Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Election focus shifts to crime, tax cuts, and 'nation-building' projects

00:00:00.040 Hello, my friends. A big show today. I'm going to do two things. I'm going to take you through the

00:00:03.320 latest polling, and I'm going to take you through the conservative party's campaign platform that

00:00:08.140 they announced today. There's actually a few good things in it I want to show you.

00:00:12.340 But first, let me invite you to get what I call Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this

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00:01:00.580 Tonight, Pierre Polyev releases the Conservative Party campaign platform. It's April 22nd,

00:01:22.540 and this is The Answer for the Vance Show. The election was supposed to be about a carbon tax.

00:01:41.440 It was the most hated thing Trudeau had done to us in his decade as prime minister. And no one

00:01:47.080 doubted that Pierre Polyev was truly against it. It was a huge political winner for him. But then

00:01:52.400 Mark Carney came along, and in his first act, this party leader reduced the tax rate of the carbon tax

00:01:59.800 to zero. Now, understand the trick here, though. He didn't repeal the tax. I'm not sure that he could,

00:02:05.640 given that Parliament hasn't sat in months. Carney had a bit of theater, that's all, where he signed a

00:02:11.780 fancy-looking piece of paper as if he were President Trump signing an executive order. Remember this?

00:02:22.940 Yeah, except that in Canada, the prime minister doesn't sign executive orders. The governor general

00:02:28.280 does, on advice of the prime minister. I don't think Mark Carney knows how we do it. He's been out of

00:02:33.860 Canada so long. But my point is, Mark Carney did not abolish the tax. He didn't repeal it. He didn't

00:02:39.860 remove it. He didn't root it out. He just turned the amount down to zero for now. And if you remember

00:02:45.860 what he said, it's not that he disagrees with it suddenly. He just said it was divisive, as in it

00:02:52.160 could be a political problem for him right now. So when he thinks it won't cause him a political

00:02:56.460 problem, he'll be able to turn it up like a thermostat or something. Of course he will. I mean,

00:03:02.260 carbon taxes aren't just Carney's favorite policy. They're really part of his identity. It's what he's done

00:03:08.820 for the past decade. It's what his wife had lobbied for, the job he had at the UN, his reason for jetting

00:03:15.380 around the world, going to the world economic form. It was all about global warming, carbon taxes,

00:03:21.420 transitioning off oil, etc. He was the co-chair of something called the Glasgow Financial Alliance

00:03:27.840 for net zero. G fans. It's a terrible acronym. But basically it meant he jetted around the world,

00:03:35.980 pressuring companies to decarbonize and threatening them with divestment if they didn't cooperate.

00:03:41.160 That's why he was interrogated by the U.S. Congress last year for allegedly extorting companies to

00:03:47.320 comply with his green policies or be targeted for divestment. Now he's going to do that to our entire

00:03:53.400 country. So yeah, if you think Mark Carney is opposed to carbon taxes, you just haven't been

00:03:58.740 listening to him. He knows he needs to turn it down to zero for this election, but just for this

00:04:04.400 election. I mean, what kind of grownup says they are a follower of Greta Thunberg, the high school,

00:04:11.380 the junior high dropout? I see myself as part of the social movement. I think those at the vanguard of

00:04:16.700 the social movement might see me as being farther behind. And I've, you know, full, absolutely full

00:04:24.300 credit, and I do in the book to Greta Thunberg, who I've had the pleasure of meeting several times and

00:04:30.560 who absolutely has catalyzed that movement, the youth movement, and also done something incredibly

00:04:39.460 valuable. And this is embarrassing to admit, but I think we should admit it. And this is often true,

00:04:44.340 by the way, in finance. Very obvious truths are not fully understood in the system. So what she

00:04:51.220 hammered home was the carbon budget, how small it was, how rapidly it was being depleted. And we've

00:04:57.900 moved in a few short years, in part because of her, from a world of ESG, sustainability, broader

00:05:07.120 conversations around, as I say, sustainability, to a relentless focus on net zero. It's called the

00:05:14.100 Glasgow Financial Alliance for net zero for a reason, because we've moved to the relentless logic of

00:05:20.800 having to get emissions down consistent with the carbon budget. So in that regard, I'm part of that

00:05:29.600 and part of mapping what people want to the mechanisms, particularly in finance, in order to

00:05:35.700 deliver it. I'm also, though, conscious of two other things, Lionel. One is that, of course,

00:05:42.960 net zero is absolutely essential to stabilize the climate. But that's not the same thing as

00:05:48.860 protecting biodiversity. It's not the same thing as having a just transition along the way. There

00:05:53.640 are lots of other elements that are necessary to this that these broader social movements rightly

00:05:59.160 shine a light on either an unserious man or an extremely serious, extremely dangerous man. But

00:06:05.760 the media was delighted by it, which is surprising. I mean, the media had said that anyone who was

00:06:11.360 against carbon taxes was against the future and against our children and a threat to the society.

