EZRA LEVANT ｜ King Carney meets with European royalty... but not with President Trump
Summary
Why did Mark Carney go to Europe instead of the US on St. Patrick's Day? And why hasn't Donald Trump invited him to the White House? And why is it so important that he does so? All that and much more on today's show.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. Big show today. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is on the show talking
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about the latest in Canada-U.S. relations. Looking forward to that. And I'll talk to you about Mark
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Carney, who instead of going to the States has gone to Europe. They're nicer to him over there.
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And I think he just actually hasn't been invited down there by Trump. I'll get into it a little
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bit later. But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to what we call Rebel News Plus.
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Tonight, why did Mark Carney go to Europe instead of to America? It's St. Patrick's Day and this
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is the Ezra LeVant Show. Shame on you, you censorious bug.
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Big show today. In a moment, I'll talk to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith about the latest in the
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battles over tariffs. And by the way, it's St. Patrick's Day. Here's Conor McGregor at the White
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House with an unscripted rant against the globalists and mass immigration in his home country. Take a
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look. I'm here to raise the issues the people of Ireland face, you know, and it'll be music to the
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people of Ireland's ears because never on the main stage has the issues the people of Ireland face
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been spoke. You know, our government has long since abandoned the voices of the people of Ireland.
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And it's high time that America is made aware of what is going on in Ireland. What is going on in
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Ireland is a travesty? Our government is the government of zero action with zero accountability.
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You know, our money is being spent on overseas issues that has nothing to do with the Irish people.
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The illegal immigration racket is running ravage on the country. There are rural towns in Ireland
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that have been overrun in one swoop, that have become a minority in one swoop. So issues need to be
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addressed. And the 40 million Irish Americans, as I said, need to hear this, because if not,
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there will be no place to come home and visit. Well, I want to get back to my monologue for the
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day, which is I actually don't think that Mark Carney and Donald Trump have spoken. Conor McGregor
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had a good catch up with President Trump. But I am actually pretty sure that Carney and Trump have not
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even spoken by telephone. Obviously, they haven't met. One of the other of the two sides would have
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likely said something. Trump makes a lot of public statements about things, lots of tweets. He hasn't
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mentioned Carney at all that I've seen. And I don't think he's put out a written statement either, which
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is unusual if he had had interactions. I do not think that this is a good development. Now, Carney is
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certainly meeting with other leaders. He met with King Charles, who is the King of Canada, as you know.
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I think that's completely appropriate at any time. And it's a subtle reassertion that Canada is an
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independent country. And it pulls on the heartstrings of loyalists and royalists. Carney had a phone call
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with Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the monstrosity called the European Union. He said,
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On my call with President von der Leyen, we spoke about the Rearm Europe plan and Canada's role in
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strengthening defense at home and abroad. In the face of global threats, Canada is meeting this
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moment, securing new military equipment and working with allies to keep us all safe.
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Yeah, that's just not true, though. We're meeting this moment? It's in the moment we're in right now?
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No, we're not. Canada is amongst the tiniest spender in NATO as a proportion of GDP. I mean,
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I'm not counting the little baby countries like Luxembourg. And we lie about it. We keep doing
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that. And when I say we, I mean our politicians. In one of Trump's only meetings with Justin Trudeau,
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Trudeau tried to lie about it to Trump, but Trump knew his stuff and fact-checked Trudeau
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on the subject in real time, something our own compliant regime media almost never does.
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Canada does not meet the 2% standard. Should it have a plan to meet the 2% standard?
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Well, we'll put them on a payment plan, you know? We'll put Canada on a payment plan, right? I'm sure
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the prime minister would love that. What are you at? What is your number?
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The number we talked about is 70% increase over these past years, including, and for the coming
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years, including significant investments in our fighter jets, significant investments in our
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naval fleets. We are increasing significantly our defense spending from previous governments
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Okay. Where are you now in terms of your number?
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They're getting there. They know it's important to do that. And their economy is doing well.
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If you caught that, Trudeau was counting what he promised he would maybe spend some time in
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the future. And Trump knew that just wasn't real. That's what Carney is doing in his tweet.
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We are not meeting the moment. We're not securing new military equipment. That's
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present tense. Next year, in 2026, if things stay on track, we might receive the first four
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new F-35 fighter jets. But that's four. Not 40. Four is in one, two, three, four. We're a pretty
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big country. We'll get our first four next year. Maybe. Hopefully. But of course, the liberals
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are now talking about canceling the F-35 deal to get back at Trump. Here, take a look.
