00:00:00.000welcome everybody to 2025 i think this is my first live stream of 2025 hope you had a good
00:00:13.120holiday season i'm here with the one and only randy hillier former mpp here in ontario for uh
00:00:21.280frontenac kingston and lanark county is that right i might have got the order wrong
00:00:26.560Pretty close. It usually goes Lanark, Frontenac, and Kingston. But other than the order, you got the words correct.
00:00:35.200Fantastic. So I am ready to become an American patriot. Maybe I, I might be, be, you know, assume we might be all American. We're going to be talking all about this, this topic of being annexed to America. Is this good for Canadians? Is this bad for Canadians giving up our sovereignty to daddy Trump?
00:00:57.220We're going to be talking about this from the financial angle, from the Canadian identity
00:01:14.980What did you think of the conversation that came with that Twitter space, Randy?
00:01:20.060Oh, I think it was exceptionally good.
00:01:22.740you know i've not done a lot of twitter spaces but it was a good quality i believe high caliber
00:01:30.980conversation in large part a lot of good discussion came up and i think some of the unseen advantages
00:01:42.820were also developed and came out the conversations about how canada has been in a state of
00:01:50.180dysfunction for a long time and also a paralysis of constitutional change so it was good that
00:01:58.660this should be seen as an opportunity to speak to a lot of the failings that are going on in our
00:02:09.380in our own governance as well as looking at other options and i and i should add just for a moment
00:02:15.060Greg, you know, the threat of tariffs and the annexation has been present throughout our entire history.
00:02:28.100Our first free trade debate and threat goes back to the 1830s.
00:02:36.060And you may, throughout the 1800s, early 1900s, whether it came in the phrase of reciprocity or John A. McDonald's, the old flag, the old nation, the old policy slogan, up until Brian Mulroney's NAFTA discussions, these have been underway throughout our entire history.
00:03:02.480And I would say that they have always been used on both sides of the border, but especially here to coerce and cajole Canadians to feel threatened by the Americans and to, you know, there's the boogeyman down below the 49th.
00:03:26.720And it has been used by all our political parties as a means to solidify and protect their exclusivity on the governance of our country.
00:03:49.160and some might even say and i would say um protect their protection racket that the political
00:03:56.760establishment operate in this country okay uh so so you're a dirty you're a dirty yank you're a0.79
00:04:04.720traitor you're you're sympathetic to these dirty yank i'm just i'm just kidding but uh actually i0.85
00:04:09.980found out we're not live yet on facebook uh your assistant might need the code um if you want to0.57
00:04:17.220get that over to him real quick sorry about that we tried to test that beforehand but for those
00:04:22.380who don't know we are streaming on youtube on x slash twitter and we will be starting up soon on
00:04:29.380the one and only facebook.com you may have seen can i leave this show for a moment and see if i
00:04:36.700can do this or i'm not sure how uh if you want i could mute you and you could just tell me and
00:04:43.120then i could relay it to our friend if you want does that work that'll work
00:04:48.220all right all righty we're back um yeah so i um let's let's start with this question because i
00:09:09.280Are you proposing that Canada as a whole join or be annexed as one state?
00:09:16.880Or are you talking about each of our provinces joining as a separate state, each with their own elected senators and each with their own congressional seats?
00:09:31.340Are you proposing that this be done through referendums?
00:09:35.160You know, so I sent off that letter to Trump to ask for some clarification so that Canadians can actually make an informed choice, or at least before you accept or reject a proposal, you need to have some meat on the bones and some details.
00:09:57.860So I've sent that off. And I think it's, these are important considerations. You know, obviously, well, I spelled it out. I think this idea of having a singular state called Canada is a, would be a foolhardy idea.
00:10:25.960But there may be some merit to it if each province would join as a separate state.
00:10:36.460But I think, you know, the other thing that is really important to me, Greg, is that I find such astonishing and perplexing, you know, that here all our political establishment parties for decades.
00:10:55.400And I mean, for most of my lifetime, have been degrading, diminishing, debasing, and even going so far as Justin Trudeau saying that there is no Canadian identity.
