Western Standard - LIVE FROM PARLIAMENT： Trudeau in crisis

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

00:01:00.000 Good day, I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard.

00:01:19.680 We're coming to you live right now for a special interview with Federal Conservative MP for Calgary Nose Hill, I think it is, the Honourable Michelle Rempel-Garner, coming to us from what she describes as her hostage cave on Parliament Hill.

00:01:43.060 Thank you for joining us from the Pashtun region.

00:01:47.320 Well, it is a very small little cubbyhole in the back corner of the House of Commons here,

00:01:52.580 but I'm happy to talk to you today, Derek.

00:01:55.620 Yeah.

00:01:56.420 Well, it's, what a time.

00:02:00.980 We know what happened yesterday.

00:02:03.400 I guess we don't need to relitigate what everybody already knows.

00:02:07.060 But I want your sense.

00:02:09.680 I guess we'll use the lingo of 2024.

00:02:12.900 What are the vibes?

00:02:13.700 I guess we'll start with maybe on the conservative side right now, but also in the liberal and maybe even some of the other caucuses that you're getting.

00:02:24.800 Yeah, I mean, I guess I think it's really important for people, and I say this with all seriousness, to understand the gravity of what happened yesterday.

00:02:36.000 There was nobody in charge of the country, and I'm not even sure who is today.

00:02:40.240 I mean, the Liberal government has had so many cabinet ministers resign.

00:02:45.040 We didn't even have a finance minister in Canada yesterday.

00:02:48.820 So, you know, at a time, Derek, when there's so many serious crises facing the country, right, and Canada is in very uncertain geopolitical waters, there needs to be somebody in charge.

00:03:05.400 And, you know, at best, you've got right now a handful of unelected political staff managing from crisis to political crisis, as opposed to dealing with things like affordability, a potential tariff war with the United States, crime waves.

00:03:22.680 And so, you know, you talk about vibes. I kind of hate that word because Chrystia Freeland used it to describe the economy, you know, and we can talk about her in a minute, too.

00:03:33.440 But people should be, I don't care how people vote, they should be abjectly concerned with the state of affairs that the Liberal government and, frankly, their dance partners in the NDP have presented Canadians with.

00:03:49.900 We need an election right now.

00:03:53.360 All right.

00:03:54.560 But, you know, you live in fairly close proximity with other members of Parliament.

00:03:59.760 I know there's a lot less cross-party fraternization now, federally and provincially, than there was in previous eras.

00:04:09.180 But you see these guys.

00:04:12.840 You know, what do you think the mood is over on the other side of the House?

00:04:17.400 Well, just looking at some of the coverage, for example, of Liberals coming out of their caucus meeting last night.

00:04:24.820 The fact that some of them were coming out in La La Land, kind of going like, yep, everything's fine. It's okay. I think it just speaks to the level of delusion that has permeated both that caucus and frankly, the NDP. And I'm not making this up. They honestly think that everything, there's some of them that think everything is okay. And that's part of the problem, right?

00:04:44.580 Like the people in their communities need to disabuse them of this knowledge by confronting them with the reality in which they are living.

00:04:52.520 And so I guess that's like, you know, that's what I would say is even talking one on one to people, they will not admit that there is a problem.

00:04:59.020 And that is why, like, that is why a lot of these people need to be confronted with this reality in a general election.

00:05:07.480 It is very clear that the Liberal government does not have the capacity to govern the country.

00:05:11.800 and Canadians need to have, be presented with options.

00:05:17.040 Obviously, I would like to see a strong conservative government

00:05:19.940 to address our priorities that we have set for the country,

00:05:24.340 which are far, far better than what the Liberals are doing right now.

00:05:28.240 But the Liberals do not have a mandate.

00:05:30.760 They do not have a mandate to govern the country at a time of crisis.

00:05:33.800 So that is why we need an election.

00:05:36.060 So I want to circle back to NDP that you mentioned.

00:05:39.080 They're in a very awkward spot right now.

00:05:44.460 We saw Jake Bede sing out yesterday just to base himself,

00:05:53.040 acting as if it's tough to say that Justin Trudeau should resign,

00:05:58.840 which is, I think, a feeling held by the vast majority of Canadians at this point.

