Rebel News Podcast - Manny Montenegrino and Ezra Levant： The state of Canadian politics in 2019

00:00:00.000 tonight a feature interview with Manny Montanagrino about the state of Canada

00:00:19.300 in 2020 it's December 23rd and this is the Ezra Levant show

00:00:23.940 why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know

00:00:29.520 there's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer

00:00:33.400 the only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so

00:00:39.680 and joining me now via Skype is our friend Manny Montanagrino the CEO of ThinkSharp

00:00:50.320 Manny great to see you again great to see you Ezra Merry Christmas

00:00:54.100 well thank you very much and to you too 2020 I don't know some people had hoped it might be

00:01:02.140 different hoped that Justin Trudeau could have been dislodged as prime minister I was always skeptical

00:01:07.240 because the media party they love him they're his base they dragged him across the line and even

00:01:14.380 though Andrew Scheer got more votes well sorry that's not how the system works Trudeau won more

00:01:20.120 seats and he's prime minister right no you're absolutely right it is for those that thought

00:01:27.480 that that that the conservatives could win easily really don't understand the history of politics in

00:01:33.680 Canada never has a liberal party with a majority not won the next election it's never happened

00:01:41.780 uh so and you know the challenges is that there are as you said uh with respect to the media and

00:01:49.000 etc but the biggest thing is is that the Canadians fail to most Canadians fail to understand that you

00:01:56.340 need a robust NDP and a robust uh uh greens and bloc and so on in order to uh have a conservative win

00:02:04.460 uh there are about you know you know if you look at the history of Canada uh there's about uh in the

00:02:10.240 last seven eight elections at maximum 36 37 38 percent of conservatives uh and there's a pool of course of

00:02:17.980 61 64 3 up to 70 percent of progressives uh what the prime minister did right I think in this election

00:02:24.600 is uh he borrowed from the progressives he didn't even call himself the liberal party

00:02:28.960 in this in the last election he basically called the progressives we progressives have to stick together

00:02:34.020 well what he did and it worked is about 650 000 votes went from the NDP from the last election

00:02:42.240 and the last election wasn't a good election for the NDP but 60 650 000 votes uh to the liberals and

00:02:49.280 and and that that makes you win a few seats and and and the results are such that there's a minority

00:02:55.280 government yeah Jagmeet Singh I mean when he first hit the scene I thought wow he can out Trudeau

00:03:01.480 Trudeau in terms of uh selfies and looking good and hip and he's on the kids social media I see him

00:03:09.260 doing dance moves on uh an app called TikTok which is like really a for the for the generation Z

00:03:16.400 and I thought well finally he can out Trudeau Trudeau but no I don't think that worked I think

00:03:23.200 that liberals went with Trudeau because he was as far left as any NDP but strategic anti-conservative

00:03:32.120 voters said well I like Jagmeet Singh but we can't afford a split on the left I think it was all

00:03:38.220 strategic voting and frankly Trudeau was giving you everything a traditional NDP government would

00:03:43.640 give you Trudeau is uniting the left exactly and and uh that's a big story that that we don't see in the

00:03:49.740 media we see a lot of stories about the conservative party and uh share whether he's going to be

00:03:55.420 challenged or otherwise but to me the biggest story is the NDP completely went back to its very tiny base

00:04:01.780 that it once had prior to uh you had uh Jack Layton and his miraculous work that he's done he did on

00:04:08.480 in in the very few elections as well as Montclair did a pretty good job so so that's the biggest story

00:04:14.180 is the collapse of the NDP if there wasn't and I did the math Ezra if if the NDP just kept what

00:04:19.960 Muclair had or did what Jack Layton did and you go through the numbers there would have been a strong

00:04:25.700 conservative minor a majority maybe a majority is that interesting you know um it's it's not just

00:04:33.580 that Jagmeet Singh didn't really tear it up on the campaign trail it's that the party has little

00:04:39.220 cash now right um it's parliamentary budget has been cut in half since its caucus has been cut in

00:04:45.000 half and even if they were faced with a bill that they really really wanted to vote against

00:04:52.660 I don't know if they could afford to have another election right now the conservatives did well

00:04:56.900 fundraising the liberal incumbents will always do well fundraising I think Jagmeet Singh is trapped

00:05:02.900 because he doesn't want to hit the hustings again I think Trudeau has a de facto majority because those

