Juno News - “New World Order,” but same Liberal crises

00:00:00.000 Hi, Juneau News. Alexander Brown here, host of Not Sorry. I'm a writer, director, campaigner,

00:00:08.160 director of the National Citizens Coalition. Thanks for being here. And while you are here,

00:00:12.920 junownews.com slash not sorry for 20% off. Gee, it's the clip heard around the country. The

00:00:18.740 ramifications will be long lasting. And you're going to be hearing a lot from Juneau News on

00:00:23.780 this topic in the days and weeks ahead. Mark Carney is supposedly forming a new world order

00:00:28.940 with China. Take a look. We're heartened by the leadership of President Xi Jinping and the speed

00:00:38.820 with which our relationship has progressed in recent months. This sets the stage for these

00:00:48.180 important discussions on a wide range of issues where we can be strategic partners, from energy

00:00:57.440 to agriculture, to people to people ties, to multilateralism, to issues on security.

00:01:06.820 And I believe the progress that we have made in the partnership sets us up well for the new

00:01:14.180 world order. But this is obviously incredibly concerning. When pushed further on what he

00:01:21.440 meant by this, Carney reached deep into his bag of chat GPT corporate speak to share anything but a

00:01:28.900 straight answer. Take a look.

00:01:30.820 Yesterday when you met with Premier Li, one of the things you said in the public remarks was

00:01:36.420 this partnership with Canada and China, this new partnership sets us up well for the new world

00:01:41.620 order. What did you mean by that? What is the new world order?

00:01:45.100 Well, it's a great question, Brian, because I think the world is still determining what that

00:01:50.000 order is going to be. Like the architecture, the multilateral system that has been developing these

00:01:57.480 is being eroded, to use a polite term, undercut, use another term. So the question is, what gets built

00:02:06.480 in that place?

00:02:07.480 And if the end of this week isn't crazy enough, our friends at the Canadian Constitution

00:02:11.480 Foundation, they just helped secure a banner ruling and common sense victory for all Canadians

00:02:16.860 who believe in freedom. As the federal court of appeal has upheld the ruling that the Trudeau

00:02:21.800 government unlawfully invoked the Emergencies Act in 2022. This landmark victory protects Canadians

00:02:28.700 charter rights and civil liberties and sends a clear message. Emergency powers have limits.

00:02:34.180 They did abuse them. And yet, and to cast your mind back to those less than balmy,

00:02:39.800 holy dystopian weeks across the nation's highways and overpasses and down Wellington Street, let us

00:02:45.900 not forget that Mark Carney wrote an op-ed in support of the charter violating crackdown,

00:02:52.000 claiming those of you at your wits end under nonsensical mandates, which all have been proven

00:02:57.300 wrong, were seditionists, not protesters, seditionists. So are we really seeing change from our federal

00:03:06.060 government? Canada's masters of the status quo sure seem to be up to more of the same, if not worse.

00:03:11.900 These strike me as warning signs. The House resumes sitting on January 26th. It's soon

00:03:18.260 approaching. Conservative convention in Calgary soon approaching just around the corner. And if you find

00:03:23.000 yourself there, do say hi. But for all the claims to the contrary from the federal liberals, there's a whole

00:03:28.560 lot to litigate right now and so much to hold to account. We have the carny liberals now cozying up 0.97

00:03:34.900 to China under the excuse of elbows up. Make no mistake, this is an escalation long in the making.

00:03:41.760 This week, Anita Anand asked Canadians to begin collaborating with the PRC. It's the kind of

00:03:47.180 language that the PRC uses. Now we're cutting deals beyond the trade we're already engaged in.

00:03:52.960 And all despite Canada's claims not one year ago that the Chinese government was responsible for

00:03:58.860 genocide. And during the debates, Carney claimed China was Canada's largest geopolitical threat.

00:04:04.480 How quickly that changed. This has all seemingly been a game. Distract and radicalize your base

00:04:10.700 against reform and seemingly double down on some of the worst Trudeau trends of the last 10 years.

