Juno News - February 20, 2026


U.S. Supreme Court STRIKES DOWN Trump's tariffs


Episode Stats

Length

32 minutes

Words per Minute

166.1391

Word Count

5,406

Sentence Count

354

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

15


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Well, the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down President Trump's use of tariffs on America's
00:00:11.000 trade partners. This headline, Supreme Court strikes down most of Trump's tariffs in a major
00:00:17.580 blow to the president. In a six to three decision, the court ruled Trump exceeded his power to
00:00:23.380 impose tariffs for reasons of economic emergency. The Supreme Court's ruling on tariffs is deeply
00:00:31.960 disappointing, and I'm ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed.
00:00:39.280 Effective immediately, all national security tariffs under Section 232 and existing Section
00:00:46.600 301 tariffs. They're existing. They're there. Remain in place, fully in place, and in full
00:00:55.480 force and effect. Today, I will sign an order to impose a 10 percent global tariff under Section
00:01:01.800 122, over and above our normal tariffs already being charged. And we're also initiating several
00:01:10.560 Section 301 and other investigations to protect our country from unfair trading practices of other
00:01:18.640 countries and companies. Canada's Minister for Trade had this response. The United States Supreme Court's
00:01:26.640 decision reinforces Canada's position that the IEEEA tariffs imposed by the United States are
00:01:35.060 unjustified. The ruling does not affect tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum cars, and auto parts, which
00:01:43.220 were imposed under a different U.S. trade law. And so Trump still retains the power to reimpose those
00:01:50.020 tariffs using those other laws. But that'll take time, possibly a year or so, to sort that out. There also
00:01:57.140 remains the question of billions of dollars in refunds in tariff money that may have to be returned.
00:02:03.300 Albertans will be getting a say in who gets to immigrate into the province and who doesn't.
00:02:09.700 Read the story at JunoNews.com. Danielle Smith announces October referendum on restricting immigration.
00:02:18.180 Smith says the federal open border system has put a huge financial strain on the province's social
00:02:24.980 services, health care, and education. Let's listen.
00:02:28.420 Adding 600,000 people in five years is like adding half the city of Calgary or Edmonton in five years.
00:02:35.700 Although sustainable immigration has always been an important part of our provincial growth model,
00:02:40.660 throwing the doors wide open to anyone and everyone across the globe has flooded our classrooms,
00:02:45.940 emergency rooms, and social support systems with far too many people far too quickly. As just one example,
00:02:52.420 our student population has skyrocketed by more than 80,000 students in just the last four years,
00:02:58.180 and more than 140,000 students now having English as their additional language. Is it any wonder that
00:03:04.260 our teachers and students are struggling so much with classroom complexity and crowding?
00:03:08.820 So later this year, Smith says Albertans will vote on seizing control of their own borders,
00:03:15.460 prioritizing economic migrants, and restricting social programs to citizens and permanent residents.
00:03:22.820 A former BC school trustee has been fined three quarters of a million dollars for saying there are
00:03:28.980 only two genders. This headline, BC Tribunal, orders former school trustee to pay $750,000
00:03:38.260 over anti-LGBTQ vitriol. A BC Human Rights Tribunal ordered Barry Neufeld to pay the massive fine to the
00:03:48.020 local teachers association. The tribunal ruled that Neufeld poisoned the workplaces of LGBTQ plus
00:03:56.420 staff members and violated their human rights code. Joining me now is Vess Sobot, who is an engineer.
00:04:03.780 He spent 40 years as a business executive in the plastics industry. Welcome, Vess.
00:04:09.540 Thanks so much for having me on, Mark.
00:04:11.780 Joining us from Naples, Florida.
00:04:14.420 Yes. What a lovely, lovely place that is.
00:04:18.020 Let's talk a little bit about the Supreme Court ruling. I mean, this is not entirely a shock. I mean,
00:04:23.220 people had the sense that it was going to go down that road based on some of the questions that were
00:04:27.860 posed by the justices. People said, uh-oh, this looks like it's going to go the way that Trump
00:04:34.580 doesn't want it to. What's your reaction to this?
00:04:37.220 Yeah, I think you're 100% right. People knew, and I think President Trump knew as well. That's why he
00:04:43.380 issued a couple of statements beforehand urging the Supreme Court to uphold the tariffs. There were
