Off the Record - Liberals in panic mode

00:00:00.000 big candidate plans there andrew uh i might actually use the smoker for the first time

00:00:04.880 this year i am going to get pork i tried to get pork shoulder today and they didn't have it but

00:00:08.800 tomorrow i'm told they will have it in stock so i'm going to make some pulled pork uh is it somehow

00:00:14.480 justin trudeau's fault that there's no pork shoulder is it just you know that's what we

00:00:18.480 like to do out in alberta blame him for any problem he's why we don't have water i would

00:00:23.120 say that a shortage of pork is never something that could be blamed on justin trudeau

00:00:26.400 unless they've used it all yes yeah fair enough you uh you probably are uh like like are you guys

00:00:34.080 how's your water situation isaac are you like worried about your water mains busting or is

00:00:37.840 that like just a calgary specific problem not something that has even crossed my mind uh

00:00:42.720 yeah i think it's just calgary's problem that uh calgary infrastructure had to at its best

00:00:49.840 all right let's get this show on the road

00:00:59.120 hello and welcome to another edition of off the record june 28 2024 it is friday kick back relax

00:01:07.040 this is the point in the week where we like to i was going to say relax ourselves and then i look at

00:01:12.320 isaac wearing a three-piece suit with a tie uh well william and i just like threw on whatever was you

00:01:18.560 know hanging nearby for this so i'm i'm uh not sure if you dressed up for off the record or if

00:01:23.200 you've just like come back from serving batman or something but uh either way i'm andrew lotten

00:01:27.920 hosting things for the next little bit joined by isaac lamaroo true north reporter and also our chief

00:01:33.200 operations officer william mcbeth both holding down the western fort there in their respective

00:01:39.120 communities but uh isaac william welcome happy to be here me as well did you dress up on our account

00:01:45.920 isaac i did i figured if i was to be sitting with two titans of industry i should at least dress the

00:01:51.120 part and you want us back what time will they be showing up these titans uh how's how's your water

00:01:58.960 uh do you have water again william are you you resigned to like you know you get like nine and

00:02:02.960 a half seconds for a shower or something yeah you know periodically running down to the river just to

00:02:07.360 pick up a pot no uh we haven't really run out of water we're being asked to conserve water so we don't

00:02:13.280 run out but there was a glimmer of hope the mayor says uh we might have it all back for for canada

00:02:18.000 today so uh wouldn't that be nice to be able to to once again freely use clean drinkable water as we

00:02:24.880 want i water is not an issue here but i had a uh tornado warning yesterday and i got the like alert

00:02:32.560 on my phone and it was just before i was about to go on air actually and the weird thing was that i

00:02:36.960 didn't actually need the warning because i could just hear for the 30 minutes before that like things

00:02:40.400 like smacking up against my house like and then i walk outside and like my trees are like half just

00:02:45.600 on the pavement so it wasn't no it wasn't like you know like a house smacking up against my house it

00:02:49.760 wasn't that bad it was just uh it was very very windy but um anyway not as bad a storm as what the

00:02:55.600 liberals had to face in toronto saint paul's this has been a bit of a recurring theme in true north

00:03:01.120 coverage over the last week but it's off the record we're a bit of a week in review in some ways so

00:03:06.000 i wanted to talk about what really happened at least according to the health minister for the

00:03:10.880 liberals mark holland um thank you very much i will point out just the record it was not hypothetical

00:03:17.280 for 40 000 people in toronto saint paul's on monday um they did actually make a decision so let me

00:03:22.720 take let me take the uh the first part of what you said because you're right people in saint paul's

00:03:26.480 made a decision and we're responding to that but i i think that people in saint paul's knew they

00:03:30.560 weren't changing the government they were saying we're upset at the world right now people i knocked

00:03:36.080 on those doors i didn't hear anybody saying i love pierre pauliev's plan for the country because

00:03:40.720 he doesn't have one you know uh he's reflected the anger that exists in the world well well done

00:03:46.240 you know where are people happy in the world right now it's a tough time to be alive as a human being

00:03:51.600 um and you know so that that that was about frustration of being able to express it without

00:03:56.480 changing governments and i understand that and that message is heard loud and clear and for terry

00:04:01.760 dan and i like yeah we're gonna like dig deeper i'm gonna wake up in the morning and try to work

00:04:06.800 harder and try to do more and try to meet the frustrations of those people with better effort and

00:04:12.000 and clearer communication but you know i don't think saying that they made a decision about the kind

00:04:18.160 of country or government they want is at all accurate so uh i like it oh no no i knocked on doors

00:04:25.440 no one liked the conservatives no one liked pierre pauliev and then oh everyone everyone in the

00:04:30.160 world is upset of course they voted against the liberals in saint paul's no one in the world is

00:04:34.560 happy people in cambodia are unhappy people in england are happy and uh you know people in toronto

00:04:39.440 saint paul's no different that's the only reason they're just blowing off some steam my goodness these

00:04:44.480 people will blame everyone but themselves what's going on here isaac yeah well i just want to start by

00:04:50.800 saying that leading up to the election in saint paul's i remember the conservatives had about a

00:04:54.960 25 chance of winning based on polling but i wasn't that optimistic in fact i i genuinely thought the

00:05:02.480 conservatives would lose of course given that the liberals have held that writing since 1993 so this