00:06:16.440 And it was disqualifying for any conservative who dared to defy the net zero cult. I mean,

00:06:23.040 entire election debates in this country were about carbon taxes. But I guess when a liberal

00:06:29.120 turns it off, those worries go away. It was an issue until it suddenly wasn't an issue when

00:06:35.000 they wanted to get their man elected. Where's the David Suzuki Foundation? Where's all the green

00:06:39.220 activists? Where's Greta herself? Where's Stephen Gilboa? They all know it's just a ruse. Carney is

00:06:45.820 their man, and they simply need him to get him across the finish line. And he's the same on everything

00:06:50.260 else that Trudeau stood for, from massive foreign aid to being supportive of Hamas, to censoring

00:06:56.540 free speech for critics, to being reflexively anti-American. But Mark Carney has three big

00:07:03.920 things going for him. Number one, he reduced the carbon tax to zero, even if it's just temporary.

00:07:09.360 Number two, he is not Justin Trudeau. So a lot of the hatred for Trudeau is dissipated. By the way,

00:07:15.860 has anyone even asked, does anyone even care what Trudeau's up to now? That makes my point. No one

00:07:20.840 cares. He was such an empty shell. And the third thing that Mark Carney has going for him is that

00:07:26.320 the NDP has utterly collapsed, all falling away towards the liberals. That's probably the biggest

00:07:32.920 factor. You know, I just went on Wikipedia. They have a page that lists all the public opinion polls

00:07:38.600 from all the public opinion pollsters in chronological order. So in the past three days,

00:07:45.720 April 20, 21 and 22, you can check this for yourself, there have been 10 polls published.

00:07:51.940 And the conservative party in those polls ranges from a low of 36.3 in a nanos poll to a high of 41

00:08:01.100 in a mainstream poll. Now, it doesn't really work to average them all because there's different sample

00:08:07.060 sizes and different methodologies, but I did it anyways. And the average of the last 10 polls for

00:08:12.980 the conservatives is 38.5%. That's pretty good. That's only down a few points from their all time

00:08:21.160 high when the liberals were imploding under Trudeau. Liberal party, same thing. Last 10 polls, they

00:08:27.200 average 42.7% by my math. So for sure, they are leading by four points. But so much of that is from

00:08:35.740 the NDP, which is averaging just eight, averaging just 8.2% in the last 10 polls. The NDP are in

00:08:42.700 single digits. They are about to get wiped out. I mean, possibly not even getting party status. It's a

00:08:49.280 unite the left campaign. By the way, the People's Party of Canada, Maxime Bernier's party is averaging

00:08:54.520 about 1.5% in the polls. And I got to tell you, I will never understand why Maxime Bernier didn't

00:09:01.920 even try to get into the leaders' debate this year. Why didn't he even ask, let alone sue?

00:09:09.540 I don't know. So yeah, it looks like a liberal win. There are six more days, though. Voting has

00:09:15.980 started already. And I don't know if you saw, Elections Canada says there has been record

00:09:20.060 turnout so far in the advanced polls. I don't know which party that could benefit. I could see both

00:09:25.460 sides. I think a lot of Canadians are desperate to get rid of the liberals, and they don't want

00:09:29.960 another liberal term. So I think they're motivated. But there's also a lot of leftists who are delighted

00:09:34.600 to have a chance to stop Polyev and genuinely believe they're somehow fighting against Donald

00:09:39.460 Trump by voting for Carney. And the younger voters are the most pro-Polyev, according to pollsters.

00:09:45.900 Older voters are the most pro-Carney, and they seem to have a higher turnout. Seniors vote more than,

00:09:51.580 say, people in their 20s. I don't know what high numbers means. I think a lot of Canadians have bought

00:09:59.140 the line that Pierre Polyev is a mini-Trump. The media has weaponized that like never before.

00:10:05.080 They know this is their one chance. But let me show you one more thing. This is a series of tweets

00:10:08.920 by David Colletto. As you know, he's my favorite pollster, who's also one of the most accurate

00:10:13.660 when comparing their polls to the Election Day results. I think he's very conscientious. Here's what

00:10:18.960 David Colletto, the pollster for Abacus, wrote yesterday on X. He said,

00:10:23.960 what if the liberals never really led by like 8 to 12 points, and it was just response bias?

