Juno News - Jivani’s Petition, Carney’s Trump Talks, and Canada Post Chaos

00:00:00.000 So I took some time off. I'm now a take time off evangelist because I am a workaholic. So I'm sure I'm amongst friends. I painted most of my house. The big one was the kitchen. I painted it blue. And the reason why I took time off is because, of course, like all of us kind of in the movement that wants smaller, more accountable government, that was one doozy of an election. And leading up to it, we had Prime Minister, former Prime Minister Trudeau saying he was going to resign.

00:00:24.360 So I don't know about you guys, but I was kind of running real hot since like January, like working every single weekend. Have you guys had a chance to kind of recharge your batteries in the last couple of weeks since the big vote?

00:00:37.280 Not really. I mean, like up until election day, I was not only like working, but also had exams for school. So I was just like being, you know, just worked all the way down to the bone. And, you know, after the election, you know, there's still coverage that we need.

00:00:51.860 You know, we have to talk about Carney's cabinet and everything else. So not a lot of rest and recovery, although compared to what it was during the election, this is comparatively rest and recovery.

00:01:05.480 You're not working until midnight every single night.

00:01:08.160 Exactly.

00:01:08.800 Just until 9 p.m. It's fine. Alex, did you get a chance to recharge your batteries?

00:01:13.320 Yeah, a little bit. It was definitely a disappointing result. I'd be lying if I said I didn't agree with you there.

00:01:18.460 And it was a bit upsetting. But crime, I'm a crime reporter. Crime never stops. It's like the stock market. So on we go.

00:01:26.000 It's just a very macabre stock market. All right, let's get this thing started.

00:01:34.700 Welcome to Off the Record. My name is Chris Sims. I'm the Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:01:40.600 I'm here with two of my friends. I'm here with Noah and Alex.

00:01:43.560 Who wants to kick this off then? Like, as far as we were just talking about the election, and I was kind of surprised to see just how many seats changed backsides, to put it nicely, in the last election.

00:01:58.540 More than 100 MPs either lost their seats or didn't seek re-election, and yet they didn't actually change government.

00:02:07.940 Noah, you were saying that's a pretty big shuffle for a lack of a government change.

00:02:11.900 Yeah, for 110 members of Parliament to have, like, lost their jobs and be shuffled out.

00:02:17.920 You know, the Liberals, they only increased their seat total by about 15-ish, and the Conservatives, they increased their seat total by about 20.

00:02:27.320 So that should really mean that, you know, there's only about 50-ish members of Parliament who are no longer employed.

00:02:35.060 But, you know, a lot of Liberals, in the lead-up to the federal election, they had planned to resign because Trudeau was just so unpopular.

00:02:44.260 And then not everybody wanted to pull the old Sean Frazier of saying they want to spend more time with their family and then becoming a Cabinet Minister, you know, one of the most demanding Cabinet portfolios in the entire Cabinet.

00:02:55.080 So, yeah, that's part of the reason why there's been so many members who no longer are employed and are newcomers to the Commons.

00:03:04.640 Yeah, Sean Frazier looked there for a while there on election night that he was going to lose that Central Nova riding and have to continue spending more time with his family, whether they liked it or not.

00:03:15.660 I think Anita and Anne had pulled the same stunt, and now she's back being a Cabinet Minister. 0.95

00:03:21.400 For folks following along at home, those are all, of course, taxpayers' positions.

00:03:27.220 And if you're a Cabinet Minister in Canada, you're making more than $300,000 per year, plus all sorts of perks.

00:03:34.980 So tons of dough there.

00:03:36.040 On that note, when we've got over 100 MPs that are either lost their receipt or not seeking re-election, if they worked for six years, they get a pension.

00:03:48.460 And the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, we did the calculation, it's going to cost taxpayers about $187 million in pensions.

00:03:59.500 This is factoring in, say, all these MPs live to be 90 years old, and we hope that they do and pass that.

00:04:06.000 But it's a big, big price.

00:04:08.040 And for Trudeau himself, he's actually got two pensions.

00:04:11.600 He gets his MPs' pension, and he gets a Prime Minister pension.

00:04:15.300 And all told, if he's with us to 90 years past, that's going to cost taxpayers around $6.5 million.

00:04:22.880 I want to know what you guys thought about these very costly pensions.

00:04:26.320 Well, the good news, the silver lining here is that Justin Trudeau is, as we all know, financially illiterate.

00:04:32.000 So he'll probably lose the money and it'll have a deflationary effect.

00:04:37.400 He doesn't think about monetary policy, I guess.

00:04:39.960 I'll bet it all on high-risk pot stocks.

00:04:44.680 He did, as we say, he came from money before he became a Member of Parliament.

00:04:49.940 So I don't think...

00:04:50.820 But there's a Chinese proverb that wealth only lasts three generations, right?

00:04:54.640 Really?

00:04:56.340 Yeah.

00:04:57.360 And so he's a granddad.

00:04:59.040 Yeah.

00:05:00.540 Okay, well, that's three generations.

00:05:02.780 Well, that's unfortunate for Xavier Trudeau and all of his siblings.

00:05:07.140 So, you know, we're waiting to see on that one.

00:05:10.220 I'm fully supporting his wealth's career as long as it allows him to avoid a future career in politics.

00:05:15.180 Oh, my goodness.

00:05:15.700 We'll buy every album.

00:05:16.800 It'll be Prime Minister Trudeau 3.0.

00:05:21.440 Yeah, my daughter's already talking about that here in Alberta.

00:05:24.660 So for anyone who wants to go check out those pensions, it's on the Taxpayer.com website.

00:05:29.540 And we do a calculation for every MP.

00:05:32.440 By we, I mean my colleagues in Ottawa did that.

00:05:36.200 Franco Tarazano and a lot of our staff were doing a lot of crunching there for the numbers.

00:05:40.460 So, and again, folks, regardless of party or affiliation, this is all your money.

00:05:46.040 So you need to know where your money's going.

