KINSELLACAST 404： Good times to be alive with Sa'd, Batra, Pierson, Lilley, Belanger - plus The Blasters, Lime Garden, Teen Mortgage, The Beths, Dropkick Murphys
00:00:00.000It's the Kinsella Cast, starring Warren Kinsella.
00:00:25.680Hey, it's Warren. Welcome to the Kinsella Cast.
00:00:28.340I am not in the Middle East. I am not in Israel, or Syria, or Lebanon, or Jordan, the other
00:00:37.160places where I was supposed to be. Because as you may have heard, there is a dispute happening
00:00:44.600there, and it's kind of hard to fly in. It's even harder to fly out, apparently. So that
00:00:52.300trip has been put off, kind of a drag. So I'm up at the cabin instead with the dogs, which
00:00:57.620is almost as good. And everything's melting. Snow's melting. It's just got that faintest
00:01:04.140whiff of spring in the air. It's kind of awesome. Got a kind of awesome show. Got the regulars,
00:01:12.280Brian Lilly, Karim Assad, Carl Belanger, talking about a lot of those events, talking about
00:01:18.520the war against and in Iran, talking about politics. And I've also got Alex Pearson and
00:01:26.480Adrian Batra, two sisters of mine, really great friends, talking about all kinds of stuff,
00:01:35.240including municipal politics, because some important things happened in the city of Toronto
00:01:40.340this weekend. I apologize to all my Calgary friends. Yes, I know you're sick of hearing
00:01:45.680about Toronto. Who can blame you? But there are some consequential things that happen in
00:01:53.180Toronto and some consequential things that happened in Toronto this week. So we're going
00:01:57.140to talk about that. I've also got some great music. So I've got Sydney's, the Blamers, good
00:02:03.540name, kicking things off with Cheap Shot, which it isn't. Then I've got the Baths, who are
00:02:11.680a New Zealand kind of indie rock pop band. They were formed in Auckland about a decade
00:02:17.680ago. And their main star is Elizabeth Stokes. And I had played them a couple years ago, if
00:02:26.020not longer. And then they got way too wimpy, in my opinion. But now I've got them back with
00:02:31.880an actual kind of rock song. I like, I like my music with meat hanging off of it, guys.
00:02:37.220I'm sorry. And case in point, Teen Mortgage. I have not seen Teen Mortgage. But man, am
00:02:42.960I looking forward to seeing them. Very, very excited. At the end of the month, they are going
00:02:49.280to be playing with Joyce fucking Manor and Military fucking Gun. And I am so stoked for
00:02:56.060this show. It is not even funny. Anyway, so I've got Teen Mortgage with their newest single
00:03:01.560song called Burn. Lime Garden. I've played before. They're from Brighton in England, not
00:03:09.940Ontario. And they are self-described wonk pop. And there's like pop in there and surf in
00:03:18.900there and disco. And this one that I'm going to play for you actually sounds kind of disco.
00:03:22.560And if you disapprove, I don't care. It's my show. Then I've got the dropkicks. And the
00:03:31.000dropkicks, as you may have heard, have become, along with Springsteen, the principal cultural
00:03:37.040opposition to Donald Trump with this amazing fucking song called Citizen Ice. And the lyrics
00:03:44.520are so perfect. I'm going to quote some of the lyrics to you. Calling all Americans a below
00:03:49.580average intelligence. Power hungry scumbags apply today. I haven't been laid in years.
00:03:57.020And I'm going to take it out. Take it. Take it out. I think take it out on you cheating
00:04:02.920motherfuckers. Come celebrate dictatorships and bolster the regime while abusing helpless
00:04:08.640immigrants. A bully's wet dream. You've joined the traitors ranks to play the hand of God in
00:04:15.020a scumbag grifter's kidnapping squad. Now that's punk rock, guys. That's punk rock.
00:04:23.580This week, so our documentary, so my book is out in ebook form, The Hidden Hand, and the
00:04:30.720hardcover will be out next month. And our documentary is going to start showing in the coming weeks.
