Off the Record - Will Canada survive the Trump tariffs？

00:00:00.000 how about this leadership election like i mean we've been seeing so many clips surface what

00:00:04.800 what do you guys think the biggest fails have been so far well number one i would say former bc

00:00:10.960 premier christy clark she just fumbled right out of the gate and was tripped up by a cbc interview

00:00:19.600 nonetheless uh you would think entering friendly territory you'd be better equipped to handle a

00:00:25.840 question but she straight up just misled people about her former cpc membership denying it altogether

00:00:34.320 and then she has to go on twitter to essentially apologize claiming she misspoke and then she 0.59

00:00:41.760 doubled down and only i think a day later she announces she won't be running for the liberal 0.92

00:00:46.960 leadership so talk about a flop it's funny how as soon as you start running for the liberal party

00:00:53.680 you know you just immediately start misleading the public and uh you know you just start you

00:00:58.560 know trying to deceive and we weasel yourself into power uh you know it's pretty funny it's like you

00:01:05.120 know i don't know if you guys watch basketball but it's like the boston celtics hosting the

00:01:08.720 washington wizards on their home court and they're losing or the leafs losing to the winnipeg jets in

00:01:15.040 the scotia bank arena i don't know if that's a good analogy if the jets are good or not but the jets are

00:01:19.440 really good not good oh okay so that's not good analogy just think about like a bad hockey team

00:01:25.280 beating a good team on their home ice yeah exactly you know not not very good the washington wizards

00:01:31.840 aren't a good basketball team is what you're telling us and the celtics are are good yes exactly that's

00:01:37.680 exactly what i'm trying to articulate here but uh no claud clark and uh aria you know they can provide

00:01:43.120 us with a lot of entertainment before um is it march 7th that they're picking the new leader

00:01:48.160 uh it'll be fun march 9th march 9th march 9th yeah yeah no politics are are becoming uh a lot like

00:01:56.640 sports these days in how entertaining they are but let's hop right into the show

00:02:07.280 all right hello everyone my name is isaac lamaru and i'll be hosting off the record today i'm here with

00:02:11.600 my colleagues cosmon gerja and noah jarvis uh so yeah we're gonna start off with of course the

00:02:18.560 looming u.s tariffs which has been leading the news headlines over the past few weeks because

00:02:24.240 it's an issue that still hasn't been dealt with that being president-elect donald trump's proposed

00:02:29.520 25 percent tariffs which is set to take effect uh when he's sworn in or directly thereafter on january

00:02:36.960 20th which is the day of his inauguration so we we've seen lots of different responses uh from canadian

00:02:44.320 leaders specifically recently from polyefra who proposed retaliatory tariffs and we've seen similar

00:02:51.520 measures proposed by some premiers like dog doug ford he wants to retaliate but other premiers have

00:02:57.200 taken a different stance like alberta premier daniel smith who completely said we we don't want to

00:03:03.120 retaliate with oil and gas we want to collaborate we want to find a way to work together with trump and

00:03:07.920 make this happen uh and we've seen a a rift develop between smith and trudeau and even the other

00:03:15.360 premiers now what do you guys think of the developments going on with these tariffs as we

00:03:19.760 get closer and closer to the inevitable date of january 20th so it was in a recent interview that pierre

00:03:26.240 polyev essentially said that if he's elected prime minister he's willing to use retaliatory

00:03:33.200 tariffs now it's not very clear what that would look like but i spent a little bit of time digging

00:03:40.000 up what are the major exports that the u.s sends to canada that could be a potential target for tariffs

00:03:49.280 and a couple things came up machinery mechanical equipment is a huge export from the u.s to canada

00:03:56.560 transportation equipment i'm assuming you know trucks uh 14 wheelers etc and we also import a lot

00:04:04.560 of metals steel iron so obviously there is territory there canada makes up over 20 percent of u.s exports

00:04:15.840 in some of these categories so it's quite significant and i think u.s president donald trump

00:04:22.480 assumes that the u.s economy won't be impacted that much from any canadian action but that's not

00:04:30.960 the case we're such an intertwined uh allies and economies that there what when one side gets

00:04:38.640 impacted the other will you might look back at the 2008 financial crisis with stephen harper right

00:04:45.120 where canada was able to avoid much of that catastrophe that the u.s faced and that's one

00:04:51.680 instance where we were able to sort of decouple but i think at this point with our trade relationship

00:04:57.360 we are so intertwined that when trump introduces these tariffs he will be also facing pressure from

00:05:03.440 some of these industries back home to sort of soften up and perhaps come to the negotiating table

