🚫CTV TURNS On Carney Over Trump Meeting
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Summary
The Canadian PM is headed to Washington to meet with US President Donald Trump next week, and even CTV News admits it s not going to go well. Today's guest is Tom Mulroney, a political commentator and former leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada.
Transcript
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Carney's in serious trouble. He's set to meet with American President Donald Trump next week,
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and even the CTV admits it's not going to go well for him.
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Let's watch this clip, then stick around to the end for some commentary.
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All right, good to have you with us here. Breaking news as we follow this story out of
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Ottawa and out of Washington, D.C. Prime Minister Mark Carney will be heading to the U.S. Capitol
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next week, Tuesday, to try and find some kind of a trade deal with the United States
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amid Donald Trump's trade war against Canada. The Prime Minister will be meeting face-to-face
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with Donald Trump. This will actually be their second meeting since Mark Carney
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became Prime Minister. The two men are set to get along well. The President is set to
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like Mark Carney, and that often makes a difference when it comes to Trump and his
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sort of transactional style of politics. The reality, though, Canada dealing with a
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trade war through no fault of our own, targeting our steel, aluminum, car sectors,
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softwood, lumber, you name it. Former Foreign Affairs Minister Peter McKay was on our
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show earlier, talking a little bit about what this meeting might mean, and also Donald Trump's
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continued insults about Canada. Listen to this.
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As long as this continued reference to the 51st state remains foremost in the president's mind,
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this is not an atmosphere that is going to make these type of negotiations easy, and it's
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something that absolutely enrages Canadians and isn't going to happen.
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It does absolutely enrage Canadians, and it also enrages Tom Mulcair, who is my guest joining us
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from Quebec, CTV News political commentator, former leader of the NDP. Tom, good to see you.
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All right, so what's going to come of this meeting? What do you think?
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I go back to something that Carney said early on in this effort. He said, no deal is better than a
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bad deal. So if he's getting on a plane and flying to Washington, he has enough of an indication
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that there are a certain number of things within reach. You know, there were indications this week
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that we would somehow be opening up supply management on dairy and allowing American milk onto the shelves
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of Canadian grocery stores. Now, that's not the end of the world in and of itself, except for the fact
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that Parliament enacted something just before the summer is saying in any trade deal, you can't touch
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supply management. So the way they're trying to describe it is we're not really affecting supply
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management, but there would be more American milk. Anxious to see how that actually works. But it's the
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type of thing that has to be discussed. The Canadian forest product industry, the Canadian wood furniture
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industry are just getting pummeled, and these are big industries. And so we've got to start talking
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about it. And it has to dovetail with the eventual discussions around the renewal, because next year
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we have to renew the Canada-US-Mexico deal. So we can't go off in one direction where we couldn't
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bring the Mexicans because we want to be in lockstep with them. And we also want to be able to have
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something to build on next year and not upset the whole apple cart again, because it's the uncertainty
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and the chaos of Donald Trump more than anything else that's been hurting us.
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Some people might think, Tom, that the two leaders, you know, kind of get together and they hammer out a deal
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in person. But as you know, there's a whole lot of negotiating that happens in advance of a meeting
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of this type of thing. A lot of the hard stuff is dealt with before the two men are going to actually
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get together. And you're just indicating there that in order for Carney to go to Washington,
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it would seem possibly maybe that there's some kind of an off ramp to this trade deal. What do
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you think? Am I being naive? There would have to be. Yes, I don't think that Prime Minister Carney
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would be getting on a plane and flying to Washington. But believe it or not, Donald Trump actually does
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know quite a bit about negotiating and putting Carney on the plane and bringing him to Washington
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in Trump's worldview would be, OK, now I've got the sucker here and I can basically, you know,
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put in whatever I want. I think the two people primarily are responsible for moving this thing
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ahead. It's Dominic LeBlanc on the Canadian side. I think he's done sterling work. And Howard
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Lutnick on the American side. Of course, he's got to play the Trump game. But he's a heck of a lot
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smarter than Trump. And I think that he's got the ability to put something on the table
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that helps the Americans because, of course, that's his only job is to help Americans.