00:04:51.220 three dissenting votes. Mark, forgive me. I know the two dissenting. I don't know the third dissenting vote.
00:04:56.500 One, of course, was Clarence Thomas. Great, great justice. Oh, Alito as well. Okay, that makes sense.
00:05:03.140 Aliho. And the third one was Kavanaugh. And Clarence Thomas joined the argument in saying, look, IEEPA, which is the
00:05:15.220 International Emergency Economic Powers Act that was passed back in 1977 by Congress. It was designed
00:05:22.500 to limit presidential authority, but Clarence Thomas felt that this was well within the scope,
00:05:29.220 well within the scope of the president to administer the tariffs, especially in light of the fact that
00:05:36.500 that he was calling in an emergency because there were some issues to do with drug trafficking that
00:05:45.860 was truly an emergency for the American people. But he didn't get the other six
00:05:52.820 votes on the Supreme Court, which surprises me a little bit.
00:05:58.500 Well, Amy Coney Barrett continues to disappoint. Yes. So I presume Justice Roberts also voted
00:06:08.500 against this and a number of others. Now, here's what the shocker is. This does not affect the tariffs
00:06:15.780 on steel and aluminum, which apply to Canada. And that is that big ticket item for Canadian businesses
00:06:22.740 and Canadian manufacturers. They spent a lot of money on the tariffs. They were hoping they would get some of
00:06:27.540 that money back. This does not give them that money back. That is a totally separate issue. And I think
00:06:34.980 what's going to happen is President Trump is going to use Section 232 and expand it to cover everything
00:06:44.660 that he's been tariffing. So maybe he's extinguished IEEPA. But I think he's going to move to Section 232 to get
00:06:56.500 what he wants done. So this isn't the victory that many thought that we would have.
00:07:06.980 Yeah. I mean, basically, the court didn't buy the fact that these were imposed under an emergency,
00:07:14.180 an economic emergency. They don't think that Trump made the case that it was justifiable under those
00:07:21.860 conditions. But there are other laws, trade laws, that the United States has in place through which he can impose
00:07:30.100 similar tariffs, if not the same tariffs. The only thing is, it's going to delay things somewhat. It may take a year
00:07:37.300 in order to justify that. I've heard the argument that this may be a blessing in disguise, that it may turn out to boost
00:07:44.660 the economy in the United States. Last I checked, the stock markets seem to be favorable about this
00:07:51.460 decision. And then, of course, there's also the questions around refunds. Who's getting what?
00:07:57.300 I mean, we've been told consistently that, no, no, it's the American people who are paying
00:08:02.340 the tariffs, ultimately, because, of course, goods coming into the country are
00:08:10.420 tariffed at a rate that means that consumers pay more. Well, if that's the case, I guess they could
00:08:15.860 take those billions of dollars and hand it out to the people of the United States. What do you think?
00:08:21.380 Well, and that's what President Trump has intimated many times now about that money has not flowed.
00:08:27.940 He's not put that out yet. The midterms are in mid-November. I think if he wants a favorable
00:08:35.060 victory in November, he needs to put that that money out there as soon as possible.
00:08:41.860 But, you know, this is I think I think this is not as clear cut as one would think.
00:08:50.020 I think this is going to impede
00:08:53.380 Canada's ability to renegotiate a free trade deal with America,
00:08:59.780 because there's just going to be too many question marks out there.
00:09:03.540 And the other thing I think this is going to accelerate is the possible attack of on Iran
00:09:10.900 to change the channel. It would be awfully easy to use all that military might that's floating around
00:09:17.380 in the Persian Gulf right now and turn the dial on something that, you know, the Olympics are
00:09:25.380 entertaining. And unfortunately, war is entertaining sometimes as well, even though it shouldn't be.
00:09:31.220 But I think this might accelerate the the attack on Iran. We'll see what happens.
00:09:37.220 That's an interesting take. I don't think there was a tie into the two things. But then again,
00:09:42.980 you know, and just in watching Fox News here, I mean, they're talking about the Supreme Court decision
00:09:48.580 and boom, they just pivot very quickly to Iran. So the suggestion there seems to be that that
00:09:54.260 situation is amping up. Possibly, if I hear you correctly, as a diversion, you know, from the
00:10:01.540 decision that just came down. Is that what you're saying? Exactly. Remember, wag the dog. And remember,
00:10:06.900 Clinton used this technique very effectively back in the 90s to get the attention off the Monica Lewinsky
