Western Standard - SPECIAL BROADCAST： The first Conservative Party of Canada Leadership Debate.

00:00:00.000 Good evening or afternoon, wherever you are. Welcome to a special Western Standard live

00:00:24.480 stream of a leaders debate for the Conservative Party of Canada that's being held by the Canada

00:00:30.580 Strong and Free Networking Conference. It's a big event they do in Ottawa every year. It used to be

00:00:35.540 the Manning Centre, if people recall. And this is kind of one of the first big debates we've got now

00:00:41.180 that the leaders have been established into the final six. And five of those six are going to

00:00:46.940 appear on a debate today. And, well, we're going to be covering it and discussing it.

00:00:51.240 We are. I'm Dave Naylor, news editor of the Western Standard.

00:00:53.900 I was going to get to that.

00:00:54.840 Yeah, he was going to get to that.

00:00:56.020 But yeah, it's going to be interesting.

00:00:58.480 First time sort of a national audience can see what they're all about, the Super Six.

00:01:04.800 And yeah, it should be fun.

00:01:06.220 It will be indeed.

00:01:07.560 And, you know, I mean, it's been kind of, they've been restrained almost so far.

00:01:11.060 I mean, you know, they're holding back.

00:01:12.560 They've been keeping their powder dry.

00:01:13.920 I think it's a long campaign.

00:01:14.960 It's going until September 10th.

00:01:16.300 So maybe at this event, this is our first major one since the official candidates have brought in.

00:01:20.480 They'll take off the gloves and make some real policy statements today, I hope. 0.60

00:01:23.900 Well, they've got a captive audience of all the top conservative small C people in the country.

00:01:29.740 So it's important they make a good first impression, so to speak, a long campaign.

00:01:34.640 But this is the perfect opportunity to land a few jabs on each other.

00:01:39.700 Great. Well, let's cut over to our other captive there. 0.71

00:01:42.000 And that's our parliamentary bureau chief there, Matthew Horwood, who's on the floor at the centre.

00:01:47.000 Hey, Matthew, how are things looking over there?

00:01:49.620 It's looking pretty good, guys. Very crowded.

00:01:51.780 As you can see, people are subtly streaming in, and it's looking like it's going to be a lively debate tonight.

00:01:57.500 What's the format going to take, Matthew?

00:02:03.140 The debate is going to be about an hour and a half long.

00:02:05.900 We have five candidates on stage.

00:02:08.040 Patrick Brown has decided not to attend.

00:02:09.900 He will instead be campaigning, selling leadership tickets.

00:02:15.000 And it's, yeah, it's looking like it's just going to be the five of them up there.

00:02:19.400 and we'll see how lively it gets, whether they're going to go for each other's throats

00:02:22.800 or they're going to be more civil and keep it a little bit more, you know, close to the ground.

00:02:27.980 Corey, it seems like Patrick Brown is continuing his campaign strategy

00:02:31.700 with not being seen in public.

00:02:33.060 I don't get it.

00:02:33.820 He won't talk to the press, he won't show up for anything like this.

00:02:37.380 He's about to have some hidden strategy of somehow engaging conservatives

00:02:40.660 to pull ahead of the pack.

00:02:42.500 Most of the country doesn't even know who the hell he is.

00:02:45.780 It's beyond me.

00:02:46.660 I don't get it.

00:02:47.180 Maybe he's got a good zit on the end of his nose or something like that.

00:02:50.440 He's dealing with a very, very strange way to go about things.

00:02:54.340 It's unusual.

00:02:55.260 Have you tried reaching out to him at all, Matthew?

00:02:57.400 I know a lot of us have.

00:02:58.260 I've tried to get him on my show to no avail.

00:03:00.400 Have you had any chance of getting him there?

00:03:02.340 I have.

00:03:02.940 I've reached out to all six of the candidates.

00:03:04.960 I have not heard back from Patrick Brown.

00:03:06.760 I have, however, heard back from Lesley Lewis.

00:03:08.500 She's going to be speaking with me for five minutes after the debate,

00:03:11.820 so we're going to run that live and see what she has to say about –

00:03:14.660 I've got some questions for her.

00:03:16.740 Great.

00:03:17.200 Yeah, you know, just to remind everybody, we'll be here for a bit after the debate,

00:03:20.540 continuing this special debate, and I'll break things down.

00:03:22.980 Maybe we'll get some guests.

00:03:23.860 I think Franco Tarrazzano is screwing around over there with the Taxpayers Federation.

00:03:27.880 I'm certain they've got a few things they'll want to hear out of this debate.

00:03:31.300 Does it look like a large turnout?

00:03:32.880 Like, we can't really tell with the room there.

00:03:36.620 Yeah, there's a couple hundred people here.

00:03:38.200 I don't know if we can pan around, but, yeah, quite a few people.

00:03:41.420 It's going to be quite lively.

00:03:43.840 Can you tell us more about the big conference this weekend, Matthew?

00:03:48.060 Who's going to be there?

00:03:48.940 What are we going to be talking about?

00:03:54.820 Yeah, it's going to be all sorts of speakers talking about different elements of conservatism

00:04:01.680 and the way forward and ways to win the election.

00:04:04.680 We have a full schedule here.

00:04:06.480 Let me just pull it up.

00:04:07.940 But it's going to be guest speakers all throughout tomorrow and the beginning of Saturday.

00:04:12.520 There's no concern that the Liberals are going to pull the emergencies out,

00:04:15.780 if they have this thing stopped.

00:04:18.300 I haven't heard anything about that yet, but you never know, right?

00:04:21.120 All right, be careful, buddy.

00:04:23.460 They should have had some kind of honkers there.

00:04:25.580 Oh, yes.

00:04:27.520 They should all go marching through the neighborhood afterwards, honkers.

00:04:31.060 I see a comment here, and this is going to remind people this is live.

00:04:33.680 It's streaming.

00:04:34.240 We've heard some comments, actually.

00:04:35.580 You know, you better get your things out there.

00:04:38.500 And Carrie-Anne has asked where Joseph is.

00:04:42.240 I imagine she's referring to Bourgeois.

00:04:44.840 He got disqualified.

00:04:46.360 I guess they just didn't accept his application.

00:04:48.320 He's put out a press release.

00:04:49.400 I will have him on the show next week, but at this point, he's not considered a candidate for this race.

00:04:54.420 He did reach the financial threshold.

00:04:57.780 He actually exceeded it.

00:04:59.840 They wanted $300,000.

00:05:01.560 He put in $367,000, I believe, Corey.

00:05:05.020 So, yes, he's asking questions himself as to why he was disqualified.

00:05:09.180 And we certainly haven't heard an official reason why not.

00:05:13.080 So, yes, I see him waving back there.

00:05:15.160 Boy, he bounces around.

00:05:16.120 It seems like only a week ago I saw him hanging around here.

00:05:18.820 But that's – is that Franco there?

00:05:21.980 That's Franco, yes.

00:05:22.620 That's terrible.

00:05:23.420 Franco Terzal, the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:05:27.260 Franco, good to see you here.

00:05:28.540 What would you like to see – what would the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

00:05:30.760 like to see tonight from the debate candidates?

00:05:32.600 Well, we want to see three commitments.

00:05:34.100 Number one, scrap the carbon tax, replace it with nothing.

00:05:37.320 The carbon tax, as you know, all economic pain, no environmental gain.

00:05:41.300 Number two, what are you going to do to balance the budget?

00:05:43.620 And when are you going to balance the budget?

00:05:45.540 We want to see a balanced budget within two years.

00:05:47.800 So we want to hear that answer to the crowd.

00:05:49.600 And number three, we need to know what they're going to be doing about the cost of living.

00:05:52.940 Three decades high inflation.

00:05:54.380 And of course, we think it's time for some tax relief.

00:05:56.640 And we think it's time to turn off the printing press.

00:05:59.320 How's it going?

00:06:00.220 There you go.

00:06:01.220 Nice to see you, buddy.

00:06:02.140 Okay, well, with the questions, have you heard anything or has there been anything with this?

00:06:07.720 How have they modeled where these questions are coming from?

00:06:09.900 Or do you know that, Matthew?

00:06:11.240 Like, did the Taxpayers Federation get input?

00:06:13.240 Or was it people from the floor who have been able to put them forth?

00:06:16.140 Or is this just determined by the moderators?

00:06:17.700 Do we know any of that?

00:06:19.660 How have they modeled what, sorry?

00:06:20.820 Come again?

00:06:21.740 Well, we're just wondering where are these questions coming from?

00:06:23.840 They're going to presumably be answering questions.

00:06:26.340 Are they coming from the floor?

00:06:27.700 Are they coming from groups like the Taxpayers Federation?

00:06:30.080 Are the moderators going to just wing it?

00:06:31.480 Like, do we know any of that format?

00:06:34.100 Well, Corey, I don't know the format, but let me tell you, if I do have a chance to ask a question,

00:06:39.180 here's a question I want to ask.

00:06:40.780 How long is it going to take you to balance the budget?

00:06:43.120 I think that's what we need to know.

00:06:44.560 A lot of the times, politicians say, ah, you know, we'll make government more efficient,

00:06:48.160 but we need to know specifics, and more importantly, we need to know a timeline.

00:06:51.720 Because if a politician says that it's going to take more than four years to balance the budget,

00:06:55.300 I don't really believe them.

00:06:56.320 well now's the time to pin them down so uh we'll see if we get some solid answers

00:07:02.220 after the date and see if you're satisfied with the answers that came and confident if

00:07:08.300 they're believable because we've heard from leaders before promising not to do certain

00:07:11.800 taxes and it turned out they're full of something yeah absolutely absolutely guys i'll be back

00:07:17.200 right after the debate and i'll let you know what we think right on thanks franco

00:07:20.380 yes he certainly is and he keeps their feet to the fire so uh matthew at this point uh it's always

00:07:42.940 hard to tell from here these things rarely start on time though how's it looking are they getting

00:07:46.700 ready to roll pretty quick it's looking like we're on time here we're getting announcements

00:07:50.140 for everybody to find their seats and get ready for it to start uh i'm going to be live tweeting

00:07:54.620 what i'm seeing having some videos and some uh perhaps some commentary and then i will be joining

00:07:58.380 you guys as you know after to uh to uh talk about it and it's getting quiet here so i think we're

00:08:03.100 getting ready to go okay right on well we'll let you get positioned and uh we'll start getting

00:08:07.740 to be here too thanks guys see you soon oh yeah we're gonna see how this debate all lines up i

00:08:17.020 mean uh i'm curious about the format i know you know they'll take it as it comes but it's always

00:08:21.180 difficult if you didn't get enough information five different people that's a lot of answers

00:08:27.020 and uh just their intro and you're already you know a good way through the the debate so uh

00:08:31.820 A good moderator makes a debate, Corey.

00:08:35.980 If we've got a good moderator, hopefully things will go well.

00:08:39.220 Yeah, so I know that they've got, Candace Malcolm is one of the moderators.

00:08:43.440 There was somebody else I believe was going to, but then I heard there might be changes.

00:08:46.080 We'll see when that gets up and streaming there.

00:08:50.640 But it'll also be interesting to see if they take any questions off the floor.

00:08:53.480 We've got a lot of prominent conservatives gathered in that room right now.

00:08:56.580 I believe Alberta's own Jason Kenney was winging his way there today.

00:09:01.820 Well, yeah, it's probably a safer space for them.

00:09:06.140 Safer country than it is here, absolutely.

00:09:09.340 Right on. So yes, I mean, I wonder if this is where they're going to set the tone for their

00:09:14.780 campaigns at this point. You know, I mean, again, it was frustrating when I had them in, you know,

00:09:19.660 guests. I've listened to just about all of them. I've had them here and it was like pulling teeth

00:09:24.140 to get solid commitments on everything. Just those political answers, that mushy, you know,

00:09:28.540 But I mean, in debate format, well, these guys aren't going to feel as obligated to be polite and nice as I am when I have a guest in.

00:09:34.480 Maybe they'll get on each other a little bit.

00:09:37.460 I mean, something we'll be able to see, too, is Paulyev, I got a feeling they're going to turn on him.

00:09:40.920 When you get a presumptuous, presumptuous, but presumed front runner, typically, I mean, the guns are going to turn towards them from the other candidates.

00:09:49.340 And it'll also be a good test.

00:09:50.620 I mean, people have always wanted to see how would Pierre look going head to head with Justin Trudeau.

00:09:55.320 Today, you can get to see how he is in more of a debate sort of format.

00:09:58.060 Yeah, it's going to be really interesting. I mean, we are a long way away from the September 10th, but an entire summer of campaigning to go when, you know what, I just hope they're not careful. I hope somebody takes a risk and hope, you know, tries to land a few good solid punches. You know, my great fear is that it's still so early. Nobody wants to make a mistake, say something that's going to set back their campaign to almost a reset point.

00:10:24.200 Yeah, well, and the hot button issue at the top of everything today, as we've said, you know, it's been just due to the Supreme Court decision down in the States.

00:10:32.460 I know people say it shouldn't impact a Canadian political thing, but reality it is.

00:10:36.400 And we're seeing that.

00:10:37.140 We're seeing that in the Alberta legislature with actions on Notley's part.

00:10:40.360 We're seeing Trudeau baiting and talking about bringing in new abortion legislation.

00:10:43.560 And I know the Conservatives really didn't want to have to go into this.

00:10:46.440 No. You were talking about not only today, the NDP is introducing a motion in Alberta to try and change the law to have women who undergo abortion procedures to have bereavement leave. So again, you know, that just throws the spotlight right where they want it, right on the, you know, the UCP, the Conservative Party, which, you know, the UCP doesn't want that spotlight whatsoever.

00:11:08.060 No, no. And then it's all political gamership, brinkmanship, trying to corner them, get them to say something that they can grab, and whether it's in context or out of context, and start that division. It's just, man, such a brutal issue, because there's never any resolution to it. I mean, our grandparents dealt with it, and our grandchildren are going to have to deal with it, but it's front and center now, which is going to be quite a...

00:11:30.220 Yeah, and probably their grandchildren, too.

00:11:32.160 Yes.

00:11:32.820 It's going to be around for a while.

00:11:34.200 Well, yeah, I guess we'll see when this debate gets rolling here, hopefully some electoral

00:11:41.860 strategy, things like that as well.

00:11:43.760 I mean, part of it isn't just trying to, because they're campaigning to the membership

00:11:47.160 here, not just to people in general.

00:11:49.640 So it's not quite the same.

00:11:50.880 I mean, they've got to convince the people, the members who are going to consider their

00:11:53.540 vote, not only are my policies the ones I want to see, but am I electable?

00:11:58.540 Like that's along a little of the lines of where Sheree comes from, you know, or they're

00:12:02.500 crying they're trying to say all you have is true blue conservative they'll never elect him

00:12:06.420 the only way we'll ever win is if we have a more liberal style of a conservative candidate or a

00:12:11.780 red tory at least and he can actually win the thing so we'll see you know if they come along

00:12:19.220 and there wasn't a nurse hoping like she did with the last one to sneak up and uh and yeah don't

00:12:24.820 No, no. And again, this is an area where I think a lot of, well, because of this issue coming up,

00:12:34.200 some socially conservative leading people are feeling assailed or cornered or back into this.

00:12:39.320 And of all of them who have been at least most forthright about pro-life views and that sort of thing,

00:12:44.280 it has been Leslyn Lewis. She's talked about bringing in legislation, you know, not banning,

00:12:48.260 but possibly restricting or regulating abortion, which, you know, any word at all about it is

00:12:53.700 a hot button sort of thing.

00:12:55.880 So whether or not she'll get into that during this leadership race is going to be interesting

00:12:58.960 to watch.

00:12:59.560 I mean, the conservative MPs were already instructive, shut up, don't talk about this 0.51

00:13:02.980 issue, stay away from it.

00:13:04.560 But, you know, it's hard to keep them under control when you don't have an actual leader's,

00:13:09.540 you know, a formal leader in power yet.

00:13:11.920 Yeah.

00:13:12.480 And I'm actually surprised one of the MPs hasn't sort of opened his mouth and shot it

00:13:18.580 off.

00:13:18.800 It's a surprisingly restrained caucus at the moment, shall we say.

00:13:24.180 Yes, and I'm certain there were a number of, again, you know, just non-supportive people of the Conservative Party rubbing their hands together, waiting for one of them to come out or a couple to come out.

00:13:33.900 So far, they've been controlled.

00:13:36.440 I guess they've got to watch their step, too.

00:13:38.260 I mean, this is a leadership race.

00:13:40.000 Well, for 10 years when Stephen Harper was in power, he was taking away women's rights every single day of those 10 years.

00:13:46.960 If you believe the left wing, when he left office after 10 years, abortion was still legal in Canada.

00:13:56.560 But it's always been that mantra.

00:13:58.600 Conservatives will take away your rights as women. 1.00

00:14:02.380 It's something they've had to deal with for decades now. 1.00

00:14:04.620 Well, and they put people on a hard spot.

00:14:07.440 If there's somebody who personally believes they're pro-life, they'd rather not see abortions.

