Western Standard - CLUSTERF＊＊K： Trudeau resigns in disgrace

00:00:00.000 Music

00:00:00.520 Today I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard, coming to you from our Calgary studio here.

00:00:21.520 I'm joined by Western Standard opinion editor Nigel Hannaford and we have a special guest joining us today.

00:00:28.660 Today, Calgary Nosehill conservative MP Michelle Rempel-Garner. Welcome both.

00:00:35.120 Great to be here.

00:00:37.140 What a day. This is an extraordinary episode. I'm thinking maybe it's a whole new show.

00:00:42.140 We'll just call it Clusterfuck with the Western Standard.

00:00:47.540 This episode is not going up on the Wild TV network, so we can be a little more salty with the language today.

00:00:52.760 Well, we'll try to keep it mostly PG-13, so I think you get one F-bomb in the PG-13 movies.

00:00:59.960 But I think the title of today's show sums it up well because, well, here is my second F-bomb.

00:01:06.100 It is an absolute Clusterfuck in Ottawa today.

00:01:09.900 Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing his resignation.

00:01:12.920 That does not mean he is resigned. It does not mean he is no longer Prime Minister.

00:01:18.760 It does not mean he is no longer Liberal leader.

00:01:23.040 But Justin Trudeau announcing that he will be stepping down.

00:01:28.860 He is proroguing Parliament.

00:01:30.380 Some of you might recall back in 2009, Justin Trudeau said it was dictatorial and authoritarian of Stephen Harper to prorogue, or that is, suspend Parliament temporarily.

00:01:42.980 So, you know, it was Hitler when Trudeau did it.

00:01:47.100 Sorry, when Harper did it. 1.00

00:01:48.200 When Trudeau does it, it's just ensuring we have a smooth transition of power.

00:01:51.540 But Justin Trudeau will be stepping down.

00:01:53.480 Parliament is prorogued or suspended until March 24th.

00:01:57.380 We are going to get it.

00:01:59.600 There is a lot of timelines at play, a lot of scenarios that could play out.

00:02:04.040 But we are just going to start kind of high level to begin with.

00:02:07.320 Let's start with you, Michelle.

00:02:09.860 Your first thoughts at the announcement today that Justin Trudeau will be resigning.

00:02:15.800 Well, after nine years of inflicting ruination upon Canada in virtually every area, crime, immigration, inflation, debt,

00:02:27.380 every area of the country is broken, his parting gift today was more chaos.

00:02:33.960 So what Justin Trudeau should have done today, given where he took us, was to take us to a federal election.

00:02:41.280 Canadians should have had the opportunity to select the next prime minister or to give a government a new mandate.

00:02:47.700 But instead, Derek, I'm not even sure who's in charge of the country right now, because you're absolutely right.

00:02:53.960 This is a clusterfuckicle.

00:02:56.160 Like, so what he's done is he has triggered a liberal leadership race.

00:03:00.900 That doesn't mean we're in an election.

00:03:02.840 And it's not entirely clear if, as he has expressed in a desire to do, he's going to be allowed to stay on as liberal prime minister while liberal insiders select the next prime minister of Canada.

00:03:14.920 We could be in a situation where liberal insiders actually select the next two prime ministers.

00:03:20.880 And as you mentioned, parliament's prorogued, which means as the incoming American administration threatened 25 percent tariffs on our country, parliament is going to be shuttered.

00:03:30.860 So, yeah, I think your title of the show is pretty apt.

00:03:34.860 Nigel, kind of high level first thoughts.

00:03:36.980 I can't get away from the recollection that Canadians voted for this man in 2015, 2019 and 2021.

00:03:47.780 What took so long for the penny to drop that this was a bad choice?

00:03:51.620 And I fear that some of the same people who voted for him, even in 2021, I mean, there were nearly 5 million people who did so, will somehow find it in their hearts to vote for a liberal prime minister again, just in the belief that this time it will be different.

00:04:09.620 It's not different.

00:04:10.620 The whole party needs to burn.

00:04:11.980 Yeah, what strikes me here is I did some math in the column I just published minutes ago.

00:04:22.880 You know, we've got now so parliament's prorogued until March 24th.

00:04:28.380 So I'm guessing the new liberal leader will have to have been elected, sworn in with their new cabinet by then.

00:04:35.800 So that takes us to March 24th, roughly.

00:04:40.680 And then the government runs, we'll get into this with the supply and budget issues coming up.

00:04:46.700 But essentially, the federal government runs out of money March 31st, the end of the fiscal year, which means you have to have a, this is a new parliament, essentially, because it's been prorogued.

00:04:56.460 So you have to have a speech from the throne, which takes a lot of time.

00:04:58.940 And then you have to have a budget, two huge confidence votes, essentially the two biggest confidence votes on any parliamentary calendar, in seven days.

00:05:07.460 The speech from the throne could take more than seven days alone.

00:05:10.100 The budget normally takes weeks, at least, to go through.

00:05:15.220 And so there's no time there.

