Front Burner - Throne speech signals priorities, problems for minority government

Episode Date: December 6, 2019

On Thursday, Justin Trudeau kicked off Canada's 43rd parliamentary session with his government's speech from the throne, delivered by Gov. Gen. Julie Payette. Today, on Front Burner, Vassy Kapelos, host of CBC's Power & Politics, joins Jayme Poisson to discuss the speech, how it was received by the other party leaders and how likely the prime minister will be able to fulfil his promises considering his government's minority status.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Jamie Pozzo. Tonight, we begin a new chapter in our country's story. Let the record of that chapter be one of cooperation and not conflict. That was Governor General Julie Payette towards the end of the throne speech she delivered on behalf of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday.

The throne speech is kind of like a broad laundry list of what the government hopes to accomplish in office. Though this time around, it's likely going to be a little trickier for the ruling liberals. They don't have a majority like they did four years ago, and they're facing a far more divided country. In this 43rd parliament, you will disagree on many things, but you will agree on a great many more. Focus on your shared purpose, making life better for the people you serve. As you can hear there, the governor general appealed for unity in Parliament, for cooperation. Is that even possible? Luckily, Vashi Kapelos, host of Power and Politics, is here with me today.

We'll unpack the speech and we'll talk about where we go from here. This is FrontBurner. Hi, Vashi. Hi, Jamie. How's it going? Never better. Never better. Just defrosting. I know.

I was watching you all day today on television, and you were outside for most of it, and I was feeling a little bit bad for you. I'm a wimp, so I was freezing. Well, I'm glad that you're in a warm, small, stuffy radio booth. Me as well. Me as well. Okay. So we got through the election and now we have a minority government and parliament has returned. So rejoice, I guess.

We are in a minority world now. And I want to talk to you today about the throne speech. But before we get to it, can we talk for a minute about the spectacle of the day? Because I find myself, every time I watch these, oscillating between like a deep respect for the tradition of it all, but then also thinking that there are some very odd things happening. All the Supreme Justices are in like... These are the robes that are fondly called the Santa Claus robes here in Ottawa. This didn't keep me. They're very festive. There's a guy. He has like a black rod.

He has to hit the door three times. That's all part of the ceremony. One for the speaker, one for the executive, one for the whole of the legislature. Talk to me about that. Yeah, it's kind of cool. I mean, there's I'm with you. I sort of always rest at this point of deep fascination because it happens so infrequently and there are so many visual cues and visual representations of this ceremony. Everyone's wearing silly hats. Yes. I mean, there's some significant stuff here.

First, like you pointed out, the governor general, Julie Payette, is the one who delivers the speech. So that right away shows us that this is all about parliamentary tradition in the, you know, evoking the traditions of British Parliament, because that's what we're modeled on. And she represents the queen. And so that becomes evident. The pomp and the circumstance speaks to also just like how significant this event is. It kicks off Parliament. It's supposed to be a big deal. OK, so let's get into the actual meat of what happened today. Nothing can get done until the speech gets said, essentially. So,

you know, no bills, no debates, no votes until the speech is done. And as I mentioned, it's sort of like a laundry list of what the government hopes to do. And so what were the big highlights from the speech for you, like top line headlines? I think my main headline would be that it offered more specifics than I would have anticipated. Speeches in general are supposed to be like, here's our vision for the next few years or four years, depending on the mandate. And here's our intention. While your approaches may differ, you share the common belief that government should try whenever possible to make life better for Canadians. whenever possible to make life better for Canadians.

This had a lot of that, but it also had some real specifics that really evoked what we heard during the campaign. So a lot of what the Liberals promised. So I would say for sure reconciliation for me was a huge theme in this. It was actually the first time ever that reconciliation had its own sort of subject area in a throne speech. To co-develop and introduce legislation to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the first year of the new mandate. Continue to work of eliminating all long-term drinking water advisories on reserves by 2021.

