True Patriot Love - Built By Canada, Controlled By Leverage

00:00:00.320 did we build a bridge or did we build a permission system and call it sovereignty

00:00:05.200 because paying for it isn't controlling it owning it isn't governing it and building it

00:00:11.600 isn't power and here is the uncomfortable part donald trump has no incentive to open this bridge

00:00:17.200 if traffic doesn't benefit him if leverage benefits him more than flow if delay creates

00:00:23.600 negotiating power then why rush it if another country can slow it with paperwork gate it with

00:00:29.200 approvals or stall it with process that's not partnership that's leverage we fronted the money

00:00:35.840 we carried the risk and we marketed sovereignty but whomever controls access timing and authorization

00:00:42.560 controls the bridge in sovereignty that depends on someone else's incentive isn't sovereignty it's

00:00:48.960 permission to this day the late great gordy house considered one of the greatest players in the

00:00:58.160 history of the nhl and definitely the strongest and toughest players the nhl has ever seen so

00:01:03.600 it's only appropriate the engineering marvel the new bridge that spans windsor and detroit

00:01:09.360 is now named the gordy howe bridge but there's a lot more to that story to talk more about it

00:01:13.440 as always thrilled to be joined by paul mccucci paul how are you good jim how you doing good good

00:01:17.920 well you know what this bridge so a lot of news lately about the bridge absolutely whether it's

00:01:23.280 going to open or not but you know i pulled some stats so i was really interested because you know i

00:01:28.240 i i mentioned to you um i spent a lot of time down in windsor building a huge project years ago so i i

00:01:34.800 was there and uh lived there and and had friends there and they constantly talked about what a marvel this

00:01:41.680 bridge is building from uh each side from the u.s side and the canadian side in the middle so and they

00:01:49.520 were all watching and taking pictures as it was going but you know i didn't realize so smart idea

00:01:54.960 because the ambassador bridge is getting older it was built in 1929 right so uh basically they thought

00:02:02.080 that this would handle roughly 30 of the canadian u.s truck trade um and of course would prevent

00:02:09.200 single point failures which is a huge problem in the ambassador bridge now it is and it always has

00:02:14.720 been for years as it got older and i know they've restructured it and they've rebuilt it but always

00:02:19.760 was um also uh provided for expansion in the corridor so now they're hoping that it'll be more

00:02:26.720 traffic um and it handles you know uh 2.5 million trucks per year and 6 000 daily commuters now the amount

00:02:35.760 of trade that goes over this bridge is 1.5 million dollars per minute per minute which equates to about

00:02:42.720 780 billion in uh hard numbers for trade across the corridor a year a year 780 billion 780 it's a lot

00:02:52.480 of money i didn't realize it was that much wow employment uh is crazy so it it employs a ton of

00:02:59.520 people of course through the construction period um and there's 9 million jobs directly linked to the

00:03:06.480 success of this bridge so that's significant yeah this corridor now you know we do know that this is uh

00:03:14.480 a project that um was in the trudeau snyder uh governor snyder era yeah that that was the governor

00:03:20.880 before whitmer whitmer right so it's 2018 they started construction exactly and they signed the deal yeah so

00:03:27.040 and they created uh the windsor detroit uh bridge association which was remember dwight duncan yes which is

00:03:35.280 the finance finance minister of ontario so they they and they had lots of problems right they from day

00:03:41.120 one there was lawsuits uh uh maddie maroon and and the ambassador bridge owner the billionaire uh sued

00:03:48.080 them and it actually up to this day i think they filed another lawsuit in november which the courts are

00:03:54.320 going to hear um uh about whether or not he had exclusivity to the tolls on the canadian side

00:04:01.440 uh per an old uh charter that that he's referencing a lot of people may not realize it watching and

00:04:08.320 listening but the ambassador bridge is owned by a business person it's a billionaire actually owns the

00:04:13.760 ambassador bridge yeah well it's a family yeah it's a maroon family if i'm saying it correctly and uh

00:04:21.200 basically they own it uh there's lots of controversy about meetings that happened uh before trump kind of

00:04:27.280 weighed in on whether he would allow the bridge to be opened or not so the allegation is howard

00:04:32.640 lutnik had a meeting with the owners of the bridge and the lo and behold all of a sudden trump starts

00:04:38.080 talking about we're not going to open it the gordy howe bridge yeah well if you think about it i know

00:04:43.440 you know it's interesting how this is all shaking out because um there's a some a lot of financial

00:04:49.760 consequences in canada of course we have some big companies involved in the bridge acon being the biggest one

00:04:56.400 which is a huge company which is a huge company um and then then we have some political you know

00:05:02.640 which we've talked about on a lot of shows um challenges with trump now changing his position

00:05:09.040 on wanting trade or as much trade from canada to us and so you know his flip-flopping of this since

00:05:17.120 you know back in uh when he was first the the president of the united states is obvious but he

00:05:23.680 signed off in 2018 there was no objections he did but now he's now he's you know he's sort of recanting

00:05:30.320 it saying i'm not too happy about this canada's taken so much they didn't use enough uh labor and

00:05:37.680 enough trades on the bridge we don't we don't participate in this now there's some it went through

00:05:44.080 and we dug through it was hard to find we tried to look you know through the financial statements this

00:05:48.320 what we had to go back into 2018 to and before uh and dig through a lot of information on the signing

00:05:56.160 of these agreements and everything what we found was very interesting so the bridge is projected to take

00:06:03.040 36 years to cover the 6.4 billion dollars right and there's a number of parties so not all that is by

00:06:11.920 footed by canada some of it is put it uh footed by uh a bridge association correct which is made up of

00:06:21.680 the equity holders which is acon uh dragados uh floor so they're they're the major companies that own 40 40

00:06:30.880 and 20 of that bna um so a lot of that is their equity and also debt yes so that they've incurred so

00:06:40.640 it's quite a bit of money it's actually when we looked at uh bna share of the capital financing

00:06:46.480 uh they've taken 446 million in senior bonds uh they've taken 587 million in short-term senior

00:06:55.680 construction facility and 93 million equity secured by the credit uh and anello a letter of intent

00:07:04.960 but real quick we should point out that uh governor whitmer of michigan and the people

00:07:10.560 of detroit in that area are all for this bridge they're totally gung-ho for the bridge and they

00:07:16.960 know what i think a lot of canadian politicians and business people know paul that donald trump's

00:07:22.000 only going to be around a few more years and then that trump's going to that bridge that gordie howe

00:07:25.920 bridge is going to be vital for as you say close to 800 billion dollars worth of goods crossing over

00:07:32.240 that border every year it is but you know well and we don't we can't predict the future but you know

00:07:38.480 now we were talking about it before he's sure putting uh vance and rubio out front to try to get

00:07:45.040 profile because of all his um challenges behind the scenes right now with epstein and some other

00:07:51.360 political issues he's got going on but you know as that progresses it sure leaves these companies at

00:07:58.400 risk and that's where i was going so we have one spanish company one canadian company and one u.s

00:08:03.040 company that are the primarily debt holders on this then you have the canadian people um who are

00:08:09.680 really riding this risk out if this thing doesn't open because we fronted the money

00:08:15.120 you know what mark carney's approval rating right now is through the roof yes people have so much

00:08:21.680 faith in him his approval rating the way he's governing this will be similar to what stephen harper

00:08:27.440 did with gm and oshawa what pierre trudeau did with crown corporations back in the day i can remember

00:08:35.040 air canada being propped up and gm and other that and whether or not the taxpayers will like it

00:08:40.880 mark carney will not allow this to fail well so if it means that canadian taxpayers have to front some

00:08:46.560 money to make sure all the creditors are being paid their full price i can see the canadian government

00:08:52.400 doing it yeah well the real challenge is if it ever opens so the you know and a lot of people

00:08:57.360 saying oh he's bluffing and that but you know it's interesting and and what we've learned a little

00:09:02.720 bit about you know president trump and the things he tent you know when he says stuff he does do it and

00:09:09.840 you know it might sound you know there's times he backs off a little there's times he'll make it

00:09:14.160 conditional but for the most part he you know if he's going in a direction you kind of know he's going

00:09:19.040 in that direction and it's very interesting now with with him wanting to slow down the exports from

00:09:25.520 canada to the us with all the things going on from davos forward is this really his signaling now

00:09:32.480 that you know similar to what he's doing with oil and venezuela is he making that move to sort of

00:09:38.640 signal to us that this bridge is never going to open if this bridge doesn't open it sits there

00:09:45.680 as a as kind of a monument to a failed relationship and then quite frankly these companies that you know

00:09:54.160 it's it's interesting when you looked at it um there's a payment in the agreement of 2.3 million

00:10:00.320 that's supposed to go to these companies on a monthly basis over 30 years so that translates roughly

00:10:06.240 to 900 million so you know they uh took a bunch of construction loans they as i just mentioned they

00:10:15.280 put equity into this deal but the profitability for them the return is magnificent but the risk

00:10:21.600 risk in this deal see the risk in this deal is something i think we're we're kind of glazing over

00:10:27.280 and i think trump's picked up on that risk right we fronted the money you know he's he's really got

00:10:33.280 only one party in this an engineering company that is in a really involved it in it that probably won't

00:10:39.840 get paid or will lose some money so is he willing to step in and maybe take care of them and then just not

00:10:48.320 allow it to open that's really the question of the day and you use the term risk the risk right now

00:10:55.360 for donald trump if he pulls something like that is that whole rust belt in the united states that

00:11:01.760 relies on that gordy howe bridge it's already looking like a bloodbath at the midterms they're

00:11:07.520 already talking about key sections of texas of all places are going to flip and if he starts losing

00:11:14.480 areas that he got him elected like the hard-working people of ohio and michigan and pennsylvania

00:11:22.720 because they can't get goods across the border well he has to start thinking about that but yeah

00:11:27.440 he's doing it now but come november he's going to lose everything but they're going to get they're

00:11:31.920 still gonna be able to use the ambassador bridge right sure so when there's a problem okay when there's

00:11:37.520 a fender bender on the ambassador bridge and goods and services and traffic's not moving and you see

00:11:43.440 a brand new state-of-the-art highly engineered bridge empty how do you think that's gonna play

00:11:48.960 out oh it's it's gonna hurt yeah it's gonna hurt a lot of people but it's interesting sort of the

00:11:54.000 predicament we put ourselves in so now is this a play for him to come back and say well you know

00:12:00.000 we were gonna start to uh get some money from the bridge after canada was recouped so that's where how

00:12:06.640 i understand the deal is structured you know okay from what i can glean from the agreements so and that was

00:12:12.880 like 36 years best case scenario so now is he going to come back and say no we don't want to do that

00:12:18.400 anymore we want tolls from day one is he going to renegotiate it so this is an interesting point we

00:12:24.400 left ourself we left our flank open a little bit in this negotiation and we did this and you know it's

00:12:30.080 always hard when you reach an agreement because there's goodwill at the beginning but in politics

00:12:34.320 as the climate changes you always have to have a contingency plan and in this case are we really left

00:12:40.080 ourselves open for renegotiation of this agreement and therefore a longer repayment term or canadians

00:12:46.880 looking at a hundred year repayment term for this bridge if you're asking me probably yes and for a

00:12:52.400 number of reasons paul that's probably the likely scenario hey but trump trump in some ways is needs

00:12:58.960 a victory right now he's getting hammered on all sides with epstein oh yeah people are and now in the

00:13:04.400 united states are crying because their mortgages have doubled in five years people can't afford to feed

00:13:09.760 themselves there is a huge problem with the economy in america and he is facing political armageddon at

00:13:16.560 the midterm so if that comes like let's do a deal we'll start doing the tolls now we'll open up the

00:13:22.160 gordy howe bridge maybe he can save some face in the midwest but right now i he can't afford not to have

00:13:28.560 the bridge open with all the issues he's facing right now in his delusional mind he thinks he's winning

00:13:34.240 but to the average american person struggling put food on the table he's not winning but is he but

00:13:39.360 he's giving himself as he figured out a leverage point here with which to negotiate and you know

00:13:45.040 i i get it you know he's you know it's politics is fickle and quite frankly you know with him lining

00:13:52.000 up in uh iran now and he's got a third of his navy off the coast yeah he's got a third of his navy if he

00:13:58.240 goes in and uh you know for all purposes saves the country right right uh you have you know you have

00:14:04.800 hundreds of thousands of people here in toronto this weekend uh you know asking him to do that

00:14:11.280 uh in some shape or form then does he come out of it i'm a hero does he get redeemed from that and then

00:14:16.960 quite frankly stepping in and then bending us and actually taking tolls from day one off of that bridge

00:14:24.400 he looks like he's a great negotiator it is a very interesting uh philosophy it's very interesting

00:14:30.080 strategy to come at us at this late date i did with his diminished cognitive abilities there's

00:14:39.040 no way around it he's not as sharp as he was 10 years ago he is not can he create a deal like that

00:14:45.760 or are you banking on rubio and vance to be the brains behind a deal like that because you mentioned

00:14:50.880 earlier that they're the ones that are being thrown out there as the face of the administration right

00:14:54.400 now but but he's got lutnik and he's got murin he's got some really smart people behind him right

00:14:59.680 now lutnik is toxic right now with everything that's come out the epstein files i would hide him in a cave

00:15:06.080 the last thing that trump wants to do is put lutnik out there because he has a lot to answer for

00:15:11.200 and that is the problem that dark cloud hanging over trump and all his inner circle is their ties to the

00:15:16.560 epstein files what did they know what did they do were they compliant what role did they play in

00:15:23.440 this in the american people more and more as this rolls out paul they don't care about are you going

00:15:28.640 to cut a deal on bridge what are you doing on iran they want to know what happened to those kids what

00:15:32.800 happened to those girls i'm with you i'm with you i just think i just my thinking on it as we roll

00:15:39.120 forward does that get all muted with the events that are going to come so that now that is a

00:15:44.880 possibility or or you know he they've diluted so much info they've put so much information into the

00:15:50.480 the atmosphere right if if the war breaks out in iran if they go in and and save the country

00:15:58.320 does it just set him up and and you know this bridge uh is important to us right now it's hugely

00:16:03.520 important hugely important to us but it also won't bode well if we come out of it and we left

00:16:11.280 ourself open to be renegotiated and quite frankly that was you know in any deal whether it's government

00:16:16.160 or business you have to figure out your risks and quite frankly there's a lot of smart people on both

00:16:22.880 sides i in that time someone should be thinking what if our relationship because at that time jim

00:16:29.520 trudeau and trump weren't exactly hitting it off right but no one thought it would get to this

00:16:33.680 point paul no but that is that's the big issue i i'm with you they cut a deal not thinking it would

00:16:39.360 get to this point right but you know as i'm doing my legals and i have my strategists at the table

00:16:45.680 there's a bunch of bright people usually around sitting there doing um you know strategies to figure

00:16:51.840 out how not to make these mistakes that's a big border crossing you saw the numbers on it it's

00:16:56.720 staggering it's staggering and i'm just shocked a little bit that we left our flank open to be at

00:17:01.440 this point to even have this conversation there should have been shouldn't there have been a clause

00:17:06.240 in there that if if for some reason like a poison pill clause they didn't open it they'd have they'd

00:17:11.920 have to pony up half and this goes back to there i'm not hammering justin trudeau he did some things

00:17:20.640 that were okay but if you had to negotiate this deal and you had a magic wand you could have mark

00:17:26.640 carney at the negotiating table in his inner circle with all his experience or justin trudeau

00:17:31.840 who do you think would have negotiated a better deal that would have had more fail safes in there

00:17:36.240 like that and this is the problem now carney has got to deal with the aftermath of the deal that trudeau

00:17:41.200 negotiated but isn't oh yeah i'm with you and time and time again and on these this show and other

00:17:46.960 shows we talk about it jim the public accountability and you know i think in my mind we should have made

00:17:53.920 this agreement and the the conditions of this agreement more public we should have talked about

00:17:59.040 it of course we should you know again we do this as canadians all the time we do these soundbite uh

00:18:03.920 information sessions where we say you know they're uh they're about to sign you know they've got two guys

00:18:08.800 sitting at the table you know doing this right and we don't publish the agreements we don't talk about

00:18:14.320 the agreements and if we think we're open these are taxpayer dollars this this is your and my kid's

00:18:22.320 future giving this money away so and and then when things go wrong they go wait a sec i didn't know

00:18:28.160 that yeah he did it right and i get it you know like one of these right yeah and i get it but we're we

00:18:34.880 seem to be doing a lot of shows lately where we're going back and saying well the old

00:18:38.480 administration didn't have this closet the old man you got to stop that right because one of the

00:18:43.360 reasons we're not being so productive and i just did a show on real estate the gentleman on the real

00:18:47.840 estate he said to me you know why is the average income in the united states 65 000 and the average

00:18:55.120 income in canada is 54 whatever it is right i said productivity levels that's why it is quite frankly

00:19:01.680 yeah i know we need the productivity for this bridge this bridge is very important to productivity

00:19:07.120 but we don't want to we don't want to increase our productivity and then be on the hook for

00:19:13.680 another 36 years of payments to get the money back so based on that paul based about the the average

00:19:20.480 salary and that's a telling statement to me the gordy howe bridge then is more important for canada and

00:19:26.000 mark carney's government than ever before so that tells me that they will have to spend the money

00:19:32.320 necessary to keep the bridge open as distasteful as a lot of canadians might think to keep all trump

00:19:38.160 happy yeah well and that's i think where he's going like i think he's going to read he's going to

00:19:44.880 uh renegotiate this deal he's going to leave canada holding the bag uh double up the repayment term from 36

00:19:52.640 to 72 years and basically start taking dollars out from day one think about jim he has said that he

00:19:59.520 doesn't want uh you know he doesn't want canadian goods nope so think about what's going over that

00:20:04.160 border we just talked about the huge numbers steel aluminum parts soft lumber auto parts all the things

00:20:12.960 that he said that he does not want from canada anymore so what a way to start this right is to say

00:20:21.120 i'm not going to open the bridge let them come back okay you can open the bridge at the end

00:20:25.920 i'm going to take toll dollars from day one so in other words i'm going to enact my i'm going to take

00:20:32.640 my tariff i'm going to take my tolls and quite frankly if you want to ship things to the u.s still

00:20:37.600 and pay the tariff and pay the tolls have at it now if i'm carney i will do this i'll tell you why

00:20:45.760 carney's probably thinking in a few years there'll be an election i'm likely going to win a majority

00:20:51.040 i'll be here after trump and when trump is out of the picture whomever is president at that time

00:20:57.280 hey let's revisit this deal because i think he's trying to placate trump short term for the benefit

00:21:04.240 of canada because they need that second bridge and they need the gordy howe bridge open and commerce

00:21:09.280 going back and forth as soon as possible and and think about it too so uh the ambassador bridge is a

00:21:15.760 u.s company yes so not only is he getting income tax from that u.s company he doesn't have to sit

00:21:23.280 36 years to wait to get any money from so every dollar that goes to the ambassador bridge he makes

00:21:28.400 money from every dollar that goes from the gordy howe bridge he's waiting to get the for canada recoup

00:21:34.880 and then start to participate in he has no interest in this deal and i don't know who cut it i don't you

00:21:40.080 know whoever sat down in the trudeau days and cut it i'm not sure it was making a lot of sense quite

00:21:45.200 frankly obviously he he was president at the time but but would not he have signed off on it uh you

00:21:52.400 know it was between michigan and uh in canada canada so it was kind of a weird when you look at the

00:21:59.520 agreement is uh uh the governor of michigan and and uh trudeau so that's kind of the way it's structured

00:22:06.640 um he's only so it's interesting and i think this is a really key point and i mentioned it earlier

00:22:11.840 in the show yeah depending on the way the supreme court decision comes down so if the supreme court

00:22:17.920 decision comes down in favor of his tariffs and the fact that he called the emergencies you know act and

00:22:24.800 everything to get the tariffs into place then quite frankly he probably uses that for the bridge to get

00:22:31.280 even more leverage so there's you know this is interesting the next month or few weeks we don't

00:22:37.200 know when that decision is coming out you know they say it's imminent all the time but they've been

00:22:41.760 saying that for the last two weeks now we should point out this comes on the heels that congress

00:22:47.120 basically shot down the tariffs yeah well i don't think here's the interesting part where he's struggling

00:22:52.400 with his with his own uh republican uh group he he they can't in their home writings basically uh go

00:23:02.640 against uh the constituents no so there's he's struggling he is struggling with trying to get

00:23:09.760 people to get on board because now it's he they're seeing the impacts right they're seeing uh jobs lost

00:23:16.880 they're seeing the impacts of the tariffs now they keep telling everyone that that gdp is going up

00:23:22.480 that inflation is going down affordability is getting better but the fact is they are seeing

00:23:27.840 job job losses and in america you know because they have a lot of states have an at will so you

00:23:35.360 can fire at will americans are hold on to their jobs a lot more dear than canadians they don't have

00:23:40.720 severance laws in a lot of states a lot of states are absent of that so quite i didn't realize that

00:23:46.000 oh yeah you in a lot of states you don't have to pay severance you can fire someone tomorrow they're

00:23:50.160 gone so you work really hard to keep your job because quite frankly you never know if you're

00:23:54.880 going to get another one well and the guy behind you can just take it so yeah it's very tough you

00:23:59.120 know i've worked in certain states where the people are uh very controlling of information they don't

00:24:04.640 share a lot because they're worried about protecting their job security through information so you know

00:24:10.080 they have a lot of issues so it's these jobs are moving around americans are getting a little more

00:24:14.240 uh nervous with this so he's struggling away so when it goes to the you know the house and they

00:24:20.240 start voting a lot of people are like okay they know that he can veto the bill so they know that

00:24:25.840 the bill is not going to go anywhere so they put up a you know four of them walk over and vote on behalf

00:24:31.040 to show their constituents they're trying to work a resolution out at the end of the day do they if it

00:24:36.800 really meant something would they do it i don't know if they would he was pretty nasty i don't know when

00:24:41.200 when they did do it saying that he would eliminate them you know he would go against them and put money

00:24:46.560 behind to knock them out uh his own republican house members you know what paul the average american

00:24:53.600 working class the price of that pickup truck i can't afford it now yeah my mortgage has gone up i can

00:24:59.680 barely afford it when i go to the grocery store i can barely afford it they're looking at basic survival

00:25:06.240 roof on the over the head food on the table and able to get from point a to point b in some

00:25:11.040 kind of vehicle so if trump is doing stuff to hurt them republican and democrat they're they're pushing

00:25:17.600 back against that oh yeah and remember michigan is democrat right so the the governor and so you

00:25:23.360 know they're making a big stink they're they're running a bill right now um that they think will

00:25:28.800 help and uh get the bridge open i don't know if it will quite frankly because i think it's going to

00:25:33.440 become a federal issue if he wants to push it forward but uh governor whitmer desperately wants it open

00:25:39.200 yeah and you know we we i know it's hard to negotiate with them and i know we're taking a

00:25:44.800 pretty uh aggressive tact uh you know because again you know to deal with uh bully that's the way we're

00:25:51.440 looking at it um but it is you know these are the consequences now would it have happened anyways i think

00:25:58.000 it would have quite frankly i think when i think when he when this came uh around and it uh attention was

00:26:04.320 sean on it which it was by the ambassador bridge family um that owns it i i think you know they

00:26:10.400 looked at it and said well this doesn't make sense for us anymore and that's let's put this you know

00:26:15.120 on hold but it reeks to high heaven that the owners of the ambassador bridge go to howard lutnik of all

00:26:20.320 people and then the next day trump comes up with that but but you know i know and i know they want

00:26:25.040 an investigation and uh the state of michigan's asked for the governor um but but here's the thing

00:26:30.720 it's a he's he has consistently told us america first so everything they do now is from the lens

00:26:36.880 of americans so if they sit down and do the economic analysis of where revenues are going to come in

00:26:42.320 for the country they don't look at this bridge positively right it's not something that they're

00:26:46.880 looking at saying i'm going to make i'm going to make a ton of money from this bridge in the short

00:26:50.320 term he's he's worried about his lifespan uh you know listen a friend of mine an older gentleman i

00:26:58.000 worked with years ago he said i don't even buy green bananas anymore and you know because i might

00:27:02.320 not be around and trump's kind of in that situation now right meanwhile all the border states are dying

00:27:08.240 yeah no cross-border shopping vegas is empty no it is hurting um american tourism is down to levels

00:27:15.760 they've never seen before they those governors of those states and those mayors of those border towns

00:27:22.240 are desperate for canadians to get back to crossing the border right they're dying on the vine but he's

00:27:28.560 consistently saying you know this is that uh in the previous show i did on real estate how americans

00:27:34.080 are resilient and they pick up they jump in their u-hauls and they go take other jobs he's saying to

00:27:38.640 the american people these other jobs are coming you need to jump you know sell jump in your car move to

00:27:44.560 those states that's the you know that is traditionally what they do and quite frankly that's what he's

00:27:50.240 encouraging to happen so if you're living in nevada he's saying hey nevada might be slower now a lot of

00:27:55.920 you might need to transition into another trade or yeah you know and that that that is the resilience

00:28:01.600 of america that i noticed when i lived there as canadians we're not used to that right canadians

00:28:06.320 is great frankly we we live in a we live in a province we usually stay there our whole lives our

00:28:10.800 kids stay there you know in america it's more you know transitory but those border states michigan new

00:28:17.920 york state you know minnesota mean washington state all those border states eventually if a

00:28:24.880 lot of people keep moving as he says what's happening to their tax base what happens to

00:28:29.840 their future of the state this well this the city's closed down that's the other thing i couldn't you

00:28:34.800 know we're not used to that either there it's nothing for a city to close down in america

00:28:41.120 it's nothing for the main you know the steel plant to close and next thing the city is gone

00:28:45.520 yeah i was also shocked at that like you'd be you'd be driving along uh you'd land in a state and

00:28:50.400 you'd be moving along you'd say to someone what what's over there oh that used to be the city of

00:28:54.640 bubba and i'd be like well where are the people well the the mill closed down the city's gone that was

00:28:59.200 it and they'd just be the abandoned mill and uh banding buildings and homes all around it because i

00:29:04.240 know west virginia's got a real problem and a lot of places like that it's ghost towns right oh it is

00:29:10.160 even when i was you know in the the time i was there for years you'd go into west virginia it was

00:29:15.520 scary and now it's way worse oh yeah it's way worse but it was scary back then like it was scary how

00:29:20.800 poor and how abandoned the the state was and you look and you go oh my okay so if that's the case

00:29:26.560 paul wooden as a president you want every bridge and every it makes no sense what he's doing his

00:29:32.480 strategy he's cutting off his nose to spite his face and he's saying all these platitudes and all these

