Ezra Levant from Canada joins us as we talk California and Canada, two messed up liberal places, and we talk about solutions for both. We were the first guest on Governor Gavin Newsom's podcast, which has now opened an entire national political conversation about California. Should people go on Gavin's podcast? My conversation went viral and was a good use of time.
00:00:03.000Ezra Levant from Canada joins us as we talk California and Canada, two messed up liberal places, and we talk about solutions for both.
00:00:12.000Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com and get involved with the most important organization in the country, Turning Point USA at tpusa.com.
00:00:36.000His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:00:56.000Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of The Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals.
00:01:06.000Learn how you can protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at noblegoldinvestments.com.
00:01:21.000We were the first guest on Governor Gavin Newsom's podcast, which has now opened an entire national political conversation about California.
00:01:30.000Should people go on Gavin Newsom's podcast?
00:01:32.000My conversation went very viral, and I think it was a good use of time.
00:01:36.000Joining us now is the expert on California, Steve Hilton, reversing the ruin of America's worst-run state.
00:02:00.000When I watched the whole thing, what came to my mind was this performance by Margaret Thatcher of Prime Minister's Questions, go with me on this, where she absolutely eviscerated...
00:02:16.000The then leader of the opposition in the House of Commons, you know that, when they're jousting with each other.
00:02:21.000And there's this phrase that she used that is what came to my mind when I was watching you with Gavin Newsom.
00:02:27.000And she was calling this Labour politician, he was weak, but she did it in this incredible Margaret Thatcher way.
00:04:04.000I don't think that he is a left-wing ideologue.
00:04:08.000I think that he is a machine politician who will say whatever it takes to get on.
00:04:13.000And in the last few years, that has meant pandering to the people who really have the power in the Democratic Party these days, which is the far-left activists and the unions and the government unions.
00:04:25.000And they're basically the same people now because the unions are run by the far-left activists.
00:05:01.000I think that's what he's trying to show.
00:05:03.000The audience he has in mind, I think, are Democrat primary voters in the states that will determine who is the nominee for the party in 2028. And I think the message he's trying to send is, pick me because I'm a winner, because I can actually operate not just in blue states.
00:05:23.000But in red states and I can get along with all sorts of people and I'm the winner that we need in 2028. And so I think that's right.
00:05:33.000And I have a new op-ed out right now kind of reflecting on my time sitting down with him.
00:05:39.000And I don't think it will necessarily work with the Democrat base if he continues in this direction.
00:05:57.000Now, if that Nepo baby fat slob, J.B. Pritzker, ever starts a podcast and invites me on, that's a completely different ballgame because he ruined my home and it would be game on.
00:06:10.000I know Illinois and Chicago like the back of my hand.
00:06:16.000California, even though the biggest audience of this program is in California, and I feel as if I have absorbed the issues, I still have difficulty prosecuting the case against Gavin Newsom for two reasons.
00:06:29.000Number one, he's so slippery and so slick at weaseling his way out.
00:06:35.000You saw that one time when I was talking about the transgender kidnapping bill.
00:06:52.000Number two, Gavin kind of has this timeshare salesman vibe to him where he's just able to communicate whatever he needs to hear to the audience.
00:07:04.000But the second part of this, and Steve, I want your reaction.
00:07:24.000Well, first of all, I'm glad you brought that up because, funnily enough, just like you with Illinois, I'm kind of itching to go on this podcast.
00:07:30.000And when my book comes out, Caliphailia, I really, you know, I think we're trying.
00:08:01.000Let's just take that on the transgender issue and the one that really made all the headlines, which was the you know, when he was agreeing with you on the unfairness of biological men and girls sports.
00:09:36.000In his debate with Ron DeSantis, where Ron DeSantis brought up all the exodus of people leaving and so on, Gavin Newsom threw something at him about people going from Florida to California.
00:09:49.000And when I dug into that, it turned out that that was military transfers.
00:09:53.000Nothing to do with people choosing to move to California.
00:09:57.000So it's total BS. The record is completely appalling on every single issue.
00:10:03.000And it's true to say that California remains the fifth biggest economy in the world.
00:10:08.000But in a way, isn't it even more shaming, then, that we have...
00:10:12.000The worst homelessness crisis, the highest poverty rate.
00:10:57.000In this story, the twins learn about their rights, that true laws protect people, and that we should help others, and that stealing is always wrong.
00:11:06.000Children can only change the world for the better if they learn these important principles now.
00:11:11.000Go to TuttleTwins.com slash Charlie today and purchase their 14-book children's series for your family.
