Support for China plunges in a new Canadian poll
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Summary
Support for China plunges in a new Canadian poll. Only 14% of Canadians now say they have a positive opinion of China, down from 50% a year ago. What does this say about the relationship between Canada and China?
Transcript
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Hello, my Rebels. Today, I take you through a very interesting poll by Angus Reid asking all
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sorts of questions about the Canada-China relationship. And I got to tell you, you will
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be impressed with the common sense of the common man. Before I get to that, let me invite you to
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become a super duper subscriber to Rebel News. We call it Rebel News Plus. It's eight bucks a month.
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That's not that bad. It's 80 bucks for the whole year. And you get the video version of these
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podcasts, which includes very sharp images from this poll that I'm going to go through.
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So you can get that at rebelnews.com. All right, here's the show.
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Tonight, support for China plunges in a new Canadian poll. It's May 13th,
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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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Angus Reid has a new poll out on Canadian support for China.
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Only 14% of Canadians have a favorable view of China. So basically, what's that? The staff of the
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CBC and the staff of Justin Trudeau. Seriously, even most liberals now despise the Communist Party
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of China. I'd like to see the numbers for Chinese Canadians too, actually. There are a few troubling
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Canadian branches of various Communist Party cadres. There are some Communist thugs here in Canada
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bullying ethnic Chinese democracy activists here, and Tibetans, and others here on our soil.
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But of course, there are plenty of Chinese Canadians who came here precisely because
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they love freedom and hate living in an authoritarian regime.
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I think we have to be more explicit in supporting ethnic Chinese Canadians who are pro-liberty.
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And we have to resist the Communist Party even here in Canada, because they have their tentacles
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here. I think we have to denormalize China's underminers here in a similar manner that at
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least some of us try to do, say, with Iran's thugs who run their annual Al-Quds Day propaganda
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effort in Canada. It's little things like politicians refusing to go along with Communist Party events.
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And those who do attend those events should be denormalized by Canadians. Like I've said before,
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we need a bit of the stance we took towards South African apartheid. We need to shame Communist
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China, not invade them, but shame them and stand with the Nelson Mandelas of China. And I think we
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should warmly accept those 46 Hong Kong democracy refugees. I think it's a first step. But back to the
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news. Angus Reid, one of my favorite pollsters, because he simply asks interesting questions. You can be
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sure Trudeau's liberals have been polling the heck out of China for months, but they haven't released
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their polls publicly, so they've known all this, but now we do too. Canadian opinions of China reach
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new low. Well, I should hope so. The latest study from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds
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Canadian favorability towards China at a new low. Indeed, just 14% of adults in this country now say
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they have a positive opinion on China as a level half as high as it was six months ago. Wow.
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And look at this. More than four in five Canadians say the Chinese government has not been honest
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about what happened in its own country. Wow. Sometimes it's so refreshing, so reassuring
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to know that there's still some common sense in the common people as opposed to the fools in our
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elites. Like, oh, say our health minister, Patty Haidu, Peking Patty, as I call her.
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So I would say that your question is feeding into conspiracy theories that many people have been
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perpetuating on the internet. Wow. She loves the Chinese Communist Party almost as much as she
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loves her own Liberal Party. Maybe more. So weird. So out of touch with ordinary Canadians,
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this poll shows. Let me read more. If Canadians had their way, there would be real-world consequences
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to perceived malfeasance on the part of the Asian power. Just 11% of Canadians say Canada should focus
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its trade efforts on China, down from 40% in 2015. Further, four in five say Canada should bar Huawei
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away from taking part in the building and the new 5G infrastructure in this country.
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Isn't that encouraging? That's exactly right. Keep China out of our 5G. Okay, let's show you some
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graphs. Here's one that shows the historic level of support. The first few years are from Pew Research,
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the later ones from Angus Reid. Isn't that interesting? Favorable views of China were well over 50%
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until about a decade ago. I think the more Canadians have got to know about China, the less we like it.
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Even before they kidnapped Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in late 2018, I think we just all sort of saw
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how China was militarizing, both internationally and against their own people. I think we saw how
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they were terrible polluters, and I mean real pollution. Dirty air, dirty water, dirty land,
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not just CO2. And I think Canadians really do care about civil rights for people. Even as the Liberal
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Party and big business and the media all sort of stopped talking about those things, the rest of us
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couldn't help notice that China was not getting more liberal even as it got more rich. Felt a bit
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fascist in a way, didn't it? There really isn't a big difference region by region in Canada on these
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opinions. BC is the most supportive of China, 22% with 72% being negative. Perhaps that's because of
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BC's larger Chinese-Canadian population and they have a natural affection for their own homeland. Like I
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say, I think we have to boost Canadians who are Chinese but critical of the communist regime,
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just like we boosted Soviet dissidents who defected to the West during the Cold War.
