September 5, 2024 • 12 mins
Liberal strategist Andrew Perez joins Jon Liedtke on AM800 CKLW to discuss the NDP ending the Supply and Confidence Agreement with the Liberals and whether its a smart move, election speculation, and what comes next.
This interview aired on AM800 CKLW
This interview aired on AM800 CKLW
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You've said about a dozen times at least that you've
ripped up the agreement and that that makes an election
more likely. But you've been asked several times and you
won't answer. Do you have confidence in the Trudeau government
as they stand now?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I will be a clear again. We have absolutely ripped
up the agreement with Justin Shoudeau, and that means an election.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Is more likelier.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
That's not clear you're in an election. Whenever that election comes,
we'll be ready to fight it. And the vision around
that election is going to be an important one. Canadians
will have to make a choice.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
But can we get a corporate control?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Conservatives? They're going to let their corporate buddies rip you
off even more when new Democrats are going to save
you money on your rent and your groceries. That's a
choice that Canadians will have to make.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Can we get an answer?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I will look at any vote that comes before us
and we will make a decision in the best interest
of Canadians as any minority government normally operates.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
That is NDP leader drig Meat Singh talking about the
ending of the supply and Confidence agreement with the Liberals.
He's taken questions about it a day after making the announcement,
joining me right now to discuss the breaking of that
agreement and what it means if it was a smart
idea or not. Is Liberal strategist Andrew Perez joins me
right now. He's also a consultant, Andrew. How you doing.
(01:09):
Great to be on the show, John, Hey, great to
have you. So the NDP leader did not give an
answer there to the Toronto Suns Brian Lilly, whatsoever? I
didn't hear one at least, did you? No?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Singh has been quite evasive, you know. Apparently this is
a decision that he and his closest advisors made back
in June, which makes this even the more shocking, essentially
making a decision in late June and taking the summer
off recording this video announcement apparently before Pierre Polievra issued
(01:44):
his public letter late last week daring sing to pull
the plug on this government. And so the timing doesn't
make sense. The messaging is weak. The messaging, you know,
suggesting that the liberal government is always caving corporate interests
and is abt to protect corporate profits is a pretty
(02:05):
bizarre suggestion, given that this is the most progressive and
less leaning iteration of the Federal Liberal Party that we've
ever seen in Canadian history. And so what I think
this is is purely a political tactic and a communications exercise.
This agreement was reached two and a half years ago
in a very unstable period, coming out of the Freedom Convoy.
(02:28):
The war in Ukraine had just happened, and Singh was
looking for a lifeline. The Liberal government is looking for stability,
and through that lens, this agreement has worked and it's
underwritten a great deal of progressive social policy. But I
always question why sing would agree to this arrangement because
to me, it was always clear that the government, the
(02:51):
Liberal government, would take the credit for these progressive social
policy and that's exactly what's happened. Two and a half
years later. The NDP is languishing. They have about eighteen
percent public support and they're not getting credit for some
of the good work. So I think that explains what
we've seen in the last twenty four hours.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
It's been a bit of whiplash with everything that's been
happening here, But I know that you're on social media
fairly often, Andrew, and it's been really frustrating to watch
the NDP leaders' comms being deployed, often stating things like
the Liberals are just in bed with corporate cronies and
that's why they're awful and no different than the Conservatives.
(03:30):
And it's all very hyperbolic. But going back to what
you were just saying, if they made this decision in June,
they recorded this video August what fifteenth, maybe they released
the video on September the fourth. They spent quite a
long time supporting a government publicly that they didn't support privately.
I don't know. Do you think that duplicitousness will go
(03:51):
over well with voters?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Well, I think they do support the government privately. I
think this is a this is a tactic. They see
that their numbers aren't budgeting. They haven't got any political
upside from this agreement in the two and a half years.
