Trudeau Resigns but its NOT Over... ｜ Stand on Guard
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Summary
Justin Trudeau announces he's stepping down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, but there's much more to it than meets the eye, and a lot of people are getting it wrong. In this episode, I explain why I think there's more going on here beneath the surface, behind the scenes, than is obvious from this morning's news conference.
Transcript
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welcome back to another episode of stand on guard we're breaking the news here as we can
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i'm trying to write for three different publications at once and i'm
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got some interviews lined up and this is incredible but in so many ways it's not what
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it seems and i'll explain what i mean about that when i come back in a mere moment
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yes we need to continue to resolve to resist all right everybody's saying justin trudeau just
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resign as liberal leader maybe not as prime minister it's quite unclear listen to what
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he actually said you know i'm seeing all kinds of headlines from the amateurs out there who say
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justin trudeau is has resigned as prime minister can't no he has not no he says he intends to
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resign as liberal party leader and as prime minister after the liberal party selects a new leader
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listen to what he actually said at the news conference and we're going to listen to that
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right now because this is incredible news and i'll explain why i think there's more going on here
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beneath the surface behind the scenes than is obvious from this news conference this morning
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friends as you all know i'm a fighter every bone in my body has always told me to fight because i care
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deeply about canadians i care deeply about this country and i will always be motivated by what is in
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the best interest of canadians and the fact is despite best efforts to work through it parliament
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has been paralyzed for months after what has been the longest session of a minority parliament in
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canadian history that's why this morning i advised the governor general that we need a new session of
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parliament she has granted this request and the house will now be prorogued until march 24th
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we talked about this yesterday didn't have to think much about it did she
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people are telling me that actually reached out to the governor general and and
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they they they have been totally they've been kicked off of x for for doing so leaving her a direct
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message and this is this is absolutely outrageous but obviously she didn't have to think twice about
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this this is a trudeau foundation board member this is a woke politician this is a woke journalist
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this is a woke governor general she didn't have to think twice about granting justin trudeau the
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prorogation that he wanted so desperately and we'll we'll talk more about why he wants some
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prorogation along with this supposed resignation over the holidays i've also had a chance to reflect
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and have had long talks with my family about our future throughout the course of my career any success
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i have personally achieved has been because of their support and with their encouragement
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so last night over dinner i told my kids about the decision that i'm sharing with you today
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i intend to resign as party leader as prime minister
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after the party selects its next leader through a robust nationwide competitive process
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a new leader through this robust as in a great cup of coffee
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process so right now who's the leader of the liberal party answer justin trudeau who's the prime
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this is but this is a bit of a semantics game he's playing here and and i will explain a little
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more i have some analysis i don't think other people necessarily are even aware of anymore because
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last night i asked the president of the liberal party to begin that process this country deserves a real
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choice in the next election and it has become clear to me that if i'm having to fight internal battles
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so what's he saying he's going to be prime minister for the g7 like like he promised he would be
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he's going to be prime minister for i we don't know three to four months at least
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until the liberal party selects a replacement he made it quite clear there's a but
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in here will resign intend to resign plan to resign but not today
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so a lot of people are getting this wrong you've got to listen to it carefully
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and i've listened to it now three four times to understand the nuances of what he's saying
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now most of you will probably not remember 1979 it was a groundbreaking year
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joe clark became prime minister on may 22nd well actually won the election of may 22nd 1979
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canoeing in northern ontario growing a long beard he came back to the house of commons in september
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tried to be an opposition leader if the liberals were reduced to the official opposition
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and he just couldn't take it he was the prime minister not some opposition leader
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just couldn't play along just couldn't do it so i think he lasted maybe a month and a half in that
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position and he announced he was going to resign he said i i can't politics is over and you know the
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mclean's cover of that month it was november you know how i remember that because he he was wearing
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a poppy in his camel hairs jacket i think it was a quarter of a jacket and and the headline of mclean's
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said the end of an era 11 years is basically his prime minister and that was the end of an era
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the joe clark government fell in december just before christmas over a gas tax they lost the support of
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in those days there was a social credit party in quebec
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the credit credit east and they were propping up the the joe clark minority government he needed
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those six six votes he was six votes shy of a majority government in 1979 he didn't talk about
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the gas tax with the so his social credit partners from quebec and they voted against the budget john
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crosby was finance minister they voted against the budget the government fell the liberal party was in
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chaos trudeau had just resigned or said he was going to when they selected a new leader