00:05:07.680 is i mean as but as about as big as a stronghold as it could have been and i thought the liberals

00:05:14.320 would in fact win and then use this oh everyone loves us look we won our writing the conservatives you

00:05:19.440 say they're gaining in the polls but we we still held this writing but now the the approach that

00:05:25.920 they're taking i mean it's ludicrous as you alluded to andrew everywhere in the world is terrible you

00:05:31.360 know uh oh you can't afford groceries or housing or anything that are basic needs in canada oh it's okay

00:05:38.160 they can't either uh in he didn't name any specific places but the rest of the world let's call it so i mean

00:05:45.360 as you said it's just a lack of accountability but what did we really expect here it's not as if the

00:05:50.480 liberals were going to come out and say hey we know we have stood against the jewish community and 0.97

00:05:56.960 we see reflected in the data here that i think it was 63 percent of jewish people in that writing

00:06:02.080 voted conservative unsurprisingly so uh they're not going to apologize that they're just gonna shift the

00:06:08.240 blame as much as they can yeah and i i think we're seeing a particular tone deafness there and and it's

00:06:15.520 interesting because most of the liberal cabinet ministers to be trotted out this week are all

00:06:18.960 there just to say i have confidence in justin trudeau he is our leader like mark holland was the

00:06:24.720 first one to kind of break from the scriptedly so i i believe he's speaking from the heart there

00:06:29.040 and in a sense and you know saying what he really thinks which is you know this this election i think he

00:06:34.240 believes that he believes that this election just means nothing and that oh the liberals losing in

00:06:38.480 midtown toronto is no biggie what's you know it's just everyone's angry well uh you know again no no

00:06:43.360 introspection there william any surprise yeah you know it's funny i think if the liberal cabinet had

00:06:50.720 spent any more time in saint paul's they would have had to buy houses there um a few of the people in

00:06:56.400 canada who can actually afford houses given their very high salaries they put everything they had into

00:07:02.880 this by election and that means that because they lost it they all have to wear it including the

00:07:08.400 prime minister if you throw everything including the kitchen sink at a by-election and then lose it

00:07:16.000 you have no choice but to own it i think the fact that uh mark holland is saying well everybody's

00:07:22.880 unhappy in the whole world i've personally called them all and they told me they were um you know just

00:07:30.080 shows exactly how in denial they really are about how bad things are um you know i i will be honest

00:07:38.080 i thought the liberals were going to wing toronto saint paul's they were leading when i went to bed

00:07:43.360 um and uh to wake up the next morning and discover the conservative party one was it was a shock to me

00:07:49.680 i'm not going to say it wasn't wasn't a happy shock uh but the fact is that um if this riding

00:07:56.000 is vulnerable there is no longer a safe liberal seat in the entire country and the fact that they

00:08:01.840 can't see what the message was from voters turning a safe liberal seat blue shows that these people

00:08:09.120 don't even know there's a problem let alone how to fix it they haven't figured out they're in that much

00:08:14.560 trouble they're still saying actually things are fine look we're just as unpopular as the rest of the

00:08:20.160 world well okay let's see how well that serves you when you go before voters in the next election

00:08:25.840 yeah and i i just want to give the contrast on perhaps why people might not have been voting with

00:08:30.480 the liberals this is what deputy prime minister christia freeland had said before the by-election took

00:08:36.560 place that is leslie's vision that's the liberal vision that's why i'm really calling on the people of

00:08:43.840 st paul's to go out there and vote for her because the alternative is really cold and cruel and small

00:08:55.040 the alternative is cuts and austerity not believing in ourselves as a country

00:09:02.240 not believing in our communities and in our neighbors

00:09:08.160 cold cruel small well what does it say about you minister or deputy prime minister that that's

00:09:13.520 the vision that canadians voted for maybe they didn't actually buy into that idea i don't think

00:09:17.920 it's fair to malign the good people of toronto saint paul's of uh just being small-minded and cold

00:09:22.960 and cruel just because uh they didn't believe that the liberals are the ones that have their back but

00:09:27.840 maybe they're all just angry maybe they're all just angry at the world and that's the uh the rationale

00:09:32.800 there what's so what do you guys make of that yeah uh i mean i can't believe that the communications

00:09:40.400 plan prior to the election was hey let's go out on stage and smack talk the district's voters who

00:09:46.400 who thought that could have gone over well i mean i don't know how well uh freeland was prepared for

00:09:51.760 that speech but i i don't understand how that got by anyone without raising serious red flags like hey

00:09:57.200 maybe the day before the election i don't know if there was the day before but it was close to

00:10:00.320 the day before the election we shouldn't go and and call people in a district cold cruel and small i mean

00:10:06.000 that's about as ludicrous as it gets in my opinion uh yeah what were you gonna say william well i i

00:10:12.400 would just say it's interesting because of course uh christian feeling's writing i believe is right

00:10:16.000 next door to uh to toronto saint paul's or if not next door nearby uh it should be giving the the

00:10:23.280 finance minister some worry that safe riding like toronto saint paul's could fall maybe hers is next 1.00

00:10:28.880 but you know when you get something that wrong and suffer a loss some people would say it's time to be

00:10:36.400 humble it's time to look at and fairly evaluate whether or not what you've been offering to

00:10:42.960 canadians is something they actually want and in the case of christia freeland painting where now a near

