Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ I think Trump is going to topple the Venezuelan dictator

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. I talked about Venezuela the other day, but I am certain that Donald Trump is going to invade, not invade in the traditional sense of 100,000 men and tanks, but I think they're going to try and topple Nicolas Maduro. And I really do think the leftist cliche, well, in this case, I think it works. I think this is about oil. I'll explain to you my thinking.

00:00:22.080 But first, let me invite you to get a subscription to what we call Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this podcast. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe, eight bucks a month, but you get all the video content with this podcast and the satisfaction of keeping Rebel News strong.

00:00:52.080 Tonight, I think Trump is going to topple the Venezuelan dictator. It's December 4th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:04.160 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:07.580 I really think Donald Trump is going to topple Nicolas Maduro, the head of Venezuela. I think it could actually happen as soon as this weekend. I don't know if you saw, they had a press conference the other day where Trump was talking very tough, and he was talking about boots on the ground. 0.72

00:01:31.460 Can you tell us more about why the airspace above Venezuela should be considered walls?

00:01:36.460 Yeah, because we consider Venezuela to be not a very friendly country. They said millions of people, really, and probably a number in excess of that.

00:01:45.620 And a lot of those people shouldn't be in our country from jails, from gangs, from drug dealers, from all of the people that came into our country shouldn't have been in our country, causing a lot of problems. 1.00

00:01:56.960 Does your warning mean that an airstrike is imminent, or should we not read it that way?

00:02:04.020 Don't read anything into it.

00:02:05.500 The New York Times reported that you had a phone call with Maduro. Did you?

00:02:09.180 I don't want to comment on it. The answer is yes.

00:02:11.720 And can you tell us a little bit about it?

00:02:12.860 No, I can't do that.

00:02:13.920 Mr. President, would you say it went well?

00:02:17.960 I wouldn't say it went well or badly. It was a phone call. Yeah.

00:02:22.120 Can you talk a little bit about the strikes and the controversy around the Secretary of Defense Pete Hanks said?

00:02:28.500 I don't know anything about it. He said he did not say that, and I believe I'm not going to say it.

00:02:33.280 You're talking about the two men?

00:02:35.220 The second strike to kill the two men.

00:02:36.860 No, he said he didn't do it. He said he never said that. 0.99

00:02:39.660 Would you be okay with that if he did?

00:02:42.220 He said he didn't do it, so I don't have to make that to say.

00:02:44.460 Right now, off the coast of Venezuela, which is, of course, on the north part of South America, the Caribbean Sea, there's an enormous flotilla of U.S. Navy ships, including the Gerald R. Ford, the largest ship in the world.

00:03:00.520 It's the newest aircraft carrier in the American arsenal.

00:03:04.880 There's other equipment, too, and there are thousands, I've heard, between 10,000 and 15,000 troops.

00:03:11.260 So it's not just boats. It's a huge deployment.

00:03:15.580 And not only is there that Navy and, of course, the floating air base that is an aircraft carrier off the coast of Venezuela, but Puerto Rico, which is the U.S. territory a little bit further north, they have an old Air Force base that has been recommissioned.

00:03:32.380 And AFP was actually there just on the road taking pictures of F-35s and C-130s and V-22s, all this heavy equipment coming and going.

00:03:43.380 Like, this is not a drill. At least it sure doesn't seem like one.

00:03:47.340 I'm going to make a prediction that war will come, but when I say war, I think it's going to be more surgical than mass. 0.88

00:03:53.720 Nicholas Maduro seems nervous. Here he is. He actually speaks less English than I thought he might.

00:04:01.640 Here he is talking about he wants peace. He wants dialogue. Take a look.

00:04:05.240 Yo recibí, tuve una llamada y conversé con el presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump.

00:04:11.520 Puedo decir que la conversación fue en un tono de respeto.

00:04:16.940 Inclusive, puedo decir que fue cordial.

00:04:21.740 Entre el presidente de los Estados Unidos y el presidente de Venezuela.

00:04:26.540 Digo más, si esa llamada significa que se están dando pasos hacia un diálogo respetuoso de Estado a Estado, de país a país,

00:04:43.780 bienvenido el diálogo, bienvenido la diplomacia, porque siempre buscaremos la paz.

00:04:52.720 He also is trying to be as tough as possible, saying he's mobilized grassroots defense.

00:05:11.200 I saw some images of men and women marching with guns.

00:05:16.280 I noticed that there were no bullets in those guns.

00:05:18.820 I don't know if they're either out of bullets or they're afraid to arm the people because they might turn their guns against the government.

00:05:25.520 Maduro has asked for amnesty.

00:05:27.960 Apparently, he had a phone call with Donald Trump where he basically said,

00:05:31.820 if I leave, will you let me be?

00:05:34.240 Will I have amnesty for various crimes?

00:05:36.520 And Trump apparently said no, which is slightly surprising.

00:05:40.580 You'd think Trump, the dealmaker, would say, oh, sure,

00:05:43.100 you can leave the same way that Bashar Assad, the former dictator of Syria, just sort of left.

00:05:49.380 And he's living in Moscow now and no one's tried to chase him for anything.

00:05:52.780 He's gone.

00:05:54.880 In the meantime, this naval flotilla is keeping busy attacking little drug boats.

00:06:00.800 You've probably seen some of the footage of these little boats.

00:06:04.120 I've seen a submarine as well, but it's mainly speed boats.

00:06:07.320 But they're pretty little.

00:06:09.780 You don't need a mighty aircraft carrier task force to take out these little boats. 0.95

00:06:15.900 Now, they say they're making a difference, though, and I believe it.

00:06:18.660 I've heard reports that the market is so distorted now because the supply is shrinking in demand.

00:06:25.320 I mean, there's obviously supply and demand and price for anything, including illegal drugs.

00:06:30.220 But they're taking out a lot of these boats.

00:06:33.400 That's not you don't need a B-52 or aircraft like that to take out these boats.

00:06:39.060 Now, in the United States, some left wing media are opposed to the shooting of these drug boats, if you can believe it.

00:06:47.940 Some don't even claim that it's illegal.

00:06:50.760 I don't know how that could be argued, given that Barack Obama actually had more drone attacks than any other American president.

00:06:59.040 And the media was fine with it.

00:07:00.540 But I'm not an expert in the law of war.

00:07:04.500 But I do know that a few months ago, in fact, I think it was actually the very first day of its inauguration, Donald Trump declared the drug cartels to be terrorist groups.

00:07:16.620 And I'm not sure if you know this, but Canada listed the same groups as terrorists up here.

00:07:22.980 And there's this phrase, it's a Latin phrase, which there are in law, there's a lot of Latin phrases, hostis humani generis.

00:07:30.080 And you may have heard me talk about them before.

00:07:32.740 That's this concept of being an outlaw, of being an enemy of all mankind.

00:07:37.060 It's typically terrorists and pirates.

00:07:41.140 Isn't that interesting?

00:07:42.080 And a terrorist or a pirate is entitled to a drop of legal process, but not much more.

00:07:50.360 In the old British Navy, the Royal Navy, they would have called that a drumhead trial.

00:07:54.620 Are you a terrorist?

00:07:55.680 Yes. 1.00

00:07:56.000 Are you a pirate?

00:07:56.920 Yes. 0.99

00:07:57.380 Off with your head, you know, or walk the plank.

00:07:59.740 They didn't bring pirates all the way back to London for a trial.

00:08:03.200 Same thing with terrorists.

00:08:04.480 In the war on terror, they used drones.

00:08:07.220 They used snipers.

00:08:08.220 They didn't arrest them, put them in handcuffs, bring them back to America and have a trial in front of a jury.

00:08:15.440 That's not how it works.

00:08:17.600 Trump legally declared them terrorists.

00:08:19.700 And there is no rule that you can't shoot a terrorist.

00:08:23.320 Recently, there's been some chatter.

00:08:24.900 Well, what about a second shot?

00:08:26.460 There's no rule that you can't shoot a boat once and then shoot it again to sink it.

00:08:30.740 That's just not a thing.

00:08:32.960 I know the left would love criminal trials for terrorists and drug dealers.

00:08:36.980 They would love that because they would take forever.

00:08:40.620 There were some trials in America for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and a few other terrorists.

00:08:45.160 But that's, I think, that would take a decade.

00:08:48.160 So, yeah, Trump is following the law.

00:08:50.480 And it's the same law that Obama followed, by the way, when he would drone anything to move.

00:08:55.260 But put that aside. 0.73

00:08:56.920 It is a fact, getting back to Venezuela, that Nicolas Maduro is a tyrant. 0.97

00:09:02.860 He's a dictator. 0.95

00:09:03.900 He's brutal to his own people. 0.99

00:09:06.780 He stole the election.

00:09:08.280 And it's universally regarded as stolen.

00:09:12.180 I mean, I suppose North Korea, China, and Russia, and Iran, I think they supported Maduro.

00:09:17.080 But the rest of the world, even countries that don't much like the United States, said Maduro stole the election, like Hugo Chavez did before him.

