Juno News - October 30, 2025


Ford says Carney was in the room when he reviewed Reagan ad


Episode Stats

Length

16 minutes

Words per Minute

142.35023

Word Count

2,407

Sentence Count

136

Hate Speech Sentences

2


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

00:00:00.000 Ontario Premier Doug Ford is demanding an apology from the U.S. ambassador to Canada
00:00:09.940 after reports say he, quote, dressed down Ontario's delegate to the U.S. over Ford's Reagan ad.
00:00:18.120 Environmental alarmist Bill Gates wrote in a recent blog post that he no longer believes
00:00:24.960 climate change will lead to humanity's demise, asserting people will thrive globally for the
00:00:31.440 foreseeable future. Structural barriers and capacity constraints prevent Canadian medical
00:00:37.060 students who study abroad from practicing medicine in Canada, while foreign students take
00:00:42.580 training spots only to leave the country. Hello, Canada. It's Thursday, October 30th,
00:00:48.620 and this is the True North Daily Brief. I'm Cosmin Georgia. And I'm Clayton DeMaine.
00:00:53.540 We've got you covered with all the news you need to know. Let's discuss the top stories of the day
00:00:59.820 and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.
00:01:06.760 Ontario Premier Doug Ford has revealed that Prime Minister Mark Carney was present in the room when
00:01:12.760 reviewing the controversial Reagan ad that led U.S. President Donald Trump to cancel trade talks
00:01:18.880 with Canada. Additionally, Ford has demanded an apology from the U.S. ambassador after an expletive
00:01:25.720 tirade as trade talks between the two countries ground to a halt. On Monday, Ford revealed that Carney and
00:01:33.000 his top staff reviewed the ad before it was aired. When asked how he knew that the Prime Minister reviewed
00:01:39.000 the ad on Wednesday, Ford noted that the two were physically in the room with him, but wouldn't reveal
00:01:45.280 what Carney's response to the ad was. Back to the Reagan ad. How do you know the Prime Minister and his
00:01:52.160 Chief of Staff saw this particular ad before you moved ahead with airing it? I was with him.
00:02:01.220 Everyone's obsessed. Just think of that 11.4 billion impressions or views. Like that means every leader in the
00:02:08.140 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
00:02:15.940 know any ad that's ever hit 11.4 billion in every single country in the world. Their leadership and
00:02:21.380 population was watching it because it's real. Ronald Reagan is telling the truth. A tariff on Canada is a tax on
00:02:29.620 American people. And I could run 10 more different ads, which I'm not going to, with Ronald Reagan
00:02:35.840 saying different speeches about how tariffs are terrible. During the Coalition of Concerned
00:02:43.140 Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada's annual general meeting, Hoekstra reportedly gave an expletive
00:02:49.800 laden, quote, dressing down to Ontario's delegate David Patterson over the Reagan ad. Trump has cited this
00:02:57.800 ad as the reason for trade talks breaking down and new 10% tariffs on Canada. Hoekstra lamented that
00:03:05.420 the U.S. and Canada were close to a trade deal, but the ad threw a wrench into negotiations. When asked
00:03:12.000 about the incident, Ford called on Hoekstra to apologize to Patterson, saying his tirade was, quote,
00:03:18.180 absolutely unacceptable.
00:03:20.520 The cheese slipped off the cracker. I get it. You're ticked off. But call the guy up because you're a
00:03:27.140 good guy. And Dave's my champion. The guy is just instrumental in these trade deals down in
00:03:32.840 Washington. And, you know, some people get hot. They get heated. I get heated sometimes. But just
00:03:38.940 call the guy up and bury the hatchet because the ambassador is a good guy, actually. I love Dave.
00:03:46.660 I like the ambassador. So he knows what to do.
00:03:49.600 Obviously, Clayton, the U.S. side sees this ad as an insult. Those in the Trump administration
00:03:58.660 are following the U.S. president's lead. And it's essentially blown everything into disarray when
00:04:08.880 it comes to trade negotiations between Canada and the United States. But when you look online,
00:04:15.860 some critics are saying Ford's response to Hoekstra, you know, going on this tirade is also rubbing
00:04:23.820 salt on this fresh wound. So what else did Ford say during the press conference about Trump and the
00:04:31.280 U.S. ambassador in relation to this?
00:04:34.000 Yeah, Cosman. So all this, as you mentioned, after Trump announced that there would be an additional
00:04:40.080 10% tariff on Canada and trade talks are over because of Doug Ford's ad, which Carney and his
00:04:47.800 staff approved. But Ford said he never meant to, quote, poke the president in the eye and that he
00:04:55.140 just wanted to get a conversation going to wake up the Democrats in America. But then he immediately
00:05:00.760 started talking about a poll he saw on CNN, which claimed that the majority of Americans like Canada
00:05:07.780 more than they like Donald Trump. Does this seem like the kind of thing to say to Trump, of all
00:05:14.680 people, if you're trying to repair a trade relationship with America? I think anyone who
00:05:20.360 knows Trump, regardless of which side you are on politically, could probably recognize that Trump
