Off the Record - Trudeau bails at a critical moment for Canada

00:00:00.000 I can't help it. I'm going to start with the weather. It is cold and snowy and disgusting

00:00:04.400 out, and it's made me super mad because I'm still paying crazy taxes on my home heating

00:00:09.240 because it's not optional. Otherwise, my pipes would burst. Cosmin, you're sitting there

00:00:13.420 smirking at me. Do you guys have cherry blossoms out right now in January or no?

00:00:17.840 Well, it's a damp, dreary seven degrees here in Victoria, BC, so obviously we're suffering.

00:00:26.060 All the cyclists are bundled up suffering as well. Just add more vortex. Isaac?

00:00:32.780 Yeah, no, I was just thinking it's really, really warm here. It's like minus five, but

00:00:36.260 it's been like minus 25, so I was like, man, minus five, it's like shorts weather out there.

00:00:40.380 I don't know what Cosmin's living in Mexico with seven degrees, man, what the heck? 1.00

00:00:44.820 You guys are in flip-flops in Edmonton. All right, let's get this thing started.

00:00:56.060 Welcome to Off the Record. My name is Chris Sims. I'm the Alberta Director for the Canadian

00:01:01.420 Taxpayers Federation. Thank you so much to True North for letting me sit in on this panel.

00:01:06.600 We've got a really fun show for you today because it seems like something has been happening

00:01:10.340 in Ottawa. Not too sure about the news. Joining me for this show are, of course,

00:01:14.480 Cosmin and Isaac. Thank you so much, everyone, for joining me.

00:01:17.960 Thanks, Chris.

00:01:18.500 Okay. So the big story, of course, is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is going to resign.

00:01:26.720 I will point that out. He has not resigned yet. He is still the Prime Minister. He is still the

00:01:32.620 leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. But he announced that he's going to resign. The question

00:01:38.640 here, of course, is when? Okay. Is it going to be 60 days, 90 days? Is he still going to be sitting

00:01:44.640 in the front bench when Parliament comes back on March 24th? Oh, and yeah, they prorogued Parliament.

00:01:50.980 So now everything is on hold. Everything is frozen. All of the legislation is dead. So the good news is

00:01:58.000 Bill C-63 is gone. So that's really good news. So they should be coming back March 24th. So much to

00:02:03.680 break down here, guys. I just wanted to go around the horn for us before we get to our clips and our

00:02:08.920 tweets here. Isaac, what went through your mind when you saw him finally say he's going to leave?

00:02:14.640 Yeah. Well, leading up to the announcement that Trudeau made, and we all kind of knew it was

00:02:21.240 coming or expected something along those lines. I personally did not think that he would resign.

00:02:26.860 I didn't think he had it in him. Obviously, we don't know what's going on behind closed doors,

00:02:31.940 whether he's being forced or anything of the sort. But I still was very surprised when I heard those

00:02:38.040 words come out of his mouth. But as you mentioned, Chris, this isn't him resigning. And we'll go through

00:02:43.460 the tweets soon. But for example, when I was writing up the story on Ted Cruz saying that he

00:02:48.560 resigned, it's not technically true. He hasn't yet resigned. And who knows when that day will come.

00:02:53.980 But I do think that despite him not resigning and despite Parliament being prorogued and despite

00:03:00.480 Canada facing tariff and annexation threats from the United States, and the list goes on and on,

00:03:05.980 Canadians are probably relieved to know that change is coming eventually.

00:03:12.020 Can you imagine having a tariff and annexation threat? And it's like secondary to be a relief

00:03:18.500 of things finally changing in Ottawa? Cosmin, what was your take on it?

00:03:24.300 Yeah, my immediate thought was I couldn't think of an absolutely worse time

00:03:28.580 to prorogue Parliament, not just the tariff and annexation stuff. USMCA deal is going up for

00:03:36.380 renegotiation. Chinese interference is still a problem. It hasn't been dealt with. We have a 1.00

00:03:43.420 confluence of all of these problems affecting our nation. We have inflation, the cost of living crisis,

00:03:50.400 the healthcare crisis, people dying in waiting rooms and ERs. And our Prime Minister decides

00:03:58.540 it's a good time to shut down all business in the House of Commons and not even give people

00:04:04.940 the chance to have a democratic vote on the future of this country, because that's what it comes down

00:04:12.260 to. And I would like to remind listeners and viewers that this Prime Minister attacked the former

00:04:19.480 Harper government for proroguing Parliament, and he called it a direct attack on democracy.

00:04:25.860 Yet this is the second time that he has done the same.

00:04:30.460 I will point out we've been getting a lot of emails with that same sort of tone. And a lot of

00:04:36.040 folks wanted a chance to vote in the election with him in the election. They wanted to be able to have

00:04:44.120 their say, yes or no, whatever it is. They wanted ultimately to have that say. And I'm hearing a lot of

00:04:50.580 frustration from people who are saying, why is he going and exiting stage left and leaving this flaming

00:04:56.900 bag for the next Liberal leader to deal with in the next election? Why isn't he standing for the next

00:05:02.720 election? So a lot of high spirits there. I wanted to go through some of them here and get your thoughts

00:05:08.560 on them. Let's go with the Chrystia Freeland tweet here first, because of course, she was finance minister that 0.99

00:05:13.640 really helped get this thing spinning out of control. So she says, I thank Justin Trudeau for

00:05:19.140 his years of service to Canada and Canadians. I wish him and his family the very best. 1.1 million

00:05:25.660 views. I will point out Chrystia Freeland was a terrible finance minister. She never balanced the 1.00

00:05:32.220 budget one time. She was instrumental in helping to double the national debt. Double it. So throughout all

00:05:41.040 of history of our governments, these guys doubled it. And of course, she froze the bank accounts of

00:05:46.460 Canadians when they dared protest against the government, which was found to be unreasonable

00:05:51.940 by the federal court, I will point out. So yeah, terrible finance minister. And on our way out the

00:05:57.960 door, this was the tweet. So what is your take on that, guys? Did you think that was genuine?