00:05:09.680 NDP now by the way the bloc is bigger than the NDP I don't think the parties are going to have a

00:05:15.860 quick election I think this could be a long-standing minority government I agree with you I agree with

00:05:22.360 you and I think that's the consensus of most of the experts out there they're saying exactly that

00:05:26.760 the bloc um how many more seats can they get why would they risk I mean we talked about jobs and

00:05:32.400 pensions for the NPs now why would you risk an election when you're pretty well tapped to your

00:05:38.000 max as the bloc and they have the greatest influence it's a minority government they they could get more

00:05:42.860 seats and it'd be a majority and they'd have less influence so they've got the strongest influence

00:05:46.920 they have little money and they want they have a self-interest of keeping it going so you're

00:05:51.460 absolutely right yeah with respect to the NDP you're right again Ezra I mean there's uh certainly no

00:05:57.360 appetite there's no money and they've got to get I think they they have to find a new base they

00:06:02.260 went from a base of Quebec um as a strong base and now they got to find their base again and that's

00:06:08.820 going to take a little while it certainly isn't out west it isn't the traditional and and they're

00:06:13.320 fighting the 416 uh with uh with uh Justin Trudeau so and the liberals so they don't have like you

00:06:20.260 know you know when you start these campaign wars you need a base and what's your base where you're

00:06:24.620 going to fight from so and they plus they have no money so I your assessment is right I think we're

00:06:29.900 you know unless some crazy thing happens again that no Canadian can stomach and the prime minister

00:06:35.560 is pretty good at giving these these uh these shocks to parliament and shocks to uh to everyone

00:06:41.660 unless one of those happens again uh it could go a long time yeah you know one thing I want to talk

00:06:48.060 about is the cabinet because one of the I think that Catherine McKenna the former environment minister

00:06:53.860 I I think she was an irritant to the west because she was so dogmatic and I think quite shallow and

00:07:01.520 just I think her tone started to grate I mean people who liked her I guess liked her a lot

00:07:07.260 but she was shuffled out of the environment I thought that was an interesting signal the liberals ran

00:07:14.020 another environmental extremist named Stephen Gilbeau he used to be the head of Equiterre which is like

00:07:19.760 the David Suzuki Foundation of Quebec he was not given environment either he was put into heritage so

00:07:26.180 they put someone less incendiary into environment they took Christia Freeland out of foreign affairs so

00:07:33.160 they took uh I don't know the media certainly called Freeland and McKenna Stars they moved them out

00:07:39.740 I think they created a bunch of fake cabinet positions so they could maintain their gender equity

00:07:47.620 um what do you make of the new cabinet I'm glad McKenna's out of there I don't think a lot's going to

00:07:53.160 change substantively but they did take their two stars and demoted them I think what they did Ezra and

00:08:00.300 you're absolutely right in my view it's a demotion but the media won't say it's a demotion but I think what

00:08:06.080 they did is they put a silencer or a muzzle on the cabinet I think it's strategic Ezra the last cabinet

00:08:15.380 was too vocal too screechy yell out loud and you'll be heard yell out loud and they will agree

00:08:22.540 uh and I think everybody took basically in the cabinet took their position from the prime minister

00:08:30.300 who was out there on every issue and being very vocal have you not seen Ezra the prime minister is

00:08:36.420 pretty well MIA now they've muted him and I think the strategy now is mute all cabinet don't no more

00:08:44.480 no more be seen uh the you know Catherine McKenna was I mean I I I we saw more of her than than of

00:08:52.040 anyone uh and same same thing with Christina Freeland so so I think what's happening is get those boring

00:08:58.220 old white guys uh there that the media doesn't kind of give all the attention to and perhaps this will

00:09:05.120 take the spotlight on all the ineptitude of this government away yeah you know there's such a

00:09:09.820 thing as overexposure people get tired especially if you're a little quirky or if there's something

00:09:15.080 that irritates overexposure you see it with regular celebs political celebs are by nature less uh uh

00:09:22.680 likable um and you know it's funny after the election Trudeau said I'm gonna really reach out in

00:09:30.440 harm you know in harmony with the west he went literally one month without a press conference

00:09:36.640 one month not without a press conference without talk without taking reporters questions a whole month

00:09:43.300 right right and there was no stories in the Canadian media saying why is the prime minister hiding

