Juno News - January 22, 2026Trump administration WARNS Carney over China ties
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Summary
The United States is warning Canada that cozying up to China will jeopardize their free trade deal with the U.S. President Donald Trump says he s negotiating a deal to build part of the Golden Dome missile defense system in Greenland.
Transcript
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Well, the United States is warning Prime Minister Carney that cozying up to China will jeopardize
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Canada's free trade deal with the Americans. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg
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News Canada's recent trade deal with China involving electric vehicles has not gone unnoticed
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in Washington, D.C. He says that may end up costing Canada when the USMCA comes up for
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The Canadians have the second best deal in the whole wide world. If they continue this path,
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right, which is a political path of a certain thing, I'm going to go fly to China, I'm going
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to open up my markets to China, I'm going to take Chinese electric cars and do all sorts of this
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This year, sort of like towards the end of the summer, in the middle of the summer, do you
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think the President of the United States is going to say, you should keep having the second
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best deal in the world? I mean, you guys are such great friends. I mean, they are playing
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with a set of rules that they haven't really thought through.
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Lutnick went on to say Canadians are being silly if they think that China will open up
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Canada has never expressed to the world that they have the best deal, the second best deal in the
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world. The best deal in the world is Mexico. Because remember, they have USMCA, which means
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85% of the Canadian economy comes into the United States for zero. And there he is complaining that
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he's going to go to China and improve it. What's he going to do? China's delighted to sell to him.
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But do you think China's going to open their economy to accept exports from Canada? This is
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the silliest thing I've ever seen. They have the second best deal because Mexico's got a little
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better deal. They have 25% on the extra 15%, whereas Canada's got 35% on the extra 15%.
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But give me a break. They have the second best deal in the world. And all I got to do is listen
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Meantime, Lutnick's boss, President Donald Trump, says he's negotiating a deal, total and permanent
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access to Greenland. The US military wants to build part of the Golden Dome missile defense
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system there. This headline in the Globe and Mail, Trump's Greenland deal could include US
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sovereignty over military bases and mineral rights. Trump announced a framework for a deal after
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talking to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Davos, Switzerland. Trump later spoke to Fox
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News about it. We will have all everything we want. We're getting everything we want at no cost.
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So the Golden Dome will be on Greenland? A piece of it, yes. And it's a very important
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part because it's everything comes over Greenland. If the bad guys start shooting, it comes over
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Greenland. So we knock it down. It's pretty infallible. It's amazing. You know, Ronald Reagan
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had the idea a long time ago, but we didn't have any technology at that point. The concept was great,
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but there was no technology. Now we have unbelievable technology. I mean, virtually 100%.
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So what are we talking about? An acquisition of Greenland? Are you going to pay for it?
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We're talking about it's really being negotiated now, the details of it, but essentially it's
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total access. There's no end. There's no time limit.
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Now, according to Rutte, Mark Rutte, it'll be up to all the Arctic allies, including Canada,
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Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway, to work together to boost security in the far
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north. Now, Prime Minister Carney spoke with reporters about these stories in Quebec City
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Canada and the United States have built a remarkable partnership in the economy, in security,
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and in rich cultural exchange. But Canada doesn't live because of the United States. Canada thrives
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Our guest today is David Creighton, who was public affairs officer with the Canadian Armed Forces
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and deployed with NATO to Bosnia in 1996. Welcome, David.
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I miss you back, Mark. Thank you for having me.
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Before we get to Greenland, I have to ask you about Howard Lutnick's comments. He, of course,
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is the Commerce Secretary for Trump, and he was pretty blunt. He said, look, if you want
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to cozy up to China, things are going to be tough on you. Come time to negotiate the USMCA
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slash KUSMA. This shouldn't surprise anybody, should it?
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Absolutely not. And I was waiting with bated breath and anticipation last Friday to see how did
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Donald Trump feel about Mark Carney in the New World Order with China signing a trade deal. I
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thought, he's going to be furious. And of course, he comes with shrugs his shoulders. Good for Mark.
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You know, if you get a chance to sign a trade deal with China, that's great. I thought, this is not
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real. And after that, of course, you get the administration, senior administration people like
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Howard Lutnick, coming forth and articulating the real policy of Donald Trump, which is, holy,
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don't you dare. What have you done? You've endangered our trade relationship. We don't want
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you signing trade deals with China. We don't want you getting into a new world order with China.