00:10:32.800 Now, I googled response bias. I wanted to make sure I understood what it meant. It's when people say

00:10:37.980 something to a pollster that they don't really mean because there's some other force at play,

00:10:43.180 like people telling pollsters what they think is a socially acceptable answer, sort of peer pressure.

00:10:48.240 They want to say the right thing to the person on the other side of the phone. Or maybe just,

00:10:51.520 for example, people who are Polyev supporters are less willing to talk to pollsters than liberal

00:10:58.460 voters are. That's an example of response bias. Whenever I get a pollster on the phone,

00:11:04.440 I assume it's a trick or a trap or someone posing as a pollster. I just hang up. I mean,

00:11:10.240 that's not me really being a conspiracy theorist. That's just me valuing my privacy and distrusting

00:11:15.540 the political class, and I'm not going to spend the time on it. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite 0.94

00:11:19.360 because I love reading polls, but I'm not going to participate in one. That's response bias.

00:11:24.420 Anyways, that's what Coletto suggested there. And then he wrote this too, and I thought this was

00:11:29.320 very candid for a pollster to say. He said, to go from a 15-point liberal lead a month ago to a 2.1

00:11:36.880 today is pretty remarkable. If you believe that, then you also have to believe, one,

00:11:41.520 the liberals have run a horrible campaign. Two, the conservatives have run an amazing campaign.

00:11:48.760 In other words, Coletto is saying it's more likely that the polls were wrong a month ago,

00:11:53.180 or are wrong now, than the mood of the country has swung so much. Now, I don't know.

00:11:58.080 I think there was a euphoria at removing Trudeau, just like there was in the States when Joe Biden

00:12:03.240 was kicked out for Kamala Harris. And that rejuvenated the left that was demoralized. And in

00:12:09.940 Canada, it united the left also, wiped out the NDP. But I think a number of centrists probably got

00:12:15.980 caught up in that, and probably their anti-Trump instincts were inflamed. Now, Trump hasn't taken

00:12:20.920 a shot at Canada or mentioned annexing us in the last few weeks. The Trump effect is subsiding a bit.

00:12:27.360 I don't know, but I think the election is still afoot. I mean, look at this. The government says 7.3

00:12:34.240 million people have voted already. A new record for this point of the election cycle. It was just

00:12:39.340 5.8 million last time at this point. But this seems like a more momentous election than last

00:12:45.600 one, doesn't it? Anyways, I said I'd look at policy. So here's the conservative official policy

00:12:52.880 platform. It was released today. Now, if you scroll down it, you'll see about 32 different boxes

00:12:58.260 representing 32 different policies. First one is reducing income tax by 15%. By the way,

00:13:04.900 scrapping the carbon taxes on the list too. They say for real, for good, in contrast to Kearney.

00:13:11.420 Cutting the sales tax on homes and reducing capital gains tax. In fact, the first six points are all

00:13:16.700 related to relieving taxes and fees. The next three are ramping up energy projects and other

00:13:22.140 industrial projects, including oil and gas. Lots about crime and reviving the military. So that's

00:13:28.240 the website version. But they have a larger written version of the platform. And I'm so glad

00:13:34.020 I reviewed it because it talks about some things that are not on the online version. Here, I'm going

00:13:38.380 to read the entire platform of immigration. I'll just read it word for word. Restore order to

00:13:43.260 immigration. Under the last conservative government, Canada had an immigration system that worked.

00:13:47.880 It was fair, orderly, and the envy of the world. But after the lost liberal decade, that system is broken.

00:13:52.980 The liberals' reckless and unsustainable immigration surge overwhelmed Canadian housing and healthcare 0.99

00:13:59.720 services. We will restore integrity to the system by cracking down on fraud and dramatically reducing

00:14:06.620 the number of temporary foreign workers and foreign students and limiting permanent immigration to a

00:14:12.980 sustainable rate similar to the levels under the Harper government. We will prioritize those who are

00:14:18.140 most needed, who grow our economy and meet our healthcare needs, and rebuild an immigration system 0.88

00:14:24.020 that works for newcomers and Canadians alike. And then he's got a few bullet points. He says,

00:14:30.580 we will keep the rate of population growth below the rate of housing growth, job growth, and healthcare

00:14:36.740 accessibility to ensure sustainable immigration levels that are fair for Canadians and newcomers alike.

00:14:42.800 I think that's a good one. Reject the radical liberal sensory initiative proposal to grow Toronto to a city of

00:14:51.240 33.5 million, Montreal to a city of 12.2 million, Vancouver to a city of 11.9 million, Calgary, Edmonton

00:14:57.820 to cities of 15.5 million, and Ottawa, Gatineau to a city of 4.8 million within a single lifetime.

