True Patriot Love - January 04, 2026


Carney Sends Another $2 Billion to Ukraine — Paul & Jim Ask: Enough Is Enough?


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It was a merry Christmas for most of us, but not all of us. Well christmas came a little bit later than most us for Vladimir Zelinski in Ukraine, as Prime Minister Mark Carney in halifax gave the Ukrainian government $2.5 billion in loan guarantees, something that a lot of canadians are confused about. To talk more about it and to break it down, we're joined by Paul McCallum and Jim McCartan.

Transcript

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00:00:00.000 well christmas came a little bit later than most of us for vladimir zielinski in ukraine
00:00:10.320 as prime minister mark carney in halifax gave the ukraine and zielinski 2.5 billion dollars
00:00:17.360 in loan guarantees something that a lot of canadians are confused about it to talk more
00:00:21.920 about it and to break it down as always joined by paul mccucci paul how are you good jim yeah
00:00:26.640 merry christmas yeah merry christmas and happy new year well it was a merry christmas for ukraine
00:00:31.280 again and a wow a lump of coal for a lot of canadians struggling through the holidays struggling
00:00:37.280 to heat their homes and prepare themselves for a new year where we've already been told
00:00:42.960 the price of foods going up and now our government it's another 2.5 billion and a lot of us are
00:00:48.800 wondering why why now well yeah why now uh you know it's interesting so we thought the
00:00:56.640 the prime minister was done for the year you know he basically said he's cutting off he's actually
00:01:02.800 heading out for vacation we'll see in the new year so you know we're like okay uh pierre paulia was
00:01:08.720 doing his rounds trying to do a wrap-up why things happened to his party so you know that's all we were
00:01:13.840 seeing the next thing you know we're watching the tv and up pops uh the prime minister heading to
00:01:19.600 halifax to have a meeting i don't think anyone was aware i don't even know how many press actually
00:01:26.560 got into play no press yeah no press and so he heads to halifax i was trying to figure out why
00:01:34.000 halifax quite frankly but i guess it's it was the refueling for planes and everything were occurring
00:01:40.720 in halifax it's the closest uh port i guess for him to get into um they had a quick meeting and then
00:01:47.840 there was the announcement that 2.5 billion dollars was going to be given uh additionally to the ukraine
00:01:54.560 which takes the total up to 22 billion dollars so and that's that's life to date so you know and
00:02:02.000 a lot of this money you know when we dug into it because you know then everyone started asking the
00:02:06.000 question i asked the question i'm like okay how much have we given to the ukraine so it's 22 billion
00:02:11.200 um you know and that's kind of starting from 2022 moving forward uh what did it go towards you know
00:02:18.240 what has been the allocation of funds and how much has been paid
00:02:21.360 so and how much of it is the interesting one for our viewers how much are grants how much are loans
00:02:27.840 um and how much will we see as canadians back to us yeah how much will we see back to us and that
00:02:33.040 was the trump i don't know for just going to back up for a minute when trump i remember the first white
00:02:38.640 house meeting when he got with zelinski and he was yelling at him well a lot of that meeting i think
00:02:45.120 the backdrop to that meeting was um biden had pretty much given grants right so what was happening is
00:02:53.040 what was unfolding in front of everyone is trump was saying no no time out you know i i'm going to loans
00:03:00.560 because the eu uh as always with any country been notorious through the imf uh a lot of it is actually
00:03:10.960 making sure that when countries get money they get it as loans not as grants biden was not doing that
00:03:16.800 right he was he was basically giving uh you know military equipment everything it was just going right
00:03:23.120 it was just going to the without any questions asked and without any money ever being uh coming back or
00:03:30.000 commitments or anything so trump got aboard and he he had that big fight with them and then he came
00:03:35.440 back so you know a lot of what happened on the 27th with our prime minister was through a loan programs
00:03:42.240 which is i i think that probably gave me a little more comfort that he is um primarily trying to uh utilize
00:03:51.200 the loan mechanisms through the imf because the imf uh back 2022 created a uh
00:04:00.000 an account an administered account for the ukraine which all the donations to the ukraine would funny
00:04:05.680 through loans donations and such so you know i think he was trying to utilize that the question
00:04:11.600 becomes i think you know we're into it for 22 billion um out of the 22 billion you know our military
00:04:18.960 assistance is about 6.5 billion that's not going to come back never so that's the equipment the armored