00:06:02.400 Well, I can jump into it. Sure. I think it's just boilerplate, milquetoast statement. It obviously

00:06:13.400 ignores the brewing conflict between her and the prime minister and how much weight you want to put

00:06:20.460 into that. That's up to you. Obviously, they have very much aligned interests. They follow a lot of the

00:06:28.380 same ideas and ideological background. And to me, it's quite hard to distinguish between the two at

00:06:36.340 this point. There is a very thin line of difference between Chrystia Freeland and Justin Trudeau. They

00:06:42.720 throughout their political careers have been tied at the hip and have acted almost as a single unit.

00:06:50.700 So it's yet to be seen whether she is considering running for the leadership. She's obviously

00:06:58.100 been singled out by the legacy media as a suitable replacement for Justin Trudeau. But whether

00:07:07.080 Canadians buy that, I'm not so sure about that.

00:07:12.840 Isaac, what do you think?

00:07:14.060 I'll just say I saw really in people wishing Trudeau farewell, and I was paying close attention

00:07:21.200 to all the premiers across Canada. I really saw two themes emerge. One, a simpler boilerplate answer

00:07:27.240 as Cosman said, basically just thanking him, not really giving any examples per se, just a short

00:07:31.920 answer. And then the other side of the coin was people who were attacking him, like Daniel Smith,

00:07:37.800 who called his resignation selfish. And I mean, they gave very, very, very strong language against

00:07:42.960 his resignation, as we discussed previously in Canada's deep. We need a government right now to

00:07:49.420 negotiate with the threats we're facing.

00:07:54.240 Yeah. I had something else to say, but I forgot what the second one was.

00:07:58.100 We can get, well, I know somebody who has something to say. Let's read US President Donald Trump's tweet.

00:08:04.320 That was quite something. So, quote,

00:08:06.120 Many people in Canada love being the 51st state. The United States can no longer suffer the massive

00:08:12.640 trade deficits and subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this and

00:08:18.920 resigned. If Canada merged with the United States, there would be no tariffs. Taxes would go way down,

00:08:25.360 and they would be totally secure from the threat of Russian and Chinese ships that are constantly 0.88

00:08:30.960 surrounding them. Together, what a great nation it will be. So, there's a peak Trump trolling in the

00:08:39.460 middle of it. He didn't call him governor there, I don't think. So, it's been a tag team, really, between

00:08:46.720 Musk and Trump. And so, I will just say, as a taxpayer, and as somebody who takes stuff seriously that's

00:08:55.100 happening on Parliament Hill because we all pay for it, it's super annoying from the tariff side of things.

00:09:00.960 Because he's not joking about the tariffs. The tariffs are super for real. So, here we have

00:09:07.640 Parliament prorogued, the carbon tax set to go up on April 1st, like a week after they get back,

00:09:14.780 and we've got a trade war with a lame duck prime minister. So, super not a good situation for taxpayers.

00:09:23.340 But what's annoying here is that because he's rattling the cage here saying, oh, 51st state and calling him

00:09:29.780 governor. I think Elon Musk called him, hey girl, you're not even governor of Canada anymore.

00:09:35.120 That was quite something. Very schoolyard. It's eating up so much oxygen. Like, so many people in

00:09:41.440 Ottawa are just gripped with the trolling element of Trump here that I think they might be missing the

00:09:46.680 big thing, which is the threat of tariffs. I could be way off base on this. So, Cosman, what did you

00:09:51.040 think? Sure. We also have to look back that going into this, Canada didn't necessarily have the best

00:09:58.020 intentions when negotiating trade with the United States. We implement, well, the liberals rather,

00:10:04.240 implemented a digital service tax that applies to US providers as well. And that was a thing that

00:10:10.680 the Biden administration really hammered the liberals on because it wasn't accepted all over

00:10:16.740 the world. I think it was OECD was discussing this, but they didn't actually implement it.

00:10:23.240 And the liberals took the initiative to make up their own digital services tax and then blanket apply

00:10:29.940 it to all these US companies. So, the trade relationship off the get-go isn't a good one.

00:10:36.720 And going into the USMCA, the renegotiation of the replacement of NAFTA, there was all sorts of

00:10:44.320 problems. A significant one being that the Americans aren't happy with Canada's dairy cartel,

00:10:52.560 the supply management system, that might be up for renegotiation. So, I think these moves by Trump,

00:10:59.560 a lot of people seem to misunderstand him because he is somebody who wrote Art of the Deal. And it's

00:11:06.660 about coming back with a counteroffer. And right now, Canada does not have a counteroffer. We've left it

00:11:13.460 up to the premiers, to the provinces, and I guess to the Canadian people themselves to figure out how

00:11:20.340 can we counteroffer this obvious bluster and machismo to intimidate us into accepting a position

00:11:30.100 that might not necessarily be in our best interest. And that's where it gets a little bit frustrating

00:11:35.280 because every now and then, people forget, if you want to know what someone's like, listen when they

00:11:40.500 tell you. His book, in Art of the Deal, explains that he will come through like a freight train at

00:11:46.200 first. Bull in a china shop. He'll rough you up. He'll get you wondering if you're even in the right

00:11:50.960 room. And then he'll come back with a nicer counteroffer back and forth. And that's in order

00:11:55.580 to destabilize you. So, this has been the way he does business deals very successfully for decades.

00:12:02.520 So, the idea that we'd be caught off base with him saying, hey, you're 51st state and you're our

00:12:06.960 governor now. I liked what Doug Ford, and I'm paraphrasing, he's the Ontario premier, of course.

00:12:13.060 Doug Ford said something along the lines of this when he was on an American TV station. Oh, can we

00:12:18.680 take over Canada? He's like, oh, well, Canada's not for sale, but how about you sell us Alaska instead?

