Juno News - November 13, 2025Canada gets NOTHING from G7 talks
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Summary
While Canada hosted the G7 Foreign Affairs meeting this week in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada's foreign affairs minister says the critical subject of trade with the United States never came up in a single, face-to-face meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Transcript
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While you talk about avoiding the elephant in the room,
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Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand failed to raise the issue of either trade
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or the strained relations with the United States
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when she had the chance in a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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Canada hosted the G7 Foreign Affairs meeting this week.
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And she says the critical subject just never came up.
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One-on-one face-to-face opportunity with an American counterpart.
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And you didn't take that chance to try to have a conversation
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about resuming trade talks when so much of the Canadian economy is relying on it.
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I can confirm that I'm representing Canada's interests as the Foreign Minister.
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And I maintained Canadian interests and the Canadian position on a number of very serious issues
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But none of those issues involve trade or our strained relations with the United States.
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The issue did come up on CBC's Power and Politics.
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Nobody's talking about the fact that we didn't push him on why we can't get back to the table
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Minister Anand was asked about it and she said,
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I didn't bring it up because it's somebody else's file.
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That's an important opportunity for us to try to get back to the table.
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And yet we're talking about Pierre Polyev and we're talking about announcements of lists
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Okay, but on that, I mean, should the Foreign Affairs Minister be talking to the Secretary
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of State on Trade when Ambassador Hillman is talking to Jameson Greer,
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Howard Lutnick and Don LeBlanc, Donald Trump and Mark Carney are talking like,
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she'd get in trouble with this Prime Minister, wouldn't she?
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I would say if we take a Team Canada approach and if we encourage people to talk across the
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border to anybody they possibly can about the importance of the relationship,
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then you take every opportunity you possibly can to talk about the importance of the relationship.
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One question remains, at least from my vantage point, did the Prime Minister order
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his Foreign Affairs Minister to steer clear of the trade talk with Rubio or was it simply
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Jocelyn Bamford will be joining us a little later on to talk about that.
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Conservative Party leader Pierre Polyev is mocking the legacy media's silence on the issue
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of internal squabbling over the federal budget in the Liberal Caucus.
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As we reported on this show, a Liberal backbencher, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith,
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has publicly attacked his own government's budget as falling short when it comes to climate investments.
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Stalled climate action, cutting tree planting, moving away from an emissions gap, winding down
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greener homes, no new money for climate action. On housing, it falls short of these specific
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promises in our platform, and it unfortunately falls well short, well short of the wartime effort
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that many of us thought we'd deliver. The budget adds $140 billion in new spending over five years,
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$90 billion net after savings, and only 36% of the net new spending is capital.
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My kids shouldn't pay for today's military or for me to save $400 of income taxes.
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The media has largely ignored that controversy, preferring to focus their attention
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on Pierre Polyev's leadership style and the recent floor-crossing involving Chris D'Entremont.
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Here is Polyev sarcastically addressing the media's lack of coverage on the grumbling in Kearney's own
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When you have a Liberal MP attacking the costly credit card budget that Mr. Kearney has put forward,
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then we see turmoil in the Liberals. And I know that there will be wall-to-wall coverage on CTV
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of this turmoil, of a Liberal MP criticizing his own budget days before the vote. I know you'll be,
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you're camped outside his office right now, waiting to get comment from him. I know you've been chasing
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Mark Kearney down hallways to find out what he has to say. I mean, it's just been the relentless
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coverage that you will have of this dissent within the Liberal Party.
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Yeah, there was none of that. Polyev also pointed out the harsh criticism leveled against the Liberals
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by none other than Chris D'Entremont, who joined Kearney's team a mere six months after the election.
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Well, public support for immigration may be falling in Canada, but one Liberal MP says,
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it's time to grant federal aid and permanent residency to foreign students and migrant workers.
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As reported by Black Locks reporter MP Anandeep Sodhi, Brampton Centre has sponsored a House of
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Commons petition calling on Canada to consider granting permanent residency to more than 3 million
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foreigners in Canada on valid or expired temporary permits. It states, Canada is home to hundreds of
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thousands of temporary residents, including international students, foreign workers, and people awaiting
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residency who have made real and economic contributions, real social and economic contributions, but now
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face deep uncertainty, declining mental health, and limited options to secure their status.
