With rampant inflation and a rising cost of living, Canadians can't catch a break. While life is getting more expensive in pretty much everywhere, government is the big beneficiary. A new report from the Fraser Institute breaks down how Canadians are spending more on taxes than they are on food, clothing, and shelter combined. True North's Andrew Lawton discusses with Kris Sims of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Also, critical theory has taken over Canadian schools, in large part because of a...
Jul 31, 2024•38 min
Canadians are turning on the immigration system, with recent polling showing Canadians think immigration rates are too high. This is Justin Trudeau's fault, True North's Andrew Lawton says. By setting arbitrary targets and making virtue signalling the goal over a sensible, measured approach to immigration, Trudeau has let the system get out of control. Can it be fixed? Also, the federal government has given the health minister, right now Mark Holland, the right to override Health Canada and unil...
Jul 30, 2024•44 min
The International Olympic Committee has apologized for the 2024 Paris Olympics' controversial opening ceremonies, which included a Last Supper depiction featuring drag queens and a "fat acceptance" activist playing the part of Jesus. The organizers insist that no mockery or offence was intended, but True North's Andrew Lawton points out that Christians are pretty well the only religious group anyone would dare make such a performance about. Also, Canadian Taxpayers Federation Alberta director Kr...
Jul 29, 2024•45 min
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre took aim at legacy media reporting on drugs at a London, Ont. press conferences, calling reporters "irresponsible" for interviewing the so-called harm reduction efforts who are profiting from the system and on whose watch things have gotten so out of hand. He also told True North's Andrew Lawton that he's open to making treatment mandatory but wants to see evidence on how or if it would work. National Post columnist Adam Zivo also weighs in. Plus, a new docum...
Jul 25, 2024•41 min
Justin Trudeau and his office routinely bar and block independent journalists from attending their press conferences and otherwise having any opportunities to ask him questions. And yet, when Keean Bexte of the Counter Signal tracked Trudeau down to a Tofino beach, many of Trudeau's defenders said it was in poor form to hassle a man on a vacation with his family. True North's Andrew Lawton says he would agree if Trudeau didn't shield himself from journalists he didn't like during the rest of the...
Jul 24, 2024•38 min
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Justin Trudeau has "failed" as a prime minister. But when asked if that means he'll pull the NDP's support for the Liberal government, Singh just said there's already a scheduled election coming in October 2025 and he just wants Canadians to know they have an alternative. True North's Andrew Lawton says it's clear the NDP and the Liberals are one party, so Singh should stop pretending otherwise. Also, a new decision by the Supreme Court of Canada allows judges to aw...
Jul 23, 2024•42 min
President Joe Biden has responded to the mounting calls for him to bow out of the presidential race by doing exactly that – announcing the suspension of his campaign on the weekend. Meanwhile, Trudeau is taking a leisurely family vacation in British Columbia as his party continues to drag in the polls. True North's Andrew Lawton wonders whether he'll finally take the hint. Also, the bureaucracy has grown in Canada by 42% since Trudeau took office, with 108,000 new public servants despite the pop...
Jul 22, 2024•43 min
Justin Trudeau has said that the federal government will not provide funding to municipalities that don't build more homes. Sound familiar? It should, True North's Andrew Lawton says, as it's right in line with the "gatekeeper" messaging and policies that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been talking about. Also, major flooding in Toronto this week has exposed huge gaps in the city's infrastructure priorities, but Mayor Olivia Chow and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say the real culprit i...
Jul 18, 2024•47 min
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in his statement about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump that he was glad the shooter, identified as a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man, was dead, prompting a great deal of finger-wagging from the left and the legacy media. Is it okay to rejoice in the death of a bad person? True North's Andrew Lawton weighs in and discusses what things were like on the ground in Butler, Pennsylvania with Rachel Parker, who was reporting on the rally for her new sh...
Jul 15, 2024•45 min
As Liberal poll numbers continue to drag, a new Globe and Mail story cites sources in Justin Trudeau's office putting the blame on Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland for "not being effective in delivering an upbeat economic message." The story also reports that the PMO has considered recruiting Mark Carney as finance minister. It was just a few years ago that Freeland's predecessor, Bill Morneau, was similarly knifed through PMO leaks, True North's Andrew Lawton asks if we are about to see one o...
