Juno News - October 30, 2025
Ford says Carney was in the room when he reviewed Reagan ad
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Summary
In this episode of the True North Daily Brief: Doug Ford demands an apology from the U.S. Ambassador to Canada after reports say he "dismissed down" Ontario's delegate over an anti-Trump ad. Prime Minister Doug Ford reveals that Prime Minister Mark Carney was present in the room when reviewing the Reagan ad that led President Donald Trump to cancel trade talks with Canada.
Transcript
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford is demanding an apology from the U.S. ambassador to Canada
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after reports say he, quote, dressed down Ontario's delegate to the U.S. over Ford's Reagan ad.
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Environmental alarmist Bill Gates wrote in a recent blog post that he no longer believes
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climate change will lead to humanity's demise, asserting people will thrive globally for the
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foreseeable future. Structural barriers and capacity constraints prevent Canadian medical
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students who study abroad from practicing medicine in Canada, while foreign students take
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training spots only to leave the country. Hello, Canada. It's Thursday, October 30th,
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and this is the True North Daily Brief. I'm Cosmin Georgia. And I'm Clayton DeMaine.
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We've got you covered with all the news you need to know. Let's discuss the top stories of the day
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and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford has revealed that Prime Minister Mark Carney was present in the room when
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reviewing the controversial Reagan ad that led U.S. President Donald Trump to cancel trade talks
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with Canada. Additionally, Ford has demanded an apology from the U.S. ambassador after an expletive
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tirade as trade talks between the two countries ground to a halt. On Monday, Ford revealed that Carney and
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his top staff reviewed the ad before it was aired. When asked how he knew that the Prime Minister reviewed
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the ad on Wednesday, Ford noted that the two were physically in the room with him, but wouldn't reveal
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what Carney's response to the ad was. Back to the Reagan ad. How do you know the Prime Minister and his
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Chief of Staff saw this particular ad before you moved ahead with airing it? I was with him.
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Everyone's obsessed. Just think of that 11.4 billion impressions or views. Like that means every leader in the
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world saw it. You know, it's just real. It's a real ad. It worked. It was the most successful ad ever. I don't
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know any ad that's ever hit 11.4 billion in every single country in the world. Their leadership and
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population was watching it because it's real. Ronald Reagan is telling the truth. A tariff on Canada is a tax on
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American people. And I could run 10 more different ads, which I'm not going to, with Ronald Reagan
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saying different speeches about how tariffs are terrible. During the Coalition of Concerned
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Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada's annual general meeting, Hoekstra reportedly gave an expletive
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laden, quote, dressing down to Ontario's delegate David Patterson over the Reagan ad. Trump has cited this
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ad as the reason for trade talks breaking down and new 10% tariffs on Canada. Hoekstra lamented that
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the U.S. and Canada were close to a trade deal, but the ad threw a wrench into negotiations. When asked
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about the incident, Ford called on Hoekstra to apologize to Patterson, saying his tirade was, quote,
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The cheese slipped off the cracker. I get it. You're ticked off. But call the guy up because you're a
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good guy. And Dave's my champion. The guy is just instrumental in these trade deals down in
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Washington. And, you know, some people get hot. They get heated. I get heated sometimes. But just
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call the guy up and bury the hatchet because the ambassador is a good guy, actually. I love Dave.
