The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - It’s time to put Canada First

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprint. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your

00:00:12.320 host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Caworth-Elegs Brock, with new content

00:00:15.940 for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe,

00:00:20.940 and share this program. If you're on YouTube, hit the bell. Be notified when new content is

00:00:25.680 made available. The whole issue around tariffs, that's our topic today. How this was so avoidable.

00:00:32.780 We're going to lay out the case for that. To do that is Leanne Rood, the Member of Parliament for

00:00:37.240 Lambton Kent Middlesex. Thanks for coming on the show. Thanks for having me, Jamie. It's great to

00:00:41.600 be here again. Thank you for coming on again. It's very kind of you to do so. The discussion around

00:00:47.880 tariffs and the threats and all that from the United States has been on the minds of many Canadians,

00:00:53.820 right? They're wondering what's going to happen to the price of food, the goods, the services,

00:00:58.760 everything, right? And of course, somewhat politicians. The Liberal Party seem to be

00:01:03.380 involved amongst their survival, so they're kind of lost focus. But I think the main issue here

00:01:11.200 is the fact that all of this was avoidable, right? If the government had reacted to what

00:01:20.600 the president, President Trump had been saying, right? Secure your border, pay your 2% of NATO for

00:01:28.340 military, right? Like that's what he said. If not, we're going to take action. The United States is

00:01:34.820 going to take action. And this has left a lot of people on the hook and questioning business,

00:01:40.380 questioning investment, all of that. But the point is, it was all totally avoidable.

00:01:45.860 Absolutely, Jamie. You hit the nail right on the head. And being a riding that actually is a border

00:01:51.360 riding, I border the United States on waterways. And what the Liberals have done over the last nine

00:01:57.580 years, they've created this absolute chaos at our borders. They've created the mess that we're in

00:02:02.700 right now. We saw one instance even in my riding where we've had drones coming over with illegal

00:02:10.860 firearms with guns coming over and one drone got caught in a tree. That's how we knew that the

00:02:16.100 smuggling was happening over our borders. So the Liberals have absolutely failed to secure the

00:02:20.160 borders. They do not have enough resources at the borders, have not allocated enough at the borders

00:02:25.960 to secure the borders from the gangs and the guns coming in and the drugs. And it all falls back on

00:02:32.880 liberal policies as to why we are in this mess with the United States. Like you said, President Trump

00:02:37.700 has laid out pretty unequivocally that he is upset with the amount of illegal drugs coming over our

00:02:43.740 border in down south from the north. And we're up and we haven't failed to secure that we fail to

00:02:49.880 stop any of that. Even with our oil and natural gas, how long have we been talking about the need

00:02:56.440 to diversify and get our oil, our energy, our gas to new markets, especially Asia and Europe and not be

00:03:04.100 so dependent on the United States. We have said, I was elected in 2015 and we're talking about it back

00:03:09.140 then over and over and over again. And of course, they, the Liberals shut down Northern Gateway,

00:03:14.660 they shut down Energy East, also setting the stage for the fact that no future pipelines would be

00:03:21.280 sought based upon the fact that the regulatory environment is so prohibited. Like if you're looking

00:03:29.500 at your company, you're looking to invest in different markets, you're going to take the

00:03:34.660 path of least resistance. How quickly can you get the project from start to finish to moving the

00:03:40.180 product? And in Canada, that's a big question mark. Absolutely. And we even see that here in

00:03:45.040 Ontario. And you and I have been a part of meetings where we're talking about the ring of fire and

00:03:48.820 trying to get our minerals out of the ground in this country. But with so much red tape and bureaucracy

00:03:53.740 and the permitting process taking forever to get it, we can't get anything done in this country.

00:03:58.340 And we need to, I, you know, when I talk to high school students, and I stress the importance of

00:04:03.780 our oil and gas industry, you know, and I'm an MP from Ontario, but I think we all recognize how

00:04:09.120 important our oil and gas industry is to Canada as a whole into our economy. And if we were actually

00:04:15.120 able to get our industry up and running and be able to export that LNG to the countries that have

00:04:20.540 been begging at our doorstep for years to get this, get this product out to market to other

00:04:26.520 countries, think of the investment in our own country, the amount of jobs we would be creating,

00:04:31.680 the good paying jobs that Canadians have. And it's not just Albertans, it's Canadians from across the

00:04:37.120 country, friends of mine in Ontario all used to go out and work in the oil and gas sector.

