Juno News - Liberals in panic mode

00:00:00.000 Big Canada plans there, Andrew?

00:00:02.220 I might actually use the smoker for the first time this year.

00:00:05.360 I am going to get pork shoulder.

00:00:06.820 I tried to get pork shoulder today, and they didn't have it.

00:00:08.680 But tomorrow, I'm told they will have it in stock.

00:00:10.960 So I'm going to make some pulled pork.

00:00:13.720 Is it somehow Justin Trudeau's fault that there's no pork shoulder?

00:00:16.840 Is it just, you know, that's what we like to do out in Alberta, blame him for any problem.

00:00:21.380 He's why we don't have water.

00:00:22.820 I would say that a shortage of pork is never something that could be blamed on Justin Trudeau.

00:00:27.180 Unless they've used it all, yes.

00:00:28.940 Yeah, fair enough.

00:00:30.000 You probably are, like, are you guys, how's your water situation, Isaac?

00:00:35.660 Are you, like, worried about your water mains busting?

00:00:37.700 Or is that, like, just a Calgary-specific problem?

00:00:40.140 Not something that has even crossed my mind.

00:00:42.560 Yeah, I think it's just Calgary's problem.

00:00:46.860 That Calgary infrastructure at its best.

00:00:49.840 All right, let's get this show on the road.

00:00:51.420 Hello and welcome to another edition of Off the Record, June 28, 2024.

00:01:05.260 It is Friday.

00:01:05.880 Kick back. 1.00

00:01:06.380 Relax.

00:01:06.980 This is the point in the week where we like to, I was going to say, relax ourselves.

00:01:11.220 And then I look at Isaac wearing a three-piece suit with a tie.

00:01:16.000 Well, William and I just, like, threw on whatever was, you know, hanging nearby for this.

00:01:20.140 So I'm not sure if you're dressed up for Off the Record or if you've just, like, come back from serving Batman or something.

00:01:26.120 But either way, I'm Andrew Lawton, hosting things for the next little bit, joined by Isaac Lamerud, True North reporter, and also our Chief Operations Officer, William McBeth, both holding down the Western Fort there in their respective communities.

00:01:40.140 But, Isaac, William, welcome.

00:01:42.540 Happy to be here.

00:01:44.040 Me as well.

00:01:44.480 Thank you.

00:01:44.660 Did you dress up on our account, Isaac?

00:01:46.620 I did.

00:01:47.280 I figured if I was to be sitting with two titans of industry, I should at least dress the part.

00:01:52.080 And you want us back.

00:01:53.340 What time will they be showing up, these titans of industry?

00:01:57.760 How's your water?

00:01:59.180 Do you have water again, William?

00:02:00.720 Or are you resigned to, like, you know, you get, like, nine and a half seconds for a shower or something?

00:02:04.860 You know, periodically running down to the river just to pick up a pot.

00:02:08.220 No, we haven't really run out of water.

00:02:10.900 We're being asked to conserve water so we don't run out.

00:02:14.040 But there was a glimmer of hope, the mayor says.

00:02:15.980 We might have it all back for Canada Day.

00:02:18.240 So, wouldn't that be nice to be able to, once again, freely use clean, drinkable water as we want?

00:02:26.300 Water is not an issue here.

00:02:27.600 But I had a tornado warning yesterday.

00:02:30.920 And I got the, like, alert on my phone.

00:02:33.680 And it was just before I was about to go on air, actually.

00:02:35.780 And the weird thing was that I didn't actually need the warning because I could just hear for the 30 minutes before that, like, things, like, smacking up against my house.

00:02:42.060 Like, and then I walk outside and, like, my trees are, like, half just on the pavement.

00:02:46.660 So, no, it wasn't like, you know, like a house smacking up against my house.

00:02:49.700 It wasn't that bad.

00:02:50.400 It was just, it was very, very windy.

00:02:52.120 But anyway, not as bad a storm as what the Liberals had to face in Toronto-St. Paul's.

00:02:58.300 This has been a bit of a recurring theme in True North's coverage over the last week.

00:03:02.400 But it's off the record.

00:03:03.680 We're a bit of a week in review in some ways.

00:03:05.420 So, I wanted to talk about what really happened, at least according to the Health Minister for the Liberals, Mark Holland.

00:03:14.000 Thank you very much.

00:03:14.920 I will point out just the record.

00:03:16.160 It was not hypothetical for 40,000 people in Toronto-St. Paul's on Monday.

00:03:20.240 They did actually make a decision.

00:03:22.380 So, let me take the first part of what you said.

00:03:25.040 Because you're right.

00:03:25.660 People in St. Paul's made a decision.

00:03:27.200 And we're responding to that.

00:03:28.420 But I think that people in St. Paul's knew they weren't changing the government.

00:03:31.860 They were saying, we're upset at the world right now.

00:03:34.920 People, I knocked on those doors.

00:03:37.080 I didn't hear anybody saying, I love Pierre Polyev's plan for the country.

00:03:40.580 Because he doesn't have one.

00:03:42.000 You know, he's reflected the anger that exists in the world.

00:03:45.060 Well, well done.

00:03:46.380 You know, where are people happy in the world right now?

00:03:48.540 It's a tough time to be alive as a human being.

00:03:51.840 And, you know, so that was about frustration of being able to express it without changing governments.

00:03:57.320 And I understand that.

00:03:58.360 And that message is heard loud and clear.

00:04:00.300 And for Terry, Dan, and I, like, yeah, we're going to dig deeper.

00:04:05.120 I'm going to wake up in the morning and try to work harder and try to do more and try to meet the frustrations of those people with better effort and clearer communication.

00:04:13.500 But, you know, I don't think saying that they made a decision about the kind of country or government they want is at all accurate.

00:04:20.500 So, I like it.

00:04:23.520 No, I knocked on doors.

00:04:25.500 No one liked the conservatives.

00:04:27.120 No one liked Pierre Polyev.

00:04:28.500 And then, oh, everyone in the world is upset.

00:04:31.040 Of course they voted against the liberals in St. Paul's.

00:04:33.620 No one in the world is happy.

