Peter MacKay SLAMS Carney For Elbows Up 'Nonsense'
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Summary
Today, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met with US President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. to continue negotiations on a new trade deal between Canada and the United States. Peter McKay, a former Nova Scotia cabinet minister joins us to discuss what went down in the meeting.
Transcript
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Yesterday I made the prediction that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney would completely
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humiliate himself in today's meeting with American President Donald Trump. Looks like I was right.
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And on top of that, even CTV agrees with me. Now for my American viewers, CTV is essentially
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Canada's CNN. Let's take a look at that. The eyes of the nation were once again focused on
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Washington today as Prime Minister Mark Carney met face to face again with US President Donald
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Trump. They've gotten together a few times now and the meetings do seem to be fairly cordial and
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friendly, perhaps even more so today. Joining us tonight with his views on what's been happening,
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we're always happy to welcome former Nova Scotia cabinet minister Peter McKay. Thanks for finding
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some time for us tonight, Peter. Really appreciate it. Always a pleasure, Bruce. There was like a half
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hour long news conference in the Oval Office before today's working lunch. The president certainly did
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seem to be generous with his praise of Mark Carney. He called him a good man and a great negotiator,
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but added that he wants to be a great man too. There was significant pressure on Mr. Carney as soon
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as this trip was announced, because as you've noted, he was essentially elected because he was presumed to
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be the best man to negotiate with Donald Trump. So what do you think? Is it possible there might be a deal?
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Well, you know, hope burns eternal. And it was a very jovial discussion. There was a lot of
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joking, some to-ing and fro-ing. So that personal rapport is important. But, you know, to use that
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well-worn expression, the rubber hits the road when it comes to tariffs. As Prime Minister Carney was
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getting off the plane, the president was imposing more tariffs, not less. He put tariffs on trucks,
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heavy-duty and light-duty trucks. And that's, you know, in addition to what we've seen on steel,
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on softwood, on furniture, on copper. These tariffs are really starting to bite the Canadian
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economy, and they will continue to do so without some relief. At the same time, I'm just going to say
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that at the same time, the president's saying today, and I'm quoting here, I think they, meaning Canada,
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are going to walk away very happy, and the people of Canada will love us again. I don't know whether
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is that some kind of negotiating tactic? Well, yes, it is. And we've seen this type
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of rhetoric before, and the praise that he heaped on Prime Minister Carney, he actually said nice
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things about his predecessor as well. But it belayed the reality that there was a great deal of
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animosity and tension. And so it's very hard. It's sort of like a crocodile smile. We're waiting
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to see the tangible results of these meetings, these negotiations. And you can be sure, Bruce,
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that there's a lot of behind-the-scenes discussion that's happening. We've heard messaging from the
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ambassador to Canada, from the United States. We've heard other messaging from Dominic LeBlanc,
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who is central to all of this. But ultimately, this comes down to President Trump making the
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important decision that he is going to give Canada the type of trade deal that we had before,
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preferred access to their economy, the largest economy in the world. So much is riding on this.
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This is, you know, to use a baseball analogy, this is the second strike that we've had without
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anything coming out yet that we're aware of. I have to say, I agree with Peter McKay 100%.
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Mark Carney has been in office for seven months, and he hasn't got a deal with Donald Trump.
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He branded himself as the chosen one, the right one, the only person in Canadian politics that
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could get a deal with Donald Trump. But he's got nothing. And his voters,
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We need the prime minister to succeed. This isn't a partisan issue. This is about the Canadian economy
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and how we may wind up in a recession in the new year if we don't have some relief in an economy
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that is sputtering. Do you think the current stalemate in Washington over the government
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shutdown is playing a role in this? Like, you know, if you can't get domestic affairs moving,
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then let's deal with the foreign affairs for a while.
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There's no question that there is a great deal on the U.S. administration's plate. And Prime Minister
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Carney rightly pointed out and gave credit to what the president was trying to do in terms of foreign
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affairs, in the Middle East, in terms of other trade deals that he has been able to sign with
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many parts of the world, many allies, whether it's in the Asia Pacific, the European Union,
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the U.K. And by the way, Canada has trade, free trade with many of those countries, more,
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in fact, than the United States. We just haven't been able to capitalize on it to the same degree.
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We're a smaller economy. So diversifying trade is a good thing. But we can never really, you know,
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decouple ourselves from the United States. And so it's a fine line to walk. Plus, we've taken some
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steps that I think have caused some irritation in the administration. It was reflective of the mood
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in Canada. But this elbows up nonsense, quite frankly, quickly disappeared after the election.
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Did you hear that? CTV literally put out a segment where they admit that elbows up was nonsense. And
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of course it was. I mean, we already knew that. Canada was never in a good position to take that
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kind of stance with the United States. The only way forward that we could reasonably hope for is that
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we have a prime minister that goes down, makes a deal with Donald Trump, and gets him off our back.
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That was the only thing that we could do, right? And that's why I wanted Pauly Ev to win.
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Of course, there was quite a few reasons I liked Pauly Ev. But one of the biggest ones,
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especially in this election, was I truly believe he was uniquely suited to make a deal with Donald
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Trump. I also believe that if we had Pauly Ev in power, we'd already have a good deal not only with
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the United States, but also with China. Unfortunately, we have Carney, so we have neither. I truly believe
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that if there is a chosen one, a right one, the only one to deal with Donald Trump, that's pure Pauly Ev.
