Juno News - Carney's cringe factory tour

00:00:00.300 Isaac, did Noah contract you out to fix his basement there?

00:00:05.660 No, yeah, they're calling for, well, let's see here.

00:00:08.320 They're calling for about 20 centimeters of snow.

00:00:10.600 So that's looking like, yeah, about that much in Edmonton today.

00:00:14.140 So I thought there might be some hail.

00:00:15.680 So I just, you know, threw this on.

00:00:16.920 There could be falling debris.

00:00:18.400 My roof is questionable at best.

00:00:20.400 I didn't know people who went to snowplow needed to put on a hard hat for their job.

00:00:24.240 You know, it's kind of like wearing a mask inside your truck for COVID.

00:00:27.220 But, you know, good on you, Isaac.

00:00:30.000 You're like, well, good.

00:00:30.820 You're a real Mark Carney out there.

00:00:32.300 You know, you can run for private minister next.

00:00:33.840 Yeah, I just wanted to fit in at Carney's press conference there.

00:00:37.980 You know, safety first.

00:00:39.600 You look like you're about to prepare for the economy to collapse on you any second now.

00:00:45.860 Yeah, hopefully True North can reimburse me for this PPE I had to purchase.

00:00:49.840 Yeah, as soon as those tariffs on Canadian energy comes on, boom, your roof collapses on you.

00:00:55.840 So, you know, safety first.

00:00:57.080 So I really, I really think you're doing a good job for yourself.

00:01:02.080 All right, guys, let's get right into it.

00:01:04.640 Talking about Mark Carney and some other major stories this week.

00:01:07.740 So, Artie, off to a shaky start for Mark Carney.

00:01:14.700 We've seen him present himself as the everyday working man, most recently at a steel factory.

00:01:23.160 But with questionably no workers present, just Mark Carney and the usual suspects.

00:01:30.080 Now, this got a lot of traction on social media.

00:01:33.720 People pointing out where are the workers?

00:01:36.800 Why is Mark Carney dressed like that?

00:01:38.940 Why is he wearing a hard hat that way?

00:01:42.640 And what do you guys make of this?

00:01:45.120 Is this the grand entrance that Canadians expected of Mark Carney?

00:01:49.700 Or are we looking at more of the same with Trudeau's similar antics as before? 0.99

00:01:57.060 Well, he looks like an absolute goofball. 0.86

00:02:00.120 And I mean, this is only like the first day of like, you know, his time as prime minister. 0.98

00:02:04.720 First week.

00:02:05.700 Like, you know. 0.83

00:02:06.780 Even goofier than me, Noah.

00:02:08.400 Well, you know, Isaac, at least, you know, you look like you should have the hard hat on. 0.72

00:02:12.780 Carney looks like, you know, he's never been within 10 feet of a hard hat in his life.

00:02:17.280 But in any event, I think that if you are the president of the United States and, you know, you're trying to impose tariffs on Canada or at least strike a bargain or strike a hard bargain with Canada.

00:02:28.060 And you see, you know, Canada has a new prime minister.

00:02:30.440 You look across the pond, he's looking like a goof on like the first week.

00:02:33.820 You know, what signal does that really send?

00:02:35.840 I don't think it's a positive signal.

00:02:37.800 But it also shows that Mark Carney is willing to just, you know, evolve and adapt, transform into whatever he feels like he needs to become in order to be successful politically.

00:02:48.800 I mean, he wrote a whole book called Values talking about the virtues of carbon taxes.

00:02:54.720 And then, you know, one of his first campaign announcements is that he's going to drop the consumer carbon tax.

00:02:59.920 You know, he's looking to keep the industrial carbon tax, which is really what drives up the prices on, you know, food and, you know, pretty much everything in the economy.

00:03:07.220 But, you know, he is going to abandon one of his core values for political gain.

00:03:13.460 He's going to, you know, let the world burn, you know, if this were 2020 Carney talking to 2025 Carney.

00:03:21.220 But, you know, it is really interesting to see that Carney is going to try and, you know, engage in the same political gimmicks that Justin Trudeau engaged in in his nine and a half years.

00:03:33.180 And what led him to becoming unpopular, you know, which is, you know, dressing up in all these costumes or whatever.

00:03:38.040 And, you know, instead of just embracing the fact that he's a banker and he's an aristocrat and just, you know, wearing a suit to the event and saying, hey, you know, it wouldn't be incumbents on me to wear that, you know, just he's going to play dress up.

00:03:51.260 Yeah, the word that stood out for me there, Cosmin, that you used was costume as well.

00:03:57.840 Really, they are playing dress up because Carney is only pretending to even care about the working class.

00:04:04.320 As we saw in those pictures on X, he was at the steel plant, not a single worker was there.

00:04:09.920 You can guess why that may have been.

00:04:12.180 But then we saw the contrast, the complete contrast with Conservative leader, Pierre Polyèvre, when he took pictures at a steel plant among 30, 40 workers standing alongside him because they agree with his policies, they agree with his future for Canada.

00:04:26.340 And, you know, that's really what it comes down to here, I think, that Polyèvre really wants to present himself as a supporter of the working class, whereas I think Carney's just playing make-believe here.

00:04:41.920 Well, it brings up an interesting dynamic that we're seeing at play heading into the next election, and we've seen in past endorsements that somehow the Conservative candidate, Pierre Polyèvre, suddenly is getting endorsements from unions, whereas that used to be the traditional territory of the NDP, of the Liberals.

00:05:02.280 I think it has scared the NDP, I think Jagmeet Singh has totally dropped the ball, despite his repeated claims to represent workers, blue-collar Canadians, the working class.

00:05:13.980 He has distanced himself not only by his support of the Liberals, who are essentially to blame for the current economic woes, the stagnation of wages, but also the inflation which impacts all of our wallets at the end of the day.

