Trudeau bails at a critical moment for Canada
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Summary
On this episode of Off The Record, we discuss Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's announcement that he is stepping down as Prime Minister of Canada, and why that's a good thing. We also discuss the impact of the Prime Minister's decision to call off Parliament for the next 60 days, and whether or not he'll still be on the frontbench when Parliament returns on March 24th.
Transcript
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I can't help it. I'm going to start with the weather. It is cold and snowy and disgusting
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out, and it's made me super mad because I'm still paying crazy taxes on my home heating
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because it's not optional. Otherwise, my pipes would burst. Cosmin, you're sitting there
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smirking at me. Do you guys have cherry blossoms out right now in January or no?
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Well, it's a damp, dreary seven degrees here in Victoria, BC, so obviously we're suffering.
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All the cyclists are bundled up suffering as well. Just add more vortex. Isaac?
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Yeah, no, I was just thinking it's really, really warm here. It's like minus five, but
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it's been like minus 25, so I was like, man, minus five, it's like shorts weather out there.
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I don't know what Cosmin's living in Mexico with seven degrees, man, what the heck?
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You guys are in flip-flops in Edmonton. All right, let's get this thing started.
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Welcome to Off the Record. My name is Chris Sims. I'm the Alberta Director for the Canadian
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Taxpayers Federation. Thank you so much to True North for letting me sit in on this panel.
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We've got a really fun show for you today because it seems like something has been happening
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in Ottawa. Not too sure about the news. Joining me for this show are, of course,
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Cosmin and Isaac. Thank you so much, everyone, for joining me.
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Okay. So the big story, of course, is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is going to resign.
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I will point that out. He has not resigned yet. He is still the Prime Minister. He is still the
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leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. But he announced that he's going to resign. The question
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here, of course, is when? Okay. Is it going to be 60 days, 90 days? Is he still going to be sitting
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in the front bench when Parliament comes back on March 24th? Oh, and yeah, they prorogued Parliament.
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So now everything is on hold. Everything is frozen. All of the legislation is dead. So the good news is
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Bill C-63 is gone. So that's really good news. So they should be coming back March 24th. So much to
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break down here, guys. I just wanted to go around the horn for us before we get to our clips and our
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tweets here. Isaac, what went through your mind when you saw him finally say he's going to leave?
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Yeah. Well, leading up to the announcement that Trudeau made, and we all kind of knew it was
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coming or expected something along those lines. I personally did not think that he would resign.
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I didn't think he had it in him. Obviously, we don't know what's going on behind closed doors,
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whether he's being forced or anything of the sort. But I still was very surprised when I heard those
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words come out of his mouth. But as you mentioned, Chris, this isn't him resigning. And we'll go through
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the tweets soon. But for example, when I was writing up the story on Ted Cruz saying that he
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resigned, it's not technically true. He hasn't yet resigned. And who knows when that day will come.
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But I do think that despite him not resigning and despite Parliament being prorogued and despite
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Canada facing tariff and annexation threats from the United States, and the list goes on and on,
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Canadians are probably relieved to know that change is coming eventually.
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Can you imagine having a tariff and annexation threat? And it's like secondary to be a relief
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of things finally changing in Ottawa? Cosmin, what was your take on it?
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Yeah, my immediate thought was I couldn't think of an absolutely worse time
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to prorogue Parliament, not just the tariff and annexation stuff. USMCA deal is going up for
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renegotiation. Chinese interference is still a problem. It hasn't been dealt with. We have a
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confluence of all of these problems affecting our nation. We have inflation, the cost of living crisis,
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the healthcare crisis, people dying in waiting rooms and ERs. And our Prime Minister decides
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it's a good time to shut down all business in the House of Commons and not even give people
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the chance to have a democratic vote on the future of this country, because that's what it comes down
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to. And I would like to remind listeners and viewers that this Prime Minister attacked the former
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Harper government for proroguing Parliament, and he called it a direct attack on democracy.
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Yet this is the second time that he has done the same.