00:10:50.160 majority of the country stands as cold cruel and small is not how you win back swing voters who used

00:10:58.560 to support your party and have now switched to your opposition you you should be taking you should

00:11:04.240 be taking this as a time to change course not double down on the very things that make voters flee from

00:11:10.880 your party and pursue an option that heretofore have been considered unthinkable in a riding like

00:11:16.880 toronto saint paul's so uh yeah i reiterate these are people who haven't even quantified the problem

00:11:22.400 and acknowledged it let alone are actively trying to fix it yeah and just to talk about christopher

00:11:28.480 freeland's riding for a moment so she's in university rosedale again one of those you know

00:11:32.560 suburban midtown toronto ridings not one that's going to go conservative anytime soon but could

00:11:37.840 very much go ndp if there were a stronger ndp there now i'm looking at 338 canada's projections right now

00:11:44.720 these are from i believe sunday and they have the liberals at 36 plus or minus seven because riding

00:11:51.120 level polls have a large margin of error and the ndp at plus or minus 30 which means in theory the ndp could be

00:11:58.320 neck and neck with the liberals they could be further behind but that's not great and if the

00:12:03.680 ndp were to step up its game which it has not under jug meet saying and may not unless there's another

00:12:09.200 leader at the helm that could be really disastrous for for people like freeland who previously i never

00:12:14.640 would have thought in a million years could be at risk of losing her seat or even really having to 1.00

00:12:18.640 fight for it yeah if the new democrats weren't quite such a basket case um the news for the liberals would

00:12:25.600 be even more dire like if you can imagine that the new democrats nationally managed to claw even two

00:12:31.680 percent from the liberal party that puts writings not only in danger it takes a huge chunk of writings

00:12:39.440 even out of contention for the liberal party in the next election particularly around the gta area that

00:12:46.240 that part of toronto that's maybe not suburban or ex-urban but that is uh is closer to the middle of it

00:12:52.400 and it puts them in a huge problem in uh in in the greater vancouver area you know one of the few

00:12:57.360 places where uh the liberal party used to be able to reliably count on a chunk of seats so uh no i mean

00:13:04.400 look there's no good news for the liberal party in the results of this by-election there's no possible

00:13:10.160 way to spin it except for i guess leslie church won't be going ottawa so think of all the carbon

00:13:16.720 emissions we're saving by not having a computer fair enough uh yeah i mentioned the ndp i have

00:13:23.120 to talk about jagmeet singh here because the ndp's performance in that by-election was absolutely

00:13:29.280 nothing to be excited about if you're the ndp their candidate got 10.9 which is a a five-point drop from

00:13:36.320 where the ndp have been in the last i think three elections now obviously by-elections are weird like

00:13:42.160 things happen there but it's not exactly instilling confidence in the ndp being the progressive

00:13:47.440 alternative to the liberals and that's what the ndp wants to be that's its mo it's not doing that

00:13:53.360 right now and you know jagmeet singh it's not surprising that he still is not talking about

00:13:58.400 wanting to pull the plug on his really unqualified support of the liberals so he was asked at a press

00:14:04.000 conference yesterday about whether he'll finally once and for all end the ndp's four-year

00:14:10.800 supply and confidence agreement with the liberals and this is what he said or should i say didn't say

00:14:15.840 given um the liberals having lost the seat and uh the ndp's low performance in a seat that you hold

00:14:22.160 provincially do you think it's time to pull out of the uh supply and confidence agreement is that

00:14:29.040 something that you're going to do our plan right now is what we've always said uh our goal is to get

00:14:35.120 ottawa to work for people we said that from the beginning that's been my goal and we're going to use

00:14:39.760 the power we have to make that happen justin trudeau has let people down it's very clear

00:14:44.240 pierre paulia wants to cut and gut the services that people need very desperately and so people

00:14:48.880 are counting on us and i and i i get that so we're going to keep on fighting to make sure ottawa delivers

00:14:53.520 for you that's why i'm going to be listening to people across this summer we're going to be hearing

00:14:57.600 about hearing from people about how we change the rules to tip the scales in their favor because the

00:15:02.480 stacks are decked are the decks are stacked against people it is so clear the deck is stacked against you and

00:15:08.480 you're working harder than ever before and you can't pay your bills when you go in the grocery

00:15:12.640 store and you try to buy what you could afford before and you can't afford it anymore when you

00:15:16.000 can't afford your groceries let alone the special treats for your loved ones when you can't find a

00:15:19.920 home in your city that you live in you can't find a place to rent in toronto it's clear that the rules

00:15:26.960 are not in your favor and we've got to change that we've got to make the rules in favor of people

00:15:31.280 and that's going to require some courage and it's clear that neither the liberals or conservatives are

00:15:35.040 going to do that it sounds like he's saying canada is broken and the things are broken uh but again

00:15:42.640 no yes or no did you find a yes or no to the question in there isaac like what would you decipher

00:15:48.000 that as being if the question was will you pull your support of the liberal government well no i didn't

00:15:53.600 really find an answer and i mean singh usually does that wherein he his actions really don't match his

00:16:01.280 words i find he's always talking about how he'll well first of all a few months ago he said he was

00:16:05.920 going to be the prime minister of canada i remember that that was uh laughable let's say anyways comedy

00:16:11.280 for sure he yeah he always says he's going to hold the uh liberals to account he's going to do this he's

