Poilievre says Canada ‘can’t endure’ another year of ‘costly coalition’ | Power & Politics

conservative leader Pier PV Came Out Swinging today but not against the Liberals he has the NDP leader in his SES my message to sellout saying is this put the people ahead of your pension break the costly Coalition with Trudeau to trigger a carbon tax election PV sent a letter to sing calling on him to immediately end the deal he made with the Liberals to keep them in power until next summer but one of the negotiators of that deal disagrees with pov's push it is not up to Pier POV what happens here Pier POV wants to have an election because he thinks he can win and he can make the cuts that he wants to make to pensions to EI to Health Care What will what will Canadians make of this battle it's time to bring in the power panel James Moore is a former conservative cabinet minister Andrew Thompson is a former Saskatchewan NDP cabinet minister and here with me in studio carlen Baran is a former Chief of Staff to liberal cabinet ministers welcome everybody thanks for being here today Andrew I want to start with you um listen no one thinks that jug meet Singh is going to just like fall to the floor here and go you got me Pier PV uh it's it's all over now but do the NDP have anything to worry about here when PV is making this argument that uh sing is only in it for his pension for instance well I mean it's a ridiculous thing especially coming from Pierre poo who has been eligible for a pension since he was 31 and lives in a taxpayer funded Mansion you know it's kind of a goofy thing for him him to raise but you know the question of this applying confidence agreement does cut both ways liberals love it Tories hate it the NDP it's a bit of a you know it's an issue to needle them on I think what you're starting to see though is coming into focus is beyond the agreement what this is actually about and that is the question of what would a conservative government keep what would they cut out of what's currently be done the NDP obviously are putting forward an argument that says the way to help people make more investments in healthcare more investments in Dental Care More Investments and housing the conservatives on the other hand are putting forward an argument the way you help people is you cut taxes and you cut the size of government that's starting to end up being that that you know kind of goldilock scenario now where the Liberals are I think they're stuck in the position where nobody really likes what they're doing but you know they've got the luk warm bowl of cereal in front of them so we'll see how this plays out but I think that that's kind of what is really behind this as we head into the election well Andrew I mean I'm going to ask you we talked about the supply and confidence AG agreement uh earlier this week on the power panel and fr B saying listen if jug meet Singh can't come out and say I will absolutely you know break this agreement break with the Liberals over workers rights uh given the rail strike and the pardon me the the rail stoppage and The Binding arbitration uh you know how do you make an argument for this deal anymore and I wonder what you say about that I I I I take your point about the contrast with the Liberals and and the conservatives but what is the argument that this is still working for the NDP yeah so I you know look I've been saying for months that my preference would be to get out of the agreement and that's been a view of a number of of new Democrats along the way that it's served its its purpose the NDP can now be just as effective on an issue by isue basis I don't think there's a lot more for them to be gained staying in it in fact if anything I think there's a lot of risk because what you do allow is Pier PV and others to say you know we're the only really effective opposition in the country and I do think there are certain number of uh you know anti-liberal uh supporters who would otherwise be voting in DP who are attracted to the conservatives on that I mean but I've been of that view for you know for some time that that it served its purpose and should move on and you know you've heard that you heard that from others certainly when Ed brodman was alive he was of the same view uh James I want to bring you in here I mean let's call a spade a spade here this is some pretty raw politics that Pier pev is uh playing with today who who is this for what is it that he actually intended to accomplish when he came out and said all right jug meet saying this is on you well I think frankly bluecollar workingclass voters who don't see their values or their emphasis of policy priority anywhere near the priorities of Jag me sing and the Contemporary NDP you know it's astonishing when you see in real time and it happens from time to time but when you see people in real time not be self-aware of their own self-interest it's pretty staggering and the NDP have now had two budget Cycles where they've said look you know hear me now uh but and believe me but you'll see the results in the fullness of time that this confidence Supply agreement we're going to get things done and people will see that good policy Progressive policy is going to result in support for us and here we are after two budget cycles and the NDP are further down in the polls and going nowhere fast under Jag me sing's leadership so what are they saying now they're going to double down and re-emphasize this agreement and keep soldiering forward where they would be wise