00:05:32.280 But also his own personal choices. Jagmeet Singh has made quite a few personal choices, where he's shown himself to be this champagne socialist, you know, getting into Maseratis, wearing expensive watches and suits, and presenting himself in this way.

00:05:48.040 And Conservative leader Pierre Polyèvre is benefiting off of it.

00:05:51.760 And here we see an attempt with Carney trying to paint himself as this figure, as this friend, so to speak.

00:06:01.020 And Noah, you bring up an interesting point, because you talked about the carbon tax.

00:06:05.560 Now the Liberals want that problem to go away.

00:06:09.280 They hope that Carney's solution, this idea of an industrial carbon tax, settles the matter.

00:06:15.940 But I don't think it does, and we've spoken about this in the show quite a few times since Mark Carney was first floated as the Liberal leader, and now Prime Minister, that he hasn't actually addressed the main issue here.

00:06:32.180 If you impose an industrial carbon tax, that is going to get passed down to consumers one way or another.

00:06:39.800 The industry giants, the industry businesses, are not just going to shoulder that cost themselves.

00:06:47.380 They will find a way to pass on that cost into their products and eventually into the products that consumers buy.

00:06:55.980 So it's funny, because in one hand, he's talking about taxing industry, introducing an industrial carbon tax.

00:07:06.240 And here he is, appearing at some industrial site as a friend of the industry.

00:07:13.060 It doesn't match up.

00:07:14.620 Like, where is the consistency here?

00:07:17.580 And he's also been on the record in interviews saying, you know, I don't buy steel.

00:07:21.840 Do you buy steel?

00:07:22.880 And he's made jokes about that.

00:07:24.940 But here he is doing this.

00:07:27.200 Is there a consistent message coming here from the Liberals in their introduction of Mark Carney, who is the Prime Minister of Canada?

00:07:38.060 Has he presented himself in a way that actually makes sense and is coherent to the voter?

00:07:43.760 Because coherence really is what matters, having a coherent message when you go to the ballot, which we're expecting to do in about a month's time or so.

00:07:52.820 Well, Carney didn't need to present a coherent message in the Liberal leadership race because of who he was going up against.

00:08:00.560 I mean, let's be realistic.

00:08:02.060 The Liberal Party executive, the committee running the election, they wanted Mark Carney to win.

00:08:08.320 Mark Carney was the establishment candidate.

00:08:10.600 He who is he's the person that Justin Trudeau wanted to win.

00:08:14.440 He's the person who the majority of Justin Trudeau's cabinet backed to win in this race.

00:08:19.280 And, you know, surprise, surprise, Mark Carney won.

00:08:22.340 And, you know, it wasn't like his competition was great either. 0.96

00:08:25.100 Karina Gould was, you know, just presented herself like a bit of a far left lunatic. 1.00

00:08:29.760 And she wasn't exactly the most popular cabinet minister in the Trudeau government, besides what some online liberals might have you believe.

00:08:38.800 Krista Freeland was the most popular, but she didn't really endear to anybody because she ran just a terrible campaign with a weird message. 1.00

00:08:47.560 And ultimately didn't, you know, show herself to be competent in her time in government. 0.91

00:08:53.680 So Mark Carney was basically coronated.

00:08:55.740 So he didn't have to provide that coherent message.

00:08:57.600 But now once he's going to be tested by Jamie Singh and Pierre Poliev and use Francois Blanchet and by the Canadian media as the prime minister and not just a potential prime minister, he is going to have to, you know, make his message more coherent.

00:09:13.160 What is your position on pipelines?

00:09:15.440 Do you support an east to west pipeline that runs through Quebec or do you respect la souverance du Québec?

00:09:21.500 And are you not going or are you going to avoid such a pipeline?

00:09:25.080 What is your position on carbon taxes?

00:09:26.800 Do you think that carbon taxes actually benefit industry?

00:09:30.000 Because that's his position.

00:09:30.880 He said that the industrial carbon tax actually helps industry to remain competitive.

00:09:35.140 But I don't see how that's helping industry remain competitive when it's just going to increase the price of their product and make their product less competitive compared to, say, American steel or Chinese or other steel from other countries.

00:09:48.320 So he's going to have to sell some of his items that are not going to be popular with liberals because that is the message that they've been pushing for the past nine and a half years while also trying to be a sort of change candidate.

00:10:02.800 And there are going to be some conflicts in trying to portray himself as a continuity liberal and also the change candidate.

00:10:11.440 And, you know, I'm pretty sure that Pierre Poliev's team is waiting for Carney to make some of those contradictions so that he can point them out to the Canadian people and put them out in campaign ads.

00:10:22.860 Just one thing I wanted to add before we potentially move on, because I'd forgotten to mention it when I last spoke.

00:10:29.220 This was in regard to Carney having no workers at this announcement.

00:10:34.060 It just reminded me of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the end of his tenure and the press conferences similarly that he would hold regarding anything to do with the trades would have to essentially be done in complete and utter secrecy because otherwise these workers would just berate him.

00:10:52.040 We saw him getting questioned, things he couldn't answer, and people were like, how are you going to help me?

00:10:57.780 How are you going to fix my life?

00:10:58.780 He didn't have the answers they were looking for.

00:11:01.300 People would be yelling at him from across the street.

00:11:03.100 He basically had to – we saw some press conferences.

00:11:05.260 He was doing them in, like, secret underground places.

00:11:07.840 I mean, that just reminded me of that when I saw the pictures of Carney at the steel mill there with no workers present.

00:11:15.380 Yeah, definitely.

00:11:18.120 I think the one aura that he gives off and that voters are picking up on is inauthenticity and almost a smugness and assuredness that he's going to become Prime Minister for a while and that he's got this in the bag.

00:11:34.740 And he has reasons to, if you look at some of the recent polls, more reputable ones, Leger showing a boost in his popularity, you know, some even showing neck and neck tie with the Conservatives.

