A special edition of Hannaford, featuring Conservative MP Michelle Rempel-Garner and Western Standard editor-in-chief Jody Wilson-Raybould, talking about the false claim of Indigenous heritage by former cabinet minister Randy Boissoneau.
00:01:10.500Well, for anybody who's been following the Randy Boissoneau saga, it really is like a made-for-TV movie.
00:01:19.920writers for Netflix could not have come up with a crazier plot so I mean Mr. Boissoneau I guess
00:01:28.700he had a company and at one point he decided that he wasn't going to be with the company but there's
00:01:37.180some question on when that happened and what his business if he was still affiliated with the
00:01:42.420business at different points of time that company received a lot of government contracts it is now
00:01:47.660being i believe um investigated for allegations of certain types of misconduct um there's there's a
00:01:55.020whole bunch of other incredibly weird things that have happened with that particular issue
00:02:02.140but then like this has been going on for months he should have been ejected from cabinet a long
00:02:07.100time ago but then this week news broke that he had falsely claimed indigenous heritage and that
00:02:13.660this company that he either formally owned or owned we're not sure um that it it had also claimed
00:02:19.900indigenous um ownership and at some point in time it did receive government contracts so there was
00:02:26.300there was a lot of questions about that what what that all meant um but obviously that that that
00:02:31.100received a lot of outrage particularly from first nations leaders that there was a very prominent
00:02:37.340Cree lawyer who was quoted as saying that identity fraud is fraud and using that statement uh you
00:02:44.300know I stood in the House of Commons made a statement asking for his resignation and for
00:02:48.860that I was ejected from the House of Commons and Mr. Boissoneau was allowed to remain in cabinet
00:02:54.540now to your point he did resign the next day um but it's just it shows a broader problem Nigel
00:03:01.820like my question is why was that man allowed to sit in cabinet for this long it sort of shows
00:03:06.860a rot in the Liberal government. There are other cabinet ministers that should probably be given
00:03:10.860the boot. But overall, it's time for an election. I mean, if I'm being ejected from the House of
00:03:17.100Commons for speaking truth, and Randy Boissoneau gets to sit out the day with a car and driver,
00:03:22.380something's very wrong with this country. So we have to fight back.
00:03:25.500Well, I think we do. And I think our interests in this are in good hands with yourself and some
00:03:32.060of your colleagues but let's just talk about the uh this this matter of the liberal tolerance for
00:03:43.260ambiguity back in 2015 the party published a a poster showing nine indigenous members who were
00:03:54.060liberals one of them was mr boissoneau now i noticed when that was renewed a few years later
00:04:01.660his name was not on there which suggests to me that somebody had said well this is questionable
00:04:07.900let's take him off but it was not questionable questionable enough for them to remove him from
00:04:14.940cabinet when in fact to stop them from giving him an even better job so you and i both remember
00:04:22.780what the life was like under Stephen Harper. I don't think this would have flown under Stephen
00:04:29.360Harper, but it does fly under Mr. Trudeau. Is there a different kind of culture in the Liberal
00:04:36.800Party that we should be aware of? Well, I think a lot of Canadians are living with the liberal
00:04:43.120culture right now, right? You know, let's talk specifically about this issue, the false claim
00:04:50.560of indigenous heritage and ancestry. That's a really serious issue in the context of achieving0.68
00:04:56.820First Nations reconciliation. This is a monumental task. It's sensitive. You know, a former cabinet
00:05:03.060minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould weighed in on this yesterday. And it's something that any government
00:05:09.220of any political stripe will have to address. But to your point about culture, the way that the
00:05:14.180liberals have addressed this issue really has been a lot of fluff over substance. You know,
00:05:18.620The example I've used is, the classic example is Justin Trudeau vocally supporting a national holiday to solemnize reconciliation, and then on its first observance, taking a surfing holiday.
00:05:32.460You know, Randy Boissoneau being allowed to sit in cabinet with false claims of indigenous heritage while having this other cloud of scandal about this former or we don't know what company that he was affiliated with swirl around him.
00:05:49.320It's just, it is this culture of, of arrogance.