00:09:27.660 And things have gone from bad to worse.

00:09:29.980 I saw a little video on X the other day of a family that looked quite stylish eating what looked at first glance to be a nice dinner.

00:09:40.140 And this was a propaganda video designed to show that, oh, no, we're not starving.

00:09:44.460 But if you look carefully, you can see it's fake food.

00:09:48.260 It's plastic food.

00:09:50.340 That's how desperate things are there.

00:09:52.100 Here's a story from Reuters.

00:09:53.940 A few years old now, but it's gotten even worse.

00:09:57.080 The average Venezuelan, average, has lost 24 pounds.

00:10:03.560 It's basically a famine.

00:10:05.560 And you can make jokes about how I could, yeah, I'm fat.

00:10:08.660 But, you know, the average Venezuelan is not fat.

00:10:11.640 They're undernourished.

00:10:13.000 They're malnourished.

00:10:13.880 They're practically starving.

00:10:15.860 The average person has lost 24 pounds.

00:10:19.500 That's how miserable it is under socialism.

00:10:21.740 Now, it shouldn't be this way.

00:10:23.320 This should be really one of the richest countries in the world.

00:10:25.860 It has the largest oil reserves, as I mentioned the other day.

00:10:29.360 But then they went ahead and nationalized it like tyrants do.

00:10:32.420 And production fell by 70%.

00:10:35.120 They produce about a million barrels a day.

00:10:37.560 It used to be 3 million barrels a day.

00:10:41.640 So if you do the math at current prices, that's about $43 billion a year that's just not happening.

00:10:49.840 The entire GDP of Venezuela is only about $100 billion.

00:10:54.600 That would be 50% more.

00:10:56.560 It would be like that old joke.

00:10:59.660 If you put the government in charge of the Sahara Desert, they'd run out of sand.

00:11:03.880 Incredibly, you put the government in charge of oil in Venezuela, the largest oil reserves in the world, and they're running out of oil.

00:11:12.060 They're down to just a million barrels a day.

00:11:15.080 I mentioned before the other day that U.S. companies like Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, they were all part of the foreign companies that were pumping oil, getting that huge production.

00:11:26.360 They were all kicked out, expropriated, their assets were stolen.

00:11:30.300 But the funny thing about terrorist, tyrant dictators is they don't know how to do anything.

00:11:35.120 They don't actually know how to create wealth. 0.95

00:11:37.360 They just know how to steal it. 0.65

00:11:39.240 That's the reason why Venezuelans are so poor. 1.00

00:11:41.620 They're practically starving.

00:11:42.900 Now, in the past, Venezuela had allies.

00:11:47.660 Russia was a key ally for them, but Russia is completely dedicated to its Ukraine war.

00:11:56.040 And even if they had some military assets to spare for Venezuela, they would never do so right now.

00:12:02.800 They're trying so hard to be on Donald Trump's good side in the final strokes of the peace negotiation with Ukraine.

00:12:09.800 Believe it or not, Iran was a major supporter of Venezuela, even though it was half a world away.

00:12:16.240 But Iran has been clipped by both Israel and the U.S.

00:12:20.320 And Iran's proxy group Hezbollah has been absolutely decapitated and decimated in Lebanon and Syria.

00:12:27.880 Frankly, the Venezuelan Hezbollah operatives might be the last one standing.

00:12:33.440 China probably doesn't want to get involved with this right now. 1.00

00:12:36.420 And Cuba, the only regional ally of importance, is of little help.

00:12:40.920 You know, there was an agreement between Venezuela and Cuba that Venezuela would provide 100,000 barrels of oil a day to Cuba as socialist allies.

00:12:50.300 Well, you can't do that when you're only pumping a million barrels a day.

00:12:53.700 Sometimes Venezuela can only spare 10,000 barrels a day.

00:12:57.840 Cuba is in their worst economic crisis in decades, in part because Venezuela is faltering and Russia can no longer prop the place up.

00:13:07.840 My point, if you're looking for it, is this.

00:13:11.700 I think Trump is for real.

00:13:14.420 I think he wants to do a Trump style.

00:13:16.340 Remember how he got involved in Iran?

00:13:17.820 He let Israel do the heavy-duty work of eliminating a lot of the ballistic missiles and the anti-aircraft missiles.

00:13:23.520 And after 12 days, he sent in the B-2s to take out the nuclear program. 0.80

00:13:28.680 No shots were fired at Americans, no casualties.

00:13:32.020 I think Trump would like it to go that way, too.

00:13:34.320 He's offered the $50 million reward for anyone to topple Maduro, and that's got to be tempting to his inner circles.

00:13:41.060 But I say again, you don't need that mighty flotilla just to take out drug boats.

00:13:46.840 I think they are going to put boots on the ground and topple the regime.

00:13:51.420 No, I don't think it's going to be an invasion in the typical sense.

00:13:54.060 I don't think Trump wants that.

00:13:55.380 I don't think America would support that.

00:13:57.380 I don't think that would have the support of the America First movement.

00:14:02.260 But with CIA or special ops on the ground, I think it's a brittle regime.

00:14:07.340 They're starving over there.

00:14:09.180 Nothing's working over there.

00:14:11.340 They're making propaganda videos with plastic food and guns with no bullets in them.

00:14:16.740 I think they're brittle.

00:14:18.440 And I think that decapitation exercises like Israel used when Israel would take out the military leadership around the region. 0.80

00:14:26.380 I think that the United States will have a similar approach in Venezuela.

00:14:32.060 I think you'll see regime change, not really nation building.

00:14:34.800 You're not going to see the mass occupation of the country with Americans like you had in Iraq. 1.00

00:14:39.800 You're not going to see that.

00:14:40.960 You're going to see knock out the big guy and welcome the country into the West.

00:14:45.700 I think this was not about oil when it started, but I think it's very much about oil now.

00:14:53.860 I hate to use a left-wing cliche, no war for oil.

00:14:57.640 And I don't think oil is what sparked this, but I think that will be the final outcome.

00:15:02.440 I mean, think about how Trump operates.

00:15:04.280 He's a businessman by nature.

00:15:05.820 He's a real estate man by nature.

00:15:07.240 And there's always that element to what he does.

00:15:09.540 Look at the Abraham Accords. 1.00

00:15:11.100 I mean, Trump is thinking about business, not just about peace.

00:15:14.800 Look at his Gaza plan. 0.94

00:15:16.560 It's about peace and disarmament for sure, but it's about rebuilding.

00:15:21.060 It's about real estate.

00:15:22.020 Who's going to get those contracts?

00:15:23.440 Look at the Ukraine plan.

00:15:24.780 A major part of the negotiations is who gets access to the rebuilding of Ukraine with what money, what companies, what countries.

00:15:34.800 So, of course, oil is top of mind here.

00:15:37.520 And why wouldn't it be?

00:15:38.420 Why shouldn't it be?

00:15:39.260 And oil was the key to Venezuela's importance when it was a large producer and exporter, including to Cuba.

00:15:46.020 It's an important thing.

00:15:48.480 And I tell you all this because it's happening.

00:15:50.740 And I think this is underreported.

00:15:52.920 I think this is going to happen perhaps as soon as this weekend.

00:15:56.000 And I think it's going to catch some people by surprise because they're distracted by Ukraine or here in Canada.

00:16:01.740 We're obsessed with a thousand trivialities.

00:16:04.420 They're so important to us, but the rest of the world doesn't care.

00:16:07.520 In Canada, we're obsessed right now with this MOU, Memorandum of Understanding, between the federal government and Alberta about possibly, maybe, building an oil pipeline to the West Coast sometime before 2040.

00:16:20.300 That's literally what the MOU said, 2040, 15 years from now.

00:16:23.980 But the rest of the world sometimes ignores our shenanigans and focuses on themselves.

00:16:30.160 You know, we have competitors here in Canada and not just traditional oil producers.

00:16:35.800 I think that it could be the case that within months you see the return of U.S. oil producers to Venezuela.

00:16:43.880 And it could be that while we're still debating carbon capture and the industrial carbon levy and arguing with the coastal First Nations and negotiating with the socialist premier, David Evey, while we're still navel-gazing like that,

00:16:58.820 Don't be surprised if Venezuela goes from a million barrels a day to 2 million to 3 million and more.

00:17:06.200 And that's going to the United States.

00:17:08.100 That's a market that we currently have a chunk of, but I don't know how long we will.

00:17:12.760 That's why at Stellantis we decided to invest to Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler, 13 billion dollars in the next four years, increasing production by 50 percent,

00:17:38.520 delivering it to the market five new vehicles and creating 5,000 additional jobs.

00:17:44.120 That's because we believe in what you, Secretary Lafayette, and all your team is doing in this country.

00:17:50.100 We believe in growth.

00:17:51.380 We are ready to invest even more.

00:17:53.300 So thank you very much.

00:17:54.160 Thank you very much also for this great news of the key cars, which we are really interested into.

00:17:58.500 Thank you.

00:17:58.900 And we are really looking forward to work with Secretary Lafayette, your team, in the future for the next steps.

