The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Campaign Day Two

Episode Date: September 12, 2019

Day 2 of Canada's 2019 Federal Election. | Thank for subscribing and for submitting a rating and review! * TWITTER @petermansbridge | INSTAGRAM @thepetermansbridge ** https://www.thepetermansbridge.com/ *** Producer: Manscorp Media Services

Well, hello there. Peter Mansbridge here with The Bridge, my nightly election 2019 podcast. You know, I had a producer who worked with me on a lot of past elections who used to call these opening days of a campaign the culling of the candidates. Basically, what she was talking about was the fact that in many cases, parties end up having to drop candidates who say something stupid or something about their past is revealed that embarrasses the party, that they do something wrong. Something comes up, usually about their past that the party wasn't aware of. Well, we're into the culling of the candidates right now, and it seems to be

infecting all parties, certainly the major ones, the Conservatives, the Liberals, the NDP, the Greens. They've either had to drop candidates, are talking about dropping candidates, or are thinking about the possibility of having to drop a candidate. Now, I got to tell you, I find it amazing in this day and age that a national political party could get to the situation where they start to discover things about candidates they nominated and signed papers for. Usually these things that cause them problems are of the social media files. And when they pop up, it causes a stink, and the next thing you know, they're gone. But somewhere in the vetting process, things have fallen down.

And that doesn't say much about any of the parties and how hard they check their candidates. Anyway, I just find that interesting. Mind you, I love the term, the culling of the candidates. No doubt about that. So this was day two of the campaign. It was supposed to be highlighted by tonight's leaders' debate in Toronto, but one of the main leaders,

the Liberals' Justin Trudeau, isn't there. Trudeau ducked the debate, saying the three he's agreed to later in the campaign is more than enough for Canadians to compare the leaders. The other leaders just say, well, he's just chicken. It's interesting because in 1980, his father, Pierre Trudeau, did kind of the same thing. He refused to debate the other two leaders, Joe Clark, Ed Broadbent, saying that, hey, we just debated last year. There'd been an election in 1979. Canadians know who we are.

They don't need to see us again. Well, you know, true to a point. The fact is, Trudeau had a 10-point lead in the polls at that point. They were convinced they could win, and they didn't need to risk a debate. And that's probably the real reason no debate happened in 1980. There are other debates this time around, though, so it's a little different. Whatever the real reason is, Trudeau's absence takes a main player off the stage and it kind of diminishes the overall news value. There will be news in tonight's debate, I'm sure,

but not as much as there would have been if all the players had been on stage. I'll talk a little more about this issue later tonight on The Bridge. Okay, well, listen, your emails that I was asking for in the last couple of days with questions have been coming in regularly, and quite a few of them. I ran some of them last night. I'm going to run some more this evening as well on the podcast. But I'm going to start with one that I want to read right now because I think it's great and I think it strikes to the heart in many ways of the dilemma that so many voters face during election campaign comes from Jessica Heron she lives in Coal Lake Alberta

beautiful Coal Lake was up there a couple of years ago flying in a CF-18 doing a profile on one of the pilots, and I got a ride in Canada's major jet fighter. Anyway, let's get to Jessica's letter, because as I said, it really impresses me. Here's what she says. Albertans have been dealing with their own turmoil the last few years regarding unemployment and busts in the oil industry. My hardworking husband has been laid off four times in the oil industry. My hard-working husband has been laid off four times in the last five years alone. Conservatives seem to be the most appealing,

as shown by the results of our provincial election, and make promises to fix these issues. This makes them seem like the best option for those of us affected by the recent unfortunate events. How do I, as an affected Albertan, sort out the truth in what candidates can actually do for us instead of buying into the empty promises that are being spread? The majority of people in my area are strongly backing the Conservatives solely based on the promises of pipelines and a booming oil industry. But I'm not so trustworthy. I'm very unsure of how to vote, as I want to protect the environment, but also be able to put food on the table for my family. It almost feels like my vote will go to waste if I don't vote, conservative. Is that true?

Is it even worth voting against the grain in a community like mine? This is a great letter, Jessica, and I know that for a lot of Canadians who are going to have to make a decision about how they vote in this campaign, they may feel the same way. They may live in an area where their options, they feel, are limited because it seems like a foregone conclusion who might win in that riding. But, you know, I'm a big believer in the power of a vote,

the power of a single vote, and the power that is instilled in you when you go into a ballot box and that you've studied the issues, you've studied the people who are running, and you are going to make a choice, whatever that choice may be. So I believe you should vote. But I also believe that you have to challenge

those who are standing before you looking for your vote. So if there's a town hall of candidates that comes up in Coal Lake for that riding, go to the town hall. Stand there. Listen to what they're saying. Do their promises sound empty? If they do, challenge them. How are you going to deliver on that promise? Is that what your party stands for,

that your leader has promised they will do if, in fact, your party wins? Why do you feel that way? So I think that's part of the process. You know, John Turner, the former prime minister, only prime minister for a couple of months, but he loves to say democracy is about participation. If you want democracy, you have to participate.

