Rebel News Podcast - September 04, 2018


Labour Day SPECIAL： How Trump changed my mind about unions and tariffs


Episode Stats

Length

32 minutes

Words per Minute

168.18683

Word Count

5,495

Sentence Count

349

Misogynist Sentences

9

Hate Speech Sentences

9


Summary

Jack Tippold has been a steelworker for 24 years, and he s been a supporter of Donald Trump for a long time. He thinks that Trump is nothing more than a boss, and that s why he s running against him in the 2020 election.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Tonight, it's Labor Day, but whose side are the union bosses really on?
00:00:04.280 It's September 3rd, and you're watching The Ezra Levant Show.
00:00:12.920 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
00:00:16.720 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
00:00:20.420 You come here once a year with a sign, and you feel morally superior.
00:00:23.780 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it
00:00:27.380 is because it's my bloody right to do so.
00:00:30.000 Donald Trump has changed how I think about labor, and unions, and working men and women, and wages.
00:00:41.420 I think before he came along, I was more of a libertarian purist.
00:00:46.240 I took the view of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman,
00:00:49.400 who basically was for zero regulations in any commerce.
00:00:53.180 For example, when it came to tariffs or other trade barriers,
00:00:55.540 he said a country should just unilaterally declare itself to have free trade with every other country.
00:01:01.720 And he pointed to places like Hong Kong as proof of that theory's success.
00:01:07.020 He was very effective.
00:01:08.640 He's a great communicator.
00:01:09.800 He loved going on TV shows to gently and clearly and friendly debate economics.
00:01:15.220 And it was necessary and effective, especially during the Cold War,
00:01:18.180 when socialism presented itself as a challenge to the Western capitalist free countries.
00:01:24.540 That's the point of view that certainly held sway in the U.S. Republican Party.
00:01:29.160 It came to Canada, too, under both conservative and liberal governments.
00:01:34.420 Canada-U.S. free trade deal and NAFTA have made every party in Canada a free trade party.
00:01:39.520 The corollary to that was the free movement of labor.
00:01:41.900 That's part of globalism, too.
00:01:43.960 Not just free movement of goods, but free movement of people.
00:01:47.020 And that's what the European Union did.
00:01:48.720 It's amazing to be able to travel around freely in that continent, just as if borders don't exist.
00:01:54.180 But it brings problems, too, as you know, more acutely.
00:01:57.560 Huge masses of migrants just walking across Europe,
00:02:01.280 taking advantage of one country's open borders to get access to the whole free movement zone,
00:02:06.920 called the Schengen Zone.
00:02:08.320 And the United States, too, where at least 13 million Mexicans illegally work.
00:02:13.320 I mean, yeah, that's a benefit to employers, sure,
00:02:15.780 and to consumers who, I guess, save a few pennies on every head of lettuce or a basket of tomatoes, a few pennies.
00:02:22.460 But what about the larger costs to society that maybe aren't as easily quantified?
00:02:27.660 Illegal foreign workers lowering wages for citizens,
00:02:30.900 especially competing against low-skilled citizens.
00:02:34.640 But they drive up housing costs.
00:02:36.440 That's stretching citizens, especially the working poor, two different ways.
00:02:40.900 In Canada, we don't have as large a problem with illegals,
00:02:43.900 but we have legalized our cheap foreign worker problem.
00:02:48.160 We used to call it the Temporary Foreign Workers Program.
00:02:50.820 It's basically a gift to fast food restaurants and banks
00:02:54.340 who don't want to pay an extra dollar an hour to hire Canadian citizens.
00:02:57.740 And that's great for people who don't want to pay an extra 10 cents for their Big Mac, I guess.
00:03:04.720 But is it as good for Canadian teens who should be getting that first job?
00:03:10.160 I've shown you this video before because it really touched me.
00:03:13.100 It's a 2016 campaign ad by the U.S. steelworkers.
00:03:18.020 Can I show it to you again?
00:03:19.200 I know I've shown it to you before.
00:03:20.200 Take a look.
00:03:20.560 My name is Jack Tippold, and I've been a steelworker for 24 years.
00:03:26.520 This election is a little bit different,
00:03:28.460 and Donald Trump does talk a good game when it comes to China and Mexico.
00:03:33.680 But let me tell you a little something about Donald Trump.
00:03:36.460 The Chinese have been illegally dumping steel and aluminum into this country.
00:03:41.640 The problem is that Donald Trump is buying this steel and aluminum,
00:03:46.520 and he's using it in his projects.
00:03:49.080 Now, Trump says he's going to rebuild the steel industry.
00:03:51.760 That steel could have been made here in Indiana, Pennsylvania, or Ohio.
00:03:56.760 Another thing, Donald Trump says our wages are too high.
00:03:59.900 Let's see him go into one of our plants with his soft hands and work for a day,
00:04:04.660 and then tell us our wages are too high.
00:04:08.240 Donald Trump says he uses bankruptcy as a tool.
00:04:10.880 I've seen what bankruptcy does to our brothers and sisters.
00:04:15.120 I've seen them lose them in their houses and their cars,
00:04:17.460 unable to provide food to put on their tables, can't pay their bills.
00:04:21.420 We don't have a father that can give us a million dollars and bail us out.
00:04:25.780 Look, Donald Trump is nothing more than a boss,
00:04:27.860 and when you go to pull that lever on November 8th,
00:04:31.040 think if that's who you want as your boss.
00:04:36.920 Now, the Milton Friedman in me would say
00:04:39.580 if Trump used cheap Chinese steel in his skyscraper,
00:04:44.380 how is that a problem?
00:04:47.300 Well, it's a problem for the Jack Tipples of the world, isn't it?
00:04:49.660 It's a problem for towns and cities across the Rust Belt.