00:05:17.100 But let's say that, you know, the new prime minister, Prime Minister Carney or Prime Minister Freeland come in March 24th, and they were immediately defeated the first day on a confidence vote, which would be the appropriate thing to happen from both a parliamentary procedure standpoint and constitutional standpoint, and just politically what's needed for the country.

00:05:38.320 If they're defeated on March 24th, then we're looking five weeks out from there, that takes us to May 5th-ish, and then another two weeks to swear in the new conservative government, another two weeks.

00:05:49.680 We're looking at 155, 160 days before Canada even has a functioning government, all while Donald Trump said he's going to impose crushing 25% tariffs on Canada.

00:06:03.200 There is not a worse time this could happen.

00:06:05.240 And this is, I mean, all politicians, to some extent, have their own interests in mind.

00:06:13.500 The Liberal Party of Canada, though, is unique in believing it is inseparable, the Liberal Party of Canada's interests and the government of Canada or Canadian nations or post-nation interests, that they are inseparable.

00:06:28.400 And the Liberals are willing to drive this country into the absolute pits of hell to hang on for just a few more months at power.

00:06:38.120 It beggars belief that we're even, on paper, considered a first-world functioning democracy at this point.

00:06:45.300 Maybe let's start with some of the timelines and scenarios here.

00:06:52.320 So in my column, I'm operating on the very unsure premise that the Liberals would get defeated as soon as they come back March 24th to the newly constituted Parliament after propagation and a new Liberal leader and Prime Minister is selected.

00:07:10.280 That is not a sure thing, but even if that does happen, Michelle, we would get an election then called probably late March or very early April by the time the House votes non-confidence in them.

00:07:24.020 That is probably, at this point, the sunniest scenario at this point, that we only deal with half a year of a non-functional, almost illegitimate government at this point.

00:07:35.880 Where do you think we're going?

00:07:37.520 I don't think we're going to have an election in March for several reasons.

00:07:41.960 So there's a lot of people assuming that, and this is a reasonable assumption, that Jagmeet Singh would finally vote non-confidence after all of this at the end of March, like defeat the government on a throne speech, essentially.

00:07:57.120 But there's a lot of evidence to the contrary on that.

00:08:01.440 First of all, senior members of the NDP, Charlie Angus, for example, came out last week and said that he wouldn't vote non-confidence in the Liberal government under any circumstance.

00:08:12.320 So this is a recent statement.

00:08:13.980 There's also past history.

00:08:16.380 The NDP have said that they would rip up their supply and confidence agreement, and then they voted confidence in the government multiple times.

00:08:22.320 But here's the real kicker.

00:08:24.880 The NDP, they're never going to form government.

00:08:28.880 They don't act like a party that's going to form government.

00:08:31.320 And frankly, I don't think they want to form government.

00:08:33.580 Where their sweet spot is, is exerting influence on a minority Liberal government.

00:08:38.740 And I think that they want to keep that scenario going as long as possible, even if it means selling their own souls.

00:08:45.800 The side, you know, net benefit for them is NDP MPs that are retiring or not re-offering or might not have their pension eligibility until October.

00:08:56.620 They have no motivation to vote against the Liberal government because that's their materiality principle.

00:09:02.680 So I think people that are assuming that we're in an election because Jagmeet Singh finally finds a spine in March, I think that they're going to be woefully disappointed.

00:09:10.220 And the proof on that, Derek, is just, I direct your attention to his recent tweet.

00:09:14.800 He put it out about an hour ago.

00:09:16.880 There's nothing in there.

00:09:18.560 Like, can I read it to you?

00:09:19.620 It says, below is my statement on Justin Trudeau's resignation.

00:09:23.140 Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, Michelle.

00:09:24.500 I just want to note for the studio here.

00:09:26.960 Some of our commenters are saying they cannot hear Michelle.

00:09:29.780 Oh, can you guys hear me now?

00:09:32.440 I'm not sure.

00:09:33.340 Yeah, okay.

00:09:33.740 I think we're good.

00:09:34.300 It may have just been one of the commenters.

00:09:37.600 Okay, others can hear you.

00:09:38.820 Go ahead.

00:09:39.040 Anyway, long story short, if you go to Jagmeet's X page, he doesn't expressly say, he puts out a statement on this day of all news days and doesn't say, like, this is the day for Jagmeet Singh to be like, I will defeat the Liberal government as soon as we come back in March.

00:09:55.540 And it is complete wishy-wash.

00:09:57.460 So he doesn't expressly say that he will do that.

00:10:01.440 There's a reason why he's not going out to the media because they know that he knows he's going to get pressed on this.

00:10:06.040 And I don't think his caucus is going to uniformly vote, non-confident.

00:10:10.440 So here we are.

00:10:11.980 So we are in a very, you know, I'll just close by saying this, to reemphasize what you said, Derek, we are now looking at months upon months of either no parliament or no parliament and a hobbled, insider-picked, lame-duck Liberal Prime Minister,

00:10:27.340 maybe leading the country at a time of profound national crisis.

