Trudeau fights Liberal caucus revolt
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Summary
The Western Standard's Derek Fildebrandt and Corey Morgan join us to discuss the growing number of rebel Liberal MPs calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down. They also discuss BC's election stalemate, and how to deal with it.
Transcript
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Good day. Today is October 23rd, 2020-24. I am Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western
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Standard, and you're watching The Pipeline. I'm joined, as always, by Western Standard
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Don't get into yourself. And Western Standard senior Alberta columnist, Corey Morgan.
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We've got a very full show today. So much politics. Trudeau is fighting back a liberal
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caucus revolt. Yes, 24 liberal MPs have put their names to a letter saying, please don't
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run. We don't want to lose our seats. We're going to talk about the incredible stalemate
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of BC's election, which is not yet really decided. Days later, we still really don't
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know who the government of BC is going to be yet. We're going to bring in the Western
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Standards, Alberta, sorry, British Columbia Bureau Chief for that. And we're going to
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go to the election in Saskatchewan, which has been so boring so far, but it's actually heated
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up. We've got polls showing the race is tightened up. Some actually showing the NDP in the lead.
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And some very interesting topics, issues that have bubbled up there from our reporter, Chris
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Old Corn. Okay, so gentlemen, we're going to start in Ottawa with what's going on there.
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So this has been coming for some time. There's been some dissent in the liberal caucus for
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some time. But finally, 24 liberal MPs put their names to ink and paper today and presented
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it to Justin Trudeau at a caucus meeting, calling on him to step down for a variety of reasons,
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generally, mostly that they are quite convinced and probably correct that they will lose the
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election if he stays on as liberal leader. And he, Justin Trudeau said, well, that's that's
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very nice. But go stuff yourself. This came up incredibly, actually, we'll turn to Paul
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Liam's reaction after we've got some great video of that. But let's talk about this first. We'll
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start with you, Corey. The liberals don't really seem to have a lot of fire in their belly. I mean,
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to go after the leader is a big political move. And 24 of them had the guts to put their name to
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paper. I suspect it's actually quite a bit more in there, because even if they like the guy and
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everything he's done, they don't want to lose their seats. For most MPs, this is the best job
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they're ever going to have. Trudeau has said, nope, I'm not stepping down. In fact, the liberals are,
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quote, strong and united. Every single word of that sentence is a lie. But how strong a hand do
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the rebel liberals have here to try and get Trudeau to step aside? Not much. I mean, there's no
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mechanism if they can't get up more of them to stand up and put their names forward and push on
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this. But they're flailing. I guess they could hope that if they can keep pressure on him, keep
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pressure on him, he'll finally relent and give up. Or maybe some others will find the courage. I think
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some are, as you said, they're in the closet. They want him gone, but they're not going to come
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out in the open and say it, because they don't want to be the ones listed as being one of the
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treacherous ones. As they're hoping down the road under another leader, they're still in office. And
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they don't want to be one of the rebel gang, I guess you could say. But I just don't know. It's a
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dark comedy to watch what's unfolding with this. And it's only going to get worse. I just don't see
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what else will turn anything around. I disagree with you a bit that there's no mechanism. And
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I've seen this reported across the media today. The most obvious mechanism would be the Reform Act
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without getting too far into the weeds. It's a piece of legislation that came from a private
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members bill, Michael Chong, when Harper was prime minister. And it allows the caucus to remove the
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leader by secret ballot if they get a certain number of people in a petition requesting it.
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And every caucus is supposed to, by law, have a vote on if the Reform Act applies to their caucus or
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not immediately after every election when the new caucus meets for the first time. The liberals broke
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that law and did not even have a vote on it. So yes, they cannot invoke the Reform Act, it seems.
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But Nigel, I think there is a mechanism. And it's just the Westminster Constitution.
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That no leader can lead a caucus in parliament without the confidence of said caucus. Can the
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caucus not simply vote non-confidence? If, say, the numbers were there. The Reform Act codifies this,
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makes it a cleaner process in the era where the leaders are not elected from caucus, they're elected
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by party members at large. But is there really no mechanism? Or does just the old Westminster
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constitution allow the caucus, the Turfum, if they so choose?
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Well, theoretically, yes. But in that circumstance, the idea is that the governor general would then
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turn around and say, well, who is there who could form a government? And I think at that point,
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fine, there wasn't anybody who could form a government that would enjoy the confidence of the
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House. And he would just end up with an election anyway. And that's what I think has happened here this
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morning. He called a bluff and said, well, I know you don't like me. I know you think I'm leading you
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to certain defeat. We can actually test that theory before Christmas, if you really believe that is
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the case. I could call a vote. I could drop the rent tomorrow. Takes one short drive to the governor
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general's mansion. So if that's what you want me to do, ladies and gentlemen, I can do that. But I think
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the smarter way to ensure that your pensions will vest is that you go with me until next October
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and hope that nothing happens in the meantime to upset that. So what do you want? I hope we come
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strong and united. I think you got a bang on there. They can remove them constitutionally. Now,
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generally, if they vote on confidence in the leader, they're not expected to test their confidence in
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the House immediately that day. They could then pick an interim leader and present that as an interim
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prime minister and then test the confidence of the House. So there is ways. But the Reform Act
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really makes it nice and clear and clean, as we saw when the Conservatives ousted Erin O'Toole.