00:05:09.760 with a conciliatory approach yeah trudeau and canada's premiers also recently held a meeting and we saw

00:05:17.840 them come out with a joint statement which only the government of alberta opposed so that was pretty

00:05:24.000 interesting um but we've also seen some federal ministers like for example melanie jolly saying

00:05:31.200 that oh we'll just threaten to cut off oil but we've seen smith explain that it's not that simple

00:05:37.520 because to cut off american oil from alberta you'd also have to cut off ontario and quebec so yeah uh

00:05:45.200 noah did you see anything out of that premier's meeting that that that you found interesting

00:05:51.200 yeah i thought it was very interesting that daniel smith came so aggressively against the joint

00:05:57.280 statement that the premiers and the federal government had issued uh and it's really because

00:06:02.080 as you guys have mentioned uh energy uh alberta they do not want to impose restrictions on their ability

00:06:09.360 to export oil and natural gas to the united states specifically uh they don't want to shut down

00:06:15.840 their oil pipelines and that makes a lot of sense not only uh for the alberian oil and gas sector i

00:06:21.840 mean if you are shutting down uh oil sales to the united states that means that you're not really

00:06:27.200 generating any revenue and your uh employees and your economy in general will suffer and not only that

00:06:34.880 but uh provinces like ontario and quebec they rely on pipelines that go through the united states

00:06:41.840 to supply and help to power those uh economies so the ontario economy and the quebec economy

00:06:47.520 will definitely suffer will definitely uh have to deal with either energy shortages or an increase

00:06:52.320 in the price of energy because uh there is a lack of supply there so it's not in the interest of canada

00:06:59.520 uh to cut off these um pipelines that go down to the united states especially the ones uh that have

00:07:06.000 to go to the united states to go back up to canada and i think that uh you know premier smith has to

00:07:12.960 advocate for her province's interest and it makes sense that you know at the premier's meeting she is

00:07:18.640 doing so however if canada wants to take the approach of really going after american consumers then one

00:07:26.800 of the things that canada probably has to consider is an export tax on uh america on canadian oil and

00:07:34.320 natural gas however this is something that prima smithas also came out again she put out a post on

00:07:40.000 twitter uh and basically it shows that um the alberto government has no sort of plans to help uh the

00:07:50.480 trudeau government or any government in ottawa in making oil and gas more expensive

00:07:56.320 for american consumers now this is a challenge because uh canada a lot of our export exports the

00:08:04.160 united states are uh in the energy sector about 33 so this means that uh we'd have to uh place

00:08:11.040 tariffs on things like automobile parts uh cars you'd have to place them on uh chemical products uh mineral

00:08:18.480 exports you'd have to place them on say aluminum exports uh and these are all things that uh the united

00:08:24.560 states uh definitely does require but there's also the question of elasticity uh whether or not the

00:08:31.760 united states has the ability to supplant uh canadian exports with their own uh domestic domestically

00:08:39.200 produced products or from stuff that is imported from around the world so it's definitely something

00:08:44.000 that uh the provinces and the federal government have to juggle and it doesn't look as if coming out

00:08:49.920 of that premier's meeting that the premiers and the federal government are coordinated in their efforts

00:08:55.040 just just if i could jump off that uh who would the united states be getting oil from well they would

00:09:00.160 be getting oil from maduro's venezuela and such so it's obviously uh quite sketchy and suspect the

00:09:07.840 sources of oil that they would might be willing to transition to but i mentioned stephen harper earlier

00:09:13.680 a little bit and i i wanted to bring him up again you know i talked about his handling of the 2008

00:09:19.520 financial crisis but stephen harper actually chimed in on the current uh discussion you know he's made

00:09:25.920 his rare you know several month uh foray into canadian politics he seems to be sort of out of view most of

00:09:34.640 these days but he does provide some input and we have a clip of that and i think it's important because

00:09:41.040 he also does bring up oil but he also has quite a lot of good things to say about the u.s canada

00:09:48.480 economic and trade relationship incoming president trump has focused a lot on canada in the last

00:09:54.240 several weeks uh threatening tariffs of 25 unless there's a curb of the flow of drugs and migrants 1.00

00:10:00.960 he talked about uh spending that the u.s spends um according to president trump about 200 billion

00:10:06.560 dollars a year protecting canada went on saying he doesn't need the u.s doesn't need canada's

00:10:11.680 lumber cars or dairy and maybe even canada should be a 51st state um a lot of a lot a lot out there

00:10:18.240 just in just in a couple weeks you know what what's your reaction to all of it well um i i must admit