00:14:12.100 But they say, we don't want to legislate it.

00:14:14.300 So, you know, as soon as they're put in the spotlight, though, to say the personal part, that's all that gets reported on and not the part where they're saying where I'm not going to legislate on.

00:14:21.460 I don't know. We don't even know where Harper Foley lands on that.

00:14:24.560 You know, he wasn't wide open about that when he was prime minister.

00:14:28.540 But he did nothing, of course, despite all the fear mongering, as you said.

00:14:32.220 I don't think any serious conservative leader really is going to dive into that issue if they get the chance as a prime minister.

00:14:36.560 No, they'll try and avoid it at all costs.

00:14:39.600 So, yeah, hopefully this thing gets rolling pretty soon.

00:14:43.220 any questions from the viewers here?

00:14:46.100 They've obviously gone to the

00:14:47.540 Jason Kenney school of starting things on

00:14:49.580 time. Yeah, that's why I kind of threw that

00:14:51.620 out to

00:14:52.260 Matthew there to see if it looked like

00:14:55.540 things were coming on time. And it's not just

00:14:57.320 Jason Kenney, though. He's quite

00:14:59.080 regular for that. But these events

00:15:01.420 never start on time. They never start. It's

00:15:03.320 frustrating. But hopefully

00:15:05.620 this gets rolling fairly soon because it is only

00:15:07.520 an hour and a half event. I don't imagine they're going to want to go

00:15:09.500 over time. You've got to try and keep these things

00:15:11.580 uh, on schedule, they imagine there's better stuff to do in Ottawa on a, any night of the

00:15:18.180 week, uh, than sit in there and listen.

00:15:20.220 Yeah.

00:15:20.580 Well, and with a five out of six candidates, it's, it's a lot to cover.

00:15:24.060 I mean, getting back to Brown, I, again, I'm still stumped with that.

00:15:27.040 You know, uh, what are you doing?

00:15:29.860 I, we've seen even David Aiken complaining, you know, it's not even just alternative media

00:15:33.140 outlets like us that he's, he's cause we've asked for interviews.

00:15:35.860 We've asked for time.

00:15:36.600 We got nothing, nothing.

00:15:37.560 he's doing it to the mainstream media as well. He's not showing up for this debate. They're

00:15:43.500 saying that he needs to get more memberships sold to reach the bar of entry. Well, if he managed to

00:15:47.760 raise the 300,000, you'd think you'd get the memberships.

00:15:50.220 Well, that ship's already sailed, hasn't it? Well, that deadline has been passed.

00:15:54.520 I don't know. That's just what they're saying. Or perhaps they're saying he's got to get more,

00:15:58.020 just saying he had to get out and sell memberships. But I think if you've got a team,

00:16:01.320 you've got people to go banging on those doors, selling memberships, you should be up on the

00:16:04.740 stage reaching out to what better way to sell memberships and present yourself and your ideas.

00:16:09.600 Yeah. I just don't get this. Campaign co-chair is Calgary MP, Michelle Rempel Gardner. She

00:16:15.380 should know better than this. Corey, she's a veteran politician. Uh, I wonder if she's behind 0.88

00:16:22.100 this. I, you know, I kind of doubt it. And some of the questions start coming too. Well, why is he

00:16:26.800 even in this race? Why is he there? Um, there's some of the, the talk might come about a stalking 0.99

00:16:32.820 horse candidate. And yeah, we've seen that, you know, in Alberta unfold badly. There's nothing

00:16:38.200 illegal or wrong about that. That happens in a lot of races, actually, where sometimes you get

00:16:42.620 a large crowd, particularly the old days of delegates, and people would go back and forth

00:16:46.600 across the floor. But you'd kind of throw a spoiler candidate in there to split some votes.

00:16:51.160 And I imagine, for example, looks like we might have things rolling here.

00:16:54.160 Has been waiting for, let's meet the candidates in tonight's debate. So we have done a random draw

00:16:59.560 with the campaigns to determine the order in which the candidates will appear on stage tonight.

00:17:06.360 I will announce the candidates in that order.

00:17:10.220 So first up, we have Independent Member of the Provincial Parliament in Ontario, Mr. Rowan Bader.

00:17:16.100 Next up, we have the former Premier of Quebec, Mr. Jean Charest.

00:17:41.100 Next up, we have Member of Parliament, Mr. Pierre Polyev.

00:17:46.100 Next, we have Member of Parliament, Mr. Scott Acheson.

00:18:09.420 And last, but certainly not least, Member of Parliament, Dr. Leslyn Lewis.

00:18:16.100 so thank you very much to all of the candidates for being here we really appreciate it and i'll

00:18:33.460 just make a note to the audience that the candidates know very little about what is

00:18:37.700 in store for them tonight neither the themes nor the questions were shared with any of the campaigns

00:18:43.460 prior only the format was shared and with that let's get started with opening statements

00:18:51.220 we're going to start with you mr babber 45 seconds thank you i'm roman babber i came to

00:18:57.140 canada when i was 15 and we didn't have a cent to our name but i always had canadian opportunity and

00:19:02.260 i had every blessing this country has to offer because all you need to do to succeed in canada

00:19:07.060 is work hard and be nice to people i worked in the private sector for 12 years joined and grew

00:19:11.940 in small business and was elected by the community that welcomed me as a new canadian 20 years

00:19:16.500 earlier about a year and a half ago i wasn't going to have it anymore and i made a choice

00:19:20.820 i wasn't going to continue to inflict collateral harm on canadians with lockdowns i opposed my

00:19:25.700 government and was removed from the ontario pc caucus i went on to fight for our kids for our

00:19:30.900 choice for our democracy standing up for people is something i've done my entire career because

00:19:35.700 i'm not afraid to say what i believe or to stand up for what's right i'm not your typical politician

00:19:41.460 i don't even like politics but i love my country and i love canadians and i'm not going to sit

00:19:46.740 back and watch the erosion of canada's democracy and canada's opportunity thank you so much for

00:19:51.780 hosting me tonight thank you mr babber uh mr shere it's uh 45 seconds thank you very much and

00:20:04.180 thank you for hosting us tonight and i hope this will be an opportunity for us to exchange ideas

00:20:09.780 And if I'm in this race, you'll know that if there's a common theme throughout my whole life, it has been the idea of Canada.

00:20:17.780 And I have fought at every moment to preserve the unity of this country, whether it's the referendum in Quebec or when I was Premier of Quebec.

00:20:26.780 I look at the country today and I see a country that's way below its potential and badly divided, whether it's separatism in Quebec or Western alienation.

00:20:36.780 We cannot take our country for granted.

00:20:41.240 And the answer is the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:20:44.440 We are the national alternative.

00:20:46.600 We have to live up to that responsibility,

00:20:50.380 to the call of Canadians to be the national conservative alternative

00:20:55.920 to the Liberal government of Mr. Trudeau.

00:20:58.520 And that's why I'm running, to unite the party,

00:21:01.260 so that the party will speak with one voice and one vision.

00:21:05.620 And if you're tired of losing campaigns, as we did in 15 and 19 and 21, if you've had enough of handing over power to Trudeau, well, then you will want a leader that's going to unite the party and elect a national conservative government.

00:21:30.800 Thank you, Mr. Sherey. Mr. Paulyov.

00:21:33.900 Canadians believe they've lost control of their lives.

00:21:37.060 Big, bossy government has taken their money and told them what to do, leaving the country desperate and divided.

00:21:45.480 I'm running for Prime Minister to give you back control of your life by making Canada the freest nation on Earth.

00:21:54.820 Freedom means you should be free to choose your own medical decisions, free from vaccine mandates imposed on you by the state.

00:22:03.340 Freedom means you control your own money, free from government-induced inflation that

00:22:09.660 has made housing, food, and gas unaffordable.

00:22:14.160 Freedom means expressing yourself without fear and freedom of the press by defunding

00:22:19.380 the CBC and giving every Canadian the liberty to speak without fear.

00:22:24.380 I'm running to put you back in charge of your life by making Canada the freest nation on

00:22:29.360 earth and that is exactly what I will do thank you Mr. Polyev Mr. Atchison thank you this is

00:22:44.320 our first gathering since the pandemic began of course our world has changed quite a bit

00:22:49.360 has our movement met the challenges of our times while many in this room have put a lot of effort

00:22:53.840 into various causes over the past few years has it created an impact these are questions

00:22:59.280 I'll ask my cabinet to reflect on as we govern accountability within our movement will make us

00:23:04.800 better our values and our principles are timeless communities families free speech freedom of

00:23:12.560 religion fiscal responsibility acting on these principles and debating with respect are the

00:23:19.680 recipe for our movement's success our politics are increasingly divided we have stopped respecting

00:23:26.480 those we disagree with. As Conservatives we must take inspiration from our principles

00:23:32.800 and apply them to the challenges of today to make the future better for all Canadians. Thank you.

00:23:45.280 Thank you Mr. Richardson. Dr. Lewis. The fabric of our nation is being torn apart by

00:23:51.040 cancel culture and wokeism provinces are threatening to leave our great confederation 0.98

00:23:57.040 debt is piling up to the tune of 1.2 trillion dollars national unity is at an all-time low

00:24:04.880 and many people are traumatized by covid lockdowns and government mandates i am running to be a

00:24:12.160 bridge builder to unite the party and to unite this country i am running to make sure that

00:24:19.200 business owners will have the confidence to take chances again. We will develop our natural

00:24:25.120 resources while protecting the environment. We will respect freedoms and uphold our charter of

00:24:31.680 rights. I am running to make Canada the freest and most prosperous country in the world.

00:24:38.000 thank you very much for those statements we're now going to move to our first question so in

00:24:51.920 this round all of the candidates will be asked the same question one by one each candidate will

00:24:57.920 have one minute to respond without interruption if during their response the candidate personally

00:25:05.300 mentions another candidate by name that named candidate will have a brief 15 seconds for a

00:25:11.780 very brief rebuttal at the end of their time when all of the candidates are finished their questions

00:25:17.940 if time allows we will also have some additional debate and rebuttals so here's a question and

00:25:24.020 first it will go to you mr hsn the conservative party of canada has lost the last three elections

00:25:30.660 in particular the party lost in 2021 despite being ahead in the polls in your view why did

00:25:37.140 Erin O'Toole lose why have the conservatives lost the last three elections and what will

00:25:42.100 you do to achieve a better strategy well consistency of our message is absolutely crucial

00:25:49.540 we need to put together a principled conservative platform that resonates with all Canadians in all

00:25:57.460 parts of the country and then we need to be consistent with that that is the kind of leadership

00:26:02.180 that i will bring and it's the kind of leadership we need one that respects all views in our party

00:26:06.900 one that respects all people there's lots of different perspectives we have to work together

00:26:11.220 as a team and until we can work together as a team canadians are not going to trust us

00:26:16.180 we have to work together thank you very much next the same question goes to you mr shere

00:26:22.580 well thank you very much candace and that's a key question for us as we look out i mean

00:26:28.660 look at where we are in the country today out of 53 seats in the gta we have four seats we

00:26:36.260 have no seats in the lower mainland no seats on the island of montreal there are 32 block mps

00:26:43.220 in quebec and that begs the question why is it that we're not successful can we actually form

00:26:50.580 government if we're not successful in that part of the country of course not we need to be able to

00:26:57.860 unite the party but also run on the conservative values we believe in fiscal conservatism a market

00:27:04.260 based economy economic policies that promote economic growth and that includes oil gas mining

00:27:11.220 pipelines we need to run on the principle of protecting the family families we need to also

00:27:18.900 respect the rule of law which is fundamental to any given society and practice of federalism

00:27:26.420 that includes all of the country that is the calling of the conservative party of canada

00:27:31.460 and the job of the next leader is to make that happen thank you mr shray we'll put the same 0.51

00:27:36.980 question to you dr lewis we need to return to our conservative principles families are the corner

00:27:43.780 stone of our society and parents should have a right to raise their children in accordance with

00:27:49.460 their values we need to uphold our fundamental freedoms freedom of religion freedom of expression

00:27:55.460 freedom of conscience and those who we elect should serve and respect our fundamental freedoms

00:28:02.740 we need to ensure that we do not invoke laws like the emergencies act and undermine the foundations

00:28:11.460 of our democracy we need to oppose things like digital currency and digital id we need to

00:28:16.740 protect our national sovereignty we need to be compassionate for our vulnerable our seniors the

00:28:22.820 disabled refugees and we need to be good stewards of our natural resources we also need to invoke 0.97

00:28:30.180 fiscal responsibility and ensure that we do not saddle future generations with debt

00:28:35.780 Thank you so much, Dr. Lewis. We'll pose the same question to you. Mr. Baber, why do the

00:28:44.040 Conservatives keep losing? Thank you. Look, I think we have to be clear about who we are and what we

00:28:50.660 stand for. We lost the last two elections because many Canadians weren't sure where we stand.

00:28:55.660 We should not be running to the right during leadership and running to the left during the

00:29:00.640 general, we should not be afraid of the media or the left-wing Twitter mob. We don't need to play

00:29:06.720 the game. We need to do right by Canadians, and that includes knowing where we stand. That

00:29:12.780 differentiates us from the Liberal Party. Also, in the last election, we failed to stand up for

00:29:17.380 many Canadians. Many Canadians felt that the Conservative Party did not stand up for them

00:29:21.460 against lockdowns, against passports, against mandates, and they went and they voted elsewhere

00:29:26.020 didn't vote at all i'm uniquely positioned to speak to those voters and invite them to come back

00:29:31.380 and reassure them that the conservative party will stand on principle and will always defend

00:29:36.820 canadians and finally we need to welcome diversity of opinion within our party that is the true blue

00:29:44.260 white tent when we're respectful of one another's opinion we can disagree with each other but we can

00:29:49.620 united at a time of election and win the next election thank you mr leather finally to you

00:29:57.060 mr polio well i'm undefeated in seven consecutive elections in a big ontario multicultural city

00:30:06.980 that's because i don't try to go through the liberal media to get my message out i go around

00:30:11.780 them i deliver my message to millions of people through social media that we're seeing in the

00:30:17.780 tens of thousands who've been coming out to my rallies, people who have never voted conservative

00:30:22.660 before in their lives. Secondly, I win because I campaign on our strengths. And our biggest

00:30:28.460 strength right now is that we are the low-tax, low-inflation party that will make your dollar

00:30:32.380 go far enough to buy a home, afford groceries, and fuel up your car. That's why it's important

00:30:39.000 that we have a leader with an impeccable track record on taxes and the cost of living. We can't

00:30:44.160 elect someone who has a record of raising taxes. I've been cutting taxes, fighting inflation and

00:30:49.900 making the empowering the working class my entire life. And we'll win an election with that message.

00:30:54.620 Thank you. All right. Well, let's move on to some personalized. Do we not have time for rebuttal?

00:31:10.020 Oh, well, none of you mentioned each other.

00:31:12.780 If you'd like to mix it up, let's go.

00:31:17.100 You want to go?

00:31:18.140 Go ahead.

00:31:19.360 Otherwise, I want to say something about the last campaign that we need to all be conscious of.

00:31:26.960 Our candidates who ran in the GTA when knocking on doors were confronted again in 2021 with this idea that was put forward in 2015 about a barbaric telephone tip line.

00:31:43.580 And the message it sent to them, remind, we have four seats out of 53.

00:31:48.340 The message it sent to new Canadians is you are not welcome in the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:31:53.560 The result and the outcome speaks for itself.

00:31:57.860 One thing that we have to be clear on in the next campaign and the next leader

00:32:01.580 is that we welcome new Canadians.

00:32:04.880 They are part of the family.

00:32:06.660 They are welcome and they are Canadians, period.

00:32:09.860 But those who are part of that campaign and propose this idea need to account for that.

00:32:14.900 Thank you, Mr. Sherey, for saying that as someone who immigrated when I was five years old,

00:32:19.820 I am in the best position to relate to new Canadians.

00:32:23.820 I know what it's like, what they have gone through.

00:32:26.820 I know what it's like to stand in a grocery line and not know if my debit card is going to go through for my groceries.

00:32:32.820 I know what it's like to struggle to get through school and to have a heavy student loan debt.

00:32:38.820 I am in the best position to welcome new Canadians in our party.

00:32:49.820 I think that in 2020, Canadians were not concerned about the barbaric snitch line.

00:32:55.000 What they were concerned about is the snitch line on your neighbor if they had a friend over,

00:32:59.760 or a snitch line about a church if they wanted to congregate. 0.83

00:33:04.040 That is un-Canadian.

00:33:05.340 I come from the former Soviet Union.

00:33:07.240 I know what democracy is all about, and I know how precious our democracy is.

00:33:12.580 And the fact that the conservative movement failed to stand up for democracy

00:33:15.700 is something that is going to remain with us for a generation.

00:33:19.200 and I'm uniquely positioned to speak on these issues credibly,

00:33:23.100 I am committed to restoring Canada's democracy.

00:33:29.580 Let's go to some of the sitting MPs on that.

00:33:31.580 What did you take from that accusation

00:33:33.040 that the Conservative Party didn't stand up for freedom during the pandemic?

