The BC Conservative Leader steps down, ousted members look to return & Canada looking at its defense strategy

0:00This episode is brought to you by PayPal. You know how a mom's bag has everything? Sunscreen? Snacks? A stapler? The new PayPal app is like that, but for your money. Shop, pay, manager account, and earn rewards all in one place. And with purchase protection on eligible items, biometric security, and pasquies, you're protected at every step. Download the new PayPal app to get started. See PayPal.com slash protection terms. This is the Mornings with Simmy Podcast. On today's show, is there a word to describe what is happening in BC politics right now? Take your pick, chaotic, confusing, start to even keep track of who is in which party on the opposition side of things. We'll hear from different MLA's about what is going on, especially behind the scenes. Is this the new reality moving forward? Or is there going to be more movement between parties? And with that is a great way to get involved. And that is a backdrop.

1:00What are the chances of a provincial election? Now that Carolyn Finley has resigned as BC conservative leader. All of that, and in Ottawa, they're working on a national security strategy. The first in decades. What has taken so long? It's all coming up on the Mornings with Simmy Podcast. Let's get started. We cannot afford to see to seat to the NDP. I expect her to still run in this election, and I welcome being able to work with her again in caucus. I think that that is the right thing to do. I don't have a word to describe, but what we have seen with BC politics, not even just the last week, but over the past few days or to even accurately describe what has happened to say the BC conservatives over the past two weeks. And honestly, I'm not sure even which MLA's are still in the BC conservative caucus and which ones are not. I went to their website this morning to check and make sure that I had everything right. But their website isn't even up to date. So I'm trying to get the exact number.

2:01And from what I can tell you, 10 MLA's have quit since mid-August, including a couple on the weekend. About eight of them have joined this new party, center BC. So the party that won 44 seats in the provincial elections as two years ago is down to 24 MLA's. I mean, I think Gavin Dew is the BC conservative MLA for Cologne of Mission and joins us now. Do I have that number right, Gavin? You know what? I think that number is probably going to change more over the course of the day. Why? We'll have more to announce because we last night started moving forward with the process of pulling our party back together again in preparation for the sneaky snap election that David E.B. seems to want to try to get away with. So are you letting us know that some people will be coming back to the BC conservative fold? I think there'll be more to share today, but there's a lot of work underway to make sure that we're getting everyone on the same tent

3:02and that we're marshaling the forces. What we're seeing right now is David E.B. trying to take advantage of a moment in order to seek in a reelection that he doesn't deserve. And what he needs to know is that everyone who is opposed to him is now gathering. He has awoken a sleeping dragon through his sneakiness. And now he's about to face a gathered group of folks that are absolutely determined to make sure that he does not get for more years to keep driving this province into the dirt. I think that's what folks need to understand is that all the right things are happening to bring people together and to defeat David E.B. because that's what Bridge Columbia needs right now. Kevin, can you describe to us what the last couple of days has been like for you? It's being complicated. It's being challenging. It's being confusing. It's being cathartic. There has definitely been a lot of churn, a lot of uncertainty. But what I know is that we've had a great group of people

4:02that have worked together in the past. I think there's a strong desire among all those people to work together in the future. And most importantly, even as we try to figure out exactly what we've got to do, we all share the same objective and that's to make sure that we can get B.C. back on track. And we are not going to let David E.B. Bigfoot municipal elections try to run an election against Trump instead of his own record here in British Columbia and try to ram through another four years. So a lot of good things are happening to bring folks together. Yes, it's been hard, but quite honestly, I'm feeling that's hopeful of I as I have felt in a very long time about our ability to give British Columbians a unified alternative to David E.B. Now Gavin, allow me to play devil's advocate here for a moment because if you're the general public and you're looking at this, you think what is it about this party from the last six months that would make me want to trust a vote to them given they can't seem to get themselves in order?

5:03I think that the very fair question for British Columbians to ask I think we're going to have to work very hard to make sure that we can demonstrate that we have the ability to form a government. But those same British Columbians are looking at the alternative they're looking at the record of the last nine years of David E.B. They're looking at the $13.8 billion deficit, the public safety crisis, the healthcare crisis. They're looking at a guy who seems to have misled them with a $1,000 grocery bag in the last election. They're looking at a guy who just made a $1.5 billion wuxi about natural gas royalties he seems to have been caught lying about it. They're looking at a government that he is failing, then trying to cling on by big footing municipal elections and taking advantage of the US midterms to drop a snap election which has one purpose and one purpose only and that is to get David E.B. and unearned additional mandate. There's no reason to call this election other than David E.B. personal interest that is the only reason why he's doing it. British Columbians see it and frankly it is galvanizing everyone who is against David E.B.