00:16:16.880 going to do that he's always i mean some of the posts i've seen from him online uh attacking liberals

00:16:22.000 it's like you're you're the person allowing this to happen so i mean yeah he's he says all the right

00:16:26.560 things in theory but he doesn't do anything that he says he doesn't hold the government to account

00:16:31.360 in any way shape or form i don't know that he's helping the ndp in any way they're they're really

00:16:39.280 if the ndp were polling better as you guys alluded to earlier the liberals would honestly

00:16:42.800 be at risk of of potentially following to a third rated party which i don't know the precedent

00:16:49.680 around that how common that is that a governing party may fall into third place but i mean that

00:16:53.680 would be something wouldn't it william well now i'm slightly worried about him is it possible he

00:17:00.960 was drunk during that press conference he talked about the you know the i think he meant to say the

00:17:08.160 deck is stacked against him and he said no the stacks are decked against the working man the stacks are

00:17:13.520 decked and did he say canadians can't afford special trees at one point i thought he said treats a treat

00:17:20.240 for your family okay well maybe he did um but supposed to say uh uh if you look up the word

00:17:27.040 hapless in the dictionary i think there's now gotta be a picture of jagmeet saying no one has been a

00:17:32.400 more hapless leader of a and particularly if you think about in a minority government that's when

00:17:38.880 opposition parties should have more power they should have more influence and uh you know i think back to

00:17:46.000 the paul martin uh minority and uh which was a long time ago but i'm an old person so i remember it

00:17:52.240 and uh you know 20 years jack layton who was uh the ndp leader then he was able to extract real things

00:17:59.360 from the liberals and put them on notice of every confidence vote saying here's my at list of demands

00:18:04.960 and i want this and this and this or i'll vote against you whereas jagme singh says well we know

00:18:08.960 justin trudeau has failed and i'm doing everything i can to continue enabling his failure for canadians you

00:18:15.760 know i will make sure he fails for a full four-year term rather than oh i don't know ending the

00:18:22.800 failure sooner and attempting to replace him it makes no sense and i think you know why he won't

00:18:28.560 pull out of the agreement is he knows that the number of seats he has right now is the high watermark

00:18:33.600 if and when the ndp go back in front of canadians they'll have to explain why they were partners in

00:18:39.120 crime to a deeply unpopular deeply unsuccessful liberal government and i think they're

00:18:45.520 going to feel the wrath of canadians just as much as the liberal party will yeah and i and it's i

00:18:51.680 mean the old it's the oldest joke now in in this whole thing when every time he comes up and speaks

00:18:56.000 about oh the liberals are failing canadians the liberals and conservatives have it out for you and

00:18:59.520 it's like well yeah but you're you are single-handedly keeping them in power like it doesn't take a

00:19:04.960 genius to find the logical inconsistency in the entire ndp thing and the concessions the quote unquote

00:19:11.200 concessions have been virtually non-existent i mean he was promised universal pharma care and

00:19:16.400 got birth control and a diabetes drug he was promised dental care and has a dental program

00:19:21.840 that's not even really reaching that many people and it's and he's trying to claim this as a big win

00:19:28.560 no absolutely and uh you know the fact that he's trying to paint up his this you know dismal record

00:19:35.280 uh i don't think it's going unnoticed it must be infuriating to be a new democrat right now to be

00:19:40.800 someone who who thinks you know we've got a minority government that's predisposed to leaning left

00:19:46.960 on all of these issues and i've got my party that could keep this government in power why am i not

00:19:52.320 extracting things left right and center why aren't we building statues of new democrat leaders in every

00:19:58.560 major city and demanding that the federal government pay for it instead we're getting a dental plan that

00:20:04.320 even dentists think is terrible and won't work for canadians and a pharma care plan that in no way

00:20:11.280 replaces the private insurance that millions of canadians get from their employers is now at risk

00:20:17.040 of being clawed back because of this ill-considered national pharma care plan so no not a happy time

00:20:22.400 to be a new democrat isaac last word to you yeah just uh i did do an article on the dentist thing

00:20:28.240 earlier today and i remember it was the canadian dental association they said i think it was 61 of

00:20:32.960 dentists were not interested in any way shape or form of signing up for the federal dental plan

00:20:37.840 and then just one comment quickly on william's uh memory of jack layton i i feel that if sing did a

00:20:43.440 similar thing with a list of demands for trudeau and said hey you need to do these things or else i'd

00:20:47.520 i'll call a non-confidence vote i honestly think trudeau would say to him no you won't like i don't

00:20:52.400 believe you i don't think that you will i'm not doing what you say i'm just gonna go my own way of

00:20:56.800 course he might not say it so explicitly but that's what he would do fair enough um the other

00:21:03.520 related aspect of this is that trudeau's global reputation and his reputation outside of well

00:21:09.200 basically like six people in downtown montreal has been taking a hit uh particularly lately i

00:21:15.040 got a couple of examples of this uh do we want to start with australia or start with uh kevin o'leary

00:21:19.840 let's start with kevin o'leary uh this because this is uh ties into christia freeland as well

00:21:24.240 this is kevin o'leary uh sharing his thoughts in that mr wonderful way economic outlook for

00:21:29.920 canada in the short term that would include the impact from higher borrowing costs longer term

00:21:34.720 though subjects such as productivity standard of living and an economic transition are big issues

