Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Donald Trump has stress tested Canada — and we failed

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. It looks like the tariff threat is gone, well, at least for the next 30 days,

00:00:04.340 but what has it exposed about Canada's economy and our politics? Quite a lot, I think. I want

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00:01:35.660 Tonight, Donald Trump has stress-tested Canada, and I think we failed. It's February 5th,

00:01:42.180 and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:46.980 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:58.900 Trump is pretty busy. I mean, he's always busy. His first hundred hours as president were as busy as 0.93

00:02:05.940 the first hundred days of most presidents. Did you see the other day Benjamin Netanyahu,

00:02:10.740 the Prime Minister of Israel, became the first foreign leader to visit Trump at the White House

00:02:16.020 since his inauguration? Some others had visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago before inauguration.

00:02:22.500 Trump has the minor task of remaking the entire Middle East and solving centuries of conflict.

00:02:29.300 Did you see his announcement? The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, 1.00

00:02:35.380 too. We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other

00:02:41.940 weapons on the site. Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings. Level it out. Create an

00:02:49.220 economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the

00:02:56.260 area. Do a real job. Do something different. Just can't go back. If you go back, it's going to end up

00:03:02.420 the same way it has for a hundred years. I'm not sure if that's going to work. Trump does know real

00:03:07.300 estate better than most people. But listen, don't count him out. It's interesting to me that the first

00:03:13.620 visitor is Netanyahu. It's not the president of Mexico. It's not the prime minister of Canada,

00:03:19.060 Trump's neighbors. And I understand that the first country to which Trump will go, and this

00:03:23.460 hasn't been confirmed yet, will be Saudi Arabia. Again, a very unusual choice, but he's trying to put

00:03:28.900 Middle East peace at the center of his presidency. Very interesting. Imagine all the negotiating going

00:03:35.860 on, all the different players, the countries, the religious denominations, the military, the diplomatic.

00:03:41.940 I mean, unfathomable. But he did manage to get a peace deal in the first term.

00:03:47.940 So there's just that. His DOGE project, you know what that stands for, Department of Government

00:03:54.100 Deficiency. That's Elon Musk and his team of young computer experts. It's just absolutely everything

00:04:01.220 you could have ever hoped for or feared. It's finding the craziest grants for the nuttiest things,

00:04:06.900 shockingly huge grants, utterly inappropriate grants. The entire USAID, that's basically their

00:04:14.500 foreign aid budget. So corrupt, so political, so partisan, so much of it recycled into left-wing

00:04:21.540 American politics. It's shocking. No one ever really looked into it before. Other things that have been

00:04:29.300 revealed, almost 40 percent of all FBI officers were tasked with getting Trump and the January 6th

00:04:38.740 protesters. Almost half of all federal lawmen in America. That is stunning. Trump has made offers

00:04:48.420 to many of these bureaucrats just to take a payment to go. It's sort of like when Elon Musk took over

00:04:53.780 Twitter and said goodbye to 80 percent of the staff, the product works better than ever with 80 percent

00:04:59.620 fewer people. He's offered a buyout to literally everyone at the CIA. That's incredible. He's also

00:05:06.100 said to regular government workers, if you don't show up at the office anymore, you will be let go.

00:05:12.260 Any of those things would be full-time jobs. Then there's the mass deportations that are going on.

00:05:18.420 Just incredible. Rounding up people, sending them back home, typically in military planes.

00:05:24.580 Here's the BBC reporting on a jet taking Indian nationals back to India. It's on a U.S. military

00:05:31.700 jet. Take a look at this. A U.S. military plane carrying at least 100 Indian nationals has landed

00:05:38.660 here in Amritsar in the state of Punjab. And if you look just over this way, you can see a gaggle of

00:05:43.700 media and behind the barricades is actually where these people are going to be processed. Now this

00:05:49.540 is significant for two reasons. One, this is the first plane load of deportees that has come to

00:05:56.420 India from the United States under this new Trump administration. And second, this is the first time

00:06:02.020 that we know that really a military plane has been used to bring back people from the United States.

00:06:08.100 That's a departure from previous administrations that used commercial flights. The issue of illegal

00:06:14.580 immigration by Indians going to the United States is possibly a thorny issue that could come up between

00:06:20.980 President Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is something that the Trump administration has

00:06:26.100 said it's going to tackle and it is going to try and get promises from countries like India to say

00:06:32.340 that they're going to take their citizens back. I wonder how many of those sneaked in from the Canadian 1.00

00:06:37.380 border. Very interesting. Then there's China. Then there's the wildfires in Los Angeles.

00:06:43.460 Then there's the fact that he's still trying to get his appointees through the Senate confirmation

00:06:48.020 process including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Then there's Panama where Secretary of State Mark Rubio is going to

00:06:54.340 renegotiate with enormous success that kicked China out. Again, that gives us a hint about how Donald Trump

00:07:00.980 thinks and talks. He says, we're taking the Panama Canal back. And in the end, what does he get?