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I will point out we've been getting a lot of emails with that same sort of tone. And a lot of
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folks wanted a chance to vote in the election with him in the election. They wanted to be able to have
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their say, yes or no, whatever it is. They wanted ultimately to have that say. And I'm hearing a lot of
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frustration from people who are saying, why is he going and exiting stage left and leaving this flaming
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bag for the next Liberal leader to deal with in the next election? Why isn't he standing for the next
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election? So a lot of high spirits there. I wanted to go through some of them here and get your thoughts
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on them. Let's go with the Chrystia Freeland tweet here first, because of course, she was finance minister that
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really helped get this thing spinning out of control. So she says, I thank Justin Trudeau for
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his years of service to Canada and Canadians. I wish him and his family the very best. 1.1 million
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views. I will point out Chrystia Freeland was a terrible finance minister. She never balanced the
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budget one time. She was instrumental in helping to double the national debt. Double it. So throughout all
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of history of our governments, these guys doubled it. And of course, she froze the bank accounts of
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Canadians when they dared protest against the government, which was found to be unreasonable
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by the federal court, I will point out. So yeah, terrible finance minister. And on our way out the
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door, this was the tweet. So what is your take on that, guys? Did you think that was genuine?
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Well, I can jump into it. Sure. I think it's just boilerplate, milquetoast statement. It obviously
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ignores the brewing conflict between her and the prime minister and how much weight you want to put
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into that. That's up to you. Obviously, they have very much aligned interests. They follow a lot of the
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same ideas and ideological background. And to me, it's quite hard to distinguish between the two at
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this point. There is a very thin line of difference between Chrystia Freeland and Justin Trudeau. They
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throughout their political careers have been tied at the hip and have acted almost as a single unit.
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So it's yet to be seen whether she is considering running for the leadership. She's obviously
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been singled out by the legacy media as a suitable replacement for Justin Trudeau. But whether
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Canadians buy that, I'm not so sure about that.
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I'll just say I saw really in people wishing Trudeau farewell, and I was paying close attention
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to all the premiers across Canada. I really saw two themes emerge. One, a simpler boilerplate answer
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as Cosman said, basically just thanking him, not really giving any examples per se, just a short
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answer. And then the other side of the coin was people who were attacking him, like Daniel Smith,
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who called his resignation selfish. And I mean, they gave very, very, very strong language against
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his resignation, as we discussed previously in Canada's deep. We need a government right now to
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Yeah. I had something else to say, but I forgot what the second one was.
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We can get, well, I know somebody who has something to say. Let's read US President Donald Trump's tweet.
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Many people in Canada love being the 51st state. The United States can no longer suffer the massive
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trade deficits and subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this and
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resigned. If Canada merged with the United States, there would be no tariffs. Taxes would go way down,
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and they would be totally secure from the threat of Russian and Chinese ships that are constantly
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surrounding them. Together, what a great nation it will be. So, there's a peak Trump trolling in the
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middle of it. He didn't call him governor there, I don't think. So, it's been a tag team, really, between
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Musk and Trump. And so, I will just say, as a taxpayer, and as somebody who takes stuff seriously that's
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happening on Parliament Hill because we all pay for it, it's super annoying from the tariff side of things.
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Because he's not joking about the tariffs. The tariffs are super for real. So, here we have
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Parliament prorogued, the carbon tax set to go up on April 1st, like a week after they get back,
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and we've got a trade war with a lame duck prime minister. So, super not a good situation for taxpayers.
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But what's annoying here is that because he's rattling the cage here saying, oh, 51st state and calling him
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governor. I think Elon Musk called him, hey girl, you're not even governor of Canada anymore.