00:04:41.280 So if we were able to get that going and get our economy going, think of how much we could have as a

00:04:46.900 country. If we invest in our own economy, invest in our natural gas and oil sector, we would be

00:04:53.340 booming as an economy, we could be paying off debt, we could be doing things that other oil rich

00:04:58.080 countries are doing. But right now we are stagnant. And that's directly because of the NDP Liberals and

00:05:04.900 what their policies have been over the last number of years. And being where I'm from, we're on the

00:05:09.420 Line 5 pipeline that brings in all of the propane into Ontario, Quebec and East. And how many times since

00:05:15.680 I've been elected in five years have we dealt with the threat of that pipeline being shut off?

00:05:20.800 Because we don't have our own pipeline in our own country across our own provinces to bring us our

00:05:26.200 own product from the West here to Ontario or East. And without that, it's critical. We've been in

00:05:33.100 critical situations where going into winter or in the winter with rail strikes, with the Line 5 threat,

00:05:40.840 where there's been threats of not having a heating source for the Maritimes, for Quebec because of

00:05:47.100 that pipeline. So we need to get pipelines built in our own country. So we're not reliant on our 0.56

00:05:52.220 neighbours from our own country.

00:05:54.140 Let's queue up cut one. We have the Foreign Affairs Minister, Melanie Jolie, on CBC here,

00:05:59.460 kind of proving our points. Let's play cut one.

00:06:03.800 Do you not think though that having a quote-unquote lame duck prime minister and a government that is

00:06:08.880 nearing the end of its life cycle, that that is not helpful to the country and to facing off the

00:06:15.460 president-elect?

00:06:16.860 Well, what I will answer to you on that question is any politician, any leader in this country,

00:06:24.500 need to put their country first. And we need to be united because this is the biggest economic threat

00:06:30.800 that we've been under in decades. And so based on that, this is not the time to play politics.

00:06:35.880 This is not the time for conservatives to try to undermine and, you know, the government or

00:06:42.000 score points against the liberals because of petty politics. This is a time to be serving the country

00:06:53.960 for the best interests of the country.

00:06:57.160 An absolute horrible answer. But again, it just proves the point that all of this has led up to

00:07:03.080 the fact that we are here because the liberals and their awful policy decisions.

00:07:08.600 Absolutely. I mean, the liberals are the one, they talk about being Canada united and we need to put

00:07:14.080 the country first. Well, where did they put the country first when they decided to prorogue parliament

00:07:18.720 just so they could have a liberal leadership race? Canadians have been overwhelming asking for a

00:07:24.460 carbon tax election and they want that election now. And instead of calling that election, we have

00:07:29.060 a prime minister who decided to put the liberal party interests ahead of the interests of Canadians

00:07:33.500 and prorogue parliament. So we are essentially shut down. We cannot do, you and I cannot do our job

00:07:39.060 as parliamentarians in the chamber of the House of Commons right now to actually be able to study what

00:07:44.500 those threats are or have committee meetings. All of that is shut down so the liberal party can choose

00:07:49.280 a new leader. So they are putting their party ahead of country at a very critical time when we should

00:07:54.720 be putting Canadians ahead of any partisan thing. And that liberal leadership race is something that

00:08:02.060 shouldn't have happened right now and we should have just been in an election right now.

00:08:05.120 And you see her answer, right? Anytime they're questioned on something like this,

00:08:09.080 they shield themselves for any criticism by, if you're questioning us, how dare you? But also,

00:08:16.560 you're clearly not behind a United Canada, right? It's that shield. So if you ask any questions or

00:08:22.700 second guess their decisions, well, just clearly you're un-Canadian is basically what you're saying.

00:08:27.080 Yeah, well, liberals just continue to divide, stigmatize and wedge Canadians. And that's what they've

00:08:32.320 done their entire tenure. We've seen that, especially over the last five years. It's just their mechanism

00:08:37.860 to continue to divide Canadians. But I think Canadians have woken up to that fact and they're

00:08:43.440 very well aware of what the liberals have been doing. And that's why we see polls that have said

00:08:47.940 that, you know, 77% of Canadians want an election right now. They're sick and tired of this liberal

00:08:53.800 hypocrisy and the way the liberals continue to divide and stigmatize and wedge Canadians on issues that are 0.90

00:08:59.380 very important to them. And it's time for some common sense to come back into government. And that's what

00:09:04.540 I'm hearing from people in my riding, the residents of my riding and across this country. We need to

00:09:09.840 bring common sense back to Canada, back to the policy decision-making process. And that's what

00:09:15.980 we're going to get when we have an election and we can elect Pierre Polyev as the next prime minister

00:09:20.300 of Canada. Let's queue up cut two. Again, this is Melanie Jolie, the foreign affairs minister,

00:09:24.540 continuing on and actually building the case that, yeah, we got here because of, well,

00:09:30.680 the liberals play cut two. If Trump is going ahead with tariffs, he's starting a trade war. And of

00:09:37.820 course we will retaliate. And you know what will happen for all those watching us right now?

