CTV Panelists Turn On Carney (AGAIN) Over Budget
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Summary
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's Budget was so bad, so poorly done, that even CTV is calling a moat over it. Did the speech hit the mark or miss the mark, and how will political parties position themselves ahead of the budget?
Transcript
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's speech about the budget was so bad, so poorly done,
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that even CTV is calling a moat over it. Let's take a look at that, then stick around to the
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end for some commentary. Did the speech hit the right marks and how will political parties
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position themselves ahead of the budget? Let's bring in our front bench. Former BC Premier
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Christy Clark is here. She's now a senior advisor with Bennett Jones. Marco Medicino is former
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Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Mark Carney, as well as a former Liberal Cabinet Minister.
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CTV political analyst and former Conservative Industry Minister James Moore is with us. He's
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now a policy advisor at Edelman. And Tony Clement served in senior roles in Conservative Prime
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Minister Stephen Harper's cabinet. He's now CEO of Tony Clement International. Hi, everybody.
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Really nice to see you tonight. Thanks for making the time. James, I'll start with you because
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we were together last night watching the speech live on TV and sort of had our initial reactions.
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You've had a day to kind of digest it. We saw what the reaction was from the opposition today.
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Ultimately, what, Mark, do you think this speech did or didn't leave?
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Well, I'll give it a letter grade. I suppose it was a C. It lacked both sizzle and steak. Wasn't a bad
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speech, but I think it was mostly forgotten by the time most people brushed their teeth before bed
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last night. And nobody's talking about it today. So it was a missed opportunity. When you raise the
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expectation of having a primetime speech in the Eastern time zone anyway, a primetime speech where
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you tell people, you know, the budget's coming up. It's a watershed budget. We've been hyping up the
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importance of this budget, what it means for Canada, given our threats from President Trump. And
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here we go. And then you deliver a speech that was mostly a lot of the same stuff and not a lot of
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zip to it. I think it was a bit of a missed moment. There were no, there was no bad moment in the speech,
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but there was just no captivating moment that I think people can cling on to and repeat through
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social circles and say, you know, this is a really special thing. So a missed moment, but not a bad
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All right, let me quickly translate that for you. What he's saying is that Carney's speech was really
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bad. However, he's paid to say good things about him. So we can't say that directly. That's basically
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what he's saying. The fact of the matter is that Carney's speech sucked and even liberals, the left,
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they're embarrassed because of it. Before we go any further, I want to let you know my videos are
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being heavily censored. So if you see this part, like subscribe and let me know whether you saw this
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in the comment section. Thanks. The opposition today in the conservatives, Christy, have really
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gleaned on to the message around sacrifice and the fact that it was made at the University of Ottawa to
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a mostly younger audience. And you see that sort of positioning from the conservatives that we saw a
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lot during the campaign, which was, you know, talking very specifically to that cohort of Canadians
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who feel very, you know, not able to get ahead and, you know, not that there are not jobs out there
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and sort of criticizing the prime minister on that point specifically. Why do you think that's
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what they went after? Well, I mean, there's no doubt that young people are, a lot of them voted for
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the conservatives under Pierre Polyev and they were hoping for, you know, something different than
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they got. So there's no doubt that the conservatives would want to exploit the speech and talk about,
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you know, how the sacrifice, they shouldn't have to sacrifice. Well, seriously, did anybody think
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that Pierre Polyev wasn't going to be cutting a lot of programs that might benefit young people?
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And I think that's what Carney was talking about. And James and I would disagree a little bit about
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this, I think. I think it was very unusual for any prime minister to stand up there. This hasn't
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happened in over a decade. The senators say, hey, listen, it's not all roses out there. This is going
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to be really tough. And there is going to be some sacrifice required. It is a very tough message for a
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politician to bring. But I think it was really important that he bring it because that is exactly
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what we are facing after 10 years of a smothered economy. And now we're facing all the terrorists
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from the United States. So he has no easy task. I'm not at all surprised that he's trying to lower
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expectations. On the other hand, though, I would say, Vashi, he talks about jobs and they are going to
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be spending a lot of money. And people can argue about that, too. But the thing is, they'll be
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spending that money trying to create jobs by building big infrastructure. So I think he's
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right to disabuse people of the notion that this is all going to be easy. It isn't. But it wouldn't
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have been easy for any government in any case. What do you think, Marco, is the message that the
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prime minister and the government is trying to telegraph two weeks out from the budget about what it is
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supposed to be? That we're living in a time of great change and transition. And as a result,
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we are going to have to make some tough choices. But that there is a silver lining. And that silver
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lining is each other through our skills, our smarts, and ultimately our solidarity. And I think if there
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is one principle that is sort of divulged by the set of remarks, it's coming back to building one
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Canadian economy. I want to pick up on the two points that my colleagues James and Christy made. I do
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think that there was a moment here. And that moment was to level with Canadians broadly and more
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specifically with young people who have been disproportionately impacted by the turmoil in the
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economy in the form of higher unemployment. The number one criticism that politicians hear all the
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time is that there's just too much BS. And so I think that the prime minister was trying to cut
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through that and say that there is this budget that's coming up, that there will be some tough choices
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that need to be made, but that we are going to invest. We're going to invest by getting our energy
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to market. We're going to invest by doing some things around making housing more affordable,
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particularly for young people. And we're going to invest in you. And that is the scene setting
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point of last night. Now, I acknowledge that you didn't get the exclamation mark and it wasn't
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punctuated by clear resolution. That's what the budget is about. But we are talking about it,
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I would say, with respect to James. And I think that that was also the point is getting people
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to pay attention ahead of the budget. So I do think it was a moment and it was a moment that
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was captured by the prime minister. Well, I'm forcing the discussion just to be
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I'm teasing. Tony, what are your thoughts? Just jumping off what Marco said. I mean,
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if that is what the government hoped the message was, do you think that is the message that landed
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for people who did watch the speech? Well, I think we'll know where it lands on November 4th.