00:12:25.860 That's how you do this. That's how you get past the silliness and the pushing and the shoving

00:12:32.100 and actually get down to brass tacks. Isaac, what was your take on Trump? We also have a

00:12:36.560 cliff of Trump, but this was... Yeah. Quickly, I'll start with Ford, because that's where you

00:12:41.300 finished. Obviously, he is the chair of the Council of the Federation, which is the group of Canada's

00:12:46.220 premiers. And he's spoken on their behalf in recent days, specifically basically saying,

00:12:52.600 look, Trudeau has not resigned yet. He still is the lead negotiator for Canada, but he does not have

00:12:58.260 a mandate to do so. He doesn't have a public mandate. The parties are against him. The premiers

00:13:03.380 are essentially going to have to step up in his place and do the negotiations. And Ford, in fact,

00:13:08.720 said he expected the same of municipalities. So we'll see what that happens, especially with a lot

00:13:14.540 of the premiers assumed to be traveling to the United States for Trump's inauguration date. Maybe

00:13:19.900 they can manage to do some negotiations while they're down there. It's hard to say, though.

00:13:25.680 So let's pull up the Cruz tweet here, or X. What do we call them on X now? Posts?

00:13:32.240 Yeah, I say posts. Posts X. Yeah.

00:13:34.940 Declarations due to Elon. Okay. This is from Ted Cruz. The trucker's convoy was a major reason.

00:13:41.820 Trudeau resigned this week. His repressive policies were so over the top. That was the beginning of

00:13:48.140 the end. I was proud to stand with the truckers. I was not expecting that language because sometimes

00:13:54.780 it's easy up here in Canada to think that people forget about things. And it's impressive that Ted

00:14:01.020 Cruz has not forgotten about that. And again, we have to keep in mind the Emergencies Act

00:14:05.480 was invoked, which is, of course, the modern incarnation of the War Measures Act.

00:14:10.300 So that means that your rights are suspended. You're no longer able to hold your government

00:14:14.820 to account, which is a big problem for taxpayers. And in some cases, the people who were protesting

00:14:19.920 or supporting protesters had their bank accounts frozen, which was an enormous overreach. And the

00:14:26.560 federal court said so. Cosman, were you surprised that Cruz brought it back to that?

00:14:32.560 Honestly, no, I was not surprised because there was so much international attention during the

00:14:38.560 trucker's convoy, particularly in the US. There was people, MPs in the UK calling for intervention from

00:14:47.180 their own government in Canadian affairs. There was people in Europe, the European Parliament,

00:14:53.280 decrying Justin Trudeau's overreach and trampling of peaceful protesters and this unprecedented use of

00:15:02.580 the Emergencies Act. And in a way, he's right. This was the beginning of the end. This is where

00:15:08.260 the international image that Justin Trudeau and the liberal government projected started to crumble.

00:15:15.820 And what was underneath was way different than what they originally sold themselves as. This is a guy

00:15:23.340 who ran on electoral reform, democracy, et cetera, being, you know, a champion of democratic ideals

00:15:30.660 worldwide, doing the least democratic thing by issuing an executive order to suspend certain rights

00:15:39.460 of people who protested against his COVID pandemic diktats. So this was truly the beginning of the

00:15:48.780 end. And I think whenever people will think of Justin Trudeau in the future, historically speaking,

00:15:56.020 that will be one of the main things that come to mind. Not him legalizing marijuana, not the carbon tax.

00:16:02.460 It will be how he treated his own citizens, because it was just such a internationally shocking incident.

00:16:09.780 I will say I've covered him for a long time with before he even ran to be a member of parliament.

00:16:15.780 And I didn't see that element of him coming. He was always just this kind of friendly, the sunny

00:16:22.060 ways thing. Remember that? It was really kind of light all the time. I did not see that part of him

00:16:29.340 coming, the language that was used against people in a very divisive manner. And it was leading up to

00:16:35.620 that a little bit. I remember leading up to the convoy trying to take them on over things like a

00:16:41.240 proposed truck tax, for example, a pickup truck tax, increased carbon taxes. And even then they were

00:16:47.360 starting to use nasty language like, oh, you're just this tiny group. And this is misinformation and

00:16:53.520 disinformation. Like what? Like it's super divisive. And then, of course, that rhetoric just went off the

00:16:58.640 scale leading up to the trucker convoy. So, yeah, did not see that coming. And I would agree with you

00:17:04.420 that it was kind of the big shift, because, of course, we had a change in the Conservative Party

00:17:09.480 leader right around that time. And it was right around that time that, of course, at the same time,

00:17:13.780 we got a new opposition leader. And that's when things started tracking in a wildly different

00:17:17.720 direction. And here we are, hopefully going to be getting an election soon. Isaac, were you surprised

00:17:24.560 to see Cruz bring it back to that? Yeah, well, firstly, I'll say Cruz, Trump and, of course, VP JD Vance have

00:17:33.300 all historically stood up with truckers. They've been very supportive of them, talking about how they're

00:17:38.480 fighting for freedom against like authoritarian measures against totalitarianism. These are the

00:17:43.880 quotes they've used. In fact, JD or sorry, Ted Cruz went to bat against the Ottawa police during the

00:17:50.560 convoy because the police, essentially the Ottawa police threatened its residents saying, look, if you

00:17:55.960 participate in this convoy, we're going to financially attack you. And Cruz said this would not have happened

00:18:03.240 if you had a First Amendment. So yeah, no, he's historically stood with truckers. So I wouldn't

00:18:08.680 find it too surprising in that sense that he's bringing it back now, especially with the anniversary

00:18:13.980 of the convoy coming up. I think that's on the 22nd of January, if I recall. So yeah, not all too

00:18:20.460 surprising, no. Wow, it was quite something. Do we want to play the Trump clip here? This is where so for

00:18:27.580 folks who don't know, Mar-a-Lago is this kind of old, as far as the United States goes old. Sorry,

00:18:34.280 Cosmin. Mar-a-Lago is this old mansion, and it's often referred to as the Southern White House. And

00:18:40.500 Trump has owned it for I don't know how long. So he owns it as one of his houses. And so what they're

00:18:46.020 doing right now is leading up to the inauguration, they're just getting all these world leaders coming

00:18:50.520 in and all of his different assistants in that, and they're basically building what they have to do

00:18:54.620 next. And so he actually held a really long press conference, it was over an hour, I listened to a

00:19:00.060 whole thing yesterday, freewheeling, kind of the old Trump coming back, taking on the press corps.