00:04:37.800It's called The Campaign. It's about a similar subject. And in the documentary, we interview
00:04:41.840Leon Panetta, who is the former US Secretary of Defense. And he says at one point to us,
00:04:50.720this is a quote, leaders have to understand that when you send people into war, you better damn well
00:04:57.120have a very clear mission for what they're doing and why they're doing it. And if you constantly change
00:05:02.760that mission, that really begins to screw up what soldiers are thinking. The reason they're out there
00:05:08.340putting their lives on the line, it begins to hurt your own effort, end quote. And that, of course,
00:05:13.680is Donald Trump's main problem in the Iran-Israel-America war. Why did he give the order to
00:05:20.740attack? The mission's objective seems to change daily. Is it for regime change? Is it to stop Iran
00:05:28.300from developing nuclear weapons? Is it to stop the spread of terrorism and hate? Like any one of those
00:05:34.520reasons, guys, are laudable? They're important goals, in my opinion. And any one of them justifies the
00:05:41.180action the United States has taken against the maniacal monsters who presently rule Iran. So
00:05:49.600defining and defending the war is, is mostly Donald Trump's problem. Yes. But increasingly,
00:05:57.420it is Mark Carney's problem too. Even though Canada was not consulted before the United States and
00:06:04.600Israel started bombing Iran's rulers last weekend, even though we do not, to our knowledge, have a
00:06:11.740single military asset involved in the war, the war is not without consequence to our prime minister
00:06:17.660or our country. It is more and more a political problem. And it's a problem of Carney's own making,
00:06:24.000I think. Like immediately after Israel and America commenced their military action, Carney issued a
00:06:29.560statement on his letterhead. I'm going to quote a couple key lines to you. Quote,
00:06:35.220Canada's position remains clear. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the principal source of instability
00:06:42.420and terror throughout the Middle East, has one of the world's worst human rights records,
00:06:47.740and must never be allowed to obtain or develop nuclear weapons. Canada reaffirms Israel's right
00:06:55.140to defend itself and to ensure the security of its people. Canada supports the United States acting to
00:07:02.600prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening
00:07:09.080international peace and security. End quote. It was an astonishing statement to me for two reasons.
00:07:18.160One, it marked the first time I could recall Carney applauding Israel about anything. And number two,
00:07:25.500it unambiguously supported what Israel and the United States did. Quote, Canada's position remains clear.
00:07:32.640End quote. Well, not for long. Two days later, Carney seemed to completely reverse himself. He was speaking
00:07:40.800to the media in Australia, and he said, we, this quote again, we do, however, take this position with
00:07:47.680regret because the conflict, current conflict is another example of the failure of the international
00:07:52.500order. End quote. Okay, so you get that? From supporting the war, clearly, 48 hours earlier,
00:07:59.420to now saying he's doing so with regret, and then it's all a failure. Anyway, as bad as that was,
00:08:07.340Carney was not done. Two days after that about phase, he did it again. Asked by reporters in Australia,
00:08:15.340if he could foresee Canadian troops getting involved in the war, he sniffed that the question is
00:08:20.300hypothetical, and then added, one can never categorically rule out participation. And then
00:08:26.160subsequently, we've heard reports that they are in fact looking at military participation.
00:08:34.080You know, you, you can be clear on this stuff. You can like my former boss, Sean Kretz, yet,
00:08:39.900he did so exactly 23 years ago this month. He said Canada would not participate in another
00:08:46.640Middle Eastern war. George W. Bush's war on another dictator, Saddam Hussein. Quote,
00:08:52.660Canada will not participate. End quote. That's what Kretzian said on March 17th, 2003. That's all it
00:09:00.800took. Four words. Everybody knew where Kretzian and his government stood on that war. Mark Carney now?
00:09:08.040Not so much. His first statement was an important moment of moral clarity, and then he followed it up
00:09:15.000with a word salad of vacillation and qualification, and then followed that with yet another reversal,
00:09:20.800raising the prospect now of actual participation in the war. Canada is not a combatant in this war,
00:09:28.060but neither are we a mere bystander. On January 8th, 2020, actually 2002, I'm sorry,
00:09:35.320Iran shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 and murdered 85 Canadians. On October 7th,
00:09:45.140seven Canadians were slaughtered by Iran's proxy Hamas in Israel. On November 18th, 2024, former Liberal
00:09:54.140Cabinet Minister Erwin Kotler revealed that Iran had plotted to kill him, and on and on and on. For
00:10:00.780many years, Canadians have been targeted by terror plots that were funded and facilitated by Iran.
00:10:07.180So Canada may not be fighting in Iran at the moment, but we have stakes in the outcome. Iran has killed
00:10:15.320and wounded many Canadians and never paid a price for that. Our Prime Minister then should heed the
00:10:22.060words of Leon Panetta. In times of war, soldiers, as well as citizens, are owed a very clear statement
00:10:30.560about why the war is needed and what the objective is. They are owed clarity and transparency.
00:10:39.640Mark Carney, guys, has offered neither. And this week, he has hurt our country's reputation and his own.
00:10:47.480Mark Carney, guys, has found a good idea. And this week, USA, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia.
00:10:57.300You had the class, was it you did? I wish I knew. Chatting is real cheap? But so are you. Not talking truth, just chatting to a truck.
00:39:09.240So he's going to have to straighten out his messaging if he doesn't want public opinion to turn on him right now.
00:39:16.280So, and frankly, I think the worry will continue, and I think when the Americans and the Israelis are saying they're in there for the long haul,
00:39:52.300He said to me last week, he talks to a lot of Republicans, and he said that he thinks Trump is done if this thing goes to the midterms, and it might.
00:40:00.440So, one of the things that happens typically with Iran, and I've just written a book about this and got a documentary coming out about this,
00:40:09.620is the Iran's regime, whether you like it or not, are experts at asymmetric warfare,
00:40:15.780and not only sponsoring terrorism, but also propagandizing around the world.