00:11:10.520And now, and for the last couple of years, we've kept our flag at half mass because we're supposed to be ashamed of our heritage and our history.
00:11:20.620And now, with Trump's single words of a 51st state, we all are supposed to rally around this flag that we've been ashamed of for so long, and who Trudeau says, we have no identity.
00:11:37.400Now, this is the zenith of hypocrisy, in my view, that, and it's not just Trudeau, we have been willing to accept an invasion of immigration, of rampant and uncontrolled immigration to that diminishes and dilutes our Canadian heritage and our identity.
00:11:59.700but we're supposed to fear the americans uh you know i can't reconcile those that the paradox of
00:12:07.940the behaviors and actions of our established political parties with their words
00:12:14.900very very well said and we had conversations before this interview where you were saying
00:12:22.660this is a good opportunity to talk about canadian identity and maybe reassert our canadian identity
00:12:27.900and ironically though it's left-wingers who are trying to do that more so it seems
00:24:50.220We're going to keep on going down this topic of getting annexed by America.
00:24:56.620Before we kind of go back into the pros and cons, I kind of wanted to take a step back
00:25:01.300to you know realistically do you think this is actually the intention of trump or do you think
00:25:08.960this is more of a sort of uh pr sort of um tactic negotiation tactic if you will the story i heard
00:25:16.960is he really wants to get greenland but he's just putting trump on or canada on the table
00:25:21.920to kind of you know be more more boisterous with his negotiations it's hard to speak to somebody's
00:25:30.080motivations and no one can do anything other than speculate on that and and it's not
00:25:38.220you know are my speculations any have any greater value or weight than your speculations
00:25:45.900but i would say that there i think trump understands that there's a great geopolitical
00:25:51.680problem that the Americans are facing with the rising BRICS alliance and the very significant
00:26:02.220pressures being applied on the U.S. dollar. So, you know, I'm not sure what all his motivations
00:26:14.760are but you can see um there is we are moving away from the unipolar uh american hegemony
00:26:26.540uh of the world into a more multipolar uh world and um and i think yeah both all of these the
00:26:37.780the his musings on panama on greenland and on canada may all be aligned with or part of this
00:26:50.680changing geopolitical world that we're living in so when it comes to the bricks thing
00:26:57.920how is us you know america and canada having a good tight relationship good trade relations
00:27:06.300how how does that not help us compete with bricks why does it have to be us being consumed by
00:27:13.040america for us to you know protect ourselves from the the threat of bricks i don't know why you use
00:27:19.900the word consumed by them like if we came in as equal uh and and truly representative uh states
00:27:29.180uh with representative democracies is that being consumed by um i mean during the space
00:27:36.700during the space last night with uh bruce party he said himself that you know we're coming into
00:27:42.080this negotiation from not from a place of strength like we're coming in from the people
00:27:47.320with less cards in our hands less less sort of place to make uh and you know at the end of the
00:27:53.920it's about power and when it comes to marketers when it comes to business when it comes to
00:28:01.660politics i really think the states are much better at all those things and i think we would get the
00:28:07.200short end of the stick at every single negotiation table when it comes to setting up how this would
00:28:11.700work well well right now we're running away from the table greg we don't we're fearful of the table
00:28:18.880Like we won't even go near it. And that's, you know, I think that puts us in a very, very dangerous and precarious position when you won't even face the adversity and sit down and challenge them.
00:28:34.460And I have a slightly different view about our abilities as Canadians dealing with the Americans.0.75
00:28:43.440We have shown throughout our history that we may not be as boastful about our abilities.
00:28:53.260We may not be as exuberant about our abilities.
00:28:57.840But there's clearly through our history, we have shown that we're a very resilient and very tough, even though quiet culture.
00:29:08.160And, you know, when the Americans needed toughness to keep the communist Chinese from overrunning their positions in Korea, it was the Canadians who held that cap young and went back.
