Rebel News Podcast - Doug Ford's plan to streamline Toronto City Council is… “racist”？

00:00:00.000 Tonight, Doug Ford's plan to streamline Toronto City Council is finally being called racist.

00:00:07.400 Gee, what took them so long?

00:00:09.480 It's August 2nd, I'm David Menzies and this is the Ezra Levent Show.

00:00:19.000 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:00:22.880 There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.

00:00:26.480 You come here once a year with a sign and you feel morally superior.

00:00:30.000 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:00:39.820 In light of the Doug Ford PCs cutting the size of Toronto City Council by almost half, 0.97

00:00:45.800 the outcry from soon-to-be unemployed career politicians and their useful idiots in the media came fast and curious. 0.98

00:00:54.000 The over-the-top pronouncements included accusations that Ford's move was undemocratic, 0.99

00:01:00.380 that it was a thinly-veiled personal vendetta against Mayor John Tory,

00:01:04.600 that there was no consultation, that the changes were being done way, way too fast.

00:01:10.940 Meanwhile, NDP leader Andrea Horwath played the backroom deals and hidden agenda cards,

00:01:16.880 which she almost always does these days.

00:01:18.860 And hey, it's getting really, really old, Andrea.

00:01:21.900 But when I initially addressed the council-cutting issue in this space a few days ago,

00:01:26.760 I joked that at least Ford wasn't being labeled a racist by this move,

00:01:31.140 because when it comes to things the loony left doesn't like,

00:01:34.700 well, the race card is their trump card, and they usually play that card from the get-go.

00:01:40.280 But folks, me thinks I joked too soon, because yesterday in that periodical paragon of progressiveness,

00:01:47.680 the Toronto Star ran a column entitled,

00:01:51.220 Ford's attack on Toronto is an attack on urban diversity.

00:01:55.420 This wondrous piece of fish wrap is penned by Mariana Valverde,

00:02:00.260 who is, of course, a professor at the University of Toronto specializing in urban governance and law.

00:02:07.200 And as the saying goes, that column would have been twice as good if only it had been half as long.

00:02:13.640 But I'll cut to the chase.

00:02:14.980 Valverde suggests that because there's fewer council seats up for grabs,

00:02:19.600 that means there are, of course, fewer opportunities for persons of colour to get elected.

00:02:25.860 Therefore, I guess smaller government is racist government?

00:02:30.220 One particular excerpt stands out regarding the protests that took place at City Hall last Friday

00:02:35.280 by the usual suspects.

00:02:37.620 Valverde states,

00:02:39.140 One impressive speaker was Osma Malik,

00:02:42.280 who in a streetcar would be just another Torontonian,

00:02:45.980 but who would stand out on council because she wears a hijab. 1.00

00:02:50.060 Several black Torontonians with experience addressing violence and poverty

00:02:54.280 are also running for council, such as Waleed Kogali.

00:02:58.960 He also spoke, end quote.

00:03:00.440 Well, good golly, where does one even start?

00:03:05.300 Valverde seems to be suggesting that in the case of Osma Malik,

00:03:09.260 she should be embraced by diversity-loving Torontonians,

00:03:12.760 not necessarily for her policies,

00:03:14.920 but because she proudly wears the hijab.

00:03:18.780 Wow, I can just imagine what an election sign for this candidate might state,

00:03:23.640 vote for Malik, or at least vote for her diverse Islamic headgear. 0.88

00:03:28.580 And hey, surely this is not the same Osma Malik who has a very checkered past, is it?

00:03:36.260 Such as her being involved in the rigging of a student council election

00:03:40.440 when she attended the University of Toronto,

00:03:43.480 and how she spearheaded a fundraising drive for the families of the Toronto 18 terrorists,

00:03:50.140 and how in 2006 she labeled Israel's actions against the terrorist group Hezbollah

00:03:56.300 as, quote, state-sanctioned murder, end quote.

00:03:59.980 Oh, but come on, folks, pay no attention to that Sharia suffragette behind the curtain 1.00

00:04:04.600 because, well, because Malik wears a hijab.

00:04:09.880 That makes her diverse. 0.65

00:04:12.480 And if y'all got a problem with that, then you're obviously a racist.

00:04:16.020 And if the name of the second individual Valverde mentions rings a bell, 0.72

00:04:21.020 Waleed Kogali, that's because he's one of the founders of that racist collection of agitators 0.97

00:04:26.780 known as Black Lives Matter Toronto.

00:04:29.780 He's also the brother of another Black Lives Matter Toronto head honcho,

00:04:34.340 Usra Kogali.

00:04:35.780 You might remember Usra's infamous tweet from a while back when she stated the following, 0.99

00:04:40.180 quote, please, Allah, give me strength not to cuss, kill these men and white folks out here today. 0.97

00:04:46.560 Please, please, please, end quote.

