Ezra Levant Show June 11 2018
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Summary
We're on the brink of a full-blown trade war between the United States and Canada, and Canada's auto industry is in jeopardy. It's as bad as it gets, and it's coming from a president who is dedicated to bringing factories back to the US.
Transcript
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Tonight, we're on the brink of a full-blown trade war with the United States and Canada's
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auto industries in jeopardy. It's June 11th and you're watching The Ezra LeVant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.
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You come here once a year with a sign and you feel morally superior.
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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my
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We're in a trade war. It's as bad as it gets because for the first time in living memory,
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the United States is a president who is absolutely dedicated to bringing factories back to the United
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States after a generation of offshoring. I've heard what Trump's doing is called reshoring,
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which is a word you rarely hear because it's really never happened before.
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But it's happening under Trump. Whether it's Apple repatriating more than $250 billion,
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this says nearly $245 billion. Let's just call it a quarter trillion dollars.
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Back to America from other countries where they had put it for tax reasons.
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Or the booming energy industry, just for another example, where Trump wants to turn America from
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a net energy importer to an energy exporter. It's actually what Trump campaigned on.
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Industry and jobs. That and building the wall with Mexico, which is related in some ways.
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The media, which is comprised mainly of coastal elites in LA and New York, they cared about their
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pet ideological issues. The fact that Hillary Clinton was a woman or Trump's personality. But
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This is our mantra, buy American and hire American.
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Do you recall one of the very first meetings that Trump convened at the White House after his
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inauguration in January? It was with blue-collar trade unions who almost always support the
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Democrats. He met with them and he ripped up the proposed TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership
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trade deal. He just ripped it up. And all those big labor bosses, the teamsters, the steelworkers,
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they were stunned, I think. Maybe, maybe Donald Trump was for real.
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When the president laid out his plans about how he's going to handle trade, how he's going
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to invest in our infrastructure, and how he's going to level a playing field for construction
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workers and all Americans across this country, and then took the time to take everyone into
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the Oval Office and show them the seat of power in the world. The respect that the president
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of the United States just showed us, and when he shows it to us, he shows it to three million
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of our members in the United States. It was nothing short of incredible. And we will work
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with him and his administration to help him implement his plans on infrastructure, trade,
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and energy policy, so that we really do put America back to work in the middle-class jobs
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that our members and all Americans are demanding. Thank you very much.
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That was 500 days ago. I think he's proven he's pretty serious, don't you?
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The media doesn't understand blue-collar things, since they live in elite bubbles. When was the last
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time some pundit from McLean's magazine or the CBC actually stepped onto a factory floor or visited
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a mine or a construction site? Never. They hate that kind of stuff. So they don't take Trump
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seriously when he talks about that. Trudeau was surrounded by fancy people who were very good
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at jet-setting to TED Talks and Davos, but they don't actually know how to do anything or build
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anything, so they don't know how much Trump cares about bringing factories back to places like Michigan
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and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Indiana and Wisconsin because they don't care. Those are uncool
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places and uncool businesses, like making cars in Michigan boring. They only like Tesla cars because
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they're virtue signals on wheels. These kind of lefty politicians, they like companies like Instagram
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and Facebook that aren't really about anything. So the media doesn't get it. Everyone thinks Trump's
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shtick is just that. It's an act. He's bluffing, maybe. But I think he means it. Can I ask you a question?
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In any of Trump's dealings with foreign leaders over the past 500 days, has he ever bluffed? Whether
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it's sending cruise missiles after Bashar Assad in Syria or actually putting massive tariffs on China
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or canceling a nuke deal with Iran, can you please show me where he's been faking it or just bluffing
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or just kidding around? I don't recall such an instance. But now Donald Trump is coming for our
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Canadian car factories. And it's obvious why. We sell about a million more cars into the U.S. than
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they sell up to us. If Trump brings those cars or their factories back to America, to Michigan, Ohio,
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and the steel comes from Indiana, Pennsylvania, he's going to be president again in 2020. And more than
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that, he really will have lived up to his motto, like it or not, make America great again, buy American,
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hire American, at least for people who were forgotten or ignored in the past.
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Now, I've shown you this steelworker's ad before. I won't show you the whole thing now, but it's a
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middle-aged steelworker from Indiana who was actually campaigning against Trump in 2016,
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basically saying Trump was lying. He didn't mean any of his promises about steel.
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I actually found this guy. He's a real steelworker. He's not an actor. His name is Jack Tippold.
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We're Facebook friends now. I've asked him on Facebook if he'll support Trump in 2020. Now,
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he won't tell me, and I suspect he's a diehard Democrat in public, but I'm pretty sure every
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single other person in his factory is going to be voting for Trump, and he probably will, too,
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secretly. Wouldn't it be great if we had a prime minister who went to bat for industrial workers
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in Canada? Imagine all the industry that goes into a pipeline. I mean, talking about steel.
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So Donald Trump arrived at the G7 in Canada meeting a few days ago, and he sits down for a very short
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sort of introductory photo op with Justin Trudeau, and he tells a joke. Trump's always making jokes,
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even if he's dead serious, maybe especially if he's dead serious. Most of the time, the media
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pretends not to know it's a joke, or they genuinely don't get the joke. But can I show you the joke?
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Because there's never a truer word spoken than in jest. Listen to this.