00:29:27.840down um so you know and we have a long proud uh history uh and that didn't just come about because
00:29:35.600well we're sort of lucky and we're sort of just in the right place at the right time um
00:29:41.760canada does indeed have this very unique uh um history and culture of being again not not boastful
00:29:52.000but being bloody well tough and not backing down so um you know we've gone through negotiations
00:29:59.980with the americans uh throughout our history um why would we think that we're incapable
00:30:06.940or less than able to go through negotiations again well is do you think this is a strong
00:30:14.920negotiation tactic from doug ford he's got the hat he's got the uh you know he's doing a press
00:30:20.320conference um let's say you're you're in doug ford's shoes or you're in you know um what what
00:30:28.440would you do in response to this if you had the freedom of course and you weren't shackled by some
00:30:33.080establishment party uh you know what what would your response be or would it be simply what you
00:30:38.540did which was sending a letter to trump to ask about the specifics of the arrangement
00:30:41.680yeah i sit down and talk uh when somebody's offering up a proposal you sit down and talk
00:30:48.480You know, I certainly wouldn't go out to Donald Trump and say, listen, Donald, we're going to sacrifice Alberta, Saskatchewan and our Western provinces just so I can look tough and present some optics that I'm a tough guy.
00:31:08.160um you know and that's what he's doing here he's just presenting a uh um a false uh but important
00:31:18.300um pr view to the canadian you know rally around the flag and i'll be holding the flag
00:31:25.960says doug uh doug ford uh even though he's got half masked the whole time that he's standing
00:31:31.560there so um and putting the crews to everybody else i i feel like it's completely insulting
00:31:37.940for any canadian politician to wear a hat that says we're not for sale like you haven't sold
00:31:46.840out the canadian people in one way or another doug ford you know like that you know what i mean
00:31:51.400well this is you know in my time in politics i've often used a term that
00:31:56.480you know that you should think of political parties our established political parties
00:32:01.980is nothing less than or different than a crime family and and they run a protection racket and
00:32:09.260you know and really if you look at the numbers in canada now over half of our total gdp
00:32:17.740is public sector spending by our municipal provincial and federal government see they
00:32:23.180They consume over 50% of the earnings and the efforts of all Canadians.
00:32:31.240You know, who is attacking our families?
00:32:34.980Is it Trump or is it our political parties?
00:32:39.720Who is creating the homelessness that is rampant and escalating in our country?
00:32:45.440Is it Trump or is it our political parties?
00:32:50.560Who is it making it that it's impossible for anybody under the age of 40 in this country to be able to afford to buy a single family home and to afford to have a family?
00:33:03.540It's not Trump and it's not the United States who's causing that.
00:33:07.240That's our own established political parties.0.98
00:33:10.540Who's destroying and promoting this gender dysphoria and attacking our children?1.00
00:33:19.480Is it the Americans or is it our own established political parties?0.99
00:33:24.000But they want us to fear Donald Trump, even though they have savaged and ravaged and plundered the Canadian population to a degree.
00:33:34.180not you know it's hard to see another um western liberal democracy being so viciously plundered0.67
00:33:44.080uh as it is in kenda yeah i mean you you make you make a great argument there you know who's
00:33:51.220the real enemy what what has trump done to you um but then again one could say well he hasn't
00:33:57.080had the trump yes he hasn't had the opportunity to uh you know screw us over yet but i do want to
00:34:02.940uh even biden like it was biden causing these things or or before him uh obama or whatnot
00:34:11.900no these are the policies that have been uh propagated promoted and entrenched by both
00:34:19.180liberal and conservatives and supported by the ndp uh party in canada so like there's there's been
00:34:27.820no choice for a long time there's been no political choice for a long time
00:34:34.860in kenda all the three major parties are all on the same agenda yeah there's there's no doubt
00:34:43.020about that there's no doubt about that and you know i i just i i find the you know maybe maybe
00:34:50.620we won't even have a choice and maybe we like we will have to become part of america i don't know
00:34:55.900But as someone who's been trying to, you know, invigorate people to give a fuck about Canada, part of my language.
