Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Conservative MPs shouldn't be bullied into silence by leftists

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. I have a slightly sad, slightly infuriating story for you today.

00:00:05.540 A member of parliament for the Conservative Party was banned from speaking this Friday

00:00:09.420 at York University, and he just accepted it. He just said, okay, sorry about that.

00:00:14.400 Anyone who wanted to meet me just phoned me. No, no, that's not good enough. You're a member

00:00:18.280 of parliament. I'll explain what the member of parliament should do when some student activist 0.66

00:00:23.380 says you're not allowed to come to campus. I was sort of disappointed. That's the show today. But

00:00:27.740 first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to what we call Rebel News Plus. That's the video

00:00:31.800 version of this podcast. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month.

00:00:36.760 Might not sound like a lot to you, but it sure adds up for us. And you know,

00:00:40.320 we don't take any government money, so we really rely on it.

00:00:57.740 Tonight, a member of parliament should not let leftists bully him into silence. It's January 8th,

00:01:04.240 and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:05.520 You're ready for freedom!

00:01:08.780 Shame on you, you censorious bug!

00:01:11.960 Garnet Genuis is the member of parliament for Sherwood Park, Fort Saskatchewan in Alberta. That's

00:01:27.680 actually Sheila Gunn-Reed's riding, and he's one of the good guys. At least in his heart, he is.

00:01:34.260 Sometimes he lacks the courage of his convictions, though, which always breaks my heart. I remember

00:01:39.420 when I interviewed him a few years ago about why he would go along with one scheme to endorse

00:01:44.900 the Paris global warming targets, which meant a carbon tax and all sorts of net zero BS. I honestly

00:01:53.520 can't remember if the red Tory leader at the time was Andrew Scheer or Aaron O'Toole, but it doesn't

00:01:58.600 really matter. You'd think an MP from Alberta with major oil and gas operations right in his district

00:02:05.180 would stand up for his people rather than appease some placeholder red Tory leader. I asked him about

00:02:12.680 that, and I was not impressed with the answer. I'm not interested in telling the story about what

00:02:16.540 we're doing. I'm interested in selling oil. You say that... Yeah, but those two go together,

00:02:21.740 obviously, right? I mean, we can't sell oil. No, not obviously. We're not selling in a sort of

00:02:26.640 telling our story kind of sense, right? I feel like I'm listening to the duck speak,

00:02:32.760 the Kim Kardashian talking points of Catherine McKenna and Justin Trudeau and Rachel Notley.

00:02:37.980 You don't need to tell a story to sell oil. 90 million barrels of oil are bought and sold every

00:02:44.220 day, much of it from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Nigeria, Venezuela. They don't need to tell a story. They just

00:02:50.760 need to sell oil. And your line about balancing the economy and the environment, what on earth does

00:02:56.520 that have to do with being subject to some UN scam? I can't... You have utterly absorbed the talking

00:03:03.560 points of Catherine McKenna. She has said those exact same things. You know, sorry, but that is

00:03:08.480 completely unfair, right? Like, every single day, Conservative MPs stand up to fight back against

00:03:14.180 the carbon tax and fight for... Not this day. Not this day.

00:03:17.180 Those are the things that matter to my constituents, opposing the carbon tax and getting pipelines

00:03:22.660 through. And taking an approach that doesn't fight on ground we can't win on, and that chooses

00:03:31.200 to fight on ground that matters so much more and that we can win on, that's the responsible approach

00:03:37.620 that I think we need to take. And, you know, it doesn't mean people are always going to agree with us.

00:03:43.440 It doesn't mean we're always going to agree with you, but we've got to have a respectful

00:03:48.480 conversation here about the reality that what matters to my constituents is achieving results

00:03:55.440 for the energy sector. And there is nothing in this ocean or in the accord that takes away from

00:04:02.660 our ability to do that. It's the Liberal plan to supposedly implement it that we take issue with

00:04:08.040 and have always will and will continue to. So you say with honesty and belief that you believe

00:04:17.100 being part of the United Nations Paris Agreement makes it easier to sell Alberta oil? Is that

00:04:23.960 what you're saying? Ezra, I think that if we were to say we are one of a very small number

00:04:33.180 of countries that are outside of it. In certain environments, it would make it much more difficult.

00:04:40.460 For instance, in Europe, right? We have, I think, an opportunity by getting the Energy East pipeline

00:04:45.740 built to market our oil resources to Europe. And that requires us to sell what our policy mix is,

00:04:57.240 to show—

00:04:58.240 Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia. You know who sells oil to Europe? Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia. Do they have

00:05:04.880 to sell their policy mix? You are sounding like Justin Trudeau. Does Saudi Arabia have to sell itself?

