Full Comment - Mark Carney shoots blanks, again

00:00:00.000 Mark Carney has once again oversold and underperformed.

00:00:06.880 He released his budget this week, one that he had, well, portrayed ahead of time as a budget for the moment.

00:00:14.680 The next move is on Tuesday. The next move is the budget. It's the budget for this time.

00:00:20.140 The budget the country needs. The budget that gives us control.

00:00:23.420 But once the reviews are in, it was basically a general conclusion that this budget didn't live up to the hype.

00:00:29.420 Hello and welcome to the Full Comment Podcast. My name is Brian Lilly, your host.

00:00:33.160 And this week, well, we'll talk about the budget, but there seems to be more excitement about floor crossings, about rumors, about speculation, about resignations.

00:00:42.420 The high school drama that is Parliament Hill has overtaken.

00:00:47.360 And meanwhile, we've got a ratings agency that is warning us that, well, if you don't get your house in order, things are going to get worse.

00:00:55.160 Joining me today to talk about this is Stuart Thompson from the National Post and Tasha Kearitan, columnist with the same set newspaper.

00:01:03.560 Guys, I guess we'll start with the high school drama.

00:01:06.540 I've long described Parliament Hill in the gallery as the high school cafeteria, but with salaries.

00:01:11.960 And that seems to really have, well, lived up to its reputation this week, Stuart.

00:01:19.300 Yeah. I mean, you come out of a budget usually excited to do more reporting on the fiscal numbers and what's going on with the deficit.

00:01:28.540 Well, you and I do, and Tasha probably does because we're all nerds. 1.00

00:01:31.320 A little, yes. I'm a bit of a nerd, too.

00:01:33.240 Yeah, we're all nerds indeed.

00:01:33.960 Yeah, I had a sandwich I made in the morning.

00:01:38.520 I was all prepped for the budget.

00:01:40.660 What was in it, Stuart? Let's go there.

00:01:42.040 It was an oven-roasted turkey and some Dijon mustard.

00:01:45.320 And I made one for two other colleagues, too.

00:01:47.940 That sounds good.

00:01:49.120 Wow.

00:01:49.420 You need one of those.

00:01:51.480 So my day was ruined on the way home from the budget.

00:01:54.660 We literally, in a cab out of the budget lockup, we heard that there was some floor-crossing shenanigans.

00:02:00.080 And, of course, I think we've all been hearing possibilities of this stuff for a while.

00:02:05.700 Politico had a very early story where Chris D'Entremont, the Nova Scotia MP, was saying,

00:02:11.180 yeah, I'm kind of thinking about it.

00:02:12.820 And when it comes to floor-crossing, there's no thinking about it.

00:02:16.320 You're either doing it or you're not doing it.

00:02:18.700 It's like halfway pregnant.

00:02:20.400 Yes.

00:02:20.900 Once it's out, I mean, it's done.

00:02:23.140 Or you're out of caucus because the Tories would have kicked him out.

00:02:26.140 So the reason that it became such a crazy week is that it did seem like the liberals were gunning for a majority here.

00:02:35.720 They only needed three.

00:02:37.080 They got one.

00:02:38.260 They seemed to be pretty close to a second one.

00:02:41.240 And who knows what else is going on behind the scenes.

00:02:43.680 And Mark Carney himself is involved in this.

00:02:45.660 He really wants to get those final votes and to get a majority and not have to worry about an election for four years.

00:02:52.700 I got to hand it to Politico.

00:02:55.600 Their timing on this was absolutely brilliant.

00:02:59.500 They dropped this in the middle of the lockup.

00:03:02.400 And so for folks that don't know, most journalists covering Parliament Hill, but not all, are in a lockup.

00:03:09.440 You literally cannot, you know, communicate with the outside world.

00:03:15.380 And you are studying the budget.

00:03:17.680 You're in there for hours.

00:03:19.160 I hate them, by the way.

00:03:20.360 I've done far too many of them now.

00:03:21.760 I just don't bother.

00:03:22.800 But in the middle of that, they just drop this, yeah, I might cross the floor.

00:03:29.240 Tasha, have you ever heard of a might cross the floor the way Chris Dantremont was portraying it?

00:03:36.100 No.

00:03:36.940 I honestly, like, it was, it is either you go or you don't go, right?

00:03:43.200 Especially when it's in this timing scenario, this framing.

00:03:47.220 Budget votes are always confidence votes.

00:03:49.840 And if you're a minority government, the strategy is usually you induce another party to support you.

00:03:56.260 You offer them something.

00:03:58.080 They have lists of demands, like the bloc had this time.

00:04:00.560 Except this time we knew, we knew the government wasn't going to do that.

00:04:04.120 It wasn't inducing, but what it did, interestingly, it did induce people behind the scenes.

00:04:08.860 There were a lot of things in this budget that individual MPs, both in the bloc, the conservatives,

00:04:14.700 it's stuff in it for them in their riding.

00:04:16.500 So they did the individual targeting of stuff, which might explain why the larger envelope is so big.

00:04:21.640 But Dantremont was not one of those people.

00:04:25.080 He had been unhappy with his party for a while because they didn't back him for his pitch for speaker.

00:04:30.120 And after the campaign, he publicly complained about them and said they hadn't pivoted to Trump.

00:04:35.060 I thought for sure they were going to back him to be speaker back in the spring.

00:04:38.240 Because he's been a good deputy speaker.

00:04:41.840 Yeah, well, that was a strategic mistake.

00:04:43.280 I think that they did.

00:04:43.900 They didn't want to have they didn't want to give the government, you know, have the government need fewer people to get that majority.

00:04:50.300 This is the issue is that there's the government so close.

00:04:52.280 So the government, when it has a speaker from the government, it's down a vote.

00:04:56.860 Right.

00:04:57.260 And so whoever is speaker as opposed to deputy speaker, they're in the chair for the main vote.

00:05:03.460 So that takes one away from your party.

00:05:05.580 Correct.

00:05:05.900 So the conservatives said, no, we're not going to do that.

00:05:08.160 So Dantremont was not backed and he didn't like that.

00:05:11.360 But what I'm getting to here is that the budget, the way this drama is unfolding is not totally surprising.

00:05:19.800 It's surprising they would drop it in the middle of a lockup.

00:05:21.440 Yeah.

00:05:21.640 And be like, woo.

00:05:22.420 And here's a story.

00:05:23.500 And he's maybe.

00:05:24.220 And that's that's crazy.

00:05:25.880 But the fact that there's floor crossing happening at this juncture, I am not surprised.

00:05:29.700 It should have happened before.

00:05:30.920 It actually shows Carney's not a good politician.

00:05:33.220 You know, he's good at many things, but he is not a herder of cats.

00:05:36.900 He is not a team leader guy.

