Trudeau Minister Humiliated By Alberta Premier ｜ Stand on Guard
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
147.1969
Summary
A look at how Liberals keep dropping out of the race to become Prime Minister, and why it matters. Plus, a look at why Chrystia Freeland is having trouble raising money, and who's actually leading the country right now.
Transcript
00:00:00.960
Hi, welcome back to another episode of Stand on Guard.
00:00:08.740
And we will be looking at your comments as well.
00:00:11.960
Trying to get a little clip together with Mark Carney.
00:00:17.840
Wanted to show it early, but we'll have to show it later.
00:00:21.220
And just an explanation as to what's going on with this liberal leadership.
00:00:26.540
But we also want to talk about tariffs and who's actually leading the country right now.
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I appreciate it so much when you give us the thumbs up.
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Trying to do something a little different here.
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I hope we're meeting your needs when we do this.
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Try to give you the news from a different perspective.
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And that's really what this show has always been about.
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Now, like I said, we're trying to get a Mark Carney clip.
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And I have to be very careful how we show the clip.
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Like all of these late night U.S. shows, they are all copywritten.
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So, we're trying to get something together for you there.
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And in the meantime, though, what's going on with Mark Carney going to New York to essentially announce his liberal leadership candidacy?
00:02:07.080
Because, as I say, let's watch this report on how liberals keep dropping out of this race at an alarming pace.
00:02:21.860
...will soon be meeting with a new prime minister as the Liberal Party seeks a new leader.
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So far, we're learning of several cabinet ministers who say they won't be running.
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Steve McKinnon, the latest to bow out, that has some worried about the lack of representation from Quebec.
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Labour Minister Steve McKinnon is the second high-profile liberal in as many days to announce they won't run for the party leadership.
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McKinnon saying time constraints didn't allow him to mount the kind of campaign he wants to run.
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Also highlighting the need for experienced and pragmatic bilingual voices.
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It's part of a growing number of calls for strong bilingual candidates, including from the party's Quebec lieutenant.
00:03:08.620
It's not a matter of being perfect in every possible language.
00:03:11.780
It's a matter of being able to engage with and to work with the entire country.
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While Mark Carney, Chrystia Freeland and Christy Clark all speak varying degrees of French,
00:03:22.020
strategists say Anglophone Liberals typically fare worse in Quebec.
00:03:26.460
I do think a Francophone leader could easily come in a strong second to the Bloc Québécois and best the Conservatives.
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With an Anglophone leader, it's going to be a tougher sell.
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The timing couldn't be worse for the Liberals, who are now facing a battle on two fronts in La Belle Provence.
00:03:44.240
Since becoming Conservative leader, Pierre Polyev has made appearances in Quebec 19 times, including 12 rallies.
00:03:53.880
Since September, the Conservatives have moved from third place in Quebec, six points back of the Liberals,
00:04:00.020
to now 11 points ahead of them and only trailing the Bloc Québécois.
00:04:04.620
It's a province where they could lose more than half the seats if these numbers were to hold to the next election.
00:04:09.480
And so it's really concerning because the Liberal Party cannot win a national election without Quebec.
00:04:15.400
But Quebec MPs say it's policy, not language, that will decide who voters choose in the next election.
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We have to demonstrate to Canadians that we actually offer the best program.
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One Liberal MP says even if the party does lose seats in Quebec,
00:04:35.580
if the right candidate can bolster support in Western Canada, it could be a net positive for the party.
00:04:53.320
We've got two non-entities that nobody can even remember their names,
00:04:56.920
and I'm not going to bother because these people are just there for window dressing
00:05:04.420
because you remember when Trudeau resigned, the day he resigned,
00:05:08.220
he said it was going to be a national and robust, or I think he said robust first and then national campaign.
00:05:15.240
So right now it looks like there's nobody of consequence in it.
00:05:34.320
Chrystia Freeland, she's having some difficulty raising $35,000.
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And she's having difficulty getting people on side.
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Or, excuse me, she's saying, why do I want a job?
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Why do I want to be prime minister for a couple of days or a month?
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We showed you that interview the other day with Jean Chrétien,
00:06:00.700
who somehow thinks there's hope for this next liberal leader in his story
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This is just your attempt to make things look new and different.
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Now, like I said, we're going to try to get that clip to you of Carney.
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I found this on announcing on this program that you are going to be the leader.