00:04:35.200 People in Cambodia are unhappy. 0.84

00:04:36.860 People in England are happy.

00:04:38.180 And, you know, people in Toronto, St. Paul's, no different.

00:04:40.540 That's the only reason.

00:04:41.560 They're just blowing off some steam.

00:04:43.400 My goodness, these people will blame everyone but themselves.

00:04:47.020 What's going on here, Isaac?

00:04:48.200 Yeah, well, I just want to start by saying that leading up to the election in St. Paul's, I remember the conservatives had about a 25% chance of winning based on polling.

00:04:57.160 But I wasn't that optimistic.

00:04:59.360 In fact, I genuinely thought the conservatives would lose, of course, given that the liberals have held that riding since 1993.

00:05:07.440 So this is, I mean, as about as big as a stronghold as it could have been.

00:05:13.200 And I thought the liberals would, in fact, win and then use this, oh, everyone loves us.

00:05:17.000 Look, we won our riding.

00:05:18.520 The conservatives, you say they're gaining in the polls, but we still held this riding.

00:05:23.260 But now the approach that they're taking, I mean, it's ludicrous, as you alluded to, Andrew.

00:05:29.820 Everywhere in the world is terrible.

00:05:31.420 You know, oh, you can't afford groceries or housing or anything that are basic needs in Canada.

00:05:37.660 Oh, it's okay.

00:05:38.160 They can't either in, he didn't name any specific places, but the rest of the world, let's call it.

00:05:44.300 So, I mean, as you said, it's just a lack of accountability.

00:05:47.500 But what did we really expect here?

00:05:49.680 It's not as if the liberals were going to come out and say, hey, we know we have stood against the Jewish community. 0.69

00:05:56.040 And we see reflected in the data here that I think it was 63% of Jewish people in that riding voted conservative, unsurprisingly. 0.99

00:06:04.420 So they're not going to apologize.

00:06:06.860 They're just going to shift the blame as much as they can.

00:06:09.660 Yeah, and I think we're seeing a particular tone deafness there.

00:06:15.160 And it's interesting because most of the liberal cabinet ministers to be trotted out this week are all there just to say, I have confidence in Justin Trudeau.

00:06:22.360 He is our leader.

00:06:23.580 Like Mark Holland was the first one to kind of break from the scriptedly.

00:06:27.040 So I believe he's speaking from the heart there in a sense and, you know, saying what he really thinks, which is, you know, this election.

00:06:33.980 I think he believes that.

00:06:34.740 He believes that this election just means nothing and that, oh, the liberals losing in Midtown Toronto is no biggie.

00:06:39.980 What's, you know, it's just everyone's angry.

00:06:41.380 Well, you know, again, no, no introspection there, William.

00:06:44.660 Any surprise?

00:06:46.720 Yeah.

00:06:47.000 You know, it's funny.

00:06:47.940 I think if the liberal cabinet had spent any more time in St. Paul's, they would have had to buy houses there.

00:06:55.000 A few of the people in Canada who can actually afford houses, given their very high salaries.

00:06:59.920 They put everything they had into this by-election.

00:07:03.700 And that means that because they lost it, they all have to wear it, including the prime minister.

00:07:09.280 If you throw everything, including the kitchen sink, at a by-election and then lose it, you have no choice but to own it.

00:07:18.720 I think the fact that Mark Holland is saying, well, everybody's unhappy in the whole world.

00:07:24.900 I personally called them all and they told me they were, you know, just shows exactly how in denial they really are about how bad things are.

00:07:36.080 You know, I will be honest.

00:07:37.880 I thought the liberals were going to win Toronto St. Paul's.

00:07:41.100 They were leading when I went to bed.

00:07:44.460 And to wake up the next morning and discover the Conservative Party won was a shock to me.

00:07:49.780 I'm not going to say it wasn't a happy shock.

00:07:51.900 But the fact is that if this riding is vulnerable, there is no longer a safe liberal seat in the entire country.

00:08:00.620 And the fact that they can't see what the message was from voters turning a safe liberal seat blue shows that these people don't even know there's a problem, let alone how to fix it.

00:08:12.120 They haven't figured out they're in that much trouble.

00:08:15.080 They're still saying actually things are fine.

00:08:16.980 Look, we're just as unpopular as the rest of the world.

00:08:20.660 Well, OK, let's see how well that serves you when you go before voters in the next election.

00:08:25.580 Yeah, and I just want to give the contrast on perhaps why people might not have been voting with the liberals.

00:08:31.180 This is what Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland had said before the by-election took place.

00:08:38.040 That is Leslie's vision.

00:08:40.000 That's the liberal vision.

00:08:41.360 That's why I'm really calling on the people of St. Paul's to go out there and vote for her.

00:08:45.720 Because the alternative is really cold and cruel and small.

00:08:54.600 The alternative is cuts and austerity, not believing in ourselves as a country, not believing in our communities and in our neighbours.

00:09:07.900 Cold, cruel, small.

00:09:10.020 Well, what does it say about you, Minister or Deputy Prime Minister, that that's the vision that Canadians voted for?

00:09:15.140 Or maybe they didn't actually buy into that idea.

00:09:17.540 I don't think it's fair to malign the good people of Toronto St. Paul's of just being small-minded and cold and cruel just because they didn't believe that the liberals are the ones that have their back.

00:09:27.760 But maybe they're all just angry.

00:09:29.180 Maybe they're all just angry at the world.

00:09:30.760 And that's the rationale there.

00:09:33.140 What do you guys make of that?

00:09:34.360 I mean, I can't believe that the communications plan prior to the election was, hey, let's go out on stage and smack talk the district's voters.

00:09:45.980 Who thought that could have gone over well?

00:09:48.140 I mean, I don't know how well Freeland was prepared for that speech.

00:09:52.320 But I don't understand how that got by anyone without raising serious red flags.

00:09:56.720 Like, hey, maybe the day before the election, I don't know if it was the day before, but it was close to, the day before the election, we shouldn't go and call people in a district cold, cruel, and small. 0.68

00:10:05.880 I mean, that's about as ludicrous as it gets, in my opinion.

00:10:10.120 Yeah. 0.78

00:10:10.720 What were you going to say, William?