00:04:24.880 vehicles the drones everything we've given to the ukraine correct that's a huge number it's 6.5 billion
00:04:32.800 the humanitarian funding which equates to about 372 million is for health services and displaced
00:04:39.280 population which there's a lot of right so that was kind of the money that's not coming back right
00:04:44.160 right that's out there that's gone that's in a grant format um development assistance uh this is for
00:04:51.040 victims of violence mental health this kind of uh it's a 700 million dollar uh amount it's big it's
00:04:58.960 kind of the unallocated funds i'd say you know a lot of it just goes to a lot of programs but it does
00:05:03.840 go to sort of agriculture and energy which i think is good and probably the rebuilding of the country
00:05:08.960 so that's kind of where some of it goes and then 12.1 billion that's the money that's actually being
00:05:16.240 loaned so you know that 12.1 billion is the money we've kind of put through the imf we've loaned uh
00:05:24.640 the us and the eu have direct relationships on loans with the ukraine the rest of the 190 countries
00:05:32.160 that make up uh the imf basically are moving through this administered account okay so that's
00:05:40.240 kind of how it's functioning security on it so let's talk about that for a minute there's none
00:05:45.040 none though there's you know that's concerning for any country giving them money yeah and when i
00:05:49.760 mean none i mean like uh you know hopefully their 10-year uh loan agreements some of it will come back
00:05:59.040 i think our earlier discussion is we're hoping hoping hoping that when the reconstruction of the
00:06:05.920 country happens which it's interesting now some of the monies that we're giving even part of the
00:06:11.440 part of the 2.5 uh actually a large part of the 2.5 was for reconstruction and development of the
00:06:19.920 ukraine's uh gas and energy security um so a lot of that was going to that from the 2.5 billion and
00:06:28.480 other parts of that were going for infrastructure loans so they're already the countries are already
00:06:33.200 starting to loan money for the rebuilding and the war's not even over well that's i think part of that
00:06:39.280 just to just to make a point is they feel that they're into the home stretch of the peace negotiations
00:06:44.640 i hope i think everyone hopes enough is enough and there has been talk for zelinski's trying to get
00:06:50.000 15 20 25 year guarantee of no comp a peace guarantee right so they'll need that couple decades to get back
00:06:58.560 to normal whatever normal is to rebuild some of the most basic infrastructure water sewage gas
00:07:05.680 hydro all across the country has to be rebuilt unfortunately ukraine has suffered enormously
00:07:11.840 and not the least of which the russians have placed hundreds of thousands of land mines across the
00:07:18.000 country yes and even whatever territory they get back they have to clear those land mines yeah no i agree
00:07:24.000 with you jim and you know it's it's it's uh terrible and you know just to say so this show and we as we
00:07:30.400 started the show i just wanted to jump in and say we all want peace so let's wait yes immediately right
00:07:36.640 the challenge is for a country of canada's size the price of peace in the ukraine is becoming overwhelming
00:07:43.920 for us and i think that that's where we're kind of all starting to realize you know when is the tap out
00:07:49.520 time because we've been a really big contributor we're you know behind if you look at it you know of
00:07:56.320 course the us and the combined eu countries have made up you know i think it's the eu's 200 billion
00:08:04.320 right now the us is about 130 billion to date so there's 350 billion been roughly estimated spent on
00:08:14.480 the war um and out of the remaining part canada is a big portion it's almost you know two-thirds of all
00:08:21.680 the other 190 countries the fundings come from canada so we're in for it for 22 billion um so
00:08:27.920 it's been a significant contribution from canada overall um but you know is a country our size with
00:08:35.040 40 million people it's it's you know it's roughly you know equating right now to the you know somewhere
00:08:42.560 about 300 roughly 300 a person in canada is the contribution so it's a lot of money for canadians
00:08:50.400 if family of four is at 1200 supporting that war um and it's getting to a point where if it
00:08:56.960 continues on and this is what kind of got me out of the thing out of coming out of the next meeting
00:09:01.840 that he had with uh with trump you know it didn't get resolved no you know they were hoping they had
00:09:09.200 lots of calls yes i know which we talked about uh they he went back home and then it started there's
00:09:15.440 talk now that 2026 the cash requirement for the war is going to be about 170 billion dollars
00:09:23.280 if it continues and it's like think about canada right now we are fighting our own financial war
00:09:30.160 with our biggest trading partner the united states we are when we started giving money to ukraine we
00:09:35.760 didn't have to worry about donald trump we didn't have to worry about tariffs or the 51st state yeah and