00:11:48.220 But maintaining that attitude while Canadians are watching closely, being super attentive, I would think that, you know, we had this leadership race.

00:12:01.560 Canadians probably heard about it, probably saw it on the news, listened to some discussions, maybe mentioned it once or twice in their family.

00:12:10.020 But when we're talking about an election, a general election, at a time when we are facing an existential threat to our economy, potentially our own sovereignty, we have nine years of disastrous policies.

00:12:29.200 Canadians are going to be paying a lot of attention to this election that's coming up.

00:12:35.360 And they're going to look at every single thing that Mark Carney says, as well as Polyev and the other candidates.

00:12:44.160 But they're going to make sure to evaluate that and bring that with them when they go to the ballot box.

00:12:53.420 So in short, what I'm saying is that is Carney really up to the task?

00:12:59.360 Because one of the things he's presented himself as is this outsider.

00:13:04.060 And most of us don't believe that he's not an outsider.

00:13:06.900 He's about as establishment as you can get.

00:13:09.960 But one thing he doesn't have is that experience of having the public eye, the constant scrutiny of every single word you say, every claim you make being fact checked.

00:13:22.160 And Carney has proven himself to be quite poor at that.

00:13:25.420 From what we've seen, he's made so many statements that don't line up with reality, he's embellished his own record, he's taken credit for other people's work, and he's exaggerated what he's actually achieved.

00:13:37.960 So to carry on with that, there's a clip from this, from this event, he held this announcement at this plant.

00:13:46.160 And it just goes to show, Noah, you've had experience with this being, you know, showing up to Carney's events.

00:13:53.240 He doesn't want to talk to the media.

00:13:55.000 He feels like he feels entitled to not having to answer questions to the media.

00:14:01.420 And you can just see it when he's getting into this car.

00:14:04.160 Just look at his face and how his attitude when he's getting questions thrown at him in this clip.

00:14:10.380 So, Noah, as a journalist who has experience dealing with Mark Carney at his events, is this the same thing you've experienced from him?

00:14:20.440 Yeah, pretty much.

00:14:21.740 I mean, my situations were different.

00:14:24.160 The first time I went to a Mark Carney event, I was able to kind of slip into the crowd and they didn't really notice me, even though I had my phone on a tripod and I was recording his entire speech.

00:14:35.100 And then I sort of approached him, you know, as if I was one of the Carney fans in the crowd.

00:14:41.480 But then, yeah, I asked him a serious question.

00:14:43.360 I asked him a question about the carbon tax.

00:14:46.020 I don't think he recognized that I was a journalist at that point.

00:14:49.840 And he, you know, gave a pretty candid answer to basically saying, oh, you know, I didn't talk about that in my speech.

00:14:57.640 But, you know, I'm going to, you know, throw some bones for you guys later.

00:15:00.940 It's like, OK.

00:15:01.440 But the other times I went to Carney events, I was, you know, barred at the door in an Oakville event I went to at the boating club in the local boating club in Oakville.

00:15:13.940 I was not allowed inside the event.

00:15:16.200 And it was for probably good reason.

00:15:18.480 Anita and Nan spoke at that event.

00:15:20.820 And they just didn't want any journalist who was going to report on the facts of the story and perhaps a, you know, not glowing light.

00:15:31.440 I think that Global and CTV reporters were allowed in.

00:15:35.520 And this is also the case at his most recent event in Mississauga.

00:15:40.180 Global, CTV, CBC journalists were allowed in.

00:15:43.480 But I was barred.

00:15:44.420 Rebel News journalists were barred.

00:15:46.820 And Kareem Asad, the independent investigative journalist, she was also barred from entering the event.

00:15:53.780 They even threatened to call the RCMP on me.

00:15:56.180 So this is the MO of Mark Carney.

00:15:59.880 Try to avoid Canadian media as much as possible, especially if they're independent media, especially if they, you know, don't mind reporting on the negative facts.

00:16:09.420 You know, Carney and his team probably sees the stuff that goes up on the Juno News website and says, wow, now they're actually reporting on the stuff that Mark Carney has said in the past.

00:16:19.060 In his books, at his World Economic Forum speeches, you know, this is an outlet that we don't want at our events.

00:16:28.060 You know, what if they report on something that he says, you know, and this is not the attitude that our prime minister should be having.

00:16:34.100 Even though he was just appointed as prime minister at the governor general's mansion a few hours ago, it is clear that, you know, we or it is unclear what he stands for.

00:16:47.060 And that is largely because media outlets have not been able to question him on the issues that matters to Canadians.

00:16:52.480 Let's not forget, Noah, there's nothing new under the sun.

00:16:56.560 I, of course, went to Carney's campaign launch in Edmonton and was banned from entering the building along with all other independent media.

00:17:03.300 We weren't even allowed in the building.

00:17:05.760 Other media were even trespassed off the property just for showing up.

00:17:09.800 Only the legacy media that the liberals fund were allowed at Carney's campaign launch.

00:17:14.760 And this has been consistent over his small tenure thus far, but I don't see that changing in the future.

00:17:21.000 Yes, and it's provided a lot of fodder for Pierre Polyev.

00:17:25.840 He came punching right out of the gate after Mark Carney was elected, a leader, spoke directly to the media, gave a statement, answered questions.

00:17:35.660 A lot of the time, the legacy media blames Pierre Polyev for shutting them out and taking only one question, no follow-ups, etc.

00:17:46.560 But here he immediately goes right in front of a press conference, takes questions about his own record, and hits back at Mark Carney.

00:17:57.800 And I think there is an obvious contrast here, and it might be a political calculation by Pierre Polyev moving in to the next election to show that he's willing to tangle with the media and he's willing to tangle with the opponent.

00:18:13.880 And there are some comparisons to be made here if we look south of the border with Joe Biden and the way that he was sheltered for the last, you know, before he's eventually stepped down from his campaign.