00:05:38.580 He is not the guy who sees that, you know, this this should have been addressed way back when he was still the Trump whisperer and he had a lot of cred.

00:05:45.880 He's lost a lot of cred since then.

00:05:47.680 So the fact that he got one across the floor is pretty impressive.

00:05:50.940 They will try and get more, though, because I don't think he likes the politics of the politicking of politics.

00:05:56.640 He'd like to have a majority to govern.

00:05:58.340 And that's what he should.

00:05:59.080 That's what his people should have done from the very beginning is sought out a few disgruntleds.

00:06:02.660 And so now they're seeking them.

00:06:04.560 We're inducing individuals.

00:06:05.520 I was talking to the conservatives.

00:06:07.000 And I'd like to hear from both of you on this is that they are well aware that the liberals are going out and throwing everything at their MPs.

00:06:16.840 And, you know, one question I had is, you know, going back to the dolly walls and big comfy landings, anything illegal being offered?

00:06:26.920 There is a line that you can cross with what's offered.

00:06:30.660 Tough to prove, as we saw back then.

00:06:34.620 You know, are they offering things that shouldn't be going on?

00:06:38.260 What are you hearing about who's being offered what?

00:06:41.000 Well, right now, so, for example, Chris D'Entrebonne is saying he wasn't offered a cabinet spot.

00:06:47.900 Who knows?

00:06:48.440 I mean, we hear a lot of careful language, right?

00:06:50.800 Like maybe he's not going to get one now, but a shuffle comes along next year and he gets something.

00:06:55.340 So it is really hard to know.

00:06:58.080 And one of the reasons it's hard to know is that we, the National Post, we reported it's Carney doing these discussions himself.

00:07:05.380 He met with Matt Jenneru, the conservative MP who has now resigned from parliament entirely.

00:07:11.580 But this is high up.

00:07:13.880 This is the kind of stuff that some of it does leak.

00:07:16.500 But if they want to keep something close to the chest, they can probably do that because only a few people know.

00:07:22.440 And something else to consider here is that there aren't, it's not that there are dozens and dozens of potential switchers here.

00:07:30.720 It kind of has to be a very, it's a unicorn kind of writing like Chris D'Entrebonne's where he won by one percentage point.

00:07:38.040 And it was the liberals who were in second.

00:07:39.620 So he can look at that and say, well, as a liberal MP, I have a pretty good shot here.

00:07:45.740 Matt Jenneru.

00:07:46.680 But Jenneru won with over 50% of the vote.

00:07:50.080 So.

00:07:50.360 Yeah.

00:07:50.760 He was, he was five percentage points away from the liberals.

00:07:53.460 So I would say, but I mean, if you look at past right elections, the NDP and the liberals would split in that writing this time, the NDP disappeared.

00:08:03.760 So it allowed the liberals to get within five points.

00:08:06.480 What's in it for him?

00:08:07.640 Yeah.

00:08:08.740 I think maybe he came to the conclusion there wasn't much in it for him and that's why he's not doing it.

00:08:13.760 But I think it does show you.

00:08:15.100 You're not buying the story that his wife, who is a surgeon, is moving to Victoria to take on a new position with the hospital and the university there.

00:08:23.220 Well, I would say maybe, I mean, we're getting into the world of pure speculation here, but maybe he wanted something from the liberals in terms of writings that they weren't willing to give.

00:08:32.100 Um, so I, I think that there are just so many things to consider here that, you know, maybe there's only like five or six potential switchers in the conservatives.

00:08:43.580 And if you were Pierre Polyev, the same way the liberals have to throw everything at those people to get them to switch, the conservatives are doing the same to keep them in their ranks.

00:08:51.400 So there is quite a frenzy going on behind the scenes.

00:08:54.400 Uh, Tasha, I mentioned, uh, Dominic Vien and, uh, Joe Godin, two Quebec city area MPs as possible switchers in the middle of the week, right after Don Tremont had moved.

00:09:06.140 And both of them came out and like, no, no, no, no, we're not doing anything.

00:09:09.780 Vien even putting out a video saying, and I don't even like Mark Carney's budget.

00:09:13.940 So, um, do you think that they were targeting the, the Quebec MPs?

00:09:19.100 Um, you know, it's interesting.

00:09:20.720 Quebec MPs, because in the Quebec city area, it is a, uh, a very, it's the one conservative, you know, bright spot for the Tories in Quebec.

00:09:27.500 So I don't, I don't see that would have been super smart.

00:09:30.100 Um, you know, they, they've given inducements, like I said, in the budget itself, uh, one Quebec MP, uh, Gabrielle Hardy, they promised him an earth sciences center.

00:09:40.660 Okay.

00:09:41.420 Funding for that in the budget.

00:09:42.580 They promised funding, um, for the new, uh, block MP in Quebec, Alexei Deschenes, actually a couple of big projects, um, in his riding.

00:09:50.220 That would, you know, fall apart if this budget doesn't pass.

00:09:53.720 Um, but, you know, it, it, would that be enough to, to induce these people and maybe with a couple of other sweeteners to say, hey, you know, you're going to shipyard.

00:10:02.200 That falls apart.

00:10:03.080 You ain't going to get reelected, buddy.

00:10:04.400 So like, come on.

00:10:06.120 Maybe.

00:10:06.440 Um, I think that once the, once the Don Tremont thing happened, the conservatives though, like literally that's where they just put the screws to everybody because like, it's like they, you know, once the bleeding starts, they have to staunch it.

00:10:18.520 And so, um, bringing down the hammer, uh, or offering people, I mean, they, they're not in a position to offer people things though.

00:10:25.780 That's the thing.

00:10:26.340 The conservatives aren't in power.

00:10:27.320 The liberals are, um, where I, you know, the fact Cardi's doing these things one-on-one again, yeah, it limits the circle of people who know, but is he the best guy to be doing this?

00:10:36.780 Right.

00:10:37.100 Is he, is he, is he the most persuasive guy to say, you know, join my team and I will give you this or that.

00:10:42.920 I mean, traditionally people get cabinet posts.

00:10:44.820 That's a, that's a big one.

00:10:46.020 If you remember Emerson in BC, who switched from the liberals to the conservatives under Harper and he got a cabinet post.

00:10:51.760 Um, he kept his old cabinet post.

00:10:54.220 Yeah.

00:10:54.640 Funny that he even got the pick, I guess, Scott Bryson, who had switched, uh, back from the liberals, the conservatives to the liberals back in the day.

00:11:01.900 And he got a number of cabinet posts.

00:11:04.020 Like, you know, usually there's, there's something.

00:11:06.440 At the end of the day.

00:11:07.640 Um, otherwise, why would you go?

00:11:09.480 Because you know, you'll, you'll be a pariah with your, your party.

00:11:13.320 Uh, your chances of reelection may or may not improve.

00:11:16.060 You don't know.

