Kenney's “bizarre” immigration announcement is “a solution in search of a problem”
Episode Stats
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Summary
Jason Kenney is running to be Alberta s next premier, but he wants to bring in more foreign labour. Is this a smart political move? Or is it just a politically correct virtue signaling strategy? Ezra explains why it makes no sense.
Transcript
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Hello, my rebels. You're listening to a free audio only recording of my show. It's called
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The Ezra Levant Show because I'm Ezra Levant and it's a show. And today we talk about a
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weirdness from my old friend Jason Kenney. We were truly friends, but we haven't talked
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in a little while. There's a space between us and I think it's ideological. And I get
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into that a little bit today. I don't talk about personal stuff. I talk about the political
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stuff. Why is Jason Kenney making an immigration announcement in a provincial campaign in
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Alberta? It's got nothing to do with Alberta politics. Alberta politics are oil, gas,
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pipelines, taxes, investment, announcing you want to increase. No, you want to lobby Justin
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Trudeau to increase immigration to Alberta. Where did that come from? And Alberta has
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extremely high unemployment of skilled labor force. You want to bring in more cheap foreign
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labor force. And that's an economic plan. It makes no sense other than as a politically
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correct virtue signaling strategy. And I explain that in the monologue ahead. So I'm glad you're
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going to listen. If you like listening to these podcasts, you would love to watch it. I show
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just go to the rebel.media slash shoes to become a member. And so without further to do,
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Tonight, Jason Keddie's running to be premier of a province, but he made an immigration campaign
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announcement. What a weird strategy, but I think I can explain it. It's February 25th,
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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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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's
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Look, let me put you out of suspense. Jason Kenney is going to be the next premier of Alberta.
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Any poll, every poll for months has shown that it's going to be a majority government for
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Kenny's new UCP party. That stands for the United Conservative Party. The only question is
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how big of a blowout will it be? Personally, I feel no risk predicting that Kenny will win every
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single seat in Calgary, every single rural seat, and probably half of the seats in Edmonton. It's
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going to be massive. Look, the NDP win in 2015 was accidental. The other parties all
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imploded just at the perfect time, and Rachel Notley had a pleasant enough smile, and she
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didn't blow it in the debates, and she didn't seem scary, and that was enough for Albertans
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who were disgusted with Jim Prentiss, disgusted with Danielle Smith of the Wild Rose Party,
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who defected to Prentiss's conservatives and tried to kill the Wild Rose Party. It was all
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so gross and undemocratic that voters just burnt them all to a crisp. I get it. Vengeance.
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Now those two parties are gone. Abacus Research confirmed at the time what we all knew. Albertans
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didn't actually vote for any NDP policies. 91% of people who voted for the NDP in Alberta
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said they just wanted a change. They didn't know what the NDP stood for. Trouble is, the
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change they voted for was a bunch of kooks. In some cases, actual communists. I mean, Notley
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herself wore a wristwatch with the portrait of the communist terrorist Che Guevara on
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it. Most of her MLAs were all accidental. They truly never thought they'd win. They just
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put their name down as a favor to someone. Some were actually kids still living with their
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parents. For some, it was the first real job they actually had. I'm not exaggerating.
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You even had real-deal communists, like this weirdo named Rod Loyola.
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Yeah, in case you can't tell, he's praising Hugo Chavez, the tyrant back in the day of Venezuela.
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That's crazy. But really, not much crazier than the fact that the oil sands province had
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just elected a premier, you can see her on the left there, who literally attended anti-oil
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sands, anti-pipeline rallies. I bet fewer than one in a thousand Albertans knew what they
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were truly going to get. So yeah, what a disaster. Notley brought in a carbon tax that she didn't
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even mention once during the election campaign. Notley capped production of the oil sands, just
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passed a law. Notley brought in anti-oil sands lobbyists, like Sappora Berman, and appointed
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her senior government position, co-chair of the oil sands advisory council. Berman actually
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never stopped being an anti-oil sands lobbyist while she ran the oil sands policy for Notley.
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I'm not going to list all the disasters. There were a lot of them, but it is finally all about
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to come to an end. You can sort of tell that it's the final hours in the Notley regime.
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They're all in the bunker while the bombs are going off outside. They're doing crazy things
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that show they know it's almost over. Just the other day, Notley appointed Ed Whittingham,
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the famous anti-oil sands lobbyist, to Alberta's oil regulatory tribunal called the Energy Regulator.
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So he's not just an advisor now like Sappora Berman. He's now a quasi-judge with the jurisdiction
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to directly make orders against oil and gas and pipeline companies. Of course, that proves
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any of her 11th hour pro-oil rhetoric is a joke. I mean, we all knew that. We all knew she didn't want
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the oil sands to succeed, even though she's been making noises to that effect. But mainly, I think
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it shows that these folks are going to raid the place, burn it down, steal the cutlery on their way
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out. Appointing Ed Whittingham to the Energy Regulator is so insane. I think they know that
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Jason Kenney's going to fire him, so he'll just get a huge severance package. I think that's all this is
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about. They're just appointing people to things just to grab 10 grand, 50 grand, 100 grand on their
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way out the door. Like I say, they're going to strip the place down to the studs. All right, back to
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the campaign trail. Jason Kenney could go on holidays until the election and still win a
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majority. In fact, I would think that's probably better if he did that, since the campaign's going
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to be nothing but gotcha smears against him by the media party. They did a dozen news stories the
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other day about how Kenney briefly lived with his widowed mother, and the media actually published
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floor plans of her house. And this was all in the legitimate media, and the whole point was to
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try and allege that Kenney had falsely claimed expense accounts as an Ottawa MP a decade ago or
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something. So get ready for 35 days of that. Like I say, Kenney couldn't do worse than, I mean,
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if he went on vacation till it's over. He should just hide till it's over. Frankly, he should send away
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all his candidates too. All of them. Since every one of them is going to be gotcha-ed on the campaign,
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and they're probably not all that skilled at dealing with gotcha questions, no one needs to
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door knock in this Alberta election campaign on either side. You're not going to learn anything
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in 60 seconds at your doorstep in Alberta that you don't already know about Rachel Notley and the NDP
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or Jason Kenney and the UCP. Nothing. The cake is baked. It's over. Everyone has made up their mind.