00:04:16.420 Even recently, the disgraced Mark Miller, in part responsible for generational indigenous and 1.00

00:04:21.840 immigration crises, has admitted the liberal state broadcaster serves a primary role in social

00:04:28.280 cohesion, another PRC term. In a Blacklock's report, Miller's heritage department has been found to be

00:04:34.840 relying on the CBC to enhance its messaging and blames foreign powers for driving division on the

00:04:40.280 home front. When a decade plus of deliberate policy self-sabotage and liberal allowed foreign

00:04:46.460 interference has surely been just as damaging, if not far more. Even the prospects for the realization

00:04:52.980 of Alberta and Ottawa's MOU, that situation is looking murky. As Carney met this past week with

00:04:59.220 Coastal First Nations, an American founded Rockefeller Brothers Fund funded degrowth branch plant of an NGO,

00:05:07.900 which was assembled and has assembled only a handful of groups who continue to cash in on Canada's

00:05:14.240 refusal to bring energy to market. That Carney pretended this was a legitimate assembly of actual

00:05:19.960 Coastal First Nations, that they're protecting this narrative, is giving many pause, and it just

00:05:26.340 seems like they're looking for the same old excuses to avoid changing their ways or returning Canada

00:05:32.380 to the country it is again capable of being, once was, could be again. Heck, those carbon taxes,

00:05:38.680 supposedly gone, have only now been hidden from the general public, and it's costing Canadians

00:05:44.600 seven cents per liter in 2026. We're talking to Franco Terrazzano today, federal director of the

00:05:50.600 Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He's a busy man these days on both the carbon tax, truth-telling file,

00:05:57.180 and the CTF has additional news on Canada's increasingly bloated bureaucracy. Despite more claims,

00:06:03.040 the size of government is shrinking. So let's talk warning signs. False starts, sleight of hand,

00:06:09.400 and first, a word from our sponsor. I want to give a quick word from our sponsor, Albertans Against

00:06:14.800 No-Fault Insurance. So did you know that the Alberta government is overhauling its auto insurance system?

00:06:20.400 Under a new model called Care First, coming to effect in 2027, most Albertans injured in car accidents

00:06:24.840 will no longer be able to sue the at-fault driver. Instead, decisions about your care and compensation

00:06:29.720 will be made by the insurance company, not your doctor, not the courts. Critics say this system

00:06:34.320 puts insurance companies first and removes key rights from victims and their families.

00:06:39.200 Franco Terrazzano joins us, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation,

00:06:43.620 the face that runs the place. Thanks for joining us.

00:06:46.240 Hey, it's my pleasure. This is going to be fun.

00:06:48.280 Yeah, and boy, what a crazy week. Franco, there's two great reports that you put out this week that I

00:06:54.140 want to get to, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the latest on China. There are concerned

00:07:00.980 commenters who feel we're flirting with some trouble here, deepening ties, particularly maybe

00:07:05.940 from a security perspective. We obviously have canola tariffs and things of the sort to sort out

00:07:10.580 and negotiate back from. Where are you at on this potential strategic pivot to China? And as an

00:07:16.720 advocate for the taxpayer, for the little guy, do you have any initial questions or concerns about

00:07:21.200 where we might be at right now? Yeah, I do have a lot of questions,

00:07:24.640 especially how we got into this mess. And look, I just want to right off the top, like I'm not an

00:07:29.000 expert when it comes to security or foreign policy, right? Like that's just not really my bag. But look,

00:07:34.640 I do have questions around how we got into this, right? So I can't really weigh into security issues

00:07:40.460 involving importing the EVs from China, for example. But here's what I do know, right? Like the government,

00:07:47.980 the federal government got us in this mess. And I really feel bad for the farmers in Western Canada

00:07:52.980 who have been hammered by the Chinese retaliatory tariffs on like canola, for example. But here's

00:07:59.520 here's one other question that I have, right? And I think it's a fundamental question all taxpayers

00:08:03.200 should be asking. Like, is the federal government is part of the rationale for the tariffs on the

00:08:09.220 Chinese EV? Is it in part to protect the truckload of corporate welfare that both the federal

00:08:16.300 government and provincial governments like Ontario's Premier Doug Ford put into the wasteful

00:08:22.960 EV battery factories, right? And folks, you'll remember that the federal government, the provincial

00:08:28.100 government Ontario is dropping billions of dollars, giving bucks of cash to these multinational

00:08:33.700 corporations like Volkswagen, Stellantis, and Honda to build EV battery factories in Canada, right?

