00:01:36.680The election would be called at a time when the Liberals are up in the polls across the country.
00:01:42.140According to recent poll numbers commissioned by Juneau News and conducted by One Persuasion,
00:01:47.780Liberals are neck and neck with Conservatives,
00:01:50.440with the Conservative Party of Canada ahead at 37% support,
00:01:54.760while the Liberal Party of Canada sits at 35%.
00:01:58.400The poll data shows that the Liberals have a six-point lead over the Conservatives in Atlantic Canada
00:02:04.180and have pulled ahead by six points in Ontario,
00:02:06.820where other polls were showing a Conservative lead for months.
00:02:10.980Clayton, with the election being called a few days from now,
00:02:14.520how are Canada's federal parties already preparing for a springtime general election?
00:02:20.080Well, the Conservatives have been gearing up for an election for months.
00:02:23.340When I attended Paulieff's Canada First rally in Ottawa the day after Valentine's Day,
00:02:30.280his around 40-minute speech really felt like a campaign launch.
00:02:34.780For those following his press conferences over the last year,
00:02:38.760it was essentially a consolidation of all those conferences and policy suggestions,
00:02:43.900and it seemed like he was just laying out his campaign platform for the next election.
00:02:48.140Conservatives online have been canvassing already,
00:02:50.520such as Kostas Menegakis, the Toronto-area candidate.
00:02:54.840He was posting canvassing photos with constituents already holding up his campaign signs.
00:03:00.440Multiple Conservatives have been opening their offices since last week as well.
00:03:04.940Eglinton Lawrence candidate Karen Stintz, for example,
00:03:08.300announced her campaign office opening Thursday,
00:03:11.220and Durham's Conservative MP Jamil Javani is launching his campaign office opening party on Saturday as well,
00:03:17.600which will be followed by door-knocking and canvassing.
00:03:20.520Also, former True North journalist Andrew Lawton is also hosting a grand opening for his campaign office on Saturday in his London riding.
00:03:30.280Roman Babber had his campaign open last Sunday as well,
00:03:34.180so Conservatives were betting on a snap election being called.
00:03:37.900The Green Party is gearing up in its own way, advocating for election reform,
00:03:42.020and proposing a coalition of all the progressive governments to prevent Pierre Polyevre from doing anything if he wins a minority government,
00:03:50.360and signaling that her party will vote alongside the other left-wing parties.
00:03:54.520The NDP have been throwing out attack ads against Carney,
00:03:57.980painting him as a man who's made a career out of sleazy business practices and making the rich richer.
00:04:03.640And of course, Carney has been saying his government is doing several things as if it can with Parliament Pro-Rogued,
00:04:11.000featuring some of the things Canadians can expect if they elect the Liberal government for a fourth term.
00:04:16.640A Vancouver-area auto show has banned Tesla from participating,
00:04:23.900citing safety concerns as far-left activists escalate protests against the electric vehicle automaker and its owner, Elon Musk.
00:04:32.160The show's executive director, Eric Nickel, told Fox Business the exhibition has removed Tesla as a participant in this week's event.
00:04:41.420He further said their primary concern was, quote, the safety of attendees, exhibitors, and staff.
00:07:48.480And here in British Columbia as well, the B.C. government, led by B.C. NDP Premier David Eby,
00:07:56.380they excluded Tesla from a charger rebate program and other EV rebates,
00:08:02.280directly saying it's because of Elon Musk.
00:08:07.500Prime Minister Mark Carney intends to maintain his predecessor's cap on oil and gas production.
00:08:13.880The cap was introduced with regulations drafted by the Liberals last November,
00:08:18.680which require producers to reduce their emissions by about one-third.
00:08:22.700Critics of the cap argue that it will kill Canada's energy sector and contribute to a decline in Canada's GDP.
00:08:29.040Newly appointed Environment Minister Terry Deguid confirmed Carney's plans to keep former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's policy
00:08:36.940in an interview with the Canadian press on Thursday.
00:08:40.600The Liberals' cap forces energy producers to cut their emission level by about one-third over the next eight years.
00:08:47.920A report published by the Parliamentary Budget Officer last week estimates that the required reduction in energy production levels
00:08:56.620will lower Canada's real gross domestic production by 0.39% in 2032 and reduce nominal GDP by $20.5 billion.
00:09:07.360The report also projects massive job losses across the economy of some 54,400 Canadians by 2032.
00:09:17.480Additionally, the Carney government is proposing a cap-and-trade system,
00:09:21.760something that Alberta Premier Daniel Smith and members of the energy sector have been outspoken critics of.
00:09:28.000Conservative leader Pierre Polyev has vowed to eliminate the emissions cap,
00:09:32.040pledging that under his Canada-first government, Canada would be able to tap into its vast natural resources.
00:09:40.680He ensured that under his leadership, regulatory delays would no longer encumber projects like mines, pipelines and LNG terminals.
00:09:48.900News that Carney will maintain the emissions cap comes on the heels of some of Canada's top energy executives,
00:09:55.880panning an open letter to the federal government and opposition party leaders,
00:10:00.180urging them to declare a Canadian energy crisis.
00:10:04.840The group is calling for an overhaul of regulations to ensure major infrastructure projects receive approval within six months of filing an application.
00:10:14.800It seems like with every passing day, Carney increasingly vows to stick to some of Trudeau's old policies,
00:10:22.240despite wanting to present himself as this outsider and this signal of change for the direction the Liberals are going.
00:10:30.380Clayton, are there any other energy policies set by Trudeau that Carney has indicated he might keep around?
00:10:38.600Absolutely, yeah. Carney didn't get rid of the Carbon Pricing Act, despite the Liberals announcing that they had, quote, axed the tax.
00:10:45.940The Liberal government only lowered the consumer price to zero while keeping the carbon price for industries.
00:10:52.600So if he wins the election, he could simply raise the price back up on carbon,
00:10:57.020particularly since he's indicated that his only problem with the tax, other than it being unpopular,
00:11:02.400in his book, Values, Carney recommended a host of other fiscal and regulatory policies to move countries toward a net zero economy,
00:11:12.540which could give us a hint of how he would run Canada's energy policies if he won the next federal election.
00:11:19.740In the book, he advocates to raise the demand for electric vehicles by giving corporate welfare handouts to EV producers
00:11:26.700and wants to impose regulations to phase out the sale of new internal combustion vehicles in the next decade.
00:11:34.540And these are all things outlined in the Trudeau Liberals' policy to reach net zero by 2050,
00:11:40.660including mandates or quotas for new EV vehicle sales.
00:11:45.960He advocated new mandates regulating fuel and energy use.
00:11:49.840He also said he would update building codes in new residential and commercial buildings
00:11:54.720to be aligned with climate action goals, such as green mortgages.
00:11:59.440On the campaign trail, he indicated that he would impose a heavier tax on industry,
00:12:05.000making sure the, quote, big polluters pay more to disincentivize traditional energy projects and its use.
00:12:13.280And he even named the steel industry in particular,
00:12:16.920which Conservatives seized on as Trump imposed a tax of his own on Canada's steel exporters.
00:12:24.200On Carney's European tour this week, he also doubled down on the need for Canada to have carbon pricing,
00:12:32.680saying that it would be a requirement in order for Canada to sell to Europe and the emerging Asian markets.
00:12:38.860So if anything, Canadians can expect an escalation of the Trudeau liberal climate policy regime.
00:12:45.880And it raises the question of how much of Trudeau's energy policies came directly from the advice of Carney
00:12:52.920when he was Trudeau's finance advisor for years.