00:10:11.640 Well, I would just say it's interesting because, of course, Chrystia Freeland's riding, I believe, is right next door to Toronto St. Paul's, or if not next door, nearby.

00:10:21.460 It should be giving the finance minister some worry that safe riding like Toronto St. Paul's could fall, maybe hers is next. 1.00

00:10:28.940 But, you know, when you get something that wrong and suffer a loss, some people would say it's time to be humble.

00:10:36.740 It's time to look at and fairly evaluate whether or not what you've been offering to Canadians is something they actually want.

00:10:45.620 And in the case of Chrystia Freeland, painting where now a near majority of the country stands as cold, cruel, and small is not how you win back swing voters who used to support your party and have now switched to your opposition.

00:11:01.480 You should be taking this as a time to change course, not double down on the very things that make voters flee from your party and pursue an option that heretofore have been considered unthinkable in a riding like Toronto St. Paul's.

00:11:17.880 So, yeah, I reiterate, these are people who haven't even quantified the problem and acknowledged it, let alone are actively trying to fix it.

00:11:26.320 Yeah, and just to talk about Chrystia Freeland's riding for a moment.

00:11:29.680 So, she's in University Rosedale again, one of those, you know, suburban midtown Toronto ridings.

00:11:35.140 Not one that's going to go conservative anytime soon, but could very much go NDP if there were a stronger NDP there.

00:11:41.360 Now, I'm looking at 338 Canada's projections right now.

00:11:44.800 These are from, I believe, Sunday.

00:11:46.360 And they have the Liberals at 36% plus or minus 7 because riding level polls have a large margin of error and the NDP at plus or minus 30, which means, in theory, the NDP could be neck and neck with the Liberals.

00:11:59.580 They could be further behind.

00:12:01.060 But that's not great.

00:12:03.060 And if the NDP were to step up its game, which it has not under Jagmeet Singh and may not unless there's another leader at the helm, that could be really disastrous for people like Freeland, who previously I never would have thought in a million years could be at risk of losing her seat or even really having to fight for it.

00:12:19.400 Yeah, if the New Democrats weren't quite such a basket case, the news for the Liberals would be even more dire.

00:12:26.640 Like, if you can imagine that the New Democrats nationally managed to claw even 2% from the Liberal Party, that puts ridings not only in danger, it takes a huge chunk of ridings even out of contention for the Liberal Party in the next election, particularly around the GTA area, that part of Toronto that's maybe not suburban or ex-urban.

00:12:49.180 But that is closer to the middle of it.

00:12:52.480 And it puts them in a huge problem in the greater Vancouver area, you know, one of the few places where the Liberal Party used to be able to reliably count on a chunk of seats.

00:13:02.420 So, no, I mean, look, there's no good news for the Liberal Party in the results of this by-election.

00:13:09.160 There's no possible way to spin it, except for, I guess, Leslie Church won't be going to Ottawa, so think of all the carbon emissions we're saving by not having a commuter back and forth.

00:13:20.160 Fair enough.

00:13:21.240 Yeah, I mentioned the NDP.

00:13:22.640 I have to talk about Jagmeet Singh here, because the NDP's performance in that by-election was absolutely nothing to be excited about if you're the NDP.

00:13:32.180 Their candidate got 10.9%, which is a five-point drop from where the NDP have been in the last, I think, three elections.

00:13:39.660 Now, obviously, by-elections are weird.

00:13:41.660 Like, things happen there, but it's not exactly instilling confidence in the NDP being the progressive alternative to the Liberals.

00:13:49.460 And that's what the NDP wants to be.

00:13:51.100 That's its MO.

00:13:52.160 It's not doing that right now.

00:13:54.220 And, you know, Jagmeet Singh, it's not surprising that he still is not talking about wanting to pull the plug on his really unqualified support of the Liberals.

00:14:02.940 So he was asked at a press conference yesterday about whether he'll finally, once and for all, end the NDP's four-year supply and confidence agreement with the Liberals.

00:14:12.680 And this is what he said, or should I say, didn't say.

00:14:15.800 Given the Liberals having lost the seat and the NDP's low performance in a seat that you hold provincially, do you think it's time to pull out of the supply and confidence agreement?

00:14:28.660 Is that something that you're going to do?

00:14:30.140 Well, our plan right now is what we've always said.

00:14:34.500 Our goal is to get Ottawa to work for people.

00:14:36.480 We said that from the beginning.

00:14:37.800 That's been my goal.

00:14:39.200 And we're going to use the power we have to make that happen.

00:14:41.540 Justin Trudeau has let people down.

00:14:42.780 It's very clear.

00:14:44.360 Pierre Pauly wants to cut and gut the services that people need very desperately.

00:14:48.520 And so people are counting on us, and I get that.

00:14:50.860 So we're going to keep on fighting to make sure Ottawa delivers for you.

00:14:54.420 That's why I'm going to be listening to people across the summer.

00:14:56.440 We're going to be hearing from people about how we change the rules to tip the scales in their favor.

00:15:02.140 Because the decks are stacked against people.

00:15:06.140 It is so clear the deck is stacked against you when you're working harder than ever before and you can't pay your bills.

00:15:11.700 When you go in the grocery store and you try to buy what you could afford before and you can't afford it anymore.

00:15:15.880 When you can't afford your groceries, let alone the special treats for your loved ones.

00:15:18.660 When you can't find a home in your city that you live in, you can't find a place to rent in Toronto.

00:15:25.360 It's clear that the rules are not in your favor.

00:15:28.420 And we've got to change that.

00:15:29.360 We've got to make the rules in favor of people.

00:15:31.340 And that's going to require some courage.

00:15:33.040 And it's clear that neither of the Liberals or Conservatives are going to do that.

00:15:35.520 It sounds like he's saying Canada is broken and the things are broken.

00:15:42.160 But again, no yes or no.

00:15:43.960 Did you find a yes or no to the question in there, Isaac?

00:15:46.840 Like what would you decipher that as being if the question was, will you pull your support of the Liberal government?

00:15:53.000 Well, no, I didn't really find an answer.

