The Candice Malcolm Show - Is Canada’s independence at risk？

00:00:00.000 Hi, I'm Candice Malcolm and welcome to The Candice Malcolm Show. We have a great show lined up for

00:00:12.540 you today. Thank you so much for tuning in. It's great to have the live audience. We started doing

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00:00:44.900 Again, it really helps with our reach. We're trying to grow the channel. We're trying to grow the show

00:00:49.020 to reach as many Canadians as possible because, folks, times are too important. We are facing a

00:00:54.760 crisis in Canada with an election coming up. And it really concerns me. I'll be completely honest,

00:01:00.060 completely frank. It concerns me to see the Liberals rising in the polls. It concerns me to

00:01:04.520 see Canadians say that they would rather have Mark Carney negotiate with Donald Trump as opposed

00:01:09.600 to Pierre Polly. I don't want Canadians to be fooled. I don't want them to be tricked into voting for the

00:01:15.320 Liberals again and giving us another four years similar to the last nine years. I don't know that Canada

00:01:20.900 could withstand it. I don't want that future for myself, for my family, and certainly not for my

00:01:25.680 children. I think it's so important that we get our message out, that we give Canadians the facts

00:01:30.320 and the truth. And that is what we aim to do here at The Candice Malcolm Show. You know, it is a bit

00:01:34.480 rich to hear from these Liberals, to hear from people like Justin Trudeau, who now all of a sudden

00:01:38.560 says that the threat from Donald Trump is literal, that we're literally supposed to believe that he wants

00:01:43.960 to invade Canada, that he wants to annex us, he wants us to become the 51st state, and he wants to take over our

00:01:49.720 minerals, which is what Justin Trudeau said to a group of economic leaders in Toronto on Friday.

00:01:55.340 I don't think that's going to happen. I don't think that anyone should take Trump literally.

00:01:58.920 I think we should take him seriously, but not literally, as Peter Thiel told us about how to

00:02:03.320 deal with Donald Trump. He said that all the way back in 2016. He said, take the man seriously,

00:02:07.360 but not always literally, not literally. So the 51st state stuff, yes, he's saying it,

00:02:12.220 but it's a negotiating stick. It's not a real threat. Trudeau wants you to believe it's a real threat,

00:02:17.740 because the more that the media talk about that, the more that Canadians worry about that and fret

00:02:22.060 over that, the more likely it is that they will see that the Liberals are the one that can save

00:02:27.080 them. The Liberals would rather talk about anything other than the record, anything other than the

00:02:30.640 last nine years, and what Justin Trudeau's post-national vision for Canada has done to

00:02:35.160 our country. Don't let them get away from it. Don't let them get away with it. Don't fall for the

00:02:40.140 trap. The election needs to be fought on the issues, on liberal policies, and it needs to be a

00:02:45.040 referendum on Justin Trudeau. Don't let them make it about Donald Trump. Now, I've got Hamish

00:02:51.160 Marshall joining the show a little bit later on. We're going to talk about all the polls. Hamish is

00:02:54.920 an excellent pollster, as you know, and a frequent guest to the Candace Malcolm Show. But my first

00:02:59.280 guest warns that Canada's independence isn't at risk by the Americans. He says that our independence

00:03:05.980 has already been taken away from us in many ways with regards to what has happened with China in

00:03:11.060 our country. And this is such an important point. So I'm so pleased today to be joined

00:03:14.560 by Dan Knight. Dan is a founder of the Opposition News Network, host of the Opposition with Dan

00:03:20.920 Knight podcast. Bring him back on the screen there. Dan, thank you so much for joining the podcast from

00:03:26.080 your car out on the West Coast. I appreciate you joining us today.

00:03:31.100 I do some of my best work out of my car there, Candace. How are we doing today?

00:03:34.480 You know, I used to do some work out of my car before I had a designated office in my house,

00:03:39.080 because, you know, when you have little kids running around, especially for mom,

00:03:41.940 it's impossible to get work done. And so the car was always a place I could sneak away to. But

00:03:46.200 yeah, great, great to have you with us. I want to talk about your recent piece in Subsec that you

00:03:51.200 published on Saturday. I couldn't agree more with this piece called Enough Talk, Polyev. It's time 1.00

00:03:57.260 to fight for Canada's economic independence. And so I think you came to the same conclusion that I did,

00:04:03.380 Dan, which was that it wasn't really a hot mic moment on Friday. It was all a manufactured

00:04:08.260 scheme to try to change the channel, try to get Canadians to stop talking about the economic

00:04:13.620 reality in the country, and instead to fret and worry about Donald Trump, because that's better

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00:04:51.500 Well, it seems like the Liberal Party focuses on Trump. And it's not just the Liberal Party,

00:04:56.480 Candace. Let's be clear. It's the mainstream media. They like to gobble up anything that

00:05:00.340 Trump says and regurgitate it. I mean, for one, it's probably because they're lazy and they can't

00:05:05.320 afford to actually do real news. So that's another topic we could write about. But having said that,

00:05:12.500 anytime Trump says something, the Liberals, and we've watched this for the last, you know,

00:05:16.780 year and a half play out. Every time Trump says something, the liberal base is, you know,

00:05:23.220 they regurgitate it and they paint Donald Trump as the boogeyman. They've gone out of their way to

00:05:28.560 alienate him. They've come out of their wood box with their hatchets and saying that this guy is

00:05:34.900 terrible for, you know, America. You know, Justin Trudeau, just recently, as soon as Donald Trump

00:05:42.400 was, you know, he got the election, he took a shot at him. He said, this was the moment that

00:05:46.560 America could have hired or not hired, but elected a female president. I mean, this is coming off the 1.00

00:05:53.160 time when Donald Trump was campaigning off tariffs. So does that sound smart to you, Candace, that

00:06:02.480 you'd antagonize Donald Trump right before he's inaugurated? I don't think so. So obviously,

00:06:08.480 you know, the liberal base is trying to manufacture a crisis and they've done it. And I think a lot

00:06:15.140 of Canadians have a right to be afraid. I mean, look at the audio manufacturing sector in Ottawa,

00:06:19.840 you know, Trump's going after that. He's saying that we need to bring those jobs back to Detroit.

00:06:23.500 And I think a lot of people are afraid for their jobs. And I mean, that's fair, but I think this is

00:06:28.820 a crisis that the liberals have created. They should have not chosen to antagonize the incoming

00:06:34.560 president. And what's the result of that? You know, they now have everyone worried about their

00:06:41.220 jobs. If you take what the recent polling is suggesting is that they're up. I find that hard

00:06:47.260 to believe considering that they've manufactured this crisis and they're the, this crisis is

00:06:51.740 they're, they're doing. So it, it, it beholdens me that, that the liberals are not in charge of what

00:07:01.080 they're doing. Like they're not there, they manufacture this. And then like, you know,

00:07:03.880 let's take the recent U S Canada summit last weekend with, with the liberals, they went in

00:07:12.020 and, you know, obviously they're, they're talking to their, you know, the business sector, you know,

00:07:17.560 I saw the head heads, the heads from tech, which is part of the mining sector, the coal sector here

00:07:22.640 in Canada, they were there. And, you know, Justin Trudeau kind of went in and said that we need to be,

00:07:27.820 you know, we need to hold hands with the Americans that were one of their best

00:07:30.660 business allies and, you know, kind of preempted the next moment, which was, you know, his mic was

00:07:38.600 on and he said, you know, America wants to have us as their 51st state. And I knew, obviously I

00:07:44.440 think that, you know, Donald Trump is trolling. I mean, you look at the polling over in the U S and

00:07:48.660 it's not that having Canada is not very popular, especially amongst the red states, because I think

00:07:53.660 that they would know what that would mean if we were annexed, but I don't think it's a very popular,

00:07:59.140 popular stunt. If you go look at what he did with Panama, he said that we're going to annex Panama if

00:08:04.440 you don't get rid of the Chinese influence over in Panama. And what did Panama do? They basically 0.80

00:08:10.580 turned tail and said, no belt or silk belt and road initiative here. And they've turned the face.

00:08:16.400 I think that's exactly what they're trying to do here in Canada. If you look at the fentanyl that's

00:08:20.700 coming in here from that's being manufactured in Canada, it might not be being imported. Candace,

00:08:26.280 it might not be being imported, but it's definitely being made here. If you look at just last month,

00:08:31.240 we had a fentanyl super lab that was busted just after Trump announced that he might be doing

00:08:36.760 tariffs. It kind of shows you that there is a level of manufacturing. And I mean, I'll take you back

00:08:42.460 about 15 years ago, Candace, that in Canada we were making, I don't think, remember that there was this

00:08:48.460 famous thing, drug being made in Canada. It was called BC bud. And we were exporting it by the billions of

00:08:55.220 dollars to California. So we've since, I mean, obviously the, the, the drug manufacturing has

00:09:02.640 come down for BC bud, but let's be clear that the black market didn't just go away. They just changed

00:09:09.940 products. So it's hard for me to believe that they've simply just abandoned their, their, you know,

00:09:18.360 abandoned their product or their, their, you know, excuse me, it's, it's, it makes me, it doesn't make

00:09:26.020 me believe that they've actually switched gears or they've just like stopped making, selling exports

00:09:30.740 to the U S they've just switched products. So. Yeah. Like the drug dealers are still drug dealing.