00:19:05.740 And he was asked about the Conservative leader, and of course, we know that's Pierre Polyev,

00:19:12.400 about Polyev pushing back on this whole 51st state sort of nonsense. Let's listen to this.

00:19:18.160 Mr. President, if you were working under the assumption that you're serious about making

00:19:23.480 Canada the 51st state of the United States, the leader of the Conservative Party in Canada

00:19:28.340 said, under no circumstances, he'll never be the 51st state.

00:19:31.100 Maybe he won't win, but maybe he will. I don't know.

00:19:33.720 To Dave's points, you had suggested...

00:19:35.240 Listen, I don't care what you said, but sir, real fast, you said you were considering

00:19:38.140 military force to acquire Panama and Greenland. Are you also considering military force to

00:19:45.060 annex and acquire Panama? No. Economic force. Because Canada and the United States,

00:19:51.120 that would really be something.

00:19:55.920 So again, the rhetoric's there, but to me, this sounds just like classic Trump. Economic force,

00:20:02.100 that's what a 25% tariff is. And a tariff really is just a tax by another name. It's an import or

00:20:08.060 export tax, depending on which way you're going. And it would frankly hurt both sides of the border,

00:20:12.820 and it would hurt taxpayers. What was your take on the no, I don't care, Isaac?

00:20:18.980 Yeah, this is actually what I wanted to discuss earlier, which kind of slipped my mind at the

00:20:23.240 time. But, you know, leading up to this with the tariffs and whatnot, I really think Canadians,

00:20:28.500 including myself, kind of thought Trump was joking around, especially with the annexation.

00:20:32.580 But after watching this clip, I started to realize I don't think he's joking in any way.

00:20:37.680 This guy is dead serious about implementing these tariffs. If we don't negotiate with him properly

00:20:44.080 and address the concerns that he has, which is drugs flowing over the border, illegal immigration,

00:20:48.720 the lengthy list of things that he's asked for. And also, I think people are starting to realize

00:20:54.040 we this is not an option for Canada. We need protection from the United States of America.

00:20:59.580 If we did not have their protection, if they were not our ally, imagine China, imagine Russia coming

00:21:04.700 to our country and taking our stuff. What are we going to do about that? Absolutely nothing. 0.96

00:21:09.340 We've reported extensively at True North about the military's many, many issues. We are in no

00:21:15.100 state to defend ourselves. And on top of that, our citizens have no options to defend themselves.

00:21:22.260 We don't really have guns. We don't have any way to fend off an invasion. So yeah,

00:21:27.800 without the United States, we are sitting ducks. Yeah. Yeah. What was your take on that, Kossin?

00:21:35.960 In a way, Trump is speaking truth that kind of has been ignored by Canadian politicians in the

00:21:43.380 sense that Canada does rely defense-wise on the United States. NORAD, for example. We do not have

00:21:51.220 any military bases, functioning military bases in the Arctic. We couldn't defend the Arctic if

00:21:57.780 like you said, Russia or China decided to just stake a claim on it. That is a very hotly contested

00:22:05.180 future geopolitical arena that Canada simply does not have the means and ways to hold. And additionally,

00:22:14.140 a lot, you know, it's, it's, it's sad to say, but a lot of our defense decision-making originates in

00:22:21.040 Washington DC because just simply we are neighbors to a superpower. That's how it works. We have to

00:22:29.360 at least collaborate and provide assistance to our ally. But that being said, there is an element

00:22:37.660 of indignity that I think Canadians feel when a, are the future president is talking about Canada in

00:22:45.400 this way. Canada as just a share that can be bought and sold. And I don't think Canadians view this

00:22:52.800 country, its history and culture that way. And while I respect the president for taking a vastly

00:23:00.860 different approach to politics that I think a lot of people have been accustomed to this nice, you know,

00:23:06.080 everybody's friends. But when reality comes knocking on the door, there are certain things we have to

00:23:13.020 accept as facts. But at the same time, we must stand up for ourselves. And we don't have a government

00:23:18.700 doing that. Parliament is prorogued. There's nobody on our side of the negotiating table that

00:23:24.240 has stood up as a leader, because our leader has decided to duck out of the back door.

00:23:30.600 Yeah, it's prorogued. Everything shut down. It's not great, I will say the national narrative,

00:23:36.980 put it nicely, is not great right now. Like I said, I've followed Trump's work for decades.

00:23:41.940 And usually I agree with his idea of, you know, pro-business, lower taxes, smaller government,

00:23:48.580 more freedom, all that sort of stuff. But the I don't care, and the repeated language about 51st

00:23:55.060 State is starting to annoy me. And if he could tamp that down a little bit, that'd be great.

00:24:02.040 His initial point of saying he wants a better border is a totally legitimate point. And it's

00:24:09.100 legitimate on this side of the border too, in Canada. Because of course, we're seeing increased

00:24:14.300 problems of gun crime, especially in our urban cores and in our cities. And guess who gets blamed for

00:24:21.000 that? Law-abiding firearms owners, which the Trudeau government is trying to demonize. And they're

00:24:28.280 trying to seize our private property, even though we have border agencies and police saying it's not

00:24:36.420 Canadian firearms owners that are the problem. It's the illegal guns coming across the Canada-U.S.