00:05:27.460 wouldn't like that comment very much. Ford also said Trump's disapproval ratings are higher than
00:05:34.860 anyone he's ever heard of. And with regards to Hoekstra, Ford said he wouldn't call him to ask for
00:05:41.860 an apology himself, stressing that how good of a relationship they have, because they have a low
00:05:49.160 stakes sports bet going on right now with the Blue Jays and LA Dodgers World Series game. And by the way,
00:05:57.340 the same series where Ford aired the Reagan ad multiple times, which landed Canada in this mess to
00:06:04.280 begin with. Longtime environmental alarmist and billionaire Bill Gates now says climate change
00:06:12.860 will, quote, not lead to humanity's demise, and that, quote, people will be able to live and thrive in
00:06:19.760 most places on Earth for the foreseeable future. According to the Microsoft co-founder's personal
00:06:25.460 website, Gates notes, emissions projections are down, and people should no longer subscribe to the, quote,
00:06:33.180 doomsday view of climate change. Gates writes, quote, unfortunately, the doomsday outlook is causing
00:06:40.460 much of the climate community to focus too much on near-term emissions goals, and it's diverting resources
00:06:48.520 from the most effective things we should be doing to improve life in a warming world. It's not too late
00:06:56.460 to adopt a different view and adjust our strategies for dealing with climate change. His recommendation
00:07:03.420 to temper climate alarmism appears directed at global leaders gathering at COP30, a climate summit in Brazil
00:07:13.240 next month. Gates stated that while climate change is, quote, serious, governments can't cut funding for
00:07:20.500 health and development programs to fight it. He continued saying, quote, it's time to put human
00:07:27.180 welfare at the center of our climate strategies, which includes reducing the green premium to zero and
00:07:34.400 improving agriculture and health in poor countries. This is a chance to refocus on the metric that should
00:07:43.180 count even more than emissions and temperature change, improving lives. Our chief goal should be to
00:07:50.820 prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions who live in the world's poorest
00:07:57.820 countries. So, Cosmin, this seems like a complete 180 turn. How has an entrepreneur such as Gates
00:08:05.200 become a respected voice on climate science anyway? Well, Clayton, these days it seems like every
00:08:11.540 billionaire seems to have a pet cause, whether they pick health or climate, as Bill Gates does.
00:08:19.340 They stick to this one thing and they pour a lot of money into it. And I think a lot of people
00:08:26.180 confuse the dollar value of the funding that they've contributed to a cause for some sort of
00:08:34.440 expertise. And that's what I believe is at play here with Bill Gates.
00:08:39.080 But part of it could be a signal, a sort of shift away from this nonstop doomsday rhetoric we've seen
00:08:47.860 for years. When you read Bill Gates's blog post, he really is walking back some of the central claims
00:08:56.280 that were made by climate activists and the climate movement for decades. And these days you've got
00:09:05.800 groups like Extinction Rebellion out there screaming that the apocalypse is coming. And if we're honest with
00:09:14.160 ourselves, there are concerning elements of the climate movement. And some of those elements have even
00:09:21.380 drifted to environmental terrorism, like sabotaging pipelines and such. So Gates is stepping in here, he's putting
00:09:30.660 out this greed that's supposed to be more measured, I guess, and more human centric instead of the
00:09:38.680 essentially anti-human rhetoric that a lot of radical climate activists employ.
00:09:47.440 And on top of that, I think Gates hasn't done himself any favors in the public eye lately.
00:09:53.240 Obviously, if you search up Bill Gates on social media, you have pictures and messages and stuff about his
00:10:04.100 relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. So this could be a convenient way to polish his reputation, make himself the
00:10:13.540 reasonable voice of the climate movement.
00:10:15.880 Canadian medical students who train abroad are largely choosing to take their skills to other
00:10:24.260 countries because they face too many hurdles and limited opportunities to practice medicine back home
00:10:30.640 as foreign students who leave Canada are taking training spots. During a House of Commons health
00:10:36.860 committee, medical licensors, a Canadian medical student advocacy group, and a Canadian who was shut out of
00:10:43.740 his field after studying abroad called on the federal government to reform the immigration and health
00:10:50.040 licensing program. Advocates noted Canada's health care system has been chronically overwhelmed and
00:10:56.360 understaffed, ranking nearly last among other universal health care systems internationally. Yet federal
00:11:03.340 immigration policy prioritizes international students over thousands of Canadians ready to work.
00:11:09.500 Rosemary Polliuk, the president of Canadian studying medicine abroad, testified at the committee saying,
00:11:16.580 quote, there are 3,500 of us Canadian medical students studying abroad, 800 graduate every year,
