Political Pulse Panel: 3 NDP MPs are leaving politics — what does that mean for Jagmeet Singh?

three veteran NDP MPS announce their leaving politics NDP MPS Charlie Angus Carol Hughes and Rachel blay made the announcement Thursday all for different reasons and just last hour some size of relief from around the liberal caucus Anthony housefather says he'll stay despite his concerns over the liberal support for a motion on the Israel Hamas conflict meanwhile the Liberals pressed on with their string of pre-budget announcements so a lot of ups and downs how did this affect the political pulse this week time to bring in our party Insiders on that Greg mckr is a former liberal ministerial staffer Melanie reishe is a former communications director for the NDP and Fred delore is a former conservative campaign manager all right gang uh you know a a busy week you know Fred I want to start with you because housea was like the latest MP to Signal his intentions today but you wanted to talk about some of the NDP MPS who have announced they're gonna go it's kind of funny if you look at some of the polling it looks like the Liberals got a little bump and the NDP are going down and we're seeing it with members of parliament as well where they get the keep and NDP lose three people can't see Mel Flinch off camera there but I saw it get ready look uh I think it says a lot uh the state of the NDP right now when you have three MPS announcing like this that they're all leaving and not running again um these are these are MPS that have been around a long time there are they are in writings that I know the conservatives are targeting hard and from internal numbers that I've seen are going to win by good numbers now everyone has reasons to to get out of politics at at certain times Charlie has been in for two decades uh but I think this really shows us the state of the NDP and what's going on over there and maybe the the one guy that uh that didn't leave Mr jug MIT sing is uh is the problem here okay Fred's coming in hot here the Fred delori decision desk is already awarded those three seats to the conservatives what are your thoughts on this because you know we have talked in the past of like that that that blue orange fight and then the red orange fight and the challenges for the NDP and losing incumbents with that in your future is rough is rough spot right well well losing comb is always you know difficult going into an election but but to your point these are folks who have been around for a long time um both Charlie and Carol are in their 60s Charlie was there for 20 years Carol was there for 16 and I knew that they were leaving politics before I left the hill and that was more than a year ago uh before P was doing as well as he is now and and I think that that decision was probably made even before PV was leader um so I don't I I was not surpr I was a little bit surprised by Rachel blay I would say but I was not surprised by um those two folks announcing the retirement now you know the NDP wanted to do it all at the same time so that they could get this news out and then move forward talk about the people uh that they're recruiting to replace them Etc um I will say that you know in places that are orange and blue um the NDP is attracting good candidates they're having contested nominations in places like Alberta and Saskatchewan so are they paying attention to Pi PV doing well in those orange blue writings totally do I think that this is the reason that these three folks have decided to step down absolutely not um and and even you know Carol's writing goes away so um the fact that they would pick that up that's that's not a real thing and and um Charlie actually gets more orange support from the writings that he gets so so I don't know how that actually would affect her in but um well angus's writing is changing fairly substantially and he said like you know after 20 years of a northern riding the travel time and all that and what it would require to get to know it it's just it's time for new energy was what he said publicly yeah he gets a lot of um actually Carol's writing some of the orange support in Carol's writing gets added to his so it is you know a big chunk attit to writing but not in a way that would that would harm him the way that it's being described but but one thing that I did um kind of just want to talk about quickly um and I've already apologized to these two if I get heated so if I get a little bit heated I'm sorry that's not usually my style arguing before the show we weren't arguing um but you know um uh I saw you know Charlie making his announcement yesterday and I couldn't help but see um uh PV come out and take a shot right away and then you know not just take a shot at Charlie but take a shot at both Rachel and and Carol and I just um you know you cannot like the guy you cannot like his politics you cannot like a style of politics Charlie and I have argued about his style of politics before right but you cannot um say that uh his um input or his contributions to the country are not um valuable and commendable and you know Charlie it was always clear who Charlie was fighting for and why he was doing that so I think that that deserves a little bit of respect and you know I'm I'm not a parent I hope to be one day but I can't imagine that um us saying that you know Canada can be better um that's who what we need mean that kind of politics is what we mean when you say that so yeah not didn't love it okay okay Fred I'm gonna let you jump back in TR because this is Pier po have tweeted said he's he's basically running away after voting to raise the tax try to take your guns and make life unaffordable and supporting like it was not the thank you for your contribution Happy Trails it was very pointed oh we we talk uh often on this panel about how politician should be sincere and authentic Mr POV was sincere and authentic and who he is but but maybe what I'll just say is fair but if you don't have something nice to say maybe you just don't say it like maybe that was the time to just like not say something and and what you know I what what bothers me is like that's it was just unnecessary it was a shot just be shot and it's not just in these moments I go back to the CP journalist that he just couldn't help but kind of go after and other moments that we've just seen him his instinct to be mean-spirited instead of just like letting it roll off his back when you're doing well like you don't need to do that so that's that's maybe more what I took um what I took problem with absolutely