Erin O’Toole’s mid-campaign reversal of his previous support of conscience rights for healthcare practitioners compromises one of the two promises he made to social conservatives in an effort to win the Conservative leadership just one year ago. Pro-life writer and activist Jonathon Van Maren joined The Andrew Lawton Show to weigh in on social conservatives’ place in O’Toole’s Conservative party.
CBC admits to pushing out fake news about a Conservative MP
It’s Fake News Friday on the Candice Malcolm Show! In today’s episode, Candice discusses how CBC cooks up fake news and how they got caught this time. The CBC ombudsman was forced to admit its article was “manufactured” “bent” “inaccurate” “sensationalized” and that “CBC failed to meet standards”. Plus, Candice discusses a concerted effort by the legacy media to paint conservatives as racist and tells you why you should never trust the media’s “take aways” or advice to conservatives after elections.
Taxpayers group blasts Liberals over first quarter deficit figures
Recent figures by the federal government’s fiscal monitor states that the Trudeau government ran a deficit of $48.5 billion between April and July of this year.
According to Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) Alberta Director Kevin Lacey, Canadians can expect the Liberals to continue spending taxpayer funds while not addressing the government’s growing debt and deficit issues.
“With the Liberals, it’s just more borrowing after more borrowing. They talk big about how much they can spend but we never hear a peep about balancing the budget or finding savings within government,” said Lacey in an emailed statement.
“During the pandemic, families across Canada have had to cut back, control their own spending and live within their means. The Liberal government did the exact opposite, they ran out and spent money they didn’t have.”
The findings show how COVID-19 program spending declined about $58.1 billion from the same period last year when the Liberals ran a deficit of $148.6 billion.
Additionally, public debt charges grew by $7.8 billion which was a $1 billion jump from the year prior.
“The Liberals told Canadians they would balance the budget by 2019, but they missed that by a country mile, now the Parliamentary budget officer projects we won’t hit a balanced budget for nearly five decades. Liberals owe it to Canadians to provide a realistic plan for how they plan to balance the budget, that won’t take 50 years, and start chipping away at the $1-trillion dollar federal debt,” Lacey told True North.
Despite the government’s ballooning COVID-19 spending, Canada’s private sector took a toll during the pandemic while government jobs and pay raises surged.
According to a CTF report from earlier this month, 312,825 federal workers received a pay raise between 2020 and 2021.
“Canadians have experienced a tale of two pandemics: one full of private sector pain, the other full of bureaucrat pay increases,” CTF Federal Director Franco Terrazzano said.
“We need politicians and bureaucrats to help shoulder the burden because it can’t just be struggling families and businesses forced to pay back the $1-trillion federal debt.”
The PPC isn’t to blame for the Liberal win
The People’s Party of Canada tripled its vote share from the 2019 election, and is facing accusations of being a “spoiler” in a number of Conservative ridings. True North’s Andrew Lawton says the PPC support was much broader than just traditional Conservative voters, so this narrative doesn’t hold up. Also, Conservative activist and former campaign manager Fraser Macdonald joins to discuss his petition supporting Erin O’Toole’s continued leadership of the Conservatives. Plus, the perils of identity politics.
Former finance minister says O’Toole’s leftward shift alienated Conservatives
Former finance minister Joe Oliver wrote in the Financial Post on Friday that Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole’s campaign strategy to woo Liberal and progressive voters failed to materialize results and alienated the Conservative base.
The op-ed comes at a time when the Conservative party is gearing up for a showdown over whether O’Toole should stay on as party leader despite his abysmal performance.
“The sad evidence is that O’Toole’s move to the centre did not attract new voters, yet it alienated the right-wing and yielded ground to Maxime Bernier’s People’s party,” wrote Oliver.
“There is an economic and cultural route to broaden the appeal of Conservative values and policies: bring the public to you, rather than mimic the left-wing’s latest faddish ideals and retreaded socialist truths. That is what leadership is all about.”
