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Captain Canada?
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In this episode of And Another Thing, Jodie and Tony welcome Sabrina Nanji, founder of Queen’s Park Observer, for an in-depth analysis of the current Ontario Provincial Election. From campaign strategies to polling trends, they break down what’s really happening behind the scenes at Queen’s Park and what it could mean for Ontario’s future.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Preview
00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of And Another Thing, the podcast that continues to set the bar in the world of podcasts. My name is Jody Jenkins. My name is Tony Clement. And Tony, before we get to our guest ah this evening, also if a first time guest, we alluded to this individual on our yeah our last show. ah we've that you you know We couldn't have picked a better day in terms of... Oh my gosh.
00:00:50
Speaker
news cycle,
Tony's 'Young Tony' Hoodie Story
00:00:51
Speaker
news items. So there's so much to get to and and just kind of mind blowing actually how this all worked out. the only The only pressure I have now is to make sure that this doesn't, you know, become a dated episode. I'm going to have to get it out too sweet. Yeah. No, of course. Because there might be 15 other things that happen tomorrow. You know, you're right. I know. It's ah and nutty times. notty But you know what the big story is though?
00:01:16
Speaker
guess guess Guess what I wore unless you to a social occasion this past weekend? ah i hate I don't know. I want to say something like disco oriented, but I'm not totally sure. No, no. It was one of our young Tony hoodies. No, seriously?
00:01:35
Speaker
You have found like you, you bought one of the, I don't know. No, no, I, I, I, I was one person ordered them and then two came. So I kept one of them and it was still, it was still in the, the, the rapper that I decided to scare all my friends by having a massive. How was it? How was it received?
00:01:54
Speaker
um There was a lot of confusion. um and you know there People were didn't quite know how to take it, um but it's ah it has a massive photo of my face from 30 years ago on the front of the city. I love that hoodie. That was my idea. I'm surprised we didn't sell more of them. and On the sleeve, it says, Young Tony. Did you know?
00:02:15
Speaker
i Didn't I create it? I thought I made it. Yeah, I thought you did too. But anyway, I just thought you should know. The young Tony. Yes. I feel like i feel like that's one of those hoodies that if we had gotten it into the hands of, say, Kanye. Yeah. i Game over. point That's a good point. Game over. We'd probably still do this podcast, but we'd be very even more non-show. Or even Snoop. Whatever. Even Snoop or somebody like that. It's Snoop, 100%. It's Snoop or Kanye. Buddy, the dream's not dead.
00:02:43
Speaker
The more I hear about it, we probably shouldn't give up on it. No, and we should get more merch out there. Oh man. Well, doesn't Steve Payton have one of our coffee mugs? Yes, he does. Yes, he does. Okay, cool. I haven't heard from him in a while, so. Yeah, he's still kicking around. I saw him the other day. No, that's good. That's good. So anyway, let's get
Sponsor Acknowledgments
00:03:01
Speaker
right into it. I want to thank, of course, our sponsor, presenting sponsor each week, John Martin and the team at Municipal Solutions. Of course, they've been with us since day one. And Tony, I know that you can expand on what they do. Yeah. A little bit better than I can.
00:03:14
Speaker
I certainly can, Jodi. Municipal Solutions, your project management team for rezoning and development approvals. Municipal Solutions cuts through the Municipal Red Tape to bring your project to fruition.
00:03:26
Speaker
Go to municipalsolutions.ca for all of your municipal needs. And then, of course, thanking our terrestrial radio sponsor, Hunters Bay Radio, 88.7 huntersbayradio.com. Every Saturday morning, they have a suite of wonderful podcasts, including ours. So you can listen to our podcast as you're doing now, or you can hear it on terrestrial radio at huntersbayradio.com.
00:03:55
Speaker
And before we introduce our guests, did you watch the Grammys last night or no? No, I don't watch them anymore. It's just, I just can't do it. I know. I don't even, oh I mean, I i shouldn't say, I shouldn't say I don't know who the artists are, but it's like, it's just not the Grammys I remember. No, no. And it's just getting too hackneyed. Speaking of which, the Rolling Stones won a Grammy for hackneyed diamonds. So there you go.
