The Candice Malcolm Show - Kevin O’Leary： Carney is Trudeau 2.0

00:00:00.000 Hi, I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show. We have a great episode for you

00:00:07.460 today. I'm going to jump right into an interview. I'm so pleased today to be joined by Kevin O'Leary,

00:00:11.900 Canadian businessman, investor, and television personality. Kevin, great to have you. Thank you

00:00:16.600 so much for joining us. Thank you. Okay, so we have an election. Mark Carney has officially

00:00:22.860 dissolved Parliament, and we are into a five-week election, the shortest one, I believe, in Canadian

00:00:27.180 history, the shortest one that is allowed. So what is your impression of this short election

00:00:33.080 campaign in front of us? It's very unique, this situation. First of all, it's very important

00:00:41.720 because we're in a bad place right now with our largest trading partner, the United States,

00:00:46.060 and there's no federal mandate yet. There's no one to go and negotiate. The provincial leadership

00:00:51.320 has been going back and forth to Washington now for about six weeks, province at a time. So the

00:00:58.100 premiers are not having much success because the administration there knows that they can't do a

00:01:03.440 pan-American deal. And so it's very chaotic. In addition, we're seeing a lot of flexibility or

00:01:09.940 movement in the tariffs out of the United States, a better schedule supposedly being drawn down on April

00:01:17.380 2nd, including 15 countries that the major focus will be on Wave 1 and Canada's in that group. So it's

00:01:25.640 important that we have this election and we choose a leader. Now, which leader to choose is going to be a

00:01:34.040 very interesting contest. Well, it's interesting because if you would ask Canadians two months ago,

00:01:41.220 everyone was dying for an election, and the top issues were all to do with cost of living, cost of

00:01:46.000 housing, immigration, everything related to just how unaffordable Canada has become. In the last two

00:01:51.640 months, Kevin, it's switched. And the number one campaign issue, according to Canadians, by polling

00:01:57.100 is Donald Trump and the tariffs. So he's totally thrown a wrench into the entire Canadian political

00:02:02.700 system. Do you think that's having the intended impact that he wanted?

00:02:07.500 I don't think he necessarily cares how it affects other countries' situations. You know, it's not

00:02:15.880 just Canada that's going through this twisting and turning. We know that Britain, France, Switzerland,

00:02:21.600 Mexico, as well as, you know, almost 11 other countries are going to have the same issues. But

00:02:26.960 we're in a unique situation because we're in an election, yes. So it's very fortuitous for the liberals

00:02:31.000 to have this because they were trailing so much in the polls. And now we have polls that are neck and

00:02:36.220 neck. And so this is an important campaign period to hear the messages from both leaders about how

00:02:43.380 they're going to deal with Trump. But it's, I think what's going to happen, and it'll happen pretty

00:02:47.920 quickly, it's not just about Trump. Canada's in trouble. It's declining economy, as measured by numbers

00:02:57.560 over the last 10 years, are frightening in terms of foreign capital invested, GDP growth stalled out,

00:03:03.520 debt per capita. No matter what you measure, it has dropped from second quartile to the very bottom

00:03:09.000 of the G7 and bottom quartile to G20. So something's wrong in our policies. And I anticipate these policies

00:03:17.320 will be revisited during the campaign. Obviously, Trudeau is gone, but the policies that he put in place

00:03:26.500 from the original mandate, majority mandate he had, those policymakers, Gerald Butts,

00:03:32.960 Telfer, Chief of Staff, Freeland, they're all still there. So, which surprises me. I'm really

00:03:40.920 surprised. I would have thought if Carney would have got rid of the deadwoods so he didn't have 1.00

00:03:45.820 that baggage on him, because I am sure that Pierre Polivier will make sure everybody realizes it's the

00:03:52.180 same old Liberals 2.0 as part of his campaign pitch. And he has a point there. I mean, when you bring

00:03:58.220 Gerald Butts back into the story, the guy that wrote the laws that wiped out foreign investment in the

00:04:03.480 energy infrastructure and mining in Canada and all kinds of other projects, as he took back the rights

00:04:11.860 from provinces to issue permits, particularly around power, this was catastrophic for Canada.

00:04:18.760 And I don't know if you recall, but October 2023, and I know this because I'm an investor,

00:04:24.360 most foreign capital avoided Canada for the last seven years, including Canada's own pension plans.

00:04:30.840 We don't invest in Canada anymore because we can't. The permitting process is seven to 19 years.