6:07and conversations are happening that have not been happening for months or for years in order to reunify folks and defeat this guy. David E.B. has made a colossal strategic error that he will regret. Okay, Gavin, what about center BC though? Now you've got this other party with eight plus or so MLA, some of whom used to be BC conservative MLA's, what about them? I've got fantastic friends who are currently MLA's with center BC, some really intelligent folks that I've worked with closely. I include in their leader Peter Millibar, who's a friend that I've worked with closely. Those are all folks that share in the belief that David E.B. needs to go. We've got a little bit of work to do in terms of how we end up bringing everyone together or making sure that we maximize the ability of everyone to avoid a renewed NDP government. I can't tell you exactly how those conversations are going to play out. But again, what I know is that all of these people are people of good faith, people of good will,

7:07smart people who share a common objective and not as to make sure we get BC back on track. There's going to be a lot of conversation to happen over what could be a very short period of time. But again, if David E.B. thinks that he's going to have a cake walk election because he's managed to trick everyone, he's got another thing coming. Right, Gavin, it seems to me though that this potential threat of an election has done a lot to well benefit the opposition to get things organized to give a sentence of heightened urgency. What if there isn't an election call then what? The worst that happens is that we become more ready for an election if and when it comes. I think here's the thing. David E.B. is doing this because he thinks that there is an opportunity for him. He's not, doesn't want to run his own record, doesn't want to run his own opposition. He's trying to take advantage of the fact that US midterms are on until November 3rd that Canadians are rightly pissed off at Donald Trump. Donald Trump is going to be maximum Donald Trump through those midterms. David E.B. is pulling is always best when what he's doing is running against Donald Trump

8:11instead of actually doing things and fixing things here in DC. This is his window to try to sneak out a snap election where he gets to do that. He's messed it up again. And I think the reason why he started this conversation, frankly, was to stave off an internal leadership challenge. After he finishes messing this up, I'm pretty confident his caucus is going to take him out. The NDP will be into a leadership. That'll be the end of David E.B. I think he's going to regret this very much. Let me ask you this then to be very clear. In your opinion, will there be two political parties center BC and BC conservators at the end of this week? They tuned. Gavin, thank you very much for that. I'm great. I appreciate your time. That's Gavin do BC conservative MLA for Kelona mission. Now, of course, there is this other party center BC. We are going to be speaking with Bruce Banman from center BC, who was a BC conservative MLA. We'll talk about his perspective and that party's perspective on all of this coming up in our eight o'clock hour.

9:12But it sounds like we're not done talking about all the things that are going on behind the scenes in BC politics. So stay tuned. It changes every moment. That's why you need to keep listening to 730CK and W. The last night started moving forward with the process of pulling our party back together again in preparation for the sneaky snap election that David E.B. Seams to want to try to get away with. That was BC conservative MLA Gavin. Do he was on with us an hour ago? He was also predicting more changes in the BC political landscape potentially by the end of the day. And honestly, I can't even keep up with who is in which party, which already everything that's going on on the opposition side of the aisle. We have the BC conservatives with a couple of dozen MLA's and interim leader Lauren Dirkson. Then you've got some splinter parties like center BC, his leader right now is Peter Millibar with MLA's like our next guest, Bruce Banman, who was elected as a BC conservative MLA.

10:14I know. It's all confusing, right? But Bruce Banman is with us now. Thank you very much for being here. Well, thank you very much, Jimmy. And you know, the one thing about British Columbia politics is never boring. No kidding, right? No kidding. This past week, it's only how are you feeling after the events of the last three or four days? You know, I got to tell you I've been in a bunch of events and people are coming up to me and they're saying, oh, thank goodness. We finally got something to vote for. Center BC. Thank you so much. Yeah, and you know, we are the serious stable option that people are looking for. You know, the beauty of not having a federal brand is that all political stripes can come to us because I'm hearing from British Columbians loud and clear. They are sick and tired of David EB in the NDP. They are outraged that he would even consider pulling a sneaky snap election has Gavin. My friend has said and yes, even though we're in different parties, we're still friends.

11:15So I have a lot of friends in the conservatives and we are united in one thing, which is to defeat the NDP if they dare hold a snap election. You be the M spoke loudly. Don't do it. I can tell you in Abbotsford mission, it's an absolute mess with all the different signs that are up. People are confused or angry to upset. This is selflessness on David EB's part and I think it will backfire. Now Gavin do also earlier suggested that there would be potentially some MLA's kind of returning to the BC conservative fold. I mean, you tell me is center BC staying around or are we going to see some kind of coalition? You know, I would say, I'll go back to my first comment, which is the beauty of center BC is it does not matter what your political straight is. Welcome here. The problem that the conservatives now find themselves in is it has the brand been damaged beyond electability.