00:33:37.060 Pierre?

00:33:37.660 Well, I did stand up for freedom during the pandemic.

00:33:40.460 From the very beginning, I was among the loudest voices.

00:33:43.760 You were not one of the loudest voices, Mr. Follier.

00:33:46.660 You were not one of the loudest voices.

00:33:48.100 In fact, you did not speak up until it was convenient for you to speak up.

00:33:51.520 Actually, that is not true, Madam Lewis.

00:33:52.760 You did not even go to the trucker protest.

00:33:56.300 You actually went and you took a picture in your neighbourhood at a local stop.

00:34:01.380 You did not speak up for the truckers and you did not speak up the loudest, Mr. Pollyeth.

00:34:06.900 First of all, I did go to the trucker protest, both on Parliament Hill and in my community.

00:34:11.880 You took a picture up front.

00:34:12.520 I was there at the trucker protest.

00:34:15.720 I was on the street.

00:34:16.760 I was supporting those who were fighting for their freedoms.

00:34:20.720 And I did. In fact, I did it if I could.

00:34:24.340 If I could. In fact, I opposed the vaccine mandates as soon as they were announced.

00:34:30.460 I am on public record doing it.

00:34:32.460 I campaigned against the vaccine mandates throughout the entire election campaign.

00:34:36.840 I never once wavered from that position.

00:34:39.000 I also joined with several other Conservatives to lead the charge against the censorship bill, C10,

00:34:44.480 which we helped stop in the last parliament and which I will stop in this parliament and we will

00:34:49.220 fight tooth and nail to put a permanent end to vaccine mandates and other oppressive actions

00:34:55.520 by the government that take away people's medical freedoms. Thank you.

00:35:03.640 And Mr. Echeson, we'll just give you a brief opportunity to respond as well.

00:35:07.500 I guess what I want to say here is that, you know, this whole situation with the vaccine

00:35:11.540 mandates the truck is convite never should have happened in the first place leadership would have

00:35:14.940 engaged people it should never have happened in the first place and the fact of the matter is this

00:35:18.900 justin trudeau used vaccines and vaccine status to divide canadians in a corrosive disgusting

00:35:26.180 political display to win votes and what we cannot do what we cannot do as a party is continue with

00:35:33.840 the divisive polarizing rhetoric that justin trudeau has been using for seven years it's

00:35:38.280 disgusting. It's ripping our country apart. It's why I'm running, because we need to show some

00:35:42.300 respect to each other before Canadians will trust us. Thank you. We're going to move on to round

00:35:50.740 two, but there will be plenty of time for future rebuttals, I promise you. So round two, we're

00:35:56.340 going to ask each of you a personalized, direct question based on your record, based on your

00:36:01.020 public service up to this point. Each of you have 90 seconds to answer this question. And then after

00:36:07.020 each of you has answered we will give you additional time for rebuttal i'm going to begin

00:36:11.500 with you mr polyev and i want to start with the trucker convoy something we've already been

00:36:16.860 discussing you've been criticized for your support for the trucker convoy one of your fellow candidates

00:36:22.460 has even said you should be disqualified for leadership of the party based on your engagement

00:36:27.660 with the convoy as we all know public opinion on the trucker convoy is sharply divided the trudeau

00:36:33.740 government and the mainstream media have gone to great lengths to vilify the truckers and back in

00:36:39.180 february you said that you were quote proud of them that's right has your opinion on the trucker

00:36:44.780 convoy changed since and is your support of the truckers a liability moving forward no and no

00:36:52.940 my position has not changed i said at the very outset before they even arrived that i

00:36:57.900 simultaneously stood with the law-abiding and peaceful truckers who are fighting for their

00:37:01.660 livelihoods and liberties while condemning any individual who breaks the law blocks critical

00:37:09.100 infrastructure behaves badly that is the position i took then it's the position i take now now mr

00:37:15.020 shere learned about the trucker convoy on cbc like other liberals and he misrepresented them

00:37:23.900 he believes that i should be censored he believes i should be cancelled from this leadership race

00:37:28.460 and disqualified in his words because i don't share his liberal viewpoint that is the kind of

00:37:33.660 cancel culture and censorship you would expect from justin trudeau but instead we're getting

00:37:38.380 it from this liberal on this stage and frankly mr chariot for you to talk about law and order

00:37:46.540 is a little bit rich given that your party your liberal party took a half million dollars of

00:37:51.180 illegal donations when you were the head of that party the average trucker has more integrity in

00:37:57.420 in his pinky finger than you had in your entire scandal-plagued Liberal cabinet.

00:38:08.220 So I do stand up for the freedoms of Canadians and I acknowledge that the working class has been 0.97

00:38:14.220 demolished in this country over the last couple of years. We don't need elites who've been able to 1.00

00:38:19.260 rely on special contracts with Huawei to look down on them and call them criminals. Instead,

00:38:25.580 we need to stand up for the people who are struggling and give them hope for the future

00:38:29.180 and that's what i will do thank you mr khaliev and there will be an opportunity for rebuttals

00:38:38.060 at the end of this round so we're going to move on to dr lewis your question dr lewis you're

00:38:43.740 probably pro-life and you have proudly shared your social conservative views with canadians

00:38:48.780 however as we saw in the 2019 election the legacy media demonized leader andrew sheer

00:38:54.860 for his Christian views and beliefs.

00:38:57.560 In a matter of days, the media changed the narrative

00:39:00.100 to be entirely about abortion and gay marriage.

00:39:03.940 So if you were leader of the party,

00:39:05.360 how would you handle this issue?

00:39:07.040 And what do you say to the large number of conservatives

00:39:09.980 and Canadians who simply don't want

00:39:12.020 to have a debate about abortion?

00:39:14.780 I think it's very important

00:39:16.420 that in a free and democratic society,

00:39:18.520 we are free to debate any issue.

00:39:21.260 And I tell people, I am pro-life.

00:39:24.160 Many of my friends are pro-choice, and we have healthy discussions about the future.

00:39:30.120 And there is so much that we agree on, and we need to come together as a society to determine

00:39:37.240 that we can work out things, even controversial things like abortion.

00:39:42.120 I still don't know where these gentlemen stand on this issue.

00:39:47.180 I don't know whether they're pro-life or pro-choice, and the media will hound them.

00:39:52.140 For example, Mr. Pierre Polyev has ran from the media the last few days because he doesn't want to declare whether he's pro-life or pro-choice.

00:40:01.460 As a leader, he is going to have to declare that.

00:40:05.900 He cannot just be a minister of finance if he wants to be a prime minister.

00:40:10.920 He is going to have to deal with social conservative issues, which he has been running from, for this entire campaign.

00:40:22.140 Our next question is for you, Mr. Bavar.

00:40:26.680 You emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of COVID-19 pandemic management policies,

00:40:32.060 including lockdowns and vaccine mandates.

00:40:34.820 Your positions led you to being removed from the Ontario Progressive Conservative Caucus.

00:40:40.060 What do you say to Canadians who might be worried about how you would handle a future pandemic

00:40:44.920 and whether you would be able to make the difficult decisions needed to save lives?

00:40:49.640 Absolutely, because that will entertain an opinion.

00:40:52.140 something that was sorely missing

00:40:53.960 from our handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

00:40:56.520 Look, I stood up for millions of Canadians

00:40:58.980 who didn't have a voice

00:41:00.360 because I believe that I serve my constituents.

00:41:02.960 I don't serve the boss or the party leader.

00:41:06.320 I serve Canadians who felt that

00:41:10.000 the political class failed them,

00:41:12.120 that failed to defend them against lockdowns,

00:41:15.000 against the mental health pandemic,

00:41:16.660 against their surgeries being canceled,

00:41:18.920 against their cancer screenings missed,

00:41:21.500 to defend their children that develop depression or eating disorders i will put my record against

00:41:27.900 anyone but i want to come back to something i've heard here because i can just imagine

00:41:31.820 myself right now in the audience and i'm listening to this and we have one candidate accusing another

00:41:36.540 of not being with a convoy and the other one would be with a convoy here again we politicize

00:41:40.700 the issue instead of talking about the underlying issue which is making people do something against

00:41:45.820 their will which is forcing someone to make a decision between their ability to put food on

00:41:50.780 the table and their personal health care choice can we not speak about the underlying issue and

00:41:55.580 here's another thing i think canadians are are counting on us to do better i have respect for

00:42:00.860 every single candidate on the stage i like everyone even john who can't get my name right but

00:42:07.660 but but i think that every single one of you would make a better prime minister than justin

00:42:12.300 Trudeau that's for sure and second of all we have to remember what we're up

00:42:21.060 against we can't have a situation where any of us are so irreparably harmed we

00:42:25.740 cannot go out there and contest the general election so I invite us to to

00:42:30.320 focus on the issues let's think about Canadians again it's something that

00:42:34.240 Canadians sorely want us to do. Thank you.

00:42:39.240 Thank you, Mr. Babber. Next to you, Mr. Charest. You led a liberal government in Quebec, and

00:42:46.240 your record as premier includes raising taxes and introducing a cap-and-trade program. Many

00:42:51.520 Conservatives don't connect with you, and frankly, some are wondering why you're running

00:42:55.420 for leader of this party. So I'm wondering if you can set the record straight. Are you

00:43:00.160 a conservative thank you very much and and roman thank you for your comments and and leslin i have

00:43:07.760 a deep respect for the position that you hold on the issue of abortion i want to say a word about

00:43:13.520 social conservatives tonight because we may not agree on all issues but who are the people who

00:43:19.920 call themselves social conservatives and i'm not a hyphenated conservative but who are they

00:43:25.120 if not people who have a faith-based life believe in their families and their communities sounds

00:43:32.400 like pretty good people to me and they are part of our family and they will always be part of

00:43:37.600 our family and they need to be respected now in this room tonight is preston manning who called

00:43:44.880 before this debate that we act respectfully in the view of uniting the party after the leadership race

00:43:52.320 well so much for that pierre in this race in this race i stand with a record as a conservative all

00:44:01.120 my life i'll give you an example candace i believe in fiscal conservatism the liberal government

00:44:06.880 that succeeded me mr kuya that followed left an eight billion dollar surplus after 15 years

00:44:12.960 to mr legault eight billion dollars you're not going to see that in your lifetime again

00:44:17.680 a higher credit rating in quebec than ontario we reduced taxes in fact i reduced taxes in 2007

00:44:26.240 8 income taxes for middle class lower income quebecers which actually allowed quebec to do

00:44:32.480 better than canada the united states or europe or ontario during the great recession the credit

00:44:38.320 rating agency says one of the key decisions for us having a better performance more jobs more

00:44:44.240 More economic growth was the fact that I reduced taxes, which was opposed by this person here, Pierre Pellier.

00:44:50.300 He was opposed to it back then.

00:44:52.440 So enough of the hypocrisy.

00:44:54.980 And on the Hill, I agree with Scott.

00:44:57.920 This mess that we've witnessed is the fault of Mr. Trudeau.

00:45:00.920 But Mr. Pellier, during that period, supported an illegal blockade.

00:45:06.360 You cannot make laws and break laws and then say I will make laws for other people.

00:45:12.060 I'm sorry, but that is a question of basic foundation.

00:45:16.360 No, thank you, thank you, thank you.

00:45:18.540 You're out of time, sir.

00:45:19.540 Thank you.

00:45:20.840 All right, there will be time for rebuttal.

00:45:23.000 Everyone will be given a chance to rebut what has been said about them.

00:45:26.880 But before we get to rebuttal, we do have a question for Mr. Aitchison.

00:45:30.420 So the previous Conservative Party leader, Mr. Aaron O'Toole,

00:45:34.680 ran for Prime Minister as a quintessential Ontario moderate.

00:45:39.620 we were promised by the ivory tower commentariat that that approach would win seats in the toronto

00:45:45.460 area it did not work why would should we believe that a conservative party led by you would bear

00:45:52.500 different fruit well listen it comes down to this we need to be consistent in our message and it

00:45:58.180 needs to be a conservative message and we need to work together we were divided and and our message

00:46:04.180 was not consistent in that election and mr trudeau effectively used vaccines as a tool to divide

00:46:12.500 canadians and so if we can't if we can't go out and speak to canadians in all parts of the country

00:46:19.700 and make sure that we are trustworthy that we don't scare them every time i hear a conservative

00:46:25.380 talk about some conspiracy theory i realize that there's another group of swing voters in the gta

00:46:30.340 that just are not going to come our way because all we do is yell and scream at each other.

00:46:36.900 We're witnessing it now. I actually like all these people on this table. They're on this

00:46:40.820 dais as well. They're good folks and here we are calling each other names.

00:46:46.980 What Canadian is going to trust this lot? We've got to do better and that's how we win elections.

00:46:52.660 thank you so much mr hsn so we're now going to move on to rebuttals every candidate will have

00:47:01.700 an opportunity at first you'll get 30 seconds each to directly refute a statement made to any

00:47:08.500 candidate of your choosing and afterwards we'll move to an open debate so we will start with you

00:47:13.620 mr poly of you have 30 seconds well in addition to once again repeating a bunch of trudeau rhetoric

00:47:20.420 on our hard-working truckers. Mr. Charest misrepresents his track record on taxes. He

00:47:26.020 raised the sales tax twice. I voted to cut them twice, Mr. Charest. He voted to raise the fuel tax

00:47:32.500 and that was on top of the consumer carbon tax he brought in. He brought in a health tax. He

00:47:37.860 increased spending so much in Quebec that the government as a share of the economy grew by 25

00:47:44.580 percent and he left a one billion dollar deficit and the biggest debt of any provincial government

00:47:50.740 in canada that is not the record of a fiscal conservative i fought for lower taxes and balanced

00:47:57.220 budgets and making life more affordable and that is how we're going to win the election in the

00:48:01.700 suburbs by giving people their purchasing power back something that i can do because i have a

00:48:06.180 strong track record of fighting for it my entire life thank you next dr lewis you have 30 seconds

00:48:16.660 well i just want to add to what um mr polyev said that mr shere did raise taxes and so i think it's

00:48:24.100 unfair for him to single out mr polyev i also want to speak to what mr etchison said when you

00:48:31.380 speak about conspiracy theories there were a lot of quote-unquote conspiracy theories that came

00:48:37.140 through and actually the liberals actually used that to divide us so i'm really surprised that

00:48:42.500 you're here saying that we should unite while you're labeling your fellow conservatives as

00:48:49.300 conspiracy theorists thank you dr lewis next chance for rebuttal is over to you mr mr babber

00:48:58.020 thank you uh i would echo something that dr lewis just said i mean i like scott a lot but

00:49:04.020 a lot of concerns that canadians had over the last year to two years have actually come through we

00:49:09.140 still have between 15 and 20 percent of canadians that cannot board a plane or a train they're

00:49:14.020 landlocked in their own country how anyone can believe that that this is allowable in our country

00:49:19.540 is beyond me we have

00:49:24.740 canadians are witnessing the continuous erosion of our democracy and we should be mindful of

00:49:30.340 this conversation instead of mocking them like the prime minister does thank you mr babber

00:49:38.260 next we'll go over to you mr aitchison well thank you i uh i just want to quickly point out that uh

00:49:44.100 i didn't label anybody a conspiracy theorist up here but you listen you seem to take the mantle

00:49:48.660 so i'll leave that there i don't know why you did um and i'll say that i'll say to roman you know

00:49:55.300 this party in the federal parliament has been fighting vaccine mandates we've been fighting the

00:50:00.340 ridiculous rules around travel melissa lanceman sitting in the audience here has been an amazing

00:50:04.820 member of parliament fighting this every step of the way and she does it with respect she does it

00:50:11.140 with respect she's effective and she eviscerates the liberals every day and she does it with grace

00:50:16.900 and style. We can do that. We can do it. Melissa Lance was the example. Thank you, Mr. Aitchison, 0.92

00:50:22.100 and final rebuttal is to you, Mr. Charest. Thank you very much, Candice. Can I take a moment to

00:50:27.940 lay to rest this accusation of being a liberal? No, no, but please bear with me. Bear with me.

00:50:38.900 I fought the 95 referendum and I'm in this race because I believe in the unity of the country.

00:50:43.860 I think Western alienation has lasted long enough and what I see there I've seen in Quebec and I

00:50:49.540 ran in 95 I fought in the referendum and I went to lead a coalition in Quebec of federalists when

00:50:56.180 there was no Conservative Party of Quebec ladies and gentlemen as is the case in British Columbia

00:51:02.420 and you know what I was successful we pushed back on that referendum and Canada stayed united

00:51:08.980 And believe me, if I was able to fight back to separate this, it's not this guy here on the stage tonight that's going to intimidate me and stop me from defending Canada.

00:51:19.880 That's for sure. That will never happen. Count on it.

00:51:24.280 And so, and yes, and during the period of the Great Recession, we did reduce income taxes, and Quebec's economy did better than the rest of the country and better than much of the world.

00:51:34.600 Why? Because that was the Conservative thing to do, and we were successful in doing it.

00:51:40.640 So, Pierre, please, stop lying.

00:51:43.600 I'd like to respond to something.

