Juno News - Aaron Gunn： Canada is sleepwalking into a crisis

00:00:00.000 Welcome to The Fighter with Chris Sims. I am Chris Sims. I'm the Alberta Director for the

00:00:10.920 Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Thank you so much for making us a part of your day and a very busy

00:00:16.720 news week. If you have not done so yet, please remember to like this video on YouTube, subscribe

00:00:22.520 to the channel, and most importantly, head on over to Juno News, subscribe to a truly free press,

00:00:28.720 and be sure to share this show with people who need to know. Okay, action-packed show for you.

00:00:33.940 As of this recording, today, Monday, we've got a big budget vote looming. I don't even want to call

00:00:40.620 it a budget though, because that was just a disaster. As you know, we are now facing down a

00:00:47.460 deficit, basically an overspending bill, that is close to $80 billion with a B. Remember when then

00:00:57.280 Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland apparently quit over a lot less of a budget? Yeah, well, here we

00:01:03.920 are. We are in a clown world. So what's happening right now in the House of Commons is every member

00:01:10.060 of Parliament is getting contacted by their whip and their house leader. These are official roles

00:01:16.340 within the House of Commons, and the phone calls are going something like this. Hey, Bob. Hi, Mike.

00:01:21.740 Yeah, you're going to be there for the vote, right? Yes. And we can count on you to vote the correct

00:01:26.720 way? Yes. Because what a budget vote is, is a confidence vote. It's an automatic confidence vote.

00:01:34.360 What that is, is a gut check on the government. So if a government loses a budget vote, the government

00:01:42.920 falls. And then the Prime Minister has to take that little walk to the Governor General's house,

00:01:47.640 and bingo, bingo, kids, we are in an election. Now, I've been in the arena for a long time.

00:01:54.240 I worked on Parliament Hill for decades. I don't think we are at risk of going to an election,

00:01:59.980 but I will eat an entire pound of broccoli if I am wrong. What I think is happening here is the

00:02:05.980 press gallery is keyed right up. And that has some members of Parliament keyed right up. And that was

00:02:12.420 only made worse, or better, depending on your point of view, with the floor crossing that we

00:02:17.780 recently saw. So people are jittery, okay? People are talking about previous governments that have

00:02:23.360 fallen or not on budget votes, and everybody's running around. We've got an amazing guest for

00:02:28.300 you in just a couple of minutes. Remember Aaron Gunn? Yeah. He is that rock star documentary filmmaker

00:02:35.180 who made the film Vancouver is Dying. And then he made kind of a spin-off one where he made it more

00:02:43.020 of a national show, and it was called Canada is Dying. I will say he actually premiered that in

00:02:49.420 theatre here in Lethbridge, Alberta. It was a packed house. People from all sides of the political

00:02:55.500 spectrum turned out to watch that documentary film. Now, Aaron Gunn is a Member of Parliament for the West

00:03:03.520 Coast. He's up on the north side of Vancouver Island there. And he is going to be, of course,

00:03:08.160 making a speech about the budget in the House of Commons today, and then voting accordingly. We're

00:03:13.880 going to hear from him in just a moment. But I wanted to reset the stage here when it comes to how bad

00:03:19.380 this budget is. This budget was so bad, and the forecasting for it was so bad, that the parliamentary

00:03:28.660 budget officer, the nonpartisan government budget watchdog, hit the alarm button in the House of

00:03:37.700 Commons, saying that this kind of spending was unsustainable. Remember this? How alarming is that

00:03:45.100 for the average Canadian for the taxpayer? Because there is only one taxpayer, right? It should be very

00:03:49.940 alarming, right? These are, I don't know, I think I used the words in French, which the translators

00:03:57.200 probably got really well. Like, stupefying, shocking, right? This is not, like, it's not a, it's not a,

00:04:07.200 it's not a, it's not a funny fiscal outlook. It's, it's a really serious fiscal outlook. It's, and we

00:04:15.200 don't lightly use the word unsustainable, right? Unsustainable means you don't have the option of saying,

00:04:25.200 maybe I'll wait a couple of years, I'll see how things go. It means, if you don't change, this is

00:04:32.200 done. This is done. I have to stress, you don't get economy majors, like these kind of bureaucrat

00:04:40.560 watchdoggy type folks in Ottawa, speaking like this very often. So this is why it is super important,

00:04:47.440 if I can leave our audience with one lesson from today, is don't get caught up in the theater,

00:04:54.100 okay? Don't get caught up in the hype of the politics, because all that's doing is clouding

00:05:01.420 over terrible policy. It's distraction. It's one of the oldest tricks in the book. Gin up some drama

00:05:09.320 on Parliament Hill, have some dramatic floor crossings, and it's basically like high school

00:05:15.020 with salaries that are paid for by taxpayers, and power. And then they all stay in the same

00:05:21.340 little terrarium, and they lose track of the big picture. And the big picture is, we are in serious

00:05:28.700 trouble with this budget. Fitch, the International Credit Rating Agency, has issued a warning to Canada,

00:05:37.040 basically saying, you're spending too much. You have got to rein in your wasteful spending,

00:05:42.580 or you're at risk of getting a credit downgrade. What that would mean for all of us is that we

00:05:49.320 would be paying more money on interest payments on the debt. As of right now, it's already more than

00:05:56.820 $50 billion a year. What does this mean for the vote? And what does this mean going forward?