00:05:11.840 You'll get no argument from me that there are huge problems environmentally in terms of human rights.

00:05:16.160 You think China doesn't want our oil?

00:05:17.520 Yeah. I raise these issues repeatedly, the human rights issues themselves, as well as

00:05:22.960 the fact that Canadian energy is a much better alternative than this.

00:05:27.040 You haven't answered my question. But I'm just saying we should put our

00:05:29.840 best foot forward here, Ezra, right? Like, you need to recognize that. I think that we can put

00:05:36.080 our best foot forward and we can fight on the issues that matter on carbon taxes, on pipelines,

00:05:40.560 and we can get better results if we actually position ourselves for success in that argument.

00:05:45.120 Yeah. You know what? Rachel Notley has been using those exact lines for two years. She's saying,

00:05:50.480 if we just stab ourselves in the eye, if we just stab ourselves in the eye, we'll buy social license.

00:05:57.360 That's what you're saying. No, that's not what I'm saying. Because the Paris Agreement doesn't

00:06:01.680 stab us in the eye. The Paris Agreement has no negative impact on us.

00:06:05.840 Have you read the Paris Agreement?

00:06:07.280 It's just a knowledge form. The Paris Agreement involves Canada setting our own targets, which are

00:06:16.240 ultimately non-binding. Have you read it?

00:06:19.280 We take issue with the carbon tax that Rachel Notley is proposing, that Justin Trudeau is proposing. We

00:06:24.240 are opposed to the carbon tax. And that's a critical difference. That's not critical.

00:06:29.200 Have you read the Paris Agreement? Yes.

00:06:32.000 You've read the entire Paris Agreement? Yes.

00:06:39.040 Were you whipped into doing this?

00:06:40.400 On almost every vote, we receive a recommendation from the WIP. Personally, I don't know what other

00:06:51.040 conversations other members had. I never discussed it with the WIP because I was convinced and remain

00:06:57.040 convinced that our vote was the right decision. I mean it when I say he's one of the good guys.

00:07:01.120 But the thing about being a good guy is you have to do it. You have to act on it. You can't just be

00:07:05.920 good in your heart quietly. That's not enough. At least it's not enough for a member of parliament.

00:07:11.200 I mean, look at the word parliament. It comes from to speak out, to advocate. Ordinary private citizens

00:07:18.080 can keep their own counsel. Ordinary people have the right to remain private. You don't have to jump

00:07:23.280 into every battle. But if you positively signed up for the battle, if you signed up for politics,

00:07:29.280 if you ran on a promise to say certain things, the battle of ideas is actually your job. You gotta act

00:07:36.400 on it. Now, I really do like Garnet Genuous, in case you're in any doubt, but look at this that he

00:07:41.440 wrote late last night. You tell me if you are as disappointed as I am. He wrote this on X now called,

00:07:49.360 or used to be called Twitter. He said, I have disappointing news to share about further attacks

00:07:55.280 on free speech. My event at York University, scheduled for this Friday, is now cancelled

00:08:01.840 due to a decision of the Student Union not to allow it. I'm pretty surprised. We've done the

00:08:07.760 same event concept at universities in four provinces without incident. I stand in a public area in front

00:08:13.360 of a banner and talk to students as they walk by about jobs and unemployment. But the Student Union

00:08:18.480 at York won't allow it. York students who want to talk about jobs and unemployment should please

00:08:23.760 contact my office. I still want to hear your stories. So that's it. Instead of going to the

00:08:32.560 students where they are with the hope of meeting people, not just diehard conservatives, but people

00:08:37.600 who aren't political, people who aren't convinced to engage them and convince them, you think it's a

00:08:42.640 substitute to tell them to phone your MP's office, actually not even their own MP's office,

00:08:47.440 to phone you out in Fort Saskatchewan. Who came up with that one? That is not a substitute. That is

00:08:53.120 not good enough. Here's what I wrote in reply to Garnet Genuos on Twitter, and I tried to be my

00:08:58.640 friendliest, the friendliest version of myself. I said, hi Garnet, I think you could have a different

00:09:06.080 response than just accepting this outcome and tweeting about it. Number one, I think you should go to court.