00:15:03.580 I know that sounds insane. That really is the platform of the sensory initiative that Mark Carney's team

00:15:11.220 signed on to. Next bullet point, require union labor market assessment pre-checks ensuring unions get

00:15:19.180 consulted before employers hire temporary foreign workers to protect Canadian jobs. I agree with that, 0.98

00:15:25.640 by the way. Require criminal background checks for individuals entering Canada on a student permit.

00:15:30.700 It's insane that's not happening now. Process refugee claims faster on a last-in-first-out basis 0.92

00:15:36.480 and implement departure tracking so we have a clear idea of how many people are overstaying their visa.

00:15:41.780 I would add to that, if you're going back to the country you fled for holidays, you ain't no refugee.

00:15:47.760 Next one, expand and speed up removals for any criminal activity on a visitor permit.

00:15:52.400 Anyone who's here on a visitor visa who breaks our laws will be removed from Canada. Now that last point 0.78

00:15:57.060 is a bit of a change from what Paulie have told me a year ago when I asked him if he would deport

00:16:01.560 foreign nationals who engage in anti-Semitic hate marches. Here's my question.

00:16:06.480 Hi, Mr. Paulie. I'm Ezra Levan from Rebel News. You mentioned certain things that rise to the

00:16:11.780 level of a crime, but there are many things that aren't quite at that level. For example,

00:16:16.440 people marching, calling for an intifada, or using language that may not rise to the level

00:16:23.140 of a criminal prosecution. And you've said before that you respect freedom of speech even for odious

00:16:28.540 views. But what about people who are not Canadian citizens, who are foreign nationals, perhaps here on a

00:16:35.660 student visa to go to our schools. And instead of studying at university, they're participating in

00:16:40.540 these hate marches, intimidating people, Jewish restaurants, calling for the death of Jews. 0.97

00:16:47.180 Again, not criminal level, but these are foreign nationals. Would you support canceling the visas and 1.00

00:16:55.500 deporting foreign nationals who, instead of doing what they came here to do, are spreading hate at these

00:17:02.700 pro-Hamas rallies? Thank you for your question. You raise a number of different issues. One,

00:17:07.840 if someone comes here on a student visa and they're not actually a student, then on that basis alone,

00:17:12.480 they should go home. We don't want to have, one of the problems we have with the student visa 1.00

00:17:16.700 program is that it has been used as a fraudulent point of entry, particularly for corrupt employers

00:17:23.520 trying to get labor from abroad. So in general, we believe that we should shut down all the fraud in

00:17:28.840 the student visa program. And anyone who claims to come here to study that is not actually studying

00:17:33.920 should not be here. With regards to protests, I do believe in freedom of speech. I believe people

00:17:40.700 should be allowed to say things I disagree with, even things that I find appalling. That is the price

00:17:47.500 of living in a free country. The alternative is to have state censors who then decide what kind of speech

00:17:56.580 is acceptable and what is not. And then who chooses those state censors? And then those censors will

00:18:02.320 pick and choose, based on their own political views, which speech is allowed and which speech is not.

00:18:07.660 That's why I believe in freedom of expression. You mentioned, for example, if someone stands up and

00:18:14.780 calls for violence against a particular group, they can, under the current criminal code, be charged with

00:18:21.140 incitement. Those provisions already exist. And I would encourage law enforcement to make sure those

00:18:28.320 provisions are upheld for any and all people who incite, deliberately incite violence against an

00:18:37.320 identifiable group, because that has been criminalized for many years. And anyone who is convicted of that,

00:18:43.820 who is not a citizen, should obviously not be in Canada.

00:18:46.660 Now, back then, Polyev said he'd only deport Hamas radicals if they were convicted of a hate crime.

00:18:52.920 Today, he says he'll deport anyone who breaks our laws, which suggests any other crimes, maybe even vandalism.

00:18:58.660 But I think that's still too high a bar, because marching through our streets, shouting anti-Semitic slurs

00:19:03.940 at Jews, it's not actually a crime in Canada. And frankly, I don't know if it should be a crime in Canada

00:19:10.300 for citizens. That's free speech. But we don't have to put up with that from foreigners who are here 1.00

00:19:16.400 as our guests. The U.S. is deporting bad faith visitors, including people on student visas who

00:19:23.440 participated in the Hamas encampments in universities, not for necessarily committing crimes, but for

00:19:28.760 organizing anti-American and anti-Semitic rallies. I think we need to go harder on foreign hate mongers in 0.95

00:19:34.600 our country, but it's a baby step. I want to read one more section of the platform dealing with freedom

00:19:40.180 of speech. And again, this wasn't on their website, but it's in their PDF document. It starts off saying,