Jul 12, 2024•42 min
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an interview this week that he likes young people more than older folks because they aren't set in their ways, while acknowledging that the youth who supported him in 2015 are now in their late 20s and can't afford homes. But he said it would have been even worse without him. True North's Andrew Lawton says it doesn't seem like that, and Canadians definitely aren't buying it. Also, Canada is getting dragged for not committing to spending two per cent of its ...
Jul 11, 2024•44 min
After getting hammered by Canadians and opposition politicians for paying out $14.9 million in bonuses last year, Canada's state broadcaster, the CBC, has quietly approved another round of bonuses for nearly 1,200 employees. True North's Andrew Lawton discusses with Franco Terrazzano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Rights Probe executive director Bruce Pardy writes in a National Post column that corporate leaders betrayed capitalism when they jumped on the ESG and climate bandwagons. He jo...
Jul 09, 2024•47 min
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre spoke to a crowd of thousands at the Calgary Stampede over the weekend, defending firearms owners and railing against censorship and what he called Justin Trudeau's "woke ideology." True North's Andrew Lawton says it's important to note how Poilievre is doing the opposite of what the media elites and political pundits have said for years conservative politicians need to do – and his poll numbers show him doing better than his predecessors. Also, Canada's amba...
Jul 08, 2024•44 min
If the Liberal government's controversial Online Harms Act passes, the "digital safety commission" the bill establishes will have 330 staff and cost Canadian taxpayers more than $200 million, the Parliamentary Budget Officer has said. True North's Andrew Lawton says even if it cost nothing, it would still be wrong, but it's especially bad that Canadians will have to pay the government to police how they use the internet. He discusses with Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner and Peter Menzies ...
Jul 04, 2024•50 min
Chrystia Freeland continues to sit on the trustee board for the World Economic Forum while serving as Canada's deputy prime minister and finance minister. She and the Canadian delegation spent over $40,000 in travel costs attending this year's meeting, but it's not clear what Canadians got out of it. She has provided only generalities about her agenda there, even in a reply to specific questions about her meetings from Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis. True North's Andrew Lawton discusses. Also, Jus...
Jul 03, 2024•48 min
A Liberal member of Parliament has sent a letter to caucus calling for Justin Trudeau to step aside as Liberal leader and prime minister, but Trudeau said on the weekend that he isn't going anywhere, insisting he is "committed" to seeing things through until the next election. Also, the federal government isn't content enough to subject Canadians to their unpopular carbon tax: the Liberals have also spent $1.7 million promoting carbon taxes in other countries. Kris Sims from the Canadian Taxpaye...
Jul 02, 2024•45 min
The Alberta NDP's new leader, Naheed Nenshi, wants to sever ties between his party and the federal NDP led by Jagmeet Singh. True North's Andrew Lawton says it's hard to blame them given how insignificant a political entity the federal NDP is, as evidenced by its particularly poor performance in this week's St. Paul's byelection. Also, a deep dive into Alberta's relationship with Ottawa featuring Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz – including how Alberta is pushing back against the carbon tax, ...
Jun 27, 2024•45 min
Justin Trudeau says he's not going anywhere after the Liberal party's embarrassing loss in Toronto—St. Paul's. Today, Liberal cabinet ministers have been lining up to say they have confidence in him while pledging to do better to listen to Canadians. True North's Andrew Lawton says it's clearly too little too late, although Trudeau is the only one who doesn't see it (or refuses to acknowledge it). Also, this week the government is fighting in the Federal Court of Appeal to defend its plastics ba...
Jun 26, 2024•46 min
Most Liberals went to bed thinking they had won the Toronto–St. Paul's byelection, but when all the ballots were counted, the Conservatives had managed to narrowly take hold of the Liberal stronghold, electing Don Stewart as the newest MP. These results are catastrophic for Justin Trudeau, True North's Andrew Lawton argues. He discusses with longtime political journalist and author Paul Wells, and then brings in National Post columnist Rahim Mohamed. Do you think Trudeau will resign over this? L...
Jun 25, 2024•51 min
The long-awaited Toronto—St. Paul’s byelection is today, and Liberal cabinet ministers have descended on the Liberal stronghold to try to get the vote out at a time when Justin Trudeau is twenty points behind Pierre Poilievre in national polls. While the Liberals may still win the riding, they have spent the last two weeks trying to lower expectations to soften the embarrassment that may be coming to them, True North’s Andrew Lawton says. Also, Naheed Nenshi is now the Alberta NDP leader. We’ll ...