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That was as clean as the guillotine on Mary Antoinette. Like, that came off fast.
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Charming thing. Yeah. But I mean, they were able to defenestrate the leader extremely quickly and
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cleanly. And they moved right on the next day into the leadership race. So Trudeau, rather defiant.
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I, we're gonna, we're gonna play a clip here. It, I generally don't watch Question Period, but it was
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on in the background while I was working in my office. And it caught my attention. Because this was
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peak Trudeau. It, Polyev was asking some questions. Really ribbing. He was twisting the knife in Trudeau's
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ribs on this one. And, and it really got under the Prime Minister's skin. Let's, let's roll the video.
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Twenty-four Liberal MPs went to caucus, to his caucus today to tell him that he's not worth the crime,
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cost, or corruption. They wanted to tell him that he's doubled housing costs, doubled the national
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debt, sent two million people to the food banks. But he wouldn't let them. He silenced half of the
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dissidents. In fact, some were intimidated so much so that even Rosemary Barton, the Prime Minister's
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favourite journalist, said, people don't have phones in the room, and some people are going to the
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bathroom texting us. Mr. Speaker, will the Prime Minister text those dissident Liberal MPs, tell them to
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come out of the bathroom, and tell the whole world that he's not worth the cost?
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Mr. Speaker, in our caucus, people have always been free to speak their mind and have different perspectives.
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What is interesting, Mr. Speaker, is nobody in the Conservative caucus seems to have spoken
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out when one of their members got an all-expenses-paid trip to an extreme anti-abortion church in Florida.
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Nobody spoke out when one of the members on their front bench went and dined with white nationalists,
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far-right German nationalists, and nobody spoke up and is continuing to speak up when their leader refuses
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to get a security clearance so he can deal with foreign interference.
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Okay, so, Polyev, according to him, and it seems to line up with what I've heard, there were Liberal MPs who
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excused themselves from the caucus meeting to go to the bathroom, and they were texting Conservatives.
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So, Polyev really ribbing Trudeau, saying, you know, let your MPs out of the bathroom, you know, let them speak freely, and
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Polyev, Trudeau started with the fanciful notion that, oh, Liberals are all allowed to speak freely.
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I've been a politician. No one in politics is allowed to speak freely in any party, particularly the Liberals,
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but no one is. But then he just couldn't help himself. Question about the Liberal caucus revolt
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against himself? Well, you know, well, abortion. Ah, extreme abortion. And then, oh, white nationalists,
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Germans even, he brought up. Let's start with you, Nigel. This is the kind of reflexive go-to area for,
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you know, the saying, what is a racist? Someone winning an argument with a Liberal. You know,
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this is the go-to progressivist attack when they're under fire, when they have no good logical arguments
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to make anymore, they just say, racist. They point the finger. That's what Trudeau's doing here.
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Absolutely. Well, of course he is. I mean, where else is he going to go? Used to be said that the
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patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, while calling other people racist is the last
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refuge of an embattled Liberal Prime Minister who doesn't have any friends sitting on the same side
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of the house as he's standing. So, kind of sad that he goes that way, but frankly, a tactical victory
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for Pierre Poilievre. You know, there's another thing coming up here that he's going to have to
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take note of in a, well, actually, as soon as next week, because the Quebecois put him on notice
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last week that, come October the 29th, they would be looking for an answer from him on whether he was,
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had second thoughts about backing that. Meeting their demands, yeah. Meeting their demands,
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which were extra pay for old-age pensioners. You know, the block where Blackwell has my vote,
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I must confess. But he's got through this one. He's got to get through the next one.
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And this is going to be probably a tough weekend for him. Not that I care about it.
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Yeah. Corey, this was obviously, one way or another, it's a bad day for Justin Trudeau.
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When you have roughly a fifth of your caucus on paper demanding you go, which is more than the
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result, I think, on paper demanding that O'Toole go in the petition demanding a secret ballot vote
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on the Reform Act. That's a bad day. And Poiliev came in and, as I said, he put the knife in Trudeau's
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ribs and just started carving and made it as uncomfortable for him as possible. But, you know,
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there's an old saying in politics that when your enemy is destroying himself, don't get in his way.
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Do you think this was a wise move for Poiliev to come in and twist the knife here?
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Or does going after him unite the liberals? Because, you know, he's their common enemy.
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A lot of them might be after Trudeau right now. But by making himself so present and inserting
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himself into this internal liberal debate, is he getting in the way of the liberals cutting
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I don't think so in this case. I think he's opening a wound larger that's there. And it's humiliating.