00:04:37.220 Nothing goes forward. That's all the liberal policies from Butts and Telfer, Freeland. And so

00:04:43.100 I can't, they'll be back on the hot seat. They'll be looking at those policies and saying,

00:04:49.780 we're just getting more of the same. We've got to sweep house.

00:04:52.700 Well, I hope so, because I think that the media in Canada and the Liberal Party would be more than

00:04:57.460 happy to run a five-week campaign talking about nothing but Donald Trump and the threat from

00:05:02.620 American tariffs. I think it's incumbent upon independent media and the Conservatives as well to talk

00:05:07.580 more about Carney and his ties to the Liberals, as you mentioned. One thing that I find interesting,

00:05:12.940 Kevin, I'll get you to comment on it, is that Mark Carney's own company, Brookfield Asset Management,

00:05:17.320 moved its headquarters to New York just after Donald Trump was elected. Of course,

00:05:21.360 Carney was part of that decision. But if you look at the balance sheet of that company,

00:05:25.520 and you look at the profits that they've made, they've had incredible growth in the United States

00:05:30.200 in investing. And in Canada, their investments have shrunk. So even before the move happened to try to

00:05:36.460 change the stock index or whatever it was about, they were still, you know, voting with their money,

00:05:41.200 essentially, to invest in American products and American infrastructure and companies and to leave

00:05:46.740 Canada. What does that say about Mark Carney? Some say the bubbles in an arrow truffle piece can take

00:05:51.680 34 seconds to melt in your mouth. Sometimes the very amount you're stuck at the same red light.

00:05:57.600 Rich, creamy, chocolatey arrow truffle. Feel the arrow bubbles melt. It's mind bubbling.

00:06:03.440 It says the policies of his party, the Liberal Party, were not good for the country. It's not

00:06:10.520 just Brookfield. Every sovereign wealth fund from the Norway right through to the UAE, the Saudi funds,

00:06:17.120 all of them, the large schools of capital on earth, used to put in about two and a half,

00:06:22.340 three percent. We're about two and a half percent, three percent of the world's GDP. We got indexed that

00:06:27.080 way. But pretty early on in the Trudeau liberal policy campaign, that got brought down to zero.

00:06:34.580 And so nobody invests in Canada anymore, including Brookfield. And so they, as you say,

00:06:39.380 moved their headquarters. It's catastrophic in terms of what happened. Now, it really be,

00:06:45.100 as you've pointed out, important in the debate between leadership, because if Carney comes in with

00:06:51.960 the same policies and every indication from what I can see, keeping the same staffers around that wrote

00:06:58.960 these policies, I can't believe that would be good for him unless he thinks he can ride the Trump wave

00:07:04.840 right into the prime ministership. And maybe he can. We'll wait and see how this goes. But I think

00:07:11.320 this is going to be a wild ride. You know, if you look at the sweep in other nations away from

00:07:18.740 the same kind of, for lack of a better word, elitist Davos climate change type narrative that

00:07:27.480 Carney has championed for years, is that really what Canada wants? I don't think so. And I think he

00:07:35.500 has to be able to try and change his spots or his colors pretty quickly because he is a Davos elitist

00:07:43.660 and people know that about him. And that's how he wanted to be known. More passports than I have.

00:07:50.400 I don't know how long he spent in Canada until recently and whether he's ever bought any eggs

00:07:57.120 or bread in a Canadian grocery store. I have no idea. Those are good questions. And, you know,

00:08:01.280 if only he would allow independent media into his press conferences, we would try to ask him those

00:08:04.800 questions. But of course, he's more tied down, more strictly tied down than even Trudeau was with

00:08:10.580 regards to a free press. You mentioned that Mark Carney will try to run the campaign against

00:08:17.600 Donald Trump. I just want to play this quick clip, Kevin, and get you to react to it. So Mark Carney

00:08:22.660 said that Daniel Smith's endorsement of Pierre Polyev, so Alberta Premier Daniel Smith has come

00:08:27.240 out and endorsed Pierre Polyev. And Mark Carney says that that endorsement indicates that Pierre

00:08:33.040 Polyev is aligned with Donald Trump. And so therefore, a vote for Pierre Polyev is a vote for

00:08:39.240 Donald Trump. Let's play that clip and I'll get you to respond to it.

00:08:42.760 With respect to the Premier's comments, I take note of her alignment of Monsieur Polyev with

00:08:55.120 Mr. Trump. And would note that that's one of the decisions that Canadians will have to make,

00:09:01.980 whether they want a government that is unifying, that's standing up for Canada,

00:09:06.080 Canada, and is taking focused action to build a better economy, or they want division and

00:09:13.800 Americanism. And that's what Mr. Polyev seems to be offering and just endorsed by the Premier of

00:09:19.620 Alberta.