00:06:04.940 Let's find out. Joining us now is Erin Gunn, a friend of the show. Erin, it's nice to see you,

00:06:11.440 at least through video link. It's great to chat with you again, Chris. Thanks for having me.

00:06:17.100 So you are now officially a member of Parliament. It's what, Vancouver Island North Powell River?

00:06:22.560 What's the official title? Yeah, a member of Parliament for North Island Powell River,

00:06:27.520 the Fight North, the north half of Vancouver Island, and a bit of the mainland as well.

00:06:32.260 Love it. So for folks who don't know, Powell River is technically over on the mainland,

00:06:36.340 and you need to take a little ferry from Comox to be able to go see it. I know, because I grew up

00:06:42.520 there in the Comox Valley. So Erin, or Mr. Gunn, I don't know what I'm supposed to call you now.

00:06:48.360 So you now are obviously a Conservative Member of Parliament. Safe to say that the opposition

00:06:54.160 Conservative Party is going to be voting against this budget, correct?

00:06:57.680 Yeah, I think that's pretty clear. At the end of the day, when you're talking about the largest

00:07:03.460 deficit in Canadian history outside of COVID, over $300 billion in new debt being promised over the

00:07:10.080 next five years, that's not a budget that anyone, I think, who considers themselves fiscally

00:07:14.420 conservative or fiscally responsible, really, would be able to support in good conscience.

00:07:20.040 Yeah, it is a mess. Now, I've been in the game for a long time. I've worked on the Hill for a long

00:07:24.740 time. I'm a little worried that some of the drama of like floor crossy, it's kind of like high school

00:07:30.660 politics, but with money and power, that that is getting some of the oxygen in the media. I'm worried

00:07:36.820 that the focus is being taken off of what a disaster that budget was. To your point, it's fiscally

00:07:43.260 irresponsible. It is close to an $80 billion deficit. The interest payments alone that we're paying on this

00:07:50.660 thing is more than $50 billion a year. How is it feeling there? You're physically on the Hill, you're

00:07:56.980 waiting to go into the House of Commons. Is the focus on voting down this budget?

00:08:03.220 Well, it should be. I can't speak for the media. Of course, the media, it's a little bit like low

00:08:07.780 hanging fruit for them. This kind of palace intrigue, the drama, the will he won't he kind of games, as opposed to

00:08:15.780 talking about the really substantive fiscal issues that all Canadians need to be talking about. I mean,

00:08:20.660 we are sleepwalking into insolvency. We are careening off a fiscal cliff. This is a liberal

00:08:28.100 government that's picking up from 10 years of Justin Trudeau, where we doubled our national debt, as you

00:08:33.940 well know. And now Mark Carney has put forward a budget where he's actually planning to borrow twice

00:08:40.740 as much over the next five years as Justin Trudeau was planning to do. And we're leaving all of this

00:08:46.420 debt to future generations to pay for. We're eroding our fiscal capacity as a country. And as you also

00:08:52.740 mentioned, all of this debt is going to come up with a cost and it's going to mean higher and higher

00:08:58.340 interest payments over the next five, 10 and really years in perpetuity. And that's money that can't be

00:09:04.900 spent on schools, hospital roads, or brave men and women in uniform. That's very well put. I gotta say,

00:09:12.340 you and I, you know, worked in and out together for many years. So my bias is here. I like Aaron.

00:09:19.140 However, we do get the same sort of emails, I would argue. We get emails all the time in the

00:09:24.180 Taxpayers Federation saying things like, I'm at my wit's end. I'm working harder than I've ever worked,

00:09:30.820 but I can't save money. And I can't afford the basics. You're in a riding where it's a really

00:09:36.740 high cost of living. It is absolutely gorgeous and is full of hardworking people, but man, it is

00:09:42.980 expensive to live there. What are you hearing from your constituents? You just got off of a break week.

00:09:48.260 What are you hearing from your constituents when it comes to things like affordability?