00:07:05.500
There's Mark Carney last night and we had, yes,
00:07:08.220
we had to do a little work on it because otherwise it's trouble.
00:07:18.960
But this is exactly what Justin Trudeau did to try to raise his popularity.
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It was to go down and do the American talk show circuit.
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what is going on with these opposing messages about how we deal with Donald Trump in six days?
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I'm going to show you some clips in a minute that I think illustrate who's really in charge of Canada right now.
00:08:13.500
Doug Ford from Ontario wants you to think that he's in charge,
00:08:20.660
The faux conservative Doug Ford is never in charge of very much except his own ego.
00:08:26.920
Daniel Smith is leading the charge to protect all Canadians from Donald Trump's tariffs.
00:08:44.880
He's on the American news saying Canada is just not going to do much about these tariffs.
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And, you know, we've already fixed the border, which is a lie.
00:08:56.220
But he's suggesting that Canada can always put tariffs on bourbon and playing cards.
00:09:07.220
So why are his ministers going around talking about putting an embargo,
00:09:15.000
not just tariffs, but an embargo on Canadian energy when they can't do that?
00:09:25.000
who claims she's not running for the leadership because she put Canada first.
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And then we'll get to Daniel Smith and what I think is an historic opportunity.
00:09:38.600
And Daniel Smith is filling a void because Justin Trudeau still can't decide whether he wants to come back,
00:09:46.400
whether he wants Mark Carney to have a coronation,
00:09:49.180
or whether he wants a robust liberal leadership race between Carney and Christy at Freeland.
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A week that you had ultimately decided after reflecting not to enter the race.
00:10:01.760
Is that, as you said in your statement, solely about kind of this fight against the threat coming from south of the border?
00:10:09.540
Or were you worried about your party's prospects?
00:10:12.880
Well, I think that I had to ask myself two questions because I had many meetings with my key organizers,
00:10:19.360
with friends, with my family, and I received a lot of support from across the country.
00:10:26.260
am I ready to become the first woman leader of the Liberal Party of Canada?
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am I ready to step away from my responsibilities being the Foreign Minister of Canada
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So I decided to choose my country, put my country first.
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And based on that, I'm going to Washington next week.
00:10:58.640
but really what will be our actions based on what our strategy is on the U.S.
00:11:10.320
because I think the question a lot of Canadians will have about who ultimately comes in and comes out is,
00:11:15.980
do people want to run for the leadership of a party that is doing as poorly as yours in public opinion polling right now?
00:11:21.740
Like if there were an election tomorrow, and I know a lot can change,
00:11:25.880
there are some polls that even show your seat would be competitive for like for others.
00:11:34.680
You're not running because you know you're going to lose the next election.
00:11:41.880
But you know you're going to be saddled with an opposition role that could be about maybe 10 seats or less.
00:12:05.600
Are you worried about the prospects for your party?
00:12:07.360
Well, first and foremost, when it comes to becoming the prime minister of Canada,
00:12:11.880
there are three files that are really fundamental that Canadians look at
00:12:15.380
and they will see whether that person is ready to lead the country and run the country, run the government.
00:12:22.400
It's the economy, it is the Canada-U.S. relationship,
00:12:32.120
Now, when it comes to what is going to be the ballot question of the next election,
00:12:40.480
It will be about that threat right now and maybe the imposition of terrorists by Donald Trump
00:12:48.480
and how as a country we defend our workers, how we...
00:12:53.120
The tariffs are coming next week, Melanie, not after your leadership convention,
00:13:02.240
not after the House resumes, after Trudeau's unconstitutional prorogue.
00:13:07.600
To that economic coercion and how we ultimately can stand up for Canadians.
00:13:13.620
And take your point about if those tariffs are applied, for example,
00:13:16.160
the degree to which that would be on Canadians' minds when they vote.
00:13:19.800
Isn't it possible also that change is the ballot question?
00:13:23.120
Given what has just gone on with the Prime Minister, with those two by-elections,
00:13:27.520
with public opinion polling, like, isn't that also possible?
00:13:34.000
There will be a real change and that's the liberal...
00:13:40.020
She's reading her talking points and she can't even keep a straight face.
00:13:55.920
Well, you know, now we have somebody that is coming in.
00:13:59.580
But what the Conservatives are doing is they're praying petty politics on the back of Canadians.