00:10:24.320 some degree of surprise um you know we've always and i've i was you know ran a in fact our conservative

00:10:33.840 party is a very you know pro-american pro-western party i was probably the most pro-american prime

00:10:41.040 minister of the history of our country um i view our relationship with the united states as one of

00:10:47.040 canada's great assets you are our closest neighbor our uh vital security partner and um you know not

00:10:56.400 just our friend and shared comrade in in the pro propagation of the values of the free and democratic

00:11:03.920 world everywhere and and i've always viewed this as a tremendous partnership um i understand that

00:11:12.480 you know donald trump may want some changes in trade arrangements but i'm

00:11:17.040 i i must admit to being shocked by some of the things he said they're just not so um

00:11:24.960 you know first of all we we don't actually sell dairy into the united states or sell almost none

00:11:30.000 so that that that's not true um canada it is true that canada presently has a modest trade surplus

00:11:37.840 with the united states the reason gave we do is because you buy so much of our oil and gas so harper sat

00:11:44.960 down for a podcast like interview with gabe groysman for about 30 minutes and i watched the

00:11:49.840 entire interview and wrote an article on it and throughout the majority of the interview it was

00:11:53.680 harper going through all the recent statements made by donald trump and kind of whether he disagreed with

00:11:59.760 him or agreed with him and while he disagreed with many or most of them even he he did of course find

00:12:05.200 common ground with trump on the border crisis talking about the the issues there and even criticizing

00:12:11.760 president joe biden for how he's handled the border and what's led it to get to the point where it is

00:12:19.040 with drugs crime migrants illegal migrants that is overflowing through it i'm curious though guys

00:12:25.760 to ask what you thought of harper's position with canada's relationship with the united states and and

00:12:33.120 maybe how that compares to how trudeau or the liberals have positioned canada i mean harper's really

00:12:38.880 spent a lot of time talking about how the importance of course of the canada u.s relationship

00:12:43.600 and how we're allies trading partners etc yeah what did you guys take away from that i i thought

00:12:50.480 harper's insights were you know very important and i think you know it really highlighted one of the

00:12:56.400 main problems that the trudeau government has delivered on the footsteps of canadians over these

00:13:01.520 past nine years and it's that they have positioned them canada in a unique position to where we are

00:13:07.920 just unable to adequately respond to the threat that the tariffs from the united states pose on canada

00:13:15.920 and our economy the harper government they did a really good job in trying to expand trade relationships

00:13:21.760 with other countries they signed uh dozens of trade uh free trade agreements uh with the countries around

00:13:27.280 the world doesn't mean you know we particularly do a lot of trade with like the philippines or like

00:13:31.760 you know congo or whatever but that does mean that we have the opportunity to uh trade with with these

00:13:38.400 countries but the trudeau government they did not really articulate much of an interest in you know

00:13:42.960 developing these trade uh relationships sure they uh developed some trade relationships with the

00:13:47.040 asian countries but uh they didn't really do a a good job at expanding on the harper legacy and they

00:13:52.640 also hampered the oil and gas industry as harper uh mentioned uh and they had done everything uh in

00:13:59.680 their power uh to basically regulate canada's economy and tax canada's economy uh into a position where

00:14:07.120 we're just not growing um so it makes it really hard for us to then uh respond to you know 25 percent

00:14:14.080 tariffs uh from the united states and what harper uh really really emphasizes that you know these tariffs

00:14:20.320 are not exactly a good idea for either country they're going to increase prices in the united states

00:14:24.400 and they're going to be very harmful for canadian manufacturers and american manufacturers especially

00:14:29.280 say in the automobile sector where these economies are very integrated uh so it's we should really

00:14:35.600 be seeking to deepen the economic partnership that we have with the united states uh and that

00:14:42.000 would be in the best interest of all of our uh citizens you know deep deepening our trade um

00:14:48.720 or getting rid of trade barriers uh deepening our labor mobility uh and the ability for canada to

00:14:55.040 bring in high-end talent not from you know countries that don't share a common culture uh with canada but

00:15:01.120 from the united states which shares a pretty uh culture that's quite common and common canada so harper's

00:15:07.280 insights uh really show how uh canada uh really did not put itself in a good position to deal with these

00:15:13.680 tariffs in the past uh nine years and why you know these tariffs really are not in our interest and uh

00:15:19.520 i think you know if that harper economic sensor in the prime minister's office these uh past few years

00:15:25.040 uh it would have made a big difference um in responding and how we could respond to the the tariff