00:35:04.440But ever since I've joined Canadian politics, it's like pulling teeth to try to get people to actually care about this place.
00:35:09.980Because a lot of the time we have Americanized media.
00:35:12.880They care more about the Mueller scandal or all this stuff about an American policy or an American political scandal.
00:35:21.600Not so much about the stuff going on here.
00:40:07.360Why is it a taboo subject for these Ottawa creatures?
00:40:11.220Well, we've created this, like our media.
00:40:14.040I don't know if you were around or how much you were paying attention during the late 70s and early 80s with the originally the patriation and then the Charlottetown and the Meech Lake Accords.
00:40:26.920Like, it really was put forth as that this is a crisis, that this is, you know, it's an overwhelming mountain that no normal mortal man or woman can climb up this constitutional mountain that we have here.
00:40:48.700um and and you better just uh stay at home and uh you know we will threaten the breakup of our
00:40:58.180nation if we even begin to engage in a discussion on constitutional reform i'm just yeah no i'm just
00:41:08.700gonna bring that up real quick because i i i'm not aware of this piece of history maybe we can
00:41:13.360you know continue to talk about it because it sounds interesting the meets lake accord in 1987
00:41:17.660Prime Minister Brian Mulroney attempted to win Quebec's consent
01:04:06.040um well sorry donald um uh we're we you can only give 25 000 we don't want you to be able to
01:04:14.680uh unduly influence your campaign so we're we've got a limit of 25 000 uh yeah um and and therefore
01:04:23.320you get into the this network where the lobbyists are the only that's the network that can generate
01:04:31.720That number of people, that number of lawyers and legal partners and engineers at SNC-Lavalin or partners at McCarthy-Tetro or Rose-Fulton-Northbry, it's only the lobbyists who can choose who will be a potential leader.
01:04:57.340uh for and that's to say that's a similar system for the conservative party as well
01:05:03.200now um this idea of of uh i i was i was thinking there earlier when we were talking about you
01:05:12.060better get back to that question from emma uh we will we will we will get it in a second guys
01:05:19.320if you have any questions for uh randy hillier then please send in a super chat uh we will get
01:05:25.880to emma's question in just a second but uh you know i don't know if this is such a good idea
01:05:31.580randy because you know you're you're you're kind of considered a dissident you're kind of considered
01:05:35.860a troublemaker and i mean would you rather have the csis bothering you or cia i think i think i'd
01:05:43.860rather kind of have something more amateur like csis than than the cia kind of giving you a tough
01:05:50.000time for speaking out you know what i'm saying maybe we should rethink this the day i fear my
01:05:56.540government um um i am no longer living in a democracy greg um yeah i will never live in fear
01:06:05.920of my government um you know that's just uh um that's maybe what they want you to do
01:10:19.740But you can certainly make the argument that this is, you know, taking away freedom of speech or freedom of sort of information flows when the federal government is imposing something like this.
01:10:30.580Well, listen, I think we better be fearful of technology because I don't think we have a very good handle on it.
01:10:38.300And it's moving at that speed that we can't comprehend.
01:10:43.380But I would say to Emma, are you aware that our Canadian federal government has a policy statement out and a whole directorate engaged in what they call biodigital convergence?
01:11:00.640Um, our own government is seeing, uh, the need to converge us as, uh, biological human beings, uh, with digital, um, um, um, and artificial intelligence, um, you know, that is underway.
01:11:21.540That's, that's, you know, our governments are engaged in a lot of things that, uh, the, um, people are talking about some of the things that we can see.
01:11:30.440the digital central bank currencies um digital ids our artificial intelligence but our own
01:11:39.240countries our own governments are uh looking well beyond that and looking at the day when um
01:11:47.160well you and i greg wouldn't actually be having this conversation but the board would be having
01:11:53.640the conversation on our behalf um you know like uh so are we going to have agency are we going to
01:12:02.760have influence in what comes with this rampant and insignificant uh technological changes that
01:12:13.000are happening um i think we better and i don't think our system at the present uh in canada
01:12:21.000gives us um or it diminishes our agency and diminishes our influence um so um we better
01:12:30.400start fixing our systems right now or um it could be the borg uh and not emma asking the question
01:12:37.960yeah yeah no that that that's that's well said uh just got a great super chat from chris s
01:12:45.440i think that's the if that's the chris that i'm thinking of hey chris thanks for the super chat
01:12:50.660He says, when is Randy going to Mar-a-Lago?