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But Kenney and his team have been colonized psychologically by the media party. As in,
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their main enemy isn't the NDP. I don't really even think they're reacting to the NDP much
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anymore. It's almost the reverse. The NDP are now acting like the official opposition to Kenney.
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They know they're done. They're sounding like an official opposition more and more now.
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Kenney isn't afraid of the NDP, but he lives in absolute terror of the media party. I think it's
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something he learned in his decade in Ottawa. In Ottawa, the media is the most powerful force.
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They can shape things. They control things. Harper tried to ignore them, but they had their revenge
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on him, certainly in the 2015 election. The CBC is the worst, of course. Harper and Kenney,
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who was in cabinet, had a decade to privatize the CBC or even shut it down. They didn't.
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And so it absolutely mauled them in the 2015 federal campaign. And it's gotten worse ever
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since Trudeau took office and gave the CBC a huge budget increase. Now that works in Ontario and
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Quebec and maybe the Atlantic and BC. Although even as I'm just saying that, I note that Ontario
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voted for Doug Ford in defiance of the CBC and Quebec voted for a new party led by that
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CAC that actually bans burqas and limits immigration. So even Quebec did that in the defiance of the
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CBC and even New Brunswick in the Atlantic just threw out their liberal party too. So yeah,
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even places that, that, uh, like that ignored the CBC. So you don't have to be afraid of them
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anymore. But Alberta, Alberta, which always hated the CBC and which the CBC always hated feelings
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mutual, Alberta, public enemy number one of the CBC, Alberta against whom the CBC deployed David
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Suzuki for 40 years. Imagine being afraid of what the CBC says about you when you're running to be
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the premier of Alberta. It's actually a certification, a validation, an affirmation of indication.
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If the CBC hates you, if they like you, that's your problem in Alberta. But Jason Kenney's mind
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was colonized by the CBC in his decade in Ottawa. He learned to appease them, to try to calm them,
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to compromise with them. He cares what they think about him. He really does. They hate him
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more than anyone almost. They certainly hate him more than they hate Andrew Scheer. It's obvious.
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But like a battered wife who refuses to leave an abusive relationship,
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Kenney thinks he can, I can just turn him around. I can make them love me.
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If he just stops doing certain things that annoy them.
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I first saw this side of Kenney two years ago when he turned against the 3,000 Albertans who were
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campaigning at a rebel rally outside the legislature against Rachel Notley's carbon tax. Now, if you
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recall back in December 2016, all the cool conservatives were for the carbon tax. You remember that?
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Preston Manning was writing in the Globe and Mail for the carbon tax. Patrick Brown, the Ontario
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Tory leader, for the carbon tax. Several federal conservative leadership candidates were for the
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carbon tax, like Michael Chong. I can't even remember the other no-names. Only we here at the rebel
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stood firmly with the people. 3,000 unemployed men and women rallied with us on the steps of the
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legislature in Edmonton. And I remember there, in that large rally, it was about a 90-minute rally,
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I remember there was about 30 seconds of banter at the rally where some people chanted,
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lock her up. It was an homage to the Trump rallies we had all seen on TV. Remember, this was in
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December, just a month after Trump's big win. So it was a joke. It was a pop culture reference. It
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was 30 seconds. And it was banter. Unemployed men and women blowing off steam. Obviously,
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they didn't want to physically take Rachel Notley and lock her up and, you know, take her down to the
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provincial jail or something. They wanted her to not bring in the carbon tax and to vote her out.
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But the CBC pretended that they were actually going to lock her up. Just like last week,
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the CBC pretended that when Senator David Tkachuk said he wanted to roll over the liberals, well,
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the CBC just knew what this lifelong Democratic politician really meant was that he wanted someone
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to physically get into a truck and physically roll over some liberals and kill them.
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The CBC pretended that's what Senator Tkachuk meant. They pretended that they thought you were
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that stupid and they ran with that. Well, back in December 2016, Kenny saw the CBC about to destroy
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the reputation of regular working people. Oh, they want to kidnap Rachel Notley and lock her up
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somewhere. And so Kenny made a choice. Instead of standing with unemployed Albertans or just ignoring
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the media, how about that? He joined the CBC mob against them. Kenny, who used to be the boss of the
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Taxpayers Federation for crying out loud? Imagine him turning against an anti-tax rally because they
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were too vivacious. They weren't, these unemployed men and women weren't complaining politely enough.
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Not because he turned against them, not because they did anything wrong, but because the CBC manufactured
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some fake outrage as if they were going to, like I say, walk in and actually handcuff Notley and like
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hold her in like some fake jail or something. You've got to think that was what they meant
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to believe the CBC fake outrage. So when the CBC came to Jason Kenney, who hadn't even attended the
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rally, which is curious when you think about it, and the CBC said, what do you think? Instead of
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ignoring them or saying, well, I wasn't there, I don't know, or saying, well, I can understand their
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frustration. I might have phrased it differently, but I can understand their frustration. He condemned
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them. Kenny saw the CBC was hunting for a scalp and he chose to appease them. This is what he tweeted.
