00:02:47.000What I wanted to talk to you, though, about is something that was a big deal this week in parts of the country, in Calgary, in Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga, Ottawa, but flags.
00:03:09.260And in a bunch of Canadian cities this week, the raising of the Palestinian flag sent a message that was louder than what those who were hoisting it probably intended.
00:03:23.120In the States, Donald Trump has signed one of his executive orders directing his attorney general to vigorously prosecute, quote unquote, anybody who desecrates the American flag.
00:03:33.780In Canada, it's not against the law to desecrate the flag.
00:03:37.700But tradition dictates it's always supposed to be the highest flag on the pole, it's supposed to be respectfully disposed of, and so on.
00:03:45.400Anyway, for most people, flags stand for something important.
00:04:14.540In Toronto, a group called Tafsik brought an injunction against the raising of the Palestinian flag, and it lost in court, which is unfortunate, because that now sets a legal precedent.
00:04:26.000That's the advice I always give to people.
00:04:29.600Be careful about going to court, because if you lose, it creates a reality.
00:04:37.340Like, well, firstly, globally, we're experiencing the biggest surge in anti-Semitism in nearly 100 years.
00:04:43.900And in Canada, it's worse than just about anywhere else.
00:04:47.060The Times of Israel reported just this week that anti-Semitism was already on the rise here in the years before the Hamas attack on October 7th, which left 1,200 people slaughtered and 250 taken hostage.
00:05:02.600But hate crimes, the Times of Israel noted, have grown astronomically in Canada.
00:05:10.520And they said Canadians experienced 6,300 nearly anti-Semitic incidents in 2024, an average of about 17 incidents of harassment, vandalism, and violence per day.
00:05:26.9601,700 anti-Semitic incidents every single day.
00:05:32.680Qualitatively, that makes Canada one of the worst places in the world for Jew hatred.
00:05:39.140And in May, like an Israeli government ministry, even crowned Canada the global champion of anti-Semitism, quote-unquote.
00:05:47.980So in these circumstances, at this time, displaying that flag, that symbol, can only serve to make Jewish Canadians feel even more uncomfortable and unwanted.
00:06:00.200It is, after all, the flag of the government that slaughtered and raped hundreds of Jews on October 7th.
00:06:07.200To most Jews, hoisting the Palestinian flag, now, at this time, renders the historical reality of October 7th impossible to ignore.
00:06:19.020They see it as a specific rejection of them, Jews.
00:36:01.140And we're back, and our friend and mentor and muse, Brian Lilley, has just told me that he has his Christmas tree up, and I think that's communism. I think it's too soon. Why do you have your tree up, communist?
00:36:23.080We leave town over Christmas, and my wife likes to see the tree up early. She likes to enjoy it for a few weeks before we head out of Dodge, as it were.
00:36:36.280Real. I've had artificial at various times in my life. I like a real tree. We had to go get a new stand, though, because we've had this one for years, and for whatever reason, the tree just kept falling over.
00:36:54.400And we thought we had it stabilized, that it tied off. And then we go out to run errands yesterday afternoon, come back in, whole trees on the ground, water everywhere. Thankfully, only two ornaments broken, but two very nice ornaments. And so we had to scramble, get a new stand. It seems stable now. We've got to put the decorations back on today, though.
00:37:22.400It's November, Brian. It's November. Okay, here comes the segue. Mark Carney was at the G20, and his tree fell over, or did it, with feminism and talking to Donald Trump. Tell us about those.
00:37:37.040Well, look, you just have to watch Mark Carney interact with female reporters to see that he's no feminist.
00:37:47.540So the latest one is Ashley Burke from CBC. She's traveling with him, and she asked him about talking to Donald Trump, I guess, in light of these J.D. Vance comments about Canada's economy not doing well due to massive immigration, which has a lot of Canadians freaking out, as Laurie Goldstein points out in the Toronto Sun today.
00:38:09.280Here are all the Canadian bank economists that were saying this for the last several years that it's hurting us. So she asks about that. And, you know, it's kind of like one of those look inside yourself, Rosemary moments. He's just dismissive of women all the time. And he just says, who cares? Who cares? It's a detail.
00:38:29.320And it's like, oh, not quite. You know, the Toronto star is trying to play not talking to Trump is the new black. It's the new cool thing. It's, it's like 3D chess. So the fact that we can't get a call with him is now good. Come on.
00:38:47.320But, but, but yeah, on feminist foreign policy, he was asked, I believe it was Dylan Robertson, who I think works with CP and said, look, I've noticed that you're framing things differently. The language isn't there. And he said, look, values are the same, but yeah, we're not talking about feminist foreign policy, which is probably a good thing because for Trudeau, it was never real. It was performative.
00:39:12.420Yeah. Trudeau would claim it, but he didn't actually do it.
00:39:15.880No, it's like you ran a feminist government, but didn't. My view is always be wary of men who go around telling you that they're feminists because they tend to be creeps. And so look, he, you know, Carney did talk about, yes, we're still investing in gender-based violence. Yes, we're investing in lifting women up economically, but also lifting up everyone economically and things like that.
00:39:36.960And I have no issue with him changing that because, you know, as you just said, Trudeau would talk about it and not do anything or he would, you know, he, you know, one of his things and Robertson mentioned this in his question was that sexual health was a big part of this foreign policy.
00:39:59.040So you would have, you know, the white savior from Canada going into very socially conservative religious countries in Africa and telling them you've got to accept all these conditions around abortion and access to the Plan B pill and things that are controversial in these countries.
00:40:19.480You've got to accept them if you've got to accept them if you want our aid money.
