CTVN - Saturday, May 25, 2024 - 12:00 a.m. (ET) - Segment #8

>> Well, I don't know that anything went wrong we have some trusted adversaries from both parties that came together and had good faith discussions about seeing if we could find some common ground on which we might be able to put together, you know, sort of a noncompete agreement so that we could make sure that we don't allow this terrible ndp government to slip back into office because of vote splitting. And so we went into it, you know, with genuine good intentions to honestly put forward something that would put aside our own personal interests, our party interests and see if we can't work for the broader public interest. And, you know, I think frankly that there was good discussions amongst, you know, the members, the representatives from the bc conservative party, but I think at the end of the day, john decided to go with the faction of his party that doesn't like to do any kind of deals with anybody, and that's the way they've been over the last 30 years and that's probably why they haven't elected, you know, an mla here in british columbia in almost 50 years. >> Todd: this statement by john rustad and the bc conservatives is pretty dam, Mr. Falcon, as you know, it's scorched earth stuff, I haven't seen this thing in a long, long time and they say quote kevin falcon declined our offers in december of 2023 to discuss a possible merger with a single message stating and I quote, f-off. Is that true? Is that what you said? >> No. And john keeps going around and saying I said this to him and it's just completely not true. I'm not sure why he continues to say stuff like that but it is a bit of an unhinged statement for sure. But, look, at the end of the day, it's not about personalities, it should never be. It should be about the public interest and all I'm saying is that we genuinely in good faith tried to respond to all of the people we hear frommened I know john hears from them too to say is there some way you could just put aside your differences to try and find common ground and we made a genuine effort to do that. And I think that's the right thing to do because frankly I came back into politics, not for me, I came back for my kids' generation, and I've got a 14 and an 11-year-old and I worry about the future of this province under the terrible ndp government that frankly has driven us right to the very bottom of the rankings on everything, health care, crime, public safety, you name it. >> Todd: speaking of which, I can only imagine, mr. Fall countryfalcon how delighted the ndp are to see these talks falling apart. Do you recall trying to make some sort of coalition happen sooner? >> I will be honest with you. I spent the last so years in the private sector but of course I've been in politics in one form or another for, you know, a good 15 years and I can tell you I've spent my entire adult life trying to bring the centre right together in the province. The bc conservatives vote splitting always been a challenge. For 30 years we've briton trying to get them to stop running candidates and helping to sometimes elect an ndp mla that shouldn't have been elected and for 30 years they've said no. They've been a very difficult group to deal with because in some ways they would rather make a point than actually form government and make a difference. I'm really in this because I want to make a difference. I'm genuinely concerned about the future of our province. I'm doing this for my kids. I wish that they sort of had that same altitude, saying let's just put the eagles aside and actually try to get something done here. But ultimately we were unable to convince them of that. So we're going to go forward and I'm actually excited. We've got exceptional candidates, lawyers, physicians, doctors, entrepreneurs, all kinds of really good people that we're going to go forward into the next election with the change agenda that I think will resonate with british columbians because I can tell you one that that almost everyone agrees on here is that whatever the ndp have been doing for the last seven years is not working for british columbians. >> That election is coming up pretty fast, as you know. Let me ask you in terms of where irparty is in the polls right now, it's a challenge. And again the conservatives taking aim at that saying basically that you tried to come up with some kind of a deal because you are desperate. They say, you know, four months before an election, now that bc united is tied with the green party at 12%, now they want to come up with some kind of a deal. Can I get your reaction to that? >> Well, first of all, it's really important to understand that this is not new, this has happened before, you know. When I retired from public life as a finance minister back, I announced it in 2012, we were tied in the polls with the bc conservatives back then. And we went into that election, my old party, the bc liberals now called bc united went into that election 23 points down in the polls, and the entire media and all of the punditry had made up their minds, they said it was going to be an ndp win, no slam dunk, it's straightforward. They were wrong. We actually won a majority government. And I just think you have to be very careful. This it is british columbia, after all. I mean, this is a province where, believe me, things can change in five minutes, much less five months. So I say stay tuned, I think there will be a lot different as we get closer. And I also think that the quality of candidates matter and I think the bc conservatives have some pretty challenging candidates there, and, you know, those kind of candidates don't reflect the values that most british columbian also hold and that I think will be a problem for them going forward.