00:09:36.700 They're just doing it differently now because there's a lot more profit it seems. And, you know,

00:09:41.300 we had Sam Cooper on the program last week and he talked about how just because they're not seizing

00:09:46.080 it at the border doesn't mean that it's not crossing a lot of the hard drugs that get exported

00:09:51.060 from Canada go through the ports where less than 1% of containers are actually checked. So a big part

00:09:56.340 of the reason why, you know, the, the fake news story that was going around that Canada has like

00:10:00.700 only 46 grams of drugs or 42, 46 pounds of fentanyl that was seized at the border. Um, and it's like

00:10:06.900 less than half a percent compared to the other percent that all goes from Mexico. That's fake news

00:10:12.360 because that the reality is that Canada exports mostly that the drug dealers have found ways,

00:10:17.520 uh, loopholes to export our drugs through ports, uh, which we don't check. So I agree,

00:10:21.660 like Canada has so many problems and it's kind of sad and embarrassing that it takes an American 0.99

00:10:25.920 president to point these out. If I were advising peer poly of, or, you know, if I was running in

00:10:31.840 elected politics, I would make that the priority. Like from the moment that Trump mentioned it,

00:10:36.540 or heck from 10 years ago, when we saw these problems manifesting, I would, I would say,

00:10:41.600 you know, Canada is a serious country. We have to do things to improve our own sovereignty and

00:10:46.540 independence. Um, getting like, how about cracking down on Chinese interference? How about, uh, getting

00:10:52.100 rid of these so-called Chinese police stations that operate in Canada? How about stopping the illegal 1.00

00:10:56.440 flow of immigration, the illegal flow of goods, the number of people on terrorist watch lists that are

00:11:00.760 in Canada? Like it's unbelievable how much disarray and disorder there is in Canada under this liberal

00:11:06.540 rule and under Justin Trudeau. I think we really need to get our own house in order and all of this

00:11:11.360 howling and complaining about Donald Trump. Like the thing that I loved about your sub stack piece

00:11:15.680 that you put out, Dan, is that you, you know, you said, look, the, the, the, the liberals allowed us

00:11:22.400 to be sold out already to China. It's already happened. And they did it because it benefits them 0.87

00:11:27.980 electorally. It's always benefited them. I mean, just an example from this week, right?

00:11:32.340 We saw that Chrystia Freeland's, um, campaign was being smeared on WeChat and initially, like

00:11:40.000 immediately the institute, democratic institutions ministry and the government alerted it, sounded

00:11:46.220 the alarm, acted concerned, uh, pointed it out. Everybody condemned it. It's like, why is it

00:11:52.120 happening when it happens to a liberal? It's a big deal. We know that it was happening to the

00:11:56.080 conservatives against the conservatives in the 2021 campaign. We've, that's been proven now that

00:12:01.320 they were, there was a coordinated Chinese campaign against Aaron O'Toole that actually led to him

00:12:05.960 probably losing in several key swing ridings in Canada. And, you know, at the time the government

00:12:12.600 just allowed it to happen. Uh, of course they allow it to happen when it benefits the liberals. 0.82

00:12:16.860 And that's why there's just the problems in our country run so incredibly deep.

00:12:20.780 Well, I mean, and then, you know, it's, it's to talk a little bit about the liberals. We have to

00:12:26.140 like, look at who's governing them. I mean, you'd have to have integrity to actually challenge this.

00:12:32.120 You'd have to have integrity. So let's, let's look at the hit, the track record of this liberal

00:12:37.600 government, SNC-Lavalin. I mean, it was the canary of the coal mine and how we, as the electorate, how we

00:12:42.520 let this pass is mind boggling. We had a government ready to throw their first female attorney general 1.00

00:12:50.320 under the bus for what to save his political hide. I mean, and then we've had scandal after

00:12:55.880 scandal after that. So it would take a government that had integrity to actually challenge these

00:13:00.000 things. And obviously this government doesn't have any integrity, you know, as, as I was saying in

00:13:04.480 my sub stack, you know, what have, what do we had? It wasn't until Sam Cooper reported it that

00:13:08.860 we actually found out that we had Chinese interference in our, in our democracy. What did we find from 0.99

00:13:15.500 that from the Hogue, Hogue inquiry? Well, there was police stations. Um, what, what did, what did the

00:13:19.620 liberal government do there, Candace? When we found out about the, the police stations? Well,

00:13:24.360 Minister Blair, and it was reported in the Hogue, Hogue inquiry that he sat on the warrant. It,

00:13:30.460 he sat on it. He, he, you know, he didn't do his jobs. I think that this is a minute, like if we look

00:13:37.000 at this cabinet, they'd like to come read off the teleprompter and that's it. You know, we can talk

00:13:41.980 about, we can talk about the media speak coming from the liberal government. And, you know, we've listened

00:13:48.480 to Melanie Jolie say, you know, we, we spent millions of dollars on this penthouse during while

00:13:54.160 we have in, in New York, which there's a committee, um, on and we've listened to her and said, we need,

00:14:01.700 we need to have this, this, this million dollar penthouse. We need to put our, uh, our, you know,

00:14:06.880 our diplomats in there so that they can talk to the leaders so that we can, um, you know,

00:14:12.140 we can push our narrative to the U S and what did we find out from black locks today or not today,

00:14:17.580 yesterday that we're paying lobbyists, um, to the tune of $85,000 per month there, Candace.

00:14:24.440 So what does that tell you? It tells you either that penthouse that we spent hundreds of millions

00:14:29.580 of dollars on was worth it, or we actually have to pay $85,000 a month for lobbyists in DC.

00:14:36.460 So wait a second, we have, we have that, let's show that graphic Sean. So this is from Holly Doan

00:14:41.440 of black locks reporting Monday, February 10th. And the documents reveal that federal agency pays

00:14:46.880 Washington lobbyists $85,000 a month to manage outreach to government officials. So Canadian 0.98

00:14:55.540 taxpayers paying lobbyists in Washington DC 85 grand a month to manage the outreach to government

00:15:03.580 officials. I mean, of course the liberals will find a way to enrich lobbyists and consultants. 0.92

00:15:09.260 And that's just like what they do. But, you know, you see Danielle Smith show up in Washington 0.58

00:15:13.500 completely, you know, on her own, book a hotel conference room and just book meeting after 1.00

00:15:19.040 meeting, after meeting, after meeting with senators, Republican insiders, staffers, anyone who will

00:15:24.600 meet with her. And she just does that on her own. Whereas you have the libs, uh, and Melanie 1.00

00:15:29.480 Jolie, figuring out a way to enrich lobbyists and pay them 85 grand a month. So unbelievable.

00:15:35.940 Anyway, I'll let you continue.

00:15:39.700 Ridiculous. So, I mean, it's not even, it's not even about, um, enriching the lobbyists. It's

00:15:43.920 just the fact that like this government is just so unaccountable. They, I think the biggest,

00:15:48.160 the biggest thing I have this, that I'm most troubled with is that we've prorogued parliament

00:15:53.560 in the middle of the Trump, the Trump threat. So, you know, let's be clear. If this was a

00:15:58.580 conservative government, we would be hearing about it every day on, on the media. They'd be like,

00:16:03.920 why are we, why are we not having committees? Why are we not having meetings right now? Canada is on

00:16:09.980 autopilot. We don't have a functioning government. We can't have committee meetings. I know that

00:16:15.100 Justin Trudeau promised $1.5 billion to the border, but let's be clear. He can't pass that.

00:16:19.720 Um, there's no committee meetings. There's no budgets. We can't pass any laws right now.

00:16:24.380 So we don't have a functioning government. And the fact that they're, they're, they're,

00:16:30.040 they're talking about it. They're promising all of these, these promises to Donald Trump. Well,

00:16:35.440 it's just, it's just empty speak. And we're not hearing about that. And that's the most,

00:16:38.940 the saddest thing as a taxpayer, as a citizen, if you believe in democracy, this is just,

00:16:44.180 this is just, I don't know how you, you're not infuriated by this because let's be clear. We don't,

00:16:52.420 we're not able to challenge Donald Trump effectively. Um, right now we have, you know,

00:16:57.860 the liberal circus, their caucus, the swamp, they're going in and they're doing these,

00:17:02.100 um, these summits. And why are they doing that summit? Well, they're not able to be challenged by

00:17:06.140 the opposition. And, you know, and I, I feel that, you know, they're, they've taken a lot of

00:17:11.240 what Pierre Polyev has said. Um, it looks like they're, they're coming, they're walking back a

00:17:16.040 lot of their unpopular positions. Um, you know, Steven Gilbo, who has probably made it his career,

00:17:22.660 um, about a carbon tax is now they're, they're walking back on it. They're saying, well, no,

00:17:28.400 maybe he's a little bit right. Maybe we should adopt that policy. You know, we talk about

00:17:32.520 Pierre Polyev saying like, we need to take GST off housing. Well, what are the, what are the,

00:17:37.260 what are the liberals considering next? Taking off, um, GST off housing? Like, it just seems like

00:17:42.580 if, if Pierre Polyev, um, brand, if his, if his policies are so popular, why are we putting the

00:17:50.100 liberals in? Like, it's almost a filter. It's almost ridiculous that, that we actually have to

00:17:54.200 have the opposition come up with these, these policies that are against what's, what the

00:17:58.540 liberals are putting out there and that we actually have to have them regurgitate it like it's 0.96

00:18:03.520 their idea. And it's just ridiculous. So, you know, and let's talk about. I think that as a win

00:18:07.620 for the conservatives that their ideas have sort of won the day and both sides now agree with them.

00:18:11.800 Although I wouldn't trust the liberals if they were to win the next election, that they would fall

00:18:15.660 through on any of these things. Cause I don't think that the liberals have proven that they can be

00:18:19.280 trustworthy, but Dan, you've been critical of Pierre Polyev as well in all of this and criticized

00:18:24.380 his response. You wrote on a subsac that he has the right words, but the wrong approach. Uh,

00:18:30.360 you were critical of his interview that he did with Brian Lilly last week. And you said that

00:18:33.840 Canada needs a real plan for real economic independence. Why don't you walk us through

00:18:37.480 that? Well, I, I, I like, I like, you know, I mean, Pierre Polyev has got a lot of good words.

00:18:42.880 They're very pretty, you know, they're the right words. Let's be clear on that. They're, you know,

00:18:46.460 he, he, he, he said that, you know, we need to be in parliament and that we need to, you know,

00:18:54.020 be active and that, you know, he rightfully pointed out that the liberal party has handcuffed us to the

00:19:02.000 U S you know, they canceled energy East, um, Northern gateway. They made us dependent on the 0.68

00:19:09.420 U S and it's based, based on their ideology of, you know, coal is bad. And, and one thing that really

00:19:16.880 bugs me about the, the ideology, the liberal ideology is that, um, we don't export, or we

00:19:22.600 don't put carbon tax on imports into Canada. There is no carbon tax import. So what does that mean for

00:19:29.680 Canadians? Well, it just means that we're not really, we're not really net zero. And what we're

00:19:34.800 doing is it's kind of a shell game. We have carb, we have three cups, our carbons right here,

00:19:40.260 and this is Canada. That's our center cup. And all we do is we shell it over to China.

00:19:44.780 And so all of our manufacturing is now dependent on China. They don't have our, our, um, our labor

00:19:54.500 laws. They don't have our, our, our economic or excuse me, our environmental standards. So we have,

00:20:01.060 we really brought down our net zero and absolutely not, you know, they have, we export coals by the

00:20:07.600 millions of tons per month to China so that they can make steel. So, you know, Pierre Polyab

00:20:14.680 is right to, to, to call that out that, you know, the liberals have crippled us. But in

00:20:20.520 my opinion, I think a lot of the, a lot of the problem with what the conservatives are

00:20:24.440 saying is that they're coming off a little too soft and, and they're being a little bit

00:20:30.260 too kind of, they're playing a little bit too much defense. They're letting the, the liberals

00:20:35.040 control the narrative. And what do I mean by that? Well, we had this hot, hot mic moment

00:20:39.560 with Justin Trudeau at this U S Canada economic summit where his mic was, uh, on and somehow

00:20:47.020 this, this, this audio, it was a fake hot mic cause he was on stage. Right. And then

00:20:53.180 he told the media to leave the room, everyone plug your ears. I'm going to say something

00:20:56.080 right now to a room full of like 500 people. And then the media kind of jumped right into

00:21:00.980 it because first of all, it's a, it's good clickbait. Uh, but second of all, you know,

00:21:05.980 that's what they really want to talk about. They don't want to talk about the economy.

00:21:08.180 They don't want to talk about Trudeau's record. What they really want to talk about is orange

00:21:11.620 man, bad Trump's going to come conquer us. And we need to like, give it our all and fight

00:21:16.660 for Canada. So, you know, let's, let's talk about that a little bit. And what the bad messaging

00:21:21.500 is, is, is he rightfully called that out, but what's his plan? Let's be clear. It's, it's,

00:21:26.460 I think, I think what Canadians want right now, Candace, Candace is that they, they don't 1.00

00:21:29.640 want talking points. They want an impassioned leader. You know, why, why is Daniel Smith so popular?

00:21:35.600 Well, she, she's authentic. You know, why is Donald Trump so popular? I mean, in my opinion,

00:21:41.720 he comes off as authentic. Like a lot of his, what the mainstream, stream media comes off

00:21:46.600 and they regurgitate to the, um, the public is his, like his, his, his authenticity. And

00:21:53.160 I think that that's what, what people really do appreciate whether you like him or not, he's

00:21:56.820 authentic. He's shooting off the cuff. This is what I think. And there's no, there's no peer

00:22:03.820 groups. There's no polling groups behind it. This is just how he feels. And I think

00:22:07.340 what most people believe is that they feel that too. And I think that the problem with

00:22:12.020 the conservative party right now is that they're coming too much off of these polling

00:22:16.280 groups. They're not, you know, you look at Pierre Polyev about, you know, glasses,

00:22:22.520 Pierre Polyev, Pierre, um, Pierre, excuse me, Pierre Polyev pre-bronzer. He was a little bit

00:22:29.660 more feisty. He was a little bit more of a pit bull. And then they rebranded him. Uh,

00:22:33.800 I think it was last summer they rebranded him and now he's got bronzer on. He doesn't wear

00:22:37.640 his glasses. His hairdo looks good. You know, he's a little bit more palpable for the Canadian

00:22:43.180 public, but at the same point in time, a lot of his grit that I really, that really brought

00:22:47.800 me towards him. It's been kind of a little less. So, you know, is he, is he still challenged

00:22:52.660 the media? Absolutely. I love, you know, I think most Canadians appreciate that, but I think

00:22:56.900 the problem is, is that what Canadians want, and especially those people that are, that

00:23:01.100 jobs are threatened in Ottawa is that they want a little bit more of a, uh, a plan. You

00:23:06.640 know, what, what, what, what should Pierre Polyev's plan be? Well, you know, I, if I was

00:23:11.320 in that position, I mean, and I'm unfiltered, unfortunately, so maybe I wouldn't be the best

00:23:15.060 politician, but I think that what Canadians want is they want to hear someone say like,

00:23:18.400 look, you know, if Stellantis, which had an $18 billion tax break by the, the BC liberal

00:23:25.160 or not the BC liberals, the federal liberals, um, they've just pulled out their, their

00:23:28.500 plant. They're going back to Detroit, um, or Utah, wherever, um, to appease Trump. If

00:23:33.980 I was the opposition leader, I'd be saying, good, let them go because you know what? LNG 1.00

00:23:39.980 Japan wants, or Japan wants our gas. Let's let them take our gas. We'll make a business 0.98

00:23:45.920 case, but I want auto plants made in Canada. I'd be certain, I'd start like that rough, that

00:23:50.740 rough conversation or that rough, gritty, bombastic, not bombastic, but I think that

00:23:57.220 that's what Canadians want is they want to hear that we, that their leaders have their

00:24:00.940 back. They don't want slogans. They want to hear that, Hey, you know, raw logs are being

00:24:06.020 made in BC and we're shipping them out to, we're shipping them out to China. Well, enough 0.99

00:24:10.340 of that. We have log manufacturers, we have planers, we have, um, uh, you know, high production

00:24:17.620 logging facilities out in BC. We're going to start cutting. We're going to make a higher

00:24:21.820 percentage of that. Those logs to be cut in BC. We're going to bring those jobs back

00:24:26.360 to BC. And the same can be said for the auto manufacturing out in Ottawa. If Jeep, uh,

00:24:33.060 Ford Chevy does not want to do business here in Canada, then let them leave. But guess what?

00:24:37.700 You're not able to sell cars here. There is no business case to be made for those companies

00:24:42.300 that want to leave their auto manufacturing for Canada. We're going to bring in Mercedes.

00:24:46.820 We're going to bring in a Honda, Hyundai. We're going to bring in these audio manufacturers

00:24:51.060 and we're going to subsidize them because we're going to bring in those jobs. And I know there's

00:24:54.960 going to be a few people out there that say, they hear me say subsidize. And they're like,

00:24:59.400 why are we going to be subsidizing? Well, let's be clear there, Candace. We have to, because

00:25:04.120 on a global market, everyone is subsidizing some sort of industry. And we've looked at like

00:25:08.480 what the liberal track record is. They had to prompt, they had to give, um, Stellantis the

00:25:13.740 kitchen sink to build a battery plant here. So we have to be a little realistic when it comes to

00:25:18.320 that, that we actually have to be competitive on the world stage. So in my opinion, I think that

00:25:23.740 what, what Canadians want to hear is they want to hear a message, but they also want to hear a hard

00:25:27.280 message. I don't know if I'm, I'm, I'm wrong on that, but based on the feedback from that,

00:25:32.540 that article, I think a lot of Canadians agree with me.

00:25:35.820 Well, you just have a comprehensive plan that I think you've thought it through at a lot more

00:25:39.180 depth and detail on many others. So I recommend that everyone go over to Dan Knight's abstract,

00:25:43.900 check out his piece because every word of it, I was nodding along and like getting fired up,

00:25:48.140 listening to it, reading it. Uh, I want to get through the news cause there's some, uh,

00:25:51.620 news is developing, uh, today that we like to get to on the show. So we learned, uh, first of all,

00:25:56.620 that Trump has promised 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada. So this is

00:26:03.080 not just for Canada. It's for all imports into the United States on those products kind of tied to

00:26:07.780 what you were talking about there, Dan. So here is a clip from him heading home from the Superbowl

00:26:13.160 from New Orleans, um, explaining his new tariff. We'll also be announcing steel tariffs on Monday.

00:26:22.560 Tomorrow? Monday. Yeah. Tomorrow. What countries will those go on? Everybody. Steel. Including Canada,

00:26:28.900 Mexico. Yeah. Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25% tariff. What about

00:26:34.960 the United States? A little bit of two. Into effect right away by Trump, uh, responding to that,

00:26:43.340 we had Ontario premier Doug Ford, who's running in his own election, Ontario. He reacted on X by

00:26:49.120 saying this, this is the next four years shifting goalposts, constant chaos, putting our economy at

00:26:55.120 risk. I'm asking the people for a strong, stable four-year mandate that outlasts the Trump

00:26:59.700 administration to do whatever it takes to always be ready to protect Ontario. I think a lot of people,

00:27:07.580 you know, people who don't even really like Doug Ford that much as a premier, uh, appreciate the way

00:27:12.260 that he's been talking, um, throughout this and, uh, kind of really, I think he speaks to the people

00:27:19.120 in a similar way that Trump does. And he, he kind of understands that, you know, you're talking about

00:27:23.140 how conservatives are always a little bit too rehearsed and too, uh, concerned about what's

00:27:27.040 happening in the polls. I see, uh, four being a bit more authentic. Uh, meanwhile, we had Pierre

00:27:31.340 Polyev up in Iqaluit, uh, yesterday we showed the clips. I love the imagery of, uh, anyone going up

00:27:36.720 to North. It's so beautiful up there. And I really do hope that the conservatives are serious about

00:27:41.000 this pledge to develop the North. I think that's one thing that Canada has been shamefully inadequate

00:27:45.260 in doing is building up the North. Look, I lived in Edmonton for years. Canadians know how to build

00:27:51.060 infrastructure and build cities in incredibly frigid, cold temperatures. So if we can do it in

00:27:56.040 Edmonton, why can't we build a big city up North? I really think that Canada needs to do a lot more

00:28:01.160 to build infrastructure, to develop the North, get people to move up there, pay people to move up

00:28:05.080 there. I don't care, but we need to develop that in order to assert more sovereignty in the North.

00:28:10.320 So Polyev was up there and he was asked about these tariffs from Donald Trump. And he promised

00:28:16.080 again to impose our own retaliatory tariffs on American steel and aluminum imports. Let's play that clip.

00:28:22.720 He has threatened to bring in tariffs on our steel and aluminum. We will retaliate in kind with

00:28:29.420 matching tariffs on American aluminum and steel, all of the proceeds of which will be given back to

00:28:35.440 our steel and aluminum industry. And any surplus will be given in tax relief for our people.

00:28:42.500 And at the same time as Polyev was announcing his own intention to impose, uh, tariffs on steel and

00:28:49.040 aluminum, he also dug up this clip of Mark Carney just two weeks ago, or less than two weeks ago,

00:28:54.740 January 31st. Um, Mark Carney saying the opposite thing, which is that he wants to put a price on

00:29:01.640 pollution for steel makers. He wants to tax them even more. So Polyev talking about import, uh, tariffing,

00:29:08.740 so taxing imports. So taxing other people's steel. Whereas Poly, uh, sorry, Carney is talking about taxing

00:29:14.800 our own steel made in Canada. Let's play that clip. Then secondly, what we're going to do

00:29:20.400 is make sure not that the government pays, not that we as taxpayers pay, but the large polluters

00:29:26.940 pay. And so what happens- Does that not ultimately trickle down?

00:29:30.880 No, because the, what, what the, uh, the big companies are producing by and large are not

00:29:36.060 products that we are consuming. There's some element of that, but by and large, you know,

00:29:40.780 a steel company, how much, how much steel are you using, uh, these days, Todd? I mean,

00:29:44.680 not as much, not as much. So kind of a bumbling answer there, but you can see that he's saying

00:29:50.300 that, oh, the big polluters will pay, right. And then the consumers won't see that at all. Uh,

00:29:54.840 you know, for a guy that's run the, uh, central banks there, he doesn't really seem to understand

00:29:58.880 some basic economics. Um, so, you know, we, here we see another trade war unfolding. We had Justin

00:30:04.600 Trudeau out in Paris, frolicking around with Emmanuel Macron. He was asked about these tariffs and

00:30:09.460 he says they are unacceptable and that Canada's response will be firm and clear. Let's play that

00:30:14.300 clip. We will be working with the American administration over the coming weeks to highlight

00:30:20.520 the negative impacts on Americans and Canadians, uh, of these, uh, unacceptable tariffs. Um, but we'll

00:30:27.820 also be working with our international partners and friends. And if it comes to that, our response,

00:30:34.080 of course, will be firm and clear.

00:30:38.920 So Dan, if you can just give me a quick response there to the latest, uh, tariff back and forth

00:30:43.760 that we're seeing.

00:30:46.240 I think Mark Carney is, uh, is quite funny for saying that he's going to tax, uh, our industry,

00:30:52.300 especially when he's built his company. Berkshire has built pipelines in Brazil. So it's,

00:30:58.920 I could probably talk about it for about half an hour. I think that it's, uh, it's incredible

00:31:03.100 that we have a prime minister in Paris when we have an economic trade war. Uh, it's funny

00:31:08.900 to me that we have, uh, a banker, an unelected banker talking about carbon taxes when our parliamentary

00:31:15.800 budget officer has already gone and reported. Um, this is a, this is a nonpartisan entity there.

00:31:23.140 Uh, Candace has said that the, it adds, uh, inflation to, or the carbon tax adds inflation.

00:31:30.100 It's passed down to the consumer. Um, the Tiff Macklin has gone on, uh, BOC, the bank of Canada,

00:31:36.240 when he was, uh, doing his, uh, his press releases and said, yes, it adds to, um, the consumer price

00:31:43.280 index. So it's, it's funny to me that we have, uh, two, uh, out of touch politicians, uh, talking about,

00:31:50.780 uh, about something that it's just, it's such a grift. It's, it's, it's, it's unbelievable to me,

00:31:57.500 Candace. I have no words for it. It's, I think most people here would agree with me that, that

00:32:02.540 the government is very out of touch. Um, we, you know, the reason that Mark Carney doesn't

00:32:09.840 We're done with the carbon taxes. I don't think that that's going to be a debate in Canada anymore.

00:32:13.920 We're so done with it. The liberals aren't even going to defend it. I don't think the conservatives

00:32:17.520 are going to be able to run on that as a campaign issue because Canadians are basically in agreement.

00:32:22.540 So we hear people like Mark Carney, it's like the exact wrong approach. Uh, Dan, I got to leave it

00:32:27.320 at that because we've got a lot more to get on the show, but I really appreciate your time. Thank you

00:32:30.680 so much for joining the program. I'll have to have you back on again in the future. Candace, thank you

00:32:35.260 so much for having me. Um, you guys do great work at True North and, uh, thanks for having me.

