Will Carney accept Poilievre's French TVA debate challenge？
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Summary
In today's show: Conservative leader Pierre Poliev challenges his opponent to face off at the upcoming French TVA debate, former immigration minister Sean Fraser decides to run for re-election after announcing his political retirement last December, Alberta Premier Daniel Smith criticizes Liberal Leader Mark Carney for doing little to advance Alberta s economic interests.
Transcript
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Conservative leader Pierre Polyev has challenged his opponent Liberal Mark Carney to face off at
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the upcoming French TVA debate, even offering to pay Carney's $75,000 entry fee himself.
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Former Immigration Minister Sean Fraser has decided to run for re-election
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after announcing his political retirement last December.
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Alberta Premier Daniel Smith criticized Liberal leader Mark Carney for doing little
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Hello Canada, it's Wednesday, March 26th, and this is the True North Daily Brief.
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We've got you covered with all the news you need to know.
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Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.
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Conservative leader Pierre Polyev has thrown down the gauntlet at Liberal leader Mark Carney,
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daring him to step onto the stage for a French-language TVA debate, a showdown the Liberals have been avoiding.
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Polyev even offered to cover the $75,000 entry fee required for Carney to participate in the April 1st debate.
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I want to challenge Mark Carney to show up for the debate at TVA in Quebec.
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He's running away and hiding because he believes that he's too weak to defend the lost Liberal decade
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or explain why he thinks Liberals deserve a fourth term.
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Let's have a debate in French where we put together the choice.
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Either a fourth Liberal term after costs and crime have gone up
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and our ergonomy has gone down under the American thumb
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or putting Canada first for a change with a new Conservative government that will build the homes.
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I'll even pay Mr. Carney's fee so that he can show up.
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We'll take that excuse away from him. Conservatives will even pay the fee to bring him out.
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He's not afraid. And by the way, if he is afraid to have the debate,
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how is he going to have the courage to stand up against Donald Trump?
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It's going to take someone who's strong enough to do that.
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And if he's not afraid, then he'll show up at that debate.
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I'm not afraid and I'm ready to enjoy that debate with him.
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Carney had previously confirmed that he would attend when asked by a Radio Canada reporter on Monday.
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However, Carney's campaign later announced he would not be participating in the TVA debate the following day.
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The party has alluded to the $75,000 fee as being the reason,
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Group TVA had requested a $75,000 participation fee from each of the parties
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The media company recently laid off around 500 employees and says it would have to hire freelancers
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to produce the program as it won't be taking advertising revenue from the broadcast.
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Poliev said that if Carney's impetus for opting out is not rooted in the fee but fear,
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it speaks to a larger issue of how his leadership would stand up against U.S. President Donald Trump.
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So, Alex, this is your first time on the podcast and I just wanted to say welcome from myself and our listeners.
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And with regards to Carney's refusal to participate in the TVA debate,
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is Carney's lack of French fluency catching up to him?
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Has he proven himself as an effective French speaker to Canadians?
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I think that the question of whether or not his French fluency is catching up to him
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would be less relevant and important if they hadn't disqualified liberal leadership candidate Chandra Arya
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So, I think that that's an interesting element to the story,
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especially given the fact that they have also disqualified him from being the candidate in the Nepean riding,
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where Mark Carney is going to be running, a member of parliament as the liberal leader.
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Well, they disqualified him in the leadership race,
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and then they've disqualified him from even running for re-election as a member of parliament in the Nepean riding.
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Although, I imagine that the decision to disqualify him from running as a member of parliament
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has less to do with his French than it did in the leadership race.
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Yeah, Alex, and there's other slip-ups Canadians have been pointing to
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where Carney has shown he's not exactly fluent in French or he misunderstands questions.
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During the liberal leadership debate, he was asked about Hamas,
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and he accidentally said in the French language that he agrees with Hamas
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So, there's constant mess-ups, and when he's questioned in French recent press conferences,
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and they come across as a bit forced or misunderstanding the questions posed to him.
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And reporters have even had to repeat themselves.
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a reporter had to repeat the French phrase for 20 seconds multiple times
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before telling Carney that he has 20 seconds in English during the French debate.
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The former liberal immigration minister responsible for accepting the most immigrants in Canadian history
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reversing an earlier decision he made to retire from politics.
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Liberal incumbent Sean Fraser will run for re-election in Central Nova
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after previously backing out of politics in December of 2024.
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Canadians know Fraser as the immigration minister responsible for letting an unprecedented amount of immigrants into Canada
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and setting the controversial $500,000 a year target for the Trudeau Liberals.
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Fraser was the Liberals' immigration minister between 2021 and 2023.
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By 2023, 2.2 million immigrants, including those holding temporary visas, were entering Canada annually.
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While being in charge of Canada's immigration system,
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Fraser set historical records for how many permanent and temporary immigrants Canada accepted in just one year.
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In 2021, Fraser celebrated granting 401,000 new permanent residencies.
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This is a historic moment for our country, as we welcome in the highest number of newcomers in one year in our history.
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Fraser then outdid himself in 2022 with $431,000 and 2023 with $472,000,
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surpassing historical immigration records yet again for permanent residencies.
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He was then shuffled off by the Liberals into the role of Canada's housing minister,
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where he denied that immigration was a contributing factor to the housing crisis
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and that the record levels would actually solve housing shortages.
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By 2023, Canada was taking in five times more immigrants than housing starts.
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Carney has promised to lower Canada's immigration levels and maintain the current cuts.
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Can Canadians expect him to follow through on his pledge?
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Well, the nature of election promises is that governments, when they're elected,
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they don't necessarily follow through on everything.
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There are many indications Mark Carney is shifting towards more conservative talking points,
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but then he does other things that might indicate otherwise.
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I think the key example here being, before he called the election,
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he appointed Mark Wiseman, who is the co-founder of the Century Initiative,
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which is essentially a mass immigration lobbying group
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that wants to see Canada's population reach 100 million people by the end of the century.
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And to do that, they want to push pro-immigration policies
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and have done so under the prior Trudeau government.
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he's running again under the Carney liberals this time,
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and his role as Trudeau's former immigration minister,
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there's indication that while Carney seems to be saying
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that he wants to keep the current cuts in place
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and perhaps even lower the number of immigrants coming to Canada,
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the people he surrounds himself with says otherwise.
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I also think it's interesting that Sean Fraser resigned in December,
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thereby forcing Nathaniel Erskine-Smith to step in as housing minister.
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he will only have had four months of oversight over this portfolio,
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which might speak to a lack of seriousness or forethought
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in terms of the way that the cabinet has been managed by the Trudeau-Carney liberals.
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Alberta Premier Daniel Smith said Liberal Leader Mark Carney
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had little to provide Canada's most economically prosperous province beyond empty promises.
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Carney is under fire for delivering contradictory messages depending on the audience.
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This time, Carney is being called out for conflicting positions on oil and gas emissions caps.
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Premier Smith called out Carney's inconsistency,
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noting that while he opposed an oil and gas production cap in Edmonton last Thursday,
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he expressed support for it in Ottawa the very next day.
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Smith revealed on Friday that despite Carney's in-person assurances the day before his environment
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minister before the election was called, Terry Deguide told the media that the liberals' emissions
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cap would remain in place. Carney called the election just days after his flip-flop setting
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the vote for April 28th, the shortest campaign period allowed by law.
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This isn't the first time Carney has faced criticism for sending contradictory messages.
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Previously, Carney came under fire for telling English and French-speaking audiences conflicting
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stories about the future of pipelines in Canada.
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Alex, if I recall correctly, there's been some recent studies that look into the
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impact of the oil and gas cap. How much would the oil and gas cap harm Canada and Alberta economically?
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I think it would be a tremendous harm to Canada, given how important our energy sector is to the
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economy not only of Alberta, but to the country of Canada. I also think that Carney has kind of
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spoken out of both sides of his mouth on this issue because he says that he would like to fast-track
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energy projects, including a potential coast-to-coast pipeline. However, he is also hand-picking
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candidates for his campaign in the upcoming federal election, like former Vancouver Mayor Gregor
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Robertson, who have taken very radical anti-pipeline positions in the past. So I don't know how he
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intends to square that circle. By 2050, the Conference Board of Canada report highlights that
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Alberta's GDP will shrink by 11%, employment will decrease by 4%, and the average Albertan will have
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$3,300 less in disposable income. By 2030, the same report suggests that Alberta will experience a
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deep recession due to the plan. Nationally, real GDP will fall by 3.8% due to the emissions cap by 2050.
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Canadian oil and gas production would drop by 37% by 2050. And nationwide, unemployment is expected
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to increase by 2.6%. And consumer prices are expected to increase as well by 2.5%.
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That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday
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