There were a lot of specifics about what the government plans to do to advance that agenda. They've received a lot of criticism for not doing enough, even though they said it would be such a top priority for them. Right. They did spend some time kind of defending their record, too. Yes. Real progress has been made over the past four years. Yes, they did, which was also interesting and not really that surprising. They sort of prefaced everything they said they were going to do with the theme of we've already done a lot, which I'm not sure how that will be received. But I think it is significant that they did lay out a lot of like, here's what we're going to do to continue to advance the agenda and that it was its own section. OK, what else do we hear?

Yeah, also middle class. Pursuing tax fairness, continuing to invest in people and growing the economy. Bing, bing, drink. You know, the theme of the past two elections. Yeah, we've talked about that a few times. Yeah, found itself in the middle of this throne speech to no one's surprise, particularly where this tax cut they promised during the campaign is concerned. That's going to be the first thing they do in this parliament.

These like dueling tax cuts that we talked about a lot during the campaign, the Conservatives, the Liberals, and that's coming soon. Yeah, it's coming probably in the next few days. And then there's also Canada's place in the world. They reiterated, which I found kind of interesting, that they're going to seek the UN Security Council seat. It will stand up for the rules-based international order when that order is put in question. So a little bit of sort of foreign policy in there as well. And then the big, big one, from my point of view, was climate change.

This was the big one. It felt like the centerpiece of the speech. Exactly. It really did. Canada's children and grandchildren will judge this generation by its action or inaction on the defining challenge of the time. Why do you think that was the case? You know, a very large chunk of the speech focused on climate change. I think for two reasons. First of all, it is a big priority for Canadians. And they made that clear when they went to the ballot box in October. I think that they had to address what voters or what Canadians want.

They want aggressive action to fight the effects of climate change. And so they had to acknowledge that in some way in the speech. I'm not saying that they did a good job of it or a bad job of it. I'm just saying they had to do something. Yeah. I think the other part of it is a totally political calculation. And I actually think that underscored the whole speech. Right now, if the liberals are looking at trying to transform the minority into a majority mandate, the votes they're going to get are going to be from the more progressive side of things, from the NDP and from the Greens, like people who support those parties.

Or maybe even from the blo progressive side of things, from the NDP and from the Greens, like people who support those parties. Or maybe even from the Bloc, right? Because this is a party that has very progressive climate change policies and presumably one of the reasons why a lot of people in Quebec voted for the Bloc. 100%. I think that it became obvious through their focus on that in this speech that they see the path to a majority through Ontario and Quebec. Okay. And I want to talk to you about some of the reactions from some of the other parties in a

minute. But, you know, you did talk about specificity in the speech. Like, I totally agree with you. Like, at one point, they talked about cutting, you know, our wireless rates. It will cut the cost by 25%. Like, that was a very specific number for a throne speech. But I didn't hear a lot of specifics when it came to climate change. I don't know if you'd agree. There was like this broad promise for net zero emissions by 2050. This goal is ambitious, but necessary for both environmental protection and economic growth. But they were like pretty light on specifics.

And I think actually that's a really key thing to highlight because it might be their Achilles heel going forward. And I say that because they're being criticized quite a bit by other parties, by progressive parties like the Greens and the NDP for not being aggressive enough. Right. So now they're saying in this speech and in the campaign, we're going to be more aggressive. We're going to get to net zero emissions by 2050. But the things that they outlined in there, which were like subsidies for cars. Ensuring a price on pollution. Help to make energy efficient homes more affordable. Efforts to reduce plastic pollution.

Planting two billion trees. That stuff isn't enough to even to get to that new target. We're not even on track to meet the current targets. Yeah, we know that. Yeah, we've talked about a bunch of times, right? So I do think that the lack of like a timeline, or a specific carbon price, or legislation, meaning the type of like, there's just nothing, right? I saw you ask about this on your show today, you know, is there going to be somebody put in charge of like oversight here, accountability to make sure that they can meet any of these like promises. And it doesn't seem like there's an answer there. There was no answer. I mean,

to be fair, they just started. But I don't think also I have to be that fair because that is like the idea that Canadians should be able to hold the government to account for either missing or meeting climate change targets is not new. And it's something the Liberals even talked about before, too. So like I just asked, is there going to be some legislation on that? And there's no answer yet. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections.

So is it fair for me to say, picking up on what you said earlier, that maybe the big, big top-line takeaway of the speech in its entirety was a push towards progressive policies. A plan that moves our country forward for all Canadians, including women, members of visible and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ2 communities. Yes, I think it's a political push towards progressive policies. And I say that because I really do think the headline is the government sees their potential majority or their

next election win as a path through that, through those progressive voters. And most of them probably reside in Ontario and Quebec. And that's who they will definitely try to appeal to. Okay, so let's talk about, this is like a perfect segue then, how did the opposition parties respond to the speech today? And maybe we should do this in order from like least incensed to most incensed. Does that feel like the right move? Sure. Okay, I think the person who is the least incensed was Bloc Quebecois leader Francois Blanchet.

Agree completely. Okay, okay. So, you know, talk to me about him. Okay, so Yves-François Blanchet came out, and just like he said a few weeks ago, he's going to support the throne speech. That's not a surprise. Because I see in that speech many opportunities for us to,

not to take what is intended to be given, because it's not that clear, but to get things, to make some gains for Quebec. He was happy to hear that there was no mention of oil, no mention of pipeline. Says everything but the word oil, while it is clearly about oil. Makes it so that it's hard to vote against something which is not even named. He basically reiterated what he said a lot, which is that he's not going to stand in the way of stuff they want to do. He's just going to try to advance the interests of Quebecers. And like you pointed out, where climate change is concerned, that is an issue that speaks to a lot of Quebecers. He wants more aggressive action on it. So he's willing to give a stink at this point. He'll save that for stuff that he thinks will negatively impact or potentially negatively impact Quebecers.

So is it fair for me to say, you know, now that that Blanchette says he sort of supports the speech, you know, the liberals sort of win the speech. Right. Because the bloc has 32 seats. So, yeah. And it's not even clear. Yeah. It's not even clear, to be fair, that the speech will even go up for a vote. It doesn't have to. But there could be an opposition party that introduces its own non-confidence motion on it or confidence motion on it. And then we get to a point where those votes do matter. So you're totally accurate in saying that with the bloc supporting the throne speech, it's not like the government is in jeopardy right now. OK. OK. And let's do number two incensed. Jagmeet Singh, he did not seem overly jazzed. He said that there were a lot

of pretty words here, but a lack of action. If the Liberal government thinks that this is good enough to deal with the struggles that people are facing right now, then they are wrong. This is not good enough. So what's your sense of why the NDP reacted that way? Well, he outlined more specifically than anyone else what he wanted to get from the throne speech to support it. He wanted universal pharma care. He wanted a dental care, something in there about dental care. He wanted the government to announce that they were going to back away from fighting the Human Rights Tribunal decision on Indigenous child welfare. So he had really specific things that he was listening for. To my mind, that stuff was in there. Yeah, they certainly said the word pharmacare in the front speed. Pharmacare is the key missing piece of universal health care in

this country. Ideas like universal dental care are worth exploring. And I encourage Parliament to look into this. So partially his concerns were allayed, but at the same time, he says that he didn't get the level of specificity or detail that he wanted in order to support it. That he wanted, for example, the word universal in there when it came to pharmacare. But they didn't commit to their own report, which says it should be public in single payer. His take is the prime minister is just hedging his words. Right. And therefore, I mean, he wouldn't come out and say,

I'm not going to support it. But he says, I don't support it at this time. And more conversations are needed. OK, unsurprisingly, the most incensed award goes to Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, who was extremely disappointed. Today was an opportunity to show that over the last six weeks, Justin Trudeau has learned the lessons of the last election. Canadians sent him to government with the weakest mandate

in Canadian history. But instead, we're just seeing much more of the same. He talked about how there was nothing in the speech about energy workers in Alberta and Saskatchewan. He talked about how there was nothing in the speech about national unity. Talk to me about him. Yeah, so he, as you said, was disappointed. He used the phrase. He also said he's going to introduce an amendment, which is pretty normal. Opposition parties do that. We don't know the content of that amendment, but we do know the contents of why he says he was disappointed.

