Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Trump tells Trudeau to fix Canada's border — or he will!

00:00:00.300 Hello, my friends. I want to talk about Donald Trump's astonishing tweet. Actually, it was on Truth Social, where he says if Canada doesn't seal the border to stop illegal immigrants and drugs from coming into America, he's going to whack our economy with a 25% tariff. That would destroy Canada's economy.

00:00:17.660 So it's basically saying to Justin Trudeau that these last nine years of atrocious policy, fix it in two months or I will. Just a total Trump move, and I don't think Trudeau knows what to do about it. It's a very interesting show. We have an interesting guest. I really want you to see it, not just hear it.

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00:01:51.220 All right, here's today's show.

00:01:56.980 Tonight, Trump tells Canada to fix our border, or he will.

00:02:01.720 And all the smart people freak out.

00:02:04.200 It's November 26th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:02:06.940 You're ready for freedom!

00:02:09.820 Shame on you, you censorious bug!

00:02:21.220 Donald Trump announces a lot of things on Twitter, but remember, he also has his own social media platform called Truth Social.

00:02:30.480 And here's what he posted.

00:02:32.100 He said,

00:02:32.520 As everyone is aware, thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing crime and drugs at levels never seen before. 1.00

00:02:43.140 Right now, a caravan coming from Mexico composed of thousands of people seems to be unstoppable, and its quest to come through our currently open border.

00:02:51.120 However, on January 20th, as one of my many first executive orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% tariff on all products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous open borders.

00:03:09.560 This tariff will remain in effect until such time as drugs, in particular fentanyl, and all illegal aliens stop the invasion of our country. 0.99

00:03:18.100 Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long-simmering problem.

00:03:24.560 We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price.

00:03:32.920 It's very interesting, isn't it?

00:03:35.000 Now, by the way, Mexico's new president almost immediately said,

00:03:38.880 We'll do, no problem, which is sort of shocking when you think about it.

00:03:43.300 It shows that Mexico could have stopped the border rush anytime they wanted to, but either Biden and Harris sort of told them not to, or they just had such little respect for Biden and Harris and America.

00:03:56.220 It's amazing that Trump is effectively doing foreign policy by tweet or true social now, even before he's in office, not even by phone call, just by tweets, because he's getting the desired effect.

00:04:08.880 It's interesting that Trump is putting Canada and Mexico in the same batch, and I know a lot of dainty Canadian Laurentians are, how dare you, they're a third-world country. 0.92

00:04:19.260 Well, actually, more terrorist suspects have tried to get into America from the northern border than from the southern border.

00:04:27.740 And, by the way, those numbers are ramping up, and a lot of people get into Canada because we're such a soft touch and then try and make their way to the United States.

00:04:35.560 The numbers of that are just escalating astonishingly.

00:04:38.440 And Trump wanted to get our attention.

00:04:41.360 Here's Trudeau talking about his phone call with Trump yesterday.

00:04:46.780 Watch it, and then I have a question for you afterwards.

00:04:49.120 So here's Trudeau talking about how warm the relationship is.

00:04:54.220 Typical word salad.

00:04:55.860 We obviously talked about laying out the facts, talking about how the intense and effective connections between our two countries flow back and forth.

00:05:06.860 We talked about some of the challenges that we can work on together.

00:05:10.460 It was a good call.

00:05:13.000 This is something that we can do.

00:05:17.040 Laying out the facts, moving forward in constructive ways.

00:05:21.760 This is a relationship that we know takes a certain amount of working on, and that's what we'll do.

00:05:26.140 One of the really important things is that we be all pulling together on this.

00:05:31.780 The Team Canada approach is what works.

00:05:34.760 That's where, putting aside partisanship, that's where I reached out immediately to Doug Ford to agree with him that we would have a First Minister's meeting this week to talk about the United States.

00:05:46.100 Talked with Francois Legault and some other premiers as well.

00:05:49.220 So there's work to do, but we know how to do it.

00:05:52.960 Okay, I got a question for you about that clip.

00:05:55.420 Did Trump not mention the tariff scheme here in his phone call with Justin Trudeau?

00:06:05.280 If he mentioned it, why didn't Trudeau refer to it?

00:06:08.680 Like, it's a shocking, stunning threat, really.

00:06:11.820 It's a declaration of economic war.

00:06:14.120 So why didn't Trudeau mention the elephant in the room?

00:06:17.840 Or if Trump did, did Trump not bring it up in the call?

00:06:23.700 Or if Trump did bring it up in the call, I mean, which is worse?

00:06:28.360 If Trump didn't bring it up, so Trudeau didn't mention it?

00:06:31.420 Or if Trump did or didn't bring it up, Trudeau didn't mention it?

00:06:35.900 I wonder if the call went so poorly, if the phone call between Trudeau and Trump went so poorly,

00:06:42.060 that as a reaction to that, Trump made his online demand.

00:06:46.820 Isn't that astonishing?

00:06:48.840 In a moment, we're going to talk about Trudeau's childishness with David Legge,

00:06:53.980 a former diplomat for the province of Alberta.

00:06:56.260 We'll talk with him in a bit.

00:06:58.020 One of his interesting points is that while Trump is governing effectively from Mar-a-Lago every day,

00:07:04.380 Justin Trudeau is going to Taylor Swift concerts, even when Montreal is in the middle of a horrific riot.

00:07:10.840 Yeah, I don't know if you saw it the other day, but Stephen Harper made some comments at a private fundraiser that were leaked.

00:07:17.200 He said that his fundamental criticism of Justin Trudeau after nine years was how unserious it was,

00:07:25.280 unserious at economics, unserious at foreign policy, just all about show and press release and appearances

00:07:32.820 and trading friendship bracelets at girls' concerts, unserious.

00:07:38.900 And I think he's exactly right, and we're in serious times.

00:07:41.580 Literally everything I said would happen in 2015 has now come to pass.

00:07:46.600 Let me compare that with Pierre Polyev's serious presentation today.

00:07:53.440 I'm going to let this run for a bit because he says a lot of things.

00:07:56.600 It's very interesting to watch Pierre Polyev accept Trump's observation that we have big problems with our border and with drugs,

00:08:05.420 but accept it in a way that asserts Canada's rights and puts a Canada for a spin,

00:08:11.400 not rolling over for Trump because Trump says so, but doing some of these things because it's in the interests of Canadians.

00:08:17.480 Take a look at Pierre Polyev.

00:08:18.680 The United States is the greatest economic and military superpower in the history of the world, and they are our neighbor.

00:08:27.940 The U.S. is responsible for $1.2 trillion of our trade.

00:08:33.380 We trade almost twice as much with the Americans as we trade with the rest of the world combined.

00:08:41.040 Trade with the U.S. is 40% of our economy.

00:08:46.140 President Trump yesterday made an unjustified threat of a 25% tariff on our already weak and shrinking economy.

00:08:59.820 Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland were surprised, amazingly.

00:09:06.560 Everyone else knew something like this could be coming because President Trump had been talking about it for years on the campaign trail.

00:09:14.280 Yet 20 days ago, Chrystia Freeland said, don't worry, Canada will be fine.

00:09:20.280 Apparently, neither she nor Justin Trudeau were following what the incoming President was saying.

00:09:27.680 And now, we must take account and we must be honest with our unprecedented weakness.

00:09:33.820 After nine years of Prime Minister Trudeau, our GDP is smaller than it was when he took office.

00:09:38.940 Per capita is smaller than it was when he took office.

00:09:41.720 In fact, our per capita GDP has dropped more than any other G7 country since the year before COVID.

00:09:48.060 We have the most indebted households.

00:09:50.020 We've had the worst housing inflation.

00:09:52.520 A quarter of our people are in poverty.

00:09:54.660 Two million people line up in food banks.

00:09:57.040 Food prices have risen 37% faster in Canada than in the United States of America.

00:10:02.820 Our economy is teetering on the brink of collapse.

00:10:06.740 And now, we face this renewed threat.

00:10:12.000 We need a plan.

00:10:13.860 A plan to put Canada first on the economy and on security.

00:10:20.380 So, to start with, on the economy.

00:10:23.780 I'm calling on Prime Minister Trudeau to put partisanship aside.

00:10:28.840 And in the spirit of Team Canada to accept that we can, he cannot go ahead with quadrupling the carbon tax to 61 cents a litre.

00:10:38.460 This was an irresponsible policy to begin with.

00:10:41.840 But combining this kind of crippling energy tax increase with potential tariffs from Donald Trump would push our economy into a nightmare and a tailspin.

00:10:53.840 So, let's put partisanship aside and ax the tax.

00:10:58.620 Second, the Prime Minister has to put aside partisanship and, in the spirit of Team Canada, cancel his energy cap, which would see Alberta and Saskatchewan produce 35% less energy.

00:11:13.620 At a time when we need those jobs.

00:11:16.980 It is our biggest industry and our biggest export.

00:11:20.380 The incoming American president says he wants to cut gas prices in half.

00:11:25.160 Well, the only way to do it will be to import more clean Canadian energy.

00:11:30.340 So, the Prime Minister has to stop this assault on our biggest industry.

00:11:34.080 Next, he has to cancel all tax increases.

00:11:38.540 Tax increases on work, investment and making stuff in Canada.

00:11:43.780 Finally, he needs to renew and restart the commitment to end the Stoffwood lumber tariffs and the Buy America policies,

00:11:53.100 just like Stephen Harper was successful in doing, even though Justin Trudeau has not been able to do that under three presidents and nine years.

00:12:00.140 On security, about a week ago, Justin Trudeau admitted that he broke our immigration system, and that brings new challenges.

00:12:11.060 His own published documents show there are 4.9 million people here temporarily that are supposed to leave by December 31st of next year.

00:12:24.280 Thirteen months from now, 4.9 million people.

00:12:28.120 We asked what the plan was to track their departures, and yesterday his immigration minister said,

00:12:34.900 we're just going to take people at their word.

00:12:37.500 He admits that there have been two ISIS terrorists allowed into our country.

00:12:43.740 What is the plan to protect our security and reinstate sovereignty over who is in our country?

00:12:51.480 Military.

00:12:52.040 Military.

00:12:53.020 Justin Trudeau has demolished our military with poor decisions, botched procurements, and wasted money.

00:13:02.560 One thing he could do today is announce that his planned billion-dollar cut to the military is cancelled,

00:13:10.100 and then present a real plan to reallocate money away from lower priorities towards rebuilding our military and reinforcing our military security over North America.

00:13:22.660 And finally, on drugs.

00:13:26.780 I don't want to stop drug overdoses to please Donald Trump.

00:13:30.780 I want to stop drug overdoses so that there's not one more mother with her face buried in a pillow, 0.55

00:13:38.980 sobbing that she just lost her kid.

00:13:41.680 After 47,000 other Canadians have died, that's more than we lost in the Second World War.

00:13:48.000 A 200 percent annual increase in drug overdose deaths have resulted from Justin Trudeau's radical liberalization of drugs.

00:13:58.520 Justin Trudeau must put partisanship aside.

00:14:01.500 Not just for the sake of Team Canada, but for the sake of our people,

00:14:07.600 and fully reverse his liberalization of drugs.

00:14:10.560 ban them, prosecute those who traffic in them, secure our borders against the illegal importation of fentanyl ingredients,

00:14:18.840 put people in treatment and recovery to bring our loved ones home drug-free.

00:14:24.900 That is necessary now more than ever.

00:14:30.020 Look, President Trump has the right to put his workers and his nation's security first.

00:14:38.940 I will put Canada's workers and Canada's security first.

00:14:45.760 We need a Prime Minister with the strength and the smarts, the brains and the backbone,

00:14:51.000 to stand up for this country, to rebuild our security, our military, and our economy.

00:14:57.840 That is what I will do.

00:14:59.320 Pierre Polyev is younger than Justin Trudeau, but doesn't he come across as older?

00:15:03.660 I mean, he looks a little younger, but he sounds so much more sober and serious.

00:15:07.980 And I think we are in serious times.

00:15:11.200 You know, I know a little bit about Justin Trudeau.

00:15:13.360 I haven't met him in years.

00:15:15.040 You might recall that I actually emceed a boxing match between Trudeau and a conservative senator at the time named Patrick Brazzo.

00:15:24.160 Do you remember that?

00:15:25.020 Let me play for you a very quick clip.

00:15:26.800 I'm going to look so much younger here.

00:15:28.540 I was wearing a tuxedo.

00:15:29.540 I was, along with Brian Lilly, I was the announcer at a box.

00:15:35.220 I just want to show you a reminder of that, because that was actually, I think, the last time I had a chit-chat with Justin Trudeau.

00:15:41.220 Take a look.

00:15:41.600 You're not the shiny pony.

00:15:44.560 You're the stallion.

00:15:46.660 From you, Ezra, that means a lot.

00:15:48.620 What do you say?

00:15:49.240 It really eats you up inside, doesn't it?

00:15:50.980 It's for a good cause.

00:15:52.200 You proved me wrong.

00:15:53.080 A lot of doubters.

00:15:54.200 It's Bob Ray next.

00:15:55.340 Aha.

00:15:56.540 You always got to go there, don't you?

00:15:58.060 Listen, good for you.

00:15:59.300 And he's going to get a haircut.

00:16:00.680 Your beautiful hair will remain.

00:16:02.700 Won't you be happy about that, Ezra?

00:16:04.520 Justin Trudeau, congratulations on a fight well fought.

00:16:07.560 Yeah, I haven't talked to Trudeau since then, and I really don't have a lot of inside information about him,

00:16:13.760 although I do know some people who are one degree or two degrees of separation from him.

00:16:18.460 But I think from outside observation, you would agree with me that Trudeau is full of pride.

00:16:25.200 He can never admit that he's wrong.

00:16:27.680 When he apologizes, it's one of those reverse apologies, like an ironic apology, like,

00:16:34.360 I'm sorry you feel that way.

00:16:36.760 Like, she experienced the sexual assault differently.

00:16:41.120 I apologize on behalf of past Canadian government.

00:16:45.560 Like, he never apologizes for himself.

00:16:46.980 He never admits anything wrong, and he has a vengeance about him, doesn't he?

00:16:52.080 I think that's his chief emotional characteristic, is his pride and his narcissism.

00:16:57.480 So here's what we're going to face.

00:17:01.180 Will Justin Trudeau bend the knee to Donald Trump?

00:17:03.780 But I don't mean grovel, and I don't mean humiliate himself.

00:17:07.260 I think it's possible to work with Trump in a way that doesn't require surrender.

00:17:12.600 I think Pierre Palliev showed a little bit of that way.

00:17:15.940 I mean, let me give you the example I mentioned before.

00:17:18.200 Keir Starmer, the prime minister of the UK under the Labour Party, is anti-Trump,

00:17:23.100 and his foreign secretary, David Lammy, is extremely anti-Trump. 0.82

00:17:27.860 Here's David Lammy a few years ago on LBC Radio, just calling Trump every name in the book, including a misogynist Nazi.

00:17:35.280 Take a look at David Lammy.

00:17:36.320 Donald Trump has been tearing up all of the accords that we maintained on climate change.

00:17:44.660 If you care about climate change, you care about the future of this world, then you must stand against Donald Trump.

00:17:53.040 This is a man that is someone who thinks it's okay to describe women in the most horrendous of ways, their body parts,

00:18:04.080 to speak about them in a misogynistic and deeply offensive fashion.

00:18:09.560 This is the Donald Trump that we are rolling out the red carpet for.

00:18:13.940 And, you know, we don't always give a state visit to American presidents.

00:18:20.000 That was afforded to George W. Bush.

00:18:23.080 It was afforded to the great John Kennedy.

00:18:26.580 It was afforded to Barack Obama.

00:18:28.820 But we don't do it for all presidents.

00:18:31.040 Lyndon Johnson, Ford, Carter did not get one.

00:18:35.160 So why?

00:18:36.220 Why is Theresa May putting Donald Trump in this position, this pivotal position,

00:18:42.860 having him alongside the Queen and all the great dignitaries across the country

00:18:47.760 and in the Corporation of London, sitting alongside him and lording him for this shameful behaviour on the international stage?

00:18:57.080 We stand with the American people, but we absolutely say that our democratic values are opposed to the misogyny,

00:19:04.900 opposed to the racism, opposed to Steve Bannon and the horrible white supremacy that he seems to stand for.

00:19:13.900 Absolutely want to defend the planet, as our great David Attenborough has said.

00:19:19.100 And for all of those reasons, the Speaker is right.

00:19:21.980 You cannot address Parliament at your state visit.

00:19:25.020 Jeremy Corbyn, Vince Cable, Caroline Lucas are right for saying we're having nothing to do with this state banquet.

00:19:31.740 Yeah, so that's a pretty rough choice for a foreign secretary.

00:19:36.860 But they met with Trump.

00:19:38.840 They had dinner with Trump.

00:19:40.100 And here's David Lammy afterwards, not reputating himself, not humiliating himself,

00:19:46.380 but basically saying I could really work with Trump.

00:19:48.780 He's actually really nice in person.

00:19:50.480 Like being diplomatic and putting the country ahead of his own ego.

00:19:55.640 I don't like David Lammy at all.

00:19:57.760 And I think what he said about Trump was outrageous.

00:20:00.500 But listen to him talk about how he gets along with Trump now. 0.97

00:20:04.100 So April 2019, you said deluded, dishonest, xenophobic, narcissistic. 0.95

00:20:10.600 Donald Trump is no friend of Britain. 0.89

00:20:13.660 Have you changed your mind or is that still your view?

00:20:17.260 Here, Chris, I'm sitting here as foreign secretary.

00:20:20.300 I've had a meal with Donald Trump.

00:20:22.460 I've met Donald Trump.

00:20:23.680 Did you talk about this stuff?

00:20:24.680 Did you apologize?

00:20:25.660 Did he bring it up?

00:20:26.380 Not even vaguely.

00:20:28.020 I've got to say, I found him to be a very gracious host.

00:20:32.780 Did he offer you a second portion of chicken or something?

00:20:35.480 He did offer me a second portion of chicken.

00:20:39.000 He was very generous, very gracious, very keen to make sure that we felt relaxed and comfortable in his surroundings.

00:20:49.180 He was funny.

00:20:50.360 He was warm about the UK, very warm about the royal family, I've got to tell you.

00:20:56.880 Now, you know that David Lammy hates Trump.

00:20:59.980 He has said so.

00:21:01.060 And so does Keir Starmer.

00:21:02.940 But they know that the US-UK relationship is so important that they're going to not necessarily grovel, but swallow their pride and just move on with being grownups.

00:21:12.900 And I think you're going to see them really emphasize that because the UK cannot afford to be offside with the United States.

00:21:19.580 But if that goes for the UK, it goes twice as much for Canada.

00:21:23.080 We are much more integrated with the US economy.

00:21:25.380 We are completely reliant on the US military.

00:21:28.820 There are so many ways we're inextricably linked to the US.

00:21:33.060 So here's the question.

00:21:35.680 Will Justin Trudeau continue his performative outbursts against Trump?

00:21:40.520 Will he allow his staff to continue to disparage Trump?

00:21:44.440 Or will he be a bit of a grownup and work with Trump to fix the border, to stop the mass migration across the border and stop the fentanyl trade, much of which comes through from China?

00:21:56.240 Trump does not want these tariffs.

00:21:58.040 Of course not.

00:21:58.620 It would be absurd.

00:21:59.620 It would devastate Canada and harm America.

00:22:01.780 Trump wants the tariff threat to get Trudeau cracking so that on January 20th, the border is pretty much in hand already.

00:22:10.860 It's brilliant from Trump's point of view.

00:22:13.420 We will see if Trudeau can defy Stephen Harper's criticism and be a serious man.

00:22:21.280 The Taylor Swift, Justin Trudeau, will use word salad and talk around the issue.

00:22:26.900 Here's Melanie Jolie being utterly incomprehensible closer to the election when she says we're going to have some difficult conversations. 0.98

00:22:36.400 Trump's not looking for a conversation, is he?

00:22:38.280 He's looking for a fix of the border.

00:22:40.120 Here's Melanie Jolie in the word salad. 0.67

00:22:42.460 First and foremost, you know, we've been following the race.

00:22:45.000 We knew it was a tight race and we had a plan for both a Harris win, a Trump win.

00:22:52.800 And so now we're going to make sure that we connect first and develop and nurture the relationship we already had.

00:23:02.140 So that's our goal.

00:23:03.200 But Minister, these tariffs, I mean, these are estimated to knock at least half a point off of the country's GDP.

00:23:10.420 That's enough to put the economy into recession.

00:23:12.560 So do you have any clarity on whether or not Canada is exempted from this or whether it's going to have to deal with this and maybe retaliate with tariffs of its own?

00:23:21.200 David, I don't want to speculate.

00:23:23.520 We've just been, you know, the results were given at four o'clock this morning.

00:23:27.840 The president was talking to the press and to his supporters.

00:23:30.620 So we're around 12 hours after just basically that historic speech.

00:23:36.340 It's an historic election.

00:23:38.280 We know that at least 35 states have as their number one market to export Canada.

00:23:44.740 We know also that there are many jobs on both sides of the border that depend on our two countries.

00:23:51.880 And so we'll be ready.

00:23:53.600 And we are ready.

00:23:56.060 But this is a promise that's been around for a while in this campaign.

00:23:59.300 So it sounds like you don't have the clarity yet.

00:24:01.900 You're still waiting to find out whether or not Canada is exempted.

00:24:04.960 Is that a clear assessment of where things are right now?

00:24:07.820 I don't think anybody watching us will think that, of course, the decisions have been taken over the past 12 hours.

00:24:15.240 There's no secretary of treasury.

00:24:17.300 There's no secretary of state.

00:24:19.260 You know, let's all make sure that we breathe and we can address what we'll be working on as a country.

00:24:27.800 If there's more word salad BS like that, if Trudeau and Jolie and Chrystia Freeland can't actually solve a problem,

00:24:36.920 and I don't know if they can, tell me a problem they've actually solved.

00:24:40.400 Not talked about, but have actually solved.

00:24:42.860 What's something that Justin Trudeau has actually accomplished?

00:24:45.260 I can only name one thing, and that is the mass legalization and decriminalization of drugs.

00:24:50.920 That's really their big achievement.

00:24:52.680 I mean, everything else in that has been a mess.

00:24:55.220 Can they actually fix the borders?

00:24:57.800 I sort of doubt it.

00:24:59.320 Will they even try, or will they stay in their defiant mode towards Trump?

00:25:04.900 We'll find out soon enough, won't we?

00:25:07.160 Stay with us.

00:25:07.900 Next, we'll talk to someone who knows about Canada-U.S. relations more than most.

00:25:12.260 David Lagg is next.

00:25:13.120 So, to any ally, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, if you try to help the ICC, we're going to sanction you.

00:25:30.300 Well, that means I want every ally, and you saw a little Justin in Canada and his position.

00:25:36.060 What should the penalty be?

00:25:37.460 We should crush our economy, because we're next.

00:25:43.340 NATO is an extremely serious affair these days.

00:25:46.120 What to do with Russia and Ukraine?

00:25:48.280 There's a serious division of opinion.

00:25:50.020 Donald Trump has expressed his interest in wrapping things up immediately.

00:25:53.760 Joe Biden does not share that view and has, in fact, been sending new, sophisticated weapon systems.

00:26:00.040 The U.K. has sent their Storm Shadow Missile.

00:26:02.720 The United States, the Atakums missile system.

00:26:05.340 Now there's conversations between the U.K. and France about actually sending ground troops to Ukraine.

00:26:10.500 All of this happening in a compressed window of time before Trump takes office.

00:26:14.560 In other words, grave matters, whatever side of those debates you're on.

00:26:19.360 The world is in a very serious place economically.

00:26:22.100 The crises of mass immigration, of drugs, of unemployment.

00:26:27.580 And yet, amongst all of that, Justin Trudeau, an unserious man in serious times.

00:26:32.860 Think about it. Canada was hosting the NATO summit in our country this week.

00:26:40.260 Well, think of what Trudeau was doing.

00:26:42.180 I mean, besides the Taylor Swift concert.

00:26:44.960 I came across a brilliant summary of this on Twitter.

00:26:48.740 A long-form tweet by my friend David Knight-Legg, who has worked in governments across Canada.

00:26:55.020 He's the boss of Elements Capital Advisors.

00:26:59.440 And I said, David, I've just got to have you on the show.

00:27:02.180 And he said, well, I'm traveling through Europe right now.

00:27:04.500 I said, perfect.

00:27:05.480 We'll grab you in the taxi.

00:27:07.740 And he joins me now via Zoom while traveling at night in Europe by taxi.

00:27:14.180 David, I'm grateful to you for jamming us in.

00:27:16.620 And I wanted to catch you because what you wrote today really shook me awake about how childish Canada is now perceived in the world.

00:27:26.060 Give me a summary of some of the points you made in your tweet.

00:27:29.360 Sure, Ezra.

00:27:29.920 Well, look, you know, we live in an increasingly dangerous world, as you know.

00:27:33.540 I'm just out of jail for, you know, taking a picture in a free society like Canada because there's confusion and there's a lot of concern.

00:27:44.140 And we've got two obvious wars, one in the Middle East and one in the brain.

00:27:50.040 And then we've got a host of other security considerations all over the world right now.

00:27:54.320 And Canada is completely unserious about a lot of these things and has been so for a while.

00:27:59.820 And I think that the new U.S. administration coming in has made it crystal clear that that can't stand any longer.

00:28:07.960 You know, I was compelled to write a note about this because when you travel as a Canadian overseas and you see your country through the lens of the press in other countries,

00:28:18.340 sometimes it's just extraordinary how different the perspective is of Canada from an overseas perspective.

00:28:24.600 And, you know, that sort of collision of seeing Toronto on fire with, you know, Hamas supporting protesters with their face mask rioting, that did not look like Canada. 0.56

00:28:39.240 And that was occurring in the context of Canada being the host of a NATO summit.

00:28:44.320 So as the host country, we showed the world that we can't even keep law and order in our own core cities,

00:28:51.160 even for something as important as a NATO summit, where we're in particularly sort of tough shape and trying to prove to the world that we can keep our promises to our NATO allies.

00:29:03.000 We're not going to keep cheating on what it costs to be prepared in a military sense or in terms of security or intelligence sharing.

00:29:10.980 And yet we dropped the ball on something as simple as hosting a summit.

00:29:14.820 You know, and then you saw the next issue, of course, was the fact that both our prime minister and our minister of foreign affairs sided with a very dubious,

00:29:24.100 absurd judgment by a very dubious ICC judge instead of aligning with our allies in Israel and obviously our allies in the United States.

00:29:32.320 That led to Lindsey Graham, John Thune, Tom Cotton, a series of senators that have normally had Canada's back on issues in the past,

00:29:42.440 warning us there would be economic sanctions if we persisted in crossing them on security measures as important as the relationship of the U.S. and Israel to the ICC.

00:29:51.220 Many of the prime minister dancing, you had Jenny Kerrigan at the Halifax Security Conference calling out Jim Reich,

00:29:57.700 a very important senator for Canada and the trade discussions.

00:30:00.740 It's just been a bonfire of liberal vanities of a country that's kind of lost its way.

00:30:07.120 And I don't know what it's going to take.

00:30:09.400 And you saw what it did take to sort of throw some cold water on our discussion nationally, which was Trump saying,

00:30:16.940 look, I'm going to put 25 percent tariffs on Canada, Mexico until you secure this northern border. 0.79

00:30:22.040 You know, and and that has been a stunning shock to the Canadian system.

00:30:27.440 I think some people want to feel aggrieved by Trump and it is egregious, a 25 percent tariff.

00:30:33.780 But to me, it's so obviously just his his not his desired outcome.

00:30:39.360 He's saying steal your border to illegal migrants, including potential terrorists and drugs.

00:30:44.280 And he doesn't want that. It's not an economic weapon.

00:30:47.340 He's saying, can I please have your attention? Our border is a problem.

00:30:51.020 Let me give you some encouragement to shake off your dust.

00:30:54.600 Mexico has already responded.

00:30:56.660 Their president has said, yeah, OK, message received.

00:31:00.240 Let's have a productive agreement.

00:31:02.620 Canada is in a freak out.

00:31:04.680 And I'm not saying I support putting tariffs on my own country.

00:31:09.100 I'm just saying Trump is trying to get our attention.

00:31:11.680 And I think what might happen, given how amateur and immature our government is, is instead of thinking seriously about, well, should we strengthen our border?

00:31:22.620 Should we stop fentanyl being shipped to America?

00:31:26.460 We're going to I'm worried that the government will take potshots at Trump instead.

00:31:30.960 Do you think there are any grownups at the PMO and the foreign policy office that are trying to do the right thing here, like the Mexican president?

00:31:39.480 Like, why would Canada die on the hill of illegal immigration and illegal drugs?

00:31:45.600 It's not even in our interest to do so.

00:31:48.240 Well, you put your finger on it.

00:31:49.560 We should be doing that for Canadians.

00:31:51.720 You know, fentanyl is ripping apart families across Canada.

00:31:55.040 It's one of the biggest issues that we're dealing with.

00:31:57.120 Why do we have to be compelled by the American president to do the right thing for Canadian border security?

00:32:03.640 Immigration is an issue that we know has been metastasizing.

00:32:06.800 We've got an asylum system that's become completely fraudulent.

00:32:10.360 We know that organized crime and terror laundering operations use it with impunity.

00:32:15.780 Why does it take an American president to put his finger on that and say,

00:32:19.320 unless you change these things that are threatening the secure northern border and changing what's been a special relationship for over 100 years,

00:32:27.760 you know, this is a new thing.

00:32:29.380 And so is the loss of the confidence of U.S. senators on the Foreign Relations Committee,

00:32:33.860 intelligence committees that have always had Canada's back.

00:32:36.160 They've finally said enough.

00:32:37.500 So, I mean, the question I think that people that are clutching their pearls right now have to ask is,

00:32:42.000 what is Trump supposed to do with this situation?

00:32:45.680 Tom Hogan, who is his new border czar, said he has a 10x more likelihood of a terrorist incident coming over the northern and southern border right now,

00:32:53.580 which is why they're so focused on it.

00:32:55.640 It took their intel agencies to tell us about four different terror incidents inside our country.

00:33:00.920 It took us years to follow the American demand that we named the IRGC a terrorist faction.

00:33:07.640 We know there's about six or seven hundred IRGC, that's the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, agents working within Canada.

00:33:17.300 You know, what is it going to take for Canada to wake up and start to do its part in the security arrangement

00:33:23.340 that is to find the best, closest working economic and military and energy security companionship in diplomatic circles?

00:33:33.660 The other thing I'd say, Ezra, just quickly, is, you know, what we have to understand is that the reason the world takes us so much more seriously

00:33:41.020 than our economy, the size of our economy would dictate or that our military would dictate

00:33:46.140 or that our diplomatic prowess would dictate is because of our close relationship with the United States.

00:33:50.680 Western Europe relies on Canada to be the one that can kind of be persuasive with the U.S.

00:33:56.560 when there's a close call to make, because we've always had the back of the Americas.

00:34:01.300 We've always taken a position that is aligned because our interests are so aligned with theirs

00:34:05.220 and because we've had that longstanding relationship.

00:34:08.880 You know, this is not meant to be adversarial.

00:34:11.900 We had 25 U.S. senators from the Democrats and the Republicans send us nice long letters saying you really have to stop being NATO deadbeats. 0.96

00:34:21.000 You're the worst of the 31. That's got to stop. 0.73

00:34:23.740 U.S. taxpayer can't be expected to pick up the tab all the time for Canada, not doing even its most nominal commitment,

00:34:31.760 making its most nominal commitment in this regard.

00:34:33.840 And so the question for those that are worried is what would you advise President Trump to do

00:34:38.500 if you were a sitting U.S. senator that knew that that northern border was porous,

00:34:43.420 there was a fundamental problem, and that Americans were tired of paying Canada's bill for military and security?

00:34:48.140 Yeah. You know, it just dawned on me two of the things you listed.

00:34:52.880 You mentioned Canada siding with this radical judge at the International Criminal Court and saying arrest Benjamin Netanyahu.

00:35:03.340 Now, Benjamin Netanyahu, I don't think, has any plans to come to Canada.

00:35:06.800 So I think the actual likelihood of Trudeau having to arrest him is zero.

00:35:12.980 I'd be surprised if he even takes his calls anymore now, frankly.

00:35:15.800 But let me just compare that to one other thing you mentioned, and that was the Canadian senior sailor,

00:35:23.280 who's a woman, I forget her name right now, who chided the United States for not being the U.S., 0.99

00:35:31.620 I think the incoming Secretary of Defense, the nominated Secretary of Defense, for having questions about women in combat.

00:35:37.220 After 39 years of career as a combat-arms officer and risking my life in many operations across the world,

00:35:46.820 I can't believe that in 2024, we still have to justify the contribution of women to their defense and to their service in their country. 1.00

00:36:05.040 And all women sitting here in uniform, stepping in and deciding to get into harm's way and fight for their country need to be recognized for doing so.

00:36:16.440 So, again, and that, folks, is the distraction, not the women themselves. 1.00

00:36:30.880 That was a terrible mistake.

00:36:32.840 First of all, she wasn't asked about it.

00:36:34.840 She went out there, I think, to try and score points for something she thought would be an applies line, and it was, because people want to be kind.

00:36:43.080 But Pete Hegseth, who's the nominee for Secretary of Defense, you know, has said certain things.

00:36:50.040 And if you read what he's written, you know, he's part of forward operating units.

00:36:55.560 Those units almost never contain, I can't think of an instance where those have ever contained women. 1.00

00:36:59.760 He was talking about specific combat roles.

00:37:02.300 He wasn't talking about drone operators or helicopter pilots or other things, right?

00:37:05.980 It's a relatively non-controversial notion in the context in which he said it.

00:37:11.940 But worse than that, one of the senators that really has Canada's back, Jim Reich from Idaho, is a great guy.

00:37:19.320 He's been terrific for us on so many things.

00:37:22.040 He's somebody that the other senators listen to.

00:37:24.220 He's a very important guy, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

00:37:27.020 He was on the stage commenting in a discussion format on what he thought about the nominee.

00:37:35.140 And he said, you know, there's a variety of things to consider here.

00:37:38.480 And he said, I'm not a military guy.

00:37:40.080 I'm not going to comment on it other than to say, you know, we really appreciate this in combat.

00:37:46.040 It was very noncommittal and thoughtful.

00:37:47.980 For some reason, our top general wanted to make a point of this with a senator that is extremely important to us and wasn't making a point, a negative point about women in combat at all. 0.95

00:38:00.840 And, you know, it's just one of those things.

00:38:02.500 I've got a friend who's who's up potentially to be in the administration from the defense side, who's a former assistant deputy secretary of defense.

00:38:10.400 And he's got a couple of roles they're considering him for now.

00:38:13.500 You know, I get a call from these guys saying, what are you guys doing?

00:38:16.000 You know, it's not your fight.

00:38:18.300 It's not even your discussion.

00:38:20.220 You're the ones that haven't haven't funded the military.

00:38:24.280 You're not keeping up with NORAD.

00:38:26.240 You're not fulfilling your requirements on Arctic security.

00:38:28.940 And you've got your top general deciding to take a shot at a guy who actually is very kind, very thoughtful on these issues.

00:38:35.640 So I thought that was a huge mistake within that very small.

00:38:38.520 I mean, that's obviously something that's not making the headlines in Canada much.

00:38:43.100 But it's important within that military community.

00:38:46.700 But the similarity between that flippant comment to poke the bear when we have not carried ours.

00:38:54.020 And I know you almost have to go.

00:38:55.660 You're at your destination there.

00:38:56.760 Thanks for letting us ride along with you.

00:38:59.280 Is the ICC.

00:39:00.580 My point there is it's not going to actually become a real thing.

00:39:04.140 Netanyahu's not coming here.

00:39:05.480 So it was just a performative statement.

00:39:07.940 And same thing with this shot at the American nominee.

00:39:12.560 No one asked us.

00:39:13.480 It wasn't it's not it doesn't advance Canada's interest.

00:39:17.160 It's a childish, flippant remark that might have felt good in both cases.

00:39:23.100 But how is that in Canada's interest?

00:39:25.060 I think we have to think, well, what is foreign policy for us to advance Canada's interest?

00:39:31.300 And exactly right.

00:39:32.140 And I don't think Trudeau's in that mindset.

00:39:34.940 He wants to play to his base, play to the CBC and the Toronto Star and be a hero poking at Donald Trump.

00:39:41.840 Last word to you, David.

00:39:43.140 Can we fix this or are we on course for a disaster?

00:39:48.780 Well, look, we've got three things going for us.

00:39:51.220 One, we're the greatest nation in the world.

00:39:54.080 You know, the Americans are lucky to work with us.

00:39:56.060 And seriously, as we've been given every possible advantage in the planet, we have we do have the largest, longest undefended border with the great biggest economy in the planet.

00:40:09.580 We have, you know, natural resources coming out of our ears.

00:40:15.200 You know, Alberta's got more oil than Russia, China and the United States put together.

00:40:19.060 The United States wants to include us in their strategy for global energy security and for military preparedness and for strategic preparedness.

00:40:29.100 We just have to in some ways, Ezra, it's like it's like people that have been spoiled by having it so good for so long.

00:40:34.640 And we've allowed these performative options that are purely about domestic politics to take the place of seeing ourselves as serious contenders that need to speak seriously when we're talking about another country.

00:40:48.780 We don't we haven't earned the right to have a debate.

00:40:52.060 Well, we would never have earned the right to have cheap shots like that with the country that we care about, want the best for.

00:41:00.120 You know, the Americans are in a position right now where they're going through a really disruptive change in the way that the government's going to look after a Trump administration.

00:41:10.140 There's a lot of debate about it.

00:41:12.280 What they need from their best, most reliable ally and partner is considered serious response to things they've demanded from us.

00:41:19.260 And so far, they haven't got that.

00:41:21.100 And I think that there are really good people that are nonpartisan.

00:41:25.020 I'm a partisan. I'm a conservative, but there are great people in our government and in their government that want to get this right.

00:41:31.500 They're going to work hard on getting it right.

00:41:33.560 So I'm I'm very optimistic that what we're going to see in the next few months is Canada focusing on things that we should have been focusing on the last nine years anyway.

00:41:42.640 Getting rid of the drug problem, fixing immigration, getting much tougher on crime and making sure that we, you know, take Canada to a place where we can be a reliable ally, not just to the Americans, but to the Europeans as well.

00:41:55.740 Very thoughtful. And I don't think I fully introduced you to our guests.

00:41:59.420 Of course, you were involved with the Canadian, the Alberta government.

00:42:02.700 One of your jobs was to be sort of a missionary for the oil industry, especially overseas, to convince the world that Alberta was back after its terrible holiday from history with Rachel Notley and the NDP.

00:42:14.260 So you have your job. I don't think I properly credentialed you besides being a successful businessman in your own right.

00:42:21.120 Your job was promoting Canada's interests, especially Alberta's interests around the world.

00:42:26.740 So you know what it's like to try and win hearts and minds with the only result being furthering Alberta's interests, not, you know, a self-indulgent performance, not taking selfies.

00:42:39.460 And so you bring a lot of wisdom and experience.

00:42:42.680 And even just the fact that, you know, who's who in the zoo there is impressive.

00:42:47.200 I hope that when, God willing, Pierre Paglia forms the next government next year, that he will call upon your services to help rebuild Canada's relationships around the world.

00:42:58.480 But for today, let me just thank you for letting us sneak 20 minutes of your time while you're overseas.

00:43:03.980 I very much appreciate it. And I'll refer people to your tweets so they can read your entire essay.

00:43:11.360 Thanks, Ezra. Hey, I'm glad I'm glad you're not in a jail cell somewhere in that great country.

00:43:16.660 You might not be totally feeling like it's the greatest country on Earth right now, but we're going to we're going to get it back to where it should be.

00:43:22.500 Right on, David. Great to see you. Thank you very much.

00:43:24.680 OK, great to see you. Take care. There he is, David Knight Legg.

00:43:28.480 He is a businessman. We talked about his role with Elements Capital Advisors, but I think his main credential for our conversation today was his role as an ambassador for the Alberta energy industry.

00:43:39.500 Stay with us. More ahead.

00:43:52.820 Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me.

00:43:54.700 The Green Leopard says, Ezra sued the police for saying your presence alone as the reason why they gave for your inciting violence, total abuse of international human rights.

00:44:05.660 Well, I don't know about international human rights, but I know my Canadian rights.

00:44:08.820 I have the right to be on the public sidewalk. I have the right to be a journalist and I have the right to be a Jew.

00:44:15.820 And I don't really lead with that all the time. I mean, it's I mean, I talk about Jewish things in Israel, things from time to time.

00:44:21.640 But most of what I talk about is of general interest.

00:44:24.360 I was there as a reporter for all Canadians, but it was because I was a Jew that that Hamas objected and that the police said, get out of here, which is atrocious.

00:44:35.000 So that's against my Canadian civil rights. Cliff Roberts says, I live in Montreal.

00:44:42.120 I'm sick of the police giving police escorts to terrorists. Me too.

00:44:47.020 I think we should arrest terrorists if they're actual terrorists.

00:44:51.600 They should arrest terrorist supporters because that's against the law.

00:44:54.600 If someone is breaking another law, trespass, mischief, vandalism, uttering threats, whatever, they should be arrested for that too.

00:45:01.640 I learned today that there are 4.9 million people in Canada who do not have the legal right here to remain here permanently.

00:45:09.800 And I think if any of these pro-Hamas extremists, part of this anti-Semitic crime wave, are temporary residents in this country, they should be immediately ejected. 0.95

00:45:20.420 Like, if you are a privileged visitor to our house and you bring your hatred and your pro-terrorism with you, get the hell out. 0.94

00:45:27.720 So, Fergus from Walking says, same thing in the Netherlands.

00:45:32.760 I was arrested for the same reason.

00:45:34.820 This is a global sickness. Thank you, Ezra.

00:45:37.680 Sorry you were arrested.

00:45:40.200 Things are pretty bad over there.

00:45:42.200 I think they're further progressed than they are here in Canada.

00:45:44.760 I think UK is the furthest gone.

00:45:46.680 Sweden is very far gone.

00:45:48.700 France is pretty far gone.

00:45:49.900 The UK is probably next in the pecking order.

00:45:53.940 And Canada and then the US.

00:45:55.780 This is happening to the US, but it's not as far gone. 0.87

00:45:58.700 But it's happening all across the West.

00:46:00.280 There's going to be an election in Ireland.

00:46:02.020 I had meant to go to Ireland, but I'd just been traveling too much.

00:46:04.780 I thought I would take a day off.

00:46:06.220 I wind up getting arrested and thrown in jail on my day off.

00:46:08.480 I was, I had actually meant to go to Ireland to cover their election.

00:46:13.440 I think immigration is one of the big issues over there.

00:46:16.700 Unfortunately, none of the parties running were taking a stand on that issue.

00:46:19.900 We'll have to see how that goes.

00:46:22.220 That's our show for today.

00:46:24.220 Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,

00:46:28.580 good night and keep fighting for freedom.

00:46:30.700 We'll be right back.

Rebel News Podcast - November 27, 2024

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Trump tells Trudeau to fix Canada's border — or he will!

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