00:09:21.860 So what do you make of that, Kevin?

00:09:25.720 You know, I find that quite humorous because a strong economy in Canada would be based on energy

00:09:34.020 and energy exports. And Alberta has almost four times the reserves of the entire United States

00:09:42.480 in just oil alone. And where do they export it to? The United States. It's the number one trading

00:09:47.880 partner. So to suggest there would be a good idea to cut that off or not to engage with the largest

00:09:53.660 trading partner during these difficult times would be very foolish. And I think in saying that, 0.96

00:10:00.160 he is actually dividing Canada in negotiations with the U.S. to purchase oil, you may recall,

00:10:06.720 and I'll point this out, Daniel Smith actually was one of the first premiers to go to Washington

00:10:12.320 before the inauguration, meet with Trump, and has been, I think, rewarded with a 10% tariff proposal,

00:10:18.960 not a 25%. And yet Carney did something that put him back, I think, maybe months, if not years,

00:10:26.480 or maybe in a very unenviable position for Canadians, by snubbing the American administration

00:10:32.460 and getting on a plane and going to Europe, when the tradition for over 100 years has been to

00:10:38.320 acknowledge the White House the minute an interim prime minister comes into power. That was not

00:10:44.700 missed by the American administration. They are very unhappy with that. And I think trying to

00:10:51.820 elevate that tension is a very foolish strategy on Carney's part, because as people have learned,

00:10:58.660 whether you like Trump or not, they certainly have got to know him over 12 years, he takes it

00:11:03.340 personally. Very foolish, if you don't understand that. So for all of Carney's, and I applaud his 1.00

00:11:10.820 resume, he's impressive, but he doesn't get it. He is completely out of sync with what it's going to

00:11:17.100 take to negotiate with Trump and understand how important it is to work out this deal with a

00:11:23.620 country that buys 75% of our output. So the reason that we got in such a bad place in the first

00:11:32.880 situation was, if you recall back in the first mandate Trump had, both Trudeau and Freeland could

00:11:41.380 not stop bad mouthing him all around the world. That was stupid because they thought Trump would 0.99

00:11:49.060 never return to power. He did. And he made it his first mandate to make sure that he called, 1.00

00:11:56.500 and this all started by calling Trudeau the first governor of the 51st state. He was just sticking

00:12:02.520 it back to Trudeau. And people don't understand that. That was how toxic that relationship got. It was

00:12:08.300 completely dysfunctional and not good for American people or Canadians. And Carney's doing exactly the

00:12:14.500 same thing. I'm sure that'll be pointed out in the campaign. Very, very foolish, stupid. And he

00:12:23.380 hasn't learned anything from what happened to Trudeau. He's looking like Trudeau 2.0 all over again,

00:12:30.240 except this time on steroids. Well, you say that it's a mistake and that he's doing it by accident. I

00:12:34.860 think he's doing it intentionally. I think that the liberals, you know, they accuse the conservatives

00:12:39.160 of dividing and trying to Americanize politics, whatever that means. I think that the liberals

00:12:43.140 need a divided Canada. They need a weak Canada. And if you look at the polls again, Kevin, you see that

00:12:48.120 Canada is just so incredibly divided. It's like East versus West, young versus old, men versus women,

00:12:54.000 that the split is really quite shocking. And I'll just want to tie it back to Trump one more time,

00:12:59.700 because last week we saw Donald Trump. He was on Laura Ingram's show on Fox News. And then he

00:13:05.220 repeated it later that he would rather have Mark Carney be prime minister because he believes that the

00:13:10.420 liberals are easier to deal with. I read that to mean that he believes the liberals are weaker and

00:13:15.100 that therefore the Americans can dominate and get a better deal. The liberal party is going to win

00:13:20.160 now in the next election, most likely. And they were on, they were down tonight. Isn't that going to

00:13:25.560 be, make them more hostile to us and possibly. I'd rather deal with a liberal than a. For China, 0.98

00:13:30.300 closer to Canada. And that would really put us in a bind. The conservative that's running

00:13:35.020 is stupidly no friend of mine. I don't know him, but he said negative things. So when he says negative 0.99

00:13:40.320 things, I couldn't care less. I think it's easier to deal actually with a liberal. You know,

00:13:45.280 a conservative until I got involved, because I don't care who wins up there. I frankly probably

00:13:50.260 would do better with a liberal than the conservative if you want to know the truth. But

00:13:53.340 just a little while ago, before I got involved and totally changed the election, which I don't care

00:14:00.840 about, probably it's our advantage actually. How did you interpret those comments?