01:13:04.440Listen, I haven't been to Florida since I left.
01:13:07.760The last time I left Florida was January 2020.
01:13:11.300And I have not left the country since.
01:13:13.660You know, we can probably all add two and two together to see that there was some events after January of 2020 that altered our comings and goings.
01:13:27.660Listen, I think it's important that all Canadians speak out, not just Randy Hillier.
01:13:40.140I think, you know, let me just add this, like every one of our political parties, Greg, as soon as this thought of annexation was floated, every one of them said, how dare you?
01:13:58.640no no no you're yeah we stand with the flag um uh and we will not even consider any discussions
01:14:09.760we're not even going to ask you for any details um you know we we do live in a representative
01:14:15.840democracy i don't recall any of the party leaders or the 338 members in the house of commons or the
01:14:29.840hundreds of mpps and mlas across the country putting out any surveys or any questions
01:14:37.680uh asking their constituents what their views are um on this potential annexation now
01:14:45.900um you know um you know now i know you put out a poll on twitter but you're not in elected office
01:14:53.900um you know people who are in elected office are the obligation is to represent the interests of
01:15:03.080their communities um and their constituents and of course in order to do that you actually have
01:15:10.380to speak with them and ask their their ask for their feedback um so you know i think that's a
01:15:19.140um they've they've all acted in the exact same way with this as they did with covid
01:15:28.180as they did with the ukraine war um you know go on and on like this is um again as i said you know
01:15:36.580think of these guys as a crime family in the protection racket that they're running and it's
01:15:43.700and it's not for the benefit of greg or chris s or or randy hillier um who they're running the
01:15:53.100rackets for. Um, and, uh, you know, and, and they want you to think that, um, yeah, not only is
01:16:03.120your voice unimportant, um, but it's, uh, it doesn't have any credibility anyway. And there's
01:16:11.280no need to, you know, you just be that helpless little snowflake rig and leave, leave the big
01:16:18.900subjects uh to um to the big boys um but uh to answer chris if if trump gives me a call
01:16:27.660uh and and pays for the flight i'll uh um i'll take a flight down to mar-a-lago uh if not i'll
01:16:36.400if he offers me an invite i'll see if jane and i can hop in the the dodge pickup truck and take
01:16:43.620a drive down there road trip let's go let's go road trip to mar-a-largo uh you know you you brought
01:16:51.460up a great point at the end there of how all of these politicians are acting the exact same way
01:16:56.120towards this uh this trump annexation threat and i i think i made a video about it um about the
01:17:05.300annexation my main commentary was this just proves how what a failure uh canadian leaders are in our
01:17:11.720politics the fact that there's such an appetite for it the fact that uh it's so appealing to so
01:17:17.220many people the fact that it would be so easy for trump to just kind of show up and completely
01:17:22.000what's that guy's name again pierre yeah i don't really care what he had to say it was complete he
01:17:25.860completely humiliated the leadership of our major parties in an afternoon and the appetite that
01:17:33.380people have for it i think proves that hey you guys are not leading this country very well and
01:17:38.200And I think that's another reason why they were so quick to be like, no, Canadian, Canadian sovereignty.
01:17:43.320And we're standing up for Canada, of course.
01:17:45.660And it's like, we can't let them know that we're these corrupt, crooked people.
01:17:50.940But I want to get into that real quickly with if this plays out, if we do get annexed by America, what is going to...
01:18:00.700You know, if we agree to some sort of merger, like this idea that this will be done by force or that there'll be, you know, that's just not in the cards in my world, Greg.
01:18:23.120This is a country and we will make the decisions, right?