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The liberals who are quietly sitting on those benches, all parroting. I mean, they all came
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out of their thing with the exact same words. Strong and united. Strong and united. Strong and united.
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And that's a group that came down with the law rained down on them saying, shut up. This is your
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line. This is what you're going to say. And they there's a lot of unhappy faces in there. And we
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know as well as anybody when your own caucus is upset and starts leaking from within. I mean,
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that's the thing that Poiliev was getting at, too, with the bathroom leaks. Jason Kenney certainly
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learned what happens. I mean, that leak can turn into a waterfall when they're frustrated. They can't
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speak openly anymore, but they can really undercut their leader quietly from within. And I think
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Poiliev is going to try and exacerbate that. And I think it'll be effective.
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Yeah. So I remember thinking back to, you know, when Daniel Smith and the Wild Rose were really
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going for the throat of Alison Redford. But then Alison Redford dropped so low in the polls that the
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Wild Rose realized that Alison Redford was their meal ticket. If Alison Redford stays the PC leader,
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they're going to win the next election. The Wild Rose is going to win the next election.
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faced real internal caucus revolt, the Wild Rose
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at her because they wanted to save her. And so that's kind of the other side
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to the question I was asking you before, Corey,
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Pauliev is trying to save Trudeau, I think. I think he's better with fighting Trudeau than
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anyone else in the next election. To a degree, but how long do you drag it out? I mean, he's got his
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own battles. He's got his own thing to hold together. He's got, I mean, they are riding high
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now. You want to get to those polls now because they can change in here. And if you can cause that
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party to crack or collapse, because even if Trudeau does get replaced, if that's the worst,
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you know, yes, you've knocked him out, you're your best ally. There's no savior in the wings,
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I don't believe at this point, that can turn that party around. It could improve the fate
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of a Trudeau led election. But I don't think there's any, the liberals are going to be in
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the wilderness for at least an electoral cycle. And I don't think Pauliev wants to gamble on trying
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to facilitate Trudeau being in longer, just to get score bigger points if and when the time comes to
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get the election. I don't think so anyways. All right. All right. Well, let's turn to our
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friends, Westerer from us on the West Coast. We're going to bring in Western Standard, BC Bureau Chief
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and Managing Editor of West Coast Standard, Jared Yager. Jared, you are pretty tired, I'm sure,
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from following this long BC election campaign, which as they now do with fixed election dates starts
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effectively much earlier than they officially do. But the results were astounding. The initial,
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the unofficial results so far, 46 NDP, 45 conservative, two green. So, but there's a pretty good chance,
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right, that these unofficial results could switch. Why don't you break it down? It's especially,
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in particular, two constituencies in BC where there's automatic recounts taking place and the margins
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are pretty thin. Why don't you break that down for us? Okay. So, yeah, as you said, it was 40,
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46 NDP, 45 for the Conservatives. But in those two writings, Juan de Fuca, Malahat, and Surrey Centre,
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the NDP won those two by 23 votes and 96 votes respectively. And so there's still 49,000 mostly
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mail-in ballots that need to be counted between the 26th and 28th. That's the final count. So there's
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a pretty good chance that the Conservatives could pick up those two writings. And if everything else
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stays the same, then that gives them a majority. But most of the mail-in ballots are coming from
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more rural areas, areas where the Conservatives have already secured the seats. So there's also
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a possibility that they could go in the NDP's favour and maybe lead to an NDP majority or kind of keep
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things out there right now. I've seen some commentary about Juan de Fuca in particular.
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So for folks who don't know, Juan de Fuca, does that include Esquimalt? That includes the Esquimalt
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naval base, right? I believe so, yes. All right. So that's the major Canadian naval base. Yeah,
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I know that's a bit of an oxymoron, but at least in terms of what we have, it's Canada's major
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naval base on the West Coast. So there's a lot of military personnel there. Military personnel
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tend to skew heavily conservative in how they vote, and they would have a lot of mail-in ballots
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in particular. And that's the closest one. That's like, I think you said like 22 votes.
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That could flip in a recount. Yeah, 23. A hundred votes could flip in a recount, but it's a lot harder.
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I mean, the initial count is generally fairly accurate. A few things can move. A hundred votes
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moving from one side to the other. That's a steeper hill to climb. But it's not an implausible scenario
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that the Conservatives maybe take Juan de Fuca. So it goes 46 Conservative, 45 NDP, but then two green,
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which would still leave, that would leave the Conservatives in a, with a plurality of seats,
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but not a majority. I'm interested in how the, how you think the Greens will react here,
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because the Greens are obviously much more ideal, have a more ideological affinity with the NDP here.
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But the last time the Greens backed the NDP in an effective coalition supply agreement,
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the NDP turned around under John Horkin and screwed them, called an early election, broke the deal so
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that they could go for a majority taking advantage of a panic around COVID. So the NDP are, the Greens
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are more, are much closer ideologically to the NDP. But who do you think they would dance with if,
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say, the Conservatives have one more seat than, than the NDP here, but still not a majority?