00:05:48.820 And that includes things like pensions.

00:05:51.580 Who wanted to chat about Jamil Javani?

00:05:54.320 I didn't get a chance to check this out.

00:05:56.380 He apparently had a press conference where he was talking about the foreign worker program.

00:06:01.440 Who wanted to run around with this one?

00:06:02.960 Yeah, so Jamil Javani, he's one of the newer members of parliament.

00:06:09.260 And he is lamenting the current temporary foreign workers program for very good reasons. 1.00

00:06:13.620 One of them being the high unemployment rate in Ontario, especially for youth.

00:06:17.960 It's at 14%, which is double digits.

00:06:20.580 It's like getting close to Greece numbers.

00:06:23.320 And again, I'm speaking on behalf of a crime reporter.

00:06:25.740 I think one of the most concerning things about high youth unemployment rate is the old adage

00:06:30.780 that the devil makes work for idle hands.

00:06:33.580 What you'll find is if young people don't get work, they'll start committing crimes. 0.94

00:06:38.860 And I know that I'm kind of deviating from Jamil Javani's point.

00:06:43.580 But that's something that's worth mentioning.

00:06:47.160 And I also think it's interesting.

00:06:49.120 Immigration was really a popular issue amongst people on the political right online and on

00:06:54.120 social media during the election.

00:06:55.540 And it didn't really come up as much as maybe people would have wished.

00:06:58.380 So I also think it's interesting that Jamil Javani is taking a hammer to this nail now,

00:07:02.840 post-election.

00:07:04.340 And he grew up working.

00:07:05.920 So Jamil knows what it's like to be bussing tables.

00:07:09.280 So similar to how, you know, I grew up working in A&W and gas stations and stuff before,

00:07:13.020 you know, I became a journalist.

00:07:14.280 So Jamil's got a really good job for that.

00:07:15.880 The leader of the opposition's wife worked at McDonald's, you know.

00:07:19.080 Yeah.

00:07:19.540 I did too.

00:07:20.680 Big time.

00:07:21.440 Big time.

00:07:21.820 Go ahead, Dylan.

00:07:23.040 Yeah.

00:07:23.380 I would say that the conservative caucus, as you guys mentioned, are people who are made

00:07:27.420 up of people who understand the issues of working people, especially after an election

00:07:31.520 campaign where you're on doorsteps pretty much every day, you know, talking to people,

00:07:36.700 asking them what their concerns are.

00:07:38.720 And Jamil says that he heard a lot of his residents talking about immigration.

00:07:43.520 We actually have a clip of him talking about his story, talking to immigrant people in

00:07:49.600 his riding and how they even want less immigration.

00:07:53.640 I'm canvassing in North Oshawa last year for the by-election where I first got elected.

00:07:59.660 And I meet a gentleman who cannot speak English.

00:08:04.720 Tried to talk to him, but, you know, communication barrier just made it hard and very nice guy

00:08:09.780 though.

00:08:09.980 I see him again a year later in this most recent election, and he knows a little bit

00:08:14.880 more English this time.

00:08:16.600 And you know what he says to me?

00:08:18.560 Too much immigration. 1.00

00:08:20.780 And I said, sir, your English is impeccable.

00:08:25.040 Now, he didn't know a lot of words, but he knew enough to get that point across because

00:08:30.040 he knew what he was experiencing and feeling on the ground.

00:08:33.800 He didn't have to be in Canada very long to see that.

00:08:36.660 And that's what I'm trying to get across when I say what it looks like to bring common

00:08:42.300 sense to Parliament.

00:08:43.820 So interesting to see that Javani is continuing that topic.

00:08:48.620 I know.

00:08:49.240 So I worked at the same radio station company as Jamil did back in the day, and he was raising

00:08:55.420 this as an issue of potential concern, especially when it comes to, like, temporary foreign worker

00:09:00.720 programs and how it's affecting especially youth unemployment.

00:09:04.280 He was on top of this, like, years ago.

00:09:07.140 Like, I'm talking, like, 10 years ago.

00:09:09.140 So it's interesting that this is one of his first major public statements and that he's

00:09:12.960 trying to take that one on.

00:09:14.200 Where do you see this one going, Noah, based on what they were saying during the election?

00:09:18.140 Do you think this is something that the actual government will be taking seriously and perhaps

00:09:23.120 scale it back a bit?

00:09:24.800 Well, it remains to be seen.

00:09:26.500 I know that the Kearney government and the Liberal platform, it did mention that they would

00:09:30.620 be scaling back at least a little bit some of the high immigration numbers that the Trudeau

00:09:36.040 government had pushed up in recent years, especially during the pandemic.

00:09:40.000 However, the Kearney Liberals have only promised to bring down levels to about 2019-2020 levels.

00:09:48.780 Really, they are suggesting that temporary immigration, temporary immigrants should only 0.94

00:09:54.560 make up about 2% of the Canadian population at any given point in time.

00:09:58.260 But the Canadian population right now is at 41 million.

00:10:01.860 So that's still a significant amount of people who would be coming here to work temporarily,

00:10:07.460 coming here to take up spaces in Canadian universities and colleges.

00:10:14.100 And at the end of the day, immigration and especially the high levels of temporary migration

00:10:19.240 that we've seen over many years, it does create many problems socially and economically.

00:10:27.400 We've seen the housing crisis where the average price of a home in Toronto has skyrocketed over

00:10:33.120 $1 million, over $1.3 million in Vancouver.

00:10:36.360 And that's largely driven due to high levels of immigration, permanent immigrants, temporary 0.88

00:10:41.320 immigrants who are coming to these big cities to take up jobs and employment and potentially 1.00

00:10:46.600 even take up jobs that Canadians would be able to grasp.

00:10:52.620 For example, Giovanni mentioned in his press conference that youth unemployment has gone up

00:10:57.620 over 14%.

00:10:58.360 14% of young Canadians who are not working means, as Alex has said, there are more idle

00:11:05.100 hands.