00:18:03.880 Thank you very much.

00:18:04.500 Well, get ready for those cars because we've already cleared the way.

00:18:07.500 You can start right away.

00:18:08.940 Thank you very much.

00:18:09.920 Well, how exciting is that?

00:18:11.920 Imagine being the CEO of a company in the Oval Office, surrounding by other cabinet ministers.

00:18:17.720 That was the Secretary of Transportation in the back there, and announcing to Trump that you're plowing 13 billion dollars into new auto plants.

00:18:27.080 That CEO was Antonio Filosa, who is the boss of a company called Stellantis, a major automobile manufacturer.

00:18:36.080 Trouble is, the name of Stellantis might ring a bell for you.

00:18:39.860 13 billion U.S., that's almost exactly the same as 15 billion Canadian that the Canadian government just gave to Stellantis.

00:18:51.300 And they're shutting down shifts in Canada, but building new plants in America with that Canadian money, or at least money is fungible, as they say.

00:19:02.680 You put it in your left pocket or your right pocket.

00:19:04.780 It's still yours.

00:19:05.420 Joining us now to talk about this recipient of corporate welfare.

00:19:09.920 Just take the money and run, is our friend Franco Teresano from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:19:16.760 Franco, on the one hand, you've got to love the chutzpah.

00:19:19.000 You've got to love the brazen, take the money and run.

00:19:22.600 I think that Algoma did something very similar just a few days ago.

00:19:28.440 They just took half a billion dollars from the feds in the province and then announced layoffs.

00:19:34.720 These guys are so brazen, but I guess if you're a shareholder, you're loving it.

00:19:40.360 Free money, right?

00:19:42.220 Well, the real issue is the politicians and the bureaucrats spending taxpayers' money, right?

00:19:46.980 It's the prime minister.

00:19:47.900 It's the ministers.

00:19:48.620 It's the members of parliament.

00:19:49.860 It's the provincial politicians.

00:19:51.620 Those are the ones that are answerable to Canadian taxpayers, right?

00:19:55.600 It's the politicians that are at fault here.

00:19:58.340 You mentioned the Algoma Steel incident.

00:20:01.900 Well, let's not forget that back in 2021, the federal government also announced $420 million for Algoma Steel.

00:20:10.560 And it's not just these two companies, right?

00:20:13.260 I mean, look, the total corporate welfare from the federal government to EV battery plants and also the EV supply chain is like $30 billion.

00:20:22.320 So we're talking about billions and billions of dollars that these politicians are taking from the pockets of Canadians and Canadian small businesses and then turning around and handing buckets of cash to these multinational corporations or just these corporations in general.

00:20:39.040 Ezra, you know what I think we need here in Canada?

00:20:41.400 What?

00:20:41.660 A no more business boondoggles law.

00:20:44.120 You know, it's so frustrating.

00:20:47.480 And the craziest thing was when Melanie Jolie said she signed the contract with Stellantis without reading it.

00:20:54.120 I mean, I at least try to read even a car rental contract because I want to make sure I know what I'm paying.

00:21:01.680 I mean, I think everyone who's, you know, in charge of their own money or working for a company would review a contract.

00:21:09.200 The bigger the contract, the more they'd review it.

00:21:11.960 Melanie Jolie admitted she did not read the contract.

00:21:16.560 $15 billion, probably the most important decision she's ever made.

00:21:21.240 And I don't know if that's true.

00:21:23.480 I sort of believe it.

00:21:24.900 But I think even if she did read the contract, she'd want to plead ignorance because it lets Stellantis take the money and run.

00:21:31.360 You're right.

00:21:31.760 I don't blame Stellantis for being self-interested.

00:21:35.200 I blame our politicians for giving them free money.

00:21:37.600 But Ezra, you know what?

00:21:39.760 Look, here's the real problem.

00:21:41.980 No matter how good of a contract, it could have been the best contract in the world.

00:21:46.020 It's still taxpayers' money.

00:21:48.640 It's still a waste of money.

00:21:49.600 It's still corporate welfare.

00:21:50.940 It should not happen.

00:21:52.900 Right?

00:21:53.560 When these politicians are spending your money, not their own, you might as well send them to the casino.

00:21:59.700 Okay?

00:22:00.280 They are thinking about the political incentives.

00:22:02.800 Oh, smile for the camera.

00:22:04.260 Get those big scissors out. 1.00

00:22:05.580 Let's cut that big red ribbon. 1.00

00:22:07.540 Right?

00:22:07.840 They do not have skin in the game because they're spending other people's money.