00:06:04.180 Although I'm not sure it's actually a good thing for him to resign.

00:06:06.140 And I think he should actually go into the general election and stand by what he's done.

00:06:11.900 We need that election. 0.54

00:06:12.680 But Jaymeet Singh saying, Justin Trudeau needs to resign.

00:06:16.220 And then the press gallery saying, well, does that mean you're going to make it?

00:06:19.800 Like, are you going to vote non-confidence in this guy?

00:06:22.220 And he says, well, you know, all options are on the table, blah, blah, blah.

00:06:26.740 And then I think, I'm not sure if it was Charlie Angus or another one of the senior...

00:06:30.300 Peter Julian, I think it was.

00:06:32.580 Peter Julian.

00:06:33.620 Yes.

00:06:33.760 Peter Julian kind of, you know, after they peeled his fingernails off, he said, well, you know, if Trudeau is still the prime minister.

00:06:42.420 But he didn't actually say it, though, right?

00:06:44.200 No, he didn't.

00:06:46.280 I interrupted you.

00:06:47.700 I just like, I'm sorry, I've got to interrupt you on this because I watched this play out, too, and it was beyond crazy what happened.

00:06:54.980 So you're right.

00:06:55.320 So Jagmeet Singh walks out into just just in the corridor behind me here and gives this press conference where he's like, Justin Trudeau has to go.

00:07:04.240 Justin Trudeau has to go. And then, you know, the inevitable microphone gets put in his face.

00:07:08.180 Well, so you're going to you're saying you're going to vote non-confidence in this government at the next opportunity.

00:07:13.660 Well, well, I didn't say that. So then he has his like to I see Peter Julian.

00:07:19.040 He puts him out in the media later in the day. And he's skating around this like I have, like, you know, the Rideau Canal in January skating around, you know, gold medal pairs skating. Like he did not actually say that they would vote non-confidence. He said that they would look at options or something like that at the end of February after what? After conveniently Jagmeet Singh vests his pension.

00:07:46.120 Right. Like I just, you know, the word debase, I think that you used is so right. And Canadians should be outraged by this. Like, I don't know what reality these people are living in, but they're certainly not living in the reality of my constituents.

00:08:01.520 who are facing crime, unaffordability, like lost jobs.

00:08:06.560 And we need an election.

00:08:08.060 Like, I know I sound like a broken record,

00:08:10.460 but like we need an election right now

00:08:13.700 more than this country has ever needed one.

00:08:16.440 We need one today.

00:08:18.100 I was going to ask you about the J.B. Singh pension issue,

00:08:20.520 but you already hit it.

00:08:23.040 So the liberals are reeling.

00:08:26.880 You know, you were talking about some liberals

00:08:28.700 coming out of the caucus meeting in La La Land.

00:08:31.520 But some were not. Some seem to have been punched in the face by reality and have started to see at least a glimmer of what a majority of Canadians have seen for some time now, that this guy has just lost the moral authority to govern.

00:08:46.700 Even if you're a liberal Kool-Aid drinker, I get the sense that at least a good portion of the liberal caucuses realizing, well, loyalty is a one way street with this guy. There's been no one more loyal to Justin Trudeau than Chrystia Freeland. And, you know, he was, she's another woman dumped on the side of the road by him.

00:09:07.680 Well, she is. That's true. But like, I want to disabuse anyone who is watching this of the notion that Christia Freeland is a victim in this situation, like from the perspective of like that she's some miraculous, courageous hero. Right.

00:09:23.780 I do think that Justin Trudeau has a history of kicking women to the curb. I mean, I think that's definitely what happened with Chrystia Freeland here. But let's talk about her own actions and the moment in which she found courage, right?

00:09:37.840 So this is a woman who has gleefully overspent Canada's budget. She's been the most ardent cheerleader of Justin Trudeau's terrible policies for the entirety of his government. She has never once spoken against him. 0.81

00:09:50.640 And Derek, as recently as a week ago, she did a press conference touting the fall economic statement, like pre-positioning it with her iconic word salad.

00:10:02.660 And, you know, so she only found the courage to say something after Justin Trudeau removed her car and driver, after he fired her.

00:10:10.580 And, you know, courage only counts when you have something to lose.