00:10:14.900 affair whenever you suffer a political defeat. And, you know, to some degree, this is a political
00:10:20.820 defeat. Of course, like you say, I think it's going to take a year to correct. I think it's not a long
00:10:25.460 term political defeat, but it is one nevertheless. And I think I think Iran's in grave danger right now,
00:10:32.740 quite frankly, because all eyes turn to Iran. Just keep your eye on the oil price, the price of a barrel
00:10:40.500 of oil. It's up there right now. It's at a three month high at about 66, 67 bucks. If you see it at 70,
00:10:48.740 you know that the attack is around the corner. I haven't seen too much in the way of gloating
00:10:54.500 from the likes of Doug Ford or Carney or even any of his ministers. Now, maybe that's because this
00:11:02.020 decision really has no impact on the key sectors that you mentioned earlier, whether you're talking
00:11:07.140 about aluminum, steel, cars, you know, auto parts, all unaffected under the current
00:11:14.100 paraff regime that the Americans levied. I think they'd be wise not to gloat, frankly, and not try
00:11:21.620 and rub Trump's face in it. But you never know what a guy like Doug Ford is likely to do. I mean,
00:11:28.580 he may keep his mouth off before this day is over. What do you think? Boy, that's a very good point. So
00:11:34.500 I think I've mentioned this with you a couple of times before. In 2009, 2010, Obama called for
00:11:42.580 Buy America. And all of a sudden, we couldn't sell, Canadians couldn't sell product into the United
00:11:47.540 States on federally funded projects. And Harper's brilliance was to do the negotiation behind the
00:11:53.860 scenes. He didn't do the negotiations in the front pages of the newspapers. And I think that's the mistake
00:11:59.860 that Ford did, even though he probably had good intentions. The mistake was to be public about all
00:12:07.220 of this. You want these negotiations to be quiet behind the scenes. And in fact, Harper secured a
00:12:13.060 Canadian exemption to buy America in record diplomatic time with Obama, once he pointed out that
00:12:18.500 Buy America was actually hurting Americans. And I urge Ford, I urge Carney to continue to work behind
00:12:30.020 the scenes diplomatically, provide the Americans what they're looking for. There's a number of things
00:12:34.740 that we can offer them quietly behind the scenes that can take down the temperature of the discussions
00:12:41.140 and the negotiations. You know, even Jamil Javani going down there and using his established relations
00:12:49.860 was helpful. If you recall, Trump said, please, please give the Canadians my best. I love Canada. I love
00:12:56.580 Canadians. I mean, in the end, every negotiation is a one on one, and it's a human endeavor. And we shouldn't forget
00:13:04.420 that. Um, and, uh, and it's absolutely essential for Canada to get a, um, a deal with America because
00:13:12.020 otherwise I think we become Venezuela. Yeah, absolutely. Now, Janice Charette now has been appointed
00:13:20.260 to be the, uh, Canada's top trade negotiator. I don't know what you think of that appointment. She's a
00:13:26.660 career bureaucrat. Well, if you, yeah, are you, if you, no trade experience, no trades. If you recall,
00:13:34.900 um, uh, again, Harper appointed, uh, Gary Doerr back in 2009, 2010, so that we were ideologically
00:13:42.980 congruent with the Americans. And I think that was a brilliant move because it was Gary Doerr who so
00:13:48.020 elegantly got Canada exemption because he understood the people he was talking to. I don't think Charette is
00:13:54.500 that type. Remember Charette invoked or, uh, wrote the memo that urged for the emergency act to be
00:14:01.060 implemented. And of all the things Canada has done in the last hundred years, that probably is the most
00:14:08.580 egregious thing that's ever happened. That's crushed freedom that is, uh, uh, undermined the world's, uh,
00:14:17.460 uh, um, uh, confidence in Canada. And to have her negotiate the deal says to me yet again that Mark
00:14:26.660 Carney does not want to deal. So it's not a case of being tone deaf. It's about putting in somebody
00:14:36.260 whom he knows will probably not get one because of her intransigence, probably her hostility towards
00:14:44.420 the Trump administration and somebody who, uh, to your point, you know, uh, recommended that we do
00:14:54.660 something that turned out to be illegal under the law. Absolutely. Yeah. And, and really injured, uh,
00:15:01.620 Canada's reputation worldwide. Uh, I was sharing with you before we went on air, uh, that we had the
00:15:07.140 honor and privilege of hosting Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas and his wife at our cottage,
00:15:12.020 uh, back in 2017. And I want to share with you, uh, his love for Canada and his love for at the time,