00:07:06.740 Well, a cut rate for U.S. ships and China kicked out. Maybe that's what he was after in the first 0.60

00:07:13.140 place before talking about invading. Oh, and he's also looking at Greenland. Secretary of State Rubio

00:07:20.340 was in El Salvador meeting with the interesting president there. So yeah, Donald Trump is a

00:07:26.820 teeny tiny bit busy, basically trying to cram in as much as humanly possible to his final term as

00:07:34.420 president. Basically, I think he spent his four years in exile thinking of everything he would do

00:07:39.940 differently. And now he's getting the chance to do that. It's not surprising then when Trudeau admitted

00:07:46.900 the other day, remember this, that he hadn't had a phone call from Trump in weeks. Remember this?

00:07:52.260 What does it tell you about your relationship with President Trump that you've been trying to get

00:07:56.020 a hold of him and he hasn't been speaking with you? I think, um, this is a time where we've all

00:08:04.500 remarked on just how active President Trump has been in engaging with a wide range of topics

00:08:12.100 in his first weeks in office. Honestly, he shouldn't even feel bad about that. Canada is not top of mind

00:08:20.340 in America. I think Trudeau should be glad of that because if Trump was really paying attention to

00:08:26.340 Canada, I think he would be much more appalled. Um, I think it's good. And I think that Canadians, 1.00

00:08:33.300 we go into a flutter when any American notices us. There's other big things going on in the world.

00:08:39.300 We haven't even seen the Russia-Ukraine negotiations yet. I think though, that Trudeau has shrunk us as

00:08:46.340 a country. I think that we've always been a middle power. I mean, we just don't have the population or

00:08:52.340 the military or the wealth to be as powerful as, of course, China, Russia, uh, the United States,

00:08:59.700 or even Germany, or even the United Kingdom. But we were there. We counted. I don't think we really

00:09:06.500 do so much anymore. Certainly not militarily, certainly not diplomatically. You know, economically,

00:09:11.300 we're interesting, but we're shrinking. But I think that our national brain trust, the official

00:09:17.220 people, the, you know, political, media, industrial conflicts, I think they still deeply believe that

00:09:23.460 we are morally superior. You know, that chain of bookstores called Chapters Indigo, you know their

00:09:29.700 motto, right? The world needs more Canada. That's sort of a smug way of saying we're better than

00:09:36.820 everybody. It sort of is, isn't it? Um, and it's a sister to the comment, who are Canadians?

00:09:44.740 We're not Americans. Said with a bit of a sneer. Who are you? We're not American. That's what, uh,

00:09:51.220 Justin Trudeau was asked on CNN just the other day. That was the answer he gave. Remember this?

00:09:55.700 Canadians are incredibly proud of being Canadian. Uh, one of the ways we define ourselves most easily

00:10:01.220 is, well, we're not American. Um, there is, uh, such a, a depth of pride that that's

00:10:06.820 not actually an issue. That's actually an insult when an American says, well,

00:10:11.780 tell me a little bit about yourself. Huh. Well, we're not like you. And you say it with pride.

00:10:17.300 It's not like, wow, we're not like you. It's not, you're not in wonder and admiration. It's a disdain.

00:10:24.580 It's a sneer. Huh. Who are we? We're not American. That, that's not a, that's not an identity.

00:10:32.980 You know, at least it's not like it was in the eighties and nineties when people said,

00:10:35.860 what's a Canadian? Oh, we have healthcare. Unlike America was the coda to that.

00:10:42.820 Anyways, what has Trump revealed with his two months of challenging us and taunting us about

00:10:49.620 tariffs. I think it's revealed, uh, a lot of things. The first thing is

00:10:53.940 there really is no team Canada. There's no Canadian champion other than as a slogan.

00:10:58.980 I mean, ask Francois Legault just a week ago, everyone was saying, come on, Canada

00:11:03.940 join together one for all and all for one. Here's Francois Legault today or yesterday when he was asked

00:11:09.620 about if he would allow pipelines to pass through the holy, holy soil of Quebec. It's not his choice,

00:11:15.780 by the way, pipeline, international pipelines of that sort are a federal jurisdiction, but here's

00:11:20.660 what he said. If, uh, during your discussions today, uh, the issues of pipelines came up and

00:11:25.460 whether Quebec would now support either an energy East or some other kind of pipeline that would take

00:11:30.260 Alberta oil, um, uh, out to markets other than the U S. Yeah. Um, of course, right now, uh, there's no

00:11:41.700 social acceptability for this kind of project, uh, uh, right now in Quebec. But, uh, of course, uh,

00:11:52.660 situation, the economy, uh, uh, and what Mr. Trump is doing may change the situation in the future.