>> Let me give you a scenario, the ndp have been in power a long time, before that of course as you know very well, the bc liberals were in power for a long time. If the election roulettes were the following, that there was, you know, the possibility of a coalition between your party and the conservatives to try and avoid the ndp forming another government, are you prepared to make a deal with the conservatives given everything that's been said, and frankly all of this bad blood that we're hearing about? >> Yeah. So first of all there's no bad blood on my side, I will be honest with you. Their statement is obviously really over the top. I don't hold any animosity or bad blood. They've got good supporters over there too, I want to be clear about that. I may not agree with the candidates and the sames that they represent, but there are good people that support that party and I want to be clear about that. But, you know, at the end of the day, I will always do the right thing for british columbia. It's very important to understand that. This is way more important than what's in the interest of kevin falcon. I didn't come back into politics because I needed a job. I was quite happy in the private sector. I came back into politics because I was very worried about the direction the ndp government was taking this province, and I will do whatever it takes to make sure that we have a free enterprise government in british columbia that focuses on if I canning the challenges we face and get things back on track. We are literally getting killed here in british columbia with these economic policies that have given us the highest tax rates in the country, the largest, they've doubled the debt in seven years, we're facing the largest deficit in provincial history, almost $8 billion, tied to the worst results we've ever seen in health care, public safety, they are crazy reckless decriminalization policies, et cetera. So I think all of this have conspired to really make a mess of this province. We've got to fix it and get it back on track. That takes leadership and I will always do the right thing for this province. >> Kevin falcon is the leader of bc united, joining us here on power-play from vancouver. Thanks for taking the time, Mr. Fall condition. Always a pleasure. >> Thanks very much for having me, todd, appreciate it. >> All right, stay with us, our front bench is standing by after the break to dig into these what you might call bc battle lines. 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it most, it's investments in health care, it's investment in the services that people rely on, it's also standing up for the right issues, to make sure that those who are most vulnerable in our society have a government that has their back. So I clearly demonstrate the inability for both these egos, to work for the benefit of their own base, but beyond that I think this is ultimately a win for bc because it's going to keep the progressive and very dynamic ndp and premier eby in power. >> David eby no doubt a happy man tonight to see these talks collapse. How about you, sabrina, what do you think? >> You know, I think -- I didn't realize that ego played a role in politicians politics, I'm shocked to learn! So, you know, I think from david eby's perspective, certainly I would be like very happy about this, not only to see a split on the right but to continue to see these parties attack each other, right? And now some of the work that david eby's going to have to do to attack the conservatives is also going to come from B.C. and as already pointed out, that party is so low in the polls that I think that it also creates an opportunity for eby to move a little bit to the centre on some of those issues and catch some of those people that are thinking, well, where am I going to park my vote now, it doesn't look like he's in the running, who am I going to support. So I think that there's lots of opportunity for the ndp to benefit from this. I think with the conservatives made the right choice of course in not merging, there's no really reason to fem who side themselves. But what john rustad is going to have to watch out for is some of the quirkier candidates. I think that kevin falcon did make a good point earlier on this show saying that he had some really strong candidates and I'm not sure that the bc conservatives have that sense on their bench. And so it is interesting to see how that -- >> Rachel aiello, I read this statement from the conservatives and john rustad, I mean, really, it's astonishing, and I want to read another little bit to all of us and people at home. He says this is, again, about kevin falcon. Time and again and in this offer kevin falcon has demonstrated he will always put himself first and will do absolutely anything for power before the bc united party, before his own candidates indults before the province. I mean, that is, you know, stuff that you rarely see in canadian politics, and certainly not written down in a statement that's sent out to the media. >> Yeah, todd, when I was reading the statement, I was kind of wondering to myself, like, did pierre poilievre's speech writers kind of help him script this? Because a lot of what's in here, even this line about this conservative fighting against the radical ndp and restoring common sense, those were all concepts we've heard poilievre repeat here federally so I was curious about that line and whether there was any conversation about the federal dynamics at play right now. We are hearing conservative leader pierre poilievre extensively pin the ndp to the liberals through their supply and confidence deal calling them a coalition, every time they are up in their house, he's talking about the liberal ndp government and so it's a curious thing to think about, there could have been a perspective I guess where we would call it a former liberal conservative alliance in british columbia, so I just think it was an interest willing exercise, I guess, in some negotiating talks clearly and in an acrimony here, todd, but I do wonder what lessons were kind of brought into that conversation from what they've seen play out federally. >> Todd: so back to you, mel, how do you stop vote splitting in bc given what we've seen today? >> I think they just need to charge ahead, perhaps have a different