00:04:49.040 Usra never apologized for this racist rant, and instead of condemning her,

00:04:53.160 Black Lives Matter shamefully rushed to her defense. 0.95

00:04:56.360 But in addition to hating white folk, Black Lives Matter Toronto hates the police, 0.94

00:05:01.820 regardless of the cop's racial background. 0.97

00:05:03.820 In fact, BLM was instrumental in getting the police punted from the gay pride parade

00:05:09.580 and getting the cops kicked out of Toronto schools at risk.

00:05:13.760 They also had a hand in ending carting by police,

00:05:16.860 which might be one of the reasons why Toronto is experiencing another awful summer of the gun right now.

00:05:23.200 But as I said, I'm not surprised the left called Doug Ford's changes to Toronto Council

00:05:28.620 and attack on urban diversity to show how insane the left are when it comes to race.

00:05:35.020 Do you recall the story last month about Michael Tobolo?

00:05:38.640 Tobolo is the newly minted community safety and correctional services minister,

00:05:42.980 and he went for a late night ride along with police in the tough neighborhood of Jane and Finch.

00:05:48.660 As per protocol, he wore a bulletproof vest,

00:05:51.940 and he mentioned this anecdote at Queen's Park.

00:05:54.740 Well, cue the outrage.

00:05:57.400 NDP leader Horath actually said,

00:05:59.760 quote,

00:06:00.340 The comments he made in this house are nothing but racist.

00:06:03.980 They stigmatize the Jane Finch community, end quote.

00:06:08.080 Yeah, so in the eyes of the official leader of the opposition,

00:06:11.120 bulletproof vests are racist?

00:06:14.100 And now we are led to believe that trimming city council is really an attack on diversity?

00:06:20.880 Really?

00:06:21.340 Is that truly the new narrative of the left,

00:06:24.400 that the race of a candidate is more important than the substance of a candidate?

00:06:29.880 If so, talk about racism 101.

00:06:32.940 In the final analysis, hopefully the progressives will come to understand

00:06:36.760 that the vast majority of normal people are currently suffering from outrage fatigue,

00:06:42.920 meaning that the left's constant accusations of racism

00:06:46.420 is now becoming so much ambient noise that people are simply tuning out.

00:06:51.880 Because at the end of the day, if everything is racist,

00:06:55.560 then nothing is racist.

00:06:57.980 Gee, I wonder if in the mind of a leftist,

00:07:00.960 that merely stating this truism makes me a racist.

00:07:05.420 Well, these are very interesting times indeed at Toronto City Hall.

00:07:25.980 Just last week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford decided to cut the size of city council

00:07:30.480 by almost half.

00:07:32.440 And oh, the cries of outrage from the usual suspects.

00:07:35.980 They reverberated throughout the mean streets of Hogtown.

00:07:39.400 But that's not the case with my next guest,

00:07:41.760 Giorgio Mamaliti, the councillor for Ward 7,

00:07:44.380 actually welcomes the changes.

00:07:46.500 And speaking of change, if re-elected,

00:07:49.160 he has a bold new plan to bring about relief

00:07:51.960 to the troubled neighbourhood of Jane Finch.

00:07:54.960 Welcome to the Ezreal Event Show, Giorgio.

00:07:56.740 Thank you so much for having me in.

00:07:58.720 And it's going to be Ward 7 and Ward 8 after this election.

00:08:03.060 Oh, that's right, because they're amalgamating it.

00:08:05.540 That's right.

00:08:06.140 Now, Giorgio, I think it would be, to a lot of viewers out there,

00:08:09.200 somewhat counterintuitive that anyone on council, including yourself,

00:08:13.400 would support a reduction of almost 50% of council seats.

00:08:16.980 But you actually do support Premier Ford's move.

00:08:20.640 Yeah, I think it's wonderful.

00:08:22.280 I mean, if you were here right now, I'd give him a big hug.

00:08:24.620 Because at the end of the day, he's doing the right thing.

00:08:29.000 He's feeling the public out.

00:08:30.140 It's what they want.

00:08:31.180 It's saving taxpayers' dollars, not only on the council floor,

00:08:34.700 but also within the bureaucracy itself,

00:08:36.620 because we have less reports.

00:08:37.960 We drive the bureaucrats nuts with reports and that sort of thing. 0.87

00:08:41.680 So I think it's a good thing.

00:08:43.100 It's going to save a ton of money in the end, in the long run.

00:08:45.980 And we get to make decisions faster and better.

00:08:48.940 And you know what I like about this move the best, David?

00:08:50.940 The suburbs finally get represented.

00:08:55.100 Yes.