00:24:42.700 border from the states and elsewhere. So it would benefit both of us if they would clean that up,

00:24:49.660 because we'd have the added bonus of not being in the middle of a trade war with Donald Trump. So

00:24:55.680 yeah, so much stuff going on. Do we want to move to the actual liberal leadership race now?

00:25:00.460 Sure. This is super fun. So I think this was yours because it was hilarious. I hadn't seen this

00:25:10.040 yet. So I apologize. You surprised me with it. Is the top none of the above with liberals? What's

00:25:15.900 going on? Yeah. So we could obviously sit and talk for the last story forever, but hopping to this.

00:25:20.900 So there's this recurring poll. And in the most recent rendition, the top pick for Canadians for who to

00:25:29.480 become leader of the Liberal Party. Yes, the topic was none of the above. In second place, following none

00:25:37.240 of the above was Chrystia Freeland. Then following her was Mark Carney. And fourth place, this is another

00:25:42.800 one who was unsure. Trudeau was tied. He tied for fifth with other. Wow. And six. So six percent of Canadians

00:25:52.080 chose each of those. And then Sean Frazier and Anita Anand were tied for last place with two percent of

00:25:57.720 approval. And as I said, this survey had been taking place over the last several years. And surprisingly,

00:26:05.440 actually, none of the above was the top choice in every single edition of the survey. So, I mean,

00:26:13.260 this just really shows that the existing Liberal MPs at this point should know because this year has

00:26:18.300 been going or sorry, this survey has been going on for years that Canadians don't want any of them 0.97

00:26:23.880 to represent them because they're literally choosing none of the above over any any existing Liberal

00:26:30.360 MP. That's the option. And Trudeau was on the list, too, though he may not actually take part in this

00:26:35.840 leadership election. But for previous ones, he certainly was on the list. And he's been hovering

00:26:41.060 around 10 percent. But his he he reached a record low in this newest rendition of the survey that just

00:26:47.620 came out a few days ago. And this paired with a separate poll where we saw Trudeau start the new year

00:26:55.020 with a record low approval rating and his party polling worse than it has in its 157 year history.

00:27:01.760 So, I mean, the Liberal Party is in shambles and clearly Canadians don't think that there is a

00:27:07.460 replacement, a suitable replacement on the table. How do you guys think that Liberal MPs should be

00:27:14.020 taking this, seeing that Canadians are more likely to choose nobody than them to represent the party

00:27:20.020 heading into this leadership election? Cosman? Yeah, there should be some element of reflection

00:27:28.220 as to how much of a personality cult the Liberal brand has become. It has become totally tied to the

00:27:37.040 person, to the individual of Justin Trudeau. And for a while, we've known Justin Trudeau as Teflon

00:27:45.060 Trudeau. He could do anything and it would just slide off him. But that armor has rusted and all of

00:27:52.440 his mistakes, all of his overreaches, all of his scandals are underneath that Teflon layer and they're

00:28:00.380 starting to really, really show through. And when you compare it to 2015, I recall back when Justin

00:28:08.860 Trudeau, even before that, just became the Liberal leader. And not to sound too much like a young

00:28:17.020 person or Gen Z, but the vibes, there were vibes there. There was a vitality, an energy, a sort of

00:28:25.360 momentum that Trudeau picked up on, especially among young people, that is totally lost. And you don't

00:28:32.980 see it with any candidate on the Liberal side. There's no single individual who you can point to

00:28:39.900 that is stepping up and appearing different, giving an alternative to what the Liberals have been

00:28:47.480 for the last 9-10 years. So again, they've lost the vibes, there's no energy there anymore,

00:28:53.940 and it's totally shifted to Pierre Polyev, as the polls indicate, and especially among young voters.

00:29:01.620 Even the NDP don't have traction with younger voters who really have been among the worst hit

00:29:10.540 by the 9 years of Justin Trudeau. They've had their entire futures robbed from them,

00:29:16.540 and they are going to make that known when they go to the ballot.

00:29:21.900 Yeah, I think... Go ahead.

00:29:23.440 Sorry, Chris. I think this poll might be showing that Canadians agree with the stance that the

00:29:29.620 Conservative Party of Canada has taken against the Liberals in their upcoming leadership election.

00:29:33.980 They've basically said, look, look at all the MPs that are potential leadership candidates.

00:29:40.140 It's all Justin Trudeau's posse. Don't forget, this is not changing who the Liberal Party are

00:29:47.080 as an entity, what they've become as an ideology. And that's what the Conservatives have been saying.

00:29:52.600 The Liberal Party is the Liberal Party. This is Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party.

00:29:56.040 None of these potential MPs are changing that image. And clearly, Canadians agree,

00:30:00.900 saying that they don't want anything to do with that party or its existing MPs.

00:30:06.320 Yeah, it's definitely a changed atmosphere. I remember when the members of Parliament and

00:30:12.020 the opposition Liberals were getting Trudeau to run for leader. And they were all kind of rallying

00:30:17.380 around him. They were handing out this pin. It was going everywhere, all through the foyer of the

00:30:21.960 House of Commons. And there was excitement. There was this kind of strange optimism. I always found

00:30:27.500 it a little bit silly because I think politics is about other people's lives. And I don't think it

00:30:32.380 should be this kind of silly sport all the time. But I do hang on to some of the stuff for old time's

00:30:37.600 sake. It has changed a lot. And it's for the worse. We've got the debt has been doubled by this

00:30:45.200 government. We've got runaway inflation. Again, this is the fault of the government, because they've

00:30:51.180 printed hundreds of billions of dollars out of thin air, too many dollars chasing too few things,

00:30:56.320 as it is put. We've got massive censorship. OK, they tried ramming through Bill C-63. And at the

00:31:03.440 very last second, thankfully, it's gone. But that would have been criminalizing people's online

00:31:08.220 expression, both in the past and in the future, anonymously. Like that bill was crazy.