00:12:02.340 So if there's a social acceptability, we will be open to these kind of projects. But right now,

00:12:11.860 there's no social acceptability. Uh, so, uh, no. Yeah. So much for team Canada. It's sort of fake.

00:12:18.900 And you, you don't have a prime minister willing to assert that pipelines have to go through so much

00:12:23.460 for the emergency. I think we learned that our economy is pretty brittle. You know, these days,

00:12:29.060 it takes almost a dollar 50 Canadian to buy a U S dollar. Good luck with your vacation to the States.

00:12:34.660 Good luck buying anything imported from the States. That's why we feel poor, isn't it?

00:12:39.700 We also learned a little bit more about fentanyl and about drug gang run camps. You might remember

00:12:47.380 earlier this year, I was in San Francisco with Avi Amini for his cross country caravan tour.

00:12:53.380 We started in San Francisco because that's where Avi landed from Australia. We went to what's called

00:12:57.700 the Tenderloin district and holy moly, are they ever on drugs. There's an extremely sad place.

00:13:03.380 Remember, I talked to that one kid on drugs and he said he wished someone would just take him and

00:13:07.700 grab him away. Heartbreaking. Remember that clip? What substances are you on? Are you trying to get

00:13:11.940 off them? Yeah. That's the boxing floor that I'll try to weed myself off of it with.

00:13:18.340 How long you been on fentanyl? About two and a half, three years. You're not going to stop until you're

00:13:22.740 ready yourself. What if someone came in and took you off the street here and put you somewhere

00:13:28.100 even if you didn't want to go there until you were clean? Would that work or is that just not going

00:13:33.380 to work? The whole time I was in San Francisco in what was universally described as the worst part

00:13:40.100 in the city. Oh, and it was pretty bad. The whole time I was there, all I could think about was,

00:13:46.260 yeah, this is bad, but have you ever seen Hastings Street in Vancouver? Have you ever seen

00:13:51.460 have you have you ever seen what they call the downtown east side? It makes San Francisco look

00:13:58.100 like a look like a well-kept backyard in Arizona or something.

00:14:02.820 We have a fentanyl disaster in Canada. Trump is talking about it. Trump, you might even say,

00:14:10.820 is obsessing about it. Trump never stops talking about it. In Canada, I guess we talk about it too,

00:14:17.380 but in the opposite way, Trump demanded that Canada appoint a drug czar. They love that phrase 0.58

00:14:23.860 in the United States, a border czar, a drug czar. Basically, it means someone with a special mission

00:14:29.700 just to do one narrow thing, not a cabinet position to do many things. I think we have

00:14:34.260 a bunch of drug czars in Canada, by the way. Here's a headline, Bonnie Henry, the Chief Public

00:14:39.220 Health Officer of British Columbia, promoting fentanyl. Government subsidized, government prescribed.

00:14:47.460 So yeah, we got a drug czar. It's just not exactly what Donald Trump would think a drug czar should

00:14:53.060 be doing. So many things, though, came to mind. It's true that much more fentanyl is smuggled into

00:14:59.860 the States from Mexico than from Canada. And it's certainly true that many more illegal aliens come

00:15:04.900 in from Mexico than in Canada. I mean, just by the million. And I think that's because Mexico and Latin 0.99

00:15:11.460 America are on that side. But the number of terrorists, suspected terrorists, nabbed at the

00:15:17.860 border trying to get from Canada into the U.S. is actually higher, and it's been growing year over

00:15:23.140 year. And here's what I'm getting into in my monologue here. Trump talked about things and

00:15:30.260 made us think about things that we've either taken for granted or accepted. I mean, why is it that

00:15:37.700 terrorists are never deported from Canada? When was the last time a terrorist was deported from

00:15:43.380 Canada? When was the last time a terrorist was even prosecuted for terrorism? And we've got plenty.

00:15:50.820 I think we've realized that our open borders are nuts for us and for the Americans. Canada is taking

00:15:57.940 in migrants from Gaza right now. That's something that U.S. lawmakers like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio both

00:16:04.260 commented on. They're afraid of that. If you don't have a strong border on the north and your neighbors

00:16:09.540 to the north bring in people from Gaza, you've got a problem. One of the things Trump talks about,

00:16:16.500 and frankly it's been talked about by a generation of American lawmakers, including, by the way,

00:16:21.620 Democrats like Barack Obama, is that Canada has defunded our military. We're one of the lowest

00:16:27.940 paying NATO countries in the whole alliance. It's gotten so bad we can't even participate in exercises

00:16:33.860 overseas. And I don't know if you remember, we used to have something in Alberta in Cold Lake,

00:16:37.700 the Air Force Base there, called Operation Maple Flag, which was all the NATO countries would come

00:16:42.820 to us and they'd sort of do Top Gun type exercises. We have not had that for years because we don't have

00:16:49.540 the equipment, we don't have the hardware, we don't have the up-to-date avionics and computers.