00:04:53.360 Now, someone like Justin Trudeau or Catherine McKenna or Rachel Notley,
00:04:56.040 who loves to shut down blue-collar industries
00:04:59.160 run by guys who look and sound like Jack Tippold.
00:05:02.900 I mean, remember they shut down the largest coal-fired power plant in North America
00:05:05.780 that was operating beautifully here in Ontario in Nanticoke.
00:05:09.580 They're shutting down perfectly fine coal-fired power plants in Alberta.
00:05:13.040 It's not just carbon they're eliminating,
00:05:15.000 they're eliminating thousands of Canadian Jack Tipples.
00:05:19.340 That's not even through foreign trade,
00:05:20.560 that's just through our own self-destruction
00:05:22.040 at the altar of extreme environmentalism.
00:05:24.280 But it's a similar hollowing out of our industry,
00:05:28.220 real jobs, industrial jobs, six-figure jobs.
00:05:30.780 And the fancy people would say,
00:05:32.200 oh, well, Jack Tippold,
00:05:34.000 just retrain and learn how to do coding.
00:05:37.720 Why don't you design an app for an iPhone?
00:05:40.460 Just learn how to do that and get a new job that way.
00:05:44.800 The thousand men laid off at your steel factory
00:05:47.520 because China is subsidizing its steel
00:05:50.680 to dump below cost into the United States
00:05:53.840 for the strategic goal of killing off America's steel industry.
00:05:59.020 See, how does that work in a Milton Friedman world?
00:06:02.220 When Air Canada is forced to compete against Emirates Airlines,
00:06:06.580 you know that airline's a beautiful airline.
00:06:08.280 It's a luxury airline.
00:06:09.380 They have those new A380 double-decker jets.
00:06:12.860 It just happens to be owned
00:06:14.540 by the United Arab Emirates dictatorship, though.
00:06:17.520 So obviously they get free use of the government airport in Dubai.
00:06:21.540 Compare that to the extremely expensive Canadian airports
00:06:24.420 Air Canada has to pay for.
00:06:26.480 Emirates gets super cheap jet fuel as government policy
00:06:30.340 compared to Air Canada, for example.
00:06:32.640 So Emirates Airlines is really an arm
00:06:34.680 of the UAE OPEC dictatorship.
00:06:39.380 So should we just roll over and let Emirates
00:06:41.660 put Air Canada out of business
00:06:44.380 because the UAE wants to kill it off?
00:06:48.380 Should Trump let Chinese steel just kill off
00:06:51.040 all the remaining steel mills in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania?
00:06:56.220 Well, he said no.
00:06:57.400 And so far, it seems to be working
00:06:59.500 because in a way he's forced the other countries
00:07:02.320 of the world to live up to Milton Friedman's ideals.
00:07:04.460 Here's what I mean.
00:07:04.920 He's actually saying,
00:07:06.140 if you want free trade with us,
00:07:09.260 then act like it.
00:07:11.160 We're not going to behave well if you don't behave well.
00:07:15.240 So if you don't drop all your tariffs,
00:07:17.200 we're going to hammer you until you do with tariffs.
00:07:20.140 And country after country said,
00:07:21.820 yikes, here's the EU president giving Trump a kiss.
00:07:26.980 Now, maybe he was drunk there.
00:07:28.740 He's drunk a lot.
00:07:29.620 But I think that was a kiss of relief
00:07:31.780 and desperate, you know, approval
00:07:34.940 after Trump agreed not to crush the European Union,
00:07:38.920 but they agreed to lower their tariffs
00:07:40.800 because Trump threatened a trade war against Europe
00:07:43.480 if they didn't.
00:07:45.180 Mexico agreed to level the playing field
00:07:47.280 because if they didn't,
00:07:48.500 Trump threatened them with huge tariffs too.
00:07:50.600 That's what Trump is saying to Canada right now.
00:07:52.260 Remember his joke when he first met Trudeau at the G7?
00:07:55.060 Justin has agreed to cut all tariffs
00:07:58.700 and all trade barriers
00:08:00.620 between Canada and the United States.
00:08:04.080 Now, that's not a joke.
00:08:05.800 That's his position.
00:08:08.260 Look at the examples I've just shown you.
00:08:09.720 Trump threatens tariffs,
00:08:11.320 but at the end of the day,
00:08:12.280 he actually doesn't implement them.
00:08:14.460 He gets the other guys to drop their tariffs.
00:08:16.620 But if Trudeau doesn't want that deal
00:08:19.060 that Europe's taking,
00:08:20.280 that Mexico's taking,
00:08:21.680 Trump will just hammer Trudeau
00:08:23.440 until he does or until he doesn't.
00:08:27.180 Get ready to pay an extra 20% tariff on autos
00:08:29.480 you sell to the United States.
00:08:30.680 So far, only the Chinese haven't bent the knee.
00:08:34.440 And that's because there are bigger arguments afoot
00:08:36.340 with the Chinese,
00:08:37.420 including their control of North Korea.
00:08:39.180 Donald Trump knows that China
00:08:40.380 is his strategic competitor.
00:08:42.080 My point is,
00:08:42.860 Donald Trump's embrace of tariffs
00:08:44.520 is only as a weapon.
00:08:46.300 It's a means to an end.
00:08:47.640 A way to get fairer free trade
00:08:51.620 than the unilateral declaration of free trade
00:08:54.060 that Hong Kong had done
00:08:55.640 that Milton Friedman would say we should do.
00:08:58.820 And you know what?
00:08:59.600 It's realigning American politics.
00:09:01.120 And it started on his first day in office,
00:09:03.680 right after his inauguration.
00:09:05.120 Do you remember this?
00:09:05.760 When the president laid out his plans
00:09:07.760 about how he's going to handle trade,
00:09:10.420 how he's going to invest in our infrastructure,
00:09:12.400 and how he's going to level a playing field
00:09:13.720 for construction workers
00:09:14.680 and all Americans across this country,
00:09:16.620 and then took the time
00:09:18.180 to take everyone into the Oval Office
00:09:20.500 and show them the seat of power in the world,
00:09:23.920 the respect that the president of the United States
00:09:25.700 just showed us,
00:09:27.040 and when he shows it to us,
00:09:28.100 he shows that the 3 million of our members
00:09:29.900 in the United States
00:09:31.540 was nothing short of incredible.