00:04:17
Speaker
But, yeah, you didn't follow the Grammys. I followed it after the fact. Of course. And and Beyonce got the country Grammys. Okay, okay, stop and no it now. You can't say that you didn't watch it. No, but I read about it. I just need to tell me. Oh,
Meet Sabrina Nanji
00:04:31
Speaker
my gosh. Okay, so we're excited to welcome a first time guest to the program. And depending on how this goes, maybe a multi-time guest or never again. never again again it's It's happened. Yes, it has happened. or We are excited. I've um i've caught her on many ah many other news outlets talking about provincial matters here in Ontario. ah she's the ah She's a journalist. She's the founder.
00:04:57
Speaker
of Queens Park Observer, which is ah an email and a sub-stack thing that you can subscribe. I know she can expand on this more, but I know you can subscribe to it. I get this email every day, and i be honest ah to be honest, and maybe she get she can address this, it's not a problem, but I just, I don't even remember subscribing to it, but I must have if I if i have it, but it's ah quite informative. It wakes me up, literally, I get it like six in the morning, I feel like, and it's like I've got headlines from, um from ontario and when the elections on it's been quite nice and then of course it entices me to become a subscriber but i haven't uh i haven't gone that far yet but uh we're excited to welcome sabrina and angie sabrina uh welcome to the show if you're still there welcome i'm here you guys can't get rid of me and welcome welcome great to have you thanks for having me yeah so yeah on that email thing i guess i would have signed up for that right
00:05:50
Speaker
Yeah, you should have. um If you don't like it, I won't be offended if you want to be removed but we're removed from the subscription list. No, he doesn't. No, no, I enjoy it. I actually like it, but I did want to, I'm just am curious if somebody, what's the best way to sign up for that or what?
Sabrina's Journalism Journey
00:06:05
Speaker
like to I guess give a little bit of a background on what that is, the Queens Park Observer and what you do, and then we'll kind of get into the the real heavy hitting stuff.
00:06:12
Speaker
Yeah. It's just ah essentially like, ah as you said, like an email newsletter that comes out every weekday or bright and early with the rundown of everything that's going on at Queens Park, you know, stuff from fun gossip to the biggest headlines to what's on the menu in the basement cafeteria. And you can find all that at kupieobserver.ca. Yeah. And you've got advertisers as well because I feel like I've, I've, have I seen something about like,
00:06:36
Speaker
Some sort of, was it a teacher's federation and then Therm Spa or Thermé Spa? I don't even know how you pronounce it. I feel like I see that all the time. Yeah. um Yeah. So we we do have advertisers too. It's like a paid subscription and then we have ad advertisers occasionally um that you know will well we'll do something for one one edition or maybe more. So yeah, we've got we had some therma ads this week. um We've done like the universities like Ontario's universities. Oh, that's what it was Ontario's universities. yes Yeah, yeah, it's I mean, it's just all part of I guess, building the the media brand, right slowly, but really And it's interesting kind of wearing all these hats of being a journalist and running a business. um But it's cool. It's new and it's fun. And I like to think, you know, kind of innovative on on like sort of what you guys are doing. You know, we got to get creative in this media business now. ah That traditional stuff is kind of going by the wayside.
00:07:29
Speaker
And so would you media the new media? Yeah, Sabrina, would you consider yourself to be a traditional journalist in the sense of like went to broadcast or not broadcast to go but journalism school or whatever followed all those steps? Because I mean, to be honest, I don't I don't even listen to podcasts. I do this podcast. Tony can tell you I sometimes don't even listen to our podcast.
00:07:50
Speaker
Oh, i'm a rap I'm a radio guy and that used to scoff at podcasts. But now I don't even listen to the radio that much. I listen to News Talk 1010 and that's literally it. But are you one of those like traditional journalists or do you that has changed a bit or do you consider yourself a new breed of journalist?
00:08:08
Speaker
Yeah, I guess a bit of both. Like I did come up in the traditional way, you know, I i went to Carlton Jay School, which is what a lot of people in this country do. um And then I like, you know, cut my teeth at the star, you know, a daily newspaper. And I did a couple of other newsletters in Queens Park once I got there. But yeah, once I i got in the gallery, um I just loved it. And I mean, they're going to bury me in that building. So I think it's it's both. Like i I love the newsletter because it gives me a lot of leeway. Like ah my readers are very much in tune. um You know, a lot of them, for the most part, it's a paid subscription. So a lot of them are really engaged in like they read everything through and through, you know, the teeniest mistake I'll be hearing from like the premier's office about it. And so I i like that it it is sort of like you know inside the bubble, it sort of feels like the daily newspaper of Queens Park and and you know what's going on there. I'm really proud of it because yeah over you know over the years, you get to develop sources, you get to have this like view of you know what's going on in provincial politics. And I guess for the most part, it's been working that people seem to like the newsletter enough. I've been able to keep it going. um and And yeah, so it is a little bit of of new stuff, but you kind of got to bring those like old school skills
00:09:21
Speaker
to the game. So it's a little bit of both, I think. I'm old enough to remember there was something called Queen's Park Report. Yeah. Graham, Graham, Graham.
