A look at the third candidate in the Liberal leadership race, Karina Gould, and why she's not a serious contender. Plus, a Supreme Court ruling that could lead to the return of Parliament, and a story about Valentine's Day.
00:06:19.000This is the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom's application.
00:06:23.000The applicants maintain that their application is cruelly urgent
00:06:26.000and requires the court's immediate attention to determine whether the parliament can immediately resume sitting
00:06:31.000to protect Canada's interests in the face of threatened actions by the United States.
00:06:37.000Those threatened actions are stated to be president-elect Trump's stated intention to impose a 25% tariff on all goods entering the United States from Canada on his first day in office as president.
00:10:20.000So they said to Pierre Trudeau, please come back, leave the party.
00:10:24.000And let's watch this, because this is precisely what's happening right now with Justin Trudeau.
00:10:31.000...nearly 12 years as leader of the Liberal Party, I'm stepping down...
00:10:35.000...that after spending nearly 12 years as leader of the Liberal Party, I'm stepping down from the leadership
00:10:41.000and asking the national executive of the party to call a convention for next March to choose a new leader.
00:10:48.000There's no easy way or ideal time to leave.
00:10:52.000Trudeau said today he's going to stay on in politics and that he'll try again to become Canada's Prime Minister.
00:10:59.000I have accepted the strong appeal of the National Liberal Caucus and the National Liberal Executive,
00:11:06.000and I will lead our party in the current election campaign.
00:11:09.000If they love me so much that they want me forever, the answer is, I'm sorry they can't have me.
00:11:15.000But if they want me and our party for a few years, well, we're here.
00:11:20.000Trudeau's decision left most of the Liberals here and in the National Executive gasping in relief.
00:11:26.000That's the way it was with Pierre Trudeau.
00:11:33.000The Liberal Party begged him to come back because there was a snap surprise election and they were unprepared.
00:11:39.000This could happen if the court decides prorogation never happened and the House of Commons is back in session on February 14th or 15th.
00:11:50.000Good chance the NDP could vote with the Conservatives on a non-confidence motion because there'll never be a better chance for the NDP at that point.
00:12:00.000That would be their opportunity to try to salvage what they can from the disaster they've made under Jagmeet Singh.
00:12:07.000And as I said, Jagmeet Singh would get his pension.
00:12:11.000That's not going to be a barrier because that's been the barrier up till now.
00:12:16.000Jagmeet Singh refuses to have a non-confidence vote, refuses to bring the government down because he's waiting to get his pension date, which is in March.
00:12:24.000Bring the government down in mid-February.
00:12:26.000There won't be an election until at least March 15th.
00:13:07.000We'll have a look at the polls in a minute here.
00:13:11.000They're not doing any better under Mark Carney or Christy Freeland than they were under Justin Trudeau.
00:13:17.000And as I said, Justin Trudeau is going to use the fight with Donald Trump as a reason for Canadians to rally around the Liberal Party, which he says represents Canada, which he says represents all parties.
00:13:33.000Now, if you're not with Justin Trudeau, if you're not with Team Trudeau, you're treasonous.
00:15:15.000But you had some polling recently specifically on Chrystia Freeland, though, and how people felt about her after her resignation from Cabinet.
00:15:23.000Could the impression of Ms. Freeland improve even more now?
00:15:27.000And I think a lot of this will have to do with her launch and what she decides to focus on.
00:15:30.000The big question is, as the former Deputy Prime Minister, as the former Minister of Finance, as a former kind of ranking Liberal that supported Justin Trudeau, how far will she go to distance herself from her former political?
00:15:45.000Those numbers are terrible, by the way.
00:15:57.000And I think that's going to be the big question because she's been at the table, been an advocate, and has fought hard beside Justin Trudeau over the last number of years.
00:16:07.000And, you know, right now, his brand is weak.
00:16:10.000And that's one of the things that's dragging down the Liberal brand writ large.
00:16:14.000So, I think, how far will she distance herself from everything that she's done, basically, since 2015?
00:16:21.000Well, we already got a bit of an indication this week, right, where we had reporting that she has already said she would likely walk away or very much scrap the consumer carbon tax.
00:16:31.000How much do you think that will be a factor, not only with the field of candidates and where they will sort of sit on that, but going into an election?
00:16:38.000Is that going to be the ballot box question against Pierre Polyev as he wants it, especially when you consider where the leadership is going?
00:16:45.000Well, I think this is an exercise in damage control for the Liberals.
00:16:48.000Like, you know, the carbon tax has been unpopular.
00:16:50.000Canadians are worried about the rising cost of living.
00:16:52.000And for some people, and in some cases, this is a contributor because it contributes to food, you know, being shipped around.
00:16:59.000But, you know, the thing is, is that for average Canadians, why don't we just say, they're not stupid.
00:17:05.000You know, they hear politicians reverse themselves and they know that it's just part of a survival strategy.
00:17:10.000So, you know, for the Liberals, they might, you know, the contenders might reverse themselves on the carbon tax.
00:17:15.000But, you know, for her, she actually has to explain how she can go from being 100% behind the carbon tax and being at the table and being the advocate for the carbon tax to reversing herself.
00:17:28.000And, you know, the same applies to Mark Kearney because we have to be fair.
00:17:30.000He's been supportive of the carbon tax.
00:17:40.000And imagine the polling that you've either started or tried to start on potential contenders and where they were fair really differs based on day-to-day because somebody drops out seemingly every day and somebody else puts their name in there.
00:17:51.000But are we really going to see the emergence here of a two-horse race?
00:17:54.000And we know that Karina Gould, the Liberal House leader, is going to announce this weekend.
00:17:59.000But do you think this really is Kearney versus Freeland?
00:18:01.000I think so, based on, you know, the speculation right now.
00:18:54.000You know, if you remember, Michael, some of those massive leadership contests
00:18:58.000where they have like 20, 12, 15 people on the stage,
00:19:03.000that it doesn't allow for the same type of clarity.
00:19:07.000And, you know, Canadians like a horse race.
00:19:09.000And I think for the two frontrunners, Freeland and Kearney, it'll be good for both of them
00:19:14.000to have a main contender to put pressure on each other so that we can see who will get the advantage.
00:19:23.000Do you think in the end this will come down to what Canadians will look at this as, what they want as the Liberal leader?
00:19:30.000But then going forward as a prime minister is who is best placed to take on Donald Trump because of where we are in this environment right now?
00:19:37.000I think the two things that Canadians are going to look at is how far will the winner of the Liberal leadership race distance themselves from the previous government?
00:19:49.000And then the second question, which also applies to Pierre Poiliev, who might be best to help Canada navigate a Trump administration and to deal with Donald Trump?
00:20:22.000Even the Toronto Star said, wow, what a letdown.
00:20:26.000Here's this guy, the golden boy of liberal politics.
00:20:31.000That's exactly how they described John Turner in 1984, by the way.
00:20:35.000He was the golden boy who's going to come back and save the Liberal Party because Pierre Trudeau was so unpopular in 1984.
00:20:42.000That's the year, you know, somebody gave him the finger in British Columbia when he was sitting on a train and he lowered the shade, but he put his finger out the window.
00:20:50.000That was the year, and Pierre Trudeau was hugely unpopular.
00:21:32.000I left Trudeau's cabinet because I know what we need to do to win that fight again.
00:21:37.000See, now it's Trudeau's cabinet, like that thing over there, that horrible device, that mechanism that I don't know how I could ever have been involved with it.
00:21:49.000It's like saying she stopped using drugs.
00:21:52.000I left Trudeau's cabinet, and she was an integral part of that cabinet as deputy prime minister and finance minister.
00:22:02.000For nine and a half years, she was an integral part of the Trudeau government.
00:22:08.000And now suddenly, I don't know what I ever had to do with that party.
00:25:25.000He's in Donald Trump's pocket, even though Pierre Paul has been saying nothing like that.
00:25:30.000He's been saying Canada is not going to be the 51st state.
00:25:34.000And of course, Donald Trump isn't serious about that.
00:25:38.000He's been saying we need to sit down with Donald Trump from a Canada first perspective, not from a team Trudeau perspective, which, of course, is what Christy Freeland is leading to.
00:25:54.000All she's really doing, despite the fact she's pretending to distance herself from Justin Trudeau's cabinet, from Justin Trudeau's government, she's repeating the same talking points that Justin Trudeau has been repeating all week.
00:26:09.000Which is, thank you, Doug Ford, for coming on side and being in my pocket, as you always are when I do stupid things.
00:26:18.000Thank you, Doug Ford, for supporting me.
00:26:22.000And Daniel Smith, you're a traitor to Canada because you are defending your province and you're defending, actually, the Canadian Constitution.
00:26:32.000That makes you a potential traitor to Canada.
00:26:38.000Oh, and dear Polly, you're you're not on my side either.
00:26:42.000So that means you are against Canada and you're on Donald Trump's side.
00:26:46.000Christy Freeland is repeating the talking points that Justin Trudeau is repeating.
00:26:51.000Could that indicate that this is all a big game?
00:26:57.000This liberal leadership campaign with Mark Carney pretending he really wants to be the leader of a party that's headed for a political extinction.
00:27:06.000That Christy Freeland pretending she's a new woman.
00:27:19.000And listen to how the liberal cabinet ministers, the remnant of the liberal cabinet ministers, continue to frame this battle with Donald Trump.
00:27:31.000Saying things are not even authorized to say this.
00:28:30.000This whole leadership facade is all about sending out people like Melanie Joly and Dominique LeBlanc to say we're going to have a trade war with the United States, which, of course, we cannot win.
00:28:43.000But Melanie Joly, we're going to have a trade war against Donald Trump.
00:28:47.000Now, this will be a Trump tariff tax on Americans because this will have an impact on jobs in many, many states.
00:28:56.000Thirty five states have Canada as the main export market.
00:29:00.000And at the same time, we know that we can do a lot to make sure that ultimately at the grocery store, at the pump, when it comes to heating costs, we can try to think to make sure that things are not as costly.
00:29:16.000But if we have twenty five percent tariffs against us, of course, we will retaliate.
00:29:21.000And of course, that will translate into attacks on Americans.
00:29:25.000Can you describe in any greater detail exactly how Canada would retaliate?
00:29:29.000Listen, we still want to make sure that we get to listen.
00:29:34.000No, I don't, is the answer, because she has no authority to make statements about natural resources that she doesn't control without any tariffs.
00:29:44.000We think we can get there. We have the USMCA, which was, according to President Trump himself, the best deal ever signed by by the American administration.
00:29:56.000We believe it was a win win. We believe that we're able to create jobs together.
00:30:00.000And we know that we have to continue to fight inflation.
00:30:04.000At the same time, we will continue to make sure that we fight back if there is a threat and everything is on the table.
00:30:13.000Well, we know that when we impose tariffs, these are revenues that go to the...
00:30:20.000This is really embarrassing to watch, actually.
00:30:23.000This is your foreign affairs minister explaining what a tariff is.
00:30:28.000Does this remind you of Kamala Harris?
00:30:32.000Is Melanie Jolie sort of like Canada's Kamala Harris?
00:30:36.000Maybe ethnically not quite the same, but intellectually, they seem to be separated at birth.
00:30:43.000We also know that, meanwhile, things become more costly across the country because of the fact that Americans are imposing tariffs on us.
00:30:57.000Oh, I see, Melanie. Tariffs mean things become more costly.
00:31:04.000But do you understand any of the dynamics behind how you can't cut off oil and gas to the United States without cutting off oil and gas to Ontario and Quebec?
00:31:16.000And so based on that, we want to make sure that ultimately, indeed, we use the revenues to support Canadians.
00:31:25.000But at the same time, Tana, we're still working on the first phase of our response, which is to prevent tariffs.
00:31:36.000We know that we can make sure ultimately also, while we're putting everything on the table in terms of retaliation, that we can work with different provinces across the country, including those that have specific industries that Americans rely on.
00:31:55.000And so that's why I think we can have really positive and constructive relationships and conversations with provinces and with premiers.
00:32:03.000And of course, the prime minister is very open to that because we know that the impacts on Canadians would be really, really, really difficult.
00:32:13.000And why I'm saying that is we know that there would be lots of job loss across the country.
00:32:20.000And we know that this would also have an impact on cost of living for Canadians.
00:32:27.000I won't go into the details of what that figure is like, but definitely.
00:32:33.000Why won't you go into details because you don't have a head for details or because you don't have them?
00:32:39.000Clearly, this is somebody is out of her depth.
00:32:44.000We discuss Melanie, but she could at least have the decency to tell us what her trade war is going to entail.
00:32:51.000And she can't tell you that we have numbers that are highlighting how much this could be devastating.
00:32:59.000This would be basically starting a trade war.
00:33:01.000The Americans would be starting a trade war against us, and this would be the biggest trade war between Canada and US in decades.
00:33:11.000We've gone through a very difficult moment during COVID where we had to save many businesses and save a lot of livelihoods across the country.
00:33:24.000And so we have the experience of how we can address severe economic damage.
00:33:30.000At the same time, I think that there is.
00:33:34.000Did the Liberals save businesses during COVID?
00:33:38.000No, the lockdowns actually crushed businesses across Canada.
00:33:46.000The hope that if we use our levers well, that we can make sure that Americans backtrack.
00:33:53.000And that's why I've been saying everything is on the table and we have to be able to show how much this will have an impact also on the other side of the border, which is job losses also in key states.
00:35:48.000The United States needs Canadian oil because its refineries are geared towards the kind of oil we produce in Canada.
00:35:58.000In other words, there's not enough American oil for the type of refineries they have in the United States, if that simplifies it.
00:36:10.000So the United States needs Canadian oil to refine.
00:36:15.000So it's nonsense for Donald Trump to say, we don't need your oil.
00:36:19.000He's obviously not thinking about the larger picture or doesn't know the larger picture.
00:36:24.000But interestingly enough, Justin Trudeau is doing exactly like Pop did when he waged war, the technical war against Alberta and Premier Peter Lougheed over ownership of oil and gas, especially oil.