00:09:33.480 And we will work with him and his administration
00:09:36.500 to help him implement his plans
00:09:38.940 on infrastructure, trade, and energy policy
00:09:42.340 so that we really do put America back to work
00:09:45.640 in the middle-class jobs
00:09:47.040 that our members and all Americans are demanding.
00:09:49.360 Thank you very much.
00:09:50.780 Those guys were all Democrats until that day.
00:09:55.580 Yeah, Donald Trump is doing
00:09:56.480 what no Canadian liberal or NDP
00:09:58.560 and what no U.S. Democrat has done in decades.
00:10:01.400 He's actually fighting for working men,
00:10:04.460 actually venerating and praising heavy industry.
00:10:08.360 He likes smokestacks,
00:10:10.080 and he don't care who knows.
00:10:11.840 In Canada, we're shutting down
00:10:13.860 perfectly fine power plants.
00:10:15.560 We're banning pipelines.
00:10:17.020 We're de-investing from infrastructure,
00:10:19.820 from the oil sands.
00:10:20.740 In America, they can't build fast enough.
00:10:22.620 4.2% GDP growth last quarter.
00:10:25.980 That's staggering.
00:10:26.760 Who would have thunk it?
00:10:29.260 A billionaire property developer
00:10:31.260 is the best friend the working man
00:10:34.080 has had in a generation.
00:10:36.940 Stay with us for more
00:10:37.980 on our special Labor Day show
00:10:39.300 with Catherine Swift.
00:10:40.800 Welcome back.
00:10:58.340 Well, on this Labor Day,
00:10:59.860 who better to talk with
00:11:01.040 about the state of labor in Canada
00:11:02.820 and the United States
00:11:04.080 than our friend Catherine Swift.
00:11:05.480 She's a representative of a group
00:11:07.120 called Working Canadians.
00:11:08.580 Great to see you again, Catherine.
00:11:09.560 Nice to be here, Ezra.
00:11:11.760 I want to talk to you
00:11:12.520 about a few different things about labor
00:11:14.400 because Donald Trump has changed
00:11:16.120 a little bit of how I think
00:11:17.980 of the labor movement.
00:11:19.820 He has, he's a billionaire.
00:11:22.240 I mean, he's a fancy,
00:11:23.520 gold-encrusted, you know,
00:11:26.120 casino and developer tycoon,
00:11:28.980 but he has a blue-collar sensibility.
00:11:31.380 And it's my view
00:11:32.600 that one of the reasons he won
00:11:34.460 is because he appealed
00:11:36.340 to those working-class men
00:11:37.920 who used to be the base
00:11:40.460 of the Democrats in the states
00:11:41.900 and the NDP in Canada,
00:11:43.840 but who have been forsaken
00:11:45.240 by the Democrats and the NDP
00:11:46.800 in favor of fancy activists
00:11:49.360 and professor types.
00:11:50.800 So I think Donald Trump
00:11:52.440 is grafting on
00:11:54.340 to the blue-collar working,
00:11:56.500 you know, class.
00:11:58.640 Democrats and the new parties
00:12:03.100 of the left are more
00:12:03.920 about extreme, you know,
00:12:06.100 identity politics.
00:12:07.000 That's my theory.
00:12:08.120 What do you think of that?
00:12:09.780 Oh, yeah, I think that has
00:12:10.960 a fair bit to be said for it.
00:12:13.180 There's no doubt his position
00:12:14.600 on a lot of trade issues
00:12:15.820 about jobs having, you know,
00:12:17.700 those traditional jobs
00:12:18.820 having gone elsewhere
00:12:19.740 to the Third World,
00:12:20.940 to China, you know, et cetera,
00:12:22.920 was certainly part of his appeal
00:12:24.740 to that constituency.
00:12:25.880 I do, however, think,
00:12:28.340 and it's interesting,
00:12:29.560 you say the new left,
00:12:30.800 whatever they've managed to,
00:12:32.580 whatever they've managed
00:12:33.860 to look like these days.
00:12:35.380 I don't know that the unions
00:12:37.120 have a lot to do
00:12:38.180 with that traditional
00:12:39.440 working-class base anymore.
00:12:41.240 They did back in their inception,
00:12:44.200 you know, 150 or whatever years ago.
00:12:46.720 But it's very interesting
00:12:48.400 because when you even look
00:12:49.720 at where unions are at these days,
00:12:52.340 they don't seem to represent
00:12:54.540 the average working person.
00:12:56.360 They represent elites.
00:12:57.940 They represent government workers
00:12:59.520 who, as we know,
00:13:00.940 make way more money
00:13:02.180 than they should
00:13:02.920 at the expense of the rest of us.
00:13:05.720 So I think you're absolutely right
00:13:07.240 in terms of that trend.
00:13:08.940 The question when we, I guess,
00:13:10.600 look at Labor Day coming up
00:13:12.120 is how do unions fit into all of this?
00:13:15.440 And I don't think they do,
00:13:17.440 certainly not like they used to.
00:13:18.780 Yeah, you're right to point out
00:13:20.640 the preponderance
00:13:21.380 of government unions.
00:13:22.520 I mean, the teachers unions
00:13:25.080 in both Canada
00:13:26.120 and the United States
00:13:26.980 are very dominant.
00:13:28.060 They're extremely active
00:13:29.660 in Democratic Party politics
00:13:31.940 and increasingly so
00:13:32.900 in Canadian politics too.
00:13:34.880 You know, in the last
00:13:35.420 federal election, 2015,
00:13:37.280 there was a registry
00:13:38.640 of all the so-called
00:13:40.340 third-party campaign groups
00:13:41.840 in the states.
00:13:42.480 They're called super PACs.
00:13:43.920 And that's basically
00:13:44.980 any organized campaign entity
00:13:47.120 that spent money
00:13:48.660 on the election.
00:13:49.340 There were more than 100
00:13:50.180 of these groups.
00:13:51.740 All but one were against
00:13:53.220 Stephen Harper.
00:13:54.200 Not that that would be
00:13:55.380 a surprise to you.
00:13:56.560 But so many of them
00:13:58.000 were teachers unions
00:13:59.340 and other government unions.
00:14:02.220 So they're very active
00:14:04.820 to shore up their own base.
00:14:06.980 I saw a statistic
00:14:07.940 from the Fraser Institute
00:14:09.320 that points to Alberta,
00:14:11.660 which the NDP there is boasting
00:14:13.940 has job growth.
00:14:14.920 It's true,
00:14:16.420 tens of thousands
00:14:17.440 of new jobs,
00:14:18.380 but they're all
00:14:19.180 public sector jobs.
00:14:20.880 The private sector
00:14:21.920 in Alberta