00:09:41.600 business was going back and forth no problem so now we have an economy that's taken a hit
00:09:46.960 over the last couple years we have a lot of people struggling with food insecurity with housing with
00:09:54.000 finding a job so that's why i think a lot of us like wait a second we've given them a lot of money
00:09:59.280 we want peace we've tried to help ukraine yeah all that we can but why this money why these loans right
00:10:05.520 now what i didn't understand what carney the liberals hope to gain and what carney's end game
00:10:11.200 is it was not explained well and that's i think that's your point you know if you look at uh where
00:10:16.320 the monies are going in detail so when you break it down you know healthcare for example in the ukraine
00:10:21.760 it's going we talked about it's going for healthcare so hospital operations need to keep funded we get
00:10:27.200 that it's a work but in canada right now we have er closures we have hospital bed we've done shows on
00:10:33.120 it right it's a gentleman just died in edmonton because he was in the yard too long exactly just
00:10:38.080 days ago it's going for uh ukrainian pensions so part of the funding is going to keep their pension
00:10:44.560 for seniors going their pensions their pensions so part of that money gets allocated to their pension
00:10:50.000 program to keep it going because they don't have an economy function well okay but there are millions
00:10:54.720 of canadians right now who are working well into their 70s because they don't have a pension well and
00:10:59.680 well that's we've extended our our uh retirement ages and we quite frankly have a lot of seniors
00:11:04.800 with food issues yeah food insecurity issues so it's going to education to keep their schools open
00:11:10.560 and everything else again you know we're at the point even in this province right now we have
00:11:15.600 the government taking over our school boards plus problems with community colleges and universities
00:11:21.120 overcrowding and shutting of colleges right and cutting programs exactly housing right of course housing
00:11:27.760 support right now in the ukraine that's part of the money is going to housing support i don't even
00:11:31.520 want to get into homeless encampments and quite frankly the our housing you know we do many shows
00:11:37.200 on it it's a mess and from coast to coast there's no province that's escaped it paul right infrastructure
00:11:43.760 as you mentioned because everything's been blown up so the monies are going to infrastructure
00:11:48.400 we're struggling right now with aging bridges roads traffic traffic given our immigration over the 1.00
00:11:54.960 last few years is horrendous we can't seem to get light rail put to bed you saw what happened in the
00:12:00.960 yukon a few days ago no they had a deep deep freeze and overwhelmed their grid their power yeah and it
00:12:07.680 was minus 50 some of the windchill yeah and their power grade couldn't handle it yeah and that's our
00:12:12.800 own infrastructure yeah we're we're actually using part of that that part of those loans that are going
00:12:17.920 there are basically for policing courts and to keep their courts open right you know again with our
00:12:24.800 crime levels and everything going on here we have the same like it it's interesting as they're talking
00:12:30.240 about what they're using the money for i'm kind of mirroring our own issues in canada saying okay time
00:12:35.760 out a little bit sympathetic again we want peace but you know as a country our size we're getting to a
00:12:43.040 point where we're we're starting to crack under the pressures of trying to support other countries
00:12:49.920 again and you know the issue becomes and i know you know i i get it i get that uh the government and
00:12:56.960 people within the government formerly and now really want this to happen i understand why right okay so
00:13:03.680 here's my thing paul let's give you some money to help your courts but we need to have x amount of
00:13:10.320 dollars for our own country to make sure our courts stay open that we have the necessary
00:13:15.360 crown prosecutors judges and bailiffs necessary to keep the courts going there has been multiple
00:13:21.040 stories and they'll basically to wrap up the calendar year that more and more courts in canada
00:13:26.640 are forced to do plea deals yeah because they can't get all the cases through the court system
00:13:32.800 and so that's why we as canadians are frustrated like what they just kind of convicted of that crime and
00:13:38.400 that is their sentence and a lot of them us don't feel right they feel violated and there's a lot of
00:13:44.640 victims out there that just shrug their shoulders and go what and that's the state of our judicial
00:13:51.440 system in the country right now is the court systems are so overwhelmed the jails and detention
00:13:58.080 centers are so overcrowded that the courts are forced to do plea deals yeah and then at the same time
00:14:03.520 you're giving money to help ukrainian courts give money for essential food and medicine and help the
