Juno News - October 06, 2025
Carney heads to Washington. Will he FINALLY get some results?
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Summary
In the first episode of Straight Up With Mark Petroni, host Mark Proni is joined by Dan McTague, a former Liberal MP who served 18 years in the House of Commons, to talk all things trade and politics.
Transcript
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This is the very first edition of Straight Up with Mark Petroni. I'm your host,
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veteran broadcaster and journalist. You can follow me on at Mark Petroni on X,
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or listen to two hours of freedom-loving news talk on Saga 960 AM. We're going to be doing
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a lot of politicking on this show, a lot of talk about politics, and very happy to have you on
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hand. Prime Minister Mark Petroni in Washington for trade talks. That's tomorrow. Some mixed
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messages coming out of the mainstream media after some leaks to the Globe and Mail, CBC and CTV,
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suggesting that, well, the Petroni team wants to keep expectations low. But is that necessarily
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true? I mean, considering the failure of the Petroni government so far to negotiate some kind of
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successful trade deal with the Trump administration, keeping expectations low shouldn't be too
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difficult. But CTV is reporting the two sides could be close to a deal on aluminum and steel.
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CBC also raising expectations that a deal on steel tariffs could be struck during Carney's trip to D.C.
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There have been counter-reports that that is false. We'll just have to see what comes out of it.
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Dairy industry, I'm sorry, Industry Minister Dominic LeBlanc has come out and said that Canada's dairy
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industry protections are not up for negotiations, that despite the fact that the media was reporting
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otherwise last week. This story from Juneau News. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc has declared Canada's
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dairy supply management system off-limits in trade talks with the United States. Well, that's going
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to be a toughie because we do know that it's a key issue for Trump, who has come out and complained
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bitterly that Americans have been shut out of the Canadian dairy market for far too long. Meantime,
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we have Premier Ford, his elbows way up, vowing to remove bottles of Manitoba-made Crown Royal
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whiskey in retaliation for the parent company's decision to close its bottling plant in Amherstburg,
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All the bigwigs at Diageo, I swear to God, those bottles of Crown Royal are coming off the LCBO
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shelves. When the last person walks out through that door, we're going to make sure LCBO takes
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off their brands because we need to stick together.
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Yeah, there you go. That's Premier Doug Ford. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that he dumped a
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bottle of the stuff onto the ground, so it sounds like he means business. Meantime, we've got the
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leader of the Conservative Party of Canada saying this in his letter,
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No more losing. It is time for you to deliver on the promised wins. Get U.S. tariffs off Canadian
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softwood lumber. As Prime Minister Harper negotiated, within 80 days of taking office,
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they have more than doubled since you took office. Time for the promised win for suffering
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lumber workers, mills, and towns. He's also talking in this letter about Canadian steel,
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aluminum, copper, and auto tariffs. Will Kearney be able to pull all of that off on this trip to
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Washington, D.C.? It's hard to see it, but I will say this much before we get to our guest,
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the terrific Dan McTague. Kearney desperately needs a win on the trade front. According to an
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abacus poll, 40% of Canadians say Kearney has lived up to expectations. That same poll shows
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Liberal support slipping. The Conservatives and Liberals are now in a virtual tie,
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suggesting maybe that Canadians are starting to lose patience with Kearney, who swept into power
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on some very lofty promises that have so far not been met. Kearney also, by the way, has a meeting
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with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Alberta pushing hard for a new pipeline to the West Coast,
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demanding that the project makes Kearney's national projects list. I can't believe that it hasn't done
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so so far. Kearney has said it's all hypothetical since there is currently no company promoting such a
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pipeline. Of course, why would they, considering all the regulatory hurdles that they've had to
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go over in order to qualify for that, for making that project a reality? Anyway, let's bring in our
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guest, Dan McTague. Dan, of course, spent 18 years on the Hill as a Liberal Member of Parliament. And I
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know he has some thoughts about all these issues. Welcome, Dan. Mark, it's good to be here. And thank
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you for taking me out to share some of my thoughts on all of this. Well, I hope you're honored,
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because this is the very first edition of the show. And you're the very first guest. So I'm
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absolutely thrilled to have you on. I'm not worthy. Well, the question is, is Mark Kearney worthy
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of some of the optimistic predictions by the likes of CBC and CTV, suggesting that there could be a deal
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in the works very soon on the issue of steel and aluminum? What are your expectations as far as that's
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concerned? Well, he's going down there for something. And I suppose at this point, seven,
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eight, nine months into his time as prime minister, anything is better than nothing,
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because he's done a lot of talking, a lot of voyaging, a lot of travel around the world.