00:09:12.160 The Student Union may be governed by the Charter of Rights and therefore have an obligation to respect

00:09:17.840 your freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, etc. Even if they're not

00:09:21.680 governed by the Charter, there are likely other procedural rules of fairness that apply. It's already

00:09:26.800 Thursday, but you should go to court anyways because you could reschedule the York University

00:09:31.840 meeting for another day. Number two, the Student Union may have the ability to eject you from their property,

00:09:37.840 e.g. if you were set to speak in a building owned by them, but they wouldn't have the ability to ban

00:09:43.200 you from anywhere else on campus. There are plenty of meeting rooms, even auditoriums on campus where

00:09:49.120 they have no power. Number three, most people who are banned from campuses don't have the money,

00:09:55.520 know-how or large media presence to fight back. You have all three. I think it behooves you to push back

00:10:00.960 against the censorship, not only for yourself, but to set a legal and political precedent for others.

00:10:05.680 And number four, frankly, why wouldn't you just show up? What are they going to do? Arrest you?

00:10:11.920 At most, they give you a trespass notice, which you'd ignore and continue to talk.

00:10:15.680 If they finally did call real police, then slowly leave. And let that be the defining image for York

00:10:21.120 University in 2026. Spark a larger debate about freedom. Get the Board of Governors and the University

00:10:26.960 President on the record. It is not acceptable for a student union to ban an MP from speaking on campus.

00:10:33.440 Going along with it strengthens it. That's what I wrote. What do you think? There's other points I

00:10:39.760 could have made too, like maybe they're breaching a contract or inducing a breach of contract. I'm

00:10:43.920 thinking like a lawyer for a second. It almost doesn't matter. The point is to fight and to show a bit

00:10:50.080 of courage, not to back down at the first whiff of wokeism. I mean, if a member of parliament can't

00:10:56.080 stand up to censorship at York University student union, how is an ordinary student expected to do

00:11:02.800 so? I mean, you're a grown man with a lot of power. And if you can't stand up, how could some 18 or 19

00:11:09.200 year old stand up? It isn't part of being in public life, part of being a leader, isn't it being a role

00:11:14.560 model? Setting an example. Some loser left-wing student just says, no, you can't come. And you 0.52

00:11:21.280 say, um, okay, anyone can phone me out there in Fort Saskatchewan. Now, after I posted my response,

00:11:29.040 Garnet Genuous wrote this. He said, some people have suggested that I proceed with the event anyways.

00:11:34.640 Yeah, that'd be me. I am willing to do so-called unauthorized events on campus. I did one previously

00:11:40.400 at Concordia. I don't believe that student unions should be able to shut these things down. In this

00:11:45.280 particular case, I've been working with a group of local students to facilitate the events. I don't

00:11:50.160 want to create a situation in which they could face indirect consequences. I'm always ready to deal

00:11:55.840 with controversy. Are you really, mate? Are you really? But I don't want to leave someone else holding

00:12:01.120 the bag. Well, isn't that what you just sort of did? So bottom line, I expect to be back at York,

00:12:08.560 but not this Friday. I'm sorry. I don't buy it. I don't want to create a situation in which they

00:12:14.640 could face the indirect consequences. They're precisely the ones who have to suffer the direct

00:12:19.120 consequences of you bailing. You quit their event because some woke student said you can't do it.

00:12:24.320 And what consequences are you referring to? Is there some threat against them? And if so, you've just

00:12:30.080 accepted that or you're letting it stand without pushing back. I'm sorry. I just don't think that's

00:12:35.680 good enough. You can't be the cowardly lion. You got to have some courage. Not when you have the

00:12:40.880 power of an MP's office behind you. You have nothing to lose. You can't be fired. Your expenses

00:12:46.160 are covered. You're your own boss. You're very strong as an MP. You can challenge this petty

00:12:51.600 ruling. If you get in trouble, Parliament's Board of Internal Economy will take care of you, for

00:12:56.000 example, paying for your legal defense. I know that. You've got access to every journalist in Canada.

00:13:00.480 You could send an email and get on CBC, CTV, Global News immediately. You have power,

00:13:08.080 but you're bending the knee to some woke urchin. You need to channel a bit of that US senator from 0.93

00:13:14.160 Louisiana, John Kennedy, not the late president, but this guy. I'm talking about the cultured,

00:13:21.600 cosmopolitan, goat's milk latte drinking, avocado toast eating insiders elite.