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That was quite something. Very schoolyard. It's eating up so much oxygen. Like, so many people in
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Ottawa are just gripped with the trolling element of Trump here that I think they might be missing the
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big thing, which is the threat of tariffs. I could be way off base on this. So, Cosman, what did you
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think? Sure. We also have to look back that going into this, Canada didn't necessarily have the best
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intentions when negotiating trade with the United States. We implement, well, the liberals rather,
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implemented a digital service tax that applies to US providers as well. And that was a thing that
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the Biden administration really hammered the liberals on because it wasn't accepted all over
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the world. I think it was OECD was discussing this, but they didn't actually implement it.
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And the liberals took the initiative to make up their own digital services tax and then blanket apply
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it to all these US companies. So, the trade relationship off the get-go isn't a good one.
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And going into the USMCA, the renegotiation of the replacement of NAFTA, there was all sorts of
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problems. A significant one being that the Americans aren't happy with Canada's dairy cartel,
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the supply management system, that might be up for renegotiation. So, I think these moves by Trump,
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a lot of people seem to misunderstand him because he is somebody who wrote Art of the Deal. And it's
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about coming back with a counteroffer. And right now, Canada does not have a counteroffer. We've left it
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up to the premiers, to the provinces, and I guess to the Canadian people themselves to figure out how
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can we counteroffer this obvious bluster and machismo to intimidate us into accepting a position
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that might not necessarily be in our best interest. And that's where it gets a little bit frustrating
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because every now and then, people forget, if you want to know what someone's like, listen when they
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tell you. His book, in Art of the Deal, explains that he will come through like a freight train at
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first. Bull in a china shop. He'll rough you up. He'll get you wondering if you're even in the right
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room. And then he'll come back with a nicer counteroffer back and forth. And that's in order
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to destabilize you. So, this has been the way he does business deals very successfully for decades.
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So, the idea that we'd be caught off base with him saying, hey, you're 51st state and you're our
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governor now. I liked what Doug Ford, and I'm paraphrasing, he's the Ontario premier, of course.
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Doug Ford said something along the lines of this when he was on an American TV station. Oh, can we
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take over Canada? He's like, oh, well, Canada's not for sale, but how about you sell us Alaska instead?
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That's how you do this. That's how you get past the silliness and the pushing and the shoving
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and actually get down to brass tacks. Isaac, what was your take on Trump? We also have a
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cliff of Trump, but this was... Yeah. Quickly, I'll start with Ford, because that's where you
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finished. Obviously, he is the chair of the Council of the Federation, which is the group of Canada's
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premiers. And he's spoken on their behalf in recent days, specifically basically saying,
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look, Trudeau has not resigned yet. He still is the lead negotiator for Canada, but he does not have
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a mandate to do so. He doesn't have a public mandate. The parties are against him. The premiers
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are essentially going to have to step up in his place and do the negotiations. And Ford, in fact,
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said he expected the same of municipalities. So we'll see what that happens, especially with a lot
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of the premiers assumed to be traveling to the United States for Trump's inauguration date. Maybe
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they can manage to do some negotiations while they're down there. It's hard to say, though.
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So let's pull up the Cruz tweet here, or X. What do we call them on X now? Posts?
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Declarations due to Elon. Okay. This is from Ted Cruz. The trucker's convoy was a major reason.
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Trudeau resigned this week. His repressive policies were so over the top. That was the beginning of
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the end. I was proud to stand with the truckers. I was not expecting that language because sometimes
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it's easy up here in Canada to think that people forget about things. And it's impressive that Ted
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Cruz has not forgotten about that. And again, we have to keep in mind the Emergencies Act
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was invoked, which is, of course, the modern incarnation of the War Measures Act.
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So that means that your rights are suspended. You're no longer able to hold your government
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to account, which is a big problem for taxpayers. And in some cases, the people who were protesting
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or supporting protesters had their bank accounts frozen, which was an enormous overreach. And the
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federal court said so. Cosman, were you surprised that Cruz brought it back to that?
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Honestly, no, I was not surprised because there was so much international attention during the
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trucker's convoy, particularly in the US. There was people, MPs in the UK calling for intervention from
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their own government in Canadian affairs. There was people in Europe, the European Parliament,
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decrying Justin Trudeau's overreach and trampling of peaceful protesters and this unprecedented use of
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the Emergencies Act. And in a way, he's right. This was the beginning of the end. This is where
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the international image that Justin Trudeau and the liberal government projected started to crumble.