00:14:11.920 people but the courts i that one i struggle with well yeah and that you know that's when i started digging
00:14:17.040 into where the dollars go in each of these programs they're actually sort of a lot of them uh
00:14:23.120 i mentioned the 6.5 go directly into providing you know weapons and military which is they need
00:14:30.160 every day i get that right well they're going through i think it's 160 million dollars a day
00:14:35.440 to keep it going oh yeah it's some crazy number absolutely but you know you look at it that's
00:14:40.320 going but now we're getting into loans for rebuilding and infrastructure of the country i'm not sure
00:14:47.280 we can do that yeah because it's not money we have you know when we went through the budget when we
00:14:52.560 went through the budget uh allocation and the budget deficit shows we realized that those deficits now
00:14:59.840 the money we're using to fund these countries are coming out of those deficit dollars potentially
00:15:05.360 and they're going to grow if the loans don't get met so it as these loans extend over a number of years
00:15:11.280 if they can't meet them but this is feels like you could be getting extended so the money goes in
00:15:16.240 yeah doesn't get repaid how does it get repaid you know i get your point people canadian
00:15:21.920 companies can go over there and they can do engineering and projects they'll pay income tax back in
00:15:27.280 canada i get that i'm not sure a lot of canadians who basically are funding it through their tax
00:15:34.160 contributions right now we'll see ever see the money we'll ever get any benefit out of it there
00:15:38.880 may be 10 or 30 or 100 companies that get some benefit there may be trades who go back to the ukraine
00:15:45.600 and actually work you know to restore and rebuild they'll get some benefit out of it if they relocate
00:15:52.400 but they're going to be relocating out of that's another thing as we rebuild this country trades
00:15:57.680 who are here will probably go back right there will be more money to be made there for quite a few
00:16:02.400 years we're short trades people well we're already short trades people but then we'll be short even
00:16:06.400 more yeah well exactly so that's the you know it's interesting because the that whole condo housing
00:16:12.400 kind of funnel that's a mess right now is all that clears up there's actually quite a bit of
00:16:17.520 speculation now that any trade that's left in canada will be gone because they won't wait it out
00:16:25.520 they'll go right to the where the work is they won't wait to cycle out so right now like i mentioned
00:16:29.920 on a couple shows there's a lot of work in florida right now and there's probably going to be work
00:16:33.680 there so they'll disappear and we'll have a huge void of of trades in the country because lack of
00:16:39.440 projects again paul i guess i'm a little frustrated that there was the complete lack of democratic process over
00:16:46.560 the latest money given to ukraine no politicians were able to debate it no media were able to ask
00:16:53.120 questions robert fife from the globe it was interesting on x basically had to put a line
00:16:57.760 there from a cp pool reporter that was about the extent of the media coverage and everyone kind of
00:17:03.760 woke up in the 27th and go what's happening and then it was gone and then zelinski was in washington
00:17:09.200 and now i mean it's almost like burying the story because now the news cycle it's new year's eve it's new
00:17:15.840 years and before the i mean carney must be thinking in his people by the time they get back to the
00:17:21.200 house of commons there'll be so many other things that happen in the country around the world that
00:17:26.240 he won't his feet won't be held to the fire for it yeah i guess so you know i would honestly jim i i
00:17:32.000 would like to hear from uh uh the former finance minister who's now the envoy to ukraine a christian
00:17:38.880 feeling christian freeland right i'd like to hear what the plan is now i'd love to hear the plan like i would
00:17:44.080 really like she's the one who kind of orchestrated you know kupta which is the free trade agreement
00:17:48.560 with the ukraine she's the one who kind of was champion you know getting in and actually funding
00:17:54.160 the war you know you know that's her home that's where her family's from that's the connection i get
00:18:00.000 it so now i'd like to kind of understand okay where are we going here now like what is the plan uh you
00:18:06.320 know how long are we staying in this what is the recovery where does canada fit in you know that's where
00:18:11.920 she is she's there now that's her job you know she took that uh envoy position to go there and do that
00:18:19.360 okay let's let's understand that now and that would have been honestly for me what would have been a
00:18:23.920 helpful prior to that meeting would have been him her the prime minister having a conversation about the
00:18:32.800 direction now christian feeling is a brilliant woman with with incredible credentials there's no
