General Motors took a taxpayer bail-out — but now it’s laying off 2,800 workers in Oshawa.
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Summary
General Motors is laying off 2,800 workers in Oshawa, Ontario, and the union representing them, Unifor, is calling on GM to live up to the spirit of the agreement they struck in 2016. Ezra explains why this is bad news for their own members.
Transcript
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Tonight, just like Bombardier, General Motors took a taxpayer bailout, but now it's laying
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off 2,800 workers in Oshawa. It's November 26th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
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You come here once a year with a sign, and you feel morally superior.
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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my
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There's no good time to lose your job, but a month before Christmas has to be amongst
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the worst. General Motors has announced that it will be shutting down all of its operations
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in Oshawa, Ontario. Their plant will continue operating into the new year, but it's winding
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things down. It'll be gone within a year. There has been a GM plant in Oshawa for
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pretty much a century. 1918, if I'm not mistaken. At its height, they employed 40,000 people
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in that city, a greater proportion than the Calgarians who work in the oil and gas industry.
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The union that represents GM autoworkers, it used to be called the Canadian autoworkers,
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now it's called Unifor. They seem to be caught by surprise by this.
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They put up this press release late last night. While the union does not have complete details
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of the overall announcement, we have been informed that, as of now, there is no product allocated
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to the Oshawa assembly plant past December 2019.
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Based on commitments made during 2016 contract negotiations, Unifor does not accept this announcement
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and is immediately calling on GM to live up to the spirit of that agreement.
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Unifor is scheduled to hold a discussion with General Motors tomorrow and will provide further
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comment following the meeting. So that was last night. Now, you know Unifor. They've been in the
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news a lot lately for every reason other than their autoworkers. A few weeks ago, they launched
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a partisan campaign against Andrew Scheer, the leader of the Federal Conservative Party, saying
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they're going to be his, quote, worst nightmare. Could be.
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But the people losing sleep tonight are Unifor's own members, not Andrew Scheer.
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The man in the middle of that picture there is the president of Unifor. Jerry Diaz is his name.
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I suppose any union leader, especially of a large union, is a political figure by definition.
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But Diaz really seems to come across as someone who thinks he leads a political party,
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not someone whose chief job description is looking after the interests of his own dues-paying members.
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Unifor is a private sector union, as opposed to most union members in Canada who are government
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sector unions. While I think it's safe to say most government workers tilt left, I don't think
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the same can necessarily be said about Unifor, at least all of its parts. It actually represents,
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for example, thousands of workers in Alberta's oil sands. My point being, the political party that
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Jerry Diaz wants to lead, it's in his own head. He doesn't speak for his members. Diaz loves
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Trudeau, but I bet not one in ten of his Alberta members feels the same way. You see my point? It's
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a personal indulgence on his part at the expense of his members. Sometimes Diaz is right. His union
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represents thousands of journalists in Canada. At CTV, Global News, the Globe and Mail, places like that,
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they're obviously pro-Trudeau. I'll grant you that. But Oshawa? You know, the federal MP there is named
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Colin Carey, and he's a conservative MP. He's won five elections in a row, going back to 2004. By the
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way, the liberals have come in third in Oshawa in every election since 2004, and they've never won in
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that riding provincially. They got single digits there in the last provincial election. But Diaz is for
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Trudeau. But if Jerry Diaz isn't campaigning for Justin Trudeau and campaigning against the
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conservatives, he's probably busy attacking, oh, I don't know, Donald Trump. As part of his thank
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yous to Jerry Diaz for his support, Justin Trudeau appointed Diaz to be on an advisory panel during the
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rickety NAFTA renegotiations. I mean, I understand the idea. Unifor's members do a lot of trade with the
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U.S., especially on the auto side. But unless I missed it, I didn't hear a word from Jerry Diaz
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about the auto industry. It was all rants about the dairy cartel, which is odd, because dairy farmers
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aren't members of Unifor. I mean, some of them are United Food and Commercial Workers Unions, but many
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of them are just not in the union. But boy, was Jerry Diaz prepared to fight for the dairy cartel.
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Hi, it's Jerry Diaz. I'm at the Canadian Embassy. I just left the meeting with representatives from
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the Prime Minister's office, Ambassador McNaughton, Minister Chrystia Freeland. We had a good
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discussion about how things unfolded last night and this morning. The facts are, the federal
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conservatives are not helping at all. When Andrew Scheer makes statements that we should be
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capitulating, basically, this should have been done a long time ago. He really doesn't know what
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he's talking about. So what does Andrew Scheer suggest we should capitulate on? Should we walk
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away from supply management? Should we throw the dairy farmers in Ontario and Quebec under the bus?