00:10:33.680 So we need an election right now.

00:10:36.940 I agree.

00:10:38.740 And I think most rational people in Canada would agree we need an election right now.

00:10:43.700 But it does not seem that it's going to happen.

00:10:45.600 The governor general has granted Trudeau a prorogation.

00:10:50.080 There does not seem, unless Trudeau literally changes his mind and dissolves parliament himself, there is no prospect of that happening.

00:10:57.660 So, you know, I was a little leery on the accusations, you know, made some time ago by Pauly of the Conservatives that Singh was really just playing this out for his pension.

00:11:10.400 I've become much, I've become a convert to believe that actually is a critical factor, especially when the NDP came out after Freeland's resignation, says,

00:11:18.920 Well, we will bring down the Liberal government, we'll vote, non-confidence, but not right away.

00:11:24.900 We'll do it in late February, early March.

00:11:27.800 And, well, those of us who are a little bit more inquisitive, we look in.

00:11:31.640 And, of course, that is, February 28th is when Jagmeet Singh's pension vests.

00:11:36.480 But just Jagmeet Singh, no one else, because he was elected in a by-election.

00:11:40.060 So that's when his date vests.

00:11:41.360 But a good portion of the rest of the Liberal caucus, and Liberal caucus, their pensions vest in October, and they need to go to the fixed election date for that to happen.

00:11:51.940 Now, I don't think that's the only thing at play here.

00:11:53.860 I think, Michelle, your more charitable points, I think, are still quite correct that the NDP knows that its point of maximum influence, and to an extent the bloc, is during minority liberal governments.

00:12:07.120 They can exert influence, they can get concessions.

00:12:10.180 There really doesn't seem to be much, though, in concessions left to get at this point.

00:12:14.140 The government is just running on pure fumes right now.

00:12:20.520 So, yeah, Nigel, what do you think is the realistic chance this could actually go out past March, that actually the Liberals are propped up on continued confidence votes by the NDP?

00:12:32.080 Because as bad as, you know, as much as the NDP might want to continue to drag it out, I mean, they are being punished to an extent now in the polls.

00:12:43.960 They have to wear Justin Trudeau as much as the next Liberal leader does.

00:12:48.280 They've been standing side by side with him the whole time.

00:12:50.900 And the NDP needs to desperately demonstrate some daylight between itself and the Trudeau Liberals before they go to the polls next time.

00:12:59.140 Well, you would think so, but I'm not sure they have much to lose, frankly.

00:13:02.140 The longer they can hang on, the better it is for each individual member of the House of Commons, who's an NDP member as well.

00:13:08.920 Well, why would you suddenly find a spine and take out the government on a point of principle and lose six months' salary and your pension rights as well?

00:13:21.120 I mean, I think we talk a lot about the pension rights.

00:13:23.020 I'm not sure everybody is quite as driven by that consideration as we believe them to be.

00:13:27.700 But, you know, we're dealing with some shallow people and you don't need too many to alter the equation on this.

00:13:33.320 But I would like to ask Michelle her opinion on a point of view expressed by her former colleague, Jay Hill, in these pages, probably about six months ago,

00:13:43.460 when he reminded us that the election date is fixed by a vote in Parliament and can be unfixed by a vote in Parliament.

00:13:53.800 And in fact, nearly was for reasons that are related to pensions, we believe.

00:14:00.200 But constitutionally, this government could go for another year.

00:14:04.520 Five years is, I think, in five years you get the convoy back.

00:14:08.680 But do you see any possibility that they would try and get rid of a fixed election date and allow themselves to stagger on on this basis?

00:14:20.560 Well, you correctly said it, Nigel.

00:14:22.480 They've already tried, right?

00:14:24.220 Like they introduced legislation in the House of Commons that was at committee stage until Trudeau-Pirogue this morning

00:14:31.400 to actually extend the fixed election date in a blatant bid to get pensions for NDP and Liberal members that are at risk for losing their seats.

00:14:43.080 So you're right.

00:14:43.720 Like they've already done that.

00:14:45.100 And like just just to justify this as a potential inevitable or a potential outcome.

00:14:51.620 These, you know, as Derek said at the front end of this, these are people who consistently time and time again put their party ahead of the interests of the country.

00:14:59.940 These are people who are all complicit in Justin Trudeau's decisions.

00:15:05.440 They're all one in the same.

00:15:06.800 You know, Pierre Polyev went out today and essentially said, there's been no change.

00:15:10.560 There's been no change.

00:15:11.540 These people are all complicit.

00:15:13.020 So they all know this.

00:15:14.360 And, you know, I think we're in this realm of crazy where you've got a small handful of people putting their delusional political self-interest ahead of everything in the country.

00:15:27.680 Head of everything.

00:15:28.880 So who knows what would happen?

00:15:31.700 But this is why it is so critical, regardless of how people vote.