00:15:20.980 uh, Brian Mulroney, because the first Canadian Clarence Thomas ever met was at, um, Camp David.
00:15:28.420 He, when he was summoned by George Bush and he was told that he was going to be a Supreme Court justice.
00:15:33.540 Of course, uh, after jump, you know, jumping through all the crazy hoops that they have down there.
00:15:38.660 Yeah. But he loved, he loved Mulroney, uh, and because, uh, they were, they were kindred spirits.
00:15:47.540 There's wonderful synergies between, uh, Americans and Canadians. We got to get back to that. We've got,
00:15:53.700 got to get back to them being our best friends and us working together to the one plus one equals three.
00:15:59.460 Absolutely. Les, thank you so much for coming on the show. We really greatly appreciate it.
00:16:05.940 Really, uh, enjoy being on. Thank you so much.
00:16:09.220 Joining me now is Michelle Ferreri, former conservative MP for Peterborough and political
00:16:14.740 commentator. Always great having Michelle on the show. Welcome.
00:16:17.380 Thanks so much, Mark.
00:16:19.220 Let's talk a little bit about Danielle Smith. I imagine you're probably a big, big fan of hers.
00:16:26.180 She has introduced plans to hold a referendum. In other words, to give Albertans an opportunity
00:16:31.380 to decide the future of what immigration is going to look like in the province. I think it's a great
00:16:36.260 idea. What do you think? Yeah, you're right. I am a big fan because she's a leader. Um, I think
00:16:41.700 Danielle Smith approaches hard issues, uh, with thought and with leadership, you know, she's not afraid.
00:16:50.500 And I think, you know, if we are going to stay neutral, nothing happens. There's a very real threat
00:16:54.980 of Alberta separation and a good leader listens to their constituents. A good leader listens to
00:17:01.460 their citizens. And so she's obviously taken those, taken those threats very seriously. She's come up
00:17:06.500 with a plan and now she's saying, we're going to do everything we can to ensure we're listening to you
00:17:12.020 so that we can then take action. I think what you've seen, you know, bad leadership, uh, creates chaos
00:17:18.020 and anxiety. And the fact that you have this Alberta separatist, uh, threat as serious as it is,
00:17:24.500 is a direct reflection of poor federal leadership, right? Like you've never seen separatist threats
00:17:30.340 at the rate that we have, uh, until Mark Carney and Justin Trudeau were in power. Like this never
00:17:36.180 happened at this magnitude before because they're not, it's not a unified country. So I think Danielle
00:17:41.060 Smith is doing exactly what she needs to do to protect Albertans and to listen to them
00:17:46.340 and to do the things that need to be done. I always thought of immigration being a federal
00:17:51.300 jurisdiction and that the provinces are kind of stuck with whatever the feds wanted to do. Unless
00:17:57.140 of course you're Quebec, which seems to have powers that the rest of the other provinces do not. I mean,
00:18:02.980 how is she able to pull this off? Do you think? Well, I think that the prime minister,
00:18:07.780 Mark Carney, and before him, Justin Trudeau put the provinces into a corner and they've had no choice
00:18:14.020 but to do what they need to do to protect their province. Like, I mean, this is why you've seen
00:18:19.380 Doug Ford and Danielle Smith have to go deal with the tariff threats because we had no, uh, federal
00:18:24.900 leadership. And so now she's saying you let way too many people in without having any resources in
00:18:31.540 place to employ, house, uh, healthcare for these people. You've left us high and dry and it, it was
00:18:39.860 insane immigration policies. And now I'm going to take the bull by the horns and do what I need to
00:18:44.180 do to protect Albertans because they've had enough and it's leadership. Yeah. I mean, Albertans will
00:18:51.460 get a chance to vote on seizing control of their own borders, prioritizing economic migrants and
00:18:58.420 restricting social programs to citizens and permanent residents. I mean, these sound like common sense
00:19:04.340 measures. I mean, we should all have the right to do that. I mean, don't we want the best possible
00:19:10.100 people we can get into our country? People are going to come in with initiative, people who are,
00:19:14.260 who want to work, you know, not people who just want to, I don't know, stay in hotels, get free phones
00:19:20.900 and collect as much cash as they can from the taxpayers. What do you think? Well, it's even worse than
00:19:27.060 that, Mark, because what you have is you have loopholes for people claiming refugee status who are violent
00:19:33.540 criminals that are allowed to stay, right? Like there was a judge that just granted a Lebanese,