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And what was underneath was way different than what they originally sold themselves as. This is a guy
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who ran on electoral reform, democracy, et cetera, being, you know, a champion of democratic ideals
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worldwide, doing the least democratic thing by issuing an executive order to suspend certain rights
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of people who protested against his COVID pandemic diktats. So this was truly the beginning of the
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end. And I think whenever people will think of Justin Trudeau in the future, historically speaking,
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that will be one of the main things that come to mind. Not him legalizing marijuana, not the carbon tax.
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It will be how he treated his own citizens, because it was just such a internationally shocking incident.
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I will say I've covered him for a long time with before he even ran to be a member of parliament.
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And I didn't see that element of him coming. He was always just this kind of friendly, the sunny
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ways thing. Remember that? It was really kind of light all the time. I did not see that part of him
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coming, the language that was used against people in a very divisive manner. And it was leading up to
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that a little bit. I remember leading up to the convoy trying to take them on over things like a
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proposed truck tax, for example, a pickup truck tax, increased carbon taxes. And even then they were
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starting to use nasty language like, oh, you're just this tiny group. And this is misinformation and
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disinformation. Like what? Like it's super divisive. And then, of course, that rhetoric just went off the
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scale leading up to the trucker convoy. So, yeah, did not see that coming. And I would agree with you
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that it was kind of the big shift, because, of course, we had a change in the Conservative Party
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leader right around that time. And it was right around that time that, of course, at the same time,
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we got a new opposition leader. And that's when things started tracking in a wildly different
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direction. And here we are, hopefully going to be getting an election soon. Isaac, were you surprised
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to see Cruz bring it back to that? Yeah, well, firstly, I'll say Cruz, Trump and, of course, VP JD Vance have
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all historically stood up with truckers. They've been very supportive of them, talking about how they're
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fighting for freedom against like authoritarian measures against totalitarianism. These are the
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quotes they've used. In fact, JD or sorry, Ted Cruz went to bat against the Ottawa police during the
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convoy because the police, essentially the Ottawa police threatened its residents saying, look, if you
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participate in this convoy, we're going to financially attack you. And Cruz said this would not have happened
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if you had a First Amendment. So yeah, no, he's historically stood with truckers. So I wouldn't
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find it too surprising in that sense that he's bringing it back now, especially with the anniversary
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of the convoy coming up. I think that's on the 22nd of January, if I recall. So yeah, not all too
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surprising, no. Wow, it was quite something. Do we want to play the Trump clip here? This is where so for
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folks who don't know, Mar-a-Lago is this kind of old, as far as the United States goes old. Sorry,
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Cosmin. Mar-a-Lago is this old mansion, and it's often referred to as the Southern White House. And
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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
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doing right now is leading up to the inauguration, they're just getting all these world leaders coming
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in and all of his different assistants in that, and they're basically building what they have to do
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next. And so he actually held a really long press conference, it was over an hour, I listened to a
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whole thing yesterday, freewheeling, kind of the old Trump coming back, taking on the press corps.
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And he was asked about the Conservative leader, and of course, we know that's Pierre Polyev,
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about Polyev pushing back on this whole 51st state sort of nonsense. Let's listen to this.
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Mr. President, if you were working under the assumption that you're serious about making
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Canada the 51st state of the United States, the leader of the Conservative Party in Canada
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said, under no circumstances, he'll never be the 51st state.
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Maybe he won't win, but maybe he will. I don't know.
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Listen, I don't care what you said, but sir, real fast, you said you were considering
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military force to acquire Panama and Greenland. Are you also considering military force to
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annex and acquire Panama? No. Economic force. Because Canada and the United States,
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So again, the rhetoric's there, but to me, this sounds just like classic Trump. Economic force,
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that's what a 25% tariff is. And a tariff really is just a tax by another name. It's an import or
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export tax, depending on which way you're going. And it would frankly hurt both sides of the border,
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and it would hurt taxpayers. What was your take on the no, I don't care, Isaac?