00:51:45.600 We'll now do three minutes of open debate, and I'm going to start with Mr. Polyev to respond to what was just said,

00:51:51.600 and then we'll do three minutes of open debate.

00:51:53.600 I do want to respond to you.

00:51:55.600 I do want to respond to you. Look, it's your record that was Liberal, you know.

00:52:00.600 You governed like a Liberal.

00:52:01.600 liberal when you raise the sales tax not once but twice then you bring bring in a fuel tax

00:52:07.680 and then you decide that gas prices are still not high enough and you pile on a carbon tax and then

00:52:13.280 you raise income tax in the form of something you called a health tax that is not conservative no

00:52:19.600 matter what you call it it's not your name as a party that was liberal it was your track record

00:52:25.600 of more debt higher taxes and more expensive government that was liberal mr shere you can

00:52:32.880 try to run from your record all you want but the reality is that's what you did when you were there

00:52:38.640 and it is not just your record on fiscal conservatism issues you blocked shale gas

00:52:43.200 development now you claim you've changed your mind you brought in you brought in a long gun

00:52:48.080 registry after we got rid of it going after farmers and hunters instead of inner city

00:52:54.000 criminals. I could go down the list of all the liberal policies that you brought in that you're

00:52:58.480 trying to hide from today, but we don't have enough time to go through them all. I am a true

00:53:03.380 conservative. I've stood for the same things my entire life. I'm not just putting on temporarily

00:53:08.580 a blue shirt to cover up a red shirt underneath it in order to take over the party. Thank you,

00:53:13.860 Mr. Polyev. Let's go to you, Mr. Shrey. No, we don't have to go down a long list. Why did you

00:53:20.780 oppose the fact that I reduced income taxes and yes you were part of a government that opposed

00:53:27.500 you can't rewrite history Pierre you can't rewrite the facts to fit your rhetoric you were in the

00:53:34.760 house you were part of the government that opposed the fact that I reduced income taxes yes or no

00:53:40.780 no I did not I was not I never commented on your income fine frankly Mr. Charest you didn't cut

00:53:46.500 income tax, so there was no income tax cut to oppose. You raised taxes, you raised consumption

00:53:51.800 taxes, you raised health taxes, you raised every tax, and you canceled out any minuscule reductions

00:53:57.580 that would otherwise have been realized. And furthermore, if you can't get that right,

00:54:03.840 how can you get the rest light? He reduced income taxes, and the credit rating agencies

00:54:09.160 actually said that that's what allowed Quebecers to come through the Great Recession much better

00:54:14.560 than anyone else. If you're ready to misrepresent those facts, what other facts are you doing?

00:54:20.040 You left Quebec, the most indebted province in all of Canada. That is your record on finance.

00:54:26.520 You raised the sales tax. No one will trust you in an election on inflation because you raised

00:54:31.140 inflation when you raised the sales tax. I cut the GST. That's what the Harper government did.

00:54:36.940 And if you take a minute to stop attacking the Harper government, which is the party that all

00:54:41.280 us are supposed to be part of then maybe you would recognize all the good that that man did for this

00:54:45.760 country we'll now move to dr lewis for a quick rebuttal please i'd like to i'd like to respectfully

00:54:55.520 say to my friend that i was not specifically speaking about anyone in our party when i

00:55:01.200 referenced conspiracy theories my concern is that we continue to run from tough issues because we

00:55:08.880 We do not want to be labelled conspiracy theorists.

00:55:11.960 And then months later, these realities manifest itself.

00:55:16.040 That is my point.

00:55:17.040 As Conservatives, we need to be strong, stand up to the Liberals, argue tough issues, and

00:55:22.940 not be afraid of being labelled like you tried to label me, Mr. Aikishin.

00:55:27.500 No, no, I still have—

00:55:33.500 We're going to have to—

00:55:34.500 I still have rebuttal.

00:55:35.500 I didn't get rebuttal.

00:55:36.500 have we're gonna have future rebuttal opportunities but we've got to move on for the sake of time

00:55:40.660 this is not the duckford caucus

00:55:43.300 come on jamil

00:55:47.180 all right all right here's what i'm gonna say excuse me no no no no hey hey hey chill bro

00:55:55.360 all right so we're gonna uh ask a common question to all five of you and give you an equal amount

00:56:02.200 of time to respond um in this round uh you will go one by one with 45 seconds and then afterward

00:56:09.400 we will give you a chance for rebuttal there'll be an open rebuttal where mr babber and everyone

00:56:13.880 else can rebut as much as they would like well not mr babber so uh candace do you want to start

00:56:19.320 yeah sure the first question will go to you mr babber so in the world of journalism we're always

00:56:24.280 told to follow the money but in canadian journalism the money trail leads us right back to the federal

00:56:30.280 government the overwhelming majority of journalists in this country are either subsidized or funded

00:56:35.560 by the government and now the trudeau government wants to start censoring and regulating the

00:56:40.520 internet do you think it's appropriate for politicians to fund and regulate the journalists

00:56:46.680 whose job it is to hold them accountable of course not and and candace cbc news is no longer news

00:56:54.040 it's a communications arm for justin trudeau how can media objectively cover the government

00:57:01.560 when the government signs their paycheck it's utterly impossible you know i was born in the

00:57:06.360 soviet union there was a newspaper called pravda and pravda means true and i see no difference

00:57:12.840 between what we're seeing in state-run funding so here's what i'm going to do i'm going to defund

00:57:18.360 the cbc i'm going to end all subsidies and bailouts but i'm going to go a step further

00:57:24.600 i'm going to add i'm going to end the advertising relationship that government has with media we've

00:57:30.920 seen unprecedented media buys by government in last couple years many of them are self-serving

00:57:36.920 so there should be no more self-serving advertising on the taxpayer dollar there's no democracy

00:57:42.520 without independent media and i'm committed to restoring canada's democracy

00:57:50.280 thank you mr bobber next we'll go to you mr shere well roman has put his finger on something

00:57:56.040 that is going to be very important as we come out of the code and that's to do a very thorough audit

00:58:02.440 of all the government spending on publicity on how it was spent where it was spent who it went to

00:58:09.000 and what was the use i think that canadians need to know where their money went in regards to all

00:58:15.480 that advertising not just in the context of covid but also all government advertising and that would

00:58:22.360 be something that would be i think extremely important as we look ahead on how we deal with

00:58:27.240 advertising and the media thank you mr shray next to you mr polyev i would defund the cbc

00:58:39.000 i would be so i would defund the cbc to save over a billion dollars

00:58:43.320 and i would repeal the internet censorship bill c11 that bill yes

00:58:50.920 that bill came forward as c10 in the last parliament i was the first mp to sound the

00:58:55.000 alarm bell over that bill and i joined with other mps like rachel thomas in order to stop it from

00:59:02.120 passing before the election was called not only will i get rid of that but i if they do decide

00:59:07.160 to go ahead with this digital safety commissioner who will have the power to take down what you

00:59:11.480 post online remove websites that it considers hostile to the government i will fire that

00:59:17.480 digital safety commissioner and i will uphold and restore freedom of expression in this country

00:59:25.000 Next to you, Mr. Aitchison.

00:59:28.000 Well, thank you. I'm actually inclined not to just burn down the CBC.

00:59:32.000 I think that it used to serve a really useful purpose in this country in terms of our heritage and bringing us together.

00:59:37.000 I think that it needs to be refocused. I think it needs to be reined in and obviously not be the arm of the Liberal government anymore.

00:59:43.000 I agree with that, but I don't think burning it down is the answer.

00:59:46.000 I also should point out that I was actually a member of the Heritage Committee when we were opposing Bill C-10 at the time,

00:59:52.720 and we helped lead the charge to stop that bill from becoming law and Pierre's right he was in

00:59:58.000 fact the first one to raise the alarm bell and and and we did a really respectful effective job

01:00:03.760 at slowing them down proposing reasonable amendments with experts it frustrated the

01:00:08.720 liberals and eventually of course Justin ran out of time on his other scandals and we had an auction

01:00:13.040 so we stopped them and and we did it in a really respectful way thank you Mr. Richardson

01:00:18.240 And finally, over to you, Dr. Lewis.

01:00:23.120 Legacy media in general has become an arm, a propaganda arm of the Liberal government.

01:00:29.360 We saw dishonest reporting during the trucker convoy. We were told that these truckers were

01:00:37.360 committing acts of sedition and overturning our country. People were terrified. Instead,

01:00:44.160 we saw that only charges of mischief were laid i would defund the cbc and save canadians

01:00:51.680 1 billion dollars i would repeal bill c11 and i would make sure that canadians can have alternative

01:01:00.080 news online most canadians are getting their news online and we should not have

01:01:06.640 a two-tier media system with benefits and rewards legacy media

01:01:18.400 okay another question that we post to each of you and you will again have 45 seconds to answer

01:01:23.360 our current prime minister justin trudeau is very eager to import american culture wars into our

01:01:29.200 country in 2020 he did this with black lives matter he's currently trying to do this with the

01:01:34.560 sensitive issue of abortion due to what's happening with the u.s supreme court as prime minister how

01:01:40.400 would you approach american uh culture wars and how would you approach the eagerness of liberals

01:01:47.040 to import them into our country we'll start with you mr charret this is central to this leadership

01:01:54.560 race we have a choice and canadians who are watching us see this choice either we're going

01:02:01.280 to go down the road of American-style politics with the division and the polarization, the hot

01:02:07.200 button, the sloganism, the attack dog attacks, or we're going to stay Canadian. And we will be the

01:02:14.800 Canadian conservative party that we should be and that we're destined to be and that they want us

01:02:20.800 to be a national party able to connect all parts of the country, whether it's Alberta, Quebec,

01:02:27.600 or Ontario that is what we're destined to be so no we should not import American politics into

01:02:35.280 this country and we should stand for what we believe in and the values that we believe in

01:02:40.000 as Canadians and I will fight that style because for Canada keep in mind this type of politics

01:02:46.320 Americans may be able to survive but for Canada this type of politics will be extremely damaging

01:02:54.320 to the fabric of the country. A country of regions, of languages, of diversity should not 0.99

01:03:01.040 have to put up with American-style politics. Mr. Aitchison, over to you.

01:03:11.200 Well, I think I've raised it already, the example that I gave of Mr. Trudeau using vaccine status

01:03:16.320 in the last election to try to demonize Canadians. And he continued to do it, even

01:03:21.120 invoking the emergency measures act when it was completely unnecessary to do so

01:03:25.360 it's disgusting and we can't fall into the same trap we need a message and we need a leader who

01:03:30.720 can communicate a message and a vision for canada that talks about bringing us together that unites

01:03:35.600 this country from east to west north and south urban and rural we got to stop demonizing each

01:03:41.040 other canadians are amazing people and there's more that unites us than divides us and we need

01:03:47.680 need to focus on that in a positive message we need to focus on diversity of thought on our diverse

01:03:59.360 viewpoints that we have in this country we need to recognize that we have diverse regions and that

01:04:05.680 our country is being torn apart by regional alienation there's so many aspects in our

01:04:11.760 so many areas in our country that are being neglected the atlantic region the the west

01:04:18.480 quebec these areas have their unique problems and we cannot adopt u.s style policies to fit

01:04:26.240 our diverse country we need to focus on making sure that we unite our country

01:04:33.200 national unity has been at an all-time low now and it's time that we work together with our

01:04:39.840 different regions to look at our unique strengths and our cultural uniqueness.

01:04:48.800 Mr. Babber, it's not American cancel culture wars. It's left-wing ideology cancel culture

01:04:56.480 that's been on the move for the last 40 years. It's making its way through Western democracies

01:05:02.240 and demonizes and tries to cancel anyone that disagrees with it. I have been standing up to

01:05:08.160 cancel culture and radical left-wing ideology for the last two years like no one has in this

01:05:13.520 country i know exactly what this ideology looks like and we have to call it out and i think that

01:05:19.840 canadians would choose instead of collectivism instead of this ideological pie in the sky

01:05:26.080 utopia that failed everywhere around the world canadians just want to be left alone that's it

01:05:33.280 and we and this is a message that we can be comfortable with we should be comfortable

01:05:38.160 calling up this ideology for what it is and we should also stop the division with our neighbors

01:05:43.920 to the south it's a very deliberate strategy the radical left and the government and justin

01:05:54.960 trudeau believe that if they can divide people on race gender and now vaccine status and by next

01:06:00.640 year they'll thought they'll have thought of a new way to divide us then that you'll be afraid

01:06:05.520 of your neighbor and you'll turn to the state to give them more power it's called divide and conquer

01:06:13.200 don't worry that you can't afford food or a house or gas up your car be afraid of your neighbor or

01:06:19.760 your trucker or your local co-worker that is a deliberate strategy you see control is something

01:06:27.920 people fight over freedom is something you fight for there's only so much control to go around

01:06:33.440 that's why people fight over it however there's enough freedom for everybody if your neighbor

01:06:38.400 gets more freedom it doesn't mean you get less if the immigrant gets the freedom to work as a doctor

01:06:43.600 you get the freedom to have a doctor more freedom for one is more freedom for another that's why we

01:06:48.880 should unite for freedom we we will now do two minutes of open rebuttal and we'll start with

01:07:01.460 mr. Babber look I guess in this hall all I have to do is say Melissa Lansman's name and get some

01:07:09.300 applause right our party back to mr. Atchison our party refused to stand up

01:07:20.700 for Canadians we did not stand up for Canadians no one on the stage stood up

01:07:25.440 for Canadians until the truckers came to town thankfully dr. Lewis came around

01:07:30.060 after the election and I thank her for that as well but we need to articulate

01:07:34.360 to Canadians that we will have their backs no matter how prevalent cancel

01:07:38.400 culture gets to be. Even when it gets difficult, we need to show moral clarity and say what we

01:07:44.740 believe and do what we believe is right. But I'm also, and this goes back to the previous round,

01:07:50.400 you know, I'm listening to some of the folks here, to some of my friends, and frankly,

01:07:54.980 I'm a little disillusioned and I'm worried. I go from room to room where Canadians are counting

01:07:59.460 on us to be better, where Canadians want to reinvigorate their belief in the Conservative

01:08:04.080 party and i don't think that attacking each other scorched earth is going to win us an election

01:08:10.160 let's look at ways to have a civil debate and because we have a much tougher debate ahead of

01:08:15.440 us in the general election one minute left open rebuttal anybody's welcome to interview yeah i've

01:08:24.160 got one mr mr devani yeah um you know if we're going to unite this country we have to come clean

01:08:30.640 Mr. Charest needs to come clean with how much money he got from Huawei.

01:08:36.840 We need to know the truth here.

01:08:38.020 The Liberals are going to ask that.

01:08:40.000 He's never told us how much he got paid.

01:08:43.120 This is a company whose software and hardware has been banned from the 5G networks of four of the five I countries

01:08:49.460 because of allegations, in many cases proven, that they have used it for espionage.

01:08:56.900 Mr. Charest, how much money did you get from Huawei when you were working for them,

01:09:01.640 either directly or indirectly?

01:09:03.000 Just the number, please.

01:09:03.900 How much?

01:09:06.880 Just the number.

01:09:07.960 Can I?

01:09:08.340 Mr. Charest.

01:09:08.840 Are we talking about the company that Stephen Harper welcomed into Canada in 2012?

01:09:12.060 Just the number, please.

01:09:12.600 How much?

01:09:12.840 How much, sir?

01:09:14.060 We're not on a student council here, Pierre.

01:09:15.800 How much?

01:09:16.440 Pierre, this is not a student council.

01:09:18.300 Please.

01:09:18.620 How much?

01:09:19.520 This is the security of our country, Mr. Charest.

01:09:22.080 It's not a laughing matter.

01:09:23.440 How much did you get from Huawei?

01:09:24.740 Answer the question.

01:09:25.680 This is a company that was welcomed into Canada by Stephen Harper in 2012 for the telecommunications company.

01:09:34.720 And that's what Huawei did, welcomed in by a conservative government. 0.96

01:09:39.080 I am very proud of the fact that I also worked to free the two Michaels and to bring them back home.

01:09:46.820 And if you want evidence of that, ask the wife of Michael Kovrig, Vina Natchibuda.

01:09:51.600 One at a time, please. 0.79

01:09:52.740 One at a time.

01:09:53.420 While we've paid you to bring the two Michaels, come on.

01:09:56.240 You've got some swampland to sell us in Florida, too?

01:09:58.560 Mr. Shreve, if you can continue.

01:09:59.660 Come on.

01:10:01.080 Mr. Shreve, can I?

01:10:01.780 How much?

01:10:02.220 Mr. Shreve, please, the floor is yours.

01:10:03.860 Thank you.

01:10:04.860 Answer the question.

01:10:06.080 Is this a country you believe in where people aren't allowed to buy?

01:10:08.940 I'd like to hear the number.

01:10:11.100 I, can I talk?

01:10:12.220 Answer the question.

01:10:13.480 Just answer the question.

01:10:14.120 I want to talk about this.

01:10:15.720 How much?

01:10:16.080 Mr. Paulyov, let's give Mr. Shreve a chance to respond.