00:14:22.360 is still shrinking.
00:14:24.060 That's, I think,
00:14:25.360 the difference,
00:14:25.960 is Donald Trump
00:14:26.540 is reaching out
00:14:27.320 to private sector
00:14:29.480 union workers,
00:14:30.820 whether it's the Teamsters
00:14:31.940 or the Steelworkers
00:14:33.340 or the Autoworkers,
00:14:35.180 whereas in Canada especially,
00:14:36.980 and the Democrats,
00:14:38.140 they're in love
00:14:38.740 with the government
00:14:39.580 workers unions.
00:14:40.560 Is that it?
00:14:41.120 I'm just trying to come
00:14:42.000 to terms with where
00:14:43.140 unions are in 2018.
00:14:45.700 Well, when you compare
00:14:46.680 Canada to the U.S.
00:14:47.700 too,
00:14:48.060 the situation,
00:14:49.340 the legislative framework
00:14:50.380 and so on,
00:14:51.620 the legal framework,
00:14:52.540 is so, so very different.
00:14:54.460 In the U.S.,
00:14:55.200 the latest statistics
00:14:56.120 I've looked at
00:14:57.480 showed that in the private sector,
00:14:59.980 about 7% of workers
00:15:02.000 are unionized in the U.S.,
00:15:03.480 seven.
00:15:04.020 In Canada,
00:15:05.160 it's about double that,
00:15:06.340 14.
00:15:06.960 Still not huge
00:15:08.020 by any stretch.
00:15:08.800 And when you consider
00:15:09.440 that that number
00:15:10.120 was about 30%
00:15:11.200 back in the 1970s,
00:15:12.660 you know,
00:15:13.040 it's dropped precipitously.
00:15:14.460 But even more so
00:15:16.040 in the U.S.
00:15:17.160 So, I mean,
00:15:18.280 yeah, unions are part
00:15:19.480 of Trump's base.
00:15:20.560 But I think you've got
00:15:21.400 a lot of non-union
00:15:22.620 working, you know,
00:15:23.640 working class people
00:15:24.580 that are also very
00:15:25.740 supportive of him.
00:15:26.580 And of course,
00:15:27.020 that's where the big numbers
00:15:27.880 are from a vote standpoint.
00:15:30.180 But in Canada,
00:15:31.240 first of all,
00:15:32.280 unions in Canada
00:15:33.220 are basically a license
00:15:34.880 to extort
00:15:35.920 taxpayers
00:15:37.160 and other Canadians.
00:15:38.800 When we look at,
00:15:39.580 again,
00:15:40.380 talking about statistics,
00:15:42.640 in roughly
00:15:43.640 20 to 22%
00:15:45.300 of Canadians
00:15:46.020 work for government.
00:15:47.380 But when we look
00:15:48.120 at the total number
00:15:49.200 of unionized Canadians,
00:15:51.200 60% of them
00:15:52.840 work for government.
00:15:54.220 In other words,
00:15:55.000 the majority
00:15:55.680 of union workers
00:15:56.800 are government.
00:15:57.740 And they have
00:15:58.240 way too much money
00:15:59.340 instead of,
00:16:00.360 I mean,
00:16:00.540 I look at these teachers
00:16:01.360 here in Ontario
00:16:02.180 and they're wacky elsewhere
00:16:03.720 in the country too.
00:16:04.860 You know,
00:16:05.120 they're all annoyed
00:16:05.880 because their preferred
00:16:06.980 leftist government
00:16:08.400 didn't get elected
00:16:09.200 to continue to give them
00:16:10.500 more of our money.
00:16:11.680 So they're all up in arms.
00:16:13.660 Why don't they,
00:16:14.440 meanwhile,
00:16:15.000 half of grade six students
00:16:16.200 are failing math.
00:16:18.060 Let's focus on
00:16:19.100 some education here,
00:16:20.180 people.
00:16:20.920 When unions get
00:16:21.940 into these workplaces,
00:16:23.140 particularly government,
00:16:24.060 which has typically
00:16:24.980 no competition,
00:16:25.940 so there's no checks
00:16:26.660 and balances
00:16:27.180 on the union's,
00:16:28.460 you know,
00:16:29.120 power,
00:16:30.300 we see an erosion
00:16:32.020 of standards,
00:16:33.220 whether it's
00:16:33.640 a government department,
00:16:34.740 whether it's
00:16:35.340 education,
00:16:36.080 health care,
00:16:36.800 or a business,
00:16:38.180 because they're suddenly
00:16:39.120 focusing on political
00:16:40.200 agendas,
00:16:41.080 not the bottom line
00:16:42.940 of that particular
00:16:43.840 company or
00:16:45.300 that particular,
00:16:46.460 say,
00:16:46.720 our education system
00:16:47.720 or whatever.
00:16:48.440 So it's,
00:16:49.340 something's got to give here
00:16:50.960 and yet our courts
00:16:51.880 are,
00:16:52.820 and I'm sure you know
00:16:53.460 this is a lawyer,
00:16:54.240 Ezra,
00:16:54.520 our courts continue
00:16:55.700 to back up
00:16:56.900 the unions
00:16:57.580 against the vast majority
00:16:59.220 of Canadians' interests,
00:17:00.780 which continues
00:17:01.480 to befuddle me.
00:17:03.400 Yeah,
00:17:03.820 you know,
00:17:04.200 it's funny,
00:17:04.840 I was just thinking,
00:17:06.120 in the private sector,
00:17:07.840 there's two dynamics
00:17:09.400 at play with unions
00:17:10.860 that aren't there
00:17:11.500 in the public sector.
00:17:12.520 First of all,
00:17:13.600 it is possible
00:17:14.600 for a union
00:17:15.520 to kill a private sector
00:17:17.660 company.
00:17:18.560 Oh,
00:17:18.780 it happens all the time.
00:17:20.120 I'd have to check
00:17:20.300 the facts,
00:17:20.480 but I think
00:17:20.720 the Caterpillar plant
00:17:22.000 in London,
00:17:22.580 Ontario,
00:17:23.280 without going back
00:17:24.340 and briefing myself
00:17:25.340 on the details,
00:17:26.520 I think that that's,
00:17:27.540 that was one
00:17:28.060 of the problems there.
00:17:28.680 So the union
00:17:30.240 is restrained
00:17:31.780 somewhat
00:17:32.320 because they know
00:17:34.220 that the company
00:17:35.380 is mortal.
00:17:37.360 And on the other hand,
00:17:38.360 the company,
00:17:39.800 the managers,
00:17:41.080 the owners of the company
00:17:41.940 that's negotiating
00:17:42.580 with the union,
00:17:43.540 they are limited
00:17:44.400 by, again,
00:17:45.340 their own mortality.
00:17:46.680 Whereas in the government sector,
00:17:48.880 the unions know
00:17:49.940 they can bring out
00:17:51.520 as much as possible
00:17:52.360 from the government
00:17:52.880 and they're not going
00:17:53.440 to kill the host.
00:17:54.580 and the politicians
00:17:56.080 are spending
00:17:56.520 other people's money.
00:17:58.000 And really,
00:17:58.640 it comes to the point
00:17:59.560 where they would rather