And it is very much around that natural resource sector and particularly Alberta and Saskatchewan. natural resource sector and particularly Alberta and Saskatchewan. I believe an insult to the people of Alberta and Saskatchewan for not recognizing the anger and the sentiments that exist there. It's important to note, as we have many times, that the Liberals were shut out of Alberta and Saskatchewan in this election. They've gone on this sort of month and a half long listening tour, meeting with premiers, appointing Christopher Freeland to head up that whole effort, meeting with mayors, etc., etc. The problem is in this throne speech, there's no real acknowledgement of that.

There is talk of regional economic issues. Regional needs and differences really matter. Today's regional economic concerns are both justified and important. There's also a sentence or a paragraph that comes out of the discussion on climate change saying we'll work just as hard to get natural resources to markets. But there's no pipeline. There's no oil. There's no TMX. There's nothing that says that.

And that's immediately what Andrew Scheer picked up on and some in Alberta and Saskatchewan as well. Okay. Although, I mean, you know, saying that you want to get natural resources to market, it sort of feels like the word pipeline in another word. I think that'd be the interpretation here. I don't know if it'd be that in Alberta and Saskatchewan. And also it speaks to the whole Quebec thing too, because Yves-François Blanchet did not want to hear the word pipeline. And he did it. While it is clearly about oil.

And the fact is that this government does not have the spine, as you said, to name it. Yeah, it's all politics. OK, so you mentioned that they're going to introduce this amendment. Like, could could they throw the throne speech to a vote? Like what could happen here? They could. I don't think they're going to. That's my gut feeling. I mean, I'm probably in a few hours when people hear this, they'll be like, she was totally wrong.

So who knows? But my instinct says that, you know, amendments happen and then they discuss it and then maybe it gets voted on. So it's really not a foregone conclusion. It's really not a foregone conclusion. I don't think the conservatives at their current positioning, where people are coming out calling for their leader to resign, are really in the mood to head to the ballot box right now. So they're not going to force anything. Got it. They're just not ready. Let's talk about that for a second.

You know, Andrew Scheer is fighting to keep his job right now. I was listening to conservative strategist Jenny Byrne talk the other day. I think there's only one question that conservatives are asking right now, and that's if Andrew can win the next election. Can he beat Justin Trudeau? Since the election, there's been no indication, and the election results, there's been no indication that Andrew can do that. How do you think this mounting pressure is affecting, like, Scheer's reactions Thursday? sure is affecting like Scheer's reactions Thursday? I think he's enthused about being able to react to what's happening in the House of Commons versus the calls for him to resign and the questions about the prospects for his party in the near future. I think that this is the kind of stuff that he wants to be talking about. It's an opportunity for him to be seen as, you know,

a capable leader of the official opposition if that's what ends up happening. But the reality is every question that he has had prior to today was about his own future. People who set up this official campaign saying, you know, he's not our guy and he needs to step down before we have a convention in April. So I think that clouds a lot of what's going on. But I also think that that's why the conservatives and particularly Mr. Scheer see the next week and a half as an opportunity for them. Or just to talk about literally anything. OK, before we move on, I want to talk about NATO with you before we go today. But first, you know, there was this moment in the throne speech where my ears kind of perked up. Julie Payette, well, she was reading the throne speech on behalf of the government. But it said, some believe that minority governments are incapable of getting things done.