00:19:45.840 Wilfred Laurier once said, Canada is free and freedom is its nationality. But during the lost

00:19:50.200 liberal decade, freedom of speech has been threatened, history erased, and voices silenced by censorship laws

00:19:56.080 and corporate collusion. A new conservative government will restore free speech, protect personal

00:20:01.120 liberties, honor our shared story, and promote Canadian culture and history. We will support media

00:20:06.160 freedom by, first point, introducing a Freedom of Speech Act to repeal liberal censorship laws and

00:20:14.160 restore Canadian news on meta and other platforms. Okay, I'd like more details on that. Boosting the

00:20:20.580 local journalism initiative by $25 million for local news. All right, I don't know how that increases

00:20:25.740 freedom to have more government in journalism. Next, ensuring all domestic government

00:20:31.080 advertising dollars are spent on Canadian platforms only. Well, I mean, if they're going to be

00:20:38.180 ads, are they ads or are they a subsidy for media? I don't have a strong opinion on that one. The next

00:20:44.480 one, provide $25 million in support for Indigenous language media. We already do. Next one, supporting

00:20:51.520 remote area internet connectivity so every Canadian has reliable access to news. How about leave that to

00:20:57.620 Starlink? We will save by defunding the CBC and reforming crown corporations while maintaining

00:21:03.720 Radio Canada's French CBC services. English language CBC should be a Canadian-owned, self-sufficient media

00:21:10.220 organization that is a not-for-profit and supported by listeners, donations, sponsorships, ad revenue,

00:21:15.760 and licensing revenue. All right, I support that. I think I like about half of these points, but why is the

00:21:22.280 government funding any journalism, including the local journalism initiative? How is that any

00:21:26.880 different from funding the CBC? And why would taxpayers be forced to continue funding the French

00:21:32.320 CBC? That said, of course, this is better than any other party on the issue. I found this section

00:21:38.260 promising. It was a little bit later in the document. Protect free speech on campus. Free speech is a

00:21:45.280 cornerstone of Canadian democracy. We will ensure campuses remain places of debate, not censorship

00:21:50.720 by, point one, requiring universities to enforce the standards of section two of the charter's freedom

00:21:58.160 of expression as a condition for federal funding. Obviously, that's a good idea. And given the amount

00:22:04.180 of funding from the feds to universities, it would be easy to command compliance. Look, I like the

00:22:09.360 platform compared to the liberal spending and taxing and debt frenzy. I'm sure I'd like almost anything,

00:22:14.560 but mainly we need to root out the liberal party, the corrupt, compromised, dedicated to extremism on

00:22:22.380 everything from mass immigration to environmental extremism to foreign meddling. I don't want to be

00:22:29.280 dramatic, but I really do think this election is the most important for Canada in my lifetime. And yeah,

00:22:36.000 I'm worried. Stay with us for more with Gordon Chang next.

00:22:44.560 Well, China is always in the news. It's in the news for a lot of reasons, military, economic, political,

00:22:58.820 and in Canada's case, there's some national security concerns. As you know, I was curious about the

00:23:05.760 strange way that Canada's new prime minister was selected. The Liberal Party had an online-only voting

00:23:12.340 system. People as young as 14 were allowed to vote. Foreign nationals were allowed to vote. 400,000

00:23:18.820 people were registered to vote, but 250,000 of those 400,000 were disqualified. And we never really got

00:23:27.300 an explanation for that. I posed the question with no answer. Could it be that the People's Liberation

00:23:33.700 Army hackers were able to penetrate the Liberal Party's system? I have no basis that they did,

00:23:40.500 other than it's quite curious to me that a majority of registered voters were disqualified. And the

00:23:46.260 results in the end were bizarrely uniform. In every district in the country, Mark Carney won by

00:23:53.620 approximately the same amount, even in the home districts of his rivals, such as Chrystia Freeland.

00:24:02.020 That's just an observation. I don't have a conclusion to make because there were no complaints filed.

00:24:07.380 That's been different over the last few weeks, as the government itself, the agency tasked with

00:24:13.140 detecting foreign interference, has on several occasions held emergency news conferences,

00:24:19.540 saying that the Chinese Communist Party has been targeting conservative candidates, including

00:24:25.540 with propaganda drives using the WeChat app, popular with Chinese Canadians. There was a remarkable case when

00:24:32.340 Paul Chang, a Liberal Party candidate in the Greater Toronto area, said, half-jokingly, he claims,

00:24:40.660 but said it three times, that a conservative Chinese Canadian candidate was wanted in Beijing.