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Only once in the United States, if my memory serves me correctly. So it'd be interesting to see if he's
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actually going to come back with something that will actually be worthwhile. I mean, you can mention
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as a small reprieve here or there. But I think it really sets the stage for what has already been
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tariffs that are punitive, that are hurting, while at the same time, no decision, as far as
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the wider question of what happens in the upcoming year end, next year's trade discussions on the USMCA.
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I don't like calling it customer. It sounds dumb. But in any event, that's the point that this is
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really a spring training and for what is going to happen next year. But I think for a lot of people,
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hey, you're the guy that's supposed to get some deals. You weren't supposed to get that was
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supposed to back down to retaliation. So far, you know, we've got damaging tariffs from China,
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damaging tariffs in the United States, and absolutely no policies other than spending more money to try
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to provide people short-term relief. That's nice. But I don't see any real reversal in policies
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short of the carbon tax. You know, they're really putting on the accelerator towards what is an
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inevitable wall that we're going to hit. That could happen, actually, not just with what happens with
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Mr. Trump tomorrow, but also what happens on November 4th, when a declaration finally has to be
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made to the woke Canadians out there, that you've spent the cupboards bare. And then some expect that
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the bond rating agencies, I think, are going to want to pay a little bit more attention for the
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first time. And no, my friends at the bond rating agencies, you can't consider the CPP as
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collateralization for the massive debt that we've incurred so that the greedy folks and mooches
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out there can continue to virtue signaling their net zero and other damaging policies that have brought
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Canada to its knees in a decade. Now, I mentioned off the top of my comments, Dan, that
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Mark Carney needs a win here. He's made some big promises. Lately, we have seen some of his numbers
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and the numbers of the Liberal Party slip a little bit based on this new poll by Abacus that has the
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Tories and the Liberals virtually tied. I mean, is it possible that maybe some of those people who
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voted for Mark Carney in April are now starting to realize that maybe this guy was all talk and no
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action? And Carney is under terrific pressure, not only from the opposition parties, but from others
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who say, all right, you made all these great promises. We voted for you. But so far, no indication that any
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of those promises have been met. He needs a win here, doesn't he?
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He does. And he needs to show that he's going to, in some way, alleviate the pain that Canadians are
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now starting to face, not just in terms of lost jobs, but higher costs for food, higher costs for
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living, affordability issues, all things that he has to address in a very short period of time,
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because he set the expectations so high. This is the guy who had all the experience and all the
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worldly contacts and knew how to negotiate. You know, when you set yourself up to those kind of levels and
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don't meet them, you really have to have more than a win here. You have to have something that's very
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decisive. I don't see that happening. Despite the apple polishing by some of the media who are
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purchased by him and his colleagues, there's no way of getting around this. We're in a very serious
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economic straitjacket of our own making. And if it isn't going to get bad, if it's going to get better
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with Mr. Trump tomorrow, it's certainly not going to get better next week when, you know, he piles on
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with the premier of Alberta to say, hey, I'm not going to build another pipeline. That happens.
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You know, he had a stronger hand to play today if he had a couple of pipelines already built. If he
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hadn't gone around personally to try to remove the finances from, you know, the various investment
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groups involved with oil and gas, we'd have a couple extra billion bucks in our jeans.
