Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Carney delays budget, appoints clueless cabinet during unity crisis

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Four statements from Carney cabinet ministers, four little disasters. That's

00:00:06.300 today's show. I want to show you video clips of these four cabinet ministers. So I want you to

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00:01:07.080 Tonight, Mark Carney's government is off to a disastrous start. It's May 15th, and this is

00:01:28.180 the Ezra Levant Show. Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:43.960 I'm back in Toronto at our world headquarters, and I keep thinking about the question that I heard when

00:01:49.060 I was in Alberta this week. And it's this. If Alberta were not part of Canada right now,

00:01:54.940 would it agree to join Canada on the current terms? As in, if Alberta were independent,

00:02:00.860 would it give up its independence and join as a province and a country where there are more

00:02:06.080 federal cabinet ministers from the city of Brampton than the entire provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan

00:02:12.060 combined? Where the key national financial program, equalization, hoovers up billions of dollars

00:02:18.260 from Alberta from workers there to give as a gift to less industrious workers in other provinces.

00:02:26.320 And yet where the workers who earn that money, typically in oil and gas, are constantly demonized,

00:02:32.340 not celebrated. Their jobs are threatened. They're told to transition to non-existent green jobs and to

00:02:38.220 pay for those green jobs in Ontario and Quebec through investments of their tax dollars in foreign

00:02:43.820 corporations like those electric vehicle schemes that the private sector obviously doesn't want

00:02:48.980 to invest in, but Trudeau and Carney do. And that's just the money stuff. The disrespect,

00:02:54.380 the constant demonization and ridicule. It really reminds me of a few lines from the U.S.

00:03:00.180 Declaration of Independence. I don't know if you've ever read it. It's a list of complaints

00:03:03.780 about the king. He has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to

00:03:10.700 harass our people and eat out their substance. For cutting off our trade with all parts of the 1.00

00:03:16.200 world. What's that other than blocking our tankers and pipelines? For imposing taxes on us without our

00:03:21.800 consent. I mean, there's a ton of overlap, isn't there? But I think it's more than just things you

00:03:26.360 can count. More than just tangible things. It's soft things, emotional things. The kind of ties that

00:03:31.520 bind people together into a meaningful nation with common loyalty and common destiny. I think

00:03:37.060 a lot of people in politics, a lot of the institutions in the country, I think they just

00:03:43.420 hate the West. The regime media certainly does. It always made me chuckle when Donald Trump would

00:03:49.360 talk about making Canada a cherished 51st state. I shouldn't laugh. It was talk like that that gave

00:03:55.500 Carney the election by spooking boomers in central Canada into liberals. But when was the last time any

00:04:02.380 institution of power in this country? Media, University of Toronto, Royal Bank ever spoke

00:04:12.240 about cherishing Alberta? They just don't use that language. They do it for Quebec. They talk about how

00:04:19.200 much they cherish Quebec, but never the West. But not just the West. How about Sir John A. Macdonald?

00:04:26.300 How about any of our traditions or values, our history, our true stories? Not the false slander that

00:04:32.180 we're a genocidal country. I mean, I can think of about 15 billion reasons a year why Alberta wouldn't

00:04:38.200 want to join Canada today if it were independent. But I don't know if a lot of other parts would too.

00:04:43.080 Would you? We're losing our freedom of speech. Our Canadian dollar is like the peso. We get poorer and

00:04:49.420 we don't even see it. Our economy is in a recession on a per capita basis. No young people can afford to 0.99

00:04:55.680 buy homes in the big cities so they can't afford to start a family. Our streets are choked with

00:05:00.480 foreign migrants, some of whom turn to crime and some of whom turn to advocacy for terrorism, 1.00

00:05:06.060 celebrating terrorism, all under the approving eye of government and police. Yeah, if Alberta is the

00:05:11.880 first province to leave, I promise you it will not be the last. One of the things we talked about in our

00:05:17.780 western town halls was mottos for a separatist movement. In 1995, Quebec's official motto for the

00:05:24.720 separatist side was in French, yes and it becomes possible. As in vote yes and it becomes possible. It

00:05:33.740 being whatever you want it to be. You could tweak that, anything is possible. That could have been

00:05:40.940 Canada's motto, you know, but no one would believe that now. Or how about this for a motto?

