Liberal journalists force a political billboard to be taken down. Is that the state of Canadian democracy？
Summary
A billboard supporting a third party campaign group was taken down by a "pro-union" mob led by the CBC state broadcaster. Ezra exposes the hypocrisy of the media, and the dark history of third party groups in Canadian politics.
Transcript
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Hello, my rebels. Today I show you a disgrace in Canadian politics, a billboard bought and
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paid for by a registered campaign group, contract signed with the billboard company,
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Patterson Outdoor, that simply said, stop mass immigration, was hounded off the sign
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by a Twitter mob led by the CBC state broadcaster. And I don't care what you think about immigration,
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if you believe in free speech, that's wrong. That's what I talk about. I wish you could
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see the video of it because I show you a lot of things. I show you the billboard, I show you media
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coverage. But I get it, you're listening to a podcast, so you use the imagination, the theater
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of the mind. But can I invite you to become a premium subscriber? You get the video version
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of the podcast too. And you get Sheila Gunn Reads podcast, show, TV show, and David Menzies TV show.
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And it's all for just eight bucks a month and that help pays the bill. So go to
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the rebel.media slash shows. Eight bucks a month or 80 bucks for the whole year. You can even get a
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discount if you want by using podcasts as the coupon code. And get the video version of today's
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show. And I wrap up today's show by talking about Donald Trump's tweet. We had a little banter
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on Twitter, as one does with the president of the United States. All right, here's the show.
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Tonight, liberal journalists force a political billboard to be taken down. Is that the state
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of Canadian democracy? It's August 27th, and this is the Ezra LeVance Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
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The only thing I have to say to the government, the wire publisher, is because it's my bloody
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I'm sure you've seen this billboard. It looks like it's a billboard from Maxime Bernier,
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the leader of the People's Party. And that's his face, of course, and you can see his party's
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logo. But as you can see by the small print underneath, that billboard is actually produced
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by a registered third-party campaign group for the upcoming election. There were literally
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more than 100 such third-party campaign groups that registered with Elections Canada in 2015.
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Most of them were environmental groups or public sector labor unions. I've looked through
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this list several times, and I can just find one single pro-Harper group amongst it, and
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they didn't do much of the election. The anti-Harper third-party groups did a lot. And they were
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very strategic in ridings where Harper and the conservatives were vulnerable. These third-party
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groups polled which of the parties had the best chance of winning, the Liberals or the NDP,
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and then they campaigned for that choice most likely to win. This helped tip British Columbia
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into the Liberal column was used in other ridings across the country, too. It was very much
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underreported by the media because, like I say, 99% of these third-party groups are left-wing,
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so media party journalists don't think they need any scrutiny. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot to mention
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the media party journalists themselves are also on the list of third-party campaign groups. Look at
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that. The Canadian Media Guild. Unifor literally funded campaigns against Stephen Harper. So those
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neutral, independent media party reporters who tell you what happened every night on the campaign
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trail, yeah, they're not neutral. They are literally paying from their own pocket, from their own
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salaries in the form of union dues, to campaign against Harper and against Andrew Scheer this time.
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So they're biased. I mean, you saw this tweet by Unifor. They don't disclose their bias either.
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What was the last time you saw a disclaimer after a media party journalist just trashes the
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Conservatives on TV, saw a disclaimer that they personally contributed to an election campaign
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against the Conservatives? They are. I mean, how is that really different from a journalist joining
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the Liberal Party and donating to the Liberal Party directly? It's not different. Well, my friends,
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if ethics were a thing to Canadian journalists, I don't think they'd be lining up salivating for their
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cut of a $600 million bailout from Trudeau. I mean, once you've decided to sell yourself for cash,
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I guess the only remaining question is what your price is and how far you will go. And with Canadian
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journalists, we haven't actually found the bottom yet. They seem to be willing to do anything for
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their new master. I'll come back to the media party in a moment. But first, back to these third-party
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campaign signs that support Bernier. They simply say, say no to mass immigration. That's it.
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They don't say, say no to all immigration, which is another point of view. They don't say,
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say no to immigration from terrorist-infested countries. Or even they don't say, say no to
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refugees. They just say, say no to mass immigration. Mass means mass of numbers, open borders-style
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immigration. You could probably include the 50,000 fraudulent refugees who've just walked across
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the illegal border crossing from New York State into Quebec in that mass. I mean, 50,000 fakers
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and liars. As a matter of fact and as a matter of law, if you are in the United States, you are not
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a refugee anymore. But it's the 50,000 part that is the mass part. Ahmed Hassan himself is a Muslim
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refugee from Somalia. And he has announced plans that he will bring in more than 1 million more
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migrants to Canada in the next three years, 40% of whom are uneconomic. They're either old and sick
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or illiterate or refugees or in some other category, just bringing them in to join our
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already long lineups for hospital emergency rooms, for food banks and schools. How do you feel about
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that? We're sometimes told that we need mass immigration to do economic work in Canada. But if
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you're saying right from the outset that nearly half the people you're bringing in as immigrants
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are not economic and never will be, why are you lying? It's the mass part. Anyone who wonders why
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wages are depressed, why rents are high, why universities are crowded, why traffic is terrible,
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it's the mass part. You can't add a million people to Canada in three years and expect those things not
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to happen. Anyone who wonders why we don't have better integration and assimilation culturally,
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it's the mass part. Because it's the mass part that allows enclaves where people can live as they
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live back in Somalia or wherever. I keep thinking of this video that Ami Horowitz did in Minnesota.