00:18:26.740 The media essentially sheltered him.

00:18:28.440 They totally denied some of the issues, you know, health issues, old age issues that he had, and were eventually forced to confess that they ignored this problem for so long.

00:18:41.140 But they also did the same thing with Kamala Harris. 0.99

00:18:43.700 She was horrendous in front of the camera. 1.00

00:18:46.420 She was awful in interviews.

00:18:48.460 She couldn't provide coherent answers to any questions.

00:18:52.100 And it ended up backfiring on them.

00:18:54.860 And Mark Carney, when I look at his performance before, at his campaign speeches, there's no, you know, excitement.

00:19:03.620 There's no vitality.

00:19:04.680 He's kind of boring to listen to, but let's jump to Pierre Polyev's criticisms right after the liberal leadership of Prime Minister Carney.

00:19:13.460 Now, Mark Carney is trying to hide from his record over the last five years of advising Trudeau in favor of raising carbon taxes, money printing inflation, and blocking resource projects, all while he moved his company headquarters and jobs to the United States.

00:19:29.620 You know, it's ironic.

00:19:32.240 Mr. Carney is trying to distract from his many scandals and conflicts of interest, as well as his disastrous record as Justin Trudeau's economic advisor, by talking about Trump.

00:19:42.580 He's the guy that sold out to Trump.

00:19:45.400 Six days after Donald Trump threatened Canada with tariffs to steal our jobs, Mark Carney announced to Brookfield shareholders that he would move his headquarters from Canada to New York.

00:19:58.460 And when you asked him about it, he lied to your face.

00:20:02.320 We got it in writing, and we proved it.

00:20:05.060 He sold out Canada.

00:20:07.540 He put his profit ahead of our people.

00:20:10.800 And he did exactly what Donald Trump wanted.

00:20:13.840 Never before have we had a Prime Minister so conflicted and compromised, and yet so little scrutinized.

00:20:19.660 Just like when he supported carbon taxes in Canada while investing in American coal.

00:20:25.120 He opposed Canadian pipelines, while his company bought Middle East pipelines.

00:20:32.060 He has millions of dollars of financial interests that run against Canada's national interests.

00:20:38.540 He gets rich, making Canadians poor.

00:20:42.600 You can be sure about one thing.

00:20:44.880 Donald Trump's going to have a briefing on his desk of all of Mark Carney's American investments.

00:20:50.120 And he is going to leverage all of Carney's profit motive against the interests of the Canadian people.

00:20:58.960 And we know Carney will sell out Canada for his personal profit.

00:21:02.480 He's already done it.

00:21:03.780 He's systematically done it his entire time as a corporate insider.

00:21:07.520 So, we see Pierre Polyev accusing Mark Carney of having sold out Canada and moving on as Prime Minister to sell out Canada even further.

00:21:19.820 Can Isaac or Noah, either of you, take this up?

00:21:23.280 Give us a little bit of background about his own dealings, past business dealings.

00:21:27.780 You know, we've talked about statements he's made that are contradictory, particularly with regards to Brookfield, etc.

00:21:34.060 Yeah, that's the thing, Cosmin.

00:21:37.720 You say accusing, which I find an interesting verb, given everything Polyevre said there in the press conference is just stating facts.

00:21:47.420 Carney said this, but this is the truth.

00:21:49.460 Carney said this, but this is the truth, which are, of course, complete opposites.

00:21:53.060 And then we've seen Carney, too, saying the complete opposite thing in French versus English.

00:21:59.160 We saw him in Quebec saying, I'll never put a pipeline through Quebec, guys.

00:22:01.840 Trust me, in French, but then he, speaking to English Canadians, he said, oh, I'll do everything I can to get pipelines across Canada and we'll be an energy behemoth.

00:22:10.420 These are two completely opposite stories he's telling just based on the crowd he's telling it to.

00:22:15.240 So, it really feels, taking it back to the first story, when we're talking about him dressing up in costumes at the steel mill,

00:22:21.940 it really, he just caters what he's saying to the crowd he's speaking to, just based on what he thinks they want to hear,

00:22:30.080 which either he could dress how they think they want to dress or he wants to say what they want to say.

00:22:34.240 Like, I don't know.

00:22:35.420 It really feels more like he's acting than telling Canadians the truth.

00:22:39.980 And Polyev brings up an interesting point.

00:22:44.020 He's framing this as Carney's past business dealings, his unwillingness to disclose his financial holdings, his ties,

00:22:55.000 actually make him more vulnerable when dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump.

00:23:01.360 Pierre Polyev paints his picture of Donald Trump is at his, you know, White House desk in the Oval Office looking through Mark Carney's record.

00:23:11.240 How much of a vulnerability is Mark Carney's refusal to disclose what exactly he has, what invested interests he has,

00:23:21.320 and whether there are any conflicts of interest, Noah?

00:23:24.840 Well, it's very important because Mark Carney says he's going to shell out a bunch of money for,

00:23:30.920 like, infrastructure projects of the like.

00:23:33.180 Well, Brookfield Asset Management is vested in a lot of companies, a lot of companies that the public doesn't really know about right now.

00:23:41.920 And I'm pretty sure Mark Carney has his own personal investments on the side.

00:23:46.500 And if it is disclosed that, for example, Mark Carney still has significant shares in Brookfield Asset Management,

00:23:53.520 and that the Carney government is granting certain contracts to businesses that Brookfield is invested in,

00:24:02.200 that is classic corruption.

00:24:04.120 And if the public doesn't know what companies Mark Carney is vested in,

00:24:09.200 how much stock he has in Brookfield, how much of that portfolio that it consists,

00:24:14.740 what other companies he's invested in, you know,

00:24:16.900 and if these companies are going to have, you know, or do have contracts with the federal government,

00:24:23.080 if they're going to apply for future contracts in the government,

00:24:25.860 this is all very important information so that, you know,

00:24:28.920 we ensure that our reputation as a pretty non-corrupt country, you know, is maintained.