00:15:31.200 threats cosmon did you want to add anything from uh the harper interview anything you took away that

00:15:37.280 that might be of interest well he did say he was the most pro-us prime minister and i i do agree with

00:15:45.120 that probably in some good ways some bad ways some controversial ways you know he continued

00:15:51.120 uh canada's presence in afghanistan he also adopted some of the similar policies imposed in the us with

00:15:58.000 like the patriot patriot act and he created he emboldened and gave more powers to canada security

00:16:04.240 establishment and some people view that as controversial you know he's done good things

00:16:10.000 like i mentioned the 2008 financial crisis that's a remarkable feat because he was able to maintain

00:16:17.120 canada's economy prevent a recession at a time when the us was plunging it was a disaster a total

00:16:25.760 disaster and that's we are neighbors to a superpower and when something like that happens to a

00:16:32.560 superpower it's almost like a black hole that sucks everybody else up into it and yet canada somehow

00:16:39.520 survived but look at us now right we are likely going to enter a recession if these uh tariffs comes

00:16:47.360 through because of the hit to our gdp uh economists are pretty much saying a recession is inevitable

00:16:54.880 now whether that can be avoided and whether once if and when those tariffs are removed there will be

00:17:02.320 an economic rebound that takes us to a better place than we are now i think that would be the hope is

00:17:09.200 that the rebound is significant enough and productive enough to bring canada's economy from the stagnation

00:17:19.360 from the over spending the entrance into generational debt that we have from the nine years of this

00:17:29.120 liberal government into something more prosperous and more stable for canadians yeah and let's remember

00:17:37.600 that the u.s tariffs are expected to come through an executive order after president donald trump's

00:17:43.440 inauguration on monday which a few more interesting things to add uh trudeau decided to have his last

00:17:50.560 cabinet retreat in quebec during the inauguration so it's still not entirely clear if he is going unlikely

00:17:57.840 unless he juts off from his retreat to quickly go uh and i don't know whether he was even invited i

00:18:03.440 did of course ask the pmo but i got no response uh we know as well conservative leader pierre polyevre is

00:18:09.200 not attending but danielle smith will be attending the inauguration in person in washington after she was

00:18:15.520 personally invited so uh that's pretty interesting and sticking with the alberta theme we of course saw mark

00:18:24.160 carney declare his leadership campaign for the liberal leadership race uh on thursday and uh

00:18:31.120 candidates are required to declare by january 23rd to to run in the race uh which is likely expected to

00:18:39.280 be generally between carney and freeland and uh the the race will conclude on march 9th so that will be

00:18:47.600 not only the new liberal party leader but the new prime minister of canada so this is definitely an

00:18:53.200 interesting development that we're keeping up with um and yeah we've seen a lot of clips surface

00:18:59.440 recently of carney saying ridiculous things like calling himself uh an outsider even though he's

00:19:05.040 been a political insider for several years and then in another interview we can even run the clip if we

00:19:12.160 want to he referred to himself as a european this is someone who's presenting himself as to be canada's

00:19:16.720 prime minister remember do we want to run that clip mark you look like you were about to

00:19:20.000 uh yeah i was a tell as a european you know as a as a european actually oh you are yeah yeah i'm

00:19:26.240 an irish citizen yeah so there you go um speaking as a european um i like to say falling um yeah so

00:19:32.880 just getting into this leadership race guys do you think that carney is going to win or could someone

00:19:39.040 else possibly take the throne uh well you know as you as you said um it's really a race between christopher

00:19:46.800 freeland and mark carney you know we don't have you know uh liberal cabinet ministers like franco

00:19:51.440 philippe champagne and dominic leblanc running uh you know to really add a sort of french flavor

00:19:57.280 to the leadership rate uh to the liberal leadership race which might be a concern for them but beyond that

00:20:02.640 uh it'll definitely be a race between freeland and carney and what we should probably see is a battle

00:20:10.160 between uh these two um politicians and how how they can manage to distance themselves from the

00:20:17.120 trudeau legacy the prime ministership of justin trudeau is very traumatic for canada and canadians

00:20:22.880 uh as you can see public opinion numbers don't really show uh primaries of justin trudeau is

00:20:27.680 particularly popular uh in this country and what mark carney has really tried to do is position himself

00:20:35.120 as an outsider out um outsider trying to you know take over the liberal leadership and you know

00:20:41.680 someone who doesn't really have as many connections wasn't you know responsible for the carnage of the

00:20:46.240 trudeau government however a lot of people have disputed this uh mark carney is good friends with