00:08:16.360It will come as no surprise to your listeners when I say that Justin Trudeau has failed on virtually, well, on all policy fronts.
00:08:23.960So let's talk about, you know, commitment to the environment and about food affordability.
00:08:29.220OK, so Justin Trudeau put in place a very detrimental piece of policy to the Canadian public, which is the consumer carbon tax that I mean, if that worked the way that he said it was going to work almost 10 years ago, you know, we'd be living in a land of milk and honey where milk and honey was a lot less expensive than it is right now.
00:08:53.120And we would see a material, we would have seen a material reduction in Canada's greenhouse gas emissions. And on all of those fronts, he's a failure. He has not accomplished any of those goals. It's the opposite, right?
00:09:05.540In fact, one of the only times in Canadian history we've actually seen a major reduction in greenhouse gas emissions with economic growth was under when former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
00:09:17.080Today, what we're seeing is emissions growth while Canadians are paying far more for everything because the consumer carbon tax compounds as it goes along a supply chain.
00:09:29.260Right. We know that for a fact. So, you know, when you're talking about these other announcements, the conservatives under our leader, Pierre Paliab, have had one consistent message this this this entire time, which is we need to ask the carbon tax.
00:09:41.800When we ask the carbon tax, we will see permanent reductions in all of these prices across the board.
00:09:49.240And, you know, this is why we have been so vehemently opposed to what the liberals are going to do anyways, which is increase the carbon tax next year.
00:09:58.400So, you know, they can talk about whatever they want, but at the end of the day, they still have this ineffective, extremely detrimental tax, the consumer carbon tax on increasing the cost of everything, while planning to increase that next year.
00:10:15.380So, you know, I just don't think Canadians buy this.
00:10:17.740I honestly think that they know that Justin Trudeau is full of it, that he's not delivering on anything except for making their life more expensive.
00:10:27.660Just to close, I'll say, I think what Justin Trudeau is looking for right now is he's got a
00:10:31.900very restless caucus. They haven't really showed any public courage, but I know that there's been
00:10:37.340a lot of media stories talking about what they're doing behind closed doors. I think he's looking
00:10:41.340for ways to buy time until Christmas for his own political fortune, but there's no question in my
00:10:46.780mind that he's only worried about his own political fortunes. He's not worried about making life
00:10:53.180permanently more affordable for Canadians. I'm sure you're correct about that. With these GST cuts,
00:11:01.820do you sense that there might be some kind of a deal with the NDP going on here?
00:11:08.460Some arrangement to just keep the NDP from finally pulling the pin on that government?
00:11:14.540I don't think that there's any deal that needs to be made. The NDP will prop up the Liberal
00:11:20.380government no matter what happens until their leader becomes eligible for his pension to vest
00:11:25.980his pension in February 2025 and even then I don't think that I think they'll just continue to support
00:11:31.260the the Liberal government um I watch them every day in the House of Commons they um they are
00:11:38.140completely like you'll notice Nigel like even on the issue we're talking about before Randy Boissoneau
00:11:43.100they weren't raising that issue in the house like they weren't they weren't the ones that were um
00:11:48.620you know, actively pushing and prosecuting Randy Boissoneau's questionable issues over the last
00:11:55.000several months. No, they are allowing this Liberal government, all of their cabinet ministers that
00:12:00.960are under, you know, clouds of scandal to continue because I'm sure that the Liberals, the leader's
00:12:06.420pension has something to do with that. And because I just, like, these are not people who are in it
00:12:11.020for Canadians. They are in it for themselves, for their political salary, and they don't want to go
00:12:15.600to an election because they are worried about losing their seats and it's as simple as that
00:12:19.520and it's so gross to watch every day so how would you characterize these gsd cuts and is it just a
00:12:26.940stunt again like you have to look at what the trudeau government's overall agenda is and that
00:12:33.940is to tax canadians and raise the price of goods on everything for me like i all they needed to do
00:13:05.920as all of my conservative colleagues are,
00:13:07.920as well as our leader to ax the carbon tax.
00:13:11.920Do you think Mr. Trudeau actually believes in his heart in the carbon tax as a solution to what he also, I think, believes in global warming?