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Well, yeah, in the, in the press conference yesterday, Evie was asked this question,
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and the reporter brought up the fact that in the last days of the election, the NDP was going
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pretty hard at Green Party voters telling them, oh, you know, don't, don't vote for them, vote for the NDP.
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And so I don't know if they can bounce back from that and, you know, regain the support of the,
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of the Greens. And like you said, it happened last time. Who's to say this time,
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they won't do the exact same thing. But then again, based on what Sonja Furstenau has said
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about John Rustad and the, the Conservative Party itself. I don't know, personally, I doubt that they
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would join forces with a party that's that diametrically opposed on climate change, which
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is the Greens biggest issue. Yeah. Nigel, that's, that's, that's my inclination. I think there's
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probably some hurt, more hurt feelings between the NDP and the Greens. They compete for a very
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similar voter pool. The Green leader lost her seat to the NDP. She tried to switch seats. And the NDP
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threw a disproportionate amount of resources to stop her. They really wanted to stop her because they
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really want to kill the Greens if they can in BC because they're, they're bleeding vote on, on the
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more extreme left flank of their party. But the ideological affinity is, is just so much closer.
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I don't really know why a BC Green party exists when you've got the BC NDP. Can you imagine a case
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where the, where the Greens would actually back the Conservatives here? Well, not in this case,
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no, because John Rustad, the reason that he left the Liberals when they were still the Liberals,
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was that he fell out with the leadership over this very matter of climate change. And they said, well,
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if you want to go and spout this nonsense, off you go. So off he went and now he's there and they're not.
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So it's kind of pretty clear how the public has spoken on that. But the, given that start to the thing,
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I can't imagine how the Greens could, that would be cynicism. And one thing about the Green party,
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you know, you laugh at them, you mock them, you think they're, I say you, I really mean me. But at
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least there's a purity of spirit about them. They actually say what they believe in. They put their
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hand on it and they spout it. And you think, where are they coming from? But you know that deep in their
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hearts, they believe what they say. I have to admire that. And the other thing, you say, well,
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why would it, why would there even be a Green party when you've got the NDP? Don't forget,
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there are two, there are two bricks in that NDP wall. There's the, you know, there's the blue color,
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what's left of it. And then there is that, that green sentiment, which is quite strong in the NDP.
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So I guess the, the Greens would, you know, drink their coffee with the, with the NDP greeners and
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maybe carry on cutting the, the blue collar guys who are totally opposed to them. It could work.
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Corey, so it seems to me, unless the Conservatives could achieve an outright majority on their own,
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there's not going to be such a thing as a conservative minority government here, especially
00:22:39.760
because they're not the incumbent. The NDP has the first right constitutionally to test the confidence
00:22:44.960
of the BC legislature. And they could probably offer some pretty juicy carrots to the NDP.
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Who knows, maybe even formal coalition, the first Greens to sit in a cabinet. I don't really know what
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the aversion in Canada is to this. I think some of it comes from the coalition crisis of 2000 and,
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2008, yeah. I think that kind of tainted the word coalition because it was trying to bring the
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bloc into it, which was a, it was a bridge too far for, for many people. But constitutionally,
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there's nothing wrong with coalition governments. Um, if you're, uh, David Eby and, uh, you need
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those two green votes to stay premier, uh, how far are you willing to go?
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I think you go fairly far to court it, but he's got cards to play too. I mean, just after an election
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this contentious, the electorate will not smile on any party, bringing that government down fast.
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I mean, they've got some breathing space to say that they're going to try things, uh, find cooperation.
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John Rustad says he's going to do it right away if he can. Yeah, I know. And I gotta, he could say
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that, you know, but I mean, he's sitting in two options. He's either going to not have the numbers
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to do it or he's going to have a majority. That's, that's the two options really ahead of him. So he
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can say such things, but to actually pull them down shortly after, I think whoever, whichever party
00:24:09.200
did that would be very harshly treated, including the greens. If, if they were a kingmaker and they
00:24:14.720
went down on a bill that wasn't a real hill to die on with the NDP. I think if they're looking at the long
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game, maybe he's got to talk to the greens and they got to figure something out. As you said,
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why not? You know, give a cabinet spot, try to find something formal to entrench this for more
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than a couple of years. But I, their back isn't fully against the wall either. I don't think they're
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going to get, I mean, the conservatives and greens aren't going to get together to tear down
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an NDP minority. Well, anything's possible, but I see that as a very unlikely scenario, unless
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EB tried something very aggressive policy wise to start out the new government. So it'll be very
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interesting to watch. They got a lot to consider. Well, that actually is interesting because really
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neither party has a mandate. No, it's so close. What is it about 30,000 people? Maybe Jared knows,
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but, uh, something in, in with like 1.6 million people, um, turning out to vote there's like they're
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about 30,000 apart. Is it something like that, Jared? It was around there. Yeah. It's pretty close.