00:11:16.760 Like if it's close, it can be going either way.

00:11:18.980 Some get reelected.

00:11:19.980 Some don't.

00:11:20.680 Some don't.

00:11:21.200 Exactly.

00:11:21.580 So at least you get three years of like, you know, good times, a car and a driver and like all sorts of good stuff and get to travel and, and be important.

00:11:29.560 Right.

00:11:29.880 So is that better than being a backbencher in a party that's not in government?

00:11:33.380 Yeah, probably.

00:11:34.940 I, um, you know, you mentioned Scott.

00:11:36.440 Scott Bryson and Nova Scotia is always at the center of this.

00:11:38.920 I mean, if Scott Bryson hadn't resigned, Justin Trudeau would still be prime minister.

00:11:42.420 Uh, nevermind.

00:11:43.080 Uh, but I'd like your reaction to, to this breaking news, um, comes via X where everything is accurate, but conservative Nova Scotia MP, Randall Leahy from the riding of Sunnyvale Jayrock has announced that he's crossing.

00:11:59.980 And did you hear about this?

00:12:01.120 No, as an East coaster, I, uh, I'm a big fan.

00:12:04.520 But Nova Scotia, I, uh, what?

00:12:06.620 The East coast is the market.

00:12:07.960 There is no riding of Sunnyvale Jayrock and there is no Randall Leahy.

00:12:11.420 But someone posted a photo of Rob Webb, who played Ricky in Trailer Park Boys, put this out there and folks fell for it, including Sherry DeNovo, who was, you know, a new Democrat MPP in the Ontario legislature for years.

00:12:26.560 Oh, look, this is, it falls, like, that's how crazy.

00:12:31.280 But that's the, the reason, Brian, for that is that no, the Atlantic provinces are the ones that, that are the target, like the first ranked target.

00:12:37.700 You ask about Quebec, the first ranked target, because that's a traditionally a liberal bastion, right, is, is Atlantic Canada.

00:12:44.400 They have been always very strong.

00:12:46.000 And second of all, you got a bunch of red Tories there and red Tories like big government.

00:12:50.880 They like big budgets.

00:12:51.780 Also, because once the feeding frenzy starts in the gallery, it's hard to stop.

00:12:57.500 As I said, high school cafeteria with salaries.

00:13:01.740 I was doing a radio hit in Ottawa the other day with Bill Carroll.

00:13:06.500 And I said, well, Bill, like, look, yeah, there's names that, you know, we take seriously.

00:13:11.920 Like, like you guys, I had Chris D'Entremont and others before he crossed.

00:13:16.920 And, you know, you do what you can to figure out if it's true or not.

00:13:21.820 But I said, you know, liberals are pushing crazy names like Michael Chon is going to cross to the liberals.

00:13:27.040 And I said, this is what happened.

00:13:29.020 I said on radio, Bill, this is so crazy that I didn't even call or text Michael to ask him because it's not going to happen.

00:13:37.460 An hour later, my phone rings and it's Michael Chon asking why I said on radio that he was crossing because someone approached him and told him I was that he was crossing.

00:13:47.260 I said, well, this is just the rumor mill that happens in Ottawa when something like this starts.

00:13:52.540 Yeah, there's an easy BS detector, too, with some of these Quebec MPs, because if you look at their writings, they're very conservative writings.

00:14:01.220 And part of this is that Polyev's tone doesn't fully resonate in Quebec.

00:14:06.080 So there is a problem a little bit with the leader, but that doesn't mean you go to the liberals.

00:14:10.100 I think we have to remember that that's not the option for a lot of these people.

00:14:13.700 And I just have to say this about Chris D'Entremont.

00:14:17.660 He first ran, he's saying that, you know, it's Polyev's tone and his leadership style.

00:14:24.280 I think it has more to do with the whole speaker thing, because when he first ran in 2019, the leader was Andrew Scheer, who's joined at the hip with Polyev now.

00:14:35.760 And beyond being a staunch fiscal conservative, he's a SOCON.

00:14:44.400 And so if you're going to be, you know, you're such a red Tory that you can't be with Pierre Polyev, how are you running with the ultra-religious Catholic SOCON of Andrew Scheer?

00:14:55.580 Well, I mean, D'Entremont was also a provincial member of the MLA, members of the legislative assembly, for over a decade, right?

00:15:03.460 He had a lot of political experience. Before that, I think he had a career as like a salesman and one other thing.

00:15:08.560 I looked it up and, you know, he's been a career politician. So he probably expected more from the party.

00:15:14.720 He would definitely go conservative federally. He would not go liberal after being a provincial progressive conservative.

00:15:20.740 So he probably expected more from the party. And I think you're right. I think the whole speaker thing, I would be pissed off, too.

00:15:25.900 I mean, it was a strategic decision because of the majority-minority situation that they're facing.

00:15:30.160 They don't want to help the government get a majority. Why would they?

00:15:33.460 But, you know, he had been deputy speaker. He was a talented guy. And he probably thought, this is what I get. And no, thank you.

00:15:43.120 For people that don't know how sweet the speaker gig is, why would there be resentment? Well, what do you get?

00:15:49.640 Oh, it's very sweet. You get a house, you get a wine cellar. In fact, everyone knows that the wine cellar is famous.

00:15:55.040 I may have toured Peter Milliken's wine cellar after he left office and was a private citizen and saw all the stuff that he brought from when he was speaker.

00:16:04.840 Lots of bottles of vodka from the Russian embassy. He, you know, you get all kinds of stuff as speaker. You get a beautiful home in the country. It's called the farm.

00:16:15.800 You get a car and driver. You get an apartment in the parliamentary buildings. I guess it's not in Center Block right now. You get all these wonderful things and a nice pay pump. So, of course, you're going to want that. That is real self-interest there.

00:16:32.640 Yeah, I think also, too. I mean, I have this incorrect impulse usually to assign all these things to ideology and principles and how people think. And that's where we go with the red Tory stuff. It's historically people who are progressive and maybe fiscally conservative, a Jean Charest type.

00:16:52.280 But when you really get down to it, there's egos and there's personality clashes. And a lot of this comes down to, I mean, Stephen Harper has this reputation as being distant or cold, but he was very good at caucus management, listening to all of their concerns and making sure people were happy. And if you can't do that, this is the kind of stuff that happens.

00:17:12.440 Yep. Well, it'll be interesting to see what happens next time. Look, it worked for Bill Casey. It worked for Scott Bryson. Others, they failed at it miserably.

00:17:23.500 Didn't work for Belinda that well. That ended up well, but anyway.

00:17:27.500 No, well, now she's, you know, outrunning a multinational, very rich company. So I think she's doing okay.

00:17:34.720 Yeah.

00:17:35.580 She's just not in politics. Is that a blessing or a curse?