00:08:55.640 And I've been harping on this, and people have been laughing at me for so long.

00:09:00.380 But finally, we're going to have a say.

00:09:02.740 And those long-awaited transfer payments for little things like getting our parks cleaned

00:09:08.040 and grass cut and that sort of thing are finally going to make their way up to the suburbs.

00:09:12.260 Indeed.

00:09:12.460 Now, Giorgio, what do you make of the outcry by the usual suspects on the left,

00:09:17.120 that this was undemocratic, there was no consultation,

00:09:20.900 this was never talked about during Doug Ford's election campaign,

00:09:25.280 and I'm sure there's some other things.

00:09:27.980 Oh, yes, of course, a personal vendetta against Mayor Tory,

00:09:31.500 who Doug Ford ran against four years ago.

00:09:33.640 Does any of that hold water?

00:09:35.240 Hogwash.

00:09:36.380 First of all, Doug, his brother, myself, a whole slew of us have been talking about this for years.

00:09:43.060 And even before they came onto the picture, guys like me after amalgamation were saying the same thing.

00:09:48.100 It's too big.

00:09:48.840 We need to cut ourselves in half because it's unmanageable.

00:09:51.520 We can't keep doing this to the taxpayer.

00:09:53.760 And so it got heard with the Fords, for sure, well before this.

00:09:59.700 And it's been an ongoing conversation in elections.

00:10:01.940 It's been an ongoing conversation outside of elections.

00:10:04.960 So it's not a surprise to anybody.

00:10:07.100 The people that are complaining are the same people, and I might add,

00:10:10.960 a bunch of lefty New Democrats, socialists, communists, whatever you want to call them.

00:10:15.340 They're the ones that didn't have a problem cutting the police budget,

00:10:20.100 and police, the police by 800 officers, did they?

00:10:23.720 They didn't have that problem when they voted in cutting out those jobs 0.99

00:10:27.740 or cutting out some of those manufacturing jobs

00:10:30.780 because they didn't like what people manufacture, right?

00:10:33.560 They didn't hear the plight of all those families when they came to council.

00:10:36.860 They voted against those jobs.

00:10:38.580 All of a sudden, their jobs are in jeopardy, and now we're hearing a cry from them.

00:10:42.700 So this is really about the NDP power base of downtown Toronto being eroded.

00:10:46.940 And one of the latest developments at the 11th hour, you had the former city planner,

00:10:52.760 Jennifer Kiesmat, a darling of the left, throw her hat into the ring. 1.00

00:10:57.060 I heard they courted Mike Layton and even David Miller to be a challenge.

00:11:02.840 What do you think of her arrival into the mayoralty race, Georgiou?

00:11:07.500 And do you think, I'm thinking Mayor Tory must be feeling backstabbed right now

00:11:12.320 because he has caved to almost every left-wing demand on council these last four years,

00:11:18.220 and now he's thrown under the bus.

00:11:20.060 So what are your observations?

00:11:21.380 Well, he didn't listen to me to a large degree because I told him right from the start,

00:11:24.420 you're conservative, don't cater to a lot of things.

00:11:27.000 And he did it, I think, for primarily political reasons.

00:11:29.540 I think we can all read through that, that kind of thing.

00:11:32.320 And now he's stuck because he has catered to them,

00:11:36.520 anticipating that there's going to be another 47 councillors on the council floor.

00:11:42.060 And I think this is going to benefit him because now he might be able to become his real self,

00:11:47.120 that right-leaning guy, that center right-leaning guy that he always has been.

00:11:51.040 I told him the other day, I think this is actually good for him.

00:11:53.480 He's going to have more powers as the mayor.

00:11:56.140 He'll be able to perhaps talk a little more about what he wants to do in the next term.

00:12:00.500 And if he plays his cards right, he needs just a few people to support him.

00:12:04.640 He'll get his agenda through.

00:12:05.780 It's better for him.

00:12:06.860 And I know we're an eternity away in political timelines,

00:12:11.060 Giorgio, from October 22nd, Election Day.

00:12:13.340 But what do you see shaking down in terms of the mayoralty race?

00:12:17.220 I mean, we have Keyes, Matt, who is, you know, admittedly a serious contender.

00:12:23.860 Blaine Lastman as well.

00:12:25.060 I'm not sure what his political CV is all about.

00:12:27.640 But, I mean, how do you see it playing out?

00:12:29.500 Well, it's between the two of them.

00:12:31.080 And I believe that.

00:12:31.700 Keyes, Matt, and Torrey.

00:12:32.460 Left versus right.

00:12:33.020 And Torrey's got to come out with his real self, I think, in this election.

00:12:37.940 And there is no red carpet for Keyes, Matt, in the suburbs.