00:15:36.220 If they care about this country and our democracies, that people are loudly, loudly asking for a general election.

00:15:43.680 That's what we need to do right now.

00:15:44.920 So as Derek said at the front end of this segment, that we're not taking months and months and months and months,

00:15:49.620 or as you're suggesting, over a year to get to a point where, you know, there's a government with an actual mandate.

00:15:57.220 That needs to happen as soon as possible.

00:16:00.740 I love the idea of a mandate, but they haven't had that for a while.

00:16:05.200 I'm just thinking they've got, when we take Mr. Trudeau out of the mix, you have left the Liberal Party, which is really a progressive party and not liberal in any real sense.

00:16:14.680 And they have an agenda of climate change and various woke priorities.

00:16:20.320 Give them another year after October of this year, they could do a lot of damage.

00:16:25.760 They might like, I'll just say this, like, I think you you've sort of obliquely touched on a really important point, which is that none of the front runners, front runners to replace Justin Trudeau,

00:16:37.820 and none of the caucus members that have, you know, only after the cabinet shuffle started calling for his head, none of them have expressed any sort of disagreement with any liberal policy, any woke liberal policy, nothing.

00:16:50.160 None of them have challenged their disastrous bail reforms or catch and release bail policies.

00:16:55.040 None of them have expressed regret over, you know, massive inflationary debt spending.

00:17:00.980 I could go on and on.

00:17:02.460 Their their only rationale for wanting Trudeau to resign is the fact that they've they've they're seeing their fortunes decline in the polls.

00:17:11.840 So, you know, who knows what's going to happen?

00:17:15.420 But certainly none of these people, you know, are coming forward with with any sort of indication that they're going to change their woke course.

00:17:25.200 So, yeah, we need an election.

00:17:27.080 We absolutely need an election.

00:17:28.660 So but we're not going to get an election.

00:17:30.820 There just doesn't seem to be any any real path for that to happen at this point.

00:17:36.460 And best case scenario, as I kind of went through the math, our best case scenario, the government gets brought down when it returns March 24th.

00:17:45.700 Best case scenario.

00:17:47.460 And so that leaves us by the time that election is done and new government sworn in half a year, half a year without any effective government in Ottawa.

00:17:55.360 Well, we've already got the provinces taking control of border security out of necessity because there's just another vacuum of federal leadership at this point.

00:18:05.120 But I think we've alluded to this already a bit, but I want to get into it a bit more is dealing with the existential economic and political crisis of the Trump presidency.

00:18:15.480 There's a lot of potential good that could come from the Trump presidency, but he is he is playing America first.

00:18:21.820 He's not playing friends or Canada first.

00:18:24.500 And he has said he's going to impose a 25 percent tariff his first day in office.

00:18:28.260 There's some some soothsaying around, you know, is he going to put it in a paper but suspend its implementation for some time?

00:18:38.800 That's really hard to say at this point.

00:18:40.620 But at the least, we need to be down there negotiating, trying to get a deal.

00:18:45.900 Trump is a dealmaker.

00:18:47.280 He probably prefers a deal over doing this because it's not good for America as well.

00:18:51.640 But we have no effective government to actually negotiate.

00:18:56.460 Who are we going to send down there?

00:18:58.480 Like just we can send Justin again.

00:19:01.240 And we don't know if we don't know if it's going to be the same cabinet, right?

00:19:04.700 Like if there's cabinet ministers that are going to resign for leadership, who knows, right?

00:19:08.640 There's nobody in charge right now.

00:19:10.860 Yeah.

00:19:11.820 And even if, you know, Justin Trudeau is the nominal head of government, he has no effective authority.

00:19:18.040 He's a lame duck.

00:19:19.800 Beyond even lame duck at this point, I'd say he is he is a mere placeholder.

00:19:25.640 So is Justin supposed to go down or any other cabinet designate that he sends down?

00:19:31.240 Trump is just not going to be able to take them seriously.

00:19:33.580 Now, our best case scenario, I think, is that Trump says, I'm just not going to negotiate with you guys until you have a government in place that can speak for Canada.

00:19:40.940 The worst case scenario is he actually does negotiate with the current Canadian government, such as it is, because it's so weak that he feels he can take advantage of it.

00:19:52.220 That he can get a more zero sum deal out of dealing with such a weak and almost non-existent Canadian government at this point.

00:20:05.000 I don't know what's worse from your perspective, Michelle, or Ms. Rumpel, is it worse for us that Trudeau would just refuse to negotiate with the Canadian government as currently constituted?

00:20:23.000 Or is it worse that he does negotiate with them because he knows he can run the table with them because they're in such a weakened state?

00:20:30.300 Or third, that the Canadian government, and this is a very real possibility, I think, is that the liberals and the leadership contenders, for the political reasons of winning the liberal leadership and Justin Trudeau for burnishing his reputation,

00:20:46.300 because he doesn't have to live the consequences of anything anymore, that they go hard anti-Trump, hard anti-American, play that kind of liberal reflex, you know, that has a long history of the liberal party, and maybe even in Canada, for votes, that they go anti-American.