00:13:35.840 Why not have some fun? Why not make this a free speech moment instead of just

00:13:40.880 slinking away? Why not name and shame the person who's censoring you? Why not put them on the back

00:13:47.760 foot? Why not make them justify themselves? Put them on the defensive instead of mumbling your

00:13:52.640 justifications. Why not act like an MP? Why not act like a free man? Why not act like a Canadian and say,

00:13:58.880 you are un-Canadian. I'm not going to cancel. I'm going to come to talk and you can arrest me if you don't 0.98

00:14:03.680 like it. Why don't you strap on some balls? And why not make them send out police to threaten to 0.99

00:14:11.600 arrest you? The police will not want to do so. At the very least, you'll walk out when they arrive

00:14:16.560 and not be arrested. But it'll be a scene the entire country will watch and it'll be a great shame

00:14:21.760 on York University. Why didn't you even name the person who did it to you? The university itself will

00:14:27.120 surely be compelled to clarify its support for free speech. Or if you want to be a bit braver,

00:14:31.040 frankly, why not let them handcuff you and drive you off? They're not going to keep you in prison.

00:14:35.920 They'll be out in an hour. You know, they're not going to charge you. They'll release you in an

00:14:40.240 hour. If they do charge you, it's under the trespass act. You'll get a hundred dollar fine.

00:14:45.040 My point is, why are you acting like you are the outsider? You were the problematic one. You were the

00:14:49.400 unusual one instead of just saying, no. I mean, whoever would seek a ban to ban a Canadian MP from talking to

00:14:57.100 students, that's the unusual one. That's the weirdo. That's the one deviating from our national

00:15:01.980 beliefs. I'm sorry. I'm disappointed. At Rebel News, our main job is to report the news. And sometimes we

00:15:08.300 get illegally hassled by security, by protesters, by police even. And we fight back every time.

00:15:16.940 Even though we don't have a public budget, even though we're not MP after our name, we fight back.

00:15:21.580 David Menzies was arrested five times. We always got him out of jail. We're suing the police. He

00:15:28.380 never actually spent overnight in jail. We would always get him out even if it was midnight. We

00:15:33.100 fought back and we're still fighting back. It's one of the most expensive things we do because the

00:15:37.180 government has unlimited budgets. Well, that's the thing about being an MP. He has a big government

00:15:41.660 budget too, by the way. And if he's ever sued or prosecuted, he has an unlimited budget.

00:15:46.060 Now, I'm disappointed. I've reached out to Garnett to invite him to come on the show and talk with me

00:15:51.740 about this. I sort of doubt he'll come on, but I hope he will. I'm worried that the conservative

00:15:56.780 party of Canada is losing some of its verve. You know, my colleague, Sheila Gunn-Reed reached out

00:16:01.820 to Pierre Polyev's officer for a year-end interview like so many others are doing. And by the way,

00:16:06.620 Pierre Polyev has done a lot of podcasts and influencers. He's, you know, I saw him do an interview to

00:16:13.020 the trucker Pleb, who's a really good guy. And there's just so many. He did one with Juneau News.

00:16:19.980 He's doing a lot of them. But Rebel News just couldn't fit in their schedule, they said.

00:16:26.700 Okay, well, Christmas is over. How's your schedule looking now? Or is it that we're slipping back

00:16:32.940 into that era, that Erin O'Toole, Andrew Scheer era, when they would let the mean girls of the regime 0.99

00:16:39.740 media bully them? Are we back to, don't, the Erin O'Toole saying, don't talk to those

00:16:44.300 trucker people. Are we back to, don't talk to Rebel News. What's going on?

00:16:47.980 Why wasn't Sheila Gunn-Reed allowed to talk to Pierre Polyev? If the conservative member of

00:16:53.580 parliament from the conservative province of Alberta, in the conservative riding of Sherwood

00:16:57.340 Park, Fort Saskatchewan, you know, I, I, I know he's got it in him. I mean, look at this speech

00:17:02.700 he gave at a citizenship ceremony a couple years ago. We weren't settled through the leveling down

00:17:08.380 of a censorious state. We were built by fearless pioneers, like all of you, seeking opportunity

00:17:14.540 and freedom. That is the freedom to speak to advance your own deeply held convictions.

00:17:20.940 That's good stuff. You see, he's got it in him. He's, he's using the language of freedom

00:17:26.700 and anti-censorship, but he said it in a speech with no risk. It was just in front of a bunch of

00:17:32.540 new Canadians who were just listening to a politician before they got their citizenship.

00:17:38.140 I mean, there was a no risk situation. How about giving that same speech delivered

00:17:45.100 tomorrow at York University, instead of letting them run you off with just a mean tweet? Stay with us for more.

