Juno News - What Trump wants from Canada ft. Ezra Levant

00:00:00.400 Canada has received a one-month extension on U.S. President Donald Trump's threat of 25% tariffs.

00:00:08.880 We've got one month to sort out our business. However, the problems that the tariffs have caused

00:00:13.660 will extend far beyond the four years of the Trump administration if Canada doesn't figure out a way

00:00:19.500 to diversify its exports. Joining me today to discuss is Rebel News founder Ezra Levant.

00:00:25.640 I'm Rachel Parker. Welcome back to The Rachel Parker Show.

00:00:30.000 Hey, Ezra. Thanks so much for being here. I want to start just by asking you right off the hop,

00:00:49.060 we have one month extension on these 25% tariffs coming into effect. Of course,

00:00:54.500 that's also 10% for energy exports. How do you see this next month playing out?

00:01:00.860 Well, it's really crazy that Canada's parliament has been dissolved by Trudeau. Trudeau is at an

00:01:06.420 all-time low in the polls. He has no mandate. The parliament is not being allowed to have a mandate.

00:01:12.320 The liberals are attending to internal matters instead. It is in their perverse interest to

00:01:18.020 fight with Donald Trump because that lets them portray themselves as Canadian heroes fighting

00:01:23.060 against an external enemy. So believe it or not, they actually want these negotiations to fail.

00:01:28.540 So there's a lot of moral hazards there. So, and I guess the final and most obvious point is

00:01:35.920 Donald Trump asked for two fixes in our border. He said, stop allowing illegal drugs, especially

00:01:44.200 fentanyl, and stop allowing illegal migrants, including a growing number of suspected terrorists.

00:01:50.880 And then he said, or else I'll put tariffs on you. But almost no one focused on the,

00:01:57.760 can you please fix your border fence with us? And everyone went straight to the, or else. And you

00:02:02.600 had sort of a contest of, uh, which of the premiers or federal politicians would be the most butch

00:02:09.260 in their threats to Trudeau. It was sort of pitiful and laughable. I mean, David Eby said,

00:02:13.840 we're going to ban liquor, but only from the red States. And Doug Ford said, we're going to cancel

00:02:21.540 rural internet that we had planned to deliver through Starlink because that'll make Elon Musk sad.

00:02:29.260 And like, it was just this weird, like it was sort of pitiful watching all these leftists who have

00:02:35.560 weakened and emasculated Canada for years or decades, suddenly strut about like they're ready

00:02:43.780 for a brutal battle. I think Canada's lucky in that Donald Trump doesn't actually think about us that

00:02:50.200 much might look like it. Cause whenever he tweets about us, the Canadian media political establishment

00:02:56.020 goes nuts for a whole week, but look at what Trump is doing. He's working on the Ukraine, Russia war.

00:03:02.420 He's meeting with Israel and Saudi Arabia to fix the middle East. He's, uh, hacking billions or soon 0.97

00:03:13.000 trillions from the American budget. He's pushing through his cabinet. Like he is so busy on grownup

00:03:22.040 things. We think he's obsessed by us. I don't think he is. I think he enjoys rattling Trudeau's cage.

00:03:29.860 And that's the last thing I'll say is that like the rest of us, Trump sees through Trudeau in a

00:03:37.220 second. He sees that Trudeau is a phony and a fake. And Trump is the kind of guy who remembers if you 0.99

00:03:45.020 insult him. And I think Trump does remember. And so he's sort of shooting at Trudeau a bit, but

00:03:50.920 unfortunately he's hitting the rest of us. And I think that's my biggest quarrel with Trump's, uh,

00:03:56.140 proposed tariffs. Obviously we don't need to have those tariffs put on us. We could just fix the

00:04:01.100 border and Trump would walk away. But, um, I guess the second thing is what America wants to do to

00:04:09.500 punish Trudeau actually punishes the rest of us and America itself. If America drives away Canadian

00:04:16.120 oil, which is by far the largest thing that Canada exports to the state, like by a multiple,