00:18:38.720 question about it so she's more than capable of speaking to the canadian people in the canadian
00:18:43.200 media and a group of reporters like okay it's 2026 canada's given this much money up until date
00:18:50.160 and now for my time in ukraine this is what i see is the need and this is how it's going to be
00:18:54.880 implemented and this is the start the middle and the finish i think we would all be open to hearing
00:18:59.840 what she has to say and what kind of blueprint what kind of game plan that freeland the country and 1.00
00:19:05.120 ukraine have to get it back in order well and the interesting part what i find she understood it so
00:19:11.760 when she was the finance minister her biggest criticism was that our gdp and our productivity
00:19:17.520 was going down so this is a really good example so we're a country of declining productivity it's been
00:19:23.600 going like this forever so now we're funding projects in another country so we're financing we're
00:19:29.840 directly funding you know it's kind of 50 50 loan guarantees guarantees all that good stuff so we're
00:19:35.200 doing all that so how does that increase our productivity and our gdp and where do we play into
00:19:40.480 it i'd really like to know because otherwise you know i would i would think and i looked at it and i
00:19:45.680 said okay if i was sitting in their shoes and i was trying to figure out i had 22 billion dollars to
00:19:50.800 loan guarantee and to spend and everything else would i not be better to go to other countries and form
00:19:57.760 another relationship because this is where the critical dollars have to come now and this is
00:20:01.680 where i keep emphasizing to people on other shows we have to spend our money wisely now so if we're
00:20:06.880 going to form relationships like you and i talked when we did the sub show yeah we have to form a
00:20:11.520 relationship there where you know that those subs get billed with our steel and our aluminum and then
00:20:15.760 they bring in the smarts and you know that's the engineering that's what we need to do and you know
00:20:21.600 i'm looking at countries like germany and japan and south korea right now and i'm saying okay
00:20:27.440 you know if we're going to form relationships and we're going to spend money we should strategically
00:20:32.160 be spending money there so then they'll provide us with things that we can increase our productivity
00:20:36.880 with doesn't seem like a win-win for everyone involved but that's where i that's where i think
00:20:41.280 we need her to step up a little with the prime minister and say okay if i'm going to continue on
00:20:46.560 with this why does it make sense for canada like how does it how does it increase the productivity
00:20:52.560 canada so are we gonna you know aside from you know we have a we have a large population of ukrainian
00:20:58.960 people they're wonderful people i had a business partner who was ukrainian for years and i learned
00:21:03.440 a lot about the culture and a lot of people on the in the west from from the ukraine i love it but quite
00:21:09.360 frankly you know i think it's uh rather than the cultural connection it's beholding to all of canada
00:21:16.800 to have that discussion now because we're we're into it for quite a bit of money right and there are
00:21:21.680 issues in every province in the country there are people in need and departments in need in every
00:21:27.280 province in every sector of the country they're saying well wait a second when they go to ask for
00:21:31.840 something they're told this is all we have or we don't have any or this is what you get and then they
00:21:37.280 see that all these other announcements and pronouncements about loan guarantees and money given
00:21:43.920 under the guys that were trying to help ukraine in the war yes ukraine needs our support but again
00:21:51.120 as a country as we enter 2026 what is the ceiling you mentioned that paul what is like okay we can't
00:21:58.640 give any more money but we could do this or this because we really have to help our own people okay so
00:22:05.680 we hate see the word ceiling as canadians we do americans understand debt ceilings yeah and they fight
00:22:12.320 about it they have these uh horrendous government shutdowns yeah they're they're nasty it's it's terrible this
00:22:20.000 year was the the 25 they had the longest right yeah cut down of government in the history of the
00:22:25.040 country i think but you know we never talk about it but shouldn't are we getting to the point we need
00:22:31.360 to well sure we are because quite frankly whether it's whether it's uh off balance sheet on balance
00:22:37.360 sheet whether it's financing versus cash these are all commitments we're making that actually deal with
00:22:43.760 our boring power uh deal with our deficits we have to like we we need but it's it's interesting we pass
00:22:51.520 a budget well this is a really good interesting test case we pass a budget you know pat budget goes
00:22:57.280 here we pass it stands up you know we pass the budget you know the opposition knew the budget was