But Canada's history tells us otherwise. How true is that? It's pretty true, actually. There's lots of stuff that happened under minority governments. Health care, I believe, gay marriage, just to name a few examples. It's definitely possible. I don't know if it means that for sure that will happen this time. But there have been quite a few minority governments in this country,

and they have gotten some stuff done. Okay, before we go, we don't have a ton of time left, but I've got to talk to you about the NATO summit this week. Okay, they're celebrating NATO's 70th birthday. And the summit, of course, is overshadowed by this clip that went viral of Trudeau and other world leaders poking fun at Trump's long unplanned press conferences. Trudeau was a pretty central player. Now former Vice President Joe Biden is using this as part of his campaign, like he has a campaign ad. World leaders caught on camera laughing about President Trump. Several world leaders mocking President Trump.

They're laughing at him. What do you make of this? Do you actually think this is a big deal? I don't know if I don't think it's necessarily I don't know how to define big deal. I think that I think you know what? It doesn't help Trudeau. It doesn't help the prime minister. I think probably he regrets it.

I don't know that for a fact. But, you know, nobody wants that to be caught on tape, especially given the vulnerabilities in his brand over what happened in India. What happened in, you know, with the pictures in blackface? Like there are he spent the last month and a half trying to show Canadians that he can be taken seriously. He's done the same photo op every day. It's only in his office. He's not doing other kinds of photo op. So it definitely went against the grain of the messaging and the tone that he's trying to get across. Do I think it's as bad as when Donald Trump said he was, you know, weak and dishonest? Right, and this was at Charlevoix, the G7.

President Trump lashing out at the Canadian prime minister after this was said. Because Canadians, we're polite, we're reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around. Yeah, it's not like that. And I think the context is important. At that point, we were like on pins and needles thinking NAFTA would not come together and Donald Trump was going to leave our economy in the lurch. We're now at a point where actually the U.S. is the balls in the U.S.'s court and NAFTA is kind of signed, sealed and delivered for the most part on Canada's end.

And so like the stakes are a little bit different. So I don't know if it's as much of a disaster because of that. If this had happened after Charlevoix or in the middle of NAFTA negotiations, the analysis might be a bit different. Donald Trump does need us to pass NAFTA. I mean, right now, it does seem like these U.S. comedians are having a pretty fun time with this. James Corden.

Here's how you know when you're really disliked, when you get a Canadian to talk smack about you. And now the bombing of Canada begins. This is absolutely unacceptable. How dare they laugh at our ridiculous president. That is our job. Okay, so good to know

I could talk to you about that for another half an hour, but we have to go today. Vashi Capellos, thank you so much. We'll talk to you very soon. My pleasure, Jamie. Thanks for having me. Okay, before we go today, if you live in Toronto and you're catching this episode on Friday morning,

you should definitely join me if you can today for our first ever live show at the CBC. Frontburner will be on stage at the Glenn Gold Studio from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. with our friends CBC's Peter Armstrong, Pia Chattopadhyay, Elamin Abdul-Mamoud, and Tom Power. Armstrong, Pia Chattopadhyay, Elamin Abdul-Mamoud, and Tom Power. It's all part of Sounds of the Season, CBC's annual charity event that raises money for local food banks. So come on down if you can. Seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis. And if you can, bring a small donation or a non-perishable food item with you to donate. For more information on how to take part in all of the CBC Toronto Open House festivities, go to cbc.ca slash sots. Well, that is all for this week.

Front Burner comes to you from CBC News and CBC Podcasts. The show is produced by Imogen Burchard, Elaine Chao, Hannah Alberga, Ashley Mack, and Mark Apollonio. Our sound designer is Derek Vanderwyk. Our music is by Joseph Shabison of Boombox Sound. The executive producer of Frontburner this week was Shannon Higgins, sitting in for Nick McCabe.

Locals were all very jealous that he was in Mexico. And I'm your host, Jamie Poisson. A big thank you this week to Elamin Abdelmahmoud for filling in for me. Thanks so much for listening and have a wonderful weekend. See you guys on Monday. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.