00:40:23.120You know, that, that did not go over well and it might make white liberals in Canada feel good, but you're actually causing friction with the people that you're going in and saying you're going to help.
00:40:35.000So Mark Carney's still being secretly conservative leader. What about the real conservative leader?
00:40:41.340I've been hearing, I've been hearing, and I know you have from caucus members and staff who we will not name, and I've been asking them as I'm sure you have about what's the level he's got to get at his leadership review early in the new year.
00:40:58.340And then I'm being told north of 70, um, and that, that all that they're working on in the leader's offices you've written in our paper is leadership review.
00:41:09.860What's the latest you've heard on, on the future of Pierre Paulyev?
00:41:14.360Yeah. Well, I've been saying the 70 to 80% range for a while now. Um, you know, he can't go in and with the two thirds and say, it's okay. Uh, he can't show up.
00:41:25.240But what did Jason Kenney got? I, you know, technically you get 50% plus one, you can stick around, but I think Kenney got 56 and said, okay, I'm out.
00:41:35.500And, uh, by the way, I've, I've seen the guy lately, the former premier of Alberta, and he looks happier.
00:41:40.720It's amazing when you run into politicians who are no longer in active office and it's like, wow, you look happy and healthy.
00:41:46.900Uh, so, you know, speaking of that, bumped into Seamus O'Regan the other day here in Toronto, same thing.
00:41:56.280Um, so, you know, this is, uh, you know, the seven north of 70 is what he has to get.
00:42:02.900Um, they've, uh, calmed the, uh, um, the, the, the, the frantic panic that was happening after Chris Donchermann and Matt Jenneroo.
00:42:13.500Um, uh, you know, we didn't see that drama playing out over the last week in the house and they, um, announced a new campaign manager today.
00:42:24.620Uh, my, my exclusive in the sun is Steve Edhouse has taken over.
00:42:28.900He's just off of a big win in Newfoundland and Labrador.
00:42:32.280I know it's not a big province, but he's had wins in Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, helped on Nova Scotia's campaign, uh, helped on the failing Blaine Higgs.
00:42:42.160Uh, campaign in New Brunswick, uh, but, you know, like everyone in politics, as you know, you have a, a record of wins and losses.
00:42:50.740And lately it's been more wins than losses for Steve Edhouse.
00:42:54.320So he's taking over from Jenny Byrne at the start of December.
00:42:57.260And, you know, she's still around as an advisor.
00:43:01.060She's on the national council, but she's not going to run the campaign in the next election.
00:43:04.600I think that will help with, uh, a lot of caucus members as we head towards January.
00:43:10.720Look, he's going to win the, the leadership review.
00:43:14.480It's, does he win and keep caucus in February, in March, in April?
00:45:20.320Uh, I love the turn of phrase to use, uh, ensure you're not wasting sideways energy.
00:45:25.540Um, on small topics that you, you know what I'm talking about when you get into a campaign and somebody or some group in the party wants to go running off on their pet issue that does nothing to move votes forward.
00:45:38.900Um, so he's got to go in and take care of that.
00:45:41.600He did that really successfully for Danielle Smith in Alberta.
00:45:45.300Um, they were, you know, depending on the poll, eight, nine, 12 points back at the NDP just a few months before they won another majority.
00:45:54.040Uh, but I'd say one of the things they have to do, and I talked about this with, uh, Ian Brody in the last episode of Full Comment.
00:46:03.340I had Ian, who was Stephen Harper's former chief of staff, dealt with the Belinda Strong at War Crossing, dealt with the insanity of that.
00:46:10.160And then a few months later was his chief of staff as they won the election and took power for almost 10 years.
00:46:15.400And, and, and he said, look, the, going into the last campaign, Pierre was polling way ahead of his party.
00:46:24.040And, uh, so that's why the campaign was all about him.
00:47:03.060But my view is Donald Trump's not going to jail for the Epstein files, because if there had been something there, the Democrats, when they were in power, would have found a way to leak it.
00:47:12.300Do you think Joe Biden or Kamala Harris would have leaked that before November 5th?
00:48:19.020The peace proposal was authored by the U.S.
00:48:21.740It was offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations.
00:48:25.300It's based on input from the Russian side, but also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.
00:48:30.700So, like they're saying, this is not a final thing, but a place to start.
00:48:37.100I, um, I don't, I don't like the idea of Ukraine giving up land to Russia, but I look at the statement from the Coalition of the Willing, as Carney keeps calling it.
00:48:50.040And they say, we cannot accept that, uh, Russia would take land by force and this is unacceptable.
00:48:56.920And my thought was, okay, well, what are you going to do about it?
00:49:03.080You know, Ukraine has been fighting this war for four years on its own.
00:49:07.300Yes, we've all given assistance, but we haven't sent in troops.
00:49:24.660And, and so, you know, Europeans are not willing to go in there, um, and, and say that we're going to help Ukraine fight and win this war, then we're still at a stalemate.
00:49:39.940So I, I think, I don't see a, a credible situation where some land isn't surrendered.
00:49:49.840And by the way, we let them take Crimea in 2014 without, you know, doing anything above raising the voice slightly, which was our first mistake.
00:50:14.880Well, um, on that note, just want to let you know this week, as I mentioned to you, I've been hunting for, um, a smart, uh, kind of centrist, uh, woman commentator.
00:50:28.040And we've got Karema said is going to be joining us on a regular basis, you know, Karema and like her and know the work that she does.
00:50:35.780And, uh, so I've got her talking about the tractor story this week in Toronto.