Jason Kenney is the new Prime Minister of Alberta, and he's got a plan to fight back against the anti-oil and gas extremists that have been dominating our political conversation for the past decade. Is he really fighting back against foreign-funded extremists?
00:16:32.860I mean, how is this not political and partisan by David Suzuki?
00:16:38.860I was galvanized when I heard Mr. McGinty first say that his plan was to shut down the coal-burning plants.
00:16:45.360This was a big step off the path that we're on.
00:16:48.700I remember a few years ago when it seemed like every other day in Toronto was a smog day.
00:16:53.520So the health impact of shutting down those plants will save Ontario people millions of millions of dollars in the future.
00:17:01.740And I think that what Mr. McGinty has done is to show real leadership and begin Ontario onto a path that will encourage more and more renewable energy to come in.
00:17:12.440And I happen to applaud the future that he's aiming us into.
00:17:15.500So that was a liberal party ad, as you can see, for Dalton McGinty a few years back.
00:17:38.200David Suzuki of the Suzuki Foundation.
00:17:40.480Now, you might recall a few years back when I ran a little NGO called Ethical Oil, we filed complaints with the CRA against some of these law-breaking charities.
00:18:19.860This is an excerpt from a CBC interview when Evan Solomon worked there.
00:18:23.780The gentleman on the left is a foreign-funded lobbyist named Rick Smith, who at the time was with a registered charity called Environmental Defense.
00:18:30.980And on the right is Jamie Ellerton, who was with my little ethical oil group.
00:18:35.700Here, watch this for a minute and a half of this debate.
00:18:37.320So I certainly think that what's been happening over the last few months in terms of environmental charities specifically and crassly smeared by the federal government, by the oil industry, by the oil industry's friends like Jamie beside me,
00:18:52.500is just an unprecedented attack on the ability of Canadians to participate in the democratic process.
00:18:59.080So on the Jamie Ellerton, on the homepage of Ethical Oil website, there's basically a big green rectangle that says Canada Revenue Agency, time to investigate.
00:19:08.420And when you click on it, it encourages people to basically fill out a form that then goes to the National Revenue Minister, Gail Shea,
00:19:14.560to report any radical or environmental lobby group masquerading as a charity.
00:19:18.860And you've targeted Environmental Defense, Rick Smith's group.
00:19:21.040Do you feel the government's targeting environmental groups fairly?
00:20:03.940They're not working constructively to help deal with some of the environmental challenges that the oil sands faces.
00:20:08.980To the contrary, they're just saying stop it at all costs.
00:20:11.380And we think we're encouraged by the measures announced in the budget that the government is going to put $8 million at the Canada Revenue Agency
00:20:18.700to beef up their compliance efforts to ensure registered charities are in violation of the law.
00:20:26.740Stephen Harper hired more auditors at the CRA, nonpartisan auditors, of course, directed by other civil servants.
00:20:33.100No political involvement, no government involvement, just realizing there's a problem with massive tax cheating and putting more auditors on it.
00:20:40.160And lo and behold, a bunch of them were about to be banned, like Greenpeace was banned twice.
00:20:45.660I mean, you heard, Jamie, in the case of environmental defense,
00:20:49.060they literally boasted online about making 50,000 election phone calls against a conservative.
00:20:54.620Hey, fill your boots, but don't call that charitable work.
00:20:58.720It's not illegal to campaign against conservatives,
00:21:01.020but it is illegal for a Canadian charity that has special tax-exempt status.
00:23:28.320And unlike Jody Wilson-Raybould, who stopped the corruption when it came to SNC-Lavalin, the revenue minister obviously had no compunction about the prime minister's office coming in to rescue his political and personal friends and his former employer from their tax cheat problems.
00:23:49.000Trudeau and Butts and the no-name CRA minister at the time just let their friends out of tax trouble.
00:23:54.860And the CDC cheered, of course, because their remaining talent after Jen Gomeshi was thrown out the window, David Suzuki, their last recognizable talent, well, he was in jeopardy, too, wasn't he?
00:24:07.360They never disclosed that conflict of interest in their reporting on this stuff, though, eh?
00:24:51.340Harper didn't do too much about it back then.
00:24:54.300He hired more auditors, but that moved so slowly.
