In the worst business deal in Canadian history, Justin Trudeau pays $4.5 billion for the Kinder Morgan pipeline. The one that s already built, not the one that won t be built. It s May 29th, and you re watching The Ezra Levin Show.
00:05:59.620Rachel Notley is insane with glee here.
00:06:02.400My friends, today we take a major step forward for Albertans and for all Canadians.
00:06:08.360The deal announced today puts people to work, building this pipeline right away and creating good jobs.
00:06:15.560We worked with all Albertans to bring in the most comprehensive climate leadership plan on the continent, capping oil sands emissions,
00:06:23.520phasing out harmful coal emissions, putting a price on carbon and attracting record investment in renewable energy here in the province of Alberta.
00:06:33.480We have traveled the country, speaking to business leaders, workers, investors, environmentalists, academics, and more, building the case for why Canada needs new pipelines.
00:07:16.140Shakedowns by people like Gerald Butts and his old friends.
00:07:20.060But we do believe that the appropriate way for us to do that is to create that indemnity that effectively assures federal jurisdiction for a private sector proponent of the project.
00:07:33.260Okay, so $4.5 billion for the existing pipeline.
00:07:36.480Royal Bank of Canada says massively, massively overpaid.
00:14:36.440So we don't think that – we think that the oil sands have been expanded too rapidly without a serious plan for environmental remediation in the first place.
00:14:45.600So that's why we don't think it's up to us to decide whether there should be another route for a pipeline, because the real alternative is not an alternative route.
00:15:31.080I think it's clear what's going on here.
00:15:34.040It's Justin Trudeau spending $4.5 billion in a lifeline to Rachel Notley to get her re-elected in the spring of next year.
00:15:41.280$4.5 billion from federal taxpayers, from him immediately, and what, $2 billion or so from Alberta taxpayers, is what I heard, from Notley.
00:15:48.460So she can say, the pipeline will be built.
00:16:17.760No police actions to clear away protesters.
00:16:19.800No political actions to punish B.C.'s provincial government for its intransigence, like Trudeau is punishing the Saskatchewan government for not going along with its illegal carbon tax.
00:16:29.500I'm going only on a few hours' worth of details.
00:26:06.580I mean, how can you be soft on those people who oppress their own citizens?
00:26:11.780And especially for someone who holds himself out to be a great feminist.
00:26:14.600Well, a feminist, you know, a champion of human rights.
00:26:18.600None of these things are happening in Iran.
00:26:21.100So and of course, you've got this monster M103, which hangs over our head like a sword.
00:26:27.880How long will it be before I will not be able to say what I do?
00:26:32.680And, you know, talking, coming back to the Tommy Robinson issue, I'm going in August to the United Kingdom to attend a rally to support the victims of these gang groups.
00:29:31.040Whenever I hear a politician talk about a little deficit, I hold on to my wallet.
00:29:35.240Yeah, and you should because, you know, Justin Trudeau promised the exact same thing a few years ago.
00:29:43.960And in his first year, I think the deficit was triple what he had promised it would be.
00:29:49.640And then on the subsequent years, it's been averaging about double.
00:29:53.360So I think you can probably expect the same thing from Andrea Horvath if she's elected.
00:30:00.540And we certainly can expect it from Kathleen Wynne if she's re-elected.
00:30:04.420After all, the deficit that she said she's running is actually, according to the Auditor General, about twice what she says it is.
00:30:12.560So in both cases, when they say it's going to be small, you really need to look into what small means and try and figure out if they're telling the truth.
00:30:24.560And usually, as we saw with Mr. Trudeau, it's not the truth.
00:30:28.100Yeah, what's so amazing of the Ontario Auditor General is the bluntness of the language used to describe Kathleen Wynne.
00:30:36.320I mean, listen, there's always a tension between an Auditor General and a politician.
00:30:40.320A politician tries to stretch the facts and spin the language as far as possible.
00:30:45.100But the Auditor General of Ontario has basically said, without using the word lying, I think it's the toughest rebuke of a sitting government that I can even think of.
00:30:58.400Basically, the Auditor General said, you cannot believe Kathleen Wynne.
00:31:37.940With Andrea Horvath, we don't know if we're going to get something different.
00:31:41.440We don't know if she's going to agree with the Auditor General's approach to the numbers or if she's just going to use the same Wynne tactics of trying to finesse the numbers and create complicated financing structures.
00:31:56.300But we do know with the PC leader, Mr. Ford, that he has committed to accounting using the Auditor General's approach rather than the government's so-called bogus approach.
00:32:10.400I was thinking from a corporate point of view, if you have a company listed on a stock exchange and the auditor refuses to sign off on the books, I'm not an expert in securities law.
00:32:21.500But I would imagine that if you don't have an audited statement of financials for investors, the stock exchange is not going to let you sell your shares.
00:32:30.780Because it's not just if you don't have it, if your auditor says, I refuse to certify it.
00:32:49.380Like, I don't even know what the remedy would be.
00:32:51.920Yeah, if you're a publicly traded company and you have something in your financial statements that's a material misrepresentation, that's a form of securities fraud.
00:33:01.640You can actually go to prison for that.
00:33:05.280And in the United States, the penalties are much more serious.
00:33:35.940I mean, the debate the other day, and we showed some clips with Jerry Agar, it was almost like politicians trying to outbid each other with spending promises.
00:33:45.000I suppose that's how it always is in elections.
00:33:48.620Do people care that small deficits, big deficits, auditors blowing the whistle?
00:34:27.180So if the government wants to promise you all of this free stuff, the dental care, the pharmacare, the $12 a day childcare that Horvath is promising, that free stuff is only free until you pay your taxes.
00:34:43.440And then you see that your tax bill is going up and up and up, and people are getting really frustrated in this province.
00:34:49.960So people do care when they pay their taxes.
00:34:53.000I hope that they're able to make that connection, that all of these offers of so-called freebies are not actually free at all, that you end up paying more and more and more for them as these deficits get larger and larger and larger.
00:35:07.440And that soon it's not you who's paying for them, it's your children, it's your grandchildren.
00:35:11.440So I hope that voters keep that in mind.
00:35:15.660I mean, living in Ontario, I've experienced the shocking power prices, electricity prices, and that's all government decisions, but it's called a power bill.
00:35:24.760So you pretend, it seems like it's not a tax bill, but it's really just as much a tax as anything else.
00:35:31.900I don't want to ask you for your horse race guesses, because I know that's not your business.
00:35:36.300You're more a nonpartisan advocate for taxpayers, although it is fascinating.
00:35:41.580I don't know if you're out and about in the community.
00:35:43.900Do you think that the carbon tax is an issue?
00:35:48.880It's something we care about here at The Rebel, and I know in the conservative leadership race,
00:35:53.740Doug Ford and the other candidates sort of got themselves riled up against the carbon tax.
00:35:59.000Are you worried that maybe Doug Ford's going soft on that?
00:36:01.920Do you sense that that's an issue in the public fighting against the carbon tax, or is that last month's news?
00:36:07.880No, carbon tax continues to be a big issue, and it's a bigger issue in different types of communities.
00:36:14.660So people who are more in rural areas care about it more, people who drive more care about it more.
00:36:21.900Other people might care about different issues.
00:36:24.220I think in downtown Toronto it might not be as big an issue, but if you own a small business and rely on transportation,
00:36:30.840or if you're in manufacturing, the carbon tax is a huge issue.
00:36:35.820For other people, you know, I think people care a lot about bread and butter issues.
00:36:41.800When you talk about gas prices, which are really, really high right now, you have to remember that the carbon tax is part of that.
00:36:50.660And so people definitely care about the price at the pumps, and they just need to remember that the carbon tax is a big part of that.
00:36:58.000It's almost five cents a litre added to your bill because of this government's kooky policy on cap and trade.
00:40:37.460So we lawyered up and Daniel started working on the file.
00:40:41.580But early this morning, I spoke to him and another newspaper, The Independent, it's called, went to court, I guess, hours quicker than we did.
00:40:51.420And the judge lifted the publication ban on the Tommy Robinson part, not on the underlying rape gang trial part.
00:43:46.300Will people say, yeah, you do that, you go?
00:43:49.260And if so, it's hard to read these things.
00:43:52.960Jerry made the great point that it's one thing for a woman to interrupt a man in a way that a man could never interrupt that woman without being called a bully.
00:44:00.860That's just part of the gender dynamics.
00:44:02.560I mean, I remember the other day, Doug Ford said Kathleen Wynne had a nice smile, and that was considered this great sexist moment.
00:44:16.960I sure hope Doug Ford wins, because it would be a disaster for Ontario.
00:44:20.920The other day, I mentioned that when you're at the height of an empire, it seems impossible that it would be any other way.
00:44:29.380I can imagine Rome at its apex felt like it would endure for a millennium, or to be more smaller in scale.
00:44:38.400I imagine Detroit in the 50s seemed unstoppable, highest wage in America, strong employment.
00:44:47.960And it was a magnet for black workers, because it was in the north, and it was good industrial jobs.
00:44:55.420And then the Democrats took over, and the industrial heart of America moved away from Detroit.
00:45:02.980Unions, left-wing politics, social justice-type politics, Democrats, corruption.
00:45:08.100And now Detroit is a bombed-out, poor city, instead of the greatest city for working men in America.
00:45:16.580I tell you the analogy of Detroit, because it's unthinkable that Ontario, the economic engine of Canada, could be anything other than the boss, right?
00:45:26.260It's unthinkable that this city would not be the capital of Canada economically forever.