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He said, there are good reasons to oppose a carbon tax, but calling on our democratically elected
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premier to be locked up is ridiculous and offensive. I'm offended. Yeah, that doesn't work for a
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conservative to play the fake offended grievance card. That was the last time Jason Kenney had
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anything to do with the rebel, by the way. He realized at that moment when the CBC confronted him
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that the CBC were going to call anyone who was truly conservative a racist or violent or whatever.
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No one in Alberta believed that. The CBC is fake news in Alberta. No one trusts them.
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They're clowns. They're haters. They're quite often carpetbaggers sent from Toronto to hate Alberta
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because they can't even get Albertans to work there because they need to bring that hate Alberta
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mentality. And just like Rachel Notley, 10 of her first 12 chiefs of staff were outside the province,
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from outside the province. But Kenny blinked in the face of that. He chose his own comfort
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rather than loyalty to those men and women. I think there was a little flash into his mind.
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And I think he did it again with the United We Rule convoy the other week. Andrew Scheer and
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Maxime Bernier both came to speak at the United We Rule convoy when it was on Ottawa. Frankly,
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I was a little bit impressed that Andrew Scheer showed some courage. I think it's because Maxime Bernier
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is hot on his tail. So good for both of them. And Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Saskatchewan Premier
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Scott Moe sent out encouraging messages. Just absolutely encouraging, not a negative word.
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Kenny refused to meet with the convoy even as it passed through his own city of Calgary.
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And his only tweet to them scolded them for talking about other issues. Glad to see they've
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decided to keep the focus on our oil and gas workers. This issue is too important for distractions.
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He's even in his praise, he's damning them because they talk about Trudeau's corruption or mass
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immigration. More lecturing, just like he did after the carbon tax rally in 2016. It's weird.
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That's an Ottawa snobbiness. It's unalbertant. But the real point is,
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it's not going to buy Jason Kenney any relief from the CBC. They're going to do their best to destroy
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him no matter who he throws under the bus on the conservative side. So appeasing the media
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is not going to work. And it's not necessary. Like I said, Jason Kenney could go away for two months
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on a holiday and turn off his cell phone. And he'll come back as premier. It is a done deal in
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Alberta. And all of the above is the only way I can process the bizarre Jason Kenney announcement
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today. I'm not in Alberta as much as I'd like to be these days. I'm here in exile in Toronto. I think
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I'm in Torontonia now. But I get out west fairly often and I talk to Albertans every day, both old
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friends and members of the public and viewers. And I have to think if that, I have to think if
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you were to knock on a thousand doors in Alberta and say, what's the key issue in this provincial
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election? I got to tell you, I don't think a single person would say, you know, with this
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provincial election, what we need, we need more immigration. What? I doubt one person would say
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that. But that is what Jason Kenney's announcement today was. Here, listen.
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We need to use the power of immigration as one strategy to restore investor confidence and to
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build new businesses to create prosperity for all Albertans. During my tenure as Minister, I quadrupled
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Alberta's allotment under the provincial nominee program, which helped to double immigration levels
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to Alberta from about 21,000 to about 42,000 new permanent residents a year. The only province,
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I believe, that does not focus immigration on less populated, like rural regions, and nor
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do we use the ability to nominate people for work permits to get them here faster before they
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get permanent residency. What? Immigration is a federal matter. It's not a provincial matter,
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other than some tweaks. I mean, the main point here, though, is that there's massive unemployment
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in Alberta right now. It's worse than any other province in Canada, other than those in the Atlantic.
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Alberta's unemployment is worse than Quebec. It's worse than Ontario. That means there are lots of
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unemployed men and women right now who are actually the most skilled workforce in the country.
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Let me say that again. Alberta's unemployed people are the most skilled unemployed people in Canada.
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They're not out of work because they did something wrong. They're not out of work because they don't
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have the skills. They're out of work because Rachel Notley and Justin Trudeau. There is no shortage of
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workers. There is a shortage of jobs. And Jason Kenney wants to bring in more workers before our existing
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Alberta unemployed or hired and to rural parts. What does that even mean? Is this even a provincial
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election platform? It's so weird. It sounds like Jason Kenney just took some of his old files from when
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he was a parliament cabinet minister and he's repurposing them? Immigration in a provincial campaign?
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By the way, it doesn't even make any sense. Canadians don't want more immigration? Here's the Angus
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Reid survey from a few months ago. Literally only six percent of Canadians want higher immigration.
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That's that black line at the bottom there. Forty-nine percent, the red line, want less.
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Thirty-one percent, the blue line, say, well, keep it as it is, maybe. So it's, what, eight to one
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want less immigration as to more. It's not broken down by province there, but I'm pretty sure
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support for more immigration is even lower in Alberta. How could it not be? Alberta already has
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plenty of people who are looking for work right now, bringing in cheaper foreign labor to undercut
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them helps no one, or even bringing in more skilled labor. How does that help out our own
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unemployed skilled labor in the province now? This is a solution in search of a problem. It doesn't
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make sense. And listen to Kenny's justifications of it. Here, listen for a bit here.
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The goal will be to end large backlogs, speed up processing times, proactively attract talented
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newcomers from overseas, welcome job-creating entrepreneurs, and encourage settlement in rural
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Alberta, which needs population the most. His first two goals there are really weird.
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Fix the immigration backlog and speed up processing. How's that an Alberta provincial issue? Fix the
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backlog as in there are foreigners who really want to come here, and they're not getting enough
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service quickly enough. That's his top priority. It's the first thing he mentions, making things
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convenient for foreigners. And the second one, speeding up processing times. That's not the problem.
