EZRA LEVANT ｜ Trudeau set to sacrifice Canadian prosperity over porous borders
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Summary
Justin Trudeau really is getting us into a trade war with the USA, isn t he? It's December 12th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show. You fight for freedom! Shame on you, censorious bug!
Transcript
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Hello, my Rebels. A great show today with a really smart guy. We've got to have him on more often,
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my friend Dr. John Robson. We talk about Justin Trudeau and how he's just mangling
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our relationship with the United States. And I put it to you, he's doing that on purpose.
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Trudeau would much rather run against Trump than against Pierre Polyev. And I think Trudeau would
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like to have Trump beat up the country economically so Trudeau could blame Trump for our problems
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instead of blaming himself who actually caused our problems. So it's an interesting conversation
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and I'd like you to get the video version of it because I play a bunch of video clips
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and to see them you'll need what we call Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this podcast.
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like a lot of money to you, but it really adds up for us. Please go to rebelnewsplus.com.
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And by the way, with COVID behind us, who knows what the globalists are planning next? Maybe it's
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the expansion of the conflict in Europe or the release of another virus or the undermining of
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with a C. Info at rocklink.com. Here's today's show.
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Wow, Trudeau really is getting us into a trade war with America, isn't he? It's December 12th,
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and this is the Ezra LeVant Show. You fight for freedom! Shame on you, you censorious bug!
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Last night, I sat down for a feature interview with my friend, Dr. John Robson. He's so smart. I
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really like talking to him. He's got a dry sense of humor. Since that conversation, which I'm about
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to show you in full, Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta, had an amazing press conference where
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she basically said, all right, I'm not going to wait around for Justin Trudeau. I am going to roll
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out my plan to crack down on illegal human trafficking and drug trafficking at the Alberta-Montana border.
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It was a great press conference, totally solution-oriented, constructive, responsible,
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thoughtful, sound. Just the right tone also. I just want to show you a little bit of that.
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And then for contrast, I'll throw to my conversation with John Robson where we see how Trudeau just,
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I think, deliberately is butchering the situation. So here's a quick excerpt from Danielle Smith today.
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Retaliatory oil and gas tariffs are off the table. What about other sectors? Is there anything
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further that your government would consider? Well, just think about what retaliatory terrorists
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look like and who use the examples that the prime minister gave? Ketchup and playing cards and bourbon
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and cherries. So what that would mean is that cherries for Canadian consumers are 25% more expensive.
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Playing cards for Canadian consumers are 25% more expensive. Bourbon for Canadian consumers are 25%
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more expensive. So that's what is being contemplated here, is making life more expensive for Canadians.
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I don't think that that's the right approach. When I was down in the U.S. at the Western Governors
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Conference, what I said is that there is a substantial amount of oil and gas that goes across the border.
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In fact, it's somewhere in the order of $133 billion worth of trade on oil and somewhere near $22 billion
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worth of trade on natural gas and also lubricants and other products that come from petroleum.
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If all of those have a 25% tariff, it'll make life more expensive for American consumers.
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Some of the analysis we've seen is that a 25% tariff would add a dollar a gallon to every gallon of
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gasoline that Americans purchase. And I don't think that when I mention that to all of the governors
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that I spoke with, their eyes went wide. They know what that would mean. And so I think that that is
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the better road, is for us to talk about why it is we have such a robust and strong mutual relationship
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on trade that works very well for both countries. And that's the approach we're taking. I would say
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that what we need to do is address the serious concerns that the U.S. administration has identified,
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which are our shared concerns. The border, fentanyl in particular, the opioid death crisis as well.
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We have a great plan in Alberta with rolling out our recovery-oriented system of care that we would
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love to see rolled out in federal penitentiaries as it's been rolled out in our provincial corrections
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facilities as well as more broadly seeing recovery communities built across the country. We think
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those are the kind of things that really get to the heart of addressing it. I also mentioned to the
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Prime Minister, I think he should accelerate the efforts to get to 2% of GDP spent on defense,
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because I think that 2032 is also probably not going to be acceptable to our American friends and
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allies when it comes to the significant national and international security issues that we face.
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But I would say our best strategy would be this, that we recognize that we provide America with a lot of
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the raw materials and component parts that help to fuel their industry. We've got various goods that go
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back and forth across the border, whether it's oil from here that goes to U.S. refineries that comes back
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into Canada as finished product, or whether it's beef that goes into the U.S. and then comes back into
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Canada as finished product. You can say the same thing for forestry, you can say the same thing
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on component parts for manufacturing, you can say the same thing on plastics. That's the education
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that I think that we need to make sure that our American counterparts understand, is that this
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mutual trade relationship is mutual and beneficial. And so I would be wanting to lead with how we can
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get more of our product into the United States, particularly on the energy front. We know that the
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Americans are going to continue on a growth path, and they need to have reliable partners of heavy
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oil. The other options are places like Iran and Iraq and Venezuela. And I think we can make a very
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good case about why it is that we should be the preferred export partner. So I'm all in favor of
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doing whatever we can to eliminate tariffs on all sides. So both on American goods and Canadian goods,
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and let's talk about our shared interests. I think that's where we need to start.
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You know, the other day, Justin Trudeau lamented the fact that Kamala Harris didn't win in the United
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States, not because she was good, but because she was a woman alone. To Trudeau, that's the most
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important thing. But not important enough for him to step down in favor of a woman. You might recall
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two women contested the liberal leadership at the same time as him. I don't know why he didn't
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take his matters into his own hands and step aside for them. What a hypocrite. But here we are in
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Canada. And in fact, the leader of the country in terms of dealing with Trump's concerns is a woman,
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Danielle Smith. It's a coincidence. It's not because of her gender. Trudeau should ditch that
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critical gender theory, DEI stuff, and just get on with governing the country. Without further ado,
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here's my conversation with my friend, Dr. John Robson.
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Donald Trump, of course, grew up in the mean streets of New York. I can't think of any more
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competitive industry in the world than the cutthroat industry of commercial real estate in
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Manhattan. You have to deal with government regulators. You have to deal with the unions.
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You have to deal with the mafia. And those are just human problems, let alone economics,
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the price of things, the recessions. Succeeding in New York real estate means you have to be a
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dealmaker. You have to be a negotiator. And in fact, long before Donald Trump was thought of as a
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politician, he was known as a master negotiator who would typically buy things in a distressed state
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and turn them around. And he was actually famous. His book, The Art of the Deal, which I encourage
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you to read, by the way, is a genuine book of how to negotiate. It's not just a self-serving
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book, although it is that as well. Contrast Donald Trump's entire life of wheeling, dealing, and
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negotiating. I mean, for heaven's sake, the guy actually managed to partially solve world peace
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by getting a peace deal between Israel and several of its Muslim neighbors. Contrast that with Justin
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Trudeau, whose entire life has been planned and arranged for him by his father's trust fund,
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the lawyers and accountants who were always there to mop things up. You might even recall in his first
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campaign, Trudeau talking about one of his brothers who got in trouble for, I think it was a marijuana
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crime, and his dad's lawyers just called up and police made it go away. Donald Trump is the bruiser
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on the streets. Justin Trudeau was the VIP silver spoon kid who never had to do any negotiating.
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I think this is going to be like a lion negotiating with a little doe, with Bambi. Joining us now to talk
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about how this trade war will go is our friend John Robson, Dr. John Robson, an author, journalist,
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and historian. John, great to see you again. Thanks for taking the time.
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You know, I think the very first interesting thing to note is that Justin Trudeau did not bring
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the Deputy Prime Minister Finance Minister, Christopher Freeland, and did not bring the Foreign Minister,
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Melanie Jolie, to his meeting at Mar-a-Lago. And I think that shows a little bit of self-awareness
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that those two diversity hires would have not only been torn to shreds, but would have deeply
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unimpressed Trump and his advisors, his unserious people. What do you think of the choice to leave
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those two diversity hires at home? Well, I wouldn't have taken them along, that's for sure. And of
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course, I wouldn't have taken Justin Trudeau either. They all rub Trump and the kind of people who
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associate with Donald Trump and vote for him the wrong way. And so Trudeau had to go down there and
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somehow play contrary to type, which I don't think he did a very good job of doing. But again,
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if you've spent any time listening to Melanie Jolie's words, it's just as well that she wasn't
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there contributing to the problem. Well, what is the right answer? Because, I mean, I'm not sure how
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sympathetic you are to Trump. I love the guy. But at the end of the day, I'm a Canadian and I want
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Canada to succeed. Now, I think we should fix the border issues for our own sake. The idea of illegal
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immigrants crossing either way is something we should fix. And the idea of drugs being
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trafficked into America, including from China, passing through Canada, I think is a terrible
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thing. I think we should fix the border for its own sake. If it takes Donald Trump to sort of spark
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our attention, so be it. I think there's a way to respect ourselves, to have some dignity, to defend
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our sovereignty, but also do a deal with this consummate dealmaker. I think that's what the
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Mexican president has done. What would you do if you were in charge of this file for the federal
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government? As you say, this is one of the things that should have been fairly easy. You go down,
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you meet with Donald Trump when he jokes about us becoming the 51st state. You say that if things
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don't work out for you, you could become the 11th province. And you let that one go with that.
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And then you say, yeah, there are some issues here that we need to deal with. We're aware that there's
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too much money laundering in Canada. We're aware that our national police force has trouble dealing
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with organized crime. This is a problem for Canada. It's also a problem for the United States. And we
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accept that we didn't deal with it as quickly as we should have, but we're going to deal with it now.
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Same thing about not having people crossing the border who shouldn't be. Either way, we're going to
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deal with that. We look forward to working with you. Finally, we recognize we haven't spent enough on
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defense and that we've got a lot of work to do there. And again, we're sorry that it took so long, but
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we're here to tell you that we're serious about it now because all of these things are very much in
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Canada's interest. One of the ironies of our pathetic defense spending, our utterly fouled up defense
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procurement and our essential state of complete unreadiness is that it weakens us in dealing with the
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Americans as well as with our enemies. And so for all these reasons, any sensible administration in
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Canada would already be fixing this stuff. So it shouldn't have been hard to go down there and say,
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yeah, we're busted, but we're on it. And then you'd be fine. You know, people said, well, what did
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you do? I went down and I told the president we understood his concerns. And in a way, you see this,
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you asked about, you know, what do I think about Donald Trump? I've said all along he is the wrong
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answer to the right question. And this seems to me as a classic case in point. Why did it take Donald
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Trump to light a fire under us on these issues that we should have lit a fire under ourselves on?
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That's rather an embarrassing situation for Canada, but it has happened. It's too late now to go back
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and fix these things seven, eight years ago. But we can respond now by saying, gosh, if even Donald
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Trump sees a problem, we're certainly not going to miss it. Let's get on this. We're not idiots.
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And if we don't do that, then we are idiots. So let's not be.
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John, I want to play an extended clip of Trudeau. I think he was speaking at a conference in Halifax
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where he was talking about the way Canada would fight against the US economy, which is 10 times as
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large as ours by putting tariffs on Heinz ketchup and cherries and playing cards. I'll play the whole
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clip here. There's two things about it. The first is Trudeau is sounding really tough,
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which, you know, I think he actually, this, I just don't know if that works when you're dealing
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with Trump. I think if you come across as tough and more belligerent, Trump will escalate. But
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I think the real thing I take away from this clip, and I'm going to play it in about a second,
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is that instead of addressing what Trump actually wants, Trudeau is moving straight to,
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I'll fight back. Trump actually wants us to close the border to drugs and illegal immigrants. That's
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all he said. That's all his tweet said. To get our attention, he's saying, or else I'll whack you
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with a tariff. Trump doesn't want a tariff. He doesn't want a tariff on the auto pact. He doesn't
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want a tariff on oil. Those are his two big purchases from Canada, by the way. He just wants
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to get our attention. And Trudeau moves immediately towards this trade war. It gets really detailed
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in the trade war. Instead of doing what you said, instead of acknowledging Trump's grievance,
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and he could even play the Roxham Road card. He'd say, yeah, Donald, yes, Donald, we'll solve our
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problem, but can you please stop the human trafficking through Roxham Road or whatever? Like, you can play a
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card against Trump. But he immediately moves away from what Trump actually wants to his delicious
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daydream of fighting against Trump. My thesis is he wants to fight against Trump because that's an
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easier opponent for him than Paul Yev. Here, take a look at this. I'm going to let this clip run for a
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few minutes. But look at how exhilarated Trudeau is about a trade war. President-elect Trump got elected
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on a commitment to make life better and more affordable for Americans. And I think people south of the border
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are beginning to wake up to the reality that tariffs on everything from Canada would make life a lot more
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expensive for Americans. So that's part of the argument. The other part is we will, of course, as we did
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eight years ago, respond to unfair tariffs in a number of ways. And we're still looking at the
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right ways to respond. But our responses to the unfair steel and aluminum tariffs were what ended
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up lifting those tariffs last time. It wasn't that Americans were paying more for their steel and
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aluminum, although that was annoying to some people in the States. It was the fact that we put tariffs on
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bourbon and Harley-Davidson's and playing cards and Heinz ketchup and cherries and a number of other
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things that were very carefully targeted because they were politically impactful to the president's
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party and colleagues, was how we were able to punch back in a way that was actually felt by Americans.
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But we know a few things about Donald Trump. First of all, we know that when he says these things,
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he means them. But at the same time, we also know that his approach will often be to challenge people,
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to destabilize a negotiating partner, to offer uncertainty and even sometimes a bit of chaos
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into the well-established hallways of democracies and institutions. And one of the most important
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things for us to do is not to freak out, not to panic. Now, knowing that, yes, these would be
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absolutely devastating means we have to take them seriously. But it does mean we have to be thoughtful
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and strategic, not go around making our opponents' arguments for him, but making our arguments
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John, I got to tell you, that was actually a fairly detailed policy answer by Trudeau. I think
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he's actually had some briefings on this matter. Like, for him to know those details is surprising to me.
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But I say again, instead of working to solve the problem, he's talking about how he's sort of ready
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for a fight and America should be ready for him. I think he wants that fight. What do you think of
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my theory? Is it too far-fetched that Trudeau would love a fight against Trump because A,
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Trump is less popular in Canada than Polyev and B, Trudeau could say, hey, Canadians, the reason why our
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economy is trashed is not because of me. It's because of this Trump guy and his tariffs. Don't blame me.
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I'm here to defend you. What do you think of that thesis?
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I think that you're basically right, though. You may have thought it through more completely than
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he has. And I grant it's nice that he was briefed on an issue. That would be an improvement if that
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happened more often. But one of the interesting things about Trudeau is that for all his purported
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sunny ways, he's actually a very belligerent person. And you see this whenever he's challenged,
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he gets that kind of, and then he comes at you and he gets very nasty very quickly. And that is
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actually his default mode. And somebody had to tell him, this isn't the moment, this isn't the
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fight to pick. And you could go in there and you could say, you know, I don't think Donald Trump
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wants a trade war. I think Americans understand, as we certainly do in Canada, that the last time
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the United States turned its back on free trade in the early 1930s, it was disastrous for the world
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and for them. And I think what the president is trying to do is get our attention on some issues
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where, in fact, he's entitled to our attention. You know, if there was a trade war, there'll be
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retaliation and we'll all lose. But we're going to make a point of not going down that road.
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We are going to work with the Americans on these issues that they're rightly concerned about. And
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we're going to ask them to deal with some issues that we're concerned about. I mean, the border is
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porous on both sides, you know. And the Americans are complaining, for instance, about Mexico letting a
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lot of people in. Well, the United States has let a lot of people in. But we're going to deal with
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us like adults and we're going to find a solution that means everybody better off. But Trudeau,
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in fact, it's a funny thing. You don't maybe think of him naturally this way. Remember him
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elbowing people on the floor of the House of Commons? You look what happens when a cabinet
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member crosses him. He escalates very, very quickly. He doesn't back down. He throws people
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under the bus. And the trouble with trying to throw Donald Trump under the bus is that I think
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he's probably too heavy to lift. You just you can't do that to an American president. But Trudeau is a
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person who he's not very teachable and he has quite a limited skill set. And so he's in some
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trouble at this point because his natural reaction isn't the appropriate one. And he doesn't adapt
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well. I think you're so right. I mean, his his idea of maybe he'll be the the global leader against
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Trump. That feels like a 2016 move because I look around the world and I see every regime,
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left wing or right wing, authoritarian or democratic saying, OK, Trump is back.
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We know what that means. We've got to deal with them. And let's just all the mean things we've
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said over the past four years, we better sort of memory hold them. Like to me, to watch the
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hardcore left wing government of the UK suck up as hard as possible to Donald Trump is all I need to
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know about how other countries perceive Trump. The fact that both Zelensky and Putin are vying for
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Trump's favor. That's how it is in 2024. And I think Trudeau believes there's some I don't even
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know who would applaud him fighting Trump, but I don't know if it's going to work. As to your point,
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you're right. Trudeau does get mean. We've tasted that at Rebel News. We poke at him more than most.
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And he bans us from things. Let me just play a quick clip of when he banned us from the leaders
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debates. We had a court order us in. The court said we're journalists. They can't ban us. Trudeau
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didn't care what the court said. He wouldn't even answer our questions. He was totally furious and
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disgusted with us because we hurt his feelings and he went into mean guy mode, not sunny ways.
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I mean, just a quick clip. Take a look at how Trudeau deals with it when he doesn't get his way.
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The only reason that I'm allowed to ask you this question is because today the federal court ruled
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that the government doesn't have the right to determine who is or is not a journalist.
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This is the second election in a row that the court had to overturn your government.
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Do you still insist on being able to make that decision and why?
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First of all, questions around accreditation were handled by the press gallery and the consortium
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of networks who have strong perspectives on quality journalism and the important information
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that is shared with Canadians. The reality is organizations like yours that continue to spread
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misinformation and disinformation on the science around vaccines, around how we're going to actually
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get through this pandemic and be there for each other and keep our kids safe is part of why we're seeing
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such unfortunate anger and lack of understanding of basic science. And quite frankly, your, I won't call
00:23:43.400
it a media organization, your group of individuals need to take accountability for some of the polarization
00:23:53.040
that we're seeing in this country. And I think Canadians are cluing into the fact that there is
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a really important decision we take about the kind of country we want to see. And I salute all
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extraordinary hardworking journalists that put science and facts at the heart of what they do and ask me
00:24:12.520
tough questions every day. But make sure that they are educating and informing Canadians from a broad range of
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perspectives, which is the last thing that you guys do. Well, that's him being polite. Of course, when he
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encounters Rebel News journalists, his bodyguards beat them up. Here's David Menzies outside a liberal
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fundraising event. Trudeau's entourage literally beat him up, dropped him by the side of the road, didn't charge
00:24:37.000
him with anything. Remember this outrage? What are you doing? Get off me. Hey, I can. Hey, this is
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assault. Move. I'm on a side. What is this? I'm on a sidewalk. I am on a side. What is this? You cannot
00:24:56.180
arrest me. Are you kidding? Are you kidding? Let's go. What is this? You can't. Am I under arrest?
00:25:12.600
Am I under arrest? John, I'm just making your point. I remember that. And look, I can understand a
00:25:17.480
politician going, oh, no, it's David Menzies, right? But then they're meant to know how to deal
00:25:21.980
with that kind of thing. And interestingly, you talk about sort of a global resistance to Trump
00:25:26.560
led by the great Trudeau. You remember back in 1983, toward the very end of his prime ministership,
00:25:32.420
Pierre Trudeau tried such a thing. He didn't like Ronald Reagan, and he went on this peace tour.
00:25:37.120
And everybody was, who is this Canadian fool? Nobody was even slightly interested in it. They
00:25:41.560
were quite concerned about Ronald Reagan. In the end, I think most of them ended up quite impressed by him.
00:25:46.020
And again, you look at Donald Trump, the man isn't even inaugurated yet. And look what happened in
00:25:49.760
Syria. Obviously, the fact that Trump is prone to taking drastic and sudden action gets people's
00:25:57.520
attention. He is a bit unpredictable. You don't always know if he meant it. But he certainly has
00:26:02.980
the capacity to act decisively and not to be cowed by people saying, oh, but Mr. Trump, that's not how
00:26:09.460
it's normally done. And again, Trudeau, I think, is out of his depth here. I was thinking, does he
00:26:14.960
think he can win a fight with Donald Trump? I don't think he thinks it through that far. He's just not
00:26:19.380
that kind of mind. But he really, if that's what he's going to do, then the sooner he takes that
00:26:25.740
walk in the snow, the better. We've got snow. Go walk in it. Because, I mean, his party is obviously
00:26:31.120
rock bottom in the polls. Trump's not popular in Canada. Yeah, well, I know somebody else who
00:26:35.780
isn't popular in Canada. But again, Justin Trudeau is very, very focused on Justin Trudeau. Extraordinarily
00:26:44.760
high opinion of himself based on we know not what. And so it's very hard for him to recognize when he
00:26:50.020
is not master of a situation. He doesn't like it and he doesn't react well to it. And again,
00:26:56.020
not only his reaction to the joke about the 51st state, but the whole Canadian chattering class,
00:27:00.920
the whole political culture. Nobody could laugh. Nobody could look at it and say, OK, yeah,
00:27:05.760
we're not joining the United States. But one thing, they wouldn't take us because they'd get,
00:27:09.460
you know, they wouldn't get one state. They'd get six or 10 and they'd all be democratic,
00:27:12.900
except maybe Alberta. But hey, let's think about our federation. Let's use this as a useful way of
00:27:19.020
asking ourselves, well, if we were to rethink our federal system, if we were to look at the
00:27:24.980
strengths and weaknesses and compare it to the United States, maybe our Senate could work more
00:27:29.420
like theirs. Maybe we should have more provinces. This is one of my particular bugbears that we should
00:27:34.480
split up Ontario and Quebec into five provinces, BC into three, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba into two,
00:27:39.660
even you from the Labrador. And then we're going to have a Senate with six senators from each
00:27:43.600
province. They could be elected by the provincial legislatures. There are a lot of things we could
00:27:47.540
do. So we could have taken Trump's ham fisted remark, like Trump says stuff like that. You
00:27:51.940
don't take it that seriously. But we could have then said, OK, but let's talk about the federation
00:27:57.480
without doing the usual rather stupid Canadian thing of saying, now we need some bold new ideas
00:28:03.040
that are exactly like all the ideas we already had. And what if we did want to do things
00:28:07.980
different? Even I mentioned, because I did a documentary on this back in 2016, the Australian
00:28:13.060
system for dealing with deadlocks between the Senate and the House, which is really ingenious.
00:28:17.480
If they absolutely get to loggerheads over a piece of legislation, you dissolve them both
00:28:21.540
and have an election. If they're still stuck, they sit as one body and vote. And this never
00:28:26.840
happens because everybody can do the math and see where it would end. So you can have a Senate
00:28:31.020
that represents the territories and the states there, the provinces here, effectively real input
00:28:38.160
and yet not undermine the fundamental cornerstone position of the House of Commons. But did we talk
00:28:44.000
about any of that? Oh, Trump said we've become the 51st state. Well, I mean, seriously, are we
00:28:50.100
grownups? You know, anyone who's watched the Trump rally, and by the way, most Trump derangement
00:28:55.320
syndrome folks have not. If you come, first of all, the thing you'll, first thing you'll see about a
00:29:00.000
Trump rally is that they're long. He'll talk for 45 minutes, an hour, sometimes 90 minutes.
00:29:06.420
The second thing is, he's a natural storyteller and entertainer. And many people remark on his
00:29:12.780
comedic timing. Like, you've just got to realize the guy's a jokester. And so when he publishes a
00:29:17.520
tweet, like he did, calling Trudeau the governor of the state of Canada, it's a joke. And you can be
00:29:25.200
offended by it. Or you can fairly say, well, that's not that funny. But you got to know it's
00:29:29.400
a joke. But here's the thing. Here's one more thing about Trump, if I may. And listen, we all
00:29:33.520
have our opinions on the guy. But you tell me if you agree with this, John. I say that Donald Trump
00:29:37.800
is quick to anger, but quick to forgive. You might recall when he was in a real war of words with the
00:29:44.100
New York Times, like just going hard at it. Well, the owner of the New York Times, a Mexican
00:29:49.080
oligarch named Carlos Slim flew up to the States, you know, bent the knee, they had dinner and Trump
00:29:56.040
published a photo positively effusive about his new friend, Carlos Slim. Think of Kim Jong-un,
00:30:02.800
you know, Trump threatening him, but then they meet and they sort of hug it out. Trump's a dealmaker.
00:30:08.280
And I think that Trudeau knows how to prickle Trump and poke him. But he doesn't know that there's
00:30:17.120
one word Trudeau has never said. Not that Trudeau has to say, I'm sorry. But Trudeau has never
00:30:22.960
actually swallowed his pride in his life. Let me show you that Trudeau prodding Trump as being stupid
00:30:33.380
and his voters being stupid and thoughtless and sexist. Take a look at this.
00:30:39.680
Thank you for your thoughtfulness. I hope some of the things I said actually, you know, pierced through
00:30:45.540
the haze of challenging situations everyone's in, Canadians are fundamentally thoughtful about the
00:30:55.100
kind of future we want, the kind of solutions we're going to put forward to improve our communities,
00:31:01.440
to improve our neighbourhoods, to build a better set of opportunities for our kids.
00:31:06.140
And every election is about that, as we approach what will be an election year next year.
00:31:15.140
And my only request for everyone is to be really thoughtful and go into the choices you make
00:31:21.360
with eyes wide open. I think there's a number of folks in different countries, and I won't point
00:31:27.220
out any particular one, where folks are going to be wondering about the choice they may be made
00:31:31.820
in elections. Let's not be that kind of country in Canada. Let's be deliberate about the choices we
00:31:40.820
make. If we want to stop fighting climate change, if we want to re-legalise assault-style weapons,
00:31:48.120
if we want to put back into question women's rights, if we want to scrap $10 a day child care across the
00:31:57.820
country, and stop delivering free dental care to vulnerable seniors. And in a democracy, that's
00:32:06.220
a choice people can make. Get rid of the CBC too, that's a choice people can make. But let's take on
00:32:15.440
the responsibility as electors, as thoughtful agents of change in our communities, to be smart about no
00:32:25.940
matter how much we want change. Let's not fall into an easy trap of voting for change for the
00:32:31.940
worse. Canadians deserve better, and I know they're going to pick it.
00:32:36.160
So Trudeau's good at angering Trump, and Trump's people will be furious with that.
00:32:42.080
Is Trudeau good at making up after a fight? John, can you tell me a single person that Trudeau has
00:32:50.060
fought with, that he has ever then reconciled with? And I'm not talking about an absolute groveling
00:32:56.960
apology, although Trudeau makes groveling apologies for Canada all the time. Has Trudeau ever,
00:33:04.440
not even bent the knee, because that implies submission, has he ever had a reconciliation
00:33:14.060
Yeah, I mean, he's very good at apologizing for other people's misdeeds, but he can't do his own.
00:33:19.580
And one of the things that's a sign of a narcissist, they have a huge discard pile, right? And so Trudeau,
00:33:25.460
he does not forgive, and he does not forget. And one might say of Trump, you could praise him for
00:33:31.320
his quick to anger, quick to forgive, or you could say he's kind of childlike. But whatever you think
00:33:35.660
of it, there are ways of taking advantage of the fact that the man is known to be this way.
00:33:40.020
And I want to, by the way, just bringing us another contrast, mentioning Ronald Reagan again,
00:33:44.480
Reagan had this bowl of jelly beans in his cabinet meeting. And if discussions got too heated and
00:33:49.560
people were going to say things that would be hard to take back, Reagan would pass around the jelly
00:33:53.480
beans because he had thought this through. And he said, it's really hard to be cranky and mad at
00:33:58.080
someone while you're eating a jelly bean. And so Reagan was, somebody else called Reagan the most
00:34:03.300
warmly ruthless man they'd ever met. So he knew how to make tough decisions, and he knew how to deal
00:34:08.560
with people who weren't getting the job done. But there was no malice in Reagan, or very little.
00:34:13.880
And in Trudeau, there's a lot of malice, and there's very little self-awareness. And that
00:34:17.700
combination means that you're not good at backing away from things. And incidentally, you know,
00:34:22.960
when he talks about, oh, he's such a feminist, and so on. But look what happens when a woman in
00:34:26.660
his cabinet defies him. Under the bus, she goes, strong women do not please Justin Trudeau. And so the
00:34:33.540
insolence of that, or saying, oh, and some people may regret their electoral choices. You know who regrets
00:34:37.660
their electoral choices? Most of the Canadians who voted for the Liberal Party. So to say that
00:34:42.840
with such a remarkable lack of awareness, that kind of cheap shot, this undergraduate seminar quality
00:34:50.680
that Trudeau always seems to have about him. He's just, he's not up to the job. Conservatives
00:34:57.120
warned us about this back in 2015. And it was true, as someone said, and he never will be. He's just,
00:35:02.380
personal growth isn't his thing either. And so we're in a situation with an American president who can
00:35:07.340
be hard to deal with, whose views a lot of people find troubling. We need somebody who's really good.
00:35:13.360
Like with the way, Brian Mulrooney was good at handling Ronald Reagan. It's probably one of the
00:35:16.600
things he did best. And I'm not a huge Mulrooney fan, but he sure was, in that regard, he had the
00:35:21.340
personal skills to get along fine with Ronald Reagan. Justin Trudeau doesn't get along well with
00:35:27.620
people, as a matter of fact. He, you know, he's sort of a charismatic figure up there on the stage by
00:35:32.200
himself, but he's not a Hale fellow well met. He's not the kind of person who wins the respect of
00:35:37.920
those who have dealings with him over time. And we need somebody in this country who can represent
00:35:44.340
Canada intelligently in dealing with a somewhat problematic and quickly American president.
00:35:49.640
And I just, better him than the foreign minister, but it's, that's a low bar to clear.
00:35:55.680
You know, it's so funny. Everyone talks about Trudeau's emotional IQ or whatever. I, maybe
00:36:01.460
everyone doesn't talk about that, but that was, that was his strength originally. He could, he, I mean,
00:36:06.900
he's more emotional than intellectual, but for all that, he low, he lacks a social IQ in dealing
00:36:13.680
with world leaders. Like whether it's the leader of India, who basically has declared a diplomatic war
00:36:21.140
against us or the leader of China, who has publicly schooled at Trudeau and interferes at will in our
00:36:27.220
democracy, or, you know, Georgia Maloney, who can't hide her disgust with Trudeau. Like I, I look around
00:36:35.880
the world country by country when, when Trudeau goes to G20 meetings or NATO meetings, no one even,
00:36:43.040
he, no one even cares what he says. No one even notices if he's there. No one missed him at the
00:36:49.140
Notre Dame Cathedral. Canada didn't send a delegation to the large NATO exercises because
00:36:54.080
we don't have the equipment. I just think that Trudeau has isolated himself. He's the master
00:36:59.940
of our little domain and he's a big shot in a small pool. And I think Trump has such large problems
00:37:07.780
that he intends to resolve. He's going to try for world peace between Russia and Ukraine. He's going
00:37:13.380
to try for world peace in the Middle East round two, the Abraham Accords part deux. He's going to try
00:37:19.120
with Elon Musk, tackle the sides of government. He has huge, enormous files, any one of which would
00:37:26.960
be a miraculous achievement. Trump's going to try it all. I don't think he's just going to spend the
00:37:31.820
time or mental energy dealing with our pouty PM who's, who is, I don't know. I don't think Trudeau
00:37:40.840
is as clever, as smart, as powerful as he thinks. I don't think this is going to end well for Canada.
00:37:46.140
I think we're going to have a bumpy one year where Trump is going to swipe at Trudeau and hit the
00:37:51.440
rest of us. And then hopefully Pierre Polyev will save us from Trudeau. Last word from you, John.
00:37:58.960
Yeah. This is a situation that is not suited to Trudeau's skills, whatever they are. I mean,
00:38:03.420
he does have some kind of empathy in the short run. Narcissists generally do,
00:38:07.100
but it runs dry because they're only in it for themselves. And we need somebody who's in it for
00:38:11.800
Canada and we need somebody who's good at a lot of things he's not good at. So yeah,
00:38:16.500
when it comes to buyer's remorse over a politician, we're, we're in for a bout of it.
00:38:21.060
Great to see you again, Dr. John Robson. Really good to catch up with you and look forward to
00:38:25.040
talking to you again. Oh, it was a pleasure. Right on. Well, stay with us. Your letters to me next.
00:38:31.220
Oh, hey, welcome back. Your letters to me. Metzler Jane J says, why would it be bad for
00:38:48.960
Canadians to join the U.S.? Taxes would be lower. Price is cheaper. Freedom to live and work in a
00:38:53.800
warmer place and access to a larger market for business. Why exactly would it be bad for Canadians?
00:38:59.220
I hear what you're saying. There are a lot of reasons to love America and no two countries
00:39:05.060
that I can think of are closer friends. But we have our own history. We have a slightly different
00:39:12.500
culture. I think the things you're talking about, we can get without merging countries.
00:39:18.080
We can vacation there. I think there would be a lot of benefits. We would have the stronger
00:39:24.340
First Amendment protections for our freedom of speech. We would have a stronger economy.
00:39:29.220
We would have a stronger defense. We would probably have smaller government. Those are a lot of good
00:39:35.160
things. It's sort of a failure of Canada that we haven't been able to compete with those quality
00:39:41.740
of life issues on our own. And I tell you, there's a lot of people in Alberta who would absolutely
00:39:47.540
want to join America because, again, Alberta is the source of so much American oil imports. And I think
00:39:55.140
Albertans have that freedom mentality. And I think if Alberta went, well, Saskatchewan would probably go.
00:40:00.880
And does Vancouver have more in common, let's say, with Seattle and L.A. and San Francisco
00:40:05.660
than with Ottawa and Montreal? Probably. I think that Canada has to get its act together. You might recall
00:40:12.700
that the whole purpose of building the Canadian Pacific Railway was to join the country together
00:40:19.000
with two bands of steel because the Americans were eyeing what they call manifest destiny. You had
00:40:24.660
Alaska up there. America was eyeing the whole North American continent. We can't take for granted our
00:40:31.020
independent country. And some people were saying, Ezra, how come you're not more pro-American? I am pro-American.
00:40:35.860
I like being Canadian, though. I just think Canada has been failing the last nine years under Trudeau.
00:40:41.880
And Trump's about to make America even more awesome. Joelle Hode says, I wonder if Trudeau would
00:40:49.300
still be a feminist if instead of Pierre being the leader of the Conservatives, it was a woman instead.
00:40:54.580
Well, that's an interesting point because the Trudeau liberals have never had a woman as a leader.
00:41:01.020
I look around the world and there have been women leaders of various Conservative parties.
00:41:05.880
I think that Trudeau is not actually a feminist, though. It's something he says to pretend he's
00:41:13.560
progressive and deserves the vote of the left. And I actually think the main reason, if you ask me,
00:41:18.460
what is the real reason Trudeau talks about being a male feminist? I think it is a preemptive strike
00:41:25.440
because I think as a young man, he had a lot of sexual harassment and sexual assault complaints
00:41:30.920
against him. We've all heard the rumors of why he had to leave that private school in Vancouver
00:41:35.560
mid-term. Since when do teachers leave in the middle of a school year? He's never answered
00:41:41.340
questions about that. We know for a fact that he sexually assaulted Rose Knight in Creston, B.C.
00:41:48.820
And he, as you remember, just said, well, she experienced it differently. So if you've got
00:41:53.080
a lifetime of treating women as property, which is what he learned from his own father, Pierre Trudeau,
00:42:00.080
how do you defend against that? How do you get out ahead of that? Well, you claim you're a feminist
00:42:04.220
and you go through all this feminist mumbo jumbo, hoping that when someone comes forward,
00:42:10.320
you have built up enough goodwill. It's like Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton, who treated women in his
00:42:15.580
private life as trash, claimed to be a feminist and the feminist movement forgave him.
00:42:21.940
Chris Cross says, how much is it costing taxpayers to upgrade the capital in Ottawa? No wonder we are
00:42:28.020
taxed to death. Pierre is going to have fun selling all these properties. You mean Pierre Polly?
00:42:31.980
Well, yeah, they're renovating the center block of parliament right now. You know, the main
00:42:36.960
parliamentary building with the Peace Tower that is so famous. That is not being used for sitting
00:42:44.220
the House of Commons right now. They turned the train station across the street into the parliament
00:42:49.660
while they reno, and that's got to be a multi-billion dollar job. It's an incredible amount of money.
00:42:56.080
But I was astonished to learn from Franco Terrazzano that there's $200 million worth of buildings that
00:43:03.080
Canada owns in London. Like, what was it, 50 or 60 residences? I mean, there may be some cases where
00:43:09.520
you have an official residence. I don't know why people can't just pay for their own rent like the
00:43:15.340
rest of us do. But if there's some reason, why are we putting them in multi-million dollar homes?
00:43:21.360
I know London is an expensive city. I understand that. But the average price of those properties
00:43:26.880
is like $2.5 million, $3.5 million per home. Why don't they just live a little further away?
00:43:32.040
London, I'll tell you one thing about London. They've got a great train system, a great subway
00:43:35.340
system. You don't have to live right at your workplace. I'm glad Franco's on the file.
00:43:42.000
Well, that was our show for today. Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World
00:43:46.380
Headquarters to you at home, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.