00:24:35.240 Now, you can point to individual instances.

00:24:38.020 I know that I think Montreal mayors, for example, have had a history of getting charged with corruption.

00:24:44.380 But, you know, we don't want that happening in the federal government.

00:24:48.660 So we need to ensure that Mark Carney is complying, not just with the letter of the law,

00:24:54.500 but the spirit of the law, that our public officials are disclosing their assets once they become public officials.

00:25:01.660 And he's not just skirting around certain exceptions to the law because, well, he can't.

00:25:08.520 Yeah, and the tariffs.

00:25:09.860 Let's just shift to the tariffs because that's the central issue we're talking about.

00:25:14.380 That's going to be on top of mind for everybody when they head into an election.

00:25:18.460 And we've seen for the past two months, I will give credit to the premiers,

00:25:23.460 they have taken the lead on this because we've had an absent government.

00:25:27.200 There was nobody really advocating on our behalf publicly at the federal level.

00:25:33.160 But the premiers have taken it upon themselves to advocate for Canada.

00:25:38.300 And to me, that's it is a good thing because it does provide a case for provincial autonomy and that the provinces collectively should decide the future of this country.

00:25:48.840 And we shouldn't have this heavy handed federal government approach.

00:25:53.580 And in a way, it is a blessing that we have this conversation about who is actually the representative of Canadians. 0.70

00:26:01.700 And for a while, with the Trudeau government, it's been a top-down sort of lecturing, we know better approach.

00:26:09.960 But the premiers have taken different approaches.

00:26:13.280 You know, in Alberta, Isaac, you have Premier Danielle Smith making gains, you know, getting that 10% instead of a higher tariff on Albertan oil and gas.

00:26:25.160 And she's also trying to be more conciliatory.

00:26:28.180 But in Ontario, Noah, you're a neck of the woods, we have Doug Ford.

00:26:32.640 And this week, this last week we just had, Doug Ford tried to make a big play.

00:26:39.720 He introduced, briefly for a moment, 25% surcharge on electricity sent to U.S. states, which neighbor Ontario.

00:26:49.860 And Ontario does supply U.S. states with quite a bit of electricity, I think upwards to like double-digit percentage of certain states, a composition of their energy mix.

00:27:00.420 And immediately, that was shot down.

00:27:04.860 So what happened, Noah?

00:27:06.340 How did U.S. President Donald Trump respond to these threats from Doug Ford?

00:27:12.140 Well, as we know, Donald Trump has imposed a 25% tariff on aluminum and steel imports to the United States.

00:27:20.280 And so when Doug Ford said that he's going to add this 25% surcharge on electricity going to the American states, his Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, told the president, the president sent out a, you know, mean, menacing tweet or truth on Truth Social.

00:27:38.920 And he threatened to increase that tariff from 25% to 50% on aluminum and steel, which would be a major blow to Canadian steel and aluminum manufacturers because, you know, perhaps maybe they can sell to some American importers with a 25% tariff.

00:27:59.660 A 50% tariff would be catastrophic, absolutely catastrophic.

00:28:03.820 So Howard Lutnick and Doug Ford had to get together.

00:28:07.680 They worked out a deal where they would both, you know, back down from this escalatory approach to the tariff war.

00:28:15.600 The United States would back down on increasing the tariff on aluminum and steel.

00:28:20.200 And Ford would back down on the surcharge on American electricity going to America with the incentive that they both meet up in the future to renegotiate USMCA.

00:28:32.400 So overall, for people in the United States and Canada, it's a good thing that we're both in a very small way de-escalating this trade war.

00:28:42.180 You know, you don't want it to escalate to the point where we're imposing 100% tariffs on each other, which, you know, would not be good for either of us, quite frankly.

00:28:50.480 So that's a good thing.

00:28:52.360 But it is, quite frankly, weird that Howard Lutnick and the Trump administration sees Doug Ford as the person to negotiate the USMCA and not the Carney government.

00:29:02.880 What does that say about how the Trump administration views the Carney government?

00:29:07.120 Perhaps that they view Carney as more of a placeholder or they just have more respect for Ford and view Ford as or view Carney as a placeholder.

00:29:16.840 Because at the end of the day, sure, maybe Ford didn't get the win by being able to levy the surcharge on electricity going to the United States as a retaliatory effort.

00:29:26.620 But at least Trump said that, you know, Doug Ford is a strong man.

00:29:30.660 I think that was the quote.

00:29:31.520 So at least, you know, the Trump administration is showing some respect to Ford and are willing to talk with and negotiate with Ford.

00:29:38.320 We have not seen the same thing with Trudeau over the past few months.

00:29:41.460 And we currently are not seeing this with Carney.

00:29:44.140 It's actually a slap in the face that Trump wants to negotiate with Ford, not Carney.

00:29:48.080 So very, very interesting to see how the Trump administration approaches trade negotiations with Canada going forward.

00:29:57.060 Now, Isaac, how does this compare to Daniel Smith's approach?

00:30:01.620 Because she has imposed her own tariffs to some degree. 0.95

00:30:05.740 I know there is the whole removing alcohol, which all the provinces have done.

00:30:09.840 But how does it compare to the way Doug Ford is approaching this in a more heavy handed, you know, fisticuffs sort of way?

00:30:17.520 Yeah, I'll just speak firstly to what Noah was saying, how the premiers have really or how you both were saying, how the premiers have really headed the negotiations over the last month or two, as we've not had a sitting prime minister until today.

00:30:30.660 And of course, Doug Ford is the head, the chair of the Council of the Federation, which is the group of Canada's premiers.

00:30:36.260 So it only makes sense that he's been leading the negotiations with Trump and therefore Trump sees him in that light.

00:30:44.180 And it's good that he's getting some level of respect from him, which we unsurprisingly haven't seen towards the liberals because every press conference they hold, it feels like all they do is smack talk Trump.