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But really, you could film something identical in many parts of Toronto, Montreal too. Have you ever
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seen this before? If you had a choice, would you rather live here or would you rather live in the Muslim
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country? I'd rather live in a Muslim country with my people. Would you prefer to live in America or
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live in Somalia? For me, I think it's Somalia. You prefer to live in Saudi Arabia? Yeah. Would you
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rather live in America or live in Somalia? I'd rather live in Somalia. Of course, they don't mean that
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because they came from Somalia saying they were a refugee. They like all the free stuff. So yeah,
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you can be against mass immigration. In fact, it's a bit unusual if you're not. I mean, statistically
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unusual, as Angus Reid's poll and really every other poll ever done shows. Most Canadians think
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we have too many immigrants, just a few percent, 4%, 6%, depending on the poll, say we should actually
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increase our number. But about half say we should reduce our number and the rest just don't know.
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So that's going straight to the question of mass immigration or not. Numbers too high or too low.
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If you asked people if we should limit immigration from countries that are terrorist-infested,
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failed states like Somalia, I bet the number would be even higher. I bet if you asked now if,
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given that the Syrian civil war is largely over, if you asked if Syrian refugees who are no longer
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really refugees, if they should go back, I bet that number would be high too. But that's not allowed in
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the narrative. And so when this very simple, very underproduced billboard went up, say no to mass
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immigration. It was a shock, not to normal Canadians who polls show think that way, but to
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the official keepers of the ideas, the media party, the political establishment. I should point out that
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it's not just the CBC and the liberals who hated this billboard. Timid half-conservatives did too.
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They know that mass immigration is politically deadly to conservative parties in the long run.
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It's how the Democrats won California. It's how the Democrats will win Texas. They can't get voters
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to change their minds and be socialists. So they just bring in new voters from Mexico. That's the
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way they do it in California and Texas. The liberal plan in Canada couldn't be more explicit. I don't
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know if you remember our story from a couple of years back. Syrian refugees to Canada literally were
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asked to sign releases, photo releases, on the plane ride over to let Trudeau take a photo with
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them. That was their most important purpose to Canada, to be campaign props for Trudeau and
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obviously to vote for him too. Duh. That's why Trudeau goes to all the mosques, including mosques that
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have been associated with terrorist recruitment. Listen to how Trudeau bragged a few years back about
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visiting, listen to him say it, the Asuna Wahhabi Mosque in Montreal that the Pentagon says was an
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Al-Qaeda recruitment center. Because I spend a lot of time running from the Bangladeshi to the
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Pakistani to the Maghreb to the Asuna Wahhabi Mosque. I cover all the different communities.
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Including the terrorist community, I guess. So yeah, Trudeau knows exactly what he's doing. So does the
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media, they're pushing mass immigration on Canadians over our democratic wishes. Andrew Scheer typically
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refuses to fight on these grounds, as I've shown you before. That was actually when Andrew Scheer
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turned against us, and against me in particular. I asked him some pointed questions about immigration
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five times in a row, and he just refused to answer. Do you have anything to say about
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the Syrian migrants or about John McCallum's new numbers? Or, I mean, that's something that I think
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conserves, maybe it's just me, but I think a lot of conserves want to hear something on that.
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Kelly Leach isn't talking about security, he's talking about values. What's your view on
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values? Well, McCallum has said he's going to jack up the numbers probably by 100,000. Do you
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oppose that? Are you against that? Kelly Leach has said before they get here, they should be some sort
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of a value screening. Do you think we should ask any values-laden questions of people before they get
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here? Well, just tell me your answer yourself. Do you think, you're saying once people get here,
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integrate them, teach them. I don't think anyone disagrees. But before they even get here,
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should we ask them about their values? Should we ask them about Canadian values before we let them in?
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That was a lot of clips of me asking questions. I encourage you to watch the whole video. We didn't
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show his answers because they were not answers. He didn't answer. What was that? Seven times I tried to
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press him on immigration. He refused to answer. And in recent months, he has said he is fine
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with Ahmed Hassan's numbers, and he's fine with the countries from which he chooses. So it's an
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opinion cartel going on in Canada. None of the official parties want to talk about mass immigration.
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Andrew Scheer quibbles about the processing of immigrants. He wants it to be more orderly at the
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rocks and road crossing. But he never quarrels with the quantity, the numbers, certainly not about the
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cultural fit. No, no, no, never. In fact, recently he proudly met with Omar Subedar. He's the guy on
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the left there. He's the Muslim imam famous for instructions to Canadian Muslim men on how to
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properly beat your wife. He really, that's his claim to fame. So yeah, of course they kept Maxine
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Bernier out of the debates. They didn't want someone talking about these things, but now they
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have to keep them off the billboards too. And by they, you know who I mean. I mean the establishment,
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the elites, the kind of people who don't really live in neighborhoods where every other woman is
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wearing a burka. They don't send their kids to schools where Canadian-born kids are the tiny
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minority. They believe in mass immigration for the same reason the big business and the banks do,
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drive down the wages, drive up real estate prices, and keep voting liberal.
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So these billboards have to be stopped. And so the media party knew exactly what to do. They do what
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they always do. They don't debate. I mean, that hasn't been fashionable in years. You'd think the
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media seeing a controversy would help talk it out, help lead or host our national discussion on
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immigration. No, no, no, no, no. What are you, in the 80s? The media's job is to de-platform,
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not to platform. Today's journalists believe very deeply in freedom of speech, but only for
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themselves. Certainly not for anyone outside of their guild. It's obviously worse now that they're
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all on Trudeau's bailout payroll. So the media went on a campaign. Here's the Calgary Herald,
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and here's the Globe and Mail, and here's the Toronto Star. They all went on a campaign all weekend
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of huffing. Here's the sun, huffing and puffing about how outrageous this was. Here's CTV. Oh,
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it's racist, by the way. Very, very racist. Yeah, no. If this had said no black immigration or no
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Chinese immigration, it would be racist. Maybe even saying no Muslim immigration, even though
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Islam is not a race. I could see how you could call that racist. But this just said no mass
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immigration. It goes to numbers. How is quarreling over numbers? How is that racist?
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A political billboard along a busy Halifax highway warning Canadians to say no to mass
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immigration is being condemned by Premier Stephen McNeil and MP Andy Fillmore. That's how this story
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in the Trudeau CBC state broadcaster starts. It's true. McNeil is the premier and Fillmore is an MP.
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That is true. But it's also true that they're Liberal Party members and Fillmore himself will be on the
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ballot against the People's Party in less than two months in the election. It's weird how the CBC didn't
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identify them as Liberals until later in the story, even though that's clearly on their mind.
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If the CBC had run this as a quarrel between the People's Party and the Liberal Party, which is how a
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normal journalistic enterprise would have done it, that would be accurate. And it would put the
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disagreement into the realms of a policy debate between two different competing points of view.
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But the whole mission here by the CBC was to denormalize and de-platform one side of the debate,
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not to have a debate. No, no, no, no. The CBC doesn't want a debate on immigration any more than
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they want a debate on global warming. Case closed, right? So this story was deliberately framed as
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everybody who's anybody versus some racist kooks. Here's my favorite part. The sign sparked criticism
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on Twitter. What is Twitter? Twitter is about 320 million busybodies chattering about anything and
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everything online. It's like the comments section. It's like Facebook. Imagine using that as a news
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peg, as an authority. The sign sparked criticism on Twitter. Oh, well, then it must be controversial
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if some people out of 320 million said so. That's not just lazy journalism. It's covering the CBC's own
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agenda here. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, we're not against it. Some people on Twitter were mean. That's
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why this is news. This is a CBC hit piece like all of their other hit pieces against Andrew Scheer and
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Maxime Bernier. They're just using some guy on Twitter as cover for their own agenda.
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Now, some conservatives, I regret to report, joined the online mob here, hoping that maybe the mob
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would go easy on them in return. Here's an Ontario Conservative cabinet minister named Stephen Leckie.
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He tweets, this sign is a few kilometers from where my mother, along with millions of enterprising
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newcomers, landed at Pier 21. They chose this country in pursuit of freedom, opportunity, and democracy.
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Our country needs skilled immigration. And it needs less of this divisive rhetoric.
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Yeah, but Stephen, the sign didn't say no to skilled immigration.
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It said no to mass immigration. And it's true that some immigrants come to Canada for freedom,
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Many don't. Too many don't. They come here for the freebies, or the free health care, or the easy
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welfare. And they plan to maintain un-Canadian tradition. Not to join our freedom and democracy.
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The fact that Leckie had to change the billboard's message before disagreeing with it shows maybe the
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truth of the billboard. And it begs the question, Leckie isn't for mass immigration, is he? Or is he?
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Is he like Andrew Scheer? He just doesn't want to answer. Anyways, he joined the Twitter mob, I guess.
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Back to the CBC story. They then did a deep dive into who this third-party group was that financed
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the billboard. Going into the names of the people involved, the dollar amounts, real investigative
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reporting. Funny, I don't think I've ever seen them do that, to say third parties that support,
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well, support mass immigration. Like the CBC's Journalism Union's third-party campaign. Why don't
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they ever investigate their own campaign groups, or say those by David Suzuki? Well, I'm just joking.
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The question answers itself, doesn't it? The CBC whipped up the Twitter outrage. They whipped
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it up themselves, as did other media party and bailout media sites. The CBC even got a Syrian
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migrant to talk about how badly his feelings were hurt by this sign. They're campaigning.
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He's not even a citizen, by the way, but he's Syrian and he started a chocolate company, and the fact
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that he speaks English well and runs a company is so rare amongst Syrian migrants, 90% of them who are
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still unemployed. But he's very helpful to the establishment, that fellow. Naturally, the CBC
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brought him out. I mean, it's a campaign right, and the CBC is campaigning. They're not reporting.
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They are organizing. At first, the billboard company, Patterson Outdoor, resisted this fake
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controversy, this manufactured Twitter mob. I mean, they're not a publisher. They're a billboard
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company. They don't write what's on their signs. They just rent space, and anyone can rent that space.
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In fact, their neutrality is an important part of functioning democracies. Stop mass
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immigration is a pretty simple idea, and I think it's the default idea, I think. I mean,
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shouldn't you have to make the case for mass immigration if you want it? Canadians have never
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really been asked. Patterson stood firm at first. I mean, after all, the message wasn't obscene.
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It wasn't illegal. It's clearly a political point of view. They were paid. Patterson can't get into the
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editing business, on politics, or on commercials. But look, the establishment wants something.
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The establishment's going to get something, and within days, Patterson bent the knee. They posted
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this groveling apology, and they ripped up their signed contract with the third-party group that
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advertised. Breach a contract out of cowardice. Whipped up by the media, especially the state
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broadcaster. It was journalists who censored that billboard, political journalists. They didn't
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cover the billboard, which is what a journalist would do, report on it. They campaigned against
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it, which is what a good liberal would do. And then even more bizarrely, the third-party group
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itself collapsed. I don't even understand this part. Look at this. The third-party advertising
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group behind billboards promoting Maxime Bernier, and his stance on immigration is now distancing
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itself from the message, saying he had never signed off on the controversial campaign.
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We completely disavow any sympathy with or support for the views expressed by donors who paid for
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and selected the content of their advertising, which we were mistakenly not afforded an opportunity
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to approve. Frank Smink, the head of True North Strong and Free Advertising Corp, wrote in an email
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of the Canadian Press on Monday. Yeah, no, that's obviously not true. I do not believe that a donor
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to Mr. Smink designed that ad, and Mr. Smink bought it without looking at it. You know, here at the
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Rebel, we put up a lot of billboards. I like this one. I don't know if you remember that one. The billboard
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companies sell us the space. They print the big poster, and they glue it on the billboard, but they
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don't design it. The artwork comes from the person buying the billboard. It's not even that Patterson
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Outdoor would have gotten the third-party campaign group's approval first. It's the other way. They
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would have been waiting for the third party to send them the artwork. That last story doesn't make any
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sense at all, other than the only explanation I can think of, which is the donors, including
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Mr. Smink, were so bullied and so harassed by the media party that they thought, I can't even
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participate in democracy anymore. I would like to participate in democracy, but I can't. Like I
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say, there's zero scrutiny of left-wing third-party groups in Canada, because the media party itself
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runs third-party groups. There are even foreign entities running third-party groups. Here's George
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Soros' group called Avaz. They literally list their Broadway New York office, which is illegal.
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But this is from the Elections Canada website, because Elections Canada is fine with that.
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And no media care, but donate money to a no-mass immigration billboard? Well, don't be surprised
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if the CBC shows up at your kid's school with journalists asking other parents how they feel.
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They feel safe with their children playing with your racist children. That's journalism today.
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This isn't just the deplatforming of a billboard. This isn't just the silencing of the majority view
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of Canadians. It's the deliberate conditioning of Canadians that you just got to shut up and withdraw
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from the political playing field. Get out of the public square if you don't buy into the official
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narrative. Andrew Scheer has agreed to buy into the official narrative on mass immigration,
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on the threat of global warming, in the hopes that, I don't know, the big boys will let him play
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with them. They're the cool kids. Can he join? I don't think it's going to work for him, but the
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media party likes the fact that they've house-trained him on global warming and on immigration, which is
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why the media party hates Maxime Bernier so much, an MP that they all used to rather like. He's so charming,
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because these days he says things that they think you shouldn't be able to say. You can disagree with
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the billboard. You can disagree with Bernie. You can disagree even with the existence of the
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People's Party, but to silence him and to shut down the billboard company and then to scare the donors.
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Yeah, I'm sorry, that's not Canadian. At least that's not what Canadian used to mean.
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Why did Catherine McKenna stand up and deny that the tax would go above $50? We know why,
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because they were trying to keep it secret until the election was over, when they no longer need
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voters, but still need their money. But yesterday, I think she got a surprise question. She accidentally
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told the truth, which is that taxes will be far higher under Trudeau than he admits today. But
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they'll only reveal that fact when the election is over. That's Pierre Polyev, a conservative critic
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from the Ottawa area, referring to a surprising comment by Catherine McKenna, where he's correct to
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say she wasn't really expecting the question, so she accidentally answered it. McKenna does that a fair
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bit. I regard her as one of the more savvy operators in the Trudeau cabinet, but occasionally
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she makes huge gaffes. And I mean, look at this headline in the Globe and Mail, just incredible.
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McKenna backs off pledge to freeze carbon tax at $50 a ton. And I mean, that's the Globe and Mail.
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That's not my friend Terry Corcoran in the Financial Post, who's been fighting against carbon taxes for
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20 years. And, you know, basically, Catherine McKenna said, sure, we're going to keep the carbon tax of
00:24:16.180
$50 a ton, which is an imaginary tax. It's a ridiculous fake number anyways. But then she said,
00:24:21.960
it'll be reviewed by 2022 to confirm the path forward. Well, that's just a few years from now.
00:24:29.800
Now, that is letting the cat out of the bag. And all these carbon taxers say $50 a ton isn't even
00:24:37.820
big enough to make people forcibly change their lifestyle. Joining us now to talk about this is
00:24:43.860
our friend Andrew Lawton from TNC.news. Andrew, great to see you again. Hello, my friend.
00:24:50.560
Hey, good to be with you. Thanks for the invitation.
00:24:52.340
Well, you are so good on this file. I know you covered the carbon tax
00:24:56.000
legal challenge. So I bet you're all over this story. Let me start with the point I was just
00:25:02.680
mentioning, and then I'd love you to take this in whatever direction you like. The whole theory of
00:25:06.860
these taxes is what Stéphane Dion described in 2008 as the green shift, that they're so punitive,
00:25:14.820
they make you change your behavior to a lower carbon lifestyle. And it's to dissuade you. But the
00:25:21.260
thing is, to get it that painful, the tax is to be so high, it's politically un...
00:25:26.000
popular. So everyone hates the carbon tax, but if it's just a small irritant, you're not going to
00:25:30.980
skip your car. Of course the carbon tax has to go up in price, because they want to force people to
00:25:36.700
not drive. Yeah, and that's the big problem, though. I actually don't believe that there's
00:25:43.200
any delusion in this government that people are going to avoid driving. I think the government
00:25:47.840
knows that people are going to continue with the lifestyles they have, and they know that they
00:25:52.760
are going to have to pay for it. And that's why this has always been a revenue tool more than it's
00:25:58.360
been about reducing anything, or about changing your lifestyle. And we saw this when you mentioned
00:26:04.220
the legal challenge, Ezra, in the federal government's argument. Because to levy a tax is
00:26:10.080
actually a different thing that needs to happen constitutionally than to levy what's called a
00:26:15.620
regulatory charge, which is what the carbon tax is. And a regulatory charge can't be used for revenue,
00:26:21.160
it has to be done to either administer the regulatory scheme, or to go into something that
00:26:27.200
the regulatory scheme is funding. In this case, carbon reduction measures or greenhouse gas reduction.
00:26:33.480
And the government knows that it can't say this is a revenue tool, so it has to commit to what is
00:26:38.740
essentially this big farce, which is that people are going to get rid of the car, people are going
00:26:45.060
to stop heating their home, people are going to do all of these things. And the problem with that is
00:26:49.780
that the people most hit by this are not individual families directly, but individual families
00:26:57.000
indirectly by virtue of the carbon taxes impact on business. And if you drive down the 401 or the
00:27:03.220
Trans-Canada Highway or whatever shipping route in Canada, you're going to see a lot of these 18
00:27:08.600
wheelers going by that can't make that choice, that can't switch to an 18-wheeler Prius instead,
00:27:14.380
that can't decide to bicycle their haul of goods down the highway. And those companies eventually pass it
00:27:21.480
on to consumers. So it's not even really individual families having the option to make a choice that will
00:27:27.720
significantly reduce their share of this tax. So Catherine McKenna accidentally told the truth on this.
00:27:34.280
But you're right that the only way this will impact behavior, and reports have shown this,
00:27:40.060
is if the tax is about six times what it is now, up to $300 a ton.
00:27:44.920
Well, there was this incredible moment, you know what I'm talking about, a couple years ago,
00:27:48.100
when Kathy Kachula, just a severely normal woman, literally broke down in tears in a Justin Trudeau
00:27:54.900
town hall and was crying and said, I support you, I like you, but what can you do? I can't pay both my
00:28:01.120
electricity cost and my grocery fees. That's the green shift, people. And the green scheme lobbyist
00:28:12.260
set would say, this is good. This is forcing you to change your behavior. Put on a sweater if you're
00:28:18.900
cold. You know, learn to live with, you know, turn off your air conditioning in the summer. Like that's
00:28:26.680
what the, that is the pain that's supposed to cause people to change their behavior. So it is at that
00:28:33.560
pain point for people in fuel energy poverty. But you're right, I think they, depending on it, it's
00:28:40.020
like the sin taxes for cigarettes. At any time, the government could ban cigarettes if they really
00:28:45.780
wanted to, but they don't. They want to keep it around for the money. I think it's a mishmash. In
00:28:50.520
some ways, I look at Catherine McKenna, I think she's a true believer in this crazy stuff, but she
00:28:55.240
sure doesn't live like it. I don't know. It's confusing. It's a big mess either way, whether
00:28:59.560
you're an ideologue or a pragmatist, it doesn't make sense either way. No, but I think that you are
00:29:05.940
right. She is a true believer. And I think that she would love nothing more than to ban cars, but she has to
00:29:11.700
be somewhat pragmatic in that sense as well. So this idea of incrementally pushing a tax to someone
00:29:18.460
is a great way of getting the revenue tools so that the government can do all the other things it wants
00:29:23.320
to do. And, you know, let's talk when you mention arbitrary, the idea that Canada will reduce its
00:29:29.280
greenhouse gas emissions to 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. That's an arbitrary target there. The Paris
00:29:37.560
Climate Accord target is an arbitrary one. And especially when you look at the countries that
00:29:43.620
are causing the real problems, China, India, Indonesia, these places that even if they have
00:29:49.920
said in a cursory sense that they're going to reduce things are not at all doing anything that's
00:29:56.300
causing a global reduction. So Canada, which is responsible for, I think, two and a half percent
00:30:01.400
of the world's emissions. Sure, we can reduce those by 30%, but at what cost? And you have to look at if
00:30:07.960
the cost of these programs is worth the supposed and as of yet unproven environmental benefit that
00:30:15.420
would come from that 30% reduction when there is already a market-led effort in the West and
00:30:21.980
specifically in Canada for companies to reduce because of consumer requests. So let's not target
00:30:27.520
the industries that are going to have major job losses and major cost burdens, shipping, mining,
00:30:34.680
transportation, these sectors that are going to be undeniably and irreparably harmed by this carbon
00:30:41.040
tax that, make no mistake, the liberals have admitted, is going to be going up probably.
00:30:45.860
Let me ask you about the politics here, because this is obviously a political story. We're in a campaign
00:30:51.160
season. You saw Pierre Polly have taken the opportunity to talk about the prospect of
00:30:57.480
tax hike. I remember a few months ago when the Ontario caucus of the federal liberals had their
00:31:04.040
meeting, and they had a very detailed questionnaire of their MPs, and it leaked. And it seemed like a
00:31:10.340
genuine leak. You know, sometimes political parties leak something, and they stamp it secret all over
00:31:15.880
the place just to ensure journalists give it coverage. I don't think it was that kind of fake leak. I think
00:31:21.060
this was a real leak, because it was critical of the government. And one of the things they said is,
00:31:26.520
hey, Catherine McKenna, can you please stop talking about the carbon tax? It was quite a surprising
00:31:33.480
story. And there was a moment there where Catherine McKenna seemed a little bit crestfallen, a little
00:31:39.080
bit marginalized, and that she was told to be a little less crazy. But maybe that moment is gone. Maybe
00:31:44.560
it's because Gerald Butts is back in the driver's seat. But they seem to be going full tilt on this
00:31:50.040
green scheme. What do you think? I mean, those were real Ontario liberals saying, shut up about the
00:31:55.860
carbon tax, please. Can we talk about anything else? But now she's talking about the carbon tax,
00:32:00.220
and Gerald Butts is in charge. Who's right? Butts or the caucus?
00:32:05.300
Well, this is where you talk about her being a true believer. And I think that's an important
00:32:09.180
point here, because I think the carbon tax is bad policy. I don't think it works. I don't think it
00:32:14.500
does what it's supposed to do. And I don't think that the problem is as critical as the government is
00:32:19.060
trying to make it out to be. But even if you accept at face value, this idea that the carbon
00:32:24.280
tax is good policy, I don't, but let's go down that road for a moment. If you accept that there
00:32:30.060
is not the mass national buy in that Catherine McKenna and Justin Trudeau tend to think there
00:32:35.400
is. I mean, even among people that support the carbon tax, there tends to be a resignation there
00:32:40.660
of, you know, I think the environment's in rough shape. I don't like it. But I think this is what's
00:32:45.000
necessary. When they get up there and thump their chest about it, and when they poke fingers at the
00:32:50.140
conservatives and say, those people don't want a carbon tax, and we do, it shows how deluded they
00:32:55.680
are, because the liberals genuinely believe that people like this, when at very best, they tolerate
00:33:01.520
it. You're never going to get national buy in pushing for a tax. And I can give you a bit of an
00:33:07.620
example here. I had a story over at True North a couple of weeks ago that I was amazed got no
00:33:13.140
mainstream media coverage. And it was Catherine McKenna writing in an op-ed in a neighborhood
00:33:18.100
newspaper in Ottawa that the carbon tax will create jobs. No one says that. Even the people
00:33:25.860
that like the carbon tax don't. Then let's take 10 carbon taxes and we can have 10 times as many
00:33:30.600
jobs. It's just crazy. She cited a report, and this is the great part, that was done by a liberal
00:33:36.140
connected group. And she misrepresented the report because even the liberal connected group was saying
00:33:42.380
there are going to be tens of thousands of jobs lost in a lot of key industries. They say,
00:33:47.020
you know, we'll create some jobs. But when you get into that depth of it, the jobs that will be
00:33:52.940
created are jobs that are created under the broken window fallacy, which is that government is creating
00:33:59.020
jobs because they're needing to upgrade infrastructure to replace the stuff they're destroying.
00:34:04.020
Yeah. So, I mean, but McKenna genuinely believes that there will be a national buy in
00:34:09.160
of the carbon tax, which is a gross miscalculation. And I said, if they're going to run this election
00:34:15.400
on the carbon tax, that's great news for the Conservatives. Yeah. Well, if the Conservatives
00:34:19.680
have the courage to fight against it. I know Pierre Polyev does, but sometimes I wonder,
00:34:24.480
you know, there's a lot of Conservatives who just don't want to be beat up on the global warming question.
00:34:32.520
I'm sorry to interrupt on this, Ezra, but the Conservatives need to be a lot more bold on this. And
00:34:36.800
I would love to hear the Conservatives say, we're pulling out of Paris and say it unequivocally,
00:34:41.600
which Andrew Scheer has not done. And the reason that's important is because if you accept the
00:34:46.560
liberal premises on this, you have to accept the liberal remedy. Yeah. You know, and that's the
00:34:52.420
problem here is that the Conservatives put out this, you know, 60 some odd page environment plan.
00:34:57.200
And I panned it at the time, not because it was a bad plan, but because if the Conservatives accept
00:35:03.080
the liberal premise on global warming, they have to also accept the liberal remedy. I need the
00:35:08.800
Conservatives to push back against the premise for it to be saleable. Yeah, you're so right. Well,
00:35:14.500
great to see you, my friend. I know this is one of your favorite files. I think you're the go-to
00:35:19.460
expert on it. You were certainly there in court when it was being challenged. So I think you probably
00:35:24.000
know more about this than any other journalist. And I'm glad you shared some more expertise with us
00:35:28.300
today. Thank you. And we're going to be following it up to the Supreme Court as well when it gets
00:35:32.440
done. Right on. Well, when that happens, let me know. And we'll, we'll, I know you'll be tweeting
00:35:36.180
about it a little bit and writing about it. Maybe we can have you back on the show to talk about it
00:35:39.960
too. Anytime. All right. There you have it. Our friend, Andrew Lawton from True North,
00:35:44.340
which you can find at tnc.news. Stay with us. More ahead.
00:35:49.940
Hey, welcome back on my show yesterday about getting smuggled into a Mike Pompeo event in
00:36:06.400
Ottawa. John writes, well done. I'm both getting in via the U.S. circumventing the liberal ban on
00:36:11.160
legitimate journalists and coming up with a question that Canadian journalists went with.
00:36:14.720
Well, thanks very much. You know what? I, I met some journalists from the parliamentary press gallery
00:36:20.600
who had participated in the ban and they were friendly enough in person. And I said, I would
00:36:26.780
send them an email. Let's talk it out. And I sent them that email and they haven't replied. It's been
00:36:30.700
several days. I just don't think they want the rebel around. And that, that fits with the early
00:36:38.460
Bernier ban on those billboards. Look, you can disagree with the rebel. You can disagree with me.
00:36:44.060
But to be banned? That's just weird. Weird is the wrong word. It's weird. But it's on Canadians,
00:36:51.240
what I really mean to say. Jan writes, you realize that now American media attending any
00:36:56.480
Canadian events will be told not to let the rebel in. They treat the rebel like Maxime Bernier.
00:37:00.900
Yeah, well, the decision to let us in was not made by U.S. media. It was made by Mike Pompeo's media
00:37:08.060
director, communications director. Mike Pompeo's political office brought us in. It wasn't the
00:37:15.240
American media, the New York Times or the Washington Post, who probably don't like us
00:37:19.440
either, frankly. But I don't think they'd be for banning us. On Freeland's staff not wearing
00:37:25.200
any socks for an important meeting, Susan writes, quite frankly, I think he looks like an idiot.
00:37:29.240
But that fits with this government. Even ministers often look like idiots with how they dress and
00:37:33.400
approach life. It's more about me than government. Can't wait for the election. Yeah, look, I'm a bit
00:37:38.600
of a schlep sometimes, I admit it. And maybe I should shape up a little bit and wear a tie more,
00:37:45.240
probably I should. But I wasn't our minister of foreign affairs meeting the secretary of state of
00:37:52.720
our greatest ally. Like there were people who were dressed up there in the delegations. And this
00:37:59.320
idiot's going sockless with that little string anklet. And I mean, if you want to dress that
00:38:05.500
way in your social life, at the bar, you're going out, you're with friends, even in the office, I
00:38:10.720
think it's unprofessional for someone of that. What are you doing when you're supposed to be
00:38:15.880
representing your country, not your own, your own, I don't even know what that is. Is that a
00:38:23.800
political statement? Is that a fashion statement? How about just do that on your own time, buddy?
00:38:27.640
Let me say one more thing. I mean, why would Mike Pompeo have let me and Keegan Bexte in?
00:38:33.560
How does that possibly serve his interest? We didn't have a chance to ask a question for the
00:38:38.940
reasons out loud. I don't think Mike Pompeo cares about our coverage of him. He cares about Americans.
00:38:47.600
There's no, like there's no quid pro quo. I mean, I did meet Mike Pompeo some years ago. I gave him a
00:38:52.660
briefing on ethical oil. But I wouldn't exaggerate and say that we're friends.
00:38:57.640
It's just not true. So why would Mike Pompeo have done that? I think that maybe the Americans are
00:39:06.520
getting a little tired of Christy Freeland. I don't know if you saw this, but a couple days ago,
00:39:12.280
Donald Trump, maybe it was just yesterday, Donald Trump retweeted, two days ago, a tweet I made
00:39:20.180
jabbing at Trudeau. I jab at Trudeau on Twitter all the time. Donald Trump retweeted and said,
00:39:24.500
no, no, be nice. Trump himself retweeted. I mean, in fact, that's the subject of our next letter.
00:39:31.540
On my interaction with President Donald Trump, Jonathan Levine writes,
00:39:34.880
I don't think Canada needs an equivalent to Fox. Not even Donald the idiot president agrees with
00:39:39.620
your depiction of Trudeau as submissive. Canadians can see through the BS, so don't bother.
00:39:45.460
Well, Jonathan Levine, let's look at my tweet, where I basically say, look, Trudeau is submissive.
00:39:51.520
He talks tough and disparages Trump when Trump's not there. But in Trump's present,
00:39:56.380
he sits like a good boy and look at him crossing his legs. And I said, even a child
00:40:00.520
can see who is in control and who is submissive. That's what I tweeted.
00:40:05.320
Why would the president retweet that, bringing it to the attention of 63 million people? I'm,
00:40:12.940
like I say, to Mike Pompeo, I'm really nobody. To Donald Trump, I'm less than nobody.
00:40:19.240
Why would Trump, Trump doesn't follow me on Twitter, obviously. So why would he choose from
00:40:24.720
all the tweets out there, mine, and retweet it and say, no, it was a productive meeting.
00:40:33.440
He's nice. Well, that's a very backhanded way of showing everybody what I wrote.
00:40:40.080
That's a little bit passive aggressive. And you know, he didn't say, no, Trudeau doesn't
00:40:47.740
disrespect me, or no, Trudeau isn't submissive. He said, no, no, no, no, no. We had a productive
00:40:52.600
meeting. He was nice. He didn't deny the charge. But rather, he brought the charge to the attention
00:41:00.160
of 63 million people. I think anyone who thinks Donald Trump was mad at me calling out Justin
00:41:08.460
Trudeau and was putting me in my place, I don't think they're as sophisticated as they think they
00:41:14.420
are. And I think they're giving Trump less credit than he deserves. I mean, I could be wrong. I could
00:41:18.700
be wrong. But if you're Donald Trump, the president of the United States, you don't take some tweet from
00:41:23.800
the ether and show it to your 63 million friends for no reason. And say, no, no, no, no, no, no.
00:41:30.380
You say that Justin Trudeau is a weak, submissive, backstabbing, rude loser. No, no, no, no, no, no.
00:41:39.740
I won't hear of it. He's nice. Oh, you set me straight. Anyways, that's our show for today. Until
00:41:49.740
next time, on behalf of all of us here at the Rebel World Headquarters, see you at home. Good night.