Latest / Kvetch & Release / Newstalk 1010 Jim Richards' The Rundown with Jon Liedtke and Mark Mendelson - April 17 2024

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Newstalk 1010 Jim Richards' The Rundown with Jon Liedtke and Mark Mendelson - April 17 2024 · Kvetch & Release

• 0:07
  This is News Talk Tonight with Jim Richards on the iHeartRadio Talk Network. This
• 0:13
  is News Talk Tonight. In a half an hour on the iHeart Talk Radio
• 0:17
  Network, we will go one on one with economist Mosh Lander, who is
• 0:23
  a professor of economics at Concordia here on News Talk Tonight about this budget.
• 0:30
  Doesn't seem like there's a lot of people happy. What I think that is
• 0:33
  interesting here, folks, is that. And I'm sorry, I do not
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  believe you, jug Meet saying when you say that you're thinking right now about
• 0:42
  not supporting this budget, in which case the government would fall and there would
• 0:47
  be an election sooner than later. Let's hear from jug Meet saying just about
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  an hour ago with Vashy Capello's on CTV News Channels, no decision, We're
• 0:56
  going to make it up just yet. While we know there's a number of
• 0:59
  things that we fought for them in the budget, the protection for renters,
• 1:02
  the school lunch program to feed kids in school, and the medication coverage,
• 1:07
  the contraceptives, the diabetes and devices. Those are good measures that we fought
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  for them. They're in there. But I've got some concerns. How is
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  a liberal government Justin Schudrol going to justify cutting five thousand public sectors employees and
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  show me a plan where that doesn't mean cuts the services for people whatever.
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  Hold on, hold on as in this government like balloon forty, like you
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  can't have this government blow up the size that it has and convince anybody that
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  you couldn't cut the public service. But I think really what was a little
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  alarming is that he doesn't seem to be on the same page as he thought
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  that there would be a wealth task. That's a reflection on this liberal government
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  and Justin Shudau's failure to address what the major concern is that's driving up the
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  cost of living for people. More and more economists or pointies of the fact
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  that corporate greed, whether it's in corporate grocery stores, whether it's in the
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  fact that we pay the highest self and fees in the world, whether it's
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  in the fact that speculation and corporate landlords are both scooping up and driving up
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  the cost of housing. Corporate greed is driving up the cost of living,
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  and the liberals have failed to take it on. What is shown here is
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  the evidence that the liberals are not serious about taking that on. Well,
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  talk about that with motional Er the economist, because he Jugmtin kept on mentioning
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  that there are countries that have a excessive profit tax, but in grocery stores
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  it's four percent, it's three to four percent the profit. Even though I
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  know we're all spending so much more on groceries and we'd like to think that
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  there is some greed there. I don't know. I don't want to say
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  do your own research because I know what that happened. Now, what happens
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  when people do their own research like I did? It was expensive, Okay,
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  thank you. But he talks about other countries that have this excessive profit
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  tax and how he thinks it works. Well, it's absolutely clear to me
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  that the competition is confirmed that at time with Canadians are struggling to buy groceries,
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  those corporate grocery stores have increased their profit margins. That means they are
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  gouging people, They are ripping people off. At first, their excusees O,
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  our costs have gone up. Well, if the cost went up,
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  how can it be that their profits are going up. They're not just making
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  good profits, they're making record profits at the time, record paying the Canadians
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  they're making record profits that having Canadians are struggling, and in terms of grocery
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  profit margins, that is significantly higher than average. If you compare that to
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  American profit margins for grocery change, that's significantly higher. Those grocery chains are
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  making more money because you know what, they started a bank and that's the
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  man, which is a different story. I'm not saying they shouldn't be in
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  banking, but you want to talk about where people are making money. So
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  let's talk a little bit about the budget right now. We're joined by John
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  lid Key. He is a radio and podcast host in Windsor and you can
• 3:52
  check out his podcast which is called cavech John. Thanks true time, Thanks
• 3:57
  for having me. Mark Mendelssohn is with us as well. He's our crime
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  specialist on the Iheartalk radio network and commentator as well. Does anybody for a
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  second believe this that just the jig meats saying is still you're going to make
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  it just yet? While we know there's a number of things that we fought
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  for that you would not support this budget and which would mean the government would
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  fall, does anybody believe that? Let's start with you, Mark oh he's
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  just like he's like a one trick pony lately. I mean, I think
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  it's great that we got the dental care. I think it's great that we
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  you know, that the budget looks after things like contraceptives and certainly insulin.