00:32:40.700 All right. Okay. Have a great day, Dan. All right. I want to talk about Pierre Polyev because one of the

00:32:45.340 things we had, uh, Stockwell, or sorry, we had a Preston Manning on the show on Friday and, you

00:32:50.820 know, talking about Canada can be a little bit depressing these days, especially if you're more

00:32:54.220 on the conservative side, because you see so many of the great things about our country have collapsed

00:32:59.120 and fallen apart. One of the things that was really, uh, I thought was so optimistic in talking

00:33:03.900 to Preston was his call for action at the end. He said, you know, I said, what can Canadians do?

00:33:08.980 He said, fly the flag, fly the flag, show pride in your Canadian country and heritage. Uh, you know,

00:33:16.840 go buy a flag and go fly the flag. He said, one of the things he admires about Americans is that

00:33:20.920 they do fly the flag. Even, you know, I have family members that live in very liberal California

00:33:25.740 and they fly the American flag, even though they're liberals on the left. Um, they still love America.

00:33:31.120 Right. And they fly the flag and Canadians don't do that as much. So I was, I was heartwarmed to hear

00:33:36.800 Preston Manning talking about that. I think it's a great message. And lo and behold, it opened my

00:33:40.800 ex this morning and I saw a conservative leader, Pierre Polyev making a similar plea, encouraging

00:33:46.460 Canadians to go out, purchase a flag and fly the maple leaf. Let's play that clip.

00:33:51.800 This Saturday is in fact flag day. So I'm encouraging everyone, regardless of your political allegiance

00:33:58.760 to go out, get yourself a flag, big or small, put it on a flagpole in front of your home or through

00:34:04.760 your window or in any other way that you can show our colors. We're very proud of this country. We'll

00:34:11.380 never be the 51st state. We will always be a strong, self-reliant, sovereign country. So let's show that

00:34:19.900 message by raising the flag.

00:34:21.740 Beautiful, beautiful video there. Canada first gotta love that. And here is Pierre Polyev's post on X this

00:34:40.160 morning. And he simply says, raise the flag. What a great message. Okay. And I want to bring in Hamish

00:34:48.300 Marshall to the conversation. The audience knows Hamish. Hamish is a partner at One Persuades,

00:34:52.600 which is a government relations and strategy firm in Ontario, but we all know him as a pollster.

00:34:57.100 So he served as Andrew Scheer's campaign manager for the Conservatives in 2019. Prior to that,

00:35:03.540 he was manager of strategic planning in Stephen Harper's successful 2008 election. And of course,

00:35:09.520 he worked with us at True North during the 2021 election as our in-house pollster. So Hamish,

00:35:15.480 welcome to the program. Great to be here, Candice. Okay. So I've been dying to talk to you about this,

00:35:19.940 Hamish, because we've been seeing so much of it, and I don't know if it's real or not. But what we

00:35:24.260 are seeing is that the Liberals are making a comeback federally. And that, you know, if an election

00:35:30.540 happens this spring, the Liberals might do a lot better than we once thought. So let's just start

00:35:36.400 with Ontario. So according to recent polling in Ontario, it shows that the Liberals are actually up,

00:35:43.760 if we can show this graphic. The Liberals are at 43% versus 39% for the Conservatives. Let's just

00:35:51.020 start right there, Hamish. How can this be possible? How can people in Ontario still have faith in the

00:35:56.740 Liberals after the last nine years? And is this accurate? Is this going to hold for an election?

00:36:02.020 Well, it turns out Justin Trudeau was really, really unpopular. And people really didn't like him.

00:36:07.380 And he was dragging down the Liberal numbers. I think we all intuitively knew that. And the relief

00:36:13.300 of Justin Trudeau being gone is certainly opening people's eyes to the possibility of voting Liberal

00:36:19.440 again. I think these numbers are probably a bit high, especially in Ontario. We've seen other

00:36:25.660 pollsters come in with certainly a Liberal increase, but I don't know if it's quite as much as that.

00:36:31.100 The thing that's happening is that we often see this in leadership races, that when somebody who's

00:36:38.060 being unpopular is being replaced with somebody new, when people ask, who are you voting for?

00:36:44.540 They then imagine, when it hasn't been decided, they then imagine their dream Liberal leader. So

00:36:50.200 right now, if you ask someone who you're voting for, they're thinking of Liberals, especially someone

00:36:54.220 who wants to vote Liberal. They're thinking of their dream Liberal leader. The problem is,

00:36:58.260 whether it's Mark Carney or Christopher Freeland, or any of the other people running, none of them

00:37:02.340 are the ideal candidates in reality. So what we often see in this situation is that when a leader

00:37:09.140 actually gets chosen, people say, hold on, that person? He's not as good as the person I was

00:37:14.900 imagining in my mind. And we see the numbers drift down a bit as well. But I think we shouldn't expect

00:37:20.180 them to go back down to as far as they were, because Trudeau was very, very, very unpopular.

00:37:25.140 Well, it kind of reminds me, I mean, there's some parallels to the states, right? Like we had

00:37:29.060 Joe Biden, very, very unpopular president, not just because of his advanced age, but his policies,

00:37:35.220 his policies were radical hard left, and they created a very unaffordable standard of living in

00:37:40.180 the United States. And even when he got replaced, you know, at the end of the day, I think Americans

00:37:45.140 were voting no to the woke agenda, to inflation, to the left wing policies that got us into that,

00:37:50.660 that got them into that mess. I imagine the same thing will happen in Canada. But I'm worried when

00:37:55.940 I see numbers like this, especially in Ontario, I really don't understand how 43% of people in Ontario

00:38:03.060 can still be willing to vote for the Liberals, given the reality that we live in, and, you know,

00:38:10.100 how bad and dangerous their policies have been, you know, not just in terms of how hard left and woke

00:38:15.860 they are, but the actual pocketbook issues, how expensive things, and the cost of groceries,

00:38:20.660 the cost of gas, all of that kind of thing. Do you think that's factoring in, or do you think

00:38:24.740 people are just saying, you know, hopefully the next person's better than Trudeau, so we'll give

00:38:29.220 them a shot? I think that's a large part of it. I think there's some of the Trump tariff war

00:38:35.860 sneaking in. But I think that realistically, whomever the new leader is, once Keynes figure out that

00:38:41.940 they're not going to govern in a way that's meaningfully different from Trudeau, and that will be the

00:38:45.780 Conservatives' job during the campaign, and in the time leading up to it, is to persuade,

00:38:50.580 remind, and show Canadians that these people are not going to be different in a meaningful way.

00:38:54.420 I think we're going to see them, their numbers, drag back down again.

00:38:59.620 Well, okay, so here is another recent seat count from 338 Canada, which is a polling aggregator on

00:39:06.340 X. Let's show this seat projection. So this still shows the Conservatives way ahead. It has the Conservatives

00:39:12.420 getting anywhere between 170 all the way up to 237 seats, where the Liberals sort of max out at 116,

00:39:19.380 and it can get as low as 53. So, but just the trend, right? The trend is going up for the Libs

00:39:25.860 and down for the Conservatives, which, you know, I think that height, that peak, like you said,

00:39:31.300 Justin Trudeau was so unpopular. But it can't feel good for Conservatives to see, you know, Canadians 0.93

00:39:38.260 potentially abandoning them and losing that really strong majority that it seemed like they were

00:39:43.700 headed towards. Yeah, but I don't, when we saw polls, the Conservatives are up to 47, 48% of the votes.

00:39:49.700 Most people I talk to in Conservative land never really believed that those numbers were really

00:39:56.900 realistic. So, you know, settling, moving down and settling into something in the low 40s,

00:40:01.700 which would still be a massive accomplishment, right? Justin Trudeau didn't even get 40% in 2015

00:40:06.980 with his majority. Stephen Harper didn't get 40% with his majority in 2011. Ending up at 42% or something

00:40:13.780 would still be the largest majority we've seen in this country since probably, actually almost certainly

00:40:18.180 this century. Wow. Okay. So this is what the latest Ipsos poll had. This was from Thursday, February 6th,

00:40:24.340 and it shows an eight point swing. But to your point, Conservatives are still at 45,

00:40:29.540 down five points, Libs up to 28, up eight points. But like you said, still in solid majority territory.

00:40:37.700 So I think Pierre Polyev would take that. It's just that the trend is happening in the wrong direction.