00:14:04.640
Because what we need to do right now, when it comes to Canada-US, it is we need to be united.
00:14:10.560
We need to get behind the Liberal Party is what you mean.
00:14:24.540
We need to get behind the opposition Conservatives who are going to form the next government.
00:14:29.380
Now, there's probably people out there and say, there you go again, in the pocket of Polly.
00:14:38.780
And he's going to be a vast improvement on Justin Trudeau.
00:14:50.980
The sooner we can make the change in government, the better for all Canadians,
00:14:55.140
especially with regard to these tariffs that are coming.
00:14:59.160
Every single leader in politics right now should be putting country first.
00:15:04.360
Isn't there an argument to make, though, that the Prime Minister has not put Canadians first?
00:15:08.140
I mean, ultimately, he took so long to make the decision he did, that he is in a placeholder
00:15:13.520
as a Prime Minister for two of the most important months, as you point out, in our country's
00:15:18.760
history, as far as the economy at the very least goes.
00:15:21.840
Is your government in a position where they can lead on this file when we know in a few
00:15:26.320
months or as of March 10th or whatever it ends up being, the Prime Minister will no longer
00:15:35.640
And what I'm doing is I will be leading along with Dominic LeBlanc, the Minister of Finance,
00:15:41.500
our reaction to what the Americans will be doing.
00:15:45.900
I've had numerous conversations with incoming secretaries, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
00:15:53.400
Okay, she's actually on her way to Washington later today.
00:15:58.700
What do you think she's going to tell the Americans?
00:16:01.740
Is she going to tell them Justin Trudeau's talking points?
00:16:05.660
That don't worry, folks, we're just going to put tariffs on bourbon and playing cards?
00:16:11.180
Or is she going to say something she's not qualified or entitled to say?
00:16:16.020
The Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Energy, Doug Brigham, the Border
00:16:29.320
I speak to my friend, which is a funny friendship, but Lindsey Graham, pretty much every day.
00:16:40.840
Yes, she has her friend Lindsey Graham, Mr. Warmonger, the guy who wants to start a war
00:16:50.880
with Iran, who wants to keep the war going in Ukraine indefinitely.
00:17:00.000
So let me ask you, because despite all those efforts, Lindsey Graham's making fun of us
00:17:04.380
on Twitter, or whatever it is, X, joking about the annexation of Canada.
00:17:09.560
Donald Trump's rhetoric, if it has become anything over that period of time, it's much more inflamed.
00:17:15.840
It now includes using economic force to make us the quote-unquote 51st state.
00:17:20.660
If all of those efforts are failing to produce a better outcome for us, why is that the case?
00:17:26.340
Because we have to have a strategy on both sides.
00:17:30.360
And I'm the diplomat-in-chief of the government.
00:17:39.560
But you're in over your head as foreign affairs, and you have been since you got there, Melanie,
00:17:49.900
That's a more accurate assessment of what the Trudeau government is presenting to Donald Trump right now.
00:17:56.900
And my job is to have tough discussions with leaders and, you know, folks that sometimes I don't agree with.
00:18:06.620
And sometimes it's to create also really good working relationships.
00:18:13.440
So if these tariffs are applied, as he has threatened them to be, which we don't know the case.
00:18:17.820
He hasn't announced that, you know, the specifics.
00:18:21.200
I was interviewing six economists, the top six economists, the chief ones for all the big banks the other day.
00:18:27.100
And collectively, they said the hit to the economy, we're looking to the tunes of millions of jobs.
00:18:31.720
You're looking at a 3% contraction and essentially an immediate recession.
00:18:36.380
So it's in that vein against that backdrop I ask you about what retaliation would look like.
00:18:40.760
Is your government prepared to cut off supplies of energy, for example, to the United States?
00:18:46.700
What I can tell you is everything is on the table.
00:18:50.360
And that's the conversation we will have, the Prime Minister, Minister LeBlanc and myself, with the premiers next week.
00:18:56.280
And that's a conversation also I'll take to Republican senators and key Republican decision makers.
00:19:05.240
Melanie, maybe you should read your copy of the Canadian Constitution, if you have one.
00:19:10.400
And find out who has jurisdiction in this country of Canada over natural resources, over energy.
00:19:23.180
So the federal government can't go out and say, we're going to embargo oil and gas.
00:19:33.540
Tried to do that under Pierre Trudeau with the National Energy Plan.