00:31:13.600 We've got Bill C-11, which already went into play, which is going to be affecting podcasts,

00:31:19.400 even. It's going to be affecting alternative media because the government wants to be able

00:31:23.600 to decide what other people can see, hear and say on the Internet. We've got just we've got a gun

00:31:29.460 seizure. It's outrageous what is going on. Like pretty much everywhere you look in Canada,

00:31:35.600 where the federal government has an effect on it, it's a mess. And then, of course,

00:31:41.820 we have got the carbon tax set to go up again on April 1st. And this is something,

00:31:47.140 if you don't mind me tooting my horn, there's a little image here from where I had put it in

00:31:51.660 the Toronto Sun. And we're trying to implore the liberal leaders to disavow the carbon tax that now

00:31:59.060 is the time. This carbon tax is wildly unpopular. Last year, this time, when they were going to have

00:32:05.040 an increase, 70 percent of Canadians said they were against it. Seventy. So imagine you're the

00:32:11.300 new liberal leader. You're minted. You're sitting down there on March 24th in Parliament. One week

00:32:17.720 later, you crank up the carbon tax and then you hit the campaign trail. Knock, knock. Who's there?

00:32:23.980 Carbon tax hike. Can I have your vote? Like, are you crazy? That would be madness. So we're encouraging

00:32:31.680 all of the liberals to come back from the brink now and disavow themselves of this terrible,

00:32:37.320 expensive failure. I don't think it'll change things. Because to your point, both of you,

00:32:41.580 I think this has been kind of a team Trudeau, like the button says. This is no longer kind of the

00:32:46.900 John Manley, Paul Martin, that sort of more serious liberal government when they balance the budget.

00:32:52.880 Totally different form of a liberal government. Cosmin, you had an issue where you were raising about

00:32:59.220 foreign actors playing a role here in the liberal leadership, but I haven't been keeping up with

00:33:03.500 that element. Could you fill us in? Right. So I interviewed or just had a quick discussion with

00:33:10.960 the former chair of the organizing committee of the conservative leadership contest that saw Pierre

00:33:17.380 Polyev elected. And he pointed out that the way the liberal party of Canada's membership rules work

00:33:26.600 is that anybody residing within Canada can become a liberal party member. That doesn't mean they have

00:33:36.780 to be Canadian citizens. That doesn't mean they have to be permanent residents, but anybody who has their

00:33:42.320 feet on the soil in Canada can become a liberal party member, and if you're a member, that means you can vote

00:33:50.060 in nomination processes, you can vote on leadership elections. And he's not the only one to raise awareness

00:33:57.980 about this. CSIS brought it up back when the Handong allegations of Chinese seniors being bused to his

00:34:06.380 nomination, uh, nomination meeting, uh, uh, ended up taking place. It was also war a warning by the

00:34:14.740 elections commissioner of Canada saying that they should change their rules to avoid foreign interference

00:34:21.020 in their leadership and nomination selection process. So this is a huge problem because, you know,

00:34:30.620 there, the chances might be slim, but if another liberal party leader becomes prime minister again, there is a

00:34:39.020 very, very significant and realistic likelihood that there could be more, uh, foreign meddling involved. There's no

00:34:48.460 backstop or checks on this. Uh, people have been playing around online on social media right now, uh, signing up all

00:34:56.220 under all sorts of ridiculous names to liberal party membership as Xi Jinping, they put like the, the

00:35:02.380 address of the Chinese consulate as their address, and there's no way to verify it or to tell if these

00:35:09.340 are fake registrations. And it's a serious problem because the liberal party, whether we like it or not,

00:35:16.700 is a significant force in Canadian politics and political history. And when a major party has this

00:35:24.300 vulnerability in place, it's, it's seriously an issue that affects everybody because foreign meddling 1.00

00:35:31.820 means that our sovereignty is directly under attack. People's choices are being swayed by forces they

00:35:39.180 don't even know of. And to your point, it isn't a maybe the next liberal party leader will be prime

00:35:48.140 minister. It may just be for a week. So that is, wow. I did not realize that it was to this extent

00:35:56.860 where you have to have, pardon the phrase, two feet in a heartbeat, and you have to be standing

00:36:02.380 in Canada and then I can become a member and then participate. Is that what you're saying?

00:36:07.660 That's right. There's no, yeah, there's no permanent residency or citizenship requirements. Whereas,

00:36:13.020 uh, in contrast, the conservative party of Canada requires you to show that you're a citizen or at

00:36:20.460 least a permanent resident to be able to vote, become a member and vote within their internal

00:36:26.540 processes and have a say in party matters. So this is a weird situation. Again, what I was just

00:36:33.660 mentioning there of the next liberal party leader will be the prime minister of Canada. I know this sounds

00:36:40.780 weird. Okay. But once Trudeau resigns and the new liberal party leader is named, you don't need to

00:36:49.580 be a member of parliament to be a member of cabinet. And the prime minister is the first minister in the

00:36:58.700 cabinet who reports to the crown. That's how this works. That's why they're all called ministers.

00:37:05.740 And just to throw a pop culture reference, right? We have a Manchurian candidate situation here where

00:37:12.700 you could effectively, not even just one candidate, multiple candidates, we could have a free for all

00:37:19.660 of foreign influence candidates running for the liberal leadership, not a single one perhaps representing

00:37:26.700 the true values, or at least having their opinions skewed or, or, or shaped in certain,

00:37:31.660 such a way that it doesn't benefit us, but it benefits a shadowy foreign actor.

