Trudeau Resigns but its NOT Over... ｜ Stand on Guard
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
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and we have got more discussion about this coming tomorrow and we're going to examine the reaction
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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