00:09:42.460 This will be a Trump tariff tax on Americans because this will have an impact on jobs in many,

00:09:49.980 many states. 35 states have Canada as the main export market. And at the same time, we know that

00:09:58.120 we can do a lot to make sure that ultimately at the grocery store, at the pump, when it comes to

00:10:04.380 heating costs, we can try to think to make sure that things are not as costly.

00:10:12.940 The hypocrisy of all of that, Jamie. Not as costly.

00:10:16.940 Yeah. On CNN, of course, you know.

00:10:18.960 The liberals are the ones that put the carbon tax on. That has actually become more expensive than the gas

00:10:24.600 that we use to heat our homes. And we have so many Canadians showing us their gas bills now

00:10:29.300 in the dead of winter when it's minus 20, minus 40 outside. The liberals' carbon tax is what's made

00:10:35.400 things more expensive in Canada. Yeah. And like the way the liberals look at things, you know,

00:10:43.980 they forget about the history, right? It's all, it's never about how do we get there, right?

00:10:49.420 Conservatives do this a lot. We say, okay, how did we get here? What decisions were made along the way

00:10:54.180 that led us to this point in time? What worked? What didn't? The liberals, they don't care about

00:11:00.060 that. They're dealing in the now. Okay, we have an affordability crisis. Well, it must be somebody

00:11:03.580 else's fault, clearly. And if you ask us, well, you know, you're being unpatriotic. It's really

00:11:09.160 amazing. Exactly.

00:11:10.720 And then they try to come up with a new program that fixes the problem that they created, but the program

00:11:16.300 really doesn't actually work either. Yeah, we've seen that time and time again, where the liberals have

00:11:20.800 to create something to fix a problem that they created in the first place. But again, here we

00:11:25.620 are. If we just scrap the carbon tax, we would bring down the cost of home heating, but all of

00:11:31.140 this, the increased food prices that you see in the grocery store, the increased trucking costs,

00:11:35.700 the increased heating costs, it's because of the liberal carbon tax. Yeah. And the fact that we have

00:11:42.120 made our environment, our business environment here in Canada, so uncompetitive, so to the point where

00:11:48.560 businesses are looking to go elsewhere. In fact, Mark Carney brought his company down to New York

00:11:52.840 City because it was so uncompetitive. And this is not the only one. And sadly, Canadians are the 1.00

00:11:59.160 victims in all of this, right? They are the victims that have to live with this. They are the ones that

00:12:03.160 have to go through the uncertainty, whether or not they're going to have a job in the future,

00:12:06.760 whether or not they're going to be able to feed or house their families. This is a crisis the

00:12:12.700 Liberals have made. And here we are going to have to deal with it, hopefully in the next election,

00:12:18.400 and hopefully Canadians feel we are ready to govern, which I think we are. And we have a very

00:12:23.020 compelling case to put forward when that election does happen. Absolutely. And I think you're right,

00:12:28.420 though. Canadians are ready to give Conservatives a chance to govern. And when we look at Conservative

00:12:33.920 policies, we look at things that Pierre Polyev has said about attracting investment into Canada,

00:12:38.800 keeping jobs here in our country, locally, growing our economy. That's how we do that. We need to

00:12:46.760 create an environment that we're going to attract investment. You know, one example, food processing.

00:12:52.060 We do very little food processing in this country, yet we grow so much food and export it to the world.

00:12:58.500 So we can create an environment where we have the right economics for businesses to be attracted here

00:13:05.260 with lower taxes instead of the high taxes. Get rid of that carbon tax, because that's a huge

00:13:10.060 impediment for anybody looking to do business in Canada right now, is we're not competitive with

00:13:15.280 the United States on that. Then we're going to see our country succeed as a country. But it's going to

00:13:21.500 take a number of years. This is not going to be a quick process. We know this is going to be a slow

00:13:25.880 process. But I think Canadians have hope for a good future and Conservatives have hope that we

00:13:31.800 can make the tough decisions, but also do what needs to be done to make Canada back to the place

00:13:39.220 it used to be, back to the place that my grandparents immigrated to, with that hope of if you work hard

00:13:44.520 and you save your money and you get this good paycheck, that you can be something in life. You can

00:13:49.260 afford a house. You can afford to have your family in Canada. You can afford to run a business.