00:17:56.700 Well, you know, one of our favorite guests to go to is, well, frankly,

00:18:05.020 anyone associated with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, because it seems like all we hear

00:18:09.660 from are people who want to boost taxes. They don't quite say it that way. They say,

00:18:13.260 we need you to make an investment in, oh, I don't know, $50 billion for electric vehicle batteries.

00:18:18.700 But the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and I believe in them for one big reason,

00:18:23.580 is they don't take government money, so they are not compromised. The leader of this fighting force

00:18:29.420 is our friend Franco Terrizano, and he joins us now via Skype from Ottawa. Franco, great to see you

00:18:34.540 again. Happy New Year to you. 2026, before we get into the details of your latest memo,

00:18:41.020 are you optimistic or pessimistic for this year from a taxpayer's point of view?

00:18:46.060 Well, I always like to think of myself as a happy warrior, so I'm a little optimistic, but

00:18:50.780 I'm also not naive, right? And I think one of the big issues that we're facing here in Canada

00:18:55.820 is the crushing federal government debt. Right now, more than a trillion dollars, interest charges

00:19:01.580 on the debt alone, costing us more than a billion dollars every single week. So, you know, the next

00:19:06.140 time you're standing in there in that checkout line, well, every single dollar you're paying in federal

00:19:10.860 sales tax is now going to pay interest on the debt. I got a question for you. I mean, I hear this

00:19:17.020 from Mark Carney's apologists, and I even hear this from some provincial Ontario conservatives

00:19:23.580 who are sort of chummy with Carney, and they say to me, Ezra, Mark Carney is more conservative than

00:19:29.020 anyone since Stephen Harper. Well, okay, that means more conservative than Justin Trudeau.

00:19:32.860 They say he used to work for Stephen Harper, which I guess is technically true. He was the

00:19:37.260 Bank of Canada governor back then, I think. And they say that he's undoing some of the radical

00:19:42.860 nature of the Trudeau government. You know, Trudeau would never sign an MOU for pipelines,

00:19:48.860 even though I don't think the pipelines will likely happen. There's at least the fact that

00:19:52.460 Stephen Gilboa is having a hissy fit over it is maybe a good sign. And they point to the fact that

00:19:57.660 there is a small $190 tax cut from 15 to 14 percent for the lowest income earners. And they're trying

00:20:08.380 to say, no, no, no. This is Paul Martin all over again. This is the fiscally conservative liberals.

00:20:14.860 I don't buy it. What should I say the next time I encounter someone trying to say, no, no, no.

00:20:21.740 Mark Carney is really a fiscal conservative. What should I say to them?

00:20:26.220 What's fiscally conservative about borrowing $80 billion in one year?

00:20:30.940 Yeah. What's fiscally conservative about planning to borrow more money than Trudeau

00:20:36.620 even planned? I mean, look, like if you're going to tell me that somebody's fiscally

00:20:41.100 more conservative, right, more fiscally responsible than Trudeau, I'm going to be like,

00:20:45.820 well, you just put the bar on the floor. I mean, Trudeau is the prime minister who doubled the debt

00:20:51.180 in 10 years. And look, let's look moving forward. Okay. Carney plans to add what about $320

00:20:57.180 billion to the debt over the next handful of years? Well, over those same years,

00:21:01.900 Trudeau was planning to add about $150 billion to the debt. So Carney's planning to borrow twice

00:21:08.700 as much as what even Trudeau was planning over those same exact years. Come on.

00:21:13.100 Yeah. I want to let you know I wasn't buying it, but I just wanted to ask what your response would

00:21:17.740 be. And by the way, lowering that tax rate by 1% on the lowest income earners, I mean,

00:21:23.260 of course it's better than nothing, but it's offset by so many tax increases.

00:21:26.860 Why don't you go through some of them? I mean, an obvious one is the booze tax, isn't it? I mean,

00:21:30.780 I'm not a big boozer myself, but you know, it's, it's something that people use. Tell me how alcohol

00:21:38.300 taxes are looking to go this year. Well, I'm going to get into alcohol taxes in a second,

00:21:43.100 but first let's talk about another income tax hike. Okay. Because not only do you pay income taxes,

00:21:48.780 you also pay payroll taxes. Right. Right. That's the big answer.