00:19:40.180 he's not a citizen, he's immigrant or illegal immigrant, who is head of a drug ring to stay.
00:19:47.380 So he's going to access the healthcare. Like there was, there was stats that just came out in the
00:19:51.220 federal health committee saying that we've spent a billion dollars to provide healthcare for illegal
00:19:58.580 immigrants and refugees. Like when, when regular Canadians who pay their taxes can't get seen.
00:20:04.260 Like there was another woman who just passed away in Winnipeg who waited for, I believe it was eight
00:20:09.060 or nine hours at the ER who couldn't get in. So no wonder people are upset. Like it's, it's dangerous,
00:20:15.940 right? This, the extortion. There was another story out in BC, this guy's like, anyway, it, they go on and
00:20:23.540 on and on and on. It's like, every time you open the, the news or on online, another illegal immigrant
00:20:31.620 is here either terrorizing this country, taking resources, not contributing, and it's creating a
00:20:36.500 divide, right? Like people are like, oh, we've never been so divided. We've never been so racist. Well,
00:20:42.260 it's because you've created scarcity under bad leadership, right? And you've pitted people against
00:20:47.220 each other because they're now trying to, you know, get their own job. Their kids can't get a job.
00:20:51.060 It's just, it's terrible immigration policy. That's what it comes down to. And the, and the reason for
00:20:56.500 it, if you want to get really dark is it, it gives you votes. Like, I think I just saw before I logged
00:21:02.820 on here that the liberal Ontario leadership race is going to allow temporary residents to vote.
00:21:10.340 Like that's where you, like, that's what this is all about. It's again, they always want to buy
00:21:14.900 the votes. It's, it's brutal. It's brutal. And it's a major strain on the school system,
00:21:22.180 for instance. I think you said there's 80,000 new students that have gone into the school system.
00:21:27.700 I mean, teachers are pulling their hair out trying to deal with it. I mean, in a way this takes me back
00:21:32.420 to when there was a slew of people who came into the country back with the sixties and seventies,
00:21:39.300 the country was growing and my parents came in, in the 1950s and raised a family. They, they didn't
00:21:47.140 come here with a handout. They expected to work. All they wanted was a peaceful place to raise their
00:21:52.260 family. And at the time, well, the, the country was booming. I mean, we needed to build homes and my
00:21:57.700 dad was more than happy to build work construction. And, you know, at that time going way back, maybe you
00:22:04.180 remember this as well, Michelle, you know, you could have one person working and have mom stay home
00:22:12.180 and raise four kids or, or whatever. And you could still afford to buy a house. All that has changed.
00:22:17.780 And now she's saying, look, we're teetering under, under the brink. You've allowed 600,000 people into
00:22:22.660 our province in short order. That's like half the size of Calgary. And it's adding to our debt burden
00:22:30.660 and it's adding to the strain of dealing with education and healthcare. I mean, to me, these
00:22:37.540 are things that every province should be pushing for, but I don't hear a whole lot of that talk from
00:22:42.260 say Doug Ford or any other premier. Could, could Daniel Smith's views spread to other provinces?
00:22:48.980 Somehow I doubt it. What do you think? Well, I think you're going to have to deal with this. Like
00:22:54.580 the other thing you've just left out again is the crime aspect, right? Like you had the CBSA
00:22:58.580 officers testifying committee saying, Oh yeah, well, we don't have the ability. We just have to
00:23:03.700 use an app to, uh, to do criminal checks. Like hopefully they're, hopefully they're not criminals,
00:23:08.020 hopefully. And like to your point earlier, you know, having the opportunity to go and knock on
00:23:12.660 thousands of doors and talk to people constantly. The number one group of people who complain about
00:23:18.180 immigration are immigrants to your point, Mark of your parents who came over and did everything right
00:23:24.260 and followed all of the rules. And we had a great immigration system. Our country was built
00:23:28.500 on immigrants. That's who we all are. Like whether it's first generation, second generation,
00:23:33.540 third generation, we are all from an immigrant family, but the system was proper. You know,
00:23:38.340 like in Peterborough, we had the Peter Robinson immigration. This was, you came over from Ireland,
00:23:43.140 the Irish famine, they came, they were given a plot of land, like I think a shovel, a shanty,
00:23:47.940 a cow. And if you didn't prove, uh, what you were able to contribute back to the community with a,
00:23:53.060 within a year, you were gone. Like there was a, there was like, it seems so simple,