00:11:05.500 And there's really no other MP other than Jimel Giovanni who knows us best.

00:11:09.780 He wrote a book called Why Young Men, and he talks about why young men turn to certain extremist

00:11:15.940 groups or turn to gang culture or other forms of antisocial behavior and antisocial groups.

00:11:23.400 And one of the big things that it turns young men toward these antisocial behaviors is a dearth

00:11:30.800 of time on their hands.

00:11:32.000 It's not enough jobs in low-skilled occupations for them to then build up their skills and

00:11:37.840 be able to obtain higher-skilled work.

00:11:40.240 Instead of getting them on that pathway to good employment, instead they're sitting at home

00:11:47.380 with a lot of time on their hands.

00:11:49.320 And, you know, it's no wonder that the crime rate, especially in Canada's big cities, has

00:11:55.200 been going up in recent years as the youth unemployment rate has gone up.

00:11:59.400 And as you see, or as Giovanni mentioned, there are a lot of people, temporary foreign workers

00:12:06.720 who are coming in to fill low-wage jobs.

00:12:09.400 I'm actually working on a story now where there was about 58,000 temporary foreign worker permits

00:12:16.460 that were approved just from October 2024 to December 2024.

00:12:21.140 And about 20,000 of those permits were approved for low-wage work.

00:12:26.680 Those are low-wage jobs that can go to younger Canadians or just newcomers, people who immigrated 0.50

00:12:34.340 here, spent years in the process and need to get on the initial rung in the Canadian unemployment

00:12:41.340 market.

00:12:42.340 And instead, they're being replaced by temporary foreign workers.

00:12:45.940 So it is definitely something that I know Giovanni and other members of parliament heard at the

00:12:50.980 doorsteps.

00:12:51.540 Whether or not they're going to react to it is another question.

00:12:54.760 I was very surprised even here in Alberta, the so-called youth unemployment rate is high.

00:12:59.900 And that's almost unheard of here because there's usually like energy jobs or ag jobs and stuff

00:13:04.360 like that.

00:13:04.880 That's a very kind of industrious sort of place.

00:13:07.680 So I was quite surprised to see the high numbers of youth unemployment here.

00:13:11.500 So we'll have to see where that goes.

00:13:13.600 I wanted to shift gears here because when I left for my vacation for an entire week, I

00:13:21.260 unplugged.

00:13:21.980 I listened to like old radio shows from like 30 years ago.

00:13:25.980 So I was completely unplugged.

00:13:27.680 When I went to go on vacation and paint my house and try to recharge my batteries, last

00:13:33.320 I heard U.S. President Donald Trump was a big, bad, scary man, according to Ottawa.

00:13:40.160 And we were trying to buddy up with England in self-defense. 0.97

00:13:44.020 Like it was getting to be kind of a ridiculous fever pitch during the election.

00:13:47.740 And then I come back and we're moving in under the golden dome.

00:13:52.480 Like, OK, explain to this to me like I'm six.

00:13:55.460 I don't know what this is about.

00:13:57.600 Who was watching the news enough the past week that they can tell me about this?

00:14:01.420 Right.

00:14:02.320 So earlier this week, President Trump, as he did, made a magnanimous announcement in

00:14:07.480 the Oval Office where he announced this new missile defense system called the Golden

00:14:13.500 Dome.

00:14:14.280 As you guys know, Israel, they have something called the Iron Dome, which protects them

00:14:19.920 from rocket fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

00:14:25.500 And the Iron Dome, I don't know if you've seen any of the clips of the Iron Dome system

00:14:30.080 in work.

00:14:31.780 But it is quite incredible how effective the Iron Dome system is shooting down enemy

00:14:38.900 rockets and protecting the citizenry.

00:14:41.280 It doesn't have a 100 percent success rate, but the success rate is high enough to where

00:14:45.840 a lot of Hamas's missiles are just not hitting civilian populations.

00:14:51.080 So Trump sees this amazing missile defense system and he says, well, why don't we create

00:14:57.760 one for the United States and make the United States impervious from incoming rocket fire?

00:15:03.680 And hey, let's also see if we can get Canada under the deal.

00:15:08.240 So he reaches out to Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Carney agrees that, yes, we'd

00:15:14.360 like to be included in this new missile defense program.

00:15:19.280 The program is estimated to cost about $175 billion, with a B, $1 billion to complete.

00:15:28.660 Congress has said that they're going to allocate at least $25 billion for this project, at least

00:15:34.580 in the upcoming fiscal year.

00:15:37.040 But all in all, $175 billion.

00:15:40.140 And President Trump said that Mark Carney said that the Canadian government would be contributing

00:15:45.880 to developing this missile defense system and helping to pay for this $175 billion system.

00:15:54.020 So it's a bit at odds to what Mark Carney has been saying over the campaign trail in the past

00:16:00.400 few months, saying that we need to get our elbows up, that we need to reimagine our relationship

00:16:05.780 with the United States.

00:16:07.960 You know, correct me if I'm wrong, but elbows up is a hockey term where that means that you

00:16:13.040 got to like start fighting and, you know, playing rough.

00:16:16.080 And this doesn't seem like we're, you know, necessarily in combat with the United States.

00:16:19.900 It looks like, it looks a lot like collaboration.

00:16:22.640 How do you guys feel about, you know, Mark Carney's change of tone, especially when it comes to

00:16:27.740 this Golden Dome system?

00:16:29.580 I will just quickly point out, Alex, that we have un-money.

00:16:33.020 Like, we have un-money.

00:16:34.360 We are like $1.3 trillion.

00:16:37.060 You don't have to tell me, I'm aware.

00:16:39.120 Yeah, so, yeah, so for folks who don't know, Alex somehow manages to eke out a living in

00:16:44.320 Vancouver, or just outside of Vancouver, in New Westminster, the original provincial capital

00:16:48.960 of British Columbia, before those islanders stole it from us there in Victoria, do 1.00

00:16:52.640 go on, Alex.

00:16:53.320 I just wanted to point out that we have like no money.

00:16:55.680 Like, we don't have money.

00:16:56.320 No, no, I'm aware.

00:16:57.040 My previous background was in finance.

00:16:59.220 So, you know, I know numbers.

00:17:01.100 And at the risk of sounding like I have Trump derangement syndrome, Trump is really good

00:17:05.700 at saying things and then not doing them.

00:17:07.480 So, I think any responsible prime minister of Canada at this point would say, sir, not 1.00

00:17:11.940 $1 for your Golden Dome until you finish the stupid wall you started at the southern border. 0.99

00:17:17.260 Like, you didn't even finish the last dumb idea that you had, you know, that cost people 1.00

00:17:21.960 a small fortune and it was never completed. 0.84

00:17:24.680 So, that's just my opinion.

00:17:27.540 Yeah, there's, nobody should be enabling this crazy person and their crazy ideas.

00:17:34.980 Well, I think you bring up a good point where this is a very expensive project.

00:17:39.180 And, you know, if for people who are into defense policy, you know that we do have a sort of

00:17:46.420 missile detection system and we do have anti-air, like missiles that shoot down other missiles.

00:17:53.180 Called NORAD.

00:17:53.780 Yep.

00:17:54.060 Yeah, NORAD.

00:17:55.120 And specifically under NORAD's auspices, they have the North Warning System, which does need

00:18:01.080 to be updated because Russia and China.

00:18:05.280 The size of Canada is 450 times larger than Israel.

00:18:10.280 Yeah, exactly.

00:18:11.400 Including the United States.

00:18:12.500 If this guy can't complete an 18-foot concrete wall across the southern border, what in anybody's

00:18:18.340 mind makes them think that in one term he's going to be capable of creating this golden

00:18:23.400 dome across the entire North American continent?

00:18:27.200 It's going to take a lot of time.

00:18:29.000 And also, we do have the North Warning System, which, you know, is at least more cost effective.

00:18:35.060 It's a detection system, you know, to let us know whether we're being nuked or being hit

00:18:40.320 with something.

00:18:40.880 Yeah, exactly.

00:18:42.020 So, you know, we do have, you know, other systems.

00:18:45.480 And sure, I think, you know, if North America was impervious to incoming missiles, that'd be

00:18:51.160 cool.

00:18:51.660 But, you know, at what cost?

00:18:53.960 You know, I think Thomas Sowell put it perfectly.

00:18:57.440 All policy is about trade-offs.

00:18:59.360 You know, you have to think about, you know, if we're doing X thing, you know, what are we

00:19:03.380 giving up and why?

00:19:04.940 So, you know, is this really a good trade-off?

00:19:07.980 And, you know, just, you know, zooming out a bit, just on the Canadian political scene,

00:19:13.300 I think it's quite, you know, not sinister, but right below that, that Mark Carney, he told

00:19:20.080 the Canadian public that the United States was an existential threat to Canada's just

00:19:25.140 existence for months on end.

00:19:27.440 He said that we need to redefine our relationship with the United States.

00:19:30.500 You know, he was reaching out to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron

00:19:36.520 about, you know, securing a new defense relationship with them and strengthening those

00:19:42.700 relationships.

00:19:43.140 And specifically, even seeking to cancel the contract for the F-35.

00:19:51.060 So there was all these performative gestures before the election showing that the Carney

00:19:56.000 government wanted to decouple itself, decouple Canada from the United States.

00:20:01.020 And instead, we're, you know, entering into this new defense project with the United States

00:20:06.900 that's very expensive.

00:20:08.180 It's not a defense project, it's a delusion.

00:20:09.320 So, you know, we have to really ask, like, what sort of standard are we holding our politicians

00:20:16.200 to?

00:20:16.760 You know, how much are we going to allow them to say one thing during an election campaign

00:20:20.800 and then govern in a totally different way?

00:20:23.400 And, you know, is Canadians really going to tolerate this?

00:20:26.520 And, you know, are liberal supporters going to, you know, have the wherewithal to look themselves

00:20:31.700 in the mirror and say, we actually voted for a guy who told us one thing and is doing another

00:20:37.320 and, you know, we're going to vote elsewhere or just not vote at all for the liberals.

00:20:41.940 So it's really, I think, concerning.

00:20:45.120 But, you know, if the Canadian public is not going to respond, A, I think that shows something

00:20:50.920 about our democratic culture.

00:20:52.620 But, you know, it also shows that Carney's support is stronger than a lot of conservative

00:20:57.880 supporters might hope.

00:20:59.180 From an experience and money perspective, most of the men in my family were armed forces.

00:21:07.240 I've still got family who are in armed forces.

00:21:10.840 They're guesstimating around a 20,000 personnel deficit right now, meaning they're short.

00:21:20.220 They're saying around that many people, give or take, depends on what perspective you have.

00:21:25.020 That said, like, they've got a serious enlistment problem.

00:21:28.040 Like, they've got a major issue where people are not wanting to sign up in the armed forces.

00:21:33.080 That's number one.

00:21:34.080 Number two, they waste so much money on dumb procurement things that don't actually help 0.93

00:21:41.100 boots on the ground. 0.64

00:21:42.660 I think, I forget how much money they wasted on even something as simple as sleeping bags

00:21:47.140 that do not work in the Arctic.

00:21:49.320 Okay, like, these things that, you know, we're in Canada, a big chunk of our country is Arctic.

00:21:55.560 We should have had this kind of figured out by now.

00:21:57.780 So for them to not be able to do that, and then just say that they want to perhaps go

00:22:03.680 into what could become a major corporate welfare program with un-money that we don't have,

00:22:10.620 like, we don't have this money.

00:22:11.900 We're more than a trillion dollars in debt.

00:22:13.960 In fact, I believe that just as a line item, I don't think it includes procurement, but as a

00:22:19.600 line item for year-to-year expenses, we're spending more now on interest payments on our debt

00:22:25.500 than we do the Department of National Defense as a line item.

00:22:30.260 I know we do.

00:22:31.280 We spend more on interest than we do for health transfers for, you know, Canada's great

00:22:35.900 healthcare system.

00:22:37.160 So Carney's got to be cautious here.

00:22:39.840 I understand he's kind of in the room with, like, somebody who's, as you point out, Alex,

00:22:44.560 saying a lot of things.

00:22:46.480 And, like, party aside, you got to be careful in that situation.

00:22:50.720 You can't just go on having a fight with this person on live TV.

00:22:53.540 Like, that's not wise because ultimately it's the working people that pay the price. 1.00

00:22:58.120 So if you anger someone like that, you wind up with things like tariffs.

00:23:01.960 You're hurting normal working people on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.

00:23:07.640 So just something for viewers and listeners to flag that they are talking about a golden

00:23:12.800 dome.

00:23:13.640 And for those of a certain vintage, yes, I know.

00:23:16.140 It does kind of sound like Reagan's Star Wars program to me.

00:23:20.120 I'm old enough to remember when they were discussing that.

00:23:22.180 So this can kind of become an American military industrial complex kind of make-work project.

00:23:30.800 So we'll have to see how much that's actually costing.

00:23:33.500 And hopefully it doesn't cost Canadians that much money while keeping us safe at the same

00:23:38.100 time.

00:23:38.860 Who wants to go for it, Alex?

00:23:40.840 Sorry.

00:23:41.180 I just wanted to double down on this point because we were talking about it off air and

00:23:45.460 it's something that I've ruminated a lot about right now.

00:23:47.980 And it's probably one of the reasons I needed to take a brief mental health break as well.

00:23:51.640 I think Trump, I've coined this term, I think Trump savior syndrome was an equally poisonous

00:23:57.100 contagion in the last Canadian election to Trump derangement syndrome.

00:24:02.060 Trump savior syndrome, and I see a lot of people suffering from it on the conservative

00:24:05.480 side.

00:24:05.840 One of the symptoms of it is believing in delusional ideas, such as the idea that Donald

00:24:10.840 Trump is going to create an Israel-style missile defense system for an area of land more than

00:24:16.780 1,000 times greater than Israel in the next three years. 0.79

00:24:21.020 Again, this person could not complete a simple border wall.

00:24:25.340 Like the American government is not nearly as competent as people think they are.

00:24:29.540 And yeah, I'll just leave it at that.

00:24:31.140 I think that Trump savior syndrome is a very poisonous contagion in the Canadian political

00:24:36.760 sphere right now.

00:24:37.780 Can you flush that out a little bit?

00:24:39.040 Sorry to put you on the spot, but how do you think?

00:24:40.740 So then do you think that it affected the outcome of the election?

00:24:44.340 Oh, absolutely.

00:24:45.320 Like the conservative movement, or what do you mean exactly?

00:24:47.060 Absolutely.

00:24:47.460 So the people who suffer from Trump savior syndrome on the conservative side, they were very loud.

00:24:53.680 And there were a lot of influencers who I think suffer from Trump savior syndrome.

00:24:57.120 And it made conservatism incredibly unpalatable to the people that not only had Trump derangement

00:25:03.200 syndrome, but also people who were just, let's call them Trump skeptical.

00:25:06.940 When they were listening to conservative influencers talk about how much they would love to be annexed

00:25:11.340 by the United States and to become the 51st state and how they think illogically, in my opinion,

00:25:15.940 that tariffs can stop the fentanyl crisis, much like taxes can change the weather, right?

00:25:21.160 These are Trudeau ideas.

00:25:22.520 Like Trump, in my opinion, was not traditional conservatism.

00:25:25.460 It was a weird blend of grievance politics and more government, like more taxes.

00:25:31.600 Tariffs are more taxes.

00:25:33.340 Tariffs are trade taxes.

00:25:34.560 For people who don't understand tariffs, they're just trade taxes.

00:25:37.120 They're important for trade taxes.

00:25:38.620 And so Paul Yev, you can criticize him for so many different things, but the one thing

00:25:42.980 you can't criticize him for is his consistency.

00:25:45.860 The reason that he did not like Trump is because he has been consistent on his economic and political

00:25:50.840 views since high school.

00:25:52.300 He liked less taxes, smaller government.

00:25:54.600 And Trump was going in the other direction.

00:25:56.280 Low inflation.

00:25:57.240 Yep.

00:25:57.720 Yep.

00:25:57.860 But a lot of conservatives, including a lot of conservative media folks, adopted the

00:26:02.340 philosophy that Trump was right because I think that they suffer from Trump saviors.

00:26:06.720 And I think that this Golden Dome, people who support it on the conservative side, it's

00:26:10.640 just another symptom of the same disease.

00:26:13.600 Hmm.

00:26:14.540 Okay.

00:26:14.820 And I think there's some good insight there, like, you know, just to, you know, make, just

00:26:20.260 be brief with it.

00:26:21.500 You know, you shouldn't really, you know, take at face value from someone that says that

00:26:28.160 Canada is robbing the United States of $200 billion a year, where, you know, you can look

00:26:32.780 up what the trade deficit is, and it's about like $45 billion annually, USD.

00:26:39.080 And to think that, you know, a trade deficit is a highway robbery is, you know, that's

00:26:43.300 an interesting interpretation of what a trade deficit is.

00:26:45.540 So, uh, oh, like, take, take what he says with a massive grain of salt.

00:26:50.620 And, you know, if you have high expectations for a big, you know, government policy or whatever,

00:26:56.300 we should rely on the traditional conservative, uh, uh, belief that, you know, government's

00:27:01.980 actually not that great at doing things.

00:27:03.420 No, government is terrible at doing things.

00:27:05.800 And, and I actually think of myself as fairly Trump agnostic, right?

