EZRA LEVANT ｜ Trudeau provoked a trade war to keep the Liberal Party relevant
Episode Stats
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Summary
Trump has hit Canada with a new round of tariffs on Canadian exports. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's response to the latest round of trade tensions with the United States is a disaster, but there's a silver lining at the end of the story.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. Well, the tariffs have come. I don't know how long they're going to be here,
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and I think the response by every Canadian political leader, other than maybe Danielle
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Smith, is a disaster. You know the old saying, don't get mad, don't get even, get ahead? That's
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one of my favorite sayings. It's so hard to live up to, I'll admit, and Canada did not do that
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today. We'll see if we can out-bully America. Not sure if it's possible. But first, let me invite
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help spread your message today. Don't wait. Advertise with Rebel News. Reach freedom-loving
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patriots and support our independent journalism. Tonight, what's the best way to respond to Trump's
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latest round of tariffs on Canada? It's March 4th and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
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U.S. President Donald Trump has hit Canada with a series of tariffs. It's the second or third time
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he's done so. It's a bit hard to count since he immediately rescinded them last time. There's a
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chance that can happen this time too. The response from Trudeau was predictable. Now I want to speak
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directly to one specific American. Donald, in the over eight years you and I have worked together,
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we've done big things. We signed a historic deal that has created record jobs and growth in both of
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our countries. We've done big things together on the world stage, as Canada and the U.S. have done
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together for decades, for generations. And now we should be working together to ensure even greater
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prosperity for North Americans in a very uncertain and challenging world.
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Now it's not in my habit to agree with the Wall Street Journal, but Donald, they point out that even
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though you're a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do.
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We two friends fighting is exactly what our opponents around the world want to see.
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Trudeau's not gone yet. In fact, it sounds like he might stick around a little bit longer.
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As we know, the Liberal Party's going to be picking a new leader over the weekend,
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but when is it going to be your last official day as Prime Minister?
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That will be up to a conversation between the new leader and myself to figure out how long a
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transition is needed. It should happen reasonably quickly, but there's a lot of things to do in a
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Chrystia Freeland has her response ads out too.
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I've never heard of Donald Trump calling her that. He's called her other things, that's for sure,
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but I don't think he's called her that one. Here's Doug Ford's response.
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To support the federal government's efforts, Ontario will also launch its first round of
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retaliation. Starting today, LCBO, the largest purchaser of alcohol in the world,
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will begin removing U.S. products from its store shelves. And as the exclusive wholesaler,
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American brands will no longer be available in LCBO catalog, meaning other retailers, bars and
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restaurants in the province will no longer be able to restock U.S. products. This is an enormous hit
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to the American producers. Every year, the LCBO sells nearly $1 billion worth of U.S. wine, beer, cider,
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seltzers and spirits, including more than 3,600 products from 35 states. As of today, every single one of
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these products is off the shelves. He's cancelling rural internet too, because it's being supplied by
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Elon Musk's company. As part of this government-wide procurement ban, we're going one step further.
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We're ripping up Ontario's contract with Starlink. It's done. It's gone. We won't award contracts to
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people who enable and encourage economic attacks on our province and our country.
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I'm not sure if that's legal. I bet Doug Ford will still have to pay for it, even if he rips up the
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contract. But if he's bravely going to commit people in rural Ontario to having no internet,
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to even get back at Trump, I guess that's that. By the way, I fully support people being asked to
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buy their own internet. I mean, Starlink is so cheap. I don't know why the government is
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getting involved in the first place. Why was the government buying internet for people?
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Here's Pierre Polyev, who has made the political calculation that he can't let the liberals outdo him.
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At 12.01 a.m., President Trump stabbed America's best friend in the back. My message to the
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president is this. Canada will fight back. We will defend our people and our economy, and we will put
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Canada first. There's no doubt that our economy will suffer. But so will yours, President Trump.
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In fact, you're already paying the price with trillions of dollars erased in stock market value over the last
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month of these threats. Already Americans are paying higher gas prices. At midnight, a new
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American gas tax kicked in on U.S. working class taxpayers and motorists. Your workers will soon
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start losing jobs. Jobs they had upgrading Canadian raw materials, which, by the way, you were getting
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at an incredible and ridiculous bargain. And your businesses will be selling fewer products to your
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closest neighbour. And that's only the beginning. While Canadians are slow to anger and quick to
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forgive, once provoked, we fight back. And we will fight back. Of course, I'm against tariffs on Canada.
