Western Standard - Ex-Government Whip Jay Hill on Federal Parliament’s Next Steps

00:00:00.000 And boy, we've got a heck of a year to review.

00:00:02.040 So former government whip, longtime member of parliament,

00:00:05.580 came out of so many years there still, mostly same.

00:00:10.220 Thanks, Corey. It's great to be back on the program.

00:00:12.580 Yeah, no, it's good to see you.

00:00:14.880 And boy, what a time we're in.

00:00:17.420 Well, what a fiasco.

00:00:18.860 Yes.

00:00:19.480 Yeah, I've never, you know, as you said,

00:00:22.160 I was there for 17 years from 93 to 2010,

00:00:25.940 finished up my service as the government house leader,

00:00:29.180 cabinet position, full cabinet position.

00:00:32.320 So I had the privilege and opportunity to sit at the big table.

00:00:37.120 And of course, 17 years, both in opposition and government

00:00:40.140 to experience the house of commons on a day-to-day basis.

00:00:43.620 And I have to admit, Corey,

00:00:46.700 I have never seen such a mess as we have currently in Ottawa.

00:00:50.760 And it's an absolute joke.

00:00:53.200 It's no wonder the reelected incoming president of the United States

00:00:59.120 is teasing our prime minister about being the governor of the 51st state

00:01:06.560 because we have zero respect at the international level

00:01:12.300 and not a lot more at the domestic level.

00:01:15.260 And that's reflected in the polls these days.

00:01:18.140 Well, and outside of the polls, you know,

00:01:19.480 so for a lot of people watching politics, and that's it,

00:01:21.320 I mean, in your job as government house leader,

00:01:22.900 you were immersed in, though, the procedures and things such as that.

00:01:28.080 I mean, we've been in the midst of a filibuster for quite some time.

00:01:30.520 And outside of, you know, political weenies like us,

00:01:32.320 like just kind of what does that mean?

00:01:33.820 And what's the purpose of it?

00:01:34.880 Like things are being hindered and hindered and bunged up in there.

00:01:37.620 I mean, things aren't getting done.

00:01:39.200 Yeah.

00:01:40.100 Which might be a good thing.

00:01:41.500 Well, perhaps.

00:01:42.200 Yeah.

00:01:42.300 A lot of the things they do aren't all that great anyways.

00:01:44.380 Well, certainly not supported in Western Canada and Alberta in particular.

00:01:48.900 You know, so perhaps that, as I say, it's a very good thing.

00:01:52.720 Now, for those people that aren't familiar,

00:01:54.840 a filibuster is basically where one party uses the tools that they have

00:01:59.080 in Parliament to carry a debate.

00:02:02.020 And if necessary, all by themselves.

00:02:03.760 They just put speakers after speaker up and speak to emotion.

00:02:08.000 And in the question of privilege,

00:02:10.520 which we're debating now in the House of Commons

00:02:12.720 and have been, I'll add, since September 26th.

00:02:17.020 So two and a half months,

00:02:19.180 the House of Commons has been completely stalled of any business

00:02:24.280 other than debating the Conservative question of privilege.

00:02:28.840 And, you know, I was involved in filibusters.

00:02:32.820 I, you know, participated in a few myself.

00:02:35.660 The government House leader,

00:02:38.640 if he has the ability, or she has the ability

00:02:42.120 to take the time slot of the leader of the opposition,

00:02:46.040 as I had on one occasion.

00:02:48.180 You can speak for, as long as you can keep talking.

00:02:52.960 And, but this is unique because a question of privilege

00:02:56.460 takes precedent virtually over everything else.

00:02:59.620 And that's why the opposition, as long as they stay united on this issue, I might add, because Singh doesn't stay united with the opposition on much, then they can debate it till the cows come home, until basically Parliament is adjourned roughly a year from now for an election.

00:03:18.820 And the Conservatives, at least, have indicated they intend to continue this filibuster until then, if necessary, or until the government and specifically the Prime Minister capitulate and hand over these unredacted documents that the House has ordered.

00:03:38.820 I've never seen this, where a government has just refused for two and a half months to hand over documents to the opposition and by extension to the public.