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The problem is that Alberta has nearly 7% unemployment, and it's skilled workers in Alberta who can't find
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work. And he's really excited about bringing in foreigners faster. Who came up with this?
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Bringing in job creators? Okay, good idea. I'll believe it when I see it. But that's not the pitch here.
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The pitch is really bringing in cheap third world labor to a province that already has unemployed
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Canadian labor. I really can't believe Jason Kenney referred to Brooks, Alberta, as his example of a success story.
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Brooks is a good example. They have managed to do this partly because of the large meatpacking plant there
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that has been very proactive in recruiting newcomers. But this is the single most effective way that we can
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help to revitalize economic growth in smaller communities. Brooks. He's really using that
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Brooks meatpacking. Brooks is a small town in Alberta that decided to hire cheap foreign workers
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in their meatpacking plant rather than to hire Canadians for a couple of bucks an hour more.
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And they thought Somalis would be the perfect people to work in Brooks, Alberta. So no surprise
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that it has been a disaster. The crime rate in that town doubled. Alberta is now famous for having
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exported Somali terrorists to ISIS. But just from a plain old economic point of view, which is being
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touted here as the rationale, why? How is bringing in cheap foreign labor, which is the story of the
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Brooks meatpacking plant? That's exactly the story he refers to. How is it a success that you've got
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some employed, low cost labor from Somalia in Brooks? This is so weird. It's like Kenney's running for
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prime minister, you know, for the liberals, you know, appeasing, you know, Ahmed Hassan's Somali. He's got
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that nailed down. Appeasing the CBC, appeasing migrant lobby groups. Alberta doesn't need more
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migrants, especially for economics. Here's a chart showing that the province has had nearly zero net
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immigration for the past five years, as in people are leaving Alberta almost as quickly as they're
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coming in anyways, because there's no economic opportunity there. People are getting up and
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leaving the province and he wants to bring in more Somalis. Why is he doing this? He actually said he's
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going to lobby Justin Trudeau and Ahmed Hassan to ask for more. Listen, we would, I would happily lobby
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the federal government to increase Alberta's allotment under the provincial nominee program.
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As federal minister, I took it from 1,200 to 5,000, quadrupled it, which took the number of
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immigrants coming through the program from about 4,000 to 22,000. That helped to double the overall
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number of immigrants coming to Alberta from about 21,000 in 2005 to on average 42,000 when I left as
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immigration minister. And I'm proud of having doubled immigration levels to Alberta, partly by giving
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Alberta a 400% increase in its nominee. But since then, Alberta has been flat.
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What is going on here? The oil patch is hurting. The pipeline industry is dead. Coal is being positively
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euthanized by the NDP. Pipelines are not being built. It's collapsing the prices. What's going on here?
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I know a lot of immigrants that came here with high hopes, but couldn't find jobs. And they've ended up
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leaving for Toronto or Vancouver. That's a terrible shame.
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Yeah, I guess that's sad. But why is that more sad if it happens to foreign citizens than when it
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happens to Canadians, to Albertans? And how is bringing thousands of more people going to change
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that? What is even going on here? Alberta is having a very tough time. Albertans are. Albertans are
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homeless. Albertans are on welfare. Albertans need jobs. It is sad that the unlimited pool of people
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around the world, the 7 billion people who could come to Canada if they could. It's sad that 7 billion
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foreigners can't get jobs in Alberta. Sure. But it is more sad that Albertans can't. To focus on this,
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to say this is a priority, to make this announcement, to say he's going to lobby Trudeau for more migrants,
00:25:30.780
that is not real. That is not what Albertans are asking for.
00:25:36.260
That's what the CBC wants? That's Jason Kenney trying to win the love of the CBC?
00:25:43.580
Trying to prove how woke he is? So woke that he's going to lobby Justin Trudeau for more migrants?
00:25:51.820
Jason Kenney is more scared of the CBC than he is of anything else.
00:25:57.020
If you're wondering how he's going to govern, I think that's what you need to watch.
00:26:01.680
I've never, never in my life heard someone in small town Alberta say they want Trudeau to pour
00:26:08.640
more migrants into their town. Pretty sure Brooks is a cautionary tale, not a role model.
00:26:15.180
If you want to know what Jason Kenney responds to, don't look to a carbon tax rally or a pipeline
00:26:20.540
convoy. I don't think he likes those. Look to what they're gossiping about at the CBC headquarters
00:26:27.660
in Toronto. Look to what the media party is twittering about online. That's what Jason
00:26:33.220
Kenney responds to. Please tell me if I'm wrong here, because I wish I was, but I don't think
00:26:42.620
I believe my support for Trump has affected my entire life, but modeling in particular,
00:27:00.360
it's just, you know, the fashion world is like Hollywood. You're not allowed to not only be
00:27:04.340
Republican or conservative, but you're not allowed to be different. So I think anyone that doesn't
00:27:08.080
support the president, who obviously everyone hates in the fashion world, is going to be
00:27:12.180
ostracized right away. Elizabeth Pipko is a successful model. That was until she publicly
00:27:18.020
came out of the closet. Oh, it's worse than you think as a Trump supporter. Since then, she has
00:27:24.100
been blackballed from the industry. Joining us now via Skype is Elizabeth Pipko. Elizabeth,
00:27:30.240
pleasure to meet you. Thank you for joining us today.