00:15:55.380 And I mean, Singh usually does that, wherein his actions really don't match his words, I find.

00:16:02.700 He's always talking about how he'll – well, first of all, a few months ago he said he was going to be the Prime Minister of Canada.

00:16:07.300 I remember that.

00:16:07.780 That was laughable, let's say.

00:16:10.540 No, it's been comedy for sure.

00:16:13.020 Yeah, he always says he's going to hold the Liberals to account.

00:16:16.080 He's going to do this.

00:16:16.760 He's going to do that.

00:16:17.500 He's always – I mean, some of the posts I've seen from him online attacking the Liberals, it's like you're the person allowing this to happen.

00:16:24.020 And so, I mean, yeah, he says all the right things in theory, but he doesn't do anything that he says.

00:16:29.920 He doesn't hold the government to account in any way, shape, or form.

00:16:32.520 I don't know that he's helping the NDP in any way.

00:16:37.420 They're really – if the NDP were polling better, as you guys alluded to earlier, the Liberals would honestly be at risk of potentially following to a third-rated party,

00:16:47.520 which I don't know the precedent around that, how common that is, that a governing party may fall into third place.

00:16:53.260 But, I mean, that would be something, wouldn't it?

00:16:56.300 William?

00:16:58.480 Well, now I'm slightly worried about him.

00:17:00.180 Is it possible he was drunk during that press conference?

00:17:03.740 He talked about the – I think he meant to say the deck is stacked against him, and he said the –

00:17:10.140 No, the stacks are decked against the working man.

00:17:12.920 The stacks are decked.

00:17:13.960 And did he say Canadians can't afford special trees at one point?

00:17:18.700 Well, I thought he said treats, a treat for your family.

00:17:20.940 Okay, well, maybe he did.

00:17:23.300 But supposed to say, if you look up the word hapless in the dictionary, I think there's now got to be a picture of Jagmeet saying no one has been a more hapless leader of a –

00:17:35.200 and particularly if you think about it, in a minority government, that's when opposition parties should have more power.

00:17:41.720 They should have more influence.

00:17:43.440 And, you know, I think back to the Paul Martin minority, which was a long time ago, but I'm an old person, so I remember it.

00:17:52.620 And, you know –

00:17:53.680 It was 20 years.

00:17:54.720 Jack Layton, who was the NDP leader then, he was able to extract real things from the liberals and put them on notice of every confidence vote saying,

00:18:02.740 here's my list of demands, and I want this and this and this, or I'll vote against you.

00:18:07.440 Whereas Jagmeet Singh says, well, we know Justin Trudeau has failed, and I'm doing everything I can to continue enabling his failure for Canadians.

00:18:15.720 You know, I will make sure he fails for a full four-year term rather than, oh, I don't know, ending the failure sooner and attempting to replace him.

00:18:25.200 It makes no sense.

00:18:26.700 And I think, you know, why he won't pull out of the agreement is he knows that the number of seats he has right now is the high watermark.

00:18:33.460 If and when the NDP go back in front of Canadians, they'll have to explain why they were partners in crime to a deeply unpopular, deeply unsuccessful liberal government.

00:18:44.360 And I think they're going to feel the wrath of Canadians just as much as the Liberal Party will.

00:18:49.520 Well, yeah, and it's, I mean, the old, it's the oldest joke now in this whole thing, when every time he comes up and speaks about, oh, the Liberals are failing Canadians, the Liberals and Conservatives have it out for you.

00:18:59.500 And it's like, well, yeah, but you're, you are single-handedly keeping them in power.

00:19:03.920 Like, it doesn't take a genius to find the logical inconsistency in the entire NDP thing.

00:19:09.480 And the concessions, the quote-unquote concessions have been virtually non-existent.

00:19:13.320 I mean, he was promised universal pharmacare and got birth control and a diabetes drug.

00:19:18.560 He was promised dental care and has a dental program that's not even really reaching that many people.

00:19:25.000 And it's, and he's trying to claim this as a big win.

00:19:28.340 No, absolutely.

00:19:29.580 And, you know, the fact that he's trying to paint up his, this, you know, dismal record, I don't think it's going unnoticed.

00:19:37.120 It must be infuriating to be a new Democrat right now, to be someone who, who thinks, you know, we've got a minority government that's predisposed to leaning left on all of these issues.

00:19:48.100 And I've got my party that could keep this government in power.

00:19:51.680 Why am I not extracting things left, right, and center?

00:19:54.620 Why aren't we building statues of new Democrat leaders in every major city and demanding that the federal government pay for it?

00:20:01.840 Instead, we're getting a dental plan that even dentists think is terrible and won't work for Canadians.

00:20:07.960 And a pharma care plan that in no way replaces the private insurance that millions of Canadians get from their employers is now at risk of being clawed back because of this ill-considered national pharma care plan.

00:20:20.900 So, no, not a happy time to be a new Democrat.

00:20:24.020 Isaac, last word to you.

00:20:25.680 Yeah, just, I did do an article on the dentist thing earlier today, and I remember it was the Canadian Dental Association.

00:20:31.040 They said, I think it was 61% of dentists were not interested in any way, shape, or form of signing up for the federal dental plan.

00:20:37.400 And then just one comment quickly on William's memory of Jack Layton.

00:20:42.360 I feel that if Singh did a similar thing with a list of demands for Trudeau and said, hey, you need to do these things or else I'll call a non-confidence vote.

00:20:49.600 I honestly think Trudeau would say to him, no, you won't.

00:20:52.040 Like, I don't believe you.

00:20:52.940 I don't think that you will.

00:20:54.200 I'm not doing what you say.

00:20:55.320 I'm just going to go my own way.

00:20:56.720 Of course, he might not say it so explicitly, but that's what he would do.

00:20:59.120 Fair enough.

00:21:02.100 The other related aspect of this is that Trudeau's global reputation and his reputation outside of, well, basically like six people in downtown Montreal has been taking a hit particularly lately.

00:21:15.000 I got a couple of examples of this.

00:21:16.800 Do we want to start with Australia or start with Kevin O'Leary?

00:21:19.840 Let's start with Kevin O'Leary.