As observed by True North founder Candice Malcolm, the legacy media has been coming out in support of O’Toole’s liberal-lite brand after he lost the election and handed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau another minority government.
In his op-ed, Oliver echoed these remarks noting how both progressives within the party and the media constantly try to push the Conservatives leftwards.
“Every progressive, and most of the mainstream commentariat, endlessly proclaim that the only road to victory for Conservatives is to embrace the values and policies of the centre-left,” wrote Oliver.
“These priorities run counter to conservative values, and they are not the issues that fire up the Conservative base or persuade swing voters, who have plenty of big government, environmental alarmist parties to choose from.”
Several prominent Conservatives have criticized O’Toole for failing to win what some have described as a “winnable election.”
Most recently, Conservative MP Chris Warkentin told reporters that flip-flopping on key positions such as gun control cost the Conservatives the election.
“It was when our party leader started to waffle on some of the policies that we had brought forward and hadn’t been clear that I believe that Canadians became uncertain and unwilling to continue to look to our party as an alternative,” Warkentin told Town & Country news.
“I believe that that was the beginning of polls shifting back in favour of the Liberals.”
As reported by True North, prior to election day O’Toole walked back on promises such as defunding the CBC, letting members vote freely and the carbon tax, among others.
O’Toole was weak and dishonest to run as a progressive
Erin O’Toole misrepresented who he was to Conservative members. During the CPC leadership race, he promised he was “true blue” – a real and principled conservative. But once the campaign started, he revealed his true colours: he ran as a weak-willed Red Tory who refused to stand his ground or defend Canada.
Instead of running as a law and order conservative, he capitulated to Trudeau on so-called assault weapons while turning a blind eye to the real crime problem in this country: illegal guns, gang violence and Canada’s revolving-door prison system.
Instead of running as a fiscal conservative, he faltered and reversed course on carbon taxes, ultimately saying Trudeau’s carbon tax was here to stay.
O’Toole did this time and time again, and flip-flopped on many of the major issues.
In today’s episode of the Candice Malcolm Show, Candice discusses how O’Toole came across as weak, indecisive and out of touch. He missed the golden opportunities to hit Trudeau on his weakest issues, and that’s why he lost the election.
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Erin O’Toole’s centrist pivot didn’t work
Conservative leader Erin O’Toole gambled on a centrist strategy being the key to dethroning Justin Trudeau, but it didn’t work. A Conservative Party of Canada national councillor has initiated a petition to recall O’Toole, which has been signed by thousands of Conservative members and activists. True North’s Andrew Lawton lays out a few critical flip flops from the campaign.
Also, Canadian Center for Bio-Ethical Reform spokesperson Jonathon Van Maren joins the show to discuss the social conservative effect in Monday’s election.
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Liberal internet bills would make Canada “most censored” democratic nation, advocates warn
An internet freedom advocacy group from Vancouver launched a petition calling for the government to not re-introduce Bill C-10 and Bill C-36 – two bills which critics warn would infringe on the free speech rights of Canadians online.
According to the non-profit organization Open Media, Liberal Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault’s plan is meant to trick Canadians.
“Liberals are poised to push forward with their harmful internet censorship plans,” Open Media Campaign Director Matthew Hatfield wrote in a message to donors.
“Our newly-elected government is cynically taking advantage of our political fatigue and frustration with the internet to try to trick the public.”
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the group went on to say that the bills would make “Canada’s internet one of the most censored and surveilled in the democratic world.”
Earlier this year, the Liberals failed in a hamfisted attempt to rush Bill C-10 and Bill C-36 through parliament.
Although the Liberals claim that Bill C-10 is meant to update Canada’s Broadcasting Act to modern digital realities, critics have accused the government of using the law to regulate the content Canadians post on the internet on a daily basis.
Two former commissioners with the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which would be in charge of implementing the law, have come out against the bill which one of them described as “authoritarian.”
In an attempt to deflect criticism of his anti-free speech bill, Guilbeault accused opponents concerned about C-10’s implications on Charter rights “extremists.”