00:04:20.940 is three times bigger than the total sales of the auto industry. That's going to directly hurt

00:04:27.980 Americans by jacking up the price of the oil that goes into the refineries. It's going to be

00:04:31.920 reflected in the pumps. And as I said in a tweet to Matt Gaetz the other day, if you don't want to

00:04:40.220 buy Canadian oil, whose oil would you rather buy? Like oil doesn't come from Switzerland. It comes from

00:04:46.940 Canada and then a bunch of terrible places. And if you don't want us to sell our oil to the Americans,

00:04:54.300 tell us who you'd rather us sell it to. Do you really want us to sell our oil to China?

00:04:58.140 Now I think Canada should build pipelines to both coasts, but America should not drive our energy

00:05:04.140 asset into the hands of bad people like China. Anyway, sorry, those are long answers to your good 0.99

00:05:09.100 questions. Well, you've said, you know, Canada should build pipelines to both coasts. And, you know,

00:05:14.540 you rightly pointed out, we kind of saw on Sunday night, you know, temper tantrum for do his absolute

00:05:20.300 worst taking the American alcohol on the shelves. It was quite a hilarious display. Of course, he found

00:05:25.020 himself looking very silly, but a few hours later. But my point is for a few brief hours there on

00:05:30.460 Sunday, we saw what some some premiers said was their best team Canada approach. They said we're all

00:05:37.340 in this together. And then not the very next day, we find out that Quebec still isn't willing to

00:05:42.780 accept a pipeline from Alberta. So, you know, I've said now, I think we've got a few years to really

00:05:49.020 fix the problem of Canada's export market. Alberta is totally reliant on our exports to the United

00:05:54.220 States. And as you said, the US does need our oil. What happens if they also decide to increase

00:05:59.980 capacity there? And they decide that they'd rather focus on that than continuing, you know,

00:06:03.980 Daniel's, but she wants to actually ramp up oil production. And so it would seem smart that Canada

00:06:08.860 would diversify its export portfolio. But it doesn't look like the rest of Canada is interested

00:06:13.580 in that when push comes to shove. How do we bridge that gap? That's a tough one. And you're right,

00:06:19.420 this whole team Canada bravado lasted about 30 seconds. And now they're, I mean, I see Mark Carney

00:06:25.580 just said, he's all for pipelines subject to Quebec's veto. I mean, they never meant this team Canada,

00:06:32.380 these people spent years, if not decades, deracinating our country, demonizing our country, 0.73

00:06:38.140 saying our country is guilty of genocide, stripping the Prime Minister off our $10 bill,

00:06:42.940 putting Johnny McDonald in a coffin, like seriously, Doug Ford, the great Canadian nationalist

00:06:48.540 on the on the steps of Queen's Park, that's the Ontario legislature, there's a statue of Sir

00:06:54.060 Johnny McDonald. And Doug Ford has put a wooden coffin around it. He doesn't quite have the courage

00:07:00.380 to take the statue down, but nor does he have the principle to stand by it. So he's put a wooden

00:07:05.340 coffin around him. So that's, that's the guy who's team Canada, the guy who, who won't even have our

00:07:10.540 founding Prime Minister on a statue on his yard. So yeah, it's sort of pitiful. I actually ran into

00:07:17.260 Danielle Smith in Washington, the day before the inauguration, I interviewed her, and she had a whole

00:07:23.980 suite in a hotel and she was having, it was like a boardroom. And she was having meeting after meeting

00:07:29.420 after meeting, just putting through different US officials and industry reps. I've, I've, it was

00:07:35.260 amazing to watch like, like clockwork. I mean, I had to show up exactly on time, I was given exactly 19

00:07:41.900 minutes or whatever it was. And she had an army of Alberta diplomats and bureaucrats setting up such a 0.96

00:07:50.780 dense schedule for her. She did more diplomacy in the weeks before the inauguration and the weeks since

00:07:59.180 than the entire rest of Canada combined, than all of global, global affairs, Canada, all of the cabinet