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Obviously, Clayton, the U.S. side sees this ad as an insult. Those in the Trump administration
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are following the U.S. president's lead. And it's essentially blown everything into disarray when
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it comes to trade negotiations between Canada and the United States. But when you look online,
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some critics are saying Ford's response to Hoekstra, you know, going on this tirade is also rubbing
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salt on this fresh wound. So what else did Ford say during the press conference about Trump and the
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Yeah, Cosman. So all this, as you mentioned, after Trump announced that there would be an additional
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10% tariff on Canada and trade talks are over because of Doug Ford's ad, which Carney and his
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staff approved. But Ford said he never meant to, quote, poke the president in the eye and that he
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just wanted to get a conversation going to wake up the Democrats in America. But then he immediately
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started talking about a poll he saw on CNN, which claimed that the majority of Americans like Canada
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more than they like Donald Trump. Does this seem like the kind of thing to say to Trump, of all
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people, if you're trying to repair a trade relationship with America? I think anyone who
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knows Trump, regardless of which side you are on politically, could probably recognize that Trump
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wouldn't like that comment very much. Ford also said Trump's disapproval ratings are higher than
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anyone he's ever heard of. And with regards to Hoekstra, Ford said he wouldn't call him to ask for
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an apology himself, stressing that how good of a relationship they have, because they have a low
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stakes sports bet going on right now with the Blue Jays and LA Dodgers World Series game. And by the way,
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the same series where Ford aired the Reagan ad multiple times, which landed Canada in this mess to
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begin with. Longtime environmental alarmist and billionaire Bill Gates now says climate change
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will, quote, not lead to humanity's demise, and that, quote, people will be able to live and thrive in
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most places on Earth for the foreseeable future. According to the Microsoft co-founder's personal
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website, Gates notes, emissions projections are down, and people should no longer subscribe to the, quote,
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doomsday view of climate change. Gates writes, quote, unfortunately, the doomsday outlook is causing
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much of the climate community to focus too much on near-term emissions goals, and it's diverting resources
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from the most effective things we should be doing to improve life in a warming world. It's not too late
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to adopt a different view and adjust our strategies for dealing with climate change. His recommendation
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to temper climate alarmism appears directed at global leaders gathering at COP30, a climate summit in Brazil
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next month. Gates stated that while climate change is, quote, serious, governments can't cut funding for
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health and development programs to fight it. He continued saying, quote, it's time to put human
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welfare at the center of our climate strategies, which includes reducing the green premium to zero and
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improving agriculture and health in poor countries. This is a chance to refocus on the metric that should
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count even more than emissions and temperature change, improving lives. Our chief goal should be to
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prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions who live in the world's poorest
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countries. So, Cosmin, this seems like a complete 180 turn. How has an entrepreneur such as Gates
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become a respected voice on climate science anyway? Well, Clayton, these days it seems like every
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billionaire seems to have a pet cause, whether they pick health or climate, as Bill Gates does.
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They stick to this one thing and they pour a lot of money into it. And I think a lot of people
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confuse the dollar value of the funding that they've contributed to a cause for some sort of
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expertise. And that's what I believe is at play here with Bill Gates.
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But part of it could be a signal, a sort of shift away from this nonstop doomsday rhetoric we've seen
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for years. When you read Bill Gates's blog post, he really is walking back some of the central claims
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that were made by climate activists and the climate movement for decades. And these days you've got
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groups like Extinction Rebellion out there screaming that the apocalypse is coming. And if we're honest with
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ourselves, there are concerning elements of the climate movement. And some of those elements have even
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drifted to environmental terrorism, like sabotaging pipelines and such. So Gates is stepping in here, he's putting
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out this greed that's supposed to be more measured, I guess, and more human centric instead of the
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essentially anti-human rhetoric that a lot of radical climate activists employ.
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And on top of that, I think Gates hasn't done himself any favors in the public eye lately.
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Obviously, if you search up Bill Gates on social media, you have pictures and messages and stuff about his
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relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. So this could be a convenient way to polish his reputation, make himself the
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Canadian medical students who train abroad are largely choosing to take their skills to other
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countries because they face too many hurdles and limited opportunities to practice medicine back home
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as foreign students who leave Canada are taking training spots. During a House of Commons health
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committee, medical licensors, a Canadian medical student advocacy group, and a Canadian who was shut out of
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his field after studying abroad called on the federal government to reform the immigration and health
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licensing program. Advocates noted Canada's health care system has been chronically overwhelmed and
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understaffed, ranking nearly last among other universal health care systems internationally. Yet federal
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immigration policy prioritizes international students over thousands of Canadians ready to work.