00:22:10.940 They're not spending their own.

00:22:12.120 I mean, look.

00:22:12.800 All of this money, none of it is falling from the sky.

00:22:16.260 The only way these governments are getting the money to hand out through corporate welfare is by taking money first from individual Canadians and from the small business right across the corner.

00:22:27.020 Okay?

00:22:27.620 This is awful economic policy.

00:22:30.420 I mean, it's worse than awful economic policy.

00:22:33.120 The government is taking money from Canadians and turning around and handing buckets of cash to businesses.

00:22:37.980 Now, look.

00:22:38.480 We do have to grow the economy.

00:22:40.020 We do got to support capitalism per se, but you do that not through corporate welfare, not through taxpayer subsidies.

00:22:48.440 You do that by cutting taxes and cutting regulation and government bureaucracy.

00:22:53.440 Franco, it's very rare to find an executive in Canada who has not succumbed to this corporate welfare because it's free money, right?

00:23:02.600 But I want to tell you my favorite thing that I've read in the last week.

00:23:06.700 It's by Toby Lutke, who's really the leader of Canada's second largest company, which is not a bank.

00:23:14.860 It's not an oil company.

00:23:15.860 It's a tech company called Shopify.

00:23:18.440 It's really Canada's only high-tech champion company.

00:23:22.700 In fact, it's pretty much worth the same as the Royal Bank.

00:23:25.980 And, you know, let me just read a little bit of it.

00:23:28.240 And Melanie Jolie announced that she was giving a grant to Nokia to hire some workers in Canada.

00:23:37.240 And she was so proud.

00:23:38.420 And she writes, Canada's leading the global tech race.

00:23:41.640 Today's milestone strengthens our digital infrastructure.

00:23:44.540 So she was doing this blah, blah, blah.

00:23:46.460 We're investing in the future.

00:23:48.020 And here's what the top tech executive in Canada wrote.

00:23:51.600 Let me, it's just so refreshing.

00:23:53.540 Let me read it to you.

00:23:54.300 And I'd love your view on it.

00:23:55.460 He said, writing to Melanie Jolie, so that takes guts to challenge the government if you're

00:24:00.940 an executive.

00:24:01.800 He wrote, what you're actually doing here is to bribe Nokia to put these jobs into Canada

00:24:08.100 by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars per job from taxpayer money.

00:24:12.700 What this does is to lower the cost basis of Nokia per employee.

00:24:17.100 This has been going on for decades, called foreign direct investment, which all civil servants

00:24:20.840 think is a good thing.

00:24:21.720 I spent a lot of time explaining to civil servants in Ottawa that it's not good for our economy

00:24:27.580 that American and overseas branch offices can employ Canadians at half the cost to all

00:24:33.460 the Canadian companies around them due to these subsidies.

00:24:36.800 We should not do them at all.

00:24:39.100 They are toxic, at least in the tech sector.

00:24:42.060 It's never meant to be this way.

00:24:44.140 But the situation that very often arises is it's strictly worse inside of Canada to be

00:24:49.620 a Canadian company compared to a company headquartered everywhere else.

00:24:54.320 Last paragraph.

00:24:54.880 It's just so good.

00:24:55.560 I don't want to leave it out.

00:24:56.340 Let me, here's the last paragraph, Franco.

00:24:59.000 This is a bad situation because the fruits of the subsidized labor will accrue to the wealth

00:25:04.680 of other countries and not Canada.

00:25:06.500 It's taxpayer money invested into locking up scarce high-tech talent and jobs where they

00:25:12.320 no longer contribute to the Canadian economy directly.

00:25:15.380 Why?

00:25:16.720 I tell you, Franco, that could have been written by you, but it was written by a top executive

00:25:21.680 saying, do not artificially prop up any company, especially our foreign competitors.

00:25:29.140 That was such a beautiful thing.

00:25:30.720 It was seen millions of times.

00:25:32.740 People love that.

00:25:33.640 It was the hottest tweet of the week.

00:25:35.000 And that does take guts, right, from an executive.

00:25:38.540 Because when I mentioned earlier, skin in the game, I mean, that's skin in the game.

00:25:42.520 So it takes guts for, you know, a business leader to write a public letter like that.

00:25:48.040 You know, there's a couple things that come to mind, right?

00:25:50.280 This idea of stop the corporate welfare, cut taxes and cut regulations.

00:25:55.440 You know, we started this whole segment off with that press conference with Trump and

00:26:00.740 Stellantis there.

00:26:01.620 Well, I wonder why you have investors or businesses deciding to set up shop in other places.