And you know, at the end of the day, this
is an agreement I'm putting partis in politics society. You
(04:13):
can agree with it or not, But if you're a Democrat,
you believe in an activist role for government. This is
an agreement that has allowed for a national dental care
dental care program which is in fact operational now it's
allowed for anti scab legislation, it's allowed for a national
pharmacare program. Mind you, that program is still before the Senate,
(04:35):
so it isn't the law of the land, but it
will be later this fall. And so what I found
even more puzzling from than a video that he launched
yesterday didn't name a single concrete measure and disagree with
the Liberals. It was all political riddit rhetoric to your point,
(04:56):
around corporate gigaways and the Liberal Party being in the
in the pocket of big business. So it just it
didn't compute, It didn't it didn't make sense. And and
and I'm seeing not only everyday Canadians, but you know,
people on social media this this this announcement has been
widely pansed, and I think in the short term nothing
(05:17):
will change. The NDP have no money, they have no candidates,
they're not ready to be to be plunged into a
general election campaign. So they will conchange to support the
government on an issue by issue basis, and perhaps in
the spring they'll reassess whether they're ready to head up
the pools. That's a possibility, but more likely or not,
(05:39):
we may be still looking at another year before the
next election for the very simple reason the NP are
ready from a from an operations point of view, to
fight that election.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
So I heard this question asked a number of times
to Jeg meet Sing today, So what is all of this?
Why are we doing this? It feels like it's a
waste of time. So again, from your perspective, this is
just pure early communications and trying to improve the situation
on the ground.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yes, and to be fair, look, I think the IDPR
I'm not sure. If I was an NDP advisor to Sing,
I'm not sure I would have ever advised finding this agreement.
I can clearly see the public policy rationale behind it,
but I don't think the political upside was ever there
even two and a half years ago. But having said
(06:24):
that it was a dead deal, I would have advised
pulling out a year ago. This feels like too little,
too late. I think the perception for the last two
years is that Sing and I think it's probably the
reality has been propping up dis government. That's been the
message of care Poli. Ever, he's now calling Sing sellout Sing.
I don't like that type of rhetoric, but it's proving
(06:47):
to be effective. Conservative leading media have been lumping in
sing with the TRUEAU government, and so to be fair
to the strategist, they have correctly identified that this isn't working,
albeit a too too late, and they're trying to use
this as an opportunity to say that sin is putting
Justin Trudeau on notice that he's pulling the plug on
(07:09):
this agreement that the Liberals need to be replaced, and
he's the chief alternative to pre Qualitiero's scary corporate agenda,
not the Liberals, and so that's what they're attempting to
do to create that space. Will it work. I'm deptical.
We'll see, you know, we'll have Maybe we should revisit
this John at six months from now to see what's
(07:31):
the message track of the NDP has performed. Budge, My
understanding is they probably lose half of their twenty four
seats today if they were to go into an election.
So I think this is a sail mary pass. They
are going to lose seats in Northern Ontario to the
Conservative in World DC and so this is a hell
mary path to try to resuscitate, to try to save
(07:53):
the furniture.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Saving the furnitures, you never want to be hearing that.
If you were advising the federal NDP, I mean, what
would you tell them to do to write the ship immediately?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Look, I would say, and I think they should have
already done this with the video. They should have used
the video or the announcement or whatever communications opportunity to say, look,
here's what the NDP has extracted from the Liberal government
and point to dental care and part of the care
and anti establisations. But then say, well, we want the
(08:23):
Liberal government to go even further and put a couple
of concrete to progressive social policy in the window and
dangle them and say, you know, we will continue to
we won't continue to support you unless you do X,
Y Z. At least that would bring some concreteness to
this whole discussion. And and and yeah, I do think
(08:45):
it makes sense for the MVP to support the government
on an ad on an issue that issue basis, that's
all good and well, but propose some substantive policy. Conservatives
and maybe liberals will disagree with those policies, but they'll
be in the window. And then Canadians could say, okay, well,
you know these guys are at least suggesting something concrete
and now the ball is in the liberal parts course,
(09:06):
the Liberal government's court, to either enact those policies or nomino.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
It did feel like just a big waste of time
yesterday and with the Q and A today. Quite frankly,
what would you tell the Liberals to do, because they're not,
quite frankly doing so well.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Yeah, I mean, this is not a great outcome for
the Liberals. I will say that it does create an
even more precarious and unstable situation. They were effectively through
this agreement for the past two and a half years
governing is a majority. Now we're back into a traditional
minority government arrangement whereby every money bill, budget is a
(09:41):
confidence measure. There's nothing to stop the opposition parties who
do have a majority from buying together and putting forward
a non confidence motion in the government, which would, if pass,
plunge the country intrail election. So at a time when
the Liberals are twenty points behind, they lost their campaign man.
