Juno News - Will Carney accept Poilievre's French TVA debate challenge？

00:00:00.000 Conservative leader Pierre Polyev has challenged his opponent Liberal Mark Carney to face off at

00:00:10.440 the upcoming French TVA debate, even offering to pay Carney's $75,000 entry fee himself.

00:00:17.640 Former Immigration Minister Sean Fraser has decided to run for re-election

00:00:21.420 after announcing his political retirement last December.

00:00:24.780 Alberta Premier Daniel Smith criticized Liberal leader Mark Carney for doing little

00:00:29.940 to advance Alberta's economic interests.

00:00:33.260 Hello Canada, it's Wednesday, March 26th, and this is the True North Daily Brief.

00:00:37.640 I'm Cosmin Georgia.

00:00:39.180 And I'm Alex Hulten.

00:00:40.360 We've got you covered with all the news you need to know.

00:00:43.180 Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.

00:00:50.460 Conservative leader Pierre Polyev has thrown down the gauntlet at Liberal leader Mark Carney,

00:00:56.020 daring him to step onto the stage for a French-language TVA debate, a showdown the Liberals have been avoiding.

00:01:03.920 Polyev even offered to cover the $75,000 entry fee required for Carney to participate in the April 1st debate.

00:01:11.760 I want to challenge Mark Carney to show up for the debate at TVA in Quebec.

00:01:19.380 He's running away and hiding because he believes that he's too weak to defend the lost Liberal decade

00:01:26.120 or explain why he thinks Liberals deserve a fourth term.

00:01:29.520 Let's have a debate in French where we put together the choice.

00:01:35.440 Either a fourth Liberal term after costs and crime have gone up

00:01:40.240 and our ergonomy has gone down under the American thumb

00:01:44.360 or putting Canada first for a change with a new Conservative government that will build the homes.

00:01:50.940 I'll even pay Mr. Carney's fee so that he can show up.

00:01:55.560 We'll take that excuse away from him. Conservatives will even pay the fee to bring him out.

00:02:00.220 He's not afraid. And by the way, if he is afraid to have the debate,

00:02:04.080 how is he going to have the courage to stand up against Donald Trump?

00:02:07.440 It's going to take someone who's strong enough to do that.

00:02:10.080 And if he's not afraid, then he'll show up at that debate.

00:02:12.540 I'm not afraid and I'm ready to enjoy that debate with him.

00:02:16.380 Carney had previously confirmed that he would attend when asked by a Radio Canada reporter on Monday.

00:02:22.280 However, Carney's campaign later announced he would not be participating in the TVA debate the following day.

00:02:29.520 The party has alluded to the $75,000 fee as being the reason,

00:02:34.200 a requirement that Poliev is looking to cover.

00:02:37.640 Group TVA had requested a $75,000 participation fee from each of the parties

00:02:43.980 to help with production costs for the event.

00:02:46.640 The media company recently laid off around 500 employees and says it would have to hire freelancers

00:02:53.780 to produce the program as it won't be taking advertising revenue from the broadcast.

00:02:58.840 Poliev said that if Carney's impetus for opting out is not rooted in the fee but fear,

00:03:04.700 it speaks to a larger issue of how his leadership would stand up against U.S. President Donald Trump.

00:03:10.200 So, Alex, this is your first time on the podcast and I just wanted to say welcome from myself and our listeners.

00:03:18.260 And with regards to Carney's refusal to participate in the TVA debate,

00:03:24.480 is Carney's lack of French fluency catching up to him?

00:03:28.540 Has he proven himself as an effective French speaker to Canadians?

00:03:33.180 Well, thank you for having me.

00:03:34.740 I think that the question of whether or not his French fluency is catching up to him

00:03:39.740 would be less relevant and important if they hadn't disqualified liberal leadership candidate Chandra Arya

00:03:47.120 on account of his lack of French fluency.

