Western Standard - THE PIPELINE： Trudeau's post-national state is now prey to become a post-state nation

00:00:00.000 Today, I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're watching The Pipeline.

00:00:28.100 Today is January 8th, 2025, our first edition of the new year, and it's been a slow news cycle.

00:00:36.500 There really hasn't been anything to talk about.

00:00:38.480 Well, yeah, obviously I'm lying.

00:00:42.460 It's just been absolutely nuts around the Western Standard Newsroom for the last few days,

00:00:47.120 and it's very obvious what we're going to be talking about today.

00:00:50.140 We're going to be talking about the resignation of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

00:00:55.760 and the absolute ash heap that he is leaving of a country behind him right now.

00:01:02.260 And, you know, I used to say, I'm not sure if Trump is joking about annexing Canada anymore.

00:01:09.220 Well, I think it's increasingly clear that he's not at least entirely joking,

00:01:14.660 that he might actually be deadly serious about trying to form some kind of,

00:01:19.740 bring Canada into the United States as one or more states.

00:01:24.400 I'm joined, as usual, by Western Standard Opinion Editor, Nigel Hannaford.

00:01:28.320 Great to be here. So much to talk about.

00:01:30.120 Indeed. And Western Standard Senior Alberta Columnist, Corey Morgan.

00:01:35.000 Happy New Year.

00:01:36.340 Okay. Well, before we get started, though, I want to note that today's episode of The Pipeline is sponsored by New World Precious Metals.

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00:01:52.360 Gold and silver are the only currencies that have held their value over thousands of years.

00:01:57.820 Last year saw 30% gains for gold and silver.

00:02:01.460 So New World Precious Metals offers unique platforms to help protect and grow your hard-earned wealth with gold and silver.

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00:02:18.940 All right, gentlemen. We're off to quite a new year. I remarked yesterday, by the end of the day, it's only Tuesday and the prime minister has resigned. And the president of the United States is getting very serious about annexing Canada.

00:02:35.900 But we're going to get to the annexing part in a bit.

00:02:38.980 But I guess first let's just try to limit ourselves to Justin Trudeau, state of the country he's – the state in which he's leaving office and the country he is leaving behind obviously ties directly in to where we're going with Donald Trump.

00:02:53.700 So we'll spend more on the second segment here than on the first.

00:02:57.720 So we'll try to confine our comments just to Trudeau for now.

00:03:00.540 So, Nigel, you and I, we did a kind of an emergency, not, I didn't call it the pipeline, but it was, we had an emergency kind of...

00:03:09.060 A little chat.

00:03:09.820 A little chat.

00:03:10.560 On the day.

00:03:11.060 On the day he resigned.

00:03:15.660 You know, most prime ministers don't leave office under the greatest of circumstances.

00:03:19.520 They lose or there's pressure to go.

00:03:23.700 Most politicians generally don't leave at the time of their choosing, especially if they're in high office.

00:03:29.320 Very few come to mind. Brad Wall came to mind.

00:03:32.640 Dalton McGuinty, a little bit. He was leaving before a big scandal hit,

00:03:35.660 but he knew when to go from our Premier of Ontario.

00:03:38.840 But the list is pretty small of prime ministers who just say,

00:03:41.240 you know what? Time to go.

00:03:43.340 And even if they're going to lose, they normally do it with a bit more grace

00:03:46.200 when they decide to go, like, here, Trudeau, he puts it a bit poetically.

00:03:49.340 He took a walk in the snow and reflected on things.

00:03:52.560 Time to go. You know, he knew it was time to go.

00:03:55.560 Justin Trudeau is leaving office, kicking and screaming, suspending parliament, and leaving the country in a position of absolute destitute.

00:04:09.520 I wish he was leaving. He's still there.

00:04:13.480 He's still there.

00:04:13.900 He'll still be there for several months.

00:04:15.580 Operative part of the word was ing, leaving, not left.

00:04:19.500 Well, it certainly is a long way from done.

00:04:23.120 and for the next couple of months he can do what he wants to do with no scrutiny from opposition

00:04:29.840 MPs. I have no idea how he means to handle the Donald Trump challenge of

00:04:39.120 Paris if you don't meet certain conditions. We certainly haven't met the conditions.

00:04:45.120 It is actually a very much more dangerous situation because if he had actually gone,

00:04:50.720 who turned the keys through the letterbox and walked off, at least we could be having

00:04:57.340 a new leader in place, somebody who you could say, well, it's your job now, get on with

00:05:02.460 it. What are you going to do? He, however, how do you bring him to bear? What does he

00:05:07.600 think he's going to do? Who's he going to have to help him do it? What's the Team Canada

00:05:11.220 that he's going to have with him, flanking him at some point? We must engage with the

00:05:18.060 Americans. I wish he were gone, clearly. Corey, I think most people, including at this point the

00:05:25.360 Liberal Party, wishes he was gone, but he's not. You know, I did some math on the timeline here

00:05:32.780 when he announced he has prorogued Parliament, which I recall a younger Justin Trudeau saying

00:05:38.280 is the actions of an authoritarian dictator, if that Prime Minister happens to be conservative

00:05:43.240 named Stephen Harper. And Stephen Harper did it to forestall a bizarre coalition of other parties