00:16:55.060 We cannot fly next to our allies because we're flying 1980s-era F-18s. We have not taken delivery

00:17:04.420 of the F-35s. In fact, during this whole tariff kerfuffle, there was talk of cancelling it and

00:17:11.460 buying a Swedish jet. Yes, our important allies, the Swedes. I think that Trump and his talk about

00:17:19.140 Canada shirking our fair share, it rings true when you talk about the military. And again,

00:17:24.260 everything I've listed so far, it's something we should be doing for ourselves out of self-respect.

00:17:30.980 Out of self-respect, we should deport terrorists. Out of self-respect, we should have an army and not rely

00:17:36.660 on our American friends to defend us. We'll never be bigger and powerful, more powerful than them,

00:17:41.060 but surely we can be self-respecting. I mentioned earlier the DOGE revelations that stands for

00:17:48.100 Department of Government Efficiency. And what's so exciting is how quickly Trump is using executive

00:17:53.620 orders just to cut things off. Anything that doesn't need a vote in Congress, he's just

00:17:59.380 doing like that. Our Canadian Prime Minister has that power as well. Wouldn't it be amazing if we

00:18:05.620 actually started to dig into our own country's waste? I'm getting very jealous of the Americans, 1.00

00:18:10.900 aren't you? Another thing that Trump is worried about, and it came out yesterday when Trump was meeting

00:18:17.380 with Netanyahu, is anti-Semitism. It's deeply pervasive in Canada, and it's been normalized.

00:18:25.780 Compare, for example, Trump's inaugural speech. He literally brought with him either families of

00:18:32.500 those Israeli hostages or some of the hostages that were released, and they stood behind him for

00:18:38.260 a large portion of his speech. He had a meeting with Netanyahu, a leader that Justin Trudeau and

00:18:45.940 Melanie Jolie say would be arrested on site if he landed in Canada because of the false arrest warrant

00:18:52.820 from the International Court of Justice, which is a made-up thing. So while Canada would arrest Bibi,

00:19:00.660 Trump met with Bibi as his first world leader. There's so many other things, smaller things too,

00:19:07.140 the attacks on historical symbols, the tearing down of statues. Trump has protected those with executive

00:19:13.300 orders. Canada, we still have our John A. McDonald's in coffin boxes on our legislatures.

00:19:20.260 I think the most exciting thing Trump did was freeze the vast majority of American foreign aid

00:19:25.700 recipients versus, you know, and he has repeatedly said that money should be spent on Americans,

00:19:32.820 including those who were suffering from hurricanes or other natural disasters. We keep shoveling foreign 1.00

00:19:39.060 aid as fast as we can. Look, we love Canada, obviously. Canada's our home. We're born here.

00:19:45.940 We're not just temporary hotel dwellers here. This is our country. We have a connection to the land and

00:19:51.540 the people and the history and the culture. Trudeau may say we're post-national, but we don't believe it.

00:19:56.500 We love Canada. And if it's a battle over tariffs between Canada and the United States,

00:20:01.220 obviously the first thing is to stop the war. We're on Canada's side, but it was such an unnecessary

00:20:06.980 war. And I think Trump called it off before it could even bite. But I think what we've learned

00:20:11.780 doing as Trump shook our country is that maybe we should be, I don't know, 10% less smug.

00:20:21.140 And when Trump says we're taking advantage of America, I mean, we laugh, we always do, but

00:20:25.860 wouldn't a true Canadian first strategy, for example, allow U.S. banks to come into our country

00:20:33.860 and offer competition to our banking industry and allow U.S. cell phone companies in and allow

00:20:40.340 U.S. dairy companies in and poultry companies? I mean, wouldn't we have the self-respect

00:20:47.140 to re-engage and revive our military as well? All those things I just listed are real irritants to

00:20:53.460 Americans, American industry and American politicians. And we laugh it off when Trump

00:20:57.620 says we're taking advantage of them. Does he have a point on dairy, on banking, on cell phones?

00:21:04.660 Does he have a point? Let me put it another way. Would you like there to be more competition

00:21:09.540 for cell phones and for banks? I know I would. Oh, well, as Francois Legault showed,

00:21:15.620 we're back to the bad old days, that whole Team Canada moment. It's gone like that. But you know,

00:21:20.580 the two liberal contenders, I say two, there are more, but there's only two that count,

00:21:25.140 Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney, they want to fight Donald Trump even harder than Trudeau did.

00:21:33.060 I don't think that's going to vote well. Stay with us. More ahead.

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00:22:42.340 Well, Trump warned and warned that there would be tariffs. He warned us in November saying January 20th

00:22:49.100 was judgment day. Then he kicked the can down the road to February 1st, then to February 3rd.