00:21:41.040 for the country we're back again with kevin o'leary chairman of leary ventures um you are here in

00:21:46.880 canada you're not always here in canada these days but uh in terms of what you see when it comes

00:21:52.480 to the canadian economy what uh what springs to mind uh missed opportunity is is uh the two words

00:21:59.120 i would use uh we are such a wealthy country and we are so poorly managed from a policy basis

00:22:05.440 when i think about the tremendous potential the country has in natural resources which was the

00:22:09.520 essence of its success from the beginning over the last 200 years and we've ignored it and we have

00:22:14.080 tried to do many other things that have nothing to do with our core wealth um and and i i i can't

00:22:20.000 help but blame justin trudeau for that for the last decade he's a weak manager in my opinion very

00:22:24.640 successful politician but a very very weak manager and understanding what actually makes canada tick

00:22:30.720 yeah he's bang on there these people couldn't run a bodega and yet they're running the country and i

00:22:36.160 think his comments about how just like woefully unqualified these people are even with the experience

00:22:41.680 like that's the thing christian freeland has a few years of experience as finance minister justin

00:22:45.200 drudeau has nine years experience under uh his belt as prime minister the experience hasn't really

00:22:50.400 helped them i don't think they're getting better do you guys no and it's funny uh because i had

00:22:56.400 written about olery i think it was in march or april and he said uh some of the same things one was

00:23:02.080 canada if you look at resources per capita is one of the richest countries on earth run by complete 0.98

00:23:06.880 idiots although it was interesting this time uh watching olery's full interview he was a lot more 0.99

00:23:12.480 uh direct with his blows just but by specifically calling out both trudeau and freeland by name and 0.99

00:23:19.920 saying this is what's wrong with these people we need to well he actually called for scraping out and

00:23:24.640 restarting office of parliament office completely and he even said we need a canada 2.0 we need to

00:23:30.640 scrape and rake out everyone in parliament and start from scratch and we can do something special

00:23:34.560 with this country but the way we're going right now is headed for a complete disaster yeah i look i don't

00:23:39.920 want to give i don't want to put too much stock in kevin o'leary like he's a he's a bombastic pundit i

00:23:44.000 think he's you know got a solid head on on business issues i i didn't quite buy into this whole kevin

00:23:49.040 o'leary as a conservative thing when he was running for the leadership of the conservatives a few years

00:23:52.880 back however i i think his criticisms on the government are coming from the business side of

00:23:57.840 him and he's saying like this is just absolutely absurd we're seeing uh a real economic crisis starting

00:24:05.440 to foment here in canada our productivity which is an amorphous concept that um doesn't get well

00:24:12.400 defined people talk about how we have a productivity problem basically how much we generate how much we

00:24:17.760 produce what our country makes is going down and as a result our gdp is crashing it only looks better

00:24:26.880 than it is because of our huge numbers of new people coming to canada every year millions of people

00:24:33.360 coming to canada are artificially inflating our gdp growth but if you look at on a per person basis

00:24:40.080 it's absolutely tumbling and people i think anecdotally can feel this they're not getting

00:24:44.560 paid more in their jobs they're seeing fewer good jobs being created they're having to work longer

00:24:50.640 hours they're having to do without more things because they can't afford you know the kinds of

00:24:56.000 things they want to buy they can't afford housing they can't afford groceries they certainly can't

00:25:00.400 afford luxury items and all of this is really starting to rankle in canada and if we weren't so

00:25:06.720 blessed i would say lucky as a country things would be so much worse if we were a country that actually

00:25:13.120 had really difficult circumstances we would be uh we would be all but drowning in our economic

00:25:20.160 troubles i mean as kevin points out we are vastly blessed we have tons of natural resources we have

00:25:25.280 good infrastructure by and large except for where i live here in calgary where the water pipe exploded

00:25:30.560 we have uh tremendous assets compared to so many other people and even still it's tough times

00:25:35.440 imagine how hard it would be if we didn't have all those advantages but they won't last forever

00:25:39.680 if we squander keep squandering our opportunity we are at risk of becoming uh a a really difficult

00:25:46.080 country a place that people no longer want to come to a place that no longer offers the same

00:25:50.320 opportunity it used to uh another thing larry mentioned which is worth mentioning quickly because

00:25:55.280 we've done a lot of reporting uh about this at true north is he talked from direct experience

00:26:00.720 about the new capital gains tax hike which just came into effect and he said look he probably has

00:26:06.320 hundreds of millions if not billions of assets in canada he said look these accountants the accounts

00:26:10.480 have been telling me and other people like me how to get our assets out of canada how to pay the old

00:26:15.440 tax rate which was the 50 instead of the three court three quarters or two-thirds sorry 66 yeah

00:26:21.440 how to get our assets out of canada so these people are divesting their assets from canada to save

00:26:26.320 money i mean it's obviously a terrible terrible price that we're going to pay in the long term

00:26:30.880 which is exactly what he said like canada will pay for this for decades if it is not fixed quickly

00:26:34.960 yeah no you're right about that he was not as colorful as our friends over at sky news in

00:26:41.040 australia were in their criticisms of justin trudeau however uh now it's been a while since we talked

00:26:46.960 about uh canadian prime minister justin trudeau the neo-marxist kendall as i call him he's in some

00:26:54.160 serious trouble douglas this week his party lost a by-election in one of the safest liberal seats in