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And at the end of the day, I think the economy would be much stronger. But look, this guy who's
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got to reverse himself at the same time produced based on the narrative that the conservatives used in
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the last election, not the liberals. So it's going to be kind of ironic and funny to watch this
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happening is that people have to basically twist themselves inside out like pretzels
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in order to make Kearney look that much better or relevant.
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Well, speaking of the resource sector, he also has a meeting scheduled with Alberta Premier
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Daniel Smith. We've got Alberta pushing hard for a new pipeline to the West Coast,
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as well as East Coast. I mean, Energy East, as well as the pipeline to the coast. I mean,
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there is a Trans Mountain line, which is delivering. And, you know, for the first time ever, I mean,
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we're seeing oil, we're seeing energy projects, products loaded onto ships and sent off to markets
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in Asia. But we need a lot more. And so this is one of the things that Daniel Smith is pushing for.
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But it doesn't seem like the liberals are in any hurry to back off on their no more pipelines bill.
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You know, the liberals have emission caps, they have pipeline blocking, they have tanker traffic
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that they're not allowing. And at the same time, they cost Canadians $50 billion to build that
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Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. That was going to be billed by Kinder Morgan for $6 billion at
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their own expense. But this government and his friends and the NDP and the Green Movement
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let every Tom, Dick and Harry take a shot at it. So the company basically said, listen,
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the government of Canada, you gave your imperature, you put your sign on the dotted line,
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we're going to sue you. And we knew we're gonna get sued. And so the government bought it,
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but had to pay what, eight times, eight fold to get it finished. And as a result,
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you know, this goes on the books that generations are gonna have to pay for. And now suddenly,
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Mark Curran is, you know, humming and hawing about that his liberal colleagues seem to be opposed to
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the idea of having oil produced. Look, if there's anything that has destroyed
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the environment, the investment climate in this country, and I use that word very, very poignantly,
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climate, what they've done is that they've destroyed any confidence private sector funding
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anywhere around the world has had in Canada, because of what they've done. So it doesn't
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matter what Mark Carney does tomorrow with Donald Trump, what matters more is that he has no easy
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hand, he has no strength in terms of pushing back on Donald Trump and saying, you don't give us this,
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we'll go that route. And it doesn't help, of course, that we have, you know, some premiers acting like
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total buffoons, going around pouring damn good whiskey, made in Canada, continue to be made in
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Canada, down the drain. Where was Doug Ford, who did that, when Mark Carney pulled out, you know,
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pulled out Brookfield from Canada? I mean, that cost thousands of jobs and sent a very strong signal
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to the province of Ontario, to Toronto, that this wasn't a very safe place to go. And the same guys who
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want to undermine the country, same Mark Carney, who was once chair of this and Doug Ford, I mean,
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they've got to pick a lane, but the lane is not to go after the small stuff, it's to go after the
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big stuff, which I think is why tomorrow, don't expect anything, except a few people trying to
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make a big deal out of nothing, which is what they're going to get tomorrow.
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Yeah, and Trump is such a mercurial figure, you really don't know what he's going to do.
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He may turn around and raise tariffs on some issues, depending on what happens.
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I mean, and then we have this other matter about supply management. This is a thorny issue.
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It's politically explosive for anybody who wants to go down that road. We have
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a trade minister, Dominic LeBlanc, saying that Canada's dairy supply management system,
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off limits, as far as trade talks with the United States goes. I mean, that's one of the key
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issues that Trump wants discussed. So as soon as you take that off the table, then Trump might say,
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well, fine, I can hit you harder if you want. And he has the power to do that.
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So this is really tricky. I mean, the Liberals clearly don't want to go down that road.
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A lot of Quebecers supported the Liberals in the last election, thinking elbows up. And if they start
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to waver on supply management because they think they have no choice, then it's going to be potentially
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very damaging politically for Carney. He's really between a rock and a hard place here, Dan.