00:09:33
Speaker
Graham Richardson. No, no. go Graham Robertson. Oh, no. Graham Murray, maybe. Graham Murray. Graham T. Rex. The name is escaping me, but I think I know i think i know what you're talking about. Like, it might have been mostly before my time, but yeah it was sort of like the original. That's right. Insiders, you know, newsletter type thing. And it was it was published it was published. It was printed. It was about usually ye two pages double-sided and ah Yeah. And that was what we, and when I was a staffer at Queens Park and then later a legislator, that that was the kind of thing that we did read quite apart from having a multitudinous Queens Park press gallery, which now is really a shadow of its former self. So good for you for making a living out of kind of keeping that observance and journalism at Queens Park, which is, you know, it really is a ah ah smaller subset of what it used to be.
00:10:29
Speaker
Yeah, I'm I'm really proud of the the Queens Park Press Gallery and being a part of it. Like, I feel like we punch above our weight and, you know, we we aren't like an easy bunch to get through. I know in the past there have been some moments where the gallery is accused of being a little bit too aggressive. um But I'm I'm proud of that. You know, I think that's you got to sometimes get aggressive to get the truth out of the powers that be. And and I love it. So important that that you're doing that. So, Jody, we should get to the meat here, right?
Ontario Election Dynamics
00:11:00
Speaker
Yeah, you can start if you want. Well, I know you're, I know you're excited. I'm excited about that. Obviously it's been a, it's been a big day and a big, uh, you know, 72 hours in terms of are the, are the tariffs on or are they off right now? They're off for 30 days. Uh, I, by the way, Sabrina, I did see Doug Ford in person at a campaign event on the weekend last weekend, right, right after the tariffs were announced. So that was very interesting to see.
00:11:28
Speaker
his immediate reaction that he was doing a whistle stop at a campaign office in Brampton. So, ah but what I wanted to get to is just give us, you know, obviously Ontario's in the middle of a provincial election. Give us your take, ah you know, handicap these these these political parties, the PCs, the Liberals, and NDP Greens, what's working, what isn't working, are they doing well or are they Are they, uh, are they, is there, is there a campaign falling apart? You you just give us your ah assessment of where things are right now. Yeah. Well, I'm interested to hear what Doug Ford said, um, right after the tariffs, because he was just caught in a hot mic moment today. Um, essentially saying that that Trump put the knife in us in a very colorful way, but, but yeah, you know, just to take a step back, uh, we are now plunged into a provincial campaign more than a year and a half earlier than, than scheduled.
00:12:19
Speaker
um And if you ask Doug Ford, conservative leader who who triggered this early election, it's all about the terrorists. He needs a ah fresh mandate to ah approve you know potentially billions of dollars in stimulus, ah and and he needs that from the people. So you know obviously his critics,
00:12:37
Speaker
ah The Liberals, the NDP and the Greens say this is completely unnecessary and self-serving. Ford has been flirting with the idea of an early election since last spring, way before you know Trump was was in power and these tariffs were a thing. um And so they say that he's just trying to like you know secure his own job, outrun the RCMP's Greenbelt investigation. The RCMP is looking into um You know, and now backtrack decision to open up that land for development, something that has been scrutinized by the integrity commissioner and the auditor general. um But at the end of the day, we are in a campaign and it's happening. ah You mentioned that the tariffs are touch and go right now.
00:13:17
Speaker
but but But it's working for Doug Ford. I mean, he it's his election to lose. All the polls are suggesting that he's riding high um and his you know his rivals aren aren't even close to to coming near him. and And we can dig into all of that. But but he's he's sucking up all the oxygen in the room. And I think it's because we're all talking about terrorists rather than things like health care and education, things that I think forward would probably not want to talk about um but at the same time that that's actually provincial purview um and it's just not really sticking with the public right now. No I would agree with you and um I think that you know health care is a vulnerability it is probably for any government to be honest with you but but it's just not being talked about um either in the media or
00:14:04
Speaker
What I'm hearing from candidates is really not at the door either. if If anything other than tariffs is talked about, it's mostly affordability issues rather than healthcare or education or some of the traditional things that one would get in ah in an Ontario election campaign.
