to make environmental speeches to international activists. And he said that he wants to table a bill
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early next year to ban any kind of exploitation or exploration of gas and oil. So for us,
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that's a huge flip flop. And it's terrible because Quebec has to be more independent financially.
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And, you know, I know that you had a referendum out in Alberta a few weeks ago and, you know,
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you guys are sick and tired of the equalization formula. And I think many Quebecers like me are sick
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and tired of receiving money. We want to be more autonomous. And independence doesn't start by
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voting yes in a referendum. It starts by paying off for your own social programs. And this is what
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we want to do. And unfortunately, François Legault used to say that also. He wanted to get out of
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equalization. And now he's a big promoter of it. It's kind of funny when you think about it because
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he's a former separatist minister, right, in the Parti Québécois. And he wanted Quebec to become more and
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more independent politically. But economically, he's probably the premier that is going to make us the most
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dependent of the rest of Canada. It's kind of surprising. And I see a contradiction and a
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little bit of hypocrisy when you consider that he called your oil dirty oil also a few months ago.
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And the same guy wants to squeeze as much money out of it. There's something there's a huge
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contradiction. And I hope that Albertans see it. I'm going to tell him. Oh, we do. We get pretty
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upset, but I don't think he cares much what we say. So that's why I'm excited to see Common Sense
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voices servicing in Quebec, though, and speaking up. And, you know, I am of an Alberta sovereignty
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leaning sort of point of view in my own way. I've got problems with the system and the way Canada
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is set up. But as it stands, economic independence, if you don't have that, it's hard to move towards
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other forms of sovereignty. And then you have the means at your disposal.
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Yeah, absolutely. Quebecers and Albertans have always been allies in this country in terms of our
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vision of Federation. We've always been the two provinces that were the more autonomous,
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where the two provinces where the Ottawa knows best approach is not really appreciated. And I
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think it's important to build those bridges back again between Quebec and Alberta. And this is what
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I want to do. And that's why I'm visiting Alberta this week. And I know that Jason Kenney tried to build
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the build that bridge with Francois Legault. The premiers met in Quebec City a year or two ago,
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two years ago. And I do recall that the Premier of Quebec said that he would facilitate a gas line
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in the north of Quebec, the LNG pipe. And unfortunately, he backtracked on that as well over
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the last summer, betraying his deal he had with Premier Kenney. So I think it's time to rebuild those
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bridges. And unfortunately, we thought Francois Legault could be the guy to do it. But obviously, he's not.
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And getting back to your partisan efforts, there's something that's been interesting. And you
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mentioned yesterday was you've kind of bypassed the mainstream media. I mean, this is the wonderful
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things with our modern means of communication, a party leader can manage to reach out and connect
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with people without the support of the major ones. As I said, the only coverage you got, I think, was
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from Le Devoir. I got one article during my leadership. That's it. I didn't get anything. And
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even to this day, I didn't have an interview with French CBC. And where our parties ahead of the
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Parti Québécois were, in Quebec City, were over 25% more than the PEQ, the Liberals and Quebec
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Solidarity United. And still, we don't exist. And the mainstream media are almost not. But
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nowadays, we have social media, we have medias like yours, that are able to do their job. And
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people get informed other ways, fortunately. And so parties who are boycotted by the media could show up
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and make, you know, have a lot of votes in the election. Yeah, I think it's time for the mainstream
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media to reevaluate the way they're approaching things rather than us. I mean, political organizers
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on the ground are discovering that they don't need them. They can reach people without them. And the
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mistrust between people in the mainstream media has been growing. So it's just good to see, you know,
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again, a new movement that will take advantage of those things rather than trying to reach your
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constituents. Can't agree more. Yeah. So I mean, again, you're espousing conservative
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principles, you're bringing that platform forward. Where can people find more information then on
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your party? And then you can go on conservateur.quebec. So it's not conservative, conservateur,
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T-E-U-R.quebec. And also, I want to tell all Canadians, if you're a Canadian citizen, you can become
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member of a party in provincial politics, even if you don't live in that province, or if you're
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whatever, everybody can, you cannot donate, but you can become a member. So I encourage all
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Canadians who are supporting us to become members of the Conservative Party of Quebec. It's a rebirth
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in a certain way, because we had eight premiers in the history of Quebec that were conservatives,
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but none of us have seen them because it's way, way before we were born. And, but I think it's a
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great thing to have now a clear center of right alternative, francophone, and it could also have a
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good impact even on the national scene to have a strong conservative movement within the French
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community. Absolutely. I mean, with conservatism and classical liberalism, I mean, the more it spreads
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throughout the country, even if it seems, you know, distant to us in Alberta, we all benefit if we can
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get some more common sense policy and some responsibility out there. So thank you very much for
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coming in to speak with us and speak to our audience and keep fighting the good fight. Thank you very much.