00:37:38.940 You know, I thought it was weird enough when I was reading about it in one of the broad sheets,

00:37:43.340 and they were pointing out that so for example, you know, Christy Clark, former BC premier,

00:37:47.500 doesn't have a seat in the house. She if she won, she would still technically be prime minister, 1.00

00:37:53.020 though. Same sort of thing if it were Mark Carney, who doesn't have a seat in the house, same thing,

00:37:57.500 because they would be the prime minister. I hadn't thought about the actual elements of the people

00:38:03.980 registering and voting and all. Wow, that's quite something. Have we heard, sorry to put you on the

00:38:08.540 spot, but have we heard any grownups talking about this in a serious manner that could actually reign

00:38:13.980 this in or fix it before it happens? Yeah. So the latest report I've seen from the CBC

00:38:21.900 indicates that the liberals are not intending to change their membership rules. They've,

00:38:26.540 they've shown no indication of changing the membership rules. Uh, although I will add,

00:38:31.580 they have not released their leadership election rules yet. So there could be certain stipulations

00:38:38.940 that they add to the liberal leadership election process that has extra requirements on what sort of

00:38:46.380 members can vote, but we haven't seen those yet. Obviously the liberals are rushing to put together

00:38:53.340 a last minute liberal leadership race. So until that's out, we don't really know the full extent

00:38:59.740 of it. It would be, it would surprise me, honestly, if they don't fix this because the establishment

00:39:04.780 people have been in the game for decades. They don't want their arena torched by some outside influence

00:39:11.260 and have their own influence be gone. Like this is part of, you know, self-preservation as well

00:39:16.220 as making sure that it's Canadians who have a say as who's gets to actually lead us and govern us.

00:39:21.500 Did we want to get to our really fun kicker in Ottawa where you're no longer allowed to

00:39:25.980 idle your vehicle or Isaac, did you have, yeah, let me just say two things on this story quick.

00:39:30.460 Uh, Cosmin already used the good Xi Jinping example, but I saw another one cause you said

00:39:34.940 you have to be standing in Canada. I'm not sure that's true because someone was saying they were

00:39:38.380 in Europe, uh, and used a fake name to apply to the leadership party. I mean, this is ridiculous. 0.92

00:39:45.580 How are the proper checks and balances not in place? Uh, a junior level coder could create bots

00:39:51.900 to, uh, manipulate this. You don't have to be a tech genius. I mean, this is ridiculous.

00:39:56.620 The fact that you couldn't stop that level, uh, let alone an actual, let's say someone who has 0.64

00:40:02.220 tech experience. I mean, imagine how easily you could manipulate this process. Uh, they definitely,

00:40:07.740 I think I'll agree with you, Chris, they, they have to do something. I mean, this is such Bush league, 1.00

00:40:13.420 literally the Bush league. I mean, what, what else can you really say? Like, this is, I mean,

00:40:18.140 it's child's play to exploit you. You can't possibly have something this easily exploitable,

00:40:23.420 uh, at the federal level. Uh, but yeah, before I get too heated with that, uh, let's, uh, let's,

00:40:30.460 uh, let's, uh, let's end with this, which is a change we saw in Ottawa where yes, even if they,

00:40:37.020 uh, pass their coldest temperature ever, which is minus 39 degrees. I know if you live in Alberta,

00:40:41.900 you think that's it. I mean, I think that happened last weekend. Residents will be, uh, unable to

00:40:48.220 idle their vehicle for more than one minute, an hour going forward. This is irrespective of the,

00:40:53.260 of the temperature. So the city of, uh, Ottawa, they made these bylaw changes, uh, that are coming into

00:40:58.780 effect, uh, just this January and the new year. Um, which weirdly followed some research that

00:41:05.660 showed that people in Ottawa might not even agree with the change. So I don't know how they, uh,

00:41:11.740 determined that they should make these changes despite them using research that showed the contrary.

00:41:18.140 Uh, yeah. Also this, this is for, uh, unoccupied vehicles, but you won't be able to idle for more

00:41:26.380 than three minutes, an hour in an occupied vehicle when the temperature is between zero and 27 degrees

00:41:32.620 Celsius. So hopefully, uh, they don't get stuck in any traffic, uh, because idling for more than

00:41:38.700 three hours. And I mean, come on, how would you even enforce this? This is ridiculous.

00:41:41.740 Oh, just watch them. Yeah. And so, uh, but, but, but it gets better, Chris, when it's, uh, 0.98

00:41:48.620 when it's below zero degrees or above 27, you're allowed to idle in an occupied vehicle for 10 minutes,

00:41:53.980 an hour. So, uh, in, in the, in the minus 50, if you were inside your vehicle, you're allowed to idle

00:41:58.700 for 10 minutes, an hour. But once that clock strikes 11 minutes, even if it's minus 50, I mean,

00:42:02.940 you're going to have to turn that car off and just, uh, take your best bet with, uh, with mother nature.

00:42:08.140 Uh, good luck in that one. If you're in Ottawa, because I wouldn't be playing around in temperatures

00:42:13.500 like that. Uh, I mean, what's, what's up with this bylaw guys, what do you think, especially with the update?

00:42:19.660 Because, uh, in the prior, in the prior version of the bylaw, uh, these rules were not in place if it

00:42:26.460 was below zero degrees or above 27, meaning over half the year was exempt from this bylaw. But

00:42:31.660 obviously this takes that completely out of the equation. Cause and I'll let you have first kick.

00:42:38.700 Thanks, Chris. Although I think you could speak better to this topic than I could, but when

00:42:43.580 bureaucrats and municipalities need to find ways to get money out of taxpayers, they will come up

00:42:51.740 with invent all sorts of inventive ways to do so. And there's no better thing or a slush fund rather

00:42:59.420 than the climate, uh, you know, emergency and sort of the need to save the climate and play people's

00:43:05.260 heartstrings. And this is what I think it is. Ottawa needs money. They have to find new ways to get money.