00:17:38.040 Maybe that's a sign. Don't go into politics and you can run a multi-billion dollar company. Stay there.

00:17:42.120 It's better for you.

00:17:42.980 All right. Let's take a quick break. And when we come back, we'll talk about the actual budget

00:17:46.560 and problems that are on the horizon for Canada and our economy. More in moments.

00:17:52.680 This is Tristan Hopper, the host of Canada Did What?

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00:18:12.460 Everywhere you get podcasts.

00:18:14.480 It's not surprising that conservative leader Pierre Polyev didn't think much of the federal budget,

00:18:19.400 but, well, neither did anybody else. That's a real problem for Mark Carney.

00:18:24.000 Generational transformation? No.

00:18:26.800 Austerity? No.

00:18:28.540 Program spending is actually up 7.2% compared to last year.

00:18:32.280 Now, Mark Carney's been going around saying that Justin Trudeau's 8% annual spending increases were unsustainable.

00:18:39.120 So what does that make a 7.2% annual spending increase?

00:18:43.880 Just slightly less unsustainable?

00:18:46.700 Tasha, Stuart, I want to ask you guys about that.

00:18:49.320 What was your reaction when you saw the budget after all the hype,

00:18:53.140 and you look at it and you say, okay, it's not austerity,

00:18:56.600 and there's not really a lot of generational transformation here?

00:19:02.740 I looked at it, and the sea, first I floated away on a sea of red ink, which we expected.

00:19:07.540 It wasn't the $100 billion some people were threatening,

00:19:09.500 but it came in just shy of the $80 billion that we did.

00:19:12.160 It was higher than the parliamentary budget officer's $68 billion.

00:19:15.400 Yeah, it was, but people were saying $80 billion.

00:19:17.100 That number was floating around in the ether,

00:19:18.900 so I wasn't shocked by the number.

00:19:20.500 I was dismayed that it was true.

00:19:23.380 I was happy about one thing, which was spending on the military.

00:19:26.340 I'll say that up front.

00:19:27.720 They are spending a hell of a lot more.

00:19:29.660 They're spending a lot more on the troops.

00:19:30.920 They're spending on, we knew that $9 billion was coming this year

00:19:34.140 in additional funding for equipment,

00:19:35.980 but they're going to meet NATO's commitment of the 5% over time, which is good.

00:19:39.740 That is a good thing, but it's playing catch-up, let's be honest.

00:19:42.920 Previous governments did not invest enough and spend enough, so okay.

00:19:46.240 But at least that priority is there.

00:19:47.880 The rest of it, the housing stuff, the AI fund, you just hear money sloshing around there.

00:19:55.420 How is this going to be distributed?

00:19:57.400 The biggest problem I have with it is this notion of breaking it out into capital and operations.

00:20:02.780 I look at the fine print.

00:20:03.700 The operations get balanced in the next five years.

00:20:06.340 They do, operationally, because they're cutting government departments, 15% here, 8% there.

00:20:10.880 You're going to cut numbers.

00:20:12.620 I don't believe them.

00:20:13.260 I don't believe them.

00:20:13.500 Okay, well, the side is that.

00:20:14.580 And I'll tell you why, because they never make their projections,

00:20:19.720 and it's a bit like saying, I'll get sober next week.

00:20:23.120 Right.

00:20:23.500 Well, but the point is my making is this.

00:20:25.220 They claim they will.

00:20:26.080 They claim they will now.

00:20:27.080 It's the operational.

00:20:27.900 So they'll have something to crow about, like, oh, look, operate.

00:20:30.440 But in the background, they are dropping all this money on so-called,

00:20:34.440 and I say that, so-called capital expenditures,

00:20:36.520 which the deficit will be $56 billion even in five years from now.

00:20:40.380 It's not going down that much.

00:20:42.340 Who says these are capital things?

00:20:44.420 Is public housing a capital?

00:20:46.380 Like, there's operational things tied to that.

00:20:49.120 You cannot simply build a building and leave it there.

00:20:51.320 So there's going to be, like, to your point,

00:20:53.700 government operations are going to expand as a result of all this capital spending.

00:20:57.840 Are they rolling those operations into the capital part of it,

00:21:01.180 as in that's where they're including those numbers for people to manage these projects,

00:21:05.240 make sure that, you know, things don't fall apart down the road?

00:21:08.160 We don't know.

00:21:09.560 And that's what frustrates me.

00:21:11.140 Operations, like you said, it's a shell game.

00:21:12.760 They're saying operations will be fine over here.

00:21:15.140 The capital stuff, the big projects, I guarantee you,

00:21:18.280 I guarantee you that there's going to be operational stuff that they're hiding in there

00:21:21.680 because otherwise it doesn't make any sense.

00:21:24.520 You can't simply build stuff and leave it there.

00:21:26.800 So I am frustrated by this accounting trick they're doing to make themselves look good.

00:21:31.140 The real story is going to be, I think, a lot worse.

00:21:33.340 And I agree with you.

00:21:34.080 I don't even think they're going to get the government under control with operationally.

00:21:36.880 So we are, Canada and our children are going to be paying, you know,

00:21:41.320 up the wazoo for all this debt.

00:21:42.980 And what are we going to get for it?

00:21:44.200 That's not clear either.

00:21:45.000 Well, the debt services charge, Stuart, is $55.6 billion right now.

00:21:52.000 That's a billion dollars more than the federal health transfers.

00:21:55.260 And while federal health transfers go up from $54 billion to, I believe, about $68 billion over the,

00:22:00.840 you know, if you believe the government's projections.

00:22:02.960 And I've made it clear I don't believe them on anything.

00:22:05.460 It's not a partisan thing.

00:22:06.820 I don't believe any government's five-year projections because you can't predict that far ahead.

00:22:12.160 But if we take them at their face value, health spending will go from $54 to about $68.

00:22:18.360 But the debt services charge will go from $55 up until about what the deficit is now,

00:22:24.480 so about $79 billion, that's unsustainable.

00:22:29.160 Yeah.

00:22:29.400 And I mean, I think this is, we have this, I think, wrong discussion about government spending,

00:22:35.000 which is people will say, you know, we're not at a crisis.

00:22:37.660 We're better than our G7 compatriots on debt to GDP.

00:22:41.800 And we can sustain this for years.

00:22:44.000 But there really is the question of opportunity cost here, which is that

00:22:47.900 this number is a great number to look at.

00:22:50.400 The $76.1 billion in debt charges, where you ask the average Canadian and say,

00:22:56.340 can you think of better things to spend that money on than servicing debt?

00:23:00.580 I'm sure they will have a lot of ideas.

00:23:02.580 And I think we sometimes lose track of that, which is just because we're not on the verge of a crisis

00:23:08.660 doesn't mean things are rosy.

00:23:11.000 I remember being on the campaign trail with Carney.