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Right now, we have undertaken to purchase 88 of the F-35 fighter jets. It was the fighter
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jet identified by our Air Force as the platform that they required. But we are also examining
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other alternatives, whether we need all of those fighter jets to be F-35s or if there might
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be alternatives. The prime minister has asked me to go and examine those things and have
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discussions with other sources, particularly where there may be opportunities to assemble
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those fighter jets in Canada to properly support them and maintain them in Canada. And again,
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we're looking at how do we make investments in defense, which also benefits Canadian workers,
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Canadian industry, and supports strong Canadian economy.
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Okay. That sounds to me like the F-35 contract is on the table, that some of it, all of it,
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most of it may not be prosecuted. It may not be completed. You may not buy all the 88 jets
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if you can find another option. And the direction I've been given by the prime minister is go and
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look at all of our options to make sure that we make the right decision for Canada.
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We'll show the Americans. They say we don't pay our fair share of military defense. They say we rely
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on them to defend our Arctic airspace. They're so mad about sovereignty. When was the last time
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Canada actually patrolled our north? Even against Chinese hot air balloons, spy balloons. We'll show
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them by living down to their worst character of us. We'll literally become the thing they accuse
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us of being, which is freeloaders on America's military apron. You know, we're already unable
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to participate in NATO exercises. The annual maple flag fighter jet practice at Cold Lake Alberta has
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been long ago mothballed because we can't keep up with our allies. So yeah, Carney is doing
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the European circuit. This is him with Emmanuel Macron of France.
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We both stand for sovereignty and security demonstrated by our unwavering support for Ukraine under your
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leadership. With you, Mr. President, I want to ensure that France and the whole of Europe works
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most enthusiastically with Canada, the most European of non-European countries, determined like you to
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maintain the most positive possible relations with the United States. Canada is a reliable, trustworthy,
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and strong partner of France, which shares our values and lives them through action during this age of
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economic and geopolitical crises. We're the most European of non-European countries. It's sort of
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a weird thing to say. I think I know what he means. I don't think he means that in a racial sense, though
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I'm sure he'd accuse anyone else of racism if they said that. But but look at this. This is a tweet from
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Ian Bremmer. That's that's the guy who runs the New York based lobby group called Eurasia Group.
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It's where Gerald Butts went when he was exiled from Ottawa for threatening Jody Wilson-Raybould.
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It's where Mark Carney's wife works. It's basically the de facto campaign team for Mark Carney.
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So look at that. Mark Carney's campaign adviser, his wife's boss, writes,
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more Canadians on board for joining the European Union than not. And he shows a poll to that effect
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from abacus. And I'm not disputing the poll. But I'm a bit dizzy. Is that being a proud Canadian
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patriot or not? Is joining the European Union more patriotic than just being Canadian? I'm so confused.
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I thought that joining a foreign political enterprise was being a traitor. Or is this just
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all about hating Trump and whatever gets that done the fastest? Here's a tweet from Mark Carney's meeting
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with Emmanuel Macron of France last year. So, I mean, he really is a VVIP. Of course,
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he's on the board of the World Economic Forum. Here's what he said a year ago. He said,
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it was a pleasure seeing President Macron today. With his leadership, France is attracting
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unprecedented levels of foreign investment while accelerating the transition to net zero.
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Looking forward to more work together to create good jobs and build clean prosperity.
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You know, clean prosperity is code for shutting down oil and gas. Net zero isn't even code at all. It's
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just a sign of how extreme you are. What serious person would say he's a proud follower of Greta Thunberg,
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that child actor propagandist? Here's a two minute clip, and I want to run all two minutes of it,
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where Mark Carney says he's a follower of Greta Thunberg. And then he goes on to demonstrate how
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extreme his position really is. I see myself as part of the social movement. I think those at the
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vanguard of the social movement might see me as being farther behind. And I've, you know, full,
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absolutely full credit, and I do in the book, to Greta Thunberg, who I've had the pleasure of meeting
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several times, and who absolutely has catalyzed that movement, the youth movement,
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and also done something incredibly valuable. And this is embarrassing to admit, but I think we
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should admit it. And this is often true, by the way, in finance. Very obvious truths are not fully
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understood in the system. So what she hammered home was the carbon budget, how small it was,
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how rapidly it was being depleted. And we've moved in a few short years, in part because of her,
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from a world of ESG, sustainability, broader conversations around, as I say, sustainability,
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to a relentless focus on net zero. It's called the Glasgow Financial Alliance for
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Net Zero for a reason, because we've moved to the relentless logic of having to get emissions down,
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consistent with the carbon budget. So in that regard, I'm part of that, and part of mapping what
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people want to the mechanisms, particularly in finance, in order to deliver it. I'm also though
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conscious that, of two other things, Lionel. One is that, of course, net zero is, it's absolutely
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essential to stabilize the climate. But that's not the same thing as protecting biodiversity. It's not the
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same thing as having a just transition along the way. There are lots of other elements
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that are necessary to this, that these broader social movements rightly shine a light on.