00:09:48.360 I think everyone just was happy to have a break but that's a month of no zero literally zero

00:09:54.220 accountability yeah well the the biggest show on the road was the CFL Grey Cup I mean there there is

00:10:03.600 there is no greater unity of Canadians under sport I mean sure the Stanley Cup would be greater if

00:10:11.140 there are two Canadian teams but here you have two Canadian teams one represents the east of Canada

00:10:16.760 the other represents the west of Canada and here they are battling in the province that you're having

00:10:23.180 the most difficulty with if there I mean if God ever wanted to send an easy kind of layup and say

00:10:29.600 here's your chance to be seen and start your unification of candidates and east west be there

00:10:36.160 be in Calgary show up didn't show up in Canada's game yeah and and and no one's made no one said wait a

00:10:44.060 minute wouldn't that be a neat first step and it's not it's not political it's not talking to

00:10:48.580 politicians it's just showing up so Canadians say hey you know what it was a tough election

00:10:53.080 the prime minister knows it was a tough election but you know what he's got guts he came here and

00:10:58.220 he's starting I would have said hey that's one message be there with Jason Kenney at the at the

00:11:03.880 at the game right and as hard as it is for the prime minister you know what's harder the deunification

00:11:09.440 of Canada that's harder yeah so so you gotta muscle up and do that I was shocked that he didn't do it

00:11:15.720 yeah it's a great point he could have sat right next to Jason Kenney as a sign that I don't care if you're

00:11:20.460 mad at me I am the prime minister of all Canadians and the fact that you're mad at me means I have

00:11:25.820 to do I have to be here now so I don't care if you boo a little bit I'm here and we're going to fix

00:11:30.640 this together like you have a tough love message like that right people are going to say all right

00:11:34.320 respect he knew he was going to get booed he came out right here he sat next to Kenny and he said a few

00:11:39.620 things and give it he didn't do that because he's he I I hear that he's actually quite sensitive to

00:11:46.740 criticism we know that and I think that's why he didn't go to Calgary I it tells me he's not going

00:11:52.260 to go to Calgary a lot because he'll be booed for quite a while well no but that that goes to the point

00:11:57.980 of everything uh the prime minister does things that makes him feel more comfortable so the hard work

00:12:04.540 is doing something makes you feel uncomfortable you see that down south the president is doing

00:12:11.140 everything that makes everybody uncomfortable yeah it makes I mean he's he's taking on NATO but

00:12:17.600 NATO's now has hundreds of billions of dollars more he's there's a success he's taking on China I mean

00:12:24.260 that's pretty risky yeah he's starting with the hard stuff yeah and so yeah every meeting that he goes

00:12:31.040 into is punishing for the president but he knows that's how you make your country great our prime

00:12:36.980 minister if there's a tough meeting whether it be with with with uh the president or whether it be

00:12:43.180 uh with uh with the east west divide it's easier to avoid that because you know what it's hard and

00:12:49.460 that's not what we need right now we need leadership we need a person to go in there and do the tough

00:12:55.180 work during these tough times and stick it out yeah well let me ask you um I think that things are

00:13:02.480 about to start coming apart in Canada and I don't say that with any uh joy I think that we're starting

00:13:10.920 to see the revision of economic numbers this I call me paranoid but I think statistics Canada

00:13:17.020 has been pressured by the prime minister's office just like Jody Wilson-Raylebold in the justice department

00:13:22.560 was pressured by the prime minister's office I think they were pressured to hold back on any bad

00:13:27.980 news about the economy until after the election I have no proof of that I just know that's Trudeau's

00:13:33.120 MO and now we're seeing some weakness in the economy um the oil patch is being divested because of

00:13:42.020 bad policy choices in Canada um I am worried that you're going to see an economic slowdown

00:13:49.100 and I think you're going to see Wexit which is the goofy nickname for western separatism

00:13:54.720 uh rate rise its head up again I think Trudeau has no idea how to calm that down and frankly doesn't

00:14:00.660 want to calm it down he loves that being the angry foil to his charming self so I think things are going

00:14:06.820 to be tough in Canada in the year ahead and I don't say that with any happiness do you think I'm being

00:14:11.140 too pessimistic Manny? No yeah actually Ezra that's a it's a good point let's use statistics Ezra uh United States

00:14:18.740 of America is running about three percent you know sometimes up to four percent GDP growth that you

00:14:24.860 know and it is uh here's a stat Ezra uh the longest economic uh growth has been 120 months you know

00:14:33.400 this is a month-on-month without any recession America's hit that on July 1st it is we are in

00:14:41.740 unprecedented territory it's been 120 I think it's five six months in December 127 months

00:14:49.540 of of of pure sustainable growth in GDP that's never happened before everyone knows that a Russia

00:14:57.240 a recession is coming it should come just statistically so Ezra your spider senses are right

00:15:04.080 but but but but I think you having the prime minister sorry the president of the United States

00:15:10.160 unilaterally focused on his economy I mean pretty much to to the exclusion of everything else he's

00:15:15.900 really working hard on the economy this is why we're in record territory I you know I can't see

00:15:21.360 this going on for another 10 months I mean you then now you're breaking the record by basically

00:15:27.940 you know 50 percent uh whereas you know it's never been more than 120 months so so it's um so

00:15:35.580 Ezra you're right and then when you look at Canada we have a problem that America doesn't have they have

00:15:41.100 a booming oil and gas industry where ours is of course punished uh so and our our GDP growth has been

00:15:48.260 around one and a half two percent but remember Ezra 25 percent of our GDP comes from the United States

00:15:54.960 so if they're humming at three or four percent we're picking up a half a point or three quarters of a point

00:16:00.760 from America right so so so most of our GDP growth is coming from America doing well so if it doesn't do

00:16:08.480 well if America slipped into a one or two percent growth or even a recession it's going to be absolutely

00:16:14.500 terrible in Canada so so you're pretty you're pretty astute to pick that pick that up I think in fact by value

00:16:20.340 our largest export to the United States is crude oil I'd have to check right on that yeah

00:16:24.860 I think that's actually bigger than our sales to them on the auto sector let me ask you about

00:16:29.680 America because um I think we're we're going to be uh saddled with Trudeau as prime minister for at

00:16:36.840 least two years and I don't think a heck of a lot is going to change but America is heading it's less

00:16:45.220 than 12 months now until their election day um their media is in high gear already whether it's

00:16:53.900 impeachment talk or the democratic presidential primaries I think the whole world is riveted by

00:16:59.980 America Trump himself is so entertaining and the the group of opponents to him is so

00:17:04.960 I don't know I I find them uninspiring but but I'm perhaps prejudiced do you think Trudeau is going to

00:17:13.420 try and meddle in some way Trudeau did meddle a little bit in the 2016 U.S. election he posed with

00:17:23.280 Hillary Clinton Trudeau weighed in on Brexit against leave so two out of two he got wrong do you think

00:17:31.980 Trudeau is going to meddle at all or or be seen with the democratic nominee or do something else like

00:17:37.400 that that you know he personally wants to do that I think would actually be a disaster for

00:17:42.420 Canada U.S. relations no yeah yes sir I absolutely I mean he's already doing the meddling now um in my

00:17:49.660 opinion it's we we have a U.S. MCA deal that was signed over a year ago Mexico signed and Canada has

00:17:59.020 not signed and I think that's the great delivery to the democratic party to make sure that they don't

00:18:07.720 give Trump another win I mean it's pretty hard when Trump does a bilateral a trilateral deal

00:18:14.600 with north and south to him that's a pretty big victory and I think the prime minister is not

00:18:20.880 putting Canadians first because why has he not signed or sorry passed in parliament when he had

00:18:26.020 a majority government uh for six seven eight nine months why did he not pass it I think that's

00:18:31.900 holding out to help the democrats in the election so I've already seen evidence that he's doing what

00:18:37.820 he can to help the democrats I've seen when he had a state dinner uh in 2016 uh with Barack Obama who's

00:18:45.740 campaigning fiercely for for um uh for Hillary Clinton uh to sit there and have a state I mean it was

00:18:52.260 unprecedented to see a prime minister have a state dinner when there's an election on and it's for the

00:18:59.440 guy campaigning against the guy who won so um there's going to be a lot of Canada trying to help

00:19:06.260 or not Canada the liberal party and the prime minister uh trying to help in this election how

00:19:12.700 far will they go well look we had evidence with with with how far it went the other way we have

00:19:17.360 Barack Obama sending a tweet and and that tweet you know depressed me uh supporting um uh uh Justin

00:19:26.740 Trudeau's bid for his second election this is a man who spent eight years fighting against racism