00:27:09.360 Like, I haven't reached the point of saying, I wish Kamala Harris was president.

00:27:13.480 I don't think I ever will.

00:27:15.540 So, say the email, please don't break the inbox for email.

00:27:19.800 Yeah.

00:27:20.100 Like, I haven't had a lot of emails after this, Alex, like, thanks, thanks for initial work.

00:27:24.720 Well, yeah, it's a very unpopular opinion on the right to, to dislike Trump.

00:27:29.760 And the, but I believe that Trump saver syndrome, I think it's analogous to the woke, right?

00:27:33.080 You know, like a lot of people as well, who are very, very passionate about Trump.

00:27:36.980 If you criticize him in the least, they'll block you, right?

00:27:39.740 This reminds me of people on the far left.

00:27:41.720 I find it very, very interesting.

00:27:43.720 He's dividing people on the right in very interesting ways.

00:27:47.280 Um, I'm old enough to, uh, have observed politics for a long time, like since the early 80s.

00:27:54.180 And so I understand what it is to admire someone as a person.

00:27:58.440 So someone like Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II.

00:28:02.720 Like it's, it's easy to kind of, um, think of them as a person because they are people, but

00:28:08.060 then to start idealizing them when you start applying that to government, however, this

00:28:13.560 is where I would give people caution.

00:28:15.640 Uh, it's all going to come out of your wallet.

00:28:18.200 No matter what government is not self-funded government does not have its own wealth creation

00:28:22.900 mechanisms.

00:28:23.420 All of this is your money and your kids' money and your kids' opportunities for jobs and your

00:28:28.780 kids' ability to afford a house and your family's ability to fill up your car.

00:28:32.860 So all of that boils down to policy.

00:28:36.520 And that is why regardless of the human being that is leading the party or the color of the

00:28:41.740 Jersey of the party, we need lower taxes, less waste, and accountable, smaller government.

00:28:50.280 If we have those three things in, thank you, in spades, you are more prosperous and you are

00:28:56.940 more free and you can make your choices about whether or not you like a person yourself within

00:29:02.700 your family.

00:29:03.860 And so to your point, exactly, Alex, and to yours as well, Noah, um, I've, I've worked in

00:29:10.000 government, I've worked outside of government, government is terrible at doing things, like

00:29:14.720 terrible.

00:29:15.820 And I'll use a Jordan Peterson example to illustrate this quickly.

00:29:19.740 I'm sorry, I'm going over time, but human beings think of your own life.

00:29:25.240 Okay.

00:29:25.680 Think about the relationship with your work, your family, your origin, where your, maybe

00:29:30.600 your ancestors are from, where you're going in the future.

00:29:33.480 An individual is so complicated, like so complicated to be able to balance your

00:29:39.880 own checkbooks or manage your own household or make your own choices, especially with

00:29:44.180 your own kids or something like your own life is so complex as one person.

00:29:49.900 Now, imagine being a big government bureaucrat thinking that you should control the decisions

00:29:56.820 and choices and livelihoods of a million people, 40 million people.

00:30:01.600 That is a disaster.

00:30:03.540 That is why a government cannot organize a two car parade.

00:30:07.520 Okay.

00:30:08.240 Because individuals are infinitely complex.

00:30:11.400 That is why we need, again, low taxes, less waste and accountable small government.

00:30:16.420 So people can seek their fortune and make their own choices and live their lives as they choose

00:30:22.260 to.

00:30:23.060 And to your point, Alex, I would say that is where I would agree a little yellow light of

00:30:27.440 caution when it comes to an individual.

00:30:29.680 Of putting all of your eggs in one person's basket, of this person is going to save everything

00:30:35.580 or fix everything.

00:30:36.460 No, unfortunately, it's up to us.

00:30:39.240 That's what a grassroots movement is about.

00:30:41.380 That's what responsible government and representative government's about.

00:30:44.940 That's why we love things like referendums, why we want town halls, why we want recall legislation.

00:30:49.720 And Noah, to your point on Dr. Sowell, I think exactly, and in this case of the Golden Dome

00:30:56.160 thing, ask the three questions.

00:30:58.880 Okay.

00:30:59.140 When someone comes up with a great new idea of this is what the big government's going to

00:31:02.940 solve something.

00:31:03.900 Okay.

00:31:04.960 Compared to what?

00:31:07.680 Okay.

00:31:08.120 That's number one.

00:31:09.500 At what cost?

00:31:10.760 And what hard data do you have that it will work?

00:31:16.720 I just thought those were brilliant three questions that Dr. Sowell always asks of anybody

00:31:22.360 who says, hey, I've got this great new idea.

00:31:24.560 Doesn't matter if it's coming from the left or the right.

00:31:26.920 Ask those three questions and we'll wind up saving some money.

00:31:30.500 Speaking of money, let's quickly touch on Canada Post.

00:31:33.500 What was the latest there?

00:31:34.640 Did I see 18%?

00:31:36.920 They went 13%?

00:31:38.740 13.59%.

00:31:40.760 What's the latest there, Noah?

00:31:42.320 Did you have the details on that?

00:31:44.760 Yeah.

00:31:45.600 So on Wednesday, Canada Post announced that it has submitted a new proposal to QPW.

00:32:00.160 Basically, QPW, they had announced that the 55,000 Canada Post workers would be going on

00:32:05.360 strike.

00:32:05.680 Once again, if you recall, last year, Canada Post went on strike.

00:32:10.100 And the Trudeau government, they actually imposed the same contract on the workers.

00:32:15.300 So now, QPW, they're coming back once again to get their vengeance, I guess, on the Canadian

00:32:24.720 government.

00:32:25.260 But as we know, Canada Post, very important, especially for small businesses in Canada who

00:32:31.400 rely on the mail carrier to basically conduct all of their affairs.

00:32:36.900 And when Canada Post goes on strike, it really does bring the, grind the country to a halt.

00:32:44.040 So it looks as if the two parties there are nearing an agreement but have not reached an agreement

00:32:51.580 yet.