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Rosemary Polliuk, the president of Canadian studying medicine abroad, testified at the committee saying,
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quote, there are 3,500 of us Canadian medical students studying abroad, 800 graduate every year,
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last year 181, and we've had as low as 119 of those 800 apply to come back to Canada, not because they
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don't want to, but because the barriers are so significant and we're so unwelcome.
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That's a darn good question. Very good question why they're doing that. We know that that this came
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about by the request of the faculties of medicine of Ontario, supported by the others. What's happening
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is that the faculties earn $100,000 of as an application. That's what they charge each year of these foreign
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physicians. So it's a very good source of income. Millions of dollars are earned every year by the
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faculty. They can use that money at their discretion. And so what they're doing is using, you know, taxpayers'
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resources and our trained doctors to train these foreigners so that they can then have a lot of extra
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money for the purposes that they want, whether it's research or whatever. Last week at the committee,
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internationally trained doctors who have already immigrated to Canada and hope to work in their
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fields noted similar licensing and bureaucratic barriers, which prevent them from working to
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alleviate the overwhelmed system. According to a Second Street study, at least over 15,400 Canadians
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died while waiting for care between April 2023 and March 2024. The group estimated the real number
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may exceed 28,000. Scott Alexander, a Canadian from Vancouver, BC who studied medicine in Australia in
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2017, said only two of his cohort of 60 Canadian students at the University of Queensland School of
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Medicine returned to Canada to practice. Alexander said he was led to believe he would be able to work
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in Canada after his education. However, after being turned away from residency jobs, which are requisite
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for licensure and changing rules to resident level examinations, he has been unable to work as a
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doctor in his own country. Dr. Alexander, so you were given false expectations about your ability to
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practice in Canada after you arrived here, and I'm sure you're not the only one who has practiced, a Canadian
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use practice abroad who's given also those false expectations. Yeah, to a certain extent, after the
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two years of applying for residency with no success, it did feel like the rug was kind of pulled out from
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under me because now new requirements were required for me to even have the privilege of applying for a
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residency in Canada. Clayton, you watched this committee meeting. What are some of the arguments
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presented on how the Liberals' immigration policy has contributed to this doctor shortage across the
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country? Yeah, Cosmin, so aside from the licensing barriers and changing exam rules, as we heard from
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some of the witnesses there, one of the arguments from this part of the committee was that there is
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simply no room for Canadians with international education to come back to Canada. Part of the requirements
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to be a doctor is to have training in Canada under an observership or a residency program and to have a
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recency of practice, meaning that they've been practicing within a certain period of time from when they want to
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get the license or go to work. The problem is that these students who actually want to work in Canada have a little
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opportunity to get into those positions. Scott Alexander, who we just heard from, said he's been working
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in Canada not as a doctor as he wanted to for seven years and still can't get a residency. Immigrants with
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international training similarly face those barriers, as we discussed, who would also want to come to
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Canada but end up going to places like the US because they're more appreciated and valued there with less
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barriers. So these training spots are being filled by international medical students, most of whom are
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under contract to leave Canada as soon as they complete their training as their governments are sponsoring them.
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According to witnesses, the majority of those students come from Saudi Arabia. There's over 1,100 Saudis
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currently being trained in Canada and of course the Saudi government pays for their education to be used in their own country.
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The president of Canadian studying medicine abroad said that some international students do stay in Canada, but the vast
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majority leave. And much like international students in any other post-secondary school in Canada, the faculty can charge
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them way more than Canadian students, making them a great source of both labor and revenue for those schools. The only problem is that
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thousands of Canadians are dying on wait lists and there are roughly 80,000 foreign trained medical professionals who aren't even
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working in medicine at all while these med schools rake in the cash.
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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 brief on
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