00:27:34.060
You know, I would think that modeling, like sports, is ideology-free. I mean, I could see
00:27:41.280
it in the dramatic arts, like acting or music, where there's always some editorial content,
00:27:47.440
but sports is just sports. And I would think modeling is just modeling. How come the industry
00:27:55.600
I honestly don't know. I think it's shocking to a lot of people. I don't think I was aware
00:28:02.940
of how strange it was just because I was in the middle of it all. But I remember actually talking
00:28:07.380
to my dad, I think, two weeks ago when we were talking about it after everything kind of came
00:28:11.660
out. And he asked me if other models post things, even if they agree on the liberal side, if they
00:28:16.420
post about it. And I said, yeah, they're at the Women's March. They're posting terrible things
00:28:20.160
about our president, everything. And he thought that the weirdness was the fact that I came out
00:28:25.540
with the fact that I support the president. My models are supposed to stay neutral. He didn't
00:28:28.940
understand that we actually weren't allowed to just be Republican or be supportive of the
00:28:32.340
president, that it wasn't a left-right kind of like equal playing field. He genuinely thought that
00:28:37.340
it was the fact that I came out in general and any kind of support that was shocking to people,
00:28:41.680
he didn't get that it was actually the fact that I was a Republican or a supporter. And that's what
00:28:45.580
was crazy. He really didn't understand that. And I think that's kind of when it hit me that we're
00:28:49.420
really not allowed to be ourselves if it, you know, is separate from anything that other people,
00:28:54.320
you know, like the mass majority kind of believe in. Well, give me some examples of how things
00:28:59.060
changed once you let it slip out, that you were not just a Republican. I mean, maybe they could abide
00:29:05.760
a token Republican, but that you actually volunteered on Trump's campaign itself. I mean, that's the worst
00:29:13.180
thing imaginable. What happened? Give me examples of what happened to you once,
00:29:19.420
that dark secret was revealed. I'd say the worst part was like the online, you know, trolls that
00:29:26.420
hate, obviously people didn't understand why I did it or, you know, why someone would do that. Or
00:29:31.160
instead of, you know, applauding the fact that anyone at a young age, I was only 21 and I not
00:29:35.260
only volunteered, but I ended up getting a full-time job on the campaign. So instead of applauding the
00:29:39.660
fact that a 21 year old who was doing all these things was also, you know, working for a presidential
00:29:43.640
campaign, which was my biggest accomplishment. It was all about tearing me down and, you know,
00:29:47.640
showing how terrible that must be and how terrible I must be. My parents must have been to raise me
00:29:51.760
this way. A lot of anti-Semitic comments that they did not actually expect and just a lot of
00:29:56.480
negativity that I think we kind of see, you know, thrown at, you know, Trump's and the family and
00:30:01.460
all that, that I didn't expect to be thrown in my direction that obviously they don't deserve
00:30:05.220
either. But I didn't realize how little support or like affiliation you have to even have with the
00:30:09.840
president to be hated by, you know, everyone at least on the internet. But it definitely,
00:30:14.040
it hit me pretty hard, but you know, that's okay. Well, let me differentiate because the internet
00:30:18.640
is a limitless fountain of trolls and hate and many of them could be anonymous and many of them could
00:30:28.320
be automated. They could be bots. And I don't want to put too much stock in internet hate. I'm not,
00:30:36.500
I'm not downplaying it and I'm sure it, it's stung to have harsh comments like that. But if,
00:30:43.380
but really, I mean, I, I have an enormous number of haters online too. I just block them.
00:30:49.900
I'm not, I'm not condescending to it, but I guess what I'm more interested in is from official sources,
00:30:58.380
from modeling agencies, from bookers, from gigs you would have, from real people who you had a real
00:31:06.340
relationship with, not, not hecklers, uh, in the internet ether. Um, can you tell me, did you have
00:31:12.900
any gigs that were canceled? Did you have an annual event that you were always invited to that suddenly
00:31:18.340
dried up friends who you worked with who suddenly didn't want anything to do with you? To me, that's
00:31:23.720
more telling than, than what the internet would do to you. Right, right. Um, I mean, the reason I bring
00:31:29.220
up the internet, it's actually, it was a lot more than just, you know, the trolls that you mentioned,
00:31:32.980
um, I try to avoid all of it. You know, my, my husband, my brother, they kind of like watch out
00:31:36.900
for me and tell me if there's something super, super sweet that I have to respond to them like
00:31:40.180
I do, but otherwise I try to avoid all of it. But I was scrolling through it once stupidly.
00:31:44.500
And it was actually photographers that I had previously worked with that I knew that I would
00:31:48.660
definitely consider friends, um, that were kind of, you know, involved in the trolling. You know,
00:31:52.740
it was shocking to see people that I had worked with before kind of admitting that people on the internet
00:31:57.460
who are not just bullies are now like, they would rather be on their side than my side,
00:32:00.900
someone they've known for years and claimed to like before I came out with my support. So
00:32:04.500
the internet was more than just, you know, anonymous spots for sure. But I mean, my agency kind of
00:32:09.620
removed my photo from their website and haven't spoken to me, which is interesting. Um, I didn't
00:32:14.260
actually find any shoots. I kind of planned the fact that I was going to kind of, you know, admit that
00:32:18.420
I worked for the present and all that. I kind of known for a while that it was about time, but I didn't have
00:32:22.260
any to plan because I knew what was going to happen. And I was genuinely afraid, honestly. But on top of
00:32:27.140
that, it's a lot of people that I used to know, friends, models that have reached out to me. A few
00:32:30.660
have said, Hey, I wanted to unfollow you, but I know you. And I realized that, you know, there's
00:32:34.580
deeper things in politics, but most have blocked me or unfollowed me or said their process, obviously,
00:32:39.700
which I expected because I hadn't been treated that way by friends before who knew in 2015,
00:32:44.100
2016, that I supported the president. But this one kind of came as a group. That was a lot, you know,
00:32:48.900
for sure. You know, I, I've been in some situations in my own life where, um, some people
00:32:56.420
whispered their support to me, but said, Oh, I can't support you publicly, or I'll be devoured
00:33:02.900
by the mob too. Have you seen some of that? Have you seen timid conservatives, timid Republicans,
00:33:08.820
timid Trumpists in the industry who, you know, probably should come to your aid, but they too would
00:33:16.740
be thrown under the bus if they did? Yeah, a lot. Um, on the campaign, actually,
00:33:21.140
I was working once and, um, one of my jobs, I actually ran the volunteer center that we had
00:33:25.460
downstairs and I came down, uh, once and I recognized the model who I had worked with at Wilhelmina, my,
00:33:30.500
uh, my ex agency, actually. But, um, he was on America's Next Top Model. He was a really big deal.