00:14:08.540 I'm sure that he actually doesn't care who wins in Canada. He's going to deal with whoever comes out

00:14:13.860 on top. You know, you can, the people are actually doing the work in the negotiations. Howard Ludnick,

00:14:20.000 one of them has already come out and said, look, whoever wins, we'll deal with them because we

00:14:25.580 can't do a pan-Canadian deal. You know, Trump is just having fun throwing barbs at anybody that

00:14:30.360 puts out negative social media at him. And that's been both candidates in Canada, frankly, because

00:14:37.200 this divisive rally for Canada call is very political. You're right. And does it work?

00:14:46.720 My take on it all, in all the rhetoric that's occurring, is the average Canadian is not that 1.00

00:14:52.720 stupid. And they understand the importance of having economic ties with the U.S. and many countries 0.98

00:14:58.920 around the world. But to say that we're not going to do business with a country that traditionally for

00:15:05.120 over a hundred years bought 75 percent of our output, that's sheer stupidity. That has to be 1.00

00:15:10.420 worked out. And to me, it's just a giant NAFTA III negotiation. And who do you want negotiating it

00:15:15.720 for you? If you think Trump doesn't like Pierre, well, then you want Pierre because he would be the

00:15:21.500 stronger negotiator. But he's also conservative. So is the American government. It's not about one

00:15:27.380 individual or another at the end of the day. This is why Canadians, I think, are going to figure this

00:15:32.060 out in this election. It's about the policy, the policies of the countries. Is it pro-business?

00:15:39.340 Is it pro-growth? Is it pro-energy? All of these things matter because it's what made Canada wealthy

00:15:45.640 and become a member of the G7 in the first place. And we stripped that all away over the last nine

00:15:51.600 years. And we took our numbers down. And the thing about numbers is they're not emotional. They're not

00:15:56.120 affiliated with any political party. They're just numbers. And we have fallen to the bottom of the

00:16:02.680 heap through poor policy. Now, do you want more of that? Because that's what it sounds like you're

00:16:09.220 getting. If you vote for Carney, you get more. It's just Trudeau 2.0 because he hasn't shown any

00:16:15.840 interest. And maybe because he's never been a politician before, he doesn't want to take risk

00:16:22.380 by sweeping the House. But you remember the parliamentary system, same in England, the

00:16:26.920 prime minister's role is to put the key people in place for each mandate. Now, let's just pick

00:16:33.320 bringing back free land, for example, into cabinet. Can you think of one mandate she had

00:16:40.620 in a decade where she wasn't a total failure, including finance minister, deputy prime minister?

00:16:47.600 She is loathed in every country she negotiated in. We lost our visa status in Egypt, in India,

00:16:55.780 decimated our relationship with China, a huge partner. She is one of the worst executives I've 1.00

00:17:02.420 ever seen. I mean, if she was in one of my companies, I would have fired her a long time ago. 1.00

00:17:08.060 And here she is back in cabinet. Huge mistake. I am sure that'll be focused on during the election. 0.99

00:17:14.860 Telfer, she did some of the policies that wiped Canada out. And I mean, Gerald Butz, he wrote the

00:17:23.400 decline of foreign investment in Canada in the very first mandate. In October of 2023, the province

00:17:31.480 of Alberta litigated him to the Supreme Court and won their sovereign rights back to have some

00:17:37.720 control over their own resources. That's how bad it is. Now, why would any Canadian, regardless of your

00:17:44.140 politics, why would any Canadian want that crew back in charge? Unless Carney takes a spatula from

00:17:53.100 heaven and scrapes them away, I think a lot of people in Canada are going to say, wait a second,

00:17:59.040 why would we want this again? Thank you, Mr. Carney. You're a nice guy. Might have been a great

00:18:04.380 finance minister, but you have no idea what you're doing when it comes to putting key people in place

00:18:09.460 in the cabinet to turn Canada around. Well, and you didn't even mention Stéphane

00:18:14.280 Gilbeau or Bill Blair or some of the other disastrous cabinet ministers that are right back

00:18:19.240 in with Mark Carney there. Well, Kevin, thank you so much. We really appreciate your time and you

00:18:24.960 joining the program. Thank you for your time this morning. Take care. Okay. All right, everyone.

00:18:31.680 Thanks so much for tuning in. I'm Candace Malcolm. This is the Candace Malcolm Show.

00:18:34.200 Thank you and God bless.

The Candice Malcolm Show - March 24, 2025

Kevin O’Leary： Carney is Trudeau 2.0

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