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We both got elected on a commitment to grow the middle class and help those working hard to join it,
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and that's exactly the kinds of things that we're going to stay focused on, and it's a pleasure to have you
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here, Donald. Well, Justin, it's been really great, and I appreciate, you know, Justin has agreed
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to cut all tariffs and all trade barriers between Canada and the United States, so I'm very happy
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about that. So I'd say NAFTA's in good shape. But we are actually working on it. We are actually working
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on it. Now, that was a joke. There were some giggles there, so people knew it was a joke. Now,
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they had not actually come to that agreement, but I think that's what Trump wants, doesn't he? That was
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the point of the joke. I mean, I think he wants an end to trade barriers. He keeps saying he does. He
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keeps acting like he does. The joke, the reason that was funny, ha-ha, is that he was pretending
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that he had already come to that deal with Trudeau, which is a very complicated deal. He pretended
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that they had a deal already. But would you agree with me in that joke? He sort of revealed
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what he wanted? And don't we want that, too, in Canada? I mean, we're right next to America
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geographically. We don't want, I mean, for God's sakes, we have the longest undefended border in
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the world, right? We're right next to the world's most important market, right? 90% of Canadians
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literally live within an hour or two of the U.S. border. Our economies are so linked. Why
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wouldn't Trudeau actually just jump right in and say yes? It's a deal. Lawyers will work out
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the details. Trump said some other things, too. It could be that NAFTA will be a different
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form. It could be with Canada, with Mexico, one-on-one, much simpler agreement, much easier
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to do. I think better for both countries, but we're talking about that, among other things.
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But the relationship is probably better, as good or better than it's ever been. And I
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think we'll get to something very beneficial to Canada and to the United States.
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Isn't that where Trudeau says, yes, I do, me too? Why wouldn't we say, yeah, let's just
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have a two-way deal, just can in the United States, best buddies. Yeah, Mexico, the picture,
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they're so different. They irritate America in different ways, and Mexico does, including
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with cheap labor and illegal immigration. Let's just get our own deal and wish the Mexicans
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well. We have no hard feelings towards them, but let's just make sure we are not lumped in
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with them when Trump brings down the hammer. Well, Trump was focused on North Korea, by
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the way. I mean, Trump has been preparing for that historical meeting for weeks. The
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meeting actually happened today in Singapore. Trump didn't even want to go to the G7 meeting.
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I mean, those are all leaders he can just talk to any day, just picks up the phone when he
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wants to. I mean, we know that Justin Trudeau loves field trips and foreign trips and vacations.
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Trump has some real business to deal with. So you'll forgive Trump that he showed up a little
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bit late to a G7 breakfast meeting on women's equality and intersectionality. This is a picture
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of that. Boy, did the liberal media mock Trump for that. Justin Trudeau literally gave a speech
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at the G7 that he wanted Trump to sit through about feminism and intersectionality. That is a
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postmodern Marxist phrase that means you can't just be feminist. You have to be a feminist
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of color or a trans feminist or something else. Can you imagine Trump sitting there listening
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to Trudeau blather on like some college blogger or something instead of Trump preparing for
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his North Korean summit? Or how about instead of looking at it from Trump's point of view,
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instead of Trudeau focusing on feminism, how about focusing on NAFTA? But look, Trudeau's
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gonna be Trudeau. He doesn't have any depth on any policy file other than marijuana. While he was
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surely going to have fun at the G7 like the host of a big fun party, his only real goal with Trump was
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to do no harm, right? Let Trump come and go without starting a fight, right? You saw that video. They
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got off to look like a good start to me. The problem is Trudeau is surrounded by people who hate Trump and
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say so privately all the time and publicly some of the time too. So Trudeau has to be careful. He has to be
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on guard not to talk about Trump in person like he talks about Trump behind his back.
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Like the example here. This is the father of Trudeau's communications director. His name is Bruce
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Anderson. He's saying Canada should try to kick the United States out of the G7. He claims that Trump
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actually likes North Korea more than he likes Canada. That's the implication here. As if Trump's not
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going to bring that dictator to heel. But this is how they think inside the liberal brain trust. I mean,
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that is crazy talk, but that's the father of Trudeau's right-hand woman. That's what he's saying
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in public. Imagine what he says in private. This is the house husband of Catherine McKenna,
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Trudeau's environment minister, same Scott Gilmore. He's actually calling for Canada to put
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economic sanctions on Trump and his family. My point is Trudeau and his circle are so hateful
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towards Trump. They're unprofessional and unguarded, and they had to keep on their best behavior
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just 48 hours until Trump was gone, and they just couldn't do it. So things worked out pretty
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well until the very end, and only after Trump had gone on his plane and flown away en route to North
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Korea, only after Trump had flown off, Trudeau did a press conference where he said Canada wasn't going
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to be pushed around anymore, as in he was talking tough, only now that Trump was gone. After all,
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I guess they don't have phones on Air Force One or something. Oh, they do. Trump saw that pushback,
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and so he tweeted from the plane. He said, PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our
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G7 meetings, only to give a news conference after I left saying that U.S. tariffs were kind of insulting,
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and it will not be pushed around. Very dishonest and weak. Our tariffs are in response to his of
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270% on dairy. I believe that, actually. I believe that Trudeau was obsequious in person
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and only pushed back bravely after Trump was gone. I believe that. He was only brave after the fact.
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Absolutely, I believe it. I mean, this weird New York Times piece today shows how terrified Trudeau
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is of Trump. Look at this. He literally practiced, practiced handshaking. He had like a handshake
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trainer or something before meeting Trump. So Trump is busy studying tough policy files,
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trade files, peace with North Korea files, and Trudeau is practicing how to shake hands.
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And then bragging about that to the New York Times, I guess. If you think that's bad,
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look at our foreign minister. Listen to Christia Freeland talk about how she likes to really negotiate
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trade deals. The European Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, and I call each other sisters
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in trade. We sign our emails, hugs. Really? You actually do that?
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We sometimes send each other smiley faces in particularly difficult moments.
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So yeah, hugs. I don't know if Trump is a hugger. Not sure if we've got the right people on the job
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here, do you? But again, the goal was just do no harm. Let's get through the weekend. Trump's going to
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forget about all of us when he goes to North Korea. But Justin Trudeau couldn't help it. So now,
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like it or not, fair or not, overreaction or not, Donald Trump says he's coming for us. And he's
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coming for the thing he actually cares about, our auto industry. And he's particularly focused
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on our dairy industry as the excuse. He says it has a 270% protective tariff, including new tariffs
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brought in by Justin Trudeau just two years ago. Bizarrely, just as Trump was coming to power,
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Trudeau thought that would be a good time to bring in more tariffs on the state. So reckless.
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But remember back to that first video I showed you, this one.
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Justin has agreed to cut all tariffs and all trade barriers between Canada and the United States.
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Why not just say right there, yeah, yes, please. Thank you. How on earth is a total free trade
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agreement? No barriers. Not the dream outcome for Canada. We're right next to the enormous US market.
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We speak English like they do. They are just across the bridge or the highway. We are friends.
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How on earth could we not make out like bandits here? In fact, those Quebec dairy farmers,
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how could they not win with the massive US market for their fancy cheese? Well, Trudeau refused. He
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refused for weird reasons. You heard Trump. He wanted a Canada-US deal. Get Mexico in their own deal.
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No Mexico involved. Trudeau refused that? Why? Were you virtue signaling white knighting for the Mexicans?
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Trump wanted a five-year deal to be renegotiated, reviewed after five years.
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Trudeau refused. Why? The current deal has a six-month cancellation provision.
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How is a five-year deal worse than one that can be canceled in six months notice? Which, by the way,
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Trump has already formally given. Why are we nitpicking with this guy who just offered us free
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access to the world's most important market? Why don't we say, you know, you're joking, but we're in
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if you're in. Why didn't we do that? Trump's not just mad at Canada. He's mad at Europe. Look at this
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great picture. He's adamant, isn't he? Look at them all staring down at him, Angela Merkel.
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But look at him. He's defiant. He don't care. I suppose you could look at this picture and say,
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Angela Merkel, she's my hero. She's speaking truth to power. But I think Jack Tippold looks
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at this picture and says, good Lord. Oh my God, he's actually fighting for steel.
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And add to that the fact that the U.S. pays close to the entire cost of NATO,
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protecting many of these same countries that rip us off on trade. They pay only a fraction of the cost
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and laugh. The European Union had a $151 billion surplus, should pay much more for military.
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Is he wrong? We all know he's right. I mean, he's mad at Germany there, but he's mad at Canada too,
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because isn't he right? Americans pay to protect us, and all he wants is to be able to sell some
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dairy and some cars here and some steel, and he wants an end to our tariffs. Is he right or wrong
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about who pays to protect us? I mean, I don't care if you're a new Democrat or a communist. You know how
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much he pays to protect us compared to how much we pay to protect ourselves.
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And it's Trump's offer, free trade on everything. Is that so odious to us? Don't we actually want
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that? Well, not if you're a Quebec dairy farmer, because you're making out like a bandit because
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of the dairy cartel. So what's more important to Canada? Quebec dairy farmers making super profits,
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profits, or I don't know, the auto industry? Because I actually think that's the choice we have now.
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Based on Justin, let me read this as a Trump tweet here. Based on Justin's false statements at his
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news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive tariffs to our U.S. farmers,
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workers, and companies, I have instructed our U.S. reps not to endorse the communique
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as we look at tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. market. Yikes. And it's true. We sell them
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about a million cars a year more than they sell to us. Trump wants those factories back in Michigan
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and Ohio. But Trudeau won't budge on dairy? And he'll tell Trump that he's a bully? Now, to be fair
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to Trudeau, Trudeau's language at the press conference that got Trump mad wasn't particularly extreme.
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He just said Trump was trying to push Canada around, and we're insulted. But was Trump actually
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trying to insult Canada, push Canada around, or was he actually just trying to reduce tariffs?
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I don't think that what Trudeau did is a grievous, wounding insult. But don't you know one thing about
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Trump? Don't we all know one thing about Trump? That Trump's rule of thumb when it comes to insults is
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if anyone insults him, he punches back tenfold. Don't we know that about Trump? Friend or foe,
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don't we know that about him? Why would you say that Donald Trump is insulting us and pushing us
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around? Why would you say that in public, at least, when in private you are meek, which I absolute
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believe he was? Why, when your only proper goal is to maximize Canada's relationship with America,
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Trump or not? Well, like I say, because Justin Trudeau and his handlers all despise Trump.
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Trump and saying, I'm insulted and stop pushing us around, that was the most polite they can be
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towards Trump. And you know what? Trudeau and his people, they don't mind a trade war because look
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at them denouncing Trump. I bet they move up in the polls a few points because our media,
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our cultural establishment, they all hate Trump. So they love that Trudeau is now the world's hero
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at fighting with Trump. Angela Merkel is smarter than that. France's Emmanuel Macron is smarter than
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that. The UK's Theresa May is smarter than that because they want something from Trump. They want
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trade, they want military protection, whatever. Trudeau is sacrificing our auto industry for the dairy
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farmers, but really for an ideological poke. Poke a stick in his eye for a campaign issue, maybe.
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I mean, I bet that in the last 48 hours, Justin Trudeau has been overwhelmed by love and support
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from the globalist left. Here's Donald Tusk, the unelected president of the EU Council, which is,
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by the way, one of five different unelected European Union presidents. Have you ever even heard of Donald
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Tusk before? There's a special place in heaven for Justin Trudeau, he writes. Canada, thank you for the
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perfect organization of G7. Perfect. He's not referring to concierges and waiters. He's referring
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to Trudeau embarrassing Trump. So big win, you got Donald Tusk on side. Is he going to buy a million
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cars here? Evan Solomon, who I increasingly regard as the only independent journalist in Ottawa,
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here's what he wrote. He said, this is the biggest threat of all, tariffs on automobiles. A senior source
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told me this would be close to an existential threat to our economy. This is very, very dangerous,
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hard to overestimate. Here's a former liberal premier of Quebec, Jean Charest, saying the same
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thing. If Trump follows through on the threat to put tariffs on autos, it will be a catastrophe for
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Canada. I say again, why not just say to Trump, yeah, free trade, your joke there? That's no joke to
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us. Let's do it. We totally want it. Let's just do it. No tariffs. Happy to get out of the Mexico deal.
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They're big boys. They can handle themselves. Everyone in Canada knows the dairy cartel is
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awful for Canadians. It makes milk and cheese and yogurt very expensive for consumers. It hits poor
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people the hardest. Because if you're rich, you're not drinking 10 times more milk than a poor person.
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You just have 10 times more money. The poorest people have to buy their milk. We all know the
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dairy cartel is wrong. What a great excuse Trump's offering us to actually get rid of the dairy cartel.
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And we could say, well, we had to do it. Dairy farmers, sorry, Trump made us.
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That would have given us two wins. Give Trump a concession. It's actually something we secretly
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want to do, get rid of the dairy cartels, and we get to save our steel and auto industry.
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Instead, we'll have neither. All the liberal hangers-on were so gleeful this weekend. They
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all value smearing Trump more than actual public policy that helps Canadians. Here's Andrew Scheer,
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leader of the Conservatives, based in Saskatchewan. And what does he have to say about this?
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It's what he said on Friday when Trump arrived. He said,
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I spoke with the media in Saguenay, Quebec, today and reaffirmed the Conservative Party of Canada's
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commitment to Canada's supply management system and support for dairy farmers.
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And Trudeau needs to explain what he meant when he said he was open to flexibility on that file
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when negotiating with the U.S. and what concessions he offered to them from Canada's dairy industry.
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So Andrew Scheer was actually demanding that Justin Trudeau dig in harder on behalf of Quebec's dairy
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cartel. I mean, we all know that's how Andrew Scheer beat Maxime Bernier by literally 1% of the Tory
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leadership last year. Scheer gamed the system very cleverly. He realized that a party member's vote
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in Quebec was worth many more times than it was in Ontario or Alberta because each riding got the
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same number of points in the system. So if you sell 10 memberships, you could dominate a riding in
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Quebec that you'd need to sell 100 to dominate somewhere else. So Andrew Scheer made a promise
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to Quebec dairy farmers. If they support him, he'd support them. That's all this policy is based on.
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A deal a year ago with some Quebec dairy farmers, that's not in Canada's interest and it's not
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conservative. Jason Kenney and Doug Ford echoed Scheer's comments. Here's Kenney. He said,
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you could see yourself, he downplayed our 270% dairy farmers. He said, we've had a 60-year-old
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Canadian supply management system. And by the way, the U.S. has dairy subsidies. So lay off. Well,
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I think that's the point, Jason. That's what we're trying to do here, get free trade. Or at least
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that's what Trump's trying to do. I'm not sure if arguing that dairy subsidies have been going on
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since the 1950s rebuts Trump's point about years and years and years of unfair trade, does it?
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I think it sort of makes Trump's point. I know that Jason Kenney doesn't like Trump. A number of
00:23:30.780
conservatives don't. But I'm not sure if siding with Justin Trudeau, who clearly wants to scuttle
00:23:36.060
the deal and campaign against Trump, I'm not sure if that helps Canada or Albertans in Jason's case.
00:23:41.080
I'm pretty sure if things keep going downhill, Alberta will be punished by Trump too, whether it's
00:23:45.600
agriculture or energy. Remember the beef ban 10 years ago. Look, I like Trump, but I know he's
00:23:51.800
not everyone's cup of tea. I don't like that he's going to war with Trudeau because we're all going
00:23:56.760
to be hurt by it. I'm not trying to side with Trump. I'm trying to understand what Trump is saying and
00:24:04.420
doing. I'm siding with Canadians against the Quebec dairy cartel that is the problem here,
00:24:11.120
against Trudeau's sociopathic anti-Americanism, against picking a fight with our closest ally,
00:24:18.280
just out of reasons of ideological hate and personal disagreements. And as a 2019 re-election
00:24:23.700
tactic, I'd be against this if it were Barack Obama on the other side. Look, this is going off the rails.