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Should we be saying, listen, we don't care about our cultural exemption? We should be saying that to
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Quebec, that we don't care about your culture. I think that's ridiculous. Should we be allowing Fox
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TV to buy the CBC? Should we be getting rid of Canadian content? And then, of course, there's the
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whole issue. Does Andrew Scheer believe that all disputes in NAFTA should be handled in U.S. courts?
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So, Andrew, what exactly do you want us to capitulate on here? You should be ashamed of yourself.
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Other than Canadian oil exports to the U.S., the auto industry's exports are by far our most
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important sector. But Diaz was in lockstep with Justin Trudeau's weird strategy to ignore the important
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stuff. And focus instead on weird ideological pet projects like feminism and global warming or
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whatever. Things that have no place in a trade deal. I suppose the biggest mistake was Diaz agreeing
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with Trudeau's dangerous strategy to insist on doing a deal with Mexico, a three-way deal,
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rejecting Donald Trump's sensible proposal that America and Canada do a quick renewal of NAFTA between
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the two of them. And then Trump can go battle it out with Mexico later. Why wouldn't we have agreed
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to that? We have no natural trade quarrel with America. In fact, we're actually a higher cost
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producer than them. Our jobs and factories move south, not the other way around. Trump has no beef
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with us. Our trade with America is pretty balanced dollar for dollar between what we buy and sell to
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each other. I think Trudeau liked the romance of being a savior to Mexico. Remember this three amigos
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meeting? I think Trudeau loved the idea that he would selflessly come to the aid of a poor third
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world country run by a socialist. The irony is Mexico had more than 50 private meetings with U.S.
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negotiators where Canada wasn't in the room. And then Mexico and America did a bilateral deal
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first. If you look at what we were forced to sign after, and Trudeau waited until literally hours
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before the deadline. It actually capped the number of cars that can be made in Canada and sold in the
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States and put other restrictions on our auto industry that we didn't have before. It was a
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setback for our auto industry. Not a big one, but a setback. I didn't stop the Trudeau media from saying
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it was the bestest trade deal ever. And that Chrystia Freeland, who Trump personally called out as being
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irritating on the negotiating team. Well, the mainstream media says she's the bestest foreign
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minister in the history of history. So, you know, it's settled. But that's life inside the Trudeau
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bubble. And then this morning, reality hit pretty hard, didn't it? Let me read from the Wall Street
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Journal, because these days, if you want honest reporting about something in Canada, you can't
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really trust Canadian media because they're all in on the payroll of Justin Trudeau or about to be
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with his $595 million slush fund. So this was printed on the Yahoo Finance website. But as you
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can see, it was written by the Wall Street Journal. Headline, General Motors expected to shut down
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operations in Oshawa, Ontario. Now, the story says that GM is cutting costs in a lot of places,
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including in the U.S. But let me read to you a line that I haven't seen in the CBC or CTV or any
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other Trudeau media outlet. Canada's auto industry, which is concentrated in southern Ontario, has
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shrunk over the past decade as more factories moved to the southern U.S. and Mexico where labor
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costs are cheaper. Canadian policymakers had hoped the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement, reached
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in late September with provisions requiring more work be done by higher wage workers, would help the
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domestic industry. Today, Canada is among the most expensive countries in the world to build cars
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and the highest cost market for car assembly in the North American free trade zone.
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Huh. Here's what Buzz Hargrove, a past president of the Canadian auto workers, had to say. He lived and
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breathed auto workers for years. He didn't hang out quite as much flying around on Justin Trudeau's
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private jets in his day, in the prime minister of his day. Here's what Buzz Hargrove said in the Sun
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today. He said, former Canadian auto workers head, Buzz Hargrove, told the Sun news of the closure left
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him reeling. I'm shocked, he said. It seems like Trump's strategy is working beyond belief.