00:43:12.220 They can't raise property taxes all the time on people. It's extremely unpopular. So they try to

00:43:18.300 hide in these little ways that bylaw officers can go out and ticket people and, and cite these, uh,

00:43:25.020 obscene and ridiculous, uh, totally detached from reality procedures and laws, because I don't know

00:43:33.180 about you, but when I'm out there, I don't really see on the roads, people idling that much. I think

00:43:39.020 people try to reduce their idling amount. Sure. In the morning, you know, if it's minus 20 plus

00:43:45.340 degrees, you might go out, turn on your car or do it from your window. If you have a fancy automatic

00:43:50.700 start and let your car heat up for a couple minutes before you hop in and drive to work. But I just don't

00:43:58.060 see the, that it, this is as such a huge issue that it requires enforcement people making things more

00:44:05.900 expensive for people. You know, people deal with tickets all of the time, parking tickets,

00:44:10.940 unfair speeding tickets, but having to deal with an additional concern, having a bylaw officer knock

00:44:18.300 on your door while you're getting ready to go to work and pay your taxes because you left your car

00:44:23.980 on for a little bit and wanted to heat it up. Maybe for your, you know, three-year-old child that you're

00:44:29.020 trying to take to daycare. So they're not freezing all the way there. Now, now you're in trouble, right?

00:44:35.420 This to me is classic Ottawa. Uh, Ottawa is the center of big government. There is not a regulation

00:44:43.980 or a little foot force that they have not met, that they have not loved. If you walk around Ottawa,

00:44:50.060 every tree has a metal tag on it so that their parks and rec police, also known as the NCC can

00:44:59.100 keep track of it, which by the way, of course, taxpayers pay for fully. Um, Ottawa can become

00:45:04.300 a joke of itself. It loves to expand the role of government to get up into your grill, to nickel

00:45:12.380 and dime you and to virtue signal. They get to do all of this at the same time with this thing.

00:45:18.380 And I am surprised that the folks in Ottawa are putting up with this because it's not just

00:45:24.620 the downtown bureaucrats that were so frightened of, you know, honking for a little while that live

00:45:29.340 there. There are a ton of good, hardworking people that live in that area. They used to listen to my

00:45:35.660 old radio station, CFRA. They'd live out to Arnpire. They'd go down to Carp. They were down the Ottawa

00:45:41.100 Valley. Lots of working class folks who don't like this nonsense. And here we go. This is classic 1.00

00:45:48.220 Ottawa. People might remember Ottawa was the city that was ticketing and fining little girls for

00:45:56.140 setting up a lemonade stand. I kid you not. And the reason I'm so ticked off about this is one,

00:46:03.180 obviously the infringement on somebody's personal freedom, like go fly a kite. Yeah. I've got my car

00:46:08.780 idling because it's minus 30. Go away. Number two, huge cost. They're going to have all these little

00:46:15.420 bylaw officers and they're going to be testing. And what are they going to stand there with a

00:46:18.860 stopwatch each time? They're going to make sure. What if it's the third infraction? It's just wild.

00:46:24.780 So this is the continuing war on the car. And frankly, the city, city governments are tasked

00:46:32.540 largely with doing three things. Keep the city streets safe, clean, and in good repair.

00:46:39.660 Right now, Ottawa sucks, pardon my language, on all three counts. The last time I was there was for a 0.91

00:46:47.740 conference downtown. It was shocking. There was human excrement on the sidewalk. I could see the

00:46:54.700 peace tower and right there. So I'll just call out the mayor, Mark Sutcliffe. He used to work with me at

00:47:00.220 that news talk radio station. You happy with this? Look around your city streets. I was not safe walking from

00:47:08.300 Laurier down to Gladstone, down Bank Street. It was unbelievable. Totally unbelievable. It was dirty.

00:47:16.620 It was dangerous. And there were holes all through the street. But they'll come and ticket you, Cosmin,

00:47:22.220 if you're trying to heat up your car to take your daughter to daycare, all the while hiking up your

00:47:27.260 taxes and fees while doing it. They should be ashamed of themselves. And frankly, the folks in Ottawa

00:47:32.060 shouldn't put up with this anymore. They should swamp City Hall with emails and phone calls and tell them

00:47:36.540 to back off on this. Sorry, I wasn't expecting to get that mad. But I lived there for a long time.

00:47:42.620 And there's a lot of people there that are really busting their butts trying to work normal jobs.

00:47:46.620 And they're just going to get you watch. They're going to nail the suburbs and the residences.

00:47:52.140 They won't be going to the Glebe. They won't be going to Rockcliffe. They'll be going out to

00:47:56.220 Canada and Orleans and nailing people there. Mark my words. All right, folks. Thanks for listening to

00:48:03.100 my rant about living in Ottawa. Folks, if you have any questions, head on over to the True North

00:48:09.100 website. Send us a comment. Put a comment on our YouTube channel. And of course, remember,

00:48:14.540 everything that we've said here today is off the record. 0.99

00:48:17.180 I can't believe those absolute jerks are doing that. 1.00

00:48:27.740 They're making me so mad. 1.00

00:48:29.500 Yeah, I mean, I was like, well, I really hope she doesn't ask me for anything. What

00:48:33.900 could I say after this?

00:48:34.860 I hope that was okay. Well, you described it so well.

00:48:38.620 Oh, I did mention the city said the bylaws will be, get this, Chris. This is no cheap ticket. $615.

00:48:47.660 Are you kidding me? This is insane. This is, that's literally more expensive than any ticket

00:48:52.300 I can think of. Maybe a red light one. I mean, $615 is disgusting.

00:48:56.380 Wow. I don't think red light tickets are that much.

00:49:00.140 No, they're not. There's no way.

00:49:01.580 The only ticket I know that's more than that is an insurance ticket. Like you don't have insurance,

00:49:05.020 like two grand. But outside of that, I mean, what is that high?

Off the Record - January 10, 2025

Trudeau bails at a critical moment for Canada

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