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That's not the way we see the world. And Mark Carney knew that. Mark Carney spent a lifetime,
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his whole career cozying up to China. He's China's man. He is an acolyte of China. I've said it a dozen
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times before. But Lutnick is expressing the real Trump policy here, which is, you want to cozy up to
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China. You want to ignore your chief trading partner, your chief defense partner, the country you're
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attached to geographically. Well, you do that at your own risk and peril, Mark Carney. And I think his speech
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yesterday, Donald Trump's speech at Davos to the World Economic Forum annual meeting was pretty harsh
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because he, by name, identified Mark Carney as being ungrateful. He identified Canada as being not
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only ungrateful, but taking a lot of freebies. Now, whether it's true or not, Donald Trump believes
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that. And that is going to have a huge impact on the USMCA negotiations because Donald Trump's saying,
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you want to stick close to China, I think you blew it with the United States. I cannot see how this is
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going to help Mark Carney because we are still the chief trading partner with the United States. Whether
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or not Mark Carney wants to imagine great things with China or not, the reality is for Canadians,
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for people who are subject to tariffs in this country, for people who have to live their lives
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next to the United States. That is who we should be concerned about most of all, not China.
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Yeah. And Trump has already expressed ambivalence about the deal, suggesting he can either take it
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or leave it. He says, Canada certainly needs it and wants it. And yet here we are cozying up to China
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in such a way as to quite possibly jeopardize that agreement completely. I mean, Trump may decide to walk
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away and say, no, not interested. We'll just have our tariffs. And that's going to be devastating for
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our economy if they can't come up with some kind of deal here. You can't base your trade policy on a
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soundbite. And that's exactly what that was last Friday. It was a soundbite. It was Donald Trump
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looking like he was really enthused about this. Of course he wasn't. And Mark Carney knows what the
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actual policy is. They have stated it very, very clearly in State Department documents, what they want
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about Canada and other Western Hemisphere countries dealing with China. They do not want close trade
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Let's talk about Greenland because that plays into all of this as well. Because now Trump says that
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there is a framework for a deal in place. It looks like it'll grant the United States some level of
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sovereignty over part of the island. And that includes mineral rights. And guess what? Canada and the rest of
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the Arctic nations, Norway, Finland, Sweden, on and on, have a role to play in the security of Greenland and the
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I don't know what to make of this, Mark, because Denmark does not want to relinquish
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autonomy or control over Greenland. They made that quite clear yesterday. At the same time,
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we have NATO suggesting they're going to work out a deal to give Greenland to the United States. I
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don't know how that's even possible in any kind of legal framework. NATO has no right, no legal right
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to give away countries. And even if those even if those countries are somehow associated with NATO
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and the Greenland's indirectly linked to NATO through Denmark, which is a member of NATO. But
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if Denmark is saying no, we don't agree with this. Well, I think I guess Denmark, first of all, is going
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to have to withdraw from NATO, because it doesn't agree with what NATO is doing. But I don't understand
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how NATO thinks it can work out some kind of deal or some kind of framework, very, very weaselly word
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there framework can mean just about anything for to make this happen. I honestly believe Donald Trump
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was waiting for a refusal so he could take ulterior action and withdraw from NATO himself. I believe
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Donald Trump really wants to get out of NATO. He gave loads of hints about that in his speech at Davos.
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We get nothing out of NATO. We spend all of the money. These people are drifters. They just take our
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money and we get nothing in return. Why are we in NATO? Well, yeah, we still were going to support you. But
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for every reason Donald Trump listed the stay in NATO, he gave 10 reasons about why he wants to get
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out. And I really believe that's his ultimate goal. I don't think he's necessarily going to use
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Denmark as the peg to do that now or Greenland as the peg to do that. But I don't know how this is
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going to work out to everybody's satisfaction. But obviously, Mark, we're not going to go to
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NATO is not going to go to war with the United States over this. The United States is NATO.
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Without the United States, there's no NATO. And that's something people have to remember.
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The United States gets out of NATO. The organization's gone.
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It doesn't have the muscle of the United States to throw its weight around.
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That's generally what people have to do when Donald Trump is on the stage. Yeah.
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You like it or lump it. But I don't know how this is going to end.
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For Canada, though. Is there an opportunity here? I mean, we have companies in the defense
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space. Maybe that might be an opportunity for them in terms of the building out of this massive
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infrastructure for a golden dome project. I mean, we're neighbors to Greenland. I mean,
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couldn't we parlay that into some kind of an economic union, not union, but agreement with
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both the United States and Greenland to play a, you know, a critical role in the rollout of the
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Well, you know, the golden dome is an unproven concept. It's not by any means something that's
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going to work. The efficacy is highly in doubt. So he's throwing the golden dome out there as,
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like, it's a proven fact and it's not. But here's what I think might happen, Mark. And I think this
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is entirely feasible, given how bizarre the world is going right now. I think Mark Carney might act
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as a so-called honest broker, if that's a word he even understands or ever uses. He might act as
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sort of the neutral intermediary between Denmark and the United States. And I think with a view
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to caving to the United States, because Donald Trump is adamant he wants Greenland. He's very
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clear about that. He's not saying, you know, we might just like to keep our bases there. He wants
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Greenland. And I think Mark Carney might enter into this procedure looking like he's going to solve
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the problem to everybody's satisfaction, knowing full well, though, that he's just there to cave
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to Trump's demands, because there's really no other alternative for him. And I think that's where
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Mark Carney is going to go with this in an attempt to repair some of the damage he did last week in
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China. Because Carney is not stupid. I don't like his politics. I don't think he has an honest bone
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in his body. I don't think he fights for Canada. I think he fights for Brookfield and Mark Carney,
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but he's a very intelligent man. And Mark Carney knows when you screw things up one week, you better
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do something the following week to make up for it. And that's where I think he's going to,
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he's going to insert himself into this because it's obvious Canada is the closest country to
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Greenland. It's literally off Newfoundland. So Canada has arguably a role to play here,
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regardless of how Mark Carney feels about it. But I think he's going to use that opportunity
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for Carney's own benefit, as well as Donald Trump's own benefit. Because in the end,
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these two really are old friends. They go back decades. They've had business dealings for a long,
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long time. Donald Trump really does like Mark Carney to some degree. And Mark Carney does like
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Donald Trump to some degree. That's hard for conservatives to understand. But that's the
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reality. And I think Mark Carney is going to exploit that relationship again this week.