This is part of it. Participate by studying the vote, challenging those who are looking for your vote, and then voting. So Jessica, it's a great letter, and I do believe that it's, you know, you're speaking for a lot of people when you ask that question. So we'll have more of your email questions a little later on the bridge time. Okay, last week I was in British Columbia

as part of a documentary I'm doing for the CBC which will air near the end of the campaign. Basically, what we're hoping to capture is, well, in a way, it's the mood of the country. And I know that sounds like pretty ambitious. We have 35 million people in Canada. You're going to talk to every one of them, Mansbridge, and find out what the mood is? Well, no. I'll be lucky to have talked to a couple of hundred by the time we're finished crisscrossing the country. But I think we'll get a sense of what people are talking about,

what issues excite them, which issues concern them. You know, we spent time in the Kelowna area, and then around Hope and Harrison Hot Springs, a few hundred kilometres away. Two things struck me in BC. First, what always strikes me is how gorgeous it is. The weather was spectacular last week, which makes an already beautiful province even more beautiful.

I know everybody kind of says that, but man, I mean it. It is so gorgeous. So there's that. But more importantly, the people who I talk with are engaged on the issues. They're passionate, and they're not shy. Whether it was the environment, and specifically climate change, or the economy, taxes, jobs, immigration, health care, we heard a lot from a lot of people. Because it was only the first set of stops, I don't want to draw any big conclusions, but I felt very lucky to have had the possibility

to talk to so many people. And you know what? Hopefully you'll get a kick out of this. I learned something else that I never knew. Hope, the town, and what a great name for a town, was where in 1982 movie crews shot some of the key sequences in the Sylvester Stallone movie Rambo First Blood. Bet you never thought you were going to tune into this podcast

and hear about Rambo. Boy, are they proud of that in Hope. They've got T-shirts with Sylvester Stallone's face on them, pens, books, and DVDs. All of them are big sellers in Hope. When I met the mayor of Hope, Rambo was playing on a monitor behind him. And the movie was even showing on the big screen at the local Main Street Theater. I can only imagine how many times that's happened. Anyway, none of that matters to the election, but I'm now up to speed on my Rambo history, and so are you. And if you ever get to hope, I bet you into southwestern Ontario this weekend

for more of our sense of the country. Quebec and New Brunswick in the days ahead. I think it'll be a good documentary. I'm certainly hoping it will be, and that it will capture a lot of voices, and hopefully those voices will crowd out mine in that documentary. Now, I told you I'd have more letters, and I have lots of them, so let's go through them quickly, and I'll give some quick answers here. Got a couple of emails from the States, which is nice to hear. Glad you're listening to the podcast in the US. This one's from Lauren Duggan, or Duggan. I'm not sure,

which one that is, who has a whole list of questions. So I'm just going to answer a couple. Can you tell us more about the Rhinoceros Party? I mentioned them last night. Is this like the monster-raving loony party? Hey, maybe, but I don't want to offend either one of them by comparing them to each other. What provinces are most up for grabs? Well, Ontario is the province with the most seats at stake. It's up for grabs.

It's a close race in Ontario. Quebec, it's relatively tight as well. It also has a lot of seats, a 78. British Columbia has a lot of seats, and it's a real kind of three-way race. So those are the three provinces that are most up for grabs. But, you know, I've got to tell you, there are others with fewer seats involved that are still up for grabs.

And, you know, with five or six weeks to go, anything could happen in some places. Some are locked down. Alberta, Saskatchewan, that's a lockdown. That's a conservative country. It's unlikely anything's going to change in most of those ridings. Well, you know, that's my phone. And the fact is, you know, I'm not going to answer that phone because it's Willie, It's my son. And the fact is, he's supposed to be

here actually doing the controls here, but he's stuck at university. So I'll call him when I'm finished recording this. Last one from Lauren. What role will U.S. relations play, if any? Actually, Lauren, we're kind of like the U.S. in this regard in terms of elections. Foreign policy issues rarely are up front and a big player in the campaign. Anything to do with Donald Trump, though, could play a factor in here. Justin Trudeau has taken on know, has taken on Donald Trump in more than a few times, and a lot of Canadians feel good about that. But there's some Canadians who are big Trump fans, so it cuts the other way in some cases as well. Anyway, Lauren, thanks for those.

