Western Standard editor Cory Morgan and editor-in-chief Jared Yager join host Derek Fildebrand and co-host Niels Hannaford to discuss the chaos that is the Canadian Conservative Party, including the firing of a controversial member of the party, Dallas Brody, for a controversial tweet about alleged mass graves in Kamloops.
00:13:05.600Jared, I want your sense of, within the party, which narrative is winning out?
00:13:13.640You know, the NDP's accusations against Dallas that Rustad seems to at least in part have taken that she was mocking sexual abuse survivors or, you know, her own defense that no, she was saying that there's an objective truth.
00:13:31.500There's no such thing as your truth, my truth, her truth, et cetera.
00:13:36.400Where do you get a sense the caucus on one hand and the broader membership on the other are going with?
00:13:43.900Are they backing Rustad or Dallas on this?
00:13:47.700I think when it comes to this issue, you know, it's important to find the truth about their residential schools.
00:13:55.220And Rustad even said, you know, I agree with her, there were no graves found.
00:13:59.540But in the grand scheme of things, I don't know, a lot of people, they're just not willing to die on that hill, right? Because it is such a catchy situation. You know, you, you talk about the fact that there were no bodies found. And, you know, it's a, a lot of people see it as a slippery slope to saying maybe the residential schools weren't that bad or downplaying the atrocities that happened there.
00:14:26.720And so the sense I get is a lot of the MLAs and people within the party that kind of playing it safe and just avoiding stepping into that territory and focusing more on the things that really matter to everyday voters, you know, bringing down the food, housing and things like that.
00:14:49.260Within the party, though, what's where, you know, there's kind of two big, important groups here. There's the membership on one side and the caucus on the other. Like, BC conservatives in the caucus and the membership kind of have to take a side on this. I mean, maybe they can, you know, for tactical reasons, try to stay quiet or neutral. But where are people coming down on this? I mean, this is now a crisis in the party.
00:15:14.180They've lost three MLAs in a matter of a couple of hours.
00:15:18.200It took John Rustat less than two weeks to lose three MLAs.
00:15:22.420It took the BC United Liberals four years to lose that many, really, by the end.
00:15:29.060I think this is not something that can be swept under the rug and move past quickly.
00:15:33.660So between the membership and the caucus, where do you think most people are coming down on?
00:15:37.880How great is the divide in the party between these two sides?
00:15:41.180honestly within the caucus i i don't think it's that there's that much of a division and and you
00:15:49.380saw like the the two two other members who who left alongside brody i reckon they're the most
00:15:55.740you know the most on her side there may be others in the party who who feel the same but like i
00:16:03.980said it's just not a hill that they want to to die on and we'll see how that plays out for them
00:16:09.540politically as this becomes more and more of a, of an issue of a wedge within the party itself
00:16:16.760and, and in the membership. I just personally don't know how much it matters to the average
00:16:22.920voter. Yeah. Just to add, I think something that made Rustad probably feel he was cornered a bit
00:16:28.440too, though, is this moved beyond a clash of two different ideas into an MLA calling out another
00:16:33.800MLA within her own caucus, which is a different line crossing as well. You don't want your own0.97
00:16:38.220team to start fighting with each other publicly anyways you know we know how badly they fight
00:16:43.180behind closed doors but when she went on to widowson's podcast and directly targeted another0.77
00:16:48.300mlaian within her caucus that's also a potential precedent and conflagration that i could see set0.50
00:16:54.860off alarm bells for rusted like i've got to nip this in the bud because this really can take off
00:16:58.940just despite what people may feel on either side so it kind of put them in a tough position to be
00:17:03.140enemies yeah yeah because you had uh one of i think was the house leader i can't recall her0.95
00:17:08.180name but she's difficult name she's she's indigenous uh and you know by dallas's account1.00
00:17:14.900she was that emily was screaming at dallas like right in her face i i can't verify that's just
00:17:20.100that's just her account of it you know it's sometimes there is no win situation and he got
00:17:25.520a fisher cut bait but it seems to me rustat should have sat these two in the room i other women so i
00:17:30.660I guess you can't fiscally grab them by the cuff and slap them upside the head.
00:17:34.020If they were boys, I'd say maybe do that.