00:21:21.300 This, because this ties into Chrystia Freeland as well.

00:21:24.080 This is Kevin O'Leary sharing his thoughts in that Mr. Wonderful way.

00:21:29.120 Economic outlook for Canada in the short term.

00:21:31.340 That would include the impact from higher borrowing costs.

00:21:34.300 Longer term, though, subjects such as productivity, standard of living, and an economic transition are big issues for the country.

00:21:41.780 We're back again with Kevin O'Leary, chairman of O'Leary Ventures.

00:21:45.980 You are here in Canada.

00:21:47.400 You're not always here in Canada these days.

00:21:49.500 But in terms of what you see when it comes to the Canadian economy, what springs to mind?

00:21:56.280 Missed opportunity is the two words I would use.

00:22:00.260 We are such a wealthy country, and we are so poorly managed from a policy basis.

00:22:05.460 When I think about the tremendous potential the country has in natural resources, which was the essence of its success from the beginning over the last 200 years,

00:22:12.620 and we've ignored it, and we have tried to do many other things that have nothing to do with our core wealth.

00:22:17.560 And I can't help but blame Justin Trudeau for that for the last decade.

00:22:22.920 He's a weak manager, in my opinion.

00:22:24.480 A very successful politician, but a very, very weak manager in understanding what actually makes Canada tick.

00:22:29.980 Yeah, he's bang on there.

00:22:32.240 These people couldn't run a bodega, and yet they're running the country.

00:22:36.100 And I think his comments about how just, like, woefully unqualified these people are, even with the experience.

00:22:41.780 Like, that's the thing.

00:22:42.260 Christian Freeland has a few years of experience as finance minister.

00:22:44.920 Justin Trudeau has nine years experience under his belt as prime minister.

00:22:49.160 The experience hasn't really helped them.

00:22:50.880 I don't think they're getting better.

00:22:52.020 Do you guys?

00:22:52.520 No, and it's funny, because I had written about O'Leary, I think it was in March or April, and he said some of the same things. 1.00

00:23:01.240 One was, Canada, if you look at resources per capita, is one of the richest countries on Earth run by complete idiots. 0.97

00:23:07.720 Although it was interesting this time, watching O'Leary's full interview, he was a lot more direct with his blows, 1.00

00:23:15.540 by specifically calling out both Trudeau and Freeland by name and saying, this is what's wrong with these people.

00:23:21.680 So we need to, well, he actually called for scraping out and restarting office, parliament office completely.

00:23:28.040 And he even said, we need a Canada 2.0.

00:23:30.340 We need to scrape and rake out everyone in parliament and start from scratch.

00:23:33.180 And we can do something special with this country.

00:23:35.080 But the way we're going right now is headed for a complete disaster.

00:23:39.080 Yeah, I don't want to give, I don't want to put too much stock in Kevin O'Leary.

00:23:42.200 Like, he's a bombastic pundit.

00:23:43.880 I think he's, you know, got a solid head on business issues.

00:23:46.560 So I didn't quite buy into this whole Kevin O'Leary as a Conservative thing when he was running for the leadership of the Conservatives a few years back.

00:23:53.420 However, I think his criticisms on the government are coming from the business side of him.

00:23:58.220 And he's saying, like, this is just absolutely absurd.

00:24:02.060 We're seeing a real economic crisis starting to foment here in Canada.

00:24:07.000 Our productivity, which is an amorphous concept that doesn't get well-defying.

00:24:12.980 People talk about how we have a productivity problem.

00:24:15.260 Basically, how much we generate, how much we produce, what our country makes is going down.

00:24:21.580 And as a result, our GDP is crashing.

00:24:25.280 It only looks better than it is because of our huge numbers of new people coming to Canada every year.

00:24:32.680 Millions of people coming to Canada are artificially inflating our GDP growth.

00:24:38.040 But if you look at it on a per-person basis, it's absolutely tumbling.

00:24:41.420 And people, I think, anecdotally can feel this.

00:24:44.020 They're not getting paid more in their jobs.

00:24:46.720 They're seeing fewer good jobs being created.

00:24:49.600 They're having to work longer hours.

00:24:51.000 They're having to do without more things because they can't afford, you know, the kinds of things they want to buy.

00:24:57.120 They can't afford housing.

00:24:58.180 They can't afford groceries.

00:24:59.540 They certainly can't afford luxury items.

00:25:01.580 And all of this is really starting to rankle in Canada.

00:25:05.480 And if we weren't so blessed, I would say lucky, as a country, things would be so much worse.

00:25:11.680 If we were a country that actually had really difficult circumstances, we would be all but drowning in our economic troubles.

00:25:20.520 I mean, as Kevin points out, we are vastly blessed.

00:25:23.480 We have tons of natural resources.

00:25:25.080 We have good infrastructure, by and large, except for where I live here in Calgary, where the water pipe exploded.

00:25:30.080 We have tremendous assets compared to so many other people.

00:25:33.520 And even still, it's tough times.

00:25:35.500 Imagine how hard it would be if we didn't have all those advantages.

00:25:38.460 But they won't last forever.

00:25:39.700 If we squander, keep squandering our opportunity, we are at risk of becoming a really difficult country, a place that people no longer want to come to, a place that no longer offers the same opportunity it used to.

00:25:51.420 Another thing Larry mentioned, which is worth mentioning quickly, because we've done a lot of reporting about this at True North, is he talked from direct experience about the new capital gains tax hike, which just came into effect.

00:26:03.900 And he said, look, he probably has hundreds of millions, if not billions of assets in Canada.

00:26:08.480 He said, look, these accountants, the accountants have been telling me and other people like me how to get our assets out of Canada, how to pay the old tax rate, which was the 50% instead of the three quarters, or two thirds, sorry, 66%.

00:26:21.260 Yeah, how to get our assets out of Canada.

00:26:23.740 So these people are divesting their assets from Canada to save money.

00:26:26.680 I mean, it's obviously a terrible, terrible price that we're going to pay in the long term, which is exactly what he said.

00:26:32.120 Like, Canada will pay for this for decades if it is not fixed quickly.

00:26:35.920 Yeah, no, you're right about that.

