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Keean Bexte and Andrew Lawton

The Hands Down Winners of Last Night’s Canadian Leaders Debate



The Hands Down Winners of Last Night’s Canadian Leaders DebateThe Canadian mainstream media—the only one that seems allowed to exist in Canada—will be all in a dither today trying to determine who won last night’s first televised English Election Debate. Was it Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, New Democrat Party (NDP) Leader Jagmeet Singh, or Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet?

But Canadian political debates are rarely, if ever, interesting

None of the above. In my books not even Scheer, who somehow summoned the courage to call Trudeau a “fraud”, which in many respects, he certainly is. How could any of the party leaders come off as a winner in a televised ‘debate’, when the same media stars bought off by Trudeau with $600 million in an election year, were the debate monitors and the ones who got to handpick the questions from the public? The media monitors turned out as scrubbed and as polished as the Party leaders, flashing the same insincere smiles. Did any of the politicians on display make any reference to the fact that the Canadian media had been bought off by the Liberals with a whopping $600 million? It would have been interesting if any of them had asked Trudeau—often shown refusing to answer their questions in a litany of other mainstream media scrums—how is it that even with the media in his back pocket, he is still trailing badly in current election polls? But Canadian political debates are rarely, if ever, interesting.

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Last night’s winners were two blackballed reporters, from struggling independent Conservative sites

Last night’s winners were two blackballed reporters, from struggling independent Conservative sites, The Rebel‘s Keean Bexte and Andrew Lawton from True North, who exposed Trudeau like the mainstream media could—but never—would. Both came on like a breath of fresh air after having to watch elite media monitors lobbying soft ball questions at Artful Dodger Trudeau. You won’t read much of what Bexte and Lawton had to say when they cornered Trudeau in a scrum after the debate, but Post Millennial—thankfully—covered the story: “Today was a great day for Canadian democracy and press freedom.
“After the Trudeau government-created Leaders’ Debate Commission—in cahoots with the Parliamentary Press Gallery—tried to bar journalists from True North and The Rebel from being able to cover the official leadership debates, a judge forced them to give the journalists accreditation in an emergency hearing held hours before the English debate started. “The judge’s decision almost immediately shown to be the right one when a journalist from each organization was poised and threw hardball questions at Trudeau that the parliamentary press gallery would not. “First up was The Rebel‘s Keean Bexte.

“Prime Minister Trudeau, since your multiple use of blackface became an international scandal, Canada’s international reputation has been irreparably harmed. Have you reached out to any African leaders or any leaders from the Middle East to apologize for your conduct?” “Trudeau, in Trudeau fashion, completely ignored the question. “Canada will continue to engage in a positive, constructive way around the world, standing up for human rights, engaging with leaders right around the world. Because we know that promoting our values and prosperity for everyone around the world is good for Canadians and creates better opportunities for everyone.” “Bexte wasn’t having any of it. “So that didn’t answer the question at all. “Have you spoken to any African leaders or leaders from the Middle East to apologize for your personal conduct?” “I have continued to engage with leaders around the world in a responsible way. “During an election campaign, my focus is connecting with Canadians as I was able to do tonight. I was very pleased to see so many of the questions turn to the environment. In all sections, there was a clear contrast between those on stage who don’t think we should be fighting climate change and those of us who do. And again, we are the only party with a clear plan to fight climate change.”


“Bexte was then cut off by another reporter. But not long after, True North‘s Andrew Lawton also got to ask Trudeau a question after the Liberal Leader’s campaign team banned him from the Liberal press bus and had the cops called on him, even though he has a long history working for mainstream publications. “Good evening Prime Minister, Andrew Lawton from True North. This afternoon a federal court judge ruled that I had a right to be here, to cover this debate as a journalist despite opposition from your Attorney General. This comes after two weeks of me being kicked out or not being allowed into your campaign rallies. The Conservatives have criticized you for being ‘not as advertised.’ You’ve advertised yourself as a champion of press freedom. Will you take a stand right now sir as the leader of the Liberal party and allow me to cover your campaign like every other journalist?”

“We are a party, and we are a country that respects journalistic rights and who respects the freedom of the press and we will continue to,” was Trudeau’s glib response. “So is that a yes, sir?” Lawton responded since Trudeau’s campaign has been blocking him for weeks as he tried to cover them. “We are a party and a country that respects the hard work and the freedom of the press, and we will continue to.” “These two exchanges just proved within hours of the judge’s decision how vital it is to have a diversity of opinion within the press of Canada so that a diversity of questions are asked. The mainstream press, now receiving some of the $600 million Trudeau-government political press bailout (because they fail to connect with enough Canadians), were largely fine letting Trudeau and the government pick on independent right-wing media. “But when these independent journalists were treated equally, they outshone many of the so-called professionals. “True North founder and Toronto Sun columnist Candice Malcolm said it best after the court victory today: “Everyone knows what is going on with the parliamentary press gallery. They’re biased. “They consider themselves the in-crowd and they are trying to prevent competition and other interesting upstart media companies from coming in with a different perspective, showing a different side of the story, appealing to a different segment of the Canadian population. And they’re trying to act as gatekeepers to stop us, and they failed.”
That’s why Bexte and Lawton are the real winners of last night’s debate, because they, in effect, opened the airtight closed door on the October 21 election and let average Canadians in to see for themselves what’s really going on. Andrew Scheer, who really had nothing to lose, merely called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a “fraud”. Bexte and Lawton exposed him as one.

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Judi McLeod -- Bio and Archives -- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

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