00:22:54.020 And indeed, he did announce tariffs, but they were gone within, I think it was 48 hours. But

00:23:00.180 an enormous stress to the political class in Canada, and obviously worries to the actual business people

00:23:08.420 of this country who would be hit with such a tariff. A tariff, of course, is a tax on Canadian products

00:23:14.740 and services going into the United States. The tax would be paid on the U.S. side, so it would

00:23:20.420 make money for the U.S. government at the expense of U.S. consumers. That would naturally push consumers

00:23:27.540 towards made-in-America products or compel Canadian firms to relocate to the U.S. Of course, that doesn't

00:23:35.100 work as well when, say, it's oil from Canada's oil sands, which can't really be replaced. America

00:23:41.140 buys 4 million barrels a day from Canada. Not easy to source that quickly, and the oil sands themselves

00:23:47.340 can't be moved. But if we have a reprieve, even if it's just 30 days, what has this whole

00:23:53.100 imbroglio exposed? What has it taught us? What are the weaknesses we might consider fixing in case the

00:24:01.260 tariffs do come again? Joining us now to talk about it is Jonathan Wellham, the president and CEO

00:24:07.980 of Rocklink. You might know Rocklink because they are a sponsor of our show, and it's a pleasure to

00:24:16.940 talk with the boss of Rocklink about his area of expertise. Jonathan, it's great to have you on the

00:24:22.620 program. I talk about you all the time, but this is the first time we're actually connecting.

00:24:26.460 Thank you very much, Ezra. It's a pleasure to also speak with you and be on Rebel News. I

00:24:31.340 really appreciate the Rebel News station and broadcast, and the information that you're

00:24:36.060 communicating is absolutely essential for Canada given the mainstream media is captured by

00:24:42.140 our government and the left. Well, I think you're right on that, and it's a pleasure to have

00:24:47.100 a company that's aligned with our values. Thank you for that. Let's talk about the news. I think it was

00:24:53.500 a panic moment for a lot of companies. I had friends who said they were considering relocating their whole

00:24:59.420 business to the states because they couldn't survive with a 20%, 25% tack-on of a tax.

00:25:06.300 That may yet happen. What would your advice be for Canadian businesses, especially small businesses,

00:25:13.100 that are worried about things? How do you stress test or stress-proof a company, or are we going to be

00:25:19.740 perpetually at the mercy of a tariff-happy president? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of issues there. I think if

00:25:29.100 I were to step back for a moment, I mean, I think Donald Trump made it clear right from the outset,

00:25:34.140 his key concern was the influence of China in Canada, and also the issue of drugs, fentanyl,

00:25:41.420 which has been pouring into our country for a long time, at least the precursors and then the assembly

00:25:46.060 in our country has been pouring into our country from, you know, through the West Coast

00:25:50.300 primary through Vancouver. And then also the last number of years, as you know, I mean,

00:25:54.380 the ratcheting up of our immigration to just unbelievable numbers that are completely unsustainable 0.96

00:26:00.060 and the lack of scrutiny on who's coming into our country. And then, of course, those folks getting

00:26:04.620 into the US. And so I think Trump's key issue is really drugs and the border. And so that, I think,

00:26:11.820 is what we should be really focusing on in terms of the risk issues. And I think, finally, Trudeau

00:26:18.700 came through at the last moment to address some of those issues, at least to enough to pacify

00:26:25.420 Donald Trump and solve that issue for the time being anyway. But in terms of tariffs,

00:26:30.060 you know, they'd be devastating. The reality is, it's like a 10 to 1 ratio. In other words,

00:26:34.940 for every $10 we send down, they send back, you know, back to us. And we cannot compete with the

00:26:40.140 United States on a tariff war. It would be a crazy thing to do. That doesn't mean we wouldn't,

00:26:45.260 we couldn't put some tariffs on. It doesn't mean that we couldn't, you know, push back a little

00:26:49.820 bit. We would not want to push back full force or we, I think, would be in serious trouble.

00:26:55.420 Good news is it has exposed incredible weaknesses in Canada, which we've known about. I'm sure,

00:27:01.580 Ezra, you know about the conservatives generally have spoken about this. And that is that we've

00:27:06.700 got a lot of assets that are landlocked in the center of our country. All these amazing resources,

00:27:12.380 oil, potash, uranium, there's a whole host of different ones, especially oil and gas in particular.