00:21:52.060 Government. That's the big answer. Yeah. Yes. Right there. Right. So look,

00:21:56.540 yes. Is an income tax cut better than no income tax cut? Yes, it is better. Okay. But the income

00:22:02.780 tax cut from Carney is going to save the average taxpayer, like 190 bucks, right? That's, that's

00:22:08.380 according to the parliamentary budget officer, but in the same breath, Carney is also hiking payroll taxes

00:22:14.380 this year. Okay. So if you're making 85,000 bucks, let's say you're paying an extra $262

00:22:21.420 in payroll taxes this year. So look like, okay, you're saving a couple hundred bucks on income taxes,

00:22:27.820 but many Canadians are also paying a couple hundred bucks more in payroll taxes. And Ezra,

00:22:33.340 all of this debate over one tax cut versus one tax increase misses the entire point. Canadians are

00:22:41.180 already way overtaxed. Okay. Right. Like more than 40% of the average family's budget is going to

00:22:47.740 governments, all levels of government. So think about it this way. And it makes me want to puke

00:22:52.140 the average or for the average family, their biggest expense is not the house they live in.

00:22:58.380 It's not the food they eat or the clothes they buy. It's the taxes they pay. Yeah. You know what?

00:23:05.500 I'm so glad. I wish I had some of these talking points at my fingertips when I was having a debate with

00:23:09.580 my friend. You tell me a little bit about the carbon tax that's going up because of course,

00:23:14.780 Mark Carney in part won the election by canceling the consumer retail carbon tax that Justin Trudeau

00:23:22.620 was the centerpiece for him. But what about that industrial carbon tax, especially in Alberta?

00:23:27.580 Tell me a little bit about what Carney's doing there. Yeah. And first let's set the stage because,

00:23:32.460 hey, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. The reason that the liberal government canceled their own

00:23:36.940 favorite tax that consumer carbon tax was because of ordinary Canadians, right? It was ordinary

00:23:42.700 Canadians who told these politicians, if you want to keep your cushy political jobs, you better end

00:23:47.500 that consumer carbon tax. But then, you know, on the other side, Carney didn't end all carbon taxes.

00:23:53.420 He he's cranking up this hidden carbon tax on Canadian business. And look, that will make your life

00:23:59.180 more expensive, right? Because a carbon tax on refineries that makes your gasoline and diesel more

00:24:03.980 expensive. A carbon tax on utilities that makes your home heating more expensive and a carbon tax

00:24:09.260 on fertilizer plants drives up food for farmers and makes your groceries more expensive. But not

00:24:14.140 only that, folks, OK, an industrial carbon tax is an economic sucker punch to Canada's economy,

00:24:20.940 right? That's what it is like. It's going to push our entrepreneurs to cut production here and set up

00:24:26.300 shops south of the border. You asked me specifically about the agreement with Alberta. Well,

00:24:31.100 Ezra, after Carney signed that agreement, he held a press conference and he bragged to the media that

00:24:36.620 it meant a six times increase in the industrial carbon tax. You know what? I think you're right.

00:24:42.300 He was trying to shore up that Stephen Gilboa base. You know, I saw a picture the other day

00:24:48.060 on Twitter and I just checked it. I can't find it, but I remember seeing it that the price of gasoline

00:24:53.020 at a particular gas station in Alabama was $1.99. And Canadians might be saying, oh, well, that's,

00:25:00.780 wow, we pay $1.20 or whatever. But of course, in Alabama, they measure in gallons.

00:25:07.500 So that's like four liters, right? Is it 3.8 liters to the gallon? So that would be like,

00:25:14.140 I don't know, 50 or 60 cents a liter in Alabama. I don't think they have a lot of oil in Alabama.

00:25:20.460 We've got so much oil in Canada and our, our gas prices are, I think about triple what they are

00:25:27.500 in the U S you know, I want to read something from your latest column. You wrote a column in

00:25:31.180 the Toronto sun. Um, this was just before the new year called Canada needs serious tax cuts in 2026.

00:25:37.500 Let me read just one line that I'm reading your own column back to you to Franco. Um, you said

00:25:42.860 just 12% of Canadians believe Carney that businesses will pay most of the cost of his carbon tax.

00:25:48.780 Talking about the industrial carbon tax. According to a Leger poll, nearly 70% of Canadians say

00:25:55.500 businesses will pass most or some of the cost on consumer. Well, of course they are. What else

00:26:01.420 could they do? Of course, of course. Right. And look, uh, we kind of already talked about how

00:26:07.100 obviously it doesn't matter what type of lipstick you put on your carbon tax pig, 1.00

00:26:11.660 all carbon taxes make life more expensive, right? Obviously. And Canadians get that.

00:26:16.460 But one of the reasons we asked Leger to do that national poll is because we, we want to like

00:26:22.220 see if Canadians are buying Carney's carbon tax spin because early in 2025, right during the election

00:26:28.380 season that was going on, you had Carney essentially running around saying, Oh, don't worry folks.