Don Matthews, Donald Matthews, writes, the question I have for you is this. It is apparent that Trudeau and his office is under investigation for a possible criminal code violation. Under the Liberal Party policies, wouldn't and shouldn't that make Trudeau unable to run for a party seat? No, it probably wouldn't. First of all, the RCMP is not saying the Prime Minister's office is under investigation

or anyone in government is under investigation. They say they're kind of poking around, asking a few questions, but at the moment they say that's not an investigation. And even if it was, if past practice means anything, in the 19, sorry, the 2005-6 campaign, the Mounties announced they were investigating the person at the time who was the Minister of Finance, Ralph Goodale. It's complicated to explain why, but he did not step down from his seat. He ran, he won, and eventually was cleared. But it was, you know, it hit the Liberals pretty hard

in the middle of that election campaign. Curtis Hilliker, in your opinion, how likely is it that we will ever see electoral reform at the federal level? You know, in the last campaign there were promises, some made by the Liberal Party, that it would be the last election we'd see first past the post. We're seeing first past the post again. So obviously that promise didn't work out,

and they've taken a few hits on that. A lot of people believe in electoral reform. Obviously, that promise didn't work out, and they've taken a few hits on that. A lot of people believe in electoral reform. It's not happening yet, but I would never say never. I'll give you a real political answer on that one. This one comes from Andre O'Day from Moncton, New Brunswick. Curtis Hilliker, by the way, is from Elmer, Ontario. Andre O'Day from Moncton, New Brunswick. Given your knowledge in the history of Canadian politics, I'm wondering if cabinet ministers have a better chance at winning in their respective

riding simply because they're a member of cabinet. Are those seats historically safer? Or is being a cabinet minister a double-edged sword when running for another mandate? Well, you've got all the possible answers in there, and they all are possible answers. If a government's not in favor at the time of an election, cabinet ministers are vulnerable, and our history shows that. They kind of go down like tenpins.

If a government is popular, then cabinet ministers are more likely to win re-election than others. So, you know, there is a price to pay for being a cabinet member, and it cuts both ways. Andy Sorensen writes, as an American, this Andy's from Redwood Falls, Minnesota. Doesn't that sound like a great place? As an American who's followed Canadian elections and politics for almost 15 years, watch your CBC returns coverage on C-SPAN, blah, blah, blah. Something I have yet to fully grasp under the British and Canadian system

of government is the idea of direct representation. In theory, your vote for MP directly impacting who is elected prime minister. In your time covering elections on the federal level, has there ever been a time where a riding was decided not based on the local MP, but was a protest is if a party wins the most seats, that party's leader becomes prime minister. So the answer to your question is pretty straightforward. Has there ever been a time where a riding was decided not based on the local MP,

but a protest vote against a certain party leader? Yes, that has happened, and it's happened many times. It's kind of like the cabinet minister answer. And this last one comes from Angela Migliari de Carvalho, Edmonton, Alberta. I'm not sure, Angela, if I got that right, but I tried. My question is, what could or would be the impact for Liberals with Trudeau not attending the debate tonight? We kind of touched on that.

Listen, some people are not going to be happy he's not there and feel that he owes it to not only the debate organizers but Canadians, especially on this, you know, the second day of the campaign, that he should be there and he should be telling Canadians what he thinks about certain areas and certain policies. Others will say, hey, it's early, there are three other debates coming. So that's kind of a six of one, half a dozen of the other, and quite often it will be decided by how you actually feel about the Liberal Party or about Trudeau himself. If it was later and he was ducking the other debates, that could be a serious problem.

All right. I started the bridge last night with a story about a plane. Tonight I finish this one with another story about a plane, a quick one. If you were watching the news at all late last night or during the day today, you saw what happened to the Liberal plane in British Columbia, a bus carrying the press corps was leaving the airport to go downtown to the hotel when it went under the wing of the plane and scraped the top.

So there'd been a number, you know, as it turned out, nobody was hurt. There is damage. The plane had to be replaced today. But there were a lot of kind of jokes about, you know, the bus thrown under the wing, this kind of stuff, and people were kind of yucking it up. All I will say about this is somebody who used to work in the airline business,

if you know anything about airplanes, especially big jet planes, in almost all of them, I'm pretty sure in that one, it was the 737-800, I think, the fuel tanks are in the wings. So that bus goes under the plane, scrapes under the wing. That was potentially very dangerous. There'd been sparks, you know, who knows what could have happened. Well, fortunately, it didn't happen.

But it's a plane story for another group of reporters in another campaign. That's a wrap for day two. Thanks so much for listening. Don't forget to write if you have questions. I'll try to get to them. Probably not as many as we did tonight, but it was fun. You can write to themansbridgepodcast at gmail.com themansbridgepodcast at gmail.com

I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks for listening. Thank you.