Mark Slapinski

00:00:00.000 Yesterday I made the prediction that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney would completely

00:00:04.080 humiliate himself in today's meeting with American President Donald Trump. Looks like I was right.

00:00:09.740 And on top of that, even CTV agrees with me. Now for my American viewers, CTV is essentially

00:00:15.360 Canada's CNN. Let's take a look at that. The eyes of the nation were once again focused on

00:00:20.340 Washington today as Prime Minister Mark Carney met face to face again with US President Donald

00:00:25.740 Trump. They've gotten together a few times now and the meetings do seem to be fairly cordial and

00:00:31.420 friendly, perhaps even more so today. Joining us tonight with his views on what's been happening,

00:00:37.000 we're always happy to welcome former Nova Scotia cabinet minister Peter McKay. Thanks for finding

00:00:41.820 some time for us tonight, Peter. Really appreciate it. Always a pleasure, Bruce. There was like a half

00:00:47.240 hour long news conference in the Oval Office before today's working lunch. The president certainly did

00:00:53.540 seem to be generous with his praise of Mark Carney. He called him a good man and a great negotiator,

00:00:59.080 but added that he wants to be a great man too. There was significant pressure on Mr. Carney as soon

00:01:04.840 as this trip was announced, because as you've noted, he was essentially elected because he was presumed to

00:01:09.920 be the best man to negotiate with Donald Trump. So what do you think? Is it possible there might be a deal?

00:01:17.240 Well, you know, hope burns eternal. And it was a very jovial discussion. There was a lot of

00:01:25.060 joking, some to-ing and fro-ing. So that personal rapport is important. But, you know, to use that

00:01:31.780 well-worn expression, the rubber hits the road when it comes to tariffs. As Prime Minister Carney was

00:01:37.100 getting off the plane, the president was imposing more tariffs, not less. He put tariffs on trucks,

00:01:43.700 heavy-duty and light-duty trucks. And that's, you know, in addition to what we've seen on steel,

00:01:48.920 on softwood, on furniture, on copper. These tariffs are really starting to bite the Canadian

00:01:56.220 economy, and they will continue to do so without some relief. At the same time, I'm just going to say

00:02:02.760 that at the same time, the president's saying today, and I'm quoting here, I think they, meaning Canada,

00:02:08.440 are going to walk away very happy, and the people of Canada will love us again. I don't know whether

00:02:13.300 is that some kind of negotiating tactic? Well, yes, it is. And we've seen this type

00:02:20.160 of rhetoric before, and the praise that he heaped on Prime Minister Carney, he actually said nice

00:02:25.780 things about his predecessor as well. But it belayed the reality that there was a great deal of

00:02:32.240 animosity and tension. And so it's very hard. It's sort of like a crocodile smile. We're waiting

00:02:38.200 to see the tangible results of these meetings, these negotiations. And you can be sure, Bruce,

00:02:45.060 that there's a lot of behind-the-scenes discussion that's happening. We've heard messaging from the

00:02:51.520 ambassador to Canada, from the United States. We've heard other messaging from Dominic LeBlanc,

00:02:57.920 who is central to all of this. But ultimately, this comes down to President Trump making the

00:03:04.120 important decision that he is going to give Canada the type of trade deal that we had before,

00:03:10.240 preferred access to their economy, the largest economy in the world. So much is riding on this.

00:03:16.780 This is, you know, to use a baseball analogy, this is the second strike that we've had without

00:03:22.160 anything coming out yet that we're aware of. I have to say, I agree with Peter McKay 100%.

00:03:28.160 Mark Carney has been in office for seven months, and he hasn't got a deal with Donald Trump.

00:03:32.820 He branded himself as the chosen one, the right one, the only person in Canadian politics that

00:03:39.580 could get a deal with Donald Trump. But he's got nothing. And his voters,

00:03:44.140 they're not going to be happy about that one.

00:03:45.980 We need the prime minister to succeed. This isn't a partisan issue. This is about the Canadian economy

00:03:51.360 and how we may wind up in a recession in the new year if we don't have some relief in an economy

00:03:58.160 that is sputtering. Do you think the current stalemate in Washington over the government

00:04:04.360 shutdown is playing a role in this? Like, you know, if you can't get domestic affairs moving,

00:04:09.800 then let's deal with the foreign affairs for a while.

