Juno News - February 12, 2026Liberal strategist launches SHOCKING personal attack on Conservative MP
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Summary
For the second time in days, Liberals are taking personal attacks at Conservative MP Jamil Javani after his diplomatic mission to Washington, D.C. This came out of a political podcast hosted by a well-known liberal insider, former national campaign chair for Paul Martin.
Transcript
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For the second time in days, liberals are taking personal attacks at conservative MP
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Jamil Javani after his diplomatic mission to Washington DC. This came out of a political
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podcast. The host is a well-known liberal insider, former national campaign chair for Paul Martin.
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Here he is referring to Javani's physical appearance.
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He's too unattractive physically to be successful in politics.
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He's not going to be the leader of a political party.
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Look, I don't know if I'd agree with that. I don't know if I'm not going to weigh in on that.
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You got to break this down, Fred. I know it's day one, but come on.
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Look, as soon as the election was over, he immediately put out a...
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I can't believe you're going to dismiss this. It's not mattering. Of course it matters.
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I don't... Look, I think he's well-spoken, and I'm not ever going to say if a guy looks good or bad.
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The attacks on his appearance are particularly cruel because Javani, a black man, lost his hair while
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undergoing chemotherapy. Ben Mulroney responded on X with this post.
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I'm old enough to remember a Tory attack ad that mocked Jean Chrétien's facial paralysis.
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Just days ago, Liberal MP John Paul Danko compared Javani to a notorious Nazi-sympathizing anti-Semite.
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A U.S. hostile government, deliberate destruction of global allegiances, and the stability that our
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country has relied on. We have a Conservative Party of Canada's own, Unity Mitford, who is attempting to
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freelance negotiations with the American president right now.
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Our guest today is Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilly. Brian, welcome to the show.
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All right, so you've written about the incident involving the Liberal MP from Hamilton West,
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I think it is, John Paul Danko, and now we have another personal attack on Javani
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for his appearance. It seems particularly cruel, but what's going on here? I guess that's my first
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Well, Liberals want a Team Canada approach, and by that, they don't mean everybody working
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together. They mean Team Liberal approach. And if you do anything that is off Team Liberal brand,
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then they're going to attack you. So, John Paul Danko, Liberal MP for Hamilton West,
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and Castor Dundas, I believe he might be my parents' MP, depending on the border changes.
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He stood up in the House of Commons while Jameel Javani was down in Washington and called Javani
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Unity Mitford. And if you don't know who Unity Mitford is, well, she was a British socialite born
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into an aristocratic family in 1914. In the 30s, she became enamored with Adolf Hitler,
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moved to Germany, supported the Third Reich, and tried to get other Brits to do the same.
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So, Jameel Javani is being called that for going down to Washington, meeting all the same people that
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Mark Carney met with, that Dominic LeBlanc has met with, that other top Liberals have met with,
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to try and say, hey, you know what, let's get past our differences and come to a trade deal.
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That makes you a Nazi sympathizer? Is John Paul Danko going to call Mark Carney
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Unity Mitford, or a Nazi sympathizer? And then you've got David Hurley, who was one of Paul
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Martin's top advisors, helped bring in the juggernaut, the biggest majority, oh wait, no, they didn't.
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He helped Paul Martin get a minority in 2004, get a loss in 2006, helped Kathleen Wynne lose dramatically
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in 2018. And he's on his Hurley Burley podcast, which is quite popular among politicos, and says,
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Jamil Javani is too ugly or not attractive enough to be successful in politics. What?
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Okay. So, you know, you've heard the saying, Mark, if you're taking flack, it means you're over the
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target. I think that Javani's getting under the Liberal skin. I was talking to him the other day
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about his trip to Washington, and he said, you know, he felt good about it. And he was like,
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I believe him when he says he genuinely wants to help the government secure a deal for Canada,
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that he's putting Canada first country over party. And the Liberals seem threatened by that
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and want to undermine it. But Javani said, no, they were good meetings. Of course,
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part of the reason he went down is he's close friends with Katie Vance, the vice president.
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They're in a fantasy football league together. Still, they were classmates at Yale Law School.
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Javani, I believe, did a reading at Vance's wedding. They've kept in touch. You know, it's not like,
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oh, I haven't seen you in 20 years. They've kept in touch. And they come from similar backgrounds,
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which is not privileged, and they work their way up. So using those connections, politics is about
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people. Politics is about making connections. Using those connections should have been embraced
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by the Liberals. Instead, they've insulted him. Even Mark Carney was dismissive and insulting.
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Melanie Jolie outright lied about him. And then David Hurley's comments about his looks and
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John Paul Danko calling him a Nazi sympathizer. And by extension, Donald Trump, Adolf Hitler.
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Did Javani show up to federal Liberals? Is that what happened here by getting meetings with Trump,
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J.D. Vance, and I believe Marco Rubio? Is that what happened here?
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Marco Rubio and very importantly, Jameson Greer. Jameson Greer is the US trade representative.