00:03:49.240 Yeah, and that's what I wanted to get to. I mean, they aren't just having a temper tantrum or holding up the House of Commons for the sake of holding it up.

00:03:54.980 There is at least an ask, a demand, because we do have something bizarre going on.

00:03:59.080 They've been ordered to say, these documents on these issues, I think it was the green energy contracts.

00:04:05.180 Yeah, or as the opposition refers to it, the green slush fund.

00:04:10.200 Yes.

00:04:10.600 I think I have the right name down here somewhere. The Sustainable Development Technology Canada Fund.

00:04:17.160 There we go.

00:04:18.120 But the government, obviously, something stinks to high heaven. That's why they don't want to release it.

00:04:23.160 I think that there would be some criminal charges from what I've read about this.

00:04:28.520 It certainly lends itself because that's part of the demand from the House.

00:04:33.320 And when I say the House, you remember that, ironically, we are in a minority government situation.

00:04:39.820 If the opposition bands together, they can demand anything.

00:04:43.640 And as long as they have the votes, because the Liberals don't have enough votes to outvote them like they would in a majority situation.

00:04:50.640 So what we have here is that not only are they demanding these unredacted, that means, you know, not having entire sheets blacked out, but unredacted documents, but that they be turned over to the RCMP to see if there's a possibility that criminal charges should be laid.

00:05:11.220 Well, it says something, though, that our system is somewhat broken then in holding a government to account when the only recourse, when it's been ordered.

00:05:22.100 I mean, we've done everything else possible.

00:05:23.600 Hey, you're supposed to do this.

00:05:25.300 And then they just say, no, we won't do it.

00:05:27.400 A filibuster is the only tool they've got.

00:05:29.140 Exactly.

00:05:29.320 This is not good.

00:05:30.080 No, no, it's, you know, a waste of resources, as they say, roughly two and a half months.

00:05:36.520 They're back on this today after taking a break for a couple of days to do bills that allowed for the appropriation of funds, because that's why I said earlier that there's a conflict there about which takes precedence.

00:05:50.500 And they agreed that the supply bills that supplies the government with the funds to carry through to the end of the fiscal year, which is March 31st, are at least equal in precedent.

00:06:03.960 So the Speaker ruled that they had to take a break.

00:06:07.640 They had to get the remaining supply days, which are opposition days.

00:06:11.340 That's why we had yet another vote on non-confidence by the Conservatives the other day, ironically or not. 0.96

00:06:18.880 But it was defeated again because Singh, you know, and I got to say that Jagmeet Singh, to me, just sitting back and watching the shenanigans during the House of Commons, he has got to be the greatest hypocrite in the history of Canada.

00:06:37.200 That last, you probably have referred to this, I haven't watched your program, but for the last while, but that last motion for the opposition motion for non-confidence in the government was actually crafted from the very words of Jagmeet Singh.

00:06:58.420 And he still voted against his own words.

00:07:02.020 Yeah, it was a beautiful political maneuver.

00:07:03.980 I mean, it was forcing him, because he's always talked big, but backed off.

00:07:07.400 Exactly.

00:07:07.940 Here's your chance.

00:07:08.820 All your very own words.

00:07:10.620 Put it into action.

00:07:11.720 And of course, he backed off.

00:07:13.020 Yeah.

00:07:13.320 But again, it's just, I think a lot of Canadians are just starting to tune it out, though.

00:07:17.020 And that's not a good outcome.

00:07:18.300 You know, I mean, they're getting cynical.

00:07:19.600 I mean, becoming upset, becoming frustrated.

00:07:22.040 It's natural, it's normal.

00:07:23.060 But cynical is not healthy for a democracy.

00:07:25.940 And they watch these games going on.

00:07:28.520 And, you know, left, right, center, it doesn't matter.

00:07:30.520 You start to think, like, who is leading us?

00:07:33.660 Yeah.

00:07:34.140 Well, no one, unfortunately, certainly when it comes to Prime Minister Trudeau.

00:07:39.420 Absolutely, Corey.

00:07:42.020 I'm just appalled at what's happening.

00:07:44.860 We have disagreements all the time in the House of Commons.