Liberal Campaign and Attack Ads
00:14:20
Speaker
Tell us a little bit about Bonnie Crombie, because I I i don't I don't understand what's going on here. Bonnie, by the way, has been a guest on our program and I've known her for 30 plus years. um But her campaign is just not landing. I don't know what it is exactly. But give us your perspective rather than hearing my perspective. Yeah. um I mean, I i think you're you're kind of getting to at something there like Bonnie Crombie and the liberals have really had their work cut out for them, obviously.
00:14:50
Speaker
You know, from 2018, this party has been um in the penalty box and has had a hard time really recovering from that. And so when Bonnie Crombie became leader, you know, not that long ago, just in December, ah she was seen as the star fundraiser, someone that was going to help revive the party. um But they've had to, you know, they've had growing pains and they've also had to contend with, you know, the might of the PCs attack machine to meanwhile, you know, being plunged into this early election. I'm sure it's not lost on Doug Ford and the conservatives. ah You know, how much his the liberals in particular are are scrambling. I mean, um you know, Bonnie Crombie wasn't exactly the the star fundraiser that people had expected. Obviously, the party says that they're really proud of of what they've raised in this short amount of time. They've held a couple of big fundraisers. um
00:15:39
Speaker
and And they say that, you know, it's they've they've got their war chest, but it's nothing compared to the conservatives and and the might of their fundraising machine. And and I think just generally that's obvious. People are paying more to rub shoulders with, you know, ministers ah like if I'm thinking of fundraising events rather than like the third place party. right but at the same time you know the conservatives have also been spending that doe on you know a series of attack ads for months painting bonnie crumby as you know trudeau light sort of capitalizing on trudeau's unpopularity calling her you know a tax and spend
00:16:15
Speaker
elitist, saying she's expensive. And you know it it seems like that has been working to an extent. When we look at the polling, you know the liberals the liberals are are in second place generally, um you know a lot farther behind where they need to be for the conservatives. But you know Bonnie Crombie herself is is pretty unpopular. And so um it it does seem like like they are like she is she is enemy number one according to the conservatives and and the NDP is not getting as much attention. So it's just interesting. Obviously, you know the conservatives think that that Bonnie Crombie and the liberals are are the the real opposition here. Right, right, right. ah NDP, let me just add something to that. um I think the thing
00:16:59
Speaker
that's really hurting the NDP is every single day, Doug Ford has another endorsement from ah from a private sector labor union. I mean, Unifor endorsed the conservatives. That's never happened before. ah You know, Leuna and the electrical workers, they're all endorsing Doug Ford. So not a lot of room to be the party of the working person when when the unions of the working person are endorsing your opponent, right?
00:17:26
Speaker
Yeah, but yeah, that's really interesting. And I think that in Ontario, especially there is like this cross section of, if I can call, you know, call it blue, blue collar workers, you know, union guys, laborers, um, that sort of swing between blue and orange, right. And I think in what places like Windsor,
00:17:44
Speaker
the southwest, maybe even the north, too, absolutely and in those areas. And those were key territories that the NDP lost in 2022 to the PCs. um And so they are you know making an effort now to go after those ridings that they want to win back. But you're right. ah you know Doug Ford has been making inroads with with organized labor. And while that has you know been mostly on the on the private sector side,
00:18:10
Speaker
Um, that helped him, you know, get a bigger majority in 2022. That's what a lot of insiders tell me is the reason why, you know, Ford was able to increase his majority. And so they're, they're banking on that happening again. Like we've seen it just when they were launching their campaign, they had a bunch of union reps up there. They had their labor minister, David Pacini. They've been, um, you know,
00:18:29
Speaker
trying him out as as much as possible. And I think you know the previous Labor Minister, Monty McNaughton, who's now left, um had like is actually credited with doing a lot of that work um with labor unions. And so, yeah.
00:18:42
Speaker
it's It's a blow to the NDP, but you know public sector unions, for the most part, have been backing and the NDP rather than the liberals. So I think that's also interesting. you know Public sector unions, there's no love lost with with Doug Ford there. Bill 124, that wage-capping legislation, is still is you know they're still smarting from that. So ah you know yeah, it is interesting to see how much labor and workers are going to play a ah part in this election, especially when we're talking about terrorists too.
Green Party Strategy Discussion
00:19:11
Speaker
um What do you want to say about the Green Party? Well, you know, it's it's interesting because I will say the Green Party is also also punches above their weight, right? And us in the press gallery, we we love mark Mike Schreiner solely for the reason that he's always very quick with a punchy quote, you know, one of the first opposition ah leaders, you know, I guess before the campaign. now I don't really even I don't even remember always to call to call the premier conservative leader during campaign times. um But yes, yes. You know, he
00:19:42
Speaker
He's always usually the first one of the critics to come up with a statement on what Doug Ford's doing. So we we love him for that in the in the Prince Gallery, but he does punch above his weight. And the Greens, their strategy is usually to target ridings. And so, you know, they've won Guelph, made history doing that. and They won a Kitchener Center by election. So, you know, their candidate hasn't won a full on election, but they've really been funneling their resources there. And another riding is Perry Sound Muskoka. That's right. That's where I live, Sabrina.
00:20:10
Speaker
Exactly. And so it's interesting because they've come very close, uh, in the last few times, you know, for reasons, uh, there wasn't a liberal candidate in the last time around. Um, and so the Matt Rector, the green candidate, this is, uh, the last time was his fifth kick at the cancel. This is his sixth time running. I know. And he thinks, you know,
00:20:28
Speaker
yeah but But he's got competition, right? Graydon Smith, the the natural resources minister, is is a heavyweight too. So I think that that's what um your neck of the woods is something I'm going to be paying very close to. Yeah. You know, Graydon, he was a first time provincial candidate last time. So the the seat was, because Norm Miller retired, there was no incumbent. And without a liberal candidate last time, it became a two person race, which Graydon won by a couple of thousand. ah This time,
00:20:57
Speaker
ah Still no liberal candidate, Sabrina. I don't know what's going on there, but they they i I don't think there's an NDP candidate yet there either. so Yeah, I guess that's the other um struggle ah that you know this snap election has created for the for the opposition parties that even though for months we've been speculating and and even the parties say that they've been preparing for the possibility of an early election,
00:21:19
Speaker
um they are They don't have their their ducks in a row when it comes to candidates. And it's a little more understandable for the and NDP. I don't want to get too inside baseball, but the way the party is set up, thenre they can't really you know as readily do automatic appointments or you know ah nominating candidates en masse like the conservatives or the liberals can do. So I think they have a little bit more of an excuse um as to why they don't have all their candidates lined up yet compared to the liberals, which have actually declared electoral urgency, which allows the leader to just you know appoint candidates um you you know as they please. um So there there is still a couple of days, like there the deadline for nominations is not until ah next week. And that means that you know some people that are actually going to vote now, um which
00:22:07
Speaker
which because of the snap vote, because it's cold, there's fewer days of advanced voting this time around. I think a lot of people just anecdotally, I've heard want to vote early, you know, if they're going away on to somewhere warmer, that type of thing. um but But they might not have all their candidates on the ballot yet because the deadline for candidate nominations is still a couple of days away. So, ah yeah, it's it really feels like this is, you know, an election that everyone is planning while we're running it. Yeah, no exactly.
00:22:36
Speaker
Hey is there gonna be a televised leaders debate.
Upcoming Leaders' Debates
00:22:40
Speaker
So there is a northern debate that's going to be happening on valentine's day february 14th all the leaders will be there and then. ah and I guess as we're chatting about this, it hasn't been confirmed yet, but there there we are hearing that there will be one you know provincial, province-wide leaders debate um ah potentially around family day weekend. Is the rumor right now? Nothing set in stone, but it's interesting, Valentine's Day and family day. um I wonder if people will be paying attention and and what this is going to mean for turnout because this is a
00:23:12
Speaker
you know a rare winter election. and And so that's something else I'm going to be paying attention to because we know that low turnout tends to favor the status quo, something else that's probably not lost on Doug Ford and the conservatives. So yeah, that's but something else to pay attention to. the um And he's going away for a few days. He's going to Washington DC, Doug Ford is.
00:23:32
Speaker
Yeah, it's an interesting dynamic um because he will be in the States twice. He's going next week on around February 12th with the Council of the Federation, the rest of the premiers, which, you know, Ford is is chairing the cough this year. So he's he's taking a lead role then and then he'll be going later on on February 20th for you know to meet with governors.