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A poll done by Nanos Research for the Globe and Mail found three out of four Canadians want cuts to
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immigration and a steep decline in the numbers who used to support immigration in Canada.
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And we are joined by Jocelyn Bamford, founder of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and
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Businesses of Canada and a good friend of my radio show. Had her on many times and happy to chat with her
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once again. Welcome, Jocelyn. Thanks for having me, Mark. Always a fun time.
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So imagine, put yourself in the shoes of Anita Anand, our Foreign Affairs Minister. You're in the room
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with Marco Rubio. You've got all these outstanding issues that you can raise with him, but you don't.
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You talk about other stuff, other countries, other issues. What do you suppose she was thinking here
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when she just decided to avoid the elephant in the room? Well, I'm thinking what I always thought. I don't
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think the Canadians want to deal with the United States and they've demonstrated that with every
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activity and interaction that they do. And they don't try to find common ground, which is typically
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what you do when you're negotiating or interacting with a different country. And they're so politically
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wed to their ideologies that they can't even see their way forward to try and find some common ground.
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So we negotiate a deal. I mean, clearly a financial deal with the U.S. is not top of mind to them,
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although it's top of mind for probably every Canadian manufacturer that you encounter here in Canada.
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And it's inexplicable. So the only rationale I could possibly think of is they don't want to trade deal
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with the United States because if they do, who are they going to run against? And they've already
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signaled that they want closer ties to communist China. And I think they're doing everything to
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support that that's the way that they're going. Yeah. And you believe, if I'm correct,
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that they're sabotaging their own trade talks because they're looking for any pretext,
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any excuse they can to cozy up to communist China. Is that right? Well, what other conclusion could we
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possibly come to? It's, again, inexplicable that they haven't got a deal with our largest customer,
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our closest ally and neighbor. So I can't imagine that that wouldn't be top priority to them. Again,
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if you were a business person and you had one customer that had 76% of your business and that
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customer wasn't too pleased with you, what would be the first thing you would do? You would sit down with
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that customer and try and figure out how you make them happy and come up with a deal. But we're not
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seeing any movement to that. And I think a deal also takes off the table. If there is an election
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coming up from the results of the budget, not passing again, they're going to want to use the
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same strategy, which is running against Trump. So if they have a trade deal, that's not going to be
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a vehicle that's available to them. So, you know, I can't figure out any other rationale for this.
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It just makes literally no sense to me. Like we are literally nowhere right now
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in terms of trade talks. They're not going on. I mean, you would think that if you have a guy like
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Rubio in the room with you that, you know, he put the bug in his ear, you know, we'd really like to get
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back to discussions. Marco Rubio was very much involved in the trade talks. So it's not like
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he was, you know, that's not his file. And yet somehow in her mind, well, I can't raise this
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issue with him. It doesn't make any sense. You have access to this guy, you know, take advantage of it
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for crying out loud. I don't think he would hold it against you, to be honest with you. I think,
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you know, he would talk to you about it. What do you think?
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Yeah, I think we are unarmed going down to deal with the United States. I don't think we have the
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right people in the right positions that can negotiate a deal. I think you take a business
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person and you take somebody that's ideologically aligned with the United States negotiating team.
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And that's how you get a deal. And that's what, again, you know, we've talked about this in the past,
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the former Prime Minister Harper tapped Gary Dewar, who was an NDP former premier, to go and negotiate
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a deal with the United States. And that's how we got an exemption for Canada. It was a brilliant
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strategy. And we should be utilizing the same strategy to get a deal with the United States.
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Where are you on the budget? I mean, I know you're not a big fan of this budget. I don't know too many
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people who are, but politically speaking, we spoke about it a little bit earlier.
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Do you think it's possible that it won't pass? In fact, this would be a confidence motion that
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Yeah, I'm not thinking that that's a huge possibility. I mean, you never know what's going to happen,
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but I don't think that the Conservative Party is particularly well-organized enough to go into
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another election. There's still the leadership review that has to happen. And I think that the
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polls are too close for the Liberals to want to go to another election. But who knows? You never know
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what's going to happen in the 13th hour. And it's always a possibility. But certainly my concern is
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the number of the Liberals focus, instead of coming to some joint policy agreement, their strategy is
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just to try and get enough people and the Conservative Party to cross the floor so that they don't have to
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go to an election or go to the Canadian public to ask them their opinion. So it seems to me that there's
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a lot of underhanded tactics going on as they continue, I'm sure, to try and recruit people
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to cross the floor so they get their majority one way or the other.
