Justin Trudeau wants to build an EV plant in Quebec, but it's not going to happen. Why is this happening? And what will it mean for the future of electric vehicles in Canada? And why is it happening in the first place?
00:00:00.000Good morning. Welcome back to another episode of Stand on Guard. I'm your host, David.
00:00:19.960My apologies for being a little late today. We had some technical issues at the last moment.
00:00:25.780Of course, that's one of these things.
00:00:30.000My mic is giving out today. Oh, I am having mic problems, but let's just hope it stays on.
00:00:42.420We've got a lot to talk about today. And I thought we would lead off with this electric vehicle.
00:00:47.420Before we get into the guts of the Trudeau story here, this is absolutely fascinating about this
00:00:54.400electric car plant, because I want to get into this and tell you what this really means.
00:01:00.000Europe's biggest electric car battery maker just went bust, taking with it the continent's hopes of competing in the battery-making game.
00:01:10.000That game is dominated by China, which alone produces the lion's share of the world's EV batteries.
00:01:16.000Northvolt, the now failed Swedish battery maker, set out to reduce Europe's dependence on Chinese batteries.
00:01:22.000There were a couple of problems, though. China's dominance makes it very hard to compete, and growth in demand for EVs in Europe was slower than expected over the last couple of years.
00:01:29.000So despite Northvolt's backing from motor giants, VW, BMW, BMW, and others...
00:01:41.000Now, how is it going to proceed? It's gone bankrupt in Sweden. It's gone bankrupt in the U.S., and yet they're going to open up a battery plant in Quebec.
00:01:53.000Now, if you're like me and you're wondering, how is that even possible? I don't know. But it's interesting. I'm hearing reports that people can't get computer batteries replaced.
00:02:07.000There's a shortage now of computer batteries because all of the expertise is put into car batteries, and yet nobody's buying the cars.
00:02:17.000So this, of course, is what Trudeau locked us into. And this is all part of the disaster we're watching unfold this week.
00:02:25.000Let's listen to what Trudeau had to say about this.
00:02:29.000So we bet big on electric vehicles. We know the whole world's going to be driving them one day. We want them to be built here in Canada.
00:02:37.000We want the jobs and the great salaries that go with them going to Canadian workers.
00:02:42.000So we invested in critical minerals, in clean tech, in the renewable energy that the industry is going to need.
00:02:49.000And we put out a call to businesses. We have the resources. We have the government support. We have the workers needed to build EVs.
00:02:58.000And Honda answered. They're going to build electric vehicles completely in Canada, from frames to batteries to engines.
00:03:10.000I'm standing in the middle of what will be Canada's first full electric vehicle supply chain.
00:03:19.000And this, of course, is going to dissolve in front of your eyes. All of this might as well not be happening.
00:03:25.000But this is as we approach the very end of Justin Trudeau's political career.
00:15:39.000Well, my thoughts are he's buying himself a little bit of time.
00:15:43.000This, as you correctly say, is the last day of Parliament.
00:15:46.000They don't come back till January 27th between now and then.
00:15:50.000He can take his own time to come up with a proper decision.
00:15:53.000I think that one of the obvious opportunities for him is later in January for him to pull the emergency brake, which is called prorogation.
00:16:06.000You come back when you have a throne speech.
00:16:08.000But in between the two, well, perhaps the Liberals could have a leadership race, something like that.
00:16:13.000I think that that's where we're headed, Akshay, because even though Mr. Trudeau has yet to say that he's resigning, I think it's quite clear that he's not leading the Liberals into the next campaign.
00:16:22.000How can you do that when very few of your ministers support you and now close to 50 members of your caucus are asking you to leave?
00:16:30.000So I don't think that it's realistic that he's going to lead the Liberals into the next campaign.
00:16:34.000But he's bought himself a bit of time.
00:16:46.000If Trudeau prorogues, do you think he's going to have a leadership race?
00:16:51.000If Trudeau prorogues, it would be great news for all of us because there's legislation that is looming on the horizon, very close to third reading, that is going to be disastrous.
00:17:06.000And of course, I'm talking about the Online Harms Act, which is being sold right now as this wonderful answer to protect children and women.
00:17:18.000All of which, of course, is completely redundant because these laws already exist.
00:17:24.000We don't need more laws to protect women and children from online material.
00:17:30.000But what we need, of course, is freedom of speech.
00:17:36.000And this bill will rob us of freedom of speech.
00:17:40.000So if Trudeau prorogues, it's good news for the country.
00:17:43.000And election will be right around the corner.
00:17:47.000But he might prorogue just to avoid a non-confidence vote.
00:17:49.000You're right also that there were some very bizarre mixed signals from different parties.
00:17:53.000I think that Poiliev had a very good day.
00:17:55.000He adopted a very statesman-like tone, very prime ministerial.
00:17:58.000Went hard, as usual, but I mean, he was very, very controlled.
00:18:03.000And I think that people appreciated that and picked up on it.
00:18:06.000Mr. Singh's musings were very difficult to follow.
00:18:10.000On the one hand, he said he wants Mr. Trudeau to resign, which would indicate that he wants an election or a change of government.
00:18:17.000And then in the next breath, he said, well, he hasn't decided whether or not he's going to continue to vote confidence in Justin Trudeau.
00:18:59.000But I think Trudeau is going to take this seriously and we'll just watch a little more...
00:19:05.000He also came after him in terms of why he continues to support this particular government.
00:19:09.000So in your understanding, what's your read really?
00:19:11.000Is Jagmeet Singh wanting to support a Liberal government and not the leadership of Justin Trudeau?
00:19:17.000Or what really is the case? Is he calling for a new election?
00:19:19.000And if he is calling for the new election, is he himself really prepared for all of this?
00:19:24.000Well, that's part of the ambiguity of his statements yesterday.
00:19:28.000And, you know, how can he continue to support Trudeau at all?
00:19:31.000It was interesting that his very experienced House Leader, Peter Julian, was saying something different when he was giving interviews later in the day.
00:19:38.000He was saying, no, no, come spring, we're going to be willing to vote no confidence in the Liberals.
00:19:44.000You know, if you're going to vote no confidence in a government that clearly doesn't deserve confidence, why do you keep stalling?
00:19:51.000And so here's what happened over the course of three days with Jagmeet Singh.
00:19:58.000Tom Mulcair is referring here to Peter Julian, the NDP House Leader, remarking almost without any sense of irony that the NDP is prepared to have a spring election as soon as March comes along.
00:20:14.000And he doesn't say Jagmeet gets his pension, but as soon as March comes along, we'll have a spring election.
00:20:21.000And Singh looked like an absolute fool for days, tap dancing around the issue of, I don't like Justin Trudeau, but I'm not going to vote against him in a non-confidence motion.
00:20:38.000No, no, no, I can't explain why those two don't agree. I can't explain why there's a huge disconnect there. Sorry about that.
00:20:45.820Well, maybe, maybe something will make sense.
00:20:50.380The NDP caucus, key members of the caucus, talked to Singh about this on Friday and said, you can't continue to do this.
00:20:58.460You can't do it. You look like an idiot. You look like a fool. You look like a political amateur.
00:21:03.360And your face reads that. It's easy to see that in your face, that you're lying, that this is venal.
00:21:11.900This is all about your pension. That's all this is about.
00:21:16.140People like Peter Julian and I'm sure Charlie Angus, who's on his way out, but it's sort of seen as the elder statesman.
00:21:23.320He's a kook, but he's the elder statesman of that party.
00:21:25.760And they both said, look, Jagmeet, you can't do this anymore.
00:21:30.260You've got to come down on one side or the other. You've got to do it now.
00:21:33.480So Singh did some arithmetic in his head.
00:21:35.880And he said, OK, I've got to stay here till early.
00:21:38.000I think it's March 7th is the drop dead date for his pension.
00:22:57.400That's all it's about for Jagmeet Singh.
00:22:59.200And I hope the SOB loses his seat in the next election.
00:23:02.860He has been an absolute failure as a politician, as a human being, as anybody representing anybody in Canada.
00:23:11.240So I really look forward to seeing him defeated in the next election and saying adieu to Singh.
00:23:20.520But that's what it's about for Justin Trudeau.
00:23:22.640So if Justin Trudeau does his own arithmetic this weekend, he's going to say the only way I can survive this is to prorogue because I'm not going to get through the next non-confidence vote because Jagmeet's safe.
00:23:40.020Jagmeet's doing this in the right time zone.
00:23:42.860And I've got to have the non-confidence motion later in the year.
00:23:50.080So I'm going to prorogue and this will all be over when I come back.
00:23:56.960He could he could even push it to October.
00:24:01.700But we're risking a level of volatility in this country that we've never seen before.
00:24:08.060And this is my greatest fear is that the frustration with Justin Trudeau, the anger at Justin Trudeau for violating our democratic rights, for ignoring the will of the people and of parliament is going to spill over into something that's unpleasant.
00:24:26.620I'll be I'll get in trouble for saying.
00:24:28.860But we know what we're talking about here.
00:24:30.240We know how this could spill over into some kind of activity that's very unpleasant.
00:24:36.820And something we've never seen in Canada before, because the level of frustration and the level of anger is that high.
00:24:44.160I have never felt it as I have right now in Ottawa.
00:24:47.240Now, in the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be not every day, but I will be focusing on the independent media in Ottawa.
00:24:55.740These are the guys who are out there with their cameras, sometimes just with their phones, getting interviews outside because they'll never be allowed inside the house.
00:25:08.140They'll never get through the bubble zone.
00:25:11.900But they're getting those scenes that you've seen with Justin Trudeau being cornered as he gets into his massive SUV.
00:25:18.900Mr. Climate Change gets climbing into his massive SUV and storming off with his convoy of SUVs, burning up, burning up the carbon.
00:25:30.600And that's these people need to be congratulated and applauded and celebrated for the work they're doing.
00:25:38.980And I plan to reach out and do that and to reach out to a lot of people in the independent media who need recognition for the work they're doing.
00:25:50.660Because they've done work that the mainstream media ignored for a long time.
00:25:55.140That's all I've got for you today, folks.
00:25:57.420Thank you so much for tuning in today.