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You know, I expressed it to some of my friends who are Conservatives. I said, you know,
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thank your lucky Spurs you didn't win the last election because there's no way the Liberals are
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going to be able to handle all this and walk away smelling like roses. I have no doubt in my mind that
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after 10 years of running the situation, running the show, they can't blame anybody. It's been a decade.
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And so for that reason, it doesn't really matter at this point. I think the die is cast.
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We may be only dealing with a few small, you know, incremental potential victories,
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but at what cost? If we're not prepared to sell more oil and gas to the rest of the world,
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if we're not prepared to remove all net zero taxes, carbon taxes, including the OBPS,
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the output based pricing system, the second carbon tax, the clean fuel standard, get rid of EV mandates,
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unless we're prepared to stop migration, which is where most Canadians are, unless we're prepared
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to recognize that affordability is the most important issue in this country. It has been
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for the past several years. It's only a matter of time before some politicians get to that point.
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I think for the Liberal Party, it's through a mess. Dan, we'll clean it up.
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Yeah, it's amazing how much intransigence that we're seeing from the Kearney government when it comes
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to energy. It doesn't make any logical sense. I mean, we're looking at massive deficits, who knows,
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90 billion, maybe more, 80, 90, 100 billion dollars. We're going to find out that magic number, hopefully,
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on November 4th, when the budget is tabled. But you would think that with the state of the country,
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the way it's in, that they would look at any way to generate revenues. And so the fact that they're
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still sticking a stick into the spokes of the resource sector just doesn't make any sense.
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And on top of that, we've got BC Premier Eby now saying he won't agree with a pipeline. And
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Kearney apparently suggesting that if BC doesn't go along, then he's not going to go along.
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I mean, it's that kind of frustration that's going to bubble up and continue to bubble up
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in Alberta in favor of those who want to go independent.
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I'm on the weekend. I put a bunch of tweets out about what I did in 2018, 2019, 2020,
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fighting the NDP, BC government when they decided they were going to do everything they could,
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including use every tool in the toolbox to block the TMX pipeline. That, as I mentioned earlier,
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cost the Canadian public 50 billion dollars and basically sent a message to the rest of the world.
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Canada is not a safe or reliable place in which you want to invest your money. You'll put it at risk
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if you put any money in Canada. And you wonder why it takes 140 pennies to buy a US dollar?
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Our Canadian dollar is costing you and I 24, 25 cents a litre on the price of gasoline.
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What we've done here is we've allowed the fanatics on the left, and that's the NDP,
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the Greens, the Bloc, and now the Liberal Party fully to basically drive this, the ship of state
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right into the ground. And so for that reason, you know, I don't know what the short solution is.
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I can tell you six months ago, I warned people this was going to happen. I went door to door and
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warned them what would happen. I spent 18 years as a Liberal Member of Parliament. I've seen this
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game before. My first gig in the House of Commons as a kid was working for the Housing Minister in 1981
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when everyone was losing their shirt. I saw this happening again in 1997. Mark, we are heading down
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a path for which recovery is going to be extraordinarily painful and difficult. And for people to play these
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elbows up nonsense and pretend they're elbowzos. I mean, it's nothing short of being a denialist as
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to how the impact of these bad policies have been, not just to the country, but also to individual
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Canadians. A lot of people are hurting right now. You know, stats this morning from MNP
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Resort, I guess they do a lot of accounting, came out and said, you know, one in three people are now,
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you know, reducing their utilities, reducing their food, doing all sorts of things because they know
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things are bad right now. It's bad now. Just wait till after November 4th when things when they're when
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the stuff really hits the fan. And that's unfortunate. But that was the giddiness of all the people who
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got their nose directly attached to that federal government trough. And if you think the federal debt
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is bad, and the deficit is even worse, look at the subsovereign debt in places like British Columbia,
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they just had their credit downgraded. So, folks, you want to be socialists, you want to fool around
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with your vote, you want to pretend that you're all fearful, you don't like the orange man bad south
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of the border, you didn't like COVID in 2021, you didn't like climate in 2018, 2019, you didn't,