01:18:28.280like that's like who's we though because it's the people who live here so so but my question was you
01:18:36.360know if that i was leading to if there's sir if there's a merger who would be making the decisions
01:18:42.700would it be the ottawa bubble or would they will they all be fired you almost a lot of these people
01:18:48.320who are you know open to this idea of of us converging with america has this idea that
01:18:54.400Everyone in the Ottawa bubble might be fired or are we going to have like a bunch of, you know, different Yankees showing up to make all these decisions?
01:19:02.140Like who are who's going to be the intermediary?
01:19:04.420Who's going to be the people representing the interests of Canada when we're negotiating all of this?
01:19:09.780Would it be the Ottawa bubble making those decisions?
01:19:13.480Well, hopefully the Ottawa bubble will eventually be fired and that the incestuous bubble.
01:19:21.980but you know again this is why i said we need to have information we need to have details and in
01:19:27.960my letter to trump i said you know if you're serious about this if you're really um then we
01:19:33.640have to be looking at this as uh provincial referendums as the mechanism to create uh this
01:19:42.240and and also the establishment in my view i suggested a bilateral commission made of equal
01:19:50.140numbers of uh intelligent capable canadians and americans to um to sit down and go through the
01:19:59.660uh myriad of complexities uh of of integration of various laws and uh time frames and um to
01:20:11.340make those sorts of um transitions um so but again you need to have the details before
01:20:20.060before you can accept or reject an idea uh what are the details to it so um what's the offer
01:20:29.260what's the deal let's make it yeah trump what's the deal and i think i think daniel smith and
01:20:35.740And Alberta are running a grave risk right now with the way the Central Canada and the Maritimes are prepared to sacrifice the West once again.
01:20:51.480And I think Daniel Smith ought to declare very soon a referendum.
01:20:58.800And I would say the same thing with Saskatchewan, like that.
01:21:04.860And ask the people of Saskatchewan and Alberta, is it worthwhile to be driven into poverty to ensure that central Canada benefits in this potential trade war with Donald Trump?
01:21:23.880So I'm not actually clear on what's happening here.
01:21:28.540So Danielle Smith and some of the Western provinces are, what,
01:21:44.160Trump is going to put the tariffs in place on January 20th.
01:21:50.280And, you know, tariffs are not some big, scary, scary thing, you know, for most of Canada's history, both the United States and Canada have had significant tariff walls, you know, that changed with the first NAFTA and then the USMCA.
01:22:12.540uh but there's been a lot of our history uh um has been utilized both the united states and
01:22:22.020canada have had tariffs so it's not the end of the world um and especially when we don't even know
01:22:28.820the tariffs on what like trump has just declared a 25 percent tariff um on that he's going to impose
01:22:37.200a 25 percent tariff well most canadians won't realize that there's already a 25 percent tariff
01:22:43.040wall on on uh boats built in each country um um any uh if you buy an american boat it's going to
01:22:51.320have a tariff on it uh uh if an american buys a canadian boat it's going to have a 25 percent
01:22:56.880tariff on it um um you know our uh the dairy cartel uh has got up to 300 percent tariffs on
01:23:05.700um on dairy um so you know like let's understand understand what these chairs could be but but
01:23:17.440anyway going back daniel smith the premier of alberta has said these things are coming and
01:23:23.540coming on january 20th and no she she has said that if we accept the um the central canadian
01:23:34.320proposal that we retaliate by shutting off our energy or placing countervailing tariffs on our
01:23:43.540energy, that this will cause a constitutional and national unity crisis in our country.
01:23:55.740And it should cause a national unity crisis when central Canada wants to forsake and sacrifice other provinces so that Ontario and Quebec manufacturers don't get hit too hard.