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I wrote an op-ed to that effect in the Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks ago. I just wrote a book
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about it. It's not in Canada's interest to be given import taxes for anything we sell to the states,
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but that's not going to convince the U.S. My book argues that it's not in America's interest
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to have these tariffs. It's not the America first move. Smacking around Justin Trudeau is great, but
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look, he's going to be gone in a few days. Smacking around Mark Carney and Chrystia Freeland will be great
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also. But they're not Canada. They're the worst of Canada, and they know it, and they're hiding from
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their own MPs and their own voters. They know they're that hated. Canada and the United States
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have had trade frictions before under both Republican and Democrat presidents. But I think
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it's different for a few reasons this time around. I think it's hitting us a bit differently this time
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because it is coupled with Donald Trump yanking Trudeau's chain, calling him Governor Trudeau, and
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talking about making Canada the 51st state. That, I think, has changed tariffs from something about
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the economy to something more personal for a lot of Canadians. I get it. It's audacious, or even more
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than audacious. It's implying that Canadians should break their bonds of citizenship and national loyalty
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and join up with America. Now, Trump always says it with loving adjectives. I don't know if you noticed
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that. You'd be a cherished state. Stuff like that. But it really is an astonishing proposition if you
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take it literally. I suppose it's akin to asking someone who is already married to divorce their
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spouse and marry you instead. It's more than just presumptuous, even if it's only a joke. I mean,
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let's use that analogy for a bit. If someone actually did come up to you and told you to divorce your
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spouse and marry them instead and actually started to make a case for it, what would you say? By the
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way, here's Trump's case for it. Canada's been very bad to us on trade, but now Canada's going to have
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to start paying up. And Canada's been tough on the military because they don't have a very, they have
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a very low military cost. They think we're going to, you know, protect them with our military, which is
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unfair. So Canada's going to be a very interesting situation because, you know, we just don't need
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their product. And yet they survive off the fact that we're, you know, we do 95 percent of what they
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do. And Canada is just absolutely, I say it and sometimes people smile and sometimes they say great
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idea, but Canada, their taxes would come down greatly. Their security would go up greatly.
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Amazing things happen to Canada and really Canada in this particular, why would we pay $200 billion a year
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in subsidies to Canada when they're not a state? You do that for a state, but you don't do that for somebody
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else's country. So I think Canada is going to be a very serious contender to be our 51st state.
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Trump talks about a stronger economy, which is obviously true. And he talks about a stronger military, which is
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obviously true. And I think on at least one occasion he has suggested swapping Canadian dollars for U.S.
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dollars at par, which would be like a 50 percent profit for Canadians. Now put that in terms of
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asking someone who's already married to marry them instead. It's outrageous, isn't it? Even if the
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proposer says, you'll move out of your small home into my large mansion and I have a job that pays much
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better and I'll give you more attention and I'm better looking. Now some people would find that
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absolutely outrageous. It's an indecent proposal, as the movie about that same theme was called.
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But there might be some people who's saying, even if they say it in their minds, you know what?
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I'm with a bit of a deadbeat. We're always short of money and it's not going to get any better.
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Maybe I'll take a lead. As in what if someone was already quietly unhappy in a marriage
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and had been contemplating a divorce anyways? We call those people separatists in Canada.
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So go back to the 51st state part of the analogy. Are there Canadians who are feeling that Canada
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is a bit of a dead end, that there's no chance of prosperity, that there are a lot of
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problems that aren't likely to be fixed? You know, crime, inflation, housing prices,
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crazy immigration policies, wokeness everywhere. I showed you that poll the other week,
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that particularly young men are the most receptive to Trump's proposal. Young men
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who are obviously thinking about how hard it is to buy a house, start a family, get ahead. Here's
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Trump saying, join us and you'll be rich and free and safe and respected and wanted and part of a
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country that's proud of itself. Compare that to what Trudeau has to offer. How does Trudeau treat
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those same people? The polls show that young men from the West are the most receptive. I mean,
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Trudeau has treated them so poorly and so will Mark Carney. I mean, just close your eyes for a
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moment and imagine what Alberta would be like if it were part of the United States, a country that
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actually develops oil and gas and builds pipelines. Imagine how prosperous that place would be as
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opposed to being treated as an enemy from the kind of guy who says words like people kind.
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So that's why we came here today to ask you to also look into the policies that religious
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charitable organizations have in our legislation so that it can also be changed because maternal love
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is the love that's going to change the future of mankind. So we'd like you to look for that.
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We like to say people kind, not necessarily mankind because it's more inclusive.
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So some people in unhappy marriages might actually consider a marriage proposal even if it were
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outrageous. Just like 40% of young men in Western Canada prefer Trump's offer of patriotic prosperity
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to Trudeau's woke feminism and socialism and his failed state. Let me talk about Pierre Paglia for
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a moment. A couple of weeks ago, I was at his Ottawa rally, his Canada first speech there. Big speech,
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good speech, big turnout. They're making ads out of it. Here's a clip.
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We will be a self-reliant, sovereign country that stands on its two feet. We will reward work,
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unleash entrepreneurs, harvest our resources, make our own goods, trade with each other, build homes
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for our youth, rebuild our borders and military, honor our history and raise our flag. What binds us
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together is the Canadian promise that anyone from anywhere can do anything. That hard work gets you a
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great life in a beautiful house on a safe street wrapped in the protective arms of a solid border
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border defended by brave soldiers under a proud flag. To preserve that flag and its promise, we must work
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together, fight together and win together. That is what it means to put Canada first.