00:27:18.460 And we cannot get them to our coasts. And so this has raised a very important discussion. And I think

00:27:23.980 we're going to be able to maybe find to get something done where we actually build the pipelines to

00:27:28.860 the west coast, pipelines to the east coast, and we stop importing oil to this country over a million

00:27:34.300 barrels a day into our east coast. And we start to utilize our resources and we can sell to other

00:27:40.780 countries than just the United States. As much as we like the United States, it is craziness and

00:27:47.100 really incompetence to be dependent on one country. They know that. And sort of the reality is that

00:27:53.580 Donald Trump, as you know, is actually profiting off us when it comes to energy. We are subsidizing

00:27:59.500 the United States because when we send our oil in from the oil sands into the US, it's largely trading

00:28:07.660 at anywhere from a 15 to, sometimes it's been 20, $25 discount. And so we are very foolish. We've been 0.98

00:28:15.420 incredibly incompetent. Trudeau has not allowed the money to flow into our resource sector to develop our

00:28:21.340 assets. And that has to change along with some of the interprovincial restrictions, which I think

00:28:26.860 people are also realizing that we don't even get along within our own country. This is insane.

00:28:32.060 So these are good things, Ezra, I think that have come up through the discussion. But I think the key

00:28:37.340 one is fix our borders and we've got to deal with these drugs that are coming in the Chinese influence 1.00

00:28:41.980 in our country. Yeah. Stephen Harper was asked about this and he said, were he prime minister now,

00:28:47.660 this wouldn't have happened as in things wouldn't have gotten so bad that the president would be

00:28:52.940 just issuing public ultimatums on social media. And I believe him. I mean, Stephen Harper and Barack

00:29:00.060 Obama were extremely different people. And I think they probably disliked each other in a personal way,

00:29:05.980 but they never breathed the word of that. They were very professional. They had a working and respectful

00:29:11.580 relationship. In fact, I remember that the Keystone XL pipeline was a real contentious issue.

00:29:16.940 Barack Obama didn't actually kill it until after Stephen Harper was no longer prime minister. He

00:29:22.940 had enough respect for the relationship he had with Harper that he wouldn't do that thing to Canada.

00:29:29.100 Trump, I think, has no respect for Justin Trudeau. And that's spilled over to our country. I think

00:29:36.540 Harper's right. I don't think, I mean, it was astonishing the other day to learn how long

00:29:42.380 Trudeau went without even a basic phone call with Trump. And I'm not saying to suck up, but just to 0.80

00:29:47.340 have a professional, working, regular, routine relationship with the U.S. president. I think 0.91

00:29:53.980 Trudeau really gave into his, you know, partisan-ness and said, well, I'm part of the anti-Trump world.

00:30:02.700 And he would let things slip publicly. And I know they got back to Trump. Trump,

00:30:07.580 you know, has some vanity like all of us, maybe even a little bit more. I think Harper's right.

00:30:11.900 I think, and maybe that's the answer to my first question. There's no real way to win

00:30:17.500 in a tariff war with America. You can develop other markets. You can develop internal markets.

00:30:22.700 But the real secret is, don't get into a fight with America in the first place. And Harper managed

00:30:28.300 that. Trudeau didn't. No, I think your points are, I think you're dead on. I mean, the reality is,

00:30:34.780 Ezra, we're seeing the difference between, you know, real leaders and individuals who are pretending to be

00:30:40.140 leaders. The Liberal Party, again, not to just scapegoat everything on the Liberal Party.

00:30:45.020 We have in Justin Trudeau, someone who never ran anything before. He's never signed the,

00:30:49.740 you know, the front of a check in his life. He's never had to manage a business or enterprise.

00:30:54.700 And all of a sudden he becomes prime minister of the country. He's also filled his cabinet full of

00:30:59.420 incredibly incompetent people who have no track record in the areas in which they're governing.

00:31:04.460 And this is a serious issue. You contrast that with Donald Trump,

00:31:08.300 who's filling his cabinet with some of the premier individuals, people who have

00:31:13.180 10, 15, 20, 30 years of success after success after success.

00:31:18.220 And that kind of contrast, we're seeing the difference between, you know, real leadership

00:31:23.420 and then sort of a DEI where you hire people based upon all of the wrong attributes and not on merit.

00:31:29.660 And certainly Donald Trump knows that Trudeau is weak, and he's definitely taking advantage of

00:31:35.020 that and having a little bit of fun with it. There's no question about that.

00:31:37.500 Yeah. You know, I think personal relationships really do matter. I mean,

00:31:41.500 the US-Canada relationship is so large in so many facets that it's not just the president and

00:31:46.860 the prime minister, but it makes a difference. I've been observing Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta,

00:31:51.260 and her shuttle diplomacy back and forth with big shots and little shots. Marco Rubio,

00:31:57.500 even a few moments with Trump himself. And I think if all other things are equal,

00:32:03.980 that personal relationship is sort of the tiebreaker. And Smith is not given into threats.

00:32:09.980 She, I think she's generally probably is on the net positive towards Trump. Like,

00:32:15.340 she's not an NDP or who would hate him in her bones. I think just, I mean, we used to have a rapport,

00:32:22.860 Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan. They sort of hit it off. I remember when they had their Shamrock

00:32:27.500 Summit and they were singing that Irish song, When Irish Eyes Are Smiling. And it is a bit of a bond.