00:30:54.000 Why would he respect them?

00:30:55.060 As for Danielle Smith, she has taken a more, I don't want to say collaborative approach, but diplomatic approach, because she's, as we've seen, you know, in the United States, like half the time, just trying to not only negotiate with Trump, but she's speaking to the governors, governors from all the different states saying, how can we make this work?

00:31:15.480 How can we not do these tariffs?

00:31:16.920 I don't want our energy to crash.

00:31:19.500 I don't want tariffs on our energy.

00:31:20.800 How can we make a deal, basically?

00:31:22.460 And she's doing everything in her power to negotiate with these governors and, of course, the president himself.

00:31:28.760 We've seen her, yeah, probably actually spend more time in the United States than Alberta because she's actually over there doing the negotiations while we see some liberal leaders sit in Canada and say things but not actually do much at all.

00:31:42.700 And to your point, you know, that approach has bore some fruit.

00:31:45.200 We've seen the lower tariff rate on Canadian energy, which is definitely, you know, a good thing for Canada's oil and gas sector.

00:31:54.700 But also, you know, Daniel Smith is, you know, willing to talk to, you know, American congressmen and senators and try to convince them that, you know, these tariffs are not a good idea.

00:32:05.720 You see, you know, for example, Rand Paul, who has always been a libertarian, you know, he vocally says that, you know, the tariff war against Canada is a stupid idea and that we should not be doing that because it's going to only impose higher costs on Americans.

00:32:18.340 She's going to talk with Ben Shapiro, who is a leading thought leader in the American conservative movement. 0.93

00:32:25.000 And Shapiro has been one of those commentators who says that the tariff war is actually stupid and it's going to hurt American consumers. 0.86

00:32:33.120 And, you know, this is a point that I think really should be emphasized. 0.86

00:32:36.280 This is not a move that is going to help America in the long term.

00:32:40.480 It is something that Daniel Smith has been trying to impress upon American politicians and American thought leaders now talking to Shapiro.

00:32:48.380 She I think Ford has been trying to impress this upon, you know, say, the viewers of American media.

00:32:55.060 He's been going on Fox and saying this.

00:32:57.680 So we we've seen some premiers, you know, at least try to articulate the negative effects that this is going to have on their country.

00:33:05.820 Well, you know, people like David Eby is not trying to do that at all.

00:33:10.240 He's only, you know, banning.

00:33:11.680 I think his initial idea was to only ban American liquor imports from red states.

00:33:16.180 And, you know, he's, you know, truly trying to take it to all the Republicans.

00:33:20.220 And, you know, you see a lot of liberals trying to make this a partisan thing, a left versus right thing.

00:33:25.060 And that's not right.

00:33:26.280 You know, you have to you know, they want this Team Canada approach, but they are really, you know, doing the opposite.

00:33:31.820 While you have other premiers like Smith and to an extent Ford, who are really, you know, looking out for the national interest and actually getting these wins.

00:33:40.720 And they're not, you know, berating sort of the the quality of the American leadership, you know, all the time in the way that the liberals are.

00:33:50.040 And, you know, that's actually producing results.

00:33:52.480 So let's just play a clip here of Donald Trump reacting to Doug Ford walking back this electricity surcharge.

00:34:01.500 And we've talked about, you know, some respect that Trump has shown.

00:34:05.480 But here it's it is quite a different story.

00:34:08.100 He's taking a victory lap and he's claiming victory over this.

00:34:11.940 In my opinion, not going to be tough.

00:34:13.700 Just like when Ontario charged us, everybody said, oh, they just said this will be one in one hour.

00:34:20.160 And they announced what we were going to do.

00:34:22.560 And they withdrew their little threat.

00:34:24.680 And what they don't say in Canada is that 270 percent.

00:34:31.020 Have you ever heard that we have tariffs or dairy products from Canada of 270 percent going up to 400 percent?

00:34:39.100 You never hear that.

00:34:39.880 Canada is absolutely one of the worst.

00:34:43.100 And we when I say worst, worst in terms of charging tariffs.

00:34:47.680 They're dairy products.

00:34:49.800 They charge our farmers 240, 250, 270 and 400 percent.

00:34:55.280 OK, think of that for dairy product.

00:34:58.040 And we charge them like peanuts.

00:34:59.560 You know why?

00:35:00.300 Because we've been improperly run for so many years.

00:35:03.160 I had that all settled in my first term.

00:35:05.780 But then, of course, Biden, you know, he let everything go to hell.

00:35:09.360 So the tariff situation is an evolving issue.

00:35:12.380 It almost changes every single day, if not every week.

00:35:15.860 We see Trump advancing his offense and then retreating a little bit and advancing further.

00:35:22.840 And to me, that that is his strategy.

00:35:25.460 He wants to keep Canada on their feet, be unpredictable in a sense.

00:35:31.420 He's won elections based on his unpredictability.

00:35:35.300 And his opponents are unable to figure out what his next move is.

00:35:40.040 And this is all approaching the USMCA renegotiation.

00:35:46.180 And it will be up to Carney or the next government as well to carry on that negotiation into what deals and terms the Canadian government will have with the United States.

00:35:59.640 And perhaps my hope is that these tariffs are simply a negotiating tool to when eventually they sit down at the negotiating table and work out in USMCA.

00:36:12.300 But that's yet to be seen.

00:36:13.860 Now, just to bring this to a different issue, I know you've all heard a lot about Mark Carney, the tariffs every single day, every week.

00:36:22.940 You turn on the TV, radio, or you read the news.

00:36:26.300 It's all about these federal issues and the upcoming election.

00:36:29.740 But here in British Columbia, a university, the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus, has prohibited or rejected an attempt to set up a student conservative club.

00:36:45.340 They essentially rejected a proposal to start a club.