00:40:22.200And, you know, we've now seen in Canada, in the past few days, three synagogues in Toronto,
00:40:31.060three synagogues have been shot up with high-velocity weapons, a Jewish restaurant woman who was actually a friend of mine,
00:41:57.960You can't do it after the fact too long, because you, you know, didn't seize the opportunity to express your solidarity with a specific community that's been targeted by hateful actions like that.
00:42:11.600So missed opportunity, something that, you know, is scant, should think about, and do better next time.
00:42:18.380My friend, I think I speak on behalf of a lot of Canadians, a lot of people, when I say, wish there were many more people like you in the new Democratic Party saying something like what you just said.
00:42:33.140It's welcome and needed, I think, at this time.
00:42:37.320It's a very difficult time for lots of people.
00:42:39.460So, my friend, have a great time with the remainder of your time there with your family, and have a safe trip back, and we can't wait to get you back.
01:09:11.800And, you know, it's like that old proposition.
01:09:13.520It's like you need positive change or more of the same.
01:09:16.940And that's why I think, you know, you've got this abacus out this morning and full disclosure, you know, I'm going to be supporting Brad if his name's on the ballot.
01:09:24.640Brad Bradford is doing exceptionally well already, according to abacus, because, you know, he's seen as an agent of change.
01:09:36.940Look, he has staked his claim, put his name out early, and he will stake his ground.
01:09:42.440Let me pause it there, because when I come back, I want to know what would be going on behind the scenes now, because I have a feeling there's a lot of conversations going on about now what?
01:09:51.720Now that Tory is officially out, who else could come in?
01:09:54.920Because it's hard to think that it'll be a two-person race.
01:09:58.160And then again, it comes down to Olivia Chow's record, right, because she's going to have to run on that.
01:10:02.640We're talking to Warren Kinsella, along with Adrian Batra.
01:10:05.740They've got a perspective very, very few have, being the flies on the wall.
01:10:10.080They're not flies, but they have been the flies on the wall.
01:10:12.200They know what conversations happen and what we could see as this field, I think, emerges.
01:10:17.820And, you know, will this wake up other municipalities also, maybe looking for change?
01:10:22.380We're going to talk about that in just a sec.
01:10:24.040Stay with us here on The Alex Pearson Show.
01:10:32.640And this poll was done at the end of January, so it was before, you know, the city woke up to news that Mr. Tory will not be on the ballot.
01:10:39.720I do think that far more of those who would have voted for him are going to look for someone other than Ms. Chow, because they would have had that choice.
01:10:47.800And all the polling we had up till now has shown, you know, it was close between Ms. Chow and Mr. Tory, but Bradford was gaining,
01:10:55.940as people were looking even for a change outside of the two people who have been in Toronto politics for so long.
01:11:02.960And so I think this is really, yeah, if you're, you know, supporters or, you know, the mayor herself,
01:11:09.800I think you wake up this morning seeing a very different political landscape and one in which the choice is probably becoming more and more clear for voters,
01:11:18.660even months before the official campaign begins.
01:11:21.880That is the voice of David Coletto over at Abacus Data, and he is talking to Greg Brady of Toronto today about polling that was done on this mayoral campaign in Toronto of what would happen if a mayor Tory or a mayor Chow runs,
01:11:39.760and then what if a guy like Brad Bradfordson, and his polling was done back at the end of January, right?
01:11:45.000So it's interesting to see what he found as we talked to Adrian Batra and Warren Kinsella,
01:11:49.780because the findings are that once you take Tory out of the race, Chow has an actual competition on her hands.
01:11:56.440Look, a day in politics is an eon, but how do you see Batra this race then, you know, gearing up?
01:12:03.180What are the conversations that would be had today, and who do you see as some players?
01:12:07.260Like, I see, like, maybe a Marco Mendicino might want to run.
01:12:10.420Like, there are a lot of people that maybe want to throw their hand at it, but how do you see,
01:12:14.680what do those conversations look like today, and how do you see things shaping up?
01:12:18.700Well, I think anybody on the center or center-right that's considering going in,
01:12:23.780that puts Chow in a far better position to be re-elected.
01:12:28.900I don't know if she's going to have a contender on the left, so to speak.
01:17:12.760Look, I don't know if Doug Ford weighing in on the city of Toronto race would sway many voters, maybe in certain areas, perhaps Scarborough, Etobicoke areas.
01:20:09.660And we know that her property tax increase was absolutely, this year, was because of the election.
01:20:16.180But let's not, lest we forget what happened last year and the year before.
01:20:19.480Almost double-digit tax, property tax increases, which ironically makes her supporters the most vulnerable when it comes to affordability in Toronto.
01:20:30.360But that said, you know, it's critical about who's elected on council as well because strong mayor powers can go so far, but, you know, you'd be loathe to exercise it all the time.
01:20:46.660So it's almost as important about who gets elected on council in addition to who's mayor.
01:20:52.360So let's see if those other organizations that are rivaling Progress Toronto are getting flights of people and voices together to get them elected.
01:21:01.960I'm up against the clock as you can hear the playoff music.