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Choosing to make a recognition of the Palestinian state, which went completely against
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U.S. policy and Canada's longstanding position, that was an irritant. So it's a very, very delicate
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dance that we have going on with the U.S. And the prime minister is looking for a way to,
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you know, to mix metaphors, thread multiple needles in a hurricane.
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Peter McKay is right on the money here. Of course, recognizing Palestine as a state
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during this tense trade negotiation was never a good idea. That was a dumb idea, to say the very
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least. This move does align with Carney's radical left-wing agenda. However, it does nothing to
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appease Donald Trump and to get a deal with him. Ironically, dumb moves like that are going to
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interfere with Carney's stated mission, his campaign promise, to get a good deal with Donald Trump.
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The irritants go both ways, though. As you well know, the whole 51st state
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thing has offended so many Canadians. And I think you told our friends at News Channel last week that
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while, you know, that offends a whole lot of people, it's probably not something being
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seriously discussed behind closed doors. But it, again, could be an effective bargaining tactic,
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if you say it publicly? I think it is a leverage and something that the president seemingly has
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fixated on. He has said this repeatedly in jest at times. But I think there is a part of him that
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really believes that the United States could expand. And he has said similar things about Greenland.
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I personally don't think it's ever going to happen, ever going to happen. And yet, the fact that he keeps
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bringing this up has caused, I think, a lot of discomfort. And it has made things more complicated
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because it offends people. It's caused Canadians to not go to the United States, to sell their property,
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to not buy American products. And that makes this mix even more difficult to sort out.
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I mostly agree with McKay here. There's a few things I want to add. Of course, we'll never really know what
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goes on inside Trump's head. But this is what I think is happening. I believe Trump said the 51st
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state thing as a joke at first. However, for whatever reason, he keeps repeating it. I do
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believe there's part of Trump that actually does want to take over Canada. And it's not uncommon for
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world leaders to develop imperialistic ambitions. So I wouldn't put that past Trump. And of course,
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there's a lot of conservatives in Canada, for whatever reason, actually do want to become the 51st
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state. Neither because they're tired of the liberal government, or because they just like America.
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Personally, I don't think Canada will ever be the 51st state. And I find it a bit annoying and a tad
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bit disrespectful that Trump keeps saying that. And I know that's Trump being Trump. But personally,
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as a patriot, I don't like it. First of all, it's not practical. Second of all, it's not even
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necessary. Pretty soon, we're going to have a conservative government. So there's no need to
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become the 51st state. And I truly believe that Trump has enough problems managing his own country.
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Some, you know, well, as you said, just a few minutes ago, and some industries and politicians
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on the other side of the house has warned that Carney has got to come home with something here,
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or there are going to be serious questions about how effective he actually is.
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What is the minimum he can bring home the very least in your mind?
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Well, I think it would be relief for some of the sectors in Canada, whether it's the steel,
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the metals, the softwood, you know, trucks, the auto sector, I think, is really under a lot of
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pressure in Ontario in particular. So some relief on one of those files, being able to have a signal
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that we are, in fact, actually back on track to renew the Canada-US-Mexico trade agreement,
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because that has also been thrown into question. And let's not forget for a moment that it was this
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president who actually opened up and then signed this new trade agreement. Mexico, interestingly,
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has been kind of quiet, and yet they have avoided some of the wrath and some of the rhetoric that
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we see coming from the president. But I would say that's a minimum, or the prime minister is going
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to increasingly come under pressure, not just by political opposition, but by many of these sectors
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and others who may feel threatened. Thankfully, the Atlantic Canadian fishery has not been won thus
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far, and we don't appear to be in the crosshairs of the president.
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Yeah, fingers crossed for sure. Peter, we're going to have to leave it there. Thank you so much for
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So there we go. We have Peter McKay on CTV, on live television, saying the quiet part out loud.
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Now, I will admit he's saying things a little bit nicer than I normally do,
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but that's the benefit I have. I don't rely on taxpayer handouts, and I'm capable of broadcasting
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by myself. Carney is slowly facing the music and the consequences of his bad decisions. CBC is turning
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on him. CTV is turning on him. Liberal MPs that work for him are unhappy, and at least one of them,
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Christopher Freeland, has quit. This is on top of the fact that Pierre Polyev's poll numbers keep
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rising, and Carney's numbers keep falling. This whole situation with Trump, I truly believe,
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is going to be the death blow the Liberal Party so desperately deserves. Nano shows promising poll
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numbers, with Carney and Polyev both tied for popularity. The numbers are only going to go up
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for Polyev, and they're only going to go down for con man Carney once people see the criminal,
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the idiot, the incompetent fool that he really is. Now, next month, like I've talked about before,
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there will be a no-confidence vote, specifically a vote on the budget. What that means is that if
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Parliament, the other MPs, don't like it, they can reject it, and it'll send Carney packing back to
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Europe where he belongs. Trump did a great job of making Carney look like a fool today, like he
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normally does. I truly believe it's only a matter of time before Carney either resigns or gets kicked
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out. Even if he doesn't get kicked out in November, he'll be kicked out pretty soon. I'm sure of that.
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It's only a matter of time before we get Polyev into office. Have a bit of faith. Have a little
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bit of patience. We'll get what we want very soon. Have a great night. Don't forget to like and