00:26:37.240 He was not as colourful as our friends over at Sky News in Australia were in their criticisms of Justin Trudeau, however.

00:26:44.480 Now, it's been a while since we talked about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the neo-Marxist Kendall, as I call him.

00:26:52.960 He's in some serious trouble, Douglas.

00:26:55.840 This week his party lost a by-election in one of the safest Liberal seats in the country, in Toronto, St. Paul.

00:27:04.040 And Trudeau's minority government is badly trailing the Conservatives in the polls.

00:27:11.560 Is this the end for Trudeau, Douglas?

00:27:13.760 Have the Canadian people finally woken up to the performative caring that lacks any real substance?

00:27:24.180 You absolutely put your finger on it, Rita.

00:27:26.320 Performative caring.

00:27:27.700 That's all that Justin Trudeau does.

00:27:31.120 It's very hard to find a true thing he's ever said or a sincere thing he's ever said.

00:27:37.840 The man is entirely artifice.

00:27:39.920 He's an utter bimbo, a phrase that maybe one wouldn't use a female politician these days, but I'm happy to use of Justin Trudeau. 1.00

00:27:49.340 He's so grotesquely... 0.93

00:27:50.340 He could be a himbo. 1.00

00:27:52.140 He's a himbo, I suppose. 1.00

00:27:53.840 I was in Canada last week in a couple of cities, and I can't tell you, Rita, the detestation that you find for Trudeau across the political board.

00:28:06.100 A vast majority of Canadians want him to stand down now.

00:28:12.260 He has really impressive opposition now.

00:28:16.860 I think that Pierre Polievre and the others on the conservative side that are coming along, they're very impressive people now facing off against Trudeau.

00:28:27.480 I think he's absolutely toast because finally, you know, we've got to that stage where being a sort of superannuated drama teacher,

00:28:35.980 turns out you can fool some people for a little while, but not for all that long.

00:28:40.940 Everyone in Canada who wants to see through Justin Trudeau has seen through him.

00:28:46.780 I don't think anyone will regret finally seeing the back of him.

00:28:50.880 So I should say, I love the idea of a himbo, although I didn't know bimbo was not... 1.00

00:28:58.560 I thought bimbo was gender neutral. 0.99

00:29:00.360 I didn't know it was actually a gendered word.

00:29:02.940 So I don't know if himbo is here to stay. 1.00

00:29:04.780 His pronouns are he himbo, I guess, now.

00:29:08.060 Well, I like the line that says you can fool some of the people some of the time.

00:29:11.660 And I say, yes, then 10 seconds longer if you're in blackface. 1.00

00:29:14.840 It's one of the many times Justin Trudeau donned another cloak around himself.

00:29:22.480 Yeah, it's...

00:29:23.680 I mean, Rita Panahy is fantastic.

00:29:25.680 I love her on Sky News.

00:29:26.560 Douglas Murray is just an international treasure.

00:29:29.600 But like when Justin Trudeau is noticed in this way, because the global media used to,

00:29:34.880 and I think Rita alluded to this, the global media used to love him.

00:29:38.280 He was this sort of like prince-like figure that they talked about the way they talk about the royals.

00:29:42.360 And now he's just this global laughingstock.

00:29:44.840 Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that, actually.

00:29:47.880 I saw another clip pop up today from an Indian news outlet, and they were talking smack about Trudeau as well,

00:29:54.500 pairing him with Macron out of France and Sunak as well.

00:29:58.280 So this was kind of a...

00:30:00.220 Let's talk about all the crazy leaders of countries across the world. 0.92

00:30:06.520 But yeah, I really like what Murray said there, which is essentially that if you're as fake and empty as he said Trudeau was, 0.97

00:30:14.120 people will only buy what you're saying for so long before, of course, they see through your lies, essentially.

00:30:20.640 Yeah.

00:30:21.160 What do you think, William?

00:30:21.840 I mean, you know, I wish the prime minister wouldn't leave the country anymore.

00:30:27.320 I'm embarrassed as a Canadian every time he goes internationally on a trip and other people discover just what a terrible person we have as our prime minister. 0.78

00:30:37.780 It's frankly, it's like, look, we all know here at home what a travesty you are.

00:30:42.660 Could you please stop going around the world and letting other people know as well?

00:30:46.360 As a Canadian, I find it embarrassing.

00:30:49.340 Yeah, I think you're quite right about that.

00:30:51.900 Well, let's bring it a little bit closer to home again and talk Alberta.

00:30:56.000 I don't know which of you wants to kick this off.

00:30:59.320 Probably William, considering he lives in Calgary.

00:31:02.600 Well, you know, our mayor, Jody Gondek, not widely beloved already, has managed to achieve something I think is incredible.

00:31:11.940 She's managed to become less popular than Justin Trudeau in Calgary.

00:31:16.520 And had you asked me, I would have said that was impossible.

00:31:20.240 But the fact is, she managed to achieve a disapproval rating there if you look of 64%.

00:31:25.280 But my favorite two numbers are the strongly approved and the strongly disapproved.

00:31:29.900 Strongly disapproved is at a whopping 48%.

00:31:33.140 That's one in two Calgarians think she's doing a truly terrible job and fewer than one in 10 at 7% strongly approved.

00:31:42.540 I mean, that is an approval rating, I think, slightly below the Ebola virus in terms of overall popularity.

00:31:51.200 So well done, Mayor Gondek.

00:31:53.740 You've done something remarkable.

00:31:56.020 She has been a unifying figure.

00:31:57.920 Yes, she has.

00:31:58.700 She's unifying.

00:31:59.420 Unifying 93% against her.

00:32:01.080 It is a remarkable achievement.

00:32:03.620 I, you know, for those of us who've never really liked Mayor Gondek, it's gratifying to see more and more Calgarians getting on board the wow, isn't she terrible train.

00:32:14.040 Yeah, Gondek had an approval rating, obviously, of 26% compared to Trudeau's 28%.

00:32:20.000 But speaking quickly on unification, from that study, which was done by Think HQ, the president said something along the lines of,

00:32:27.700 normally, when global disaster, or sorry, not global, when disasters happen, like the water crisis, he said residents rally around their mayor.