00:26:08.280 Hmm.

00:26:08.860 Is it maybe because our Canadian government taxes and regulates companies into oblivion up

00:26:14.380 here?

00:26:14.880 Right?

00:26:15.100 Like, let's talk about tax competitiveness.

00:26:17.360 Right?

00:26:17.560 I know that sounds boring, but let's spice it up a little bit.

00:26:20.500 Okay?

00:26:20.800 Well, our corporate tax system, we're ranked 28 or 22nd out of 38 OECD countries on business

00:26:28.160 tax competitiveness.

00:26:29.360 That's awful.

00:26:30.540 Okay?

00:26:30.880 On income taxes, we're ranked 27th out of 38 OECD countries.

00:26:36.260 Okay?

00:26:36.740 Guess who is more competitive than us on both?

00:26:40.360 The United States.

00:26:42.180 Okay?

00:26:42.440 So if we really want prosperity here in Canada, I want prosperity here in Canada, I want a

00:26:47.360 flourishing business community that hires our neighbors or friends and our families, then

00:26:52.460 we've got to cut taxes, cut regulations, and get these government bureaucrats and politicians 0.98

00:26:57.380 out of the way.

00:26:58.680 Hey, Ezra, one last thing, because I couldn't help but think about this when you're reading

00:27:02.300 me that letter to, was it Melanie Jolie?

00:27:05.360 Yeah.

00:27:05.560 And she was bragging about the tech sector and how the government is helping the tech

00:27:09.880 sector.

00:27:10.620 You know, I'm old enough to remember, because it happened just last year, when the government

00:27:15.140 tried to hammer tech entrepreneurs with capital gains tax increases.

00:27:19.580 Right.

00:27:19.860 Now, remember that?

00:27:21.020 Isn't that funny?

00:27:22.120 Right?

00:27:22.360 Where the government brings in this capital or proposed capital gains tax hike, a total

00:27:27.660 sucker punch to many entrepreneurs, including in the tech sector.

00:27:31.180 And now the government is trying to pretend like it's this champion of the tech sector.

00:27:36.800 You know, I wrote back to Toby Lettke publicly, I wrote a small comment, I said, I explained

00:27:42.060 how they're a champion and they're trying to make the government in Canada, but it's going

00:27:45.300 to be hard.

00:27:45.760 And then I ended, I said, I hate to predict it, but I wouldn't be surprised if this great

00:27:51.620 company, Shopify, moves to Austin, Texas or Miami, that's where all the tech companies

00:27:57.260 are.

00:27:57.660 And I wrote it sort of as a lament.

00:27:59.380 Now, Toby Lettke wrote back and said, no, we love Canada.

00:28:03.400 And that's, that was pretty cool to see, but there reaches a certain point where it's

00:28:08.640 not about love or sentimentality or nostalgia.

00:28:11.800 It's about what's best for shareholder interest.

00:28:14.520 And I love the fact that Shopify is a Canadian company.

00:28:17.640 I think it's pretty cool, but pretty cool and sentimental.

00:28:21.160 And what we love the, that, that only cuts so much ice.

00:28:24.880 And I'm worried if we keep going down the road of taxes and regulations, that maybe one

00:28:30.840 day the executive team of this company will say, look, we're, we're going to stay up here,

00:28:36.420 but we're going to move our headquarters, our reporting, our taxes.

00:28:41.120 We're going to move to America just because we can't afford not to. 0.99

00:28:44.160 I don't know.

00:28:44.680 I just have this fear that we're watching a great company being chased away.

00:28:48.700 You know what the saddest part of all this is, Ezra, we should be the freest, most prosperous

00:28:55.740 country in the entire world.

00:28:57.380 And we could be, and we can be like, we have so many abundant and diverse natural resources

00:29:04.840 all, all throughout Canada, right?

00:29:07.280 We have such talented people, right?

00:29:09.640 Who come through the system.

00:29:11.800 They want to work hard.

00:29:12.820 I mean, right now I'm in Calgary, Alberta, where, while we have this conversation, I mean,

00:29:17.020 this is an entrepreneurial city.

00:29:19.640 We, like we are Canadians, like we, like we are entrepreneurial.

00:29:23.300 We're very hardworking and we've had, we have all these resources.

00:29:26.640 There's absolutely no reason why we shouldn't be the most free and prosperous country in the

00:29:32.040 entire world.

00:29:32.880 Our biggest problem is the federal government is government regulations, right?

00:29:38.260 A strangling our natural resource sector, taking money from successful entrepreneurs, right?