01:24:18.500so but again you know if i was the premier of alberta right now i would say listen central
01:24:26.980canada you you put the screws to us with the national energy program back in the 80s we paid
01:24:33.580a dear dear cost for a long time as a result of that policy we're not going to allow you to put
01:24:41.420the screws to us again there will be no countervailing care so there will be no turning
01:24:47.280off the taps of Alberta oil and gas and if you want to go down that route I'm going to go to
01:24:54.340the people and ask them for a referendum whether or not we should leave confederation because
01:24:59.620bear in mind Greg and for the audience it was central Canada that prevented Alberta from
01:25:07.360building the pipelines to to BC to export their oil and gas to the world other foreign markets we
01:25:16.480Central Canada also put the kibosh on the proposal to send oil and gas directly to eastern Canada with the Energy East pipeline.
01:25:32.740You know, it was all the central Canadian environmentalists that have hamstrung Alberta and Saskatchewan's ability to export their natural resources.
01:25:44.260i i thought it was uh a couple of the bills that came from ottawa like bill c69 and that sort of
01:25:51.260thing that well that's why central canada like that's where the the motivations were like um
01:25:59.540it wasn't so you mean central canada as in ottawa and those yeah bills okay yeah yeah yeah just
01:26:06.500Yeah, they're federal bills, and Alberta is, you know, well, even we have a dysfunctional party system as well, but, you know, Alberta just doesn't have the ability to counter, they don't have the population, they don't have the Senate seats,
01:26:31.400They don't have, and they, so, you know, we here in Central Canada has limited Alberta's ability to export their resources.
01:26:46.520They only have one marketplace that's to the states.
01:26:51.300And that oil and gas is heavily discounted for a number of reasons.
01:26:57.680But one of the reasons why it's heavily discounted is because they can't they can't offer it to anybody else.
01:27:03.740It's landlocked because there's no pipelines.
01:32:16.580That would be a great photo, wouldn't it, man?
01:32:18.500doing some we don't have a golf course at uh at scuttlebutt lodge but we do have a shooting range
01:32:25.180so maybe we could get them uh perfect doing some of that perfect perfect perfect um so i'm gonna
01:32:32.540go to a voltman's uh super chat in a second too but um i want to bring up one last sort of i guess
01:32:39.300more of a pessimistic uh look at at this sort of opportunity which is i see i see a lot of the
01:32:45.900people talking about um this transaction of becoming part of america and it really feels
01:32:54.200like they're they're treating it like it's a magic button that's going to solve all of our problems
01:32:59.580you know and i really feel like the only guarantee of pushing this button is that we will be facing
01:33:05.320different problems or maybe just some of the same but but i feel like they're you know to say that
01:33:11.380all the problems will go away is very misguided because a lot of people like they like trump
01:33:16.800and because he's in charge they feel that this will be a good transaction and it's like i feel
01:33:21.700like they might feel a little bit different when trump takes over he decides to level the
01:33:27.380parliament buildings and put a massive gold statue of trump uh you know right in the middle
01:33:32.340of uh of the square there you know what i mean but um i guess people are very optimistic
01:33:42.780and when it comes down to it i just i just worry of you know who is going to actually make the
01:33:50.600decisions and i guess a good a good summary question for you is if you're cynical could
01:33:57.980you see a scenario based on all the madness that's gone on in our in our lifetimes over the
01:34:03.900simply over the past five years could you see a scenario where we get completely screwed over
01:34:10.080like like it happens it plays out and we get the short end of the stick somehow there's like
01:34:16.420however it's negotiated that we get completely screwed over and now we're part of this north
01:34:22.600american union and we have you know now we're just and and sorry to kind of drive home this point
01:34:30.540uh be or this sort of question um i think it was bruce party bringing it up yesterday and he was
01:34:37.220like let's not get it twisted you know trump sees us as useful for natural resources and territory
01:34:42.440and then probably to a third extension as consumers you know um like uh like the canadian
01:34:48.940people and what they want like are we going to be naive here and think that like this is really
01:34:53.900what trump's trump's main intention is to save the canadian people so listen the problems are
01:35:01.600not going to go away um yeah you know like there is no magic bullet in in public policy there is
01:35:10.860no magic um in in in governance um what you want to do is to have a system where you can create
01:35:20.360a remedy um for whatever the failing is yeah many people in politics that i've seen over the years
01:35:28.180greg uh think that we can create perfection or utopia through legislation um and and obviously
01:35:37.240if that was true we would have reached it long ago with the amount of legislation that we've created
01:35:42.540but what we generally do what I view is and what we don't do but I think is what should be the
01:35:53.660purpose of public policy and legislation is to provide a remedy for when failings become apparent
01:36:02.520So, you know, there was a good one I heard the other day that with Gavin Newsom in the governor of California, in his term, he has spent $24 billion to address the homeless problem in California.
01:36:21.300And the homeless rate has increased by 40% during that period of time.
01:36:27.900So his policies and the public expenditure of money has actually escalated the problem and not solved the problem.
01:36:39.020And so the point I'm trying to make here is that there is a huge risk, a huge danger if we run away from this.
01:36:50.020If we want to put our heads in the proverbial ostrich with the head in the sand, yeah, we've got a real problem.
01:36:59.960If we want to shy away from this challenge, we've got a real problem, potentially.
01:37:07.020But more likely, if we want to face the challenge, we can actually find remedies for what ails this country.
01:37:18.400And whether that remedy is homegrown here with improvements in our constitution, improvements in our representation, or whether it's changes of our borders and elements potentially joining the United States or everyone.
01:37:44.500um so but i'm not i'm not prepared to say uh you know what is the best path
01:37:53.140until we know the details but i know if we don't ask for the details and examine the path
01:38:02.980we run a great danger of just staying on the path that we're on today yeah yeah well said i i i think
01:38:12.280you're right the regardless of what happens this sort of whole suggestion this whole kind of stunt
01:38:18.280by trump is certainly a catalyst for change a catalyst for people to think about change
01:38:24.420in canada uh we got a super chat from voltman pluto thank you so much for the ten dollars sir
01:38:30.960he says canadians and pluto he must be that this question must be from way out there
01:38:36.080oh yeah this is this is uh sorry voltman plutoni oh yeah yeah my mistake my mistake i didn't read
01:38:43.640the whole thing uh he says canadians have been indoctrinated to condemn any form of violence
01:38:49.980not knowing that the greatest violence is teaching mindless passive pacifism which allows evil to
01:38:58.720rule so not not a question but but but uh but a profound thought nonetheless i wouldn't i wouldn't
01:39:05.740disagree with that um you know like um you know that is why um you know our our freedoms
01:39:13.880are so significant um and protected to such a degree to give us agency to counter evil
01:39:23.600to give us a voice against wrongdoing dishonesty and evil that's why we have freedom of a speech
01:39:30.920and freedom of expression it's not so i can choose to go to kfc rather than mcdonald's today
01:39:40.120you know it is that we can challenge wrongdoing with impunity that we cannot be harmed or hurt
01:39:50.440for challenging against evil and you know i think a lot of canadians have forgotten
01:39:56.840uh the purpose and have been i would use his words indoctrinated into believing that
01:40:04.660uh consensus and obedience and compliance are are greater virtues than uh challenging evil
01:40:15.240yeah yeah i um yeah that's well said i i think the super chatter has makes a really great point
01:40:25.400In that there is a sort of, you know, weak character, conflict avoidance that unfortunately a lot of Canadians have adopted.
01:40:36.920And I'm hoping that we're seeing the end of that.
01:40:40.220I'm hoping that we're, you know, with everything that's gone on over the past five years.0.91
01:40:43.760I think that there's this sort of, you know, there is this sort of domesticated metrosexual male that you'll see in Toronto who are pussy whipped by their wives.0.78
01:44:17.860There is a slight pivot that's going to happen with Save Free Speech because Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, is not so much of a threat anymore.
01:44:26.520However, we are going to start another campaign to safeguard free speech in Canada because, yeah, there's lots of work to be done.
01:44:35.360We're going to start going on the offense, guys.
01:44:37.960But, again, if you want to support that, you can find the donate link at savefreespeech.ca or go to givesendgo.com slash savefreespeech.