00:20:51.920 primarily justin trudeau justin trudeau tried to recruit mark carney into his government for several

00:20:58.160 years and he has recently uh made this uh statement uh and mark carney is someone who was for example

00:21:06.000 the bank of canada governor in canada and in the united kingdom he was the united nations uh climate

00:21:12.640 envoy uh he has also you know been an advisor to uh boris johnson and has worked on the cop 26 uh

00:21:20.720 conference is basically the big uh climate conference that the united nations holds every

00:21:25.440 year so mark carney is definitely a man of the establishment he is not a man of the people he

00:21:30.240 might try and portray himself like that every time he steps onto you know a soccer field a football

00:21:35.360 field at an ice rink he looks awkward he looks like you know a robot a chinese robot trying to figure

00:21:40.720 out you know how to be human but um it it really will be interesting to see how mark carney runs away

00:21:48.560 from that sort of technocratic uh elitist record run away from his statements on the carbon tax

00:21:54.960 uh and if he can outmaneuver someone like christian freeland who has actually been in elected politics

00:22:00.880 for 10 years uh but more than 10 years and who who really knows their way around um the the political

00:22:08.480 game now that doesn't mean that christian freeland's a particularly talented politician she's not

00:22:12.400 uh but you know you have like someone who has very little experience uh running in politics uh going

00:22:21.200 against someone who is a born politician it's like the mike tyson fight uh against uh logo against jake

00:22:27.760 paul um so you know and you can draw more analogies to that fight in more than one way but it'll definitely

00:22:33.920 be interesting to see uh how mark carney uh does in this uh liberal leadership and cause men thinking

00:22:40.320 of specifics that have recently happened of course i'm wondering what effect you think this will have on

00:22:45.680 the leadership race that being christian freeland's surprise resignation right before the budget and

00:22:51.040 and how that might influence voters and then of course for carney i'm wondering if even liberals are

00:22:57.920 against the carbon tax these days and of course carbon tax carney is the nickname given to mark carney

00:23:03.200 by the conservatives i'm wondering if you think that will have an effect on him well i just had an idea

00:23:09.040 of a game show and it would be called did mark carney say it or did christia freeland say it because i

00:23:17.040 think it would be very hard to distinguish between some of the quotes and policy positions of these two

00:23:22.160 individuals and when you just look at the facts and what they've presented before in the past you know

00:23:31.600 you mentioned he's a un special envoy for the climate i think canadians will be looking at whether

00:23:37.920 there's any distinguishing attributes or policy positions between the two front runners do they

00:23:44.160 support the carbon tax what's their position on online hate speech uh different censorship legislation

00:23:53.040 what's their position on further taxing canadians and consistently raising taxes in several different

00:24:00.480 areas not just the carbon tax there's the liquor tax there's also the hidden carbon tax what's their

00:24:06.960 position on crushing the energy industry you know imposing all this legislation that essentially

00:24:14.960 landlocks canadian energy and i suspect that there will be little differences to be found between the

00:24:22.560 two and the only people invested in this race seriously are liberal members members themselves i don't think

00:24:32.160 canadians look at this race and see a new refresh restart rather to the liberal party they see same as usual the

00:24:43.520 continued influence of prime minister justin trudeau's nine years of ideological leading in this country and i just

00:24:54.000 don't see that vitality that new energy that uh willingness from the liberals to take the party in a

00:25:01.840 totally different direction there's been a lot of talk about let's bring the liberals back to the center

00:25:06.960 right that doesn't seem to be happening it's the same old sort of elitist pro-globalist agenda and

00:25:15.200 when you have someone like mark carney who's a member of the world economic forum you know christia

00:25:20.320 freeland is affiliated with the world economic forum we have klaus schwab saying he's penetrated the

00:25:26.640 cabinets of world governments including canada right it just makes you wonder like how is this

00:25:32.800 any different and i don't i don't think it is yeah uh for your game show i'll suggest a third of

00:25:39.120 choice did mark carney say it did christia freeland say it or did justin trudeau say it and that's

00:25:44.800 obviously another technique that the conservatives have been implementing against the liberals especially

00:25:51.200 against mark carney it's just like justin that's their new slogan just like justin because

00:25:55.520 they're arguing that there's really no difference and bringing it back to harper he actually discussed

00:26:00.000 this in his interview where he said the new liberal leader is essentially in an untenable position

00:26:05.680 because to win the leadership election they're going to have to present themselves as a bastion

00:26:10.160 of the liberal party who supports the liberal party policies and what it has become a liberal party that