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  I mean, I can't imagine, you know, if you have a family
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  wherever people are diabetic and you look what the cost of that is. Because
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  I have it with one of my kids. So I'm all in for this.
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  But this this sort of wealth tax thing that he keeps going on and
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  on and on about. The man absolutely hates, you know, anybody that's
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  making any money here. And it's a tune now that is ratching the inside
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  of my brain. We've already had all the big ease from Loblaws and so
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  not sure when everything else in Ottawa. They've had their discussions, but he
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  keeps going on and on and to complain about shortening or or or making making
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  the civil service just a little bit smaller. And as you mentioned, Jim,
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  look at look at how much it's increased, and what are those five
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  thousand jobs. That's attrition, that's people retiring and their jobs will not be
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  backfilled in that's all this is not going to put a big dent in things,
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  and to sit there and complain about that is just sanctimonious to me.
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  John, Yeah, listen, Mark said pretty much everything that there is to
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  this is the game that jug meets Singing plays. He has been pushing for
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  some pretty serious gains that we've gotten again dental insulin, contraceptives, but he
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  continues to play this very public facing game of Oh, I'm going to come
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  at you justin, I'm not going to let you get away with it,
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  when we know for a fact of course he is. He's not going to
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  trigger an election anytime soon. It's like when we look at how people you
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  know, he's just he's signaling to his base, he's signaling to his audience,
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  and they're going to see that and eat it up and share it out.
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  Because he tweeted today thanks to Pierre and Justin, it's a good day
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  for greedy Galen Weston and a bad day for you. He said, Yeah,
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  Like, okay, I guess it's a bad day. But didn't you
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  just get two of the like signature planks that you've been looking for? Yeah,
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  I mean the size of government has grown from what two hundred and fifty
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  seven thousand in twenty fifteen to three hundred and fifty seven thousand in twenty twenty
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  three, and he's complaining that they're looking to cut about five thousand employees.
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  I'm not sure you're going to find a lot of people sympathetic about that when
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  they're not getting nobody's like sitting back and going, hey, man, things
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  are so much better. I mean, you couldn't get a passport for a
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  gazillion years about a year ago. So I don't know that anybody is like
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  blown away by the service that they're getting right now from this Canadian government.
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  So I don't think there's anything there. But I think, to a certain
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  extent, mark that the truth that the Trudeau government wanted there to be a
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  fight, want the Conservatives to put up a fight and make it look like
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  the Conservatives are the bad guys defending the greedy rich, as they would say.
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  But it doesn't look like that's going to happen. No, it's not
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  because in terms of in terms of the Conservatives, you know, it's axe
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  at tax and axe attax, and that's a really great slogan on a bumper
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  sticker, but it's selling and people are buying it, and whether you like
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  the Conservatives or not, you cannot avoid the fact that people are listening to
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  that. And we you know, I get all about Trudeau and the housing.
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  We know there's a housing problem in this country, there's no question,
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  but we also have it. What's the service right now to look after this
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  to sixty billion dollars just to service the death more than transfer payments to provinces.
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  Crazy, Where's where's that money going to come from? That's what we're
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  not getting that answer at all. That's probably well, that's the problem with
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  productivity, and there doesn't seem to be a lot that has economy. It
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  has economy, is excited about productivity in this country, which is a huge
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  concern. But back to you, John on the affordability stuff. When it
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  comes to what Juck meets Sing is saying, I don't know, Like I
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  think there are a lot of people who want to believe that corporations are greedy.
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  I don't know when it comes to groceries three to four percent profit margin,
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  I don't know that that's super greedy. Do you think that this will
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  do enough to attract the younger demos that Trudeau has lost and is looking to
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  get No, I don't think so whatsoever, And good luck to them.
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  I mean they've thrown a bunch of money here on new spending for housing and
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  the Cannadi Disability benefit is going to get people excited, as well as the
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  National School Food Program. But people's sentiments are baked in at this point,
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  and whether you like Trudeau or you don't like Trudeau, I can't see you
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  deciding that you're going to change that based on anything that's showing up in a
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  budget, especially in this situation that we're in right now, with so much
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  rhetoric being turned around. We'll ask that question in about forty five minutes,
• 9:28
  we'll go to the phones and we'll ask anybody if they're changing their mind about
• 9:31
  this liberal government. Here on the iHeart Talk Radio Network, our rundown is
• 9:37
  going to continue, and then in fifteen minutes time, we'll quench the whole
• 9:41
  budget with our economist friend Moslander. This is News Talk Tonight on the iHeart
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  Talk Radio Network. Welcome back to news Talk Talk Tonight with Jim Richards on
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  the iHeartRadio Talk Network. I I'm looking forward to tomorrow because if everyone remembers,
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  there was the beginning of a movie script about I forget how long ago,
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  at least six months ago, when an Air Canada flight had twenty million
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  dollars in gold on and it ended up being stolen at Pearson. There's an
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  apparent press conference tomorrow to announce some arrests. So I don't know, I'm
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  hope, I don't know what I'm hoping for. We're back here on the
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  Rundown Here on the Iheartalk Radio Network. Mark mendelssohn A is our crime specialist
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  and also John Lidkey joins us. He is a podcaster and a radio host.