00:12:42.360 And so I need to make that really clear, that a guy like me is not going to be supporting a very left-leaning individual,

00:12:50.120 who, by the way, was very instrumental in bringing this whole city through this congestion that we've been with the bicycle lanes

00:12:58.740 and that whole array of mismanagement on bike lanes and how we're putting them everywhere, right?

00:13:06.700 And the King Street Pilot Project and banning cars, right?

00:13:09.140 All of it.

00:13:09.680 Even the shift on subways and LRTs, you know, it has a lot to do with her when she was at the helm. 0.98

00:13:16.880 So I know what she's about.

00:13:18.740 She's not good for us. 0.99

00:13:20.620 Good-looking lady, for sure. 0.99

00:13:22.980 And Torrey's a good-looking man.

00:13:24.780 But at the end of the day, we're not going to vote for people that are good-looking, are we?

00:13:29.720 If that were the case, I'd be the mayor today.

00:13:31.800 I'm glad in the Me Too era you're not playing any favorites, Giorgio.

00:13:34.680 At the end of the day, look at their platform and look what they stand for.

00:13:38.560 They're not going to be good.

00:13:39.660 At least she's not going to be good for the suburbs, in my opinion. 1.00

00:13:43.520 And now, speaking of the suburbs, if we can call Jane Finch suburbs, you know, as I said in the beginning,

00:13:50.000 Giorgio, you have a vision for this community.

00:13:53.460 I mean, my heart breaks when I think of Jane Finch.

00:13:55.480 There's a disproportionate amount of crime there.

00:13:57.840 You had Minister Tabolo two weeks ago do a ride-along in a police cruiser in the wee hours of the night.

00:14:05.020 He was actually condemned as a racist by Andrea Horwath, the leader of the provincial NDP,

00:14:11.340 and for stigmatizing a community.

00:14:14.280 And yet this is a guy at 1 in the morning that was visiting a known crack house.

00:14:17.920 He's reacting to a problem. God forbid.

00:14:20.380 You know, so a couple of things.

00:14:22.280 I know you have a plan you want to talk to about Jane Finch,

00:14:25.280 but what do you make, Giorgio, of this tone that everything is through a lens of racism,

00:14:31.120 even a minister wearing a bulletproof vest for a ride-along, for goodness sake?

00:14:35.520 First of all, he's reacting to an issue,

00:14:37.820 which is one of the largest issues we've had in the city for a long time.

00:14:41.040 And those are the gangbangers in the city that aren't afraid of anybody

00:14:44.140 and are going to kill people on the streets and anybody else around them. 0.65

00:14:47.600 So he was reacting to that.

00:14:50.500 And the policy, take it from a guy who's gone on those rides for 28 years,

00:14:55.140 they will not let you go on these midnight runs,

00:14:58.440 these two o'clock runs to see the worst parts of the city unless you wear that vest.

00:15:03.440 Or even the good parts of the city.

00:15:04.240 You're not going to be able to go.

00:15:05.400 Isn't that true?

00:15:05.720 Right?

00:15:05.920 So, well, you know, even Mayor Tory said, well, I never wore a vest.

00:15:10.380 Well, yeah, but you don't need to wear a vest if you're going to go with some traffic cops, right?

00:15:14.300 Like, you know, to look at the congestion or the problems with traffic.

00:15:17.760 You are going to need a vest if you're going to go to 2 o'clock in the morning

00:15:20.480 and look at some of the crack houses and how they're the part of the problem in TCHC.

00:15:25.780 And TCHC, for those outside of Toronto, that's Toronto Community Housing Corporation.

00:15:30.100 And, of course, this is taxpayer-subsidized social housing that, in addition to people that need this assistance,

00:15:38.640 Giorgio, and I don't think anyone is begrudging that, it is factual that there are thugs,

00:15:45.660 there are drug dealers, gangbangers living here, and they're shaking down residents there,

00:15:49.820 most of them being seniors.

00:15:51.920 And yet, why can't we kick these thugs out of taxpayer-funded subsidized housing?

00:15:57.540 We attempted, through the mayor, Mayor Tory, just a couple of years ago, actually,

00:16:04.160 to try and get to the Wynn government to change the legislation to allow TCHC to be able to evict

00:16:09.860 problem tenants.

00:16:11.180 Yes.

00:16:11.840 They said no.

00:16:13.200 They said they're not going to do it.

00:16:14.740 And so what we've learned, which is factual...

00:16:16.840 And what was the ostensible policy reason on that?

00:16:18.340 That's what I don't understand.

00:16:19.120 I'm going to get to that, because 1%, now, first of all, let me say it this way. 0.90

00:16:24.200 4% of TCHC tenants make up the population of Toronto.

00:16:28.740 Okay.