00:29:44.280 Who did it themselves, who got our neighbors, friends and families into the, you know, got

00:29:48.520 them jobs and then taking their money and giving it to select multinational corporations like

00:29:53.960 Stellantis or Volkswagen or Honda.

00:29:57.000 Yeah.

00:29:57.260 I mean, we should be, we should be, we should be booming.

00:30:00.900 Yeah.

00:30:01.480 It's crazy to give this such large companies.

00:30:03.620 You know, let me close on this.

00:30:05.480 I was doing a show yesterday on, on the subject of Algoma, their CEO, Mike Garcia was just named

00:30:13.060 CEO of the year by the Globe and Mail who, and what has he achieved other than like, he's,

00:30:20.000 he hasn't grown the size of the company.

00:30:22.480 It's not his fault.

00:30:23.380 The tariffs are doing a number on him.

00:30:25.340 He's just had a thousand layoffs.

00:30:27.480 He just took, as you said, 400 and something million a few years ago, another 500.

00:30:32.320 He's into us for a billion dollars and that's who the Globe and Mail says is CEO of the

00:30:38.180 year.

00:30:38.440 Whereas Toby Lucky, who's saying, stop with government meddling.

00:30:42.960 He's not the CEO of the year.

00:30:45.200 I think that shows a corporate culture.

00:30:47.160 I wish we had a more entrepreneurial risk-taking Silicon Valley type culture.

00:30:51.820 Alas, I don't know if we do.

00:30:53.220 Last word to you, Franco.

00:30:54.900 Well, at least the CEO of the year wasn't Catherine Tate. 0.99

00:30:58.140 Yeah, that's right.

00:30:59.440 That's the former head of the CBC.

00:31:02.760 Well, listen, Franco, great to see you.

00:31:04.160 Keep up the fight.

00:31:04.900 And I'm sort of jealous that you're in, in Calgary, which is a much freer city than,

00:31:09.400 than some others.

00:31:10.240 Thanks for joining us today.

00:31:11.960 Thanks, Ezra.

00:31:12.520 And yeah, I love it here.

00:31:13.580 All right.

00:31:13.940 There is Franco Teresano, the boss of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:31:18.160 Stay with us.

00:31:19.040 Your letters to me next.

00:31:20.420 Hey, welcome back.

00:31:30.420 Your letters to me.

00:31:31.320 These are all from premium subscribers like you.

00:31:34.660 Here's one.

00:31:35.640 It starts from Arta Withers, who says,

00:31:38.120 Yeah, I'm not an expert on how to make steel, but I do know that this is an ideological attempt to push a technology that the market is not adopting.

00:32:08.060 The United Kingdom is trying to, to do this too.

00:32:11.180 Their steel companies are fleeing all because of their net zero approach.

00:32:14.980 And that's what's going on here.

00:32:16.480 You know, it's sort of ironic that you cannot make a wind turbine without steel and you cannot make steel without carbon, without coal.

00:32:26.200 You just need it to get things hot enough.

00:32:28.540 That's just a fact.

00:32:30.420 Mark Gabori says in his speeches, Carney uses the word scaling capital.

00:32:35.360 I looked this term up.

00:32:36.720 In simple speech, it means corporate welfare.

00:32:39.820 That's what's going on at Algoma Steel.

00:32:41.940 Capital is being scaled.

00:32:43.800 It's getting scaled from the taxpayer to Algoma.

00:32:47.440 Mark, I really appreciate you writing that.

00:32:49.260 I'm trying to wrap my head around all the funny things that Mark Carney just can't help saying in every single speech.

00:32:57.200 It's almost like a mannerism or a tick.

00:32:59.980 You know, some people always say, you know, you know, you know, or a, a, a, it's just a manner of speaking.

00:33:04.380 They don't even know they're doing it.

00:33:05.960 I think that Mark Carney is similar.

00:33:07.660 He says, this is a generational investment.

00:33:10.680 It's transformative.

00:33:12.220 It's catalytic.

00:33:13.360 Like he's got about half a dozen phrases he uses like salt and pepper, but they're also like other people would say, um, or ah, they're sort of fillers, they're time killers, they're distractors.

00:33:25.580 They're when he doesn't really know what he has to say, um, he, he throws in a word like, um, but for him, it's transformative investment.

00:33:33.880 This is a catalytic investment.

00:33:35.820 This is a generational, like, he just has a bunch of words that I don't think have any meaning, uh, other than baffle gab.

00:33:43.360 Well, that's our show for the day.

00:33:45.660 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Highquarters, to you at home, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - December 05, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ I think Trump is going to topple the Venezuelan dictator

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript