CKNW BruceKevin Falcon

The speaker discusses the recent statements made by John Rustad and the potential for an agreement between their political parties to avoid vote splitting. The speaker also addresses the issue of polls and fundraising, emphasizing the importance of credible candidates and well-thought-out policies. They express confidence in their ability to bring about change and criticize the current government's track record. The speaker believes that the BC Liberals, now called BC United, represent mainstream common sense policies and can unite people to solve the province's problems. They also discuss the confusion between the BC Conservatives and the Federal Conservative Party and their policies on social issues. Housing is identified as a major issue, and the speaker outlines their party's policies to address affordability and eliminate red tape. The speaker believes there is a possibility for their party to form a government without the NDP in a minority. Well, it looks like you've been busy talking with John Rustad, and he issued a statement, you issued a statement, his statement says you are, quote, irrational, unreasonable, and prepared to lie. What's going on here? I don't know. That was a pretty unhinged statement. You don't often see statements like that, but look, let's put that aside for a second. What's going on here is that we had trusted emissaries from both of our parties get together, have a couple of meetings to find out whether there's a framework for some kind of agreement that we can help to try and avoid both splitting, which can help elect NDP MLAs in some ridings where they don't deserve to be elected. That was the basis on which we went to have a discussion with them. We did this, at least at our end, because we're hearing from all kinds of people, as I know John is, excuse me, that are saying to us, for God's sake, you guys, please don't cause an unnecessary vote split and let the NDP get back in when they don't deserve to. What I've always said to people is, look, I will give it my best shot. I will do it with integrity. I will do it with a genuine effort to try and get to an agreement where we can find some common ground. I think we had a framework that was more than fair, where both parties would have to give up something to try and get to an outcome that would benefit the broader public interest, not necessarily our own respective public, our own respective interests. And unfortunately, John decided to reject that, even though I know there are people in his, supporters of his, that would be very supportive of us doing something. Yeah, it looks like you took a look at the poll, the latest Research Co. poll, but there have been others. The latest one showing 12% tied with the BC Greens, and he's basically said, Kevin, go pound dirt. Do you trust those polls? Are they saying anything to you? No, I got to tell you, I would be very, very careful. And just to remind everyone here that I'll tell you two things. Number one, just to remember that back in 2013, the poll said that the BC Liberals, now called BC United, were going to lose that election by 23 points. And all the pollsters and pundits had already made up their mind it was an NDP victory until it wasn't. And the BC Liberals won a majority. So the thing I want to tell you is that polls can change. And polls can change very dramatically, especially when people aren't paying attention to provincial politics. But what I can tell you, though, Bruce, and this is honest, is that we are raising record amounts of money, we are attracting outstanding candidates, doctors, nurses, all kinds of professionals, you know, former mayors, councillors, you name it, a broad range of great candidates. And we're getting a very, very different response on the doorstep. That's something that's very important and intriguing to me, too. So, but regardless of all that, we said, look, let's try and work something out and see if we can come to an agreement. Now, John's decided to say no. Now, that's OK. He's got the right to do that. But the only thing I would remind John is he can wave polls around all he wants, but the BC Conservatives have not elected an MLA in almost 50 years in this province. And when the public realizes there's no connection between the BC Conservatives and the Federal Conservative Party, I think that's going to spell problems for him. John Eldig is taking a look at polls, too. He decided that he had no future as an MP with the BC Liberals and or the Federal Liberals and the Justin Trudeau government when he came looking to provincial politics and deciding that he wanted to run for MLA in Langley-Avidsford. He went and looked at the NDP because I'm guessing he thinks a split mathematically is going to work in his favor. Well, looking at that writing, I mean, why is he not coming knocking on your door? Or maybe he did. Well, he should he should justify that to the voters there that I think are going to say, well, gee, interesting to have you run here. Not sure the Trudeau politics are going to resonate in the Avidsford-Langley writing. I can tell you that much. But you know, good luck with him to go and defend David Eby's record here. I mean, we should be really clear about this. Putting aside all these politics, we have got a government that in seven years has doubled the provincial debt, has run up the largest projected deficit in the history of the province of British Columbia, and it's tied to the worst outcomes we've ever seen in health care, in cancer care, in safe streets, in overdose death rates, like virtually everything the province is responsible for is not going well. And I simply say to people, if we want change, well, let's get change that's going to be people that actually know how to govern, have credible candidates and well-thought-through policies, not just slogans. We talked about the polls. You also mentioned that fundraising is going