00:26:33.420 It's just big businesses that'll pay this carbon tax. Well, clearly Canadians aren't buying his carbon

00:26:39.180 tax spin. Obviously a carbon tax makes life more expensive. It doesn't matter what a politician tries 0.82

00:26:44.380 to call it. But Ezra, here's another point. Okay. Regardless of who is in the white house in the United

00:26:50.460 States, whether it's a Democrat president, whether it's a Republican president, none of them are bringing

00:26:55.980 in national carbon taxes. Okay. So this is a fundamental hit to Canada's economic competitiveness.

00:27:03.660 You know, it's drives me crazy for a decade now when Justin Trudeau and his environment minister,

00:27:10.540 Catherine McKenna, and then Steven Gilboa and Mark Carney, who spent his whole career pushing what

00:27:15.180 he calls net zero. They all have this weird manufactured factoid that I've never seen anywhere

00:27:22.060 else in the world. They say, we need to have, you know, a carbon tax and net zero on our oil and gas

00:27:30.460 to sell our oil and gas as if, as if countries would not buy our oil without it. Listen, there are

00:27:36.940 countries out there buying oil from Venezuela, from Russia, from Iran, China, India, they're desperate.

00:27:44.060 They'll buy oil from anyone. They buy oil from Sudan, which is a genocidal, you know, they slaughtered 1.00

00:27:50.380 their own people in Darfur. There is no such thing as an oil buy. It's not like you're a fine wine.

00:27:56.460 Oh, I'm tasting this one. I'm tasting that wine. Oh, I'd never be associated with that one. People buy

00:28:00.940 oil because they need it. The idea that they wouldn't buy Canadian oil if we don't have all these bizarre

00:28:06.220 carbon taxes or, or carbon capture. I've never heard anyone else in the world say that, but

00:28:12.460 no one ever challenges Carney Trudeau when they say such kooky things.

00:28:17.020 Ezra. So when I, shameless plug, when I wrote my book, axing the tax, the rise and fall of Canada's

00:28:23.580 carbon tax, I had to do obviously a whole bunch of research. So maybe the numbers are slightly

00:28:27.580 different because this was last year. I looked at the World Bank. Ezra, 70% of countries don't have

00:28:34.620 a national carbon tax. And that was according to World Bank data, right? So the vast majority of

00:28:40.380 countries around the world do not have a national carbon tax, including some of the world's largest emitters.

00:28:46.380 Yeah. Right. So like, so, so like that was just bogus from the start, but here's another question

00:28:51.740 too, right? If your whole priority is how to reduce emissions, I have a simple question for you. How

00:28:57.980 much emissions do you reduce globally when a Canadian business moves down to the United States?

00:29:04.060 Yeah. Great point. Or when, you know, it's not like anyone is going to stop driving their car.

00:29:11.820 Um, either, either, you know, they're either going to buy their oil from Canada or the United States

00:29:18.380 or another ethical oil producer, or they'll buy it from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, you know, Nigeria,

00:29:24.140 whatever. My point is you could shut down every barrel of oil produced in Canada. Not a single car

00:29:29.900 would no longer drive. We would just be buying 5 million barrels more per day from OPEC conflict

00:29:36.220 countries. I mean, it's not like shutting down Canadian industry will stop anyone from driving.

00:29:40.460 They'll just buy their oil from the bad guys. Well, I tell you, we're in, you know, that old saying,

00:29:45.500 we're in the best of times, we're in the worst of times. I can't say we're in the best of times. I

00:29:48.860 just think we're in the worst of times from an economic point of view, but hopefully,

00:29:52.460 hopefully Canadians will wake up to that. Franco, I know you guys are going to fight like hell you

00:29:56.380 always do. Thanks for taking the time with us today as you always do. Hey, it's my pleasure.

00:30:00.620 And folks, keep up the fight. Don't get discouraged. Good. That's a good point to end on. I don't want

00:30:05.100 to be all mopey. It's just, we got our work cut out for us. Thanks, Franco. Thanks. There he is,

00:30:10.220 Franco Teresano, the boss of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Stay with us. Your letters to me next.

00:30:15.340 Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me. OneFoe90 says, 85% of Greenlandic people said no in February

00:30:34.300 2025, and 6% said yes to becoming American. The US had 17 bases in Greenland during the Cold War.

