The Candice Malcolm Show - What Trudeau’s hot mic comments really reveal

00:00:00.000 Hi, I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show. Thank you so much everyone for

00:00:11.640 joining us. I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Hopefully you had a chance to reconnect, to have

00:00:15.880 some downtime with your family and with your loved ones. Okay, we have a ton of news to get

00:00:20.780 to. I'm going to run through everything that's happening in the world of Canadian federal news.

00:00:24.600 We're going to talk about Justin Trudeau and his so-called hot mic moment on Friday. We'll

00:00:29.800 talk about Pierre Polyev's reaction, talk about Mark Carney and how he's gaining in the polls,

00:00:34.380 talk about the media reaction to everything that's happening because I think a lot of it

00:00:38.520 is being manufactured to benefit the Liberal Party of Canada, to benefit Mark Carney and to make sure

00:00:43.780 that we continue to have liberal rule in this country. And we're going to talk about the liberal

00:00:50.660 leadership race as well. And for this episode, I'm really pleased to be joined by a friend of mine

00:00:55.200 named Paige McPherson. Paige is the Associate Director of Education Policy at the Fraser Institute.

00:01:00.780 Prior to joining Fraser Institute, you might remember her. She was the Alberta Director of

00:01:03.860 the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, went on to become the Atlantic Director because her family moved from

00:01:09.040 Alberta all the way out to the East Coast. And prior to that, another Sun alumni joining the show,

00:01:14.980 Paige McPherson was a TV host and a politics reporter back in the day at the Sun News Network. So Paige,

00:01:20.920 thank you so much for joining the podcast today. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. I'm happy to

00:01:24.960 be here. And Paige and I are part of a very special club because we are both moms of four kids,

00:01:30.160 four little kids as well. I think Paige, your newest is only three months old. So congratulations

00:01:34.680 on that. Yes, thank you. It's the best club to be in. It is. I know. I love being a mom. I think being

00:01:41.080 a reporter, being a journalist is like the best job. But being a mom is just like the most important

00:01:46.140 thing that a woman can do and definitely the most important part of my life. So we'll get to that.

00:01:50.560 Well, we're going to talk about mom stuff later in the episode, but let's start by talking about

00:01:54.480 politics. So I'm going to start by walking the viewers through what has happened. So Friday,

00:01:59.500 we had our interview with Preston Manning. Go check out that episode. It was really interesting to hear.

00:02:05.200 I think Preston is like the godfather of populism and the sort of grassroots conservative movement in

00:02:10.500 Canada. So many of the things happening in the U.S. I think have already happened in Canada,

00:02:13.820 like a great populist awakening happened in Canada in the 90s. And it's happening with Trump and the

00:02:19.580 America Make America Great Again movement. So anyway, interesting episode. I encourage you to

00:02:25.020 check that out. Yes, around the same time as we were filming, Justin Trudeau was speaking to an

00:02:31.200 economic summit in Toronto. So he was speaking to nearly 200 business industry and union leaders.

00:02:38.040 At one point during this conference or summit, he told the media to get out of the room. So he ushered

00:02:44.580 media out. And then he basically told the crowd what he really thought. And we call this a hot mic

00:02:50.540 moment, even though I think that it was all deliberate. I think that he knew that someone

00:02:54.200 in the audience would be recording or that the media would find a way to continue to record him.

00:02:58.280 That's exactly what happened because pretty much every media outlet reported it right away. They

00:03:02.360 didn't have, you know, it perfectly on screen in a camera. We're going to show it to you. But everybody

00:03:07.520 got the audio. So Trudeau can be heard saying that when President Donald Trump is talking about annexing

00:03:15.160 Canada and making Canada the 51st state, it is not a joke. He is serious. He actually really does want

00:03:21.180 to absorb Canada. And the reason is his desire to obtain our country's critical minerals. So here is

00:03:30.100 how the CBC put it together. You'll see Justin Trudeau up on stage and you'll see how he tells the media

00:03:35.920 to go. And then they have the audio footage of what he said at that point. So let's play that clip.

00:03:41.600 Ask our friends from the media to please.

00:03:46.420 But Mr. Trump has it in mind that one of the easiest ways of doing that is

00:03:51.840 and it is the real thing in my conversation with him on.

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00:04:32.940 You could hear him say, and I know it was kind of hard to see, but he's basically saying that Trump

00:04:37.140 is serious. And in his conversations, he's serious about it. He says that I'd suggest that not only

00:04:42.560 does the Trump administration know how many critical minerals we have, but that may be very much a part

00:04:48.060 of why they keep talking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state. And so you can see our

00:04:55.580 friend JJ McCullough, he commented about this on X and he said this, he said, this is deranged

00:05:02.900 conspiracy mongering from Trudeau. I expect, I suspect he has absolutely zero evidence for believing

00:05:10.740 this. And so you kind of have to wonder why is Trudeau out there talking about this all of a sudden?

00:05:17.760 Because recall that over the last month, whenever it came to talking about Trump,

00:05:21.760 he would just kind of laugh it off. He would say that Trump isn't being that serious,

00:05:25.860 that this is just part of the negotiation. And he didn't take it that seriously. And then here,

00:05:30.080 all of a sudden, you know, February 7th, he's out there saying, no, no, no, this is actually really

00:05:34.560 serious. And they want Canada because they want our minerals. I think that it has something to do

00:05:39.700 with Steve Bannon. So I mentioned this on my show with Preston Manning on Friday. On Thursday,

00:05:45.240 Steve Bannon, who was a former senior Trump advisor, sort of one of the main leading people in the

00:05:51.300 MAGA movement back in 2016. He's not really involved in the campaign from best I can tell

00:05:55.580 or in the administration at this point, but he was quite involved before. He was on Global News in

00:06:00.480 Canada. And he was talking about how Canada, especially the Arctic and the North, is what

00:06:05.880 it's all about. The geopolitical war or whatever we're shaping up here between the great superpowers of

00:06:13.020 the world, China, Russia, the United States, it's all going to be about access to the North. And he

00:06:18.460 was talking about the geopolitical importance, the strategic importance of the North and about

00:06:23.400 Canada. So I want to play this clip. This is from Thursday, February 6th. China and Russia, the great

00:06:30.020 powers and the United States fighting it out over the Arctic with the vast resources of the Arctic is

00:06:37.040 going to be the new great game of the 21st century. Canada, you are thrust into the middle of that.

00:06:41.760 And quite frankly, you are the greatest, I don't know, target or prize. You're the great prize of

00:06:49.560 that. So that's Steve Bannon, we can cut it there. That's Steve Bannon talking about it. And it was

00:06:54.560 just the very next day, right, that Trudeau was out there saying that actually it's all about minerals

00:06:58.820 and we should take Trudeau, we should take Trump very seriously when he's talking about annexing Canada.

00:07:05.140 Now, I think personally, I think that this is all sort of manufactured and drummed up. I think that the

00:07:09.540 media would much rather be talking about Donald Trump that, you know, we're coming into an election,

00:07:14.240 presumably an election is going to happen very soon. And I think that the elites, the media,

00:07:19.840 the liberals would all rather be talking about Trump than talking about Canada, than talking

00:07:25.000 about what has happened in our country over the last 10 years under Justin Trudeau liberal rule,

00:07:29.700 whether it's crime, whether it's safety on our streets, immigration, cost of living, inflation,

00:07:36.540 whether it's talking about spending and balancing the budgets and the outlook for our economy.

00:07:41.280 I don't think that they want to talk about any of that because on any of those issues,

00:07:44.740 conservatives win. But if the issue of the election is about Donald Trump, is about who can

00:07:51.020 stand up for Canada, polls actually show us that Canadians trust the liberals more on this issue.