00:24:30.140
And you know what? The laziest prime minister in a generation just took another personal day off.
00:24:36.600
He set NAFTA on fire on the weekend. And look at this. This is his official itinerary.
00:24:42.300
He just wants to kick back and watch the world burn. He needs a day off.
00:24:48.320
Trump doesn't care. Look, Trump's already off to Singapore. I think he's on his way back already.
00:24:52.600
Canada is small potatoes to him. But Justin Trudeau? Actually, I don't think he cares either
00:24:57.860
because he's the world's anti-Trump hero now. And that's all that he and his staff care about.
00:25:04.500
That and Quebec dairy cartels. Stay with us. We're doing the whole show on this.
00:25:13.620
Welcome back. Well, I've been trying to follow this in real time, as so many aspects of the news are.
00:25:37.100
Twitter is not just a way for us to learn the news. It's a way for Donald Trump to spread the news.
00:25:42.240
And Justin Trudeau and others, too. And so all this happened so quickly over the weekend.
00:25:47.680
And one of the people I was following most closely because he had such a keen eye is my friend Manny
00:25:53.140
Montanagrino, a former national partner at a significant law firm based in Ottawa.
00:25:59.160
He worked in as amongst his clients for Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party.
00:26:03.420
So he comes from a conservative perspective, but he also has the keen eye of a senior lawyer.
00:26:10.060
And what he sees here deeply troubles him as well. Joining us now via Skype is Manny Montanagrino,
00:26:15.820
the president and CEO of Think Sharp. Manny, good to see you. I don't know if I don't think I did you
00:26:20.680
proper justice in your introduction, but I'll let your words speak for themselves.
00:26:24.880
What is the number one thing that worries you about this fight between Trump and Trudeau?
00:26:29.100
That we are going to be decimated. Canada is going on the wrong path. And I understand what
00:26:37.760
is happening. And I'm surprised that we have not heard the other story or the strategy coming out
00:26:44.900
of Trump. We tend to dismiss him. We tend to ridicule him. We tend to make light of him and joke.
00:26:52.580
But the man is very serious and the man is purposeful and the man has been successful
00:26:58.160
and we should take him seriously. And I have. And I've reviewed what he's done. I've reviewed what
00:27:03.960
Mr. Trudeau has done. And I'm deeply alarmed for Canada.
00:27:07.640
Well, that's the thing is people can object to Donald Trump's style or even his language.
00:27:13.420
And I mean, you can be nitpicky about it. But I see some senior world leaders have said,
00:27:20.580
all right, so Donald Trump is a phenomenon, a force of nature we have to deal with. But let's deal with
00:27:25.080
it in our interest. It looks like Japan has really tried hard to say, all right, we don't quite
00:27:31.100
understand what's going on here. But we know it's so important to Japan to be on the right side of
00:27:35.480
this because Japan is still reliant on America for its defense, especially in the age of China
00:27:40.480
and North Korea. So I think Shinzo Abe has visited the White House and talked to Trump so often.
00:27:47.680
And he's not getting involved in stupid Twitter fights or he's just saying, how can I protect
00:27:52.700
Japan? And I think even some European leaders are biting their tongue, even if they have a beef
00:27:57.940
with him, Manny. That's my point is they don't care about personal, you know, drives. They're just
00:28:02.900
thinking, how do I save Japan? How do I save Taiwan? How do I save South Korea? How do I protect
00:28:09.560
Italy? You know, go ahead. Exactly. Well, let's go through that. We're talking about the trade
00:28:14.420
dispute that's escalating. What we haven't heard is the other side. We dismiss everything coming from
00:28:22.200
the USA. And there's a lot of rhetoric going around. And it sounds great to be a nationalist
00:28:27.840
Canadian. I mean, on my Twitter, I post the fact that I was called by a prime minister as an
00:28:34.980
unwavering patriot. I will fight for Canada, anything that comes in Canada's way. And I feel
00:28:41.040
myself in this biggest battle that I've been involved in my 30 years in this fight. The trade
00:28:50.100
is completely, people are not getting the proper view. Trump has made it very clear at the outset,
00:28:57.100
Canada is not a problem. It's Mexico. And the numbers prove that. There's a huge deficit with
00:29:02.140
Mexico. But yet, for some way, Trudeau throws himself into the mix. It would have been very easy
00:29:09.160
to sign up a trade deal and move on with the USA because its focus is on the injustices around
00:29:17.080
every trade deal that they have. Now, China has agreed with Trump and has offered and has agreed to
00:29:26.020
buy $200 billion more in goods. South Korea has agreed. So Trump has already succeeded in his trade
00:29:34.260
discussion, his trade advancement around the world. United States, and he says it, and we don't listen.
00:29:42.840
He said, United States has already lost the trade war. Those are profound words. It's a big statement.
00:29:50.140
United States has lost $800 billion a year every year. Trump is not afraid of the war because they
00:29:57.720
are already being decimated in the war. He doesn't see losing the trade war. He sees winning by engaging
00:30:04.320
in the discussion of a trade war. We don't listen to that. He's already picked up $200 or $300 billion
00:30:10.840
in his quest around the world. Mexico and Canada are being obstinate. Why? And this is what troubles me.
00:30:19.320
Now, another thing is, what has Trump said in the trade deal that's offensive to Canada?
00:30:26.600
I have not found, and I put hours of research into this, I have not found one proposal that's
00:30:33.400
offensive to Canada. I know of six or seven proposals that Canada has given to the U.S.
00:30:39.140
that was roundly rejected by China, by Japan, by Australia, and now by the U.S.
00:30:44.720
I know where the injustices lie, and it is protecting the marketing boards that we have in Canada. It's
00:30:51.600
looking for those virtue signal causes, and Trump has figured that out. So I don't know where
00:30:58.360
USA is on the offensive clause request in this trade deal.
00:31:05.260
Right. I mean, the other day I showed headlines, August, September, October, November, again and
00:31:11.320
again, Justin Trudeau leading with gender analysis and global warming. And I disagree with Trudeau on
00:31:18.140
those things. But fine, put those in a different track. Don't call that NAFTA. It's not the North
00:31:22.840
American gender agreement. It's the North America free trade agreement. I can imagine how frustrating it
00:31:28.460
was for Trump, who has a real beef. And you can think, you can say he's wrong, but as you point
00:31:32.920
out, he has this, I mean, for decades he's been on about these trade imbalances. And if our guy's
00:31:40.480
talking about feminism and intersectionality, which was a G7 meeting this weekend, it's going to,
00:31:48.300
it's going to, I don't know, it's almost like we're, go ahead.
00:31:52.820
But Ezra, I put that aside. I know that Trump has put that aside as noise. He is a
00:31:58.440
dealmaker. He's looking at the fundamental aspect of the deal. And that is to remove
00:32:03.220
Canada from NAFTA and have a bilateral deal. That was an honest and proper.
00:32:08.100
Which is a good idea. If he's about to pummel Mexico, we don't want to be anywhere nearby.
00:32:12.640
Exactly. And the Canadian prime minister should put Canadians first. He doesn't. He sits there in
00:32:17.620
protection. He also offered a five-year review clause. I've drafted hundreds of clauses. That's a
00:32:24.940
very good clause. The prime minister resoundingly rejected. No one asked him why. Presently in NAFTA,
00:32:33.000
I think it's Article 34 or 45, forget which, I've gone through it, which provides for an immediate
00:32:39.680
termination of NAFTA on six months notice. What is better for security? A six-month termination clause
00:32:46.600
or a five-year deal? Yeah. And I offer this as well. In a new economy that we're going through,
00:32:53.520
documents and agreements should be reviewed every five years because things change so quickly.
00:32:58.560
I mean, in five years, Amazon has grown a full Walmart, which took 60 years to do. The economy is
00:33:08.140
moving quickly. The economy is shifting. A five-year review is good for Canada and good for the United
00:33:14.320
States. And it's just such a weird procedural reason, like a technical reason, to oppose the
00:33:20.220
deal. Like you say right now, Trump's already given six months notice under the current provisions.
00:33:26.240
So how on earth, why would you even care about a technicality like that as opposed to the substance?
00:33:32.840
Here's what, I got a question for you. And you are a long-serving soldier in the conservative
00:33:38.680
battles for this country. And Andrew Scheer, who's the conservative leader, literally on Friday,
00:33:46.060
put out a series of tweets where he confirmed his party's commitment to the dairy cartel in Quebec.
00:33:53.080
He said, I just got off the phone with the Saguenay dairy, he didn't use the word cartel.
00:33:59.960
And even Jason Kenney in Alberta was saying, oh, these dairy cartels have been around for 60 years.
00:34:06.480
So we're admitting the problems there. I think real conservative public policies get rid of the
00:34:12.000
dairy cartels. And if we can say Donald Trump forced us to do that, how's that not a double
00:34:17.140
win? We get rid of the dairy cartels, which we've never had the political capital to do on our own.
00:34:21.120
So we're actually using Donald Trump as the bulldozer to get that deal done, to win for us.
00:34:26.860
And maybe we can get a concession in return from Trump, like our auto sector. That's the big deal
00:34:31.980
here, our auto factories. Right. Well, you've put a good point. I look at it differently.
00:34:37.460
I look at from when I used to go into these big boardrooms and negotiations, I looked at it from
00:34:42.000
the perspective of the person that I was dealing with. And what does Donald Trump think? Donald
00:34:47.060
Trump doesn't care about our milk marketing boards and our dairy, our tariffs that we have and all these
00:34:53.400
little tariffs. He walks into the negotiations honestly and saying, let's start free tariff everywhere.
00:34:59.220
He doesn't care about the six year history. He's talking about free trade. We should understand
00:35:04.560
that and respect that. He's also looking at I mean, you're looking at he has got into power and I don't
00:35:11.280
know why Canadians are not focused on this, but he got into power because of Michigan and Ohio.
00:35:15.980
Right. He looks he looked at Detroit. Detroit has is a shell of its former self. Canada now produces
00:35:23.780
four million cars or manufactures four million cars. One. We consume three and we sell one million.