00:19:38.300
And they got such ferocious pushback from then-Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed.
00:19:47.560
Trudeau knows, Trudeau then knew, Trudeau now knows, that the provinces own their own natural resources.
00:19:55.800
It's Alberta's decision whether they want to sell gas and oil to the United States.
00:20:01.860
This clearly is all about trying to bankrupt the West.
00:20:17.580
Let's listen to how Daniel Smith, who is leading Canada right now.
00:20:26.120
Daniel Smith is the de facto Prime Minister of Canada.
00:20:31.900
I don't think anybody else has actually stated that.
00:20:35.780
But she's the one negotiating with Donald Trump on behalf of all Canadians.
00:20:39.940
She's the one that Donald Trump recognizes as a leader.
00:20:49.400
Because she points out that if Melanie Jolie wants to place an embargo on our energy, guess who's going to get no energy at all?
00:21:03.520
Melanie's people in Quebec and Doug Ford's people in Ontario.
00:21:08.380
I think we need to be prepared that tariffs are coming.
00:21:11.820
That seems to me to, that the, I mean, I think we've all seen the biggest irritant to the United States are trade deficits, which they believe they have.
00:21:22.920
I don't actually believe they have a trade deficit.
00:21:25.780
When you take out energy, we actually buy more goods and services from the U.S. than they buy from us.
00:21:35.700
Donald Trump, yes, is always whining and moaning about the $200 billion trade deficit.
00:21:41.360
Take the energy products out and we have the trade deficit.
00:21:47.360
And it's not because they're buying this material, the oil and gas, because they really love it so much.
00:22:01.980
It's exactly what used to happen in the mercantilist system in the British Empire.
00:22:08.200
Britain would take, we would sell our resources at a huge loss to the mother country, Great Britain.
00:22:18.740
Britain would sell back those resources in terms of the products they produced in Britain.
00:22:26.320
That's exactly how the oil and gas industry works for Canada.
00:22:34.960
It's exactly what used to happen in the old colonial system.
00:22:38.620
I'm happy to make this national bank report available to anyone who wants it that shows we actually have $58 billion in a trade deficit with the Americans when you take energy out.
00:22:50.120
That's why I wanted to have the assurance that the Americans are interested in getting more of our oil and gas.
00:22:56.840
Because I think oil and gas is going to be key to being able to get a breakthrough once tariffs do come in in getting them off.
00:23:05.200
I think if we maintain a strong partnership on energy, we make the case about how much the Americans benefit from that energy relationship.
00:23:13.400
We demonstrate that we are a good trade partner, that we buy more goods and services from America than any other nation, and that we do buy more goods and services when you take energy out.
00:23:25.060
I think we can make that case, but I feel like from what I have seen, it's not my decision to make on tariffs, but we do need to be preparing ourselves for the fact that they're likely to come in on January 20th.
00:23:39.400
Yesterday, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Jolie talked about, it was asked specifically for trade deficits, which is the energy embargo.
00:23:53.780
This is where she puts Melanie Jolie, Justin Trudeau, and the entire Liberal government in their place.
00:24:00.620
And I want to, as leverage, what do you think, what do you make of what she said?
00:24:06.460
Well, first of all, it's oil and gas, it's owned by the provinces, principally Alberta, and we won't stand for that.
00:24:16.540
And you should never, ever threaten something you cannot do.
00:24:21.440
And I would encourage the minister to look at a map of where line five goes.
00:24:30.360
But what she just said, don't threaten something you can't deliver on.
00:24:36.460
In fact, the Book of Proverbs talks about there being clouds without rain.
00:24:43.820
That's exactly what Jolie is just flapping her gums.
00:24:50.740
She has no idea whether she can deliver on any of this.
00:24:54.740
And if she does, she's not admitting that she can't.
00:24:58.100
Line five comes down through Michigan to get to Sarnia, and then that feeds the bulk of the supply needed for Ontario and connects with line nine, which feeds the bulk of the product needed for Quebec.
00:25:15.040
And so if you cut off that line, you are cutting off Ontario and Quebec.
00:25:21.240
So I would encourage the ministers to either understand how our integrated pipeline system works and start looking at ways that we would be able to practically respond.
00:25:35.720
Because there's no point in making empty threats that cannot be executed on.
00:25:41.920
So there are other things, I'm sure, that we'll all talk about collectively.