00:07:57.520 So the Global Mail put out a piece on Friday saying that Canadians believe that Mark Carney would be

00:08:02.160 better than Pierre Polyev in dealing with Trump. And so that was a poll conducted by Nanos Research

00:08:08.100 in the field from January 31st to February 3rd. It showed that about 40% of Canadians believe that

00:08:13.560 Mark Carney is the most qualified to negotiate with Trump. Only 26% of Canadians consider Mr. Polyev the best

00:08:20.820 for that role, and then 12% for Chrystia Freeland. So it really makes you wonder that is this whole thing

00:08:28.400 just kind of manufactured. It seems like it was pretty coordinated that Trudeau decided,

00:08:32.640 hey, I'm going to make it about, I'm going to talk about minerals. I'm going to talk about how the

00:08:36.640 fact that the United States are actually serious about taking us over. It just so happens that that's

00:08:41.160 an issue that the liberals do very well on. Now, I know, Paige, you focus on education policy at the

00:08:45.720 Fraser Institute, and probably, you know, I don't know if you want to comment on all of the politics

00:08:51.060 behind it. But what do you take about the idea that Canadians are heading to the polls, heading to

00:08:55.160 the election, presumably? Like, what do you think the main issue facing Canadians should be?

00:08:59.980 Yeah, it's really interesting, you know, as sort of a policy wonk type observing this discussion that's been

00:09:05.220 going on, and all the kind of hysteria over the sort of the trade issue, and the back and forth and how it's

00:09:12.420 been covered in the media. And it's obviously no secret that in Canada, we, we like to really heavily focus on

00:09:17.840 what's happening in the US and focus on Donald Trump, we're so culturally influenced. But when

00:09:22.480 this trade tariff issue was going on, for example, I think there was a few of us that were sort of

00:09:26.620 banging our heads against the wall, saying a number of things, you know, like, wouldn't a pipeline be

00:09:31.060 nice right now, you know, pipelines that were not approved, that would make us more energy

00:09:35.540 independent as a country, and make it easier as well for us to export our product to other markets,

00:09:42.920 we're heavily dependent on the United States. Wouldn't that be nice right now? But that goes to,

00:09:48.320 you know, years and years of regulatory policy around the oil sands around mining, all of these

00:09:55.140 different projects, you know, that don't get off the ground because of government intervention, because

00:09:59.260 it isn't really an investment friendly environment, stuff like that. There's also, you know, supply

00:10:03.680 management in Canada, like, wouldn't that be a nice thing to talk about the supply management of our

00:10:08.140 dairy products that makes dairy products for Canadian families so much more expensive,

00:10:12.920 than families in the United States that have a more open market? Why aren't we talking about that?

00:10:17.200 There's also interprovincial trade barriers. I mean, it's pretty frustrating that we're talking

00:10:21.880 about trade with the US, which is obviously extremely important. It's our largest trading partner, but we

00:10:25.940 have, you know, barriers that exist between our own provinces. Let's talk about tearing some of those

00:10:31.980 down. And then of course, the issue of taxes, and just the fact that we have a real challenge around

00:10:38.540 economic growth in this country, that we need to get a hold of. And, you know, we've got out of control,

00:10:45.040 inflation as a result of government spending, and that really just has not been controlled in a number of years. And

00:10:52.780 that goes to all levels of government. But there's also the tax environment where we do see a really high tax burden

00:10:59.660 relative to other jurisdictions. And that brings into question, you know, why would businesses invest

00:11:04.940 in Canada, versus other places. So there's all these different policy issues that are happening, you know,

00:11:09.660 here at home. And, you know, the media covers often what's kind of sexy and what's in your face. But there

00:11:16.900 are, I think, really important considerations that people have here at home. And ultimately, what I think,

00:11:20.840 you know, the people that we talked to in our lives, but also just looking, I think it's pretty common

00:11:25.740 sense here in Canada, that that cost of living is the big thing for Canadians, whether it's housing,

00:11:30.780 or groceries, or the tax burden, you know, at the Fraser Institute, we look at the tax burden on

00:11:36.800 Canadians, and that being actually higher than the necessities of life, that Canadians are actually paying

00:11:41.580 more taxes than they're spending on the other necessities of life. So those things have really

00:11:46.460 snowballed out of control. And I think, you know, there's a lot of politics, but that's really what I think

00:11:50.720 boils down to for the average family around the country table. I hope you're right. I think that

00:11:55.580 when Canadians go to the polls, and I think it might end up being sooner than we previously thought,

00:12:00.540 and we'll get to that in a minute, I hope that they go to the polls and vote based on who can make

00:12:06.040 your life better in terms of standard of living, in terms of all of the terrible economic policies

00:12:11.720 that we've endured for the last decade. I mean, it's remarkable for me, Paige, to look at. I think

00:12:16.000 one of the Fraser Institute reports showed all of the North American jurisdictions, so all of the states

00:12:20.520 and all of the provinces. And the Canadian provinces are all taxed at a much higher rate than even the

00:12:26.740 most high-taxed American jurisdictions. And then when you look at the sort of cost of living, the

00:12:31.260 average income, the average GDP per capita, the American states almost all do better than even

00:12:37.360 the wealthiest of the Canadian provinces. And it's just so sad to see what's happened to Canada over

00:12:42.460 just a decade. It wasn't that long ago when Stephen Harper was a prime minister that Canada was

00:12:47.520 lauded as this middle-class paradise. We had the richest middle class in the world. And it seems

00:12:51.480 like that slipped away. I hope that Canadians remember that when they go to the ballot box. But

00:12:55.360 seeing, you know, specifically this one poll where, you know, Canadians do maybe perhaps prefer someone

00:13:02.840 like Mark Carney, someone who has a lot of experience sort of in the top role, the governor of the Bank of

00:13:08.520 Canada, and involved in the World Economic Forum, I guess to 40% of Canadians, that's a positive. And

00:13:14.420 that's the kind of person that they want negotiating with Trump. Now, I want to show a CTV compilation.

00:13:20.120 This was put together by X user called Government Corrupt. And he put together this little compilation

00:13:25.880 of CTV News, kind of promoting this idea that this will be the ballot box issue, who can best handle

00:13:31.420 Trump and who can better negotiate a deal here. And they also suggest that Mark Carney is going to be

00:13:37.660 the one to pull the plug and force an election, that it's not going to, you know, we've been talking

00:13:43.180 a lot on the show about theories that maybe Mark Carney will become prime minister, make a deal with

00:13:48.220 Jagmeet Singh, try to govern for a year, maybe before calling an election. People on CTV are suggesting

00:13:55.100 that's not what's going to happen. Mark Carney is reading these polls, he's seeing that he's,

00:13:59.020 this is, this might be as good as it gets for him. And we might be going into an election very soon.

00:14:03.820 So let's play this clip. This is all from Sunday, February 9, by the way.

00:14:08.380 I guess the question I have for you, Nick, is you also did some polling on how Canadians view who is

00:14:13.340 best suited to handle Trump. How much do you think that does end up being the ballot box question?

00:14:19.660 And how much does that depend on timing? Well, I think it probably will be the ballot box question

00:14:24.460 in the next federal election, because the thing is, is that for Canadians, they know that our

00:14:28.140 relationship with the U.S. is critical. And I think, who knows, maybe people in the next election

00:14:34.060 are not going to vote for a party that they like, might not vote for a leader that they trust or

00:14:37.980 whatever, but they just might vote for whoever they think might be best able to manage that situation.

00:14:43.820 The next liberal leader will be elected on March the 9th,

00:14:46.620 may choose to take Canadians to the polls right away.

00:14:49.260 Okay, so you can see her saying they might choose to take her to the polls. Right after that,

00:14:56.460 Vassie said that she's also hearing that if Mark Carney wins and when he wins, he is not even going

00:15:01.740 to go back, not even going to reconvene the House of Commons. He's just going to call an election

00:15:05.580 right away. I think that they have been looking at the polls and seeing that, you know, when it comes

00:15:11.340 to this issue of negotiating with Trump, they trust the liberals more. I want to take this to what Pierre

00:15:16.460 Polyev had to say on Friday. So shortly after that video of Trudeau happened, Pierre Polyev was

00:15:23.260 on an interview with the Toronto Sun's Brian Lilly. And in this interview, he said that he has always

00:15:29.900 taken Trump seriously. And that basically, this is a real thing, we really need to be concerned

00:15:37.420 over the idea that Trump wants to annex Canada. So let's play that clip.

00:15:40.460 Well, I've always taken it seriously. And I've always clearly and consistently condemned it.