plan and fully go on their own, the conservatives would go on their own and not worry about the liberals. Like, they are at 12% right now, and by all accounts, that -- they may continue to tank further than that. It sounds to me like they're really just trying to save the furniture at this point in time. And it's not going well. If the liberal brand is so damaged across the country, like that is why they rebranded them selves in bc united instead of referring to themselves as the liberals because there are trying to -- to -- to stop the bleeding. But, you know, unfortunately for their party, they've just been -- they've been marred bite liberal brand so strongly and it doesn't look like there are bouncing back from it. So again we are seeing this trend across the country with liberal provincial parties doing really poorly, and I think that the bc conservatives are going to new brunswick a really interesting position in this next election. >> Yeah, I mean, we want to be clear, bc liberals are always centre right. The rebranding, though, gurratan, your take on that from bc liberals to bc united, no doubt hoping that that would, you know,ably them a refresh and voters would take a second look, it doesn't real seem like that's resonating. Let's be clear. We are still months away. But right now, not looking so good. >> Let's also clarify that one point. This is not actually a bc liberal party that's rebranded to the bcup. This is actually a conservative party that rebranded -- it was initially called the liberals, in a very bizarre fashion, those of us all of us east of bc

confuse idea a conservative party was called the liberal party, I guess as an ndper, I see liberal tories same old story, but with respect to this, we have a centric party and a further right party fighting each other. So this is a really interesting dynamic and warning it really demonstrates is that the dcup rebrand will probably go down in canadian politics as the worst rebranding that has occurred and having the most neck impact. They wanted to distance themselves from a party that really wasn't their values anyways, since they were actually conservatives. They chose a really cumbersome acronym that people still struggle with, how to refer to them as. And now their lunch is getting eaten by a party whose name they probably should have adopted from the get-go. So this is the right eating the right right now and as it progresses I'm sitting back and enjoying the show. >> You're right, is it the bc united party, bc united, just united, it gets confusing. To you, sabrina, as well, and touching on something that mel and guarantee were talking a little bit about. This idea that perhaps if you are the leader of the conservative party in british columbia, which of course is always struggled going back many, many years, you start to think, well, you know, given what's happening federally and how far ahead the conservatives are with pierre poilievre, maybe we have an opportunity to break through here in british columbia, so why do I want to, you know, hitch my wagon to the folks over at bc united? >> Yeah, I mean, again, I think that there's little to come out of benefits, the bc conservatives to even like think about net merger with the bc united, 12% doesn't make any sense. But I do also think that there is some risk hitching their wagon foully to the federal conservatives, right? There's a -- and while the conservatives are still doing well in the polls right now federally, they're still some risk that they might -- they might falter and I think that it also really depends on what do people in bc care about. And -- health care, the cost of living, and affordability and housing. And I think that so far, the conservatives haven't really come to the table with a plan for that federally, and I don't really think they are coming as the plan to the table with a plan for that provincially. So it does -- like, do they have any yesterdayability in actually solving these issues or is premier eby host winnipeg some of his plan to actually make a difference on those three issues. >> Todd: last word on this to you, rachel aiello, how does it play out? What do you think we're going to see? >> I do think what you hit on, there todd, about looking at pierre poilievre's recent run in british columbia and whether the federal conservatives are able to kind of help buoy the provincial conservatives is going to be something to watch in this ongoing race. I think we've seen conservative leader pierre poilievre spend a lot of time in british columbia and certainly trying to make continuous gains with some of the outskirts regions around vancouver. So that is certainly something I would imagine that the provincial party is keeping an eye on, and even in this echoing of common sense language, potentially a ship they're trying to ride to their own electoral success. >> All right, we're going to get our front bench to stick around in just a moment, when we come back, we're going to look at prime minister trudeau's pharmacare strategy and taking on pierre poilievre's once again. We'll be right back. [ They say, "post it or it didn't happen." But out here, in the places we were made for, you'll have to take our word for it. Find somewhere the internet's never been... with a family of Broncos designed to get you there. ( ) ( ) (Music Begins) Summer breeze makes me feel fine Blowing through the jasmine in my mind ( ) Summer breeze makes me feel fine (Silence) Blowing through the jasmine in my mind Summer starts here. Get your pc® Summer Insiders Report today. (Keys jingling, click of light switch) Your boss' name is Heather And she made you have an awful day Let me sing all your problems away Get started for free on eharmony. Must be 18 or older to join. Get who gets you. eharmony. Febreze! I use Febreze Fabric Refresher everyday. To make my house smell amazing. On my bed... My couch... My jacket or jeans in between washes... Even shoes. Febreze doesn't cover up odors with scent, but fights them... ...and freshens! Over one thousand uses. Febreze Fabric Refresher. At Pet Valu, we treat your pet like our pet. Well, Georgie, it's time for adult food. And there's a lot of great options to choo... too choose from. They grow up so fast. I know...

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