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Yeah, that's been his focus and his wife's focus for decades. They're not suddenly going to abandon
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their deepest beliefs. They're just, what's the word? They're just rephrasing them. I mean, here,
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take a look at this. He says, the consumer carbon tax is not working. It's become too divisive at a
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time when Canada needs to be united. As my government's first order of business, I have
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canceled it. And look at that. Just like Donald Trump, there's a little video of him. He signed
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a document in a lovely leather-bound folder. He's so great. But, you know, that's not actually how
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things work in Canada. I'm not sure if you know that. The word prime minister, that two-word phrase,
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you know, it's not even in our Constitution Act of 1867. It's just not there. All the executive
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power in Canada is held by the governor general, who does, of course, exercise it on the advice of
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the prime minister. It's true. But the governor general remains our head of state, not Mark Carney.
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He's not the head of our executive. The U.S. Constitution, the word president is mentioned
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more than 20 times. Gives him the executive power to do things at the stroke of a pen.
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Makes him the commander of chief. That doesn't happen here. Maybe King Charles will give Mark
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Carney a quick tutorial on just who the boss is. It ain't Mark Carney at a stroke of a pen.
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Here's a still image of what Carney signed. It just says, I hereby instruct that the fuel charge
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be removed as of April 1st, 2025, and that the Canada carbon rebate be issued.
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Um, who, who are you even writing to? There's, it's not clear there. You're just
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writing a little dear diary entry. Who, who are you instructing? Like, is there someone else in the
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room with us? Are they in the room with us right now? Who? You and what army is they might say? Under what
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authority? It's all made up. It was a show. It was a trick. It was him trying to be
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Trumpy. Prime ministers can't do that though. They can't cancel taxes by writing a little memo
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to themselves. And I love the part about directing the rebate to be continued as planned. Yeah.
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Uh, you know, I might sign something directing the rebate to continue as planned. It'll have the
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same effect that is absolutely nothing, but the regime media, they absolutely love that bit of
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theater. But back to the man who really does have the power to issue orders by the stroke of a pen,
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and that is U.S. President Donald J. Trump. So what's going on? I mean, why, why is Carney looking
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to Europe? I know it's more fun to talk to people like Emmanuel Macron because he isn't making any
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demands of Canada. He doesn't care if we have fentanyl labs in Canada. He doesn't care about
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our illegal migration. He has his own problems. He's not really egging on Canada to spend more on
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the military either. It's just not what he does. Meeting with Emmanuel Macron, it's just a fun trip
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to Paris for any liberal who likes to jet set like Carney clearly does. But Canada, France trade
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each year, I looked it up. It's, it's about nine and a half billion dollars. Now that's,
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it might sound like a lot, 9.5 billion dollars. But Canada, U.S. trade is almost exactly a hundred
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times more, 923 billion dollars. If you look at our largest exports to the U.S., they can't be
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transferred to Europe. If this is some sort of trade trip or something, it can't work.
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At the top five exports we sell to the United States, oil, natural gas, and refined petroleum
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are three out of those five. Thanks to the liberals, we can't really sell that to anyone other than the
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U.S. because the liberals blocked any pipelines. Of the two remaining top exports, cars are one of them.
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I don't think we're going to be shipping tens of thousands of cars to Europe anytime soon. And gold,
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by the way, is the last one. So yeah, Mark Carney has been the liberal leader for more than a week,
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and he has not had so much as a phone call with Trump, or as far as we know, anyone in the Trump
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administration. Now I think that actually suits Mark Carney just fine. He obviously wants to fight
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with Trump. That's all he said when he ran for leader in whatever process that was. I mean,
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fighting against Trump is the only chance Carney has. How else could someone who abandoned us,
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like Carney did for greener pastures a decade ago, justify his return to rule over us? How else could
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someone show literally, someone who literally moved the giant company Brookfield? He was chairman of Brookfield
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Asset Management. He moved it out of Canada into the States just weeks before he ran for the liberal
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leader. How could he possibly recover from such a disloyal act? Well, Carney needs to fight with
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Trump. The noisier and more painful for us, the better. That's the moral hazard. He wins only if
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Canada loses, only if there's a disruption and trouble with America. Of course, he puts himself in his
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party first. Now compare that to Mexico, which of course has so many more problems in regards to
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the U.S. and drugs and the border. That's where, what, 99% of the immigration problems came from. Now
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read this in the New York Times of all places. You're tough. How Mexico's president won Trump's praise.
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A scientist and leftist with limited foreign policy experience, Claudia Scheinbaum seems to have
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connected with President Trump and her calm demeanor and toughness on the border. What? I thought Mexico
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was the huge problem. Let me read a bit. This was from the New York Times just three days ago. This is
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really new. Ready? I'm just starting in the middle of the story. Her rapport with the American president
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is helped in part by the contrast with Mr. Trump's much more contentious relationship with Prime Minister
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Justin Trudeau of Canada, who left the post on Friday. At the start of their most recent
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conversation last week, Ms. Scheinbaum spent about five minutes, this is my favorite part of the story,
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spent about five minutes ticking through everything she had done to secure the border and fight fentanyl
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trafficking, according to two people familiar with the talks. Ahead of the call, she had sent Mr. Trump
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data to back up her points. She suggested that the tariffs would only make it harder for her to explain
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this level of cooperation to her citizens. Isn't that interesting? Mr. Trump stayed silent for a long
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beat after she stopped talking and then, after complimenting Ms. Scheinbaum, abruptly launched into
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an attack on Canada, the people said. He asked what Ms. Scheinbaum thought of Mr. Trudeau. She said she
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didn't talk much with the Canadian leader. Mr. Trump said she was lucky. At the end of the call,
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the people said Mr. Trump offered to exclude many Mexican goods from tariffs and then started
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dictating out loud a truth social post announcing the deal. Ms. Scheinbaum and her team were elated.
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There's a lot of interesting things in a few words there. Do you think Trudeau
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could spend five full minutes, that's a very long time to talk, showing his command of details about
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border issues, security, drug interdictions, things that Trump has said he's wanted going back to
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November? Stopping drugs, stopping illegals, but mainly showing that her attention was on the matter,
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that she was making it a priority, that she was showing him some respect in return for commercial
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market access to the U.S. It was in Mexico's interest that she did that, so she did her job.
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I simply don't think Trudeau or Carney could do what Scheinbaum did, because Canada,
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to my knowledge, has not done what is necessary on the border yet, other than, frankly, lying
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about stationing 10,000 troops on our border. Here, take a look at Doug Ford saying that on TV the other
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day. When President Trump said tighten up the border, we listened. We put 10,000 troops on the border.
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We have fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters and drones, but it goes two ways. We saw fentanyl drop
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drastically to half an ounce. I can't stand drugs, but I got a report last week saying we busted hundreds
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of kilos of cocaine, of opioids, of fentanyl, illegal guns, illegals coming across our border. We should
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work together. I've had the DEA up to my office. We're working with the Canadian, U.S. Border Patrol,
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state and federal police. If we had a problem, we're acting on it as we speak right now. And it's
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both sides, by the way. And it's dropped drastically. And we listened to the President, and we're working
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together with the U.S. Border Patrol and the state police and federal police as well.
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Yeah. Have you seen any pictures of 10,000 Canadian troops on the border?
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Yeah, no, me neither. Because it didn't happen. Trudeau mumbled something about 10,000, but
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that included all border staff, including all bureaucrats in the department, people in Ottawa,
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like it was another Trudeau lie. I thought Ford saying it. We don't have 10,000 troops to station
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on the border, even if we had the will to do it. We don't have 10,000 troops available to do anything,
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to be candid. I say that with great sorrow. That's something that Donald Trump keeps mentioning,
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how we're freeloaders on the military. And I'm sorry, that's true. But it's like that first
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video I showed you of Trump and Trudeau sort of fibbing about how much he was spending on
00:22:39.440
the military. Here, just take a quick look at that again. What are you at? What is your number?
00:22:44.240
The number we talked about is 70% increase over these past years, including, and for the coming
00:22:50.880
years, including significant investments in our fighter jets, significant investments in our naval
00:22:58.160
fleets. We are increasing significantly our defense spending from previous governments that cut it.
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Okay. Where are you now, in terms of your number? We're at 135? 1.3?
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1.4. 1.4. 1.4. And continuing to move... Claudia Scheinbaum understood the assignment.
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Toughen up the border and show Trump that you're serious. And she did. And it worked for Mexico.
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Trudeau and now Carney could do that. They could have done what Danielle Smith did,
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actually hire sheriffs and police and sniffer dogs and drones and deployed them, or at least shown a
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convincing plan to do that. But Trudeau doesn't or wouldn't. He's not against hard drugs. He's not
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against migrants. So he doesn't really want to do those things. And he doesn't like to do anything that
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Trump wants him to do. So there's that. I think that's a huge thing. But mainly,
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the only shot the liberals have at winning is fighting Trump. Oh, and please don't tell me
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they're suddenly great patriots who love Canada so, so much. China just slapped a 100% tariff on our
00:24:09.200
canola farmers, which is a lot larger than pretty much any other industry that's in question right
00:24:14.160
now. But the media and the politicians don't care because they're Western farmers. I think the
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Laurentian elites, or at least the liberal side of them, they actually sort of hate things about
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Canada, our history, our culture. I mean, the liberals hate it. They're the ones who stripped
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John A. Macdonald off the $10 bill. I think they're just using that newfound patriotism cheaply as a
00:24:38.960
partisan weapon that they hope will win it for them. It's our job to stop that,
00:24:44.080
but the polls are tightening. Stay with us for an interview with Premier Smith next.