00:33:36.020
I was starstruck when I met him years ago, but we had become good friends and I saw him and he was
00:33:40.500
wearing a MAGA hat actually, but it was obvious he was trying to cover his face more than anything else.
00:33:45.860
And I came over him and I hugged him. You know, I mean, we genuinely felt like a sense of connection
00:33:49.460
in that moment. Like, you're here, I'm here. You know, we have, you know, we have some support
00:33:53.060
amongst, you know, each other, but it was very obvious that he really did not want anyone to
00:33:58.100
know that he was there. He was there volunteering and, you know, wanting to genuinely help the
00:34:01.300
president, but yeah, not to share it with the world. I knew that I wasn't going to. I told him not
00:34:05.460
to mention it, you know, that I was there and we kind of went on our way, but I've also received a lot
00:34:09.060
of messages and, you know, saying what I did. And a lot of people, mostly photographers actually,
00:34:14.180
but a few models as well, they're telling me that they were told that if they feel their views,
00:34:18.420
they will have their, you know, career fully destroyed. No one will ever work for them.
00:34:21.860
People have called them, you know, Nazis, white supremacists, everything. A lot of people have
00:34:26.420
told me that they, you know, feel my pain, but more so than feel my pain, I think they're just
00:34:30.340
genuinely scared because they know that the world is, you know, going in this direction. And
00:34:34.100
I mean, people want to be creative. They want to be allowed to do something like this. And I
00:34:36.980
don't feel like politics has enough fear, obviously. And when it becomes, you know,
00:34:40.420
your livelihood, it's a lot scarier. Well, let me ask you a little bit about how
00:34:45.380
you came to be a Republican in a very hostile industry. I understand you're 23 and you mentioned
00:34:52.580
you've been a Trump supporter since 2015. So I guess you were, you know, 19 or 20 at the time.
00:34:59.220
May I ask what, what it was? I mean, most young people aren't that political. And if they are,
00:35:03.540
they go with the flow, which is, you know, left of center. How did you break from that pack? How
00:35:10.500
did you swim against the current? What was it that made you a Trump supporter?
00:35:16.660
I think since growing up, I've always been interested in politics more so than the average,
00:35:21.860
you know, young person. I've always kind of been passionate about it, which led me to a lot of,
00:35:25.700
you know, research. A lot of people nowadays are more interested in doing what their favorite
00:35:29.060
celebrity tells them to do than what they genuinely believe they should do. A lot of people don't
00:35:32.580
want to do the research and, you know, come to their own conclusion. So I was doing that since
00:35:36.340
a very, very young age. I think in eighth grade, we had a mock election. It was McCain versus Obama.
00:35:42.420
You know, in the real world, we had a mock election in school and kind of from eighth grade,
00:35:45.220
I got super involved in just doing my own research and getting involved. But with Donald Trump,
00:35:49.380
it kind of became, this was the first election when I could vote, so it became a lot more important
00:35:53.540
for me. He obviously was someone that everybody knew beforehand. So everyone was super, you know,
00:35:57.780
interested in him. And I could, you know, watching interviews that he had given,
00:36:00.900
reading his books. And I just, I knew that he was different. You know, I knew that as someone
00:36:04.980
that had researched it, at least for the years of good research, that everyone was kind of the same.
00:36:08.420
Politicians, you know, there's a negative connotation with the original. And I knew that
00:36:12.420
he was different. He was, you know, special in his own way. And he not only was continuing on,
00:36:16.420
despite what, you know, the terrible things we were saying about him, which was inspiring in
00:36:19.700
its own right, he believed in most of the things that I believed in. And I decided to throw my support
00:36:24.100
behind him. And it actually helped me, you know, he inspired me every single day. And I, you know,
00:36:31.460
And you mentioned some of the attacks against you were anti-Semitic. I understand that you're
00:36:35.860
Jewish, which I suppose makes you a double minority as a Trump supporter. I personally think that Donald
00:36:42.100
Trump is the most pro-Israel president since the founding of the state of Israel. I don't think I
00:36:48.260
need to prove that. I mean, just whether it's a symbolic move, like moving the embassy from Tel Aviv
00:36:54.740
to Jerusalem, or basically telling the Palestinians, he's not going to engage in their BS anymore,
00:37:02.020
just with a single tweet ending decades of false moral equivalence between the Palestinian
00:37:08.980
terrorists and Israel. I think he's amazing. But I would say that I'm a minority amongst Jews. And I
00:37:14.020
think in America, it's the same way. Can you talk a little bit about being a pro-Trump Jewish
00:37:23.140
person too? Because I got to think a lot of liberal Jews are bashing you for that too.
