Where are the results?

[00:00:00]Conservative Party deputy leader Melissa Lantsman joins me now. Nice to see you.

[00:00:03]Thanks for coming on.

[00:00:05]>> Thanks for having me.

[00:00:06]>> So, the Liberals have praised this sitting as a success, saying they passed 21 bills in 14 weeks. We know that you've come out swinging against the government's record, though. Tell me why you think the Liberals fell short.

[00:00:18]>> Yeah, look, I'm not sure that anybody in Canada would qualify this a success.

[00:00:22]We've had plenty of announcements, we've had lots of speeches, tons of press conferences.

[00:00:26]But after more than a year in office, and we're at 15 months now, I think there's lots of people in the country, Canadians from coast to coast, wondering like, where are the results?

[00:00:36]Is my life any better? I think the answer is a resounding no. And we've seen it in the economic data, being the only country in the in the G20 in a recession three out of four quarters.

[00:00:45]We've seen economic decline out of the last five quarters, five of them have been lower investment growth, and those are the same five quarters that the prime minister has been in office. Home building is down, housing costs are the worst in the G7, grocery inflation the highest in the G7. Tons of millions of Canadians still using food banks. So, all of these things that were problems before continue to be problems for for Canadians. And I think, you know, running out the the the runway on Canada's new government, I think is is falling short and falling on a lot of deaf ears.

[00:01:18]>> On the economy, though, the country added 88,000 jobs in May. We know unemployment fell. It's lower than it was a year ago when Mark Carney was first elected. The Toronto Stock Exchange has hit a record high this week. Aren't those signs that the government is doing something right on the economy?

[00:01:34]>> Well, we're still we're still down more than 20,000 jobs. We've got, you know, we've got the second highest unemployment in the G7. We've got a youth unemployment rate hovering above 13%.

[00:01:45]You know, this isn't to diminish Canadians and their hard work and everybody trying to get by. But the economic indicators tell a very different story than what the government gets up and says in the house every day.

[00:01:59]They tell you they're the fastest growing economy in the G7, and that is just patently false. We're the only ones contracting three out of the last four quarters. So, there is a whole lot of words, and then there is, you know, there is the real data points and the real lives of Canadians who struggle to put food on the table. We got seniors living in that parking lot of Tim Hortons. All of these stories are still there, and they're coming in fast and furious in a in a in a way that we haven't seen before.

[00:02:27]>> On affordability, they implemented the groceries and essentials benefit. As you know, they reduced the GST for first-time home buyers. There was the income tax cut last year. They've gotten rid of the consumer carbon tax. I mean, frankly, they've lifted some of these policy ideas straight out of the conservative playbook. What more would you like to see them do? Because they would argue there's a long list of stuff that's already been accomplished that's sitting to deal with the issue of affordability.

[00:02:51]>> Yeah, look, we're never going to stand in the way of of tax cuts. Those are bread and butter conservative issues, and we were leading on that front trying to convince the government for a decade to do some of these things. They haven't gone far enough. Look, we've got an industrial carbon tax. We've got anti anti energy laws still on the books. C-69, the tanker ban. We've got an industrial carbon tax that's that's that's cooling investment in in the oil and gas industry. We've got packaging and plastic taxes. These are all passed down to the consumers. And still, with these band-aid solutions, they're not getting to the crux of the problem. And and and that shows again in the data with with being the the highest the highest food inflation again amongst our peer countries.

[00:03:40]>> I spoke to government house leader Steven MacKinnon. He wasn't happy that your party opposed some of the government's crime legislation, notably C-22, the lawful access bill, which gives police more tools to fight crime.

[00:03:52]McKinnon says that the Liberals are now the party of law and order and that the Conservatives are, quote, "peddling conspiracy theories." What do you say to him on crime?

[00:04:02]>> I've got a rail line to high-speed rail line to send you a send you across Eastern Ontario on that.

[00:04:09]They're not the party. They've actually weakened crime legislation. They've taken away mandatory minimums for things like like drive-by shootings. This is the party for 11 years that weakened bail laws and and and made this country a more dangerous place. Writ large, 55% the crime rate went up since 2015.