00:08:05.740 and any other premier. In fact, I don't know any other premier that went down there. Danielle Smith

00:08:13.020 is the one saving our reputation in America. And, and by the way, I think Alberta should double

00:08:18.620 its production and we should build pipelines to the coast, but I think we have to reframe this

00:08:23.580 for Donald Trump. I I've, I just recently bought, I used to have a copy. I lost it. I bought another

00:08:28.780 copy of art of the deal and I've started flipping through it. That's Donald Trump's bestselling book

00:08:34.700 about being a negotiator. And it's all about New York real estate, but it's also about him

00:08:39.580 and how he negotiates and that he makes audacious demands to knock the other person off balance and

00:08:45.900 how he uses the media and the role of hyperbole. Like it's, it's a fascinating and entertaining book.

00:08:51.180 And it really is who Donald Trump is. And so if you think about that, who is he? He's a deal maker.

00:08:57.660 He's someone who should be taken seriously, but perhaps not literally because he's so audacious

00:09:03.100 in his statements and he loves making deals. Like look at Gaza. He's talking about turning into 1.00

00:09:08.940 the new Dubai and he's, he thinks about real estate. He thinks about land. He wants to annex

00:09:14.780 Greenland. He wants to take back Panama. When he says he wants Canada as a 51st state again,

00:09:20.140 seriously, but not literally. What does he really want? He wants our oil. He doesn't want a California

00:09:27.420 sized Democrat electoral college, 51st state. He doesn't actually want Canada to join. He just wants

00:09:35.180 all the good stuff, namely oil. I think that Canada has to make the America first case for oil to Trump.

00:09:43.980 About a dozen years ago, I wrote a book called ethical oil, the case for Canada's oil sands. And it was

00:09:49.340 a left wing book. I thought, let me make the left wing argument for Canada's oil sands. And I did. I said,

00:09:55.580 look, it's the world's fair trade coffee of oil producers. We're environmentally friendly. We're peaceful.

00:10:01.340 We treat workers, right? We respect civil liberties. Those are left wing things, I said. So any liberal should love

00:10:09.580 Canadian oil as opposed to Saudi Arabia, Russia, Nigeria, Iran, Venezuela, etc. That's the left wing case.

00:10:17.340 That's probably not going to work on Donald Trump. So what's the America first case? The America first case

00:10:24.940 is, don't tariff Canadian oil. Sign a 50 year deal for Canadian oil. 75 bucks a barrel, 170 billion

00:10:38.140 barrels. That's 13 trillion dollars. Donald Trump loves using the billion word. He even loves using the

00:10:44.620 word trillion more. What if Alberta led the way for a 13 trillion dollar 50 year deal of the century

00:10:54.940 where Donald Trump could secure access to the oil sands? He's got it anyways in the USMCA. He, I mean,

00:11:02.780 he actually already has preferred access to our oil. Let's just lock him into it. The companies that

00:11:10.220 produce oil in Alberta are either American right now or they're Canadian companies with a lot of

00:11:15.420 American shareholders. So, you know, Trump and America would benefit from it. Let's do an ethical

00:11:23.180 oil deal with the America first president. Let's get him excited about it and lock him in. Instead of

00:11:30.460 Trudeau and Stephen Gilbeau and Melanie Jolie acting out their hatred for Alberta, wanting to use it

00:11:36.540 as a weapon. You know what? If Quebec doesn't want Alberta oil, fine. Let them buy their OPEC conflict 0.94

00:11:43.740 oil while Alberta sells the good stuff to Donald Trump.

00:11:46.620 You've raised the case for Alberta, you know, increasing its capacity to the United States,

00:11:52.700 that being a better argument. I think that we've seen Danielle Smith sort of position herself that 0.99

00:11:56.540 way saying, you know, the United States, they want energy security and we can give them that energy

00:12:01.260 security. So I have to ask, obviously, we thought those tariffs were going to come into effect on

00:12:05.340 Monday. And when we did think that the energy exports were being pegged at 10% while other industries

00:12:11.340 were 25, that's a 15% difference. That's quite significant. Do you think we saw that 15% reduction

00:12:17.260 on energy due to the fact that America is so relying on Alberta's oil and their prices would have shot up?