00:40:41.940 And you're talking, you mentioned that now that Trump is entering into the question of whether or not,

00:40:47.060 you know, Pierre Polyev has set it up that he thinks that this election will be fought on carbon taxes

00:40:52.980 and on cost of living and on pocketbook issues. I think that the media and the press and certainly

00:40:56.900 the Liberals would much rather be talking about Donald Trump and turning it into a referendum

00:41:01.300 on Trump, turning it into kind of an existential crisis for Canada, like this next prime minister's

00:41:06.580 sole job is going to be negotiating tariffs and not just tariffs, because Trump actually is serious

00:41:11.460 about annexing us. According to Justin Trudeau, that's what he said at a closed door event on Friday,

00:41:16.980 that Trump is serious about annexing Canada, that he wants our minerals. And when that is the ballot

00:41:22.660 box question facing Canadians, it actually looks even worse for Pierre Polyev. So here is another

00:41:28.500 Nanos poll that was conducted at the end of January, and it found that 40% of Canadians believed that Mark

00:41:35.140 Carney was the most qualified leader to negotiate with Donald Trump and his administration. 26% said that

00:41:43.940 they consider Mr. Polyev to be the best qualified for that role. I want to play a clip. This is Nick

00:41:49.220 Nanos talking on CTV over the weekend, sorry, on Sunday. He says that Donald Trump will be the ballot

00:41:57.220 box question, and I guess that would be really good for Mark Carney. Let's play that clip.

00:42:02.020 I guess the question I have for you, Nick, is you also did some polling on how Canadians view who is

00:42:06.980 best suited to handle Trump. How much do you think that does end up being the ballot box question,

00:42:13.300 and how much does that depend on timing? Well, I think it probably will be the ballot box question

00:42:18.100 in the next federal election, because the thing is, is that for Canadians, they know that our

00:42:21.780 relationship with the US is critical. And I think, who knows, maybe people in the next election are not

00:42:27.940 going to vote for a party that they like, might not vote for a leader that they trust or whatever,

00:42:32.260 but they just might vote for whoever they think might be best able to manage that situation.

00:42:36.900 So what do you think of that, Hamish? I mean, he's heavily implying that Canadians are going to vote

00:42:44.100 on this issue and that Mark Carney will win on this issue. Well, look, what we've certainly seen in the

00:42:49.540 last three or four weeks is that the, you know, elite media and the Laurentian consensus is utterly

00:42:57.300 fixated on trying to change the ballot question away from what it's been for so long, which reflects so

00:43:02.100 badly on them and how they've been running the country. They're desperate to change it to something

00:43:06.020 about Trump. And I think this is more evidence of that. I mean, Mr. Yannis' comment at the end of

00:43:10.500 saying, well, people might vote for somebody they don't like because they care about this more,

00:43:14.660 or they, you know, they're not going to vote based on their actual, you know, experience with life

00:43:21.380 getting more expensive because this issue is more important to them. You know, I find that very,

00:43:27.300 very hard to believe. I mean, of course, there'll be somebody in Canada who falls into that category.

00:43:31.220 We've got, you know, 30 million people eligible to vote. But the fact of the matter is, is that,

00:43:35.300 you know, people in very few cases, you know, one of the things that people say, oh, the economy

00:43:39.620 matters. When people vote in the economy, it's rarely the economy as a big sort of amorphous blob.

00:43:46.260 When they think about the economy, think of their own situation, right? And whether this policy or this

00:43:50.980 leader is going to make their lives better. It's actually a deeply personal thing. And I think this

00:43:55.300 is going to be the same again. You know, we can, they can try to change the channel away from people

00:44:01.860 being worried about the cost of living, but the numbers out there thus far, when you look at what

00:44:06.420 issues people are worried about, it is overwhelmingly, it is still people worry about

00:44:12.100 healthcare, but they're also still worried an awful lot about cost of living and inflation. And they are,

00:44:18.500 there's a rising number of people who are worried about the Trump tariffs, but it's not the dominant

00:44:22.260 issue of the way these people, every, all these, you know, elite commentators seem to want to

00:44:26.340 project it to be. So I'm not convinced that, that, that, you know, what they all might all

00:44:32.580 wish it to be, I'm not convinced it's coming true yet. Well, I hope you're right. What do you,

00:44:36.420 what do you think about the so-called hot mic moment that Don, that Dustin Trudeau had last

00:44:40.660 week? I don't think it was a real hot mic moment because I think it was all very deliberate and he

00:44:44.180 wanted the media to talk about it as if it was an accident, but he, he said that Trump is serious

00:44:48.500 about annexing Canada and he thinks that Trump wants our minerals. Do you take that thought seriously?

00:44:53.700 I mean, I, I think you're, I think, I think it, I think it's a way of framing this debate. I think

00:44:59.940 it's an effective way of framing this debate. And if the vote comes down to, you know, if the

00:45:05.460 Liberals won't look, the campaign the Liberals want to run is we will keep Canada as an independent

00:45:10.260 country and Pierre Polyev supports being Canada the 51st state. That's the campaign that they want.

00:45:17.220 I don't believe it's the campaign they're going to get. And I think it,

00:45:20.660 I think it strains credibility to believe that they are, it is what they are going to get.

00:45:27.060 Because the fact of the matter is, is that maybe that's the sort of campaign they could

00:45:29.940 have produced 20 or 30 years ago, but the way the media has been, the media landscape has been

00:45:35.540 shattered, having a whole bunch of people, like more people are going to see that clip of CTV that

00:45:40.260 you just showed of that chat on this YouTube broadcast, then actually saw it live, like for

00:45:47.300 sure. Like the elite consensus doesn't have the ability to project their message on Canadians the

00:45:53.060 way it once did. And if, you know, if their view of the world was the one that was dominant, you never

00:45:59.620 would have seen Mr. Polyev's rise the way you saw it, because he wouldn't be able to tap into something

00:46:05.620 because it wouldn't have existed. And so I'm deeply skeptical of the sort of top-down imposed narratives

00:46:12.500 that we used to see, and are really an artifact of the 20th century.

00:46:17.940 I think, I think you're right. I think one of the reasons it's really interesting that sort of the

00:46:21.700 younger you are now, the more likely you are to support Conservatives, which is kind of a flipped

00:46:25.940 notion. Like I think, you know, Hamish, when we were growing up, all the young people were liberal.

00:46:30.180 You and I were probably the odd ones out being more conservative. But now it's like young people 1.00

00:46:34.740 are conservative. I think it's because Pierre Polyev is speaking directly to them. His social media

00:46:40.260 dwarfs all the social media from the traditional legacy media. So he's found a way to cut through it

00:46:45.540 all and speak directly to Canadians. And I think young people in particular are listening and hearing

00:46:51.220 to that. I want to get your take on this clip because Pierre Polyev was on with Toronto

00:46:55.700 Sun's Brian Lilly. And this was a headline that came out was that Pierre Polyev takes

00:47:01.220 Trump's threat seriously. I kind of saw this as him falling into the trap of talking about what

00:47:06.340 the Liberals want to talk about, which is the Trump threat and him saying, no, no, I take it seriously

00:47:10.820 too. Let's play that clip. Well, I've always taken it seriously and I've always clearly

00:47:16.020 and consistently condemned it. Canada will never be the 51st state. We will be a strong,

00:47:21.460 independent, sovereign country when I'm prime minister. That's exactly why it's so unfortunate

00:47:28.660 that the Carney Trudeau Liberals have made us so weak and reliant on the Americans. Their radical

00:47:34.500 tax increases have driven a half trillion dollars into the American economy out of Canada,

00:47:40.900 including many of Mr. Carney's own investments.

00:47:43.380 What do you think of that? Look, I think he has to talk about it to some extent because it is

00:47:52.100 something that, you know, he's going to be pushed on and he has to make sure that the liberal attack

00:47:58.580 on him as, you know, secretly being in favor of this or whatever they're going to get to

00:48:03.460 is simply not credible. I mean, there's going to be a certain portion of the, you know, deranged left

00:48:09.860 the belief that everybody who's ever, you know, put on a blue shirt believes that the

00:48:15.540 the Canada should join the United States. But he has to make sure he's been completely unequivocal

00:48:21.780 around that. Be very, very clear about that. I think that clip was, it was decent from that

00:48:25.620 perspective, but it's clearly not what he wants, what he wants to spend most of his time talking

00:48:29.540 about. And he will keep talking about the things that, that Canadians want to hear.

00:48:34.020 I think this is kind of a decent issue for the Liberals as a wedge issue because Canadian 1.00

00:48:38.580 conservatives are themselves divided on Trump, right? Like half of the people that are in our

00:48:43.380 True North audience love Trump and are like cheering him on everything he does. They're like,

00:48:47.620 yes, we need to do this next, excited about him. And then the other half are kind of like deeply

00:48:53.620 bothered and disturbed by his rhetoric and some of the things he said in the past. And so, and then

00:48:58.660 obviously the broader Canadian public is even more negative on Trump. So I think that the Liberals

00:49:04.740 want to paint, you're right, that they want to paint Pierre as being sympathetic to Trump.