00:15:46.460 Canada will never be the 51st state. We will be a strong, independent, sovereign country when I'm

00:15:52.700 prime minister. That's exactly why it's so unfortunate that the Carney Trudeau liberals have made us so weak

00:15:59.740 and reliant on the Americans. Their radical tax increases have driven a half trillion dollars into

00:16:05.900 the American economy out of Canada, including many of Mr. Carney's own investments.

00:16:11.660 The headlines coming out of that interview were the beginning part of that, where Polyev says he's

00:16:19.980 always taken Trump's threats seriously. And when I saw that, I thought, okay, he's kind of playing

00:16:25.260 into this narrative that the liberals and the media have so cleverly created, that this election needs,

00:16:30.860 the focus needs to be on Trump, needs to be on this annexing, and not on the actual issues facing

00:16:36.860 everyday Canadians with our pocketbooks in everyday life. You can see in the second part of that clip,

00:16:42.860 I think Pierre did quite well, where he was emphasizing the cost of living and how the liberals really

00:16:47.980 hurt Canada, and how that's hurting our pocketbook and our bottom line. But of course, the headline coming

00:16:53.660 out, Pierre takes this threat seriously. And I don't know that that is the best message for the conservatives.

00:17:00.620 So, Paige, I'll put it to you. Like, how do you think that the conservatives should be managing

00:17:06.860 this? And I know you don't want to talk too much about politics. But what do you make of this whole

00:17:10.860 situation? I think so. Here's what I hear from people when I'm talking about, because obviously,

00:17:15.820 this is dominating the news. Does Trump really want to take over Canada? Is this really going to

00:17:20.540 happen? Like, how seriously, you know, should we take him? I've read The Art of the Deal myself,

00:17:25.180 you know, that a book that Trump wrote years ago on his sort of tactics that he uses in negotiations.

00:17:30.300 I know you've talked about that on the show before, Candace, and sort of that was my take on it as

00:17:34.620 well, was this is a negotiation. He's doing what in sort of the policy or advocacy world sometimes

00:17:41.660 called, you know, shifting the Overton window, let's shift the goalpost of the conversation,

00:17:45.420 I'm going to come out way over here. And we're going to meet somewhere in the center,

00:17:49.580 but the center is going to have shifted closer to what I really want the outcome to be.

00:17:53.180 So it was sort of always my impression as I'm observing Trump, and seeing that situation going

00:17:59.900 on. But what's funny to me, when I talk to people just, you know, who are also watching the news and

00:18:05.580 trying to gauge whether or not they should take it seriously is everyone's like, Oh, gee, well,

00:18:09.740 I really don't want to be a 51st state. But gosh, those tax levels would be great. Or I, you know,

00:18:14.460 I don't really want to be a 51st state. But gosh, I'd love to be able to choose my kids school,

00:18:18.300 or I'd love to, you know, have more choice in grocery stores and stuff like that.

00:18:22.860 Like those things where Canadians are cognizant of those quality of life differences,

00:18:29.500 the United States is so close to us. And, you know, just, you know, the some of the stats that

00:18:34.700 you and I were talking about, you know, just a couple minutes ago, you can see that, you know,

00:18:40.620 the purpose in GDP is doing better, their take home pay is better, their taxes are lower, but their

00:18:46.140 services are not impacted on so many different levels. And, and so that to me is sort of the

00:18:52.940 great irony. And all of this is that, you know, when I think Canadians are sort of thinking about

00:18:57.580 the idea of our neighbor to the south, and, you know, in sort of a comparative way, there are so

00:19:03.580 many things that we could capture and accomplish here in Canada as well, while also having the added

00:19:09.740 bonus of realizing that, you know, we are competing with our neighbor for investment, and creating a

00:19:14.780 better environment for investment is going to create more growth, create more jobs, bring more

00:19:19.340 people to Canada who want to create those jobs. And ultimately, that's going to be better for,

00:19:24.620 for everybody, or just allow people, you know, here in Canada to create those jobs in ways that they

00:19:29.420 may not be able to now because it's just too cost prohibitive. So that's what you know, I always,

00:19:34.620 I always obviously hope that policy is going to dominate elections, but it doesn't always a lot

00:19:40.540 of times there is this kind of like heated rhetoric and nationalism that gets, let's say trumped up,

00:19:47.100 and, and that's what ends up being the dominating issue. But, but if, you know, politicians of all

00:19:54.140 stripes, can bring it back to the fact that we really are facing very economically challenging times

00:19:59.580 in Canada, and there needs to be pretty significant policy shifts on a whole bunch of fronts,

00:20:03.900 um, to bring that growth back, because growth really is the big challenge.

00:20:07.740 Um, that's, you know, that's ultimately what I would like to see. But here I am,

00:20:12.380 I don't know, that's what the outcome is going to be, because you and I know politics very well, and

00:20:18.380 the sober policy conversations are not always what wins the day.

00:20:22.060 Well, I think that this all just benefits the liberal, I'll just say it again, because

00:20:25.900 there is sort of this like irrational, like, like you're talking about how people at the end of the

00:20:30.220 day might look at the United States, and say, wow, there, there's a lot more competition, I could

00:20:34.140 probably get a better cell phone plan, I could probably get cheaper flights, if there was more

00:20:37.900 competition, like all of these different areas, they're very much dominated in Canada, by these

00:20:42.220 sort of conglomerate or monopolies that are made up because they're Canadian, we would have a lot more

00:20:48.220 access to competition. So when you're thinking kind of rationally, it's like, oh, having some kind of a

00:20:53.180 deeper integration economically, or an economic union would be good. But the irrational side is

00:20:58.380 like the patriotism, like the like, in your heart, in your soul, like I love Canada, and I and it drives

00:21:04.380 me crazy to hear this American President talking about taking us over. And I think that that's what

00:21:08.860 the liberals are tapping into that irrational side saying, like, how dare he, we love Canada. So like,

00:21:14.940 forget about the actual improvements that could happen if we had more economic union. You know,

00:21:21.100 think about, I don't I don't know how many people are seriously thinking about the 51st state thing.

00:21:25.260 It is interesting, though, Paige, the True North did a poll, and it found that especially young men,

00:21:30.380 nearly half of young men said that they would take American citizenship if Trump offered it to him,

00:21:34.780 according to our poll. And there's been other polls that have put that out there. And it's interesting

00:21:38.940 because when I posted on social media, a lot of the replies, especially from people on the left and

00:21:43.340 liberals, they say, oh, these young men are traitors, like, how dare they turn their back on their

00:21:48.140 country. But I think that that at the end of the day, many people, especially younger men,

00:21:52.940 that younger demographic are not thinking about it in the irrational, like love of country nationalism

00:21:58.620 or patriotism sense. They're literally just thinking, how can I have a good life for myself

00:22:03.740 and my family? And maybe looking around at the cost of living cost of buying a house in Toronto or

00:22:08.940 Vancouver, it's just not in the cards. And so you think about the fact that, hey, if I moved to Utah,

00:22:13.340 I could probably buy a house for like $300,000, I could get a job that pays me more, I'd have less

00:22:17.900 taxes, it might actually be good, it'd be sad to leave Canada. But at the end of the day, you know,

00:22:24.700 economics is a driver of a lot of decisions. So I do kind of wonder, like, you know, I think that the

00:22:30.860 political wedge of Trump and the 51st state is really good for the liberals. And that's why the

00:22:34.940 liberals and the media are playing it up so much. But you know, at the end of the day,

00:22:38.940 you know, the economics of it could become more compelling. I'm going to keep going with the news

00:22:45.980 here, because I want to get to all of this. So to add even more elements to this, and to make it even

00:22:52.220 more interesting. Donald Trump himself commented on this. So yesterday was the Super Bowl, I don't

00:22:56.940 know if you watch the Super Bowl page. But it was Super Bowl Sunday, and the President did a special

00:23:02.620 sit down interview, I guess it's been many years, since there was an actual Super Bowl Day

00:23:07.660 interview with the President Biden declined to do it. And Trump went to the Super Bowl, I guess he's

00:23:12.380 the first president ever to go to the Super Bowl. So it was kind of a fun cultural moment happening

00:23:16.620 down in the States. But during this whole day of festivities, Trump sat down with Fox News's

00:23:23.100 Brett Baer for a special pre Super Bowl interview. And Baer asked Trump specifically about Trudeau,

00:23:30.860 about this comment that he made on the hot mic, and asked Trump to respond to it. So we're going to play

00:23:36.220 that clip for you. You know, the Prime Minister said this weekend to a group of Canadian businessmen,

00:23:41.260 he was a private meeting, he said that your wish for Canada to be the 51st state is a quote,

00:23:47.180 real thing. Is it a real thing? Yeah, it is. I think Canada would be much better off being a 51st state,

00:23:53.580 because we lose $200 billion a year with Canada. And I'm not going to let that happen.