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I thought it was a good response to Trump and a good message to Canada. But I think Trump
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derangement syndrome has turned into a pandemic. It's absolutely nuts, at least in our ruling class
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in Canada, at least in Ontario and Quebec. I think they hate Trump. They don't like the 51st state
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indecent proposal, even though half of them vacation in Florida. And they saw how Trump manhandled
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Vladimir Zelensky a few days ago. And they're mad about that too. And they're mad that Trump isn't
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controllable in the same way most politicians are, that he's a disruptor, that he says the quiet part
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out loud about everything. In this case, America is tired of lifting such a big load for the world,
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from national defense to one-sided trade. Trump made this social media post just today about the
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fact that there are basically no U.S. banks with a retail business in Canada. Why, he asks.
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There are a ton of Canadian banks in the U.S. I see TD Bank and Scotia Bank everywhere. Why
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can't we have competition up here? I mean, where we could choose a U.S. bank instead of our atrocious
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Canadian banks. Why not U.S. cell phone companies? I wish we had competition. Do you really love
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Rogers and Bell and Shaw? Now, those are retail commerce questions. But mainly, I think the U.S. is tired
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of paying to be the world's policeman. And people are outraged that he's asking for thank
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all those who mooch. Here was J.D. Vance the other day.
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Mr. President, Mr. President, with respect, I think it's disrespectful for you to come
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into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now,
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you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower
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problems. You should be thanking the President for trying to bring it into this conflict.
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Have you ever been to Ukraine that you say what problems we have?
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I have been to. Come once. I've actually watched and seen the stories. And I know what happens
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is you bring people. You bring them on a propaganda tour, Mr. President. Do you disagree that you've
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had problems bringing people into your military? We have problems. And do you think that it's
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respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration
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that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country? You know, if a guy gives you $300
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billion or $100 billion or whatever it is, you can say thank you. You can say thank you
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an extra time even more than you think you should. I'll just tell you right now, if anyone
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wants to give me $100 billion or let's be more realistic, if you want to give me $100, I'll
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say thank you to you more times than I need to. That's a deal. So what's the best way to fight
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back? Well, fighting back against President Donald Trump and the world's most powerful economy
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probably won't work out well for Canada, especially given the personal vitriol
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that Mark Carney and Chrystia Freeland are directing at Trump. I mean, he responds in
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kind to that, doesn't he? He escalates. There's an old saying that I try to follow
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in life, although it's sometimes pretty hard. I don't know if you ever heard it. Don't get
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mad. Don't get even. Get ahead. Have you ever heard that? Oh, it's hard to do. I think
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Canada's liberals and others like Doug Ford, who's still in campaign mode for some reason
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even though he won this election. I think they're at the get mad or maybe the get even
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stage. It feels good for a politician to rail against a foe, especially one as controversial
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as Donald Trump. But is it actually getting Canada ahead? I think Alberta Premier Daniel
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Smith has it right. Don't insult anybody. Just bite your lip. Focus on the actual irritants,
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lack of seriousness on border controls for drugs and illegals. Acknowledge the obvious that we
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are short on our NATO spending obligations. I mean, listen to Trudeau here. Listen to the
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tense he uses, sort of future past tense. What is this? I have tripled spending in the
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past for the future. What is he even saying here? We will use every tool at our disposal
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so Canadian workers and businesses can weather this storm. From expanding EI benefits and making
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them more flexible to providing direct supports to businesses, we will be there as needed to
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help. But Canada, make no mistake. No matter how long this lasts, no matter what the cost,
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the federal government and other orders of government will be there for you. We will defend Canadian
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jobs. We will take measures to prevent predatory behaviour that threatens Canadian companies because
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of the impacts of this trade war, leaving them open to takeovers. We will relentlessly fight to protect
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our economy. We will stand up for Canadians every single second of every single day because this country
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is worth fighting for. Yeah, you know, you don't have to grovel before Trump. You have to be respectful,
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not because of Trump, but because of America. If you want something from America, that is,
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but if you don't, then don't. But we do, don't we? We want their free army, don't we? We want access
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to their American markets for our cars, don't we? Ironically, oil is the largest export to the U.S.,
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and they need that more than we need them. But we undid our pipelines to the ocean that could have sold
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our oil to other customers. Trudeau did that, didn't he, come to think of it? But you don't have
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to grovel, but you have to deal. Like a grown-up, if you want to protect your dairy cartel, your banking
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cartel, your cell phone cartel, if you want to put taxes on U.S. digital streaming services,
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fill your boots, but expect countervailing measures from Donald Trump.
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But like I've said all along, there is a moral hazard here. The liberals will lose the trade war,
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but they think they can win the election battle over it. I saw an estimate today of up to one
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million job losses out of this trade war. I think that's high. But still, imagine a party that is so
00:20:44.420
desperate to hang on to power that it would incur that damage, or even 100,000 jobs lost, or even 10,000
00:20:49.780
jobs lost, rather than just fixing the border and addressing some specific irritants, just so
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the liberals can find a way to rule over us for a few years longer. I don't think Donald Trump
00:21:02.100
realizes the dynamic up here, especially with that 51st state thing. He made a social media post the
00:21:07.540
other day about Wayne Gretzky not wanting a 51st state or something. I think Wayne Gretzky told Trump
00:21:13.540
that that whole 51st state thing is emotionally roiling Canadians and that he should cool it. Well,
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Trump doesn't really care. He's got a lot of things on his plate. He doesn't really care
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for this reason. Canadians are incredibly proud of being Canadian. One of the ways we define
00:21:30.660
ourselves most easily is, well, we're not American. There is such a depth of pride that that's not
00:21:37.780
actually an issue. So the nine-year prime minister of Canada, son of a prime minister of Canada,
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it's asked what makes a Canadian Canadian. And all he says is, we're not like you. We're not you.
00:21:47.940
We're not American. The implication being we're better than you. Don't Canadians really think
00:21:53.300
that? I mean, look at the motto of that company, Chapters Indigo. The world needs more Canada.
00:21:58.580
Or the conceit, best healthcare system in the world. Or this one, we're nicer than Americans.
00:22:04.500
We're more generous. Are you sure about that? You sure? You sure we're not just more smug?
00:22:09.940
Anti-Americanism is in our bloodstream. Remember Rick Mercer? He had a whole series about it,
00:22:15.380
talking to Americans. Boy, were they dumb. As if Canadians could find Ukraine on a map.
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Just read it to yourself and then if you want to.
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To the right, Honorable Paul Martin Jr., Prime Minister-in-waiting.
00:22:33.300
Given that 2001 has been declared the year of the senior citizen, we demand that the government of
00:22:37.780
Canada discourage the Canadian tradition of placing senior citizens on northern ice flows and leaving
00:22:42.740
them to perish. Yeah, I'll sign that. So what are you studying again? History. Right, very good.
00:22:47.060
I definitely believe that senior citizens shouldn't be placed on ice flows. And you're a prof here?
00:22:53.140
Yeah. How many years? Nine. You like it? Yeah, it's good. Good school? Yeah.
00:22:57.940
Would you be interested in visiting Canada's national igloo? Absolutely.
00:23:02.740
How many times has the Canadian intelligentsia mocked Trump, called him a rapist?
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Which is what the Globe and Mail calls him every day. Maybe Trudeau is right. Maybe his core identity
00:23:14.260
is just not being American. And this trade war is his way to prove it. And possibly his way to hold
00:23:22.820
on to power a bit longer. I think Trudeau needs to exit this stage of public life already. I think he
00:23:30.580
needs to go and we need an election immediately. I think it's outrageous the parliament has been
00:23:34.340
dissolved this past month while the Liberals go through their internal party practices and their
00:23:39.620
election process. I think any Canadian leader who thinks the way to negotiate with Trump is to
00:23:45.540
threaten him back, I think that's a fool. They're getting mad. They're not getting even. You know,
00:23:51.700
Doug Ford, I don't know if that's actually going to solve the problem. You're not going to get even with
00:23:56.580
a $20 trillion economy. That's the US economy. Sorry, an orange juice and bourbon boycott is not going to
00:24:02.900
bring America to its knees. They're getting mad and getting even, but they're not getting ahead.
00:24:08.180
Actually, they are getting ahead themselves, for themselves.
00:24:10.660
And will continue to be important to diversify our economies. But we can't replace an economy that is
00:24:16.500
responsible for 80% of our trade overnight. And it's going to hurt. My message to Canadians is that we
00:24:21.620
have a higher pain threshold than our partners to the south of us. We can continue to fight. We will have
00:24:28.420
to bring the fight and it will hurt Americans as well. Not to mention, and it's important to
00:24:35.060
reiterate that 35 of those states, their primary trading partner is Canada. So it will hurt them.
00:24:41.700
Mark Miller is right for his own life. I mean, he can endure pain because he's a member of parliament.
00:24:48.500
He's a cabinet minister who makes six figures. He's getting an automatic pay raise on April 1st.
00:24:54.180
You know, the MPs have rigged it that way. Every April 1st, they get a pay raise. So yeah,
00:24:58.980
Mark Miller is getting ahead. You betcha. And his old boss might stick around and his new boss might win.
00:25:05.060
They are getting ahead. It's just the rest of Canadians who have to lose. Those 1 million job
00:25:10.100
losses, or even if it's 100,000, there won't be any MPs amongst them, won't that be?
00:25:14.980
The answer here is to reduce the temperature, resist the urge to insult the most powerful country in the
00:25:19.780
world and make the case to their president in his language. America first. And they're best friends
00:25:25.860
the Canadians. It's like Batman and Robin. We're not as big or as tough as Batman. And if you punch
00:25:30.180
Batman, if Robin punches Batman in the nose, it's not going to work out well. But if Robin can be
00:25:35.300
respectful and self-confident and helpful and avoid inflaming things, Robin will do just fine.
00:25:43.460
You know, Vladimir Zelensky's meltdown in the Oval Office, that was a cautionary tale
00:25:47.380
for what happens when you go in chippy and sullen. There was a big deal waiting for him,
00:25:52.580
but that deal's gone now, I'm afraid. I'm worried about Trump's terror. Sure I am.
00:25:58.340
But I'm actually much more worried that the insane escalatory personal reactions by Canadian
00:26:03.700
politicians are going to make it far worse. I mean, just think about this for a moment.
00:26:08.820
Today, I'm writing to every senator, every congressman and woman,
00:26:14.260
and the governors from New York State, Michigan and Minnesota, telling them that these tariffs persist.
00:26:21.860
If the Trump administration falls through on any more tariffs, we will immediately apply a 25%
00:26:28.900
surcharge on the electricity we export. We will not hesitate to shut off their power as well.
00:26:37.460
I'm encouraging my fellow premiers to follow suit.
00:26:40.500
Is that really going to scare Trump? Or would it actually result in a reaction from the United
00:26:45.700
States to the same effect to Canada? Say, cutting off oil pipelines from America to eastern Canada.
00:26:52.340
You know that Ontario and Quebec get their oil largely through pipelines that go through the states.
00:26:58.100
Those Ontario and Quebec politicians probably don't know that.
00:27:03.060
They're so smart they prepare oil piped in from the U.S. as opposed to Energy East pipelines that
00:27:07.700
they killed. Ontario and Quebec helped kill the Energy East pipeline, so they get their oil from America.
00:27:13.300
Montreal, their oil comes up from a pipeline in Maine, in the state of Maine.
00:27:21.140
Do you doubt for a second that the United States would respond
00:27:23.940
in a devastating matter if Ford actually did turn off the electricity?
00:27:28.980
Boy, they're foolish. Yeah, we're not sending our best, are we? I hope we get out of this okay.
00:27:35.060
Well, tariffs are kind of tax. Interestingly, it's a tax paid for on the importing countries side of
00:27:55.140
things. So for example, if there's a tax on oil shipped from the oil sands in Canada to a
00:28:02.020
refinery in the U.S., it's the American side that pays the tax. That refinery pays it. How,
00:28:09.220
and this is the heart of my book, Deal of the Century, The America First Plan for Canada's Oil Sands,
00:28:15.060
how does that help your U.S. refineries if you're making them pay an import tax? It's not like they
00:28:20.820
can replace that four million barrels a day with American sources, at least not for years to come.
00:28:26.980
And countervailing tariffs, that is, okay, you put tariffs on us, we're going to put tariffs on you,
00:28:33.380
on orange juice, on bourbon. Those are a couple of the examples I've heard. Well,
00:28:37.220
okay, so who pays that tax? That's Canadians who pay it. And you can see that prices are going to go
00:28:42.820
up on both sides of the border. To support the federal government's efforts, Ontario will also
00:28:48.020
launch its first round of retaliation. Starting today, LCBO, the largest purchaser of alcohol in
00:28:56.820
the world, will begin removing U.S. products from its store shelves. And as the exclusive wholesaler,
00:29:05.300
American brands will no longer be available in LCBO catalog, meaning other retailers, bars,
00:29:12.500
and restaurants in the province will no longer be able to restock U.S. products. This is an enormous
00:29:19.940
hit to the American producers. And it's sort of, oh yeah, you're hurting your citizens. I'm going to
00:29:26.340
hurt more, even my citizens, even more. That's a strictly Milton Friedman-esque free market libertarian
00:29:34.500
analysis. Let's go to a man who thinks about taxes all the time. His name is Franco Teresano,
00:29:39.780
and he is the boss of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Franco, good to see you. Did I
00:29:44.580
properly explain what a tariff is? It's just a tax paid for by an importer and therefore
00:29:51.060
the customers of that importer, right? Yeah, that's exactly right. A tariff is just another
00:29:56.260
form of tax that your own citizen pays, right? So when President Donald Trump imposes tariffs
00:30:02.100
on Canadian goods brought into the U.S., well, that's largely just American businesses and American
00:30:07.620
consumers who pay that tariff, who pay that tax. So conversely, when our federal government in Ottawa
00:30:14.500
announces retaliatory tariffs, well, who feels the pain of that? It is largely a tax on Canadian
00:30:21.060
citizens, a tax paid on Canadian businesses, and therefore a tax paid by Canadian consumers.
00:30:27.540
Now, Ezra, you know, I understand the emotion that a lot of people are having right now, right?
00:30:32.580
When someone throws a punch at you, what do you want to do? You don't want to back down,
00:30:37.220
you want to swing back. But unfortunately, what a retaliatory tariff from the federal government in
00:30:43.060
Ottawa will mean is not a swing that lands on Americans, it's a swing that will land on Canadians,
00:30:50.020
right? This will be another tax that does, in fact, make life more expensive here in Canada,
00:30:55.540
that does hurt Canada's economy. And look, I don't think it's going to work in forcing the U.S.'s hand
00:31:01.860
to back down. The U.S. economy is obviously 10 times bigger than our own. And I don't think the
00:31:08.980
Florida orange juice growers are going to bring the U.S. economy to its knees. You know, I mentioned
00:31:15.940
Milton Friedman earlier, he was a Nobel Prize winning economist who was really a champion of the free
00:31:20.420
market. He said that the right approach to tariffs and other trade barriers, and this is just a pure
00:31:27.780
economic, you know, economist point of view. There are other cultural and nationalistic
00:31:32.660
and political reasons to do things differently. He preached what he called the universal
00:31:38.740
declaration of free trade. He said that's sort of how Hong Kong did it in the 20th century.