00:49:08.660 And it's harder for Polyev to talk about Trump because half, like I said, half of his audience

00:49:14.580 loves Trump and probably half of them hate him. What do you think?

00:49:17.940 Yeah, no, I think it's certainly, it's certainly difficult. You know, yeah, I mean, Trump obviously

00:49:23.460 rubs a lot of, a lot of people even like what he's doing, the way he does it rubs a lot of people

00:49:26.820 the wrong way. And especially here in Canada. So yeah, he certainly, Pierre has to certainly

00:49:33.140 walk that type rope. But I think him just simply standing up and focusing on the issue of Canadian

00:49:41.220 sovereignty is a very, very, very key message. And especially because he got into it a little bit

00:49:47.540 in his message there. And some of the other things he's been saying, I think he can make the case quite

00:49:51.460 persuasively that the Liberals have actually been terrible on this. And the Liberal record is actually,

00:49:56.180 to his point, has made Canada weaker and given the Americans more influence. And so I think the

00:50:03.220 Liberals should be a little careful what they wish for. Yeah. Is this debate better than a straight

00:50:07.380 cost of living debate for them? Absolutely. But is it risk free for them? Not at all.

00:50:12.340 Well, and so just further that Pierre Polyev was up in the Arctic in Nunavut yesterday on Monday,

00:50:18.980 making his Canada first plan announcement. I just love the imagery here. So I'm going to show you a clip

00:50:23.940 of Pierre Polyev announcing his Canada first plan, saying what he would do. And obviously,

00:50:28.020 one of the main things that the Liberals have done is absolutely neglect our military and underfunded.

00:50:33.620 You know, the idea that we don't spend 2% of GDP on, you know, as a part of our commitment to NATO

00:50:39.220 is a huge liberal failure. So it gives Pierre a great opportunity. Let's play this clip.

00:50:42.660 We need to become self-reliant and protect our interests and our sovereignty. That's why I'm

00:50:49.860 announcing today part of my Canada first plan to take back control of the Canadian Arctic.

00:50:57.220 One, we will double the size of the first patrol group of the Canadian Rangers from 2,000 to 4,000 Rangers.

00:51:06.260 Two, we will acquire two additional polar icebreakers for the Royal Canadian Navy.

00:51:16.740 Three, the Canada first plan of the Conservative government will build Canada's first permanent

00:51:25.620 Arctic military base since the Cold War. It will be CFB Iqaluit right here in this community.

00:51:36.260 So I'm all for that. So just to recap, his plan has three planks. He says first,

00:51:41.940 he's going to double the size of the Canadian Rangers up in the North. He's going to second,

00:51:45.700 acquire two additional polar icebreakers for the Navy. And three, build a permanent Arctic

00:51:51.060 military base called CFB Iqaluit. So I love this idea of developing the North. I think this is great.

00:51:56.980 And I thought that Pierre doing that was fantastic. And just to tie it back to the idea of, you know,

00:52:02.340 so many Conservatives want to see Conservatives in Canada doing what Trump is doing. I was excited

00:52:07.220 by this clip. So he was asked how he was going to pay for this. And here is what Pierre Polyev had to say.

00:52:12.660 All of these improvements will be funded by dramatically cutting foreign aid. Most of which,

00:52:19.780 a lot of which goes to dictators, terrorists and global bureaucracies. We've got enough problems at home.

00:52:26.420 We've got our own backyard to protect. We can't be sending billions of dollars to other places.

00:52:31.860 Often, much of it is wasted and stolen and swallowed up by bureaucracies that act against our interests.

00:52:40.500 I'm 100% here for that. I have my own petition, folks. If you haven't signed it already,

00:52:44.100 head on over to CandiceMalcolm.com and send a message, defund foreign aid. I loved what Pierre was saying.

00:52:49.940 I want to continue to push this message. I think that every Canadian deserves to have our money being

00:52:56.260 spent in Canada and not on these disastrous, wasteful foreign aid programs. So again,

00:53:00.100 go sign our petition to defund foreign aid. And Hamish, what was your takeaway from all of that?

00:53:04.980 Well, it's fantastic. I mean, he's laying out a, you know, clear, tangible things to actually protect

00:53:10.420 or actions to actually protect Canadian sovereignty and not just rhetoric. And that's my point,

00:53:16.420 is that the Liberals can talk about these topics now and try to make the case that they're the ones

00:53:22.980 who can stand up to the Americans, but they're not going to get a clean fight on this. They're not

00:53:27.940 going to be, it's not an easy win for them. Paul Yeo's got lots to say on this, and he said some,

00:53:32.660 I think, good and exciting things. Foreign aid, I remember, I haven't gone through it in a few years.

00:53:36.420 I remember a few years ago, I went through the whole foreign aid budget in quite a bit of detail.

00:53:40.660 And what blew me away wasn't just the dictatorships. We were sending money to China,

00:53:44.500 which was seemed like an idiotic thing to do. But it wasn't just the dictatorships. We're also

00:53:49.220 sending money to a lot of places that we would consider pretty developed. There was lots of

00:53:53.780 places in the Caribbean that were significant tourism destinations that were getting money

00:53:57.380 from Canada. And, and yet there was, you know, shockingly little money going to some of the

00:54:03.140 poorest countries in the world where development money might actually could potentially do some good

00:54:07.300 if it wasn't getting stolen and managed properly. I also spent some time overseas, you know,

00:54:12.420 around the development community and the amount of money that gets misappropriated is truly wild.

00:54:17.380 So, you know, I, I, I think cracking down on this and spending it in an intelligent way and,

00:54:22.260 and using that money to protect our own sovereignty makes a lot of sense.

00:54:25.380 A hundred percent. Okay. I want to talk to you a little bit about the date of the election,

00:54:28.500 because last time we were on the show, we walked through a theory that was circulating online

00:54:32.820 that there's a possibility that the Liberals could implant Mark Carney as their leader,

00:54:37.380 and then not call an election. They can strike a deal with Jagmeet Singh, delay the election,

00:54:41.300 maybe get rid of that Can Elections Canada Act that calls for an auction every four years

00:54:45.540 and push it to five. So we're talking about potentially an October, 2026 election. Well,

00:54:50.020 a lot has changed in the last few weeks since you were on Hamish, because now I'm hearing the exact

00:54:53.780 opposite. I posted this on X over the weekend that there's a rumor circulating that Mark Carney is

00:54:58.740 going to call an election himself after he wins the liberal leadership race. And I said,

00:55:03.620 I'm guessing polls like this are a motivating factor. And it linked to a poll that showed that

00:55:07.620 he was actually gaining and ahead. There's been other people who apparently have heard this. So

00:55:13.460 I want to play a clip. This is CTV's Vassie Capellos and Stephanie Levitz,

00:55:17.700 also both suggesting that Carney himself may pull the plug and we may be going straight into an election.

00:55:22.500 Let's play that clip. The next liberal leader will be elected on March the 9th,

00:55:26.980 may choose to take Canadians to the polls right away. Man, I hear from people in and around the

00:55:31.700 Kearney campaign that they would go early, right? Very soon thereafter.

00:55:37.780 So what do you think of this new rumor? Well, I think there's a world of difference between

00:55:43.060 what Ms. Capellos says right there at the end, where she says, go right away or very soon thereafter.

00:55:50.260 Look, realistically, if Mark Carney becomes the leader of the Liberals on the 9th of March,

00:55:55.380 he's probably not going to be sworn in. The fastest they could swear him in is probably five or six

00:56:02.260 days. He's got to pick a cabinet. He's got to move staff around. There's a whole bunch of things he's

00:56:06.180 going to have to do. And then he's going to want to present some sort of vision, you know, going and

00:56:12.740 having an election immediately, like instantly, when Canadians still don't really know who he is.

00:56:18.180 And he hasn't presented a, the temptation for the Liberals to want to present some sort of a throne

00:56:24.820 speech, or some sort of budget, or something will be overwhelming. The other thing I would say is

00:56:31.540 having been involved in leadership campaigns, and being involved at provincial and federal level,

00:56:37.620 at the highest level of these decisions.

00:56:42.020 The desire, like, there's a lot of talk, but I guarantee none of these decisions have been made today.

00:56:47.220 You know, and until they're going to want to get him sworn in, and they're going to say,

00:56:52.500 well, what are the polls now that he's Prime Minister? What do we want to see? Although we

00:56:56.020 don't, they're not going to call the election based on a poll that's two weeks old back from

00:56:59.060 the leadership. They're going to say, well, now that he's been sworn in, what are people going to see?