00:13:25.440I don't make a habit of trying to get into Justin Trudeau's head.
00:13:28.780I feel like that's a very polluted place to be.
00:13:32.400You know, I would flip the question a little bit.
00:13:35.800And I would say, I don't think Justin Trudeau is trying to understand or has the capacity to
00:13:39.640understand what an average Canadian is going through. You know, I have a couple of close
00:13:45.960friends of mine who live in my riding. They're not particularly political. You know, they probably
00:13:51.480make a combined income of under $80,000 a year. And they just lost, long story short, they can't
00:13:59.480stay in the home that they're living in right now and they can't find a place to live. And this is
00:14:03.400in calgary um and you know when when they came to me and talked they said you know like what do
00:14:09.640what should we do and for for me as a legislator to to not have a like you know it's like here's
00:14:16.040what we're doing here's how we're trying to fight the government to make life more affordable i
00:14:20.040don't think justin trudeau has the plight of people who are in those types of situation and
00:14:26.440there are millions of canadians in that situation right now in your heart so you know for me it's
00:14:30.040It's less about trying to get in Justin Trudeau's head and trying to take the very real concerns
00:14:35.760of millions of Canadians that are related to housing affordability, food affordability
00:14:40.200into the House of Commons and speak truth to power.
00:14:43.480You know, what Canadians need is a long term cut to the cost of living.
00:14:50.680And you know, we have a simple plan for that.
00:16:06.380Well, you know, briefly with the time that we have left, and I'm looking forward to getting back to Calgary this afternoon,
00:16:12.980I'll say this, the Parliament, so Parliament ordered the production of these documents.
00:16:18.780In our democratic system, parliament is supreme in these matters. The government is obligated to hand these documents over to parliament. The fact that the government is thumbing its nose at parliament, again, this isn't the first time they've done this. It really shows their disrespect for democratic institutions.
00:16:36.860And, you know, if we're supposed to, you see the geopolitical instability that we're dealing with, Nigel, around the world.
00:16:43.420If Canada is supposed to be a shining light of democracy, then the Liberal government can't just thumb its nose at Parliament because it feels like it and it wants to avoid future scandals.
00:16:53.500So this is really up to the Liberals to end this by handing the documents over.
00:16:59.880I don't want to purport to get into the heads of Liberals, but for our part, the Conservative Party, we're holding the line on this because it's something that's worth fighting for.
00:17:09.020Our democratic institutions are worth fighting for.
00:17:11.720It's what our constituents expect us to do, and we will certainly continue to do that, to hold the Liberals' feet to the fire and use every tool that we have in the book as parliamentarians.
00:17:21.920Look, we are just about out of time, and I know you want to get to the airport, so how about I just ask you this.
00:17:27.260With Parliament deadlocked over the Green Slush Fund, is it possible for this government even to pass legislation or introduce a budget?
00:17:41.120Well, I mean, what the government has to do, the Liberal government, is comply with an order of Parliament to hand over documents related to a major scandal.
00:17:52.040This is an order that Parliament made. It's something that they have to comply with. They
00:17:58.520can't just thumb their nose at Parliament, which they've done in the past. So this is up to the
00:18:03.880government. If the government wants to put forward legislation and debate legislation, then they need
00:18:08.760to comply with an order of Parliament. And that is something that Conservatives feel is a hill to
00:18:14.440die on uh you know you can't in a free and democratic country nigel the government can't1.00
00:18:21.000just be allowed to dismiss parliament because when they dismiss you know me they're dismissing
00:18:26.600nearly 120 000 people that i represent and then you multiply that across parliament and you see
00:18:32.520what kind of an impact that has on canadian democracy so i certainly hope that they they
00:18:36.680could end it today they could hand over those documents today and we could get on with business
00:18:40.520But I really think that the government, the Canadian public should be putting pressure on the liberal government to do the right thing and to support our democratic institutions.
00:18:49.520But, you know, while hope springs eternal, this is Justin Trudeau that we're talking about.
00:18:54.520So I just I think we need an election. This is it's just I can't even some days watching these guys.