00:23:13.960 You're right, Brian.

00:23:14.580 He brought up that 8% spending growth thing virtually every time he spoke.

00:23:18.920 And there was a McLean's profile about Carney, which said that some of his staffers who are

00:23:24.860 Trudeau people are uncomfortable with his kind of casual disdain for the Trudeau government.

00:23:29.740 And it's stuff like this that I think Carney has the casual disdain for.

00:23:34.440 But this didn't look a whole lot different.

00:23:36.880 And when you look at this budget, you take it.

00:23:38.820 8.8.

00:23:39.840 Yeah.

00:23:40.560 What's the difference?

00:23:42.060 I think there's some questions to answer there.

00:23:44.360 And they're going around saying now, well, this is just the start.

00:23:47.700 We're in the middle of a marathon here and there's a long way to go.

00:23:50.720 But, you know, fundamentally, it is hard to see difference in terms of the raw numbers of spending.

00:23:56.360 Yeah.

00:23:56.540 And, you know, I think next year they say they get program spending will only grow by 0.6%,

00:24:04.180 but then it goes up to 3.3%, you know, a few years out.

00:24:09.640 I think that they will be well above that.

00:24:12.520 So Fitch Rating Agency put out a warning.

00:24:17.420 And I want to read one part of it here because they state the Canadian government has a track

00:24:25.060 record of upward deficit revisions with subsequent budget updates consistently worse than prior

00:24:31.880 projections.

00:24:33.220 And earlier on in their statement, let me just find this part.

00:24:38.260 While Canada's rating is broadly stable, persistent fiscal expansion and a rising debt burden have

00:24:45.460 weakened its credit profile and could increase rating pressure over the medium term.

00:24:51.460 This may be exacerbated by persistent economic underperformance caused by tariff risks and

00:24:57.540 structural challenges, including low productivity.

00:25:00.860 Now, they've hit the nail on the head in my view here because we're still having far too many

00:25:08.260 people say, well, this is tariffs and this is Donald Trump.

00:25:11.000 Absolutely.

00:25:11.720 That's part of it.

00:25:12.420 But you don't have consistently underperformance from something that happened, started a couple

00:25:19.440 of months ago.

00:25:20.520 I mean, this is years of overspending, which we've just mentioned, Mark Carney, 8% annually.

00:25:26.820 He doesn't like it, but he's doing it.

00:25:29.640 Low productivity, bad regulatory and investment climate caused by government policy.

00:25:37.480 So, you know, we have created a bad situation and I don't see this budget doing enough to

00:25:45.100 make things better.

00:25:46.620 I agree with the super deduction for capital cost allowances.

00:25:51.020 I think that's a good thing, but that's a one-off.

00:25:54.320 I agree with getting rid of the 10% luxury tax.

00:25:57.460 It shut, you know, we actually had boatmakers leave Canada because they couldn't sell anymore.

00:26:03.160 Bombardier didn't sell a single jet to a Canadian in the five years that it was in place.

00:26:09.440 And it didn't bring in that much money.

00:26:11.260 So there are good things that they've done, but not enough and not bold enough compared

00:26:16.980 to what they've claimed.

00:26:19.440 You know, it's strange that my biggest complaint about Mark Carney and his government for the

00:26:23.900 past several months has been they don't live up to what they claim they're going to do.

00:26:28.960 They're not as bold as they claim.

00:26:30.280 And I want them to do what they said they would do.

00:26:33.180 Well, their version of bold, Brian, is just boldly opening the wallet.

00:26:38.960 That's like what we've learned.

00:26:40.120 It's not, you know, the bold notion that the bold...

00:26:43.240 I keep going back to housing because it's this...

00:26:45.380 Carney has said himself it's like this sort of a post-war.

00:26:47.740 We did this after World War II and we built houses and how great and we're going to do

00:26:51.240 the same thing.

00:26:51.900 And they put a catalog of prefab housing online.

00:26:55.780 Did you look at these things?

00:26:57.520 Would you want this in your neighborhood?

00:26:58.980 Would you want to live?

00:26:59.540 I mean, come on.

00:27:00.700 It's just...

00:27:01.480 It's like a kid with a crayon.

00:27:03.440 I'm appalled.

00:27:04.560 And the amount of money, billions and billions, like $16 billion, I think, is to the housing

00:27:08.660 piece.

00:27:09.680 Like, housing is a crisis of this government's making, of Trudeau's government's making,

00:27:15.000 of letting in too many people too fast in the last few years after the pandemic subsided

00:27:19.940 in 22.

00:27:20.800 Like, that is...

00:27:22.200 We are living a housing crisis because we had too many people.

00:27:25.660 And now the government's turning off that tap.

00:27:27.800 Fine.

00:27:28.320 But it's taken...

00:27:29.040 You know, there's still people in the system.

00:27:30.960 It's not going to be resolved tomorrow.

00:27:33.660 But yeah, rents are going down.

00:27:35.180 Toronto's having a condo crash.

00:27:37.280 Right?

00:27:37.860 The market is adjusting to less demand.

00:27:41.480 So the government's solution of like, oh, let's just throw money at this and build ugly

00:27:45.360 things in places and expect people to live there is not a bold vision.

00:27:49.580 I agree with you.

00:27:50.220 It's bizarre.

00:27:51.000 It's actually ignoring market forces.

00:27:52.820 It is not bold at all.

00:27:54.120 The military piece is bold.

00:27:56.020 That I'd come back to.

00:27:56.880 I like that.

00:27:57.800 But again, overdue.

00:27:59.020 But other stuff is like, they want to look like they're doing something, but it's not

00:28:03.320 the right solution.

00:28:04.420 And it's very expensive.

00:28:06.180 Stuart, I think it was Bill Curry from the Globe and Mail the morning after the budget

00:28:10.120 was released actually said to Carney, did you over hype and under deliver this budget?

00:28:16.740 And Carney literally, that was his reaction.

00:28:20.800 What's that?

00:28:21.800 And spoke.

00:28:22.680 But I'd say that Bill was right.

00:28:26.140 He overhyped this.

00:28:27.800 I mean, he really, really tried to sell this.

00:28:30.420 And then you open it up and you're like, I don't see anything that...

00:28:35.040 And when you've got Susan Delacorte, Andrew Coyne, and myself all agreeing that this budget

00:28:40.440 falls short of any sort of vision, if you can get the three of us agreeing on that, that's

00:28:45.380 a bad sign for the Liberal government.

00:28:47.560 Yeah.

00:28:47.860 And the question, too, of which hype are you thinking about, which is he mentioned this

00:28:52.680 would be an austerity budget that would demand sacrifices from Canadians.

00:28:57.000 I mean, I read the whole budget.

00:28:59.640 I don't feel like I'm making many sacrifices because of this budget.