00:23:54
Speaker
And so it it is this interesting dynamic that you know a premier who's campaigning ah in the province of Ontario will be ah in Washington for a lot of that um and it sort of raised a lot of questions about this caretaker convention that we have where you know when once we are in the campaign mode that's why I said like I have to get used to calling him.
00:24:13
Speaker
PC leader rather than premier because yeah you know government sort of becomes this skeleton crew. and And so with everything that's happening with the tariffs in the States, Ford has had to act in his capacity ah as premier at at the same time. And um you know his critics say that he's been abusing this caretaker convention. um The liberals have even asked the chief electoral officer to look into these trips to Washington. The PC party says that they're paying for those trips.
00:24:38
Speaker
um The liberals want to make sure you know every aspect is is covered by the party and not by you know taxpayers. yeah But but it it has like it has created this really interesting and weird dynamic um on a campaign. So in 2006, Sabrina, I was running... ah That was the first time I ran ah federally in Perry, San Muskoka for the conservatives. And the incumbent was a liberal who'd been there for 13 years. His name is Andy Mitchell.
00:25:09
Speaker
And he was the agriculture minister federally. And in the middle of the campaign, he took off to Geneva on taxpayer money, I might add, ah to help negotiate a world trade organization, something or other. And he was gone for like five or six days.
00:25:30
Speaker
in the middle of the campaign ah to be the agriculture minister. So if yeah if anybody needs a precedent here in Ontario for that that, that's what my opponent did. Now, he lost the election, I might have you might add, by 28 votes.
00:25:47
Speaker
And I always wonder whether if he'd stayed for those six days, the result might've been ah slightly different, but he he went away and then came back and he missed all candidates meetings and all sorts of things so he was supposed to be at. So there you go. I don't know if that helps apropos of anything, but he was able to do that. And on the taxpayer dime, I might add in the middle of a campaign.
00:26:11
Speaker
Yeah, well, that's the interesting thing is this could all backfire on on Doug Ford, too. But at the same time, I think it is. It's tricky for you know his critics to really run against him when he's got this so-called Captain Canada cape on and he's going to bat for Ontario. um It's like, how do you run against that? And and we've even heard, you know, Bonnie Crombie and Maritz, I'll say, yes, we agree. You know, American booze should be pulled from LCBO shelves if we have the terrace. We should rip up this deal with ah Elon Musk to get um you know ah internet to rural and northern communities. We should be looking in our own backyard for these these sorts of things, but at the same time, you know they
00:26:50
Speaker
They say that he he hasn't really revealed his full plan about fighting these tariffs. And this is what this whole election is about. So um I think you know it's it's really on Bonnie Crombie and Mark Stiles and even Mike Schreiner to just keep raising you know act like more provincial issues, things like Ford's record on healthcare, care education, um and and I think that we're going to be hearing them talk a lot about bad deals. you know He's only in it for his friends, but again, you know that message really hasn't stuck. It's still early days of the campaign. Things could change. I think certainly now that the tariff situation has cooled for 30 days, that's a bit problematic. you know people might start be People might start paying more attention to healthcare and what you know
00:27:30
Speaker
the fact that 2.5 million Ontarians don't have access to a family doctor. um And then I think you know ford Ford becomes vulnerable there. Interesting. So this might change the direction of the debate in Ontario since tariffs, they're not on the front burner, but they're and I wouldn't say they're on the back
Tariffs and Election Narrative
00:27:47
Speaker
burner. They were kind of like a sort of Damocles hanging over us, but they're not imminent now. There's a 30-day respite.
00:27:53
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, one insider told me, you know, you live by the tariff and you die by the tariff. And I think that, you know, they're going to start to see the the poll numbers shift away from Doug Ford and the conservatives because um the tariff situation, at least for now, um feels resolved. But I do think that, you know, generally speaking, ah this whole trade situation with Trump's seems like it's it's going to be a lot of back and forth over the next four years. And so who knows what the next few days and and weeks will bring. That's the one thing about Donald Trump, you can't He can't predict anything with him, that's for sure. Jodi, any thoughts on your mind?
00:28:34
Speaker
no the only i'm ah and go you take the tone of seriousness down a little bit here, but I was going to say, i I just can't stop thinking about these emails that I get from the Queens Park Observer Daily, but there's used to share a recipe or something or a meal that was being served in the, is that, is it's what food is being served in Queens Park or something?