00:10:14.420 And she had nothing to lose.

00:10:15.460 In fact, she has a pile of books to sell, right?

00:10:18.560 Right. So so I don't see for Christian Freeland as a heroine in this situation.

00:10:24.140 And, you know, so when you talk about the rest of the liberal caucus, like, why are they still voting confidence in Justin Trudeau if they feel this strongly?

00:10:32.660 Why are they still doing panels where they support this government's ridiculous talking points?

00:10:38.620 Why are they still giving like reporters ridiculous talking points on their their policies? 0.62

00:10:44.140 everybody's saying like oh well the liberals don't have any way to you know express displeasure and

00:10:49.440 Justin Trudeau that's completely baloney they have had any of them can march out behind me and

00:10:55.740 give a press conference right now they don't have courage and I don't see the culture of that caucus

00:11:01.160 changing with the liberal leadership race it's too calcified so that's why we need an election and

00:11:05.980 you know I know I sound angry but like I'm angry on behalf of my constituents that we didn't have

00:11:12.600 a finance minister for the entire day yesterday when they were supposed to be presenting the

00:11:17.820 budget. Absolutely ridiculous. And, you know, if you think, if Canadians think that, you know, 0.94

00:11:23.280 Canada's enemies abroad aren't seeing this disorder, it's just, that's wrong. We need

00:11:29.420 order, we need stability, and we need an election. Well, speaking of our allies seeing this, I mean,

00:11:36.540 there's this, I think this weird idea sometimes in Ottawa that they don't have newspapers in

00:11:42.520 Mar-a-Lago in Washington, D.C., and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump tweeted last night,

00:11:50.680 I don't have the tweet in front of me here, but, you know, sticking his finger into this,

00:11:59.240 I was a bit surprised to see him insert himself into a domestic issue like this, but, you know,

00:12:04.700 I'm sure he's got some, I'm not sure if it's just pure trolling or if he's got an angle here. I

00:12:08.700 think he might he might have an angle and I I'm just not sure what it is but Donald Donald Trump

00:12:15.100 sees this it could have been taken as almost applauding her ouster because he doesn't seem

00:12:20.640 to like her but I don't think he likes who he calls governor Justin Trudeau as well

00:12:26.320 what do you make what's your reaction to Donald Trump's last night I mean Justin Trudeau's

00:12:35.360 government can't be trusted to manage this issue. They can't. They've proven themselves incompetent.

00:12:39.840 So I'm really glad you brought this up because people will be asking like, okay, well, what are

00:12:45.120 you guys doing about it? So moments ago, we actually, as the Conservative Party, we launched

00:12:51.200 a motion and I'm just, I want to get this right. We're calling for the International Trade Committee

00:12:56.240 to hold hearings beginning the week of January 6th through the 20th so that we can have ministers,

00:13:03.280 other officials in front of our committee so that we can actually hold the government to account,

00:13:08.360 the non-existing, non-functioning liberal government, that we can at least hold officials

00:13:12.200 to account to start understanding how we're going to deal with this issue. You know, Conservative

00:13:18.820 Party leader Pierre Polyab was out in the media this week. And, you know, I think there's a couple

00:13:24.400 of points that really resonated for me that he made. First of all, that some of the things that

00:13:28.580 are being discussed in this dispute are things that Justin Trudeau should have been doing for

00:13:32.460 Canada anyways, right? Regardless of Donald Trump, for example, fixing Canada's porous border,

00:13:40.000 the hashtag welcome to Canada border that Justin Trudeau put forward in 2017, our broken immigration 0.95

00:13:45.580 system, the fentanyl crisis. These are things that Justin Trudeau should have been doing a long time

00:13:51.100 ago. It shouldn't have taken Donald Trump to say this. But now, you know, given the chaos that's

00:13:57.060 in the liberal government, we are putting forward a motion. It's happening right now. So I'll

00:14:01.620 probably have to hop off and debate it in the House of Commons to at least get these trade

00:14:06.140 committee meetings happening in the House in January so that Canada can be in a position

00:14:12.840 to address these issues when clearly the government is not.

00:14:16.980 So as soon as you hear the bells ringing or whatever signal, the bat signal that you have 1.00

00:14:21.500 to go vote, you could hop off just so everyone knows you are there, you're standing by to vote

00:14:27.220 So when this ends, it's going to end quickly.