00:11:17.000They'll learn to think for themselves, to stand for liberty.
00:11:20.000Go to TuttleTwins.com slash Charlie today.
00:12:17.000I'm just reading now from WalletHub.com.
00:12:20.000California has the highest individual income tax burden, while seven states, including Texas, Florida, and Washington, have the lowest, including Florida, have the lowest.
00:12:28.000I mean, it's just, there's so many different measures.
00:12:31.000If you look at individual income tax burden.
00:12:35.000The highest in the country is California.
00:12:37.000If you look at overall tax burden, that's taking everything together, sales, tax, everything else.
00:12:42.000California is number five, and Florida on overall tax burden.
00:12:55.000And he's got this incredibly narrow, detailed kind of...
00:13:00.000Total BS statistic where Gavin used, and he said it in this in the longer clip, where he says, well, the people in California, working people in California, in Florida, pay the same taxes as the very rich in California.
00:13:16.000The way he's calculating that is comparing income taxes in California on the very rich with combining all the sales taxes, property taxes, and everything else.
00:13:29.000And the fact is that people on lower income spend more of their income on things that attract sales tax than on, as a proportion of their income, than they're very wealthy.
00:13:38.000So it's just total, the Wall Street Journal ripped that apart when he first said it with Ron DeSantis in the debate.
00:13:45.000But he keeps saying these things because he's got this, he just kind of bulldozes through and he says it with his total confidence and kind of asserts it as if it's the truth.
00:14:32.000The executive branch means the absolute nightmare of bureaucratic agencies, let's call it the administrative state, the swamp in Sacramento, which is actually worse than what we have in Washington because you've had one party rule for so long, you haven't had any kind of input from an opposing ideological point of view.
00:14:54.000The governor appoints all the members of the State Board of Education.
00:14:58.000It's the State Board of Education that sets the curriculum.
00:15:02.000The governor appoints members on the California Air Resources Board.
00:15:06.000Not all of them, but enough to make a difference.
00:15:08.000The Air Resources Board is what's pushing through the climate extremism, banning gas cars, banning gas stoves, banning gas heaters and boilers and all the rest of the insanity that is raising costs for everyone.
00:15:20.000So on and on, if you look at the fantastic agriculture industry being completely destroyed by deliberate policy, you appoint the people as governor to the world.
00:15:30.000Water Resources Control Board and all those agencies.
00:15:33.000You can make pretty much an overnight change because it's these agencies that are implementing and far exceeding what's even...
00:15:41.000It's just the same pathology as you have in Washington where the legislature, in the case of D.C., it's the Congress, passes legislation that's kind of vague and then the agencies, the bureaucrats...
00:15:55.000Overzealously interpret that, push their own agenda, and make it ten times worse.
00:15:59.000It's the same pathology in California at the state level, and you can reverse it just in the same way.
00:16:04.000I mean, a simple way of thinking about it is Doge, California.
00:16:09.000And you could start to affect housing costs because the reason housing costs are the highest in the country is because of the overregulation.
00:16:16.000Every year they change the building codes.
00:16:18.000Endless new climate things they add on to make it incredibly expensive.
00:16:22.000I mean, the median house price is now a million dollars in California.
00:17:03.000With President Trump making massive strides in his first month in office, alone to deliver on campaign promises to make America great again, it's clear his administration is committed to driving down costs and unleashing prosperity across our country.
00:17:18.000But Big Pharma is standing in the way.
00:17:21.000They've raised prices on over 575 brand-name drugs in January alone, blocked competition, and spent millions pushing overpriced meds on hardworking Americans.
00:17:31.000Now they're pressuring Congress to implement mandates that will undermine the one real check against drug companies and ban the very market-based incentives that help employers and families save on prescriptions and health care conditions.
00:17:43.000Even worse, Big Pharma wants to strip American employers of the freedom to choose health benefits that work best for them.
00:17:51.000Their proposals could hand Big Pharma a $32 billion money grab at the expense of American employers and families.
00:17:57.000Conservatives for lower health care costs warns that Big Pharma isn't on our side.
00:18:01.000They fought against solutions to lower drug prices during Trump's first term, opposed Bobby Kennedy's nomination to HHS to make America healthy again, and now they want even more government control over the private health care market, interfering with President Trump's promise to cut prescription drug costs.
00:18:16.000Big Pharma is no friend of the American people.
00:18:18.000Go to pharmawindfall.com to demand fair health care practices, protect the private market, and fight Big Pharma's greed.
00:18:45.000Ezra Levant, Canadian journalist, rebelnews.com.