01:10:18.800 Just the dollar figure, please.

01:10:21.600 Thank you very much. Thank you, Jamil.

01:10:23.600 What are you hiding?

01:10:24.600 Thank you, Jamil.

01:10:25.600 Can I ask a question?

01:10:27.600 There's been a lot of talk of freedom right now.

01:10:30.600 Well, I have a question for Mr. Fadier.

01:10:32.600 How much?

01:10:33.600 There's this Bill 21 in Quebec.

01:10:35.600 How much?

01:10:36.600 This was a piece of legislation that restrains the rights of Canadians to wear religious symbols.

01:10:41.600 This proposal was put to me when I was Premier of Quebec,

01:10:45.600 and I refused to do it even if it was popular at the time to do it.

01:10:50.600 it. I refused to do it. I stood up on principle. Now, when Bill 21 was enacted, when Bill 21

01:10:58.100 was enacted, I wasn't running in this race, and I pronounced against it. And I'm still

01:11:03.300 against it. And in Quebec, this bill is very popular. And that doesn't make me any more

01:11:08.220 popular in Quebec. But I want to ask something. During this leadership race, I had said that

01:11:15.200 if bill 21 goes to the supreme court of canada my government will stand and speak to the interest

01:11:23.280 of canada i will not be neutral on this issue for my country pierre polliev has said in french in

01:11:30.880 quebec not elsewhere in the country that if it goes to the supreme court of canada he will not

01:11:36.800 speak on behalf of canada so pierre this idea of freedom is it real or is it a slogan it's real

01:11:45.200 okay we're uh why won't you stand up gentlemen gentlemen gentlemen in the interest of time

01:11:55.260 we're going to need to move on but uh there will be again more opportunity um in fact the two of

01:12:00.740 you is fun the two of you are actually 15 chances to answer my question he couldn't do it at least

01:12:06.640 give me one chance to answer his fine 30 seconds go ahead wow really come on 30 seconds you 30

01:12:17.540 seconds sorry i didn't hear 30 30 seconds to to each of you go ahead thank you yeah listen mr

01:12:25.380 charay actually brought in the forerunner law uh in quebec to this he brought in a law to ban women

01:12:31.100 who wear face coverings from receiving any provincial government service.

01:12:35.780 So now that he's here in Ontario, he takes exactly the opposite position and over to Pander.

01:12:41.360 It's another example of him flip-flopping.

01:12:43.720 I'm against Bill 21.

01:12:45.120 I have said I was against Bill 21 in English, in French, in Quebec, in English Canada.

01:12:50.680 I'm 100% against it.

01:12:52.140 I said if I were a Quebec politician, I would vote against it in the legislature.

01:12:55.820 If anyone proposed it federally, I would vote against it.

01:12:59.060 and if i was prime minister i would make sure it would never happen in this country i'm 100

01:13:04.260 against bill 21. that's 30 seconds mr sheree 30 seconds to you this is a very important moment

01:13:09.780 in the debate mr poliev has not said but his position is that if this bill goes to the supreme

01:13:17.860 court of canada he will not speak on behalf of canada that's what he said in french in quebec

01:13:26.500 If you have flip-flopped on it, Mr. Poliev, say so tonight.

01:13:29.860 But you said to the French press in Quebec that, contrary to Charest, if it goes to the Supreme Court of Canada, you will not defend the interests of those who are affected.

01:13:42.900 That's 30 seconds.

01:13:43.660 This, take good note, because that speaks to his concept of freedom, ladies and gentlemen.

01:13:49.680 Is there anything more important than freedom of religion?

01:13:52.940 I don't think so.

01:13:54.060 Thank you.

01:13:54.620 Thank you so much.

01:13:55.360 we're uh so we're gonna move on to some new questions and this question is gonna be posted

01:14:00.880 to mr babber mr ageison and dr lewis uh on the topic of health care the covid crisis has revealed

01:14:08.160 the weaknesses in canadian medicare its lack of surge capacity its exorbitant costs and its

01:14:13.840 ever lengthening wait times which deny canadians timely care what is your position on health care

01:14:19.920 reform do you think a mixed health care system of private and public services is the answer

01:14:26.320 to canadians concerns we'll start with you dr lewis i think we need to redefine health care

01:14:32.080 so that it's meeting patient needs and we saw with covid the vaccines were administered in

01:14:38.400 private settings even though the government's paid for it so we have the capacity to engage

01:14:43.440 in public private partnerships and we should contemplate that we should not be protecting

01:14:49.040 a flawed and outdated system we also need to create a pandemic response and that should not

01:14:55.920 come from a global organization like the who we need to fix we need to fix our health care system

01:15:04.400 because if an infectious disease can shut down our system then we know we have a broken system

01:15:11.520 lockdowns are a symbol of a broken system we cannot be caught off guard again we need to make

01:15:19.200 sure that we prepare for the next pandemic and we need our own pandemic plan

01:15:28.080 mr bavard thank you well first of all i'd like to get government out of our relationship between

01:15:34.640 ourselves and our doctors i don't think that government has a role in there but canada has

01:15:39.440 one of the most deficient healthcare systems in the world. We have one of the lowest

01:15:44.000 number of beds per capita among OECD countries and there is no question that we need to address

01:15:50.560 this shortage and and potentially look at a capital expansion but we can't do it until the

01:15:56.080 provinces get their act together. We need more nurses and less compliance officers. We need

01:16:02.000 less waste and duplication. I am actually pleasantly surprised and I welcome Jean's

01:16:08.160 comment on this issue i think that there's room for supply side health care within the framework

01:16:13.840 of the canada health act that's where we have more options that are still single-payer we need

01:16:19.680 to get serious about fixing health care in this country especially with an aging population

01:16:24.240 i'm going to be having a serious conversation with the provinces about a capital expansion

01:16:28.240 but we need to get the waste out of under control

01:16:30.880 Mr. Aitchison.

01:16:35.500 Well, listen, I agree completely that part of the reason we had so many lockdowns is because we had a fragile health care system.

01:16:42.000 We wear this as a badge of honor.

01:16:43.720 It's part of our identity as Canadians that we think we have the best health care system in the world, and we simply do not.

01:16:49.420 If you have critical care problems, if you have issues that are going on for a long time, it takes forever to get care in our system.

01:16:57.320 we have to not be afraid of having a broader conversation we have to take the polarization

01:17:02.780 out of it the dutch model is actually a brilliant one i've been reading about it but we have private

01:17:08.920 sector already in our health care it's a multi-level sector we can do so much better if we

01:17:16.340 have the conversation it's a system that was predicated on a promise that was made back in

01:17:20.700 the late 60s on the federal government paying 50 of the cost of health care we've never done it

01:17:25.080 We've never lived up to the promise.

01:17:26.660 We have a federal government that generation after generation,

01:17:29.320 medals in provincial affairs to buy votes,

01:17:31.800 and everything they do is mediocre.

01:17:34.780 We need to improve what we're doing.

01:17:36.880 We need to have a real relationship with the provinces,

01:17:38.800 and we need to live up to our promises as a federal government

01:17:40.960 and live up to solving this problem for Canadians

01:17:44.540 and making sure that we look at all models around the world.

01:17:47.680 We always think about the American model,

01:17:49.580 but there's a lot of models out there that are a lot better than ours,

01:17:51.920 and we need to have an honest conversation about it.

01:17:55.080 to each candidate who answered the question on health care we'd like to give you 30 seconds of

01:18:03.160 rebuttal time so we'll start with you dr lewis i think it's important that we end hallway medicine

01:18:07.900 every single year that we have the flu pandemic we see hallway medicine this this did not just

01:18:15.940 come about with covid we have to make sure that we work with the provinces to to reduce wait times

01:18:22.660 People should not be waiting for surgeries, nor should they be waiting for simple things like MRIs that could be delivered in a private setting.

01:18:34.660 I cannot believe that Mr. Atchison is justifying lockdowns by looking at our health care system.

01:18:40.960 We should never be excusing lockdowns.

01:18:42.940 And neither should Mr. Charest say that if we have better health care, we will not need mandates.

01:18:48.680 No, we do not need lockdowns.

01:18:50.420 It was the greatest catastrophe perpetuated on our generation.

01:18:53.960 We've actually made health care a lot worse with cancer screenings missed,

01:18:57.760 with the mental health pandemic, with surgeries delayed.

01:19:00.360 We knew who the virus attacks.

01:19:02.100 We knew who we had to protect as early as May 2020.

01:19:05.340 But instead, we succumbed to the left wing cancel culture mob

01:19:08.480 and we continued not owning up to what we understood as early as spring 2020.

01:19:12.540 We should never excuse that.

01:19:14.080 if i could just add uh i'm certainly not excusing lockdowns with the health care system i i i think

01:19:26.000 that in the early days of the pandemic we didn't understand that we didn't really know what was

01:19:29.100 going on and that really was the biggest reason why we did have lockdowns because we were worried

01:19:33.080 about our health care system we didn't understand things subsequently of course lockdowns like

01:19:37.960 vaccine mandates and everything else has been used by liberals to divide us uh and and to continue

01:19:42.640 to divide us so let's stop dividing each other here and let's focus on improving our health care

01:19:47.760 system and making sure that we learn something from what happened in this last two years over

01:19:51.280 this ridiculous pandemic we need to learn from this and do better thank you so much mr hsn we're

01:19:59.760 going to move on to a new topic talk a little bit about pipelines so this question is specific

01:20:06.400 so this question is going to you and mr polio so if you want you can take it's on a different

01:20:11.360 You can take a second to respond to him after I'm done with this question.

01:20:14.700 Thank you.

01:20:15.800 So the conflict in Ukraine has emphasized the need to wean Europeans off of their dependency

01:20:21.080 of Russian oil and gas.

01:20:23.400 Canada of course can be an important player, and according to a recent Ipsos Reid poll,

01:20:27.880 75 percent of Canadians agree that Canada should export more oil and gas to Europe.

01:20:32.960 But here's the problem.

01:20:35.040 Politicians in Quebec continue to oppose and block energy projects.

01:20:38.940 Mr. Charest, your government banned fracking.

01:20:41.360 The following government, Philippe Killard, his government introduced a block of the Energy East Pipeline.

01:20:47.720 Now the current Premier, François Legault, has recently announced a total ban on oil and gas exploration and production in the province of Quebec.

01:20:55.000 So here is the question. Do you support increasing oil and gas exports?

01:20:59.180 And if so, how do you work with Quebec as a player in achieving this national goal?

01:21:04.560 So we'll start with you, Mr. Trudeau.

01:21:05.540 The answer is yes. I support oil and gas. I support pipelines.

01:21:08.560 In fact, the last pipeline built in Quebec was built under my government.

01:21:12.400 And yes, when I was premier, I supported Energy East, and I supported Energy East after I was premier.

01:21:18.020 In fact, I worked with TransCanada at the time.

01:21:20.620 And one of the things that I'd propose, because if you understand how our federal system works, there's different ways to get things done.

01:21:26.880 And what I thought should happen is that the pension fund in Quebec, called la Caisse des dépôts, should buy part of the project.

01:21:32.360 That would have been a creative way to get this project done.

01:21:35.580 And if you have experience and you understand how our federal system works, that's the kind of leadership that you need. 0.92

01:21:42.080 Now, what we see in Ukraine is cruel. 0.79

01:21:44.660 It's cruel. 0.52

01:21:45.240 I mean, it's heartbreaking.

01:21:46.460 We could be an alternative, and we're not.

01:21:48.600 Now, looking to the future, I think we should do GNL Québec and the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.

01:21:52.960 And, of course, the government of Québec is opposed to it.

01:21:55.880 But now, circumstances have changed.

01:21:58.100 The issue of security of supply is on the table.

01:22:00.480 The issue of supplying Europe is on the table.

01:22:02.440 And yes, we can do that and also transition to zero emissions in 2050.

01:22:09.000 Europe has a policy of saying we're going to transition by using nuclear and natural gas.

01:22:13.960 If Europe, and this was before the war in Ukraine, if Europe says that, if they believe they can do it, Canada can do it.

01:22:20.720 But you need a prime minister who understands how the federal system works and is going to work with the provinces to make that happen.

01:22:27.640 It's the only way.

01:22:28.920 And if someone has a track record of making those things happen, I do.

01:22:34.580 Thank you, Mr. Charest.

01:22:36.640 Mr. Polyev.

01:22:38.200 We are importing 130,000 barrels a day from overseas in the East Coast.

01:22:45.660 Meanwhile, we have the third biggest supply of petroleum on Earth right here in Canada.

01:22:51.620 Why is that?

01:22:52.380 Well, Bill C-69 makes it next to impossible to build a pipeline or to expand an oil science mine.

01:22:59.900 The federal approval process is so bureaucratic and slow, the gatekeepers stand in the way and prevent people from actually building resource projects.

01:23:09.040 So what is my plan? I will repeal Bill C-69 and replace it with a simple, direct process that consults First Nations, protects the environment, but gets projects started.

01:23:21.400 Two, I will give my support to approve Newfoundland's project to increase 400,000 by 400,000 barrels a day its production so that that oil can displace all of the overseas oil that we're bringing by tanker to St. John, New Brunswick.

01:23:38.960 And within five years, I will have banned dictator oil from Canada altogether.

01:23:44.140 Furthermore, I disagree with Mr. Shray on natural gas.

01:23:50.680 He banned shale gas in Quebec.

01:23:53.460 We need shale and other and tight gas and other forms of natural gas.

01:23:57.560 And we need to approve the liquefaction process so that we can cool it down, put it on ships, send it overseas, and break European dependence on Russian natural gas once and for all.

01:24:10.220 If Mr. Charest had not banned natural gas in Quebec, we might be able to do that already.

01:24:14.680 already. But I will not only support those projects, but I will support a liquefaction

01:24:19.240 processes so that we can ship our natural gas to Asia. The closest point in North America to Asia

01:24:25.560 is British Columbia. The closest point in North America to Europe is Newfoundland. We have a

01:24:31.840 massive geographic advantage and we have a weather advantage because liquefying natural gas is a

01:24:37.520 process of cooling it down. What do we have in Canada? Cold weather. It is our most abundant

01:24:43.120 natural resource so let's cool it down turn it into liquid send it overseas sell it and turn

01:24:48.860 dollars for dictators into paychecks for our people thank you i'll give you each 30 seconds

01:24:59.460 to respond to one another and i want to specifically re-ask the question how would you work

01:25:03.680 with the people of quebec and the premier of quebec to get canada's energy to market mr

01:25:08.440 right here it's going it's going to take a lot of work you can't impose it canvas i want to be very

01:25:13.640 clear anyone who thinks that in this federal system of government the federal government can

01:25:17.800 just walk in and impose it needs to remember something called the national energy program

01:25:24.840 and if you remember the national energy program that's what happened the last time a trudeau

01:25:31.000 went into alberta and said we're going to go over your heads and get this done you need to find ways

01:25:36.920 that will incentivize them to do it and that means a new reality but also in the segne lac

01:25:43.960 saint jean a huge mobilization of people who believe in that project the same is true for

01:25:48.600 new brunswick for example this lng plant in new brunswick that was built for the purpose of

01:25:54.040 importing needs to be retrofitted now for the purpose of exporting gas and that's that's the

01:26:00.200 work that needs to be done but i'll tell you something if you are going to get that done

01:26:04.120 and a federal system of government like ours you're going to run into folks in alberta are

01:26:08.520 going to say to us no no you're not going to feather the feds are not going to impose on us

01:26:13.160 anything about natural resources it has to be a cooperative approach and and that's exactly what

01:26:19.480 i practiced all of my political life thank you mr shray mr poly of 30 seconds well the problem is

01:26:27.080 that the trudeau liberals are imposing on alberta they're imposing rules that make it impossible for

01:26:31.800 Alberta to export its product and also even to send it to other Canadians so we need to repeal

01:26:37.800 6069 c48 we need a simple process for for future approvals and we need to speed up the approvals

01:26:44.280 of all natural resource projects so that it's not just oil and gas but also lithium graphite

01:26:50.120 cobalt and countless other minerals that are staying in the ground today because it takes

01:26:54.200 five or six years to get anything approved in this country get the gatekeepers out of the way

01:26:58.680 get digging mines building jobs producing paychecks thank you

01:27:07.400 our next question is for mr babber uh dr lewis and mr your fellow leadership candidate mayor

01:27:15.400 patrick brown chose not to participate in today's debate we can only speculate as to why we don't

01:27:22.840 know we don't know but what we do know for certain is that some canadians are concerned

01:27:30.120 that mayor brown is sowing division in our country he has been criticized for manipulating diaspora

01:27:36.920 politics to bolster his campaign how does your strategy to grow the party differ from mayor

01:27:44.360 brown's and what will you do to engage canadians of diverse backgrounds over to you mr babber

01:27:50.280 Thank you. Look, I come from a North Toronto writing. We need to, first of all, appeal to urban voters, and that means we should feel comfortable talking about urban issues like transit. I'm in favour of building mass transit. Like housing, I'm going to offer a very robust housing plan by doubling the first-time homebuyer's exemption, by divesting ourselves of federal land that is not protected.