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Um, I mean, talk about divided down the middle. Uh, Jared, let's talk about, uh, the NDP courting
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dance of, of the greens here. Uh, the greens to me always stand for two things, uh, fight against
00:25:26.640
global warming and more seats for themselves, which means proportional representation in some form.
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Uh, uh, the, uh, have the NDP made much in the way of noise about saying, Hey, if you're going to want
00:25:41.600
our support in this, uh, government, you're going to have to give us proportional representation?
00:25:48.160
Um, not really. No, nobody's really came out with anything yet, but, uh, yeah, at his press conference
00:25:54.080
yesterday, EB was asked if he would consider proportional representation and he kind of dodged the question,
00:25:59.600
but I think, uh, yeah, above, above everything else, I think that's the greens biggest, uh,
00:26:06.000
push right now. First enough, she mentioned that numerous times throughout the campaign.
00:26:10.720
And I think, uh, yeah, I mean, we, we've already had a number of referendums on that issue
00:26:17.440
and British Columbians have made it pretty clear how they feel, but I don't know, maybe after
00:26:22.960
an election like this, where it's so close and there's just gridlock and, you know, who knows
00:26:29.600
if anything is going to get done, maybe they'd be open to it this time around.
00:26:36.400
Yeah. I think that's, uh, that's the funny thing. And, you know, those are two big things
00:26:41.600
that greens care about, but I bet you they would let the world burst into flames and warming if it
00:26:46.880
meant that they got proportional representation. Uh, and I, and I feel for them, uh, you know,
00:26:51.920
there's been times like, I think the NDP got, um, what was it? Uh, did they get close to 10% in BC?
00:27:01.760
Oh, in the, in the federal election? No, no. The one you just had.
00:27:08.240
You see the NDP. Oh, sorry. I misspoke. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Like what percentage do the, uh,
00:27:13.120
the greens get? Um, Oh, of the, the popular, yeah, it was, it was pretty, pretty low under 10%.
00:27:21.840
Yeah. Either way, the NDP, the greens at small parties in general always get less seats than their
00:27:28.560
percentage would otherwise given a, in a strict PR system. Uh, but you know, they, they seem always
00:27:34.400
intent on foisting it on a public when changing the electoral system requires, uh, for democratic
00:27:41.600
legitimacy requires a fairly broad degree of buy-in and from the two major parties. If one party just
00:27:48.240
changes it on the other, it's seen as rigging the system. And, and, and that's, I think one reason
00:27:52.960
this, this, this tends to fail. And it is funny to note that, um, the, we're in provinces where the
00:27:58.400
BC, uh, sorry, we're in provinces where the NDP are competitive to win government. They never support
00:28:04.160
proportional representation because they can win a majority government in jurisdictions where they can't,
00:28:09.920
like, uh, I don't know, federally. The NDP seems to really like the idea of proportional representation,
00:28:16.880
which is why on this whole debate around PR, I've just come to accept your position on
00:28:22.480
proportional representation has 99% to do with, does it benefit the party you vote for or not?
00:28:29.440
I'm surprised that you are so cynical about the process, Derek. My word.
00:28:34.560
When I belong to small parties, I like proportional representation. When I haven't,
00:28:38.800
I hated it. I, I, I, I was just being honest with myself and I thought, uh, you know what? Yeah,
00:28:44.160
my position on it really just tends to align with, does it benefit the party I vote for?
00:28:48.800
Well, sure. Like going way, way back, I can't forget which columnist it was that wrote on that back when
00:28:53.280
I led the Alberta independence party, but he brought up me as a, a foiled against proportional
00:28:58.560
representation was discussed at the time. Just saying, you know, if you had PR, Corey Morgan
00:29:02.560
would probably be sitting in there with four lunatic separatists next to him in the legislature.
00:29:07.280
It's the best argument I've heard. Is that what you want? I was like, bring it on. But, uh, no such
00:29:11.920
luck. Yeah. No, I mean, I think it's a fair comment that if you have PR, you probably get a
00:29:17.280
succession of unstable governments because you're not making deals on the side.
00:29:21.760
Is that happening in Italy? No. Okay. That's because they're Italians.
00:29:25.600
Well, we're going on a rabbit hole now. But yeah, I mean, but like, uh,
00:29:29.920
almost every country in continental Europe has some form of it. Um, uh, the Italians have it,
00:29:37.120
but, uh, I, I'm attributing that to them just being Italians. All right. Uh, Jared,
00:29:41.920
thank you very much for joining us. Uh, we'll let you get back to work. Go in BC there.
00:29:45.760
All right. Uh, we're going to turn now to our friends, uh, just east of us. Uh, we're going
00:29:52.080
to bring in Saskatchewan, uh, uh, Western standard Saskatchewan bureau chief and managing editor of
00:29:57.520
Saskatchewan standard, Chris old corn, uh, Chris, uh, you've been, uh, on the campaign trail, uh,
00:30:04.800
quickly, uh, closely watching things, uh, election coming, I believe Monday, right?