00:09:53.060 Yeah. What I'm hearing from people right across the riding, and I think this is reflected to be

00:09:58.340 frank in the national polls as well, is the number one issue is cost of living. Whether that's the,

00:10:02.900 you know, your day-to-day affordability, whether that's food affordability, whether that's housing

00:10:07.300 affordability. And one of the things that to me is one of the reasons why I find this budget so

00:10:14.100 offensive is because across the board, that is the number one issue when asked that Canadians give. Yet

00:10:21.620 all this budget promises is more deficits and inflationary spending. And when you print more

00:10:27.940 money or you borrow more money, you inject tens or hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy

00:10:33.220 without producing more of what that money buys, all you end up doing is devaluing your currency,

00:10:37.860 which increases the cost of goods, which is basically the other is inflation. That's what

00:10:44.340 inflation is. And of course, when you have inflation, you tend to have a corresponding rise in prices of

00:10:51.380 assets. So if you have, you know, lots of money in real estate or stocks, you probably can weather the storm.

00:10:57.060 Okay. So it disproportionately hurts those with less. And in particular, it hurts young Canadians. So

00:11:05.780 on one hand, we're sticking them with a massive amount of debt in the form of deficits that they

00:11:11.140 will have to pay off. And on the other hand, all this debt and deficit borrowing is leading to

00:11:16.580 inflation that is disproportionately going to hurt them the most. So I think they're getting a real raw

00:11:22.100 deal on this budget. And I think it makes, you know, the number one issue facing Canadians and

00:11:28.260 facing our country even worse.

00:11:30.820 I wanted to really put a point on that of what you just said there, which is bang on.

00:11:35.140 During 2020, 2021, around those lockdown years, the government did two things at the same time,

00:11:40.980 which turned out to be a disaster.

00:11:42.820 A, they locked down big chunks of the economy. So we weren't making the stuff that money buys.

00:11:48.820 So that's locked down. Two, they printed hundreds of billions of dollars with a B out of thin air.

00:11:55.140 Those two things, it's like a perfect storm for inflation. I'm also concerned about this current

00:12:00.420 budget, because quite often, government will be tempted to print more money to paper over their

00:12:07.140 deficit. And in this case, to your point, I can't believe this, Erin, that here we are with a deficit

00:12:13.860 much bigger than what former finance minister Christia Freeland supposedly quit over. I'm worried

00:12:20.740 that we're going to see more money printing and more inflation connected to this huge deficit budget.

00:12:26.180 Is that what you're hearing in the House as well?

00:12:30.100 Yeah, well, I mean, money printing is, I mean, it's either, it's either going to come in the form of

00:12:34.100 money printing, or, you know, you have to issue new bonds and pay even higher interest rates. And

00:12:39.940 sometimes, you know, you print money to try to lower your interest costs, but that just devalues your

00:12:44.900 currency. So it's like, my grandfather is turning 95 next month told me a lesson early in life that

00:12:54.100 there's no such thing as a free lunch, right? There's everything's got a cost, eventually,

00:12:58.340 the bill comes due or in the famous words of Colonel Tom Parker, what does it cost if it's free?

00:13:04.580 So you can't just print money or borrow money to prosperity, it's never worked in history,

00:13:10.500 it logically makes no sense. And we as a country are going to end up paying that bill plus interest.

00:13:16.660 And the longer we take to write this fiscal ship, the more of a shock that will eventually

00:13:23.860 be whenever that day comes, and it will come. So I think it's, it's unfortunate that we're not

00:13:28.820 talking about this more. I mean, just again, the largest deficit in Canadian history outside of

00:13:33.540 COVID, this should be the top line story that everyone is discussing. And yet I've seen some

00:13:38.020 people in the media refer to this as a progressive conservative budget, which to me is completely

00:13:42.180 insane, and also frustrating. So it's, we have to get spending under control. I know you guys at the

00:13:48.740 Taxpayers Federation have been great at pointing out, you know, this is not like this is a government

00:13:52.420 revenue problem. And the federal government has run out of money or, you know, the taxes that

00:13:58.660 the government takes in hasn't increased dramatically over the past 10 years, but

00:14:02.820 it is a spending problem. It is a political short sightedness problem. And we need to get back to

00:14:10.980 the deep structural reforms. I'll just make one more point. If I may, Chris, I always wonder how

00:14:17.460 they justify this. How do they justify all the additional spending? How do they justify all the

00:14:21.140 additional debt? And for me, it's always comes back to for them, being that what Canada needs is more

00:14:28.020 government, government is a solution to all the problems. And I think if you look back over the last

00:14:31.620 10 years, that hasn't been the case, all this economic stagnation has been because of government is

00:14:39.060 because government is not that they didn't step up in any particular way. I said they didn't get

00:14:43.060 out of the way. They blocked the Northern Gateway and Energy East pipeline. They introduced job-killing

00:14:48.580 bills like C69, C48, the industrial carbon tax, and then they doubled our national debt with over

00:14:55.380 600 billion dollars in inflationary spending and have almost nothing to show for it. So I think we could

00:15:00.260 actually do with less government for a change, and that would actually solve a lot of these problems.