00:23:03.360 going to pass they know before of course they they pay all kinds of games but at the end of the day
00:23:08.560 they know it's going to pass if i know it's going to pass i would say the only thing i'd want is
00:23:13.040 actually to put in it that basically that we're capped at that well okay and i don't know why you
00:23:21.040 would say no to that that means i pass the budget we cap it at this then i get everything else in there
00:23:26.320 so you have to take that deal you have to work within budget in canada we don't have uh guard rails
00:23:32.560 four budgets i find it the most bizarre thing so you can blow through your budget and come back and
00:23:38.800 there's no real there's no real penalties or restrictions or anything for doing it you just
00:23:47.840 continue to spend the money and then you come back say well i tried i made these estimates but
00:23:52.880 i needed to spend more money but once upon a time the country could get away with it financially
00:23:57.920 yes but and then as you say the debt and deficit have built and built and to the point where
00:24:04.000 the old ways of doing things i just don't know if it can be done anymore financially fiscally
00:24:09.760 morally in the country like canada that gets to a point where they simply can't afford to keep doing
00:24:14.720 that paul well well that's the you know that's our debt exposure that's our interest coverage those
00:24:20.640 are all the things we talked about on the show quite a bit and we're coming up against them now and
00:24:24.640 that and that's the challenge and then we can't keep then at the same time if that is the challenge
00:24:30.560 whatever zelinski wants give him whatever he needs sometimes he will have to say we can give you this
00:24:36.000 and that's all we can give you i am sorry that happens it all walks of life you can't just go to
00:24:41.760 the bank and say i want a million like you only qualify for a hundred thousand no but i want a million
00:24:46.480 we're only getting a hundred thousand and we're only on that right now we're on that tour route you
00:24:50.960 know when he comes on that tour and you see him he you know i'm on the tour now and he he comes around
00:24:56.800 he stops in canada because quite frankly aside from the eu aside from um the u.s you know we're
00:25:04.320 the biggest contributor in the other 190 countries so we are the mainstay in that so if we stop that's
00:25:11.680 a big contribution that he's got to replace with another country and what what is the signal to those
00:25:16.880 other countries if we stop that's bad for him if we stop because a lot of other countries will go
00:25:22.240 well if they're stopping why am i not stop but it's interesting so this is an interesting approach
00:25:26.640 because you're starting to see it for example you know i was surprised that some of the countries give
00:25:31.040 a lot less than we thought yes so for example when i looked at you know the uk part of the eu um
00:25:38.240 they're uh slightly more than us just slightly though so yeah we're i think we're at uh 22 they're at 25.
00:25:46.880 yeah you know germany's a big contributor they're about seven more than the u uh uk but you know
00:25:54.080 i was shocked to see how close we were with the uk poland is only at five right because they've decided
00:26:01.680 to put money into their own military have they ever right so what they've done is they've taken
00:26:06.800 it where they said we'll give you a little money but quite frankly we're going to reinvest in our own
00:26:11.600 country and we're going to spend all our money to kind of weaponize and build the uh build the army
00:26:19.360 the navy and the air force build their military so they've done they and they've done it in a big way
00:26:24.800 which is paid dividends to their country because by doing that they increase their product productivity
00:26:31.520 they increase their spend their gdp and they're now one of the most successful countries in the world
00:26:37.600 uh at growth and gdp so with one of the most successfully equipped militaries in europe now
00:26:44.960 exactly and that that's been their uh you know that's been their direction which is paying dividends
00:26:50.560 for them germany on their hand it was interesting the other day you know germany which has been a big
00:26:55.200 contributor into this through the imf and through the eu is having some other challenges right now they're
00:27:02.080 trying to increase in their military spend um but they can't get people to join the military so as
00:27:08.240 you noticed over the last few days they've had uh uh crowds protesting because they're talking very
00:27:16.000 seriously about conscription again and the university students so the university students and tens of
00:27:21.520 thousands of them they want no part of them have hit the street and said time out we're not doing this
00:27:25.680 right yeah so that's kind of gone by the by so they're kind of uh they've made this big contribution
00:27:32.000 but quite frankly at home they're struggling with a bunch of issues right now um we on the other
00:27:37.040 hand have a very similar issue you know and we're not we've talked about you know food insecure and