00:04:12.480 There's no question that there is a great deal on the U.S. administration's plate. And Prime Minister

00:04:18.240 Carney rightly pointed out and gave credit to what the president was trying to do in terms of foreign

00:04:24.240 affairs, in the Middle East, in terms of other trade deals that he has been able to sign with

00:04:30.100 many parts of the world, many allies, whether it's in the Asia Pacific, the European Union,

00:04:36.520 the U.K. And by the way, Canada has trade, free trade with many of those countries, more,

00:04:43.860 in fact, than the United States. We just haven't been able to capitalize on it to the same degree.

00:04:48.360 We're a smaller economy. So diversifying trade is a good thing. But we can never really, you know,

00:04:55.380 decouple ourselves from the United States. And so it's a fine line to walk. Plus, we've taken some

00:05:01.520 steps that I think have caused some irritation in the administration. It was reflective of the mood

00:05:07.880 in Canada. But this elbows up nonsense, quite frankly, quickly disappeared after the election.

00:05:13.860 Did you hear that? CTV literally put out a segment where they admit that elbows up was nonsense. And

00:05:21.660 of course it was. I mean, we already knew that. Canada was never in a good position to take that

00:05:26.480 kind of stance with the United States. The only way forward that we could reasonably hope for is that

00:05:32.500 we have a prime minister that goes down, makes a deal with Donald Trump, and gets him off our back.

00:05:37.800 That was the only thing that we could do, right? And that's why I wanted Pauly Ev to win.

00:05:41.940 Of course, there was quite a few reasons I liked Pauly Ev. But one of the biggest ones,

00:05:46.660 especially in this election, was I truly believe he was uniquely suited to make a deal with Donald

00:05:51.280 Trump. I also believe that if we had Pauly Ev in power, we'd already have a good deal not only with

00:05:56.940 the United States, but also with China. Unfortunately, we have Carney, so we have neither. I truly believe

00:06:02.820 that if there is a chosen one, a right one, the only one to deal with Donald Trump, that's pure Pauly Ev.

00:06:08.980 Now, CTV will never admit it, but I will.

00:06:11.940 Choosing to make a recognition of the Palestinian state, which went completely against

00:06:16.240 U.S. policy and Canada's longstanding position, that was an irritant. So it's a very, very delicate

00:06:23.400 dance that we have going on with the U.S. And the prime minister is looking for a way to,

00:06:29.660 you know, to mix metaphors, thread multiple needles in a hurricane.

00:06:33.620 Peter McKay is right on the money here. Of course, recognizing Palestine as a state 0.91

00:06:38.480 during this tense trade negotiation was never a good idea. That was a dumb idea, to say the very 0.96

00:06:44.220 least. This move does align with Carney's radical left-wing agenda. However, it does nothing to 0.99

00:06:49.340 appease Donald Trump and to get a deal with him. Ironically, dumb moves like that are going to 0.99

00:06:54.560 interfere with Carney's stated mission, his campaign promise, to get a good deal with Donald Trump. 0.98

00:06:59.400 The irritants go both ways, though. As you well know, the whole 51st state

00:07:05.260 thing has offended so many Canadians. And I think you told our friends at News Channel last week that

00:07:11.080 while, you know, that offends a whole lot of people, it's probably not something being

00:07:15.860 seriously discussed behind closed doors. But it, again, could be an effective bargaining tactic,

00:07:21.100 if you say it publicly? I think it is a leverage and something that the president seemingly has

00:07:27.460 fixated on. He has said this repeatedly in jest at times. But I think there is a part of him that

00:07:35.580 really believes that the United States could expand. And he has said similar things about Greenland.

00:07:42.460 I personally don't think it's ever going to happen, ever going to happen. And yet, the fact that he keeps

00:07:48.140 bringing this up has caused, I think, a lot of discomfort. And it has made things more complicated

00:07:55.500 because it offends people. It's caused Canadians to not go to the United States, to sell their property,

00:08:01.080 to not buy American products. And that makes this mix even more difficult to sort out.

00:08:06.640 I mostly agree with McKay here. There's a few things I want to add. Of course, we'll never really know what

00:08:11.560 goes on inside Trump's head. But this is what I think is happening. I believe Trump said the 51st

00:08:16.460 state thing as a joke at first. However, for whatever reason, he keeps repeating it. I do

00:08:21.580 believe there's part of Trump that actually does want to take over Canada. And it's not uncommon for

00:08:26.140 world leaders to develop imperialistic ambitions. So I wouldn't put that past Trump. And of course,

00:08:31.420 there's a lot of conservatives in Canada, for whatever reason, actually do want to become the 51st

00:08:35.820 state. Neither because they're tired of the liberal government, or because they just like America.