to take Andrew's advice break away from the agreement recognize reality on reality's terms that the next election campaign is clearly a change campaign and if the budget the ballot proposition of the next campaign is do you want change or more of the same it is impossible now and will be even more impossible a year from now or a year and a half from now for Jag meet saying to say I recognize that the people don't want Justin trau and the Liberals in power anymore that's why you vote for us and Pier PF can very simply effectively and clearly with all the evidence in the world say there are two outcomes in this campaign Justin Trudeau style government or an alternative that's us and that is it because andp and liberal it's the same thing so jug M sang is frankly digging his own political grave carlen do you think that uh for the Liberals is do they look at this and go like okay well we at least we get a day off from being asked whether Justin Trudeau is going to resign tomorrow um or or is there reason for concern here that this puts pressure on a deal that has been useful to the Liberals no I think that given that we're sort of in the Dying Days of Summer um I don't think that the Liberals um are going to mind just having a a bit of a break from the 24-hour news cycle uh they're just coming off a cabinet Retreat where there were no shortage of questions for the Prime Minister about the future of the government um and you know for the conservatives I think this was the move to make um you know credit where credits do right you're at the high water mark in the polls um you're looking at potentially still 12 months to go before an election really has to happen and you know that there's one of three scenarios it's going to happen you're either going to grow your lead you're going to hold on to what you have or it's going to shrink uh you're probably not feeling great about your chances of growing that lead when you're already at 43 in the polls um the idea of holding on to such a lead for 12 months is um a challenge for anybody um and you absolutely want to avoid the third scenario happening at all costs so what do you do you call for an election you want that RIT dropped yesterday so in a sense this play today was expected I did suggest that this deal has worked well for the Liberals and I suppose the other way to look at it a critique that you do here in some places is you know it did bind the Liberals to some of these NDP priorities which were quite expensive and have shaped their political course forward in a way that may or may not have benefited them if you're um in the prime minister's office right now and you're looking at this deal and going oh well are the NDP getting cold feet is there any reason to try to keep it going you know to have more talks to maybe add more incentives for the NDP or you just let it ride I think now that we're down to this this final year um it's there's less motivation right I mean with each year that passes um more longevity of the government has been achieved um it's sort of like the lease on a car right so um I certainly think that they're not as desperate to keep it together as they were 12 months ago or or 24 months ago when it when it first came together um I also think that they're pretty confident now that they are at the point where they can probably successfully head into a campaign taking credit for some of these things especially pharmacare if that actually manages to get implemented this fall before we go to an election that's a big thing for Justin Trudeau and the Liberals to hit the hustings with saying PV will take this away you have it now if you elect him it will be taken away Andrew I think uh another piece of the discussion that I think you often hear around Ottawa is the idea that the ndp's hands are ultimately tied here they have not had a big bump in the polls uh and they don't have a lot of money I mean are they really just sort of at the mercy by and large of of political forces bigger than themselves at this moment I mean the landscape is uh you know certainly moving the NDP has struggled to make sure that are getting credit for the initiatives they put in I think that's one of the things a lot of us called out at the start which is with all these agreements the the junior party uh within these kind of agreements often doesn't get the credit uh I see that having been in a government that had the Liberals as a junior partner and they eventually got absorbed into what was left of them got absorbed into the NDP uh so I mean these two when you end up with these change elections when you end up with binary Choices put in place the the junior parties uh often struggle which is I think largely james' point the the question though though is you know what the ndp's message is going into that campaign if they can set it back up to being the Tories are want to cut and bring back austerity the Liberals just want to do more of the same but it's the NDP that's been fighting to put in place the programs that really matter whether that's child care dental care whatever their list is then you've got a different kind of choice going into the election and that I think is what they've got a hope for whether that's good strategy or not I guess we'll find out in a year but uh you know I think that's the the calculus right now I'm really interested Andrew in what you think um the the the lesson I'm going to ask you to put on your historian hat here for a minute uh what the lesson will ultimately be