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election was coming in february february 28th 1980
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so they begged trudeau to come back there was a draft trudeau movement please come back and leave
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the party because there's nobody else can do it as good as you do there's nobody else who really
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wants the job and besides we need somebody right now now how is that similar to what's going on
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right now in the house of commons all right trudeau's got a grace period here of what
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almost well about two and a half months march 24th the house comes back after the prorogue
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anytime after march 24th 24th the government could fall
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and we don't even know if there's if the liberal party hasn't selected a new leader by then
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and trudeau was talking about a robust process not a month long one not a two-month one probably a
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four-month process that involves all kinds of candidates but what if the government falls on march 25th
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when they're right when they're after they've come back what if the government falls
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what happens well the liberal party looks around and says hey we need somebody right now
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and well we still have a leader and justin trudeau is still the prime minister let's go with justin
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a little bit different circumstances pierre trudeau in 1979 was the official opposition leader not the prime
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minister but he won that election in february and he went on to stay in for another four years as prime minister
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do you think justin trudeau was thinking about the same game plan
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don't put it past him i say this all the time don't think because he's promising to go
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that means he's really going to go don't believe it for a minute
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and i think that's what we have to take away from this today is that justin trudeau is a slippery
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character and he could do the same thing his well if you believe pierre trudeau was his pop
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he could do the same thing that that pierre trudeau did in 1979
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45 years ago yeah no more than that sorry my god that's about
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no that's for 45 years ago and that's where we stand today with with justin trudeau i encourage
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you to read my substack yesterday about proroguing and why the governor general should not have oh
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sorry my producer rammed this down my throat here nothing has changed pierre polly agrees with me
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every liberal mp and leadership contender supported everything trudeau did for nine years and now
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they want to trick voters by swapping in another liberal face to keep ripping off canadians for
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another four years just like justin the only way to fix what yeah so nothing has changed absolutely
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so what does this mean about the pro it means justin trudeau is shutting down canada's parliament
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to allow a lame duck liberal government to continue to mismanage tariff negotiations and the border
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security negotiations with trump they will drag this out for six months for their leadership race and so
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trudeau can leave the g7 as president it's all about justin trudeau wants to be there for the g7
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this full position the liberals to tell canadians we need to come together to battle the trump
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administration who will have already imposed tariffs so general election is about protecting
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canada from trump this is the liberal plan to retain power this is precisely what they're up to
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things things could change really fast yeah things are going to change really fast we're going to be
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in the midst of a depression of an economic catastrophe within about three weeks
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while the house is prorogued and we've got who working to fix the border
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i mean dominic leblanc is now finance minister and it will probably be one of the contenders with
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liberal leadership so all of these guys will be thinking they're going to be the next liberal leader and
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who's going to be on the ground doing some negotiating here for canada nobody
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this is exactly the way justin trude it's planned chaos if that's not an oxymoron but that's what it is
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yeah here's one of our people john meester david i sent this to the governor general and promptly had my account locked
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i briefly looked over the rules and couldn't find which one i'd violated took me about an hour
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half an hour to get back on yeah if any anyone else out there tried this to send the governor general
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a polite little note to say please think twice about proroguing parliament because this has nothing
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to do with canada's national interest and everything to do with justin trudeau's interest in the liberal
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party's interest well i hope that didn't happen to you but thank you for facilitating what i thought
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was a noble cause because proroguing is a horrible grievous error we are going to be watching from
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the sidelines as the country sinks into the abyss in the next couple of months and when it's when it
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sinks into canadians heads what prorogue means most people say prorogue oh yeah didn't we do that
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a couple of times before when they when it means the suspension of parliament
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and there's virtually nothing we can do to bring down this government during that time
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no there is nothing we can do i think there's going to be such pushback such anger from canadians
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that we've never seen before i think it's going to be manifest on the streets it's going to be
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manifest on the corners it's going to be manifest on public buildings people are going to be very angry
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about this this was a very stupid decision on behalf of justin trudeau
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it's all about delusion you think he had a wake-up call or do you think he's playing a game here
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is this the latest incarnation of justin trudeau is this another act we're watching here i think so
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let's have a look at this i find this fascinating so who what if you were mark carney what would you do
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after today's oh justin's going to step aside no not right now though maybe sometime in the future
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when we have a new leader when is that going to happen it's like i said yesterday this process could
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take up to six months if of course this government's not brought down in the meantime let's listen to
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this and joining me now is laurie turnbull our political analyst at dalhousie university laurie
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thanks as always for joining us thank you so much for having me well it's looking more and i can't
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say official but it's looking more and more like mark carney is indeed interested in the job right um
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and as you mentioned we we've been talking about this speculating about this for a long time and
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again even back to when bill morno left cabinet there was speculation then that justin trudeau was
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talking to carney about potentially coming in and that creating awkwardness for morno and everything
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else and so now we seem to be at a point that it's not just uh speculation that carney is making calls
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he is trying to figure out um what kind of support he would have in caucus and so it's interesting
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because at this point as you say trudeau still hasn't quit yet like we're not at a point of
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certainty and we certainly don't know how the mechanics you know if he does resign we don't know
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exactly how the party is going to get from trudeau as leader to somebody else as a leader who would
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represent the party in the next point i'm making he didn't resign today either he revealed his
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intention to resign once certain things happen selection but we are starting to see a bit more
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certainty around who's interested in the job uh carney being one of them and it's interesting to think
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about uh the people who are thinking about putting their hat into the ring for something that looks like
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um is gonna be a losing project in the next election right like not to be a jerk about it but
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i mean are you are you running to be prime minister are you running to be a third party leader like
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what's what do you think is actually going to happen uh those who are looking at this job and some
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people may see that as a challenge with carney though how much is this like michael ignatiev and how
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much is it different right i mean people have made that comparison and i think uh honestly it's it's a
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fair one you look at somebody who has been extremely successful and in another aspect of life right like
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for ignatiev it was it was writing it was academics he was an extremely you know impressive highly
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credentialed person who had had huge impact in in his life in in another field in another category
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and when he tried his hand at politics it did not go well and so i think there's a perhaps a fear for
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some people that carney would represent a similar type of thing that he has shown you know in how to
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be incredibly successful and impressive in his life um as a banker he you know as an economist he was
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the bank of canada governor the bank of england governor he's obviously an extremely impressive
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person i think no he's not an extremely impressive person he's somebody who has spent his whole life
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at the government trot and he's still there and he wants to stay there now i don't know what's in mark
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carney's head by thinking he's going to take over the liberal party and it's going to be a miraculous
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resurrection of this party it's going to rise from the ashes like a phoenix
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it's going to come back from the dead if mark carney leads it this of course is utter tripe
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mark carney is polling below the numbers and i had a in fact i i'm going to find a slide for you in
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in a minute here when i i'll put her back on i got a slide for you that shows exactly how unpopular
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the uh the would-be prime ministers would-be liberal leaders are in terms of how if they think they're
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going to attract greater public support for the liberal party if they become the leader and they're
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not i'll just i'll just put this is a little nauseating at times but it's interesting to see how incredibly
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distorted thinking can get all you got to do is change the leader even if it's another globalist
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another wef acolyte like mark carney and everything's going to be okay he comes to the table
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with the kind of credentials that could be incredibly helpful at a time where we're going to have to
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think about what a new economic strategy would look like given our changing relationship with the united
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states because of his global networks he could be the right kind of person to interact with the
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donald trump and the people around him but at the same time as far as i know he's never run for office
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this is a this is a world that he would be new to and again you know does he want to come in and be
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a third place party leader like really like it i mean i assume if he does this it's because he wants
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to be prime minister does he want to build this project up from the ground again if the next election
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doesn't go well for them well that's the thing and he's he's turning 60 this year i mean this is this
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the liberals could be a what a a two-term project i mean it looks like they won't win the next election
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yeah and what makes any of these people think that peer poly is going to be a one-term
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prime minister the liberals don't deserve to come back anytime soon but have a look at this poll here
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i found this fascinating if you can you know you read this we've got christy freeland on the far left
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here mark carney next to her melanie joely uh francois champagne daniel leblanc and anita annette
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as sort of the top six candidates for the liberal leadership now freeland this is this is interesting
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the negatives are so high 29 said they're more less likely to support the liberal party
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if she's the leader 29 19 said they're more likely that's a 10 deficit
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38 said i don't know who this is look at carney 24 i said i don't know who this is
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19 said it makes them more unlikely to vote liberal
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but once again he's got he's got a deficit joely is even worse i mean joely champagne leblanc and then
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they're all in the basement what makes them think that they're the magic solution to justin trudeau