00:19:32.760 blackface and all these white privileged uh Americans or Canadians but Americans who uh who take

00:19:40.120 racism uh and not important because of the privilege and then he sends a tweet of support to a person who's

00:19:46.180 done it and and admitted that he had a life of racism a life of of of of such privilege that caused him

00:19:53.000 that and he sent a tweet so don't underestimate what Justin Trudeau owes to the Democratic Party

00:20:00.200 of America uh so it's huge yeah that's a very good point about Barack Obama um I want to ask you one

00:20:07.280 last question about foreign affairs because two things I've detected two changes in recent months and

00:20:13.700 you know obviously the big one is China um everything from their seizure of the two hostages to their

00:20:22.980 agricultural boycotts on Canada some have been relaxed but I think China's still on a full

00:20:30.460 court press against Canada but Trudeau doesn't seem to be responding in kind it looks like we're still a

00:20:36.880 part of that Asian investment infrastructure investment bank which is crazy that we we would

00:20:42.780 take Canadian money invested in a Chinese-led infrastructure bank I don't even know why we would

00:20:48.400 do that in the first place but Trudeau and his team seems to be very China oriented still so that

00:20:55.800 is a strange quirk it puts America Canada at odds with America and at the UN not too long ago Canada

00:21:02.920 switched its voting position back to its old anti-Israel position voting against Israel on an anti-Israel

00:21:13.260 international slander motion that we got away from under the Harper years and the first term under

00:21:18.380 Trudeau so what's going on with foreign affairs it seems like Trudeau's going more gung-ho to the left

00:21:25.000 not less so yeah no you're right you're right that's where I have a I should tell you a story I have a good

00:21:31.580 friend that's an Iranian uh and she's uh she's a friend of the family she's in her 30s and she's got

00:21:39.080 family in Iran and she tells me the stories about how there's bombs and yeah and it's frightening

00:21:45.640 over there and she goes well Canada is not speaking we need their help why is Canada not there so so

00:21:50.820 you're very right on that I think I I do think Ezra you know I'll use the analogy when I was in high

00:21:58.160 school I was a very small little kid but I had a big big brother um and he was three four years ahead

00:22:05.340 of me but a big guy and um I walked around with a lot of swagger in high school because I knew my big

00:22:11.340 brother was there and that and that was that's Canada we have our big brother United States but I

00:22:17.240 think you see a sense of a lot of countries seeing a kind of a separation between Canada United States

00:22:25.000 certainly between the two leaders we had evidence with that two-faced comet just a while ago um so

00:22:31.040 there is if when they see that when there's a vacuum um people will take advantage of it and I

00:22:36.600 think the vacuum is is that Canada you know you know it doesn't want to be certainly this government

00:22:42.180 doesn't want to be seen uh in connection with the Trump government and a lot of countries are going

00:22:47.680 to see an opportunity and it's not going to be good for Canada and certainly China is one of them

00:22:51.980 I mean you think about how China has been kicking Canada around uh with impunity and we did absolutely

00:22:57.020 you know it's so it's you know it's China Saudi Arabia we still don't have any uh relationship

00:23:03.120 there uh Iran is certainly in trouble but for some reason this government's not saying anything about

00:23:08.780 these thousands of people and I think a few thousand were killed uh so I I it's not a good spot in the

00:23:14.960 foreign relations yeah India too yeah yeah right we've Trudeau's ticked them all off well Manny it's a

00:23:22.040 depressing look ahead we'll have to see how the year unfolds we always have to have hope

00:23:26.480 and uh we got to because we've got to carry on this is our country great to see you again my

00:23:32.000 friend and we'll see you in the new year thank you all right there you have it Manny Montenegrino

00:23:36.620 our good friend and political analyst former lawyer to Prime Minister Stephen Harper stay with us

00:23:44.080 thanks for watching we'll have more shows throughout the Christmas season feature interviews and a few

00:24:01.800 retrospectives of some of the best of the rebel in 2019 until next time on behalf of all of us here

00:24:08.960 at rebel world headquarters good night and keep fighting for freedom

Rebel News Podcast - December 24, 2019

Manny Montenegrino and Ezra Levant： The state of Canadian politics in 2019

Episode Stats

Length

Words per Minute

Word Count

Sentence Count

Misogynist Sentences

Hate Speech Sentences

Summary

Transcript