00:24:57.200By the time they were about to decertify the tax cheaters, a corrupt man himself was elected prime minister, and he let all his friends off the hook, Lavaline style.
00:25:17.520Was there a crime like money laundering that can be investigated by Alberta agencies, by Alberta police, prosecuted by Alberta's attorney general?
00:25:27.260But I do know that if there were a proper investigation by police, with subpoenas, with search warrants, perhaps with court orders, compelling production of financial documents, where appropriate, follow the law.
00:32:27.180And the country's top law enforcement officers said there was no evidence of obstruction of justice sufficient to warrant prosecution.
00:32:35.360At the same time, his political opponents are going to remain obsessed with this Russia collusion conspiracy theory
00:32:43.260that the rest of the public now is getting tired of.
00:32:46.960And instead of moving on to issues, perhaps, where Democrats might be stronger,
00:32:51.480they're going to be obsessed with this endless investigation.
00:32:55.420And I think it's a great political win for Trump on both counts.
00:32:59.060No collusion, no obstruction on the one hand.
00:33:01.380And Democrats continuing to be obsessed on the other.
00:33:05.040Yeah, well, you know, it seems to me, I mean, I remember some of those comments that Trump made over the last two years
00:33:10.640when he jokingly said, hey, Russia, if you got Hillary's emails, why don't you release them?
00:33:14.960I mean, how many tweets did he make attacking Mueller and his partisan witch hunt?
00:33:21.920It was so obvious to me, just as a layman, and I guess even far away up here in Canada,
00:33:27.540that that was Trump just being Trump, mouthing off, being partisan, being funny, being dramatic, using Twitter, saying what was on his mind.
00:33:35.060The idea that a tweet or just being frustrated with what in the end was a baseless, it really was a witch hunt.
00:33:42.120The idea that that is obstruction is such a stretch.
00:33:46.280I, it would be, I mean, of course that's what all those things were.
00:33:51.940But let me ask you this, how has the media, the mainstream media, or what I like to call the media party,
00:34:00.260There was about one millisecond of not contrition, but recognition that they had overplayed their hand when the four-page memo was released.
00:34:11.640Are they in any self-reflection mode now, or are they in, oh, good, there's a whiff of a whisper of a rumor of gossip here.
00:34:45.720If you look at some of the glum faces on CNN, you know that they're disappointed that there weren't any bombshells.
00:34:51.500There's nothing really to latch on to except a few tidbits here and there to try to make the case that there was any collusion.
00:34:58.500I think they hoped that Barr had lied about what was in the contents of the report, but why would he do that?
00:35:03.420I mean, the report was going to come out, and he knew that, and he would never say anything that would be immediately disprovable.
00:35:09.560But anyway, I think they hoped this would yield something.
00:35:12.340They set themselves up for disappointment.
00:35:13.640At the same time, they're really trying to help the Democrats salvage the situation by encouraging the idea that Trump did something that was unethical,
00:35:21.500or wrong, that his reactions to the investigation were unacceptable, and that Congress should use its power to begin drafting articles of impeachment.
00:35:30.940The House Democrats would probably pass those articles, and so they're looking for that narrative.
00:35:38.380They're looking for that direction to be the one that defines our politics.
00:35:41.840And I think that's good for Trump, because the public does not want to see him impeached if he didn't actually commit a crime.
00:35:46.800Yeah. Well, I mean, let me clarify there.
00:35:49.640So you think—I mean, I forget how impeachment works.
00:35:52.500There's a vote to impeach, and then in the Clinton case, there was a trial, but he was acquitted or something.
00:35:58.440I'm trying to think of how—like, it's a two-step, right?
00:36:01.160You can be impeached, but then you're not necessarily removed from office.
00:36:04.500I don't know the legalities of your American system.
00:36:07.520What do you think will happen, and what do you think won't happen in terms of impeachment and that?
00:36:13.600Well, he's not going to be removed from office.
00:36:16.740You need a two-thirds vote in the Senate to do that.
00:36:19.780And without any criminal wrongdoing by the president, you're not going to get that.
00:36:24.560But you could see articles of impeachment drafted and Democrats in the House voting for them.
00:36:29.280The people driving the agenda in the Democratic Party right now are the radicals.
00:36:33.620Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez renewed her call today for impeachment.