00:29:02.960 And I would say the only people who may be feeling that way are public servants who may

00:29:08.280 be suffering for some cuts.

00:29:09.940 But even that, if it's mostly early retirements, that's not the sort of dystopian world that

00:29:17.220 we were expecting based on Carney's speeches.

00:29:19.120 So, you know, the boldness stuff, too, I think, is interesting because, you know, economists,

00:29:25.380 someone like Don Drummond has been quoted in the media saying, this is more of a business

00:29:29.640 friendly budget than Justin Trudeau would do.

00:29:32.040 But the nature of it, I think, is it's a liberal way of doing that, which is using the government

00:29:37.740 to fund these things.

00:29:39.420 Or in just like the major projects office, they're not changing bad regulations.

00:29:44.700 They're just implementing temporary loopholes for them.

00:29:47.960 So it really isn't going whole hog on any of this.

00:29:51.400 And I think Carney's trying to please too many people.

00:29:53.880 He's got his own liberal base that, you know, some of this stuff is anathema to.

00:29:57.740 And then he's got the business community and he isn't actually going fully one way.

00:30:01.900 The business community is not happy with the immigration stuff, right?

00:30:04.460 So he's throwing them a lot of bones in terms of industrial policy, subsidies, supports.

00:30:09.860 Like you mentioned, the capital cost allowance.

00:30:11.500 OK, that makes sense.

00:30:12.300 Yes.

00:30:12.520 But there's other stuff in there of supporting to various industries with various with programs,

00:30:19.440 right?

00:30:19.700 Which just distribute money.

00:30:21.200 This is just to pay them off for the fact that, yeah, we're not going to let you have

00:30:25.100 all these cheap workers that you've been screaming about and you keep screaming about.

00:30:28.160 And because it's unbalanced other things.

00:30:31.980 So it is a business friendly budget in that sense, in the sense that business will like parts

00:30:36.160 of it.

00:30:36.440 But is it the best strategy to combat the productivity problem you're talking about, Brian?

00:30:40.940 No, it's not.

00:30:42.120 It's not the best strategy to deal with what ails us, which is that, yeah, we've had a

00:30:46.800 productivity problem for a long time because businesses aren't investing because they get

00:30:50.460 free handouts from the government.

00:30:51.520 Why would they?

00:30:52.060 If you're going to get money to do stuff the way you're already doing it, why would you

00:30:55.060 all, you know, decide to make profits and reinvest them and make that effort and demand

00:30:59.560 more from your employees?

00:31:01.220 You know, other other countries like Germany, Japan, their employees work harder than they do

00:31:04.620 here.

00:31:05.020 Let's be honest.

00:31:05.640 Or they have better equipment to help them be more productive.

00:31:08.820 Yeah.

00:31:08.980 Or they also have better expectations.

00:31:10.900 There's higher expectations of what they have to deliver.

00:31:13.880 We don't, you know, and that's on us too, you know.

00:31:20.820 It's a culture thing as well.

00:31:22.440 And I don't know how you change that through government, but you don't do it by just giving

00:31:25.000 people money.

00:31:25.840 They're claiming that corporate Canada will have the lowest marginal and effective tax rate

00:31:32.260 of any in the G7.

00:31:34.520 And I wish that were true because going back to Sir Wilfrid Laurier, it's been Canadian

00:31:40.140 industrial policy to have a lower tax rate than our competitors so that we're more, more

00:31:45.520 attractive place for people to come and invest.

00:31:47.580 But they only get to that if you take full advantage of the super deduction.

00:31:53.060 So you have to invest a ton of money into your company and write it all off in one year and

00:32:01.160 then your taxes go back up to where they were before.

00:32:03.220 So that's not a long-term solution.

00:32:04.780 As I say, I support the principle.

00:32:08.360 Stephen Harper's done this before.

00:32:09.620 Jean Chrétien's done it before.

00:32:11.100 It can help spur investment and growth.

00:32:13.900 And that's good.

00:32:14.940 But it is not going to be the long term.

00:32:17.380 And I put out a piece before the budget, five tax changes Mark Carney should make but

00:32:21.840 probably won't.

00:32:23.040 And he didn't make any of them.

00:32:24.240 And I'm not shocked.

00:32:25.200 But it included changes to the corporate tax rate to lower it.

00:32:29.860 I know that's not populist and popular, but it's a smart thing to do.

00:32:34.240 But one that would really not be popular is when I said the personal income tax rates have

00:32:41.380 to change and not by saying, well, let's increase the basic personal exemption we all get.

00:32:46.620 People at the top end need to pay lower taxes as well.

00:32:50.440 And here's why.

00:32:51.880 We're trying to attract top talent.

00:32:54.720 Well, in California, the high tax jurisdiction of California, the top tax rate kicks in at

00:33:02.140 over $600,000.

00:33:04.980 Federally in Canada, it's $253,000.

00:33:09.000 And in Ontario, it's $220,000.

00:33:12.380 If you're trying to attract top talent, they're making in that pay range or more.

00:33:17.740 And we're saying, well, you're just going to have to pay more.

00:33:20.440 I looked at what you would pay in taxes if you were making that top 253 number.

00:33:28.280 In Ontario, in California, you would save $20,000 a year and you'd have better weather.

00:33:35.400 You'd be spending it on health care, Mighty Brian.

00:33:37.480 You'd be spending that and more on private health care insurance.

00:33:39.820 It depends.

00:33:40.660 If you're living in California, you would.

00:33:41.740 A lot of companies offer very good benefits packages.

00:33:44.840 So if you're working for a company, you may not be.

00:33:47.440 If you're an entrepreneur, you might.

00:33:48.000 If you're an entrepreneur or something.

00:33:49.140 Yeah.

00:33:49.500 Yeah, exactly.

00:33:50.140 So there are trade-offs, but I agree with you in the large picture.

00:33:53.320 Yeah, there can be trade-offs.

00:33:54.720 And once you go higher towards half a million a year, it's even bigger.

00:33:59.900 And those are the people that we need to be investing in small startups and being founders

00:34:04.860 and entrepreneurs.

00:34:05.840 And we're basically saying to them, well, go south, young man.

00:34:10.300 Go south.

00:34:11.900 Yeah.

00:34:12.280 But don't go to New York City because they don't want billionaires there.

00:34:14.460 Maybe we'll get them.

00:34:15.480 We'll get the refugees. 1.00

00:34:17.640 Yeah.

00:34:18.240 Come here.

00:34:19.100 Come here.

00:34:19.480 It's not far.

00:34:19.940 This is why we should be doing these changes because you've got all the people with the

00:34:23.440 H-1B visas that are being rejected.

00:34:25.540 You've got all these other things.

00:34:27.160 Okay.

00:34:27.340 Make the changes so that the people say, I'll go to Canada.