12:16I believe it has, but more important. It limits who can join who wants to join. So center BC, it political straight does not matter. It is a big tent party and that's how you win an election is by gaining momentum and actually adding to the tent versus making it smaller. And that's what sadly K.L.F. did. She made the tent smaller and that's not a winning strategy. Did the threat of a potential provincial election solidify things? Did it kind of heightened the urgency to do something? You know, I think whenever you're whenever you have a threat like that, absolutely it brings people together. I've been receiving phone calls from some of my former colleagues. We are looking for that common ground and I believe we are going to find that common ground. I missed working with my friends, but I sadly I saw what was happening.

13:18I was, you know, add some of it on the inside of what was going on and my internal world compass just would not allow me to put out. I'm not going to stop with that any longer. So I made the bold move of going as an independent and then center came along and I believe that that is the winning vehicle that everybody can jump on to help beat David. Would you go back to the BC conservatives because I mean, Lauren Dirkson's now the interim leader that somebody you've worked with before you were in the same party before. I love Lauren, but I really I go back to I think that what British Columbians are 51% that are looking for a reasonable stable alternative and the issue that there is with a federal brand attached to a provincial party is you limit your options when it comes to people who want to to work with you. And so I would say to to my conservative colleagues come on over here, but you know the good news is that we are talking and

14:24I'm more importantly, there are people in the background like as soon as I did this, I was worried, you know, like did I do the wrong thing and what I heard loud and clear when I went to all of the events that have been at is people coming up shaking my hand and say thank you Bruce. You did the right thing. I now have a home that I can vote for right you said people are talking so to parties are talking to other but it sounds very much to me Bruce like people are on the center BC center saying hey come and join. Center BC, but the BC conservative saying no come back to the BC conservatives that doesn't sound like there's clarity. Well, that that's what makes British Columbia politics exciting and it gives you something to talk about on the radio now nothing. Oh, it certainly does. I wouldn't let that worry people so much what the good news is that people are looking for that common ground. I believe center BC is the answer center BC is your BC party after all. I can't and so I believe the center BC is the right vehicle. Sadly, I believe that there's been an awful lot of damage that has been done to the conservative brand.

15:33Whether or not that you know and but whatever happens, you know, there is a there is discussions that are going on in the general population businesses. I've got federal labs and federal conservatives that are coming and saying let's get let's get going because nobody wants this unneeded sneaky election that David eB wants to do in the middle of a municipal election. I've talked to people at UBCM and they are furious with him and you know, David eB needs to do what's right by the province and call it snap election sure is heckaed it. What would you say to British Columbians though who who look at what is happening on the opposition side of things and and think what what's going on here? How can I trust these people to run the province if they can't even figure out what they're doing. Well, I would say that you know that really is it was an issue of the former leader and of the conservative party that leader is now resigned.

16:34She's done the right thing. I was the first one to say she was unelectable and should resign. I believe she's now done the right thing and I think you a very you a very quickly see that there is a stable serious option. Again, I go back to say I believe it's center BC but there are discussions going on not just with politicians but with all different brands of people that are looking for a way because nobody wants. Another four years of the end of the day and David eB because I believe that he's doing this because he doesn't want to let people know how bad the deficit's going to be. He is incapable of managing this province and he is incapable of doing what's right by British Columbia. This is about the economy. And he has trashed the economy. How many more downgrades are we going to have? There's going to be nothing left if he continues along this path and he has shown absolutely zero ability to manage the economy and I shoved it to think if he gets a majority government what this province will look like by the time he's finished with it.

17:45Mr. Bammett, thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much. We were just talking with David Aiken in Ottawa as we just heard MPs are headed back to Parliament Hill this morning. There is a lot on their to do list including talking about Canada's security because for the first time in more than 20 years the carny government is working on a national security strategy but we don't exactly know what that involves. Could it or should it involve looking at developing maybe a new spy agency for Canada. Our next guest thinks that might be a good idea. Gaurant Samuel Pazik is a business executive and political strategist working in defense and national security and joins us now. Thank you so much for being here. Good morning. Thank you for having me this morning. Why do we need a national security strategy? Well, it's important that Canada have at some time of the blueprint how it's going to approach what we call national interests.

18:46What are the things that we're going to defend the most in Canada that we're going to put taxpayer money to use government will focus priorities on and what do we want to achieve not just today but 20 years from now 50, 100 years into the future. Those are why we have a national security strategy. Some countries are updating their national security strategies regularly like every year or perhaps every other year. Canada seems to do it somewhat periodically. The last one was done well over 20 years ago. Okay, so why is it taking us so long to do it again? Well, it's never a priority for government because sometimes the focus on economics, healthcare, other pressing issues, trade, sometimes these matters which are more serious matters. You don't get votes on national security. You get votes on healthcare, the economy trade these days. However, for Canada to be a serious player in the new emerging geopolitical realm, we are looking at having the need to revise our national security policy.

19:52And in doing so, that would complement other policies that currently the government is working on or may not have and I can elaborate on that if you wish. Yeah, please do. What are we missing? So typically to run a successful government anywhere in the world, you need four quadrants. The biggest one is what we consider national security. The next one is defense policy. Another one is foreign policy and the other one is industrial strategy or industrial policy. What informs every one of those other three is a national security policy. Okay, so then if we put this into place, Corinne, what kind of a difference do you think that would make? How would we use that moving forward? Well, it would coordinate all of the levers of government. It would certainly give all the departments who are responsible to delivering on national security priorities. And also the economic, they can be political, they can be diplomatic, they can be obviously geopolitical like what's happening in Ukraine or something were to happen in the South China seas over Taiwan.

21:01All these things are there to inform the government of Canada and Canadians. What are the priorities that the government is going to put its treasure, its people and its resources toward defending? Okay, so given all of that, so clearly this is an important, this is a big deal. I think a lot of people do feel that Canada is a bit on the precipice right now of going in a new direction. Do we need a new type of spy agency then or do you think Ceasis can do this job? Yeah, that's been a very long going question for many, many decades. Although they knew an eye problem. This goes back to the Second World War or after the Second World War, Canada was looking at setting up one in the 1950s. And the priority according to our allies like the UK and the US was Latin America if we were to establish one back into 50s. So over consecutive governments, probably every 10 years, this debate always surfaces. Now an independent agency would report to a different minister, Ceasis currently reports to the Minister of Public Safety, which is really the national security or the Ministry of Interior, the solicitor general.

22:15This is within Canada itself, a foreign intelligence agency reports typically to the foreign minister. As in the UK, they refer to that as the foreign secretary. That's where MI6, for example, reports into. Okay, so that doesn't almost make sense to me that we would the public safety minister like why isn't it, why isn't it the defense minister, why isn't that doesn't seem like it works? Yeah, so the public safety minister is responsible for Ceasis, the RCMP, Canada Board of Services, agency, corrections, Canada. Like shouldn't it be the solicitor general? Well, that is the solicitor general. So basically the public safety minister is the solicitor general. The foreign minister is responsible for things outside of Canada. And you're correct, national defense is responsible for things outside of Canada and defending Canada abroad. However, there are, you know, there are intelligence, let's say institutions within national defense, and they do their job and to be doing it very well.

23:19So what we're looking for is another agency that would look at what are Canada's long term goals in places such as Russia or China or North Korea or other places or Latin America. And those are all pretty much foreign policy issues in the long run. So 5, 10, 20 years out that may have effects economically, politically, geopolitically, etc. Right, but everything you describe here, Garnet, it's very clear. We need to get moving on this, right? Because it sounds like Canada is very out of date on all of this. Yes, indeed. And there's always an argument it's too expensive to have. Well, I tend to disagree with this statement because what is the sovereignty of Canada worth at the end of the day? It is there is no price. You either have sovereignty or you don't to enforce sovereignty. You need to have different state craft tools at your disposal, a foreign intelligence agency is such a tool. So I'm just suggesting that as we're developing as a country into more mature posture around the world, these are serious conversations where everyone to have.

24:26And they're not in their nonpartisan. This should go not within a liberal or conservative party line, but should be in the interest of Canada as a whole. Well, thank you so much for talking to us about that today. Well, thank you for having me and I wish you well. If you need other information about this as it evolves, feel free to contact me. We certainly will. Yeah, thank you. That's Garry on Samuel Peska, business executive and political strategist who works in defense and national security, explaining the need for a new national security strategy, maybe even a new spy agency in Canada. Now, the national security strategy is something the carny government is working on. Has it been updated in decades and you can imagine with everything that we have seen in terms of the way this government approaches international relations versus previous governments. That yeah, our national security strategy probably needs a pretty big update to deal with the world as it is right now. Thanks for listening to the Mornings with Simmy Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

25:32And you can always listen to us live in the morning, Monday to Friday from 5.30 to 9 on 7.30 CK&W.