well. You've had a fundraising campaign well underway. Is it really going well? Because I can't see myself thinking as a liberal, or liberal, a BC United supporter, former liberal supporter, looking at those polls and saying, I want to park my money here. How are you able to get people doing that? Because I think that, you know, people that have taken interest in politics and really think about things like leadership and caliber of candidates and quality and the kind of policies, et cetera, they're not as phased by polls and stuff, because they've been around. And they know we've got a track record. And you know, it's not a perfect track record, but it's a damn good one. You know, we balanced budgets, we got us to a AAA credit rating, surplus budgets. We did and built great things, especially in Surrey, you know, Portman Bridge, South Fraser Perimeter Road, new Surrey Memorial Hospital, on and on I could go. But the point is, we got stuff done. And I think the biggest challenge that this government faces is their inability to execute. And that's why we're raising money. I can tell you, in April, we raised more money than the BC Conservatives did in the first three months of the year, Q1. And so, you know, maybe it won't always be like this, but I'll tell you, it's been very, very strong. Are you still the BC liberals, with a different name, a bad name? Yeah, well, no, I think we are. We're the coalition that's always existed in BC, whether it's been called BC liberal or social credit. It's the people that believe in mainstream common sense policies, okay? We're not extreme, not extreme on the left or extreme on the right. And I think when the public looks around, they're going to say, you know, those guys are way too extreme on the right, NDP are too extreme on the left. I think Falcon and, you know, the BC United are the people that can bring people together, unite us and get us to fixing the problems we face. I've always thought that that would be the thing that you would go into the fall election with, saying, look, you've got two extreme parties, we're common sense right in the middle. And I thought, you know, if you go hard on that message, you're going to be okay. But that's what I think. But I look at the polling numbers, and again, I do have more faith in polling than you do. But I see that even with one demographic, 18 to 35, the BC Conservatives are running ahead of you. Hell, they're running ahead of the BC NDP. What's going on? I'll tell you exactly what's going on, because you're totally right. Wait till that demographic finds out what their positions are on those social issues that you just touched on. Because what's happening right now is really, really simple to understand, Bruce. They're thinking of Pierre Pogliep and the Federal Conservative Party. There's no question about that in my mind. There's a huge amount of confusion. And the BC Conservatives are trying to make it seem like they're one in the same. They are not. They are totally separate parties. And I can tell you, when the public starts to figure that out, and they will if they start paying attention, then people don't pay attention a half a year out from an election. Wait till we're three weeks out from the election, and people are focused and they're looking at the caliber of candidates and the platforms and the leadership. I think that's going to make a big difference. How big is housing going to be as an issue? Well, it's going to be massive. And there you go. I mean, I'm going to be pointing out that the NDP record on housing is that we've ended up with the most unaffordable housing in North America. They can't argue against that. That's just a fact. We've ended up with the highest average rents in the entire country. The BC Conservatives have said nothing about housing. They have no policy, as far as I can tell. We've been very clear about our policy. Our policy is we are going to do things like create a rent-to-own program so that people can save up their down payments and get into housing and turn rent payments into down payments. We're going to make sure we make public lands available at a buck a year for a 99-year lease so that we can attract the private sector and the not-for-profits to build affordable rental housing, which will be below-market rent so that people can afford to live in this great province of British Columbia. And we're going to get rid of the red tape and all the nonsense that gets in the way of actually getting people into housing. For example, eliminating the property transfer tax for first-time buyers. That's what we're going to do, because we don't want to penalize people that are trying to get into their first house. So I think that those are the kind of policies that will resonate, and when people start paying attention, that we'll get the right result, I'm convinced. Given what John Rustad has said about you, is there a possibility that you could form a government and actually not have the NDP in a minority? Well, sure. I don't like to speculate about what may or may not happen in the future. I'll just say this. I will always, always put the interests of the Free Enterprise Coalition, the center-right of this province, the mainstream, thoughtful people that are the majority of folks in this province, ahead of my own personal interests, always. And so that will guide everything I do. Because I didn't come back into politics because I needed a job, or I want to be a professional politician like John who's been doing politics for 20 years straight. I came back from the private sector because I'm worried about my kids' future. And it's genuine. And I'm going to do the right thing for that generation. And that means leadership. And leadership means risking being unpopular, it means risking losing, but you do it for the right reasons, and you get out there and you make your case, and I think when we make our case, we'll get the right result.