00:05:51.180 taking place without an election. Fruto is proroguing to stop an election, quite the opposite,

00:05:57.840 actually, of Stephen Harper. Stephen Harper would have been actually quite happy to have an election

00:06:00.920 after Stéphane Dion, Liberals, the NDP, and the Bloc Québécois tried to form a tripartite coalition

00:06:07.020 to overthrow his government without an election. He would have been happy to have an election,

00:06:11.360 probably would have won a majority government right there for it. But he has forestalled an election

00:06:17.120 here until parliament returns on March 24th. Presumably the Liberals will break the rules

00:06:24.960 of their own constitution to select a leader earlier than that. The rules do not allow for

00:06:30.880 essentially to be held that quickly. But if the Liberals are willing to rip up the constitution

00:06:35.760 of Canada, parliamentary law and convention, surely the scrap of paper that is the Liberal

00:06:40.960 constitution that Justin Truro wrote anyway

00:06:42.820 isn't exactly a

00:06:45.140 hallowed document. So they're going to

00:06:47.020 presumably have a leader in place

00:06:48.800 before Parliament comes back

00:06:50.460 March 24th. Presumably

00:06:53.140 the government will be defeated

00:06:55.140 very quickly in a confidence vote.

00:06:58.100 The government, thankfully

00:06:59.200 this is great, might actually run out of money in the meantime

00:07:01.240 that's not such a bad thing

00:07:02.720 but

00:07:04.400 the government will be running out of money

00:07:07.100 because they need to pass a budget

00:07:08.100 because they run out of money March 31st

00:07:10.960 then we have a five weeks then roughly for an election that takes us to early may and then

00:07:17.520 another two to three weeks for a new government to be organized and sworn in that takes us uh

00:07:25.600 a june uh takes us into uh probably towards anime early june and then they have to find

00:07:31.200 the offices and get in in the meantime canada has no functional government at all yeah we are in

00:07:38.960 i don't think people understand the scope of crisis there's never a good time to be

00:07:44.240 leaderless essentially you know for all intents and purposes for six months but at the same time

00:07:50.480 when our closest training partner is transitioning into the leadership of what's volatile and

00:07:56.400 unpredictable president of modern history and we don't have solid representatives at least speak

00:08:04.800 for our side to talk to these things uh leaving aside the the domestic problems we have yeah we

00:08:11.520 have a government that actually has been crippled for months because the liberals didn't want to

00:08:15.920 release their uh green slush fund uh documents i mean we have been ungoverned for a long time

00:08:22.240 we're kicking the can down the road deficits this is a disaster and it's only going to get worse

00:08:28.400 with every passing week you're not looking to buy time and i still think i wouldn't put it beyond him

00:08:35.040 in his bizarre world when you saw his resignation i mean he feels like he's a victim he feels like

00:08:39.440 he could have changed things i could see him trying to turn this around even say look the

00:08:44.160 crisis is so bad right now we just can't wait for a leadership i've got to resume the prime

00:08:49.520 ministership for the sake of canada and i don't think it would work i think it would just make

00:08:54.720 things worse well it depends how long the crisis went off when the crisis starts apparently on

00:09:00.480 january the 20th he is the prime minister yeah what will he do and his response to this is going

00:09:07.100 to be interesting and frightening to see because nothing he says carries any weight he's easy you 0.76

00:09:12.440 know again he's gone from lame duck to dead duck he's easy out the door he has no credibility even

00:09:18.440 an interim leader at least you understand the role so you know there's a couple there's no good

00:09:24.920 scenarios ahead of us right now there's nothing good that can come from this situation um on the

00:09:31.480 one hand so trump is going to be inaugurated president about i think 12 days um and he said

00:09:38.000 he's bringing in tariffs on day one that maybe they get their implementation gets suspended

00:09:43.600 maybe not but who's actually gonna make the case right now because representing canada who is he

00:09:51.820 really gonna negotiate with you know justin trudeau or who whatever lackey he sends down there

00:09:57.140 uh trump's gonna sit across from them if he even agrees to sit with them he'll say who do you

00:10:01.960 represent do you have the ability to pass a trade agreement through parliament oh no you guys

00:10:06.980 suspended parliament because you'll just get defeated why are we talking shouldn't you just

00:10:12.060 guys just have an election and because you need to be able to get a trade agreement through

00:10:15.780 parliament why am i even talking with you you got you might be gone um so on the one hand he might

00:10:21.600 simply not negotiate the canadian government at this point and he wouldn't be wrong to take that

00:10:26.780 approach even more worrisome is if he does if he is willing to negotiate with the current canadian

00:10:33.440 regime uh because he sees weakness like and it's not just weak they're dead government walking this

00:10:41.620 is a zombie regime. And he might be willing to negotiate with them because he knows he can roll

00:10:48.100 them over and get anything he wants from them short of annexation. So I don't know, Nigel,

00:10:54.900 what's worse? Trump refusing to negotiate with our current government or Trump eagerly negotiating

00:11:01.360 with this government? Well, I think he detests and despises Justin Trudeau so much that he might

00:11:07.920 enjoy rubbing his nuts and not just for the sake of doing it. In which case, everything that you've 0.90

00:11:13.680 just said leading up to this is the worst case scenario. