The National Telegraph - Wyatt Claypool - January 08, 2026


BREAKING： Freeland resigns Friday - Other Liberal MPs may leave too!

Topics
Chrystia Freeland resignation rumor Chrystia Freeland resignation rumors
Hosted by
Wyatt Claypool
Mentioned
Chrystia Freeland Mark Carney Brian Lilly Steven Guilbeault Polyev Jonathan Wilkinson Nate Erskine-Smith Yves-Francois Blanchet Ralph Goodale Melanie Jolie Pierre Polyam Danielle Smith Bill Blair Doug Ford Mississauga Brampton
Carney is on shaky ground - Another MP rejects Liberal floor-crossing offer! Liberal admits Carney isn't getting his majority! (Spring Election Time)

Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

177.63

Word count

2,140

Sentence count

102

Harmful content

Misogyny

5

sentences flagged

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

We have some major breaking news that we need to discuss, including a rumor that, if true, could be very damaging for Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal government. Chrystia Freeland has now moved up the timeline for when she plans to resign her seat, from a few weeks to a few days. And a rumor has surfaced that other Liberal MPs may end up resigning, as well.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 We have some major breaking news that we need to discuss, including a rumor that, if true, could be very damaging for Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal government.
00:00:10.720 So first off, on the things that we absolutely know are true, Chrystia Freeland has very quickly moved up the timeline for when she plans on resigning her seat.
00:00:21.600 Before, she vaguely just said in the coming weeks she plans on resigning her seat, but because of outcry from the opposition saying it feels unethical that she just took a job with the Ukrainian government and she may be sitting as an MP for a few weeks longer, she has now made the date for leaving January 9th, this Friday.
00:00:42.300 But the thing that is a big piece of news, if it ends up being true, is the rumor that other Liberal MPs may end up resigning alongside Chrystia Freeland.
00:00:54.260 Before we get into that rumor, I do just want to go through the statement that Chrystia Freeland just released, and then we will talk about the rumor and the implications of what we know is true, and then what could end up happening.
00:01:06.660 Before I get into it, guys, I do just quickly want to plug the membership program for the channel.
00:01:12.560 If you want to help support the channel, make it more sustainable, and make it rely less on the YouTube algorithm, hit the join button below the video.
00:01:20.360 I have two very low-cost tiers just to contribute to, again, make this channel easier for me to run month to month.
00:01:27.140 But here we have Chrystia Freeland's statement on her resignation.
00:01:31.240 She says,
00:02:01.240 So that's a very big change from a few weeks to literally just a couple of days.
00:02:05.880 Obviously, the Conservatives and the NDP putting pressure on her to leave faster probably either got Freeland to realize she should make it sooner than later,
00:02:14.120 or Carney ended up basically telling her she better make it sooner than later if they want to not have more bad blood than they already do.
00:02:22.300 But I'm going to keep reading here.
00:02:23.600 One of the roles I will be taking on is an unpaid advisor.
00:02:27.740 One of the roles I will be taking on is as an unpaid advisor on economic issues to the president of Ukraine.
00:02:35.500 This is a volunteer position, and I have consulted throughout with the ethics commissioner and followed his advice.
00:02:42.720 Going forward, I will continue to support and help build Canada in every way I can,
00:02:46.800 while championing the brave fight of the people of Ukraine, a cause I have been committed to my entire life.
00:02:52.240 Okay, well, that's nice.
00:02:54.360 She probably still should have probably been making it clear she was going to step down far before this point. 0.99
00:02:59.540 Because if you're negotiating a new role while you're still in Parliament,
00:03:03.280 well, you know, you might want to first step down before you actually confirm that position.
00:03:08.080 Because, you know, there's a lot of private information, a lot of, like, confidential information that MPs have access to.
00:03:14.380 And if you're effectively an employee, even if it's an unpaid volunteer position for another government,
00:03:20.120 you probably shouldn't have access to the sort of information that other people have.
00:03:24.240 But now we need to get into where this rumor came from that Chrystia Freeland may end up resigning alongside other Liberal MPs. 1.00
00:03:33.220 The rumors ended up originating from journalist and commentator Brian Lilly,
00:03:40.060 who just an hour ago, before Chrystia Freeland had actually put out that statement,
00:03:45.500 her statement's only been up for about 30 minutes at this point,
00:03:48.940 Brian Lilly posted an hour ago, hearing that Chrystia Freeland is about to announce that she will resign on January 9th.
00:03:57.420 Other MPs may go at the same time as well, developing more to come.
00:04:02.200 And as you see up here, he posted, as I was just saying, Chrystia Freeland will resign her role as MP on January 9th.
00:04:10.900 So obviously, he has some sort of inside lane on what's going on.
00:04:14.580 And as you can see, Brian Lilly actually has me blocked on X.
00:04:17.320 That's another story for another day. 0.84
00:04:19.900 It was really silly. 0.84
00:04:20.860 I think he was mad that people were criticizing him at one point, 0.78
00:04:23.740 because he was, like, dating Doug Ford's press secretary and living with them
00:04:27.420 at a time when he was, like, reporting on the Ontario government.
00:04:31.480 But whatever, I guess I'm a bad guy for having ever mentioned that to him, and then he blocked me.
00:04:37.400 But the thing with all this is that I could absolutely see people using Chrystia Freeland
00:04:43.280 as effectively their shield to get out of government as well.
00:04:46.960 Because if anyone else resigns, there's going to be a big media circus around them
00:04:51.440 and their personal reasons for doing so.
00:04:53.420 And there's always strength in numbers, even if you are indeed fleeing.
00:04:57.720 So Stephen Gilbeau could absolutely end up leaving.
00:05:01.140 Bill Blair could leave.
00:05:02.660 Jonathan Wilkinson could leave, who also has roles outside of Canada that he wants to pursue.
00:05:07.400 He wants to be Canada's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and replace Ralph Goodale.
00:05:12.180 You could have somebody like Nate Erskine-Smith end up leaving,
00:05:16.000 being very confident that he's going to run and win the Ontario Liberal Party leadership,
00:05:20.160 and he doesn't want to retain the seat and cause drama by still technically sitting as a Liberal MP
00:05:25.840 at the same time he wants to run for something else.
00:05:28.340 All of these people are options on the table, including people even like Melanie Jolie,
00:05:32.940 who is kind of like a dark horse option for somebody who may be upset with Mark Carney
00:05:37.420 and wants to leave with her old friend Chrystia Freeland. 0.88
00:05:40.420 But in general, Mark Carney right now is in a very, very awkward position.
00:05:47.100 I had just made a video before making this video on the Liberals being rejected once again
00:05:53.080 by another MP they tried to get to cross the floor.
00:05:56.940 This time it was the NDP MP from Nunavut, which is really desperate.
00:06:02.400 It's a super desperate move to be trying to invite over an anti-oil and gas reconciliation industry MP
00:06:09.940 to join you guys when at the same time you're trying to champion your Major Projects Act
00:06:15.580 and your MOU with the Alberta government.
00:06:17.880 It's almost like the pipeline agreement that Carney signed with Daniel Smith basically means nothing
00:06:24.400 because he's still willing to court over people who absolutely do not want that pipeline ever built
00:06:29.360 and probably would have guarantees that it will never be built in order for them to cross the floor.
00:06:34.100 But they got rejected. Carney has MPs leaving.
00:06:37.400 And he's trying to stave off a 2026 election.
00:06:40.860 And the only way he can do that is by having a majority.
00:06:43.960 Because if he has a majority, then the opposition cannot gang up on him
00:06:47.240 and force him out of office, triggering a new election.
00:06:50.660 Right now, Carney is going to have a gap not just of one MP,
00:06:55.680 he's going to have a gap of two MPs at the very least if Chrystia Freeland's the only one to resign. 0.97
00:07:00.820 If another one or two people end up leaving with her, he has a gap of more like four or five people.
00:07:06.940 And that's not the end of who may end up leaving office.
00:07:10.240 Plus, if he calls by-elections and any of these people end up getting replaced by someone other than a Liberal,
00:07:16.520 he's in even a worse position.
00:07:18.820 And whichever party wins that by-election is going to have a lot of regional momentum
00:07:22.480 to win even more seats from the Liberals.
00:07:24.940 Like, if the NDP ends up picking up Freeland's seat,
00:07:28.180 it's going to turn Toronto into a bit of a knife fight.
00:07:31.000 If Stephen Gilbeau ends up being one of the people to leave
00:07:33.800 and the Bloc Québécois wins that Montreal riding,
00:07:37.260 that's also a really, really bad sign for the Liberals in a new election.
00:07:41.660 And that will empower those two parties to want even more to join with the federal Conservatives
00:07:47.600 to trigger a new election because, as we went over in another video on the whiteboard,
00:07:52.900 every single party's supporters wants a new election except for the Liberals
00:07:57.840 and except for voters in the other category.
00:08:00.880 The other category not even being a very big category,
00:08:03.820 but those are the only two party supporters, Other and Liberal,
00:08:07.420 who are at a negative net rating for whether they wanted a new election or not.
00:08:12.080 Even the NDP was a plus 13.
00:08:14.240 The Bloc was like a plus 35. 0.92
00:08:16.060 The Conservatives were like a plus 63 or 65 or something like that.
00:08:20.820 They really want a new election.
00:08:22.580 I can see the NDP voters being apprehensive a little bit
00:08:25.920 because they know a Conservative could win,
00:08:27.940 but it's pretty definitive that we're probably going to have an election
00:08:31.340 if even the NDP voters are a net positive in favor of having a new race.
00:08:36.600 What do they have to lose?
00:08:37.760 They only got seven seats.
00:08:38.940 If they want their official party status back, they better trigger an election.
00:08:42.780 If the Bloc Québécois does not want to become irrelevant,
00:08:45.460 they better trigger an election, 0.55
00:08:47.200 especially with the party Québécois on a provincial level in Quebec becoming more popular.
00:08:52.580 Why wouldn't the Bloc Québécois want to ride, what is his name?
00:08:57.100 I think he tried like Pierre Palimo, something, something, something.
00:09:00.520 I forget what the PQ leader's name is right now.
00:09:03.220 Can't blame me.
00:09:04.300 Quebec politics are like a different planet at this point.
00:09:06.980 You know, rightfully so.
00:09:08.400 It's a country with a completely different language and culture in a lot of ways.
00:09:11.440 I wish they would stop taking Alberta's oil and gas money as much,
00:09:15.220 but that's another issue for another day.
00:09:17.160 But if Francois Blanchet is smart, he will ride the PQ's provincial dominance
00:09:23.720 into a new federal election before the next Quebec provincial election.
00:09:28.660 And so all those PQ voters will be super motivated as almost a trial run
00:09:32.780 to show up and vote in even more BQ MPs.
00:09:36.440 They're obviously motivated because the PQ is a separatist party
00:09:40.680 and the BQ is the federal separatist party for Quebec.
00:09:43.900 It's not like they only somewhat align and one party doesn't usually result
00:09:48.240 in the other party doing better.
00:09:49.900 No, if anything, the PQ actually started reviving because the BQ revived first.
00:09:56.680 And now that the PQ is actually outpacing the BQ in popularity,
00:09:59.940 it's going to pull up the block even higher if a new federal election gets triggered
00:10:04.500 and they actually may be able to win back the neighborhoods of Montreal
00:10:08.740 that they used to occupy.
00:10:10.580 I don't even care if the conservatives end up losing some seats in Quebec.
00:10:14.400 Obviously, I'd like the conservatives to have as many seats as possible,
00:10:17.960 but I'd rather the liberals just end up losing more seats in Quebec.
00:10:22.080 I would sacrifice a conservative seat or two for the liberals to lose five or seven seats
00:10:27.840 to the Bloc Québécois, because obviously the Bloc are not going to form a majority government.
00:10:31.980 And the conservatives should be focusing on southwestern Ontario, the Maritimes,
00:10:38.780 the Brampton and Mississauga.
00:10:40.800 Make sure you just pick good candidates, have good open nominations.
00:10:44.520 Don't pick some guy who declares that he's a community leader and you should trust him.
00:10:48.440 Pick a really good grassroots candidate in that area that all the communities like
00:10:52.220 and then focus on like the Vancouver, Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley area.
00:10:57.120 And you're golden, maybe win an extra seat on the island.
00:11:01.620 But at that point, you're golden, overperforming in the Maritimes,
00:11:06.100 overperforming southwestern Ontario, the GTA, Lower Mainland,
00:11:09.840 pick up about 25 seats and you have at least a minority government.
00:11:14.340 Actually, I think it's only a minority government,
00:11:16.020 even if the conservatives just steal 15 seats from the liberals
00:11:19.020 because the net difference will pop them above.
00:11:21.440 Obviously, I'd like them to have a majority.
00:11:23.080 But even if the conservatives just want a minority, it's a start.
00:11:28.160 Polyev can get some stuff done.
00:11:29.680 And then if the opposition starts preventing him from implementing popular policy,
00:11:34.200 he would then have the ability to trigger an election, get the full majority
00:11:37.200 because Canadians are going to be like, well, he's trying to cut our taxes heavily
00:11:40.420 and the other parties are getting in the way.
00:11:42.500 If Polyev calls an election, I'm going to vote conservative to make sure I get that tax cut.
00:11:45.840 But now I'm just getting into gamifying this hypothetical scenario too much.
00:11:50.900 But anyways, with that all being said, thank you guys for watching.
00:11:54.440 Thank you for listening to me ramble about speculative rumors.
00:11:58.360 And I hope you will come back and watch the channel again.
00:12:01.080 I'll see you all next time.