00:32:37.560 But then he said the opposite has happened with Gondek in light of Calgary's recent water crisis.

00:32:42.420 He said if they have supported her handling it in any way, shape, or form, it's overshadowed by other issues that they disapprove of.

00:32:51.040 Because obviously, during the crisis, her ratings have gone down, not up, which is what he expected to happen.

00:32:57.360 Oh, interesting.

00:32:58.520 And then now we, of course, have a new leader of the NDP in Alberta, Nahed Nenshi, who has made one of his first orders of business,

00:33:05.680 trying to basically have nothing to do with Jagmeet Singh, who we talked about a little bit earlier.

00:33:10.520 But interestingly enough, I think the federal, or the UCP, their line of attack on this has been to link him instead to Justin Trudeau more than the federal NDP.

00:33:20.140 They actually, pretty soon out of the gate, I think, you know, what, less than five days after he was the NDP leader, they came out with this ad.

00:33:26.320 New NDP leader, Nahed Nenshi, is Justin Trudeau's choice for Alberta.

00:33:31.640 That's Nenshi helping Justin Trudeau defeat Stephen Harper in the 2015 federal election.

00:33:37.280 When asked about Nenshi running for the NDP, Trudeau called Nenshi a strong mayor and said we should welcome his candidacy.

00:33:45.500 Trudeau even tried to get Nenshi to run for his federal liberal party.

00:33:48.760 We've had enough of Trudeau in Ottawa. We don't need one in Alberta.

00:33:53.720 Nahed Nenshi, Trudeau's choice for Alberta.

00:33:56.900 William, does that line of things, does that work or is that just the UCP having some fun?

00:34:01.840 Well, you know, I love an attack ad. It must be my time in politics.

00:34:05.620 People say they hate attack ads. I love them.

00:34:07.840 I would only watch political attack ads if given the choice.

00:34:11.360 From the west to the east to the west to the east.

00:34:13.520 I think this is a pretty strong lie.

00:34:17.500 You know, Nenshi likes to paint himself as this nonpartisan or, in his speak, a postpartisan politician.

00:34:25.680 You know, he chose the color purple because it was neither liberal red nor conservative blue.

00:34:32.200 But the fact is, he's a lefty mayor.

00:34:34.980 He was a lefty mayor.

00:34:35.960 He's now the leader of a lefty political party, and he's going to have to reconcile the fact that he played footsie with the Trudeau liberals for a long time and is now trying to get elected in a province that does not like the Trudeau liberals.

00:34:52.120 And so the fact that the UCP is starting early, I think, is good.

00:34:56.480 Nenshi's forte or his area of strength would be perceived to be Calgary.

00:35:01.440 But when he left office, he was far from universally liked.

00:35:04.380 A lot of people thought he had overstayed his welcome.

00:35:07.040 And frankly, they didn't like his arrogance and his thin-skinned nature, his inability to build a consensus on city council.

00:35:15.600 And now you've got him leading a party that a lot of Albertans feel just doesn't understand this province.

00:35:21.680 So I wish the UCP well in their attempt to remind voters of just how friendly Mr. Nenshi was with Mr. Trudeau.

00:35:30.980 And we'll see if that is something that Albertans rally around when the next election happens.

00:35:36.220 Yeah, speaking quickly on Nenshi's approval ratings from that Think HQ survey, that same one about Gondek, in June 2014, he had an approval of 74%, but then the latest one before he ended his tenure was 57% by May 2021.

00:35:53.560 So his approval ratings did drop quite a bit as his time as Calgary's mayor.

00:35:59.600 But really, the way the NDP, the Alberta NDP, is going to win the next provincial election, the only possible way is through gathering support from rural Alberta.

00:36:09.120 This is why they lost the last provincial election.

00:36:12.760 The Conservatives cleaned house in rural Alberta.

00:36:15.380 I mean, it was like they literally won all the seats.

00:36:18.840 So the NDP needs to figure out how can we capture rural Alberta.

00:36:22.420 And I think the Alberta Conservatives pairing Nenshi with Trudeau will not help him there because I don't imagine anyone in rural Alberta really likes Trudeau.

00:36:32.780 Yeah, and to be honest, I kind of wonder if he would have had a shot, and he must have considered it, if he would have had a shot at federal liberal leader, had he just waited things out for, you know, a year and a half until Trudeau resigns.

00:36:47.160 Like, I don't know how much broad appeal he has within the liberal movement nationally.

00:36:51.080 Surely that wouldn't have been totally out of left field, would it, William?

00:36:53.780 No, I don't think it is.

00:36:56.540 The thing that probably would stand against him is it would be extremely hard to be a liberal leader from Alberta under current circumstances.

00:37:04.120 You know, he'd be in a – there wouldn't be a seat in this province that's particularly safe.

00:37:08.500 He would have to find a seat in, like, you know – well, actually, even anywhere he couldn't find one.

00:37:12.600 Not even St. Paul's.

00:37:14.140 No, that's true.

00:37:14.840 You know, so either he would have to run in a different part of the country where maybe he doesn't have nearly as much name recognition, nearly as much of an existing political infrastructure, or face a rioting in Alberta where the federal tour would have to land every three days in order for him to doorknock in his rioting without trying to lose it.

00:37:34.820 You know, the other problem for Mr. Nankshi, of course, is he's widely regarded as not a team player.

00:37:39.240 He likes to call – he likes to go his own way.

00:37:42.600 He really struggled on council to build coalitions of support around his issues. 0.83

00:37:48.720 He just was too arrogant and too egotistical.

00:37:52.440 And I think he would have that very same problem running to be prime minister where you absolutely need a team of people around you that you can count on.

00:38:01.480 And I think it will be a problem he faces here in Alberta.

00:38:04.300 You know, he's not used to this party political realm.

00:38:07.600 He's not used to provincial politics as someone who's ever engaged in it.

00:38:11.900 And I think he'll find being a party leader very challenging, given his personality.

00:38:16.380 Yeah, if he couldn't lead a council, like leading a caucus is, you know, a thankless job at the best of times.