00:12:23.660 Or do you think that it was in part due to Danielle Smith's diplomacy, which you've spoken at length

00:12:28.860 about, as well as, you know, her efforts to meet Donald Trump's concerns by fortifying the Alberta border

00:12:36.460 at the expense of the Alberta government? Well, Donald Trump likes tariffs for two reasons.

00:12:42.940 First of all, it makes a lot of money. It's an import tax. But second of all, it encourages companies

00:12:49.500 to relocate into America, which is, you know, re-industrialization, bringing the factories back.

00:12:55.100 So that's why Trump likes tariffs. There's no electoral college votes in Windsor, Ontario for Donald Trump.

00:13:02.620 So if he had his way, he would bring the auto industry back from Ontario and Quebec into Michigan,

00:13:09.260 Ohio, other places like that. But you can't do that with the oil sands. The oil sands are where they are.

00:13:16.460 A tariff is not going to make Sincrude and Suncor say, well, we'd better relocate to Texas. You can't,

00:13:23.660 because the oil sands are where they are. So yeah, it would bring in tax revenue for Trump,

00:13:29.100 but it wouldn't relocate the oil sands. And all that oil is going straight into American refineries.

00:13:36.700 So it's really punishing American consumers. Trump wants the tax benefit and the relocation.

00:13:44.140 He'll get the taxes purely at the expense of American energy users, and he won't get the relocation.

00:13:49.740 So I think that American refineries and American advocates listen to Danielle Smith,

00:13:55.900 but listen to their own citizens and said, President Trump, you're shooting us here. Like it's,

00:14:01.980 it really is the worst tariff from an America first point of view you could possibly do. You're not going

00:14:08.060 to move the asset into America. You're going to drive away the most America friendly province in the 0.70

00:14:14.460 country. And God forbid you drive that oil into the hands of communist China. You've just given them 0.99

00:14:20.140 a strategic asset. What does China want? China wants America not to have access to the oil sands.

00:14:26.460 China wants, if possible, its own access to the oil sands. You might remember about a decade or so ago,

00:14:32.060 China tried to buy Nexen. In fact, I think it did buy Nexen and it was looking to buying more oil.

00:14:36.860 China wants control of the oil sands. I don't think America wants that. So,

00:14:42.460 you know, a dozen years ago, I tried to make the case for the oil sands in the language of the left,

00:14:47.500 ethical oil, peace oil, you know, gender equality oil, gay rights friendly oil,

00:14:54.460 uh, excellent worker, you know, compensation. Oh, those are all liberal values. I think they're

00:15:00.220 conservative values too, maybe. But with Trump, it's America first. What are you doing driving

00:15:05.100 away strategic asset? What are you doing raising the prices on American refineries? What are you doing

00:15:10.460 harming American oil producers? Like, tell me a single company in the oil sands. Okay. There are a few

00:15:15.820 foreign, like European, I don't know all the companies operating there. There are probably some

00:15:20.220 European companies there, but even those are probably listed on a stock exchange and probably

00:15:24.700 have a majority of American shareholders. Like Syncrude, they have a lot of American pension plans,

00:15:30.300 etc. That they're all listed on the New York Stock Exchange. So America first would say,

00:15:36.620 what are you doing tariffing oil? Now, I don't want tariffs on any part of the Canadian economy,

00:15:41.340 but oil is the craziest thing to tariff from an America first point of view.

00:15:46.700 Ezra, thank you so much. Great to see you.

00:15:49.820 That was Ezra Levant, the founder and CEO of Rebel Nose. Okay, you guys, it's been a little bit since

00:15:55.980 we've done this next segment, but I want to jump into responding to some of your comments from yesterday.

00:16:01.660 So my producer Jeff has pulled up some of those. Now you guys might be surprised to hear me say that.

00:16:06.860 I know I know I have a new producer. Sean has left. He's working on Candace's show. I'm sure

00:16:12.700 that you guys have seen that my boss Candace Malcolm is back and producing great content pretty

00:16:18.700 much every day. So Jeff has gone through your comments and he's picked up some of the best ones.

00:16:23.020 I'm going to dive through those now. First, we have asked a Canadian to explain what it means to be 0.99

00:16:28.380 Canadian, but tell them they can't use American America or Trump in their answer. You'll get a very 0.76

00:16:35.500 confused look. This is a very true comment because so many Americans, as Viva said yesterday,

00:16:40.220 so many Canadians rather, they describe themselves as essentially being not America,

00:16:44.780 which is a really lame answer. And in my estimation, it's actually quite a big problem

00:16:49.260 we have in this country, this lack of national identity. And I think it's obviously gotten far

00:16:53.980 worse under Justin Trudeau, who has described Canada as a post-national state until recently with

00:16:59.420 the tariffs, of course. Our next comment here is from Rose Waddell, who said, thank you Trump for

00:17:05.020 forcing Trudeau and team to clean up the border and drugs finally after nine years. Canada needs a

00:17:12.140 Trump. I think that a lot of Canadian conservatives feel that way, or even just rational people who

00:17:16.860 feel concerned about the flood of immigration that we're seeing into Canada. Certainly most of us,

00:17:22.300 I think would agree. I'm sure if you're watching the show, you have those concerns. And I think a lot of

00:17:26.220 us, you know, we've seen what's gone on with Trump and the tariffs. And we said, huh, in a way, this

00:17:30.300 is actually benefiting Canada. Now, if we do see those, those tariffs come into place, you know,

00:17:35.260 that will be very difficult for the Canadian economy, as we've discussed at length. But the

00:17:39.420 actual act of the border being cleaned up has been a very good thing for us. And it's actually a little

00:17:45.020 sad that it took a leader of another country to get Canada to clean up its own border, something that

00:17:50.860 the Canadian citizens have been wanting and asking for. Finally, our last comment here,

00:17:55.900 from user William Dye McEyde says, Pierre Polyev has never complained about border and immigration

00:18:02.940 until Trump got elected. He's a very timid progressive conservative or a very centrist liberal.

00:18:09.900 I agree with some of your sentiment here. Pierre Polyev was definitely not the strongest or the loudest

00:18:15.260 voice on immigration. We've only seen him come out now and say that he would call for deportations,

00:18:21.180 for illegals, or for people who are here on visas or permits that are committing, you know,

00:18:26.060 committing crimes that they would be sent home because we've seen the sentiment in Canada shift

00:18:30.060 so much. And as I've said a hundred times, and I'm sure I'll say a hundred more times until we

00:18:35.420 have a federal election. Pierre Polyev is someone who watches very carefully the polls, public opinion,

00:18:40.940 the sentiments of the country and speaks when it is safe to do so. And we've absolutely seen him

00:18:45.980 do this on immigration because you can go back and find old videos of him calling for citizenship

00:18:51.180 for students who are here on work freezes and things like that. All right, everyone,

00:18:54.380 that is all we have time for today. Don't forget to give me some suggested story ideas that you'd

00:18:59.100 like to see me guys covered. I keep saying to everyone, I'm kind of tired of talking about

00:19:02.860 tariffs. I don't know if that makes me a bad journalist, but it's just the truth.

00:19:06.380 I'm tired of talking about it. I know you guys at home are tired of listening to it. So please,

00:19:11.500 if there's a story that you're like, please, Rachel, we want to know more about this. Let me know in the

00:19:15.100 comment section below. And I'm sure that Jeff, we will point some of them out to me over the weekend.

00:19:20.060 All right, guys, have a great rest of your week. God bless.

Juno News - February 05, 2025

What Trump wants from Canada ft. Ezra Levant

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