00:32:34.540 And maybe it makes the bigger partner in the relationship more gentle and more compromising

00:32:44.380 when he's dealing with a country whose leader is a friend. I just don't think Justin Trudeau has spent

00:32:53.340 a minute trying to be friends with Trump, because that's not his social circle. And I'm not saying

00:32:59.180 that we should put our Canadian interests second. But part of succeeding with a giant is to be

00:33:06.220 diplomatic. I don't think, for all his bluster about being an internationalist, I don't think Trudeau

00:33:11.180 knows how to actually be a diplomat or how to do a negotiation. I think he's made things worse

00:33:15.660 with every country in the world, by the way. Well, there's no, Ezra, there's no question. I mean,

00:33:20.380 if you see him on the international stage, it is not a pretty picture. He does not have the respect

00:33:25.100 of the other world leaders. I don't think there's any of them that really respect him. Whereas Donald

00:33:29.260 Trump, I think he has a certain degree of respect from him, if not just fear. And they're not sure

00:33:35.260 exactly what he's going to do. But he's still a leader and he's showing leadership and he's trying to

00:33:40.060 protect his own country. Trudeau is outselling our country down the river in many of the policies

00:33:44.700 that he's involved in. And so I think he lacks a complete credibility when it comes to the

00:33:50.460 international market. And if you see him, you see the different shots of him at the G7 meetings and

00:33:55.820 so forth. I mean, he doesn't even know how to get around those meetings. No one really wants to talk

00:33:59.900 to him. It's terrible from Canada's perspective. We're a great country and we've got tremendous assets,

00:34:07.020 tremendous gifts in people. And we need a leader to represent us. And you're exactly right. I think

00:34:12.540 we do just fine with the United States. We're a great partner. We're filled with people who are

00:34:17.180 honest, want to sell good products. God's endowed us with tremendous resources that the world needs.

00:34:24.620 And so let's get on with it. Let's put a person in Ottawa who respects the country, wants to develop

00:34:30.380 these resources and the capital will come back. I'm positive in terms of Canada, if we can get

00:34:35.820 a change in leadership. We have a great country with a lot of great people. And I think Danielle

00:34:40.860 Smith has really shown the way forward in terms of how to do it. She's been, she's been exceptional.

00:34:45.340 Yeah, I think she's really helped the whole, she's been advocating for Alberta, but I listened to her.

00:34:51.100 She's not just for Alberta. She's, she has not thrown any other province under the bus,

00:34:55.580 so to speak. I think she's done a great job. Well, listen, it's nice to catch up with you,

00:34:59.260 Jonathan. And I've, I've mentioned Rocklink many times on the show because you're a sponsor.

00:35:03.820 Why don't you give us just two minutes? What is Rocklink? What do you guys do? And we're grateful

00:35:11.100 that you sponsor us. And I know what your, your sponsorship ads say, but give us, I guess in your

00:35:15.820 own words, give us a minute or two about what you guys do. Sure. Yeah. We're investment management

00:35:21.580 company. So what does that mean? We manage financial assets. We are registered across the country.

00:35:25.820 So we operate in all the provinces across Canada and we're really focused on what would be typically

00:35:32.140 sold value investing. In other words, we really look at our companies, study them well, analyze them,

00:35:38.380 have a handful of great businesses that we can invest in. And, and so, and when we're not driven by,

00:35:44.300 you know, ESG and DEI and all of the woke sort of agenda, which you talk about in, when you mentioned

00:35:51.100 us on your program, we just get back to the basic fundamentals of wealth creation by great companies,

00:35:56.860 good industries run by honest and ethical people. And, and then stay there for reasonable periods of

00:36:02.380 time. We don't go all over the map. So we don't de-worsify. We try to de-versive and diversify

00:36:08.620 into great areas. And that means that we can, we can put our money where we think it's going to make,

00:36:13.900 you know, make the highest returns and not to have a sort of an institutional approach. We can

00:36:18.300 personalize customized portfolios for people, really work with our clients. We've got a lot

00:36:23.660 of families. We love working with them and, and trying to meet their long-term capital objectives.

00:36:28.860 And, and we do that very personal way with top talent. Right on. Well, listen, it's a pleasure

00:36:33.500 to have your support and the feelings mutual. Thanks for coming on today to talk politics. We'll have to

00:36:37.820 have you on more often. Great. Thank you very much, Ezra. Keep up the great job. I really appreciate

00:36:43.020 the work you guys are doing. Well, thanks for that. And it's nice to meet you. We've been talking with

00:36:46.860 Jonathan Wellam, the president and founder of Rocklink, Rocklink with a C. Stay with us more ahead.