00:13:53.880 And that's what I think Canadians are looking for, hope for the future. We can get back to that again.

00:13:58.780 Yeah, it's creating that certainty, that environment that allows private sector growth to continue to

00:14:04.400 push the economy forward. And that's something we need to do is grow this economy, right? The

00:14:08.400 Liberals have taxed, they borrowed, and they printed us to the max. And we really do need to drive this

00:14:15.420 economy. So then, before we get to all of that, we have a Liberal leadership race. And I know some of

00:14:22.300 these clips are a week or so old, but it really shows that Mark Carney, who is running as the

00:14:30.060 outsider, right? Carbon Tax Carney, the outsider guy, fighting for the little person. He is the

00:14:34.820 champion of all, right? Even though the Liberals inviscerated the middle class during their last

00:14:39.580 10 years. He's going to save all. But it also shows that the establishment seems to be behind

00:14:44.860 Mark Carney here. And Christian Freeland, the former finance minister, who's probably running

00:14:49.040 neck and, I don't know, probably the second choice, maybe, based on current polls, is pointing

00:14:54.840 it out. But it became apparent here in the CBC interview with Rosie Barton here. Let's cue

00:15:00.080 up cut three. And the ending is where you really have to watch. This is something the Liberal

00:15:06.700 media really doesn't do to Liberals. So play cut three. I have the spine to stand up for

00:15:15.460 Canada. I have the plan to stand up for Canada. And I know we can do it. Hang on one second.

00:15:22.880 Okay. Just quickly, let's address this. Let's quickly address this. Okay. She has the spine.

00:15:26.820 She is the one that gave us USMCA after Mexico and the United States came to a deal. And the 0.58

00:15:32.420 US said, well, take it or leave it. And we capitulated on a whole bunch of things. And

00:15:38.420 she's saying, and she was the foreign minister at the time, I believe. And she's saying she

00:15:43.060 has the spine to stand up to the United States. Her record doesn't say that.

00:15:48.000 No. And she's even admitted that President Trump does not like her. She said that on the

00:15:52.000 air on multiple interviews. But the fact of the matter is, she was the finance minister

00:15:56.680 responsible for this mess over the last number of years that we are in as a country. So if she

00:16:01.800 didn't have the spine to stand up to Justin Trudeau as the finance minister, how on earth

00:16:05.940 is she going to have a spine as prime minister to stand up to our largest trading partner 0.99

00:16:10.300 to make sure we get a good deal on the next USMCA?

00:16:13.860 Well, she's growing a spine because now she says the capital gains kind of hurt investment

00:16:17.800 in Canada, the changes to the capital gain inclusion rate. But here, okay, let's restart

00:16:22.840 the clip. Play cut three from the beginning.

00:16:24.960 I have the spine to stand up for Canada. I have the plan to stand up for Canada. And I

00:16:36.400 know we can do it. I know that if we are united and strong and smart, we can do it. And I have

00:16:42.160 utter conviction around that. It's central to my campaign to see this is not about liberal

00:16:46.780 elites deciding this is about the grassroots. It is certainly looking like Mark is the choice

00:16:56.140 of the liberal establishment. It is certainly looking like he is the PMO's candidate.

00:17:04.380 Freeland was not able to offer any evidence that allowed her to make that assertion.

00:17:09.900 What have you seen that?

00:17:11.180 What?

00:17:11.900 Never. I don't think I've ever seen that.

00:17:14.100 I think that just proves the point right there.

00:17:16.340 Exactly.

00:17:16.920 You know, Rosie Barton, a big fan of the prime minister when he was first elected. You remember

00:17:20.080 she was doing selfies with him in the Canadian embassy in Washington, DC and all these friendly

00:17:25.700 log question interviews that she held over the years. That rarely, if ever, gets done to a liberal.

00:17:32.240 Absolutely.

00:17:32.960 That's incredible.

00:17:33.480 It is incredible. But, you know, when, when Christian Freeland talks about Mark Carney and Mark

00:17:38.780 Carney talks about himself being an outsider, let's just point out this fact to Canadians

00:17:42.780 again. Mark Carney is not a liberal outsider. He, in fact, has been a, somebody who Justin Trudeau

00:17:50.620 has trusted all along as an advisor. He's been the head of the Bank of Canada, the head of the Bank

00:17:56.140 of England, I believe it was. And he's been at the top post in big multi, multinational corporations.

