ep. 51 AUDIO

welcome to the bill kelly podcast critical discussions in critical times here's your host bill kelly and we are welcome to the bill kelly podcast good to have you with us today the critical discussions in critical times i'm your host bill kelly good to be with you here today uh... the political landscape is uh... starting to get a little bit rugged both canada and the united states over the last little while uh... we don't think an election is imminent here on the side of the border but one never knows with a minority government uh... south of the border well it's this election year uh... this coming november of course uh... the americans will pick a new president or maybe the same one again once again and there are some serious concerns about leadership uh... and age of leadership and uh... when is it time to step down there's a very poignant piece that was written about this in the global mail just last week it's called canada's liberals and american democrats need to find the courage to stand up to their leaders the author is that lawrence martin lawrence of course is a public affairs columnist uh... for the global mail and he joins us here on the show to talk about this lawrence great to talk with you again thanks so much for the time today good to see you bill let's let's talk about uh... as you wrote about here did the front runners the two people that are holding office right now uh... justin trudeau of course on the side of the border i will get into some of the concerns and criticisms that he has been facing over the last little while and joe biden on the other side who are uh... is the incumbent president uh... and uh... depending on which poll you read right now he's either in trouble or it's going to be a fifty-fifty race or there are some as you mentioned in your piece that you're saying joe it's it's time to to pack it in thanks for a great career but but the the line you used in the in the title here that that i think it is kind of a theme through this whole thing uh... there are rumblings that maybe neither one of these gentleman should lead their party into the next election but how do you do something like that that seems to be the conundrum do you speak out against this then you become a rebel you know you've written many many times about uh... past political leaders on crutch and all you wrote a couple books on the secretion uh... you have to rule of an iron fist if you're gonna run a political party uh... so how does that translate into whether or not there's a wiggle room uh... for dissension or for open debate as to whether or not this is the person you want them to to lead that party let's let's talk about uh... mister biden first and we'll get to the side of the border where does he go and where did the democrats go on this well you know we have to have somebody in the party who's got uh... courage to uh... to stand up with uh... against the tides it's very difficult to stand up against a uh... incumbent president of course uh... and uh... so in the democratic party in the primaries to date there's been really no real challenges to biden it's just been a couple people uh... basically no names you've got uh... no support uh... in the meantime you know uh... well this is happening and they're they're this uh... big move to uh... re-nominate biden uh... he's uh... lost support in the polls he's made more embarrassing stumbles on account of his age uh... more and more people in the party are thinking you know this is a mistake to have joe run again even though you know people say and i agree that that he's done a pretty good job given the circumstances he's faced uh... they don't the democrats don't uh... don't want to boot him out for that they just think that uh... his time has come that uh... running against trump is uh... too risky and that the polls show that and that they do uh... better much better probably with a young uh... candidate and they have some good ones in their wings but uh... that's what the party would say now if they had a chance to vote uh... in secret i think they'd say you know bye joe you know sixty percent of them would probably uh... vote him out uh... but they don't have that option now and so we're down to a point where uh... there might be internal pressure uh... to you know have joe uh... step down you know between now and the convention you know party bigwigs could go to him privately and say uh... joe you know uh... done a great job but we need somebody else and uh... we're gonna make it known that uh... we would like you to leave now i don't think that's going to happen but that's that's one possibility that could get him out of there let me ask you a little bit about some of the back story on this uh... you mentioned that uh... i think there's a general consensus especially in the democratic party that biden's actually done a pretty good job i mean he's faced challenges that uh... you could argue no other president has faced before i mean huge economic uh... you know concerns and dropouts i don't think anybody saw the economic woes coming out of the pandemic that uh... the americans and the canadians have had to deal with the uh... the economists as you wrote about at the time kept saying look at when we get out of this pandemic things the economy's just going to take off because people have all of this money they never spent they're going to spend it and everything's going to be healthy well the opposite happened and biden as we speak today uh... toward the end of february uh... has done a pretty decent job with some of the bills that he's passed uh... and that's been a challenge uh... but he's pulling the americans out of there how come he's not getting the credit for that yeah that's the amazing thing is that he's only got about thirty eight percent in the polls uh... as opposed to fifty three or fifty five percent who say uh... he has not performed satisfactorily and so that's what democrats are looking at and so worried about because uh... it's a uh... something where he isn't getting the credit and why is that i think it's a cost of living uh... uh... problem which justin trudeau has in canada people's prices have gone up in the grocery stores especially and although these uh... the inflation rate has waned uh... although food prices have started to come in and not increased by so much uh... it hasn't registered in the polls yet and all the democrats are shaking their heads and saying when is trudeau going to get some credit for for this uh... my god the unemployment rate is really so low in the united states the inflation rate is really so low now wages are going up uh... and it isn't translating and maybe it's just a time lag maybe it will by uh... by november that's what people are hoping that's what joe's hoping but polls have been so static part of the reason is that uh... as you know bill everybody is locked in in the united states it's a uh... polarized political environment that we've never seen before uh... you're either a democrat or you're a republican and no matter what the other side does they're going to stick to your position there's very few votes in the middle left anymore there's enough to sway an election however and that's why the elections have been so narrowly decided uh... in the past but i think it's a case of uh... a he's not getting credit for an improved economy and b people are looking at him and it's not just the fact that joe is eighty years old i mean i mean he's eighty going on ninety he's a old eighty uh... wouldn't you say i mean even the way he walks his gait he looks like he's going to stumble he takes his short mincing steps you know and uh... and he makes these verbal gasps which are just atrocious i mean and in talking about uh... uh... who was he talking about he was talking about the leader of france macron and he said mitterrand and he was supposed to be talking about uh... seeing mitterrand in france and it translated to uh... macron in france or he translates to mitterrand in germany i mean that's that was just uh... that was just one of the uh... gasps that we've uh... but if and you're right i mean those things are you know they're right there in front of us we see those happening uh... mind you if you look at some of the old news footage i mean biden's always tripped over his tongue from time to time now he says uh... the the way he's walking right now is due to a knee injury and that was reported a while ago so i don't know if that's uh... the entire story there or not but on the other side of the fence though lawrence uh... you've got donald trump quite a side and i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i 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