Juno News - Carney recalls Liberal MPs from Taiwan, embarks for Beijing

00:00:00.000 former prime minister justin trudeau is heading to davos as a keynote speaker on soft power at a

00:00:11.360 world economic forum adjacent event prime minister mark carney has recalled liberal mps from taiwan

00:00:18.000 asking them to prematurely end their diplomatic trip to the embattled country as he prepares for

00:00:24.240 his visit to china in the coming days statistics canada data shows canadian unemployment reached

00:00:30.480 1.6 million people in december a jarring 73 000 surge from the previous month with canadian

00:00:38.400 youth particularly affected hello canada it's tuesday january 13th this is the true north daily

00:00:45.040 brief i'm cosmon georgia and i'm clayton domain we've got you covered with all the news you need

00:00:50.800 to know let's discuss the top stories of the day and the true north exclusives you won't hear anywhere

00:00:56.960 else former prime minister justin trudeau is heading to davos switzerland next week to headline the global

00:01:06.960 soft power summit 2026 which will take place alongside the world economic forum's annual

00:01:13.520 gathering of global elites the summit hosted by brand finance at the tata dome on january

00:01:20.400 20th will launch the latest global soft power index the annual ranking measures how nations are

00:01:26.640 perceived globally based not on military strength or economic output but on quote reputation values

00:01:34.160 and attractiveness an invitation for the event reads quote we are delighted to announce that we will

00:01:39.920 be joined by former prime minister of canada justin trudeau as our keynote speaker the theme this year

00:01:46.960 quote soft power in a hard power world investing in economic resilience in an era of global conflicts

00:01:54.240 highlights a growing focus among global elites which includes managing decline instability and

00:02:00.720 geopolitical competition through messaging branding and influence campaigns rather than hard national

00:02:07.600 international interests so clayton uh the world economic forum is coming up soon uh we've covered this forum

00:02:16.240 quite extensively before true north has had on the ground reporters uh when andrew lawton was here he

00:02:22.800 would go pretty much every year and interview some of the big names there who else will be attending this year

00:02:30.480 in 2026. yeah cosmon so prime minister mark carney will also be attending from january 19th to the 21st

00:02:39.120 to quote meet with government and business owners as well as investors that he hopes will deepen canada's

00:02:45.040 economic partnerships and to get more money flowing into canada carney has long been a speaker at the

00:02:52.000 wef and one year he famously identified himself as a european not a canadian before he entered canadian

00:02:59.680 politics as a candidate u.s president donald trump will also be there and is set to give an address

00:03:05.680 to the wef on january 21st and will be accompanied by six or seven members of his administration including

00:03:13.360 his commerce secretary howard lutnik and special envoy to the middle east steve whitkoff the fact that both

00:03:20.000 leaders are set to be at davos on the 21st means that there might be an opportunity for carney to speak

00:03:26.240 with trump as there hasn't been a public record of them having discussions since late 2025 at the g20

00:03:33.600 but it was at that time it wasn't even a formal meeting he was at a dinner table at the g20 it's

00:03:39.360 not clear whether any productive conversations were had also big pharma and big tech business leaders will

00:03:47.760 be there of course such as albert burla the ceo of pfizer bill gates may also be there as bill and melinda

00:03:55.680 gates foundation was advertised as being a partner of the event liberal mps were abruptly sent home

00:04:04.880 from their diplomatic trip to taiwan just days before prime minister mark carney visits the

00:04:09.360 people's republic of china true north was tipped off that two liberal mps mary france lalande and helena

00:04:16.000 jacek left a parliamentary trip to taiwan early while another liberal mp samir zaburi allegedly

00:04:22.960 canceled his attendance before departing lalande jacek and zabiri were not immediately available

00:04:29.440 when asked to confirm and justify the move however in a globe and mail piece published monday lalande and

00:04:36.240 jacek confirmed that they were leaving taiwan to quote avoid confusion about canada's foreign policy

00:04:42.640 the liberal mps stated they were acting on advice of the canadian government and didn't want to overlap

00:04:49.200 with the prime minister's engagement in taiwan global affairs canada was not immediately available

00:04:54.320 for comment either on why the mps were advised to withdraw or if canada would support the people's

00:05:00.480 republic of china if it invaded taiwan conservative mps melissa lanceman adam chambers and shelby cramp

00:05:06.960 newman are still committed to the trip which is paid for by the taiwanese government and includes

00:05:12.480 meetings with taiwanese officials conservative foreign affairs critic michael chong told true north in a

00:05:17.840 statement that cutting the trip to taiwan short was quote nothing short of kowtowing to beijing's

00:05:24.320 authoritarianism chong added quote conservative mps were not asked to return home taiwan is a partner in

00:05:31.440 democracy with a strong relationship between people on trade and with a shared commitment to freedom

00:05:38.880 and the rule of law it's not a liability the people's republic of china has long considered the

00:05:45.120 sovereign nation of taiwan to be a chinese territory and has threatened military invasion

00:05:49.840 since the two countries split after the communists seized control of the people's republic of china

00:05:55.440 canada adopted the communist party of china's one china policy in the 1970s which claims the prc

00:06:02.320 is the legitimate government of china this comes as carney is set to visit china on tuesday

00:06:08.240 and leave the people's republic of china on saturday further strengthening trade relations with the

00:06:13.600 country as an alternative to u.s market the strategy to appease china reflects the liberal party's pro

00:06:18.880 chinese communist stance of its former leader and prime minister justin trudeau who once said he quote

00:06:26.080 admires china's basic dictatorship so cosmet how has the canadian public reacted to carney's upcoming

00:06:32.880 trip to china yeah clayton i think the reaction has been pretty rough for the liberals honestly if you

00:06:38.880 spend even five minutes on x it's pretty clear the trip isn't landing very well in fact it's landing

00:06:44.720 very badly with a lot of canadians but especially people who are conservative but also those already

00:06:52.240 skeptical of the liberals approach to china including those in the chinese diaspora who speak out against

00:06:58.640 the ccp and i think the word you mentioned kowtowing i see over and over again because it's really

00:07:06.480 become the shorthand for how people are interpreting the liberal government's approach to china we have

00:07:12.960 to remember this is the first big delegation involving a prime minister heading to china since

00:07:22.640 justin trudeau went there which turned out you know justin trudeau went to the chinese looking for a

00:07:28.560 trade deal and he didn't get one and another thing that we have to keep in mind is that the timing of this

00:07:35.760 really uh this rings a lot of bells especially with carney pulling these liberal mps out of taiwan

00:07:44.080 while they're there presumably trying to give the taiwanese government confidence that canada would

00:07:49.840 stand with them but here we have elected officials that are part of the government being told to

00:07:56.560 essentially flee because it might make prime minister mark carney look bad while he's trying to

00:08:03.680 get some sort of concessions or you know more favorable terms on tariffs from china or whatever

00:08:09.040 he's there for so whether that was the intention or not i think the perception stuck immediately as

00:08:16.000 soon as it went out in the news and it was reported and there's a lot of anger that this feels like history

00:08:24.400 is repeating itself people are drawing uh lines like i mentioned back to the trudeau years when the liberals

00:08:31.040 talked tough on china but uh kept chasing closer economic ties with the chinese anyway despite the

00:08:38.480 fact that they were imprisoning canadian citizens they were increasingly hostile in their own region

00:08:46.480 but uh human rights groups and activists have been particularly vocal too but like i said the

00:08:52.880 public response has generally been cynical the number of canadians out of work surged again in

00:09:01.280 december with 1.6 million people now officially unemployed a jarring increase of 73 000 from the

00:09:08.320 previous month according to new data from statistics canada the 4.9 increase in unemployment was driven by

00:09:16.160 youth with 27 000 fewer employed last month compared to november employment among youth aged 15 to 24 fell by

00:09:24.480 one percent the total employment rate however remains steady at 60.9 percent in december conversely

00:09:32.640 employment increased slightly 0.8 among those 55 and older terms of workforce sectors more people were

00:09:40.800 employed in healthcare and social assistance and other services related to personal care fewer people were

00:09:47.760 employed in professional scientific and technical services accommodation and food services and utilities

00:09:55.200 employment increased in quebec and decreased in alberta and saskatchewan while other provinces saw little

00:10:01.200 change average hourly wages among employees increased 3.4 percent on an annual basis last month

00:10:09.280 following 3.6 percent growth in november not seasonally adjusted full-time employment meanwhile rose by 0.3 percent in

00:10:18.240 december while part-time employment fell by 1.1 percent clayton when you talk to a lot of young people in canada

00:10:26.880 the difficulty of getting a job often comes up in conversation a lot of young people are faced with submitting

00:10:36.080 you know tens if not hundreds of resumes and not even hearing back has any uh federal party put forward

00:10:43.200 a plan to address the youth unemployment crisis in canada well the conservatives have been railing against

00:10:49.520 this for uh years now um they have proposed recently that the feds introduce a four-point plan to address

00:10:58.240 the record high unemployment they called on the liberals to quote fix immigration to realign canada's

00:11:05.680 immigration system with the labor and housing markets uh so they they want also to refocus education to stop

00:11:14.480 giving student aid to any student looking for um any sort of program and instead ensure the training

00:11:22.400 that's being subsidized by taxpayers is going towards jobs that are actually needed in canada

00:11:28.240 and they want to increase funding for in-demand jobs rather than treating every job equally and

00:11:35.200 conservatives also called for the government to fast-track home approvals in regions where employers

00:11:41.280 are trying to hire in areas that face labor shortages so they recommended a 100 capital cost write-off for

00:11:49.600 companies that build what they call quote workforce housing and they said it would create an incentive

00:11:57.200 for small businesses and larger employers to attract workers while expanding the housing supply yeah and

00:12:03.680 conservatives claim that the liberals only response to the crisis so far has been to quote increase public

00:12:09.920 spending to expand existing job subsidy programs a move that conservative mp garnett genuinely says fails

00:12:18.400 the moment the ndp proposed subsidies for workers such as employment insurance and asked for more corporate

00:12:24.960 welfare to quote invest in job creation so i'm sure the conservatives wouldn't be too happy with their

00:12:32.000 response either but their focus seems to not be on the ndp as of late

00:12:36.480 that's it for today folks thanks for tuning in you can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by subscribing to the daily

00:12:45.600 brief on itunes and spotify also while you're at it make sure to hit us with a five star rating and please leave a review

Juno News - January 13, 2026

Carney recalls Liberal MPs from Taiwan, embarks for Beijing

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