00:24:47.780 And if anyone were to kidnap him and bring him to the Chinese consulate,

00:24:51.140 they would receive a reward of one million Hong Kong dollars. He was replaced, but only after

00:24:58.420 Mark Carney stood by him, his successor, by some measures, even worse. What does China see in

00:25:05.220 Canada? What does China see in our Prime Minister, Mark Carney? Joining us now to talk about that,

00:25:11.140 and just as important, the Chinese-U.S. tariff war, is our friend Gordon G. Chang, who I say

00:25:18.260 is the most interesting and best-informed analyst of China out there today. What a pleasure to see you

00:25:24.500 again, Gordon. I know you're so busy. Thanks for jamming us in. Oh, well, thank you so much, Ezra. I really

00:25:30.340 appreciate it. Now, Canada has been dealing with China issues for a long time. The two diplomats who

00:25:39.220 were taken, Canada would say, hostage by China for years. China just put a massive tariff on Canadian

00:25:49.140 canola crops. There's always something afoot in Canada. Pull the camera back a bit. What does China 0.99

00:25:56.820 see in Canada? What would be the prize for China that motivates them to meddle in our democracy? 0.94

00:26:06.260 There are so many prizes. So, for instance, the Arctic. China wants to dominate the Arctic with its 1.00

00:26:11.780 new best friend, Russia. But also, remember, Canada is part of the Five Eyes. It would love to have

00:26:18.260 some intel on what was being discussed. Canada borders the United States, the world's longest

00:26:24.820 undefended border. And we know that that border is troublesome. In federal fiscal FY24, which ended on

00:26:34.180 September 30, 2024, the number of terrorist watchlist suspects coming in across the northern border far

00:26:42.420 exceeded those coming in across the undefended southern border. There were 155 on the terror watch

00:26:50.180 list apprehended coming from Mexico. There was 358 Ezra coming from Canada. And that shows there is an

00:26:59.380 infiltration problem. We know that various U.S. administrations, Biden, Trump, have talked to

00:27:06.900 Ottawa about all these problems, and a lot more of them, by the way, and have generally received a cold

00:27:14.500 reception. This is not a good story from the United States point of view. Because although we always

00:27:20.980 think of Canada as close friends, nonetheless, we do know that the Trudeau government allowed hostile

00:27:27.780 elements to use Canada as a staging ground for assaults on the U.S. And oh, by the way, where was the

00:27:35.380 world's largest fentanyl lab? No, it wasn't in China. No, it wasn't in Mexico. It was in Vancouver.

00:27:45.460 Wow. You know, that terrorist statistic is one I bet most Canadians don't know. We know that

00:27:51.220 ordinary migrants, obviously, that Mexican border was much larger an issue. But for, like you say,

00:27:57.220 those terrorist suspects on the watch list. Hey, I've got one last question for you about Mark Carney

00:28:01.940 before we move on to U.S. tariffs. Mark Carney was the head of, I call it a mini BlackRock. It was

00:28:08.260 called Brookfield. And it had about a trillion dollars under management, which is pretty big.

00:28:13.460 And Carney met with Xi Jinping, and he had a lot of dealings in China. If I'm being really, really fair,

00:28:21.620 if I'm trying to see things from Carney's point of view, he would say none of my business deals were

00:28:27.380 illegal. They all followed the law. We were told to go out and earn a rate of return for our investors.

00:28:34.340 China has high rates of return. If you're not in that growing global market, you're nowhere.

00:28:40.260 So if I was hired as a lawyer to defend his dealings with China, I would say, look,

00:28:45.540 it's the world's biggest economy. If you doubt it, go into your Walmart and try and find something not

00:28:49.540 made in China. Shouldn't he have sought the rate of return for his investors?

00:28:55.460 A critic would say, well, you were exposed to China. You favored China. You are doing China. You're 0.95

00:29:01.940 seeking errands. You're running errands for them. What's your take? I mean, it's pretty rare for a

00:29:08.020 businessman to actually meet one on one with Xi Jinping and to get a quarter billion dollar loan

00:29:13.460 from China. Or is that just business the way it is these days? Well, if you ask Hunter Biden, I guess

00:29:20.820 you'd say that's just business the way it is. A couple of things. The returns from China have

00:29:28.340 really been poor recently or basically this entire decade. So I'm not so sure that that's a good

00:29:38.260 investment on the part of anybody. And really what we're talking about is China gaining leverage with

00:29:46.500 someone who's the prime minister of a NATO member and Five Eyes Park, which just happens to share a

00:29:54.340 very long border with the U.S. So this is not business as usual. And I think that this is a

00:30:00.580 disqualifying element in Mark Carney's run for a new election. I mean, a new five-year term.

00:30:10.020 Yeah. But I'm just a foreigner, so you don't have to listen to me.