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Exactly. And who do you think is going to get better? Do you think it's going to get better or worse
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when Justin Trudeau's National Carbon Tax kit kicks in? We're talking about costs of production here,
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aren't we? Whereas Donald Trump is actually cutting taxes. And he says, if anything, he's going to cut
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taxes more and reduce red tape more for the auto industry. Remember, he's been talking about getting
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rid of the extremely expensive fuel efficiency standards that's forced on Detroit. Now, this is
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happening on Justin Trudeau's watch. It seems to happen a lot with him. Here's a story just two weeks
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ago about Bombardier, the company that has received literally billions of dollars in bailouts
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from Canadian taxpayers. Let me quote from this story in The Star. Bombardier said about 3,000 jobs
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will be cut in Canada with the majority of those in Bombardier's home province of Quebec and 500 in
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Ontario. Like Bombardier, GM was the recipient of billions of dollars in taxpayer larges. Actually,
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GM got, and the auto sector in general, got far more than Bombardier. And in fairness, Stephen Harper
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was part of that decision a decade ago as part of the massive auto bailout done in conjunction with
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Barack Obama in the province of Ontario. So a lot of people were involved in some bailouts. Here's an
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article from a few months ago, though. This is from June. Nearly $14 billion shoveled into the auto
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industry, and much of it has just quietly been written off by the liberals. Here, let me read. Ready?
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The Liberal government appears to have written off a taxpayer loan to the auto industry in March,
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but is refusing to say how much the loan was for or to provide any other details.
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Ottawa has been carrying large, stagnant loans to the auto sector on its books,
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and repayments have been passed due since at least 2010.
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Why? I mean, a child is a better negotiator than that. Much better. If you've ever had a child
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try to haggle with you to stay up a little bit later, kids can be pretty good negotiators.
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I say we put eight-year-olds in charge of our Canadian business negotiations, whether it's NAFTA
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or Bombardier or General Motors. I really don't know how an eight-year-old could make it worse than
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Trudeau has. I mean, just months ago, he forgave GM a massive debt and obviously got nothing in return.
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They just shut down their Osso plant months after Trudeau gave him a free billion or whatever it was.
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Maybe there's no way to have kept GM here. Maybe. But when the feds gave $10 billion to the auto
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industry a decade ago and Ontario taxpayers gave billions more, surely there was a quid pro quo.
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And if it was just to squeeze another decade out of a factory, well, that's more than a billion
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dollars a year. For a factory with 2,800 people in it, you could have just cut every worker a million
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dollar check and have been ahead of the game. It'll be interesting to see what Justin Trudeau and
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Bill Morneau and Gerald Butts say and do today and in the days ahead. I mean, on the one hand,
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they and Catherine McKenna have always railed against the fossil fuel economy. They've always
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talked about phasing out gasoline-powered cars. Maybe you think they didn't mean it? Or do you
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think they only meant it when it came to the oil industry itself, but not the people who burn oil
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in their cars? You or the factories that make the cars? Here's Gerald Butts. I love showing this clip
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because it's the truth. It's right out there. It's right on the internet. I don't have a secret
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source. Here's Gerald Butts just a few months before quitting his anti-oil sands lobby gig
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Truth be told, we don't think there ought to be a carbon-based energy industry by the middle of this
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century. That's our policy in Canada, and it's our policy all over the world.
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You can choose to fight this fight on locking us into a high-carbon economy
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for five decades, and I think that's a very reasonable perspective to take. In fact,
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it's one we do take. So we don't think that—we think that the oil sands have been expanded too
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rapidly without a serious plan for environmental remediation in the first place. So that's why
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we don't think it's up to us to decide whether there should be another route for a pipeline.
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Because the real alternative is not an alternative route. It's an alternative economy.
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Well, you heard the man. He wants an alternative economy, no more of this gasoline fossil fuel
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business. Now, that alternative economy is not here yet, but maybe he can hasten this coming
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utopia by destroying the society we have now, shutting down some factories. I mean, it's not funny.
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It's sad for 2,800 families, and it's not going to be the last. Here's an interview from May of this
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year with Magna, the big auto parts manufacturer, great Canadian success story. Let me quote Don Walker,
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I'm worried about what's going on in Canada, Walker told employees and shareholders gathered
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in Markham, Ontario, on Thursday. I get very frustrated when I see the decisions being made
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that put undue administrative costs and inefficiencies on our plants, specifically here in Ontario,
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because we have to compete. We're not going to get business if we're forced to be uncompetitive.
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If I look at after-tax returns, the US now has an advantage, he said. So if we have two
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equal projects, jurisdiction A and jurisdiction B, and in jurisdiction B, I get more after-tax
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dollars, that's where we're going to start to allocate more dollars. We have to think
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about what the tax burden is on companies operating in Canada. So he said that back in
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May. Do you think that problem is going to get better or get worse when Justin Trudeau brings
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in his carbon tax full tilt? When Ontario power prices keep going up because Dalton McGinty
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and Kathleen Wynne signed 20-plus-year deals with green lobbyists to buy their ultra-expensive,
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unreliable solar power and wind power? Yeah, this GM plant isn't the last to go.
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Now, as I say this, Trudeau, you know, he got up at the crack of 10, and he, about a quarter
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to 11 this morning, he put out some little tweets saying he's deeply concerned. That's another
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difference between him and Trump. Trump never stops working. I've never seen Trump take a
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vacation in two years, have you? Other than maybe the odd golf game, but he plays less golf
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than Obama did, and Trump actually owns golf courses. I think Trump only works. I think
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that's all he does. And you can even see him tweeting about things after midnight and
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at 6 a.m. He just works. Justin Trudeau, he's taken a month's worth of personal days this
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year, and he didn't get around to weighing in on the auto thing until almost noon. Now,
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what's he going to do? Now, I know that he'll be emotionally available. That's really his
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strength, isn't it? He'll talk about how much he really cares. What's he actually going to
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do? What can he do? Another bailout of the bailout? Will he give General Motors another billion
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dollars to keep that factory open just for one more year? I mean, maybe. Maybe just enough to
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get Trudeau through his 2019 re-election. Then again, Oshawa votes conservatives. So maybe those
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2,800 unemployed families will be treated the same way as the 100,000 or so unemployed Alberta oil and
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gas families. In other words, Trudeau really just doesn't care. Trudeau will give billions to dairy
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farmers because, well, they're simply better. Quebecers are better than the rest of Canada
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because, you know, poor Quebecers. Our oil and gas industry is down and out. Our auto industry is
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failing. But don't you worry. You'll only get happy news about all this because the most important
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people in the entire economy, more important than oil men or auto workers, are the political
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journalists of Canada. And the one thing Jerry Diaz can take credit for is a $600 million slush fund
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for Canadian reporters. So that's my best advice for these 2,800 hurting families. Make yourself feel
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better. Just read news from the CBC or the Toronto Star or the Globe and Mail. Their journalists will
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tell you that it's not that bad at all. In fact, it's pretty great. I mean, just think of the carbon
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emissions will save. You'll be just fine. That's what the Unifor journalists will say anyways.
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Coming up, we'll talk to Manny Montanagrino about this. Stay with us.
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As we negotiated the USMCA, as we made sure that we were doing the right things for Canada, the right
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things for Canadians. And the key thing on that is always listening, learning, talking about how we're
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going to build for a better future and thinking about that future with the long term, in terms of
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your jobs until you retire, but also your kids' jobs and your grandkids' jobs. That kind of focus
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Well, that's Justin Trudeau at a Chrysler plant in Windsor just last month, saying that he had not
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only secured the jobs of the workers there, but their children and grandchildren. That's a 50-year
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promise. Unfortunately, it didn't quite last 50 days. That Chrysler plant is still fine. But as you
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just heard in my monologue, General Motors is shutting down its Oshawa plant completely. There
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has been an auto factory in that city for one century. It's down to what you could call a skeleton
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crew down to 2,500 plus 300 other contractors. 2,800 people. Used to be, oh, about 40,000 working
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in Oshawa. No longer. Joining us now to talk about this is our friend Manny Montenegrino,
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who was our guide during the NAFTA renegotiations. Manny's the president of ThinkSharp. It's great to
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see you again, Manny. No one is happy about this. That's 2,800 families that have been put on notice
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that they're going to be unemployed. It's sad. But it is also a day of politics because there's
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always politics when it comes to the auto sector, isn't there? Yes. Yes, absolutely. And it is very
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sad, but it is foreseeable. It's pretty simple that businesses look to improving their bottom lines
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every year for the shareholders. I mean, that's a fact that cannot be overlooked. This plan by GM
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started two years ago. They look to improve their shareholder value. Oshawa, I mean, if you add
00:20:07.000
what's happened in the last few years, the accelerating costs of electricity by the liberal
00:20:12.840
government, the provincial liberal government, the imposition of carbon taxes, the inability
00:20:19.340
for the federal government to match the corporate tax rate of America. I mean, we had our fiscal update
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and the finance minister says we won't do that. Well, that just is another impediment for businesses
00:20:37.320
to stay or these multinational businesses to stay in Canada. So when you put it all together and GM is
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making a decision, it's made decisions in other areas of the world, it's made decisions in America,
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but about 40 to 50% of its decision is in Canada, reducing Canadian jobs. That's a big number when
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you look at Canada only being one-tenth the size of the United States. So General Motors really picked
00:21:06.940
on Canada or their Canadian operations the most in their restructuring. And that has to do with all
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those factors that I just mentioned. Yeah. What scares me is I was reading back in May, I just dug it
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up, the CEO of Magna that does a lot of auto parts. It's not obvious. Magna is fairly well known,
00:21:26.620
but not as well known as GM or Ford. And the CEO couldn't have been clearer. And this was in May.