00:24:01.820 Page, Trump doubles down. I don't think he's going to walk away from the comments,

00:24:04.860 right? So Trudeau wants us to think that this is real. And Trump says, you bet it's real.

00:24:09.740 And then he goes back into his statement that he said many times, that basically,

00:24:16.380 we lose $200 billion a year to Canada. I'm not going to let that happen. It's too much.

00:24:20.300 Why are we paying $200 billion a year, essentially, it's subsidies to Canada. Now, if they're the 51st

00:24:25.900 state, I don't mind doing it. So playing into all this, and then again, it leads us to this idea,

00:24:30.700 like, do we take this literally? Obviously, we should take it seriously because he keeps talking

00:24:34.780 about it. But does he literally want to take our country? Senator, Republican Senator Ted Cruz

00:24:40.220 waved it all off on a podcast over the weekend. He's just calling us an epic troll. And he says all

00:24:45.260 about yanking Trudeau's chain. Meanwhile, gave Mark Carney the opportunity to swoop in and do apparently

00:24:51.260 what Canadians think he does best. He wrote on X saying, what part of no, don't you understand? No,

00:24:57.900 we will never give in to a bully. Canada will always be the true North strong and free. And then

00:25:05.020 while flying to the Super Bowl, so he's on the plane on Air Force One flying from, I guess,

00:25:10.300 Washington DC down to New Orleans. Trump again was asked about this question. He talks about how

00:25:16.300 the United States is about to get even larger, again, alluding to this idea that they're going

00:25:20.300 to take over Canada. Let's play that clip. We're making our country larger. We're making our country

00:25:26.940 stronger. And in the case of Canada, if this should happen, I don't know how they can do it without us.

00:25:33.500 Because without the US, Canada really doesn't have a country.

00:25:39.260 Canada doesn't really have a country without the US. I think he's talking militarily. I don't

00:25:44.300 know exactly where he gets the $200 billion subsidies. I don't know if you have any comment on that page.

00:25:49.260 I don't know. I don't know. I also am curious about that comment as well. I'm not really sure

00:25:53.820 if he's talking about, you know, Canada's maybe NATO commitments not being met or, you know, the US,

00:25:59.500 you know, having the military might that Canada certainly doesn't have. And that's kind of

00:26:03.980 benefiting from that reliance and that relationship. I'm not sure. And again, it's, you know, I don't,

00:26:08.460 I'm not well suited to know if this is him negotiating. And this is a negotiation tactic.

00:26:16.300 And he's just going to play it out until they're, you know, because he knows that he's not ultimately

00:26:21.020 going to be negotiating with our current prime minister. He's going to be negotiating with somebody

00:26:24.700 else. Maybe he's stretching it out to that. I don't know. But what I do know, or what I, you know,

00:26:29.100 what would be nice is if this sparked a conversation about how, you know, how can we be stronger as a

00:26:36.460 country? And ultimately you have to, can't save the world if you can't pay the rent, right? So you,

00:26:42.220 you have to get your economic house in order. And that's what I'm hoping that Canadian policymakers

00:26:47.820 of all stripes will take away from this is that if you want to be in a position of strength,

00:26:51.020 if you're feeling that there's a bully in this situation, then get your economic house in order

00:26:55.580 and, and get Canadians who have a large share of household debt as well, that are facing Canadian

00:27:01.260 families, get, get them in a position of strength, allow them to, to feel that, that strength as well,

00:27:07.260 and then share the, the benefits of some economic growth by getting better policies in line, because

00:27:13.340 right now we're quite behind the times, you know, relative to the US and especially, you know,

00:27:19.100 as, as president Trump moves forward with he's reducing the size of government in some ways,

00:27:24.860 you know, he's, he's reducing what he sees as sort of redundancies in the bureaucracy or in government

00:27:31.100 programs. I'm talking about creating a better tax environment. I'm not exactly sure where he's going

00:27:35.900 to go in terms of the mix between tariffs and other taxes, but certainly he's talking about reducing

00:27:41.020 the tax burden on Americans. So these are things that, you know, if Canadians in this 51st state

00:27:46.620 conversation, let's get our house in order. Let's, let's focus on some tax relief and policies that

00:27:53.420 are going to better Canadians as well. If you're feeling, you know, that, that there's a bully,

00:27:59.260 that's a, that's a good response. Well, I just think that this is the perfect

00:28:03.180 wedge issue against the conservatives that the liberals have been hoping and praying for,

00:28:07.500 because you're right. Canada is basically at the weakest that I think we've been in a very,

00:28:12.540 very long time. And Trump senses that. So Trump sees a weak country. Trump sees a divided country.

00:28:18.060 Uh, Trump sees the, the, the drastic shift in cost of living, um, and standard of living that we've

00:28:23.100 been talking about page. And I think that he is picking up on that and tapping into it. And whether

00:28:27.740 you call that a bully or a wise, uh, shrewd businessman and negotiator, uh, whatever it is,

00:28:33.420 I think he's tapping into something. And the best thing for Canada that we can do to stand a chance,

00:28:38.460 um, in fighting off this, you know, whether it's, whether it's a real threat or not, I,

00:28:42.380 I don't think it is. I think it's all part of the negotiation. Um, but whether it is the best thing

00:28:46.300 we can do is create a stronger country. Um, but again, just to go back to that idea that, um,

00:28:52.300 with Mark Carney, um, with this one issue, the media is really, really going into

00:28:56.860 overdrive to make Canadians think that this is a serious imp impeding, um, threat that's going to

00:29:03.740 happen that, that kind of like Canada is like Czechoslovakia and it's March, 1939,

00:29:08.940 and we're about to be invaded. Um, and that, and I think that that is the best thing for the

00:29:13.740 liberals and we see it. So if you just look at the recent polls, um, the liberals have, um, risen,

00:29:19.980 uh, this is just since January, this is pretty incredible. Um, so eight points, um, the, uh, sorry,

00:29:26.460 an eight point gain for the liberal party since January. Um, and the conservatives saw a five point

00:29:32.140 drop. So of course the conservatives are still in majority territory, according to these polls,

00:29:36.140 41% and 28% for the liberals. Um, so it's not like the liberals would step in and win a, win a majority.

00:29:44.060 Um, but you know, that shift that's happening, you know, uh, whatever it is, a 13 point swing in just

00:29:49.340 a month. Like if those trends continue, uh, we very might much might see another liberal minority

00:29:55.260 government. If we were to go to the polls right away, I want to move on over to the, uh, liberal

00:30:01.180 leadership campaign. Cause there was an interesting story over the weekend, um, that we learned that

00:30:05.260 a Chinese linked, um, malicious WeChat campaign against Christia Freeland, uh, was alerted.

00:30:11.900 This was also happening on Friday. Um, so you can see the national post headline here,

00:30:16.700 which is that, uh, China is basically trying to interfere with the liberal leadership race.

00:30:21.100 We've been warning about this potentially happening on the show, uh, for weeks now. And here we see that it

00:30:26.220 actually has happened so that, um, Canadian, uh, ministry of democratic institutions put out a

00:30:32.220 statement on Friday, um, as follows. It says rapid response mechanisms, Canada detects international

00:30:38.540 operation, targeting a candidate for the leadership campaign of the liberal party of Canada. And then,

00:30:45.340 uh, we learned that it was a Christia Freeland, basically a bunch of targeted, um, messages that

00:30:50.700 were seen by apparently millions of Canadians, 3 million Canadians, um, that were not true. I don't

00:30:56.060 know exactly what they were saying, but Freeland responded by saying, um, responding to the revelation

00:31:01.580 on X, she wrote, I will not be intimidated by Chinese foreign interference. Having spent years

00:31:06.140 confronting authoritarian regimes. I know firsthand the importance of defending our freedoms.

00:31:10.540 Canada's democracy is strong. My thanks to our national security agencies for protecting it.

00:31:16.620 And then it gave Mark Carney the opportunity to jump in as well. He wrote this on X. I fully support

00:31:21.100 Christia Freeland and her campaign in light of this disturbing report. I am fully committed to

00:31:25.500 defending the integrity of this race and stand firm against any attempts to undermine our democracy.

00:31:31.420 My deepest gratitude to the national security intelligence officials who lead this important work

00:31:36.140 to sustain trust in our democratic process. Not really sure page that this gives us a lot of

00:31:41.580 hope in our democratic institutions and the process, but I will just point something out.

00:31:45.740 That this was happening in Canada during the 2021 election. We know that there were coordinated

00:31:51.180 WeChat campaign, uh, attacks against conservatives and against Erin O'Toole that potentially even

00:31:57.420 swayed the results of that election in 2021. And there was no rapid response. There was no government

00:32:03.900 pointing it out in real time saying, Hey, we just caught the Chinese trying to do this. Um, they just

00:32:08.620 ignored it, let it happen, let the election play out. And then we found out about it later on in reports.

00:32:13.740 So it's kind of interesting that when it comes to a liberal, the federal bureaucracy is so willing

00:32:18.540 to swing in, um, and, and stop it in real time. Um, and then also sort of the broader issue that the

00:32:25.100 Chinese are actively trying to sway our elections. Um, as a Canadian, like what, what do you think

00:32:31.020 when you, when you hear stories like this? Yeah, I mean, honestly, this, this is pretty above my pay grade.

00:32:38.140 Um, but I, I do think that, um, there are just so many of these stories that, you know, I think that

00:32:44.220 a lot of people are seeing this and it's, it's almost noise in the background and it's sort of

00:32:48.140 disconnected from like, these are like larger geo geopolitical issues, but it is a bit disconnected

00:32:54.380 from, I think what Canadians are experiencing every day. And that's what, you know, I hope that there is

00:33:01.020 just more of a focus, like renewed focus. It does feel that in the last short while we have really,

00:33:07.580 um, that there was a lot of talk, even from the liberal leadership candidates about, about things

00:33:12.860 like cost of living, about the things that Canadians are facing day to day. And the conversation has

00:33:17.180 shifted quite dramatically in the last few weeks. Um, and I'm hoping that, you know, the former does not

00:33:22.060 get lost, um, in all of this. Um, but again, it probably comes down to, you know, what we were just

00:33:27.340 talking about, which is that like, we really need to get our house in order and we need to, um,

00:33:31.500 regain strength as a country. Um, and that would give, I think Canadians some renewed faith in all

00:33:36.220 of these different institutions. Um, but in terms of commenting on the specifics of this,

00:33:41.020 again, a little bit outside my purview. Well, I mean, it is kind of interesting that all of the

00:33:45.500 stories in the news right now have something to do with Canada's, uh, integrity as a country and our

00:33:50.140 sovereignty. Um, and I think that really it's, it's, it's a sad reflection on, um, just how weak

00:33:57.020 Canada is in so many ways. Uh, people on X and Canadians were also quick to point out that Mark

00:34:03.900 Carney himself has some ties to communist China and Xi. So almost immediately after the hack story came

00:34:11.020 out, um, this photo started circulating on X. Here is Steven Taylor, a conservative activist,

00:34:17.020 uh, reminding everybody that Mark Carney had met with, uh, Chinese premier Xi Jinping. Um, so just for

00:34:24.860 some more context, that meeting happened back in March of 2024, back when Mark Carney was the governor

00:34:30.460 of the Bank of England and they met, um, during basically some kind of a CEO, uh, retreat. And so,

00:34:39.900 uh, you know, not, not a great look, I think for, uh, Mark Carney when he's trying to become a Canadian

00:34:45.340 prime minister, trying to sound tough on China, trying to talk about how, um, you know, he fully

00:34:50.860 supports Christia Freeland as her campaign is being targeted by misinformation or disinformation from

00:34:55.660 the Chinese. Um, and that picture is circulating around, uh, not the best look. Okay. I want to move

00:35:00.780 on, Paige, because I know that you focus on education in your day job. You've got four, uh, great little kids.

00:35:05.900 And so it's obviously a pressing matter for you. I saw this video circulating. Apparently it was, uh,

00:35:11.660 a year old, but still, I think this, the story still remains kind of shocking, um, to see a bunch

00:35:16.940 of Canadian Marxist teenagers, um, and, and young people just cheering and celebrating, um, the, uh,

00:35:25.580 some kind of a Marxist, um, school. So, uh, let, let's play this clip for it, for you.

00:35:41.660 Yeah. So, um, on the one hand, you know, they're pretty happy. I, I, it's, it's nice to see optimistic

00:36:04.620 young Canadians. You know, I, I hear from so many Canadians that are filled with, with sort of despair

00:36:10.260 and, and grief about the future. So on the one hand, it's great to see some jolly young people

00:36:14.340 in Canada. Uh, but on the other hand, I just can't believe how brainwashed these students are

00:36:20.180 to, to, to be, you know, joyously celebrating Marxism. Uh, what do you make of all that, Paige?

00:36:25.780 Yeah, not the school that I would pick for my children, um, the Marxist school, but, um, it's so,

00:36:31.700 yeah, this is interesting because what we focus on at the Fraser Institute primarily is K to 12

00:36:38.020 education or P to 12. So kindergarten or primary to grade 12 education. But of course, that is just

00:36:42.900 the precursor and what feeds into post-secondary education. And that's where you do end up seeing

00:36:47.380 a lot of these types of wild videos or campaigns or things that go on, um, at, you know, on university

00:36:54.500 and college campuses in Canada. And of course, this is the, the, everybody can relate to an extent

00:37:01.060 to, you know, you're not quite got maybe one foot in the real world. You're not quite there. You're not

00:37:04.980 quite paying taxes yet. You maybe don't have that full reality check. Um, it might be, you know,

00:37:10.420 your, uh, the, the days when you are maybe most vulnerable to the, the messages of, of Marxism,

00:37:17.620 but there is, you know, politicization that happens at the K to 12 level, um, in Canadian schools as well.

00:37:24.980 And, um, and I think the, the, really the central issue here is for parents from the parent perspective

00:37:32.020 is do I have a way to avoid this? Do I have a way to choose some kind of an education that is just

00:37:39.620 quite simply neutral that'll, you know, sets my kid up for success in the basics. So in K to 12,

00:37:44.660 that might be, you know, reading, writing, math, history, history, understanding that kind of,

00:37:50.340 those kind of core foundational building blocks, and then into university where they're going to

00:37:54.340 choose a more specialized stream where they're not just going to be kind of flushing their money down

00:37:57.940 the toilet, something that really sets them up for life. Um, or at the very least, um, isn't,

00:38:02.980 you know, structured in some kind of like a Marxist indoctrination camp sort of a way.

00:38:07.540 Um, and I think that, you know, what, what we have seen at least at the K to 12 level,

00:38:12.260 when we have done surveys at the Fraser Institute, for example, we did a survey last year, um, 2024 with

00:38:18.020 Leger, um, for the Fraser Institute asking about how parents feel about controversial issues.

00:38:25.220 Um, so that might be responses to climate change or things, um, like, like sex and gender,

00:38:31.620 those kinds of conversations. How do you feel about those, um, issues in your kids K to 12 schools?

00:38:37.700 76% of parents believe that kids should be presented both sides of controversial issues.

00:38:44.100 91% of parents, this is sort of, um, Canadian average say that, uh, the appropriate age,

00:38:50.340 appropriate materials are the only things that should be taught in K to 12 schools.

00:38:54.420 And 81% of parents believed that they should receive advanced notice if controversial topics

00:39:00.100 are being raised in their kids' schools. But we know that that doesn't always happen.

