Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Trudeau set to sacrifice Canadian prosperity over porous borders

00:00:00.000 Hello, my Rebels. A great show today with a really smart guy. We've got to have him on more often,

00:00:04.840 my friend Dr. John Robson. We talk about Justin Trudeau and how he's just mangling

00:00:10.120 our relationship with the United States. And I put it to you, he's doing that on purpose.

00:00:14.360 Trudeau would much rather run against Trump than against Pierre Polyev. And I think Trudeau would

00:00:19.160 like to have Trump beat up the country economically so Trudeau could blame Trump for our problems

00:00:25.060 instead of blaming himself who actually caused our problems. So it's an interesting conversation

00:00:32.480 and I'd like you to get the video version of it because I play a bunch of video clips

00:00:36.260 and to see them you'll need what we call Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this podcast.

00:00:41.320 Just go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month, which might not seem

00:00:46.360 like a lot of money to you, but it really adds up for us. Please go to rebelnewsplus.com.

00:00:51.940 And by the way, with COVID behind us, who knows what the globalists are planning next? Maybe it's

00:00:58.220 the expansion of the conflict in Europe or the release of another virus or the undermining of

00:01:03.580 free and fair elections. Whatever it is, you need to be prepared. It is essential that you take the

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00:01:15.860 you to develop a financial plan for your family to give you security and peace of mind in the midst of

00:01:21.140 so much uncertainty. Our friends at Rocklink are freedom-loving conservatives who want to help

00:01:27.420 other conservatives be prepared for the future. Call Rocklink and get your investments working

00:01:32.860 for you. Call them now at 905-631-5462 or email them at info at rocklink.com. That's Rocklink

00:01:44.080 with a C. Info at rocklink.com. Here's today's show.

00:02:05.860 Wow, Trudeau really is getting us into a trade war with America, isn't he? It's December 12th,

00:02:11.120 and this is the Ezra LeVant Show. You fight for freedom! Shame on you, you censorious bug!

00:02:27.580 Last night, I sat down for a feature interview with my friend, Dr. John Robson. He's so smart. I

00:02:32.580 really like talking to him. He's got a dry sense of humor. Since that conversation, which I'm about

00:02:37.300 to show you in full, Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta, had an amazing press conference where

00:02:42.440 she basically said, all right, I'm not going to wait around for Justin Trudeau. I am going to roll

00:02:47.440 out my plan to crack down on illegal human trafficking and drug trafficking at the Alberta-Montana border.

00:02:55.680 It was a great press conference, totally solution-oriented, constructive, responsible,

00:03:02.160 thoughtful, sound. Just the right tone also. I just want to show you a little bit of that.

00:03:10.160 And then for contrast, I'll throw to my conversation with John Robson where we see how Trudeau just,

00:03:16.680 I think, deliberately is butchering the situation. So here's a quick excerpt from Danielle Smith today.

00:03:25.020 Retaliatory oil and gas tariffs are off the table. What about other sectors? Is there anything

00:03:29.620 further that your government would consider? Well, just think about what retaliatory terrorists

00:03:34.160 look like and who use the examples that the prime minister gave? Ketchup and playing cards and bourbon

00:03:40.640 and cherries. So what that would mean is that cherries for Canadian consumers are 25% more expensive.

00:03:46.960 Playing cards for Canadian consumers are 25% more expensive. Bourbon for Canadian consumers are 25%

00:03:54.400 more expensive. So that's what is being contemplated here, is making life more expensive for Canadians.

00:04:01.720 I don't think that that's the right approach. When I was down in the U.S. at the Western Governors

00:04:05.960 Conference, what I said is that there is a substantial amount of oil and gas that goes across the border.

00:04:13.260 In fact, it's somewhere in the order of $133 billion worth of trade on oil and somewhere near $22 billion

00:04:23.220 worth of trade on natural gas and also lubricants and other products that come from petroleum.

00:04:28.580 If all of those have a 25% tariff, it'll make life more expensive for American consumers.

00:04:34.240 Some of the analysis we've seen is that a 25% tariff would add a dollar a gallon to every gallon of

00:04:40.920 gasoline that Americans purchase. And I don't think that when I mention that to all of the governors

00:04:45.980 that I spoke with, their eyes went wide. They know what that would mean. And so I think that that is

00:04:50.940 the better road, is for us to talk about why it is we have such a robust and strong mutual relationship

00:04:57.280 on trade that works very well for both countries. And that's the approach we're taking. I would say

00:05:02.100 that what we need to do is address the serious concerns that the U.S. administration has identified,

00:05:09.060 which are our shared concerns. The border, fentanyl in particular, the opioid death crisis as well.

00:05:16.700 We have a great plan in Alberta with rolling out our recovery-oriented system of care that we would

00:05:23.800 love to see rolled out in federal penitentiaries as it's been rolled out in our provincial corrections

00:05:28.800 facilities as well as more broadly seeing recovery communities built across the country. We think

00:05:34.360 those are the kind of things that really get to the heart of addressing it. I also mentioned to the

00:05:38.840 Prime Minister, I think he should accelerate the efforts to get to 2% of GDP spent on defense,

00:05:46.420 because I think that 2032 is also probably not going to be acceptable to our American friends and

00:05:53.520 allies when it comes to the significant national and international security issues that we face.

00:05:58.360 But I would say our best strategy would be this, that we recognize that we provide America with a lot of

00:06:08.580 the raw materials and component parts that help to fuel their industry. We've got various goods that go

00:06:14.880 back and forth across the border, whether it's oil from here that goes to U.S. refineries that comes back

00:06:19.800 into Canada as finished product, or whether it's beef that goes into the U.S. and then comes back into

00:06:24.920 Canada as finished product. You can say the same thing for forestry, you can say the same thing

00:06:28.880 on component parts for manufacturing, you can say the same thing on plastics. That's the education

00:06:34.700 that I think that we need to make sure that our American counterparts understand, is that this

00:06:39.420 mutual trade relationship is mutual and beneficial. And so I would be wanting to lead with how we can

00:06:46.600 get more of our product into the United States, particularly on the energy front. We know that the

00:06:51.660 Americans are going to continue on a growth path, and they need to have reliable partners of heavy 1.00

00:06:57.480 oil. The other options are places like Iran and Iraq and Venezuela. And I think we can make a very 0.83

00:07:04.380 good case about why it is that we should be the preferred export partner. So I'm all in favor of

00:07:10.560 doing whatever we can to eliminate tariffs on all sides. So both on American goods and Canadian goods,

00:07:16.900 and let's talk about our shared interests. I think that's where we need to start.

00:07:19.820 You know, the other day, Justin Trudeau lamented the fact that Kamala Harris didn't win in the United

00:07:25.100 States, not because she was good, but because she was a woman alone. To Trudeau, that's the most

00:07:29.500 important thing. But not important enough for him to step down in favor of a woman. You might recall

00:07:34.480 two women contested the liberal leadership at the same time as him. I don't know why he didn't

00:07:39.760 take his matters into his own hands and step aside for them. What a hypocrite. But here we are in 1.00

00:07:44.360 Canada. And in fact, the leader of the country in terms of dealing with Trump's concerns is a woman,

00:07:50.960 Danielle Smith. It's a coincidence. It's not because of her gender. Trudeau should ditch that 0.99

00:07:55.960 critical gender theory, DEI stuff, and just get on with governing the country. Without further ado, 0.94

00:08:02.320 here's my conversation with my friend, Dr. John Robson.

00:08:05.460 Donald Trump, of course, grew up in the mean streets of New York. I can't think of any more

00:08:13.640 competitive industry in the world than the cutthroat industry of commercial real estate in

00:08:20.240 Manhattan. You have to deal with government regulators. You have to deal with the unions.

00:08:26.240 You have to deal with the mafia. And those are just human problems, let alone economics,

00:08:32.100 the price of things, the recessions. Succeeding in New York real estate means you have to be a

00:08:38.140 dealmaker. You have to be a negotiator. And in fact, long before Donald Trump was thought of as a

00:08:42.660 politician, he was known as a master negotiator who would typically buy things in a distressed state

00:08:49.000 and turn them around. And he was actually famous. His book, The Art of the Deal, which I encourage

00:08:55.960 you to read, by the way, is a genuine book of how to negotiate. It's not just a self-serving

00:09:02.060 book, although it is that as well. Contrast Donald Trump's entire life of wheeling, dealing, and

00:09:08.100 negotiating. I mean, for heaven's sake, the guy actually managed to partially solve world peace

00:09:13.780 by getting a peace deal between Israel and several of its Muslim neighbors. Contrast that with Justin

00:09:18.940 Trudeau, whose entire life has been planned and arranged for him by his father's trust fund,

00:09:26.480 the lawyers and accountants who were always there to mop things up. You might even recall in his first

00:09:31.200 campaign, Trudeau talking about one of his brothers who got in trouble for, I think it was a marijuana

00:09:36.100 crime, and his dad's lawyers just called up and police made it go away. Donald Trump is the bruiser

00:09:42.900 on the streets. Justin Trudeau was the VIP silver spoon kid who never had to do any negotiating.

00:09:49.280 I think this is going to be like a lion negotiating with a little doe, with Bambi. Joining us now to talk 0.59

00:09:55.520 about how this trade war will go is our friend John Robson, Dr. John Robson, an author, journalist,

00:10:02.080 and historian. John, great to see you again. Thanks for taking the time.

00:10:05.700 A pleasure to be here.

00:10:07.220 You know, I think the very first interesting thing to note is that Justin Trudeau did not bring

00:10:12.420 the Deputy Prime Minister Finance Minister, Christopher Freeland, and did not bring the Foreign Minister,

00:10:17.800 Melanie Jolie, to his meeting at Mar-a-Lago. And I think that shows a little bit of self-awareness

00:10:22.300 that those two diversity hires would have not only been torn to shreds, but would have deeply 0.93

00:10:27.980 unimpressed Trump and his advisors, his unserious people. What do you think of the choice to leave

00:10:33.780 those two diversity hires at home? Well, I wouldn't have taken them along, that's for sure. And of 1.00

00:10:38.620 course, I wouldn't have taken Justin Trudeau either. They all rub Trump and the kind of people who

00:10:43.660 associate with Donald Trump and vote for him the wrong way. And so Trudeau had to go down there and

00:10:49.460 somehow play contrary to type, which I don't think he did a very good job of doing. But again,

00:10:55.420 if you've spent any time listening to Melanie Jolie's words, it's just as well that she wasn't

00:11:00.880 there contributing to the problem. Well, what is the right answer? Because, I mean, I'm not sure how

00:11:06.860 sympathetic you are to Trump. I love the guy. But at the end of the day, I'm a Canadian and I want

00:11:11.200 Canada to succeed. Now, I think we should fix the border issues for our own sake. The idea of illegal

00:11:16.720 immigrants crossing either way is something we should fix. And the idea of drugs being 1.00

00:11:22.020 trafficked into America, including from China, passing through Canada, I think is a terrible

00:11:27.220 thing. I think we should fix the border for its own sake. If it takes Donald Trump to sort of spark

00:11:34.220 our attention, so be it. I think there's a way to respect ourselves, to have some dignity, to defend

00:11:41.540 our sovereignty, but also do a deal with this consummate dealmaker. I think that's what the

00:11:46.600 Mexican president has done. What would you do if you were in charge of this file for the federal

00:11:53.240 government? As you say, this is one of the things that should have been fairly easy. You go down,

00:11:58.620 you meet with Donald Trump when he jokes about us becoming the 51st state. You say that if things

00:12:03.880 don't work out for you, you could become the 11th province. And you let that one go with that.

00:12:08.340 And then you say, yeah, there are some issues here that we need to deal with. We're aware that there's

00:12:13.520 too much money laundering in Canada. We're aware that our national police force has trouble dealing

00:12:18.300 with organized crime. This is a problem for Canada. It's also a problem for the United States. And we

00:12:23.060 accept that we didn't deal with it as quickly as we should have, but we're going to deal with it now.

00:12:27.780 Same thing about not having people crossing the border who shouldn't be. Either way, we're going to

00:12:32.700 deal with that. We look forward to working with you. Finally, we recognize we haven't spent enough on

00:12:37.360 defense and that we've got a lot of work to do there. And again, we're sorry that it took so long, but

00:12:43.200 we're here to tell you that we're serious about it now because all of these things are very much in

00:12:47.640 Canada's interest. One of the ironies of our pathetic defense spending, our utterly fouled up defense

00:12:53.640 procurement and our essential state of complete unreadiness is that it weakens us in dealing with the

00:12:58.600 Americans as well as with our enemies. And so for all these reasons, any sensible administration in

00:13:04.220 Canada would already be fixing this stuff. So it shouldn't have been hard to go down there and say,

00:13:08.620 yeah, we're busted, but we're on it. And then you'd be fine. You know, people said, well, what did

00:13:14.960 you do? I went down and I told the president we understood his concerns. And in a way, you see this,

00:13:19.200 you asked about, you know, what do I think about Donald Trump? I've said all along he is the wrong

00:13:23.600 answer to the right question. And this seems to me as a classic case in point. Why did it take Donald

00:13:29.120 Trump to light a fire under us on these issues that we should have lit a fire under ourselves on?

00:13:33.900 That's rather an embarrassing situation for Canada, but it has happened. It's too late now to go back

00:13:39.360 and fix these things seven, eight years ago. But we can respond now by saying, gosh, if even Donald

00:13:45.060 Trump sees a problem, we're certainly not going to miss it. Let's get on this. We're not idiots.

00:13:49.920 And if we don't do that, then we are idiots. So let's not be. 1.00

00:13:56.060 John, I want to play an extended clip of Trudeau. I think he was speaking at a conference in Halifax

00:14:00.740 where he was talking about the way Canada would fight against the US economy, which is 10 times as

00:14:07.340 large as ours by putting tariffs on Heinz ketchup and cherries and playing cards. I'll play the whole

00:14:15.700 clip here. There's two things about it. The first is Trudeau is sounding really tough,

00:14:21.660 which, you know, I think he actually, this, I just don't know if that works when you're dealing

00:14:30.720 with Trump. I think if you come across as tough and more belligerent, Trump will escalate. But

00:14:36.320 I think the real thing I take away from this clip, and I'm going to play it in about a second,

00:14:40.720 is that instead of addressing what Trump actually wants, Trudeau is moving straight to,

00:14:47.560 I'll fight back. Trump actually wants us to close the border to drugs and illegal immigrants. That's 0.53

00:14:52.220 all he said. That's all his tweet said. To get our attention, he's saying, or else I'll whack you

00:14:56.700 with a tariff. Trump doesn't want a tariff. He doesn't want a tariff on the auto pact. He doesn't

00:15:01.300 want a tariff on oil. Those are his two big purchases from Canada, by the way. He just wants

00:15:06.700 to get our attention. And Trudeau moves immediately towards this trade war. It gets really detailed

00:15:13.060 in the trade war. Instead of doing what you said, instead of acknowledging Trump's grievance,

00:15:19.060 and he could even play the Roxham Road card. He'd say, yeah, Donald, yes, Donald, we'll solve our

00:15:25.340 problem, but can you please stop the human trafficking through Roxham Road or whatever? Like, you can play a

00:15:30.820 card against Trump. But he immediately moves away from what Trump actually wants to his delicious

00:15:37.460 daydream of fighting against Trump. My thesis is he wants to fight against Trump because that's an

00:15:43.960 easier opponent for him than Paul Yev. Here, take a look at this. I'm going to let this clip run for a

00:15:47.720 few minutes. But look at how exhilarated Trudeau is about a trade war. President-elect Trump got elected

00:15:54.240 on a commitment to make life better and more affordable for Americans. And I think people south of the border

00:16:01.560 are beginning to wake up to the reality that tariffs on everything from Canada would make life a lot more

00:16:08.780 expensive for Americans. So that's part of the argument. The other part is we will, of course, as we did

00:16:18.800 eight years ago, respond to unfair tariffs in a number of ways. And we're still looking at the

00:16:26.940 right ways to respond. But our responses to the unfair steel and aluminum tariffs were what ended

00:16:35.280 up lifting those tariffs last time. It wasn't that Americans were paying more for their steel and

00:16:41.360 aluminum, although that was annoying to some people in the States. It was the fact that we put tariffs on

00:16:47.640 bourbon and Harley-Davidson's and playing cards and Heinz ketchup and cherries and a number of other

00:16:54.380 things that were very carefully targeted because they were politically impactful to the president's

00:17:06.000 party and colleagues, was how we were able to punch back in a way that was actually felt by Americans.

00:17:15.060 But we know a few things about Donald Trump. First of all, we know that when he says these things,

00:17:21.800 he means them. But at the same time, we also know that his approach will often be to challenge people,

00:17:29.300 to destabilize a negotiating partner, to offer uncertainty and even sometimes a bit of chaos

00:17:40.960 into the well-established hallways of democracies and institutions. And one of the most important

00:17:49.700 things for us to do is not to freak out, not to panic. Now, knowing that, yes, these would be

00:17:59.280 absolutely devastating means we have to take them seriously. But it does mean we have to be thoughtful

00:18:05.380 and strategic, not go around making our opponents' arguments for him, but making our arguments

00:18:14.580 in a significant and united way.

00:18:18.260 John, I got to tell you, that was actually a fairly detailed policy answer by Trudeau. I think

00:18:24.200 he's actually had some briefings on this matter. Like, for him to know those details is surprising to me.

00:18:30.480 But I say again, instead of working to solve the problem, he's talking about how he's sort of ready

00:18:36.860 for a fight and America should be ready for him. I think he wants that fight. What do you think of

00:18:41.360 my theory? Is it too far-fetched that Trudeau would love a fight against Trump because A,

00:18:47.880 Trump is less popular in Canada than Polyev and B, Trudeau could say, hey, Canadians, the reason why our 0.71

00:18:54.040 economy is trashed is not because of me. It's because of this Trump guy and his tariffs. Don't blame me.

00:18:59.100 I'm here to defend you. What do you think of that thesis?

00:19:02.560 I think that you're basically right, though. You may have thought it through more completely than

00:19:06.400 he has. And I grant it's nice that he was briefed on an issue. That would be an improvement if that

00:19:10.520 happened more often. But one of the interesting things about Trudeau is that for all his purported

00:19:14.920 sunny ways, he's actually a very belligerent person. And you see this whenever he's challenged,

00:19:20.320 he gets that kind of, and then he comes at you and he gets very nasty very quickly. And that is

00:19:26.120 actually his default mode. And somebody had to tell him, this isn't the moment, this isn't the

00:19:32.480 fight to pick. And you could go in there and you could say, you know, I don't think Donald Trump

00:19:36.240 wants a trade war. I think Americans understand, as we certainly do in Canada, that the last time

00:19:40.940 the United States turned its back on free trade in the early 1930s, it was disastrous for the world

00:19:45.880 and for them. And I think what the president is trying to do is get our attention on some issues

00:19:51.060 where, in fact, he's entitled to our attention. You know, if there was a trade war, there'll be

00:19:54.440 retaliation and we'll all lose. But we're going to make a point of not going down that road.

00:19:58.780 We are going to work with the Americans on these issues that they're rightly concerned about. And

00:20:02.960 we're going to ask them to deal with some issues that we're concerned about. I mean, the border is

00:20:07.240 porous on both sides, you know. And the Americans are complaining, for instance, about Mexico letting a

00:20:12.620 lot of people in. Well, the United States has let a lot of people in. But we're going to deal with

00:20:18.220 us like adults and we're going to find a solution that means everybody better off. But Trudeau,

00:20:22.920 in fact, it's a funny thing. You don't maybe think of him naturally this way. Remember him

00:20:27.520 elbowing people on the floor of the House of Commons? You look what happens when a cabinet

00:20:31.240 member crosses him. He escalates very, very quickly. He doesn't back down. He throws people

00:20:37.600 under the bus. And the trouble with trying to throw Donald Trump under the bus is that I think

00:20:41.600 he's probably too heavy to lift. You just you can't do that to an American president. But Trudeau is a

00:20:47.240 person who he's not very teachable and he has quite a limited skill set. And so he's in some

00:20:53.320 trouble at this point because his natural reaction isn't the appropriate one. And he doesn't adapt

00:20:58.540 well. I think you're so right. I mean, his his idea of maybe he'll be the the global leader against

00:21:06.560 Trump. That feels like a 2016 move because I look around the world and I see every regime,

00:21:11.660 left wing or right wing, authoritarian or democratic saying, OK, Trump is back.

00:21:17.200 We know what that means. We've got to deal with them. And let's just all the mean things we've

00:21:22.020 said over the past four years, we better sort of memory hold them. Like to me, to watch the

00:21:26.160 hardcore left wing government of the UK suck up as hard as possible to Donald Trump is all I need to

00:21:32.480 know about how other countries perceive Trump. The fact that both Zelensky and Putin are vying for

00:21:38.860 Trump's favor. That's how it is in 2024. And I think Trudeau believes there's some I don't even

00:21:46.200 know who would applaud him fighting Trump, but I don't know if it's going to work. As to your point,

00:21:52.120 you're right. Trudeau does get mean. We've tasted that at Rebel News. We poke at him more than most.

00:21:58.500 And he bans us from things. Let me just play a quick clip of when he banned us from the leaders

00:22:03.560 debates. We had a court order us in. The court said we're journalists. They can't ban us. Trudeau

00:22:10.980 didn't care what the court said. He wouldn't even answer our questions. He was totally furious and

00:22:17.380 disgusted with us because we hurt his feelings and he went into mean guy mode, not sunny ways.

00:22:24.900 I mean, just a quick clip. Take a look at how Trudeau deals with it when he doesn't get his way.

00:22:31.120 The only reason that I'm allowed to ask you this question is because today the federal court ruled

00:22:36.460 that the government doesn't have the right to determine who is or is not a journalist.

00:22:41.260 This is the second election in a row that the court had to overturn your government.

00:22:46.320 Do you still insist on being able to make that decision and why?

00:22:51.720 First of all, questions around accreditation were handled by the press gallery and the consortium

00:22:58.360 of networks who have strong perspectives on quality journalism and the important information

00:23:05.500 that is shared with Canadians. The reality is organizations like yours that continue to spread

00:23:17.240 misinformation and disinformation on the science around vaccines, around how we're going to actually

00:23:24.420 get through this pandemic and be there for each other and keep our kids safe is part of why we're seeing

00:23:32.000 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

00:23:59.680 a really important decision we take about the kind of country we want to see. And I salute all

00:24:05.620 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

00:24:20.860 perspectives, which is the last thing that you guys do. Well, that's him being polite. Of course, when he

00:24:26.760 encounters Rebel News journalists, his bodyguards beat them up. Here's David Menzies outside a liberal

00:24:31.700 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

00:24:44.680 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 1.00

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 0.87

00:28:03.040 that are exactly like all the ideas we already had. And what if we did want to do things 0.89

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 1.00

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 1.00

00:29:49.080 oligarch named Carlos Slim flew up to the States, you know, bent the knee, they had dinner and Trump 0.68

00:29:56.040 published a photo positively effusive about his new friend, Carlos Slim. Think of Kim Jong-un, 0.83

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 1.00

00:30:33.380 and his voters being stupid and thoughtless and sexist. Take a look at this. 1.00

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. 1.00

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

00:33:10.360 with anyone? I can't think of it.

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 1.00

00:34:26.660 his cabinet defies him. Under the bus, she goes, strong women do not please Justin Trudeau. And so the 0.93

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 0.80

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. 1.00

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. 0.80

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 1.00

00:42:04.220 and you go through all this feminist mumbo jumbo, hoping that when someone comes forward, 1.00

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. 0.97

00:42:21.940 Chris Cross says, how much is it costing taxpayers to upgrade the capital in Ottawa? No wonder we are 0.97

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.

Rebel News Podcast - December 13, 2024

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Trudeau set to sacrifice Canadian prosperity over porous borders

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