00:25:48.080
But let's just remember how integrated our markets are with the Enbridge system, the TC energy system, that we have a product going back and forth across the border every single day.
00:26:02.320
And we cannot do anything that harms Canadians in such a substantial way.
00:26:08.560
So I just don't take that as a credible threat.
00:26:11.140
I'm sure that the U.S. administration won't either.
00:26:13.720
So we should talk about things that we actually can do as opposed to empty threats.
00:26:21.440
She said empty threats about five times during the dissertation.
00:26:29.000
And she said, I'll say it again if you didn't quite catch it.
00:26:32.120
But I'll say it again because this is very simple.
00:26:36.200
But it's so simple, even Melanie Joly can't figure it out.
00:26:45.040
That if you cut off American energy from Canada, you're cutting off Ontario and Quebec at the same time.
00:26:56.220
Because who do you think still runs the liberal government?
00:27:01.500
Every major cabinet minister now is from Quebec, including, of course, the prime minister.
00:27:10.480
And she outlines this and says, you can't do it.
00:27:15.080
And don't think for a minute, even if Quebec and Ontario were not impacted by this decision, don't think Alberta is going to put up with this.
00:27:24.900
And I support her 100% with this because I grew up in the West.
00:27:30.480
Decentralization of government is why Confederation ever worked in the first place.
00:27:38.820
With a relatively small population for it to be properly and appropriately run by an overbearing, invasive federal government.
00:27:51.620
We cannot allow the federal government to take any more control over our lives.
00:27:55.600
And Daniel Smith, time and time again, is just doing the right thing here.
00:28:00.140
Like I said, knowing Daniel since our days at the Calgary Herald, almost always agree with what she's doing.
00:28:06.580
Not necessarily always, but almost always, especially what she's doing now.
00:28:13.640
How dare you say, and Doug Ford doesn't know either, that that energy going to the U.S. is also going to Ontario.
00:28:26.020
But Doug Ford said, no, no, she's not speaking for the country.
00:28:32.160
And are you speaking for the country, Doug Ford?
00:28:38.060
And if you were speaking for the country, what would you actually say?
00:28:45.600
Ontario comes first because you've always, it's always been that way.
00:28:51.360
Now, Doug Ford, as I say time and time again, is a phony conservative.
00:28:59.100
He wants an election now on Doug Ford being in charge.
00:29:08.760
And once again, you're talking out of both sides of your mouth.
00:29:12.520
You know, yeah, we're going to come down and we're going to have a trade war, but that's the last thing I want to do.
00:29:16.660
We're going to come down hard on the U.S., but it's the last thing I want to do.
00:29:21.600
We're going to make the U.S. suffer, but it's the last thing I want to do.
00:29:26.720
Now, that's Doug Ford's weird, bizarro strategy, and it's going nowhere.
00:29:33.000
Daniel Smith is fighting for Canada, not just Alberta.
00:29:36.420
She is leading the country right now because there's a power vacuum in the Trudeau government.
00:29:42.560
You had Trudeau waltzing around North America doing interviews, musing about what's going to happen.
00:29:50.040
You have a liberal party that's supposed to have a leadership race, but as of yet, they have only two non-entities in that race.
00:29:59.320
You have a liberal party that's supposed to have all of this resolved by March the 9th, and that's highly unlikely.
00:30:07.900
But more importantly, if you watch yesterday's program, there's probably not going to be a chance for a second prorogation like a lot of us are worried about, and the liberal government will go down to defeat in late March.
00:30:23.960
And we can finally say adieu to this government.
00:30:28.500
Whether Justin Trudeau is still in charge of it or not, the liberal government is going down to defeat, and we're going to have an election, and we're going to have a new beginning for this country.
00:30:40.920
So thank you, Daniel Smith, for the work you're doing on behalf of all Canadians, not just Alberta.
00:30:47.380
You are leading the country right now, and I think that is what Canada needs to see more of.
00:30:58.140
Now, just a reminder, the old store is still open here, and I just want to remind you.
00:31:40.920
And I would remind you as well to have a look at my sub stack today.
00:31:44.580
We're going to be doing a brand-new strategy on this, brand-new.
00:31:48.520
We're going to be doing two or three articles a week, and we'll be doing an update every week about what's on the sub stack.
00:32:10.920
Yes, we'll be back again tomorrow, folks, with all the news you need to know, and let's continue to resolve to resist.