00:39:03.860 I'm sure that your, um, viewers and listeners remember not too long ago,

00:39:08.900 uh, it made headlines that there were Toronto area schools where kids were shipped to a protest

00:39:14.740 that turned into, it was supposed to be kind of like an indigenous rights, uh, protest,

00:39:18.740 um, or rally. And it turned into, uh, an anti-Israel rally. There were Jewish students there who reported

00:39:25.460 being very uncomfortable, but were made to stay. This is the kind of stuff that parents are sometimes

00:39:30.500 finding out after the fact. We know that this is happening, you know, obviously at the university

00:39:35.460 level, students have more autonomy, but, but what are the sort of the building blocks? What are the

00:39:39.220 the foundation stones of this? And do parents have a choice to opt out? And the reality is that,

00:39:44.500 for example, in that case in Toronto, where there was that, that protest that the kids were taken to,

00:39:50.020 no, not really. Like, unless you are of financial means, um, you have some choice within the public

00:39:55.220 system in Ontario. You could choose to attend an English or French public school or English or French

00:39:59.700 public Catholic school. But outside of that, unless you can afford to pay the full tuition at an

00:40:03.940 independent school or have one parent stay home and homeschool your kids, there really isn't an opt

00:40:09.220 out option. Um, and I think that's the real challenge here, um, for, for Canadian families,

00:40:14.900 at least in terms of, um, how our surveys reflect this, because this is really the concern. You're

00:40:19.940 setting kids up with this politicization, um, in schools, instead of just teaching them the basics

00:40:24.660 of reading, writing, math, where we know kids are actually falling behind right across the country.

00:40:28.980 What is that setting them up for then in university? And it's certainly at the very least makes these

00:40:33.060 kinds of videos less surprising to see. Oh, there's so much to unpack their page. Okay. So

00:40:38.260 like when I look at the universities, like just my high level reaction is that these students are

00:40:43.620 being brainwashed and I don't understand why we're subsidizing them. Like, you know, I, it's been 15

00:40:48.980 years since I was in university, but when I was there, it was overwhelmingly Marxist. Like the professors

00:40:54.020 in the political science department, the university of Alberta were overwhelmingly pushing Marxism. If they

00:40:58.660 weren't outright Marxist, I can't imagine how much that's increased and intensified in the last 10 or

00:41:04.260 15 years. Um, I guess it's been 10 years since I was in university. Um, but still like the, the idea

00:41:10.820 that our taxpayers are funding these students to go get a higher education that we believe is necessary

00:41:16.580 to have a career and a successful life in Canada. Um, but a lot of times, especially if they're studying

00:41:22.820 in the liberal arts in areas like, you know, political science or humanities, they're, they're

00:41:28.420 actually just getting brainwashed and I don't understand why we're funding it. Is there any

00:41:33.060 movement or any political talk or any sort of think tank work pointing towards the idea that we should,

00:41:38.740 we just shouldn't fund these universities. I think that that, that conversation is happening

00:41:42.580 more in the United States. Um, I think it should happen in Canada. Like I think that, um, individual

00:41:48.580 young Canadians should get some kind of a grant from the government, whether they want to go into

00:41:53.620 trade school, whether they want to start a business, whether they want to go get an

00:41:56.660 academic education, that's up to them. But to me, I don't understand why we're choosing

00:42:00.980 one area to subsidize. We're, we're helping them pay for their university, but we're not helping them

00:42:06.100 in other areas. Um, so I want your thoughts on defunding the universities and then we'll get into some

00:42:11.140 of the other, uh, K to 12 issues. Right. So I do think that is a conversation that is definitely

00:42:16.660 happening much more, uh, in the United States than it is in Canada. But what I can say is that

00:42:21.060 there is a demand for different ideas that is perhaps not being met by traditional universities,

00:42:26.500 which are very heavily subsidized in Canada. So at the Fraser Institute, we have, we run education

00:42:31.940 programs. Um, and those education programs are often focused on sort of just like a basic education

00:42:38.260 and economics and, and public policy. So you'll hear from people, um, like myself and other staff and

00:42:44.660 senior fellows that are associated with the Fraser Institute that give you an understanding of like,

00:42:49.380 you know, I would talk about education policy that might be specific, um, policy topics,

00:42:52.820 but also just that kind of like basic understanding of economics. Um, that really is a prerequisite to

00:42:59.860 understanding the kind of broader political conversations that we just had. You can't really

00:43:05.300 put those things in context unless you have an understanding of economics, unless you have an

00:43:09.620 understanding of how the economy works, you know, and, and all these sort of different areas. And that's what

00:43:14.180 the education programs at the Fraser Institute seeks to provide students and also teachers.

00:43:20.020 Um, and, and there is a demand for it. You know, there are lots of students out there, um, that,

00:43:25.460 that want to have that kind of an education that just are not accessing that kind of educational

00:43:29.940 material through their traditional universities. So, you know, take from that what you will, um,

00:43:36.020 should there be some more diversity, you know, in, in how things are funded? I think that's a really

00:43:40.340 interesting question, but I can tell you that for sure the demand is there for some diversity of ideas.

00:43:46.180 Well, I hope, I hope the next government, whoever it is, will, will, will take this on because

00:43:50.660 again, like university is not for everyone. And I think more and more it's, it's not, it's not only

00:43:55.620 not beneficial, but it's actually harmful, um, to having a happy, successful life. Um, I want to go

00:44:01.620 back to what you're talking about a little bit with sort of radical ideologies taking over

00:44:05.620 K to 12 education. I know at true north, we cover a lot of these kinds of stories and I'm

00:44:10.820 constantly blown away by some of the stuff that's happening, especially in Ontario, especially in

00:44:14.500 around Toronto. And I always kind of wonder like, why do parents put up with this? Like, why is it

00:44:19.540 like, how, how is it, especially in some of these areas page where when you look at the, the, the photos

00:44:24.420 that are taken or things that leak out of classrooms, a lot of the kids in the classroom are, um, from

00:44:29.140 immigrant families and, and they're, they're, they're like people who probably have much more

00:44:32.900 conservative political values, um, than, than we do in Canada. And I, I don't understand why there's

00:44:39.860 just so much radical ideology. And I'm talking about the gender confusion that's posted on kids,

00:44:44.180 this idea of like that, that, that Canada is somehow like a racist, genocidal country or that

00:44:49.380 white people are inherently bad and evil. I just, I see so much of it and it, it kind of blows me away.

00:44:54.820 Like what, what, what can be done? You know, you talked about how parents can choose to pull their kids

00:45:00.020 out. Uh, but if, if we're looking at like really trying to rid this ideology out of schools,

00:45:05.620 like where would we even begin? Well, so part of the reason that we conducted the survey that

00:45:11.060 we did last year in the first place is because we were hearing so many of these stories, right?

00:45:14.900 There was a story out of New Brunswick. Um, I live in Nova Scotia, so next door to where I am,

00:45:19.620 where parents found out after the fact that an outside group had come to present to the kids.

00:45:25.780 Um, uh, it was about sort of gender and sex. That was like the dominating, um, ideas in this assembly

00:45:32.580 and that just a lot of parents, and I think very reasonably believe that it was not age appropriate

00:45:38.580 material, um, that was being delivered to their children, but they had no advance notice. So I think

00:45:43.220 that, you know, that's why we started asking these questions, you know, should you have advance notice?