00:16:29.060 They're in every part of the city of Toronto, these units.

00:16:33.620 1% of their population are a big problem to not only the residents in TCHC, but the much

00:16:42.680 larger communities.

00:16:43.780 What I say by that is they're harboring, literally, all of these killers.

00:16:50.480 They're harboring the drug dealers.

00:16:53.320 They know they are, and they can't do anything about it, because the courts won't let them

00:16:57.840 evict.

00:16:58.500 They call it the last place for these people to go.

00:17:01.360 So if they evict, there's nowhere else for these people to go.

00:17:05.400 I see it like spraying down a building full of cockroaches.

00:17:10.840 The cockroaches are just going to scatter, right? 0.92

00:17:13.420 So start evicting them.

00:17:14.700 Yes.

00:17:14.860 Let them scatter, because their particular strength is when they're all together in a

00:17:20.800 community like Jane and Finch.

00:17:22.180 Yeah.

00:17:22.440 So my approach is going to be scatter them, evict them, get them out of Jane and Finch

00:17:27.040 completely.

00:17:28.080 And I also have a further one, David.

00:17:29.740 I think we need to knock the buildings down completely and build into a mix. 0.95

00:17:34.200 It's not fair to those residents to be segregated.

00:17:37.620 They have been for the last 60 years.

00:17:40.620 It's no wonder our little kids in those communities are growing up angry and killing people.

00:17:45.260 We need them to mingle with the rest of society. 0.74

00:17:48.480 So I want to knock down all of the social housing in Jane and Finch, put a plan in place.

00:17:54.260 And by the way, I've already done it.

00:17:56.000 I'm the guy who came up with the affordable housing plan at City Toronto that started the

00:17:59.800 Regent Park movement.

00:18:00.680 Right, which is considered a great success, where it was a similar, you know, maybe you

00:18:06.820 call it ghettoized area of the city.

00:18:08.480 But it was raised, and now it's a mixed housing development.

00:18:12.800 And it's bringing the private sector.

00:18:14.240 So the private sector helped us build it.

00:18:17.140 TCHC became a developer, but it was a good mix, changing the community.

00:18:21.340 I'm doing it right now at Furgrove.

00:18:23.220 We've already knocked down half of the units of Furgrove.

00:18:25.380 Okay, and the residents in the back, those rate payers that have always had concerns about

00:18:29.460 the crime that comes out of the social problems, are saying, you've gotten rid of a lot of

00:18:35.700 our problems here now.

00:18:36.720 So I want to do it with Driftwood.

00:18:38.300 I want to do it on Shepard Avenue.

00:18:40.560 I want to do it on the Islington Corps, where we just got a number of shootings lately.

00:18:45.920 You know, Duncan Woods, Satterley, all those little pockets.

00:18:49.680 I want to knock them down, rebuild them as a mix, and get rid of the problem once and for 1.00

00:18:54.500 all by being able to evict these bad people.

00:18:57.120 Well, Giorgio, we're almost at a racetrack.

00:18:59.640 I'll give you the last word.

00:19:00.800 You've got an election slogan, I understand, that you're going to be using.

00:19:03.820 Oh, gosh.

00:19:04.480 I've always kept it real.

00:19:06.360 Always.

00:19:06.980 And that's gotten me into trouble, because sometimes when you keep things real, people

00:19:10.920 don't want to hear it.

00:19:12.000 This election is going to be about keeping it real.

00:19:14.540 And that's what I plan on using.

00:19:17.380 Well, Giorgio, thank you so much for dropping by the Ezra Levent show.

00:19:20.180 And there you have it, folks.

00:19:21.200 Listen, the province went right in June.

00:19:25.120 Maybe in October, the city of Toronto is going to take a right-hand turn.

00:19:30.460 Time will tell.

00:19:31.860 Keep it here.

00:19:32.460 More of the Ezra Levent show to come right after this.

00:19:34.700 Earlier today, Ontario Attorney General Carolyn Marooney and Environment Minister Rod Phillips

00:19:51.860 made it official.

00:19:53.380 They have urged the Trudeau Liberals to completely back off on implementing any sort of carbon tax.

00:19:59.820 And if Ottawa doesn't reverse course, they vow that the province of Ontario will fight

00:20:05.300 this cash grab in a court of law.

00:20:08.100 Now, yesterday, I spoke with Ian Lee, a professor at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton

00:20:12.900 University in Ottawa, regarding those supposedly new and improved changes to the federal carbon

00:20:19.000 tax, changes that are clearly not winning over any of the detractors.

00:20:24.940 Here's our conversation.

00:20:26.460 Welcome to the Ezra Levent show, my friend.

00:20:28.360 Good afternoon.