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Yeah, this is actually what I wanted to discuss earlier, which kind of slipped my mind at the
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time. But, you know, leading up to this with the tariffs and whatnot, I really think Canadians,
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including myself, kind of thought Trump was joking around, especially with the annexation.
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But after watching this clip, I started to realize I don't think he's joking in any way.
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This guy is dead serious about implementing these tariffs. If we don't negotiate with him properly
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and address the concerns that he has, which is drugs flowing over the border, illegal immigration,
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the lengthy list of things that he's asked for. And also, I think people are starting to realize
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we this is not an option for Canada. We need protection from the United States of America.
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If we did not have their protection, if they were not our ally, imagine China, imagine Russia coming
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to our country and taking our stuff. What are we going to do about that? Absolutely nothing.
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We've reported extensively at True North about the military's many, many issues. We are in no
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state to defend ourselves. And on top of that, our citizens have no options to defend themselves.
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We don't really have guns. We don't have any way to fend off an invasion. So yeah,
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without the United States, we are sitting ducks. Yeah. Yeah. What was your take on that, Kossin?
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In a way, Trump is speaking truth that kind of has been ignored by Canadian politicians in the
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sense that Canada does rely defense-wise on the United States. NORAD, for example. We do not have
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any military bases, functioning military bases in the Arctic. We couldn't defend the Arctic if
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like you said, Russia or China decided to just stake a claim on it. That is a very hotly contested
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future geopolitical arena that Canada simply does not have the means and ways to hold. And additionally,
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a lot, you know, it's, it's, it's sad to say, but a lot of our defense decision-making originates in
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Washington DC because just simply we are neighbors to a superpower. That's how it works. We have to
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at least collaborate and provide assistance to our ally. But that being said, there is an element
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of indignity that I think Canadians feel when a, are the future president is talking about Canada in
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this way. Canada as just a share that can be bought and sold. And I don't think Canadians view this
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country, its history and culture that way. And while I respect the president for taking a vastly
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different approach to politics that I think a lot of people have been accustomed to this nice, you know,
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everybody's friends. But when reality comes knocking on the door, there are certain things we have to
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accept as facts. But at the same time, we must stand up for ourselves. And we don't have a government
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doing that. Parliament is prorogued. There's nobody on our side of the negotiating table that
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has stood up as a leader, because our leader has decided to duck out of the back door.
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Yeah, it's prorogued. Everything shut down. It's not great, I will say the national narrative,
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put it nicely, is not great right now. Like I said, I've followed Trump's work for decades.
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And usually I agree with his idea of, you know, pro-business, lower taxes, smaller government,
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more freedom, all that sort of stuff. But the I don't care, and the repeated language about 51st
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State is starting to annoy me. And if he could tamp that down a little bit, that'd be great.
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His initial point of saying he wants a better border is a totally legitimate point. And it's
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legitimate on this side of the border too, in Canada. Because of course, we're seeing increased
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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
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Canadian firearms owners that are the problem. It's the illegal guns coming across the Canada-U.S.
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border from the states and elsewhere. So it would benefit both of us if they would clean that up,
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because we'd have the added bonus of not being in the middle of a trade war with Donald Trump. So
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yeah, so much stuff going on. Do we want to move to the actual liberal leadership race now?
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Sure. This is super fun. So I think this was yours because it was hilarious. I hadn't seen this
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yet. So I apologize. You surprised me with it. Is the top none of the above with liberals? What's
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going on? Yeah. So we could obviously sit and talk for the last story forever, but hopping to this.
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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.
00:29:23.440
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.
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
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,
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
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.
00:48:17.180
I can't believe those absolute jerks are doing that.
00:48:29.500
Yeah, I mean, I was like, well, I really hope she doesn't ask me for anything. What
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.
00:49:01.580
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?