00:32:52.100 So at the end of the day, Canada Post, they are going to have to figure out a way to bring

00:33:01.860 these pay increases for their workers while also remaining solvent.

00:33:04.460 Canada Post, they're in deep debt.

00:33:07.360 They run a, their program expenses are far, far greater than the revenue that they're able

00:33:15.620 to bring in, even after the federal government has injected Canada Post with several subsidies.

00:33:21.820 And at the end of the day, many people are thinking that Canada Post won't be able to survive this new

00:33:30.360 collective bargaining agreement.

00:33:32.220 What do you, what do you guys think?

00:33:33.520 What does this mean for the future of Canada Post, especially now that they're coming, the workers are

00:33:41.240 set to come back with much larger wage increases?

00:33:45.960 Well, I think it's just such a funny segue from the last story because we were talking about Thomas Sowell

00:33:51.040 and, and the classic example of government inefficiency is they can't run a post office.

00:33:59.180 Literally.

00:33:59.780 Literally.

00:34:00.200 And here we are.

00:34:01.580 And here we are.

00:34:04.480 It's almost like it's true. 0.76

00:34:06.420 Yeah, exactly.

00:34:07.460 Exactly.

00:34:08.280 Yeah.

00:34:09.520 Well, we have hard data to prove it as well.

00:34:12.580 And, you know, that's a good point.

00:34:14.460 Like I know that the, um, economics writer, Matthew Lau has suggested that, uh, selling, uh, the,

00:34:20.440 uh, um, the Canada Post, making it, uh, a privately run company instead of a crown corporation,

00:34:25.800 uh, would actually be, uh, to the benefit of, uh, all Canadians and, uh, you know, helping

00:34:31.500 Canada Post, uh, remain solvent.

00:34:33.200 What do you guys think of that idea?

00:34:34.980 Uh, sell off the Canada Post?

00:34:37.180 A hundred percent.

00:34:37.960 Totally.

00:34:38.360 Yeah.

00:34:39.140 The, the fewer crown corporations we have typically the better.

00:34:42.420 Now I'm going to, you know, offer a little olive branch to folks who, you know, have been

00:34:46.680 smacked on the nose.

00:34:47.440 Like, I don't know, losing the bay kind of stinks, right?

00:34:50.720 It was, I was happy to see Canadian Tire say that they're going to pick up the colors.

00:34:54.700 Literally.

00:34:55.200 I thought that was kind of cool.

00:34:56.440 Um, so I understand kind of, um, attachment to things like that.

00:35:00.520 And I did a little bit of reading, not the deep dive that I would want to, but I did a

00:35:04.600 little bit of reading on the Royal Mail in the UK, which is again, an iconic term, blah,

00:35:09.740 blah, blah, blah.

00:35:10.060 People are used to it and they were apparently able to write their ship quite well.

00:35:14.400 And my understanding is, is that they are now largely a private corporation and they

00:35:19.720 were able to kind of come up with a hybrid theory of fixing stuff.

00:35:23.620 And I believe they're still able to use the term Royal Mail.

00:35:26.980 It's still the same name, that sort of stuff.

00:35:28.820 But yeah, it's anything to get out of this where people are still getting a decent wage

00:35:33.420 and the taxpayer isn't worried about being on the hook because even though Canada Post

00:35:37.640 is able to operate with its own expenses at a deficit, which isn't great, ultimately it

00:35:42.780 would be the government backstopping it because it's a crown corp.

00:35:46.080 That's the risk.

00:35:47.020 That's the risk to the taxpayers.

00:35:48.560 And again, we wind up exactly to your point, Noah, with these strikes, which affect small

00:35:54.220 businesses so much.

00:35:55.700 Like there are so many small businesses as if they weren't kicked in the teeth enough

00:35:59.820 during the lockdowns by the government.

00:36:01.800 They rely on delivery and receive receipts from Canada Post.

00:36:08.340 So hopefully they're able to resolve this and fix it.

00:36:11.900 They need to figure out a way to fix it.

00:36:13.720 They should at least take a look at what they did in the UK to see if that's something that

00:36:17.540 they could apply here in order to fix the situation.

00:36:20.260 Do we want to wrap up with our bizarre Donair story coming out of Vancouver, Alex?

00:36:25.640 Oh yeah, this is my moment to shine.

00:36:27.880 I thought you were pulling my leg.

00:36:29.720 So the good news is at the end of the story, we're not making fun of somebody getting hurt.

00:36:34.420 Nobody got hurt.

00:36:34.980 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:36:35.600 Nobody was physically hurt, which is great.

00:36:37.340 But a man went into a Donair store.

00:36:39.500 It's actually just right around the corner from where I live.

00:36:42.260 And it's called Paradise Donair.

00:36:43.900 It's on 12th Street.

00:36:44.700 It's actually phenomenal.

00:36:45.800 I highly recommend it.

00:36:46.960 Nice folks that work there.

00:36:48.360 Anyway, a fellow went in with a machete.

00:36:49.680 He threatened the staff.

00:36:50.800 And then he went around the counter and he started slicing Donair meat off for himself

00:36:54.780 directly off of the meat skewers, put them into a reusable Walmart bag.

00:36:58.980 Then he moseyed over to the sauce table and was very selective, picked out the Halifax sauce,

00:37:04.140 which came as no surprise to anybody who regularly frequents Paradise Donair.

00:37:08.300 It's pretty bomb.

00:37:09.720 And then he walked out and he was arrested just shortly down the road by New Westminster

00:37:14.700 police, ironically, right around the corner from a food bank.

00:37:17.560 So clearly some serious mental health issues going on there.

00:37:20.980 He was released on bail, basically minutes after the offense, maybe a couple of hours

00:37:27.620 at most.

00:37:28.900 And he is back on the street.

00:37:30.760 So Alex, you're close to the Paradise Donair.

00:37:34.620 Is the Donair actually like that good?