01:28:14.160 And also, we need to expand our base by talking to new Canadians.

01:28:20.640 I'm an immigrant to Canada myself, and I've had every blessing this country had to offer.

01:28:26.020 I've had an opportunity to contribute to this country.

01:28:28.280 God knows I've paid enough taxes, thankfully.

01:28:30.720 And I would also say that, look, we have an aging demographic.

01:28:36.580 We need to welcome lawful immigrants to Canada.

01:28:40.080 I think that immigrants come to Canada for democracy and opportunity.

01:28:45.360 Those are conservative values.

01:28:47.240 We should not be ceding them to the Liberals.

01:28:49.420 I'm going to go out and expand the Conservative Party movement by appealing to urban voters and new Canadians.

01:28:57.580 Dr. Lewis.

01:29:00.680 I am in a unique position to be the best candidate to grow our base amongst new Canadians.

01:29:08.660 immigrants. I myself came here when I was five years old. Immigrants are natural conservatives.

01:29:14.580 They have strong family values. They believe in hard work. They have strong faith values.

01:29:20.600 And we have ignored that population. We need to reach out to them and connect with them

01:29:26.820 on a values level. I am in a unique position to be able to do that. I understand the struggles

01:29:33.100 that they've endured. I know what it's like to have a student loan. I know what it's like

01:29:37.840 to to juggle being a student and working and and also teaching at law school these are things that

01:29:47.040 speak to the the struggles that many immigrants have and we need to be able to connect with them

01:29:53.440 many of them left their countries they took risks they came here these are inherent

01:29:58.560 conservative values which we need to connect on

01:30:01.280 Mr. Pollyanna.

01:30:06.420 Well, listen, the bottom line is that Patrick Brown says one thing in one room and exactly the opposite in another room.

01:30:13.600 And that is what he has done throughout this campaign.

01:30:16.300 It's what he did when he ran for leader of the Ontario PC party.

01:30:19.140 He said that he was against the carbon tax.

01:30:21.460 And then as soon as he became leader, he embraced Trudeau's carbon tax and said he would do Trudeau the favour of imposing it right here in Ontario.

01:30:29.860 I've said the same thing on that issue and all other issues throughout my entire political career.

01:30:36.640 And that is what I will continue to do.

01:30:38.200 So how do we reach out to Canadians?

01:30:40.400 We have a clear, consistent, conservative message before the leadership race and after the leadership race

01:30:48.220 so that Canadians know that we mean what we say.

01:30:52.700 Thank you.

01:30:53.120 We're going to move on to the next question, which is for Mr. Acheson and Mr. Charest.

01:31:01.440 So there are five candidates up on the stage.

01:31:04.020 We have three Ontario Members of Parliament, one Ontario Member of the Provincial Parliament

01:31:09.280 and one former Premier of Quebec.

01:31:11.580 Note that there is no one from Western Canada.

01:31:13.740 The Conservative Party of Canada has long represented the values, sensibilities and opinions of the

01:31:19.740 majority of the people.

01:31:23.120 .

01:31:53.120 We'll be right back.

01:32:23.120 left. Unfortunately, as others were saying, right at the point when we're going to discuss

01:32:26.700 Western alienation, Dave was just mentioning to me, we've gone through this whole thing

01:32:30.200 and not a single mention has come up on Western alienation and Western values here. And boy,

01:32:38.600 we got robbed of the answer.

01:32:40.180 Add on Leah, get car insurance online for less. No big worker phone calls required.

01:32:47.400 Going live is always so much fun. Boy, what a knock them down, drag out debate this has

01:32:51.940 been so far though. It was almost worth leaving the Amber Heard testimony to come in and listen

01:32:56.680 to this. Holy cow, it was heated. A bit of everything in there, wasn't it? Yeah, well,

01:33:01.960 I expect maybe Sheree will accuse somebody of defecating somewhere untoward or something. 0.98

01:33:05.820 Oh, a grumpy. Oh, yes. A grumpy. That's right. Oh, looks like we might be back in. Here we go, 0.85

01:33:11.800 guys. Retirement plan. You're looking at them. And then I will be the leader that will unite

01:33:18.660 the party thank you and elect a national conservative government thank you mr shray

01:33:25.460 same question to you mr hsm and thank you for it i really it comes down to me

01:33:32.340 it's about respect it's about dialogue it's about listening to each other i i i arrived here in 2019

01:33:38.820 after a long career part-time career in municipal politics in huntsville last five years as mayor

01:33:44.500 and i was alarmed at how many people in leadership positions in ottawa didn't understand the first

01:33:49.300 thing about leadership it's about empowering it's about inspiring the people and the team

01:33:54.660 around you to great things it's about engaging it doesn't happen and we need to do it in our

01:34:00.740 movement we need to do it in this country as a member of prime a new member of parliament i've

01:34:04.740 been to alberta three or four times now the first time i went i went to visit with mr tom commitch

01:34:09.540 we went to tour some facilities and and everybody just kept saying you're from ontario

01:34:13.460 you're you're an Ontario member of parliament what are you doing here in Alberta and I said

01:34:17.900 well I have a national role now I think it's important to understand the entire country

01:34:21.380 and that was foreign to them we need to listen to each other we need to do it in our caucus

01:34:28.380 we need to do it in our movement unity is not uniformity but it is finding the compromise

01:34:34.520 that moves us forward and shows that we have the courage and the character to be trusted to govern

01:34:39.860 and lead this country thank you thank you mr. H and we're now going to open it up to open

01:34:46.920 rebuttals on this question so everyone will get 30 seconds to respond on how you would keep

01:34:52.460 Canada united we'll start with you mr. Babber thank you well I think first of all we have to

01:34:57.920 recognize that there is life outside of Ontario and Quebec okay and we have to bring we have to

01:35:06.180 bring the provinces and we have to bring Canadians coast to coast into the

01:35:09.940 national conversation. Second of all, I think that we should unite our country

01:35:14.460 behind a theme of economic opportunity, which I will unleash by making Canada

01:35:20.880 into the natural resources superpower that we ought to be. And finally, I think

01:35:27.020 that we need to respect our regional differences, but at the same thing,

01:35:30.860 remember that we're all Canadian. And I'm seeing some of our Canadian values

01:35:35.840 being eroded in the last couple of years whether it's democracy or canadian kindness that i talk

01:35:40.560 about often we need like my friend scott attison says restore civility to the national conversation

01:35:48.640 we need to start loving canadians again we're a wonderful country coast to coast and we need

01:35:53.360 to welcome everyone into the national conversation thank you mr babber over to you dr lewis

01:35:59.520 we need to respect the various regions of our country if we look at even a province like alberta

01:36:08.160 we have implemented laws that have crippled their economy bill c48 and bill c69 actually favors

01:36:17.040 foreign companies over canadian companies we need to make sure that we stop ottawa stops

01:36:23.280 disrespecting certain regions even in the atlantic region the development of their natural resources

01:36:30.720 are being inhibited by national laws and we need to make sure that each region comes together and

01:36:39.440 their strengths help to bring prosperity to our nation thank you dr lewis mr palio well despite

01:36:49.280 winning seven elections in ontario i'm actually a born and bred calgarian i understand the west yes

01:36:56.080 applaud that i understand the west i grew up there spent my first two decades there my family still

01:37:01.200 lives there and i'm proud to fight for western canadians in in ottawa even while i am an ontario

01:37:09.360 mp i also remember the days when the party the national party got too liberal and we lost

01:37:14.560 western support that risk still remains and that's why we need someone who is truly conservative

01:37:20.960 who will stand up against carbon taxes and long gun registries and fight for the values that unite

01:37:25.920 us across the country as conservatives only by uni uniting all conservatives in all regions of

01:37:32.000 the country will we win the next election and bring fairness to every province thank you

01:37:37.760 thank you mr palia mr hsn you have 30 seconds i'm sorry i'm 30 seconds to rebut what i've just

01:37:47.440 put 30 seconds to add to anything about national unity or keeping the party together

01:37:51.920 well i i don't think there's a lot more to add frankly i mean i i think what i think dismaying

01:37:56.880 is that is that you see an awful lot of division uh even in this race uh there's a lot of you know

01:38:02.640 if we can't if we put on a show that is divisive and and nasty with each other i just don't see how

01:38:09.440 that unites all conservatives i don't see how it shows to canadians that we can that we can govern

01:38:15.760 and we can lead we have to be more respectful with each other we can disagree without being

01:38:19.760 disagreeable and that's that's the only way to unite our movement thank you and final word to

01:38:25.840 you mr trey i actually think it would be a breath of fresh air to have a prime minister

01:38:32.960 in ottawa who has been a premier of a province and who understands how this federal system works

01:38:39.600 and i talk from experience i was part of a government that had albertans and quebecers

01:38:45.760 and ontarians at the table and you know what when that happens all of a sudden people that

01:38:51.760 it seemed far away in another region they have faces they have names they have families and

01:38:57.040 they share the same values and big things get done in this country big things can't get done

01:39:05.520 unless there is that leadership i'll give you an example on energy east did you ever hear mr

01:39:10.480 trudeau say i am in favor of energies do you think a project of that size can get done if there's no

01:39:16.560 leadership someone who grabs it and goes i know i've done it and that's the kind of prime minister

01:39:22.160 that we i want to be and i will be and that will be true for albertans and for all canadians but

01:39:28.880 we need to do that in fact when that happened that those were the days when the national energy

01:39:34.080 program was axed when we had people around the table who agreed on those things that's when

01:39:40.240 canada is at its best but please allow us to be that party allow us to meet that ambition

01:39:50.720 and to be ambitious enough to grow our economy and recognize every canadian as being equal

01:39:56.720 and every canadian as being part of the conservative family

01:40:00.080 thank you all for your responses it's now time for closing statements and we will go in the

01:40:11.380 reverse order of the opening statements and start with you dr lewis canada is the best country in

01:40:18.840 the world and i want to make sure that the opportunities that i had growing up in this

01:40:24.160 great country as a child will be there for future generations millions of canadians can't travel on

01:40:31.120 a plane in their own country our charter needs to be defended parents have a right to raise their

01:40:39.200 children in accordance with their values and i will introduce a parental rights bill to stop

01:40:46.240 government encroachment on parental rights seniors disabled veterans have a right to live

01:40:53.920 in dignity and every single reserve should have clean water we must restore freedom and prosperity

01:41:02.400 to canada once again by bringing back jobs and developing our natural resources while

01:41:08.880 protecting our environment i will use my education in environmental studies and international law

01:41:16.400 to defend our sovereignty against global organizations like the who and the wef

01:41:23.680 i will strengthen our democracy and bring back freedom and prosperity to canada once again

01:41:38.080 mr aitchison thank you thank you for being here tonight and contributing to the future of our move

01:41:43.760 and of our country our values and principles are timeless acting on them and leading with respect

01:41:50.880 is the right approach for our movement's success our politics are increasingly divided we have

01:41:57.680 stopped respecting those that we disagree with if we conservatives are going to grow our party

01:42:02.880 and succeed we cannot try to out divide canadians the way justin trudeau does we must lead with

01:42:08.800 respect and bring our country together this is the right approach to attract canadians to our

01:42:14.560 movement and it is the way to lead to better government that's capable of delivering results

01:42:21.120 we need real principled leadership in ottawa that unites canadians and that's why i'm running to

01:42:25.920 be the next leader of the conservative party whether it's affordability defending free speech

01:42:31.360 housing foreign affairs we are living in extraordinary times working together we can

01:42:38.160 make life better for all canadians but first we must work hard to invite more of them to join us

01:42:44.320 in this quest and that starts by leading with respect thank you

01:42:55.520 as i said at the outset people feel like they're losing control of their lives

01:42:59.280 it could be the teenager sunk into depression because of two years separated from sporting

01:43:04.400 and social activities or the trucker who after being called a hero for two years delivering our

01:43:13.120 products and services across the border without a vaccine suddenly became a villain or a lawbreaker

01:43:20.880 in the eyes of some liberals or the 32 year old living in his parents basement because home prices

01:43:27.440 has doubled or the single mom skipping meals so our kids don't have to i'm running for prime

01:43:33.120 minister to give these people back control of their lives by ending vaccine mandates

01:43:38.000 so that people can make their own medical decisions by tackling the inflationary deficits

01:43:44.640 and taxes that have driven up the cost of living and reigning in the bank of canada back to its

01:43:50.320 original mandate and also banning it from bringing in a central bank digital currency

01:43:55.040 i'm running for prime minister to restore economic freedom but also freedom of expression so that

01:44:00.160 people can speak clearly and openly without fear i'm running for canada for prime minister to make

01:44:05.760 this the freest country on earth so you can take back control of your life thank you

01:44:15.680 mr sure thank you i i'm running to be the leader of the conservative party of canada

01:44:23.120 And the parties need to, I think, accept the challenge of Canadians, because this is our moment, to meet that challenge so that we can unite the party and unite the country.

01:44:39.620 It's nothing less than that. It is an extraordinary task, but one that requires a lot of determination to stand up and fight for what is right, including as we heard tonight about Bill 21, which is a test, a test of real leadership.

01:44:59.440 Let's not lose sight of the fact that if we are divided, that hangs on Justin Trudeau.

01:45:05.400 He's the Prime Minister of the country.

01:45:07.780 The number one responsibility of any Prime Minister is to keep the country united.

01:45:12.320 The number one.

01:45:14.140 All else won't count if we are divided.

01:45:17.740 And if there's one thing that I believe in and have fought for all my life and I've paid the price

01:45:22.940 because I've fought for my children and my grandchildren and I have fought for you,

01:45:27.260 it's the ideal of Canada and I will make this ideal as great as it always has

01:45:33.500 been by leading a national conservative government last but not least mr.

01:45:43.460 Bauer thank you I was born and grew up in a communist regime I know the value

01:45:48.980 of democracy and I see Canada's democracy being eroded and I will end

01:45:53.720 censorship 21st century segregation and ensure free and independent media I come

01:46:00.360 from very humble beginnings but I helped build and grow a small business and I

01:46:05.180 know what it's like to pay the bills and I'm committed to you and your child's

01:46:09.560 Canadian opportunity I'm not a career politician and I don't play the game was

01:46:15.320 only I was the only one on this stage to oppose the narrative at a great cost to

01:46:20.400 my career and to my loved ones. Because I'll always stand up for Canadians, even when it's

01:46:26.440 unpopular. And that's what you can expect from me. I'm not afraid of politics or left-wing

01:46:32.640 ideological cancel culture. I will always say what I believe and do what I believe is right.

01:46:39.180 And even if you disagree with me sometimes, that's okay, that's democracy. But you will always know

01:46:44.160 where I stand. Being here with you has been an honor of a lifetime, but I ask you to kindly

01:46:51.720 rank me first, and I'd be incredibly grateful to lead our party and our country.

01:47:06.560 Ladies and gentlemen, let's give a round of applause to all of our leadership candidates.

01:47:14.160 now uh thank you all for joining us of course again we'd like to thank our sponsor meta for

01:47:29.760 providing coverage of tonight's debate on facebook live we'd also like to thank our presenting sponsor

01:47:35.200 for tonight's debate earns cliff you are all encouraged to stay socialize have a good time

01:47:41.360 with one another at our welcome reception which is located on the third floor also a reminder

01:47:48.000 that our program will begin at 8 30 a.m back in this room where we will hear remarks from

01:47:53.760 the honorable candace bergen we're not going to scream at each other uh like no sheree and jean

01:48:03.520 i'm afraid that as you said the quote on social media was the most lively debate i i have ever

01:48:09.440 seen for a party the internal debate like that that was from dwayne brath the university of

01:48:14.640 montroy university political scientist says in all his years he's never seen such a wild

01:48:19.360 leaders debate and it certainly was wild uh uh you know center stage was sheree and polyev they

01:48:25.680 didn't shake hands coming onto the stage and they tore into each other uh it was it was brutal it

01:48:32.000 was a you know it was a knock him down drag him out type affair uh it was it was a wild night

01:48:39.440 And it really developed into a two-person debate.

01:48:42.860 It really did.

01:48:43.740 I mean, Aitchison tried to get some kind of high ground

01:48:47.060 and saying, I'm the calm voice of reason.

01:48:49.180 Babber stuck to his points and didn't bother getting into it with the others.

01:48:52.120 And Lewis?

01:48:53.420 Lewis is very disappointing, I thought.

01:48:56.180 I'm not sure there was any losers in the debate,

01:48:59.380 but I don't think she came across very well at all.

01:49:03.600 I personally thought Mr. Babber did okay.

01:49:06.960 And as you say, Mr. Hutchinson, uh, sort of took the moral high ground.

01:49:10.720 I'm not calling anybody names.

01:49:12.240 And, uh, and then everybody just sort of said, okay, enough.

01:49:16.480 Let's go call names to each other with, uh, Aliyev and, uh, and Shrek.

01:49:20.480 Well, that's part of it.

01:49:21.440 I mean, when you're doing this, you've got to try and distinguish yourself,

01:49:24.400 carve out some ground, make your spot.