from the supply and confidence agreement I I know it's really hard to say without having gone through an election cycle but do you see this as a tactic that other um other political parties will look at and go hey we should try that out sometime or or do you think the lesson here is going to be uh you gota you might be playing with fire if you get involved in one of these well you know we've we've had this uh through a number I mean I guess this is one of the few ones that a federal level but certainly provincial levels we've seen this before going back Ontario of course had something similar in propping up the government the you know the agreement of the 10-point plan of what would need to be delivered for opposition support uh you know the NP Scotchman had this with the Liberals it's not uh Not Unusual to have them you've got to have a certain set of circumstances I think the question always comes back though you know how long do they go on and how do you make sure that the initiatives that the junior part is bringing in are the ones that get credit that uh the the lesson almost always with the exception maybe of Ontario uh is that the junior party is punished fascinating uh James I would be crazy to not use this opportunity uh to ask you what you think switch topics a little bit here and ask you what you think of what has happened uh with the conservative movement in in BC what do you think of the the move we saw yesterday this dramatic shift uh the BC conservatives basically becoming the face of the center right movement in British Columbia 3 to six months ago I would have said that it was a probably a layup that David eie was going to get reelected and overnight there's now a horse race and it's not just a horse race because voters have been denied you know a sort of a binary choice on the free enterprise right but there's but there's clarity now of of a choice that you have John rustad who's a former cabinet minister under Gordon Campbell who has credibility and substance and the conservative party of British Columbia that it's now opened its doors and welcomed in the official opposition party which has fallen on its on its face and so there's a lot of talent a lot of money a lot of organization there's 87 rodings across the province so you can imagine such as 87 candidates but 87 official agents 87 campaign managers 87 social media man like all of that infrastructure now folds into one party that'll have to find a way and they'll have their growing pains and there'll be all kinds of I'm sure local um fights about how this stuff gets integrated effectively but the efficiency of the unification of the free enterprise vote in British Columbia creates an immediate horse racer British Columbia and I think that'll cause the conservative party to have to uh up its game and to demonstrate to British Columbians that they're not just to protest vote it's not just if you're frustrated about housing costs or you're frustrated about drug policy you're frustrated about the NDP um approach to policy that we actually have something to say about it they need to have something to say and the weeks are going to tick by very quickly from now until election day because because time is is tight so I think a lot of um internal capacity to put the party together have credible candidates have a credible face as a Cabinet all all aligned in the next few weeks is going to be U it's going to be a massive task but um but I think the public and the marketplace the political Marketplace wants a choice and an alternative to David eie and it looks like they're going to get it let me ask you should John rustat uh show some wiggle room on policy we had him on earlier in the program we talked about this question he says you know I'm I'm holding on to my values but some of the those values have gotten him labeled a essentially a party of conspiracy theorists by Kevin Falcon before he then handed the Baton to Mr rustat do you think that they uh should use the potential room to maneuver here uh yes and and I think clarity is is key um you know you can have people of all kinds of frankly sometimes eccentric views but if they all align on the core issues that are going to be the priority project issues for the government then you know you can have some people who might have some you know some eccentric views but I think if you have enough people who create a critical mass who are going to become mlas who seem frankly to borrow a phrase from American politics who seem profoundly weird um then I think that's going to be obviously problematic um so I I think they John rustad would be wise to take this moment of the opportunity of the merger in the coming literally two three 4 weeks to find a way to find the most appropriate and effective candidate for each riding across the province who will focus on the key priorities of three four five issues that he's going to be have an absolent emphasis on between now and an election day so he needs to set the tone though he's the leader he's the guy he's the alternative Premier in the province he needs to pick two or three core topics specific deliverables that speak to British Colombians and then demand that all of his candidates align with those issues and and have no tolerance for people who who vary and and provide views that are alternative to those three or or get off base on other issues okay we are GNA have to leave it there thank you so much to the Thursday power panel James Moore Andrew Thompson and carlen Baran thanks a lot