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or next week. Well, closing up with China isn't going to help. And it seems, at least according
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to Mellon Jolie, who got accosted. Well, he got certainly good for Ezra Levant for doing what he's
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doing, approaching her and asking her questions about this. She had nothing to say except, well,
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our view is different in terms, you know, so one day, you know, the prime minister describes China
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as our number one national security threat. Now, all of a sudden, we're cozying up to them and
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we're bringing in vehicles that potentially could serve, if you believe Doug Ford, as surveillance
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vehicles for China. And so, and now we have Howard Lutnick, the Americans, saying, you know, this is,
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you think you're going to go down that road and this is going to work out for you? Bad move. So,
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how do you reverse from that, even if you wanted to? How do you do a U-turn, you know,
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back from what you've just done with China? Well, fortunately, Mark, we're living in a world
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described by George Orwell in 1984, where one week the enemy is clearly articulated, the next week,
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that's no longer the enemy. And that's exactly the kind of world we're living in, because China has
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gone from the major security threat to Canada, which, of course, Mark Carney was saying through
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par slips. He doesn't believe that. He has been a fan of China his whole career. Now, of course,
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China's our best friend. Well, maybe next week, it's not going to be our best friend anymore,
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because Donald Trump is going to intervene. And Carney knows he needs that free trade deal.
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And that's a lot more important, ultimately, inevitably, and in the long term. That's more
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important to Mark Carney than this new world order rhetoric coming out of China. So I really do
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believe that we are living in a very strange world where it is entirely possible for one week China to
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be that major security threat. The next week, not really. And the week after that, maybe it is again.
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Very strange world. Geopolitics had never been quite this bizarre.
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If you want to enter into the realm of the conspiratorial, you can almost make the case that
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Carney is setting this up so that the USMCA does fail, Kuzma does fail, so that there is no trade deal,
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that he's doing what he can almost to set us up to break away from the United States in terms of a free
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trade agreement so that he can go even further into the China camp and say, well, Trump doesn't want to
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deal with us, doesn't want to give us an agreement. USMCA is dead. We have no choice but to cozy up even
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further with the Chinese, which is what he wants to do anyway. What do you make of that?
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I think that's entirely feasible because I think Mark Carney is not out for Canada's best interests,
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which I think is continuing our relationship with the United States. However,
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I don't think Mark Carney can go that far yet. Reality is not caught up with Mark Carney's vision of Canada
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as being tied to the hip with China. We're not quite there yet. The reality is the United States is still
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our chief trading partner and will remain so. So that might be Mark Carney's wish, but I don't think it's going to
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make it happen. Here's what I think is going to happen, though. We're probably going to have an election in
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2026, and Mark Carney's going to do it again. He's going to do the elbows up act. It's going to be the
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Donald Trump is the existential threat to Canada. The United States is not our best friend. He's going
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to try that one again. And yeah, I, you know, God help us. I think there's enough Canadians are going
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to fall for that one again. If he does, my advice to Pierre Polyev is don't get in the ring with Carney
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and Trump. Let them slug it out. Don't get in there with them because last time around,
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you just couldn't win. You were never anti-Trump enough. And when you were too anti-Trump,
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your own base didn't like it. So stay away from it. Let Carney and Trump slug it out.
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But that's where I think Carney's going to go with this. An election, I don't think he's going to
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allow USMCA to be dissolved just yet. How do people access your terrific show on YouTube?
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The station is Creighton's right. And you can get me every day at 10 o'clock. It's Stand
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on Guard. All right. David Creighton, thank you so much for coming on the show.
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Always a pleasure, my friend. And that is it for this edition of Straight Up. Appreciate
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you tuning in, my friends. Let's do it again soon, shall we? Bye-bye for now.