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Yeah. Meantime, you have the media beating the drum that everybody hates Pierre Polyev and that the
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Tory caucus is a cesspool of rage and grumbling. And that's why it was kind of amusing to hear Pierre
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Polyev kind of throw it back in the face of the media and mock them over their silence on the fact
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that Nate Erskine-Smith, the Liberal MP, has come out publicly and blasted the budget on a number of
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different fronts. And yet, is that story being covered? Do you think that would be even more important
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because it's the government caucus that is apparently fractured over the lack of money,
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you know, going into these green initiatives with other people like Stephen Gilbo allegedly not happy
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and Wilkinson not happy? You know, what did you make of that when Pierre Polyev talked to the media
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about that issue? Yeah, it is just astonishing the way that the media has lost their way. And I'm
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talking about the mainstream media. Thank goodness for independent media who provides another viewpoint
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on issues that are coming forward. But it seems absolutely insane the way that the mainstream media
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just becomes the PR arm of the Liberal Party. And, you know, in talking to a CBC reporter before the last
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election, he wanted to do a story on the impact on small to medium size of business in this country.
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And I had said to him, I didn't think his political overlords would ever let the story see the light
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of day. And of course, they didn't. And I said to him, when you were in journalism school at Carleton,
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did you ever think, did you think you were going to be telling the big stories that Canadian and people
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needed to know and exposing corruption and fraud? Or did you think you were just going to be a public
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affairs arm of the Liberal government? And, you know, we need to call them out. We need to call
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them out because they clearly have no shame. But that's what happens when you fund organizations,
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you fund organizations and they become beholden to you. And that is why many business associations in
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Canada have lost the voice of business and have just become the cheerleaders for the Liberal Party,
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because the Liberal Party writes a bunch of checks to a bunch of different business associations. And
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in exchange for that, they get support. So if you're belonging to a business association and you're
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paying your hard earned money, you should be asking, one, do they take money from government?
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And two, how much of the money that you write them a check goes to their bureaucracy,
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as opposed to getting the issues out in front of politicians that need to be exposed so that we can
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grow business prosperity and jobs in Canada? That's a question that you should ask every business
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association. And if they're taking money from government, I'm going to tell you that probably
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siding more with the government than they are with issues that are important to your business.
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Yeah. And consider Paul Yev's election campaign and promises, you know, vowing to cut 10 billion from
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the amount of money that the government spends on consultants. I think we're up to $25 billion,
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just an astonishing amount of money going out to consultants, especially when you hired, you know,
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so many civil servants, you know, to blow up the ranks of the public service in Canada,
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people that we probably didn't need. And so, you know, you have to ask yourself,
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you know, if the media has to choose, it's an easy choice for them to make if they're looking for
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self-interest, right? Because you've got Paul Yev saying he's going to cut media subsidies, you know,
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cut all this money, going out to the consultants, you know, defund the CBC and counter that with the
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government side, with the liberals saying, oh, we're going to give you more money, you know? So,
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you know, these reporters, they're looking at the two sides and going, well, I know which way,
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I know where my butter is, my bread is buttered.
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It's the same with the NGOs, non-government organizations that take tens of thousands
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of taxpayers' dollars, millions of taxpayers' dollars. And what do Canadians get in exchange
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for that? And we've seen situations where NGOs fund charities and they turn around and fund other
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charities. I mean, you could find this all out in about 10 minutes on Google by finding all of the
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charities that donate to other charities. And why would a charity need to donate to another charity?
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They should be focused on their purpose and not become, you know, pseudo money laundering
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organizations and doing it with our tax dollars. If a charity is worthy, people will write checks from
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their own pockets and the amount of voice fraud and abuse happening throughout these organizations.
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And the fact that, again, you would think someone in the media would want to investigate all of this,
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but they don't. They're not interested in it. So what we see is our taxpayers' dollars time and time
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again wasted and funneled into areas that weren't originally intended to. And we have to take a look
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at that because that is just absolutely unacceptable when Canadians are struggling to pay for gas and
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Yeah. Let's get back to Erskine Smith for a minute. He's expressed reservations. He's attacked
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Kearney from the left, which I think benefits Kearney because he can try to look like the reasonable one,
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you know, and pretend like, oh, well, don't worry. You know, I'm not, I'm not like those crazies. I can
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keep a, you know, a, a leash. I could put a leash on some of these radical left, you know, environmental
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nutjobs and caucus, you know, the Stephen Gilbos of the world and the Erskine Smiths of the world.
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You know, he, he can then position himself as appearing to be the moderate. So in that respect,
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you know, maybe all this is smoke and mirrors. What do you think?
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Yeah, absolutely. You know, I, I don't think the current liberal government's forthright in
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and what their plans are. Why do you have to have these special programs that get special approval?
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Why won't you, wouldn't you just unleash a free enterprise and manufacturing and businesses to go
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create by having across the board and, and easier regular red tape and regulations to get projects
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moving? If you really wanted to ignite the economy in Canada, you would cut the red tape on everybody,
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not just on the few handpicked projects that you've decided are a national interest.
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There's so much that the liberal government has in their toolkit right now to unleash prosperity
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and manufacturing. They could eliminate industrial carbon tax. They could get pipeline
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projects through. They could reduce the red tape at the time it takes to get a project through. They
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could benchmark what they have in the United States in terms of all of these metrics. And they don't
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bother to do that. I mean, I could loan them an analysis from Queens University when we were looking at
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either growing in Ontario or growing in the United States. Queens told us to grow in the United States.
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So I, and they, they went through all the metrics from all the way from safety and security, crime
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statistics, healthcare, education, uh, the cost of energy, uh, red tape. They went through entire metrics
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and, you know, sitting right here and on my bookshelf in my plant channel, I'm happy to share that with
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them, but they don't seem to want to, um, read through or understand that. And so there's a lot they could
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do on their own, um, tariffs set aside to ignite the economy of Canada, but they don't seem very much
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interested in doing that. They just want to pick their friends, their handpicked winners and their
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losers, um, on their own because they believe that they're best to have the knowledge on what, how to
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direct the economy, how to direct Canadians on how to live, what to think, um, where they get their
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education. They want to control everything. And it's time Canadians recognize that and ask themselves
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if they want to have their own liberty, or if they want to have a politician in Ottawa, some are not very
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qualified to tell us how to live our lives. Yeah. When they pick winners, everybody else is the loser.
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I think that's how that works out. You know, when they, they, they go with, uh, corporate welfare,
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you know, throwing massive amounts of money at subsidizing companies that don't even need it,
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you know, giant corporations. And then when the money, you know, fritters away or, or things change,
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they're the first ones out the door. It's just, uh, sad. And we see it time and time again,
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and these guys never learn. They never learn. You, you've seen it. Last word to you.
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Absolutely. Yeah. We, we need to make sure that, um, we are in charge of the economy. Um, we can drive
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prosperity better, especially people that have been doing it for years. If you took a group of business
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owners in the manufacturing space and said, Hey, what do we need to do to ignite the economy? You would
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have 10 things that they could do immediately that would have measurable outputs, but they don't want
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to do that. Well, I don't know the last time they consulted with a small to medium size industry.
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And remember 92% of all Canadians work for companies, a hundred people below. So, uh, you know,
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our door is always open. We're happy to give advice, uh, to, for, uh, to ensure that the Canadian economy
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grows, but they never reach out, um, to talk to us. And by the way, we would do that for free. We're
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not going to charge them a big, huge consulting fee. If they want to find out how to ignite the economy,
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we'll, we'll give them our ideas. Um, and we'll work with them, but, uh, we never get the chance.
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No, they don't want to know what you have to say because they probably know that it'll run
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counter and anything that they want to do. Thank you so much for coming on the show,
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Jocelyn Bamford. And that is it for this edition of Straight Up. Appreciate you tuning in,
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my friends. Let's do it again soon, shall we? We'll see you next time.