00:34:30.500 Yeah, it's worth two.

00:34:32.600 You have to remember this stuff is corporate tax is one factor, but it's not the only factor.

00:34:38.080 If you come into Canada happy about our corporate tax rate, you still have to then deal with

00:34:42.820 the Canadian regulatory environment.

00:34:44.980 And that costs money and it also gives you a headache as a business.

00:34:49.020 So all these things are factors.

00:34:51.660 And human capital is also a huge thing, which I think in Canada we don't exploit the way we

00:34:56.420 should.

00:34:57.840 Can I say one other thing about the budget that bugged me?

00:34:59.640 Sure.

00:34:59.800 Is that okay?

00:35:00.660 Yeah.

00:35:00.840 The gender lens was there again. 1.00

00:35:02.760 Every section had the little gender lens of how this is affecting women. 0.56

00:35:06.860 And as a woman, I say, it irritates me.

00:35:09.080 Why is that lens, that primordial lens?

00:35:12.000 Why are you so sexist?

00:35:12.960 It's a hangover from the Trudeau era.

00:35:14.220 Why are you so sexist?

00:35:16.120 Why am I so sexist?

00:35:17.180 Because I can be.

00:35:18.320 I can.

00:35:18.820 Here we are.

00:35:19.740 It's a hangover from the Trudeau era.

00:35:21.780 They started this gender budgeting and stuff.

00:35:24.500 And I just looked at this and I thought, and some of the stuff that was in there too,

00:35:27.780 is this really going to help women?

00:35:30.020 And what is the point of this?

00:35:31.400 How much money did you spend on bureaucrats to gender lens this budget? 1.00

00:35:35.180 When the real lens that we should be applying on this budget is national security and trade.

00:35:40.940 Like those are the two challenges we have right now.

00:35:44.040 You know, women are overrepresented in universities. 1.00

00:35:46.600 Women are actually, young women without children are out earning young men without children. 0.75

00:35:51.840 We're actually doing better, folks.

00:35:53.940 Kids throw a spanner in the works, 100%.

00:35:56.200 But there's this notion that women are so hard done by that we have to absolutely have this. 0.56

00:36:00.180 It irks me.

00:36:01.260 And I was almost surprised that Carney had the opportunity to get rid of it because

00:36:06.480 he's a new guy in the chair.

00:36:08.560 But obviously, he still has a lot of the old people still, you know, holding the pen on stuff. 1.00

00:36:13.260 And he probably just, I don't know, gave it away or let that.

00:36:16.280 I mean, there was no, there wasn't a climate lens, at least.

00:36:18.340 There wasn't that.

00:36:18.980 I thought maybe he might do that.

00:36:20.260 But I guess that's like, he's abandoned that one.

00:36:23.420 Industrial carbon tax, though, still got to say, that's still there.

00:36:27.360 And that didn't, that was a place he also could have made some moves.

00:36:33.460 But he traded that off for, you know, carbon capture funding, yay.

00:36:37.160 The craziest story I ever heard of the gender-based analysis, it was GBA, gender-based analysis

00:36:43.980 plus, because they added to it a couple of years ago.

00:36:47.520 And so they have to look at everything through how it affects different groups by gender,

00:36:52.840 et cetera, including gender identity.

00:36:55.340 And on this GBA plus analysis, we sent GBA plus analysts to Ukraine to help train them

00:37:03.940 for their war.

00:37:05.440 Because when you're fighting a shooting war with Russia, what you really need to be doing 0.96

00:37:11.080 is looking at it from a gender-based analysis.

00:37:14.580 That's how far the Trudeau guys went on this.

00:37:17.720 I think I remember hearing that, actually.

00:37:19.380 I did hear about something that we had sent people to Ukraine.

00:37:22.660 They must have been looking at us like we had three heads.

00:37:26.640 You're sending, no, we need javelins.

00:37:29.120 We need, you know, guns.

00:37:31.580 Yeah.

00:37:31.920 And the women are holding the guns, by the way. 1.00

00:37:33.820 The women are shooting, too, right? 0.77

00:37:35.500 They're there.

00:37:36.340 Yeah.

00:37:36.940 It's, look, I keep saying we have to hope that he does better and succeeds, because if

00:37:42.360 not, the country doesn't.

00:37:44.060 Right.

00:37:44.380 I would give this budget overall a failing grade.

00:37:47.880 Quickly from both of you, failing grade, passing grade.

00:37:52.380 I would say failing grade.

00:37:54.440 Failing, fails to live up to the hype, as we pointed out, and fails to be fiscally responsible.

00:38:00.940 You know, he didn't have to do the Tories.

00:38:02.520 We're talking about $42 billion.

00:38:04.720 He didn't have to go that low, but he should have, you know, he should have come in somewhere

00:38:09.260 in the middle at the very least, and maybe as low as they wanted.

00:38:12.000 But, I mean, the point is that he should have made the priority cutting the government,

00:38:15.820 streamlining it, and not splashing out on stuff that will not help.

00:38:19.200 That's my, that bothers me.

00:38:20.520 The conservative request for a $42 billion deficit was based off of their projections from

00:38:25.380 last December.

00:38:27.020 So it's not like they were being, oh, let's slash and burn everything.

00:38:31.560 It's what the government projected last December.

00:38:34.140 Yeah, well, things have changed since December, too, Brian.

00:38:36.160 I mean, we, you know, we have a difficult situation with the U.S.

00:38:38.020 And I think the security piece, like I said, I'd come back to it again, but it was important.

00:38:42.220 And it will generate economic well-being as well.

00:38:45.140 Stuart, are you handing out any gold stars for this budget?

00:38:48.260 I will say the thing that did annoy me the most was a, it's a Trudeau tick that whenever

00:38:56.320 there was some kind of revenue windfall, something they didn't expect, it just went out the

00:39:00.720 door immediately.

00:39:01.220 Like, it would just, like, they didn't even hold it for a few minutes before it went back

00:39:05.460 out the door.

00:39:06.080 And you did notice that in this budget.

00:39:08.480 And I think this is definitely something to keep an eye on, that they got a bit of a windfall

00:39:12.240 on corporate tax revenues compared to last year's projections.

00:39:15.920 They got, like, nearly $8 billion more than they expected.

00:39:19.300 And that mostly covers the damage from, the economic damage from revenues that were hurt by

00:39:25.200 global trade, Trump, basically.

00:39:28.440 So they could have just said, OK, well, we broke even on that.

00:39:32.440 And now maybe we'll do a little better on the deficit.

00:39:34.340 But they couldn't.

00:39:35.800 They just had to spend it.

00:39:36.760 And I don't know if that is Carney's brand.

00:39:39.280 And if that keeps happening, then it could be trouble for them.

00:39:41.620 Yeah, I will say, having reviewed the fall economic statement in Ontario, their revenue

00:39:47.440 came in about $3 billion more.