00:23:58.100 like it's not complicated, but now you have literally violent criminals who are running human
00:24:03.540 trafficking rings, running drug rings, who are not contributing in the way that they were,
00:24:08.820 or they're taking resources and claiming refugee status as a loophole to stay in the country and
00:24:14.340 commit crime all while taking away healthcare, education, and the social resort housing that
00:24:20.420 Canadians and taxpayers deserve. So it's insane. And net, and then let's throw on the other thing
00:24:26.660 that just happened with the federal immigration minister, Leanne, uh, Lena Diab, like, has anybody
00:24:31.860 seen this? So she has just announced, like, I can't even believe what I'm about to tell you, Mark.
00:24:37.300 She just announced she's going to allow foreign military officials into the Canadian army.
00:24:43.860 Like in what world did anybody say, that's great. Like the last thing,
00:24:47.860 the best comment I saw on my online was, aren't we developing our Canadian forces to fight
00:24:54.420 foreign folks? Like, isn't that the point of the Canadian forces? And now you're inviting them in
00:24:59.780 and giving them weapons. What is actually happening? It's insane.
00:25:05.860 I mean, it's like, they're trying to weaken our country on purpose. That's what it looks like to me.
00:25:10.180 I mean, if you're bringing in a whole lot of people who are, I mean, if you're bringing in economic
00:25:16.740 dependence, it hurts the rest of us because we've got to support those economic dependents
00:25:23.460 at a time where our debt has already doubled under the liberals. What are we like at 1.4 trillion now?
00:25:29.620 I mean, so our debt continues to climb. We've brought all these people who are not,
00:25:34.500 are basically not contributing. Most of them are not contributing. They're just kind of waiting to go
00:25:38.580 through their asylum process or whatever, and basically costing us money, costing us money.
00:25:45.940 But I think to your point earlier about voting, I think the liberals need dependents. More dependents
00:25:51.620 means more votes for them. That's why they love civil servants who are on the government payroll.
00:25:58.980 And you know what? They also love people who are dependent on them in other ways.
00:26:02.580 And you know, they can then go to the election, to the electorate and say, you know, those mean old
00:26:08.660 conservatives are going to take stuff away. And you know, you're going to suffer if those cuts happen.
00:26:15.620 You know what I'm saying? They get to scare voters into voting for them by pointing fingers and saying,
00:26:22.260 those mean old conservatives are going to take everything away. I mean, did you find that during the
00:26:26.580 election campaign last year? That that that was the threat, like that we would cut public service
00:26:32.820 or what? Is that what you mean? Yes. Yeah. So I mean, look at Bruce Fanjoy. So this is the guy that
00:26:38.580 took Pierre Polyev's riding and told everyone, Pierre Polyev is going to cut the public service.
00:26:44.580 Pierre Polyev is going to cut the public service. What did Mark Kearney just announced for that riding,
00:26:48.500 where this is like the most concentrated place of public service workers, government workers?
00:26:53.620 10,000. That's what Mark Kearney's doing. So all the things like I, one of the great things I heard
00:27:00.020 someone say is liberal talking points are confessions. And I was like, oh, that's good.
00:27:06.820 That's really good, right? Because they're telling you what they're going to do, but they're blaming
00:27:10.500 and projecting it onto the other people, whether it be conservatives or whatever. It's never their fault,
00:27:15.060 Mark. It's never their fault. There's never any accountability. Oh, grocery prices are the
00:27:19.700 highest in the G7. We have the highest food inflation in the G7. Mark Kearney said,
00:27:23.940 judge me on grocery prices, judge me on whether you can afford a home or whether your kids can
00:27:27.780 afford a home. I have a, I have a solution for the very problem that I created. I'm going to give
00:27:32.180 you $10 in a grocery rebate. That's actually going to cost $13 billion that we don't have. That's going
00:27:36.900 to drive up food inflation even more. I'm going to contribute to the problem even more, but hopefully
00:27:41.460 you're not going to notice. And I'm going to buy your vote. Like once you see it,
00:27:45.140 you can't unsee what they do. And I guess, you know, the biggest thing I have to say to people
00:27:50.820 is, A, you deserve better. You absolutely deserve better. Stop accepting this low bar.
00:27:57.140 And to loop it back to Danielle Smith, she's showing leadership by allowing the people to actually have