00:18:49.000Ezra, before we get into the plan of which you have authored, and you made the case in the Wall Street Journal, I want to just kind of just take a step back here and how are Canadians processing all of this between our two countries?
00:19:05.000Well, the Liberal Party of Canada, they've decided that it's easier to run against Donald Trump in the next election than to run against the Canadian Conservative leader in the next election.
00:19:16.000So you've never seen a Canadian election like this before.
00:19:19.000All the Liberals are talking about is Trump.
00:19:55.000I don't even think he lives in Canada.
00:19:57.000His wife still lives in New York where she works.
00:20:00.000He was selected in a Kamala Harris-style fake primary where foreign nationals were allowed to vote and children as young as 14. So this guy was installed, and he's going straight to the top of the Canadian political food chain, and he has decided that running against America, running on an anti-America platform, and obviously anti-Trump is his way to win.
00:20:25.000Trouble is, that's terrible for ordinary Canadians.
00:21:12.000So 14-year-olds and foreign citizens chose our new prime minister, and he goes straight to the top.
00:21:20.000It would be as if Kamala Harris became president, but at least she was on a ballot in 2020. This is so undemocratic, and he doesn't have a mandate.
00:21:33.000He's down in the polls, and he knows that fighting with Trump will prick Canadians to come.
00:21:50.000And I'm really worried that there's what's called a moral hazard here, if you know what I mean.
00:21:56.000Donald Trump is used to negotiating with people who want a deal, and Trump is the one who's not afraid to walk away.
00:22:03.000That's how Trump did it in New York City when he was a real estate developer.
00:22:06.000But in this case, Trump is the one who wants a deal, but it's in the Liberal Party's interest not to get one.
00:22:13.000They want the fight, and believe it or not, they want the economic damage that the fight will cause so they can blame Trump for our looming recession rather than their own economics.
00:22:25.000It's really the worst of times in Canadian politics.
00:22:28.000But more to the point, I hate the fact that we're fighting.
00:22:31.000It's like Batman and Robin are fighting.
00:23:17.000Could he unintentionally help the Liberal Party here?
00:23:22.000Could an unintended benefit, not benefit, but consequence of President Trump saber-rattling, which I support, could be installing a really bad government of Canada and therefore thwarting what looks to be an ascendant conservative correction?
00:24:33.000The biggest source of that trade Deficit that President Trump talks about is because we sell a huge amount of crude oil to the United States, much more than we sell auto parts or agriculture.
00:24:47.000And that's because although America produces a lot of oil, it still consumes more than it produces and exports.
00:26:30.000I would think of it sort of like a real estate deal, but much more valuable than Greenland or Panama.
00:26:36.000And the thing is, Donald Trump negotiated the USMCA, which has a special side letter on oil, and it allows America to get preferential access to our oil.
00:26:48.000So what I would say, if I was trying to talk to my America First friends, I would say, Don't push this oil away.
00:27:05.000What I mean by that is the companies that pump that oil, that steam it and produce it, they're either American-owned or they're Canadian with a lot of American investors.
00:27:15.000So it's sort of American on every side you look at it.
00:27:20.000The consumers are American refineries.
00:27:23.000Oh, Charlie, I forgot my favorite part.
00:27:26.000If you buy all your foreign oil from ethical oil in Canada instead of conflict oil from OPEC... You don't need to have the Fifth Fleet stationed in the Persian Gulf anymore.
00:27:38.000That's a $50 billion a year expense, let alone the risk of human life.
00:27:44.000So I guess the question is, Ezra, would Canada be willing to sell?
00:27:49.000I mean, is Canada, are they open to a deal?
00:27:55.000They already signed it under Donald Trump in the USMCA, and the Premier of Alberta said, I want to do it.
00:29:45.000Don't be that Trudeau and Carney hate the oil sands.
00:29:50.000If you are a patriot in this audience and you have private student loan debt, or your brother does, or your niece does, or your nephew does, maybe you're just thinking back to Christmas or Thanksgiving.
00:30:01.000And someone's like, oh my gosh, I have these student loans and I took them out and I shouldn't have and it was a private loan.
00:30:07.000And boom, you're just thinking like, wait a second, I remember that.
00:35:20.000I think that's a deal that Trump could make, and that's a lasting deal.
00:35:25.000I think that's a bigger deal than Greenland.
00:35:27.000I think it's a bigger deal than Panama.
00:35:29.000I just sort of hope that if President Trump looked at it like some sort of a business deal or a real estate deal and thought, okay, how do I get all the benefit of the Canadian relationship without the downsides?