Today there's the constant question about Trudeau's leadership. This is
(10:05):
certainly not good news, but I would say in the
in the immediate to in the immediate term, I don't
think it changes much. I cannot see an election taking
place before Christmas, maybe next, you know, early spring at
the very earliest. And so I think, you know, at
the end of the day, I don't think Canadians buy
into this class based politics talking about coop for the
(10:28):
leads and governments being in the pocket of big business,
especially when you're talking about a government that many critics
points is too left ling and that has really enlargened
the state and federal government spending. So I think Send
needs to remember that. You know, voters may not follow
politics every day of their lives, but they can smell
(10:50):
bs when they see it, and I think there's been
a lot of that over the last twenty four hours
from the MVP. I'm not sure if they're fooling other
than perhaps their most ardent supporters.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
It does often feel like they hold their voters in
contempt with some of the ways that they interact with
their discourse. Last question before I let you go, how
important does the block quebecquac become now?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
So that's an interesting question, John. I think the blog
kiboquak could become important for the Liberal Party's stability if
the NDP decide that they're done and they're going to
oppose this government, the Liberals could secure Block Hiboquak support
to remain in power, So that would be something you know,
(11:36):
media will need to explore further over the coming months.
The Block could actually become important because I'm not sure
that the Bloc at the end of the day, the
Block is there to represent Quebec and do what's in
the best interests of Quebecer, and a Conservative government may
not be in the best interrusts of Quebecer. So I
think the Block will be true to themselves and we'll
(11:57):
look at every policy through the lens of what's that's
for Quebec. And if they think the Liberals are putting
forth initiatives that are good for Quebec, then maybe they
will vote to keep this government in power for a
bit longer.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Well, no need to talk about the Conservatives because right
now they're just so far ahead in the polls there's
really no need to assess how things are going there.
Andrew Perez is a Liberal strategist as well as a consultant.
Thank you for your time, my friend, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Thank you, John. Take care
You've said about a dozen times at least that you've
ripped up the agreement and that that makes an election
more likely. But you've been asked several times and you
won't answer. Do you have confidence in the Trudeau government
as they stand now?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I will be a clear again. We have absolutely ripped
up the agreement with Justin Shoudeau, and that means an election.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Is more likelier.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
That's not clear you're in an election. Whenever that election comes,
we'll be ready to fight it. And the vision around
that election is going to be an important one. Canadians
will have to make a choice.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
But can we get a corporate control?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Conservatives? They're going to let their corporate buddies rip you
off even more when new Democrats are going to save
you money on your rent and your groceries. That's a
choice that Canadians will have to make.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Can we get an answer?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I will look at any vote that comes before us
and we will make a decision in the best interest
of Canadians as any minority government normally operates.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
That is NDP leader drig Meat Singh talking about the
ending of the supply and Confidence agreement with the Liberals.
He's taken questions about it a day after making the announcement,
joining me right now to discuss the breaking of that
agreement and what it means if it was a smart
idea or not. Is Liberal strategist Andrew Perez joins me
right now. He's also a consultant, Andrew. How you doing.
(01:09):
Great to be on the show, John, Hey, great to
have you. So the NDP leader did not give an
answer there to the Toronto Suns Brian Lilly, whatsoever? I
didn't hear one at least, did you? No?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Singh has been quite evasive, you know. Apparently this is
a decision that he and his closest advisors made back
in June, which makes this even the more shocking, essentially
making a decision in late June and taking the summer
off recording this video announcement apparently before Pierre Polievra issued
(01:44):
his public letter late last week daring sing to pull
the plug on this government. And so the timing doesn't
make sense. The messaging is weak. The messaging, you know,
suggesting that the liberal government is always caving corporate interests
and is abt to protect corporate profits is a pretty
(02:05):
bizarre suggestion, given that this is the most progressive and
less leaning iteration of the Federal Liberal Party that we've
ever seen in Canadian history. And so what I think
this is is purely a political tactic and a communications exercise.