00:20:30.840 Now, Professor Lee, for starters, can you tell us what's so radically different about this

00:20:36.580 new carbon tax scheme and whether or not it is likely to win over any of the detractors

00:20:41.800 out there?

00:20:43.240 Right.

00:20:43.880 I mean, what they're doing today is, in one sense, it's very momentous.

00:20:48.580 It's very important because it represents, I wouldn't say a full-fledged repudiation of

00:20:57.600 their signature issue, the environment that they campaigned on.

00:21:01.940 But it certainly is a major rollback in terms of the commitments that they made.

00:21:08.500 I'll get to whether this is good or not to preempt myself if this is a good thing, I'm going

00:21:13.740 to argue, but I'm just dealing with what they did today.

00:21:17.520 They are walking back on the issue on which they backed the farm.

00:21:23.120 The issue that they said was the defining issue of this government when they are this party,

00:21:29.520 when they ran to form the next government in 2015.

00:21:33.740 And, of course, they became the government.

00:21:37.340 And why it was so critical then and now was that this government and Mr. Trudeau and the

00:21:43.620 other leaders, his supporters, many of whom became, or a number of them became cabinet ministers,

00:21:51.280 said that they were evidence-based and that they were going to, you know, not rule by emotion

00:21:56.300 or rule by the seat of the pants. 0.99

00:21:58.120 They were going to be evidence-based.

00:21:59.160 And yet, they didn't subject it, in my view, to serious empirical econometric scrutiny.

00:22:07.860 And, in fact, just to point this out and get this out there, the Minister of the Environment

00:22:12.860 repeatedly said for the past two years, not only was a carbon tax not going to hurt the

00:22:19.860 economy, it was going to be good for the economy.

00:22:22.160 It was going to be good, not just for the environment, she said.

00:22:24.520 It was going to help firms and help them be even more competitive.

00:22:30.000 And she said this over and over.

00:22:32.540 Over the last two years, as more and more people studied it, as companies came forward

00:22:37.520 with their own analysis showing the negative impact of this on their own company's balance

00:22:43.700 sheet and income and success.

00:22:46.140 And I would suggest to you, after Finance Canada, the bureaucrats crunched the numbers,

00:22:52.380 it became increasingly clear that Catherine McKenna, the Minister of the Environment, was

00:22:56.920 simply wrong, that it was going to be deleterious.

00:23:00.280 It was going to be damaging to the environment, principally because our major competitor, the

00:23:07.880 United States of America, has categorically said repeatedly they are not going to do a carbon

00:23:13.360 tax.

00:23:13.720 So, just to quickly summarize, this is a huge walk back on their, I think, their most important

00:23:20.500 issue, their signature issue of the environment.

00:23:24.440 And it's good for us because it has had such a negative impact.

00:23:30.460 But you are right, because they didn't roll it back to zero, because they're not shutting

00:23:34.940 it down, they're just mitigating it.

00:23:37.740 They're making it less aggressive so that the impact on big emitters is not as significant.

00:23:45.440 They're walking back on the carbon tax.

00:23:48.020 But as I said, they're not cancelling the carbon tax.

00:23:51.660 And Professor Lee, I mean, that begs the question, why not just put this dog out of its misery?

00:23:58.860 I mean, especially when you have Saskatchewan, they're going to challenge us in court.

00:24:02.100 Premier Doug Ford, he ran his entire campaign.

00:24:06.820 That was one of the things, first and foremost, we will go to court against the federal government

00:24:12.480 in terms of a carbon tax because Ontario is, or at least was, a manufacturing province.

00:24:19.420 And to have something uncompetitive as a carbon tax placed on manufacturers that are still

00:24:25.460 in this province simply does not compute.

00:24:28.440 So wouldn't there be, I don't know, wouldn't there be more, I guess, sympathy or understanding

00:24:34.200 if the liberals just came clean and said, you know what, we've crunched the numbers.

00:24:38.760 It doesn't make sense.

00:24:40.280 We are withdrawing this.

00:24:41.720 I am in a rational sense.

00:24:45.700 I agree with you completely that that would be the optimal solution.

00:24:51.720 But there's two points I want to make on this.

00:24:54.140 The first is, is I think that because they committed so deeply, it became existential for

00:24:59.200 them.

00:24:59.520 They're very inner being.

00:25:01.220 You know, this is who we are.

00:25:03.340 We're going to be different from everybody else.

00:25:05.480 We're going to save the planet.

00:25:06.860 We're going to save the environment.

00:25:07.980 And I think that they invested so deeply in terms of their own interior values and their

00:25:17.060 own commitment, not to mention the political commitment that they have decided that either

00:25:23.860 they're not willing to do it from a value, you know, their own values point of view, or

00:25:29.120 more likely they think that the damage would be too great politically.

00:25:33.600 But, you know, David, the thing I want to bring out, because I realize there's not a lot of

00:25:38.260 academics who criticize carbon tax.

00:25:40.320 I'm one of them.

00:25:41.120 Jack Mintz is.

00:25:42.180 And not because I don't understand the logic of carbon tax.

00:25:44.420 Of course, I do.

00:25:45.060 Of course, Jack Mintz does make something more expensive.

00:25:47.580 You use less of it.

00:25:48.860 But what they don't tell you in this ongoing debate is that there's a couple of hidden

00:25:53.560 assumptions or caveats that they never reveal.

00:25:56.000 And one of them is this is that there is an alternative or a substitute source that is

00:26:01.840 cheaper than the fossil fuel source called natural gas or oil.

00:26:05.960 And the dark and dirty secret that they will not disclose is that natural gas is the cheapest

00:26:11.360 source of energy in North America per kilowatt hour.

00:26:15.340 That's not some opinion.

00:26:17.580 The Department of Energy in the United States produces a chart once a year pricing all the

00:26:24.160 energy sources and they factor in and crunch all the numbers in terms of the cost of each

00:26:29.280 energy source, nuclear, geothermal, wind, solar, coal, natural gas, and they convert it into

00:26:34.980 a cost per kilowatt hour.

00:26:37.140 Solar and wind are still not close to natural gas.

00:26:42.100 And so as a consequence, we are not switching en masse in Canada or the States to alternative

00:26:48.880 energies because they're still uncompetitive.

00:26:52.520 And that's why oil and natural gas still dominate.

00:26:56.920 In fact, the world at about 80 percent, they provide about 80 percent of all the energy.

00:27:02.400 So this was always a pipe dream.

00:27:04.720 What I'm trying to say is that what they were saying is we're going to change Canada.

00:27:08.640 We're going to get us all off of natural gas and oil was not credible in an evidence based

00:27:15.720 world because the substitutes, meaning alternative energies using wind and solar, are still not

00:27:22.660 economically competitive with natural gas and oil.

00:27:26.280 That's why we continue to use it.

00:27:28.280 And the second final point I want to make, David, is they never they always bring up European 0.85

00:27:32.440 countries with high densities.

00:27:34.400 Canada is the second largest country on the planet Earth, and we are the second coldest country

00:27:40.860 in the world, we consume more energy and produce more GHG because not because we squander or

00:27:49.660 are wasteful, but because we're the second largest country with the lowest density in the world,

00:27:55.640 four people per square kilometer versus Europe with 250 to 500 people per square kilometer.

00:28:01.640 So my point is their whole vision was based on, call it green ideology, almost a green religion.

00:28:09.320 It wasn't evidence based in the sense that we could cause large numbers of Canadians to switch

00:28:16.480 almost all of their energy and used in Canada from natural gas and oil to two alternatives.

00:28:23.240 So it was a pipe dream from the from the very beginning.

00:28:26.200 Indeed.

00:28:26.420 And from what you're saying, Professor Lee, like two things come to mind.

00:28:29.460 First, I I'm with the camp that looks upon this as just really so much virtue signaling

00:28:36.720 at the expense of the facts and the reality on the ground.

00:28:42.280 And secondly, Professor Lee, tell me if I've got this straight, if Canada in a utopian world,

00:28:48.840 I don't know, maybe we invented dilithium crystals and made our carbon footprint zero and the rest

00:28:55.680 of the world went on business as usual, that wouldn't make a lick of difference in terms

00:29:00.920 of, you know, the total, the overall total carbon output that the world produces.

00:29:06.780 Correct.

00:29:07.820 I will put it.

00:29:09.060 I agree with you completely.

00:29:10.200 I'll use slightly different language to say the same thing, because it's language I'm

00:29:13.680 familiar with that I'm comfortable with being in a business school.

00:29:16.480 Canada is not a market maker.

00:29:18.900 We are two percent of the world's GHG.

00:29:22.120 Three, there's a couple of countries in the world that are market makers.

00:29:26.280 That is to say they can move markets.

00:29:29.100 We know who they are.

00:29:30.620 One is the United States of America, and the second is the People's Republic of China.

00:29:35.780 Why?

00:29:36.360 Because they're the first and second largest economies in the world.

00:29:40.880 They both have large populations.

00:29:43.140 The U.S., a third of a of a of a billion people.

00:29:46.780 And of course, China with one point three billion.

00:29:49.360 And secondly, they have these enormous GDPs.

00:29:52.560 They can move markets because they're so huge.

00:29:56.000 They have such a huge footprint on the world.

00:29:58.840 The idea that a country that is smaller than one of 50 states in the U.S., Canada is smaller

00:30:05.860 than California.