00:35:29.320
That is Trump's big prize. He tried it a year ago and everyone backed him off. And here's what's
00:35:35.800
happening, Ezra, if you pay attention. Here's what's happening. He wants the auto sector. He tried it a
00:35:42.260
year ago and he didn't have what I'll call the political back in America. Right. Now this now this
00:35:48.600
trade war is happening. Justin Trudeau is elevating it. And I know why he's elevating it,
00:35:54.260
because as you can say, as you said, everyone's rallying behind the prime minister because we don't
00:35:59.980
like Trump. We want to fight. That gives Trump the opening to go after the auto sector. We are giving
00:36:06.960
him the justification to say, hey, why is Detroit empty? Why is Michigan empty? Why are we not building
00:36:13.080
the cars in America? And you know what? Justin Trudeau is giving him the license. If we lose
00:36:17.720
the one million cars, that is equivalent to a hundred billion dollars in GDP to Canada. We can't
00:36:24.020
sustain that. Trump wants it. And we're making it happen because of crass politics by the prime
00:36:30.120
minister and the liberals to shore up boats at the expense of our economy. Go ahead, Ezra.
00:36:37.720
No, I'm terrified by it. I mean, it's such a contrast. Donald Trump loves industrial jobs. He
00:36:43.840
loves hard hats. He loves guys who drill and dig and build. And I think of how Justin Trudeau
00:36:50.820
frittered away a hundred billion dollars worth of pipelines and oil sands. And that was Canadian
00:36:56.480
stuff that we were building here. I just don't think Justin Trudeau values that. He would rather be
00:37:04.040
the champion of the UN in the third world, the global leader of the opposition to Donald Trump.
00:37:11.720
He'd rather get the kudos from the EU than have an auto industry. And I know that sounds insane,
00:37:17.300
but we watched him destroy a hundred billion of oil industry. I think there's a real risk
00:37:23.160
that Trump is going to say, hey, GM, Ford, Fiat, Chrysler, come back to Michigan. I'll lower your taxes.
00:37:30.440
I'll lower your fuel economy standards. And by the way, I'm putting a 25 percent tariff on American
00:37:36.220
stuff. So you should come anyways. Well, that's a simple that's all he's going to do. He understands
00:37:41.260
it. You put a tariff on Canadian cars, they'll build them in America. You're not going to buy a
00:37:45.880
car that's twenty thousand dollars more because it comes from Canada. Trump knows what he's doing.
00:37:50.640
What is happening? I kind of disagree. I think what Trudeau is doing and he's and it's political,
00:37:59.020
crass political movement. Trudeau has lost credibility because it is India trip. He is
00:38:05.440
not seen of a man of substance. And you see certain polls, even I'm surprised that two and a half years
00:38:11.260
in his mismanagement of mostly every file has got him in very low in polls. The only way that he can
00:38:18.820
bump himself up in the polls is by this nationalistic movement. And that is to say me against Trump and
00:38:25.300
we're all rallying. You see conservatives rally because it's the right thing to do. It's the wrong
00:38:30.400
thing to do. And I'll give you the numbers, Ezra. And people are just are not there is equal trade
00:38:36.220
between Canada and U.S. It's about three hundred fifty billion dollars each. That only represents
00:38:41.180
two percent of America's GDP. It represents 20 percent of Canada's GDP. We forget that Canada is
00:38:47.880
one tenth the size, although we have equal equal trade. If Trump, if Trump risks the two percent,
00:38:54.740
let's say he cuts it in half, that one one percent with trade wars and so on. America is growing at
00:39:01.740
three point five percent this year. America, Trump has got two hundred billion from China,
00:39:07.360
a hundred billion from North Korea. He's already while while Justin Trudeau takes his days off,
00:39:12.440
he's already shored up the ability to withstand a one a one percent cut in GDP with a war to get
00:39:21.240
auto. Canada can't withstand it. We've already got our oil industry in trouble. Our GDP this year is
00:39:28.120
going to go at one point three percent. We've lost fifty three thousand jobs. Canada is weak. We cannot
00:39:34.160
take a hit of ten percent of our GDP. We will be in a deep recession. And if we lose our auto industry,
00:39:40.580
it is on. We will lost it forever. So stop with the politics. People understand this is a very
00:39:48.420
sincere and real risk. And and Trump wants it. Trump wants it badly. He tried last year. Now he has
00:39:55.660
the ability to do it. He has he has America on his side to do it. And we're going to lose the auto
00:40:01.100
industry and we'll never get it back. And we have to take this very seriously. And I'm disappointed
00:40:05.660
with conservatives. I'm disappointed with liberals. I'm certainly disappointed with the prime
00:40:10.060
minister. But I do know that Trump will succeed in this. And we can't win this war. The numbers
00:40:15.400
don't don't make it for us. Yeah. Yeah. There's a few people speaking clearly on this. I saw Jean
00:40:21.060
Charest was deeply concerned. Yeah. Yeah. And he would know. I think he would know he's
00:40:25.900
he's enough removed from the fray that he's not all about positioning and ego. He can call it like
00:40:32.200
he sees it. Manny, it's great to talk to you. Now, one more point, if I can add, if you have
00:40:37.100
a few seconds. Sure. We've seen we've seen it already in British Columbia. A year ago,
00:40:43.440
the B.C. election happened and they were very clear they want to stop Kinder Morgan.
00:40:48.580
Trudeau did nothing for a whole year. Yeah. The Democratic will of the people. And you know
00:40:52.960
what? The premier is doing what he vowed to do, much like Trump said what he vowed to do.