00:45:47.380 Should you be able to pull your child out? Um, if you, you don't agree with the material being

00:45:53.300 presented after you've received this advance notice and the majority of Canadians do, you know,

00:45:57.700 there is support, um, for, for these things, should the material be, um, age appropriate and should

00:46:04.100 both sides be presented. So that's what most Canadians want. Um, Canadian parents with kids in K-12

00:46:10.340 specifically want, um, and of course, parents can go to their schools and they can say, you know,

00:46:16.100 this is, this is what I want and, and hope for the best. But if you don't have, if you don't have

00:46:22.820 the kind of influence that you want to have over, um, your kid's school, if you don't have a system

00:46:29.220 that facilitates parents of all income levels to be able to be informed customers of their kids'

00:46:35.860 education, right? So be involved in their kids' schools, be an active participant, know what's

00:46:40.020 happening if they want to, um, and, and ultimately be able to leave the school if it's not aligned

00:46:46.100 with what they want and have their tax dollars follow, or at least a portion of their tax dollars,

00:46:50.900 which is how it works in five out of 10 Canadian provinces, follow their child to a different school

00:46:56.340 of their choice. So British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec all allow parents

00:47:02.500 to send their child to an independent school and a portion of their tax dollars will follow their

00:47:07.300 child to that school that at least, you know, it doesn't make it accessible for every family,

00:47:11.700 but it at least gives parents some ability to move their child and their child's tax dollars

00:47:16.260 that are associated with that kid to a different school. Um, so having those kinds of policies in

00:47:20.420 place, I think really helps. That's of course the opt out option in terms of the, you know,

00:47:25.140 do I stick with it and make my voice heard within, um, the school? Um, I think, you know,

00:47:31.220 parents are doing their best at the local level. And, and obviously that's why we think it's

00:47:35.940 important to ask these questions and sort of broadcast this information from a public education

00:47:40.740 point of view at the national level to remind schools, um, and provincial, um, education ministries

00:47:46.580 and school boards that these things actually matter to parents and that it is your role to teach kids

00:47:52.340 the basics, you know, in education. It's not your role to have a political point of view. Um, but

00:47:57.700 oftentimes that is so lost. I, I remember there was a post once by Chanel Pfaff, who's a great,

00:48:03.620 uh, she's, she's a former, um, educator and now she's sort of a whistleblower at all. And she,

00:48:08.660 she showed, I think it was a grade three or grade four classroom exposing a teacher really just

00:48:13.300 promoting radical ideology. And I, I, I, I shared the post and the thing that I was most outraged

00:48:18.260 by, obviously I was outraged that they were teaching eight and nine year olds about sex,

00:48:21.620 which is, I think very inappropriate. Um, but the, the math that was on the board was like so basic

00:48:28.260 that my four and five year old could do it. It was like basic addition. And I'm like,

00:48:31.460 why are they doing this in grade four? Um, that, that, that's outrageous that the academics are

00:48:36.660 just not keeping up. Uh, I want to tie it into this news story that True North is covering. Um,

00:48:41.540 also on your neck of the woods, uh, page just next door in Prince Edward Island. So a PEI counselor

00:48:47.140 was sanctioned, uh, for putting up a mass graves is a hoax lawn sign and the court is seeking the

00:48:52.900 review. Now, if you look at the sign that they put up there, uh, Sean, if we could just leave that back

00:48:57.780 on, it says, um, truth, mass graves, hoax, uh, reconciliation is to redeem Sir John A's

00:49:05.460 legacy or sorry, integrity, um, redeem Sir John A's integrity. And I think that's such an interesting

00:49:10.900 point. Like good, you know, first of all, good for this counselor for, um, speaking up and, you know,

00:49:15.380 maintaining his freedom of speech and the Canadian constitution foundation for representing him in the

00:49:19.780 Supreme court right now. Um, but to get to the issue that he's talking about, um, part, part of the major

00:49:26.260 irony of hearing the liberals and the left right now, celebrate team Canada and talk about their

00:49:31.780 deep and unabiding, um, and you know, unwavering love of Canada, um, is in the wake of the last five

00:49:37.060 years when they've done everything they can to shame Canadians, to try to erase, uh, our history,

00:49:41.940 shame us about our legacy and try to, uh, take away Sir John A McDonald's accomplishments,

00:49:47.060 particularly in school. So now young Canadians are taught that Sir John A is the villain and the bad

00:49:51.780 guy. Um, so I think that, you know, part of this conversation, uh, really does need to be like,

00:49:57.460 what can we teach our kids? What should kids know about Canada? Um, that, that Canada is not this

00:50:03.220 irredeemably racist country. Canada is actually a great country and we should be celebrating that.

00:50:08.180 Right. Yeah. So one of the projects that we did, um, last year or the year before at the Fraser

00:50:12.980 Institute was undertake a review of the curricula, the history curricula from K to 12 in Ontario and

00:50:19.940 British Columbia and just see how much mandated content was in there. So content being names,

00:50:26.980 dates, facts, providing, you know, context around historical events, just simply teaching kids what

00:50:33.060 happened in a way that makes sense, chronological sense that kids can conceptualize it. Right.

00:50:39.700 And what we found is that there is shockingly little mandated content in social studies curricula

00:50:47.060 in both, um, BC and Ontario in BC, really the only consistent theme, um, of the history content that

00:50:54.980 was taught, uh, was Canadian wrongdoing essentially was a, was a theme that came up. So, so different

00:51:01.700 points of history in which the Canadian government has done something wrong, which don't get me wrong,

00:51:06.100 the Canadian government has done something wrong lots. That's an important part of history. Um, but there

00:51:11.060 were not a lot of other kind of mandated names, dates, facts, things that kids need to learn.

00:51:16.660 So why does this matter? Because if you ask a child about Sir John A. Macdonald and you ask,

00:51:24.180 should we be protesting him? Should we be tearing down his statue? Um, should we be doing these things?

00:51:30.740 Do they know who he is? Do they know what he did? Do they know the context in which, you know,

00:51:35.220 the time in which he lived? Do they know what other people were doing? What historical events led up to the

00:51:39.780 things that he did? What historical events followed? If you don't know this information,

00:51:44.420 then you are not able to properly put it into context and understand it. So then you don't

00:51:49.940 really have any understanding and you don't really have an informed answer to those questions around

00:51:54.100 what should be done with Sir John A. Um, and, and any of those policies that have, you know, anything

00:51:59.620 that we're dealing with today, how it reflects the policies of that time. And so that's why, you know,

00:52:05.940 it's, it's really unfortunate that curricula, uh, in Canada have moved away from those really

00:52:11.620 foundational building blocks of understanding. You need to know how to do the basics. You need to

00:52:16.340 know how to do your time stables, for example, until, and then you can move on to more complex

00:52:21.220 math. You need to know, um, the names and dates of things, and then you can write a critical essay.

00:52:26.580 Um, you know, saying that Sir John A. was a horrible person for such and such a reason, but you need to know

00:52:31.220 what happened first if, you know, and that's what we've moved away from. And I want to just also,

00:52:35.700 just on that note, circle back to something that you mentioned, um, right before you brought up this

00:52:40.340 issue, which was around the math that was on the chalkboard. So from 2003 to 2022, 2022 being the

00:52:47.700 most recent year that we have, um, programmed for international student assessments, which is

00:52:52.420 sort of the gold standard, um, skills standardized test, um, internationally speaking, and Canadian

00:52:57.460 students at 15 years old, write this test, um, Canadian students math, uh, the average from 2003

00:53:05.220 to 2022 has dropped by almost two years of learning. So, so basically the PISA equivalent of two years of

00:53:14.420 learning have been lost in that period. So Canadian students in terms of their math competency at age 15

00:53:20.420 are, um, you know, like two years behind where they were in 2003 and in reading about one year behind.

00:53:27.460 So when you ask these questions about, you know, how much of the day is being spent on this kind of

00:53:32.180 like politicized content in schools, even if you're going to teach that kind of stuff, which Canadian

00:53:38.260 parents don't seem to really agree that you should be, um, why aren't you spending more time bolstering

00:53:44.900 Canadian kids' knowledge of math and of reading and all of these skills that are so critical and what

00:53:49.620 school is supposed to be about where we're actually falling so far behind?