00:14:29.920 Some might say that of the government as well, which is an excellent segue, I like to think, to what are the chances that Trudeau falls here?

00:14:41.480 The Liberal Caucus declined to empower itself after the last election by giving itself the powers of the Reform Act.

00:14:49.720 The Conservative Caucus did give itself those powers and used them very swiftly when the crisis rose over Aaron O'Toole's leadership.

00:14:56.360 So to make that leadership dispute fairly bloodless. But, you know, the Reform Act only codifies in law the constitutional powers that MPs already have.

00:15:10.200 I've seen, you know, talking heads on the CBC say, well, there is no actual way to remove this. That's just not true.

00:15:17.400 Prime ministers have been removed for hundreds of years in Canada and Britain, and premiers have been removed in Canada and Britain, long before the Reform Act.

00:15:26.880 It's just merely enshrining powers formally, making it maybe perhaps a bit more orderly.

00:15:33.480 What are the, what are the, at some point, maybe Justin Trudeau says, screw it, like I'm done, there's just no good path forward here.

00:15:43.560 uh what are the chances that uh that Justin Trudeau I guess it's December it's a walk in the

00:15:51.020 snow uh well I I laugh because like I you're asking me to get into Justin Trudeau's head

00:15:56.800 which is not a place that I don't think anyone wants to be um but I'll just start my analysis

00:16:03.060 of this by saying we need an election like there's nobody in the liberal party like we can't elect

00:16:08.280 allow unelected liberal backbenchers or backroomers to choose the next prime minister

00:16:15.560 by, you know, doing something like proroguing parliament and going to a liberal leadership

00:16:19.680 race, which is what I'm sure a lot of liberal partisan insiders want to happen, right? But

00:16:24.500 that's not, this is a minority parliament. Parliament is in disarray due to the liberal

00:16:29.840 government disrespecting parliament. I don't think that they have the confidence of parliament

00:16:34.220 anymore. So allowing that prorogation for a liberal leadership race, we need an election.

00:16:38.580 So I'll preface everything by saying that. But as for Justin Trudeau, you bring a good point.

00:16:43.560 The Liberal Party effectively neutered itself. It does not have a mechanism, neither in the

00:16:49.140 Reform Act that you mentioned, so within its own caucus, or within its party governance to remove

00:16:54.520 a leader. The Conservative Party has it both ways. We have a mechanism in our constitution and in the

00:17:00.380 reform act the liberal parties they they all willingly did this they willingly neutered

00:17:05.080 themselves with with with by taking away these um uh these mechanisms so justin trudeau it's

00:17:11.780 really up to him right he could you know and and you're dealing with a narcissist who has no

00:17:17.160 capacity to but they still have the constitutional power well i mean look i mean right now they've

00:17:24.620 signed a petition and they had a majority of the governing liberal caucus that signed a petition

00:17:30.080 and they had an appointed successor and went over to the governor general yeah but i find this moot

00:17:35.400 dark because like at the end of the day like okay could they try and do something maybe it'll take

00:17:41.080 them a couple of months to muster up the courage to do this how much more crisis are we going to

00:17:45.700 have in the next two months like for somebody who's watching this and saying i can't buy groceries or

00:17:50.340 i'm putting milk on my credit card or i just lost my condo they don't want it like they don't want

00:17:54.300 to hear about this they want an election and to move on and just to underscore this derek like

00:17:59.500 like if these guys were going to do anything that resembled courage, they would have done it a long

00:18:04.180 time ago, right? Like, like, like, to your point, there's nothing stopping the guys that are in the

00:18:10.300 room next to me, essentially, from saying, Hey, you know what, there's 20 of us, we're going to

00:18:14.420 go sit as an independent caucus, which has happened in the conservative party's history

00:18:18.600 before. And we're going to take a decision by decision basis on confidence motions until x,

00:18:24.720 y or z happens. Have they done that? No, because these are people without courage that are only

00:18:29.120 The only calculus they're doing right now is like, is this, am I still going to be able to get a cabinet spot in this failed liberal government?

00:18:36.120 Like, literally, that calculus is happening.

00:18:38.760 Or is my nomination going to get greenlit by this failed leader?

00:18:43.640 So, like, I don't know.

00:18:44.800 Or is the paper going to invest?

00:18:45.540 Yeah.

00:18:46.720 It is a rant because it should be a rant.

00:18:49.140 But anyway.

00:18:49.820 Yeah.

00:18:51.700 Okay.

00:18:52.440 But I guess the question is, would they?

00:18:54.840 I don't think they will.

00:18:56.440 they've had all of the windows of opportunity where they would have had enough time to do this

00:19:02.660 have passed. There really isn't enough time, but they could provoke. They could do it.

00:19:10.360 The only thing I can see that would force a quick, not necessarily resignation of Trudeau,

00:19:17.420 but at least trigger the leadership race to replace him, would be the threat of mass resignation of his cabinet.

00:19:22.600 maybe this guy's a narcissist derek he doesn't care about anyone do you think he cares about

00:19:29.280 his cabinet right and and he has a bunch of other willing numpties in his caucus

00:19:34.180 that are more than willing to take his these positions right like and i mean it's basically

00:19:39.560 katie telford that's running the government in quotations right now anyways and i know this

00:19:44.540 sounds so banal but at the end of the day that's the reality and it's why we need an election like

00:19:48.920 Like and again, like I just I'm pushing back a little bit because there's been so many pundits and so many people talking about like, oh, well, you know, the Liberal caucus could do this to have him resign or he should resign.

00:20:00.560 We need an election. The entire party has lost the moral authority to govern.

00:20:05.500 So the Bloc Québécois has been very clear now. They're not trading.

00:20:10.820 It's a weird day when the Bloc Québécois is willing to stand more solidly for the interests of Canada than the NDP.

00:20:16.620 But the NDP, as we were talking about, with Jagme Singh, Peter Julian,

00:20:21.880 you have to peel their nails off to get even a half answer from these guys right now.

00:20:29.600 And it's obviously their decision how they're going to vote.

00:20:32.060 You can't force them to.

00:20:34.440 But, you know, we see daily, and it's ramped up now to fever pitch,

00:20:39.140 Pierre Polyev and the Conservative caucus shaming them, making them eat it every day.

00:20:44.540 Is there, what else can you guys do to bring the NDP to pull the trigger and put this dog down?

00:20:53.120 I think it's going to be what Canadians are going to do.

00:20:56.340 Like, you know, we are going into the holiday season.

00:20:59.720 There's going to be a lot of people sitting around with friends talking about this situation.

00:21:04.600 And I think actually, you know, especially if recent polling numbers are to be believed.

00:21:09.920 absolute frustration with both the NDP and the Liberals is like a unifying threat across the

00:21:17.960 country right now, right? I think it's a situation where there will be political pressure from

00:21:23.560 communities put on these guys as they go back to their constituencies for the holiday recess

00:21:30.760 and as they should be. So, you know, obviously conservatives, like we're going to continue to

00:21:37.300 um do the things like we have been doing confidence motions hearings etc etc at every turn

00:21:43.900 at the end of the day this is you know us partnering with the people of canada who i

00:21:48.300 think are speaking up and uh you know getting to the point of an election i that's what we need

00:21:54.980 well uh i'm gonna be respectful of your time so rather than us get cut off by the bell uh i'll

00:22:02.060 just leave last word to you uh anything we didn't cover that we should uh we should you want to

00:22:06.340 mention uh before we let you go no i i just want to you know put a little plug in and say thanks

00:22:11.440 for covering western canadian um issues derek i i think that or or covering ottawa politics from a

00:22:17.300 western canadian perspective uh we don't see a lot of uh people from western canada in the press

00:22:22.640 gallery out here and it's really important for for independent uh media to be covering these issues

00:22:27.540 and i just want to thank you and your team for doing that oh thank you very much uh michelle

00:22:32.200 Well, Ruppel Garner, thank you very much for joining us from your bomb shelter there on Parliament Hill.

00:22:38.620 I'll get back in the house now.

00:22:40.020 Get back in the house and keep doing your thing.

00:22:42.340 Thank you very much for joining us.

Western Standard - December 17, 2024

LIVE FROM PARLIAMENT： Trudeau in crisis

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