00:03:49.840 So, I think that that's an interesting element to the story,

00:03:52.960 especially given the fact that they have also disqualified him from being the candidate in the Nepean riding,

00:03:58.860 where Mark Carney is going to be running, a member of parliament as the liberal leader.

00:04:03.300 Well, they disqualified him in the leadership race,

00:04:05.620 and then they've disqualified him from even running for re-election as a member of parliament in the Nepean riding.

00:04:11.420 Although, I imagine that the decision to disqualify him from running as a member of parliament

00:04:15.920 has less to do with his French than it did in the leadership race.

00:04:18.940 Yeah, Alex, and there's other slip-ups Canadians have been pointing to

00:04:23.060 where Carney has shown he's not exactly fluent in French or he misunderstands questions.

00:04:29.080 During the liberal leadership debate, he was asked about Hamas,

00:04:33.460 and he accidentally said in the French language that he agrees with Hamas

00:04:38.800 rather than he agrees on the topic of Hamas.

00:04:42.660 So, there's constant mess-ups, and when he's questioned in French recent press conferences,

00:04:50.980 his responses don't really seem natural.

00:04:54.880 They seem like he has go-to responses,

00:04:57.700 and they come across as a bit forced or misunderstanding the questions posed to him.

00:05:04.280 And reporters have even had to repeat themselves.

00:05:06.640 During the liberal leadership debate again,

00:05:09.720 a reporter had to repeat the French phrase for 20 seconds multiple times

00:05:14.720 before telling Carney that he has 20 seconds in English during the French debate.

00:05:23.380 The former liberal immigration minister responsible for accepting the most immigrants in Canadian history

00:05:29.300 will be running for re-election,

00:05:31.300 reversing an earlier decision he made to retire from politics.

00:05:34.400 Liberal incumbent Sean Fraser will run for re-election in Central Nova

00:05:39.140 after previously backing out of politics in December of 2024.

00:05:43.220 Canadians know Fraser as the immigration minister responsible for letting an unprecedented amount of immigrants into Canada

00:05:49.060 and setting the controversial $500,000 a year target for the Trudeau Liberals.

00:05:53.440 Fraser was the Liberals' immigration minister between 2021 and 2023.

00:05:57.680 By 2023, 2.2 million immigrants, including those holding temporary visas, were entering Canada annually.

00:06:06.080 While being in charge of Canada's immigration system,

00:06:09.100 Fraser set historical records for how many permanent and temporary immigrants Canada accepted in just one year.

00:06:15.680 In 2021, Fraser celebrated granting 401,000 new permanent residencies.

00:06:22.440 Fraser said, quote,

00:06:23.620 This is a historic moment for our country, as we welcome in the highest number of newcomers in one year in our history.

00:06:31.640 Fraser then outdid himself in 2022 with $431,000 and 2023 with $472,000,

00:06:39.360 surpassing historical immigration records yet again for permanent residencies.

00:06:43.660 He was then shuffled off by the Liberals into the role of Canada's housing minister,

00:06:48.940 where he denied that immigration was a contributing factor to the housing crisis

00:06:52.420 and that the record levels would actually solve housing shortages.

00:06:57.120 By 2023, Canada was taking in five times more immigrants than housing starts.

00:07:03.220 Carney has promised to lower Canada's immigration levels and maintain the current cuts.

00:07:07.600 Can Canadians expect him to follow through on his pledge?

00:07:10.340 Well, the nature of election promises is that governments, when they're elected,

00:07:16.840 they don't necessarily follow through on everything.

00:07:20.160 There are many indications Mark Carney is shifting towards more conservative talking points,

00:07:26.880 but then he does other things that might indicate otherwise.

00:07:29.680 I think the key example here being, before he called the election,

00:07:34.800 he appointed Mark Wiseman, who is the co-founder of the Century Initiative,

00:07:41.200 which is essentially a mass immigration lobbying group

00:07:44.880 that wants to see Canada's population reach 100 million people by the end of the century.

00:07:50.940 And to do that, they want to push pro-immigration policies

00:07:55.120 and have done so under the prior Trudeau government.

00:07:59.160 So with the running of Fraser again,

00:08:02.460 he's running again under the Carney liberals this time,

00:08:05.100 and his role as Trudeau's former immigration minister,

00:08:09.580 there's indication that while Carney seems to be saying

00:08:13.540 that he wants to keep the current cuts in place

00:08:16.620 and perhaps even lower the number of immigrants coming to Canada,

00:08:20.640 the people he surrounds himself with says otherwise.

00:08:23.760 I also think it's interesting that Sean Fraser resigned in December,

00:08:28.840 thereby forcing Nathaniel Erskine-Smith to step in as housing minister.

00:08:33.660 And now with the calling of an election,

00:08:35.540 he will only have had four months of oversight over this portfolio,

00:08:39.940 which might speak to a lack of seriousness or forethought

00:08:43.560 in terms of the way that the cabinet has been managed by the Trudeau-Carney liberals.

00:08:48.060 Alberta Premier Daniel Smith said Liberal Leader Mark Carney

00:08:54.480 had little to provide Canada's most economically prosperous province beyond empty promises.

00:09:00.040 Carney is under fire for delivering contradictory messages depending on the audience.

00:09:04.800 This time, Carney is being called out for conflicting positions on oil and gas emissions caps.

00:09:11.000 Premier Smith called out Carney's inconsistency,

00:09:13.760 noting that while he opposed an oil and gas production cap in Edmonton last Thursday,

00:09:19.160 he expressed support for it in Ottawa the very next day.

00:09:22.520 Smith said,

00:09:23.020 Smith revealed on Friday that despite Carney's in-person assurances the day before his environment

00:09:39.940 minister before the election was called, Terry Deguide told the media that the liberals' emissions

00:09:45.860 cap would remain in place. Carney called the election just days after his flip-flop setting

00:09:51.240 the vote for April 28th, the shortest campaign period allowed by law.

00:09:55.700 This isn't the first time Carney has faced criticism for sending contradictory messages.

00:10:00.580 Previously, Carney came under fire for telling English and French-speaking audiences conflicting

00:10:05.580 stories about the future of pipelines in Canada.

00:10:09.020 Alex, if I recall correctly, there's been some recent studies that look into the

00:10:13.680 impact of the oil and gas cap. How much would the oil and gas cap harm Canada and Alberta economically?

00:10:22.200 I think it would be a tremendous harm to Canada, given how important our energy sector is to the

00:10:27.240 economy not only of Alberta, but to the country of Canada. I also think that Carney has kind of

00:10:33.700 spoken out of both sides of his mouth on this issue because he says that he would like to fast-track

00:10:38.080 energy projects, including a potential coast-to-coast pipeline. However, he is also hand-picking

00:10:43.920 candidates for his campaign in the upcoming federal election, like former Vancouver Mayor Gregor

00:10:49.560 Robertson, who have taken very radical anti-pipeline positions in the past. So I don't know how he

00:10:55.100 intends to square that circle. By 2050, the Conference Board of Canada report highlights that

00:11:00.620 Alberta's GDP will shrink by 11%, employment will decrease by 4%, and the average Albertan will have

00:11:07.040 $3,300 less in disposable income. By 2030, the same report suggests that Alberta will experience a

00:11:13.880 deep recession due to the plan. Nationally, real GDP will fall by 3.8% due to the emissions cap by 2050.

00:11:21.300 Canadian oil and gas production would drop by 37% by 2050. And nationwide, unemployment is expected

00:11:27.660 to increase by 2.6%. And consumer prices are expected to increase as well by 2.5%.

00:11:33.500 That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday

00:11:42.540 by subscribing to The Daily Brief on iTunes and Spotify. Also, while you're at it, make sure to

00:11:47.640 hit us with a 5-star rating and please leave a review.

Juno News - March 26, 2025

Will Carney accept Poilievre's French TVA debate challenge？

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