00:27:01.120 the country in toronto uh saint paul and uh trudeau's minority government is badly trailing the

00:27:09.280 conservatives in the polls is this the end for trudeau douglas have the canadian people

00:27:16.080 finally woken up to the performative caring um that lacks any real substance you absolutely put your

00:27:25.360 finger on it rita performative caring that's all that justin trudeau does um it's very hard to find

00:27:32.720 a true thing he's ever said or a sincere thing he's ever said the man is entirely artifice he's an utter

00:27:41.200 bimbo a phrase that maybe one would use a female politician these days but i'm happy to use of justin 1.00

00:27:47.600 trudeau um there's he's so grotesque he's a himbo i suppose um i was in canada uh last week in a couple 0.69

00:27:58.000 of cities and uh i can't tell you rita the detestation that you find for trudeau across 0.86

00:28:04.880 the political board a vast majority of canadians want him to stand down now um he has really impressive

00:28:14.720 uh uh opposition now um i think that pierre polievra and uh the others on the conservative

00:28:21.760 side that are coming along they're very impressive people uh uh now uh facing off against trudeau i

00:28:27.680 think he's absolutely toast because finally you know we've got to that stage where being a sort of

00:28:34.160 superannuated drama teacher turns out you can fool some people for a little while but not for all that

00:28:40.160 long everyone in canada who wants to see through justin trudeau has seen through him i don't think

00:28:47.600 anyone will regret finally seeing the back of him i so i i should say i love the idea of a himbo

00:28:56.640 although i didn't know bimbo was not i thought bimbo was gender neutral i didn't know it was actually

00:29:02.000 a gendered word so i don't know if himbo is here to stay his his pronouns are he himbo i guess now

00:29:06.960 well i like the line that says you can fool some of the people some of the time and i say yes and

00:29:13.040 10 seconds longer if you're in blackface one of the many times justin trudeau

00:29:17.120 donned another uh another cloak around himself so yeah it's i mean rita panahy is fantastic i love her

00:29:25.920 on sky news douglas murray is just an international treasure but like when justin trudeau is noticed in

00:29:32.240 this way because the global media used to and i think rita alluded to this the global media used 0.99

00:29:37.440 to love him he was this sort of like prince-like figure that they talked about the way they talk

00:29:41.680 about the royals and now he's just this global laughing stock yeah it's funny you mentioned that

00:29:47.520 actually i saw another clip pop up today from an indian news outlet and they were talking smack about

00:29:53.040 trudeau as well uh pairing him with macron out of france and sunak as well so this was kind of a uh let's

00:30:00.480 let's talk about all the crazy uh leaders of countries across the world but yeah i i really 0.71

00:30:07.920 like what murray said there which is essentially that uh if you're as fake and empty as he said 0.85

00:30:13.280 trudeau was people will only buy what you're saying for so long before of course they see through your

00:30:18.000 lies essentially yeah what do you think william well i i mean you know i wish the prime minister

00:30:25.920 wouldn't leave the country anymore i'm embarrassed as a canadian every time he goes internationally on

00:30:31.040 a trip and other people discover just what a what a terrible person we have as our prime minister

00:30:37.760 it's frankly it's like look we all know here at home what a travesty you are could you please stop

00:30:43.440 going around the world and letting other people know as well as a canadian i find it embarrassing

00:30:49.520 yeah i think you're uh you're quite right about that well uh let's bring it a little bit closer to

00:30:53.920 home again and talk alberta i don't know which of you wants to kick this off probably william

00:31:00.080 considering he lives in calgary well you know uh our mayor uh jody gondek not widely beloved already

00:31:08.640 has managed to achieve something i think is incredible she's managed to become less popular

00:31:14.400 than justin trudeau in calgary and had you asked me i would have said that was impossible but the fact is

00:31:21.040 she managed to achieve a disapproval rating there if you look of of 64 but my favorite two numbers

00:31:26.720 are the strongly approved and the strongly disapproved strongly disapprove is at a whopping

00:31:32.240 48 that's one in two calgarians think she's doing a truly terrible job and fewer than one in 10

00:31:40.720 at seven percent strongly approved i mean that is an approval rating i think slightly below the ebola virus

00:31:48.560 in terms of overall popularity so uh well done uh mayor gondek you you've done something remarkable

00:31:55.520 you you she has been a unifying figure yes she has she's unified 93 against her it is a remarkable

00:32:03.200 achievement uh i you know for those of us who've never really liked mayor gondek it's gratifying to

00:32:09.360 see more and more calgarians getting on board the wow isn't she terrible train

00:32:14.000 yeah gondek had an approval rating obviously of 26 compared to trudeau's 28 but speaking quickly

00:32:21.120 on unification um from that study which was done by think hq the president said something along the

00:32:26.320 lines of normally when global does that or sorry not global when disasters happen like uh like the water

00:32:33.280 crisis he said residents rally around their mayor but then he said the opposite has happened with gondek

00:32:39.920 uh in light of calgary's recent water crisis he said if they have supported her handling it in any

00:32:45.840 way shape or form it's uh overshadowed by other issues that they disapprove of because obviously

00:32:51.920 during the crisis her ratings have gone down not up which is what he expected to happen

00:32:57.520 oh interesting and then now we of course have a new leader of the ndp in alberta and ahead and then she who 0.85