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you wanted more dope. If that's the way you're going to vote, if you're that, you know, susceptible and
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that gullible, well, then you can expect what's going to happen. Many of you are going to basically go
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below below the waterline. But you brought it upon yourselves by voting Liberal, NDP,
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Bloc, and of course, Green. Yeah, it's amazing when you look at the actions of this government,
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they do the opposite of what you would expect a government to do that was looking after the
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interests of the Canadian people, whether you're talking about immigration, whether you're talking
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about this bail issue now, with the Conservatives preparing to table this motion, calling for an end
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to this revolving door bail system, in which so many suspected violent criminals have ended up
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right back on the streets. I mean, to me, this is a no brainer, right? You do this, if you want to
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make the streets safer for Canadians, and yet they just steadfastly refuse to do just the basic things
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that anybody would do if their intentions were good. And that's why it's so bizarre looking at the
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actions of these people. And to think that after 10 years, nine years of Trudeau, that we were going
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to get something different when the same people are there doing basically the same thing, not changing
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at all. I mean, these people must be, they're so completely bubble wrapped against the, you know,
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misery that they keep on the rest of us, that maybe they just don't care. I mean, I got calls during my
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radio show today from people saying, what is it with these people? They don't respond. I mean,
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when you are a member of parliament, I'm absolutely sure that when people wanted to talk to you,
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you talk to them, right? You pick up the phone, you had a conversation, you know, what's on your mind,
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what's bugging you about what we're doing, and then you take that to caucus. You know, what I hear
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is people who say, I tried to reach my Liberal member of parliament, they don't return their calls,
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they just don't care. What is going on here with this party? The party doesn't care. It's because
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they can create a, you know, hermetic seal between themselves and the people who vote for them. But
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that's the problem is that then they can rely on the media and other influencers to continue to present
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them as something that they clearly are not. And that's responsible, democratic, accountable
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representatives. And I say representatives, they shouldn't be speaking on behalf of anyone.
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The word parliament comes to the word to speak, as we say in French,
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they don't speak for anyone, but the Liberal talking points. And that's where I think Canadians
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made a calculated mistake on April, you know, April the 20th, 29th, and they're going to continue to
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pay for it going forward. It's the world is upside down. But here's the interesting part. Tomorrow,
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Carney meets with Trump. Trump was the guy said he'd love to do a deal with the with Carney. You know why?
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Because he's a poltroon, he's weak, and he knows it. And had he had Mr. Polyev to deal with,
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I don't think the outcome would have been as strong. One of the strongest cards Mr. Polyev would
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have put forward and said, the moment I become prime minister, three to four oil projects get
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and gas projects get immediately greenlit. It doesn't matter what opposition is out there.
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And I will damn well bring the army in to push these fanatics out of the way, if necessary,
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to get these things done. And he would have talked to Donald Trump and said,
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in six months or 10 months or in a year from now, we're going to have oil. You don't want to buy our oil
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at discount at $10, $20 a barrel. We'll sell it to someone else. There's a lot of people out there,
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12 countries. Some of our best friends would buy our oil. Instead, we got a prime minister flying
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around the world pretending he can sell hydrogen and do all sorts of wonderful little deals that
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amount to absolutely nothing and make us extraordinarily weak. So if we go into tomorrow,
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it'll be on bended knee with our hands together praying that we don't get clobbered because tomorrow,
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it looks like it's not going to be a very great day for Canada.
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Well, up to now, Carney has had a scapegoat, right? I mean, he's been able to point his fingers and say,
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it's all Trump. You know, we tried to make a deal and he just wasn't cooperating.
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After moving Brookfield to the United States, I mean, oh my God, after moving Brookfield to
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the United States, buying the largest pipeline in the world, the colonial pipeline, and you were
00:21:52.780
CEO, you can't say you were just sort of a passive player. No, he had this plan and a lot
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of suckers in this country fell for it. They're called liberal supporters.
00:22:01.180
Yeah, but will they fall for it next time? And yeah, I mean, it's easy to be cynical.