00:25:01.360
Well, we're joined now by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Premier, thanks so much for joining us again.
00:25:05.600
Can you give us a quick update? How are your communications going with the U.S. government?
00:25:11.280
I would say that what I've observed is that there are a lot of people around the U.S. president who
00:25:16.560
are very reasonable, very accessible, and don't want tariffs. They actually are kind of on our side
00:25:21.920
in understanding the important relationship that Canada and the U.S. enjoy. And I think we've had some
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early successes. I was just at the Houston Sierra Week conference this week, and Chris Wright,
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the Energy Secretary said that it was his view that there shouldn't be tariffs on Alberta oil and gas
00:25:36.960
at all. We also saw that when they did bring through the threat of initial tariffs, there was
00:25:42.000
a reduced rate for energy resources, and that includes critical minerals as well as electricity. I just think
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we have to make that same argument across the full range of raw materials and intermediate goods so that
00:25:53.280
we can have as much of a tariff-free relationship as possible. I think there's probably still going to be
00:25:58.640
some tariffs that are coming for a variety of reasons, but I think that we can enjoy some
00:26:03.280
special status with the U.S. as we have for many decades. The New York Times had a very
00:26:07.680
interesting story about how Claudia Scheinbaum, the Mexican president, managed to control the emotional
00:26:14.000
energy and actually persuaded Trump that she was doing all she could. And what's interesting,
00:26:19.040
if the New York Times story is accurate, is that Trump thanked her and then pivoted to just bashing
00:26:25.120
Trudeau. And I think a lot of it was a personal feud. Now that Trudeau is gone, do you think we have
00:26:32.880
a chance to restart things? I'm a little worried that Mark Carney, I mean, at least in his, you know, the
00:26:38.800
last few weeks before he was sworn in, his main target seemed to be Trump. Do you think that Mark Carney's
00:26:45.200
going to have the moral hazard of wanting to pick fights with Trump so he can play Captain Canada to
00:26:51.440
defend us? I mean, Claudia Scheinbaum sort of swallowed her pride in a way, but got the deal
00:26:56.400
done for the sake of Mexico. I'm worried that Mark Carney might want to play Trudeau's game.
00:27:01.280
What do you think? Have you talked to Mark Carney at all? I have not talked to him. We do have a
00:27:07.200
first ministers conference scheduled for this week, so that'll be the first time that the premiers are
00:27:11.440
able to get together. And I hope that's not the case. I mean, there's a lot of people who are
00:27:16.160
really hurt by a tariff war, whether it's our Canadian producers who face tariffs selling their
00:27:21.760
goods into the US, or whether it's our Canadian consumers who are trying to buy American goods.
00:27:26.480
Tariff wars do not benefit anyone. I think we have to acknowledge that that first meeting that
00:27:31.360
the prime minister went to in Mar-a-Lago set us on a bad path. I think he made two key mistakes that
00:27:38.400
the president has talked about over and over again. One, by saying that we would not meet our NATO
00:27:43.600
commitment until 2032, that's not going to be good enough. I think we should all recognize that.
00:27:48.800
And secondly, implying that somehow Canada would collapse if we had 25% tariffs on it. That really
00:27:54.240
displayed a lot of weakness. I don't feel that sense of weakness in Canada right now. I feel like,
00:27:58.800
in fact, everybody is doing everything they can to show, no, we are a strong, united country. We will
00:28:03.040
find new markets. We will support each other. And so I think the message that the prime minister
00:28:07.440
conveyed was the wrong one. And I hope that the new prime minister doesn't make the same mistakes.
00:28:12.720
I'm a bit worried though. He has Stephen Gilbeau as his new Quebec lieutenant. And I don't think he
00:28:18.880
has any Albertans. There's no Albertans in cabinet. In fact, there's only two cabinet ministers west of
00:28:24.080
Ontario. Do you have anyone on the inside of the government who's like a red telephone during the
00:28:32.560
Cold War? Is there someone you can talk to? I mean, in fairness to Mark Carney, he's doing a lot of
00:28:38.720
things at once. But does the government of Alberta have an ear in this government somewhere? Or is it
00:28:45.280
just Gilbeau all the way down? Well, I have to say, I mean, I've had a pretty good relationship in the
00:28:49.920
past with a couple of cabinet ministers. And so I'm able to be in touch with them, especially on the trade
00:28:55.680
front. And a couple of them have been quite constructive. But I mean, make no mistake, Mark Carney has been in the
00:29:02.400
background for the last 10 years advising this government on net zero power regs and net zero
00:29:07.840
emissions targets, whether it's for autos, for houses, for emissions caps, methane caps. And so
00:29:14.640
I haven't really seen much to give the indication that he's going to repeal all the terrible laws that
00:29:20.640
targeted Alberta over the last 10 years. He's gotten rid of the one that is the most visible, which is the
00:29:26.400
consumer carbon tax that you see when you fill up your tank and you and you open up your home heating
00:29:30.380
bill. But it still sounds like he's intending to not only keep the ones on industry, but make them
00:29:36.560
even higher. And I can tell you that that's just not going to be on. We've had that kind of victimization
00:29:41.220
in Alberta of our industry for the last 10 years. And I don't think Albertans will put up with it
00:29:45.180
anymore. So I haven't seen any clear indication that those terrible policies are going to be repealed.
00:29:51.040
But that's why we need to get into an election, because I'd like to know exactly where the new
00:29:55.040
prime minister stands and see where he stands relative to the opposition leader here, Polyev, and then we
00:30:01.320
can make our choice and at least go forward into negotiations with the U.S. with someone who has a
00:30:09.260
One of the things that I thought you did well, if I may, was the fact you went down to the inauguration. So you
00:30:14.440
were signaling, I come in peace. I mean, it was a basic step of neighborly friendship. It would be like if
00:30:21.980
someone moves into the house next door, you come over with some, you know, groceries or a cake or
00:30:26.340
something, it's welcome. You know, and I think you were the only premier who did that. And I thought,
00:30:32.000
you know what, they use a certain language in America first Trump circles. It's sort of different
00:30:37.480
than how Canadians talk. And as you know, I wrote a book called Deal of the Century, the America first
00:30:44.320
plan for Canada's oil science. And I thought, can we make the case for Canada, not necessarily in the
00:30:50.500
language that we would use ourselves, but something that might click with Trump and his
00:30:55.320
Commerce Secretary Lutnik and others down there. So I've been testing it out with different America
00:31:01.120
first allies. Like I've done a lot of Trump adjacent interviews with Charlie Kirk and Dinesh
00:31:07.080
D'Souba, Benny Johnson. Like I've really been, and I've been saying, look, let's flip the script.
00:31:12.560
When Trudeau is gone, let's turn over New Leaf. Instead of pushing away Canadian oil with tariffs,
00:31:18.420
pull it in closer. Buy more, get the Keystone XL pipeline active. Like it was almost done.
00:31:27.000
And I said, well, maybe think like a real estate developer. Think of this as the deal of the
00:31:31.880
century and lock in 170 billion barrels over 50 years, completely free yourself from OPEC conflict
00:31:40.440
oil. And by the way, you're going to spend $13 trillion doing that. Now Canada has no excuse for
00:31:46.700
not spending money on its military. Like I was trying to think, what would a, what would an
00:31:50.780
advisor to President Trump say and do? And all the people I've met with, I've probably done half a
00:31:56.740
dozen America first type interviews. And they all said, that's a good idea. I just to get away from
00:32:04.960
the feud that President Trump seems to have with the liberals. Here's one thing they asked me,
00:32:10.280
and I wanted to put it to you. And I was hoping you could answer it on camera to show them.
00:32:15.260
They all say, could we go ahead and increase our, our purchases of Alberta oil? Do we need
00:32:23.320
to negotiate a new deal? And I thought it's already there in the USMCA in the side letter on energy.
00:32:29.040
And really the, the industry is ready. Premier Smith, if an America first advisor is watching
00:32:36.240
this video, could you with the Alberta industry ramp up your oil production and send maybe even
00:32:46.220
double as much oil to the United States? Could you and Alberta displace OPEC conflict oil
00:32:55.160
for American imports? Well, I can tell you that we certainly could double our production of oil and
00:33:00.920
gas, especially if we're building pipelines, East, West, North and South. I already have seen a number
00:33:07.400
of proposals that have come forward going south that could see us sell an extra 2 million barrels
00:33:11.660
per day by 2030 and more beyond that, if the Americans are interested. So keep in mind, that would
00:33:16.920
be a 50% increase in what we're already selling to the Americans. And it would make good sense for them
00:33:21.580
because when we sell oil to the US, we do it at a discounted value just because we have a heavier
00:33:27.680
product. And so it requires more upgrading. And as a result, we do sell it at a discount,
00:33:32.660
keeps prices for American consumers low. And it goes to one of the biggest refining capacity for heavy
00:33:39.120
oil in the United States, which is Texas. And so the Americans don't have a lot of other options when
00:33:45.820
it comes to this heavy grade of oil. They can look at Venezuela, they can look at Iran. And I've always
00:33:51.220
argued that we're a much better trading partner than that. But you're also seeing a couple of
00:33:55.140
other factors. One is that you're seeing some of their traditional conventional resources that
00:34:02.040
they're falling off in production. That's what happens with shale. It comes on in a flood and then
00:34:07.360
the reservoir gets exhausted. That's not the case with Canadian oil. We mine it. And so we know where
00:34:14.700
it is. It's just a matter of having to take the sand out of it so that we can turn it into a useful
00:34:18.580
product. So we have the advantage as they potentially have declining resources to be
00:34:23.340
able to backfill. But even if they don't, we can we can be a joint powerhouse because the world needs
00:34:29.100
both. They need WTI and they also need heavy oil. And we can be in partnership to make sure that that
00:34:34.640
gets to trading partners around the world. But at least by building pipelines to the US, they would
00:34:39.700
have the first offer to buy it. If it is the case that they do need it, if they don't, then we can
00:34:44.640
have it go to the Gulf Coast and export to India, export to our friends in Europe. There's a lot of
00:34:50.200
opportunities for us to work together on that. And I hope we can get past the tariffs so that we can
00:34:54.400
begin to have that conversation because there's a huge amount of opportunity and I sure don't want
00:34:57.760
to waste time. Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, sort of filled the void when Mark Carney and Justin
00:35:03.860
Trudeau were in their interregnum. And I think he got in trouble a bit by making some threats to
00:35:09.560
churning out the electricity. And it felt like Secretary of Commerce Lutnik called him out on
00:35:13.860
the carpet. I wonder if it's possible for you as the friendliest Premier, I don't know if I can say
00:35:20.920
that, or the most open-minded Premier, let me say that, if you could do some positive commercial
00:35:28.120
diplomacy and say, look, we don't actually have to fight Ottawa Liberals. We have the legal structures
00:35:34.360
in place, the USMCA. We have the pipeline plan, the Keystone XL. Let's just do it. Like, do you need
00:35:42.740
to wait for Melanie Jolie, or I forget who the new foreign minister is, do you really need to wait for
00:35:48.000
them? Or could you theoretically meet with Secretary of Lutnik and say, look, don't be trapped in this bad
00:35:54.200
relationship with the Liberals. You got a great relationship with Alberta. Let's just do it. Let's
00:36:00.180
just get it done. Well, I can tell you, I have met with members of the administration most recently
00:36:05.120
in CERA week in Houston with that exact message is that we own the resource. We have the will and
00:36:12.440
the interest to de-risk pipelines if we need to by pledging barrels on it. And we would work in
00:36:17.660
partnership to make that happen. However, it has to be in the context of a tariff-free relationship
00:36:22.640
because it's a bit of a mixed message if they do put a 10% tariff on oil and then say,
00:36:27.380
we want to buy more of it. I would say that if we can get to the point where we have a tariff-free
00:36:32.200
relationship, those conversations can begin very, very quickly. And that's the message that we did
00:36:37.260
want to send when I went down to Houston is that to the world and not just to the Americans, we have
00:36:43.440
a mechanism called our Alberta Petroleum Marketing Agency, which allows us to ink deals directly.
00:36:48.740
We're very close to selling 50,000 barrels a day to a European refinery. We'll announce that very soon.
00:36:54.000
There's another company that wants to help market 100,000 barrels per day of our product to Europe.
00:36:59.220
And who knows, maybe we could get a direct sale to the U.S. Department of Defense in the same way.
00:37:04.880
But that's the point is it is Alberta's resource. We have the ability to get it to market.
00:37:10.860
And I think we now finally have an historic alignment across all political parties that we've
00:37:15.820
got to be supporting each other rather than standing in the way. So I would love to start those
00:37:20.080
conversations in earnest. But I think we have to get through this skirmish that we're having right
00:37:25.740
now over tariffs and hopefully emerge on the other side with the vast, vast bulk of our resources being
00:37:31.920
tariff-free. Last question. I know you have to go. Thank you so much for spending this much time with
00:37:36.880
us. If you could boil down your message to the America First president and his team,
00:37:44.460
what's your value proposition? How would you change how he looks at Alberta oil and Canadian oil?
00:37:53.660
I think we've had some success. I mean, the argument that I've made is that they already
00:37:58.260
do get a deal on Canadian oil. They buy it at a discount. They're able to upgrade it,
00:38:03.240
create great American jobs and great American products. And then Canada buys those products
00:38:07.940
back in greater numbers than anyone else in the world. We're also the U.S. greatest customer.