00:15:05.620 It would certainly be more affordable. I only have you for three more minutes,

00:15:08.820 and I really appreciate your time. For folks who don't know, when there's a vote coming,

00:15:13.220 you'll suddenly start hearing these chimes. They ring all through parliament here. And that means

00:15:18.260 you can see all these members of parliament running into the house to vote. So I've only got you for a

00:15:22.100 couple more minutes, but I wanted to kind of ask you, it's kind of inside baseball, but it's meant in

00:15:27.540 good faith and in hope. Is there any connection happening over there in the eyes of the government on,

00:15:34.740 oh yeah, the lights are coming on? This is a serious problem. We have a spending problem.

00:15:39.860 We have a fiscal problem. If we get a credit downgrade, we're in deep trouble. And I'm asking

00:15:45.380 you this, Erin, because back in the day of the time of the Chrétien government, things weren't perfect,

00:15:51.300 but they weren't fiscally like this. Paul Martin was the finance minister, and he was a liberal,

00:15:56.660 and he tackled the deficit. He took it on at the urging of Preston Manning, but he did do it.

00:16:02.820 Are there any lights going on in the eyes over there on the government side of, okay, party's over,

00:16:08.660 Trudeau's gone. We've got a guy with a PhD in economics who's our prime minister now. It's time

00:16:13.780 to be the adult in the room. Are there any of those MPs that are you seeing waking up here?

00:16:19.460 Well, that's what I was hoping for. And you mentioned Paul Martin, and of course,

00:16:24.180 he received the Tax Fighter Award from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, rightly so, 0.99

00:16:28.180 for slaying the deficit. But what I can't figure out right now, Chris, is if this government is

00:16:36.180 gaslighting Canadians, or they're gaslighting Canadians and themselves. Because what they've 0.56

00:16:42.740 been doing is they've been on this, oh, Mark Carney has literally said, we're not spending more.

00:16:46.500 We're going to be spending less, and we're investing more, which makes no sense whatsoever.

00:16:51.300 I mean, if you're a bondholder, you're a rating agency, you don't care if the government has brought

00:16:55.540 300 billion to build roads, pay teachers, buy submarines. Debt is debt. It all carries interest.

00:17:04.420 It all impacts your caring capacity as a government and as a country. And it's all hogwash. I mean,

00:17:11.380 you could claim anything as an investment. You could claim paying teacher salaries as an investment

00:17:17.300 in the future. So it's all trying to move numbers around to obfuscate the bottom line, which is that

00:17:25.700 we're incurring massive amounts of new debt. And I just don't know if this government and this

00:17:31.220 prime minister knows that and is gaslighting Canadians, or somehow they've convinced themselves

00:17:36.340 that this is somehow sound economic policy. But to me, it's just the same old, same old from the

00:17:43.060 Liberals, which is spend more, borrow more, and attempt to buy votes all at the expense of future

00:17:47.780 generations and the fiscal stability of our country.

00:17:52.260 Well, Erin, I hope that other parties and other members of parliament wake up to this,

00:17:58.420 because this has got nothing to do with the team color of the jersey here. We're in trouble.

00:18:02.820 And spending more than $50 billion a year on debt interest. Folks, we have to pay that. That isn't

00:18:09.460 something that they can magically hide in the budget. It's a line item. It's like a bill that

00:18:13.700 you don't like, but you have to pay. We're all paying it. So I really hope that sanity prevails.

00:18:19.140 I know you got to go. Erin Gunn, member of parliament for Vancouver Island North Powell River.

00:18:23.780 Good luck today. And thank you. Thank you very much, Chris.

00:18:26.660 You betcha. Once again, that was Erin Gunn. He, of course,

00:18:30.900 is a longtime documentary producer. He is the one that created the Vancouver is Dying documentary.

00:18:36.980 And now he is a member of parliament. As you can hear, he's very concerned about the deficit.

00:18:43.620 He's very concerned about these warnings we're hearing from the PBO saying that this is unsustainable

00:18:49.700 because at the end of the day, all of us folks, it doesn't matter if you're a liberal fan or a

00:18:55.220 conservative fan or a green party voter, we're all paying for this. And it's a huge waste of money.

00:19:02.900 So folks, make sure you pick up the phone. You call your member of parliament. You tell them that you

00:19:08.900 want them to balance the budget, that you want them to stop wasting money and to slay the deficit,

00:19:15.540 the way the old liberal government had tackled back in the early 2000s. Folks, thank you so much for

00:19:21.380 watching this special program, this special episode of the fighter with Chris Sims. Be sure to like this

00:19:27.460 video, subscribe to the channel and head on over to Juno news, take out a subscription because then

00:19:33.380 you're supporting a free press. Thanks so much.

Juno News - November 17, 2025

Aaron Gunn： Canada is sleepwalking into a crisis

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