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He's the lead guy on trade negotiations. Look, these guys are able to get meetings with all of
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these people, or most of them. But, you know, obviously there is a sticking point somewhere.
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Mark Carney is well-liked by Donald Trump. You see that when they're together. Trump seems to
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genuinely like him. But Carney won't lean into that to get Canada a deal. He seems to want to lean into
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not getting the deal because it's good for him politically. Perhaps they do feel threatened by
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Javani though, that he was able to be at ease. You know, he's a backbench MP. As Carney pointed out,
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I don't believe he's the trade critic for their party and he's not a minister and he's not the
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prime minister. And then he made a comment to the effect of, this is all just for the media.
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Yeah. He's, he's been dismissed as a freelancer, as you know, going rogue, but there's a particularly
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nasty undercurrent to the Italians. He didn't go rogue though. He didn't go rogue. You can ask
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Peter Palliev, do you support this? And Palliev has told me, yes, absolutely. If this helps the country,
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I'm all for it. I was a bit surprised because when Javani first made the public comments last fall,
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I thought, well, this has to be, you know, him doing his own thing. Uh, the boss can't be happy
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with him trying to help the liberals. And then I was interviewing Palliev at the end of the year,
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just before Christmas. And I asked him about that. And he said, no problem. Uh, Jamil has my full
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support in this because the country needs it. And that should have been the, the attitude of the
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liberals, Mark. The country needs this. We want team Canada. Unfortunately for them,
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team Canada only includes people who play in liberal red jerseys.
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I'm wondering if it's an extension of their dislike, strong dislike for Trump. Maybe that's what it is.
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And they see him as kind of an insider because the unity Mitford reference, she was kind of a notorious
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groupie. I mean, they didn't have that word, but she, she would follow Hitler around and go to his,
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the places where he would hang out. And I mean, to me, she was like a political groupie who became
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kind of an insider. And then she came out as a rabid anti-Semite and joined the British fascist
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party at the time. And so, I mean, the comparison here is bizarre. Uh, you've called on that particular
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MP to apologize. So far that hasn't happened, has it? No. And there's been no calls for him to
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apologize from the conservatives. I think they're just letting it, uh, slide, letting it be water
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under the bridge and letting it show who the liberals really are. Um, you know, this week on this front
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has been the liberals at their worst. They've called for cooperation from the conservatives.
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They're getting cooperation from the conservatives and now they're rejecting cooperation from
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conservatives and hurling names with people. Um, if it hadn't been for the shooting in British
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Columbia, maybe things would be different, but that, uh, of course dominated Wednesday and in the
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early part of Thursday, you know, continues to dominate in the headlines. So, uh, that's taken away
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from things like name calling in parliament, which, you know, the speaker should really call out Danko for that.
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You would think that that was going to happen, but it never did.
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Let's check gears a little bit on the Ontario liberal scene, because my understanding is that
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they're going to allow people who are not citizens to vote for the next leader of their
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party. You know, what's going on here? Well, unfortunately, most parties allow
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non-citizens to vote in internal party elections. And my view is all of them have to clean it up,
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uh, to varying degrees. They're all bad at the federal and provincial level. They're all bad,
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but most parties say you at least need to be a permanent resident. So you're living here permanently.
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What the Ontario liberals are going to do is allow temporary residents to vote.
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Why? You're, you're going to let your leader be chosen by the, uh, what is it? Four to five million
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people who have come to this country on student and work visas. You know, we've seen this before,
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by the way, with the federal liberals and hand on, uh, the accusation there was that China used Chinese,
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foreign students. They'd bust them in. They told them who to vote for. We want Handong to be the
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liberal candidate in Don Valley North. And he was elected claims of Chinese interference backed up by
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CSIS. Now he says he had nothing to do with it. Fine. We'll take him at his word. But China clearly
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wanted that man. Is China going to select the next leader would, you know, that doesn't seem to bother
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liberals, but what about, what if the Americans decided, Hey, you know what? We should pick the next
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Ontario liberal leader in American foreign interference. A lot of Americans live in Canada.
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They could do that. Uh, this is utterly bizarre that they would allow this in my view. It should
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be one set of rules. If you can't vote in a general election at the federal or provincial level, you
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cannot vote for nomination meetings for party leadership, any of that. If you're not a citizen, you
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can't vote. Unfortunately, I don't believe that we enforce the citizenship rules on voting
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strictly enough in our general elections either though. Yeah. It really opens the door to foreign
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interference though, doesn't it? I mean, you would think that we'd be particularly sensitive about
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that given the report that came out a while back about interference in the 2019, the 2021 election,
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and probably in the last election. And so you would think that that would be an issue for the
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leadership races because of course you, you would think that would be an issue for the federal
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liberals as well, Mark. But remember, Mark Carney is forging a new strategic partnership with China.