00:07:47.600 That's partly the purpose, right, is to have the different points of view.

00:07:50.660 It's adversarial, you're across from each other.

00:07:51.960 But you hope that at the end, I mean, if it's the will of the House,

00:07:55.640 that the government will accede to that.

00:07:59.060 That's traditionally what happens.

00:08:00.920 But, you know, this is not the first time this has happened.

00:08:03.900 It happened under the early days of this government back in 2015, 2016.

00:08:11.680 It happened under the SNC-Lavalin, you know, where the government ended up losing their

00:08:18.680 Attorney General, Jody Reeson.

00:08:22.640 Wilson-Raybould.

00:08:23.440 Yeah.

00:08:24.120 I mean, who was forced to quit because her ethics didn't allow her to do what the Prime 1.00

00:08:28.980 Minister wanted her to do and protect that corporation.

00:08:32.760 And then we had the WE fiasco, you know, where they were going to give, I think it was over

00:08:39.020 a billion dollars to that corporation and something stunk there to high heaven.

00:08:44.520 And we ended up that the Prime Minister called an election over that, you know.

00:08:48.980 And then more recently, we had the fiasco in Winnipeg with the health lab, you know,

00:08:55.800 and those two Chinese scientists.

00:08:58.740 And we never did get the information.

00:09:00.600 Again, the House was calling for unredacted documents showing what transpired there, and

00:09:06.520 we never got it.

00:09:07.280 So this is a Prime Minister and a government that is constantly consumed by covering up

00:09:15.120 their own scandals.

00:09:17.080 And, Paul, and even the stuff that's going to come out, I mean, they're kicking every

00:09:20.260 can down the road.

00:09:21.000 The one thing they've been able to get through all this time is money bills and spending,

00:09:23.840 spending, spending, and it shows.

00:09:25.320 So the quarterly fiscal update, which is terribly late already, they've waited until the very

00:09:29.980 bitter end.

00:09:30.840 Yeah.

00:09:31.000 They're going to drop it on Monday at the end of the session and hope everybody forgets

00:09:34.080 at Christmas, but it's got to be bad.

00:09:35.900 Well, the media is already on to the fact that it looks like rather than a $40 billion deficit,

00:09:43.260 it looks like 50% greater, perhaps as much as $60 billion this fiscal year.

00:09:51.700 And you've got to throw into the mix on that, too, that Finance Minister Freeland has never

00:09:58.000 hit a target yet in her whole time as finance minister.

00:10:01.300 And when she's asked even a remotely tough question about the finances of the nation,

00:10:06.740 she can't answer it. 1.00

00:10:08.580 She's completely inept and incompetent. 1.00

00:10:11.120 So you throw that in the mix as well as a prime minister that's a laughingstock around 0.99

00:10:15.380 the world, and indeed, I believe, across Canada now.

00:10:19.940 I saw a recent survey that suggested 80% of Canadians want an election.

00:10:25.980 We can't get it, though.

00:10:27.780 Our system won't allow it.

00:10:30.080 So we're hamstrung right now.

00:10:31.840 We're hung up.

00:10:32.540 We're in a mess.

00:10:33.080 They're still pulling off stunts, like orders in council, to ban guns and do other stunts.

00:10:37.340 There's ways they can do things without actually running it through the House.

00:10:41.020 But we're coming up on an unprecedented year, a crisis.

00:10:45.960 I mean, we have President-elect Trump coming in, who, whatever people think, like or dislike

00:10:50.200 the guy.

00:10:50.600 He's also one of the most impulsive, you know, takes things personally, unpredictable presidents

00:10:58.120 in known history.

00:11:01.140 And the battle is coming with Canada, a trade war. 0.98

00:11:04.060 I mean, we need, this is when we need our House to have their crap together more than 0.98

00:11:07.540 ever going into this year. 0.88

00:11:08.780 And it's terrifying looking who we've got theoretically representing us going into that.

00:11:14.160 Exactly.

00:11:15.280 And as I referred to already in the program, you know, you see it.

00:11:22.240 I mean, yes, we can all, we all have opinions.

00:11:26.300 I think every Canadian has an opinion about Donald Trump.

00:11:30.160 But setting that aside, he is the incoming president.