00:57:02.500 What are the policies we can run on? Very, very, very quickly, they're going to be running into that

00:57:08.020 House coming back on the 24th, House of Commons coming back on the 24th of March,

00:57:11.140 and the possibility of a non-confidence vote. And it'll come down to the NDP again,

00:57:21.220 but I still think the most likely date for an election is the 12th of May,

00:57:24.340 and that the government will be defeated at some point in the last four or five days of March.

00:57:28.100 Okay, well, Jagmeet Singh himself chimed in. So he was speaking at a press conference yesterday in

00:57:33.460 Windsor, Ontario, and he told reporters that he would work with the Liberals to fight back against

00:57:38.820 Trump's tariffs threats. So implying that he wouldn't pull the plug right away,

00:57:42.980 and that also he may end up pulling the plug. Let's play that clip.

00:57:47.060 What will your government prioritize? Bringing down the Trudeau government to get to an election

00:57:53.780 sooner or finding a way to work together to fight against Donald Trump with some real meaningful

00:58:00.740 measures? Well, I mean, we could do that right now. And I want to make this very clear. And we've

00:58:06.500 called for parliament to be recalled because it can happen right now. We could have parliament back

00:58:12.500 in session right now. And then the government prioritizes which bills come forward. So if

00:58:18.100 they're serious about a package of supports to help us fight back against Donald Trump and to support

00:58:24.180 workers, they could prioritize that and put that before the House as the first thing we vote on. 0.61

00:58:28.420 And of course, at a time when we're threatened by a trade war, a war that we did not want to start,

00:58:33.620 but one that we have to fight back, then we will. I can't imagine any opposition leader opposing

00:58:38.980 measures to fight back against Donald Trump and to support workers.

00:58:43.940 So that's not what he said in December when he said he would pull the plug no matter what,

00:58:47.540 whoever is leading the party. Obviously, we've had a change from Jagmeet Singh. Can't be trusted.

00:58:52.420 He will change his position over and over and over again for whatever suits him. But I just I wonder

00:58:58.260 about like whether Mark Carney would be better off taking the lead and calling the election

00:59:03.380 himself as opposed to leaving it to Jagmeet Singh to decide his fate.

00:59:08.580 Yeah, I mean, he could do that. But as I said, he the timing is such that there will be confidence

00:59:14.180 votes before the end of March. And I don't think that you know, the only scenario I can see is that

00:59:22.820 Carney would come back with a throne speech on the 24th of March, have a budget that will be introduced

00:59:28.740 on the 25th or 26th and then instantly drop the red, in which case we're going to be in the same

00:59:33.780 scenario whether he was defeated, you know, in a vote around that time or a day or two later anyway.

00:59:39.060 So I don't think we're going to be in an election substantially earlier than we've been talking about.

00:59:43.460 But maybe there's a deal with Singh. I mean, Singh seems to specialize in making deals that are bad for Singh.

00:59:49.540 The NDP are down in the polls as well. They seem to have drifted from 20-ish percent down to 16.

00:59:54.900 I think we saw in that Ipsos poll. So that certainly would be a decrease for them that they were not

01:00:01.460 going to be happy about. So maybe the answer for them is they're going to see if they can wait longer

01:00:04.820 and see if the bloom comes off Carney. But, you know, the NDP to do a deal with an international banker

01:00:11.220 like Carney, you think it would go against everything they stand for. But as I said, Singh's specialty is

01:00:16.260 making deals that are terrible for Singh. So we'll see where we end up.

01:00:20.180 Well, it is very interesting because I can't imagine Jagmeet Singh triggering an election when

01:00:25.700 he's that down in the polls. It's a good observation that a lot of the bounce that we've seen from the

01:00:29.780 Liberals have actually been at the expense of the NDP and not the Conservatives. But I really do think

01:00:35.460 that the parallel to the United States was that, you know, they kind of kept Kamala Harris hidden

01:00:40.980 from view for the first like month that she was the nominee. I remember Ben Shapiro had a clock every

01:00:46.180 day of how long she'd been the nominee without doing a national interview. And I think it was

01:00:50.260 over 30 days that she went without talking to anyone. And it wasn't until people really started

01:00:54.900 to hear her and see her that they decided that they didn't like her and that they didn't want

01:00:58.100 her to be candidate. It might be better off for Mark Carney to remain hidden and remain just sort of,

01:01:03.460 you know, he looks like a prime minister and he looks like he's got a lot of experience and he

01:01:07.060 seems like he's capable without actually hearing from him. So I guess we'll have to have you on again next

01:01:13.140 month and we can go through the next scenario as well. Hamish, before we go, I did want to talk

01:01:18.260 to you quickly about Ontario because there's also an election going on in Ontario and it seems like

01:01:23.460 the Progressive Conservatives are looking like they're going to win very easily. So the latest

01:01:29.140 polls have them up at 45% and the Liberals down at 26%. It doesn't look like it's going to be particularly

01:01:35.460 close. Although interestingly, according to Nano's poll, 52% of Ontarians disagree with Doug Ford's decision to

01:01:43.060 call an early election. So people aren't happy that they have to go to the polls, but I don't think

01:01:49.060 that they're necessarily going to take it out on Doug Ford. So what do you make of that?

01:01:53.860 Well, I think it's a perfect example of the difference between what people think about

01:01:58.100 something and whether it's an issue they care about. Yeah, people don't like the idea of an early

01:02:01.860 election, but in this case, they don't really care about it. You know, it doesn't matter. The fact

01:02:05.380 that they don't like it seems to have no impact on their likelihood to vote for Premier Ford and his team.

01:02:12.180 They're up effectively four points from the last election. The Liberals stayed about the same,

01:02:18.020 the NDP are down. That's the other thing, by the way, that will be weighing on Mr. Singh's mind,

01:02:24.500 is the NDP part. The NDP is very, very, very federally and provincially integrated. And all their

01:02:31.540 activists, you know, the NDP is desperately right now trying to hold on to their official opposition

01:02:35.940 status in Ontario. They're spending a lot of time and money and burning people out. And then the idea of

01:02:40.820 wanting to have another federal election, you know, almost immediately thereafter is going to be

01:02:46.340 something that they're not too excited about, I would think. But, you know, the four PCs certainly

01:02:53.620 look like they're on track. Nothing seems to have changed. We're now a good couple of weeks into the

01:02:57.860 campaign and nothing seems to be moving at the moment. The interesting thing is that, you know,

01:03:03.700 the NDP are dropping a bunch and what that does, how that plays to the seat count can be very

01:03:08.100 interesting. If the Liberal votes are reasonably concentrated in certain places, if Crombie has

01:03:13.780 personal popularity in Mississauga, she could actually win, even though she gets the same percentage

01:03:18.260 of the vote as the Liberals did in the last provincial election. She could win a bunch more seats,

01:03:21.780 perhaps mainly at the expense of the NDP. But on the whole, if the PCs are up four or five points,

01:03:28.340 we could expect them to win a bigger majority. And what do you think the ballot box question

01:03:33.300 is in Ontario? Like, what is the motivating thing that people, is it a referendum on Doug Ford in his

01:03:37.540 time in office? Is it something to do with Trump? Is it a broader question of conservatives versus liberals?

01:03:42.740 Or what do you think is more good? I think it's very, very, very, it's a very broad and very boring.

01:03:48.740 Is it time for a change? And the answer from more than enough people to reelect the government is,

01:03:55.940 things are pretty good. Things are fine. And I think there's some convention that whatever

01:04:00.820 people vote for in Ontario, they'll vote for the opposite federally. So when there's a strong

01:04:05.700 Conservative leader in in Queen's Park in Ontario, more likely to vote Liberal federally. Do you think

01:04:10.740 there's anything to that for this? I mean, it never, it doesn't always line up perfectly.

01:04:17.060 A variety of reasons it is it is lined up at various points in the past. I think it's one

01:04:22.500 of those things that that it's one of those patterns that doesn't actually really mean anything.

01:04:27.540 You know, people in Ontario still want a change at the federal level from everything I've been seeing.

01:04:32.980 And I think that's what we can expect whenever the federal election rolls around.

01:04:36.820 Interesting. All right. Well, Hamish, I really appreciate your time today. Thank you for all

01:04:40.580 your insights and I look forward to having you back on the program again soon.

01:04:43.780 My pleasure.

01:04:45.300 All right. Thank you so much. I'm Candice Malcolm. This is the Candice Malcolm Show.

01:04:48.500 We'll be back again tomorrow with all the news. Thank you and God bless.

The Candice Malcolm Show - February 11, 2025

Is Canada’s independence at risk？

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