00:30:07.700 The totality of all of Canada is smaller than the state of California in terms of population

00:30:12.520 and GDP.

00:30:13.000 The idea that one country with 37 million people could cause the world to change its behavior

00:30:20.840 or change the footprint of GHG around the world is just preposterous to anybody who has

00:30:26.800 any understanding of basic arithmetic and the numbers involved.

00:30:31.440 We are two percent of the world's emissions of GHG.

00:30:35.100 So the idea, even if we eliminated every last molecule of GHG in Canada, it would make no

00:30:42.360 difference on the world because over the next 35 years, the IEA, the International Energy

00:30:47.560 Authority, is forecasting the equivalent of two more Chinas coming on stream in terms of

00:30:52.900 consumption of oil and gas.

00:30:54.460 In other words, the consumption today of China is going to be it's going to go up again over

00:31:00.000 the next 30 years, 35 years by the equivalent of two Chinas. 0.88

00:31:03.620 And so two percent Canada's contribution is literally irrelevant to the to the global

00:31:10.640 conversation.

00:31:11.860 Well, Professor, I got to tell you, the way you frame it, it just makes this whole issue

00:31:17.180 all the more frustrating.

00:31:18.560 I'm afraid we have to wrap it here.

00:31:19.920 But again, we are dealing with a government whose prime minister once infamously said the

00:31:25.460 budget will balance itself.

00:31:27.620 So maybe the carbon will balance itself to environmental stewardship.

00:31:32.880 But Professor Lee, I want to thank you kindly for weighing in on this very important matter.

00:31:37.100 Thank you.

00:31:38.160 My pleasure, David.

00:31:38.780 Thank you.

00:31:39.260 All right.

00:31:39.660 And that was Professor Ian Lee, folks.

00:31:41.200 And keep it here.

00:31:42.160 More of the Ezra Levin show to come right after this.

00:31:44.500 On my monologue yesterday about Doug Ford's free market marijuana plan, giving public sector unions a

00:32:01.760 severe case of reefer madness.

00:32:04.100 Paul writes, although I do not approve of illegal drugs being sold to the masses, I do support

00:32:09.940 Doug Ford in his efforts to break the government's monopoly on selling dope and booze.

00:32:15.740 Well, Paul, as I'm no fan of the wacky tobacco either, and I've never actually imbibed.

00:32:21.640 But since this is going to be a legal commodity, government needs to know its role, which is

00:32:27.700 to regulate and tax this stuff, not warehouse and retail it.

00:32:32.960 Liza writes, the control of booze sales and gambling is something these guys want to keep

00:32:38.040 their grubby hands on.

00:32:39.760 Suggesting a free market for pot sales threatens that grasp.

00:32:43.740 The phrase from my or their dead cold hands comes to mind.

00:32:47.860 So glad Ford is shaking things up.

00:32:50.380 Well, you know something, just about everyone I've ever met wants the government out of the

00:32:55.680 booze and betting businesses too.

00:32:57.960 I say just about everyone because the only people I've ever heard trumpeting the merits

00:33:02.660 of the bloated Liquor Control Board of Ontario and the scandal-plagued Ontario Lottery and

00:33:08.240 Gaming Corporation are the bureaucrats who work there and, of course, the unionized staff.

00:33:14.600 These fat cats have a lucrative racket going and they don't want to give it up, even though

00:33:19.540 we all know the private sector would run things so much better.

00:33:24.680 And Shannon writes, keep those lefties crying, Doug.

00:33:28.000 You know for every embittered lefty, there are a hundred happier taxpayers being treated fairly.

00:33:34.060 You know, you're bang on, Shannon.

00:33:35.780 They say you're supposed to give the squeaky wheel the grease.

00:33:38.960 My advice to Premier Ford would be to ignore the whiners in the public sector who see their

00:33:44.000 fiefdoms being eroded.

00:33:46.020 Sure, public sector unions are really good at raising a ruckus, but all that should really

00:33:51.380 matter is the will of the people and the silent majority wants less government involvement in

00:33:56.880 their lives, not more.

00:33:58.760 Well, that's it for tonight's edition of the Ezra Levent Show.

00:34:01.820 It's been a pleasure guest hosting this past week.

00:34:04.740 The big boss man, he's back tomorrow, and I'm sure he'll have plenty to say about the

00:34:09.740 Tommy Robinson case that Ezra was covering in the UK these past few days.

00:34:14.500 Thanks so much for tuning in.

00:34:15.800 And hey, folks, never forget, without risk, there can be no glory.

00:34:20.120 Good night.

00:34:34.740 Good night.

00:34:35.340 Good night.

Rebel News Podcast - August 03, 2018

Doug Ford's plan to streamline Toronto City Council is… “racist”？

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