00:38:21.820 And I don't know, Isaac, if you're familiar with this, but how much diversity is there within the NDP caucus ideologically?

00:38:30.120 Like how many different perspectives and positions are there that a leader has to, you know, keep rowing in the same direction in that party?

00:38:35.920 Well, I don't know, because something that was maybe showed the diversity of opinions a bit was during the NDP leadership race, wherein some of the prospective leaders stood against the carbon tax and others didn't.

00:38:48.620 So obviously there was some leeway there, I guess.

00:38:51.700 But outside of that, I'm not too sure.

00:38:53.280 I mean, look, I think it'll be interesting because he wants this divorce from the federal NDP.

00:38:58.540 He's putting it to the members to vote.

00:39:00.600 If the members are split on that, already he showed that he is not necessarily where they are.

00:39:05.800 Maybe they're for it, maybe they're against it.

00:39:07.300 I have no idea.

00:39:08.440 Do you have any sense on how members would vote for that, William?

00:39:12.380 You know, that's a really interesting question.

00:39:14.400 And, you know, there's a lot of people in this province with deep NDP roots.

00:39:20.340 You know, Rachel Notley's father was an NDP politician and held in quite high esteem back from when the party did have some support outside of the cities, when it was seen as on the side of farmers and other people working.

00:39:35.280 It was the old prairie populist NDP, certainly not, you know, the woke he, him, they, them of today's NDP.

00:39:42.660 No, unrecognizable than today's NDP.

00:39:45.240 You're absolutely right.

00:39:46.540 But the fact is, you know, Isaac's point about them trying to win support outside of the cities, it's one of the many things the NDP is going to have to do.

00:39:54.520 I don't think Mayor Nahed Nengshi is the emissary to rural Alberta that I would have personally chosen.

00:40:00.560 A man who I'm not convinced has ever been outside a city in his life.

00:40:05.280 But, you know, whether or not the party supports the divorce, even if they vote to do it, I don't think everybody's going to be happy about it.

00:40:13.240 And then what happens when you've split the NDP party?

00:40:16.160 Rachel Notley is very much against it as recently as a couple of weeks ago.

00:40:20.500 Absolutely.

00:40:21.040 She came out right before the vote and said, this is a terrible idea.

00:40:24.040 And it reinforces the message that, to borrow a phrase from the federal conservative party, Nahed Nengshi might just be just visiting a new Democrat party.

00:40:34.160 He might not really be someone who is wedded to this party that he now leads.

00:40:39.860 His big win gives him some latitude, for sure.

00:40:42.540 He's got a bit of runway to figure out what he wants to do.

00:40:45.620 But I think, first of all, he has to understand how not to break the NDP coalition.

00:40:50.200 And divorcing itself from the federal party might make political sense in terms of how unpopular Jagmeet Singh is here, especially his opposition to the energy sector.

00:40:57.840 But if he loses the hearts and minds of those people who have doorknocked for New Democrats for decades, who write the checks, who work the phone banks, who organize the unions, which I'm told is a very big thing in the New Democrats, these are people you don't want to drive away from the party.

00:41:15.020 And they're the ones who are most likely to oppose getting rid of that federal NDP association.

00:41:21.140 All right.

00:41:21.820 Any final thoughts on this, Isaac?

00:41:24.100 Not really.

00:41:25.120 Just quick.

00:41:25.860 I don't think that no matter what happens with the Alberta NDP, I don't think they stand a chance in the next election.

00:41:32.860 But we'll see.

00:41:34.500 All right.

00:41:34.900 Fair enough.

00:41:35.700 That does it for us.

00:41:36.720 This has been an amazing, an amazing discussion.

00:41:39.560 I hope you'll tune in next week or catch Isaac on Daily Brief and his reporting.

00:41:43.640 Catch William in our very raucous HR department, which is basically just William.

00:41:48.060 And you can catch the Andrew Lawton Show daily at 1 p.m.

00:41:51.220 Eastern.

00:41:51.660 But remember, everything you've heard has been off the record.

00:42:01.360 The Nancy thing is very interesting.

00:42:04.160 You know, talk about trying to put a square peg in a round hole.

00:42:06.600 This is someone who I would have probably bet some amount of money wouldn't have entered partisan provincial politics or federal politics just because it was so anathema to who he was as a politician.

00:42:19.720 But, you know, maybe he's at a loose end.

00:42:21.900 Maybe after he was done being mayor of Calgary, he just found himself sitting at home bored, you know, binging episodes of Cupcake Wars or whatever it is he does.

00:42:29.720 And he decided to try this instead.

00:42:32.580 But, yeah, I mean, who knows?

00:42:35.000 I guess we'll see if he if the Nancy charm can get out of out of the mothballs and start working its magic again.

00:42:43.320 I'm guessing that happens to a lot of politicians, much like a professional athlete, let's say, where in something is just your entire life and then it's gone completely.

00:42:51.360 And you're like, well, what do I do now?

00:42:53.100 Right.

00:42:54.300 That we have politics also has a lot of enablers.

00:42:56.640 There's always someone in someone's life that's going to tell them they should do something like Frank Bayless, who's like a nobody liberal MP, a one term liberal was saying to CBC, I've had people approach me to run.

00:43:07.820 Like, who?

00:43:09.020 Who are these people?

00:43:10.640 I did have to Google who he was.

00:43:12.600 I mean, I like to consider myself reasonably well informed.

00:43:14.940 And I was like, right, I shall Google who this man is and see what his deal is.

00:43:21.020 And I thought it's a one term liberal MP who nobody's ever heard of.

00:43:25.460 Boy, doesn't that just reflect on the weakness.

00:43:27.940 Yeah.

00:43:28.400 An Anglo-Quebecker, too.

00:43:29.760 And they never stand a chance.

00:43:31.440 But yeah, I mean, wow, boy, it used to be that that the heavyweights said, oh, I would be liberal leader because it was a virtual guaranteed path to being prime minister.

00:43:41.580 And now it's like no, no names are putting their names forward.

00:43:45.740 So, gosh, what a what how the mighty have fallen.

00:43:48.640 And now it's like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Juno News - June 28, 2024

Liberals in panic mode

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