00:39:49.480 They spent about $2 billion, including on things like, you know, forest firefighting and things

00:39:55.000 like that.

00:39:55.760 OK, well, you've got to do that.

00:39:58.280 But they spent about $2 billion and reduced their deficit projection by $1 billion.

00:40:01.800 So, you know, that's, you know, that's a better model.

00:40:05.400 And did they enter Eurovision, Brian?

00:40:06.960 Are they entering in Ontario?

00:40:07.920 We didn't talk about Euro.

00:40:09.220 OK, quick round.

00:40:09.740 We have to talk about Eurovision.

00:40:11.180 Come on.

00:40:11.400 Vision.

00:40:11.940 Eurovision.

00:40:12.460 Eurovision Song Contest.

00:40:14.300 Outside of ABBA and Celine Dion, everything I've ever heard from this competition is absolute 0.77

00:40:19.800 dreck. 0.97

00:40:20.900 It's horrible.

00:40:22.500 It's cringeworthy.

00:40:24.360 Should we be joining, Stuart?

00:40:27.660 Well, I was actually born in Scotland.

00:40:30.220 I am European and much like Mark Carney.

00:40:33.900 You're European. 0.92

00:40:35.260 I wrote a piece for the newsletter that Tash and I share, Political Hack, about Carney's

00:40:40.460 Anglophilia.

00:40:41.620 And when I started going through all of the instances of his obsession with England, it

00:40:46.800 actually surprised me.

00:40:47.760 And the thing that broke me and made me want to write it is that he did an interview with

00:40:52.060 a British broadcaster and he said aluminium instead of aluminium.

00:40:56.220 He says aluminium in his speeches in Canada, but he code switches when he talks to a Brit.

00:41:01.820 And, you know, he also wears these like Savile Row London suits with no belt loops because

00:41:07.940 they're so well tailored that you don't need a belt to wear them.

00:41:11.120 And there just is on and on and on and on these little instances of his obsession with

00:41:15.960 England.

00:41:16.200 And so when I saw that in the budget, it's actually one of the only silly things in the

00:41:20.780 budget actually is a more serious budget than we're used to than the Trudeau years.

00:41:24.560 But that made me wonder, is this Mark Carney?

00:41:28.180 He got into Eurovision when he was in England.

00:41:30.260 And this is the expression of that.

00:41:32.520 So we're joining the European Union.

00:41:34.140 You know, don't you know, like Canada?

00:41:35.360 I mean, we're expanding trade relations.

00:41:36.720 So maybe he sees that as a way to diversify from the US.

00:41:39.580 Come on, 10 of the 27 won't even ratify the deal because they're so pissed off at us on

00:41:46.420 things like dairy.

00:41:47.300 But were they finalists, Brian?

00:41:48.900 Maybe they weren't finalists and they're mad.

00:41:51.720 Eurovision Song Contest.

00:41:53.440 Ugh.

00:41:55.160 And it comes with an extra hundred.

00:41:56.060 It'll be on CBC now.

00:41:57.300 It'll be on CBC.

00:41:58.260 Well, it comes with an extra hundred.

00:41:59.360 Which is also getting money.

00:42:00.520 An extra hundred and fifty million for CBC.

00:42:03.380 For CBC.

00:42:04.200 And you mentioned the Anglophile bit.

00:42:07.380 But I'm actually offended by the change in spelling.

00:42:11.460 Because Canadian English, you know, standardized English developed in different countries in

00:42:17.680 different ways.

00:42:18.260 And we are between the Brits and the Americans. 0.86

00:42:21.020 And we spell color with a U, but we use Z a lot instead of S.

00:42:25.820 And Carney's just like, no, we will only use English spelling.

00:42:29.060 And you see that in the budget and you read it.

00:42:31.560 I don't know about you guys, but I was like jarred by some of it.

00:42:34.560 But it's just another, it's another, it's a carnification there.

00:42:39.080 And also, like, Brian, I'm sure you noticed too, we recognized Palestine with an S, right?

00:42:44.540 Like, even in those really important official documents, he's spelling these words with an S.

00:42:50.360 Well, we shall see if he's more serious next time.

00:42:53.000 And if he lives up to the hype next time.

00:42:55.120 Thanks to both of you.

00:42:56.620 And of course, do subscribe to the Political Hack newsletter.

00:42:59.920 If you don't already, you can find it at nationalpost.com.

00:43:02.660 Make sure you do subscribe.

00:43:04.100 Full Comment is a post-media podcast.

00:43:06.340 My name's Brian Lilly, your host.

00:43:08.220 This episode was produced by Andre Pru, theme music by Bryce Hall.

00:43:12.020 Kevin Libin is the executive producer.

00:43:13.920 Please help us out by hitting the subscribe button, leaving a review,

00:43:18.020 emailing this to your Aunt May and Whitby, and letting your friends know about us.

00:43:22.060 Until next time, I'm Brian Lilly.

00:43:23.620 Here's that clip from Canada Did What?

00:43:30.300 I promised you.

00:43:33.380 In the late 1960s, you have members of the Montreal Police who can spend their entire shift rushing from one FLQ bombing to another.

00:43:42.480 Here's how New Year's Eve 1968 played out for Robert Coté, a member of the Montreal Police Bomb Squad,

00:43:50.120 which put him at the forefront of fighting the FLQ during this period.

00:43:54.360 He was supposed to be at home with his wife, who had just miscarried twin daughters.

00:43:59.260 But instead, at 11pm, he's called out to Montreal City Hall to investigate a bomb that had just gone off.

00:44:05.340 He's en route with sirens blaring when he's told,

00:44:08.800 actually, don't bother with the exploded bomb, there's an unexploded bomb on the other side of City Hall you have to defuse.

00:44:16.700 And then, right after snipping the wires on the City Hall bomb,

00:44:20.560 Coté has to speed west, where a third bomb has just exploded outside a federal building.

00:44:26.980 The bombing started in April and May of 1963.

00:44:32.140 That's when the first bombings took place.

00:44:33.780 And the Mailbox bombings were the most famous part of the whole thing,

00:44:38.500 which was basically on the Thursday night and Friday night,

00:44:42.160 kneading into the Victoria Day weekend in 1963.

00:44:46.760 So, and initially, they started attacking these symbols of federalism, federal institutions,

00:44:52.860 whether it was a Montreal Post Office or a Revenue Canada.

00:44:56.600 But the bombings escalated as time went on.

00:44:59.600 And in terms of the size of the bombs and the powerfulness of these bombs.

00:45:06.320 If you want to hear the rest of the story,

00:45:08.580 make sure you subscribe to Canada Did What?

00:45:11.620 Everywhere you get your podcasts.

Full Comment - November 10, 2025

Mark Carney shoots blanks, again

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