00:26:16.080 polls are showing canadians are done with so then they have to go into an election potentially a few

00:26:22.000 weeks later when parliament resumes if a non-confidence vote passes and they've just been a supporter of

00:26:27.760 the liberal party a party that canadians are done with so they're really in an unwinnable situation which

00:26:33.920 might be why we've seen many people try and distance themselves from this leadership election

00:26:38.640 and not participate uh yeah uh let's let's let's bring it more provincially cosmon and obviously you live

00:26:46.640 in british columbia so a few things coming up with these um election concerns let's call them i i i'm

00:26:56.240 curious in talking to local residents whether they are concerned about what happened in the election

00:27:01.680 obviously it took a long time to tally but now we're seeing uh an a potential investigation in one of

00:27:07.280 the writings that had 22 votes yeah do you want to talk to us about that okay so this was an incredibly

00:27:14.000 close election it was also a new phenomenon for this province to have a conservative party enter the

00:27:23.600 official opposition and surge in the polls in the same way they did running into the 2024 election

00:27:31.600 there were polls showing the bc ndp and the bc conservatives neck and neck and we're talking

00:27:38.960 about certain writings there's a handful of writings that were within a few dozen votes so if you're not

00:27:48.400 at least questioning whether the process was run properly i think that's like the democratic thing

00:27:55.840 to do to say let's make sure we got this right that the people's vote was counted properly and that

00:28:02.240 there was no mucking about in the process of it right and to say that any criticism that there is

00:28:09.040 no such thing as human error and any criticism of you know ballot counting and the way the election is

00:28:16.400 conducted is anti-democratic is ridiculous it's it is the democratic thing to do to have scrutiny

00:28:22.800 of elections now what we're talking about here specifically i think the most um convincing

00:28:31.680 argument that the bc conservatives have put forward relates to the surrey guildford riding which was

00:28:39.280 won by the bc ndp candidate by a margin of 22 votes and what they're alleging is that there is a group home

00:28:48.080 where there's people with dementia with different mental health concerns um it's called argill lodge and

00:28:55.600 they're alleging that there was some voter irregularities here and now they filed the candidate the conservative

00:29:03.760 candidate for that writing has filed a legal complaint uh and elections bc is looking into it and they have

00:29:11.120 several affidavits from residents at this uh center or lodge which claim that they received mail-in ballots

00:29:21.760 without actually requesting them when there was a ballot location directly across the street from

00:29:31.200 this facility and they're not prevented from leaving the facility they have free roam they can exit the

00:29:37.520 facility and go vote if they wanted to there are also allegations that some of the residents didn't even

00:29:43.680 know there was an election happening there are allegations that there are people who cast um mail-in ballots

00:29:50.640 who don't have their wits about them they suffer from mental health concerns confusion etc there are

00:29:56.400 allegations that they were told to mark the x in the box quote unquote on these mail-in ballots and there

00:30:04.000 are also allegations that some of them felt pressure that if they didn't cast this mail-in ballot they

00:30:10.400 might not be treated fairly at this facility and also there is b elections bc data that shows that

00:30:18.960 the manager in question of this location is a bc ndp donor in 2023 now i will like to add for the

00:30:28.720 record that the manager has said that there is no wrongdoing and he's uh they've disputed the claims

00:30:35.840 that the bc conservatives have made there has been no court to actually overturn any election results yet

00:30:44.080 that particular writing actually went into a judicial recount and the supreme court of british columbia

00:30:50.400 certified the uh the the voting results but the question is was the bc supreme court aware of this

00:31:00.000 particular facility i don't think so because this is the first time it's been brought up so an investigation

00:31:06.560 has been launched by elections bc the bc conservative leader john rust that has made several recommendations

00:31:13.280 to bring forward uh more evidence and essentially they've also filed a complaint with the rcmp to

00:31:20.640 investigate uh violations of the bc elections act so all this combined it it is quite a bomb to throw into

00:31:32.880 the election whether it will actually turn into a by-election which i think might be the the outcome

00:31:40.560 they hope for is a by-election in this specific riding to do it over again uh we're not certain people

00:31:48.160 aren't certain and it's not obvious that the courts will actually be willing to take that step to to

00:31:56.800 relaunch a a election just so soon after it happened so again if it does happen we're talking about a

00:32:04.160 very slim majority for the ndp they lose one seat and that's it's pretty much game over for them so

00:32:10.960 yeah a lot happening in british columbia and it makes one wonder whether you know i've seen on social

00:32:18.800 media a lot of people were concerned about how the elections bc ran the last election they took so long