01:49:27.200 And the others did that.

01:49:28.000 I mean, that was the problem.

01:49:28.720 I think Louis was that, I mean, her, her policies are solid, but she was,

01:49:32.720 as, as a commenter there, Adam Purvis is saying, you know,

01:49:34.960 know, sounded nervous and such perhaps, but just, it was scripted. You know, this is a debate we

01:49:39.620 want to see some getting in on it. You know, not fighting necessarily like the others, but some

01:49:44.880 spontaneity, responding to things as they flow, not just sticking to a set of lines. I don't think

01:49:49.300 she deviated from a plan. And, uh, you know, Polly have tried to get, uh, uh, salary figures from 0.95

01:49:54.360 Sheree on how much you made from, uh, from Huey and it developed into like annoying comedy. How

01:50:00.260 much, Mr. Sheree, how much, you know, how much did you make? And you know, he didn't answer at

01:50:04.000 the end of the day, but I think Polyev made his point.

01:50:06.940 He did.

01:50:07.660 And I mean, he tried to corner him on it, but I gotta admit like, and I like

01:50:10.660 Polyev and I like how he takes people in debates or in the house of commons.

01:50:14.320 And he really twists that knife and he gets under their skin and he, and he

01:50:17.480 pulls it up, but sometimes you can overplay it.

01:50:19.560 And I mean, as a viewer, I was kind of starting to get a little irritated.

01:50:22.480 Okay.

01:50:22.720 Now you're starting to sound, oh man, this is out of me.

01:50:24.500 I thrive on being juvenile, but it was getting, you know, to the point of

01:50:28.860 childish where he just kept interrupting and interrupting and interrupting and

01:50:31.300 poking and poking, poking. We'll see how that resonates. It gives a flavor of how he would be

01:50:38.320 if he got Trudeau up on that stage too. Well, sure. And I mean, he did the same thing in the

01:50:43.740 House of Commons looking for the average price of a home in Ontario. And I think he was asking

01:50:49.180 a liberal minister and how much, how much Mr. Minister, how much, how much? And it was the

01:50:55.200 exact same sort of annoying way, but he makes his point, you know, and those two, there's no love

01:51:02.400 lost. I think they hate each other. There's no doubt about it, you know, and the other part

01:51:07.780 that'll come, and I mean, Aitchison has a point too, though, with this kind of divisiveness, with

01:51:12.320 this, you know, such a heated vitriol, the risk of internal party splits, they do have to be

01:51:19.180 careful with this. I mean, there's no way that you're going to see a poly of government with a

01:51:23.440 cabinet minister these two are not going to be together with each other but you you want to

01:51:27.040 maintain hopefully some degree of civility between the candidates yeah unfortunately just as the uh

01:51:34.560 we're going to talk about uh western alienation uh the feed froze so uh so we missed what they

01:51:40.160 said there uh some other things they didn't talk about corey with climate change uh which is you

01:51:45.760 You know, big issue for Canadians, Indigenous reconciliation they didn't talk about.

01:51:53.180 You know, there's some brief mention of Canada-U.S. relations in terms of the cancel culture and whatnot.

01:51:59.060 And, of course, they've seen a big cheer, of course, to fund the CBC when Mr. Poliev said that.

01:52:06.620 Yeah, and a lot of the people are sick of the CBC.

01:52:09.560 Even some moderate Conservatives, I think, are at the point of saying, you know, we just don't need this anymore.

01:52:14.320 Again, Aitchison came out and said, no, we don't need to get rid of that, actually.

01:52:18.020 We need to fix it.

01:52:19.060 I don't agree with him, but he took a stand on it.

01:52:22.700 He's taken a couple of contrary ones.

01:52:24.380 I mean, I didn't expect it to come up as well, but Aitchison's the only one who brought up supply management and said he opposes it.

01:52:29.620 Yeah.

01:52:30.440 He's carving ground, at least, in some spots, you know.

01:52:32.860 Well, you know, CBC's got a lot of money invested in equipment, so I don't think you just sort of shut it down on one day.

01:52:41.500 Oh, you'd happen to have like a garage sale.

01:52:43.260 A garage sale, yeah.

01:52:43.740 We could go over there.

01:52:44.500 I mean, oh, that's a good camera for us.

01:52:46.000 Sure, we could pick some stuff up

01:52:47.320 for our studio around here.

01:52:48.840 Yeah, exactly.

01:52:49.780 There's some makeup and hair department 1.00

01:52:51.160 that picks up some of these.

01:52:53.120 It's going to take more than that, buddy.

01:52:54.560 Well, you won't make it pretty,

01:52:55.480 but you can make it less bad.

01:52:58.860 Yeah, I don't know where else, you know,

01:53:00.140 we can go with this.

01:53:00.840 There's more events coming.

01:53:01.660 Is there going to be a French language debate

01:53:03.300 at some point?

01:53:03.920 That's a good question.

01:53:04.880 I don't know.

01:53:06.600 I'm just waiting for Matthew to check in

01:53:09.240 with Franco Terrazzano from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

01:53:13.300 He will not be happy.

01:53:14.700 I can predict right now what he's going to say.

01:53:16.420 There was very little talk about fiscal management

01:53:20.340 and all the $1.2 trillion debt.

01:53:23.760 So he's not going to be a happy camper.

01:53:25.400 No, they didn't dig very deeply into those issues

01:53:28.140 very much at all.

01:53:29.000 It was a lot of broad issues,

01:53:30.360 a lot of high-level discussion

01:53:34.180 rather than the individual policies.

01:53:35.860 And again, just a lot of insults.

01:53:37.860 So, uh, we'll see how that resonates.

01:53:40.920 So I mean, how does that sit with the members?

01:53:42.280 That's the biggest question.

01:53:43.260 You know, the people who hold a membership, we're going to cast a vote in this.

01:53:46.540 I, I see, uh, Matthew's getting queued up over there.

01:53:49.260 It's probably difficult because it looks like a very crowded convention center.

01:53:52.140 Some interesting spectators.

01:53:53.400 We noticed the Alberta premier Jason Kenney, as I mentioned, was down there.

01:53:57.620 Preston Manning, uh, you know, a big wig in the movement.

01:54:01.620 Obviously he was, uh, he was sitting there enjoying the festivities.

01:54:05.280 Yeah, it's well in Manning's to be expected.

01:54:06.980 This is kind of was his name almost.

01:54:09.560 And Jason Kenny over there, he's probably just happy that for a change,

01:54:13.460 somebody else's on the hot seat and he's not in the middle of it.

01:54:18.080 Um, that guy might feed speculation about where Kenny's priorities are too,

01:54:23.600 though. I mean, he's facing, I guess there's only so much he can do,

01:54:25.760 but he's got his leadership review coming up in a 10 days or so.

01:54:29.660 And he's hanging out rubbing shoulders in Ottawa.

01:54:31.740 Is that necessarily the best place he could be?

01:54:33.680 Well, I mean, there's no, no, you know, we're already past the deadline for, to be a member.

01:54:38.960 It's just a matter of getting them mailed in by next week now.

01:54:41.760 So it'd be interesting to see if other conservative leaders, you know, like Scott Moe, for example, if, if, if he is there for the, for the weekend.

01:54:50.360 So, yeah, this is a whole weekend conference.

01:54:52.160 I mean, just to remind viewers, if they're not familiar, it's the Canada Strong and Free Network.

01:54:55.380 It's an annual event.

01:54:57.320 It used to be the Manning Centre, but it's, it's just a conservative mecca for, you know, activists, politicians, media.

01:55:02.900 to gather in one spot for a weekend or there's going to be a lot of seminars

01:55:06.560 and speeches and things going on throughout.

01:55:09.380 I mean, this is this debate just kind of kick it off.

01:55:11.360 Yeah, no, it's a good way to kick it off.

01:55:13.640 Create some interest, create some stir and you know, uh, uh, hopefully maybe

01:55:19.080 even some of the mainstream media will pick up on what was said and get the

01:55:23.240 message out.

01:55:23.900 Yeah.

01:55:24.080 So as we get ready to cut over to Matthew, I just want to remind everybody

01:55:26.400 too, I mean, it was unfortunate that we got cut out there for that portion

01:55:29.240 of the Western alienation of all the times.

01:55:31.380 But if you're new to us in our channels,

01:55:33.380 you know, just a reminder,

01:55:34.080 we do do these specials.

01:55:35.220 We come out, we cover stuff live.

01:55:36.860 We've got regular shows as well.

01:55:38.700 I mean, my show starts tomorrow at 11.30 a.m.

01:55:41.120 I'll probably review the debate some more.

01:55:42.400 Danielle Smith is at 9 a.m. 0.98

01:55:43.900 on Standard tomorrow morning with her show.

01:55:46.260 She might speak to this.

01:55:47.720 And of course, we do these things.

01:55:48.760 So make sure you subscribe.

01:55:49.880 Whatever channel you're watching on,

01:55:50.940 we appreciate you coming in.

01:55:52.260 But, you know, hit that like and subscribe button

01:55:53.840 so you can know when we're doing these events

01:55:56.060 and these sorts of broadcasts

01:55:57.380 because otherwise you'll miss them.

01:55:58.800 And, you know, you're not seeing this on the mainstream television channels.

01:56:02.400 And viewership was great today.

01:56:04.100 Yeah, we had a lot of people tuning in, a lot of good discussion going on in the scroll.

01:56:08.880 You know, it makes it interactive this way.

01:56:10.300 I mean, this beats TV.

01:56:11.060 You can get in there and then scrap back and forth with each other a little bit or compliment and have commentary.

01:56:16.120 You know, the old school television, you couldn't quite do that.

01:56:19.620 You know, just that other reminder, particularly on Rumble, you know, follow us there.

01:56:23.140 If you're following us on YouTube right now, you might want to move and follow us on Rumble anyways,

01:56:27.200 because we got thrown into YouTube jail

01:56:30.160 for a little while there at one point

01:56:31.700 due to some stuff on the Danielle Smith show.

01:56:34.960 You just never know, unfortunately,

01:56:36.220 when you will get censored

01:56:37.120 and getting this direct flow of information

01:56:40.440 and discourse is really important.

01:56:42.680 Hopefully we're cutting over to Matthew

01:56:44.000 pretty soon here, guys.

01:56:45.620 And we'll just keep babbling aimlessly

01:56:48.160 until it happens.

01:56:49.460 So what else do we cover on this point?

01:56:53.780 I can tell you more about my chickadees.

01:56:55.800 Your chickadees, yes.

01:56:56.600 You and your chickadees. 0.97

01:56:58.560 I hate that bird. 0.99

01:56:59.880 I hate that bird. 1.00

01:57:00.960 I'm going to kill it. 1.00

01:57:01.920 Maybe tomorrow morning. 0.99

01:57:03.980 Let's look at some of the commenters.

01:57:05.500 You know, I mean, there's some heated folks too.

01:57:07.260 Hot Rod saying Pierre is going to win or he'll switch.

01:57:10.840 You know, people draw their lines on certain candidates.

01:57:13.280 This is going to be a ranked ballot of some sort, I imagine, or something like that.

01:57:19.300 Getting back to explaining a bit of how this race works too.

01:57:21.320 I mean, it's going on until September 10th.

01:57:25.020 And that's a long campaign period.

01:57:26.780 There's a lot of time for things to change.

01:57:28.640 That's why I don't think we're going to see anybody,

01:57:29.800 even though it seems like it's the top two.

01:57:31.320 They've got time to grind and get things rolling.

01:57:34.140 And we've got to remember that it's a weighted ballot.

01:57:37.260 Just because you win a lot of support in one region or another,

01:57:39.440 it will not win you that race.

01:57:40.560 You have to get support across this country.

01:57:42.940 And I think that's what Charest is really riding on.

01:57:45.060 Yep.

01:57:45.440 Well, currently, I don't think he's got much at the moment. 1.00

01:57:47.700 I think the West currently belongs to Polyev,

01:57:50.280 and Quebec belongs to Charest.

01:57:53.500 And, you know, those are the starting blocks.

01:57:55.680 Now they have to whittle away at each other's power base.

01:57:58.740 And the other candidates are hoping that they can come up the middle 0.82

01:58:01.960 and, you know, almost do what Erin O'Toole did in the last debate

01:58:07.460 when everybody was pretty sure it was going to be Peter McKay.

01:58:10.880 Yeah, it's not over by any means, as you said, too. 0.98

01:58:13.520 Lewis was a real surprise that that other race, you know, she really came up there. 0.99

01:58:17.600 That's part of where I was a little surprised tonight. 1.00

01:58:19.440 I mean, you know, before she was a little restrained, things like that.

01:58:22.960 But with that, well, she hasn't been in the House of Commons.

01:58:25.360 She's, sorry, I'm just looking at the Commons to see if people are ready on the outside over there.

01:58:35.240 So, but, you know, she didn't seem to have come across much stronger this time.

01:58:39.040 So it's hard to.

01:58:40.820 Oh, it's in his practice, right?

01:58:42.880 I mean, Paulieff has been in seven elections.

01:58:45.700 He keeps mentioning.

01:58:46.920 It's a lot of time practicing speeches in Parliament.

01:58:51.380 Same with Jean Charest, he's a lifelong politician.

01:58:54.380 He's got the, he's got the oratory down.

01:58:56.380 Good.

01:58:57.380 Scott Atchison, long time MP is, is also got, also speaks very well.

01:59:03.380 So maybe it may be something that's Lesley Lewis has got to learn and try and try and

01:59:08.380 get a bit better or more of a stage presence. 0.99

01:59:10.380 I think that's what she was missing.

01:59:12.380 Yeah.

01:59:13.380 And well, we'll see if it evolves over the course.

01:59:15.380 There's lots of people saying thank you and goodbye.

01:59:16.380 So maybe we'll cut over to our people on the floor pretty soon, I hope.

01:59:20.380 I hope. And, uh, in the meantime,

01:59:22.120 we will just keep continuing to talk and hope that you hang around until we have

01:59:25.440 more interesting stuff to say. So, uh,

01:59:29.020 we have any word from Nico and the people in Hamilton.

01:59:32.880 Just getting some sound things together that we do have Matthew on the floor

01:59:36.460 there. And then, uh, yeah, hopefully we'll come in with some,

01:59:39.280 some commentary and comments to see, you know,

01:59:42.100 give his interpretation of what he's seen there out at the debate itself.

01:59:45.500 If we still have any viewers left at that time. Yeah. And, uh, well,

01:59:49.360 Who are your guests coming up tomorrow?

01:59:51.260 Who do I have coming up tomorrow?

01:59:53.700 That's a good question.

01:59:54.480 I don't have my...

01:59:55.560 Sorry, I threw you for a...

01:59:57.640 I've got Tony Bernardo from the...

01:59:59.500 I need stuff to talk about.

02:00:01.140 From the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

02:00:02.900 By the way, they're a sponsor,

02:00:03.980 and we can throw some of that out there too.

02:00:05.320 You know, things that help us keep these shows going.

02:00:06.940 We've got Bitcoin Well.

02:00:08.600 They're a great company

02:00:09.360 if you're looking to get into digital currencies.

02:00:12.160 And as I said,

02:00:12.900 the Canadian Shooting Sports Association,

02:00:14.240 I'll be talking to Tony Bernardo.

02:00:16.700 And I have somebody else on,

02:00:18.220 And I haven't, uh, can you talk to Tony about the

02:00:20.860 proper gun I'm going to need to get that chickadee?

02:00:23.020 A chickadee gun.

02:00:24.100 Yes.

02:00:24.480 I can ask him what sort of a firearm is most

02:00:27.600 appropriate for chickadee disposal. 0.96

02:00:31.540 I like chickadees, you know, I'm a sour, miserable man.

02:00:34.720 Not at 4.30 in the morning, Corey.

02:00:36.580 Day after day after day.

02:00:38.680 So, you know, and here's another one that's

02:00:39.720 interesting and again, a guy came out, I think

02:00:41.380 quite strongly, uh, Chris Gibson saying he was very

02:00:43.720 impressed with Babbert.

02:00:45.060 Yes, I thought he was, did well.

02:00:46.660 solid, you know, he's kind of an outsider. He came from the Ontario legislative side. He got kicked

02:00:52.740 out of the provincial parliament they have there. But he's not, I guess you could say sort of like

02:01:00.120 Derek Sloan was when he was the outside anti-mandate sort of candidate coming from that

02:01:05.440 direction. He's more level-headed. I mean, he's certainly standing on the ground of that. I mean,

02:01:10.140 that's where he's built his support. That's why he got kicked out of that party. But he's clearly

02:01:13.940 a reasonable well-spoken smart guy and and he's won some uh support at that uh he had a rally in

02:01:20.580 calgary uh earlier this week uh i don't know if rally is the right word he had a gathering small

02:01:25.460 gathering and spoke to that but i think uh tonight would be the first time a national audience has

02:01:31.140 got to to hear him speak and i thought he did well quite well for himself yeah and uh you know again

02:01:35.700 and that's what gets me is a lot of people hadn't heard of ever before this you know these events

02:01:40.420 this sort of streaming things like that this is how they can reach out across the country because

02:01:43.620 they need that cross-country support. And again, that's where I'm mystified with this absence of

02:01:48.440 Brown. And that was something that was interesting too. When you have a moderator actually called out 0.65

02:01:52.480 Brown basically and said, okay, everybody's got 30 seconds to take a swipe at Patrick Brown who

02:01:58.320 chose not to show up here today. They're actually relatively easy on them. They did. And it was

02:02:04.880 really only Polly that took the opportunity for the free shot. But yeah, I mean, there were some 0.85

02:02:12.040 good lines uh tonight i thought uh uh what was it about uh poly i've said with charay uh there's

02:02:19.140 a few that he took at charay i said there's a liberal on this stage and oh wow look there's

02:02:24.840 thank god great and we i wish so matthew pay attention to us over here um oh maybe not um

02:02:34.960 maybe he's not got the sound in yeah but it's as you can see the the room's clearing and they're

02:02:39.940 but they're having some discussions.