I I thought that tweet looked uh Petty and mean and I think a lot of people uh thought that way based on the what I've seen on on social media again i' Echo Mel's phrasing it's unnecessary as prime minister there are going to be people that are effective affected that are going to pass away that you have distinct differences with but you are the representative of Canada and you have to rise to the occasion we just went through Brian Mal's funeral we heard a lot about that I think it also shows how effective and a thorn Charlie Angus was look as one crusty guy to another I think you know Charlie can be crusty um but he was also very effective but I'll also say he co-wrote my favorite Canadian Christmas song which is the sky Digger church bells are ringing he's also he brought a different point of view to the house but I thought it was really unfortunate that um the leader of the opposition chose to go that route so so Fred just one quick point I I know you say it's authentic um but you know if you do aspire to be a prime minister you have to be very Statesman likee don't you and and like you're going to have countries you disagree with you're going to have lots of like when when does this stop or does this continue do you think if he should win the next election that the prime minister of Canada's Twitter account will be picking shots at partisans who who retire yeah look if you uh you know if you if you read some of the columns that people have written about Mr Po of uh about if you want to understand him just listen to him uh this is who he is this is what he's going to do he's got his uh his elbows are up he's a he's a scrappy guy he's going to fight all the time uh just like Charlie Angus did Charlie Angus was very very aggressive he once uh said some very aggressive things to me Fred I go back to you your party spent millions and millions of dollars last fall to tell us he was not this guy and we've we don't see the guy in the in the tv ads doing a pu puzzle with a child and I look as somebody who doesn't support him um you know fill your boots he can be like this all the time but like as somebody who reads the polls and is realistic I find it kind of frightening but you know you're talking about the ads uh the ads does show that side of them there's no question he is a good family man and he has that side of him but he's also a scrappy politician who's going to fight and I think what the ultimate message is is he's going to fight for Canadians yeah I I I think the image of Pier po of is a bit compartmentalized what you see in social media what you see on YouTube what you see in the ads what you see in press releases are are different messages for different audiences by that's by Design okay uh we got to move on from this not that I don't enjoy this conversation but you know we got to get through everyone else's Pi you wanted to talk about the uh the the the never ending budget day that we're going through Canada right now you know for a lot of reasons as a liberal but as you know a Communications person I'm very curious to watch this pre-budget roll out and it seems to be working really well uh for the government um there's been an interest um byproduct of it where it's kind of caught the premier flat footed last week a lot of the Premier did not have a good time the ones Smith Mo and higs that went before the committee to try to you know uh criticize the carbon price did very poorly Mo I mean you know the ad issue panel last week in CBC there was laughter when they started talking about Premier Mo and now you have Premier who criticized the federal government the prime minister last year there was a lot of hey made when he said correctly that housing is not a federal responsibility and now all people want to do is talk about jurisdiction because he wants to feed kids in school and I love the people that come out on social media and are against supporting poor kids getting fed I think it's been a really interesting experiment it somehow has turned the Prime Minister into the underdog um and I find that interesting the other part I'd say on this is that there's been an interesting grouping of people that I would didn't think I'd to get together around car carbon pricing asking for honesty and you have liberals new Democrats progressives you have Andrew coin saying the same thing as liberals you have political scientists saying we want the truth here you are going to get back more than you pay and it's I think that's good for the government if they want to make this the conservatives want to make this uh um an election about carbon pricing um this is a good leadup to have a year ahead of time yeah yeah I'd forgotten about the Prime Minister getting beaten up before the cabin retreat in charlott town for saying housing was wasn't really Federal and now people are complaining about jurisdiction but Fred it is interesting on this that whatever you think of the mer of the policies they're rolling out they are actually setting to some degree the agenda in a way they have not done since the pandemic right no it's amazing they we've been talking about that since we started this panel about how they need to be doing that so maybe they're finally taking our advice and maybe I should stop giving it because they are doing a good job of going out there and getting this their stories out instead of doing like The Fez which is just one big plot that we all forget everything back to The Fez they're actually rolling something out they're showing they have some kind of plan and vision for the first time in a very long time it'll be interesting on budget day if it's packaged in an actual narrative theme that they can continue to drive for the next year and a half into the next election that's what I'm going to be looking for to see if they do that well the budget is April 16th Mel maybe April 17th they start rolling out the 2025 budget just to keep this momentum going right because it seems like they they they actually are showing a a a coherent CM strategy and putting forward Alternatives and sort of forcing people to respond to their ideas for a change totally I think that's the first time that we've seen that almost it feels like I'm probably being dramatic but it feels like since the last election almost um and you know there have been questions about okay well what what are the details what does this actually mean is this actually going to help but when you're um competing against somebody who doesn't have those details most of the time people are just hearing uh the Prime Minister talk about