00:05:46.020 We can do so much better. Don't you think that's true for Albertans? We can do so much better. And

00:05:53.420 if you're in Ontario or Quebec or Atlantic or BC or the north, don't you think that you could do so

00:05:57.240 much better than the liberals? And our system, Mark Carney, the slippery banker who seems to have a

00:06:01.820 problem telling the truth and gets hostile whenever a journalist asks him a real question,

00:06:06.320 which is pretty rare. We'll talk later in the show today with Franco Teresano about the fact that

00:06:11.180 Canada hasn't had a budget in over a year and we likely won't get one this year either. Oh, I thought

00:06:16.280 Carney was a master of all things dollars and cents. But look at this. Let me show you four little

00:06:21.740 vignettes all from the same day. You tell me whether or not you're from Alberta. Don't you think you could

00:06:27.300 do so much better? Let's start with the Hamas wing of the Liberal Party, Anita Anand, now the foreign 0.99

00:06:32.960 minister who goes full Hamas, just full anti-Semitic here. Take a look.

00:06:38.060 Israel is blocking food and aid to Gaza. What do you think of that decision? And is the Canadian

00:06:43.260 government doing anything to stop that? We cannot allow the continued use of food as a political

00:06:52.800 tool. The prime minister has been very clear about that. Over 50,000 people have died as a result.

00:07:02.960 of the aggression caused against the Palestinian and the Gazan people in Palestine. And using food

00:07:14.660 as a political tool is simply unacceptable. We need to continue to work towards a ceasefire. We need

00:07:22.700 to ensure that we have a two-state solution and Canada will continue to maintain that position.

00:07:28.900 So it's Israel that's the aggressor. So Gaza is now Palestine. So Israel is the one using food 0.99

00:07:35.900 as a weapon, not a word about the hostages, not a word about terrorism, not a word about how Hamas

00:07:40.920 takes the food aid and sells it. Or look at this guy. He's ready to work from home 20 hours a week

00:07:46.820 for sure for nearly $400,000 a year. Take a look at this guy.

00:07:49.820 When you decided not to run again, you said it was because you wanted to spend more time

00:07:53.820 with your family. And you said when you were coming back again that you worked out a deal

00:07:56.820 with Mr. Carney that you're able to, you know, have a little bit more work-life balance. How does that

00:08:00.820 jive with your new role? Well, I expect what you're going to see is when the House Commons is not sitting.

00:08:04.820 Given the nature of the portfolio, a lot of the stakeholders we have are less interested

00:08:08.820 in having you attend groundbreakings, the openings of new buildings that you may have funded,

00:08:12.820 and are quite accustomed to having meetings virtually. So I anticipate during constituency weeks

00:08:17.820 I'm going to be based in my hometown a little more than I was before. There may be an opportunity,

00:08:21.820 depending on what's going on in the House, to avail myself, not all the time of course,

00:08:24.820 but once in a while of the virtual abilities to participate in the House of Commons proceedings.

00:08:29.820 So we're going to figure some of this out as we go. I'm very proud to have the support of my family to come back.

00:08:33.820 My kids in particular are very excited, even though the little guy is only three years old.

00:08:37.820 My daughter at nine has a better understanding. And it's going to take work on my part.

00:08:41.820 Yeah, talk about failing upward. He thinks his job as Justice Minister is to do groundbreaking for buildings,

00:08:49.820 opening buildings, cutting ribbons. He's the Attorney General and Justice Minister.

00:08:53.820 He wants to work from home. What a lazy, entitled loser. 1.00

00:08:57.820 Don't you think the Liberal Party needs about a decade in the wilderness to get over themselves? 1.00

00:09:02.820 Or this guy? He's back at the Heritage Department where he's in charge of censorship and media subsidies,

00:09:07.820 but he thought he'd freestyle a little and announce no new pipelines will be allowed.

00:09:12.820 Premier Smith says that she's still concerned that you're part of the Cabinet and also the new selection of Mr. Rosen for the Environment Minister.

00:09:17.820 She says it's too close of a tie to you. What do you say in response to that?

00:09:21.820 I think we will have to agree to disagree with Premier Smith. We think that protecting the environment,

00:09:26.820 fighting climate change is important. Lots of Canadians believe that as well.

00:09:30.820 It was a central element of our platform and we will make good on our commitments.

00:09:35.820 The Prime Minister last night on TV seemed to open the door to potentially changing the emissions cap or the IAA to get projects built.

00:09:42.820 What do you think of what he said?

00:09:43.820 These are important conversations that we will need to have in the coming weeks.

00:09:47.820 Premier Smith is saying that you're anti-pipeline still.

00:09:52.820 What do you say in response to her concerns just broadly about the Cabinet?

00:09:56.820 And how do you deal with national unity? How do you address that right now?

00:09:59.820 So on pipelines, people should remember that we bought a pipeline, Trans Mountain,

00:10:05.820 and that is only used right now at about 40% capacity.

00:10:10.820 So I think before we start talking about building an entire new pipeline,

00:10:14.820 maybe we should maximize the use of existing infrastructure.

00:10:19.820 And the Canadian Energy Regulator as well as the International Energy Agency are telling us that

00:10:24.820 probably by 2028, 2029, demand for oil will peak globally and it will also peak in Canada.

00:10:32.820 So as far as I know, there are no investors right now.

00:10:34.820 There are no companies that are saying that they want to build an east-west pipeline.

00:10:37.820 And as you know, these things are built by companies, not governments.

00:10:42.820 Are you against the construction of pipelines in Canada?

00:10:45.820 What I'm saying is that we already have an infrastructure in place that's not even at 50% capacity.

00:10:51.820 So before we think about building new infrastructure, we should maximize the use of what already exists.

00:10:57.820 And as I said to your colleague, the Canadian Energy Agency and the International Energy Agency

00:11:04.820 Yes, but the Prime Minister is saying, well, let's build pipelines.

00:11:07.820 And you're pushing the brake on that.

00:11:10.820 Well, what I'm saying is that the International and Canadian Energy Agencies are saying that demand for oil will peak by 2028, 2029.

00:11:21.820 And there's no developer who's interested in building an east-west pipeline at this time.

00:11:27.820 Now, he's lying.

00:11:28.820 The Trans Mountain pipeline is almost full, 80% full.

00:11:31.820 But who cares?

00:11:32.820 It's not a thoughtful debate or decision.

00:11:35.820 It's an ideological one.

00:11:37.820 He hates the West.

00:11:38.820 You know, if you don't buy his 40% full stat, he's got 10 others that he'll make up.

00:11:43.820 He says there's no demand for oil.

00:11:46.820 It's a lie, of course.

00:11:47.820 Japan, Germany, Korea, even Ukraine have all asked us for our energy instead of Russia's.

00:11:53.820 It was Trudeau who said there's no business case for it.

00:11:55.820 He's lying.

00:11:56.820 Gibbo is right about there being no investors now, though.

00:11:59.820 Would you invest in Canadian pipelines with that kook, convicted criminal, by the way, in charge? 1.00

00:12:05.820 Is he in charge?

00:12:07.820 I mean, he's the heritage minister now.

00:12:09.820 Is he still in charge of pipelines?

00:12:11.820 Is Mark Carney in charge?

00:12:13.820 Who's in charge?

00:12:15.820 Last video.

00:12:16.820 This is quite something.

00:12:17.820 Now, I think that we need to deliver more supply.

00:12:22.820 Make sure the market is stable.

00:12:24.820 It's a huge part of our economy.

00:12:26.820 We need to be delivering more affordable housing.

00:12:28.820 The government of Canada has not been building affordable housing since the 90s.

00:12:33.820 And we've created a huge shortage across Canada.

00:12:36.820 That's where the big need is right now.

00:12:39.820 And I'm very encouraged that the prime minister and our commitment right now in government is the double construction and focus on the affordable side.

00:12:48.820 Did you get that?

00:12:50.820 Is he saying he wants housing prices to come down or not?

00:12:54.820 I mean, it's pretty much a yes or no answer.

00:12:57.820 Are housing prices too high?

00:12:59.820 I think anyone under 40 would probably say they are.

00:13:02.820 What does he say?

00:13:03.820 Watch it one more time and try to understand it.

00:13:05.820 Affordable housing prices need to go down.

00:13:08.820 No, I think that we need to deliver more supply.

00:13:11.820 Make sure the market is stable.

00:13:13.820 It's a huge part of our economy.

00:13:15.820 We need to be delivering more affordable housing.

00:13:17.820 The government of Canada has not been building affordable housing since the 90s.

00:13:22.820 And we've created a huge shortage across Canada.

00:13:25.820 That's where the big need is right now.

00:13:27.820 And I'm very encouraged that the prime minister and our commitment right now in government is the double construction and focus on the affordable side.

00:13:37.820 What?

00:13:38.820 What does that even mean? 1.00

00:13:40.820 I think he might be even dumber than Trudeau. 0.99

00:13:43.820 Matt spoke, asked him a question that I think a bright eight year old might ask. 0.99

00:13:49.820 How do you make something more affordable without reducing its price?

00:13:52.820 I think I think there'd be kids in grade school who would ask Gregor Robertson that question.

00:13:56.820 And the answer, here's the answer you could keep yourself, was to build them at scale.

00:14:02.820 At scale is just a jargony way of saying lots.

00:14:05.820 Lots. So build lots of affordable houses, but don't reduce the price.

00:14:12.820 What?

00:14:13.820 What?

00:14:14.820 But I'm here to say it doesn't matter.

00:14:16.820 It doesn't matter that they don't make sense.

00:14:18.820 It doesn't matter that their facts are wrong.

00:14:19.820 It doesn't matter that they're incoherent.

00:14:21.820 They're going to do what they're going to do anyways.

00:14:24.820 And their plan will fail to fix the problem.

00:14:27.820 But it'll succeed in spending money and making them important and giving big contracts to their friends.

00:14:32.820 I mean, Gregor Robertson presided over the decline and decay of Vancouver.

00:14:36.820 A toxic combination of hard drugs and crime on the one hand and the unaffordable housing on the other.

00:14:43.820 But he's a great success.

00:14:45.820 So much so that Mark Carney put him in cabinet, didn't he?

00:14:48.820 I showed you four cabinet ministers, four disastrous comments in one day.

00:14:53.820 And Carney himself won't bring in a budget for almost a year.

00:14:56.820 And parliament hasn't sat in months.

00:14:58.820 Yeah.

00:14:59.820 If you could separate from Canada somehow, would you?

00:15:04.820 Stay with us for more.

00:15:06.820 You know, there was something funny that happened yesterday.

00:15:20.820 Mark Carney had another one of those Trump-like signing ceremonies.

00:15:25.820 You know, Trump gets these executive orders and he signs them in thick felt marker and he talks about them for a moment.

00:15:32.820 It's become his signature move for executive orders.

00:15:36.820 You know, we don't have that kind of thing in Canada.

00:15:39.820 We do have executive orders, but they're not signed by the prime minister.

00:15:43.820 They're signed by the governor general.

00:15:46.820 And it's just not what we do in our system to have the prime minister as if he's the head of state.

00:15:56.820 He's not.

00:15:57.820 He's the head of government.

00:15:58.820 There's a bit of a distinction there.

00:16:00.820 It's the king's delegate, the governor general.

00:16:03.820 So my point is when you see, and he's done this several times now, including when he, quote, repealed the carbon tax.

00:16:09.820 Of course, he didn't repeal it at all.

00:16:10.820 He just reduced the rate temporarily to zero.

00:16:13.820 He also had one of these ceremonies, very Trump-like, but sort of fake in that way.

00:16:20.820 And there's something else that I think is sort of fake about what's going on.

00:16:24.820 Parliament hasn't sat in months and it doesn't seem to be in any hurry to sit again.

00:16:31.820 And here's the craziest part.

00:16:34.820 Canada, as we careen through economic crises, immigration crises, affordability crises, tax crises, we have not had a budget.