00:36:48.960 Now, I recall from back in my university days, it was pretty common to have a university conservative club, a university liberal club.

00:36:57.480 There was a young socialist club.

00:36:58.940 There was communist Marxist-Leninist clubs for crying out loud when I went to school.

00:37:03.820 But now, suddenly, I guess it's not acceptable to have a conservative club.

00:37:09.160 Now, Noah, you're in university still.

00:37:12.040 Can you tell us what the atmosphere is, what the vibe is on campus?

00:37:16.400 Is it even acceptable to be conservative or have right-wing views at a Canadian university today?

00:37:24.380 Well, you'd be hard-pressed to find a student union or many professors who are tolerant of right-wing or just even moderately-centered views.

00:37:34.400 Now, it depends on the professor.

00:37:36.400 I've had professors who are closet conservatives and they try their best not to articulate their conservatism because they know they'd be eaten alive by their students, which is something to think about in and of itself.

00:37:49.940 But, you know, it is really a hostile environment to conservatives or just anybody who has, you know, just normal opinions.

00:37:58.000 Like, if you go on the York University campus, where I go to, especially after October 7th, there was a ton of pro-Palestine protests, you know, on almost a daily basis.

00:38:09.420 Certainly, at least once a week, a massive protest would happen.

00:38:13.100 And many, many other universities are like this.

00:38:15.980 At least at York, the campus conservative club was able to get ratified.

00:38:20.480 But the student union here even gave them a hard time.

00:38:24.560 Usually, it takes about a few weeks to get ratified by the student union. 0.99

00:38:28.620 And the student union, YFS, the York Federation of Students, gave the York conservatives a lot of, you know, just a lot of crap. 0.98

00:38:37.020 It took several months to get ratified. 0.94

00:38:39.260 And it took, you know, I think, I think four months in its entirety to get ratified.

00:38:43.940 It did not take the young communists that long.

00:38:48.120 And we have two communist clubs.

00:38:49.640 I'm sure it didn't take any one of them that longer.

00:38:52.780 Now, I don't know the clubs that UBC has.

00:38:55.760 I know that they have a young liberals club.

00:38:57.820 I know the NDP, they operate some student clubs.

00:39:00.200 And the communists, definitely, operate student clubs.

00:39:02.680 But if you're going to allow the liberal club, which is basically the dominant center-left party in Canada,

00:39:08.700 how are you not going to allow the dominant center-right party to have a club in Canada?

00:39:13.940 It's not like the conservative party is some radical, you know, far-right, you know, party or whatever.

00:39:19.100 And you can even argue that those clubs should be allowed.

00:39:21.880 But, you know, it's not like this is some extremist party, you know, advocating for crazy opinions or crazy things.

00:39:29.060 They're just the other mainstream party in Canada.

00:39:33.080 And I think that the UBC Okanagan is in a riding that had elected a conservative MLA in this past election.

00:39:42.380 I might be wrong about that.

00:39:43.640 But I know for sure the central Okanagan MLA is a conservative.

00:39:47.540 So it is pretty interesting that they're represented by a party that they're not even allowed to represent on campus.

00:39:55.040 It's pretty disgusting and anti-free speech, like the left has been for the past, you know, decade and a half.

00:40:03.380 So let me just read the decision here.

00:40:06.260 This is by Student Union Vice President Internal Rajat Arora, who includes his he-him pronouns in his signature there.

00:40:16.120 He says that the board's decision were due to certain opinions and policy positions, political stances of the party their club would represent, speaking of the federal conservatives.

00:40:32.180 Actually, it's not clear whether they're speaking of the federal conservatives or provincial conservatives.

00:40:36.960 But let's just assume both because they pretty much align on many of these issues.

00:40:42.220 So they cite these specific issues.

00:40:45.540 So particularly views regarding the black and LGBTQ communities.

00:40:52.360 Now, as far as I know, the federal conservative party does not have any particular position on black Canadians or any sort of discriminatory policies that they've promoted.

00:41:06.000 And as for the LGBTQ communities, what I assume they're mentioning is opposition to gender ideology,

00:41:13.580 which they're just generalizing as being anti-gay or anti-LGBT, which is totally missing the point of the entire issue.

00:41:22.660 It's against pornography in schools.

00:41:24.800 It's against, you know, transitioning children. 1.00

00:41:27.400 The issue is much more complicated as just being against LGBTQ communities.

00:41:32.400 So, like, has this DEI diversity, equity, inclusion, this mishmash of progressive beliefs just been used, and it's been adopted all over universities, student unions first and foremost, Isaac.

00:41:49.340 Has this been used just as a hammer over the head of any group that might differ or oppose those particular opinions or ideological viewpoints?

00:41:59.920 Yeah, Cosmin, and you know what this actually reminded me of was of the Canada Strong and Free Network in Red Deer last year that I attended,

00:42:08.060 where Chris Rufo, the American conservative commentator, he spoke there, and he outlined strategies for defeating wokeism, which is relevant here in regard to this email.

00:42:18.780 He was saying, do not accept their premises.

00:42:22.160 So, when they're saying, we can't allow a conservative club because it's anti-black, anti-LGBTQ, I would respond to that email and say,

00:42:29.980 can you give me one example of a policy that's anti-black from the conservatives?

00:42:33.340 Please, like, one example.

00:42:34.540 It's not hard.

00:42:35.460 You're saying this is a broad net thing.

00:42:38.100 It's just how the party is.

00:42:39.460 Give me one example.

00:42:40.440 Please provide me an example.

00:42:41.520 And I'd really be interested to see how the student union person responded to that.

00:42:49.800 I mean, you could imagine.

00:42:51.240 But, yeah, I mean, obviously, I graduated from university with my bachelor's a few years ago.

00:42:58.440 But I do recall, I think there was like a communist Marxism party on the campus, though I won't say I know that there was a conservative one.

00:43:07.220 So, really, we've seen left-wing ideology run amok on universities across Canada.