00:37:37.040 Is the chicken like actually out of this world?

00:37:41.500 So, oh yeah, we're getting really into it.

00:37:44.180 So it has a 4.2 star rating on Google.

00:37:46.380 It's actually not the best place on the block, according to Google reviews.

00:37:49.620 But one of the reasons the reviews is lower for Paradise Donair is because apparently the owner

00:37:56.080 is really, he's very parsimonious, I guess you could say, with the napkins.

00:38:02.140 He doesn't like giving out napkins, which some people didn't like.

00:38:05.960 Oh my.

00:38:06.760 Because just wash your hands, which I think is, I don't know.

00:38:09.420 It makes it feel more authentic to me.

00:38:12.540 Like I lived in Greece for a little bit.

00:38:14.320 And so like, it has a Mediterranean feel to just wash your hands. 0.65

00:38:17.760 They just don't have napkins in Greece.

00:38:19.580 That's interesting.

00:38:20.300 I didn't know that.

00:38:20.980 I used lemons.

00:38:22.720 I didn't know they're that poor.

00:38:24.640 I'm so glad everybody was okay.

00:38:26.640 But when you said that he cut the meat into a reusable Walmart bag, like, did he put it

00:38:30.540 into like a clamshell first, like a, like a takeout container or was this just straight

00:38:34.540 into the bag?

00:38:34.900 No, no, straight into the bag.

00:38:36.700 It's actually, I guess if I learned one thing from this story, other than like how crazy

00:38:41.180 their criminal justice system is, it's not as easy to slice Donair meat as it looked.

00:38:46.300 Like he was really struggling trying to get the meat off of the skewer.

00:38:51.180 Like, I think it's like one of those things that like, it looks like you could do it on

00:38:54.060 first try, but like it probably takes some practice.

00:38:56.960 Yeah.

00:38:57.260 I think machetes are meant for, you know, like cutting like unruly hurt bushes or like, you

00:39:03.360 know, for serial killers, not necessarily for cutting Donair meat, but you know.

00:39:07.600 Well, the way.

00:39:09.260 Sorry, go on, go on, keep going.

00:39:11.180 No, I was going to be like, you know, maybe Jason should have given him some lessons and

00:39:14.560 you know, cutting meat with a machete.

00:39:17.040 Am I the only one who has used a machete in this conversation for the actual purpose of

00:39:21.620 like cutting underbrush?

00:39:23.240 Yes.

00:39:23.560 Yeah.

00:39:24.220 Yeah.

00:39:24.440 We're boys.

00:39:25.240 Yeah.

00:39:25.380 Yeah.

00:39:25.540 We like definitely like hiked through the woods and cut bush for sure.

00:39:29.940 Like that's what they're typically used for.

00:39:32.600 Well, at the end of the day, I'm glad people are all right.

00:39:35.480 Um, and new Westminster again, Hey, full circle.

00:39:38.400 It was the official capital of British Columbia.

00:39:41.020 Is it still nicknamed the Royal city?

00:39:43.300 Isn't that what it is?

00:39:44.400 It is.

00:39:44.920 And it's actually a very safe city.

00:39:46.800 Like this neighborhood.

00:39:48.140 Um, you know, I would say for the most part, this is an outlier.

00:39:51.200 Yeah, it's a, it's a pretty little kind of quaint, uh, city.

00:39:55.480 Uh, well, this was very entertaining, uh, between Donairs and golden domes.

00:39:59.960 Uh, thank you so much for joining us on the show and remember everything that we've said

00:40:04.360 is thankfully off the record.

00:40:10.140 Even though it's clearly not.

00:40:17.060 Really?

00:40:17.500 Oh, thanks.

00:40:18.460 Appreciate that.

00:40:19.380 I don't know if I got too far with the Trump savior syndrome.

00:40:22.400 It's fine.

00:40:22.720 No, no.

00:40:23.200 You clearly needed to get that off your chest.

00:40:25.100 I did.

00:40:26.540 And I just found it.

00:40:27.760 I did find it politically interesting of like, if you found that that calculated into the

00:40:32.080 vote or not.

00:40:32.720 So I wonder, I wonder if they have a golden dome that will help us with, uh, the new Westminster

00:40:37.500 don't air theft problem.

00:40:39.220 Yeah.

00:40:39.540 Like, is it just going to be like a rocket that just like, well, the other thing I wanted

00:40:44.900 to talk about with the golden dome is, I'm like, what a golden dome to stop exactly zero

00:40:50.120 missiles that have ever been launched in the North American continent.

00:40:54.140 God forbid.

00:40:54.580 Is this a good use of our, yeah, God forbid, I suppose, right?

00:40:57.740 Yeah.

00:40:58.620 Yeah.

00:40:58.820 And it's like, why put, why spend all of your money on a bulletproof vest in a neighborhood

00:41:03.180 where nobody gets shot?

00:41:04.920 Right.

00:41:05.500 Right.

00:41:05.780 Like, wouldn't it be better to just make sure you screen people better so you don't wind

00:41:10.440 up with terrorists in your midst?

00:41:11.960 Like, there's all sorts of things you'd think that'd be better use of money.

00:41:15.180 All the attacks are happening underneath the dome anyway.

00:41:18.460 Yeah.

00:41:18.960 Yeah.

00:41:19.420 Yeah.

00:41:19.560 That's true.

00:41:20.040 Like, you know, you can't, you can have a walled garden, but you know, if you have 0.98

00:41:25.320 a silly, serial killer in the midst, you know, like that's not going to be great. 0.98

00:41:29.080 Inside the wall. 1.00

00:41:30.080 Yeah.

00:41:30.440 Yeah.

00:41:30.560 That, I'm glad I didn't read anything about that and that you just actually surprised me

00:41:34.880 with all of it.

00:41:35.460 That was good.

00:41:36.220 That was great.

Juno News - May 24, 2025

Jivani’s Petition, Carney’s Trump Talks, and Canada Post Chaos

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