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Give them some free stuff. You know, tell them their pensions are going to be fine or they can
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get free debt, free this, free that. The country is in real trouble. It's economically not viable,
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not feasible. Don't take my word for it. Of course, you and I have been talking about this
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for three or four years, saying this day would come. It's here. And now the interim PBO chair has simply
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said what you and I have articulated for quite some time. The country has gone down a very,
00:22:30.860
very dark path for which recovery is going to be extraordinarily difficult, if not painful.
00:22:34.860
And that's for especially for liberals out there who thought they were immune.
00:22:38.140
But wouldn't it be something if he couldn't pass that budget? I mean, he's already had a meeting
00:22:43.660
with the interim leader of the of the NDP. They have seven seats. And so, you know, I think we're
00:22:51.100
in a situation here where an election is not beyond the realm of possibility,
00:23:00.380
Well, what money do we have left to spend to get to entreat people to the idea that they can
00:23:04.620
somehow buy their votes again? Because apparently a lot of Canadians have this sort of parasitic
00:23:09.100
attitude of give me something. Give me a little mooch. I want to mooch a little bit of money so that I'll
00:23:13.500
vote for you. There's no money, folks. The cupboards are bare. As Pierre Trudeau said back in 1982,
00:23:19.740
these are dire straits. And I'm not talking about the rock band.
00:23:24.620
And then, of course, you had Mulroney coming in with that massive majority in 84.
00:23:29.740
He was in there until 93. And I guess you, you swept in as part of that wave, right?
00:23:34.940
Yeah, that's right. Things didn't get better. And Mulroney tried to do what,
00:23:39.100
undo what Trudeau had done. Couldn't do it. It actually took Paul Martin, Jean-Cretze and provinces
00:23:44.460
to help us bring the deficit back and bring finances back in order. And by the way, Mark,
00:23:48.940
I think the success of that time, being able to sell more oil to the United States and having a
00:23:53.020
strong integrated international economy, our trade relationship with the United States being very,
00:23:57.980
very good. I mean, we've benefited from a lot of things, but this generation, generally speaking,
00:24:02.860
but this generation of Liberals has completely forgotten fiscal responsibility. And as a result,
00:24:07.740
we're all going to suffer rather dramatically post November 4th.
00:24:12.060
Last question. Will the Liberal Party ever get back to what it was in your day?
00:24:17.980
It can only do that if it is crushed in the election. There's just too many people out there
00:24:22.220
who've got government jobs, who have pensions, and who are a big part of the woke DEI ESG agenda.
00:24:29.500
They will never go away, even though people like their leaders like Greta Thunberg have,
00:24:33.980
even though people like Mark Carney, who I'm surprised is going to the United States,
00:24:37.020
isn't charged under antitrust provisions of the Department of Justice cartelization of the
00:24:43.660
financial sector when he tried to ensure that no lending institution in the United States or other
00:24:49.260
places would lend money to oil or gas companies. But beyond that, I think it's likely the Liberal
00:24:57.180
Party isn't going to be changing much until it sees itself in crushing defeat. It saw that 2011 when I
00:25:03.020
lost and what emerged wasn't a central party, but in fact, a far left extreme party. And so I think
00:25:09.340
that's where they're heading. Maybe they'll be heading even further to the left if they can get
00:25:13.660
the seven NDP to join them, which wouldn't be a surprise. And then, you know, remain what they are,
00:25:18.940
the social, sometimes democratic party that has now been embraced by some unsuspecting Canadians.
00:25:25.980
Dan McTague, thank you so much for coming on the show. Canadians for affordable energy. You see the
00:25:30.060
sign there behind, behind Dan. Check it out today. Thank you, sir. Great chatting with you.
00:25:37.900
And that is it for this edition of Straight Up with Mark Petroni. Appreciate you tuning in,
00:25:41.260
my friends. Hope you enjoyed the segment. We'll do it again soon. Bye-bye for now.