00:43:14.900 And, of course, the students become the professors.

00:43:18.460 So, it's just a revolving door of that ideology.

00:43:21.700 And it's really been the predominant, especially, I mean, it depends on the faculty.

00:43:28.060 Because, of course, if you're in business, there's going to be more conservatives than if you're in the Bachelor of Arts.

00:43:32.860 I was obviously in the Bachelor of Communication, so it was in the Arts Department.

00:43:36.600 So, it was – I walk around some days amongst the hundreds of students and think, man, I'm the only conservative here, I could just tell.

00:43:44.060 So, really, was living in the shadows.

00:43:46.780 But, yeah, I don't know what – if – I've always thought this.

00:43:51.740 I don't know what can fix what universities have become with the ideology and the far left-wingism at universities.

00:43:59.020 I really don't know what can fix it.

00:44:00.400 Because, as I said, it literally is a revolving door where the students that have these ideologies become the professors.

00:44:06.060 So, I really don't know what the answer is.

00:44:08.620 But what Rustad said was pretty interesting in cutting off funding.

00:44:12.840 We've seen that happen in the States because, of course, most universities there are through private funders.

00:44:19.440 And these funders are saying, we're not supporting you if you're implementing DEI policies.

00:44:23.880 Now, the same thing can't happen in Canada with many public universities unless it comes from the government.

00:44:29.180 Yeah, you bring up a really good point where people are able to register, say, communist clubs, but not, you know, the mainstream conservative club.

00:44:38.960 The Socialist Fight Back is, I think, the most predominant communist club around Canadian campuses.

00:44:46.020 But also the Communist Party of Canada, they also register our parties.

00:44:49.260 So, I'd be interested to see if any of those clubs are registered and if they deem communism to be hateful or at least an extremely violent ideology.

00:44:59.240 But, you know, Rustad's, you know, idea of allowing students to opt out of paying student dues is, you know, one of common sense.

00:45:07.920 It is one of personal autonomy and freedom.

00:45:11.480 If I don't want to fund the student union, well, I don't have a choice, at least at York University.

00:45:17.440 I assume it's the same thing for students who attend UBC.

00:45:20.860 You don't have the choice.

00:45:22.380 You are going to contribute that, you know, 10 bucks, 20 bucks, 50 bucks to your student union.

00:45:28.240 And I don't want to, you know, personally, I don't want to contribute money to the YFS because they promote, you know, pro-Palestine stuff.

00:45:35.540 And, you know, they're rabidly anti-Israel.

00:45:38.920 You know, you could say they're pro-Hamas even. 0.96

00:45:41.060 You know, I think some of the statements that the YFS has made were utterly ridiculous. 0.74

00:45:46.120 I think CIA has also condemned them and the York administration has condemned them because they're so radical.

00:45:51.780 I don't want to contribute money to them, but I have to.

00:45:54.240 So the ability to opt out of these student unions and perhaps even create alternative student unions, you know, that are able to compete for the ability to legitimize certain unions and I mean certain clubs and then provide those clubs with funding so that they can carry out their events.

00:46:13.940 I think that would be a really good idea.

00:46:16.580 But these student unions, they have a monopoly.

00:46:19.600 They're going to do everything in their power to ensure that they retain their monopoly.

00:46:23.980 And, you know, as a monopolistic entity, they're able to impose certain ideological, you know, certain ideological positions on the student body, even if the majority of the student body doesn't want it or is just apathetic to it.

00:46:40.060 So the way that you combat these monopolies and break them up is by, you know, having the government, the provincial governments intervene and say that, hey, students, you are able to opt out and, hey, you can create your own student union.

00:46:54.160 That's really the only way to be able to break the university monopoly by the left, at least in the student unions.

00:47:01.420 You know, doing that on a broader level in the universities is such a harder task to accomplish that, you know, we don't have enough time to talk about that here.

00:47:13.120 But at least, you know, the possibility of defunding these radical left-wing student unions is possible.

00:47:19.660 Well, unfortunately, there have been very few, if any, provincial governments willing to be up to the task of defunding these woke student unions, as well as universities altogether and their imposition of DEI ideology throughout those institutions.

00:47:39.140 It's definitely been an interesting week.

00:47:42.040 We are going to head into an even more interesting week, if not an election called Any Moment.

00:47:49.260 But as always, this has been Off the Record.

00:47:56.720 You got to get your hard hat back, man, for the outro.

00:48:00.580 Yeah.

00:48:01.480 I got a good question for you, Cosmin.

00:48:05.360 Go ahead.

00:48:06.060 There we go.

00:48:06.880 Cosmin, did you secretly become or do you have a U.S. citizenship?

00:48:10.340 I'm curious.

00:48:12.040 No.

00:48:12.320 Because you referred to the trade agreement as the USMCA, which is the common verbiage in the States.

00:48:19.000 But in Canada, it's KUSMA.

00:48:20.400 And then, interestingly, in Mexico, I think it's TMAC.

00:48:24.440 Yeah.

00:48:25.660 Yeah.

00:48:26.480 So you have to say it differently based on where you are, which is totally weird.

00:48:30.520 Yeah.

00:48:31.320 And in Quebec, do they call it the Etatsunee Kansma or whatever?

00:48:37.420 I'm not sure what they call it in Quebec.

00:48:38.740 The E-U-S-C-M-A or whatever?

00:48:43.760 That'd be interesting.

00:48:45.600 Got to talk to some Quebecers.

00:48:48.100 Yeah.

00:48:48.580 I have a few in my contacts.

00:48:51.080 Well, you're a Frenchman, Isaac. 0.91

00:48:53.520 You should know this.

00:48:55.120 I should.

00:48:55.960 But I'm not from Quebec.

00:48:56.880 Fair enough.

00:48:58.800 We'll be right back.

Juno News - March 16, 2025

Carney's cringe factory tour

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