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Really, this was a setup for the budget. Not a lot. I mean, I remember that commercial,
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that Wendy's commercial, Where's the Beef? You're all too young for that commercial,
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but I remember it. But so I think we do have to see some sacrifice. What does that mean?
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What sort of sacrifice? Who's making the sacrifice? Investments? What sort of investments?
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Who is going to be in charge of those investments? And is that the private sector?
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Is it the public sector a combination? These are all unanswered questions. So I think that,
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sure, the prime minister wants to speak to a wider audience in anticipation of the budget. I get that.
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He wants to set the table. But really, we want to see what the meal is.
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I thought what was interesting, today they held a press conference, Premier Ford, pardon me,
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and Prime Minister Carney James. And one of the questions from a reporter was exactly what
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Tony just laid out. What does sacrifice actually, what is it in reference to when you talk about
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sort of restraint or the operating budget? What are we looking at? And it was, there weren't many
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details provided, but what I did glean from it was, it wasn't necessarily, oh, there will be programs
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that are cut. It's just that he intimated that programs and certain projects would not accelerate
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or expand to the degree he said that they would like them to. So that was the only kind of,
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you know, specific piece of information that was added today. What do you take from that?
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Yeah, look, I like the, actually, I prefer the way in which Marco articulated the dynamic in front
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of us than, frankly, than the prime minister did last night about sort of sending a flare up into the
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night sky and saying, you know, there are some tough times ahead of us, but a dawn awaits.
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And so I think that's important. But look, the prime minister, he's also captured, and there's
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some sympathy, I think, here that's owed, right? He is still captured by the realities of a minority
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parliament. You know, six out of the last eight federal elections have yielded minority parliaments,
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which handcuffs him from making, frankly, some of the bold decisions that are necessary
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in order to right the ship. There was a report that came out today by the chief economist of the
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National Bank where they pointed out that Canada's manufacturing sector is now smaller than that
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of Ireland. Ireland, a country of about five and a half million people. Our manufacturing base has
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shrunk. And then we have the Spelantis decision. We have the Peterbilt decision. We have a lot of
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really challenging economic dynamics in front of us. And I think a dispassionate, substantive,
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and thoughtful prime minister just sort of saying, these are tough times. Tougher times are probably
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ahead. The president of the United States has clearly declared an economic war on Canada. We're
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trying to mitigate that the best we can. But we're going to have to work together as a government and
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citizens to make sure that we look out for each other and we have better days ahead. And we're doing
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everything we can to get that done. But the reality is, of course, in a budget is you have to make
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some decisions. And this minority parliament, I think, is going to create challenges for the
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prime minister that he's going to find very frustrating. They'll sort of pivot him away from
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having to make some of the broader, more sweeping changes that are necessary. Prime Minister
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Christian had the virtue of a clear majority parliament in 1995 to deliver that watershed budget.
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And he had a fractured conservative opposition. So he had a clear runway in front of him
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to do a lot of things and have two years to recover from it politically and go into the
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1997 campaign. Mark Carney doesn't have that kind of room in front of him. So how he does
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this budget and how he politically manoeuvres is going to be one of the unique and critical
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challenges of, frankly, maybe the last half century of Canadian politics.
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Your colleagues are all nodding as you say that. Christy, I have about 30 seconds left. The last word
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on that to you. How big of a challenge do you think that will be?
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I think Canadians are more ready for it than we think. And I think that young Canadians
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we're underestimating them if we think that they don't know that this is all going to be hard.
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They're facing AI powered by quantum. It's not easy for them already. I actually think the young
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people's expectations are lower now than they might have been, you know, 10, 15 years ago.
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And he's trying to speak to that. So I've delivered a bunch of budget speeches where I've had to say,
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you know what, this isn't going to be all shits and giggles here, folks. This is going to be tough.
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And I think, you know, in, in my experience of that, people understand what life is like out
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there. They understand how hard it is. So I think it's always hard to navigate these things,
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but it's necessary. And I think that the Canadians that voted for Mark Carney understood that they
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were doing so believing that he would do what was necessary.
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Now I have to point out the mainstream media has been taking a really peculiar approach as of late.
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They've been attacking Polyev nonstop over non-issues. And then for some reason,
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they're also attacking Carney. But I think there's a method to their madness. Let me explain.
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It really seems like the mainstream media is hedging their bets. On one hand,
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they want to attack Polyev and make sure he doesn't get into office. On the other hand,
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they're also trying to cover their asses in case Polyev gets in and tries to cut their funding.
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That's what I think is going on. I truly believe that Carney is not going to last very long.
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He's pretty early in his term and you already have CTV putting out hit pieces on him.
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Think about that for a sec. Like I've said a million times,
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it's only a matter of time before Carney is out of office. Minority governments never last
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and Carney's government, it should not be an exception. I don't think it will.
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Once again, I want to give a huge shout out to my members, especially Patriot level member,
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Mary Lou Cleveland. She's a great lady. If you see her in the comment section, be nice to her.
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But on top of that, I want to thank anyone. Anyone that's watched my videos,
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liked my videos, commented on my videos, shared my videos. I appreciate every single one of you.
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This is a team effort and I'm glad to have you all around. Have a great weekend.
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I'll talk to you either tomorrow or on Sunday. Cheers.