00:18:04.740 This is somebody who is the farthest from being an outsider. He is an insider at the most elite

00:18:11.700 levels. In fact, like, has he even said where he lives in this country? Does, where is his

00:18:17.320 residence? I know he did his announcement in Edmonton, but have we heard where he plans

00:18:21.860 to run as a member of parliament? We haven't yet. So carbon tax Carney is no different than

00:18:28.200 the Justin Trudeau. It's more of the same.

00:18:30.080 I don't think Mark Carney, if he were given the chance to be prime minister, he would lay

00:18:35.000 in bed at night worried that if invoking a policy of his would cause people to be unemployed or shut

00:18:42.020 down a factory or a mill or whatever and cause devastation. I don't think he actually thinks

00:18:46.300 about that, right? He thinks, again, that he is super smart. He knows better than the little

00:18:51.600 people out there. And again, he travels the world in the best luxury and the best planes,

00:18:56.800 has the best meals. But how dare anyone else try to do the same? Because then you're just,

00:19:01.980 you're just causing destruction.

00:19:03.720 Exactly. He can't relate to the people you and I represent in our rural ridings, Jamie. There's no

00:19:08.080 way. And the fact is that he is an elitist and he wants to increase the carbon tax even further.

00:19:15.400 He's been on the record saying that he doesn't think it goes far enough. And Canadians have said,

00:19:19.740 we've had enough of this. We cannot afford to live anymore. When I have young people telling me that

00:19:25.740 they never have a hope of owning a home or 20 somethings, including people that are very close to

00:19:32.280 me who say, Leanne, I can't even afford to move out of my parents' house because I can't afford to pay

00:19:38.420 the rent right now. When we're in such a time as this in our country, where affordability is top of

00:19:46.480 mind for all Canadians. You have somebody who has no clue what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck 0.99

00:19:51.660 or worry about if they can pay that heating bill this month, or maybe they can only pay part of

00:19:56.280 this bill this month so that they can afford to pay for the groceries to feed their kids or people

00:20:01.320 having to put their head down and swallow their pride because they have to use a food bank, which

00:20:06.400 they've never thought in their entire life they'd have to use because they've been the ones supporting

00:20:10.800 our local food banks. And I see that day in and day out with seniors, with young people, families,

00:20:16.420 they're really struggling. And I don't think any of these Liberals who are running to be the next

00:20:21.300 Prime Minister of Canada have a clue what these people, what Canadians are struggling with right

00:20:26.680 now. And like you said, they're not going to be laying awake at night in their beds wondering how

00:20:32.360 we're going to fix this problem. And I think you and I and most of our Conservative colleagues,

00:20:36.200 that's the kinds of things we do. Every day we are fighting for Canadians, for you at home,

00:20:44.120 to make sure that we can give you hope for a better future in this country. And Pierre Polyev does

00:20:49.480 that day in and day out. And we're really looking forward to the next election when we can have a

00:20:54.720 Conservative majority government led by Pierre Polyev as Prime Minister and bring back common sense

00:20:59.440 and bring back hope for Canadians of a better future. We've said it many times on this program before

00:21:04.680 and something feel free to repeat outside of this. It's the same bus company, it's the same bus,

00:21:10.520 it's the same route. They're just changing the driver. Exactly. That's all it is. Don't be fooled.

00:21:16.180 Exactly. We're pretty much out of time. Leanne, as you know, the guests always get the last word. 0.62

00:21:21.320 The floor is yours. Well, thank you, Jamie. And again, to Canadians, Conservatives are here to bring

00:21:26.540 you hope. And we are working tirelessly right now against the Liberals and the NDP and their

00:21:32.540 policies. And we hope to have a carbon tax election here in the near future. And we promise to bring

00:21:38.860 back common sense to Canada and restore that hope for a better future for Canadians.

00:21:43.920 Leanne Rood, Member of Parliament for Lambton, Kent, Middlesex. We appreciate your time.

00:21:48.360 Thank you.

00:21:48.600 We appreciate yours as well. Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe and share this program. You can

00:21:52.540 also download it on platforms like Castbox, iTunes, Google Play and Spotify. New content for you

00:21:58.440 every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern time, despite the fact that Parliament is not sitting

00:22:04.580 at the moment. Thanks, Justin Trudeau. Until next week, remember low taxes, less government,

00:22:08.900 poor freedom. That's the blueprint.

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - February 04, 2025

It’s time to put Canada First

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