00:30:13.540 Well, I think, but you know China better than anyone else I know. Well, let's talk about the 0.99

00:30:18.020 United States because, of course, Donald Trump has always talked about China. Even before his

00:30:23.380 first term, he would tweet about China as a businessman. And even before the era of Twitter,

00:30:29.940 like it's been on his mind for 40 years. I'll be honest with you, Gordon. I don't fully understand

00:30:35.140 Trump's tariff strategy. I thought I did. I understand what tariffs are for. They're for

00:30:44.100 encouraging companies to locate manufacturing in America rather than next. I think that's the

00:30:48.900 strategy. But I don't understand the larger strategy. I'm just going to confess that maybe

00:30:55.380 you can shine a light on it and tell me especially how it affects China. Because I know China was trying

00:31:00.660 to set up its own economic sphere, the Belt and Road Initiative, and it was giving lots of loans.

00:31:07.060 And it's really colonizing Africa. Tell me how the American strategy interacts with China. And maybe

00:31:16.180 an easy way to do it is tell me how it's different from what Joe Biden did.

00:31:21.140 Yeah. Trump does have a messaging problem. And it is not entirely clear on certain days what he's doing.

00:31:29.460 But in general, the strategy is this. And that is that Trump is using the lure of the American market,

00:31:36.660 the biggest in the world by far. Consumer spending in the US accounts for what, 38 or so percent of the

00:31:43.300 global consumer spending. He's using that to stitch up trade agreements with countries that are our

00:31:50.260 friends. And he started with Japan. But he's also talking, of course, to South Korea, to Vietnam,

00:31:56.820 to the European Union, Italy. The Italian Prime Minister was recently at the White House,

00:32:02.420 Giorgio Maloney. And the idea is that by doing this, we'll be able to create a US-centered trade

00:32:10.020 block, which will in large measure exclude China. And we know this because the Chinese have actually 0.99

00:32:17.620 just yesterday on Monday threatened retaliation against any country that enters into a trading

00:32:25.460 relationship with the US that, as Beijing says, undermines China's interests. So apparently,

00:32:33.540 Beijing is really worried about what Trump is doing. So in general, that's it. When you look at the

00:32:40.100 tariffs on Canada and Mexico, this is where he really has a messaging problem, because he has not

00:32:46.020 actually spelled out in detail what he wants to do. There's, of course, the issue of trade surpluses.

00:32:53.780 But it's also Trump has not talked to the American people or talked to the Canadian and Mexican people

00:33:00.100 about his national security concerns that both of these countries pose. And if he did it,

00:33:05.700 I think that people might not agree with him, but at least they would understand the rationale for

00:33:10.740 what he is doing. Because there's a lot of head scratching, not only in Canada, where there's,

00:33:15.140 of course, anger, but also in the United States. So those people who have been following this have

00:33:21.860 been worried about Canada for a very long time. We've been talking about it. And if nothing else,

00:33:29.620 Trump gets high marks for raising the issue. But he needs to raise it in the way that people

00:33:34.740 understand why he's doing what he's doing. I think he has a rationale for this.

00:33:39.940 I know he has a rationale for this. It's just that he's not articulating it well.

00:33:44.580 Yeah. I mean, when he talked about security on the border, like you did,

00:33:50.020 people understand that. And by the way, there is a real problem with drug use in Canada.

00:33:56.020 Perhaps not quite as acute in the United States, but we have our own San Francisco.

00:33:59.940 It's even worse in Vancouver. And I think there's certain trade irritants, like we have a dairy

00:34:06.820 cartel that increases the price of dairy. We have a poultry cartel and things like that. People get

00:34:13.380 that. Trump also complained that banks aren't allowed to operate in the same way in Canada,

00:34:19.220 U.S. banks. Those are all very tangible things that people say, okay, I can understand that's a

00:34:23.860 bargaining chip. But the general bella caution, I'm a super fan of Trump, have been three elections in

00:34:30.260 a row. What that did is it allowed the latent anti-Americanism in Canada to flare up. And Mark

00:34:38.820 Carney said, I'm going to defend against Trump. And I'm worried, Gordon, that that's going to actually

00:34:43.780 put Mark Carney into the prime ministership because he's just riding. All he talks about is Trump.

00:34:52.180 All they doorknock about is Trump, Trump, Trump. And there's sort of Trump derangement syndrome in

00:34:57.220 this country. And right or wrong, I think that might lead to a really bad dude, Trudeau 2.0,

00:35:04.900 but smarter and harder working, becoming the PM again. And also, I think maybe even worse on China

00:35:12.180 than Trudeau was, which is saying something. Yeah, I agree with you, Ezra, you know, down the line.