00:38:11.940
So if you can take $100 billion worth of Canadian oil and turn it into $300 billion with the value
00:38:18.580
added export products and products that your own citizens can use, that's a pretty good deal. It's
00:38:22.720
a 300% return. So I would say that why wouldn't the U.S. be interested in doing more of that so that
00:38:29.060
we can continue to back them on maintaining low prices for their citizens, but also helping Americans
00:38:35.260
exert energy dominance around the world? I share that aspiration. I think we can be an absolute
00:38:40.980
partner in being able to do that. Yeah. And the U.S. Navy doesn't have to protect
00:38:45.060
Alberta oil from the Houthi terrorists. I mean, that's part of the argument is if you buy your
00:38:51.060
oil from North America, you don't have to spend $50 billion a year patrolling the Persian Gulf,
00:38:55.540
which is what the Americans do. That's an America first message too, by the way.
00:38:59.620
And the more oil that we sell to the United States, the more revenues it generates also for
00:39:04.320
the federal government. And then they'll have some dollars to be able to meet our NATO
00:39:07.660
commitment so that we can start monitoring and policing our North as well and be that partner
00:39:12.520
that they're looking for in North America energy security and international continental security
00:39:17.320
as well. So I think there's a perfect partnership that we would be able to have. We just have to
00:39:21.620
get through this latest round of tension. I know trade relationships always have tensions,
00:39:26.500
but the sooner we can get past this, I think the sooner we can get on to making sure that both
00:39:30.880
nations are able to prosper. Well, thanks so much for joining us. I'm going to do my best to get
00:39:35.420
your comments in front of some, I mean, I know you're doing amazing things. I saw you in action
00:39:41.200
in January in Washington, you had a whole team working and you were meeting with officials and
00:39:47.320
politics in assembly line. I want the America first movement to say Canada is not an enemy.
00:39:54.400
Maybe Trudeau was, and maybe Mark Carney is, but Canada is not, and certainly not Canadian
00:39:59.440
imports of, exports of oil. I mean, that's the America first solution, not the problem.
00:40:05.020
So thank you for saying these things and, and please keep it up. I, I think you were actually
00:40:10.540
the most positive force in our bilateral relationship. I mean, I don't, hopefully Mark
00:40:16.280
Carney will see the light, but I sort of skeptical. Thanks very much. And let's keep in touch in the
00:40:20.320
weeks ahead. Let's do it. Thank you. Thanks for advocating as well. Thanks for your recent book.
00:40:24.580
I'm going to be very interested when I talk to Americans to see how it's being received.
00:40:28.580
Right on. Thank you very much. There you have it. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Good luck.
00:40:41.360
Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me, Louise Hislop says,
00:40:45.620
if Eastern Canada votes in Trudeau 2.0, many Western Canadians will be ready to leave this very
00:40:51.080
unhappy marriage. We're tired of being plundered by Eastern Canada. You know, there really is a
00:40:57.700
regional divide. And I mean, if you saw my monologue 10 minutes ago, Mark Carney is a deep believer in net
00:41:05.900
zero and transitioning off carbon. And he's pro China. I just, I think he's going to do everything
00:41:16.500
Trudeau did to us, but it's going to be smarter and better at it, which is dangerous.
00:41:21.220
Lisa, or Lisa Y says, it's disgusting how they all laugh, cough and smirk when Carney said,
00:41:28.340
buy November for the election. It's insulting to us, the hardworking Canadian people who paid their
00:41:33.220
inflated salaries. They don't deserve any of it. You know, this Mark Carney, he's got that Davos vibe
00:41:40.500
to him. He's a master of the universe. He's a VVIP. Of course, he flies in a private jet while telling
00:41:47.300
you to go net zero. I was thinking about his trip around the world to put together this anti-Trump
00:41:54.300
coalition. He's actually the man to do it. Not Emmanuel Macron or Keir Starmer. Keir Starmer
00:42:00.920
has spent the last 20 years of his life working and plotting and organizing to become the leader of
00:42:06.840
the Labour Party and then the Labour Prime Minister of the UK. Oh, believe me, that's a full-time job.
00:42:11.720
Same with Emmanuel Macron in France. Same with any European leader in their country.
00:42:17.380
They're focused mainly on what they do domestically. And yeah, they're interested in Trump, of course,
00:42:21.840
but the main thing is domestic politics. But Mark Carney, on the board of directors of the World
00:42:26.860
Economic Forum, has done nothing but make these international connections for sort of a globalist,
00:42:33.320
leftist, environmentalist cause. So if you were to ask me, who has the ability to put together
00:42:38.400
an anti-Trump coalition? Macron, Keir Starmer, the new German leader whose name I've forgotten,
00:42:46.180
or Mark Carney, I'd say Carney every time. Monica Pushkin says, I cannot even imagine Carney meeting
00:42:56.040
Trump. Well, it'll be very interesting if it does happen. And it is quite unusual that there hasn't
00:43:02.160
been a word from either side to the other in a week. Well, that's our show for today. Until tomorrow,
00:43:10.340
on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, see you at home. Good night.