00:18:00.280 buy political peace
00:18:01.820 to pave the way
00:18:03.040 for, let's say,
00:18:03.800 another election
00:18:04.740 than fight over
00:18:06.880 outlandish wages
00:18:09.000 or other benefits
00:18:09.920 for government sector workers.
00:18:11.360 So it's sort of
00:18:12.740 what they would call
00:18:13.860 a moral hazard
00:18:15.560 in that
00:18:16.560 there's no natural check
00:18:18.720 on the government
00:18:19.940 in their negotiations.
00:18:21.220 Of course,
00:18:21.540 the most extreme example
00:18:23.020 of that is when
00:18:23.640 a teacher's union
00:18:24.380 rep runs
00:18:26.200 and becomes elected
00:18:27.640 to the school board.
00:18:28.620 So you have the same
00:18:29.580 interests on both sides
00:18:31.220 of the bargaining table.
00:18:32.140 I think that there's
00:18:33.380 a real problem
00:18:34.100 with government unions
00:18:35.040 because of that
00:18:35.860 moral hazard
00:18:36.620 or another way
00:18:37.420 of putting it
00:18:37.800 in a conflict of interest.
00:18:39.620 Well, no question.
00:18:40.640 And, of course,
00:18:41.500 the thinking
00:18:42.020 a number of decades ago
00:18:43.360 was that there was
00:18:44.040 absolutely no place
00:18:44.760 for unions in government
00:18:45.680 for precisely that reason.
00:18:47.660 And then in the 1960s,
00:18:49.080 we saw, you know,
00:18:50.020 political pressure
00:18:50.860 by unions.
00:18:51.480 Naturally,
00:18:51.980 they saw how they could
00:18:53.260 manage to extract
00:18:54.500 massive amounts of money
00:18:55.920 from the rest of us.
00:18:57.080 And they succeeded
00:18:58.080 in convincing
00:18:58.720 it was Pearson in Canada.
00:18:59.960 It was Kennedy
00:19:00.560 in the U.S.
00:19:01.180 in the 60s
00:19:01.840 that permitted
00:19:02.620 widespread unionization
00:19:04.280 of government.
00:19:05.480 And we know
00:19:05.980 what the ultimate,
00:19:07.020 you know,
00:19:07.400 what the ultimate
00:19:07.980 outcome is.
00:19:09.660 I always try
00:19:10.660 to look for solutions.
00:19:12.160 And obviously,
00:19:13.260 one solution
00:19:13.860 is Canadians
00:19:15.400 do not vote
00:19:16.400 for governments
00:19:17.400 that kowtow
00:19:18.360 to unions.
00:19:19.640 Trudeau
00:19:20.000 was a classic example.
00:19:21.580 He's got somebody
00:19:22.260 like Jerry Diaz
00:19:23.340 on his negotiating team
00:19:24.780 for NAFTA,
00:19:25.900 which befuddles,
00:19:27.820 you know,
00:19:28.080 that boggles the mind
00:19:29.240 that someone
00:19:30.920 from an auto union
00:19:32.560 would be
00:19:33.220 on the government
00:19:34.580 negotiating team
00:19:35.740 in this kind
00:19:37.180 of situation.
00:19:37.960 Of course,
00:19:38.240 we've seen
00:19:38.620 the abject failure
00:19:39.440 that's been to date.
00:19:40.560 So I guess
00:19:41.020 we'll all stay tuned
00:19:41.780 for the next few days.
00:19:43.080 But the government,
00:19:45.000 I think you have
00:19:45.560 to start with government.
00:19:46.400 We look at what
00:19:46.740 they did in Wisconsin.
00:19:48.040 Government Scott Walker
00:19:48.940 came in.
00:19:50.100 He stopped collecting dues.
00:19:52.200 As the employer,
00:19:53.300 he stopped collecting dues
00:19:54.760 for government employees.
00:19:57.280 All of a sudden,
00:19:57.960 their revenues plummeted
00:19:58.860 by about 70%.
00:20:00.420 So, you know,
00:20:02.960 you've got
00:20:03.800 your solutions here.
00:20:05.220 Ultimately,
00:20:05.820 though,
00:20:05.940 I think it's public opinion
00:20:07.040 that needs
00:20:08.040 to be influenced.
00:20:08.980 People,
00:20:09.320 your average person
00:20:10.240 has to realize
00:20:11.300 how much more
00:20:12.060 they are paying,
00:20:13.060 how much more
00:20:13.660 their life
00:20:14.540 is negatively affected
00:20:15.780 by the fact
00:20:16.860 that government employees,
00:20:18.060 for example,
00:20:18.540 earn way more money
00:20:19.560 than their counterpart
00:20:20.820 in the private sector,
00:20:21.920 have much richer pensions,
00:20:23.320 goodies,
00:20:23.760 you know,
00:20:23.940 benefits,
00:20:24.400 and so on and so forth.
00:20:25.800 And this has an impact
00:20:26.840 on every average
00:20:27.940 taxpayer's life.
00:20:29.060 And it's not a good impact.
00:20:30.900 You mentioned Jerry Diaz.
00:20:32.460 It's a very curious thing.
00:20:34.640 I mean,
00:20:35.040 he and so many others
00:20:36.720 within the orbit
00:20:37.480 of Canada's
00:20:38.580 federal liberals,
00:20:40.140 although he's traditionally,
00:20:41.460 I don't think,
00:20:42.040 a liberal.
00:20:42.560 I mean,
00:20:42.700 although the unions
00:20:43.960 have backed
00:20:44.640 the liberals lately,
00:20:45.640 so many of them
00:20:47.360 are unrestrained
00:20:49.180 Trump derangement
00:20:50.760 syndrome types.
00:20:51.580 They're part of
00:20:51.880 the resistance.
00:20:53.080 I find that,
00:20:54.200 I mean,
00:20:54.480 that's a fine position
00:20:55.320 to take.
00:20:55.740 I disagree with it.
00:20:56.420 I'm a supporter of Trump.
00:20:57.760 But the extreme expression
00:20:59.620 of personal
00:21:01.660 viciousness towards Trump,
00:21:03.960 and again,
00:21:04.220 that's fair game
00:21:05.540 for a politician,
00:21:07.420 for a private citizen.
00:21:08.340 But if you're part
00:21:09.020 of a negotiating team,
00:21:10.980 if you're on
00:21:12.180 Justin Trudeau's
00:21:12.940 official NAFTA
00:21:14.500 advisory council
00:21:16.080 and you just can't
00:21:17.300 stop spitting bullets
00:21:18.540 at Trump,
00:21:19.680 that's,
00:21:20.760 I think that's been
00:21:21.780 part of the problem here
00:21:22.680 is the animosity
00:21:24.040 directed towards
00:21:24.840 Trump.
00:21:26.300 Ignored Canada
00:21:27.360 for a year,
00:21:28.660 didn't say a word
00:21:29.440 about Canada
00:21:30.080 while everyone
00:21:31.700 on the Canadian side
00:21:33.100 was disparaging him.
00:21:34.540 Let me show you
00:21:35.100 some,
00:21:35.740 some,
00:21:36.320 you know,
00:21:37.880 here's a column
00:21:38.440 by Jerry Diaz.
00:21:39.560 He's the president
00:21:40.320 of Unifor,
00:21:41.320 which has the auto union
00:21:42.920 within it.
00:21:44.280 This I don't even understand.
00:21:45.520 I'm just going to read
00:21:45.960 the headline to you,
00:21:47.280 Catherine.
00:21:48.480 So this is,
00:21:49.380 Jerry Diaz,
00:21:50.380 he's the president
00:21:51.080 of Unifor,
00:21:52.580 which absorbed
00:21:53.900 the Canadian auto workers.
00:21:55.460 The headline is,
00:21:57.140 Canada must say no
00:21:58.080 to NAFTA
00:21:58.720 and Donald Trump
00:22:00.180 if the price
00:22:01.440 is too high.
00:22:02.640 And then the sub-headline
00:22:03.920 is,
00:22:04.520 this renegotiation
00:22:05.860 was supposed to be
00:22:06.760 about addressing
00:22:07.380 what was wrong
00:22:08.360 with the original NAFTA,
00:22:09.280 not perpetuating
00:22:10.560 its shortcomings.
00:22:12.400 And I think we have
00:22:13.420 one more image
00:22:14.260 from Jerry Diaz.
00:22:16.360 This is,
00:22:17.060 this is incredible to me.
00:22:20.340 Canada must stick
00:22:22.380 the social justice principles
00:22:25.080 that have defined
00:22:27.000 this country's approach
00:22:27.840 to the NAFTA negotiation.
00:22:29.240 I'm in D.C.
00:22:30.100 as the talks resume
00:22:31.020 my column.
00:22:32.100 So that,
00:22:32.760 so he wrote this
00:22:33.580 just a couple days ago.
00:22:35.420 This is the weirdest
00:22:36.440 of them all,
00:22:37.060 Catherine,
00:22:37.320 because the first one
00:22:38.920 was saying
00:22:39.380 only get a good deal.
00:22:41.260 And I suppose
00:22:41.580 you can't really
00:22:42.240 disagree with that.
00:22:43.000 But here he puts
00:22:43.760 some meat on the bones.
00:22:44.500 He says,
00:22:44.900 keep to the social
00:22:46.380 justice principles.
00:22:47.720 That's the feminism.
00:22:49.340 That's the global warming-ism.
00:22:51.560 That's the aboriginal issues.
00:22:53.740 Those have been things
00:22:55.000 that have been deal breakers.
00:22:56.560 What I don't understand,
00:22:57.860 Catherine,
00:22:58.160 and it goes back
00:22:58.680 to our very first point
00:22:59.660 in our conversation,
00:23:00.460 how does that
00:23:02.120 possibly represent
00:23:03.540 grassroots rank-and-file
00:23:06.000 blue-collar workers,
00:23:06.880 especially those
00:23:07.520 in the Canadian auto industry?
00:23:09.100 If we don't get
00:23:09.620 a NAFTA deal,
00:23:10.840 Trump says he's going
00:23:11.560 to smash our auto industry
00:23:14.220 like a bowl of eggs.
00:23:16.360 How can the auto workers'
00:23:17.840 union say,
00:23:18.700 no, no, no,
00:23:19.680 don't take a deal
00:23:20.760 if we don't get
00:23:21.360 all the feminism we want?
00:23:23.300 Yeah, I know.
00:23:24.020 I find it unbelievable
00:23:25.360 because I can't imagine
00:23:27.060 that Diaz's objectives
00:23:29.000 would, you know,
00:23:29.800 presumably would be met
00:23:30.980 by such a position.
00:23:32.800 I think it's been
00:23:33.560 very well documented
00:23:34.520 that the Canadian
00:23:36.460 government officials
00:23:37.520 building in all of these
00:23:39.640 social justice,
00:23:40.620 whatever you want to call it,
00:23:41.900 objectives into a trade agreement
00:23:44.340 was a poison pill
00:23:47.800 right from the beginning.
00:23:49.200 And then, of course,
00:23:49.860 a number of,
00:23:50.400 it wasn't just Diaz
00:23:51.240 that was saying
00:23:51.800 very objectionable things
00:23:52.980 about the U.S.
00:23:53.720 I mean, it's one thing
00:23:54.880 to think them,
00:23:55.840 but when I see somebody
00:23:56.940 like Freeland,
00:23:57.900 you know,
00:23:58.220 Chrystia Freeland,
00:23:58.900 the minister involved,
00:23:59.800 doing speeches,
00:24:01.120 disparaging,
00:24:02.320 you know,
00:24:02.960 and yet she's supposed
00:24:04.220 to be a diplomat.
00:24:05.820 That, to me,
00:24:06.540 is the antithesis
00:24:07.440 of diplomacy.
00:24:09.560 And the stakes
00:24:10.800 are so high.
00:24:11.700 This is not an unimportant
00:24:12.800 issue for Canada.
00:24:13.760 Let's face it,
00:24:14.420 the stakes are extremely high.
00:24:15.920 So, yeah,
00:24:16.360 but, I mean,
00:24:16.840 Diaz is saying
00:24:18.100 basically things
00:24:19.220 that government ministers
00:24:20.720 are also seemingly saying
00:24:22.180 and how you expect
00:24:23.680 to win with that strategy.
00:24:25.120 Well, that's
00:24:26.140 very mysterious to me.
00:24:28.560 Well, and that's the thing.
00:24:29.360 I mean,
00:24:29.520 Chrystia Freeland,
00:24:30.240 I'm putting more
00:24:32.320 and more credence
00:24:32.940 in Stephen Harper's theory
00:24:34.340 that perhaps the liberals
00:24:35.740 don't want a deal.
00:24:37.000 They want a fight
00:24:38.380 so they can campaign
00:24:39.420 against Trump
00:24:40.460 in the 2019 election.
00:24:42.240 I disagree with that strategy.
00:24:43.500 I don't rule it out.
00:24:44.440 I think it's dangerous,
00:24:45.240 but you can understand it.
00:24:48.340 What I don't understand
00:24:49.440 is how that strategy,
00:24:51.400 which would lead
00:24:52.040 to Trump smashing
00:24:53.300 a 20, 25% tariff
00:24:55.480 on our cars.
00:24:56.020 I mean,
00:24:56.200 he specifically said
00:24:57.180 you add 20%
00:24:58.980 to the cost
00:24:59.860 of a car made in Canada,
00:25:01.400 you're not selling
00:25:02.260 any in America.
00:25:03.680 Like, you may as well
00:25:04.380 just say shut her down.
00:25:05.840 How on earth
00:25:07.380 does that even make sense
00:25:08.880 for Jerry Diaz?
00:25:10.060 My theory is
00:25:11.020 maybe Justin Trudeau
00:25:12.680 and Gerald Butts
00:25:13.860 have promised him
00:25:14.580 so many pro-labor
00:25:17.220 regulatory and legal reforms,
00:25:19.260 so many concessions,
00:25:20.380 so many other goodies
00:25:21.620 that he's willing
00:25:23.120 to sacrifice
00:25:24.380 the auto industry.
00:25:26.180 But even that
00:25:26.660 doesn't make sense
00:25:27.320 because what could possibly
00:25:28.300 be better for his members
00:25:30.520 than having tens
00:25:32.220 of thousands
00:25:32.720 of auto jobs?
00:25:33.980 I just,
00:25:34.600 that's what boggles my mind
00:25:35.880 and that's what makes me,
00:25:36.820 it leads me
00:25:37.260 to my original point.
00:25:38.400 How can Jerry Diaz
00:25:39.700 be putting feminism
00:25:41.080 ahead of auto industry
00:25:42.680 when he's the auto union boss?
00:25:44.480 I just don't understand
00:25:45.940 that part.
00:25:46.820 Can you help me, Catherine?
00:25:48.260 Well, no,
00:25:48.900 I don't think I can help you,
00:25:50.380 Ezra,
00:25:50.660 because I'm also
00:25:52.120 mystified by it.
00:25:54.140 Mind you,
00:25:54.840 Labour leaders
00:25:55.280 have sold out
00:25:55.920 the rank and file
00:25:56.620 many a time in the past,
00:25:57.960 so the notion
00:25:58.900 that they will always
00:25:59.820 do the best thing
00:26:00.500 for their members
00:26:01.080 has not been borne out
00:26:02.400 often in history.
00:26:04.980 But let's not forget,
00:26:06.740 though, unions generally,
00:26:08.420 they love monopolies,
00:26:09.700 they hate trade agreements,
00:26:11.520 they hate it,
00:26:12.100 I mean,
00:26:12.680 when the FTA
00:26:13.900 first,
00:26:14.560 a free trade agreement
00:26:15.380 in Mulroney's day
00:26:16.340 first,
00:26:17.240 you know,
00:26:17.880 first was even talked about,
00:26:20.060 the left opposed it vociferously,
00:26:22.220 you know,
00:26:22.420 can't oppose the border,
00:26:23.440 the whole country's
00:26:24.020 going to fall apart,
00:26:24.780 of course,
00:26:25.040 nothing of the sort happened
00:26:26.040 and all the factual research
00:26:28.340 shows that trade
00:26:29.300 is ultimately
00:26:30.240 a winner for everyone.
00:26:31.500 Yes,
00:26:31.680 there's transitions
00:26:32.360 and so on
00:26:33.060 and you can't
00:26:33.820 underestimate them.
00:26:35.000 But I really wonder
00:26:37.800 whether they would mind,
00:26:38.600 I mean,
00:26:38.840 mind you,
00:26:39.420 that unwinding,
00:26:40.740 that unscrambling
00:26:41.360 of the omelette
00:26:41.960 in the auto industry
00:26:42.700 would be exceedingly difficult
00:26:43.980 because as you know,
00:26:45.240 a given vehicle
00:26:46.180 could cross a border
00:26:47.240 several times
00:26:48.140 in its manufacture
00:26:49.040 and has chunks of it
00:26:50.480 coming from,
00:26:51.240 you know,
00:26:51.520 various countries
00:26:52.340 around the world,
00:26:53.080 including the three
00:26:54.200 NAFTA partners.
00:26:55.420 So,
00:26:55.880 it would be an awfully,
00:26:57.400 awfully complex situation.
00:26:58.720 But like you say,
00:26:59.720 why would somebody
00:27:00.420 take such a contrarian position
00:27:02.140 that would seemingly
00:27:03.280 have the end game
00:27:04.860 of hurting their industry badly?
00:27:06.240 There has to be something
00:27:07.600 else at play here.
00:27:08.520 I can't believe
00:27:09.040 there's not something
00:27:09.820 we don't know about.
00:27:10.960 And that's a big worry.
00:27:12.100 Yeah.
00:27:12.340 Because again,
00:27:13.100 unions are already,
00:27:14.000 unions have the catbird seat
00:27:15.860 in Canada compared
00:27:16.700 to other developed countries
00:27:17.800 around the world.
00:27:18.800 Forced dues,
00:27:20.240 you know,
00:27:21.700 rolling in money
00:27:22.800 that they don't even collect.
00:27:24.180 They don't even have to have
00:27:25.080 the machinery in place
00:27:27.060 to collect those dues
00:27:28.040 and so on.
00:27:29.320 We really need,
00:27:30.400 if any other group
00:27:31.440 had the power
00:27:32.080 to extort
00:27:32.940 their fellow citizens
00:27:34.320 that unions do,
00:27:35.480 they'd be in the courts
00:27:36.340 or they'd be in jail.
00:27:37.440 Why do we give that to unions?
00:27:39.260 It is outrageous
00:27:40.220 and has to end.
00:27:41.620 Yeah.
00:27:41.980 I got one more question
00:27:43.480 and it's in the same vein.
00:27:45.240 And,
00:27:45.740 you know,
00:27:47.820 over the last year or two,
00:27:50.360 Rachel Notley's attacks
00:27:52.220 on the oil industry
00:27:53.480 combined with
00:27:54.200 Justin Trudeau's attacks
00:27:55.340 on the oil industry
00:27:56.180 have caused the flight
00:27:58.760 of $100 billion
00:28:01.320 of investment.
00:28:02.480 and we can name them,
00:28:03.620 $15.7 billion
00:28:04.720 for the Energy East pipeline
00:28:06.240 that was canceled
00:28:07.380 because Justin Trudeau
00:28:08.520 demanded
00:28:09.080 new emissions analysis
00:28:12.580 for the oil
00:28:13.320 that would go through it,
00:28:14.120 like something
00:28:14.460 that has never been done before.
00:28:16.040 It would be a standard
00:28:17.060 that wouldn't be applied
00:28:17.980 to Saudi oil,
00:28:18.820 for example.
00:28:19.460 $15.7 billion there.
00:28:21.440 I think that
00:28:22.460 the Kinder Morgan
00:28:24.960 Trans Mountain pipeline,
00:28:26.260 which the Court of Appeal
00:28:27.180 is now stalling
00:28:28.660 perhaps permanently,
00:28:29.520 that's $7.5 billion
00:28:30.960 for the new one.
00:28:31.700 The Northern Gateway Pipeline,
00:28:33.880 that was over $10 billion.
00:28:35.200 You look at
00:28:35.880 some of the oil sands plants
00:28:37.400 fleeing,
00:28:38.000 you really are up to
00:28:39.200 $100 billion
00:28:39.980 when you add in the LNG
00:28:41.580 that walked away.
00:28:44.260 Not all of those
00:28:45.200 are union projects.
00:28:46.280 Some of them have both
00:28:46.980 union and non-union workers.
00:28:49.120 But to see
00:28:49.900 $100 billion
00:28:51.460 in construction,
00:28:53.360 that's just the construction.
00:28:54.540 That's not even...
00:28:55.740 And without a peep
00:28:56.920 from the...
00:28:58.040 Like, I think the
00:28:58.640 Building Trades Union
00:28:59.540 spoke out meekly.
00:29:01.580 But surely anyone
00:29:03.220 who makes steel,
00:29:04.220 drives a truck,
00:29:05.580 builds stuff.
00:29:07.680 How could we have seen
00:29:09.100 $100 billion
00:29:10.420 in construction
00:29:12.560 flee this country
00:29:13.960 without a word
00:29:15.360 from the unions?
00:29:16.540 In fact,
00:29:16.860 I wish it was
00:29:17.420 without a word.
00:29:18.220 The words they've been saying