[00:04:33]I'm not going to take any lectures from from Mr. McKinnon on on on crime policy and certainly he would be upset that we opposed the government's agenda, but that's exactly what we're there to do. We're there to scrutinize legislation and on C-22, the government's done something that they've not done before. They rammed through a piece of the bill the more problematic. So the bill's the bill's split up in two parts and we we we went to the government. We we told them that that we would pass part one which is lawful access which is what police chiefs across the country asked for in order to do their job which is what Canada has been lagging on across its peer countries and we asked them to study C part two of that bill where civil civil civil liberties organizations private business Canadians from coast to coast had problems with and the only reason they rammed it through is because it they cannot possibly defend it. The minister in front of the mic couldn't answer questions about it. His department is now admitting that they've gotten it wrong by changing some of these provisions and they didn't let Parliament discuss it. They rammed it through in a in a post-midnight committee.

[00:05:41]So, you know, to to Mr. McKinnon who's who's who's a house leader in a in a democracy, these things can't happen.

[00:05:48]And if he believes that conservatives are not going to stand up alongside with other parties, or not going to stand up and demand that we scrutinize legislation, I think he's in for a rough ride over the next little while.

[00:05:58]>> On crime, I was looking through some data. I mean, the Toronto police data shows homicides and robberies are down sharply so far this year. They're down double digits. Violent crime in Vancouver was down 10 percentage points last year compared to 2024. There has been some progress after that post-COVID crime surge. Would you not give them credit at least for that? That there seems to be some positive indications.

[00:06:21]>> Well, if they're asking for credit on crime going down post-COVID without these pieces of legislation that they told you that they have now just passed in the House of Commons, then one has nothing to do with the other. But overall, we're not going to run victory laps on crime and chaos being heightened by 55% over the course of the last 11 years in in communities large and small across the country. We know what the problem is. We know how to fix it, and they've voted down five conservative crime bills that were in front of them in this House of Commons to strengthen that agenda. We've been We've been talking about this since the day they got into government, and we'll be talking about it I'm I'm sure until the day they're gone.

[00:07:07]>> Your party has drawn attention to the Prime Minister's poor attendance record in question period. I think he missed 100 of 136 QPs. The government says, you know, he was often away on important business, but as you rightly point out, sometimes when he missed that time in the house, he was actually here in Ottawa. What are you prepared to do about this? Is there a way you can compel him to show up and take questions from the opposition? Is there more you can do than just sending out a press release about this?

[00:07:36]>> Yeah, look, and it's more than just sometimes. It's more than 60% of the time he was actually in Ottawa in the building not attending QP. So this is like this is a bigger conversation about how he treats the House of Commons, how how the Liberals look at democratic institutions and democracy as a whole. Like I know that opposition is inconvenient for them, but that's the way the system works and I think for the government they've got a big trust issue.

[00:08:03]They were elected on the basis of some really really big promises and one of the you know one of the things that they were elected was just you know trust me we're going to get things done and when you start to erode trust with non-attendance on on scrutiny like you've got the most powerful people in the room for an hour a day or powerful people in the country in a in a in in question period for an hour a day and it's your job to make sure that taxpayers are getting value, that Canadians are being represented. So when you're shutting down committees, turning cameras off, ramming through legislation cuz ministers are incapable of defending their their legislation and not showing up to answer the questions about it. I think Canadians are going to have a lot of questions about it and I think they already do.

[00:08:46]>> This wasn't an easy session for the Conservatives either. Of course the Liberals claimed a majority government in part because of defections from your party. Some of the recent polling data shows that the Conservatives are still underwater. Leger has the Liberals leading by 16 points in their most recent poll. Nanos has them up 12 points over the Conservatives. Do you still have confidence in Pierre Poilievre to lead this party given where you're at with voters?

[00:09:11]>> Yeah look I Conservatives are going to continue to fight for for Canadians. Continue to fight in opposition opposing the bad legislation that they put in front of us. Working with the Liberals where we can to advance legislation that is critical for our economic situation and and and other issues and then exposing the things that they're not telling us.

[00:09:30]Exposing the illusions that that are the government and making sure that Canadians know that the rhetoric doesn't match the results. And I think Pierre Poilievre is the guy to lead that charge.

[00:09:40]>> All right, let's leave it there. Thank you so much, Jeff Bedi, Conservative leader, Melissa Lantsman. Nice to see you.

[00:09:45]>> Thanks so much.