KINSELLACAST 344: So long Justin, so long Canada? Lilley, Kheiriddin, Belanger, Mraz, Mulroney, Koch, Hollett, Wells plus HotWax, the Bug Club, Satin Call, Oscar G and more
00:05:02.300In just the past few days, Trump has said he wants to use economic force, that's a quote, against Canada to make us, as he puts it, the 51st state.
00:05:11.300He has referred to Trudeau as governor of that state.
00:05:16.220He has published maps in which Canada no longer exists, you know, kind of like the Israel-hating pro-Hamas people do, with their logos and signs and keychains showing just Palestine from the river to the sea, like that.
00:05:29.220Simultaneously, Trump has threatened to use military force against Denmark and Greenland, who are members of NATO, which compelled Britain and France to actually state that they would not hesitate to defend Denmark and Greenland under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
00:05:46.600Trump has also threatened military action against Panama, a sovereign state, and it is well known he has promised to impose 25% tariffs on all goods entering the United States from Canada and Mexico.
00:06:04.740That last one, which, when, not if, when it happens, will result in 5 million Canadians potentially losing their jobs and throwing us into a recession, possibly worse.
00:06:18.760Which is kind of economically, you know, it's kind of economically significant, isn't it?
00:06:24.700Trudeau's carbon tax was poorly designed, poorly implemented, and poorly communicated.
00:06:29.240Yes, it was wildly unpopular, as taxes always are.
00:06:34.220But in comparative terms, the carbon tax is fucking dwarfed by the multiplicity of threats posed by Donald Trump.
00:06:42.820Before he even assumes the office of president, Trump has effectively declared war on Canada and much of the world.
00:06:50.340America, whether the Tories accept it or not, no longer considers us an ally.
00:06:55.820That, perhaps, may have been why Pierre Polyev surrounded himself with 13 Canadian flags, one for each province and territory, at his press conference this week.
00:07:06.160He, or someone around him, has possibly started to wonder if the ballot question just might not be the carbon tax anymore.
00:07:14.580It might be the damage caused by the human Cheeto, as he calls him.
00:07:20.080The contents of Polyev's press conference didn't inspire much confidence either.
00:07:25.840In it, the Tory leader went after Trudeau's likeliest successors and launched yet another bumper sticker for the ages.
00:07:44.880And it was off-message and off-target, too.
00:07:48.040Canadian conservatives pride themselves on being closer to the ground than their pointed-headed, pointed-headed, pointed-headed, pointed-headed, anyway, liberal elite opponents, you know what I mean.
01:28:47.400And he just, you know, manifestly was not the right guy for the circumstances we find ourselves in as a country.
01:28:53.620Paul, in such a short period of time, how can the apparent frontrunners who have been walking in lockstep with this prime minister and this government helping enact the policies that it looks like so many Canadians want to move away from, how can they differentiate themselves from the pack?
01:29:12.700How can they say, elect me as leader, I will be a different kind of liberal, even though they helped build this particular brand of the liberal party?
01:30:25.200Warren, you said on X, I believe yesterday, there's a path forward for at least a slight uptick in the polls bit by bit over the course of this for the liberal party.
01:30:39.280But if this liberal race overlaps with Trump's first 100 days and immediately during those 100 days we get slapped with those tariffs, this liberal party, regardless of who's leading it, is going to have to own that.
01:30:56.980And the fact that they would be trying to, you know, redecorate the house while the house is on fire.
01:31:03.520I don't see how that leads to a better result in the next election for the party, regardless of who's leading it.
01:31:11.300Well, yeah, the tariffs are bad, and I believe it's not an if.
01:31:15.280I think there's an inevitability of them.