00:30:10.160
That is correct. Uh, early voting has opened, uh, it opened yesterday, but, uh, yeah,
00:30:15.040
the election day is on Monday, the 28th. Okay. So I know, uh, you've written an analysis piece
00:30:21.280
today, uh, that, you know, this was an extremely boring election, but it's become, uh, much more
00:30:28.960
exciting now. Uh, much of it actually, uh, in fact, due to the reporting, uh, that you've done
00:30:33.680
that, uh, you know, there were, uh, in this grade seven class, there's biological males who are allowed
00:30:39.200
to use the girls' room, uh, uh, that it gets crazier. It's not just, there's two biological
00:30:44.640
males in the seventh grade, they're brothers. So mathematically it's nearly impossible that they
00:30:50.080
would actually be transgendered. This is, this seems odd. And, uh, but it all seems to make sense
00:30:55.040
when you learn that they are the children of ABC NDP, uh, sorry, Saskatchewan NDP MLA.
00:31:01.280
Uh, that's, that's, that's kind of really, uh, injected some, uh, some interesting life into
00:31:06.960
the campaign that had otherwise been pretty boring. Yes. Uh, up until that point, the campaign had
00:31:13.040
basically been the NDP harping on education and healthcare, but, uh, just like education spending
00:31:22.320
needs to go up, nothing really beyond that. Uh, and then healthcare, they were just pointing out,
00:31:27.200
you know, issues with Saskatchewan healthcare, uh, which regardless of whether or not the NDP or
00:31:32.400
the SAS party is in, they still have the same healthcare issues as every other province in
00:31:36.080
Canada. Uh, except the NDP seem to think that they can wave a wand and all of a sudden all kinds of
00:31:41.040
doctors and nurses are going to move here, uh, and want to work in rural Saskatchewan, uh, which is
00:31:47.360
clearly, uh, you know, pie in the sky, uh, hopefulness, uh, as if that was the case, the SAS party would
00:31:54.560
have been able to already do it. Um, they're going to fix the problem. The way the SAS party
00:31:59.520
is going to fix the problem now is, is that they've just increased the amount of nurses and
00:32:03.200
doctors were training in the province and then making it, uh, making them want to stay in the
00:32:10.000
province. They've, uh, I mean, one of the boring things that the SAS party originally ran on, uh,
00:32:15.520
when they began this campaign was raising the income tax. So you would pay less, uh, that would
00:32:21.360
basically remove about 59,000 people from the tax rolls. But then the other thing was the
00:32:26.560
graduate retention bonus. They increased that as well, depending on how many years you went to
00:32:31.520
school in Saskatchewan to get the nurses and doctors and other professional medical people
00:32:37.200
in particular to stay here once they finished school. Okay. All right. Uh, well, I want to talk
00:32:42.240
about, uh, some of the polling here, uh, to date, uh, I want to see if you're, you're, you're changing
00:32:48.480
your tone here. Uh, to date, you've been pretty confident that the Saskatchewan party has got this
00:32:53.120
in the bag that the NDP were going to gain some seats, but math was just too difficult for them
00:32:59.840
to get to a majority government. But, uh, there is a new poll out from, uh, CTV and then Citrix,
00:33:06.560
uh, research, uh, that has the NDP at 50%, the Saskatchewan party at 45% and, uh, 5% for others. Now,
00:33:16.320
um, even if the math is difficult for the NDP because they're just so unpopular in rural Alberta,
00:33:22.960
uh, at a 5% lead, even an inefficient vote will generally triumph in the end. Um, what are your
00:33:32.080
thoughts? That poll is from Insitrix. And all I will say about that is if you go to 338 Canada,
00:33:38.080
you will find they get the lowest grade of a poll in all of Saskatchewan history.
00:33:42.800
It's not worth the paper it's written on. As a matter of fact, when 338 put the numbers in from
00:33:48.640
that Insitrix poll, the amount of seats the Sask party was going to win actually went up a seat.
00:33:54.640
Uh, that poll is not, let's just say Insitrix is filled with people who were former NDP staffers.
00:34:02.240
Uh, and that poll is to try and influence, uh, people to vote to the NDP. But as far as if you
00:34:08.640
actually did a real poll like Angus Reed or something, you find that the SAS party is up by
00:34:12.480
at least 10%. So you have not changed your prediction. Uh, you're, you're solid that the
00:34:16.880
SAS party has got this, uh, just with the reduced majority. Yep. 3822. Um, if anything, that Insitrix
00:34:23.280
poll because of its, the, the, the method that they used, um, I can see actually why the seat count went
00:34:30.560
up for the, the SAS party by one seat actually. Nigel, I want to, uh, let, let, let's make sure
00:34:36.160
I saw you wrote that down. Uh, we're going to hold Chris, uh, to account on these numbers.