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We have to discriminate between the lambs and the wolves, as I sometimes say.
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Here's a chart broken down by political party. I don't see the Bloc Québécois in here,
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which is too bad. I'd be curious what those voters say. But then other numbers are predictable.
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Conservative Party members are overwhelmingly negative towards China. Only 1% are very favorable.
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6% mostly favorable. 26% are mostly unfavorable. And a whopping 63% just hate the chai comms,
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as they used to be called. So add up the mostly and the very unfavorable, you've got 89%. I really
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don't think I've seen a number that big, other than for stopping the unlimited growth of immigration,
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which is probably related, actually. Liberals are anti-China too, just less passionate about it.
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Again, only 1% of liberals really like China. They have more soft support, 17%. Interesting
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that NDPs are a bit more likely to be unfavorable, very unfavorable to China than the liberals are.
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Maybe it's not significant given the sample size, but I think it might be because Trudeau's brand
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is so obviously pro-China. It's sort of part of being a liberal member, whereas the NDP isn't
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branded that way. And there's still some NDP support amongst grassroots working-class Canadians
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who know that their factories and other jobs have been outsourced to China.
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Now this next chart, a pie chart, is just amazing. It goes with the question, is China lying about the
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virus? 53% say, yeah, obviously. And another 32% say, yeah, probably. Literally only 2% of Canadians
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are adamant that China's telling the truth. So I guess that's Teresa Tam, Justin Trudeau, and Peking
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Patty, and the propagandists at the CBC who are working overtime for Beijing. Bizarrely,
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you have to be really, really dumb, or just playing on the Chinese government's payroll
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to believe that. And it won't surprise you that with numbers so lopsided, even liberals
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say China is lying. 12% of liberals believe China. But remember, those are people who voted
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for a failed drama teacher's PM, so they'll believe anything. Now let's get practical.
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What does this all mean? What should we do? I like this question. With what region should
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Canadians try to develop closer trade ties? So who should we do business with? China plunged
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from 40% just five years ago to 11%. Now no one wants deeper trade ties with China. That's
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the bright red line on this graph. The US number is up from 28% to 37%, which is good. We already
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have very close ties with America, of course. 52% say the European Union. Sure, why not? But it's
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a small share of our trade now that the UK is out of there especially. That's the dark
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red number, which is up to 26%. I think maybe a lot of Canadians, when they answered, maybe
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forgot that the UK is out of the European Union now. But the main takeaway here is that
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people want nothing to do with China. I think that's good news. Here's a regional chart.
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Not too much interesting here than, of course, Alberta wants to focus on the US. That's where
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most of our oil sales go. And we need pipelines. And I thought it was interesting that so many
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people in the Atlantic support closer trade with the UK. That's encouraging. Probably
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makes sense. They're the closest to it. Check this out. Should China's Huawei be allowed to
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build our 5G networks? In November, 69% said no. Only 21% said yes. So that's pretty lopsided
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even back then. But now six months later, it's even more lopsided. 78% against, only 14% for.
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So even most liberal voters want Huawei banned. Just two more charts. This is so interesting,
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though, isn't it? What a contrast to the official pro-Beijing propaganda coming from the CBC and
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from the liberals themselves. So encouraging. The Canadians know better, right? Which should
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be more important, trade with China or human rights and rule of law? In January of 2019,
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38% said trade. 62% said human rights and the rule of law. That was just one month after
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China took the hostages. Now it's 24% to 76%. Of course, you can have both when you deal with a
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democracy. That's why we love the United States and the United Kingdom and the EU. But if China
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is forcing us to choose, and indeed they are, Canadians will choose Canadian values. I'm impressed
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by that. You know, big businesses, multinational businesses, Hollywood studios, sports franchises,
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they all chose the cash. The NBA, movie studios, they all censor themselves. They all sell out their
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principles for the big bucks they see in communist China. Not ordinary people. I just keep coming
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back to this extremist interview with Michael Bloomberg, the former Democrat. He called himself
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a Republican. He's really a Democrat. He has huge investment in China. It's where all this wealth
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is tied up now. Listen to the lies he told about them. Imagine if this moral sellout had actually
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become president, as he tried so hard to do earlier this year.
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Xi Jinping is not a dictator. He has to satisfy his constituents, or he's not going to survive.
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No, he has to. He has a constituency to answer to.
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He doesn't have a vote. He doesn't have a democracy. He's not held accountable by voters.
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If his advisors gave him- Is they check on him just a revolution?
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You're not going to have a revolution. No government survives without the will of the
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Yeah, it's just incredible. Last chart. Can we trust China? No. Just plain old no. But you knew
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that already, didn't you? Because our friend Abiyamini went to Hong Kong last year to ask people
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what they thought of China. And this young man just told him.