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  He can check out his podcast called cavech Mark. My point I guess
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  was, I don't know. That story is just so fascinating and it sounded
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  like it would would be a movie. But maybe this movie doesn't have a
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  happy ending. Not everything has to be Oceans eleven. And I don't know,
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  as a police officer, as somebody who is maybe cheering for the bad
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  guy, how do you feel about that? Well, I mean, look
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  at we have to wait and see what Peel Regional has to say in the
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  morning. What I found interesting is I think that they're they're going to be
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  holding his press conference with the assistance of the ATF, the Alcohol Tobacco Firearms
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  Agency in the United States. So I'm curious to see how the two of
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  those law enforcement units wrapped in here listen when this happened. When this went
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  down, I don't think anybody had any you know, thought in their minds
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  that this wasn't quote unquote an inside job or somebody that had some intimate knowledge
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  to know that the shipment was coming off that plane from from from Zurich and
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  where it was going, and they had a phony bill Bill of Laydon waiting
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  to pick it up. So it had all the hallmarks of an inside job,
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  as you know, as you mentioned, not bad movie, but we're
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  going to have to wait and see how it plays out in the morning.
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  But I'm curious to see who the players are and what their association was to
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  either the airline, the people that were sending the gold, or the people
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  that were working in that bonded warehouse. It's got to be some connections,
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  and that's where I'm really curious to see. Okay, our apologies to our
• 12:20
  friends in Quebec and other parts of the country, but there is a story
• 12:26
  from TVO that suggests keep your eyes open for an early election in Ontario,
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  John, I think, you know, the last time this happened, I
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  think David Peterson did it. That's going to age me a little bit.
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  But he was well in front of out in front in the polls, and
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  nobody thought there was a reason to have an election, and everybody was peeved
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  at the fact that he pulled an early election. He ended up losing one
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  that he had no business losing, but people were like, oh, you're
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  going to get arrogant. Then that was the NDP government that Ontario. Wondered
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  how that happened with Bob Ray. So I just don't know that anybody's got
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  an appetite for it. But it does seem like this Ford government in Ontario
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  has really gone out of their way to really characterize Bonnie Cromby as I don't
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  know, rich kid, although she's not a kid, but somebody who's rich
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  and entitled and doesn't care about the common person. Yeah. I don't see
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  any reason why the PC government would go and call an early election. Quite
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  frankly, you know, they're still doing pretty well. Quite frankly, They've
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  got a lot of announcements that I've heard are still going to be coming down
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  the pipeline. They've got the benefits of incumbency and of a strong majority government.
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  I can see why they might want to try to not allow for Bonnie
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  Cromby to gain any more of a stature, quite frankly, which is why
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  they're attacking her as much as they are. But I can't see this happening
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  sooner than later, quite frankly. But hey, I've been wrong before.
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  Yeah, I'm willing to be wrong. Maybe they like, I don't know
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  what the strategy here, Mark would be, other than hey, let's get
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  rid of her before. Let's act now before she can kind of get her
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  feet planted and start to gain some momentum. I'm still wrapping my head around
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  the fact that John just said he's maybe never been wrong before. Van's never
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  wrong, He's always We love John on here, and I agree with him.
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  You got to wonder as to what the motivation is, Like Bonnie Crombie
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  doesn't even have a seat yet. Yeah, you know, so this is
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  a long way away, but I'm looking at it. You know, maybe
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  he wants to get out from all of this before the opp come down with
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  the results of all their investigations on the green belt and everything. Else.