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they are not now i want to show you this i ignored watching this actually because i couldn't believe
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anybody thinking can be so distorted but you know tom mulcares sometimes has some good notions some good
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ideas but he's completely in the fog in this interview and if he really believes mark carney is going to make
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a stunning difference to make a stunning difference to the liberal party he's crazy
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but let's listen to a bit of this joining me now is tom mulcares cdb news political commentator
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good to be with you renee so uh no official announcements yet but mark carney uh and then
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let's throw in christia freeland and christie clark could all be potential contenders for
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the leadership race should trudeau decide to step down how do you see this all playing out i think
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you've just named the three top picks in the trifecta renee governor former governor of the
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bank of canada mark carney will be the prohibitive front runner in this race one because he's extraordinarily
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talented two because he's got the skill set in the area where trudeau was the weakest which is the
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economy and that's why by the way the conservatives are attacking not christie freeland of course not
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christie clark they're attacking mark carney uh their quebec spokesperson is out all day today
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attacking mark carney saying that he's been there advising trudeau but actually the person who's been
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there beside trudeau on the economy all this time of course was christia freeland carney agreed to come
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on board a couple of months ago but uh he he doesn't have to bear the burden of any of trudeau's bad
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decisions on the economy and canadians care a great deal about the economy you know in that famous
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expression from american politics it's the economy stupid i mean you've got to understand that the
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average canadian is being told that they have to tighten their belt they've watched the trudeau
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government and the bureaucracy under trudeau grow exponentially with nothing to show for it they're
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giving billions of dollars in contracts to private companies to do the same work so the average canadian
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is saying look the liberal brand is still there trudeau is not he's not on their radar screen at all
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that's what's been fueling the 20-something percent lead for the conservatives so if if carney makes
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it into the race it'll be a game changer if he becomes liberal leader he gives them some hope in
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the next campaign although there is that massive lead that i just referred to for the conservatives
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right now uh regardless of whether it is mark carney or anybody else leading the liberal party does
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anyone have what it takes to uh turn the party around well i learned that you never underestimate
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the liberal party uh because with with jack in 2011 in the orange wave we became the official
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opposition and everybody's saying oh they're relegated to the dustbin of history and they came roaring
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back under justin trudeau who unfortunately for the liberals has stayed around just a titch too long
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so i do think that it is very possible that the party that has been in power for most of confederation
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can put on its game face get ready you know they have a very deep bench strength and and put on a
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very strong fight in the next campaign those numbers will change rapidly renee if somebody like
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mark carney were to take over the helm of the liberal party so no those numbers are not going to change
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rapidly that's in entirely in tom's head when he says that we just saw this is angus reed polling i just
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showed you that does not bode well for any of these characters you know after christia freeland resigned
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from cabinet pure poly have went on the air in a news conference and said
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when you hire a bunch of clowns you get a circus and that's exactly what this remains these are all these
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people running are all non-entities or they're dangerous people like mark carney mark carney
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mark carney does not deserve to be prime minister because he's been governor of the bank of canada or
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governor of the bank of england or the united nations goodwill ambassador for climate change
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he deserves to be sent packing for that and there is no indication in any polling i've seen that mark
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carney has got some sort of magic touch with the liberal party as soon as he takes over the helm
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but i'd say again don't think everything changed today for justin trudeau because he's still got some
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cards left up his sleeve and he plays a dirty game of poker
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and if you think it's all over for justin trudeau
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well the way he phrased this today the way he framed his resignation reminds me a lot of what
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pierre trudeau did i'll say that again it reminds me a lot of what pierre trudeau did in 1979 1980
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as he managed to retain his grip on the liberal party and become prime minister one more time now
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i don't know what the likelihood is of justin trudeau ever winning another federal election
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but retaining power over the liberal party well that's entirely possible if he plays his cards right
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in this instance and i think he could well do that
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don't want to remind you about the store about the merchandise things are 15 off again today
00:29:09.960
and we have got more discussion about this coming tomorrow and we're going to examine the reaction
00:29:19.960
from peer polyev conservative leader and what the bloc kbik was saying but more importantly
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what is jagmeet singh going to say today about this
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i think that is worth looking at because is he going to keep hedging his bets
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is he going to promise to bring down the government in march
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or is it going to be wait and see we'll have we'll cross that bridge when we come to it
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jagmeet is up to something too thank you so much for watching today folks
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thanks it's always a pleasure i've got so much more i want to talk to you about tomorrow
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and let's continue to resolve to resist and i will be back with all the news you need to know bye for now