00:29:38.560 sound bites but the average american are taking it on the chin they are but again he's encouraging

00:29:45.200 them to go where the jobs are and that's where i think we as canadians don't understand what they're

00:29:50.400 doing that's what they're doing he's saying their jobs happening here there's industries happening here

00:29:55.840 you need to relocate there and you need to start it seems weird when you say it but that's that's

00:30:01.760 culturally how they do it you know in the meantime at the same time all this is happening mark carney

00:30:07.360 announced today that they're going to spend billions building military equipment for the armed forces in

00:30:12.560 the next decade and 70 of all the procurement money has to be manufactured in canada oh and i love it

00:30:19.440 now for and this is our another show for another day we need to talk about who's going to do it and

00:30:26.000 how they're going to do it because i think that's the missing absolutely yeah but i mean for trump to say

00:30:30.800 that to americans they have to have an industry in a factory and manufacturing to go to and so he's

00:30:38.640 saying a lot of these things that i just he this is where i think he's he's losing america he's losing

00:30:45.920 the republicans he's losing a lot of the influencers they're turning in him because they're like wait a

00:30:50.640 second my family can't afford basic necessities and all the stuff's happening with epstein island and all

00:30:58.320 the stuff's happening with the world and i think a lot of americans have lost complete faith even

00:31:03.840 his mega supporters are losing faith in him well and yeah they are because think about it

00:31:09.840 they have to pick up sell they have to move they have to relocate friends family right right but you

00:31:18.160 know since uh since world war ii that's kind of been their world so he's saying that is your world you're

00:31:26.480 going to be doing this for the country this is the direction we're going and that's what he's whether

00:31:30.880 they like it or not that's the direction he's taking them and that was the fault of the whole

00:31:35.360 plan from the very beginning in my mind when we when he first rolled out you know uh cutting off

00:31:41.440 other countries and producing at home yeah was how do you find the people at home how do you convince

00:31:47.920 them to work again at that level how do you convince them to go back in the factories and you know

00:31:52.960 we're not we're not uh without the same challenge and i know recently we're we're going to hit this

00:31:59.040 on another show but recently we changed sort of our osap loans yes in canada grants we actually went

00:32:05.760 to actually increasing our tuitions we we did some things for education which i think are signaling a

00:32:11.200 little bit the same thing here in canada right now we want people to seriously look at going into

00:32:16.480 trades and not going continuing education because i think we got into a little bit of a cycle where

00:32:22.320 people kept re-upping to educate rather than going into the you know the work environment but the

00:32:29.280 back to the bridge paul i mean if if he he has to cut some kind of deal with carney carney will do a

00:32:35.840 deal he's smart enough business person short term he's no maybe it's going to hurt a bit financially

00:32:41.440 but long term next 5 10 50 years it benefits canada that that gordie howe bridge is an engineering marvel

00:32:48.800 and we'll be if we're talking close to 800 billion a year now with the one bridge how much more could

00:32:54.480 they do with the two bridges well if he'll let them bring stuff over and if he does do a deal that's

00:33:00.480 the two ifs that we've left ourself open to and quite frankly if he does do a deal you better get

00:33:06.000 ready because he's going to rub salt in that wound like no tomorrow that we left ourself open and and

00:33:10.960 that's a shame that we did you know what it may be a shame but i i've every week that goes by i have

00:33:17.920 less and less confidence that trump's going to make it to the end of his term for a variety of

00:33:22.160 reasons so i think carney's like okay fine you want to do that i'll be here after you you'll be

00:33:27.680 gone and i'll still be prime minister of canada and i'll still be building the country oh i agree i

00:33:32.320 think you know as we talked earlier i think that's why he's spending more time now pushing forward rubio

00:33:37.600 and vance to sort of take the helm and i think you're going to see more of that going forward i know we

00:33:42.400 that's why you push paul micucci because he's our guy

True Patriot Love - February 19, 2026

Built By Canada, Controlled By Leverage

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