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Donald Trump don't trust China. China is asshole.
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Well, there are a lot of explanations for why Justin Trudeau and his cabinet
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could be so obsequious to communist China. I think the most obvious one is that he plain
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old agrees with their world view. As he told a liberal fundraiser when he was running for the
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leader, China is the country he most admires for its basic dictatorship. It's something he comes by
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honestly. His father, Pierre Trudeau, never met a communist dictatorship he didn't like either.
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But is there the possibility that there could be some hidden interest as well, either a carrot or a
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stick? We know, for example, that Chinese billionaires have been making huge donations
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to liberal affiliated groups, whether it's Canada 2020, a liberal think tank, or even the Trudeau
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Foundation. And then there's the possibility of something darker, a stick. The Soviets had a term
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compromat, which is short for compromising material. We know that Justin Trudeau has had scandals in
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the past. For example, he sexually assaulted Rose Knight, a reporter with the Creston Advance in
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British Columbia two decades ago. We know about his blackface stunts. Who knows what else is out
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there? Well, the Chinese Communist Party and its spies, both human and online internet spies,
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may have some cache of embarrassing material on Trudeau. That's pure speculation on my part. But we know
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that Western media outlets sat on the blackface photo. Are there other things that other entities
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are sitting on as long as Justin Trudeau is well behaved? I think these are legitimate questions. And
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one pundit who has been asking them more sharply than most is our next guest. And I have to tell you,
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it is such a great pleasure to introduce you to Spencer Fernando, who joins us now via Skype from
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Winnipeg. Besides being the eponymous host of SpencerFernando.com, he's also a campaign fellow
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for the National Citizens Coalition. Spencer, it's great to have you here. Congratulations on all you've
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done at SpencerFernando.com, by the way. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.
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Tell me your thoughts on this. I saw you tweeting that there ought to be an investigation of some
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sort into connections between the Chinese Communist Party or the Chinese regime and the Liberal Cabinet.
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First of all, what makes you call for that? And second of all, what kind of investigation
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do you foresee or would call for? Well, the reason I call for that is if you look at really what's
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happening around the world, Canada's basically become the government or the country that's really
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most pro-China. And it's quite disturbing. And you see countries that have a lot more to lose,
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like Australia and New Zealand, for example, they're taking a very strong stand against China,
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and they've got a lot to lose economically. Now, the States obviously is taking a strong stand.
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But the problem is Canada, it's been incredibly weak. Every chance they get to criticize China,
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they pass up every single time. They were afraid to even say Taiwan until they got so much pressure.
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They had to actually say the word Taiwan and thank them for their donation of PPE to Canada.
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And so the question is, why is Canada acting so differently? We saw the Angus Reid poll today,
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you have just 14% of Canadians saying they have a positive view of China, the lowest it's ever been
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in history. Almost everyone in this country wants Huawei to be blocked from our 5G network.
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Government still hasn't made a decision on that. So at some point you say, what's going on here?
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And again, it's not about conspiracy theories. I just think Canadians need to know. And both options,
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to be honest, are pretty bad. So either we investigate and we find that there are a bunch
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of people who are compromised, likely financially by China within the liberal government, or we find out
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this is just some sort of ideological thing. And they really do feel some sort of ideological affinity
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with China. And both of those options are pretty disturbing for Canadians.
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Yeah. Well, listen, it's more than a decade ago since the head of CSIS said there were 1,000 plus
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active agents in Canada spying for China. Most of that spying would be industrial espionage. But of
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course, Canada is privy to the highest security briefings as one of the five eyes, along with
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United States, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. So Canada could be a security weak link. We're definitely
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a technology weak link. I wonder if it's ideology because Trudeau has always loved the third world.
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He's loved the romance of it. His brother, Alexandre, who is his sometimes policy advisor,
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actually wrote a book published by the government of China, a pro-China propaganda piece. So I think
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it's quite possible that like his dad, he truly believes in the communist party. But I also know
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that he's been reckless in his personal life. And I got to think that old Cold War tactic of the
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honey trap, the honey pot, where they have like a, they send in someone to trap someone in a sexual
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indiscretion, or they have a financial indiscretion. That's got Trudeau written all over it, too.
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We need to find out, I think, if it's just ideology, or if, you know, it's possible, again,
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neither you nor I have no evidence to this effect, but he might actually be under some sort of duress.
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Yeah, I mean, there's no way to know. And that's why I think it needs to be investigated. I mean,
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personally, I think, for most political leaders there, you know, people's personal lives should be
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off limits. In a case like this, I think it's most likely financial. But, you know, I think that's
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why we need to investigate. And I think, you know, the vast majority of people, I would think,
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in government at least feel that they're loyal to Canada. So you'd think that if there's a concern
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of China having influence over somebody, having information on somebody, threatening people,
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you'd think they would be the first ones to want to get to the bottom of it to clear up any concerns.