00:08:40.940 Personally, I don't think Canada will ever be the 51st state. And I find it a bit annoying and a tad

00:08:46.420 bit disrespectful that Trump keeps saying that. And I know that's Trump being Trump. But personally,

00:08:51.500 as a patriot, I don't like it. First of all, it's not practical. Second of all, it's not even

00:08:57.180 necessary. Pretty soon, we're going to have a conservative government. So there's no need to

00:09:01.000 become the 51st state. And I truly believe that Trump has enough problems managing his own country.

00:09:05.700 He doesn't need to interfere in our politics.

00:09:09.020 Some, you know, well, as you said, just a few minutes ago, and some industries and politicians

00:09:14.940 on the other side of the house has warned that Carney has got to come home with something here,

00:09:20.240 or there are going to be serious questions about how effective he actually is.

00:09:24.760 What is the minimum he can bring home the very least in your mind?

00:09:28.020 Well, I think it would be relief for some of the sectors in Canada, whether it's the steel,

00:09:34.600 the metals, the softwood, you know, trucks, the auto sector, I think, is really under a lot of

00:09:40.160 pressure in Ontario in particular. So some relief on one of those files, being able to have a signal

00:09:48.820 that we are, in fact, actually back on track to renew the Canada-US-Mexico trade agreement,

00:09:56.880 because that has also been thrown into question. And let's not forget for a moment that it was this

00:10:02.180 president who actually opened up and then signed this new trade agreement. Mexico, interestingly,

00:10:09.160 has been kind of quiet, and yet they have avoided some of the wrath and some of the rhetoric that

00:10:15.380 we see coming from the president. But I would say that's a minimum, or the prime minister is going

00:10:20.460 to increasingly come under pressure, not just by political opposition, but by many of these sectors

00:10:26.380 and others who may feel threatened. Thankfully, the Atlantic Canadian fishery has not been won thus

00:10:31.900 far, and we don't appear to be in the crosshairs of the president.

00:10:35.340 Yeah, fingers crossed for sure. Peter, we're going to have to leave it there. Thank you so much for

00:10:39.500 your time tonight. Always appreciate it.

00:10:41.520 So there we go. We have Peter McKay on CTV, on live television, saying the quiet part out loud.

00:10:47.420 Now, I will admit he's saying things a little bit nicer than I normally do,

00:10:51.640 but that's the benefit I have. I don't rely on taxpayer handouts, and I'm capable of broadcasting

00:10:56.920 by myself. Carney is slowly facing the music and the consequences of his bad decisions. CBC is turning

00:11:03.820 on him. CTV is turning on him. Liberal MPs that work for him are unhappy, and at least one of them,

00:11:10.100 Christopher Freeland, has quit. This is on top of the fact that Pierre Polyev's poll numbers keep

00:11:14.780 rising, and Carney's numbers keep falling. This whole situation with Trump, I truly believe,

00:11:20.680 is going to be the death blow the Liberal Party so desperately deserves. Nano shows promising poll

00:11:26.000 numbers, with Carney and Polyev both tied for popularity. The numbers are only going to go up

00:11:30.760 for Polyev, and they're only going to go down for con man Carney once people see the criminal, 1.00

00:11:35.920 the idiot, the incompetent fool that he really is. Now, next month, like I've talked about before, 1.00

00:11:40.780 there will be a no-confidence vote, specifically a vote on the budget. What that means is that if

00:11:46.080 Parliament, the other MPs, don't like it, they can reject it, and it'll send Carney packing back to

00:11:51.660 Europe where he belongs. Trump did a great job of making Carney look like a fool today, like he 0.96

00:11:57.140 normally does. I truly believe it's only a matter of time before Carney either resigns or gets kicked 0.99

00:12:02.700 out. Even if he doesn't get kicked out in November, he'll be kicked out pretty soon. I'm sure of that.

00:12:08.320 It's only a matter of time before we get Polyev into office. Have a bit of faith. Have a little

00:12:13.860 bit of patience. We'll get what we want very soon. Have a great night. Don't forget to like and

00:12:19.160 subscribe. Talk to you all tomorrow.

Peter MacKay SLAMS Carney For Elbows Up 'Nonsense'

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