00:35:19.300 You know, you look at Pellevra. I mean, he was up 20 points. Now he's down eight or something like that.

00:35:25.700 That's enormous swing. And that is the Trump factor. There's nothing else that accounts for that.

00:35:31.620 Um, so yeah, clearly, um, the United States needs to have, uh, needs to have much better

00:35:39.460 messaging and needs to have honest conversations, not only with the Canadian public, but also with

00:35:44.900 the American one as well. So I couldn't agree with you more. Well, we'll find out soon enough. The

00:35:50.500 election is on the 28th next Monday. And, uh, the gap has narrowed a bit. I was just looking at the polls,

00:35:57.460 uh, the average of the last 10 polls puts the conservatives behind by 4%. Now that still is a

00:36:02.500 loss, but it's, um, it's not the chasm that it was a week or two ago. Um, one of the pollsters

00:36:10.100 talked about a, uh, shy voter effect. Everyone knows they're supposed to vote for Carney. I don't

00:36:16.020 know. He's still predicting a liberal win. We'll find out really soon. It's great to catch up with

00:36:20.820 you. Maybe once the dust settles, we can talk again about how Canada is looking in terms of China

00:36:25.540 relations after the election. Yes. And by the way, it's no coincidence that China has taken over the

00:36:31.780 city of Vancouver and they've got a drug problem. Right, right. That's a good observation. We've

00:36:37.060 been talking with Gordon G Chang. You've got to follow him on Twitter at Gordon G Chang. I really

00:36:42.740 feel that I get the latest on China strategy by following him. And I would encourage you to do so

00:36:48.660 too. Take care of my friend. Thanks again for your valuable time. Thank you, Ezra. All right.

00:36:53.300 There we have it. Stay with us more ahead. Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me. The

00:37:08.420 first one is on rebels lawsuit against liberal party, dirty tricksters over the buttons. VRP 0.67

00:37:15.860 GEO says this is a second trademark violation for Carney in four months when he announced his entry for the

00:37:21.700 liberal leadership in Edmonton on January 16th. He used a logo that was held and used under trademark

00:37:26.820 by another company met credit debt collectors. It was quickly changed after the company told him to

00:37:32.420 stop using him. Now, I'm going to say in that case, it was probably an accident. They weren't trying to

00:37:40.500 hide anything. I'm sure they weren't trying to trick anyone that they were met credit. They just didn't

00:37:46.980 search properly. So I'm not, they should have done a little bit more prep, but it's not a

00:37:53.300 sin. It's they didn't do something with moral turpitude. They were just maybe sloppy. Let's

00:37:57.860 say that is very different here. They obviously did this in a witting, thoughtful way. They obviously

00:38:05.540 left their name off it because the whole point was to confuse. So this is much darker and it is

00:38:12.100 in the words of Mark Carney, totally unacceptable, although not so unacceptable that they fired

00:38:16.660 anybody. On CBC lies, Clint Scott Fisher says a petition should be started to demand defunding

00:38:23.700 the CBC. Well, the only people who would possibly do that is Pierre Pauliev's conservatives, I think.

00:38:29.700 Chris Richardson says pretty rich, the CBC complaining that Rebel News is biased. Well, by the way,

00:38:35.540 and here's the weird thing is that none of the party leaders objected to us being at the leaders'

00:38:41.700 debates, at least not that I saw. I mean, it's true Jagmeet Singh never answers our questions

00:38:46.500 anywhere, but that's just a weirdness he has. It's got nothing to do with the debates commission.

00:38:53.060 Mark Carney didn't get any Rebel News questions, but he answered other questions from citizen journalists,

00:38:58.740 and he was fine with them. Our questions, we asked a couple to Pierre Pauliev, we asked a couple to

00:39:05.860 Jagmeet Singh, he didn't answer, that's fine. We asked one to the leader of the block who

00:39:09.940 gave an answer in English, and he was sort of friendly about it. I mean, I'm not friendly,

00:39:13.460 but he was substantive about it. The people who had the problem with us being there, super weirdly,

00:39:19.620 were rival journalists. I think I told you that when Drea Humphrey asked her question,

00:39:24.100 other journalists were heckling her. It was the grossest thing I've seen, and

00:39:29.620 she was surrounded by this booing. It was shocking. The regime media did all the things

00:39:35.460 they accuse us of being. They were rude, they were unprofessional, they were disruptive. We were not.

00:39:42.420 Well, that's our show for today. Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World

00:39:47.220 Headquarters, to you and I'm goodnight, and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - April 22, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Election focus shifts to crime, tax cuts, and 'nation-building' projects

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