00:21:01.740 They're willing to put Canada in a very, very bad place to be punished by Trump, because it might play well politically to be anti-American and anti-Trump.

00:21:10.500 Those are kind of the three scenarios I see.

00:21:13.140 I mean, I can answer your question by kind of refuting a premise that you stated earlier, which is that there's no way that we could have a general election.

00:21:23.520 I actually disagree with you.

00:21:25.480 I think if Jagmeet Singh, the other opposition party leaders, if they wrote to the governor general and sort of publicly started banging the drum, like,

00:21:34.160 we do not have confidence in this government, there is now functionally not a prime minister of Canada, we need an election.

00:21:40.100 I think that that would change the tone and tenor.

00:21:43.020 And I also think that if provincial leaders weighed in to the governor general with the same type of comment, which some have already done, perhaps not directly to the governor general,

00:21:53.920 but have expressed a need for a general election for this reason,

00:21:58.000 I think that, you know, she would have an obligation to think about bringing parliament back almost immediately to have a test of confidence.

00:22:06.320 But again, I stand behind my earlier statements that Jagmeet Singh isn't politically motivated enough right now to make that decision.

00:22:17.380 And that's why it's so important for Canadians to put pressure on Jagmeet Singh and not just let him get this free ride to the end of March,

00:22:24.400 that they have to say you need to ask the governor general for a confidence, parliament to be recalled to have a confidence vote.

00:22:32.720 But going to your comment specifically about the Americans, I mean, again, like this is this is something that Jagmeet Singh and the NDP and the Liberal government should be punished for.

00:22:42.820 Not only putting us in a position where we're not able to negotiate, as you rightly outlined, but also that they've left our economy so weak going into this situation.

00:22:54.000 Things like, you know, our leader, Pierre Paliab, talking in the House about how Canada were essentially sending jobs down to the U.S. just through the carbon tax.

00:23:01.640 The carbon tax is going to increase right in this just almost during this period of time.

00:23:06.920 So, you know, I think the real solution for this is for Canadians to really put a lot of pressure on the NDP and the other opposition party leaders to be demanding, essentially, a vote of confidence one way or the other.

00:23:22.900 And really saying that the clusterfuckal that Justin Trudeau has delivered to Canadians today in triggering this leadership race and this uncertainty has put us in a situation where we could lose a lot of jobs and really see destruction of the Canadian economy.

00:23:41.360 I think I think we need another convoy at this point.

00:23:44.580 I mean, when you had a whole government and broadly a political class that was just refusing to listen, you know, people taking matters the way they did really did force change across Canada, resulted in new leadership at the Conservative Party of Canada, resulted in new leadership in Alberta for the for the government here, resulted in the federal government really overstepping its constitutional bounds into full on authoritarianism.

00:24:14.420 to try and put it down.

00:24:15.420 But the backlash of that, I think, really did end up having a change in public policy.

00:24:19.420 I almost wonder if another convoy is going to be the answer here.

00:24:24.600 Can I make a quick comment on that?

00:24:26.700 It's interesting that, you know, the person who really deserved to have his leadership scrutinized by the Canadian media after the 2021 election was Justin Trudeau, right?

00:24:38.020 You know, when you think about it, anybody with any political sense, including Justin Trudeau, his chief of staff, Katie Telford, should have realized that by calling that unnecessary election on the premise that they were going to win a majority, they didn't, they should have realized that his time was up.

00:24:55.800 And if they had pushed him then, or in any of the subsequent summer, you know, recesses of Parliament, you know, the Liberals wouldn't be coming to Canadians with this absolute mess today, right?

00:25:06.800 So, you know, but just just to your point, I think Canadians do need to really, regardless of political stripe, out of care for our democratic institutions, be speaking up and just demanding an election right now.

00:25:18.800 So, Nigel, I want to kind of put the same question to you, as I put Michelle, with our incredibly, I wouldn't even say impaired ability to negotiate with Trump, I'd say almost non-existent ability to negotiate at this point.

00:25:36.580 There are kind of three scenarios, at least as I'm seeing it. One is, Trump is just not even willing to talk to us, which almost might be our best case scenario at this point, that he's just saying, get back to me when you've got a government that can actually speak for your country, that has the confidence of the House, that I know is going to be there in six months.

00:25:54.560 The other one is possibly even more dangerous, that he is willing to negotiate with the Liberals because they're in such a weakened state.

00:26:01.560 And then the third is that the Liberals go full anti-American nativist and to try and drum up political points, but to the great detriment to the Canadian national interest, you know, a bunch of anti-American.

00:26:16.560 You mean that they would suddenly discover that we're not a post-national state after all?

00:26:20.560 Yes, that there's a Canadian national identity and it's worth defending all of a sudden that Canada isn't this genocidal, monstrous state.

00:26:27.560 But they take the anti-American and anti-Trump route because it might play well domestically, but utterly devastate our national interest.