00:37:29.140
Yeah. I mean, to me, maybe because I am young and naive, it was kind of very obvious as a Jewish
00:37:33.860
person. In general, I kind of think the Republican Party supports, you know, Israel and the Jewish
00:37:38.660
people more, but Donald Trump very obviously supports the Jewish people and Israel. So it was a
00:37:43.140
no brainer to me that in terms of things, you know, on my list that I vote for, Donald Trump was
00:37:48.100
number one, you know, that was kind of always the case. But I think now actually after the election,
00:37:52.100
we're seeing a lot more anti-Semitism, especially in the Democratic Party, which, you know, is only
00:37:56.900
proving our point. So I think the people that are saying Donald Trump or his supporters are anti-Semitic
00:38:00.980
are, you know, ridiculous or naive, or I don't know if they're trying to, you know,
00:38:03.940
hide the truth or they're just totally unaware. I don't understand what's happening. But
00:38:08.420
the Democratic Party has proven, you know, time and time again, that we don't
00:38:12.340
care about Israel or the Jewish people and that they genuinely, you know, preach things
00:38:16.820
when they're running for office and then forget about them. President Trump was the only president
00:38:21.460
to obviously move the embassy after president after president said that they would, you know,
00:38:25.060
from Barack Obama, George Bush, everybody. So, you know, that was something. And we obviously believed
00:38:29.220
him, which was a first for me because I was told not to believe politicians. I believed him and he
00:38:33.220
delivered. But more importantly, the Democratic Party from the Iran deal to the BDS movement,
00:38:37.940
everything going on now have proven that they're, you know, slowly but surely becoming more and more
00:38:42.500
anti-Semitic. And I think people that don't understand why Jews side with Donald Trump should
00:38:46.980
start, you know, doing their research and, you know, realizing what it is that they care about
00:38:51.060
and realize that the Republican Party and especially President Trump totally align with all of this.
00:38:56.020
Well, I have to say that I find you a very forceful advocate. I just have a sense that probably
00:39:01.940
the last two years has given you 10 years worth of experience. I mean, it sounds like they put you
00:39:07.780
through the ringer. It's just, I mean, reading a little bit about your story.
00:39:13.140
Can I ask what your plans are now? I mean, I know, of course, Donald Trump has this re-election
00:39:19.620
campaign chair in place, Brad Parscale. They're obviously doing campaign-style rallies around
00:39:25.940
the country. Are your plans political? Do you hope to get back into modeling? Are you going to,
00:39:32.900
I don't know, start a family? Are you going to stay in the public arena? Or like, tell me a little
00:39:36.980
bit about what you plan to do because I'm impressed with how articulate an advocate you are. I love the
00:39:42.820
fact that you didn't bend the knee when you were attacked. So I just really want to know,
00:39:47.380
as I'm sure our viewers do, what is the next chapter for Elizabeth Pipko?
00:39:52.820
I mean, I wish I knew the next chapter, obviously, but I'm pretty confident that I'm going to pursue
00:39:58.020
something political just because, you know, coming out as a Trump supporter has given me not only,
00:40:03.300
you know, fear, like I mentioned, but so much strength. I mean, the amount of messages that
00:40:06.580
I've gotten from people saying that I inspired them, which is, you know, A, amazing, but B,
00:40:11.060
terrifying that people are scared to share their views in support of, you know, a president who got,
00:40:15.300
you know, elected fairly in, you know, the United States of America. So that's terrifying.
00:40:19.380
And if I can be someone that can inspire others to come out and get a support for our president and
00:40:23.220
feel more confident, you know, that's going to mean the world to me more than any modeling job ever
00:40:26.820
could, obviously. My husband actually works on the 2020 campaign, so I feel emotionally involved in some
00:40:32.420
way for sure. But I'm hoping to be involved, obviously. I think at least growing up the way
00:40:38.180
I did with parents, you know, grandparents who came to America and kind of raised me to be a proud
00:40:44.100
American before anything else. I'm a patriot and I love my country. And I think it's going to come
00:40:48.420
before most things for me, even at my young age, as crazy as that might sound. So if I can, you know,
00:40:53.140
in any way feel like I'm doing the right thing for my country and, you know, supporters of the
00:40:56.820
president, supporters of now me who think that what I did was incredible, I'm going to keep going and I'm
00:41:00.820
going to, you know, keep trying to, you know, save my country and do what I can. Because it's been
00:41:05.060
probably the best month of my life, the scariest it's been. It's been pretty incredible. And if I
00:41:09.860
can make any kind of change and of course help our president, you know, get reelected, I'm going to do that.
00:41:14.340
Well, that's very encouraging. And I'm so glad to hear it ending that way. It's not ended yet,
00:41:19.140
but I'm so glad that it did not end with you being broken by the attacks on you. And it sounds like you
00:41:26.020
had a lot of support. If your husband is in fact working on the reelection campaign, it sounds like
00:41:30.340
you've got a lot of support right there at home, which is obviously critical. Well, listen, what a
00:41:34.580
pleasure to meet you. And, and I hope that we can keep in touch with you as your own plans develop.
00:41:39.860
You're a very articulate advocate, as I said before, and whatever you do next, I hope we can
00:41:45.860
observe it and maybe even be a part of it. Definitely. Thank you. What a pleasure.
00:41:50.500
Well, that's Elizabeth Pipko, a model who was blackballed in the modeling industry after
00:41:57.220
revealing to the public that she was a supporter of Donald Trump. Stay with us. More ahead on The Rebel.
00:42:13.220
Hey, welcome back to my monologue on Thursday about three rebel reporters being assaulted in three weeks.