00:32:24.880 to certify votes and count mail-in ballots and is there enough faith in mail-in ballots right like

00:32:31.760 i would throw that question to you guys

00:32:36.320 well for example we know uh in alberta at least there's been a lot of developments around election

00:32:44.480 integrity uh not just mail-in ballots but for example uh electronic tabulators have been the main

00:32:50.000 point of discussion and uh smith and her government have been steadfast in their in their view that

00:32:55.600 hand counted ballots from voting stations are are the the main the best way forward but cosmon i just

00:33:01.600 wanted to ask quickly because you only alluded to this if this say an investigation occurred and there

00:33:06.400 was wrongdoing found and this writing flipped what would that mean for the provincial government in bc

00:33:12.160 yeah so they won with a slim majority they had to uh essentially nominate somebody to be speaker of the

00:33:20.320 house because nobody else wanted to do it so that leaves them with very little wiggle room

00:33:27.200 they've had to create a coalition with the uh green mlas and i think there's two that were elected which

00:33:35.680 gives them majority status and you know they'll have to negotiate and and do certain things that the

00:33:41.520 greens ask of them to continue uh being in power but whether they will actually last a full mandate

00:33:49.760 of four years that's yet to be seen we're talking about a situation where somebody misses you know they

00:33:56.720 don't they hit the snooze button too many times and they don't show up for a crucial vote or god forbid

00:34:03.360 you know somebody gets in an accident somebody passes away somebody is ill you know somebody goes on

00:34:09.040 maternity leave right there's so many circumstances that could push this government into a non-confidence 1.00

00:34:18.320 vote which would surely be triggered by the bc conservatives triggering another election in

00:34:23.520 british columbia and that would leave you know the official opposition john rustad when he was elected

00:34:31.920 he promised to trigger election as soon as possible and noah what do you think about the whole

00:34:38.560 mail-in ballot situation it should elections just be at voting stations and hand counted i think the

00:34:47.360 simpler an election is conducted the better a lot of people definitely distressed uh when you know you

00:34:53.200 have to mail in your ballots when they uh you're punching a a vote into an elect machine you know

00:34:59.040 electronic voting systems uh these uh sort of intermediaries to you know the voter and the actual

00:35:06.160 election results uh it really is harmful to the trust uh you know in elections and we saw that in

00:35:11.440 the united states in the 2020 election where uh because of covid 19 they had to uh conduct an election

00:35:17.440 where a lot of ballots were mailed in and the republicans they brought up a lot of concerns with

00:35:22.800 these mail-in ballots uh so much so uh that it basically caused a mini political crisis uh in that

00:35:29.120 country now we haven't had uh you know the same level uh same uh level of concerns as we have

00:35:35.920 that they have in the united states alberta they have worked towards uh making some electoral reforms

00:35:42.080 uh but there's definitely concerns with say ballot harvesting you know if you have uh parties going

00:35:47.040 around basically offering to collect uh ballots and mail them in on behalf of the voter uh you know

00:35:53.200 there could be some nefarious going on uh with you know about harvesting you have uh ballots that get

00:35:58.960 damaged in the mail you know what if someone decides during election season to pour a cup of coffee

00:36:04.560 down a canada post bin now you have a bunch of uh ballots that get ruined you know that these there

00:36:10.400 are serious things that uh can be done to just interfere uh with an election when there are mail-in

00:36:15.440 ballots i you know i'm not like the smartest guy in canada and i was able to come up with a way to

00:36:21.120 tarnish a bunch of ballots in five seconds so i'm pretty sure you know much more devious and much more

00:36:26.720 intellectual people can come up with ways to you know go about a rigging an election or at the

00:36:31.840 very least uh messing with the integrity of an election now there's no real concrete definitive

00:36:38.000 evidence to say uh that the bc conservatives are right on this issue uh when it comes to the election

00:36:44.640 being uh illegitimate in this writing but uh when you have mail-in ballots when you have electronic

00:36:51.840 tabulators when you have these sort of intermediaries between the uh voter and the election results you're

00:36:58.240 going to create more and more distrust and you know there are real serious uh democratic consequences

00:37:05.280 uh to this so i hope that uh elections bc uh does everything they can in their power to ensure the the

00:37:11.120 validity of the election results and hope that uh we have uh the we get a result that results in the

00:37:18.400 democrat uh the democratic process being uh played out uh to its uh conclusion and voters being uh

00:37:24.640 in for enfranchised to make sure uh that they are actually you know being able to vote for the people

00:37:30.560 that are um ruling over them rather than just you know giving blind hope in uh and blind faith in