00:26:36.560 Which of those, maybe you want, those are the three scenarios as I see it.

00:26:41.560 Well, let's kick these things around. I mean, I have been making the point consistently since Mr. Trudeau got in real trouble,

00:26:48.560 that it's all about him, that he is a man who has no real loyalty to the Liberal Party of Canada,

00:26:57.560 rather regards it as a vehicle for his own glorification because he is the man of principle, the man with the grand vision,

00:27:07.560 the man who sees further over the horizon than the rest of us poor saps.

00:27:11.560 So, if that is actually accurate, I realize that I make these judgments upon him without any written evidence,

00:27:24.560 only what I see here come from his own lips.

00:27:27.560 The man is a narcissist. As Jordan Peterson recently described, I'm a wounded narcissist.

00:27:34.560 Therefore, the rational thing is probably not going to happen.

00:27:38.560 The rational thing being that, well, we've just seen it go out the window, no election.

00:27:44.560 So, he will wrap himself in the flag, say I.

00:27:48.560 He will present himself as a reincarnation of the old anti-American liberal.

00:27:54.560 He will make fierce and unyielding denunciations of the U.S. President.

00:28:01.560 He will cast Mr. Poliave in the same light as the British Guardian newspaper did recently,

00:28:08.560 and try and present him as Trump light.

00:28:12.560 And he will try to play upon the suggestible nature of Eastern Canadians 1.00

00:28:18.560 that somehow this nothing good comes out of the United States and I'm the man who must resist it.

00:28:23.560 Although it will not necessarily put him back into office,

00:28:27.560 it will validate his position and cement his reputation as a great man.

00:28:38.560 And that, I think, is perhaps more important to him than any other consideration.

00:28:46.560 Okay. I know, Michelle, you have to go soon.

00:28:50.560 We'll continue a little bit after you're gone.

00:28:53.560 But I'm going to put up maybe a tough one to you.

00:28:58.560 We've got some of our folks working on a column on this right now.

00:29:02.560 But one thing that I've been considering long in the lead up to this now,

00:29:07.560 but especially as there seems to be, I think the liberal leadership is probably,

00:29:12.560 not that I'm a great insider in the Liberal Party,

00:29:15.560 but it's likely to come down to Chrystia Freeland or Mark Carney.

00:29:19.560 So let's just say Chrystia Freeland. 0.73

00:29:23.560 Maybe she's even got the insight because she's actually in caucus and has been there.

00:29:26.560 I fear for what she would do, not just for the Liberal Party.

00:29:34.560 I'm actually quite happy with what her leadership might do for the Liberal Party.

00:29:37.560 But I fear for what her prime ministership would do for the prospect of a woman ever truly leading Canada.

00:29:45.560 Because, well, it's very unfair to paint.

00:29:49.560 Canada's only had one female prime minister, Kim Campbell, for roughly 30 days. 0.66

00:29:54.560 And she was put in a similar kind of position.

00:29:57.560 The PC government in 1993 was wildly unpopular, blowing apart at the seams.

00:30:04.560 And Brian Mulroney steps down and she stepped up and took the fall.

00:30:08.560 Now she wanted to take the fall.

00:30:09.560 Well, she at least wanted to leave the party in. 0.92

00:30:11.560 But she ended up taking the fall and led the PC party in 1993 to the biggest electoral defeat in the history of the Democratic world,

00:30:18.560 going from a majority government to two seats, effectively ending the PC party as we knew it for all time.

00:30:24.560 And if Chrystia Freeland takes over from Justin Trudeau right now,

00:30:29.560 while the Liberals are pulling at the same 16% that the PCs got under Kim Campbell in 1993,

00:30:35.560 this would mean on paper Canada's had two female prime ministers, 1.00

00:30:39.560 both of which go down potentially to the most historic defeats in the history of the country.

00:30:45.560 And I think that would build, however unfair,

00:30:50.560 an electoral record that's not very good for female prime ministers. 1.00

00:30:53.560 I don't know. What are your thoughts on?

00:30:58.560 Yeah, I appreciate the question because it gives me an opportunity to say that I really don't think that if Chrystia Freeland was the next opponent of 0.68

00:31:12.560 or the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, that if she was rejected,

00:31:17.560 which I believe she would be by Canadians that had anything to do with her gender,

00:31:21.560 I think it would be because I don't know. I just I just want to say this.

00:31:25.560 Like, I just fundamentally disagree that Canadians, you know, would reject a candidate based on their gender right now.

00:31:34.560 I mean, you look even in our province of Alberta, you've got Danielle Smith, who, you know, is a very strong female leader,

00:31:41.560 just received a, you know, a massive showing of support from within her party in a leadership review.

00:31:48.560 And I really do think Canadians measure candidates based on their merits as they should.

00:31:54.560 And I mean, for Freeland, Freeland would be rejected because she was like the 2IC. 1.00

00:32:00.560 She was she was the architect of most of the Liberals disastrous policies.