00:27:43.200 everything else we're trying to build up our military we're trying to figure out what to do with our
00:27:48.880 military you know we increase our military spending as we promised under nato we're trying to
00:27:53.840 do that stuff we're uh trying to fix our housing we're trying to do all these uh uh recruitment of
00:28:00.400 military we've talked about uh was mentioned before christmas bringing back uh public servants as
00:28:06.960 reserves yep so all these things have been thrown on the table we're still trying to figure that out
00:28:12.000 and and also make these contributions we can't do both we can't do both so we're going to have to
00:28:19.200 make also some value decisions within that budget so you know we can spend more money and give more
00:28:24.720 money to the monies required in 26 or we can stop that and actually spend the money at home increase
00:28:31.040 our own productivity similar to what so it's kind of a strategic that's leadership like this is where
00:28:37.600 it's tough to be a leader because you at some point you have to make a decision it's not i can just give
00:28:43.280 money to everyone it becomes i have to make value decisions where i'm going to put my money and then
00:28:48.400 ultimately a segment of the population hates you for that and you have to be able to live with that yes and
00:28:53.680 some leaders can't and some say i'm fine with it it's for the immediate and long-term good of my
00:29:00.000 country i will do this i will be unpopular i will be hated i may be voted out next election
00:29:05.760 but for the next 20 30 years my country is in good shape yes yeah and that's a tough that's a tough
00:29:11.040 thing for a lot of politicians who have an ego and like being prime minister like being a president
00:29:16.080 to realize they might make a decision that'll put them out of office yeah oh yeah for sure because you
00:29:21.120 know you you you do have you know factions within the current government that still want to keep
00:29:27.040 funding you know the military in the ukraine it makes sense to them uh you slow that down and go
00:29:32.960 another direction that's going to cause you challenges and we have a lot of challenges paul and
00:29:37.760 we look ahead to the next calendar year carney needs i know he doesn't like talking to the media
00:29:44.000 he feels it's he's they're beneath them quite frankly and he's kind of flipping you saw this year in the
00:29:49.280 interviews he was a little combative to global to ctv to the cbc no matter who was talking to him
00:29:55.600 and all the questions were very reasonable and the journalists asking the questions are at the top of
00:30:00.400 their game and he was a little dismissive but unfortunately like it or not he needs to use
00:30:05.680 people like us the media to get the word out to explain to the country what he's doing why he's doing
00:30:12.880 it and how we're going to do it because as canadians if we know what he's doing why we're doing it and
00:30:19.520 how it'll work out canadians will we look we've got a history of going along with it oh yeah sure well
00:30:27.040 we would fall behind of course we would but like you know as i mentioned in the show i would have rolled
00:30:31.920 out before that meeting in halifax i would have rolled out a press conference to explain what it was
00:30:37.120 about where the money's from and why strategically it made sense and and what was the ultimate benefit
00:30:42.400 back to canada i would have brought them i would have brought the envoy to the ukraine i would have
00:30:46.800 brought friedland out of course and i would have had her talk about it but and then the story's over
00:30:51.760 yeah and then like oh okay that's what they said okay it makes total sense and as a canadian
00:30:56.080 like okay then let's get ready for new year's eve which was interesting i don't know about around
00:31:00.560 your christmas table but you know my uh post christmas events that i was going to this was a
00:31:07.280 hot topic yeah i found it interesting how many people and it's interesting because i my family has
00:31:14.080 you know we're a diverse cultural family with many cultures in our family so as i went from different
00:31:18.720 dinner tables i was noticing each of them were focused on it because it was one of the sole news
00:31:24.560 stories that played out for days and days and and honestly it didn't get great it wasn't a
00:31:30.320 warm reception i wasn't getting and and that's what kind that's when i called you and said we
00:31:34.560 should do a show on this because i'm curious you know and and i got more educated on it as i did it
00:31:39.760 because i started to dig into what was in the 22 billion how it was being spent it was very
00:31:44.640 interesting and i think it what it did by not having a great pr strategy around it it caused a lot
00:31:50.880 of people to start to dig in and look at it and say okay is it the right and i and i think probably
00:31:55.680 could have been it definitely could have been handled better it's you know some politicians have