00:16:46.820 The government of Canada has not had a budget since April of 2024, more than a year ago.

00:16:53.820 But hey, if Mark Carney has some more of these theatrical signing ceremonies, I guess that's all we need joining us now to talk about this and other related matters is our favorite tax fighter, our friend Franco Teresano from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:17:08.820 You know, the liberals have always been masters of optics and visuals.

00:17:13.820 But at the end of the day, sometimes you actually have to govern, you have to have parliament called, you have to debate, you have to vote.

00:17:19.820 And the basic document of any government, in some ways the most important one, is the budget, because from there all things flow, whether it's taxes or spending.

00:17:28.820 Has Canada ever gone this long without a budget before, Franco? 0.76

00:17:32.820 Well, unfortunately, yeah, right, because the Trudeau government didn't put in a budget in 2020.

00:17:38.820 So this isn't the first time that we've seen the liberal government not bring in a budget, but this is really a big deal, right?

00:17:44.820 OK, for a number of reasons.

00:17:45.820 Number one, it's look, it's democracy 101 that a government tables a budget, right?

00:17:50.820 They're spending hundreds of billions of dollars of our money.

00:17:54.820 A budget is probably the biggest time of the year where Canadians, where taxpayers can actually look into the state of our finances, but then also hold the government accountable on its spending plans.

00:18:06.820 Hey, Ezra, not to mention members of parliament who are supposed to be our elected representatives who are supposed to be voting on spending and tax bills.

00:18:15.820 Well, how in the world are they going to make an informed decision if the government won't even release what the state of our finances are?

00:18:22.820 You know, I thought you were going to go in a slightly different direction when you mentioned the MPs, because here's one thing I know.

00:18:28.820 Every April Fool's Day, the MPs automatically get a raise in pay.

00:18:32.820 And I have to tell you, Franco, if they didn't get that raise in pay until they did their work and got a budget, we would have had that budget yesterday.

00:18:40.820 And so they certainly took care of themselves first.

00:18:43.820 Do we know when parliament is set to resume?

00:18:46.820 I presume I see here that it'll it'll be some weeks yet still.

00:18:50.820 But the new finance minister, Francois-Félicia Mbain, says that we won't have a budget.

00:18:55.820 We'll have a fall economic update.

00:18:57.820 But we're still in the spring, Franco.

00:18:59.820 Yeah.

00:19:00.820 And then all of a sudden fall turns into what, December?

00:19:03.820 Yeah, that's what it was a couple years ago.

00:19:05.820 Like, look, OK, first of all, fall economic statement isn't a budget.

00:19:09.820 Right.

00:19:10.820 It's supposed to be a budget update.

00:19:12.820 Well, what are you updating on if you don't have a budget?

00:19:15.820 But let's like also go back to two things.

00:19:17.820 Number one, I'm glad you brought up the pay raises.

00:19:19.820 OK, so what is it?

00:19:20.820 Middle of May now.

00:19:22.820 And these members of parliament haven't been in the House of Commons all year.

00:19:25.820 They just took another pay raise April one for what?

00:19:28.820 For being at home for about half a year.

00:19:30.820 Come on.

00:19:31.820 Not to mention, like, folks, the finance minister's one job is the table of budget.

00:19:36.820 That's his job.

00:19:37.820 I bet you next.

00:19:38.820 Yeah, that's it.

00:19:39.820 Right.

00:19:40.820 Ezra, I bet you next year we're having this conversation.

00:19:42.820 I guess who's going to get another pay raise?

00:19:44.820 Probably the finance minister.

00:19:45.820 Yeah.

00:19:46.820 But hey, Ezra, can I dive into the real heart of the issue here?

00:19:49.820 Yeah.

00:19:50.820 OK, Carney ran on this notion of being the credible numbers guy, right?

00:19:55.820 The math guy, the financial wizard.

00:19:57.820 Well, how can you be credible as a financial wizard if you can't even be bothered to put together a budget?

00:20:05.820 Yeah, yeah.

00:20:06.820 You know, I was reading your essay this morning on your website, which is a great website.

00:20:10.820 The essay you called it, I'd call it a press release, I guess.

00:20:13.820 Taxpayers deserve a federal budget.

00:20:15.820 And I sort of forgot these details.

00:20:17.820 Let me just quote a line from your piece today.

00:20:20.820 He said, Carney plans to add an extra $225 billion to the debt over the next four years, according to his election platform.

00:20:30.820 For comparison, the Trudeau government planned on increasing the debt by $131 billion over those years, according to the most recent fall economic statement.

00:20:39.820 So Mark Carney is spending 50% more in terms of the debt.

00:20:46.820 He's going into debt 50% deeper.

00:20:49.820 And like you say, this is the guy who was supposed to bring, you know, it was Trudeau who said the childish thing, budgets balance themselves.

00:20:58.820 Who said the naive thing, I don't think about monetary policy, who said the foolish thing, you know, we'll build the economy from the heart out.

00:21:07.820 But it's Carney who's blowing up the debt.

00:21:10.820 Carney's making Justin Trudeau, it's making me pine for the days of Justin Trudeau.

00:21:16.820 Well, I bet you weren't, you didn't think you were going to say that today.

00:21:19.820 But look, it turns out, turns out we learned that budgets don't balance themselves.

00:21:24.820 And I guess budgets don't write themselves either.

00:21:27.820 Look, it took what, Trudeau 10 years to double the debt, right?

00:21:31.820 So in all of the hundred plus years that Canada has been around, you had prime ministers, all of them rack up $600 billion of debt.

00:21:38.820 Trudeau comes in and he doubles it.

00:21:40.820 And, you know, if that wasn't bad enough, well, now we have Carney who wants to add about $100 billion more of debt than what even Trudeau was planning to do.

00:21:50.820 OK, you know, the banker was supposed to be better with the numbers than the drama teacher.

00:21:55.820 But it's not looking that way anymore.

00:21:57.820 Yeah, boy.

00:21:58.820 Hey, I got a question for you.

00:21:59.820 I mean, it's too early to and I know your specialty is the numbers as opposed to the politics.

00:22:04.820 You guys are very nonpartisan and it's important that you remain that way.

00:22:08.820 But I think we can all acknowledge the NDP over the last few years have been a force for increased spending.

00:22:14.820 Whenever they kind of deal with Trudeau, it was in return for some spending shenanigans.

00:22:20.820 Do you see the same sort of pressure, whether it's from the Bloc Québécois or the NDP, to make extra demands of the liberals for some sort of working majority?

00:22:31.820 Maybe this is outside your bailiwick, but I thought I'd ask.

00:22:34.820 No, I think it's a fair question.

00:22:36.820 I mean, look, whenever you have a minority government, they're going to have to find a dance partner, right? 0.81

00:22:40.820 So unless they're going to try to get the conservatives on board with some tax cuts, maybe some spending reductions.

00:22:45.820 Like, I don't know how likely that is, but if they're looking for the NDP or the Bloc, yeah, I think everyone should worry that the spending and the debt is going to go even higher than the $225 billion of debt that Carney was running on during the election.

00:22:59.820 So I think that's a very fair thing to be worried about, absolutely, because as you mentioned, I mean, look, the NDP, you know, as crazy as the liberal government has been, the NDP hasn't seen a type of dollar that they don't want to tax away or a new spending program that they don't like.

00:23:15.120 You know, I want to ask you one more thing. I don't know if you saw my videos, but over the last few weeks, I've been going to some of these tax havens where Mark Carney stashed Brookfield Asset Management corporate shells.

00:23:28.960 I went to the Isle of Man. I went to Bermuda. And it's clear what's going on there.

00:23:34.960 And I think Brookfield would say that it's perfectly legal what they're doing, namely, they're just being smart tax avoiders, not evaders, and they're complying with all the laws.

00:23:47.360 That's what they would say. But, you know, I think there's something, even if it's not illegal, something weird or even unethical about the same prime minister setting up ways

00:23:59.840 to avoid Canadian taxes, who is the imposer and collector. And, you know, he's the guy enforcing the Canadian taxes that he himself evades.

00:24:13.240 And he's evading them to this day, Franco, because he still has $6.8 million with a Brookfield stock options.

00:24:19.380 And we all know that he's put it behind a blind trust, but he knows what he put in there. It was just a few weeks ago.

00:24:25.200 I don't know what to make of this. I'm trying to, like, I don't want to condemn people for being smart tax planners,

00:24:31.460 but there's something weird about the prime minister collecting different taxes from you than he pays himself.

00:24:38.460 Do you have any thoughts on that?

00:24:40.380 Well, look, my thoughts on this is that there's two fundamental problems with Canada's tax system, okay?

00:24:45.860 There's two fundamental problems as I see it and where the government has to address it.

00:24:49.760 Number one, taxes are just outrageously high, right? And that's across all levels of government.

00:24:54.480 Essentially, folks, take your paycheck, rip it in half, because that's the tax man's, okay?

00:24:59.920 So, number one, taxes are just way too high. And look, if you want to attract businesses, you want to attract investment,

00:25:04.940 you want to bring in the tax dollars that way, well, we're going to have to lower taxes.

00:25:08.960 Like, we're less competitive than the United States on both businesses and income taxes.

00:25:13.280 So, Canadians are paying way too much tax because government spending and debt has become out of control.

00:25:18.560 The second issue that I see with Canada's tax system is that it's way too complex, right?

00:25:23.340 Like, look, like, you essentially, like, need an army of lawyers and accountants to navigate the income tax system.

00:25:30.780 Like, let's just cut the number of taxes, cut the overall tax rates, and let's actually make it that normal Canadians can figure out this dysfunctional tax system.

00:25:39.940 Yeah. You know, there's certain things about Bermuda and the Isle of Man that I wouldn't want Canada to be like.

00:25:44.340 I think they turned a bit of a blind eye sometimes to money laundering or other things that we might find questionable.

00:25:52.200 But wouldn't it be something if Canada were a jurisdiction that people wanted to put their money into because we had such modest taxes?

00:26:00.940 We're going in all the wrong directions with taxes and with debt.

00:26:04.800 Franco, I'm so glad you're out there to be a watchdog and keep an eye on things.

00:26:08.840 We're going to need it more than ever.

00:26:09.880 Let me just throw one more question at you.

00:26:11.380 Just give me 30 seconds.

00:26:13.000 Francois-Philippe Champagne, we got to know him at Rebel News because he was the guy who took a mortgage from a Chinese government bank.

00:26:21.580 There are hundreds of companies you could get a mortgage from in the private sector in the West.

00:26:26.760 But he chose from the Chinese Communist Party Bank, which was so crazy.

00:26:31.140 And he did that when he was a foreign minister.

00:26:33.420 That really put a big question mark next to his name for me.

00:26:36.940 Like, what on earth?

00:26:39.060 What do you know about him in terms of being a finance minister?

00:26:42.580 I would not have pegged him as a finance minister.

00:26:44.980 Maybe I don't know why they chose him.

00:26:47.160 Maybe they think he's safe hands.

00:26:48.520 I don't know.

00:26:49.460 What do you know about him from a finance point of view as opposed to a foreign affairs point of view?

00:26:53.480 Well, I'm worried because I believe he was the minister, at least around the cabinet table, right, when they're announcing the billions of dollars in corporate welfare to the multinational corporations to build those battery factories in, what, southwestern Ontario and Quebec, right?

00:27:09.460 You're talking about what the government put taxpayers on the hook for about $30 billion in corporate welfare to what, Volkswagen, Stellantis, you had Northvolt and Honda.

00:27:19.000 And I believe if he wasn't the industry minister, he was right around the cabinet table for all that.

00:27:24.340 So that's what I'm really worried, given Canada's, like, what, $1.3 trillion debt right now.

00:27:29.980 Yeah.

00:27:30.340 Wow.

00:27:31.040 All right, Franco.

00:27:31.620 Well, thanks for spending some time with us.

00:27:33.140 Keep at it.

00:27:33.700 And we'll stay in touch in the weeks and months ahead.

00:27:36.680 Hey, thank you so much.

00:27:37.880 All right.

00:27:38.200 There he is, Franco Terzano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:27:40.940 Stay with us.

00:27:41.640 More ahead.

00:27:49.000 Hey, welcome back.

00:27:55.100 Your letters to me.

00:27:55.880 P.D. says, Albertans forced to pay for the pizza, but never allowed to choose the toppings.

00:28:01.600 Done with being kicked by the East.

00:28:03.740 Yet, a lot of it is emotional and respect.

00:28:09.060 I mean, there's something, you know, the Jewish word chutzpah. 0.93

00:28:12.320 What's the definition, a working definition of chutzpah?

00:28:14.600 You know, the guy who killed his parents and then asked the court for mercy because he's

00:28:19.880 an orphan.

00:28:20.740 That's chutzpah.

00:28:21.880 It means audacity, over-the-top audacity.

00:28:26.560 Imagine the audacity of saying, hey, Team Canada, hey, we're against unfair trade barriers.

00:28:32.820 Hey, we're against tariffs, and we're all together as Canadians.

00:28:35.880 Except for you, Albertans, you can't build a pipeline.

00:28:39.840 That's not even a tariff, at least a tariff you can pay to get through.

00:28:42.880 We're just banning it.

00:28:44.600 Would they do that to any other province?

00:28:47.780 Another letter from Trump Vance, 2024.

00:28:50.220 If Alberta does not become independent, it will also be conquered by Islam. 1.00

00:28:54.800 Quebec and Ontario are already under the control of Islam. 0.99

00:28:58.220 Well, there's certainly the Islamification of certain parts of society.

00:29:01.900 The part that concerns me the most is the radical pro-Hamas elements on the street.

00:29:07.320 I note that in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where Donald Trump has visited

00:29:13.520 the past few days, there are no street protests in favor of Hamas.

00:29:19.680 In fact, the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups like that are banned in Saudi Arabia and the

00:29:25.740 United Arab Emirates.

00:29:26.500 About two years ago, we took a trip.

00:29:29.960 We called it the Abraham Accords trip.

00:29:31.880 We took a few dozen of our most keen supporters.

00:29:34.840 We went to Israel, and then we went to the United Arab Emirates to see if the peace deal

00:29:39.500 was for real.

00:29:40.280 And it was.

00:29:41.220 And thankfully, it managed to survive not only the October 7th terrorist attack in 2023,

00:29:46.780 but Joe Biden's term, and I'm hoping that we see the expansion of that peace accord.

00:29:54.300 I think it's true to say that there is more Islamic radicalism on the streets of London, 0.96

00:30:01.200 Montreal, and Toronto than there is on the streets of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, or Riyadh.

00:30:08.220 Stanley McNamee says, I talked to one of the CEOs of one of the largest mining corporations

00:30:12.380 in Alberta, and he told me that he is hoping Alberta will become independent.

00:30:15.760 He said there would be hundreds of billions of dollars invested into Alberta in the mining

00:30:19.620 sector.

00:30:20.320 He sees it as the best thing that would ever happen to Alberta.

00:30:23.740 I think there would be a short period of discombobulation.

00:30:27.160 But look, when you say separate, I think that word implies like you would sort of break off

00:30:33.800 like a chunk of an iceberg and go out to sea.

00:30:36.340 Nothing would actually separate.

00:30:37.860 You would just replace one committee of distant and partisan politicians with another committee

00:30:43.220 of local politicians who are hopefully more in tune with you and share common values and

00:30:49.820 don't think of you as a golden goose whose eggs must be stolen.

00:30:54.360 I think that if Alberta woke up one day and it were an independent jurisdiction, more would

00:31:02.560 stay the same than would change.

00:31:04.620 The friendly relations between friends, family, businesses, tourism, economics would largely

00:31:10.180 continue.

00:31:12.160 Just there would be less abuse and Alberta wouldn't be taken for granted anymore. 0.56

00:31:17.120 Well, that's the show for today.

00:31:18.280 Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, the UNOM, good

00:31:24.040 night and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - May 15, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Carney delays budget, appoints clueless cabinet during unity crisis

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