00:08:41.940 That is pure corporate welfare. So a big question that I have that got us into this mess in the first

00:08:46.480 place is, are these governments just trying to protect the awful corporate welfare that should

00:08:52.020 never have happened in the first place? Completely agree. And we can't give these cars away to begin

00:08:56.680 with. Even Doug Ford's comments today on Friday, I can appreciate that he's now frustrated with Mark

00:09:03.640 Carney, but all he seems to care about is protecting these EV subsidies. And I know as somebody who runs a

00:09:10.840 third party, the National Citizens Coalition, and from talking to taxpayers and supporters, I know who I'd

00:09:17.400 rather side with. It's farmers in Saskatchewan than it is these foreign companies we've given these

00:09:23.660 subsidies and battery plants too. Franco, you've been a busy man this week. I'm an optimist by nature. I

00:09:31.100 don't love some of the dooming we see in our sphere sometimes. But you had two CTF reports this week that

00:09:36.620 poke some holes in the federal government's claims that it's changing. On the hidden carbon tax front,

00:09:42.700 you know, the PBO shows that this carbon tax embedded in federal fuel regulations will add up to

00:09:48.540 $0.07 per liter to gasoline prices in 2026. Tell us more about this report.

00:09:54.780 Well, look, first of all, I just want to give credit to the ordinary Canadians, right, who forced 1.00

00:10:00.140 the liberals to back down on their favorite tax, right? What was it three seconds ago that liberal

00:10:05.900 MPs were were clapping like seals about their consumer carbon tax and ordinary Canadians were like,

00:10:11.500 no way you want to keep your cushy political job, you better get rid of this consumer carbon tax.

00:10:16.220 But the problem is, is Ottawa is still making life more expensive with these hidden carbon taxes.

00:10:23.020 And one of them is a holdover from the Trudeau era, right? This hidden carbon tax buried in fuel

00:10:29.100 regulations that increasingly make life more expensive. And it's not just that it makes life

00:10:33.420 more expensive, right? This hidden carbon tax will cost average families hundreds of dollars,

00:10:39.100 and it will blow a multi billion dollar hole in Canada's economy. And I know we're talking about,

00:10:44.940 you know, everything going on in the world right now. So I have to bring the elephant up in the room,

00:10:49.660 right? And that's the United States. Guess what, regardless of who is in the White House,

00:10:54.460 whether it's a Democrat, whether it's a Republican, whether it's President Trump,

00:10:58.460 nobody in the White House is imposing national carbon taxes. Okay, so what happens to our economy,

00:11:04.780 when our federal government hammers our consumers and businesses with carbon taxes?

00:11:09.820 Well, it's punishing Canada's economy. 0.99

00:11:13.580 Yeah. And when, for example, like Venezuela gets heavy crude operations fully back online,

00:11:20.300 like if we think that there's going to be a hidden tax on that, like, we're absolutely kidding

00:11:24.620 ourselves. Like if we want to actually compete with the world, this is, we can't keep just,

00:11:31.580 now we're just doing this, you know, this cup game where we're moving it around and hoping the public

00:11:35.500 doesn't notice it. And I mean, for our listeners who might not be aware as well, it's like, just

00:11:41.660 because it's, you know, it's gone from one line item, is it not being passed along by companies too,

00:11:47.340 or having to pay this? Is it not still working its way down the line to your pocketbook?