00:11:24.200 last year 181, and we've had as low as 119 of those 800 apply to come back to Canada, not because they
00:11:33.100 don't want to, but because the barriers are so significant and we're so unwelcome.
00:11:38.060 That's a darn good question. Very good question why they're doing that. We know that that this came
00:11:46.100 about by the request of the faculties of medicine of Ontario, supported by the others. What's happening
00:11:52.760 is that the faculties earn $100,000 of as an application. That's what they charge each year of these foreign
00:12:04.080 physicians. So it's a very good source of income. Millions of dollars are earned every year by the
00:12:10.140 faculty. They can use that money at their discretion. And so what they're doing is using, you know, taxpayers'
00:12:18.320 resources and our trained doctors to train these foreigners so that they can then have a lot of extra
00:12:28.900 money for the purposes that they want, whether it's research or whatever. Last week at the committee,
00:12:35.040 internationally trained doctors who have already immigrated to Canada and hope to work in their
00:12:40.440 fields noted similar licensing and bureaucratic barriers, which prevent them from working to
00:12:46.480 alleviate the overwhelmed system. According to a Second Street study, at least over 15,400 Canadians
00:12:53.740 died while waiting for care between April 2023 and March 2024. The group estimated the real number
00:13:00.800 may exceed 28,000. Scott Alexander, a Canadian from Vancouver, BC who studied medicine in Australia in
00:13:08.160 2017, said only two of his cohort of 60 Canadian students at the University of Queensland School of
00:13:16.080 Medicine returned to Canada to practice. Alexander said he was led to believe he would be able to work
00:13:22.140 in Canada after his education. However, after being turned away from residency jobs, which are requisite
00:13:28.500 for licensure and changing rules to resident level examinations, he has been unable to work as a
00:13:34.920 doctor in his own country. Dr. Alexander, so you were given false expectations about your ability to
00:13:41.260 practice in Canada after you arrived here, and I'm sure you're not the only one who has practiced, a Canadian
00:13:47.500 use practice abroad who's given also those false expectations. Yeah, to a certain extent, after the
00:13:52.940 two years of applying for residency with no success, it did feel like the rug was kind of pulled out from
00:13:57.900 under me because now new requirements were required for me to even have the privilege of applying for a
00:14:03.280 residency in Canada. Clayton, you watched this committee meeting. What are some of the arguments
00:14:07.920 presented on how the Liberals' immigration policy has contributed to this doctor shortage across the
00:14:15.480 country? Yeah, Cosmin, so aside from the licensing barriers and changing exam rules, as we heard from
00:14:23.240 some of the witnesses there, one of the arguments from this part of the committee was that there is
00:14:28.700 simply no room for Canadians with international education to come back to Canada. Part of the requirements
00:14:35.980 to be a doctor is to have training in Canada under an observership or a residency program and to have a
00:14:44.280 recency of practice, meaning that they've been practicing within a certain period of time from when they want to
00:14:51.800 get the license or go to work. The problem is that these students who actually want to work in Canada have a little
00:14:59.580 opportunity to get into those positions. Scott Alexander, who we just heard from, said he's been working
00:15:05.980 in Canada not as a doctor as he wanted to for seven years and still can't get a residency. Immigrants with
00:15:14.160 international training similarly face those barriers, as we discussed, who would also want to come to
00:15:22.380 Canada but end up going to places like the US because they're more appreciated and valued there with less
00:15:28.720 barriers. So these training spots are being filled by international medical students, most of whom are
00:15:35.820 under contract to leave Canada as soon as they complete their training as their governments are sponsoring them.
00:15:42.000 According to witnesses, the majority of those students come from Saudi Arabia. There's over 1,100 Saudis
00:15:53.000 currently being trained in Canada and of course the Saudi government pays for their education to be used in their own country.
00:15:59.940 The president of Canadian studying medicine abroad said that some international students do stay in Canada, but the vast
00:16:08.120 majority leave. And much like international students in any other post-secondary school in Canada, the faculty can charge
00:16:15.280 them way more than Canadian students, making them a great source of both labor and revenue for those schools. The only problem is that
00:16:23.940 thousands of Canadians are dying on wait lists and there are roughly 80,000 foreign trained medical professionals who aren't even
00:16:32.120 working in medicine at all while these med schools rake in the cash.
00:16:37.120 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
00:16:47.460 iTunes and Spotify. Also, while you're at it, make sure to hit us with a five star rating and please leave a review.