00:30:42.140 They shot all of them down. They shut all of them down, besides one Patufic space base with 150 1.00

00:30:47.820 servicemen. Greenland and Denmark has never had any problem with the US opening them again. Denmark

00:30:54.140 can't sell Greenland. It is in the Danish constitution, as is Greenland's right to choose independence if

00:30:58.860 they say so. Look, I'm not saying that this isn't somewhat complicated, but my point yesterday was to

00:31:04.780 show the countries buy and sell land all the time, from Alaska to Louisiana to buying those Caribbean

00:31:16.540 islands from Denmark itself. So this is not weird. Truman offered 400 million bucks, if I recall,

00:31:22.860 in gold. So it's not weird. I don't think Denmark is treating Greenland as a priority because it's not

00:31:30.460 a priority. It's not an economic priority, and Greenland has a baby-sized budget. You heard

00:31:37.180 Donald Trump the other day saying he wants to expand the US defense budget from 1 trillion

00:31:42.700 to 1.5 trillion. Just a reminder that the Danish defense budget is 10 billion, so this would be

00:31:51.660 150 times bigger than the Danish budget. Of course they don't have the means to defend

00:31:57.420 properly. Why not let the Yanks in? I'm not saying... I'm not the decider here, but Denmark is not in a 1.00

00:32:04.300 position to properly defend the Arctic. It's just not. I'm not being mean about it. Canada isn't either,

00:32:10.380 by the way. Sandy Stanley says, Trump threatens to invade Canada. Canadians disarm themselves, elbows up

00:32:17.980 logic. Yeah, you know what? I see a lot of people saying, let's not buy the F-35. Let's buy that Saab

00:32:24.860 Gripen fighter just to show the Americans. Well, the first thing I would say to that is Canada's

00:32:30.620 already spent billions of dollars on the F-35, and we're scheduled to take delivery of the first

00:32:36.300 ones this year, actually. The bulk of them won't actually arrive till 2028, which is Trump's final

00:32:42.300 year as president. So making a decision about fighter jets, which are going to last us for decades,

00:32:46.860 to, you know, poke at Trump in his final year of his presidency seems pretty short-sighted to mean.

00:32:54.460 I was in Israel a couple of years ago and I saw the F-35 in action. I saw the F-15 first, 0.67

00:32:59.900 which is an amazing aircraft. And then I saw the F-35 behind it. And it is the most incredible

00:33:07.260 aircraft in the world, that and the F-22. And to say, no, no, we're going to buy a 30-year-old

00:33:13.420 Saab jet that no serious front-line country is buying just to spite Trump is so dumb.

00:33:24.140 And by the way, you don't think America's going to

00:33:27.420 have a tit for tat if we break our deal there. It's just so foolish.

00:33:32.060 On the interview with Melanie Bennett of Juneau News, I like Melanie,

00:33:35.500 Toronto Homestead says about that curriculum. Remember the Islamophobia curriculum?

00:33:43.500 None of this is appropriate to be in the school system. Islam is not an ethnicity. It is a belief

00:33:48.540 system that gets forced onto people. The Iranian people are currently in day 12 of a country ride 1.00

00:33:53.100 revolution, trying to free themselves of an Islamic regime that was forced upon them 47 years ago.

00:33:59.340 Yeah. It really is a terrible convergence of wokeism and Islamic extremism. And the crazy thing is, 1.00

00:34:09.020 I mean, I've actually been to a couple of Muslim countries. I went to Iraq, the northern part,

00:34:14.220 Kurdistan. I went to United Arab Emirates. And they don't have the craziness over there. They just don't. 0.90

00:34:21.260 They don't have people blocking streets to pray like they do in Toronto and Montreal. They don't

00:34:28.780 have the Muslim Brotherhood extremists. The grown-ups of the Muslim world stop all that stuff. It's the 0.97

00:34:36.300 West that lets that insanity go. Anyways, I'm going to keep my eyes peeled on the Iran uprising. I'm so 0.99

00:34:42.780 hopeful that something comes from it. Boy, to free the Persian people would be amazing. It would change 1.00

00:34:49.180 the world because that's been such a source of terrorism, of radicalism for Islam. And of course, 1.00

00:34:54.940 it's a regional destabilizer. I am hoping for Iran, for Iran's sake, will be free. But I'm also hoping 0.91

00:35:01.420 for it for our sake and America's sake and Europe's sake. We'll see how that goes. That's our show for

00:35:07.340 today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, see you at home. Good

00:35:11.740 night, and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - January 09, 2026

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Conservative MPs shouldn't be bullied into silence by leftists

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