00:32:04.560 It's interesting. The only other reason why I'm glad you raised her, Derek, is because Trudeau in his in his his speech today,

00:32:11.560 he actually really threw her under the bus. It was like this amazing stab in, you know, under a velvet glove.

00:32:19.560 He goes, you know, Chrystia, she stood by me for 10 years.

00:32:23.560 And then he went into like just sort of reemphasizing how she was like this, you know, his essentially complicit in all of his decisions.

00:32:32.560 And I don't think that Canadians are going to forget that she was complicit, that Mark Carney was like the Liberals,

00:32:38.560 you know, senior adviser, godfather to her children.

00:32:42.560 Like it's this incestuous nest of woke insanity that I think that's what Canadians are going to be measuring.

00:32:47.560 And I am, you know, as a woman in politics, I, you know, I'm just really excited to see a change in government,

00:32:55.560 no matter who who the Liberals decide to put up as as as as, you know, their net that the next hood ornament on the Titanic of disaster.

00:33:04.560 So giddy up. It's time for an election. And that's what we're going to be pushing for.

00:33:08.560 I certainly did not mean to imply in any way that Canadians wouldn't vote for a female in Alberta.

00:33:14.560 I don't think they'd vote for Chrystia Freeland. No, I

00:33:17.560 I think it's a disaster. She is an unmitigated disaster that never should have been put at the helm of

00:33:24.560 In Alberta, most of the candidates for the last few election cycles have either both been women or the successful ones.

00:33:29.560 Yes. I mean, I'm wondering if we'll ever have a male prime premier in Alberta.

00:33:34.560 But no, but I mean that some people might draw the wrong conclusion afterwards that, you know, if there's been to and to have been such a disaster.

00:33:46.560 I don't think that's fair. But I think if you look across the democratic world, the successful female leaders in these countries almost always come from the right.

00:33:55.560 You look at Italy, you look at the United Kingdom.

00:33:59.560 Merkel, I hate to use because she's kind of she became left, but she was when she first came, she was at least viewed as center right. 0.95

00:34:05.560 Yeah, I mean, I mean, like, look, Trudeau is a fake feminist of like the arch priest of fake feminism. 1.00

00:34:12.560 So I could totally see liberals who I never let women stand on their merit and always rely on tokenism, trying to pin Justin Trudeau's disastrous reign of nine years on a woman.

00:34:24.560 I can totally see that being their narrative. But as far as Canadians go, Canadians are just and smart and they they know better and they're not going to be fooled by, you know, changing out one liberal woke Trudeau white for another going into the next election.

00:34:43.560 They want change. They want safe streets, affordable groceries, affordable housing, and they want the budget to be fixed.

00:34:49.560 And that's what conservatives are going to offer. So, you know, I really do think that this is going to be an election when it happens that contrasts, you know, very different policy and outcome visions for the country.

00:35:04.560 One led one vision led by Conservative Party leader Pierre Polyev acts the tax, build the homes, fix the budget, stop the crime versus nonsense and woke insanity led by a Trudeau acolyte.

00:35:17.560 It's a pretty clear choice and it's one that I hope Canadian hope will be given to Canadians in a general election as soon as possible.

00:35:23.560 All right. Thank you, Michelle, for joining us. I really appreciate it. Let you get back to work. I know it is.

00:35:30.560 It's a day. Take care. Thanks.

00:35:33.560 It's a day. All right. We're just going to continue on just a little longer here, myself and Nigel.

00:35:40.560 Nigel, let's talk about the next liberal leaders, likely Carney or Freeland. We don't know for sure.

00:35:46.560 But, you know, if in another universe you and I are working in their new PMO, I think one of the first things they have to do is try to distance themselves from the Trudeau legacy.

00:35:59.560 I think a textbook example of this is here in Alberta when Jim Prentice succeeded Alison Redford.

00:36:06.560 She was wildly unpopular when she left office. Some of it was policy.

00:36:13.560 Some of it was just scandal. But he was able to at least temporarily successfully distance himself, at least in public perception.

00:36:22.560 It was all the same people around him as were around Alison Redford.

00:36:26.560 It was it was the same crew. It was the same government, effectively.

00:36:29.560 But much to my frustration and consternation at the time, he was able to make a few very symbolic moves that said, I am not Alison Redford.

00:36:40.560 I'm Jim Prentice. This is a different government. And it wasn't.

00:36:44.560 But the public, for a time in the polls, very much did buy that.

00:36:48.560 It was undone later on after you had the floor crossing and then a series of other debacles under Jim Prentice's own making.

00:36:54.560 But he was able to make a few key moves and they were very easy and almost tokenistic.

00:37:00.560 But it worked with the public most prominently. He sold the airplanes, the airplanes that have been at the center of several Alison Redford scandals wasn't even necessarily good policy, but it was it was good politics.

00:37:11.560 He did a few things and the public said, ah, we'll give you a chance.

00:37:17.560 If you were advising in this in this in this world, the next liberal prime minister, Freeland or Carney, what are some of the easy?