00:11:33.840 He has learned things from his first tenure.

00:11:37.040 And he's going to be taking action because of that.

00:11:42.060 And, you know, when you have a president threatening, whether it comes to fruition or not, threatening

00:11:48.780 a 25% tariff across the board on every product that we ship to our greatest trading partner,

00:11:55.580 it's absolutely frightening, especially for small businesses that access the American

00:12:01.420 market.

00:12:02.340 Oh, yeah.

00:12:02.840 And, you know, we could see just an overabundance, unfortunately, of bankruptcies.

00:12:10.220 Not that we're not experiencing enough as it is.

00:12:12.720 No, we'd be devastated.

00:12:14.420 I mean, we're speaking of somebody like, you know, a president-elect Trump.

00:12:18.320 I mean, he is a man, a lot of talk about, he responds at least to Frank or somebody he

00:12:23.160 can respect.

00:12:23.880 And that's the key word.

00:12:25.940 Those are the things we're seeing right now.

00:12:27.180 He has no respect for Trudeau.

00:12:29.100 He holds him in contempt.

00:12:30.580 And that's not going to change.

00:12:33.060 This is going to go poorly.

00:12:34.260 Plus, Trudeau's not, you know, there's my bias coming.

00:12:36.380 He's not a strong man.

00:12:37.940 He's not going to be able to stand this down.

00:12:40.800 No, he's a fancy socks and tie and, you know, hairstyles and whatever.

00:12:45.560 But, I mean, when it comes to competence, sadly lacking.

00:12:50.840 It just amazes me that there are still people.

00:12:53.420 I was reading an article, a column in the Toronto Star this morning.

00:12:58.160 My goodness.

00:12:58.900 And not surprisingly, Heather Malick was saying he's one of the great five that she produced

00:13:08.040 for a short list of important Canadians for this year.

00:13:11.720 I mean, how they, there's people like her that will still support Justin Trudeau after

00:13:17.060 everything he's done to destroy our nation.

00:13:19.960 Yeah, I think she might have sustained a head injury at some point in her life.

00:13:23.540 So, hey, Malick's a special sort of case.

00:13:25.440 But it does say a lot.

00:13:26.200 But there's always that core.

00:13:27.360 I mean, everything hits a bottom.

00:13:28.580 Yeah.

00:13:28.960 Liberals are sitting at about 20%.

00:13:30.320 There's those people who say, I will vote liberal until I die.

00:13:33.160 That's that 20%.

00:13:34.060 It wouldn't matter who or what or however it was done.

00:13:37.280 That's going to sit there.

00:13:38.200 But I can't see how it's going to climb.

00:13:40.340 Another thing I'm worried about, like, I've written a column on it that'll come out a little

00:13:43.620 bit.

00:13:43.880 It's a bit speculative.

00:13:44.660 But we know how the political game plays and the regional play.

00:13:46.960 So, Premier Smith's been fantastic in developing relationships with governors.

00:13:51.040 She's going to the inauguration. 0.96

00:13:52.500 Alberta has an office in Washington.

00:13:53.780 We've been doing the job Canada should have been doing.

00:13:55.680 Yep.

00:13:56.660 And that might shield oil and gas if tariffs start coming.

00:14:00.700 Because, you know, Trump's no fool.

00:14:01.840 He knows if you throw that tariff on Alberta oil and gas, the price of the pump on the states

00:14:05.380 is going to rise up.

00:14:06.020 And people are going to be upset with him on the states, too.

00:14:07.920 So, if he can find it out, maybe he'll carve out oil and gas.

00:14:11.060 Yeah, exactly.

00:14:11.780 I would think there would be an exemption coming if it gets that far.

00:14:15.180 But then the temptation on Trudeau's part would be, well, I'm not going to let that happen.

00:14:19.460 He might do like his father did and throw an outgoing tariff on Canadian oil and gas

00:14:22.920 leaving here.

00:14:24.780 Yeah.

00:14:25.560 Then we're going to see a unity issue.

00:14:27.020 I mean, hey, I'll sell more books than I ever have in here.

00:14:29.140 But still, for the sake of the country in Alberta, that's not going to be a good development.

00:14:32.960 No, and as you said earlier, Corey, especially not at this particular time.

00:14:37.460 At this particular time, when it comes to negotiating with the Americans in particular,

00:14:41.700 but the Chinese and any other entity around the world, we need to be unified on the international

00:14:47.640 front.

00:14:48.100 We're not going to be unified, obviously, in the House of Commons and on domestic issues

00:14:51.800 like, you know, the carbon tax, for example, because Pierre has clearly staked his future

00:14:56.660 on that issue and others, you know.

00:14:59.240 But on an international front, and I have personal experience in this, I mean, when I

00:15:04.240 was in opposition, I often traveled to foreign conferences with the minister that I was critic

00:15:10.440 of.

00:15:10.760 You still see that today.

00:15:12.880 And, you know, trying to present a somewhat unified position by all political parts.

00:15:18.320 And we're not the only democracy that does that.

00:15:20.600 I mean, the UK, Australia, they all do that when they're negotiating or when they're interacting

00:15:27.180 with other foreign countries.

00:15:29.860 So this, as you said, is a really crucial time.

00:15:33.660 There are so many huge issues, not the least of war in the Middle East, war in the Ukraine,

00:15:38.860 where as much as possible, we need our parliamentarians to set aside partisan differences and really

00:15:46.020 operate.

00:15:47.320 And Pierre has called for this, by the way, Pierre Polyev.

00:15:50.500 He has called on the prime minister as recently as last week to form a unified front on these

00:15:56.300 issues.

00:15:56.600 He was specifically speaking to opposition to the prospect of tariffs.

00:16:02.900 But it could be on a multiple of issues at the international level.

00:16:06.020 Well, then another challenge we have is our foreign affairs minister.

00:16:10.240 You know, Trudeau has appointed his intellectual peers to high cabinet positions, and it's

00:16:14.440 showing.

00:16:15.800 Especially, I would argue, the big two, our finance minister and our foreign affairs minister.

00:16:21.920 Yes, and again, it gets distressing.

00:16:24.780 I mean, Melanie Jolie is not commanding respect around the world.

00:16:27.620 She's embarrassing herself and us, through extension, with her clear lack of knowledge whenever

00:16:32.340 she's in a press conference or at a conference of any sort.

00:16:36.120 I just, I guess I'll leave you off with a big question, though.

00:16:38.880 I mean, you know, as we come into, I mean, election doesn't look like it's likely until

00:16:41.720 a year from now.

00:16:43.780 You know, maybe in spring at best.

00:16:46.100 What can we hope for in January?

00:16:48.040 Let's leave off with a bright note.

00:16:49.480 What could parliament maybe do?

00:16:51.020 I mean, I know it's not looking good, but.

00:16:53.160 Well, you know, because the conservatives have quite rightly.

00:16:56.760 And I don't say that not as a conservative myself or a conservative yourself, but because

00:17:04.440 they have really staked their ground on this question of privilege on these documents, right?

00:17:10.200 And I think justifiably so.

00:17:12.340 Anybody that looks at that issue is going to say, well, what is going on here?

00:17:15.700 If they're resisting, they, Prime Minister Trudeau and his ministers, including ministers that

00:17:23.120 allegedly funneled money, according to the Auditor General, funneled money to their own

00:17:28.940 companies through this slush fund.

00:17:31.780 If they're resisting to that extent, there must be something, as you said earlier, something

00:17:36.680 really dirty there.

00:17:37.880 So the only way I can see this resolved in January, February, whatever, going forward,

00:17:42.780 is that there has to be some negotiation on that issue between the parties.

00:17:50.060 Now, whether it will happen that, for example, if they would provide certain information and

00:17:55.120 still withhold some redacted, in the past, they've said, you know, it's the issue of national

00:18:00.680 security.

00:18:01.520 That's why the documents are redacted.

00:18:03.740 I can't see that applying to a green slush fund.

00:18:07.280 But however it is, I mean, it's sort of like the postal strike.

00:18:11.980 At some point, you would think there has to be some negotiation where they can arrive

00:18:17.960 at an agreement.

00:18:19.400 Otherwise, as I see it, the House is going to be held up like this, as I said earlier,

00:18:24.240 right through until the election.

00:18:26.480 I mean, Jagmeet Singh, we used to think, OK, well, after he gets his MP pension near the

00:18:32.200 end of February, perhaps then on the budget in March or April, perhaps the government will

00:18:37.880 fall and we'll have a spring election instead of having to wait till October.

00:18:40.780 But as of what he said the other day, when the Conservatives produced that non-confidence

00:18:48.100 motion based on his own words, and he did a complete, ate himself alive, basically, and

00:18:54.260 he did a complete flip-flop.

00:18:55.520 He said, no, no, I intend to honour the agreement that I made such, you know, a show of tearing

00:19:04.080 up in October.

00:19:05.840 I intend to honour that.

00:19:07.260 And it goes until the House rises in June.

00:19:10.360 So that kind of takes, if that's true, and we never know with him what is true, but if

00:19:15.300 that's true, then we're stuck until summer, at least.

00:19:19.580 Boy, and it's just not a, well, it's never a good year to have a hung parliament like that,

00:19:23.340 but this is a really bad one we're going into.

00:19:25.220 I'm really quite worried, to be honest.

00:19:27.760 And I don't know, you know, how you solve it.

00:19:30.680 I mean, many people have said, well, what is the problem?

00:19:33.800 I mean, in a democracy, especially when you have poll after poll, never mind whether they're

00:19:39.360 going to vote Conservative, Liberal, NDP, Bloc, whatever, but poll after poll showing the

00:19:45.220 majority of Canadians want to exercise their right as citizens and vote.

00:19:51.300 And the government ignores it.

00:19:55.300 Well, it's an ugly circumstance.

00:19:57.160 Either way, we'll try to leave on a bright note.

00:19:59.780 The weather's been good.

00:20:00.760 Christmas is coming up.

00:20:02.240 New Year's coming up.

00:20:03.320 I hope you and Leah have a fantastic one.

00:20:06.040 I really appreciate you coming in to talk to us about this, and I hope we can get you

00:20:09.480 back in the new year, maybe, and we'll see if we've had some progress to dissect.

00:20:12.800 Well, that would be nice.

00:20:13.880 It'd be nice to certainly have a more cheery conversation.

00:20:17.720 But if I could, just before I go, I attended an event with Leah, my wife, a couple nights

00:20:25.600 ago, and it was the Allies for a Strong Canada.

00:20:30.140 It's a new organization.

00:20:31.920 I don't know how many of your viewers are as concerned as I've been over the last year

00:20:35.960 since the tragedy of October 7th with what happened in Israel.

00:20:42.420 With the rise of anti-Semitism across our country, never mind around the world.

00:20:47.060 I mean, it's not unique to Canada, but it's appalling that it is here and that our government

00:20:52.140 is doing nothing.

00:20:53.640 And so there's this new organization, and I would encourage everybody watching, to go

00:20:57.960 to Allies for a Strong Canada.

00:21:00.320 It's easy to find.

00:21:01.820 Google it.

00:21:02.840 It costs nothing to join.

00:21:05.060 To show your support for our fellow Jewish citizens and communities across Canada during

00:21:11.020 this time, when they're frightened to send their kids to school, they're frightened for

00:21:15.860 their own safety.

00:21:17.160 Some of them, unfortunately, tragically, are thinking about moving.

00:21:21.240 It's become so unsafe in Canada.

00:21:24.040 And I hope you go there and join.

00:21:26.520 It costs nothing, but it would mean so much to our fellow citizens.

00:21:31.080 Great.

00:21:31.500 Well, thanks for that plug.

00:21:32.620 It's good to get together.

00:21:33.520 I mean, yeah, if a parliament can't do it, citizens groups have to at least get the messaging

00:21:36.740 out there, and we've got to start taking care of things ourselves.

00:21:39.840 Exactly.

00:21:40.540 All right.

00:21:40.860 Well, thanks again, Jay.

00:21:41.700 Good to see you.

00:21:42.500 I'm sure we'll see you again soon.

Western Standard - December 13, 2024

Ex-Government Whip Jay Hill on Federal Parliament’s Next Steps

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