00:11:51.340 Yeah, of course it is. And look, these aren't even my numbers, right? These numbers come from the

00:11:56.380 government's own independent nonpartisan budget watchdog showing that look like, like the,

00:12:01.980 this hidden carbon tax, and this is just one of them, the fuel regulations will add up to seven

00:12:06.220 cents a liter of gas, right? To the price of gasoline. And by 2030, you're talking about like

00:12:11.740 17 cents per liter of gas. And you know, I don't want to be the rain cloud. I know I don't want to

00:12:16.780 be the rain cloud, but folks, uh, there's also another hidden carbon tax, the industrial carbon tax,

00:12:22.780 right? And like, come on, like when you carbon tax refineries, that makes Canadians gasoline more

00:12:28.460 expensive. When you carbon tax utilities, that makes Canadians home heating bills more expensive.

00:12:33.500 And when the government hammers fertilizer plants with carbon taxes, well, that drives up costs for

00:12:38.460 farmers and it makes Canadians food more expensive. Yeah. And all of 20 minutes ago, we were told that,

00:12:44.700 you know, this was, uh, you know, it was no big deal. It's not going to cost you X, Y, Z. It's,

00:12:49.660 it's, you know, the, the science is unassailable. And, and yet if you look at the, the numbers here,

00:12:55.420 like this hit just the one, not even the second carbon tax you're talking about could cost the

00:13:00.140 average Canadian household between $384 and 1,157 by 2030. I know I don't have that on hand.

00:13:07.580 I know that others don't have that on hand. And it, another one of your reports I wanted to highlight is

00:13:13.820 on this supposedly shrinking, uh, federal bureaucracy front, you know, you're the rain cloud again. And

00:13:19.180 it's, it's, I know you don't mean to, we're trying to be positive, but you know, you said, I think you

00:13:24.380 said, uh, you know, coming out of the holidays, it's time to put Ottawa on a diet. Um, tell us

00:13:29.340 more about this report on the size and cost of government bureaucracy and, and how it's ballooned

00:13:33.820 over the last decade. Well, I'll be positive here for a second. I am positive that taxpayers are getting

00:13:39.260 soaked. Okay. And I'm positive taxpayers are getting soaked. Like, look, um, the federal bureaucracy,

00:13:45.260 uh, it's costing us now more than $71 billion a year, right? Uh, the federal bureaucracy consumes

00:13:51.500 more than half of the government's day-to-day spending. So look like there is absolutely no

00:13:55.260 way to fix the federal finances, uh, without firing bureaucrats, right? Uh, the, the time for

00:14:00.300 attrition, small cuts here or there, it's gone, it's gone. Um, and, and over 10 years, the cost of the

00:14:07.340 federal bureaucracy increased 80%, an 80% increase in the cost of bureaucracy. And you got to ask

00:14:13.660 yourself, like, are you getting anywhere close to 80% better services from the federal government?

00:14:18.940 I was going to say, are you getting 1% better services from the federal government?

00:14:23.900 And you know, uh, let me just like paint this picture, right? Because let's talk about the CRA, 0.91

00:14:28.940 for example. Okay. The CRA is one of the most bloated, most incompetent government organizations

00:14:34.620 I've ever heard of over the last 10 years, they added 13,000 extra government bureaucrats.

00:14:39.900 Okay. Now you would think that with 13,000 extra paper pushers, somebody in the CRA would

00:14:45.500 be able to pick up the phone, but you would be wrong, right? The auditor general, uh, report showed

00:14:51.500 what, uh, the CRA, you call the CRA, you only get a live agent on the call, like a third of the time.

00:14:57.980 And if you do get someone on the phone, uh, what they're giving the correct tax information,

00:15:03.020 personal tax information, just 17% of the time. Yeah. Yeah. We're getting soaked.

00:15:08.540 We are getting soaked. And so by your estimation, then does the, the 2025 budget go far enough to

00:15:15.340 address this because they're, they're saying, you know, oh, we might, you know, there might be some

00:15:20.380 attrition. Uh, you know, there's some folks in Carney's riding who are feeling misled because they

00:15:25.100 didn't exactly campaign on that. But, but from what they're signaling, we're not yet seeing in the data,

00:15:30.780 like, is that encouraging in any way, or is it not going far enough?