02:02:42.000 Pamela Jones-Kenny saying, yeah,

02:02:43.220 what are your thoughts about Brown missing in action?

02:02:44.900 And I'm just mystified.

02:02:47.880 All right.

02:02:49.600 So the debate just wrapped up and it was very lively.

02:02:52.680 There were lots of boos, lots of cheering,

02:02:55.140 lots of attacks on candidates. 0.97

02:02:58.120 Leslie Lewis was surprisingly, she was powerful. 1.00

02:03:01.220 Even in her opening remarks, she was the loudest 1.00

02:03:04.120 and she did many attacks on candidates for several reasons.

02:03:07.180 And she attacked Pierre Polyevre for saying that he was initially against vaccine passports and lockdown.

02:03:15.840 She rightly pointed out that he was not.

02:03:18.500 Pierre Polyevre seemed to have been, not trying to be biased, but the winner tonight.

02:03:23.020 He went head to head with Jean Charest several times.

02:03:27.540 And there was one moment when Jean Charest or Pierre asked Jean how much money he received from Huawei.

02:03:34.440 And he did his classic, you know, just the number, please.

02:03:36.840 and Jean Charest would not give an answer, and it didn't look very good.

02:03:42.000 Jean Charest tried to do a rebuttal and accused Pierre of going back on what he said

02:03:47.240 and saying something different in English rather than French,

02:03:49.900 but it didn't really seem to stick.

02:03:53.540 But yeah, then we had Scott Atchison,

02:03:55.880 seemed to be bringing everybody together, trying to bridge the gap.

02:04:03.400 We had Roman Babber, of course, talking about lockdowns,

02:04:06.240 his history growing up in the Soviet Union and the parallels he sees with what's been going on

02:04:10.000 in Canada over the past couple years. And yeah, overall, a lot of a lot of good moments. I was

02:04:17.780 live tweeting the entire time. You can check out the videos I posted. And I'll be doing a story on

02:04:22.500 that tonight and really digging into what happened tonight. But overall, it looked like

02:04:26.980 look like Pierre might have been the winner. We got Rachel here. We're going to see what she

02:04:32.580 thinks about that rachel emmanuel uh what did you think of tonight who do you think uh one do you

02:04:36.740 think there were any clear winners or was it uh undecided yeah so based on audience reaction i

02:04:40.900 think that pier poliev was definitely the favorite no surprise there everyone is kind of expecting

02:04:44.660 him to win the leadership race obviously there's still a lot of time left though so anything can

02:04:48.660 happen it was definitely a very lively debate one of the more interesting ones that i've seen uh

02:04:53.060 you know a lot of little digs here and there they really kept it lively and i like that the

02:04:56.340 moderators moved the pace along very quickly sometimes these debates it can go on for such

02:05:00.420 a long time but i really felt like it was very quick they kept the clip short and moved on to

02:05:04.260 the next questions fairly quickly only allowing a short amount of time for rebuttal so it was really

02:05:08.180 great i was fairly impressed with the whole production i thought everyone performed really

02:05:11.300 well you know there was a lot of uh polyev versus shire on attacks um those two were really going

02:05:16.260 at it quite a bit and then we saw roman baber off his side he was really painting himself as

02:05:20.020 a champion for the unvaccinated i think he really you know tried to set himself apart that way he's

02:05:25.060 obviously relatively unknown i would say he probably has the lowest visibility of all the

02:05:28.500 the candidates so I think that's a smart angle for him to try to find an audience of Canadians

02:05:32.520 that he feels are untapped currently and pull those voters over and then of course we have

02:05:36.700 Leslie Lewis who's painting herself as a champion for the social conservatives and the family issues

02:05:40.940 we definitely see a comparison there with her and with Baber but again Baber's sort of pulling

02:05:45.840 himself away from that a little bit more specifically going for the unvaccinated not so

02:05:49.360 much the social conservative issues and we've even seen that a little bit with his commentary

02:05:52.720 online about abortion seems something that he's unwilling to open and then of course you know we

02:05:57.560 We have Lesley Lewis attacking Pierre Polyev on his record on COVID-19 pandemic policies.

02:06:02.720 At the beginning, out of the gate, she attacked him twice really hard.

02:06:05.100 She said, where were you at the beginning of COVID-19?

02:06:07.400 You know, you were really quiet on these issues for a really long time.

02:06:10.180 And she's obviously trying to win over some of his voters or at least be ranked on the ballot shortly after he is.

02:06:15.720 So she understands there's some similarities between him and her there.

02:06:18.960 And she needs to attract his voters in order to win the leadership.

02:06:23.160 Yeah. What did you think of Scott Atchison's performance tonight?

02:06:25.320 It was notable that when the talk came to the CBC, Scott was the only one who said that he would not defund the CBC.

02:06:31.040 He talked about not wanting to burn the whole thing down.

02:06:32.900 What did you think of his performance tonight and his setting himself apart in terms of funding media?

02:06:36.960 Sure. So we have Jean Charest, obviously, as a progressive conservative on the side.

02:06:40.160 You know, a lot of people just like to attack him for being a liberal.

02:06:42.500 Of course, he was a former Quebec liberal premier.

02:06:44.760 That's something that Pierre Polyev continues to attack his record on.

02:06:47.460 And then we have Scott Atchison, who is also sort of a progressive.

02:06:50.120 And we've seen that in his policies, as you mentioned.

02:06:51.880 You know, he didn't say he wanted to defund the CBC.

02:06:54.000 He said, I don't want to burn the whole thing to the ground.

02:06:56.080 I want to refocus it.

02:06:57.200 I want to rework it.

02:06:57.900 I think they do a lot of good work.

02:06:59.500 And we saw that, again, with some of his other policies.

02:07:01.320 For example, most of the candidates on the stage tonight were very critical of COVID-19 lockdowns, as were most conservatives.

02:07:07.040 And Ashton sort of said, well, you know, they were necessary because of where we saw our health care system, our health care system was so fragile.

02:07:13.500 And so we weren't really sure what was going on at first.

02:07:15.680 And that's why it was so necessary to have these policies.

02:07:19.720 For sure.

02:07:20.340 Now we're going to bring in Franco from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

02:07:23.320 He's going to give his thoughts on what we just saw.

02:07:25.900 Franco, we didn't see any talk, I think, about the budget being balanced and brought down.

02:07:29.880 What do you think of that?

02:07:30.820 Yeah, that was disappointing that that conversation didn't happen.

02:07:33.580 We didn't see any talk about a timeline or a concrete plan to actually balance the budget.

02:07:37.720 Now, we did hear some bits and pieces on where they're going to find some savings.

02:07:40.980 Most noticeably, many of the candidates up there were talking about defunding the CBC.

02:07:45.760 That's more than a billion dollars every single year the taxpayers are required to send to the CBC.

02:07:50.660 That shouldn't be happening.

02:07:51.400 But we also heard about ending the $600 million media bailout.

02:07:55.080 So on those two specifics, that was good.

02:07:57.500 But unfortunately, we didn't get any concrete plan out of these candidates on when or how they're going to balance the budget.

02:08:03.260 Indeed, there was not a lot of talk about that.

02:08:04.840 And carbon taxes, a little bit of talk about that.

02:08:06.980 Did you see what you would have hoped for that?

02:08:08.920 Well, the carbon tax issue was the number one thing we wanted to hear.

02:08:11.940 We wanted to hear from all candidates that they would scrap the carbon tax and replace it with nothing.

02:08:16.660 Now, maybe I'm mistaken.

02:08:18.860 Maybe I missed it.

02:08:19.800 But the only thing that I heard about the carbon tax up there came from Mr. Polyev when he said he would fight carbon taxes.

02:08:26.140 Now, I do have to bring up something.

02:08:28.140 Not one time on that stage did I hear anyone say that they support carbon taxes.

02:08:32.140 So from all the pundits a few months ago that said that carbon taxes were a debt issue and carbon taxes are here to stay, that's simply not true.

02:08:40.240 It's not a debt issue.

02:08:41.520 And it's pretty clear that I didn't hear any support for a carbon tax on stage.

02:08:45.800 And that's good news for taxpayers.

02:08:47.780 For sure. Well, it's too bad we didn't see some of the things you would have liked.

02:08:50.200 Maybe next debate. Fingers crossed, right?

02:08:52.480 Well, next debate, we need candidates to be proactive and give taxpayers a concrete plan

02:08:57.220 and a concrete timeline on how they're going to stop the deep dive into debt.

02:09:01.300 For sure. All right. Anything to add, Franklin?

02:09:03.320 Well, one other good thing that we heard from a lot of these candidates was actually on accountability.

02:09:07.380 We heard a few different candidates say that they would repeal or stop or scrap Bill C-11,

02:09:13.260 formerly Bill C-10, which is the online censorship bill.

02:09:16.080 So it's great to see multiple different candidates actually come out here and speak out against unelected bureaucrats, putting our online content under their microscope, because that's bad news for government accountability.

02:09:28.120 Absolutely. All right, Franco, thank you very much.

02:09:29.900 Hey, guys.

02:09:30.180 Always good to have you.

02:09:32.420 All right. So there we have it. Very lively. Lots of different opinions going on here.

02:09:37.600 We have Derek of the Western Standard.

02:09:40.780 Hi, Derek. How's it going tonight?

02:09:41.920 a little i don't know just got in ottawa time just barely to to catch the debate but it was

02:09:48.400 the first time we've really managed to see uh the approved candidates all on the same stage

02:09:53.420 together uh able to open it up and they didn't disappoint that they did not uh was there anybody

02:09:58.300 you were particularly impressed with tonight who maybe surprised you uh well leslie lewis seems to

02:10:03.740 have a much better grasp she has more uh composure over herself she's much more confident candidate 0.98

02:10:09.600 standing on the stage now than we would have seen a few years ago when she faced off against Peter 0.86

02:10:14.480 McKay, Derek Sloan, and Erin O'Toole. She's a much more serious candidate this time. I've said

02:10:22.160 before, I underestimated her last time around. We did not take her seriously. It wasn't just the

02:10:26.680 mainstream media that didn't take her seriously enough. I didn't take her seriously enough. A ton

02:10:30.760 of us did not. I think she's taken more seriously now. Jean Charest, I think, was, well, what we

02:10:39.400 would expect did you think that he kept his composure my i i seem to see him being a little

02:10:44.100 bit uh getting angry not really uh holding his composure compared to pierre paulia when they

02:10:48.400 were going at it yeah he um under a lot of conservatives are expect have a hard time

02:10:55.380 taking criticism from the right they don't believe it's real jean chariot uh you know if if a

02:11:01.520 new democrat says ah well you're you're terrible because you cut taxes once well he'll be able to

02:11:08.180 take that but being called out on more conservative issues in an internal conservative race like this

02:11:13.360 he kind of withered under the attack of it he did not stand up to it with the composure you'd expect

02:11:20.520 of a guy who's been in politics since i was born and i think before you were born um he he did he

02:11:27.460 withered under it quite a bit he um he seemed to resent it in the way that you see other conservative

02:11:33.040 of leaders across canada uh are unable to do accept criticism from their right over you know

02:11:37.720 say covid restrictions you see this with it's the kind of look on his face that you'd see from like

02:11:41.900 jason kenny when he gets attacked from the right uh from critics on the right for for the kind of

02:11:46.880 things he's doing um but he should have expected i think from a guy like your polliver polliver

02:11:51.600 even if you don't think this guy should be the leader or the prime minister he is a deadly

02:11:56.780 sniper of an opposition mp as a finance critic he finds the he finds the target and he gets

02:12:04.420 under their skin and he and he hones in and he asks the same question over and over you see

02:12:08.780 you saw you saw up here on this stage saying uh asking how much got paid by huawei how much

02:12:13.640 how much just the number please a classic attack by pier yeah yeah and then uh you know uh classic

02:12:19.280 defense and really from any politician you know sheree was saying uh well just nothing he just

02:12:24.140 ignored it yeah how much how much just just the number yeah pierre points out that reflection and

02:12:29.020 the trying to get away from it he he does that masterfully yeah and uh and that i think that

02:12:33.180 really got under sharae's uh sharae's skin a bit yeah what did you think of scott atchison's

02:12:37.580 performance tonight i i would say that he was um the least noticeable he didn't get into any big

02:12:41.580 spats with anybody no big zingers he even at one point you know said i don't have anything to add

02:12:45.980 on this subject and then gave kind of a wish-wash answer what would you think what he was doing well

02:12:49.820 actually i i disagree with you i think the least noticeable candidate was patrick brown

02:12:54.300 oh for sure yeah and he got attacked by the moderator too yeah uh i don't know why he's

02:12:59.340 here uh patrick i will get the address in but just brown for a second um just uh the other week uh

02:13:05.660 patrick brown apparently rolled through calgary where we've got like like a ton of reporters

02:13:13.260 probably i would imagine that our readers are the kind of people that patrick brown trying to run a

02:13:17.740 conservative leadership race would probably want to talk to he didn't tell any media he met with a

02:13:21.820 couple of ethnic groups and buggered on out yeah uh he's running this bizarre underground campaign

02:13:28.700 i mean it's it's it's like the it's a clandestine campaign and he's not showing up here to a big

02:13:35.340 room full of pretty influential conservatives this is a pretty big event on the annual conservative

02:13:40.620 calendar the only other comparable one is the annual conservative stampede barbecue in calgary

02:13:45.660 this is the other big event and he wasn't here it is strange i i've seen someone online saying

02:13:50.060 maybe he's he's running more for the re-election as mayor brampton who knows right uh perhaps uh

02:13:56.220 but yeah atchison um i think it was a big missed opportunity for atchison i i don't think the guy

02:14:01.340 ever really had a realistic chance of winning but that's not necessarily why anyone ever run

02:14:05.740 why everyone runs for leader i'm just trying to get your issues out there make a name for yourself

02:14:10.860 um he's he's got the audience he's got the podium today uh i think a lot of the crowd probably

02:14:16.540 naturally identify and agree with many of his issues but uh i don't know he seemed to lack

02:14:21.980 the fire in the belly he's not very i think he's newly elected i don't think he really gets the

02:14:26.300 kind of cut thrust of the big stage like this beyond the constituency politics yet absolutely

02:14:31.260 well i i'm hearing for um that we're about to go back to the studio anything else to add before we

02:14:35.180 we go uh everybody at the congress studio uh don't drink all my beer there we go that's from derek

02:14:42.380 uh so i think we're gonna hand it off now um as i said we're gonna be interviewing leslie lewis if

02:14:47.840 we can get down there in time and uh writing a story and all weekend we're gonna be here covering

02:14:51.520 live events seeing what's going on the conservative party and on the on the rights and it should be a

02:14:55.980 fun time so this is matthew horde parliamentary bureau chief uh signing off great and uh for

02:15:02.640 people familiar with the saying that chip has already sailed that applies to the beer that was

02:15:06.320 in the fridge around here. Uh, when the cats away, the drinkers will play. So thank you, Matthew

02:15:12.720 Horwood for covering that though. And thank you everybody for tuning in. And as you said, there's

02:15:16.800 a whole weekend worth of events. This is going to be, this is the conservative Mecca for the year.

02:15:21.200 There's going to be speeches. There's going to be presentations, keep watching on all of our social

02:15:25.600 media channels. We're going to be broadcasting these things. We're going to be putting them up

02:15:28.720 there. And hey, make sure to subscribe to the Western

02:15:31.660 Standard, westernstandard.news. You can take out a

02:15:34.880 membership. This is how we can keep doing these broadcasts. We

02:15:37.180 can get you this information that the mainstream media just

02:15:39.820 doesn't provide to you. So thank you all for tuning in.

02:15:42.460 Thank you, Dave Naylor for sitting with me through this

02:15:46.020 today. My pleasure. Commentary. We got to be back in

02:15:48.460 bright and early tomorrow, writing more stories and columns

02:15:50.920 in the works. James and Nico and everybody else, Rob, we've

02:15:54.280 been putting this together. Thank you all. And we will see

02:15:57.580 you all later. I'll be back on at 1130 tomorrow morning.

Western Standard - May 05, 2022

SPECIAL BROADCAST： The first Conservative Party of Canada Leadership Debate.

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