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He said, if you look at the tax cuts that Trump brought in in January, it just is more expensive
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to do business up here. So if a company is going to shut down a plant, they're more likely to shut
00:21:46.440
it down up here. If they're going to restructure, they're more likely going to move things to the
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States. And he was, what scares me, Manny, is that this could be a domino and other dominoes may fall.
00:22:00.220
And God forbid, other factories, Magna, I think the industry is moving away like the Western Canadian
00:22:07.640
oil industry is moving. Well, exactly. I mean, when you talk about domino, it isn't just the auto
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sector. The domino began, in my opinion, in the oil sector, in the pipeline sector. A great example
00:22:22.720
is Trans Mountain Pipeline. There was an election in 2005, I believe it was, in BC, where there was
00:22:30.640
opposition. The prime minister did absolutely nothing for a year and a bit until he received
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a basic threat from Kinder Morgan, 30 days, and then acted by buying the pipeline, not putting in a
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clause, not putting in an appeal. This is telling the business community at large, we're really not
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open for business. So if you look at it, every aspect of it, if you look at the business confidence
00:22:59.320
index in America versus Canada, America is up 30 to 40 percent since Trump got elected. And we're down
00:23:06.720
about the same amount, 20 or 30 percent in business confidence. So when you're looking at, I mean, humans
00:23:12.640
are making decisions. They're around the board table. They're looking at the increasing taxes
00:23:17.080
in Canada. They're looking at the carbon tax. They're looking at the direction of the government.
00:23:20.980
They're looking at the business confidence. I mean, these people talk to each other. The oil
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industry guys talk to the CEO of a big oil company or your CEO of General Motors. They're talking to each
00:23:32.840
other. They know what's happening. And you look at the totality of everything and you look at what's
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happening in America where businesses are invited and businesses are being attracted. Where are you
00:23:43.440
going to make the decision? So you have to look at the totality of it and what you have. And here's
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the big, big, big difference, Ezra. And I've advised big business CEOs in my legal career. There are
00:24:00.880
people that are looking for that one day, I'll say, approval. And there are people who plan for a
00:24:09.140
long term. Our prime minister is simply, and there's too much evidence not to agree with this point,
00:24:15.140
is simply looking for how can I get through this one day, this media one day to look good. Whereas
00:24:20.940
down south, the president is thinking, how do I plan a one, two year plan to make sure businesses come
00:24:27.560
here? And his plans by reducing taxes, by cutting regulation, by cutting burdensome carbon taxes or
00:24:36.420
carbon regulations, this frees business. And of course, businesses are going to be attracted to
00:24:41.820
there. And in Canada, all this prime minister needs to do is, how do I get by this news day by
00:24:49.140
saying something fluffy? What he said in your clip, we listen to business. Well, you clearly didn't
00:24:56.300
listen to GM. They've been talking about this for two years. It's clear that all businesses,
00:25:01.720
you have the oil patch leaving, the oil rigs are leaving Alberta, 70, 80% are now down in America.
00:25:09.060
Pipelines are not being built. You're not listening to anyone. I mean, clearly, so that is what is
00:25:15.340
happening in Canada. Yeah. You know, if I think of Justin Trudeau's key moments to talk about his
00:25:23.940
economic vision, I think, for example, when he spoke at Davos, Switzerland, right after Trump
00:25:30.540
announced his tax cut, so January this year, it was his chance to talk to the masters of the universe,
00:25:37.160
you know, the big CEOs. And he didn't, like you say, he didn't address the amazing comparative
00:25:44.200
advantage American businesses now have on taxes. He led with his male feminism schtick again.
00:25:50.520
I want to show you a clip from Trump. And frankly, you could pick this, you could find 20 clips from
00:25:56.600
Trump in the same vein. I'm just going to show you Trump. This is from last year. Just talking
00:26:03.300
about autos. He talks, you know, everyone knows the motto, make America great again. But other than
00:26:09.060
that, I think his most common saying, his catchphrase is buy American, hire American. And he's obsessed
00:26:17.080
with getting factories back into the States. Here's just one clip of many. I could give you 20 clips
00:26:22.060
like this. Take a look at this. Already we're seeing jobs coming back. Since my election, Ford has
00:26:28.940
announced 700 new jobs coming back to their plant in Flat Rock, Michigan. Fiat Chrysler has announced
00:26:39.240
that they will create 2,000 new jobs in Michigan and Ohio.
00:26:49.220
And just today, breaking news, General Motors announced that they're adding or keeping 900 jobs
00:26:57.000
right here in Michigan. And that's going to be over the next 12 months. And that's just the beginning, folks.