00:31:43.540
They said, the whole world is free to sell things to us. We won't have any tariffs. If you want
00:31:48.820
to tariff us, that's your funeral. But we are going to be a free trade city. That's basically
00:31:53.540
how he described Hong Kong. And Hong Kong, of course, was a great success story in the 20th
00:31:57.700
century and to this day. As in, it's unfair that someone's putting tariffs on your exports to them.
00:32:05.300
It feels pointed. And Donald Trump is using his taunting, which he's good at. I mean,
00:32:09.780
he's good at giving people nicknames. He's good at, you know, he does that even to some of his own
00:32:14.500
team. Like he used to call Marco Rubio, little Marco. So that's how Trump rolls. It's a Manhattan
00:32:19.860
brawler style. So there's a real bunch of emotions in Canada right now. But just from a strictly
00:32:25.620
economic point of view, the pure libertarian approach is don't harm our citizens to get
00:32:33.140
back at Trump for harming his. Now, I know that's hard to not punch back when you feel punched,
00:32:38.660
but that's just the economist point of view. But it actually would go to inflation, wouldn't it? Talk a
00:32:43.220
little bit about what would happen if we put tariffs on U.S. imports.
00:32:47.300
Well, Ezra, number one, you don't win a fight by punching yourself in the face,
00:32:51.940
right? Like, I hate that I have to say that. You want to fight by getting stronger,
00:32:56.100
right? So think about it this way. An American tariff is sort of like a sales tax in the sense
00:33:01.860
that it's a tax on Americans that increases prices on American consumers. Well, if the U.S. government
00:33:07.380
raise sales taxes, the Canadian government's response shouldn't be to hike up our own sales
00:33:13.220
tax. No, like what we should be doing here in Canada is making Canada strong, making Canada
00:33:18.420
competitive. And that means slashing taxes, slashing government waste, slashing government
00:33:24.340
regulations and actually building pipelines here in Canada. Now, I'm glad you brought up how tariffs
00:33:30.340
will impact Canadians. Like there is no refuting the simple fact that when President Donald Trump imposes
00:33:35.780
tariffs, that will hurt Canada. There is no refuting that. But you know what's the one
00:33:40.180
thing that will make that worse? If the federal government imposes tariffs on Canadian citizens,
00:33:45.460
right? So look, a 25% across the board tariff from the U.S. government, well, that would cost each
00:33:51.940
Canadian about $1,300, okay? But if Canada were to retaliate, that would increase that cost to about
00:33:59.460
$1,900 per Canadian. So you can see that Trump's tariffs will hurt Canada. But what would make that
00:34:06.820
worse for Canadians right now who are struggling is retaliatory tariffs. Let me bring up some other
00:34:12.980
data here from the Peterson Institute, okay? So no retaliation from Canada. You're looking at
00:34:19.220
inflation of about 1.7%. If Canada retaliates, the inflation jumps up to about 3%.
00:34:25.140
3%. So make no mistake about it. I understand the emotion of fighting back. However, I don't think
00:34:32.100
the right solution is for our federal government to hammer Canadians with another tax, which is exactly
00:34:37.940
what retaliatory tariffs are. What I think will work is if we finally do what we should have been doing
00:34:43.700
in Canada for so long, ending the carbon tax, saying no to capital gains tax hikes, drastically reducing
00:34:50.420
income taxes and drastically reducing the size and cost of the state here at home.
00:34:57.220
You know, here's one more thing I'm worried about. I don't know if you remember,
00:35:00.260
but the first responses we heard from Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau and
00:35:04.500
Chrystia Freeland to these threats of tariffs. Remember, Trump made them in November. He said,
00:35:09.460
I want that border fixed up by the time my inauguration comes around or else it'll be hell to pay.
00:35:14.500
So he sort of gave a two month heads up. And so those first reactions, Doug Ford, but especially
00:35:19.300
the federal liberals, remember what they said? They said they really wanted the trade war in my view,
00:35:25.220
because that lets them wrap themselves in the flag and be heroes. Instead of fixing the border,
00:35:29.620
they focused on the fight. They said, we're going to do what we did during COVID-19. We're going to have
00:35:37.620
massive transfers of wealth from borrowing and taxing to give it to those industries that are
00:35:45.300
affected. Like I can imagine these tariffs could be devastating to the auto industry if they remain.
00:35:51.220
So what we heard from Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland is
00:35:55.860
tens of billions of dollars paid to, well, I don't know, anyone, everyone, the industries in question.