00:29:19.440 are global warming,
00:29:21.060 carbon tax.
00:29:22.220 And again,
00:29:22.820 it's like Jerry Diaz.
00:29:24.860 It looks like
00:29:25.700 he's campaigning
00:29:26.300 against his own
00:29:26.940 members' interests.
00:29:28.140 Where were all
00:29:28.980 the building unions
00:29:29.920 saying,
00:29:30.800 we need this
00:29:31.360 $15 billion
00:29:32.220 shovel-ready jobs
00:29:33.440 project called
00:29:34.200 Energy East?
00:29:35.080 That boggles my mind.
00:29:36.940 If they won't even
00:29:37.700 stand up for themselves,
00:29:38.840 maybe it's no surprise
00:29:40.120 that no one else will.
00:29:41.960 Well, exactly.
00:29:42.920 And then this disconnect
00:29:43.720 between the actual members
00:29:44.920 who presumably want jobs
00:29:46.280 and the union leaders
00:29:48.020 has been happening
00:29:49.480 for some time
00:29:50.320 as the union leaders
00:29:51.560 have become
00:29:52.160 more and more politicized,
00:29:53.620 more and more interested
00:29:54.480 seemingly in getting
00:29:55.780 a sympathetic government
00:29:56.720 elected,
00:29:57.540 whether it's federally,
00:29:58.360 provincially,
00:29:59.080 or even municipally
00:29:59.940 for that matter,
00:30:00.860 rather than actually
00:30:01.940 furthering the interest.
00:30:03.160 And this has to be a problem.
00:30:05.220 I mean, again,
00:30:06.080 unionization in the private sector,
00:30:07.640 even in good old Canada,
00:30:09.540 which, you know,
00:30:10.220 hands over privileges
00:30:11.080 to unions they don't
00:30:11.920 to anybody else,
00:30:13.000 you know,
00:30:13.220 it has dropped
00:30:13.720 so precipitously.
00:30:15.600 And this is part
00:30:16.860 of the cause too,
00:30:17.560 though, Ezra,
00:30:18.080 when you have
00:30:18.720 government unions
00:30:19.460 in the ascendancy
00:30:20.600 in the union movement
00:30:22.100 in general,
00:30:23.100 this is also
00:30:23.900 one of the outcomes
00:30:24.920 that you end up getting
00:30:25.860 is that, you know,
00:30:27.160 they don't seem
00:30:27.820 to realize,
00:30:28.420 mind you,
00:30:28.800 that if you do
00:30:29.360 demolish the private sector,
00:30:30.960 ultimately government
00:30:31.820 will suffer too.
00:30:33.080 Maybe not as quickly,
00:30:34.500 but, I mean,
00:30:35.220 we all know what happened.
00:30:36.160 I like to call it
00:30:36.740 the Grecian formula.
00:30:37.880 You know,
00:30:38.060 we all know what happened
00:30:39.160 in other countries
00:30:40.280 when the government
00:30:41.180 got too big,
00:30:41.960 too fat,
00:30:42.800 killed the private sector,
00:30:44.100 and ultimately
00:30:45.560 couldn't pay for itself
00:30:46.680 because, naturally,
00:30:47.420 governments are
00:30:47.920 never self-sustaining.
00:30:48.880 So, I think a real
00:30:50.580 shakeout has yet
00:30:51.720 to happen,
00:30:52.640 but again,
00:30:53.600 public opinion
00:30:54.140 has to be the first
00:30:54.880 thing that moves
00:30:55.640 and it's starting
00:30:56.360 to move,
00:30:57.180 but people have
00:30:57.800 to realize
00:30:58.220 that these unions
00:30:58.900 don't represent
00:30:59.500 their interests anymore
00:31:00.480 and this is yet
00:31:01.420 one more example.
00:31:03.180 And we've been lucky
00:31:03.740 in Canada.
00:31:04.340 I mean,
00:31:04.760 you know,
00:31:05.140 a lot gets forgiven
00:31:06.260 when the economy
00:31:06.900 is not bad
00:31:07.660 and right now
00:31:08.340 the U.S.
00:31:08.800 is doing well.
00:31:09.660 Some of that,
00:31:10.160 not as much as usual,
00:31:11.320 mind you,
00:31:11.660 but some of that
00:31:12.380 does filter over
00:31:13.660 into Canada.
00:31:14.940 In general,
00:31:15.880 around the world
00:31:16.460 right now,
00:31:16.940 we're in a growth
00:31:17.860 part of the business cycle.
00:31:19.820 But in Canada,
00:31:20.720 we've predicated
00:31:21.420 that on huge debt,
00:31:23.020 increases in taxes,
00:31:25.080 and massive,
00:31:26.100 massive run-up
00:31:27.720 of deficits
00:31:28.180 and, of course,
00:31:28.780 all of this
00:31:29.220 is going to bite
00:31:29.800 really hard
00:31:30.660 when the next
00:31:31.280 recession hits.
00:31:32.560 And when that happens,
00:31:34.400 and it'll be
00:31:34.840 very interesting timing
00:31:35.960 around next year's election
00:31:37.140 because if we do see,
00:31:39.300 and we're seeing
00:31:39.700 a slowing now,
00:31:40.480 we're seeing a slowing,
00:31:41.200 but we're not really
00:31:41.820 seeing, like,
00:31:42.580 massive job loss
00:31:43.460 so people are,
00:31:44.320 you know,
00:31:44.580 starting to shake
00:31:45.200 their heads and go,
00:31:46.020 whoa, you know,
00:31:46.800 the government
00:31:47.140 isn't helping me.
00:31:48.400 But at whatever timing
00:31:49.780 that may or may not happen
00:31:51.100 is going to be,
00:31:52.020 I think,
00:31:52.400 a huge factor
00:31:53.120 for the next election.
00:31:54.960 Yeah.
00:31:55.620 Well, very interesting stuff,
00:31:57.080 and I just can't get over
00:31:57.880 the fact that
00:31:59.120 blue-collar,
00:32:00.800 working-class,
00:32:02.100 industrial workers
00:32:03.240 are doing,
00:32:04.860 are thriving
00:32:05.560 under a billionaire
00:32:07.420 Republican president
00:32:09.340 while we're
00:32:10.880 destroying,
00:32:12.740 evaporating,
00:32:14.020 canceling,
00:32:14.740 canceling
00:32:15.460 hundreds of billions
00:32:16.800 of dollars
00:32:17.260 in private sector
00:32:18.300 construction.
00:32:19.060 It's something
00:32:19.360 I just will never
00:32:20.000 understand.
00:32:20.480 Catherine Swift,
00:32:21.200 what a pleasure
00:32:21.800 to spend some
00:32:22.940 of our Labor Day
00:32:23.500 special with you today.
00:32:25.340 Thank you, Ezra.
00:32:26.080 All right,
00:32:26.500 there you have it.
00:32:28.080 Well,
00:32:28.460 that's today's show
00:32:29.940 on this special edition.
00:32:31.960 Until next time,
00:32:32.840 on behalf of all of us
00:32:34.180 here at the Rebel World
00:32:35.040 headquarters,
00:32:36.120 good night,
00:32:37.240 and keep fighting
00:32:37.880 for free.
00:32:38.320 you