00:37:36.880 elections bc that they'll do the right thing if i may just bring this back to the liberal leadership

00:37:42.720 that was a situation where the party was facing so much scrutiny over their membership rules right

00:37:50.800 we have the liberal party of canada essentially only requiring uh proof of residence within canada you

00:37:58.080 don't have to be a permanent resident you don't have to be a canadian citizen to become a liberal party

00:38:04.320 member uh all you have to do is prove that you somehow have spent time in canada and they were

00:38:11.440 forced because of all the scrutiny from the elections canada you know past campaigners from

00:38:19.120 just the media and political uh world itself and security establishment to revise those rules at

00:38:26.480 least for the liberal leadership race where if you want to vote in the liberal leadership you now have to

00:38:31.920 prove that you're a canadian citizen or a permanent resident because of the implications and all of

00:38:39.120 the unanswered questions we have to this day regarding foreign interference in canada's elections you know

00:38:46.240 we have claims about uh chinese seniors being bused by the consulate to uh independent mp handong's

00:38:54.400 writing when he was nominated for the liberal candidacy in the last election and these issues are real there are

00:39:04.160 powers trying to influence our election and the more stringent and secure the voting process is the

00:39:14.160 more confident confidence you inspire in the average voter yeah and just briefly the last thing we'll

00:39:22.000 maybe touch on here cosmon i'm curious with the federal election looming do you think canadians

00:39:27.920 nationwide should have similar concerns and whether there's anything the liberals or uh elections canada

00:39:35.040 for example could implement to make sure that our elections are the most secure that they can be

00:39:42.880 well there will definitely be a discussion about foreign interference naturally uh given all of the

00:39:49.600 claims that have been put out there in just the last year or so uh you know there's an inquiry into the

00:39:55.040 foreign interference the prime minister refuses to release the list of his mp of the mps who are

00:40:02.640 accused of being under the influence knowingly or unknowingly of foreign powers will those mps run again we

00:40:11.040 have no idea right there is a very plausible uh scenario where the you know what is it 11 or 12 mps named on

00:40:19.280 that list are running for reelection we don't know voters don't know and when they go to the ballot

00:40:25.120 vote for that candidate they have no clue and i think the pr that raises a huge problem because there

00:40:32.080 will be in the informed voter that question in the back of their mind is this individual a foreign agent or

00:40:41.040 at least under the influence of a foreign agent whether they are or not you know they it could be a

00:40:46.320 perfectly legitimate candidate who has you know his own writing or her own writing uh his best interests

00:40:53.440 at heart but the voter knowing what we know about the list of mps could still be asking those questions

00:41:01.040 about a perfectly legitimate candidate unless the government clears the air which they have shown

00:41:06.960 absolutely no intention of doing all right again my name is is glamour i'm happy to be joined by my

00:41:14.400 colleagues cosmon georgia and noah jarvis and remember everything you heard today was off the record

00:41:23.680 how'd that go first time hosting not bad eh yeah pretty good job i think yeah no i think the first

00:41:30.800 time andrew did personally he was yeah he was complaining a lot and stuff so you you're definitely

00:41:38.400 on the right track there no i never complain no i'm happy to be here i just sit here and smile it's all good

00:41:44.400 i'm i'm just wondering i was just gonna wonder i'll just say i uh isaac's a favorite amongst the the

00:41:53.440 donor class the true north donor class they really uh they love that albertan chin uh you know that

00:42:00.640 really great sort of manly jawline um so no we're i think i think if you post more often we'll get some more

00:42:07.680 donors you know maybe you'll get you get a pay increase who knows that'd be nice eh what were

00:42:15.120 you gonna say cosmon yeah i was just wondering like who do you think is gonna be next to announce their

00:42:20.560 candidacy like will it be i know karina gold has said she's gonna go yeah i heard she was going to

00:42:26.160 announce soon but i don't know we see all these names pop up i i don't know who could announce that

00:42:31.440 won't make it a race between carney and freeland right like that's what we're looking at here i

00:42:35.520 think uh so once they're declared like with uh with freeland and carney being declared at the other

00:42:43.520 at that point other candidates might just be like oh why would i even bother uh unless they want to as

00:42:48.640 noah kind of talked about earlier push their platform forward in some way right yeah it looks

00:42:53.840 like noah's uh equipment failed right at the right time yeah we're just happy that we made it through

00:43:00.800 a show with his equipment it's uh it's a true blessing

Off the Record - January 17, 2025

Will Canada survive the Trump tariffs？

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