00:36:04.020
I'm worried that if Trudeau or Mark Carney bring in countervailing tariffs or if Pierre
00:36:09.700
Pauliev does it, that it'll just be a tax windfall for the Canadian government. And it'll be
00:36:16.420
an excuse for them to tax and spend. That's all a tariff is. Just use the word import tax.
00:36:21.540
So if Trudeau or Carney or Freeland or even Pierre Pauliev bring in an import tax,
00:36:27.700
well, politicians love doing that. And there's nothing they love more than an emergency,
00:36:32.420
emergency. I'm sorry. I don't really have to. I don't want to do this, but it's a climate
00:36:36.500
emergency. I got to give you a carbon tax. I'm sorry. I don't really want to do this,
00:36:39.860
but it's a COVID emergency. So I got to have a tax increase and borrow. I'm sorry.
00:36:44.260
There's a trade emergency. You know, these emergencies keep on happening. What can I do?
00:36:47.940
I got to tax you more because I love spending. There's always an emergency when taxes are involved.
00:36:53.860
We will use every tool at our disposal. So Canadian workers and businesses can weather this storm
00:37:00.900
from expanding EI benefits and making them more flexible to providing direct supports to businesses.
00:37:07.460
We will be there as needed to help. But Canada, make no mistake, no matter how long this lasts,
00:37:16.420
no matter what the cost, the federal government and other orders of government will be there for you.
00:37:22.500
We will defend Canadian jobs. Well, look, we saw the government use the cloud of COVID to go on a
00:37:30.100
debt-fueled spending spree, right? Massive money printing. And what happened there? Well, I mean,
00:37:35.620
obviously so many businesses struggled, so many Canadian workers struggled, but we also saw the
00:37:40.260
printing press on overdrive, which led to the 40-year high inflation in 2022, right? During the pandemic
00:37:47.220
years. So look, I'm very concerned that politicians always have the incentive to use an emergency or a
00:37:54.660
crisis as a shield to expand the size and the cost of government. You know what I mean? Like,
00:38:00.740
think about who benefits from a tariff war, if we can call it that, right? Well, who benefits?
00:38:07.300
The power centers, right? Politicians get to show Canadians that they're fighting back,
00:38:11.700
that they're doing something. Bureaucrats, right? Now they have expanded roles, hire more bureaucrats,
00:38:17.620
spend a bunch of other people's money. Well, who loses in a tariff war where the US imposes tariffs
00:38:23.620
and then Canada retaliates? Who loses? The ordinary American and Canadian citizens. That's who loses from
00:38:30.740
this. Yeah. You know, I just wish parliament were in session right now so we could learn more about
00:38:37.060
what diplomacy, if any, was being used here. I mean, Justin Trudeau has been going over to Europe
00:38:44.100
for photo ops and flying around and doing all sorts of stuff. I don't know when the last time he's talked
00:38:48.900
to Donald Trump is. And we just don't know any of those questions because we don't have question
00:38:52.740
period. We don't have emergency debates. How we can make massive decisions like what the retaliation is
00:39:00.420
without the House of Commons even discussing it is shocking to me. I don't know. I'm just,
00:39:06.500
I do not feel like Canada is staffed up. I don't believe we're on solid ground. I don't think this
00:39:13.780
government has a mandate. I think parliament being dissolved is insane. And I think that the,
00:39:18.740
there's a huge moral hazard, if you know what I mean, because it's actually in the political
00:39:24.100
interest of the Liberal Party to have a big old fight with Donald Trump that is more politically
00:39:29.140
valuable to them to then just solve the problem. And I, I think we're going to be hit hard. But
00:39:33.860
as you said before, on April 1st, we're going to hit ourselves even harder with our own tariff
00:39:41.300
of sorts. I'm talking about the carbon tax pricing. One last thing, Franco. I saw Mark Miller the other
00:39:47.620
day saying Canadians can withstand a lot of pain. Here's a quick clip of that. Oh, is that we have a
00:39:52.580
higher pain threshold than our, our partners to the south of us. We can continue to fight. We will
00:39:58.980
have to bring the fight and it will hurt Americans as well. Not to mention, and it's important to
00:40:05.700
reiterate that 35 of those states, their primary trading partner is Canada. So it will hurt them.
00:40:11.060
And we hope that logic will prevail. Well, Mark Miller can stand a lot of pain because he
00:40:15.620
every year has given himself an automatic pay raise on April Fool's Day. It's so fitting.
00:40:20.340
So he'll do fine. He's a cabinet minister. He makes serious six figure income. He will
00:40:26.660
be able to do this without feeling the pain, but the pain will come from ordinary Canadians.
00:40:30.900
Last word to you, Franco. Oh yeah. It's a lot easier to say something like that when you take
00:40:35.700
a $300,000 taxpayer funded salary and your pad, your pockets with more pay every single year,
00:40:42.820
courtesy of the taxpayer. And look, I'm glad you brought up the carbon tax because what happens
00:40:47.700
April one still scheduled on the books, a 19% increase to the carbon tax. Look, you want to really fight
00:40:54.580
back. Well, we got to make Canada's economy stronger than ever. And the first way to do that
00:40:59.700
is to just stop blowing holes in our own economy with massive taxes and massive red tape. The carbon
00:41:05.620
tax folks alone last year cost our economy $12 billion. Okay. And folks, I know we're wrapping up
00:41:13.460
here. I just want to bring in Mark Carney again, because he wants to hammer businesses with a hidden
00:41:19.540
carbon tax. Well, we already know that Trump is trying to lure businesses to the United States.
00:41:24.660
He's the president. He wants to do that. Well, we shouldn't be helping Trump take our businesses.
00:41:30.100
And guess what? A hidden carbon tax on business will encourage greater production in the United
00:41:36.020
States and less production here in Canada. You know, just give me one more second on that. You know,
00:41:41.540
almost every week, Donald Trump has a huge announcement. He brings in some tycoon or some
00:41:48.260
investor or a bank president who announces $100 billion, $200 billion, $500 billion private
00:41:57.060
sector investment in the U.S. economy. He has not announced, as far as I know, government grants for
00:42:04.020
this sector or that sector. Maybe I missed it. But he's bringing in the head of SoftBank. He's bringing in
00:42:09.060
the Taiwan semiconductor people. That was a huge announcement yesterday. What was that, like $100
00:42:14.580
billion deal? Apple, so far he has announced in the last, I guess, five weeks, $1.7 trillion,
00:42:25.620
with a T, worth of private sector investment. That would be the equivalent, divide by 10 for the
00:42:32.180
Canadian proportion, right? That would be like $170 billion worth of private sector investment in
00:42:39.220
Canada in the last five weeks. It's unthinkable. I can't think of any company that's putting that
00:42:45.060
kind of dough into Canada. Trudeau's trying to give the simulation of it by giving government grants to
00:42:50.740
railroads or to electric vehicle batteries. So whatever else you say about Trump, I mean,
00:42:57.940
and you can disagree with tariffs. You can disagree with his approach. He's brought in $1.7 trillion
00:43:03.460
with the private sector investment in industrial investment. Like this is not just services stuff.
00:43:08.580
This is AI, microchips, making Apple products. We can't get that because no one has business
00:43:19.460
confidence. Whatever you say about Trump, there is optimism and confidence. And don't take it from
00:43:24.260
me, take it from all these foreign investors pouring into an America.
00:43:29.220
Well, Ezra, let me just bring up one more stat, okay? Because since 2015, we've seen $670 billion
00:43:37.220
in natural resources projects that have been suspended or canceled. $670 billion, okay? So what should
00:43:45.220
Canada do? Well, number one, folks, let's just remember, the solution is not to give our government
00:43:52.660
more power and more of your tax dollars, okay? What we should do here in Canada is what we should
00:43:57.860
always have been doing. Cut the regulations, cut the massive costs and size of government,
00:44:03.540
especially in Ottawa. And let's like actually get some real tax relief here, right? Scrap the carbon
00:44:08.660
tax, scrap the capital gains tax, cut income taxes, cut business taxes. And in Canada, we also got to cut
00:44:15.140
out this corporate welfare, right? Trudeau putting taxpayers on the hook for about $30 billion in corporate
00:44:21.220
welfare to multinational corporations to build battery factories. That's not how we should be
00:44:26.020
growing our economy, okay? We don't need these government bureaucrats playing investment banker
00:44:30.340
with our tax dollars. We need tax cuts and red tape cuts. There he is, Franco Teresano, the boss
00:44:37.460
of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He's looking out for the little guy and God knows we need his help.
00:44:43.140
Keep up the fight, Franco. These are dangerous days. Hey, thanks, Ezra. Thanks for having me on.
00:44:48.100
All right. Always our pleasure. Stay with us. Your letters to me, next.
00:45:01.380
Your letters to me, TMAC says, she means central bank digital currency and social credit score,
00:45:07.940
digital ID. That is absolutely part of the rules-based international order. But in my mind,
00:45:14.180
there was a little factoid I didn't include. There was a tweet she had condemning Israel for its war
00:45:21.700
in Gaza for violating the rules-based international order. Like I say, it's a way for NGOs and weak,
00:45:29.860
ineffectual leftists to try and stop strong countries from doing what they want to do.
00:45:35.140
Not Russia or China, but just America, or in this case, Israel. Judith Taylor says,
00:45:40.180
well, Canada is buying Russian oil, but then sending money to Ukraine. How crazy is that?
00:45:45.700
Yeah, isn't that crazy? Eastern Canada still imports oil from Russia. And I'll remind you
00:45:51.380
that Justin Trudeau personally had a waiver on the sanctions. There were pipeline turbines from one of
00:45:58.660
Russia's energy pipelines that were, believe it or not, shipped to Montreal to be serviced in Montreal by
00:46:05.140
SNC-Lavalin, no less, and then shipped back. Canada helped Russian oil and gas by refurbishing
00:46:15.060
their pipeline. I mean, help me make it make sense. That's our show for today. Until tomorrow,
00:46:22.980
on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night,