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But he's also understanding that what was done with Canada is having negative effects
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on American consumers, first and foremost. You know, you talk about increasing the price
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of wood. OK, so Trump says that's billions of dollars that drops, you know, drop into the
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conference of the U.S. Treasury. Fine. But who's paying that? It's not Canada. It's not
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the Canadian companies. It's American consumers. So you go to buy a house in the States and the
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price will have gone up 15 or 20 grand. You go to buy a Silverado pickup truck and the price has
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gone up five to seven grand because of what Trump has just put in place. So, yes, the immediate
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impact is money coming into the States and Americans say that's good for us. But then they realize that
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it's them who's paying it, not Canada, not Canadian companies, American consumers. It's taken a while,
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but that's starting to sink in. Other question for you. We know that the Canadian economy could be
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already in a recession. We know there's clearly a slowdown happening in the American economy as
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well. How much of a factor are those on what's happening here in this meeting between the two
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men? If there's one thing that Mark Carney knows better than any other leader in the G7, it's how
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economics work. And he understands that Canada is in a tough position right now. When Trudeau came
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to power, he said, well, money's cheap. I'm going to spend a lot more than what we're taking in. So
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deficit spending to the tune of 100 billion before the pandemic, because the liberals love talking about
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the pandemic, but a lot of their increased spending was before. Then we spent another half a trillion
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dollars or so overall that Trudeau had extra spending. And now we're facing another crisis,
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which is the tariff crisis with the Americans. And the cupboard is bare. We're heading for a massive
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deficit this year and no real plan to get to anything resembling a balanced budget anytime in
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the near future. So I have my own view of this because I fought for balanced budgets against Trudeau in
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2015. We didn't win. Trudeau won. And he got to spend all that money. But now we're paying a heavy
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price for it because you have to save something for the rainy day. And we had a massive series of
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rainy days with the pandemic. And now another rainy day with Trump. And we've got no ability to deal
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with it. If there's one person who can, it's Carney, because he's been talking to the big lenders in
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Europe, notably and saying, we're going to change our financial rules, our fiscal rules, our tax rules,
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we'll make life easier for you. We've got these big projects we want to build.
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That is a way of building a better and stronger economy for the future. That's what they keep
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calling transformational. And I buy into that. I think that that argument actually holds.
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Now the proof, of course, of the pudding is going to be in the eating. And we're going to see
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what we can get out of this meeting with Trump. And beyond that, start building new trade partnerships
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around the world and start building larger infrastructure projects to solidify our economy
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for the future. I think that's the right track.
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One final question. We never know how these meetings will go with Donald Trump. And as we
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know, with some other leaders, they can blow up spectacularly. Is there always a risk here for Mark
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Absolutely. And just going back to what we were saying, the very fact that he's bringing
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Carney into his den is from a Trump point of view. This is OK, I've got this guy here now.
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He's got to announce something so I can try to beat some more stuff out of him. That's the Trump
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way of dealing with things. He's been dealing with the world that way for 50 years. He's not
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about to change for us. So, yeah, I think that there are always dangers on this. You know, but I do
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think that there has to be a time for good faith. And if it's not with Donald Trump, because
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he's a serial liar, then it might be with Lutnik and with the more serious people in the
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U.S. Senate and in the House of Representatives, many of whom have, you know, they have areas of
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the country that are hurting themselves because of these tariffs. So I think that they've been
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able to talk up and explain, you know, a lot of Republicans are being hurt by this. Let's get a
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new deal. Tom Mulcair, a CTV News political commentator, former leader of the NDP, joining
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us from Quebec. Thanks for this, Tom. All the best. Have a great weekend, Tom. You as well.
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Now, of course, I don't agree with everything Mulcair said. However, I do agree that Mark
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Carney is unlikely to get a good deal with Donald Trump. Mark Carney promised us he would. He said
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he was the chosen one, the right one, the only one that could go down and get a deal with Trump.
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And now we've all learned that was a false promise. Quite frankly, I'm looking forward to
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Trump humiliating Carney again in front of the whole world. And that way, liberal voters can
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understand the mistake they made in voting for that clown. Now, of course, if we had Paulie Evan
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office, we'd have a good deal not only with Trump, but also with China. Instead, we have to deal with
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crippling tariffs, and that's on top of the out-of-control crime and immigration. But like
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I've said numerous times, I truly believe Carney's days are numbered. The good news? Mark Carney faces
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a no-confidence vote over the budget next month. I just put out a video about that, so if you haven't
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seen it, check it out after this one. Be patient. Have some faith. We'll have Paulie Evan office soon