00:28:03.220 a voice and to critically think, like, are you happy with this? Are you happy with this immigration
00:28:08.260 system that has absolutely taken away our resources and your ability to provide for your family or
00:28:12.660 opportunity for you to work? Absolutely not. But guess what? The federal government has failed
00:28:17.460 you. So I'm going to have to step up and do their job for them because they don't know what they're
00:28:21.300 doing. Um, or they do know what they're doing to your point, Mark, where it's pretty hard at this
00:28:25.860 point to say this pretty feels, this feels pretty intentional. And you know, I have this saying that
00:28:33.140 I would say in committee all the time, once you start to go down the road of following the money,
00:28:37.300 when you have a guy of a CEO of Brookfield who has, you know, hidden assets, like it, it's just,
00:28:44.180 uh, it's more of the same once you start to see it and you start, start to follow the trail.
00:28:49.140 Yeah. I think there's a plan for them. They're not telling us what it is. I mean,
00:28:52.980 they added 80% to the federal, uh, roles, the, uh, worker, right. The public servants 80%.
00:29:02.980 Well, if you hire a whole bunch of people from say all he has old writing and, you know,
00:29:08.580 put them on the payroll and then scare the hell out of them come election time, that
00:29:13.220 Pierre is going to take their jobs away. Well, you know what, you have a chance to knock off the
00:29:17.780 leader. And so I think that's probably what happened there. At least that's what I think.
00:29:24.420 No. And I think you're right. And I think anybody who owns a small business, so small business owners
00:29:28.820 make up like 99% of the economy. And every day, a small business owner phones me and tells me they're
00:29:35.460 leaving Canada. They can't compete. Like there was a hair salon in Montreal charged a $500 fine
00:29:42.580 yesterday because they didn't have non-binary haircuts on their, on their price list. This is why,
00:29:49.940 like that's a, that's a radical example, but it, this is why you have businesses leaving at exponential
00:29:55.540 rates because the liberal belief system is to invest in socialism and bureaucrats and not allow a
00:30:01.860 private, uh, independent entrepreneur or business to thrive. They make it impossible for them to
00:30:07.460 thrive. And so they just give up and they're making everybody weak and dependent. And they're also
00:30:13.620 normalizing this, uh, low bar for customer service, right? Like I just talked about this the other day,
00:30:19.540 like phoning CRA. So never before have you paid so much tax and received what in return? How's your
00:30:25.700 health care? How's your roads? How's like, I know those are municipal things, but like, how are all of
00:30:30.260 these services that you pay all this tax for when you phone the CRA? What's that service like? Can you
00:30:35.620 get through to a person? Will they give you the right information? It's just more of decay of what we've
00:30:42.180 come to expect. And then we just kind of become desensitized to it and accept it. And it's like, well,
00:30:47.540 everybody's doing the best they can. Like everything Mark Carney promised you, he has not delivered on
00:30:54.900 nothing, nothing. Like he said, judge me by the grocery prices, judge me on housing,
00:31:00.420 judge me on electricity prices, then judge him, judge him because it's not getting better. It's
00:31:05.860 getting worse. How do people consume your content? And by the way, I also know about your Hope Tour.
00:31:10.900 You want to plug that while we got a minute? Oh yeah. Thank you so much, Mark. So
00:31:16.020 Hope Tour was born out of the, basically the rallies that I took part in during the election
00:31:20.340 period where everybody got to come together, feel like they were part of something and give them
00:31:24.580 concrete tools, um, and advice on how to stay politically involved. Because I feel like a lot
00:31:29.620 of people do feel hopeless right now. What's the point? Why even vote when the guy I voted for crosses the
00:31:34.420 floor, all of these crazy things happening in our world. So the Hope Tour is kicking off in Vaughan,
00:31:39.620 Ontario. February 26th is our first one. It's our pilot one. It's a 7 PM start point. Uh, you can get
00:31:46.100 tickets on Eventbrite, just search the Hope Tour. And it's myself along with some amazing guests,
00:31:50.340 Jonathan Harvey, Jasmine Lane, Brad Smith from AM 640, and many others. It's going to be a lot of fun.
00:31:56.740 Shelfbury, thank you so much for coming on the show. Great to speak with you.
00:31:59.700 Thanks. Thanks, Mark.
00:32:02.420 If you enjoyed this show, consider supporting great independent journalism,
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00:32:18.500 Thank you so much. We'll see you next time.