the things that they want him to talk about and I think that's the the first time that they've been able to set the agenda to punch through and it almost feels like all right we heard you we're talking about the things we're trying to do the things that you're asking us to do um and and credit to them for that it is a little bit funny I had like a few people asking about like well when have we seen this where you know they're campaigning on budget the budget's not even out yet um I I don't know that it's totally off or weird a provincial level all the time totally like this is and uh for I mean maybe it's not that great and because they haven't been so good for so long we're like oh my God look at them they've got a message and a narrative but um I I don't think it is surprising to me the test will really be where did this go are they able to have it sustained and are they able to start changing uh their Fortune with it really is is really the next text their next test yeah and also like what it does for morale because you know if they're not going to care why should we care as you keep saying Greg you know about the vibe in the Liberals okay we got about four minutes left so Mel you wanted to get to your reach you want to talk about the foreign interference inquir and what's going on there yeah so you know more information out this week that's like a little troubling I think for people watching at home we had uh former leader former conservative leader Aon OU out at the um inquiry um testifying this week we had folks from you know all parties who were responsible for the elections or for their parties's elections in the last election testifying as well and I don't know that any um Canadian watching at home this week felt reassured that um our country was doing everything we could to protect our election and and reassured that uh they understood where we could go with this to make sure that the next one is a little bit more protected uh we saw a story out as well you know talking about how um there was potentially foreign interference from Pakistan and India and I just go back to you know all the I don't want to say noise because that's not it's not appropriate to say that but I want to go back to um when this was really big in the house and people were talking about it and it was really so focused on China and while that was super important I I want to give credit to you know the NDP we're saying we need to do a little bit wider than this we need to look at it more holistically because this is a huge problem and we need to actually get to the to the root of the problem to solve it um and I think that's that's more of the proof uh this week well and certainly Greg everything that's come to light about modi's government in India uh you know since the foreign interfer like you know with the hersing ner allegations on the indictment in the United States uh you know it was right to say it's is bigger than China because clearly it is yeah and um what I I want to avoid the breathless approach that we saw last year because going to see even from aarin oul we saw different reasons in his testimony at one point he talked about um that their internal tracking showed that it was their positions around uh vaccine mandates that were Co that was costing them the election and that there were um connections between you know uh pro-russia um Bots that were suggesting that were pushing this The People's Party has come out and said no it wasn't us and even in that day there was like some convoluted excuses or explanations about what really happened there so I want to be really careful that when we're looking at this um that we're kind of looking at this through a a you know a more sober look than say perhaps we saw last year I'd Echo what Mel said about uh India I mean there was a thing I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in The Fifth Estate piece some questions around the conservative leadership and whether or not uh India had actors involved in that those are the types of things that I think we need to watch for I also want the hope is that we will find a way to have more trust when this is done I think we're going to see some ugly stuff before we get to figuring out what we need to do we we do I do we only got 90 seconds left but I do want to talk about the liberal nomination rules uh because letting like non-canadian citizens and non-permanent residents vote if they're normally here is is an interesting conversation we'll have to talk with that on another day so Fred Fred your thoughts on on what we learned this week on the at the inquiry uh well I'm going to be very um I'll admit that I may have been wrong last year I said that the inquiry would be a waste of time in a giant circus it's proven to be just a waste of time uh it's not the circus I thought it would be well we don't know yet like we don't know what she's going I think if we had if we had have set and went down the the right path with with Johnston with his report we actually would be doing concrete things right now to address these issues right all we're doing is rehashing same stuff it's some new stuff new tidbits nothing's going to come from this uh I think that's going to be ready in time for the next election now we're running at a Runway here to actually put in regulations or legislation to uh let then the big issue is these uh these agencies in Canada need to be able to speak to each other better and share information uh and that's not happening at this so we we we we all know what the a lot of the solutions could be but instead we're just rehashing all stuff but that is something that could change pretty quickly and I you know should the government choose to act on it and also I think that how the committee uh the site Committee of civil servants functions and interacts with political parties there's some issues raised there right some room for but that's something I think you could take action on reasonably I think petarian should be doing that they should be doing this inad of put iny or we should have committees actually looking at this stuff and taking it seriously yeah well they all work together so well Fred I think you're right all right you guys always work together well so I appreciate it Greg mcer Melanie ree Fred delori thanks so much

Channel: CBC News

Views: 20,253

Keywords: ndp, mps, jagmeet singh, canadian politics, political news, canada, canadian news, ottawa, parliament, cbc, cbc news

Id: 99b7nhkdcz0

Length: 16min 45sec (1005 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 06 2024