Western Standard - The Drill - Scheer Resignation! - December 12, 2019

00:00:00.000 You're here with The Drill and joining me today is the Western Standards publisher Derek

00:00:14.940 Vildebrand and Western Standard digital editor Paul Holmes and of course we have the big news

00:00:19.680 today Derek about Andrew Scheer just suddenly resigning no one saw it coming no one so a

00:00:29.560 little bit of background obviously there's been a movement to remove him what else do

00:00:34.780 we know at this point of the day it's 1130 Pacific time on Thursday December 12th

00:00:42.220 well there's obviously been quite a bit of a movement to remove him from the

00:00:48.220 leadership of the party we started getting some word yesterday that in the

00:00:56.520 review that was being done by former cabinet minister John Baird it it was

00:01:02.260 about to come to light that Andrew Scheer had been using party funds to pay it

00:01:09.360 whole or a part it's not yet clear for his children's private schooling now just

00:01:15.780 just to be clear is that is that is that confirmed or is that the rumor that has

00:01:20.200 now been confirmed today but that was about to break likely today where the

00:01:26.740 Western standard was not able to confirm and on the record source so we did not

00:01:30.400 run with the story but we knew the press gallery in Ottawa was hurrying around

00:01:35.080 trying to confirm it as well it probably would have been a pretty big knife and

00:01:41.980 shear at that point I don't think party members who are giving money to win

00:01:48.400 elections would be happy to see their donations going to pay towards so it's

00:01:51.400 private school right for someone who's lived in government resident got

00:01:56.080 mansions government mansions for a decade and it's obviously got the money to pay

00:02:00.300 for their own kids schooling if they don't want to send them to a public school

00:02:03.860 you probably remember in BC I believe I think it was Christy Clark that had the

00:02:09.580 the party was paying a stipend for her clothing allowance a fairly significant

00:02:16.460 clothing allowance and and that's not unprecedented it's not unprecedented for

00:02:20.240 parties to talk something up but in this case members were not told about it it

00:02:26.400 was done secretly it's it's a it's a not widely known fact actually that members

00:02:32.420 of the Conservative Party of Canada have no say whatsoever how the money is spent

00:02:36.200 even the elected National Council party it's actually run by a shadowy

00:02:39.460 organization called Conservative Fund of Canada right which is more or less just an

00:02:43.040 appointed shadowy group it's the fundraising arm right it's not just the

00:02:48.680 fundraising arm it gets to decide how the money is spent and so there's no

00:02:51.800 accountability to the and we were on a bit of attention but there was a fairly

00:02:55.820 significant story about to break and coupled together with really shaky caucus

00:03:03.380 support and very large numbers of members saying he should go with this about to

00:03:08.940 come I think the decision would have been made late last night that this this blow

00:03:15.080 would have been very painful even if he could survive it there would be more coming

00:03:20.080 so Andrew Scheer this morning addressed the Conservative caucus informed him he was

00:03:25.320 resigning and then stood up right afterwards in the House of Commons and and said he's

00:03:29.680 out there we go one and done but he's gonna he says he's gonna stay as the as the

00:03:35.640 leader on an interim basis now that he's given a notification of resignations

00:03:40.140 actually up to the conservative caucus to decide if they want a new interim leader

00:03:43.920 or not it's not up to him it's up to the caucus my guess is the caucus is

00:03:48.000 probably gonna fall in line and let him have this on an interim basis until the new

00:03:52.320 leaders chosen but we'll see if certainly the he commanded the support of the

00:04:00.580 previous caucus and I don't think it's changed a whole lot in this this

00:04:04.540 Parliament so yeah so I I suspect that's probably gonna be the I suspect he'll

00:04:09.700 survive till the replacement is chosen yeah and who's that gonna be Derek

00:04:16.420 Maxime Bernier I think I saw the Western Standard has put forth ten names don't

00:04:23.680 know how long that one's been already prepared actually that was written that

00:04:30.340 article came out either the very first day or the second day of the Western

00:04:33.400 standards existence there we go that was written some time ago we just

00:04:38.200 essentially replaced it and put it back up not much has changed the only thing we

00:04:43.520 would probably add to the list now is maybe Don Cherry should be on that sure

00:04:46.360 sure yeah I know this well so we could talk about the people on that list a

00:04:52.480 little bit maybe what I'll do is I'll just list the the the folks that are being

00:04:58.060 speculated and we could talk about the ones that maybe are not on there we have

00:05:01.900 Brad Wall former Saskatchewan Premier Rona Ambrose the former interim leader of the

00:05:06.700 Conservatives who of course did a very respectable job everybody sort of seems

00:05:12.460 to agree how about Jason Kenney Premier of Alberta Michelle Rample has a as a

00:05:18.340 popular following obviously very very significant on social media I'm not sure

00:05:25.420 about Maxine Bernier at this point but he's on there he's on the list

00:05:29.260 Max has done bolder things so as crazy as it is it wouldn't be the craziest thing

00:05:36.060 he's attempted to do absolutely Peter McKay that's you know waste from the

00:05:43.900 wilderness he'll be on any short list for the next conservative leader as long as he's

00:05:48.280 still draws breath absolutely John Baird takes a lot a lot of a lot of checkboxes

00:05:55.320 for electability Aaron O'Toole of course ran against Sheeran Bernier Pierre

00:06:02.620 Pauliev that's an interesting one I I'm I'm not sure about that one either and

00:06:07.900 then Candace Bergen I noticed that James Moore is not on the list number 11 way oh way out of there

00:06:18.040 yeah I mean James Moore's you know he's a respected guy he was a mid low to

00:06:24.340 mid-level cabinet minister under Harper jeez I can't think of a I'm not

00:06:30.280 including Jagmeet Singh as a British Columbian he parachuted there to get a

00:06:33.880 seat and that's fine that's a national leaders do that's okay the the last

00:06:37.540 British Columbian I can remember correct me if I'm wrong but I can't think of a

00:06:40.660 British Columbian leader of a national parties it's Kim Campbell yeah probably and

00:06:46.300 and how'd that go barely well I'm not blaming BC I'm looking to Kim Campbell

00:06:52.600 yeah there's been a few NDP leaders I think the Johnny Johnny McDonald was

00:06:58.600 representing he did a Jagmeet Singh he needed a seat and he went out to

00:07:02.480 Victoria he was from Kingston but yeah I suppose no but I thought

00:07:07.540 Victoria's recently repudiated its history with Sir John McDonnell so you don't get to

00:07:12.200 claim it anymore since it took the statue down yeah yeah I didn't personally

00:07:16.820 take the statue down just for the right I heard you didn't all right so um so yeah

00:07:23.120 do you want to talk about some of these these folks or should we leave that for

00:07:26.760 well we gotta you know some people said when we posted this article they said the

00:07:30.700 body's uh not even cold yet well that's because we wrote this a month and a half

00:07:34.640 ago uh but we you know it's obviously very topical we put it out um I I need to

00:07:42.400 like uh well Maxime Bernier but I don't think it's happening uh actually I talked to

00:07:49.360 Max this morning uh we're gonna be doing uh an exclusive with uh him on his

00:07:54.560 reaction but big surprise he's not coming back to run uh I actually think he did win

00:07:59.600 last time I I the results were destroyed before they even announced it I thought

00:08:03.420 I I think they were rigged I uh I don't think he's gonna try his hand again

00:08:07.560 I I don't uh I mean that was so close that you know anything is possible

00:08:14.040 it's like I I how do you feel about Epstein as well as that

00:08:17.440 I'm not being that conspiratorial well no no Epstein did not kill himself

00:08:23.680 like you don't you don't get into you don't get into inside job twin tower stuff

00:08:28.880 by thinking Jeffrey Epstein I think you are a conspiracy theorist if you think he did kill

00:08:33.360 him so um but I don't know I uh you know I think Rempel can make a strong run she's very

00:08:40.420 popular in uh in Alberta here especially around Calgary what about Brad Wall I uh I've always

00:08:46.140 respected him a lot well it'll be interesting I mean there was a lot of kerfuffle last time

00:08:53.560 about if there should be another western leader in a row I mean uh if you look at kind of the

00:08:58.340 broad historical lay of things you had Preston Manning Stockwell Day Stephen Harper and then

00:09:04.420 it was like well can we have another western leader and if you can if you include Andrew

00:09:09.660 Shearer as a western leader I mean like he's spent the vast majority of his career in Ottawa but

00:09:13.700 you represented us so sure um but we had a so we had another western leader you know Saskatchewan

00:09:20.260 being our little brother province um so that raises questions you know uh about an Ambrose

00:09:27.860 a Kenny a Rempel a Wall I really like Wall um I think he's probably have to have a bit more than

00:09:36.900 he deserves like he was a good premier of Saskatchewan but he wasn't this great reforming

00:09:41.720 libertarian conservative but he did a good job turning Saskatchewan around but I I think there's

00:09:48.040 going to be a lot of pressure to elect someone not from the west in this in this leadership

00:09:53.320 because if if we're kind of going through if the chronology goes to the reform party not the PCs

00:09:59.800 there's been western leaders since 1988 and uh so I I think Ontario is good Ontario or the east in

00:10:07.640 general is going to seem to want to have its turn in this leadership race so so if it is Ontario uh of

00:10:12.600 course one candidate that ticks every box uh is um Mulroney do you think she's uh I was wondering

00:10:20.120 which one I mean uh well not not the tv star but the other one well the tv star would be the more

00:10:26.920 comparable to our prime minister right now uh I don't yeah Karen Mulroney um I mean it's it's not

00:10:34.120 entirely fair to compare her to Justin Trudeau she has actually accomplished something in her life prior to

00:10:38.360 politics she's a she's an accomplished lawyer I think in corporate law but I can't say she's an 0.58

00:10:42.520 accomplished lawyer very intelligent gone on to do a lot of things um of course her family name has given

00:10:49.160 her uh profile that she would not otherwise have that's impossible to say it's not true uh but it's

00:10:55.640 much less true than it is with Trudeau where it was just simply the golden ticket that being said uh she

00:11:01.720 is very much a she is the definition of a Laurentian elite just on the Tory side of things uh so I I don't

00:11:09.800 think Westerners would be pretty happy uh the last time we had a Mulroney uh we got the reform party out

00:11:17.640 but will she run I don't know I mean she ran for the Ontario PC leadership did decent uh obviously didn't 0.51

00:11:25.320 win yeah you know there's you know there's been a lot of phone calls to her this this morning so oh yeah 0.82

00:11:30.280 I'm sure it's being chatted up uh it is possible that um she will I I I could see it as conceivable

00:11:39.320 she runs uh as the the Laurentian candidate I think uh the punditocracy has been saying that the

00:11:46.840 Conservative Party is too Western which drives me crazy they didn't even run on even minor tweaking of

00:11:51.960 equalization they didn't run on very much that was particularly strongly Western uh Westerners are generally

00:11:59.000 willing to vote for the Conservatives because uh they'll screw them less badly than the other main

00:12:03.800 parties right um but you know thank your island you're your own little world there um which is

00:12:11.640 kind of what I love about you guys yeah it's it's adorable it's it's a greenish orange yeah so uh but

00:12:19.080 yeah I know you could see someone like Carolyn Mulroney run as someone that the media like because she she 1.00

00:12:25.080 checks the boxes of an alarm and I don't want to take she's a very smart and capable woman but she's 0.53

00:12:30.040 not particularly conservative well and she's certainly not uh Western in her outlook a lot of

00:12:36.680 people and I would say in particular a lot of people in Ontario that are party supporters and and beyond

00:12:42.360 are going to be looking at electability that's where I think um you know they're going to be looking for

00:12:47.240 somebody moderate centrist somebody like her somebody like Peter McKay um you know I think uh I think when they

00:12:53.880 when the uh when the first polling numbers come in we're going to see names like that near the near

00:12:59.000 the top um you know in double digits anyway so well electability is important it it tends not to be at

00:13:06.280 the top of my list when I'm looking at candidates which is perhaps perhaps why I didn't make a

00:13:10.440 particularly good politician is I I just I vote for the most conservative the most Western candidate

00:13:16.680 every time can't imagine uh electability factors in but it's not in the top five yeah all right I don't

00:13:23.400 want someone who's going to get us nothing but uh you know it they want someone who's going to appeal

00:13:29.800 in the GTA and in Vancouver and Montreal and Quebec I mean you can do well with that if you're not winning

00:13:37.640 suburban Toronto you're not winning right that's the new sort of logic oh yeah that's our Ohio and

00:13:43.240 Florida you don't win that you're not in government that's exactly that's it but uh but I don't know

00:13:49.720 if I was the conservatives I would be very leery of picking someone who's not going to be very closely

00:13:54.280 attuned to western concerns right now uh westerners voted for the conservative party of Canada in

00:13:59.960 overwhelming numbers in the last election but they also did in 1988 and then in 1989 they started

00:14:06.920 electing reformers and by elections and senate elections uh so they've got to be very careful

00:14:13.400 with what to do they're between a bit of a rock and hard place are they going to uh continue to be

00:14:18.840 a western party as they're accused of being by the Laurentian media or are they going to be a more

00:14:24.360 Laurentian friendly party but risk uh giving an opening to some something new in the west which

00:14:32.440 has got a market for it right now but it's not yet there so long as there's a Saskatchewan leader

00:14:38.360 so if you had to predict today and that you know I know how much you love to do this who's uh who's

00:14:44.360 the front runner or who are the amongst the potential front runners uh when when uh the poll numbers start

00:14:51.080 coming out well we just don't know who's going to run yet um I mean the first poll will be speculative

00:14:58.280 anyway right yes somebody says explicitly that Jason Kenney will be on there um that being said

00:15:04.440 I'm really not sure he can run um I've always thought he would want to uh there's pretty strong

00:15:11.240 signs he does I'm not sure he will though for a number of reasons uh the RC I'm not sure how well

00:15:16.920 you're following this there but the there are some very serious RCMP investigations going on right now

00:15:22.280 that he might get away with in Alberta but could be very damaging nationally where people are less

00:15:26.440 willing to vote for a fence post as a conservative candidate uh as well as uh and this isn't really

00:15:34.680 this isn't something I thought of as an issue until about a month and a half ago until a month and a

00:15:39.800 half ago he could probably have a pretty safe bet of more or less appointing his successor I'm not

00:15:44.920 sure that's the case anymore if if he were to vacate the leadership of the Ontario uh the Alberta UCP

00:15:50.680 um there's a good chance a separatist could win all of a sudden you've got an independent supporting

00:15:57.640 government in Alberta without even an election um and I think that'd be a real danger so I I'm not

00:16:03.400 sure he runs I mean it is possible that he does so I think it is his ultimate ambition but I I don't

00:16:08.920 think he will because there's some pretty big circumstances lining up against them and as we

00:16:13.640 talked about on the pipeline this week you know he is um he's pretty firmly and um um um you know

00:16:20.920 he has a lot of fixing to do right now in Alberta and until he does that I don't see him making that

00:16:27.080 transition what he would claim is that he has to go to Ottawa to fix these things right I mean that

00:16:31.560 that would be his excuse but anyway uh if Brad Wall wins he'd be a huge uh sorry enters the race he

00:16:38.840 would be very hard to beat I think he'd be the instant front runner he'd have the support of the west

00:16:43.080 but you then have um you know the Laurentian media chirping away that oh this is just a western party

00:16:49.960 blah blah blah and well westerners want a western party right now and if they don't get it in the

00:16:53.880 conservative party they might look elsewhere there is nothing else right now uh that's likely to break

00:17:01.160 through I mean the PPC shares a lot of the values but it's not a western party yeah so but a western

00:17:07.240 party can't by definition be led by somebody from Quebec right as much as many westerners might like

00:17:13.960 the idea no I don't think it works fair enough all right uh any other comments before we wrap this up

00:17:20.520 uh geez um so much right there's a lot it's coming hot and fast uh there's a lot to take in but um

00:17:32.040 the conservative party is now going to have a bit of a bloodletting I Andrew Scheer did not go

00:17:36.200 willingly I think he was probably sat down by his inner circle and they said do it now or it's going

00:17:43.240 to go down bloody I I believe for some time it was inevitably he was going to go I didn't think

00:17:48.040 he'd go before Christmas but I think this saves him a lot of grief I think this saves the party a

00:17:52.360 lot of grief uh they won't have to spend uh especially since they're in a minority government

00:17:57.480 parliament here they have to have a leader up and running as soon as possible to face a general

00:18:03.160 election which will come sooner than four years from now and Andrew Scheer hanging on to the

00:18:09.800 spring when there was really little chance of him surviving it anyway was not very was not putting

00:18:14.360 his party first he's now um uh well I don't think this was necessarily done for the party it's better

00:18:20.600 for the party to get this out of the way so the conservatives would be probably wise to have a

00:18:25.400 leadership race that wraps up no later than the fall of next year all right well there you have it

00:18:33.240 um that is the drill the big news today um I was going to say Jason Kenney not Jason Kenney Andrew

00:18:40.200 Scheer vacates the leadership of the conservative party uh so lots more to come uh stay tuned to

00:18:45.560 westernstandardonline.com for the latest breaking news as it happens thanks for joining me today

00:18:52.840 derek fildebrand publisher best slice

Western Standard - December 12, 2019

The Drill - Scheer Resignation! - December 12, 2019

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