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  Maybe that's part of the motivation, But as a taxpayer in this province,
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  I'm sitting here going, do we really need to go to the expense of
• 14:52
  calling an early election? Now we're all trying to save money, we're all
• 14:56
  trying to spend money on good, positive things. Do we want this money
• 15:01
  getting, you know, bled away? You know, to call essentially an
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  unnecessary election. I don't think it's important, and I don't believe you should
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  be done. This could happen in anybody's community, and I think in a
• 15:13
  lot of our communities we've kind of raised an eyebrow. You might be in
• 15:16
  favor of protests as long as they're playing within the rules, but sometimes when
• 15:22
  you have a protest and that doesn't make the news cycle, you might as
• 15:26
  well have not have had a protest. I speak of in many communities across
• 15:31
  this country, the pro Palestinian protests have attacked to Jewish communities or businesses,
• 15:41
  or synagogues or hospitals, and I think that has raised the ire of a
• 15:45
  lot of people. But blocking in some communities across this country, including right
• 15:50
  now in the Toronto area, go rail lines or train tracks, for lack
• 15:58
  of a better term, if you're outside the Ontario area. I think that's
• 16:00
  a bridge too far and I would remove them asap. Here are some of
• 16:04
  the protesters outside of Toronto or in Toronto, trying to make your point from
• 16:08
  the Dundas and DuPont area where Nope, that's me hitting the wrong button.
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  Folks here are demanding that Canada impose a full arm embargo against Israel, which
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  means that no weapons are going to or from Israel, which is Canada's definition
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  of an arms embargo. We've seen actions starting yesterday from coast to coast of
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  masses of people coming out saying we want Canadian complicity in this genocide to end
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  immediately. It's been six months of truly unprecedented action across so called Canada,
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  but frankly across the whole world, with people taking action against war, against
• 16:41
  militarism, against genocidal violence. I know that the hundreds of people here like
• 16:45
  me, have just been seeing the most horrific violence live streamed on our phones
• 16:49
  every single night. We have tried everything. We've tried petitions, we've been
• 16:53
  at our MP's office every week, We've marched down the street every day.
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  I think we've already seen Benjamin Nanie laugh at Justin Trudeau. So I'm not
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  sure what this is going to accomplish here. And again I do have sympathy,
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  but I would say get them the hell out of there as soon as
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  you can. Mark. Oh yeah, I mean, look at we're getting
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  so immune to this in Toronto. Now there's not a street, there's not
• 17:18
  a day you can go down. I was down near Scotia Bank Arena Saturday
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  afternoon to pick somebody up from Munion Station. It was blocked off from York
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  Street to Bay Street. You couldn't get anywhere near Union Station because they're out
• 17:33
  there demonstrating. Again, part of the problem is that the police set the
• 17:36
  tone at the beginning, where they allowed them to essentially take over streets,
• 17:40
  sidewalks, moving in front of restaurants and things of that nature that may or
• 17:45
  may not have been known by people who may or may not have been Jewish,
• 17:48
  but it didn't really matter. So it's kind of like the convoy in
• 17:52
  Autawall. Once you let them set route and start that president, then it's
• 17:56
  hard to sort of, you know, bring it all back in again to
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  block off rail lines. I mean in the junction in Toronto, which of
• 18:03
  course, everybody knows the Junction in Toronto has tremendous influence on international events.
• 18:08
  That's why they call it the junction in March following the non by sorry in
• 18:14
  March, following the non binding motion in the House of Commons that Canadian government
• 18:18
  committed to pausing its approval of future arms exports to Israel. That was an
• 18:25
  important first step, people say, towards a complete embargo. In case you
• 18:30
  already thought that happened, John, your thoughts. You know, we've seen
• 18:33
  that this is shifting goalposts. It went from demanding a ceasefire to demanding an
• 18:41
  complete embargo on exp art to demanding a complete embargo on import. I've even
• 18:47
  seen of military weaponry from Israel. So what will the next one be?
• 18:52
  When it comes to being on the roads, blocking rail lines. This is
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  not how you grow your movement by upsetting sagonizing people who are simply trying to
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  get home, or god forbid, blocking people who are in ambulances who need
• 19:07
  to get to hospitals. So we've seen this with the blockades, We've seen
• 19:11
  this with the convoys, We've seen this. Now with this, I guess
• 19:14
  this is just how it is now in Canada. Again. Yeah, I
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  think that. You know, they can have as many protests as they want,
• 19:21
  but it doesn't count as a protest unless it makes the news cycles.
• 19:25
  So I guess I'm a little complicit in that. John, thank you very
• 19:27
  much for your time. John Lidkey is a radio and podcast host. Check
• 19:32
  out his podcast Cavetch and also Mark Mendelssohn, who is contributor here to the
• 19:37
  News Talk ten ten or sorry new iHeartRadio Talk Network and is our crime specialist.
• 19:44
  Mark, thank you for your time. Have a good evening, guys.
• 19:47
  First, we're thank You straight Ahead with Moshlander on the Budget next on
• 19:52
  the iHeart Talk Radio Network.