00:42:17.300
John writes, I've supported rebel media in the past, but this, in my opinion, borders on the ridiculous.
00:42:22.660
And I think a judge might think so as well. Your reporter wades into the fray of an emotionally
00:42:26.660
charged demonstration and gets slightly jilted physically in the midst of a protest. That is
00:42:31.380
the risk one takes in entering those environments. I think you're wasting your time and money on this
00:42:34.900
one, but it will not be my money. Well, John, I appreciate your opinion and the fact that you watched the
00:42:40.100
video and wrote in, I couldn't disagree with you more. I cannot think of a single incident
00:42:48.740
in 10 years, in 20 years, where a liberal journalist in Canada was attacked ever. I can't
00:42:54.340
even think of one. In fact, it's so good for journalists here. They have to make up offenses.
00:42:59.860
Oh, he swore at me on live TV or charge him with a crime. Being sworn at, you know, welcome to my
00:43:05.540
morning. I get sworn at more times by lunch than your CBCer does all day.
00:43:14.340
To be hit and have his property broken simply for asking a question when police are a few feet away
00:43:20.980
is wrong. But I put it to you, John, that this is not an anomaly or a blip. It is a trend. I've told you
00:43:27.140
that three of our people have been attacked in three weeks. David Menzies, Efron, our cameraman,
00:43:32.420
and Kean Bextie. I remind you that Sheila Gunn-Reed was attacked. I point out that not a single
00:43:39.140
journalistic organization lifts a finger. They don't care. They only care about leftist journalists.
00:43:43.940
They don't even care at all. They're just really about the bailout. So I'm going to disagree with
00:43:47.380
you. As a conservative, I'm going to disagree with you. And as an employer, I'm going to disagree with
00:43:52.820
you. It is absolutely essential that our staff know that if they are attacked on the job because
00:43:59.140
they're a rebel, we're going to fight back for them because the cops don't seem to.
00:44:04.340
And it's absolutely imperative that the world know that if you take a run at a rebel, you better
00:44:11.140
hide because if we find you, we will sue you forever until we get justice. We will sue you
00:44:18.420
even in defiance of the, like an insurance company would say, oh, just walk away. It's not worth the
00:44:22.260
money. It'll cost you 30 grand to sue and you'll win three grand. The math doesn't add up. This is not
00:44:26.260
about the math. This is about you cannot punch a rebel with impunity. That used to be the motto of
00:44:33.700
the, I think, the Stuart Kings. And I'm not even Scottish or Stuart, where were the Stuarts? I got, I
00:44:39.700
don't even know my British history well enough. Nemo me impune lacheset. That's, that's Latin for no one
00:44:47.620
cuts me with impunity. For God's sakes, that was a royal motto. I think that was the Stuart Kings.
00:44:51.940
That's, you can't punch, you can't punch a rebel with impunity. Revelation writes, I think the money
00:44:58.820
would be better spent going after the police. We need to push the police to do their job regardless
00:45:02.740
of one's politics. Look, we have contacted the police in all the cases here. At the end of the
00:45:08.100
day, you cannot compel the police to lay charges. You just can't. They have police discretion and it
00:45:13.380
ought to be that way. You can file a private prosecution. That's where you go to court and say, judge, I've hired my
00:45:19.700
own lawyer to enforce the criminal code because the cops won't. So you go to court with the criminal
00:45:24.020
code and you prosecute under the criminal code with your own private lawyers. That's rare. It
00:45:31.060
does happen sometimes. And sometimes the Crown prosecutor takes over those charges. But I think
00:45:37.460
a civil suit is probably a better fit. Liza writes, I couldn't donate much this time, but I would feel
00:45:43.220
better about giving over my hard earned money if the rebel were getting some of it back in a lawsuit,
00:45:47.860
especially with the Radisson manager. Why not take them to the cleaners?
00:45:51.460
OK, well, I don't want to get into detail about our legal strategy because I don't want to give
00:45:56.180
away things that are covered by the confidentiality of our legal plan and what we've talked to lawyers
00:46:02.100
about. But it's just a matter of law that you get pushed around and even punched a bit. You're not
00:46:08.100
going to get 100 grand for punching someone in the nose. You're just not going to. So we're suing for
00:46:12.420
the amount. In Radisson, we're suing for $10,000 per guy, 20 grand, because I don't want to be one of
00:46:19.940
those silly guys who sues like for 20 million bucks when they know it's a $20,000 lawsuit.
00:46:26.100
This is a real lawsuit. And I want a judge to take it really. And in the case of Sheila Gunn-Reed,
00:46:32.260
she was awarded $3,500. You're not going to get all your costs back in court. I can't remember
00:46:38.500
what costs we won. In Sheila's case, it was like maybe $1,000 or two. So yeah, we're not going to
00:46:45.220
get it back. It's just not how it works. Anyways, thanks for letting me tell you those details. I
00:46:49.380
hope I'll have some news. In fact, I may have some news as soon as this week on one of these matters,
00:46:54.740
and I can hardly wait to share that with you. Listen, I appreciate your support. It's not even a case of
00:46:59.540
economics. I can think of 20 better things to spend $60,000 on than a lawsuit in Ottawa and
00:47:08.660
a lawsuit in Toronto. I can think of a lot of better things like hiring a new reporter. But
00:47:14.740
this is another way of saying to David, Efron, and Kian that we value them and we're going to
00:47:22.740
protect them. This is the best I can do. It's the best I can do. Well, folks,
00:47:26.340
that's the show for today. I hope you enjoyed it. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here
00:47:30.340
at Rebel World Headquarters, good night and keep fighting for freedom.