Jun 24, 2024•45 min
It’s an established fact that foreign actors have interfered in Canada’s democracy and are likely to continue to do so. And yet the federal Liberal government hasn’t been interested in figuring out, let alone disclosing, which parliamentarians have made this easier. In this edition of The Andrew Lawton Show, Andrew catches up with Macdonald-Laurier Institute managing director Brian Lee Crowley for a discussion about foreign interference and the state of Canadian democracy. Learn more about your ...
Jun 20, 2024•31 min
The parents of a young woman who battled terminal cancer before ending her life through assisted suicide are suing the Catholic-run St. Paul’s Hospital for transferring her to a hospice that offered MAID instead of providing it where she was. They say the hospital and the province of British Columbia violated her Charter rights. True North’s Andrew Lawton says if so-called MAID is going to continue to expand, conscience rights for facilities and practitioners that want nothing to do with it need...
Jun 19, 2024•47 min
The latest poll shows the Conservatives with a twenty per cent lead over the Liberals, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says not to worry, it’s just because Canadians aren’t in “decision mode” right now. He says the way people vote is different from how they answer pollsters’ questions. Do you agree, or is Trudeau in the most severe case of denial Canada has ever seen? Plus, anti-Israel activists at McGill University are under fire for running a “revolutionary” youth summer camp, promoted with ...
Jun 18, 2024•41 min
Justin Trudeau has refused to say whether any Liberal members of Parliament are implicated as collaborators with foreign governments in the unredacted NSICOP report. True North’s Andrew Lawton discusses with law professor Ryan Alford, who has a lawsuit against the government seeking immunity for parliamentarians who divulge classified information within parliamentary proceedings. Also, Canadian Taxpayers Federation Alberta director Kris Sims return to talk about why the government seems to wish ...
Jun 17, 2024•42 min
The British Columbia Conservatives – a party that elected no MLAS to the B.C. legislature last election – are surging in the polls, with the current official opposition, B.C United (formerly the B.C. Liberals) haemorrhaging support and even several caucus members to the Conservatives. Why is this change happening? In this edition of The Andrew Lawton Show, B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad joins for the entire episode to discuss his vision for British Columbia – including healthcare choice, p...
Jun 13, 2024•36 min
An NDP member of Parliament has accused Poilievre of “courting incels” and implied that he will turn Canada into Gilead, the fundamentalist dystopia from Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” if elected. While amusingly unhinged, True North’s Andrew Lawton points out that these sorts of attacks will only get worse if the Conservatives retain their lead in the polls. Also, as the federal government continues to eye an expansion of its assisted suicide regime to include those struggling only wi...
Jun 12, 2024•45 min
Justin Trudeau says “populist right-wing forces” are taking hold in democratic countries around the world, insisting that he chooses to respond to anger by offering “understanding” and “solution.” True North’s Andrew Lawton says it seems like Trudeau is willing to blame his polling unpopularity on anyone and anything other than himself and his record. A former safe supply advocate, Dr. Sharon Koivu, has now been outspoken about the harms of distributing drugs to those suffering from addiction as...
Jun 11, 2024•48 min
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has inadvertently conceded that middle class Canadians are worse off now after nine years of her and Justin Trudeau’s power in government, defending the capital gains tax increase by saying the wealthy have to live in gated communities and fly on private jets to stay away from the angry ordinary folks. True North’s Andrew Lawton weighs in. Also, it’s not just the super rich who are being targeted – Canadian doctors are raising alarm bells about what the capital...
Jun 10, 2024•43 min
The Liberal campaign to downplay foreign interference in Canadian democracy continues with one MP, Jennifer O’Connell, telling Conservatives today to “get over it.” The revelations from the NSICOP report this week show the problem is far worse than most Canadians realized. Journalist Sam Cooper of The Bureau joins The Andrew Lawton Show to discuss. Plus, political reaction from Conservative MP Adam Chambers and a look at the uncertainty the Liberals have created on their capital gains tax hike p...
Jun 06, 2024•48 min
Trust in the legacy media is in continued decline, and doesn’t show any immediate signs of reversing. In a recent column, writer Peter Menzies pointed to the media’s mishandling of the residential school unmarked grave story over the past three years as a crucial example of this, but there are others. Can the media regain this lost trust, and should government be subsidizing newsrooms that Canadians aren’t interested in supporting? Menzies joins The Andrew Lawton Show to discuss. Also, has woken...
Jun 05, 2024•36 min