00:27:02.460
Now, Manny, as we said at the top, there are some GM cuts in the States too. But my point for showing
00:27:10.580
that clip is Trump is obsessed with bringing factories back. It's all he talks about domestically. I mean,
00:27:18.860
it's why he won so many Rust Belt States. Trudeau doesn't send those same symbolic messages to
00:27:26.040
companies that you will find a great home here. He talks about feminism and carbon taxes and they
00:27:33.480
don't want to hear it. Right. And you know what? We have to be honest about our review of the prime
00:27:41.180
minister and the president of the United States. The prime minister is, in my opinion, unconcerned
00:27:47.420
about industry of any sort in Canada. I mean, he will attend to it. He gets the photo ops. But his
00:27:55.280
major concern, and it's clear in his beginning of his NAFTA discussions, which is a big trade deal,
00:28:01.740
it was five virtue signaling causes. He's concerned about virtue signaling on every aspect, every tweet,
00:28:09.500
every message, every he's off. If you look at his tweet to going to Argentina, he talks about,
00:28:16.800
you know, getting women in the workforce. Like he's in every tweet. His focus is that. And
00:28:22.760
that's where his mind is. The president's focus is on jobs, is on businesses. And that's why their
00:28:31.240
GDP is so much stronger. That's why jobs are created so much more in America. And so that's what's
00:28:38.900
happening. So Trudeau is getting, the prime minister is getting exactly what he wants. He wants that
00:28:46.260
daily coverage that he's sitting there on virtue signaling clauses and really unconcerned. And we
00:28:52.460
can talk about many industries. It is the oil industry. It is, I mean, Bombardier, we gave a
00:28:58.980
bunch of money and they've fired a lot of people. So it isn't just the auto sector. It is all general
00:29:05.260
business malaise. You know, if you're building something, if you're touching something with your
00:29:09.960
hands, he's not interested. The prime minister is not interested in those jobs. He's interested in
00:29:15.960
those fancy jobs, not the kind of blue collar job. Whereas the president is interested in the blue
00:29:22.500
collar jobs. And those are what builds countries. Yeah. And by the way, a lot of those blue collar
00:29:27.640
jobs pay very well, I should add. Oh, yeah. Right. I have one last question for you. When I was reading
00:29:35.780
some more about this GM closure in Oshawa, it looks like they'll close down over the course of the
00:29:42.120
next 12 months. So the families are getting the bad news now. They will really have one year to wind
00:29:49.080
things down. That's enough to get Trudeau through his next election campaign. The plant, there will not
00:29:57.740
be the images of the plant actually closing, I don't think. Do you think Trudeau is going to try and
00:30:05.260
bargain with them and say, listen, I'll give you a billion. Just keep it open a little more. Do you
00:30:09.760
think he's going to try and and give them more subsidies to keep them afloat? Or do you think he's
00:30:16.600
just going to, you know, commiserate with them in a photo op and just not talk? I think I think he's
00:30:22.600
going to ignore it. And I think he can ignore it because no media is sitting there. And I tried to do
00:30:28.420
this. You know, as you know, I'm retired. I'm going through a bunch of information. I tried to count the
00:30:33.840
number of jobs near Ottawa. We had a couple of major plants in our in our suburbs left to America.
00:30:41.540
The media is not saying how many jobs are going to America as a result of the policies of the
00:30:48.420
liberal government. I know that they're 60, 70, 80 percent of the rigs are gone from Alberta and
00:30:54.520
they're in the States. We know the pipeline jobs. There's 8000 jobs are off. You know, no one's doing
00:30:59.460
a count. No one in the media. And, you know, there are thousands of people in the media that
00:31:04.220
can sit there and say, what's it cost with our direction, the liberals direction with the gender
00:31:09.760
budget and with respect to virtual signaling? How many jobs does that cost? And no one's done that.
00:31:16.520
I did do one analysis and I'll share with you. And it's called the prime minister talks about
00:31:22.200
how good the unemployment is, the unemployment rate in Canada. Well, that's a false figure. I never look
00:31:28.040
at unemployment. I look at participation rate. Participation rate is a better number. It tells
00:31:33.140
you it's scientifically better number. It tells you how many people are working in the population
00:31:38.420
of able bodied people. And it doesn't mean because the unemployment rate, once you're off UI,
00:31:44.780
you're not counted, although you're able bodied and willing to work. Our our participation rate since
00:31:50.840
the prime minister has been in power is down a point five percent, which is about 170,000 jobs.
00:31:58.540
And we're adding many more immigrants. So the population is increasing and people and less
00:32:05.080
people are working. Whereas in America, the participation rate is up. So that tells you what's
00:32:10.180
really happening in the job market. We are not creating the jobs to sustain either immigration
00:32:15.220
or normal growth in Canada. Yeah. Well, it's very sad. I mean, between the oil patch and the auto
00:32:20.300
industry, those are two key industries in Canada. And I I fear that we have yet to see the worst
00:32:26.680
in either. But Ezra, Ezra, Ezra, we're going to have a booming journalism industry. It's going to be
00:32:33.620
supported. Jobs are protected there. And that's at least that industry is somewhat protected.
00:32:41.900
You're right. You're talking about that five hundred and ninety five million dollar
00:32:47.340
slush fund for journalists. Well, I just want one journalist, one journalist to go to the number
00:32:53.560
of jobs that have left Canada to America as a result of the last two year plan. Just if there's
00:32:58.400
one out there and I might even pay for it myself. Yeah. Well, you know, it's probably a project for
00:33:03.220
us at The Rebel to try and compile that. I wonder if a think tank's on it. Manny, as always, it's great to
00:33:07.640
catch up with you. Thanks for your review of things. It's great to see you.
00:33:11.900
Well, there you have our friend Manny Montenegrino, the head of ThinkSharp. And he was one of our
00:33:18.000
guides through the whole NAFTA renegotiation process. Stay with us. More ahead on The Rebel.
00:33:23.400
Hey, welcome back on my monologue Friday about Justin Trudeau being protested by 2,000 people
00:33:39.120
in Calgary. Robert writes, Trudeau and Butts are just laughing at them. They have no intentions of
00:33:44.260
getting the pipeline built that Alberta needs. Like TransCanada said, if C-69 passes, no pipeline
00:33:49.740
company in the right mind would propose building a pipeline. Yeah. I mean, gender analysis, emissions
00:33:55.860
analysis. We import oil from Saudi Arabia and Algeria via tanker ship. There's no tanker ship
00:34:03.960
ban for their tankers. And we import a lot of oil these days. I don't know if you know this,
00:34:08.560
by rail from the United States, including from the Bakken geological region in North Dakota.
00:34:16.520
Did you know that? We actually import oil from America. And what's the commonality between American
00:34:23.860
oil and Saudi oil? Neither of them has to pay a carbon tax in Canada. Neither of them has a gender
00:34:31.020
analysis or a carbon analysis, but they're allowed to come into the Canadian market. Trudeau puts those
00:34:36.640
analyses on our own domestic producers. He actually treats Canadian producers worse than foreign
00:34:43.920
producers. That's just weird. Al writes, instead of a noose shirt, he should have worn a Celine Dion
00:34:51.340
skull shirt. Then all would be sweetness and light. Al, you're so right. I tell you, I can't get some of
00:34:57.840
those Celine Dion images out of my head, especially the little demonic babies. What is she thinking? I
00:35:04.240
don't know. But you're right. I mean, if we're going to start having the RCMP investigate people with
00:35:08.660
shirts. And the RCMP did. From what I understand, I saw reports of the RCMP were investigating that
00:35:13.640
shirt. Are we going to shut down, you know, every college kid who wears the Che Guevara shirt or the
00:35:19.600
Mao shirt? Because to tell you one thing, it's a joke when you say, oh, come on, we've got to hang
00:35:24.440
Trudeau. But it's no joke. Che Guevara and Mao Zetong were murderers. And in Mao's case, it was in the
00:35:31.020
tens of millions. On my interview with Gabe Desjardins about residential schools, Don writes,
00:35:37.480
I'm sure the policy of sending Native children to residential school was made with good intentions.
00:35:41.460
I also believe that there were abuses at some schools, but it certainly wasn't every student
00:35:45.020
in every school, as we are constantly told. I believe there are many people who are successful
00:35:48.640
today who would not have been if they had not attended a residential school. Well, you're exactly
00:35:54.320
right. And that's exactly what I've been told now by two families that went through the
00:36:00.580
residential school process. Here in Toronto, we've just heard about a sexual assault at an elite
00:36:07.100
boy school called St. Mike's. I'm not blaming the saint part of St. Mike's. I'm not blaming the
00:36:12.460
Mike's part of St. Mike's or the Toronto part or anything. I'm just saying these things sometimes
00:36:17.080
happen. It's been tagged to the entire residential school that they were all abusive and it's been
00:36:24.240
hung around the neck of the church. I think that's some excusology to defame the church, but also to
00:36:33.080
revise the past so that it's only a narrative of grievance and none of those things are healthy.