00:31:59.680 an innate ability paul with optics yeah they do things at the right time may not be something
00:32:05.520 that's popular may not be necessarily something you want as a citizen but it's done at the right
00:32:10.640 time and then people okay i'm going to deal with it think about the timing just after christmas
00:32:16.000 people are staring at these enormous visa bills we had horrendous weather the weather was bad boxing
00:32:22.080 day the weather was you could have had a worse lineup to this boxing day is like an ice storm across
00:32:28.160 canada yeah people are isolated in their homes kind of pissed off because they can't get to see
00:32:33.760 family a lot of them because they can't move through the day um it's cold and now you're releasing
00:32:39.680 this information just just poorly planned and that's why so many canadians are like wait a second time
00:32:45.840 out why why this why now and then they're deep as you say digging into it and trying to understand
00:32:52.720 but if you get ahead of it yeah and say hey canada this is what we're doing this is why we're doing
00:32:58.720 it and how it's going to benefit the country people go back to their daily life and no problem yeah and
00:33:04.880 this goes back to a show that mike and i did a few weeks ago that mark carney runs a country like he's
00:33:11.200 the president ceo of a fortune 500 company which he has been for the last three decades sure he doesn't
00:33:17.360 feel the need to have to explain to us canadians the average person why he's doing things i'm the
00:33:25.280 prime minister i'm mark carney i don't need to tell you but this is now he's going to be dealing with
00:33:30.880 the aftermath and follow from this which i which i thought was in so you know they did the they do the
00:33:36.000 and you know the end of the year plays yes which i thought was really interesting at the end of the
00:33:41.040 year plays where they're showing the highlights of course one of the highlights of the year is him
00:33:46.000 sitting with trump yeah and whoever kind of picked it i thought he did a great job on it but
00:33:51.040 he says you know by the way uh mr president i had a conversation with the owners of canada through
00:33:57.280 the last election all right and and they don't want to they're not for sale so he is acknowledging that
00:34:04.880 there are owners of canada right so you know and so i i just think sometimes you know we get over
00:34:12.800 our skis a little and we forget that when we're doing our pr and and unfortunately that's a learning
00:34:18.880 curve that i hope in 2026 we get better at you know the last thing i wanted to actually talk about
00:34:24.400 or one of the last things i want you to talk to me you know one of the interesting things that uh mike
00:34:29.200 and i had a little bit of a laugh about part of the funding we have is that uh we i don't know if
00:34:36.960 you remember this was months and months maybe even a year ago we said we were gonna uh seize
00:34:44.560 russian assets correct so there's a huge airplane at pearson that's been seized and sitting there for
00:34:50.400 a couple years so part of the allocation of funding in that in that 22 billion dollars is kind of this
00:34:58.880 um i'm not sure it's in or out you can't really tell but there's 4.8 billion dollars sitting there and
00:35:04.560 it sees russian assets oh so so here's the thing i'm trying to figure out right so they're all sitting
00:35:12.160 so whether they be yachts whether they be planes or whatever so i'm assuming they've seized them
00:35:18.480 they're thinking of selling them and using or using them for security against a loan right so right
00:35:26.000 the collateral right a collateral so yeah but i'm trying to figure out who in their right mind
00:35:30.320 would buy them right and be safe traveling around on them so yeah you know when i see you on that
00:35:38.640 you know this sounds like a theme 300-foot yacht with the helicopter pad it's like a john wick movie
00:35:45.280 you say paul why don't you come and on the boat with me this uh this summer no i'm fine yeah i'm gonna
00:35:51.280 take a pass no no i'm good i'm good i'm gonna go i'm gonna go to prince ever county and hang out
00:36:00.480 it's such a complex story and canadians just want a little just a little bit of explanation
00:36:06.320 and answers and that's where hiding yourself from parliament hiding yourself from the house of commons
00:36:12.400 hiding yourself from the media puts us all in the dark and leaves us with questions mark carney is not
00:36:17.840 a dumb man he's a brilliant individual but sometimes his ego gets in the way of his intelligence
00:36:24.240 and prevents him from explaining to us why yeah okay just let us know you know what or take a breath 0.99
00:36:31.040 yeah you said you were going to go to the harrington estate you're going to hang out at sussex sure
00:36:36.000 take a break for vacation read a book you deserve it read a book yeah come back after the new year
00:36:40.880 watch yours it's good to go explain this explain it to us later yeah yeah and so paul happy new year
00:36:47.120 happy new year brother all the best to everyone