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So I think the first thing is Canadians really need to start demanding of our MPs that they push
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for an investigation. And then we'll see who's actually willing to go through an investigation.
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You know, if there's a bunch of people who seem to have ties to China or are very pro-China,
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and all of a sudden they get really afraid about investigating connections to China, well,
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that may be a clue there's something going on there.
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Yeah. And the investigations can be done privately and discreetly. It's tradition that the RCMP
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vets the prime minister's proposed cabinet list. I mean, I can imagine they hesitated when Stephen
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Gilboa, the heritage minister, was named. Of course, he's a convicted criminal who was active
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as an environmental extremist. But I don't think, I think that's bad judgment on his part,
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but I don't think that goes to a deep disloyalty to Canada as a nation. But, and that's the thing,
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I'm not looking for a McCarthy style witch hunt, but I think at least privately, the RCMP or CSIS
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or some other agency should do a deep vetting. Because by the way, a lot of it's hidden in plain
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sight. Huawei throws its sponsorship logo on everything that moves, including hockey night
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in Canada. They're not even hiding it. I think that's a form of corruption in its own sense.
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Yeah. And that's the thing, like to investigate, it's not necessarily about finding something crazy.
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It's just, you know, is there an influence network in China that's now operating in Canada that's
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influencing people? I mean, that's the thing. You already have people, you know, Chinese-Canadians
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talking about the so-called United Front, how they are threatened, even if they're Canadian citizens,
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they're living in Canada, they still get threatened. And China still sends people here to intimidate
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them and threaten them and harass them if they speak out against the Chinese Communist Party.
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So there's obviously influence operations happening in Canada. There was a fellow in Australia,
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I think Clive Hamilton, and he wrote a book about the infiltration of the Australian political system
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by the Chinese Communist Party. And it took him three publishers, three who rejected him because
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they were afraid to upset China in Australia, by the way, not in China. People in Australia afraid to
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upset China didn't want to publish his book. He found a fourth publisher who did it. But then he talked
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about, he did an interview with the National Post and he said, you know, to be honest, it's actually worse
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in Canada than it is in China. And he said for legal reasons, he couldn't name the people he knows who
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are either compromised or closely involved with China. But he said it's a real threat and it's
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something that's happening here. So again, I think the big thing that should be disturbing to people,
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and I think people are waking up to this, is the massive gap between the way Canadians feel about
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China and the way the government acts towards China. Usually governments want to be on side with
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public opinion because they want to get reelected. So when you see a government that's so clearly
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going against established public opinion in the country, you have to say, what is the reason for
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that? And we don't know the reason. That's why we need to investigate. Yeah, I think you're so right.
00:20:40.760
Well, listen, it's such a pleasure to have you on the show. I'm a big fan of SpencerFernando.com.
00:20:45.960
You've really built up a great enterprise there. I want to encourage everyone to visit,
00:20:50.840
sign up for your regular emails. And of course, I love following you on Twitter. You're so fast
00:20:55.560
off the mark with news and commentary. It's really nice to have you on the show,
00:20:58.760
Spencer. Great to see you. It's good to be here. Appreciate it. All right. There you have it.
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SpencerFernando joining us today via Skype from Winnipeg. Stay with us. More ahead on the road.
00:21:17.480
Hey, welcome back on my monologue yesterday about the CBC accusing Brian Adams of being racist.
00:21:22.040
Susanna writes, never apologize when you're not wrong. When you do, it's a sign of weakness and
00:21:27.640
self-doubt. Oh yeah. And not just that. It doesn't placate your opponents because they were
00:21:33.720
bad faith critics to begin with. It just says, oh, this guy's a pushover. Let's do it again.
00:21:40.040
Paul writes, communism isn't a race. The CBC doesn't represent Canada and broadcasts nothing but cheap
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propaganda. They may as well just open up a Chinese translation service. Oh, you're so right. It's so weird.
00:21:51.240
I mean, it's bad enough when they do propaganda for Trudeau's state apparatus. But why are they
00:21:57.480
carrying water for communist China? It's so weird. On my interview with Pamela Geller, Dan writes,
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maybe someone should remind Bill de Blasio of the Second Amendment, which guarantees the First
00:22:07.400
Amendment, which shall not be infringed. Well, in New York, they want to ban both, looks like, don't they?
00:22:13.960
I like Pamela. I like her fighting spirit. And she does so with such pizzazz.
00:22:18.060
Well, that's our show for today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World
00:22:22.800
Headquarters, to you at home, good night. And keep fighting for freedom.