Meanwhile Bill C-36 which seeks to revive the controversial Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, would make Canadians liable for up to $70,000 in fines or house arrest for posting illegal content that promotes “detestation and vilification.”
Waffling on policies led to missed win, Conservative MP claims
Conservative MP Chris Warkentin told a local news outlet that Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole’s flip-flopping on policy positions led to a missed win for the party during the election this week.
Warkentin, who was re-elected to his riding with 68.4% of the votes, still lost a substantial amount of support considering his vote share in 2019 was 84%.
“It was when our party leader started to waffle on some of the policies that we had brought forward and hadn’t been clear that I believe that Canadians became uncertain and unwilling to continue to look to our party as an alternative,” Warkentin told Town & Country news.
“I believe that that was the beginning of polls shifting back in favour of the Liberals.”
According to Warkentin, others in the party are beginning to voice their concerns about O’Toole remaining at the helm since he was unable to deliver a victory.
“Justin Trudeau has promised during this campaign that if he was only given a minority that he would plunge Canadians back into an election within 18 months, and I don’t expect that this will be a long-term government,” said Warkentin.
As reported on by True North, O’Toole flip-flopped on several key campaign promises he made to his base including on his commitment to repeal Liberal gun bans, not introduce a carbon tax and walking back on defunding the CBC.
Warkentin is not the only member of the party who has called O’Toole’s election performance a missed opportunity.
As polling results indicated that a Liberal minority government was elected by Canadians, top aide to former prime minister Stephen Harper Jenni Byrne blasted the party leader for losing a “winnable election.”
Additionally, Conservative National Council member Bert Chen has launched a petition calling on O’Toole to be recalled as leader of the party.
“Erin O’Toole has BETRAYED the principles that the Conservative Party is founded on,” the petition says.
“Erin O’Toole has BROKEN THE TRUST of the members of the Conservative Party.”
To date, the petition has received nearly 2,200 signatures.
Conservative candidate raises alarm about foreign interference from China in election
After being narrowly defeated by Liberal candidate Parm Bains, former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu is raising the alarm about Chinese election interference.
According to Chiu, his campaign faced an online assault from forces he claims could be directed by China.
Chiu believes that a private members bill he put forward earlier this year to set up a registry for foreign agents operating in Canada, made him a target of the suspected foreign influence campaign.
As a result of Chiu’s and the Conservatives’ aggressive stance on China, Chiu faced harassment online with one user going so far as calling him a “self-hating Chinese person.”
“When I go door knocking … there have been supporters of mine who just shut the door in my face,” said Chiu.
“There is so much hatred that I sense.”
According to Chiu, his views on China were misrepresented in Chinese-language media and online communities like WeChat, the popular Chinese social media app.
Campaign observer and Macdonald Laurier Institute fellow Charles Burton claimed that despite attempts to correct the false narrative around Chiu, the campaign against him spread like wildfire.
“It spread like a cancer over his campaign. He just saw his campaign disintegrating over the last couple of weeks,” said Burton.
One post on WeChat erroneously claimed that Chiu was trying to “suppress” Chinese Canadians.
“It’s very much organized,” said Chiu. “They have chat rooms and chat groups dedicated to unseating Kenny Chiu.”
Chiu was defeated by nearly 3,000 votes by Liberal candidate Parm Bains in the Steveston—Richmond East riding.
During the election, Conservative leader Erin O’Toole said he doesn’t believe the Trudeau government has done enough to safeguard Canada’s elections against foreign interference.
“I do think there’s risks of foreign interference, particularly with what we’ve seen happen in other democracies – allies of Canada,” he said. “We’ve seen interference from bad actors and I feel that Mr. Trudeau hasn’t been doing enough in this situation,” O’Toole said.
Prior to the election, the Canadian Security Establishment said in a July report that influence campaigns against voters posed a significant threat to the integrity of Canadian elections.
“State actors may use threats, bribery or blackmail to affect the voting behaviour of individuals inside or outside of communities,” the report said.