00:33:03.200 has uh made one of his first orders of business trying to basically have nothing to do with jagmeet

00:33:08.000 singh who we talked about a little bit uh earlier uh but interestingly enough i i think the federal

00:33:13.360 or the ucp their their line of attack on this has been to link him instead to justin trudeau

00:33:18.800 more than the federal ndp they actually uh pretty soon out of the gate i think you know what less

00:33:22.960 than five days after he was the ndp leader they came out with this ad new ndp leader nahed nenshi is

00:33:29.120 justin trudeau's choice for alberta that's nenshi helping justin trudeau defeat stephen harper in

00:33:34.560 the 2015 federal election when asked about nenshi running for the ndp trudeau called nenshi a strong

00:33:41.520 mayor and said we should welcome his candidacy trudeau even tried to get nenshi to run for his

00:33:47.680 federal liberal party we've had enough of trudeau in ottawa we don't need one in alberta nahed nenshi

00:33:54.640 trudeau's choice for alberta uh william does that uh that line of thing it does that work or is that just

00:33:59.840 the ucp having some fun well i you know i love an attack ad it must be my time in politics people

00:34:05.840 say they hate attack ads i love them i would only watch political attack ads if given the choice and

00:34:11.280 no west to the east to the west to the east i think this is a uh i think this is a pretty strong

00:34:17.040 lie you know nenshi likes to paint himself as this non-partisan or in his speak a post-partisan

00:34:24.720 politician you know he chose the color purple because it was neither liberal red nor conservative

00:34:31.040 blue um but the fact is he's a lefty mayor he was a lefty mayor he's now the leader of a lefty

00:34:37.440 political party and he's going to have to reconcile the fact that he played footsie with the trudeau

00:34:44.320 liberals for a long time and is now trying to get elected in a province that does not like the trudeau

00:34:51.440 liberals and so the fact that the ucp is starting early i think is good uh next she's uh forte or his 0.99

00:34:58.560 area of strength would be perceived to be calgary but when he left office he was far from universally

00:35:04.080 liked a lot of people thought he had overstayed his welcome and frankly they didn't like his arrogance

00:35:09.760 and his thin-skinned nature his inability to build a consensus on city council and now you've got him

00:35:16.560 leading a party that uh a lot of albertans feel just doesn't understand this province so uh i i wish

00:35:23.840 the ucp well in their attempt to remind voters of just how friendly mr nenshi was with mr trudeau

00:35:31.200 and we'll see if that is something that albertans rally around when the next election happens

00:35:38.000 yeah speaking quickly on nenshi's uh approval ratings from that think hq survey that same one

00:35:42.480 about gondek uh in june 2014 he had an approval of 74 but then the latest one before he uh ended his

00:35:50.480 tenure was 57 by may 2021 so his approval ratings did drop quite a bit as time uh as his time as

00:35:58.400 calgary's mayor but really the the way the ndp the alberta ndp is going to win the next provincial

00:36:04.160 election the only possible way is through gathering support from rural alberta this is why they lost the

00:36:10.480 provincial the last provincial election the conservatives cleaned house in rural alberta

00:36:15.280 i mean it was it was like they literally won all all the seats so the ndp needs to figure out how

00:36:20.640 can we capture rural alberta and i think uh the alberta conservatives pairing nenshi with trudeau

00:36:28.480 will not help him there because i don't imagine anyone in rural alberta really likes trudeau

00:36:34.240 yeah and i to be honest i kind of wonder if he would have had a shot and i don't he must have

00:36:39.120 considered it if he would have had a shot at federal liberal leader had he just waited things

00:36:44.160 out for you know a year and a half until trudeau resigns like i i don't know how much broad appeal

00:36:48.960 he has within the liberal movement nationally surely that wouldn't wouldn't have been totally

00:36:52.720 out of left field would it william uh no i don't think it is but the thing that probably would stand

00:36:58.240 against him is it'd be extremely hard to be liberal leader from alberta uh under under current

00:37:03.200 circumstances you know he'd be in a there wouldn't be a seat in this province that's particularly

00:37:08.240 safe he would have to find a seat in like you know well actually even anywhere he couldn't find one

00:37:12.800 not even saint paul's no that's true i you know so either he would have to run in a different part

00:37:17.440 of the country where maybe he doesn't have nearly as much name recognition nearly as much of an

00:37:22.160 existing political infrastructure um or face a riding in alberta where the federal tour would have to

00:37:28.720 land every three days in order for him to door knock in his in his riding before without trying to

00:37:34.000 lose it uh you know the other problem for mr nancy of course is he's widely regarded as not a team

00:37:38.960 player he likes to call he likes to go his own way he really struggled on council to build coalitions of

00:37:46.560 support around his issues he just was too arrogant and too egotistical and i think he would have that

00:37:53.600 very same problem running to be prime minister where you absolutely need a team of people around you that

00:38:00.400 you can count on and i think it'll be a problem he faces here in alberta you know he's not used to

00:38:05.280 this party uh politic political realm he's not used to provincial politics as someone who's ever

00:38:11.040 engaged in it and i think he'll find being a party leader very challenging given his personality

00:38:16.560 yeah if he couldn't lead a council like leading a caucus is you know a thankless job at the best of

00:38:21.200 times i like i and i don't know isaac if you're familiar with this but how how much diversity is

00:38:27.680 there within the ndp caucus ideal ideologically like how many different perspectives and positions

00:38:32.320 are there that a leader has to you know keep rowing in the same direction in that party well i don't

00:38:36.800 know because something that was maybe showed the diversity of opinions a bit was during the ndp

00:38:42.400 leadership race wherein some of the prospective leaders stood against the carbon tax and others

00:38:48.080 didn't so obviously there was some leeway there i guess but outside of that i'm not too sure

00:38:53.280 i mean well look i think it'll be interesting because he wants this divorce from the federal ndp

00:38:58.640 he's putting it to the members to vote if the members are split on that already he showed that

00:39:03.600 he is not necessarily where they are maybe maybe they're for maybe they're against it i have no idea

00:39:08.320 uh do you have any sense on how members would vote for that william uh you know that's a really

00:39:13.440 interesting question and uh you know there's a lot of people in this province with deep ndp roots

00:39:20.080 these you know rachel notley's father was an ndp politician and and held in quite uh high esteem

00:39:26.320 back from when the party did have some support outside of the cities when it was seen as on the

00:39:31.840 side of farmers and and other people working it was the old prairie populist ndp certainly not

00:39:38.320 the you know the woke he him they them of and today's ndp yeah uh no unrecognizable than today's ndp

00:39:45.120 you're absolutely right um but the fact is is you know isaac's point about them trying to win

00:39:49.760 support outside of the cities uh it's one of the many things the ndp is going to have to do

00:39:54.480 i don't think mayor nahed nengshi is the emissary to rural alberta that i would have personally chosen

00:40:00.640 a man who i'm not convinced has ever been outside a city in his life um uh you know whether or not the

00:40:07.360 party supports the divorce even if they vote to do it i don't think everybody's going to be happy

00:40:12.720 about it and then what happens when you've split the ndp party what happened rachel notley was was very is

00:40:18.000 very much against it as recently as a couple of weeks ago absolutely she came out right before

00:40:21.920 the vote and said this is a terrible idea and it reinforces the message that uh to to borrow a phrase

00:40:28.560 from the federal conservative party nahed nengshi might just be just visiting a new democrat party

00:40:34.240 he might not really be uh someone who is wedded to this party that he now leads his big win gives

00:40:40.800 him some latitude for sure he's got a bit of runway to figure out what he wants to do but i think first of

00:40:46.960 all he has to understand how not to break the ndp coalition and divorcing itself from the federal

00:40:51.840 party might make political sense in terms of how a popular jagmeet singh is here especially his

00:40:56.560 opposition to the energy sector but if he loses the hearts and minds of those people who have

00:41:01.760 door knocked for new democrats for decades who write the checks who make who work the phone banks

00:41:07.440 who organize the unions which i'm told is a very big thing if you democrats these are people you don't

00:41:13.600 want to drive away from the party and they're the ones who are most likely to oppose getting rid of

00:41:18.240 that federal ndp association all right any final thoughts on this isaac not really i just quick i

00:41:25.840 don't think that ends with the bank no matter what happens with the uh alberta ndp i i don't think they

00:41:31.360 they stand a chance in the next election but we'll see all right fair enough uh that does it for us this

00:41:36.880 has been an amazing an amazing discussion i hope you'll tune in next week or uh catch isaac on daily

00:41:42.480 brief and his reporting catch william in our very raucous hr department which is basically just william

00:41:48.160 and you can catch the andrew lawton show daily at 1 pm eastern but remember everything you've heard

00:41:53.200 has been off the record the the nancy thing is very interesting i you know talk about trying to put a 0.96

00:42:05.440 square peg in a round hole this is someone who i would have probably bet some amount of money wouldn't

00:42:10.560 have entered uh uh partisan provincial politics or federal politics just because it was so anathema to

00:42:17.520 who he was as a politician but uh you know maybe he's at a loose end maybe after he was done being

00:42:23.200 mayor of calvary he just found himself sitting at home bored you know binging episodes of cupcake wars

00:42:28.560 or whatever it is he does and uh he decided to try this instead but um yeah i mean who knows i guess

00:42:35.280 we'll see if he uh if uh the nancy charm can get out of out of the mothballs and start working its magic

00:42:42.480 again i'm guessing that happens to a lot of politicians much like a professional athlete let's

00:42:47.120 say wherein something is just your entire life and then it's gone completely and you're like

00:42:52.000 well what do i do now right that we politics also has a lot of enablers there's always someone in

00:42:57.760 someone's life that's going to tell them they should do something like frank bayless who's like

00:43:01.680 a nobody liberal mp a one-term liberal was saying to cbc i've had people approach me to run

00:43:08.000 like who who are these people i i did have to google who he i mean i like to consider myself reasonably

00:43:14.320 well informed and i was like right i shall google who this man is and see what his deal is and i

00:43:21.120 thought it's a one-term liberal mp who nobody's ever heard of boy doesn't that just reflect on the

00:43:27.200 weakness yeah an anglo-quebecker too they and they never stand a chance but yeah i mean wow well boy it 0.97

00:43:34.160 used to be that that the heavyweights said oh i i would be liberal leader because it was a virtual

00:43:39.440 guaranteed path to being prime minister and now it's like no no names are putting their names

00:43:45.280 forward so gosh what uh what how the mighty have fallen

Off the Record - June 28, 2024

Liberals in panic mode

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