00:28:56
Speaker
Yeah, the basement cafeteria, their daily lunch specials every day. You know, a lot of people tell me they just scroll down and read that. And I think they're trying to compliment me. I like you know i put a lot of work into the newsletter. I hope you're reading more than just you know what's for lunch. I read the whole thing, but I noticed that I don't get the meal during the election, though.
00:29:15
Speaker
like yeah know every is in Everyone's in caretaker mode over there um right now, but ah you can still you can still get lunch. I should i should bring those back. I think ah probably now more than ever people need sustenance on the campaign trail, right? I should i should say too that Marit Styles was in, ah did I say that right? Is it Marit? Yeah, that's right. She was in the Bay of Quinte riding today, Tony.
00:29:40
Speaker
She was, yeah, she did a, I don't think it was a whistle stop. I guess it would be a whistle stop. She was probably here not that long, but um she did a little thing. And it just reminded me, they have an office in downtown Belleville. I ran twice, provincially, for the NDP in 03 and then again in 07. And we had an office in downtown Belleville. But it just reminds me, I was watching Marit with the candidate.
00:30:04
Speaker
and the the woman that's running there Amanda Robertson this is her second time running and I mean I don't think I'm saying anything that wouldn't be agreed upon with us but I mean she has zero chance of winning but it but really believes that she can win and it feels like when I was running I was in the same kind of boat and I remember Howard Hampton came in and I always think now like did when he got on his own bus and left there he's I just feel like he turned to his staff and probably said, like someone should tell him that he has no shot. that's right i just i just like because I thought the same thing. I'm like, we're winning this. We have a great message. I'm a great speaker. How can we lose? That's right. Yeah, exactly. Well, how is your incumbent MPP doing? guess He's the new guy on the block with the by-election. Yeah, well, he's only been in there. Tyler Alsop's only been in there about six months, maybe. I mean, Sabrina probably knows more than I do about that. but
00:30:54
Speaker
Yeah, he's always talking about his tariffs in his videos. So it was interesting when you guys were just chatting about live by the tariff, die by the tariff, because I don't I don't know what he switches to now that that's kind of not settled, but at least on delay for a little bit. And there was a popular liberal candidate going up against him. Dave O'Neill. Yes. Yeah. Do you know Hugh O'Neill Sabrina? Does that name ring a bell?
00:31:18
Speaker
um You guys are talking about Bay of Quinty, right? yes Yeah, yeah, I'll stop I thought it was yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I thought it was John Kelly No, no, did no, no. He ran in the last one, but David O'Neill is the son. i and Yeah. David O'Neill is the son of Hugh O'Neill, who was known as Mr. Quinte. And I believe he served for 20-ish years. or he He was there when my stepfather was in the legislature. Yeah. So David O'Neill is running his very deep roots in Quinnie West. And if you look at the breakdown again, just to
00:31:50
Speaker
we're talking about specifically about bay twenty but if you look by election to this this current one so in the by-election shawn kelly was the candidate very well-known he won belville he won prince ever county he lost in quincy west that's where tyler wanted tyler won by about two thousand votes David has very deep roots in Trenton and Quinnie West. So if you make the argument that, okay, let's say he wins Quinnie West Trenton and holds or splits in Belleville and Prince Henry County, does he win? I mean, that's kind of what I'm sure they're thinking, but I don't know. I have no idea. yeah That's my writings to watch. Very interesting. We will find that out. Put that in the observer. I want to read about that tomorrow morning. Well, you should do, you should publish an article in there.
00:32:36
Speaker
yeah Although that means work. yeah s Sabrina, thanks so much for
Episode Conclusion
00:32:43
Speaker
doing this. Again, if people are interested in finding out more about what you do and being a part of the Queens Park Observer, what's the what's the best way to do it?
00:32:51
Speaker
So you just got to go to qpobserver.ca and everything's there. All right. Thanks Sabrina. Thank you so much. And you're always welcome back if you're interested. Yeah, I'll keep you guys up on that. Oh, that's great. No, thank you. We're just going to, we want to say a big thank you to our sponsor, municipalsolutions.ca. Obviously they they continue to be supportive of what we're doing. And also our terrestrial radio sponsor, huntersbayradio.com. Excellent. We'll do this again in seven days. Yes, sir.