This agreement was reached two and a half years ago
in a very unstable period, coming out of the Freedom Convoy.
(02:28):
The war in Ukraine had just happened, and Singh was
looking for a lifeline. The Liberal government is looking for stability,
and through that lens, this agreement has worked and it's
underwritten a great deal of progressive social policy. But I
always question why sing would agree to this arrangement because
to me, it was always clear that the government, the
(02:51):
Liberal government, would take the credit for these progressive social
policy and that's exactly what's happened. Two and a half
years later. The NDP is languishing. They have about eighteen
percent public support and they're not getting credit for some
of the good work. So I think that explains what
we've seen in the last twenty four hours.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
It's been a bit of whiplash with everything that's been
happening here, But I know that you're on social media
fairly often, Andrew, and it's been really frustrating to watch
the NDP leaders' comms being deployed, often stating things like
the Liberals are just in bed with corporate cronies and
that's why they're awful and no different than the Conservatives.
(03:30):
And it's all very hyperbolic. But going back to what
you were just saying, if they made this decision in June,
they recorded this video August what fifteenth, maybe they released
the video on September the fourth. They spent quite a
long time supporting a government publicly that they didn't support privately.
I don't know. Do you think that duplicitousness will go
(03:51):
over well with voters?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Well, I think they do support the government privately. I
think this is a this is a tactic. They see
that their numbers aren't budgeting. They haven't got any political
upside from this agreement in the two and a half years.
And you know, at the end of the day, this
is an agreement I'm putting partis in politics society. You
(04:13):
can agree with it or not, But if you're a Democrat,
you believe in an activist role for government. This is
an agreement that has allowed for a national dental care
dental care program which is in fact operational now it's
allowed for anti scab legislation, it's allowed for a national
pharmacare program. Mind you, that program is still before the Senate,
(04:35):
so it isn't the law of the land, but it
will be later this fall. And so what I found
even more puzzling from than a video that he launched
yesterday didn't name a single concrete measure and disagree with
the Liberals. It was all political riddit rhetoric to your point,
(04:56):
around corporate gigaways and the Liberal Party being in the
in the pocket of big business. So it just it
didn't compute, It didn't it didn't make sense. And and
and I'm seeing not only everyday Canadians, but you know,
people on social media this this this announcement has been
widely pansed, and I think in the short term nothing
(05:17):
will change. The NDP have no money, they have no candidates,
they're not ready to be to be plunged into a
general election campaign. So they will conchange to support the
government on an issue by issue basis, and perhaps in
the spring they'll reassess whether they're ready to head up
the pools. That's a possibility, but more likely or not,
(05:39):
we may be still looking at another year before the
next election for the very simple reason the NP are
ready from a from an operations point of view, to
fight that election.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
So I heard this question asked a number of times
to Jeg meet Sing today, So what is all of this?
Why are we doing this? It feels like it's a
waste of time. So again, from your perspective, this is
just pure early communications and trying to improve the situation
on the ground.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yes, and to be fair, look, I think the IDPR
I'm not sure. If I was an NDP advisor to Sing,
I'm not sure I would have ever advised finding this agreement.
I can clearly see the public policy rationale behind it,
but I don't think the political upside was ever there
even two and a half years ago. But having said
(06:24):
that it was a dead deal, I would have advised
pulling out a year ago. This feels like too little,
too late. I think the perception for the last two
years is that Sing and I think it's probably the
reality has been propping up dis government. That's been the
message of care Poli. Ever, he's now calling Sing sellout Sing.
I don't like that type of rhetoric, but it's proving
(06:47):
to be effective. Conservative leading media have been lumping in
sing with the TRUEAU government, and so to be fair
to the strategist, they have correctly identified that this isn't working,
albeit a too too late, and they're trying to use
this as an opportunity to say that sin is putting
Justin Trudeau on notice that he's pulling the plug on
(07:09):
this agreement that the Liberals need to be replaced, and
he's the chief alternative to pre Qualitiero's scary corporate agenda,
not the Liberals, and so that's what they're attempting to
do to create that space. Will it work. I'm deptical.