00:17:38.300Not quite so literally with the ladies, but you've got to sit them down and say,
00:17:43.500okay, you two are going to, good pun, bury the hatchet here.
00:17:47.160You've got to figure your shit out, and you're going to get on the same team.
00:25:36.000But they're going to want to at least put together a bit of a new game plan.
00:25:39.300The question is, how much did he do already behind the scenes?
00:25:41.860Because, I mean, he was expecting to walk into it. He won with 85, 86 percent of the vote, officially at least. And so, you know, he was already making calls, putting together a list of star candidates to be cabinet ministers. We've learned from CBC Radio Canada. Did he essentially have the team already writing the platform for the party behind the scenes before he came in? How far ahead do you think he is?
00:26:04.800I think what he actually needs is a signature speech.
00:26:07.940He needs some sort of a we will fight on the beaches type of a speech
00:26:13.460to lay out his plans and present him as the authentic national leader
00:26:19.700that he, you know, if there's a national emergency, that's what you need.
00:26:23.920And many people would say that this is a national emergency.
00:27:28.660You've only got, if you've only got one week, I mean, that's again, assuming that he's been working behind the scenes because the cabinet's important.
00:27:33.920People have to remember there will be a caretaker government working during the election and that will be the cabinet.
00:27:38.280So it is important that he's selected people to fill those roles as events come up and pass through that.
00:27:45.620And again, we're speculating on how much he, how much he had done prior to getting crowned as the leader of the Liberal Party.
00:27:54.200has he got a campaign team put together for a general election has he got the funding put
00:27:59.040together he's he's got a lot to do in a short time and and as nigel said he's got to at least0.93
00:28:04.460have that kickoff then he's got to define who he is where he's going what he's going to do
00:28:08.500and he really hasn't done that yet i see the throne speech is a potential opportunity for
00:28:13.760that i mean if you can kick it down that far you know they've done that before you use it i mean
00:28:18.640they're just reading what the prime minister has written and you can basically have that as your
00:28:22.700election kickoff and then just dissolve the house the second yeah but you know it's read by the
00:28:27.060governor general it's kind of hard to put a partisan punch into that they don't know he's
00:28:31.460the two ones just indirectly but he's gonna but it's not as good you're not it's not a state of
00:28:34.940the union where you get to read it yourself no no it shouldn't because people do want to see
00:28:38.020Carney I mean people have heard of him but honestly aside from political weenies like us
00:28:42.280go out in the street with a picture of Mark Carney and ask your average person if they can
00:28:46.520identify him and I doubt very many people could at a glance and it's surprising I guess people
00:28:52.240like the liberal brand is giving them a bounce but carney himself people don't know him and
00:28:56.920they're gonna start paying attention a little in this next month so he he'd be well served to kick
00:29:01.460it off on his tone and and uh you know he's he's got to get it together fast you know it i still
00:29:09.620think the conservatives are favored to win the election but it's no longer a total slam dunk
00:29:13.520but they're going to get this historic super majority the liberals are going to get utterly
00:29:17.340crushed 1993 PC, Kim Campbell style. Um, you know, I think there are a lot of voters,
00:29:25.520particularly East of Manitoba that embrace the Laurentian elitist, you know, and he is smart,
00:29:34.600uh, relatively articulate. He's rich, powerful. Um, and he's a progressivist and internationalist
00:29:42.020like justin trudeau but he doesn't have that back fife in gesicht a punchable face you know
00:29:49.540you look at justin trudeau you know there's a lot of people just they just want to punch him in the
00:29:54.220face he's got an annoying face and he's got an annoying voice they just hate everything about0.84
00:29:57.780him now mark carney doesn't have that he does not have an annoying voice and he does not have an
00:30:03.120annoying face and maybe that's enough to save them well certainly i remember writing something along
00:30:37.780and the liberals so you know we're hoping that we get to get the election call here quickly if we
00:30:43.540if we don't want mark carney uh no he's um this is somebody writing in another newspaper
00:30:51.860he's the snooze button for older liberals uh you know i don't normally tip to other newspapers but
00:30:59.860i thought that was quite a good who coined that one that's good it was in the national
00:31:03.460post i don't remember who it was mark carney is the liberal snooze butt yeah you know it is we've0.53