00:36:36.720And if they are the ones driving this process, you can be sure that there will be a vote on impeachment in the House.
00:36:43.640And if they do that, and I think they are more likely than not to do it, I think they could lose the House, because I think the public actually doesn't want the president to be impeached.
00:36:55.540They want to put an asterisk on his presidency.
00:36:57.780They want impeachment so that they can regard his presidency as illegitimate, even if he isn't removed from office.
00:37:02.660But I think this direction is going to make it easier for President Trump to run for re-election, to make the case to the American people that he is actually a victim of a campaign of presidential harassment, as he calls it, or political persecution.
00:37:15.560And that he has to come into office again a second time with a Republican Congress so he can get things done.
00:37:22.480And I think that's an easy case to make if Democrats continue doing what they're doing.
00:37:25.800So, again, in both ways, today is a win for President Trump.
00:37:28.900Not only was he exonerated from collusion and obstruction a second time over, but the Democrats are now renewing their efforts to make the case that there was collusion and obstruction of justice.
00:37:41.380They sound like conspiracy theorists who just can't let go.
00:37:45.640And I wonder how many of them actually believe it, because some of what they're saying is almost certifiably nuts.
00:37:53.220I mean, you say something long enough, it becomes a cult-like mantra.
00:37:58.540I want to ask you one last thing, and I appreciate your time and your advice, Joel.
00:38:02.260I saw the other day an interview with Nancy Pelosi, I think it was on 60 Minutes, where she was asked about the radicals, the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezes, and the ones who were really getting all the energy on Twitter.
00:38:19.140She said, oh, there's about five of them in the whole Democratic caucus.
00:38:23.640And she has that Pelosi, you know, that dry, dismissive style that can be withering, frankly.
00:38:32.260And to see it directed at AOC, as she's called, was a bit of a splash in the face to me of, holy cow, maybe she doesn't like these young pups getting all the ink.
00:38:43.100Let me ask you this, does Nancy Pelosi, I mean, I regard her as a hard left-wing San Francisco Democrat myself, but maybe she's, quote, moderate and normal compared to the new radicals.
00:40:02.840That failed because the base of the party is so riled up by this that they don't want to let it go.
00:40:08.140So she's going to try to ride the tiger for a little while longer.
00:40:11.160I don't think she's going to throw her weight behind impeachment.
00:40:13.100But she may be required to support it when it finally goes through the process, starting in the Judiciary Committee and eventually reaching the floor.
00:40:20.760I think she's going to have to allow a vote on it.
00:40:24.220Obviously, we're Trump supporters here at The Rebel.
00:40:26.360But I must say, as a Canadian, I'm jealous of a system that has checks and balances on a powerful leader.
00:40:33.460In Canada, we have true corruption scandals, so much so that two senior members of Justin Trudeau's cabinet have quit citing corruption of Trudeau himself.
00:40:44.740Like, it's the most staggering high-level condemnations of Trudeau by his right and left arm.
00:40:50.980And yet we have no ability to have the kind of independent investigations and inquiries into what's manifestly corrupt and perhaps even criminal activity as testified to by his own cabinet.
00:41:05.100I've got to say, I'm a little bit jealous of how your democracy works, the checks and balances.
00:41:10.900And I just say that as a Canadian in a country where the leader, the prime minister, has such total control over really every branch of government.
00:41:24.700And even people who are criticizing the president saying, well, he wanted to fire Mueller, but it's just the people around him that stopped him.
00:41:31.040Well, there are checks and balances even within the executive branch.
00:41:46.100But amazingly, they're still barking up the same tree.
00:41:49.100So I think Trump is going to have an opportunity to talk about issues, to speak directly to the American people, while Democrats and the media continue to talk to each other in circles.
00:41:58.580Well, it's great to see you, my friend.
00:42:34.420I don't have any letters to read for you today, but I want to say thanks to everyone who supported The Rebel during our own version of a campaign in the Alberta election.
00:42:42.080And by support, I mean taking a long sign, making Sheila's book a political bestseller, or tuning in on election night.
00:42:47.920As I said before, we actually had more viewers for much of the night than the government broadcaster itself with all their billions.
00:42:54.920That felt great, and I hope you enjoyed the show.
00:42:57.560All right, that's it for us for today.