00:34:42.720
Uh, he better, you know, if you're wrong, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna rub it your face,
00:34:46.640
Chris, uh, go ahead. Uh, you can rub it in all you want, but, uh, there's not gonna be nothing to
00:34:51.040
rub in. So I'm fine with that. Um, well, actually, uh, what happened, you've got a couple of fringe
00:34:58.800
parties there who could bleed off just enough votes. They're at 5% and in this particular
00:35:04.480
poll, this particular poll, 5% could make a difference. Who knows? What do you think?
00:35:09.680
Uh, well, that's split over several parties. Um, the PCs are going to get, you know, their usual
00:35:15.120
around 1% of the vote. Uh, the Buffalo party is doing well in a couple of ridings, but when I say
00:35:20.560
doing well, we're talking mid to high teens, uh, and same with SAS United, uh, none of them are
00:35:27.280
actually pulling really high enough to win seats. Um, and particularly when Mo came out, uh, with
00:35:34.720
regards to our story about Belgonia elementary school and saying that, uh, the first thing is
00:35:39.360
government would do with the ministerial order, that biological boys would be in the boys change
00:35:44.480
room and biological girls in the girls change room. Uh, that kind of ate the lunch of the SAS United
00:35:49.200
party because that was their thing, parents' rights. And, uh, even the SAS United released
00:35:55.520
a press release, even stating that, you know, Mo sold the idea from them. So with Mo now willing
00:36:01.360
to do that, and that's the first thing he's going to direct his minister of education to,
00:36:05.680
he's once again solidified his party for the time being anyways, that, uh, they are the party of
00:36:11.280
parents' rights. So one other thing, Chris, when last week we had a, uh, an item that ran and talked
00:36:19.280
about the, the way in which the tide seemed to be turning on the trans issue. And we pointed out that
00:36:26.640
in new, it had started in New Brunswick where Wayne Higgs, the premier had been the first among the
00:36:33.120
premiers to actually say, this is rubbish. Let's not do it. And then of course it spread in Ontario
00:36:40.560
and in Saskatchewan where Scott Mo picked it up and Danielle Smith came out very strongly.
00:36:46.480
Now what we saw this week was that Blaine Higgs went down rather badly in the provincial election
00:36:52.960
there. Do you think possibly we misunderstood the popularity of, what shall we say, the traditional
00:37:02.800
pro-parents' rights, uh, feelings across the country? And that, that could be a problem for Mr. Mo?
00:37:10.560
No, because I think, uh, if you look particularly at federal polling, uh, Saskatchewan is by far like
00:37:17.040
even more conservative than, uh, Alberta is. Like this province is going to go completely blue
00:37:22.720
in the next federal election, including Saskatoon and Regina. Um, the east coast tends to be a bit more
00:37:30.000
of a liberal stronghold. Uh, obviously it's crumbling a bit now under Trudeau. Uh, but like when he
00:37:35.040
came to power, he swept the, the east coast, um, that didn't happen in Saskatchewan. Here people are
00:37:41.040
much more conservative. There's been a few polls, uh, questioning things about, uh, parents' rights
00:37:47.200
since it all started like last year and consistently, you know, 85% of people here support parents' rights
00:37:54.240
either strongly or, you know, you know, they agree with it. Uh, so the, the crowd that, um, is I'll call
00:38:04.160
it anti-parents' rights. It's actually just small and vocal here, but there's not actually a large
00:38:08.800
amount of them. Okay, good. Um, which, uh, which this, the NDP is, has left this whole harping on the,
00:38:18.240
on the trans stuff. I mean, even in the debate, uh, Carla Beck only mentioned trans twice and as soon
00:38:23.600
as she mentioned it, she moved away. And even when she issued a response after Mo talked about the
00:38:28.880
ministerial order, she didn't say trans children. She just said vulnerable kids. So she has a hard time
00:38:34.160
even saying it in her, uh, press releases when she released, uh, that and also even on the debate night.
00:38:40.880
Well, is it that the NDP is, uh, just a, maybe, uh, perhaps a bit afraid of this as an electoral
00:38:49.600
issue or is it maybe that they, are they more moderate than say the NDP in other provinces? Because I,
00:38:55.040
you know, I, I, I've read, uh, during the campaign, I think it was Nicole Sauer, um, uh, who I think was
00:39:04.160
not even referring to women, but referred to menstruating people. That's rather extreme
00:39:09.680
ideological buzzwords, uh, that we don't even talk about women now. We just talk about various
00:39:17.200
functions of biology to come up as a shorthand of things. Uh, but I don't know. Is it that the,
00:39:23.600
the Saskatchewan NDP is perhaps more, more moderate than, uh, New Democrats elsewhere in the country,
00:39:28.640
or, or is it just that they, they don't think this is a winner for them in polls?
00:39:33.280
It's not a winner for them in the polls, but I would say if you compare them to the federal NDP,
00:39:37.200
they are more conservative. Um, like for example, there, most of them are against the carbon tax.
