00:05:46.400But you've taken them totally out of context and, you know, and stick them somewhere where it has no relevance, but it makes it look like I'm either trashing or supporting a policy.
00:06:01.460It's an unfair characterization of what I said.
00:06:57.380So in most cases, we look for other ways for people that at least give me a fair shake, give America a fair shake to tell our story.
00:07:12.340So someone must have said, you know, this Ezra guy, he'll give us a fair shake.
00:07:16.700He may or may not agree with what you say, but at least he'll give you a fair shake and provide you with the opportunity to tell America's story the way we want it told.
00:07:27.360And then he can react to it whatever way he wants.
00:09:03.960I'm just trying to think, who on earth could you be talking about?
00:09:06.080Anybody who touches the defense world.
00:09:08.520If you're in the Canadian military or whatever, if you're working with your equivalent of NSA, I think it's CSIS, you're working at NORAD, you go there, they're working side by side, and it's kind of like they're totally pro-American because they see what they're doing.
00:09:32.340Every day they're keeping America and Canada North America. They're keeping America safe. You talk about the
00:09:40.860Relationship between your Coast Guard and our Coast Guard, you know, a couple of weeks ago
00:09:45.160There were a couple of crazy Canadians. I'll probably get sued, right?
00:09:49.080But they were out on Lake St. Clair and they looked behind them and they kind of like
00:09:56.940Where'd the ice bridge go? Hmm the ice broke off and
00:10:00.480And yeah, so Canadian Coast Guard called US Coast Guard
00:10:04.640and they said, hey, who's got a helicopter?
00:12:42.980But, you know, we really like doing business with the U.S.
00:12:47.760So those those are, I think, two pillars of the relationship that have really, really stayed in place.
00:12:55.960And they want that relationship to stay in place.
00:12:59.940It's in it's in the media and it's in the the political class that are kind of bringing that all into question, the relationship with America for the long term.
00:13:10.020I want to come back to the business part a little bit later, but you talked about military cooperation.
00:13:15.900And it's true that NORAD is a close working relationship between the two countries.
00:13:21.440But overwhelmingly, the equipment, the fighter jets, it's American.
00:13:27.800And recently, Prime Minister Carney has talked about breaking away from American F-35s, for example,
00:13:34.600and looking at swedish fighter jets and he's talking about a european military bank he's
00:13:42.220calling it and i'm wondering how much of that is anti-american posturing how much is for real
00:13:47.700is he really pivoting away from the norad partnership what do you make of him
00:13:54.060treating with other countries besides the u.s he's yeah that it's fine okay the uh that's a
00:14:04.300Canadian decision. All right. I think we think they're going to buy F-35s. Okay. It just makes
00:14:10.940for the whole mission of NORAD, for the whole mission of protecting North America and those
00:14:16.620types of things. You know, if you're flying an F-35 and it's got a Canadian, you know, logo on it,
00:14:23.840the flag, Canadian flag on it, and something happens and it needs to land, it lands at a
00:14:30.800military base in the US, great. We can service it. It'll be back up in the air, right? If you're
00:14:38.960flying someone else's plane, same kind of issue. You got to land, you know, hey, yeah, land at it.
00:14:48.220Well, of course we host you at an American military base, you know, help you and all of that.
00:14:54.500Then put your plane on a truck and we'll truck it back to Canada and, you know, figure out how to
00:15:00.020get it under the overpasses and all of that and across the bridges. And when you get it back to
00:15:04.460Canada, you guys can fix it. But we got to integrate. It's the model of NORIT. But we're
00:15:11.160concerned about it as well. And I'll give you the most recent example, the reinvestment of,
00:15:17.760I think, like $32 billion in the Arctic. And we're going, yes, that's money that needs to be spent
00:15:23.740and invested in the Arctic. And the statement coming out is, and we're going to defend the
00:15:29.760Arctic on our own. That's a statement from Canada, you're saying? Yeah, from Canada in the press
00:15:35.440release. Read it. We're going to defend the Arctic by ourselves. And it's kind of like you look at
00:15:40.200the map and it's like, wow, that's a big area to defend. Canada's a big country. If you want to
00:15:49.420defend it on your own, that's okay. And then they went over to, went over to... Greenland? No, they
00:15:56.500went over to Norway right and it's kind of like they signed an agreement and
00:16:01.480said okay that for that part of the Arctic we're gonna we're gonna defend
00:16:05.380it with you know Canada plus the Nordic five it's kind of like okay we don't
00:16:13.420play a role in that and we don't know we we we thought that defending the Arctic
00:16:20.560would be something that we could all do together but if it's Canada and the
00:16:23.860Nordic Five or Canada, you know, Canada doesn't want us to be part of defending the Canadian part
00:16:29.440of the Arctic. That's a Canadian decision. We will defend our northern borders from Alaska,
00:16:35.260you know, down to the lower 48. We'll defend our northern border. We think the most effective
00:16:41.200place to defend Canada and the U.S. is to do it together. But if Canada wants to go another
00:16:48.340direction. They're free to do that. Maybe my antennae are very sensitive for anti-Americanism,
00:16:57.140but I see Mark Carney doing things that you just described, setting up a Canadian consulate in
00:17:02.560Greenland. There's only 16 Canadians who live in Greenland. We don't need a consulate. I bet
00:17:06.740they're going to get really good service. Little things that I think are designed just to prick
00:17:11.700and poke at the U.S., partly for the enjoyment of anti-American voters, but I don't know,
00:17:18.680sometimes I think it's more than just symbolic. Like, what did you understand Mark Carney to mean
00:17:24.160when he went to China and his friend Xi Jinping, who he's done business with when he ran Brookfield,
00:17:31.600he says, we want to be part of a new world order, his words, a pivot to China. What does that mean
00:17:39.060to you as an American in terms of defense and security and espionage and industrial espionage?
00:17:46.020What did that mean to you when you saw that clip? New World Order is, you know, in the U.S.,
00:17:54.580especially among conservatives, raises a lot of red flags. Okay. But, you know, Mark Carney,
00:18:03.100from our perspective, it's not my, it's not our job to evaluate Mark Carney on, you know,
00:18:08.700the words he says and those types of things. It's, it's going to be on, you know,
00:18:14.140this is the decisions that are made by this government in Canada and the decisions that
00:18:25.440are made in the U.S. by this administration that will define the relationship for a period of time.
00:18:31.020okay um and some of the decisions obviously if they're going for a new world order which is
00:18:39.300canada starts moving in direction of china which i do not think will happen okay i mean it might
00:18:46.240not happen in terms of trade but what what if it happens in terms of you know just expressing an
00:18:54.160affinity for a totalitarian regime or an authority i don't believe that's where the canadians are
00:19:00.280okay what about when Carney says the relationship with the United States is
00:19:04.600ruptured I mean I mean I've said all along for 11
00:19:08.680months that I've been here can't again if this route this government views it as
00:19:17.380a rupture okay they will make certain kinds of decisions we don't view it as a
00:19:22.480a rupture. We had issues that we needed to take care of the United States. We have to
00:19:32.340re-industry. In some parts of the country, especially in Michigan, some of our core
00:19:40.160industries and manufacturing capabilities have been hollowed out. President Donald Trump
00:19:45.140has said, we are going to re-establish those core capabilities in the United States, and
00:19:51.280And we need to do that to keep America strong and safe.
00:21:55.780Just a few days ago, the United States put sanctions on a Canadian-based company that was allegedly a front for an enormous amount of funds being diverted to Hezbollah, the terrorist group.
00:22:10.560there are terrorist style shootings of synagogues and jewish schools almost every week the u.s consulate
00:22:20.120in toronto was hit with a hail of gunfire now we don't know who perpetrated these but we know
00:22:25.780from reports that there are 700 islamic revolutionary guard corps agents in canada
00:22:30.920which tells me that we probably know who they are if we can count them we can count them yeah
00:22:34.220And then there's the China factor interfering, according to CSIS, in 11 different electoral districts.
00:22:43.040And I wonder if we are as reliable on the security and intelligence and counterterrorism side as we need to be to maintain the trust that you would expect from a fellow Five Eyes country.
00:22:57.560Yeah, and you've got to remember that some of the folks that may be on your watch list or whatever may be our problem because we had an open border for four years, all right, where people like that could easily cross the border.
00:23:11.280And so some of those people may have actually crossed the border, you know, on our southern border and made their way to this place up north that has five and six month winters.
00:23:25.920I'm not quite sure why they, you know, it's one thing that surprises, you know, we've gone now through a five or six month winter with no thaw.
00:26:28.160It's not my opinion to make judgments about the Canadian.
00:26:31.280What we will do at the embassy and what our administration will do is we'll look at what the threat environment evolves to in Canada
00:26:42.400to determine whether we need to beef up our border security
00:26:49.000because that's our responsibility, who comes into the U.S.
00:26:53.080Who comes into Canada is a Canadian issue,
00:26:56.100but if the threat environment goes one way or the other,
00:27:00.740then it becomes our responsibility in terms of how we respond to that.
00:27:06.460The threat environment from Canada goes up.
00:27:09.340Maybe we put in some more precautions on the border going into the U.S.
00:27:13.580I think in many ways we try to get, you know, we have discussions with Canada.
00:27:20.340And it's kind of like it'd be better for both of us if who we allowed into our countries, we were more aligned.
00:27:27.520It doesn't mean we have to be perfect, but we are more aligned so that we, you know, being receptive to refugees and those types of things, that we are more aligned so that the threat environment is relatively the same so that we can continue a relatively free flow across our borders.
00:27:50.660We don't want to toughen our borders with Canada unless we have to.
00:27:54.960i saw the announcement by the u.s government that in terms of foreign asylum seekers foreign
00:28:03.040asylum seekers it will pretty much be restricted to the boars of south africa the white dutch
00:28:08.780farmers who have been targeted with racially motivated hate laws really and i know that
00:28:14.820the first flights of the boar farmers have landed in america i know that there's a lot of jews in
00:28:22.120Toronto who feel like it's untenable to continue to live there. Obviously, it's not the same
00:28:28.000as what's happening to the Boers. But if this anti-Semitic crime wave in Canada continues,
00:28:35.060do you think the U.S. government would be open to having a category for Canadian Jews who are,
00:28:42.140like the Boers, they're employable, they're not going to be a burden on the state?
00:28:46.120Would the U.S. consider giving asylum to Canadian Jews who are afraid of the anti-Semitic crime
00:28:51.220way i don't think in the current environment i think to reach that level um you know and to equate
00:28:59.060uh the jewish population in canada to what the boors are facing in south africa
00:29:07.240that's a pretty tough that's a pretty tough you know place to equate the two okay i hope it doesn't
00:29:15.980accelerate in canada yeah so do we we hope that uh you know the commitments from the government
00:29:50.060And I, you know, I can't see, I don't envision Canada getting to that point where, you know, I'm not Jewish, I don't live in that environment, I don't live in those, I'm not, you know, I'm not living in the community, I live in this government housing.
00:30:07.320Okay, so I'm really not the best person to talk about that.
00:30:12.320But at this point, I don't think that's anything that's even close to being on the radar screen in Washington.
00:31:22.120You know, we get, depending on the year, I think it's like 400,000 to 600,000 cars more imported in from Canada than what we export to Canada.
00:31:39.980You have a phenomenal story to tell to, you know, our U.S. trade rep about here's why Canada deserves to be in the lowest tariff bucket in terms of doing trade with the United States.
00:32:02.480You know, we're awesome at making car parts.
00:32:05.220you know we we have similar labor laws similar wage scales uh you know technology and all of that
00:32:15.040uh you know so we can integrate with with your with your auto industry which you've done okay
00:32:22.700you know for for rebuilding the auto industry you don't start with canada
00:32:32.680okay cars going across the border 50 75 percent u.s content those are the kind of cars we like
00:32:39.820coming in okay to fix the car issue in the u.s and the reason we got it we want a car industry
00:32:48.080is because it was the car industry that mobilized for world war ii it was a car industry uh that
00:32:55.560actually mobilized ford i think started making uh these uh ventilators during covid
00:33:04.900And, you know, so they're making cars one day and the next day.
00:33:07.720They've taken a line, or I'm sure it's not a line, but they've taken a lot of their engineering capability and all that and said, okay, instead of building an escape tomorrow, you're building a ventilator.
00:35:24.040But my understanding in talking to folks in the auto industry that if you really want to build to scale a car plant, you know, where the efficiencies and all of that in, you've got to be at least at a quarter of a million cars.
00:36:02.700That played into this and other tariffs.
00:36:04.960So that, you know, but we're not going to get involved in that.
00:36:07.380But we know that we're not going to open, you know, the we're not going to open the floodgates to have Chinese cars coming into the U.S. from Canada.
00:36:15.780That ain't going to happen. And so, you know, security standpoint, you know, with the technology that they now have built into cars, you know,
00:36:27.920and I think the, you know, some insurance companies or some states are looking at, you know, when you go out and buy your license plates,
00:36:35.760It's going to be dependent on how many miles you drive per year, and that number is not going to be derived from a form that you fill out that says, oh, I drove 11,500 miles last year.
00:36:49.780It'll come from some data that they're getting that has tracked your car for the last year, and they said, yeah, you said you drove 11,500.
00:37:00.520You drove 13,321 miles, and here's exactly where you went.
00:37:05.760And so, you know, I would expect coming out of the intelligence world that that that little that car driving around from China, it's a great gobbler of data and information.
00:37:26.860and it's consuming and getting information uh and you know at times it will be sending information
00:37:38.220i i think some people were surprised that the prime minister gave that concession to china
00:37:46.780given that the auto industry is negotiating hard uh to to maintain its position with the united
00:37:53.600States, and to throw that bone to China with the security aspect you referred to, but just
00:37:59.000plain old buying 49,000 cars, it felt like a diplomatic, not a provocation, but just
00:40:24.320I think she just put out a post this week from Serial Week.
00:40:28.080Great conversation with our Secretary of the Interior and our Secretary of Energy.
00:40:33.120We want to ship 2 million more barrels of oil per day to the U.S.
00:40:38.800Oh, okay, she's creating, she's putting out the narrative, you know, America's been a very reliable and positive partner for Alberta, and we think that's a great relationship, and we should continue that relationship and grow it.
00:40:57.200It's a very interesting approach to the Trump administration.
00:41:01.180Here's why we're really, really good, and why you should consider us moving forward.
00:41:06.320So that's a pretty, from our perspective, that's a pretty good approach to our trade team and to the president.
00:41:15.440I should tell you, she's being called a traitor for having that kind of a constructive rapport with the U.S.
00:41:21.580A lot of authoritative pundits and even other politicians have said by not pricking back at President Trump,
00:41:32.580But by trying to be constructive, she has sold the country out.
00:42:59.220Have you ever heard that phrase before?
00:43:00.400Yeah. And so but, you know, the president from Venezuela was at CIRA week, made a major presentation.
00:43:08.380And what was her message? I don't know. Very simple.
00:43:11.840We want to become the preferred supply. I don't know if those are the exact words, but we want to become a preferred supplier of oil to the United States of America.
00:43:22.400And they're they're ramping up that you that's a starter pistol. There's a race on now.
00:43:26.140But it's a race that, because of your history and our history together, and the infrastructure together, that Canada would be poised to win.
00:48:59.520Can you expand on that? Is that U.S. I think number one is the, you know, very positive statement about Alberta.
00:49:07.620But I think it's how Americans generally feel about Canada.
00:49:12.440OK, you could get us saying lots of positive things about lots of of the provinces in the how we've developed our ecosystems together.
00:49:22.920I know that Besant, Secretary of Rights, Secretary Burgum, President Trump, you know, it's kind of like, yeah, pump a bunch, put a pipeline down to the border.
00:49:36.900Our responsibility then to put pipelines on our side of the border that will take whatever oil Canada decides that they want to ship to the United States.
00:49:47.760And the, you know, again, there's lots of uses that we would have for it.
00:49:52.800in terms of processing it and those kinds of things.
00:51:16.620But, you know, the good thing is the oil's going out, $60 billion is coming back, depending on what the oil, you know, it might be more than that now with the price of oil.
00:51:29.300But, you know, when this, when it settles down, it's $60 billion is coming back to Canada, right?
00:59:50.280you go down the list of the companies that, you know, that are, you know, have a strong base and
00:59:55.780a strong foundation here in Canada and in the U.S. Okay. Uh, and they were, they're the first ones
01:00:02.500that come out and say, we need this relationship and actually we want to build it, but it's also
01:00:07.100the foundation to do something that's very, very difficult, which is diversify our customer base.
01:00:13.640You know, if you want to go into a new market and I came out of the marketing side of business,
01:00:19.660getting new customers is really really really hard and if that's going to be a focus it's nice
01:00:29.740to have in place a good strong business relationship that can help fund those efforts
01:00:38.280and you know the and you guys haven't really been harmed by the tariffs you know it's it's
01:00:46.760your prime minister that says hey we've got the one of i think it's it's the second best deal in
01:00:51.080the world that's not a bad place to be and is that a reason to be mad at america i don't know
01:00:56.800that's for the canadians to decide um and uh but that's not that's not a bad deal
01:01:02.740i'm very grateful for your time i have one last question that's a little bit self-indulgent
01:01:08.240because it's been something that's affected me and my company rebel news and other independent
01:01:12.920And I ask you because I know that one of your colleagues in the State Department, Undersecretary Sarah Rogers, who's been in charge of this anti-censorship file, and Vice President J.D. Vance have raised it.
01:01:27.680They have looked at European countries like the U.K. that have brought in online censorship bills, online harms bills.
01:04:41.340So, again, I'm hoping that's not a place that we see Canada devolving to, and we're not anywhere close to that.
01:04:57.280We're working on trying to get a phenomenal trade deal that's good for the United States, that's good for Canada.
01:05:03.520We're working on trying to get a phenomenal security arrangement between the United States and Canada so that our countries are safe.
01:05:12.540And what we haven't talked about, we're also working on the president's third priority, which is the whole law enforcement thing to go after the drug issues and those types of things to keep our people safe from internal threats.
01:05:29.760We both lose way too many people to fentanyl, and I think in the current environment, that probably also extends to cooperating as much as we can to protect ourselves from the threat of terrorism, which is a global, has to be a global effort.
01:05:50.200But, you know, they're going to target the U.S. and they're going to target, you know, most likely if they start reaching out, you know, Canada has to worry as well.
01:06:02.080Ambassador, I could talk with you forever, but alas, our time is up.
01:06:05.380Thank you so much for your hospitality and for your frank discussion.