00:36:40.860
On Trudeau's $595 million media slush fund, Bill and Barb write, you stress several times that the rebel is
00:36:48.300
the only source in opposition to mainstream media and not taking or wanting government money. Part of
00:36:53.980
the scandalous $595 million. A grant that you are the largest and I'm sure the most effective, but you
00:36:58.780
are not the only one. You have to agree that the Truth North Initiative and Spencer Fernando also do
00:37:03.760
great jobs and do not get funded. Even the National Citizens Coalition does a certain amount, but not on
00:37:08.500
the scale that rebel. Keep fighting for freedom, but don't over claim. That's a very interesting point.
00:37:14.780
And I did indicate that Black Locks reporter is also refusing to take handouts. And I went to get a
00:37:22.500
subscription on Black Locks, but I saw it was $314 a year and I want to show them some love, but I don't
00:37:28.580
want to pay $314 a year, so I'm not going to do that. But yeah, I follow Spencer Fernando. I think he's
00:37:36.380
great. Frankly, I've invited him to do some work with us, but he says he's too busy. He's a great
00:37:41.880
commentator. I don't think he goes out and breaks news. I don't think he does access to information
00:37:47.360
requests. I don't think he covers events. I think he's more a commentator on other news. Now, he's
00:37:54.260
great. I follow him closely. And obviously, he would never take money. But I don't know if I would
00:38:02.220
call him a news network. I'd call him an independent freelance pundit. And I don't think he would be
00:38:08.680
offended to be called that. True North Initiative, obviously, I'm a super fan. That's Candace Malcolm
00:38:13.940
and Andrew Lawton is with them now. And not only am I a fan of theirs, but we actually helped crowd
00:38:18.980
fund their flights to London to help report on the Tommy Robinson case. I have to say, though,
00:38:25.680
that was probably the first time they went out into the field to do that kind of journalism. Now,
00:38:31.280
Candace obviously does very important journalism, including breaking international scoops at the
00:38:37.500
Toronto Sun. And so, again, I'm not disparaging. I'm just distinguishing between The Rebel, which has
00:38:45.500
a couple dozen staff. We have on-air personalities. We have researchers. We have video editors, web
00:38:52.160
editors. We have 1.1 million YouTube subscribers. We have hundreds of thousands of clicks every day. I
00:39:00.060
don't know the exact number. It goes up and down. So I'm not saying there are no other voices. And the
00:39:05.880
National Citizens Coalition, frankly, they're not very active these days. I'm not saying there's no
00:39:11.000
one else. But I don't know if the True North Initiative would call itself a news organization.
00:39:16.520
And I think Spencer Fernando, he's definitely an opinion commentary journalist. But I just don't
00:39:22.180
think they're in the news gathering, reporting, full-time, full-tilt business. You know, maybe I'm
00:39:27.660
sounding defensive. I'm really not. There's other groups out there, too. There's Ontario Proud,
00:39:32.800
and now BC Proud and Alberta Proud. And they actually do some on-the-ground filmology a little
00:39:39.380
bit these days, and I hope they grow. I'm trying to think of some other groups. But they, you know,
00:39:45.120
those groups are more about Facebook memes, where they have a pithy saying and put it on Facebook and
00:39:50.520
get a lot of people to like. That's just a little bit different, I think. I'm not disparaging. I'm just
00:39:56.280
saying it's different. You tell me, am I sounding too defensive? I love all those. Every group I've just
00:40:01.120
listed. I admire. I click on. I retweet. But, you know, I think that the actual journalism, it's the
00:40:12.020
rebel. Let me just put it on the record. I hope those other groups grow mighty and help fight back,
00:40:20.740
because Lord knows we need the help. One more email. Eric writes, just subscribed to help the rebel.
00:40:28.400
Keep up the good fight against the bought and paid-for propaganda media. Give them hell.
00:40:33.760
We always do. And so do those other groups. So does Jeff Ball and McGowan at Ontario Proud,
00:40:38.740
and so does Canada Miss Malga and True North Initiative, and so does Spencer Fernando. All of a
00:40:43.320
sudden, I'm feeling bad that I said they weren't big and mighty media groups. They're just not.
00:40:48.040
But I hope they do grow. And we're, let me just say, we're very open to doing anything with them
00:40:54.200
that they find in their mutual interests. I mean, we have done some projects with True North, and
00:40:58.500
I'd be interested in doing anything with Spencer Fernando. That's it for today, my friends. And
00:41:04.380
until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, see you at home. Good night.