00:40:57.340
He ignored it. The prime minister ignored it till the last minute. And what has happened? We have
00:41:02.860
a trade war between Alberta and B.C. and we bought a pipeline and we destroyed investment. Now,
00:41:09.300
Trudeau is doing this, ignoring the phase of what's happening in America. And it's going to be a hundred
00:41:13.680
times worse than what we experienced at West. You're so right. Thank you. In slow motion,
00:41:18.360
we watched that crisis unfold between Alberta and B.C. And he just, Trudeau was like a deer in the
00:41:23.900
headlights or a spider caught in amber, whatever your analogy is. Right. And he just was in slow
00:41:29.960
motion while the rest of the world was going by. Trump moves at the speed of Trump. Right. And the
00:41:36.500
real risk is Canada, Alberta and B.C. will fix their problems because we are Canadians. But once we lose
00:41:44.400
the auto sector, there'll never be a president. They'll say, we'll give it back to Canada. Yeah.
00:41:49.000
You can't move the oil sands to the United States because they're stuck in Canada. You can pipe it
00:41:53.940
down there and they'll take the oil. But the auto factories, you can move those. Absolutely.
00:41:59.700
Absolutely. And that's what Trump's after. Manny, it's great to catch up with you. Let's
00:42:02.740
keep in touch on this story as it goes forward. No problem. All right. Take care. Thank you,
00:42:06.220
Ezra. Thank you, too. That's our friend Manny Montanagrino. He's the president and CEO of
00:42:10.900
ThinkSharp. Stay with us. More ahead on The Rebel.
00:42:14.600
Hey, welcome back on my monologue Friday. About Doug Ford being elected the new premier of Ontario,
00:42:31.040
Robert writes, Doug Ford is far more cautious than his brother. He was very gracious in his
00:42:35.860
first media conference as a premier designate. If the left stream media try the same shenanigans
00:42:41.380
they pulled on Rob Ford, I think it will be highly counterproductive. The public has far less trust
00:42:45.820
for the media now than in the days of Rob Ford. People lose whatever trust they have left as they
00:42:50.420
engage in endless, unsubstantiated attacks on Doug Ford. Oh, but they can't help themselves.
00:42:57.240
They cannot help themselves. Their arguments aren't really working. I mean, most Canadians don't
00:43:03.220
support a carbon tax, for one example. Most parents don't support the very, very young child sex
00:43:10.300
curriculum. Like, no parent wants their five and six-year-old kid to be talking about graphic sex
00:43:18.040
in grade one. Like, what are you doing? So instead of making the argument on the merits, what can they
00:43:24.120
do? They just lost the argument on the merits. Their hero, Kathleen Wynne, got less than 20% of the vote.
00:43:28.320
So of course they're going to go personal. Of course they are. Ted writes, one down and three
00:43:34.500
to go. Trudeau, Notley, and Horgan. Yeah, I think Rachel Notley is going to lose. I think that's
00:43:39.840
pretty sure. I think Justin Trudeau has a hard fight ahead. It'll be interesting. It's really weird
00:43:45.420
to watch all the Canadian establishment line up around Justin Trudeau in the war against the evil
00:43:51.440
Trump. I'm a little bit surprised to see the conservatives do that, both provincially and
00:43:55.800
federally. But if the economy is tanked by this, I don't know. Will people say, well,
00:44:02.400
Trudeau was just sticking up for us. It was the evil Trump who did it. Or will Trudeau get the
00:44:06.260
blame? I don't know. I think we're in for a tough time. I don't know if the media will allow anyone
00:44:13.500
other than Justin Trudeau to win, but they like Kathleen Wynne too, and she's gone.
00:44:18.560
Jerry writes, Ontario voters have restored my faith in their province. I had a recurring nightmare
00:44:23.580
that Ontario voters would keep the Liberals in power no matter how badly they were abused,
00:44:28.160
but I was wrong. Welcome to the real world, Ontario. You are a bright light for the rest
00:44:31.620
of Canada today. Yeah, I was worried too, because some of the scandals happened before the last
00:44:38.600
election, and it didn't seem to register, but I think it just took time. I think it just took time.
00:44:43.960
And I think people wanted to see that the opposition leader was a real difference. Doug Ford is
00:44:50.100
undoubtedly different than Kathleen Wynne. And frankly, a way that Patrick Brown wasn't. Well,
00:44:56.060
that's the show for today. Look, Donald Trump is, you know, he's new, he's unusual. He's the
00:45:06.500
center of all the action in the world's politics. But I think in some ways, he's very easy to
00:45:12.020
understand. Listen to what he's saying. Don't provoke him with personal jibes. And he's a deal
00:45:20.280
maker. He wants a deal. I think instead of doing those simple, simple things, Justin Trudeau
00:45:25.460
ignored what Trump wanted to talk about and talked about feminism and gender intersectionality.
00:45:32.000
I think Trudeau doesn't know about making a deal. Why on earth are we insisting that we be in a deal
00:45:37.660
with Mexico? Why on earth are we opposed to a five-year review? So we're fighting over stupid
00:45:42.080
stuff for majoring the minors. And finally, why, why do you poke at Trump? I mean, other than it
00:45:48.980
gets a reaction, but don't poke a bear. It's just going to growl. Yeah, that growl might suit your
00:45:54.980
purposes electorally, but it's not helping our country. I think Justin Trudeau is not as good as
00:45:59.580
his supporters think he is. We should have known that out of India. I think we know it for sure now.
00:46:04.200
That's the show for today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World
00:46:08.820
Headquarters, good night and keep fighting for freedom.