00:53:52.980 It's so unbelievable. I just, I can't even, I mean, one of the saving kind of graces about

00:53:59.460 there, there is a massive political politicization, um, of school, but when you look at Canadian students'

00:54:05.380 academics, they're still stronger than so many other G7s and I can't, or G20s. And I kind of almost

00:54:10.820 wonder if that is because of immigrant kids coming here that still put that emphasis, you know, Chinese

00:54:15.940 and Indian families put that emphasis on math in their own homes. And it's not necessarily the

00:54:20.820 Canadian schools. When you hear data like that, it's, it's kind of scary. Like the whole point of

00:54:25.860 school should be making sure that kids understand the basics, math and literacy. And the fact that

00:54:31.380 we're getting away from that is a concern. Well, Patriots have a few minutes left on the show

00:54:35.380 here and I want to, uh, talk about what's happening in the States. I know we talked a little bit more,

00:54:41.140 um, earlier in the show about Trump and how, you know, when it comes to conservatives or even just

00:54:46.180 Canadians, there's a lot of things that are happening down there that we're excited about that

00:54:49.620 we think are good. Like taking a zero-based budgeting approach to the government and cutting

00:54:53.620 all kinds of wasteful programs. I know, uh, Pierre Polyev was up in, um, up in the north today and he was

00:54:59.380 taught, he was asked about foreign aid and he, he talked about how we should be spending our money

00:55:03.300 in Canada and not abroad. Uh, one of the things I'm most excited about when it comes to what

00:55:08.340 the Trump administration is doing is the Make America Healthy Again movement and the involvement

00:55:14.580 of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or of KJ. Um, I think there's a big awakening happening in the culture.

00:55:20.740 So not just in the United States, but across Canada too, where, uh, people are being, uh, a lot,

00:55:25.940 just a lot more aware of what we're eating, the things that are in our food, the things that we're

00:55:29.860 giving to our kids, like the dyes that are put in so many of the kids' foods, the amount of sugar

00:55:34.100 and processed grains and seed oils in kids' foods, um, you know, questions about vaccines,

00:55:39.140 questions about schools. It's really making a lot of people aware, um, of what is happening.

00:55:44.340 And I know you're sort of interested in this topic along with myself. Do you see a movement

00:55:49.300 like Make America Healthy Again happening in Canada? Um, did you hear a lot about these issues from

00:55:54.980 your mom friends? I hear a lot about it from my mom friends, especially, um, well, a lot of things,

00:56:00.820 you know, the health stuff, but also concern about the radical left-wing woke ideology that's,

00:56:06.020 that's being inserted into schools. Um, so I'm wondering, uh, what your thoughts are on, on this

00:56:10.100 movement. I do think that there is a shift that, that does seem to be happening where people are just

00:56:15.540 wanting, um, information. So on the school side, I think it actually started during, um, COVID lockdown,

00:56:22.100 schools being shut down for such a long period of time in Canada, which by the way is, is likely,

00:56:28.580 like likely accounts for why kids have, have been at least partially why kids are so set back,

00:56:34.660 um, in Canada, but also in the other countries that you're talking about, other developed countries,

00:56:38.180 which, which we, uh, compare our, our test scores. Um, but basically what happened was schools shut down,

00:56:44.820 people were at home with their kids. They were watching what their kids were, were learning,

00:56:48.820 um, on screens, right? When you had this sort of virtual school, which didn't go very well for,

00:56:53.620 for a large number of children and parents kind of started to clue in and realize, gee, like,

00:56:59.220 I don't really, I can't, I can't believe that you're, you're not sort of hitting these sort of basic

00:57:03.940 foundational building blocks, um, in your education and started to kind of wake up a little bit to maybe

00:57:09.220 what their kids were learning in schools and where the deficits were. Since then, I do think that there

00:57:14.100 has been sort of a growth in, um, I guess you could call it an awakening, right? Where, where

00:57:20.500 certainly my mom friends and what we hear from, uh, from people on the ground is that I really didn't

00:57:25.940 realize that it was like this in school. And now I want to be a much more informed customer. Um,

00:57:31.860 I'm not exactly, maybe it was the same thing that triggered this movement, um, in the U S, um, around

00:57:37.300 this sort of make America healthy again, movement and, and the similar movements that we're seeing in

00:57:41.780 Canada where people are realizing like, gee, I didn't really realize that, um, these products

00:57:47.380 were so unhealthy. Um, and then it's just so difficult to find products on the shelves that

00:57:52.340 don't have these ingredients, these additives in them, um, whether it's dyes or seed oils or whatever

00:57:57.060 it is. Right. And, and just parents. And even if people, you know, are fine with consuming those,

00:58:01.300 I do think that there is sort of a shift where people wanting to know just, I just would like to

00:58:05.780 know the ingredients please. Um, and, and that is certainly something that, um, is different. I mean,

00:58:12.340 I have always been the, uh, a read the ingredients mom, but, uh, but I do think that, that I, I feel

00:58:19.220 less, um, less fringe in that regard. Um, as of late, I feel almost helpful, helpless when I go into a

00:58:26.180 grocery store, like just even for instance, trying to buy bread. I remember once I was walking through the

00:58:30.740 grocery store, all I wanted was bread that had like less than 10 ingredients. And I literally,

00:58:36.100 I was at a healthy grocery store, uh, just outside Toronto and I picked up like 40 different loaves

00:58:42.260 of bread and I couldn't find anything that didn't have a bunch of additives that I couldn't pronounce.

00:58:46.660 I didn't know what they were. And that, that, that was some point where I'm like, okay, I guess I have

00:58:50.500 to bake my own bread. And I do, I have my own sourdough starter on the counter. I do it with the kids.

00:58:55.860 They love to get involved in it. It's a lot of work, uh, but it's fun and I like it.

00:58:59.380 Um, and, and it just, it got to that point where I'm like, you know, so many of the things that we

00:59:03.460 assume are kind of healthy aren't. And if you don't want to give those things to your kids,

00:59:07.940 it's, it's harder to, I'll tell you what radicalized me. Um, and I know we just have a

00:59:11.700 minute left here. Um, you might not want to comment on this, but I was always very high trust when it

00:59:16.820 came to my doctor and my hospital. I really, you know, when it came to my labors and pregnancies,

00:59:21.540 I put a lot of trust into my OB, my doctor. And it was after COVID when they were recommending

00:59:26.820 that my three month old baby get the COVID vaccine. And that was like a moment of like,

00:59:32.340 well, wait a minute. I, as a journalist, I report a lot on this. I've read the research. I understand

00:59:36.900 the data. Little kids don't get COVID. And if they do, it doesn't harm them. Like the risk of death

00:59:42.020 is so small for a child to get COVID. The fact that you're recommending that I get this COVID vaccine

00:59:47.140 for my child, which now, you know, the Alberta government, uh, put out that report last week that

00:59:51.860 said that they don't actually recommend it for kids. Um, but the fact that my own doctor and my

00:59:55.700 hospital were recommending that really made me stop and think like, if I don't trust you on this,

00:59:59.860 and I think you're giving me bad advice on this, like what else, uh, should I not trust you on?

01:00:04.100 And I think that that is, is maybe what led a lot of parents, um, to, to, to, to say, I have to take my

01:00:10.260 health and my kids health into my own hands. And I'm optimistic that they'll make some positive

01:00:15.060 changes in the U S and hopefully that'll have a downstream effect on us in Canada as well. Did you have

01:00:20.340 any, any, any last words on that one page? I just think it was the same with schools, right? When,

01:00:24.980 when people were saying you can't have your kids in school because of this, there was a lot of people

01:00:29.060 maybe like you and like me who work with data all the time. And we're looking at it and thinking

01:00:33.860 the risk to my kids of, of this many years of lost learning is high. The risk to my kids of this virus

01:00:40.020 seems low. Um, and unfortunately a lot of people came to that realization after the fact. Um, but,

01:00:46.660 but here we are and that's, and I do think that was the springboard, you know,

01:00:49.940 those little moments for each family might've been different specific issues,

01:00:53.860 whether it was schools or health products or whatever. Um, but just, you know, wanting to

01:00:58.900 become more informed and, uh, and just a more informed consumer.

01:01:04.020 Excellent. Well, Paige McPherson, such a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us on the show today.

01:01:07.940 Really appreciate the conversation. Yeah. Thank you so much.

01:01:11.300 All right. And thank you so much for tuning in. I'm Candace Malcolm. This has been the Candace Malcolm

01:01:15.060 show. We'll be back again tomorrow with all of the news. Thank you. And God bless.

01:01:19.940 Thank you.

The Candice Malcolm Show - February 10, 2025

What Trudeau’s hot mic comments really reveal

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