00:15:34.460 I mean, not, no. Um, it's, it's certainly not going far enough. I mean, look, like

00:15:39.020 the government added a hundred thousand extra employees since 2016. And like, it's not like

00:15:44.860 there was a bureaucrat shortage in Ottawa before 2016, right? Like, like, like, come on. And now you

00:15:50.700 have Carney promising in the future that they'll cut down the number of employees. They'll save money in

00:15:55.980 the future, right? You know, you hear the government promise to go on a diet starting Monday, but then

00:16:01.820 Monday never comes. But even if Carney were to live up to these promises of future savings, um, look,

00:16:09.260 all Carney is really willing to do is bring Ottawa's bureaucracy back down to the level that it was

00:16:14.860 during the heart of Trudeau's pandemic spending spree. So it's not making the bureaucracy more affordable.

00:16:20.780 It's record high to record high. It's, it's, I was speaking before, uh, immigration committee

00:16:26.620 recently, and I was sort of having to inform them that they were patting themselves on the back. I'm

00:16:31.020 like, you're pulling it down from record high to record high. Like that's still not delivering for

00:16:36.060 a record amount of youth unemployed. That's still, we still have this great infrastructure crunch.

00:16:41.740 Yeah. On this report on, on all of this, like, I love your quote about, you know, we all put on weight,

00:16:47.340 you know, uh, around the holidays, but this is, uh, we got to get on the diet here because I'm seeing

00:16:52.460 1.5 billion in bonuses awarded since 2015. Have we got any, you know, any bang for our buck there?

00:16:58.860 There's also 40% of federal employees are earning six figure salaries. Like 40% of Canadians are not 0.99

00:17:05.660 earning six figure salaries. Like what's a, what's a way that you would want to further see improving

00:17:11.420 that sort of bureaucratic efficiency. Like, is there, is there something beyond just, you know,

00:17:15.660 getting out the hatchet and cutting away at that number or, or, you know, flattening that curve?

00:17:21.180 Well, look, I do think, I think you actually do just have to significantly cut. Um, that also goes

00:17:26.860 to look, it's not just cutting, uh, employee, like cutting the number of employees or departments.

00:17:31.820 You're also just going to have to get the government out of stuff that it shouldn't be involved with.

00:17:35.660 Right. Like for example, uh, ending the CBC, right? Like things of that nature where it's not just

00:17:41.740 about shrinking departments is also just about being like, Hey, what is the government doing

00:17:45.900 that it shouldn't be doing? Well, there's no reason that taxpayers should be forced to pay for a media

00:17:50.940 corporation for, for example. Right. And look, you mentioned the bonuses and this one's so irritating

00:17:55.820 because they're, they're giving themselves bonuses for showing up to work twice a week with their shoes

00:18:00.300 tied, right? Like here's the best example, arrive scam. Everyone remembers arrive scam,

00:18:05.180 a simple app lot, uh, launched for what 80,000 bucks and then ballooning all the way up to 60 million.

00:18:11.260 The government executives working on arrived a scam. They took $340,000 in bonuses.

00:18:18.780 Like what are we doing folks? And like, uh, we work with like digital whiz kids too,

00:18:25.020 in our line who could have like put that thing together for 10 grand. Like, who are we, who are

00:18:29.340 we quit kidding here? And now these folks are, are fighting and petitioning to not go back to work.

00:18:35.180 And so we've got to save costs somewhere. We have to, we have to, gee, just start cutting it and

00:18:41.580 cutting it and cutting it. And so Franco, thanks for these terrific reports. I'm going to link to

00:18:45.580 them in a, in our show notes and appreciate your work. Hey, I really appreciate just having the

00:18:49.980 chance to have the chance to have this conversation. Thanks so much.

Juno News - January 17, 2026

“New World Order,” but same Liberal crises

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