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And China is not the only country engaged in, uh, foreign interference in this country. Russia does,
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although that's mainly on the disinformation front, trying to undermine institutions. Um, the, uh,
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uh, uh, China is the big actor. India tries to undermine different diaspora communities and they want to
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make, uh, you know, every Sikh temple, uh, look bad and, uh, you know, foment, uh, division there. But
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China really gets involved in trying to select candidates and they should seriously be worried
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about this. And the fact that they're not, uh, tells you how bad the, uh, shape the party is in. I mean,
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this was the dominant party in Ontario from 2013 to 2018. And they only just got official party status
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in the last election back in February. Uh, but they're leaderless and, uh, they're basically,
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uh, useless at Queens park. I guess Nathaniel is running, not running. I, I guess last time he's
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running. Yeah. Yeah. He's running a guy named Mike Crawley, who not the CBC reporter,
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who used to be at Queens park, but a guy named Mike Crawley, who used to be the federal, uh,
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president of the liberal party of Canada. Uh, he's organizing to run and a couple of others are
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looking at it, but more people have put out news releases saying that they're not running
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or they'll think about running one day than have actually committed to running.
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There's a lot of talk about a federal election. The date I keep hearing is May the 8th. Have you
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heard any more about possibility we, the Canadians could be headed to the polls again this year?
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Um, may the 8th would track. I, I haven't heard that specific date, but that would track,
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you know, if they're going to go, uh, when do they want to go? Well, the next GST payment,
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and of course they're in the middle of boosting that and rebranding it as the, uh, Canada groceries
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and essentials benefit. Here's government money to help you buy your food. And you're not even on welfare.
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Uh, that, that should be a sign that things are not good in Canada's economy. Uh, it's one thing
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if you're on welfare, it's another thing to say, Hey, 12 million Canadians, you need help buying
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basic food. Um, so that goes out April 2nd and the next one goes out July 3rd. So that, you know,
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they do want to have the vote in between those. I'm not convinced that they are going, but I am
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convinced they're setting the table so that if they need to pull the plug, they can. They're still
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trying to get a majority through floor crossings, but that, that clearly isn't working. Um, you know,
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I was told, Oh, watch two or three more after the conservative convention. Well, that's more
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than two weeks ago now. And as it happened, I've been hearing since mid November when Chris
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Dontremont crossed, Oh, we're about to get two or three more. And then you go back to your sources.
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Well, where are they all they're about to cross. So they're still trying on that front, but if they
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don't get it and they need to, they're setting the stage. So the, the Davos speech to poke Trump
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in the eye that I believe was done on purpose. It got the reaction Carney wanted. Uh, Trump responded
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with anger, Canadians responded with anger and rallied to Carney. His poll members went up.
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Then he does this grocery benefit with increased payments, the Canadians, then he's accusing the
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conservatives of obstructing bills in parliament, setting the stage. So we can say parliament's not
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working. Uh, we need reset and I need a mandate to, to deal with Donald Trump. That's going to be
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the narrative if they go. Um, and if they don't go in the spring, I don't see how this parliament, uh,
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uh, goes much into the fall, if at all. Of course, there's supposed to be negotiations over
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the future of Kuzma as well, I think in the summer. So I, I don't know how you squeeze all of that in.
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Is it, would that be something that happens after the election? Would the liberals report
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good before any ideas there? Well, I think the liberals would prefer to have an election before
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that, then they can use Trump as the boogeyman. Um, until the Dabo speech, I wasn't sure how the
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liberals were going to run another election saying we'll protect you from Donald Trump. We're the only
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people that can handle them because that's what they ran the last election on. And they've done very
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badly at it. Uh, sure. Some Canadians are happy that, oh, he's standing up for Canada. He's showing
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Donald Trump. Um, our tariffs are higher. They apply to more goods. Uh, our economy is
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just about in recession, if not already in recession. None of these are good things,
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but there's a section of the Canadian public that, you know, just like some conservatives,
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they only, they don't care if they win. They just want to own the libs. Well,
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there's a big section of the Canadian public right now that doesn't care if we win economically. They
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just want to show Donald Trump. And well, that's great. If you're living off your investments and
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your S and P 500 index out of the New York stock exchange, and you're got your home paid off and
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you're living off your investments, people that have to go to work every day, they're feeling the
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pinch and they need a solution. Carney doesn't want a solution before he goes to the polls. Again,
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he wants to use Trump as the boogeyman in my view, uh, run a replay of the last election,
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but this time he hopes to get a majority. Yeah. Well, it worked last time, I suppose.
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Maybe not as well as he would have liked because they didn't get that majority, but I guess we'll
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have to see what happens. Brian, thank you so much for coming on the show. How do people find you online?
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Uh, you find me at the torontosun.com or, uh, read my own pieces at, uh, brianlily.com.
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Uh, that's where the sub stack is. Brian Lilley, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
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Thank you. If you enjoyed this show, consider supporting great independent journalism
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That's junonews.com backslash straight up. Thank you so much.