00:37:31.560 What are the some of the things you could do to distance yourself from Justin Trudeau in the public's mind without overly angering the liberal base?

00:37:40.560 Well, that's that's a good question. But what is the liberal base?

00:37:43.560 I guess we can have a discussion of that. You know, let's just say it was Carney.

00:37:50.560 Mr. Carney, I think, would be very ill advised to accept the position.

00:37:55.560 He's got a splendid personal track record, governor of two national banks.

00:37:59.560 Why would he want to be trade that in for leadership party?

00:38:03.560 He is he is apparently very interested in calling around.

00:38:05.560 Well, that actually worries me, because if there is no upside for him personally to become the captain of the Titanic as they was already going underwater.

00:38:18.560 So what would be his ulterior motive for accepting such a position?

00:38:23.560 And it has to be something that we wouldn't like.

00:38:25.560 So I'm actually challenging the premises of the question that they might even try to to distance themselves from the legacy of Mr. Trudeau.

00:38:33.560 That's another strategy is embrace it and say, listen, Mr. Trudeau, you know, alas, we never understood him, but he was right on climate change.

00:38:45.560 He was right on on so many other things, and especially upon reconciliation and EDI.

00:38:51.560 You know, but let's say the new leader wants to distance himself.

00:38:56.560 What are some of the things you think they could do?

00:38:58.560 They're costing them much political capital.

00:39:00.560 Well, I suppose that they could, you know, make an impassioned plea for meritocracy while quietly carrying on with their existing diversity, equity and inclusion,

00:39:12.560 because people don't like the idea that, you know, the phrase ticking the box about people.

00:39:16.560 They don't like that.

00:39:17.560 And it would cost him a lot to do that.

00:39:22.560 He can't change.

00:39:23.560 No liberal leader can walk back from from climate change, but they can soften it.

00:39:31.560 We've already seen them walk back the net zero from 2035 to 2050.

00:39:38.560 I think that's very largely to accommodate the vast power needs of the artificial intelligence industry that they want to build.

00:39:46.560 But they can talk about the A.I. industry they want to build and just not be quite so in your face.

00:39:53.560 Killing the carbon tax.

00:39:54.560 I mean, some I mean, the liberal parties bound up in it, but they're also bound up in it.

00:39:59.560 Like it's it's it's an anchor around their neck.

00:40:01.560 Yeah, well, they can't do that, but they could stop further increases.

00:40:04.560 They could sideline Stephen Gilboa.

00:40:06.560 It's always assuming he's even there after some future election.

00:40:11.560 But we're not even talking about the future of what's after a future election.

00:40:14.560 We're talking right now.

00:40:15.560 Yeah.

00:40:16.560 Mr. Gilboa took his place on the back benches, probably resign and just didn't talk about the things that people hate, which is wokeism.

00:40:26.560 And any kind of policy that seems to fly in the face of common sense, which is net zero by 2035, you know, even if you're a registered greenie, you know, how the hell are we going to do that? 0.76

00:40:42.560 Well, if it's impossible, don't commit yourself to it.

00:40:46.560 That they could do.

00:40:48.560 The other thing that wouldn't cost them anything.

00:40:49.560 I don't know whether they would ever contemplate it or not is for heaven's sake, change the channel on the Canadian Armed Forces.

00:40:55.560 The wokeness that has been allowed to go into that, where fellows were allowed to dress up as women and still report for duty.

00:41:05.560 I mean, I think some of that's been pulled back already.

00:41:08.560 But the very fact that it was ever out there in the first place offended so many Canadians.

00:41:14.560 So real acquisitions of military equipment and a real return to military values wouldn't actually cost the liberals that much.

00:41:23.560 They could even go back if they felt they needed justification to do the glory days of World War Two. 0.73

00:41:29.560 And now a liberal prime minister led us through the Second World War and our armed forces were brilliant.

00:41:35.560 They could do that sort of thing.

00:41:37.560 All right.

00:41:38.560 All fake.

00:41:39.560 Yeah.

00:41:40.560 Possible.

00:41:41.560 Yeah.

00:41:42.560 Not much of it, I think, would be convincing to Canadians, but I was wrong.

00:41:46.560 I didn't think Albertans would temporarily buy when, you know, you have the Prentiss pivot.

00:41:51.560 And for a few months, Albertans did buy it.

00:41:55.560 In the end, they didn't because it was seen to be insincere in the end.

00:41:59.560 Mm hmm.

00:42:00.560 But yeah, you know, it could buy them could buy them a little time.

00:42:04.560 Yeah.

00:42:05.560 All right.

00:42:06.560 Well, anything else?

00:42:08.560 No, I think we better get back to writing.

00:42:11.560 It is a hell of a day here, isn't it?

00:42:13.560 All right.

00:42:14.560 Well, I want to thank all of you for joining us today.

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Western Standard - January 06, 2025

CLUSTERF＊＊K： Trudeau resigns in disgrace

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