We'll see, you know, we'll have Maybe we should revisit
this John at six months from now to see what's
(07:31):
the message track of the NDP has performed. Budge, My
understanding is they probably lose half of their twenty four
seats today if they were to go into an election.
So I think this is a sail mary pass. They
are going to lose seats in Northern Ontario to the
Conservative in World DC and so this is a hell
mary path to try to resuscitate, to try to save
(07:53):
the furniture.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Saving the furnitures, you never want to be hearing that.
If you were advising the federal NDP, I mean, what
would you tell them to do to write the ship immediately?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Look, I would say, and I think they should have
already done this with the video. They should have used
the video or the announcement or whatever communications opportunity to say, look,
here's what the NDP has extracted from the Liberal government
and point to dental care and part of the care
and anti establisations. But then say, well, we want the
(08:23):
Liberal government to go even further and put a couple
of concrete to progressive social policy in the window and
dangle them and say, you know, we will continue to
we won't continue to support you unless you do X,
Y Z. At least that would bring some concreteness to
this whole discussion. And and and yeah, I do think
(08:45):
it makes sense for the MVP to support the government
on an ad on an issue that issue basis, that's
all good and well, but propose some substantive policy. Conservatives
and maybe liberals will disagree with those policies, but they'll
be in the window. And then Canadians could say, okay, well,
you know these guys are at least suggesting something concrete
and now the ball is in the liberal parts course,
(09:06):
the Liberal government's court, to either enact those policies or nomino.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
It did feel like just a big waste of time
yesterday and with the Q and A today. Quite frankly,
what would you tell the Liberals to do, because they're not,
quite frankly doing so well.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Yeah, I mean, this is not a great outcome for
the Liberals. I will say that it does create an
even more precarious and unstable situation. They were effectively through
this agreement for the past two and a half years
governing is a majority. Now we're back into a traditional
minority government arrangement whereby every money bill, budget is a
(09:41):
confidence measure. There's nothing to stop the opposition parties who
do have a majority from buying together and putting forward
a non confidence motion in the government, which would, if pass,
plunge the country intrail election. So at a time when
the Liberals are twenty points behind, they lost their campaign man.
Today there's the constant question about Trudeau's leadership. This is
(10:05):
certainly not good news, but I would say in the
in the immediate to in the immediate term, I don't
think it changes much. I cannot see an election taking
place before Christmas, maybe next, you know, early spring at
the very earliest. And so I think, you know, at
the end of the day, I don't think Canadians buy
into this class based politics talking about coop for the
(10:28):
leads and governments being in the pocket of big business,
especially when you're talking about a government that many critics
points is too left ling and that has really enlargened
the state and federal government spending. So I think Send
needs to remember that. You know, voters may not follow
politics every day of their lives, but they can smell
(10:50):
bs when they see it, and I think there's been
a lot of that over the last twenty four hours
from the MVP. I'm not sure if they're fooling other
than perhaps their most ardent supporters.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
It does often feel like they hold their voters in
contempt with some of the ways that they interact with
their discourse. Last question before I let you go, how
important does the block quebecquac become now?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
So that's an interesting question, John. I think the blog
kiboquak could become important for the Liberal Party's stability if
the NDP decide that they're done and they're going to
oppose this government, the Liberals could secure Block Hiboquak support
to remain in power, So that would be something you know,
(11:36):
media will need to explore further over the coming months.
The Block could actually become important because I'm not sure
that the Bloc at the end of the day, the
Block is there to represent Quebec and do what's in
the best interests of Quebecer, and a Conservative government may
not be in the best interrusts of Quebecer. So I
think the Block will be true to themselves and we'll
(11:57):
look at every policy through the lens of what's that's
for Quebec. And if they think the Liberals are putting
forth initiatives that are good for Quebec, then maybe they
will vote to keep this government in power for a
bit longer.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Well, no need to talk about the Conservatives because right
now they're just so far ahead in the polls there's
really no need to assess how things are going there.
Andrew Perez is a Liberal strategist as well as a consultant.
Thank you for your time, my friend, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Thank you, John. Take care
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