00:39:44.080
There are a few that are still very pro carbon tax. Uh, but Carla Beck, the leader has said that
00:39:49.280
she's against the federal carbon tax. So there are, there are members of the NDP who have
00:40:00.000
views that when you say them may make you chuckle. Um, Nicole, as you mentioned, she was calling people
00:40:09.840
in the ledge this past session, like in the spring session, uh, people who menstruate and she couldn't
00:40:15.520
say the word woman. Um, and that was getting chuckles even from people up in the gallery, uh,
00:40:22.080
where the speaker would have to tell people to like calm down and not make any noise.
00:40:26.000
Uh, but it's just a gut reaction for some people. Um, and they have others who are,
00:40:35.680
they say things that offend parents, for example, another, uh, NDP MLA. Uh, she's also probably going
00:40:43.600
to win her seat again here in, uh, Regina. She said that the people concerned about parents' rights are on
00:40:50.240
the far right of the fringe. Well, that's like 85% of the province. That's a big far right fringe
00:40:58.400
group of people living here. Apparently they, that some of the things they say are just completely tone
00:41:03.200
deaf, which I said in my story, they're like, I even entitled my story, Mo momentum. And the reason
00:41:11.120
is, is that the last two days Carla Beck is doing her momentum tour, but there's no momentum. Like they're
00:41:17.280
still stuck at the same amount of seats that they were expected to win even two weeks ago,
00:41:22.320
which is somewhere between 22 and best case scenario, 28 need 31 for majority.
00:41:27.680
So even if everything's perfect, there's still three sheets short on election night.
00:41:32.960
All right, Chris, I am having just all sorts of trouble with my earpiece today. Um, uh, Chris,
00:41:37.280
thank you very much for joining us. Uh, we'll let you get back to the campaign trail.
00:41:40.640
Thank you very much. Have a great day. All right. All right. That's it for Saskatchewan. Uh,
00:41:46.880
we're going to go to our, uh, our parting shots to close things off. We'll start with you today,
00:41:51.520
Corey. Sure. Well, that was a recent Western standard story that just kind of flipped through
00:41:55.920
the scroll, but stats Canada really released those numbers on electric vehicles. There's 1.3% of the
00:42:03.440
Canadian fleet or electric vehicles, a decade of having EVs shoved down our throat, subsidized.
00:42:09.920
Everybody told that we're going to swap barely over one in a hundred of the vehicles on the road
00:42:14.960
across Canada are electric. We've got to raise the white flag on this with these ridiculous
00:42:19.840
bands on manufacturing and sailing because it's messing up the market. And what it is going to do
00:42:25.440
when this collapses, I mean, even manufacturers are backing off on EVs is make, uh, internal combustion
00:42:32.160
vehicles extremely expensive for Canadians. When the time comes that they finally realized that
00:42:36.560
that's the only viable option. So I just feel that, uh, more noise needs to be made. If we're
00:42:41.840
going to pressure Trudeau into maybe retreating on something, get off these bloody electric vehicles.
00:42:46.560
They're not going anywhere. Well, you know, the, uh, the planned ban of, uh, real vehicles,
00:42:52.480
I think that's going to get scrapped when the liberals lose power next year, uh, very likely.
00:42:56.880
But, uh, if, if for some reason it continued, I'm going to be like, uh, Cuban and just be rebuilding
00:43:02.720
my, uh, my truck for the next 50 years. So, uh, Nigel.
00:43:06.560
Well, it's, uh, talking of the end of the age, you know, Mr. Trudeau made a brave show
00:43:12.400
coming out of that, uh, caucus meeting this morning, but you know, really nothing has changed
00:43:17.840
for him. His future is still in the hands of people who don't like him.
00:43:22.240
That would be the conservatives, the bloc, and the NDP. And really anything can happen.
00:43:32.720
All right. Well, my parting shot is, uh, uh, that's a bit, a good bit of a pun, a good pun.
00:43:38.560
Uh, Justin Trudeau just the other day, uh, put out an announcement reminding everyone that two years
00:43:44.800
ago he banned handguns from legal gun owners and how great that was that he banned, uh, or at least
00:43:51.520
he banned the sale of handguns, the legal sale of handguns. And that's going to do so much, uh,
00:43:56.480
against gun violence. Well, it began with the Toronto Police Union and was followed quickly
00:44:00.400
by the Surrey Police Union in British Columbia, uh, saying that's an insult to victims of gun
00:44:06.160
violence. It's an insult to law-abiding gun owners, uh, police, many of which are police officers to begin
00:44:10.800
with, uh, that your ban of handguns and sales to legal registered gun owners has done nothing to, uh,
00:44:18.880
cut down on handgun sales. And about 85% of the guns we confiscate in crime, we could trace directly
00:44:24.480
to the United States. So they told Trusted Trudeau to go stuff himself. And I think I speak on behalf
00:44:30.560
of, uh, all gun owners in Canada when we say we look forward to it being repealed in short order.
00:44:37.840
All right. That's it for the pipeline today. Uh, we want to thank you all for, uh, for being with us.
00:44:44.240
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00:44:48.240
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00:45:00.240
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