Rebel News Podcast - Manny Montenegrino and Ezra Levant： The state of Canadian politics in 2019

00:00:00.000 tonight a feature interview with Manny Montanagrino about the state of Canada

00:00:19.300 in 2020 it's December 23rd and this is the Ezra Levant show

00:00:23.940 why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know

00:00:29.520 there's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer

00:00:33.400 the only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so

00:00:39.680 and joining me now via Skype is our friend Manny Montanagrino the CEO of ThinkSharp

00:00:50.320 Manny great to see you again great to see you Ezra Merry Christmas

00:00:54.100 well thank you very much and to you too 2020 I don't know some people had hoped it might be

00:01:02.140 different hoped that Justin Trudeau could have been dislodged as prime minister I was always skeptical

00:01:07.240 because the media party they love him they're his base they dragged him across the line and even

00:01:14.380 though Andrew Scheer got more votes well sorry that's not how the system works Trudeau won more

00:01:20.120 seats and he's prime minister right no you're absolutely right it is for those that thought

00:01:27.480 that that that the conservatives could win easily really don't understand the history of politics in

00:01:33.680 Canada never has a liberal party with a majority not won the next election it's never happened

00:01:41.780 uh so and you know the challenges is that there are as you said uh with respect to the media and

00:01:49.000 etc but the biggest thing is is that the Canadians fail to most Canadians fail to understand that you

00:01:56.340 need a robust NDP and a robust uh uh greens and bloc and so on in order to uh have a conservative win

00:02:04.460 uh there are about you know you know if you look at the history of Canada uh there's about uh in the

00:02:10.240 last seven eight elections at maximum 36 37 38 percent of conservatives uh and there's a pool of course of

00:02:17.980 61 64 3 up to 70 percent of progressives uh what the prime minister did right I think in this election

00:02:24.600 is uh he borrowed from the progressives he didn't even call himself the liberal party

00:02:28.960 in this in the last election he basically called the progressives we progressives have to stick together

00:02:34.020 well what he did and it worked is about 650 000 votes went from the NDP from the last election

00:02:42.240 and the last election wasn't a good election for the NDP but 60 650 000 votes uh to the liberals and

00:02:49.280 and and that that makes you win a few seats and and and the results are such that there's a minority

00:02:55.280 government yeah Jagmeet Singh I mean when he first hit the scene I thought wow he can out Trudeau

00:03:01.480 Trudeau in terms of uh selfies and looking good and hip and he's on the kids social media I see him

00:03:09.260 doing dance moves on uh an app called TikTok which is like really a for the for the generation Z

00:03:16.400 and I thought well finally he can out Trudeau Trudeau but no I don't think that worked I think

00:03:23.200 that liberals went with Trudeau because he was as far left as any NDP but strategic anti-conservative

00:03:32.120 voters said well I like Jagmeet Singh but we can't afford a split on the left I think it was all

00:03:38.220 strategic voting and frankly Trudeau was giving you everything a traditional NDP government would

00:03:43.640 give you Trudeau is uniting the left exactly and and uh that's a big story that that we don't see in the

00:03:49.740 media we see a lot of stories about the conservative party and uh share whether he's going to be

00:03:55.420 challenged or otherwise but to me the biggest story is the NDP completely went back to its very tiny base

00:04:01.780 that it once had prior to uh you had uh Jack Layton and his miraculous work that he's done he did on

00:04:08.480 in in the very few elections as well as Montclair did a pretty good job so so that's the biggest story

00:04:14.180 is the collapse of the NDP if there wasn't and I did the math Ezra if if the NDP just kept what

00:04:19.960 Muclair had or did what Jack Layton did and you go through the numbers there would have been a strong

00:04:25.700 conservative minor a majority maybe a majority is that interesting you know um it's it's not just

00:04:33.580 that Jagmeet Singh didn't really tear it up on the campaign trail it's that the party has little

00:04:39.220 cash now right um it's parliamentary budget has been cut in half since its caucus has been cut in

00:04:45.000 half and even if they were faced with a bill that they really really wanted to vote against

00:04:52.660 I don't know if they could afford to have another election right now the conservatives did well

00:04:56.900 fundraising the liberal incumbents will always do well fundraising I think Jagmeet Singh is trapped

00:05:02.900 because he doesn't want to hit the hustings again I think Trudeau has a de facto majority because those

00:05:09.680 NDP now by the way the bloc is bigger than the NDP I don't think the parties are going to have a

00:05:15.860 quick election I think this could be a long-standing minority government I agree with you I agree with

00:05:22.360 you and I think that's the consensus of most of the experts out there they're saying exactly that

00:05:26.760 the bloc um how many more seats can they get why would they risk I mean we talked about jobs and

00:05:32.400 pensions for the NPs now why would you risk an election when you're pretty well tapped to your

00:05:38.000 max as the bloc and they have the greatest influence it's a minority government they they could get more

00:05:42.860 seats and it'd be a majority and they'd have less influence so they've got the strongest influence

00:05:46.920 they have little money and they want they have a self-interest of keeping it going so you're

00:05:51.460 absolutely right yeah with respect to the NDP you're right again Ezra I mean there's uh certainly no

00:05:57.360 appetite there's no money and they've got to get I think they they have to find a new base they

00:06:02.260 went from a base of Quebec um as a strong base and now they got to find their base again and that's

00:06:08.820 going to take a little while it certainly isn't out west it isn't the traditional and and they're

00:06:13.320 fighting the 416 uh with uh with uh Justin Trudeau so and the liberals so they don't have like you

00:06:20.260 know you know when you start these campaign wars you need a base and what's your base where you're

00:06:24.620 going to fight from so and they plus they have no money so I your assessment is right I think we're

00:06:29.900 you know unless some crazy thing happens again that no Canadian can stomach and the prime minister

00:06:35.560 is pretty good at giving these these uh these shocks to parliament and shocks to uh to everyone

00:06:41.660 unless one of those happens again uh it could go a long time yeah you know one thing I want to talk

00:06:48.060 about is the cabinet because one of the I think that Catherine McKenna the former environment minister

00:06:53.860 I I think she was an irritant to the west because she was so dogmatic and I think quite shallow and

00:07:01.520 just I think her tone started to grate I mean people who liked her I guess liked her a lot

00:07:07.260 but she was shuffled out of the environment I thought that was an interesting signal the liberals ran 0.83

00:07:14.020 another environmental extremist named Stephen Gilbeau he used to be the head of Equiterre which is like

00:07:19.760 the David Suzuki Foundation of Quebec he was not given environment either he was put into heritage so

00:07:26.180 they put someone less incendiary into environment they took Christia Freeland out of foreign affairs so 0.87

00:07:33.160 they took uh I don't know the media certainly called Freeland and McKenna Stars they moved them out

00:07:39.740 I think they created a bunch of fake cabinet positions so they could maintain their gender equity 1.00

00:07:47.620 um what do you make of the new cabinet I'm glad McKenna's out of there I don't think a lot's going to

00:07:53.160 change substantively but they did take their two stars and demoted them I think what they did Ezra and

00:08:00.300 you're absolutely right in my view it's a demotion but the media won't say it's a demotion but I think what

00:08:06.080 they did is they put a silencer or a muzzle on the cabinet I think it's strategic Ezra the last cabinet

00:08:15.380 was too vocal too screechy yell out loud and you'll be heard yell out loud and they will agree

00:08:22.540 uh and I think everybody took basically in the cabinet took their position from the prime minister

00:08:30.300 who was out there on every issue and being very vocal have you not seen Ezra the prime minister is

00:08:36.420 pretty well MIA now they've muted him and I think the strategy now is mute all cabinet don't no more

00:08:44.480 no more be seen uh the you know Catherine McKenna was I mean I I I we saw more of her than than of

00:08:52.040 anyone uh and same same thing with Christina Freeland so so I think what's happening is get those boring

00:08:58.220 old white guys uh there that the media doesn't kind of give all the attention to and perhaps this will

00:09:05.120 take the spotlight on all the ineptitude of this government away yeah you know there's such a

00:09:09.820 thing as overexposure people get tired especially if you're a little quirky or if there's something

00:09:15.080 that irritates overexposure you see it with regular celebs political celebs are by nature less uh uh

00:09:22.680 likable um and you know it's funny after the election Trudeau said I'm gonna really reach out in

00:09:30.440 harm you know in harmony with the west he went literally one month without a press conference

00:09:36.640 one month not without a press conference without talk without taking reporters questions a whole month

00:09:43.300 right right and there was no stories in the Canadian media saying why is the prime minister hiding

00:09:48.360 I think everyone just was happy to have a break but that's a month of no zero literally zero

00:09:54.220 accountability yeah well the the biggest show on the road was the CFL Grey Cup I mean there there is

00:10:03.600 there is no greater unity of Canadians under sport I mean sure the Stanley Cup would be greater if

00:10:11.140 there are two Canadian teams but here you have two Canadian teams one represents the east of Canada

00:10:16.760 the other represents the west of Canada and here they are battling in the province that you're having

00:10:23.180 the most difficulty with if there I mean if God ever wanted to send an easy kind of layup and say

00:10:29.600 here's your chance to be seen and start your unification of candidates and east west be there

00:10:36.160 be in Calgary show up didn't show up in Canada's game yeah and and and no one's made no one said wait a

00:10:44.060 minute wouldn't that be a neat first step and it's not it's not political it's not talking to

00:10:48.580 politicians it's just showing up so Canadians say hey you know what it was a tough election

00:10:53.080 the prime minister knows it was a tough election but you know what he's got guts he came here and

00:10:58.220 he's starting I would have said hey that's one message be there with Jason Kenney at the at the

00:11:03.880 at the game right and as hard as it is for the prime minister you know what's harder the deunification

00:11:09.440 of Canada that's harder yeah so so you gotta muscle up and do that I was shocked that he didn't do it

00:11:15.720 yeah it's a great point he could have sat right next to Jason Kenney as a sign that I don't care if you're

00:11:20.460 mad at me I am the prime minister of all Canadians and the fact that you're mad at me means I have

00:11:25.820 to do I have to be here now so I don't care if you boo a little bit I'm here and we're going to fix

00:11:30.640 this together like you have a tough love message like that right people are going to say all right

00:11:34.320 respect he knew he was going to get booed he came out right here he sat next to Kenny and he said a few

00:11:39.620 things and give it he didn't do that because he's he I I hear that he's actually quite sensitive to

00:11:46.740 criticism we know that and I think that's why he didn't go to Calgary I it tells me he's not going

00:11:52.260 to go to Calgary a lot because he'll be booed for quite a while well no but that that goes to the point

00:11:57.980 of everything uh the prime minister does things that makes him feel more comfortable so the hard work

00:12:04.540 is doing something makes you feel uncomfortable you see that down south the president is doing

00:12:11.140 everything that makes everybody uncomfortable yeah it makes I mean he's he's taking on NATO but

00:12:17.600 NATO's now has hundreds of billions of dollars more he's there's a success he's taking on China I mean 0.99

00:12:24.260 that's pretty risky yeah he's starting with the hard stuff yeah and so yeah every meeting that he goes

00:12:31.040 into is punishing for the president but he knows that's how you make your country great our prime

00:12:36.980 minister if there's a tough meeting whether it be with with with uh the president or whether it be

00:12:43.180 uh with uh with the east west divide it's easier to avoid that because you know what it's hard and

00:12:49.460 that's not what we need right now we need leadership we need a person to go in there and do the tough

00:12:55.180 work during these tough times and stick it out yeah well let me ask you um I think that things are

00:13:02.480 about to start coming apart in Canada and I don't say that with any uh joy I think that we're starting

00:13:10.920 to see the revision of economic numbers this I call me paranoid but I think statistics Canada

00:13:17.020 has been pressured by the prime minister's office just like Jody Wilson-Raylebold in the justice department

00:13:22.560 was pressured by the prime minister's office I think they were pressured to hold back on any bad

00:13:27.980 news about the economy until after the election I have no proof of that I just know that's Trudeau's

00:13:33.120 MO and now we're seeing some weakness in the economy um the oil patch is being divested because of

00:13:42.020 bad policy choices in Canada um I am worried that you're going to see an economic slowdown

00:13:49.100 and I think you're going to see Wexit which is the goofy nickname for western separatism

00:13:54.720 uh rate rise its head up again I think Trudeau has no idea how to calm that down and frankly doesn't

00:14:00.660 want to calm it down he loves that being the angry foil to his charming self so I think things are going

00:14:06.820 to be tough in Canada in the year ahead and I don't say that with any happiness do you think I'm being

00:14:11.140 too pessimistic Manny? No yeah actually Ezra that's a it's a good point let's use statistics Ezra uh United States

00:14:18.740 of America is running about three percent you know sometimes up to four percent GDP growth that you

00:14:24.860 know and it is uh here's a stat Ezra uh the longest economic uh growth has been 120 months you know

00:14:33.400 this is a month-on-month without any recession America's hit that on July 1st it is we are in

00:14:41.740 unprecedented territory it's been 120 I think it's five six months in December 127 months

00:14:49.540 of of of pure sustainable growth in GDP that's never happened before everyone knows that a Russia

00:14:57.240 a recession is coming it should come just statistically so Ezra your spider senses are right

00:15:04.080 but but but but I think you having the prime minister sorry the president of the United States

00:15:10.160 unilaterally focused on his economy I mean pretty much to to the exclusion of everything else he's

00:15:15.900 really working hard on the economy this is why we're in record territory I you know I can't see

00:15:21.360 this going on for another 10 months I mean you then now you're breaking the record by basically

00:15:27.940 you know 50 percent uh whereas you know it's never been more than 120 months so so it's um so

00:15:35.580 Ezra you're right and then when you look at Canada we have a problem that America doesn't have they have

00:15:41.100 a booming oil and gas industry where ours is of course punished uh so and our our GDP growth has been

00:15:48.260 around one and a half two percent but remember Ezra 25 percent of our GDP comes from the United States

00:15:54.960 so if they're humming at three or four percent we're picking up a half a point or three quarters of a point

00:16:00.760 from America right so so so most of our GDP growth is coming from America doing well so if it doesn't do

00:16:08.480 well if America slipped into a one or two percent growth or even a recession it's going to be absolutely

00:16:14.500 terrible in Canada so so you're pretty you're pretty astute to pick that pick that up I think in fact by value

00:16:20.340 our largest export to the United States is crude oil I'd have to check right on that yeah

00:16:24.860 I think that's actually bigger than our sales to them on the auto sector let me ask you about

00:16:29.680 America because um I think we're we're going to be uh saddled with Trudeau as prime minister for at

00:16:36.840 least two years and I don't think a heck of a lot is going to change but America is heading it's less

00:16:45.220 than 12 months now until their election day um their media is in high gear already whether it's

00:16:53.900 impeachment talk or the democratic presidential primaries I think the whole world is riveted by

00:16:59.980 America Trump himself is so entertaining and the the group of opponents to him is so

00:17:04.960 I don't know I I find them uninspiring but but I'm perhaps prejudiced do you think Trudeau is going to

00:17:13.420 try and meddle in some way Trudeau did meddle a little bit in the 2016 U.S. election he posed with

00:17:23.280 Hillary Clinton Trudeau weighed in on Brexit against leave so two out of two he got wrong do you think

00:17:31.980 Trudeau is going to meddle at all or or be seen with the democratic nominee or do something else like

00:17:37.400 that that you know he personally wants to do that I think would actually be a disaster for

00:17:42.420 Canada U.S. relations no yeah yes sir I absolutely I mean he's already doing the meddling now um in my

00:17:49.660 opinion it's we we have a U.S. MCA deal that was signed over a year ago Mexico signed and Canada has

00:17:59.020 not signed and I think that's the great delivery to the democratic party to make sure that they don't

00:18:07.720 give Trump another win I mean it's pretty hard when Trump does a bilateral a trilateral deal

00:18:14.600 with north and south to him that's a pretty big victory and I think the prime minister is not

00:18:20.880 putting Canadians first because why has he not signed or sorry passed in parliament when he had

00:18:26.020 a majority government uh for six seven eight nine months why did he not pass it I think that's

00:18:31.900 holding out to help the democrats in the election so I've already seen evidence that he's doing what

00:18:37.820 he can to help the democrats I've seen when he had a state dinner uh in 2016 uh with Barack Obama who's

00:18:45.740 campaigning fiercely for for um uh for Hillary Clinton uh to sit there and have a state I mean it was

00:18:52.260 unprecedented to see a prime minister have a state dinner when there's an election on and it's for the

00:18:59.440 guy campaigning against the guy who won so um there's going to be a lot of Canada trying to help

00:19:06.260 or not Canada the liberal party and the prime minister uh trying to help in this election how

00:19:12.700 far will they go well look we had evidence with with with how far it went the other way we have

00:19:17.360 Barack Obama sending a tweet and and that tweet you know depressed me uh supporting um uh uh Justin

00:19:26.740 Trudeau's bid for his second election this is a man who spent eight years fighting against racism

00:19:32.760 blackface and all these white privileged uh Americans or Canadians but Americans who uh who take 0.95

00:19:40.120 racism uh and not important because of the privilege and then he sends a tweet of support to a person who's

00:19:46.180 done it and and admitted that he had a life of racism a life of of of of such privilege that caused him

00:19:53.000 that and he sent a tweet so don't underestimate what Justin Trudeau owes to the Democratic Party

00:20:00.200 of America uh so it's huge yeah that's a very good point about Barack Obama um I want to ask you one

00:20:07.280 last question about foreign affairs because two things I've detected two changes in recent months and

00:20:13.700 you know obviously the big one is China um everything from their seizure of the two hostages to their

00:20:22.980 agricultural boycotts on Canada some have been relaxed but I think China's still on a full 0.99

00:20:30.460 court press against Canada but Trudeau doesn't seem to be responding in kind it looks like we're still a

00:20:36.880 part of that Asian investment infrastructure investment bank which is crazy that we we would

00:20:42.780 take Canadian money invested in a Chinese-led infrastructure bank I don't even know why we would

00:20:48.400 do that in the first place but Trudeau and his team seems to be very China oriented still so that

00:20:55.800 is a strange quirk it puts America Canada at odds with America and at the UN not too long ago Canada

00:21:02.920 switched its voting position back to its old anti-Israel position voting against Israel on an anti-Israel

00:21:13.260 international slander motion that we got away from under the Harper years and the first term under

00:21:18.380 Trudeau so what's going on with foreign affairs it seems like Trudeau's going more gung-ho to the left

00:21:25.000 not less so yeah no you're right you're right that's where I have a I should tell you a story I have a good

00:21:31.580 friend that's an Iranian uh and she's uh she's a friend of the family she's in her 30s and she's got

00:21:39.080 family in Iran and she tells me the stories about how there's bombs and yeah and it's frightening

00:21:45.640 over there and she goes well Canada is not speaking we need their help why is Canada not there so so

00:21:50.820 you're very right on that I think I I do think Ezra you know I'll use the analogy when I was in high

00:21:58.160 school I was a very small little kid but I had a big big brother um and he was three four years ahead

00:22:05.340 of me but a big guy and um I walked around with a lot of swagger in high school because I knew my big

00:22:11.340 brother was there and that and that was that's Canada we have our big brother United States but I

00:22:17.240 think you see a sense of a lot of countries seeing a kind of a separation between Canada United States

00:22:25.000 certainly between the two leaders we had evidence with that two-faced comet just a while ago um so

00:22:31.040 there is if when they see that when there's a vacuum um people will take advantage of it and I

00:22:36.600 think the vacuum is is that Canada you know you know it doesn't want to be certainly this government

00:22:42.180 doesn't want to be seen uh in connection with the Trump government and a lot of countries are going

00:22:47.680 to see an opportunity and it's not going to be good for Canada and certainly China is one of them 0.57

00:22:51.980 I mean you think about how China has been kicking Canada around uh with impunity and we did absolutely 0.97

00:22:57.020 you know it's so it's you know it's China Saudi Arabia we still don't have any uh relationship

00:23:03.120 there uh Iran is certainly in trouble but for some reason this government's not saying anything about

00:23:08.780 these thousands of people and I think a few thousand were killed uh so I I it's not a good spot in the

00:23:14.960 foreign relations yeah India too yeah yeah right we've Trudeau's ticked them all off well Manny it's a

00:23:22.040 depressing look ahead we'll have to see how the year unfolds we always have to have hope

00:23:26.480 and uh we got to because we've got to carry on this is our country great to see you again my

00:23:32.000 friend and we'll see you in the new year thank you all right there you have it Manny Montenegrino

00:23:36.620 our good friend and political analyst former lawyer to Prime Minister Stephen Harper stay with us

00:23:44.080 thanks for watching we'll have more shows throughout the Christmas season feature interviews and a few

00:24:01.800 retrospectives of some of the best of the rebel in 2019 until next time on behalf of all of us here

00:24:08.960 at rebel world headquarters good night and keep fighting for freedom

Rebel News Podcast - December 24, 2019

Manny Montenegrino and Ezra Levant： The state of Canadian politics in 2019

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