00:37:05.580 Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me. Susan Cleary says, if our border is that bad, why did Donald

00:37:12.540 send 1,600 troops to the southern border, but not to the northern border? Make it make sense.

00:37:19.180 I don't think our border is as bad in terms of raw numbers. There were literally millions of people

00:37:24.140 coming over from Mexico. The number from Canada is smaller, but it's not zero. I think the number

00:37:30.060 that's problematic to Americans is the number of terrorists. Canada welcomes migrants from places 0.97

00:37:35.900 like Syria and Afghanistan and even now from Gaza. There are people caught almost every day trying to

00:37:42.300 get from Canada into the U.S. who are on some sort of terrorist watch list. I think that's a very serious

00:37:47.820 issue for Canada. And I think Trump just wants a little bit of respect on that, but I think he actually

00:37:54.220 wants some self-respect. I think he's trying to get Canada to grow up a little bit because we've had a child as a

00:38:00.300 prime minister for nearly 10 years. Next letter. J.D. Mackin 7 says, why no mention of Trudeau's World Economic Forum

00:38:09.580 aspirations that there'd be no national borders? Isn't it more than possible both sides are playing us together?

00:38:17.100 I'm not sure if I'm familiar with a no national borders idea coming out of the World Economic Forum. I think there are some

00:38:24.700 ideas that they would want to have transnational. That's the whole point of the World Economic Forum is that

00:38:30.220 they aren't limited by borders. But I don't think that's as practical as having no border on the

00:38:36.900 ground. I think they're saying ideas, bad ideas, socialist ideas, globalist ideas, taxes, jurisdictions

00:38:43.220 shouldn't have borders. Maybe you're right, but maybe I don't quite understand your letter. Next letter

00:38:50.220 from Mark Tatek says, just become a U.S. state. Together America and Canada can become richer and more

00:38:57.080 powerful and secure than both countries have ever been. Canada will still keep their own culture,

00:39:01.660 just like other states have their own subcultures within the overall American culture, which Canada

00:39:06.960 is already very much a part of. There's something to that. It's sort of like, I suppose, if you were

00:39:15.660 dating someone and someone else came along and say, hey, dump them and go out with me. Of course,

00:39:22.640 you have a moral loyalty to who you're with, especially if you were married, you wouldn't

00:39:28.280 want to be disloyal. But if you were just casually dating someone, I'm trying out an analogy here,

00:39:33.220 and someone came along, I think it would be human nature to compare. Well, what do I have now? And

00:39:38.360 what are you offering? And what are the risks entailed? Now, one of the main reasons I think people

00:39:43.700 would stay Canadian is reasons of sentiment and history and habit and loyalty and emotion and culture.

00:39:50.700 I mean, to me, having the queen and now the king as our head of state and our history in the United

00:39:58.280 Kingdom, that actually really rings a bell with me. It really resonates with me. I would be reluctant

00:40:03.540 to give up those things, even if someone could say, well, I got more money and I'm more powerful. That's

00:40:09.240 really Trump's promises. You'll be richer and you'll have a more powerful army. You can imagine that in a

00:40:14.340 dating question, too. Well, I'm stronger, I'm more powerful, and I'm richer. Well, that would certainly

00:40:19.440 appeal to some women, wouldn't it, to have to be with a stronger man and a wealthier man. It's just 0.80

00:40:23.920 human nature. On the other side, you would have loyalty and history and habit. The trouble is,

00:40:29.300 Justin Trudeau has spent the last nine years trying to destroy our history and culture and habit and our

00:40:35.000 belongingness. He's saying, no, it doesn't matter who you're with. It's just transitory. It's just a

00:40:39.780 country. It's post-national. Nothing really means anything. Justin Trudeau tried to turn Canada into

00:40:45.880 nothing more than a transaction. So if a transactional dealmaker like Donald Trump comes

00:40:51.020 along and says, I can give you a better deal than that, loser. I'll exchange your dollars for 0.99

00:40:56.460 American dollars at bar. You'll be rich. I can protect you more than that, loser. We got the

00:41:01.820 world's most awesome army. If you've removed any sentiment or loyalty out of it, that is a more

00:41:07.520 compelling offer. Now, I hope that the next prime minister is Pierre Polyam, and I hope that he

00:41:14.280 revives our history, our belonging, our connection to the land, our connection to other people. I hope

00:41:20.940 he does that. But I think Donald Trump, as my monologue said, exposed a lot of brittleness

00:41:26.080 in our country. That's our show for today. Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel

00:41:32.360 World Headquarters, see you at home. Good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

00:41:39.120 Thanks for tuning in to this podcast. If you appreciate the news that Rebel brings you,

00:41:45.300 consider being a part of what makes it possible. You can do so by subscribing to our exclusive

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Rebel News Podcast - February 06, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Donald Trump has stress tested Canada — and we failed

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