00:31:09.200got rid of the crazy guy now we've got somebody sensible everything will be all right now
00:31:12.820everything will not be all right but they don't know that because they don't get into politics
00:31:17.900the alarm will come back on he's just snoozing but he is a good contrast to justin i mean justin
00:31:23.960even on the way out had to carry his chair and have his tongue hanging out of his head like an
00:31:27.680imbecile walking out of the house of commons people were tired of the clown they were finished0.83
00:31:32.600with justin everybody was sick of justin liberals conservatives alike and this is quite the opposite
00:31:37.480this is a very restrained controlled uh gentleman and dull but maybe people are ready for dull uh
00:31:45.000dull can sell at the right time especially in when the world seems to be going wild around them
00:31:49.500okay well speaking of the world going wild around them thank you for the uh for the segue uh cory
00:31:56.760uh whose trade war is it anyway um it's our our danger in this segment is not sound exactly like
00:32:07.080we did in this segment last week where we're just saying like it's just crazy we're on again we're
00:32:13.100on again off again we still want to get an off again it's still going on uh cory why don't you
00:32:20.200kind of set up uh what the hell is going on well this it's the ongoing thing nobody can really
00:32:26.480figure out what trump wants i mean i think people have been trying to hey we'll accommodate you just
00:32:32.100just give us your bloody demands i mean you're throwing out all the punishments but not telling0.71
00:32:36.520us what we're supposed to do it's like beating a dog before he's even pissed on the rug yet i was
00:32:40.880gonna say it's like shooting on only digits before making uh your demand for the money yeah some
00:32:44.660people are getting exhausted they're getting frustrated it was interesting with doug ford
00:32:49.260looked like he was taking the stance we're gonna take you on we're gonna go toe to toe i'm gonna
00:32:54.060to slap back we're going to hit the electric rates and then much like trump in the sense a
00:32:58.040whole bunch of bluster and right when the zero hour came he folded like a cheap suit and took
00:33:02.280off and retracted everything so hour by hour we can't keep up on what the heck is going on and
00:33:07.820meanwhile the markets though and that's one consistent thing they hate instability that's
00:33:12.160always been a rule of business and it shows because day after day after day they just keep
00:33:16.740plummeting as they don't know what to expect and what they're getting uh don't i want to talk about
00:33:21.740doug fort particular here i mean he's generally been the most aggressive pitbull on so-called
00:33:27.580team canada here and he says i'm gonna shut off the electricity then he kind of moved that to
00:33:32.180a surcharge of i think 25 on electricity going to a certain northern uh northeast states um
00:33:41.180and then you know trump's response was he's like well you're not allowed to do that well you're
00:33:46.420not allowed to do anything you're doing because you're tearing up uh comes out the latest silly
00:33:50.600name for NAFTA that we have. Everyone's operating outside the rules here. And, you know, whatever
00:33:56.800else, even if you're sympathetic to Trump, this is clearly outside the rules of the USMCA or
00:34:02.960CUMSA, whatever the hell we're calling it now. But Ford says, I'm going to turn off the electricity
00:34:10.320or I'm going to put a big surcharge on electricity, go on to the states. Then Trump says, fine,
00:34:16.080I'm doubling the steel and aluminum tariffs, to which Canadians seemed utterly stunned to be like, well, you can't retaliate to our retaliation.
00:35:02.400And as a result of the stand that he took, we're getting a meeting next week with the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick.
00:35:11.060You know, people need to talk to each other, and maybe there are things that the Commerce Secretary has been delegated that he can do that might be helpful.
00:35:23.040Meanwhile, on the south side of the border, your comment about folding like a cheap suit basically sums up the editorial opinion, especially out of Fox News.
00:35:35.200But, you know, it wasn't like ABC was that impressed either.
00:35:39.620It's just, well, you know, that was a quick, easy win for Mr. Trump.
00:35:45.400So, trying to make sense of it all, first of all, it shows that you actually do need to be speaking as a united voice.
00:35:57.160And right now we've just got, we don't have any leadership from the federal government.
00:36:02.120And I know that I would trust leadership from this federal government anyway.
00:36:05.980But it's kind of an odd thing that Doug Ford would be out there in front
00:36:10.020saying he'd take his own personal reprisals against the Trump administration.
00:36:17.740And I don't know, where was the national backing for that?
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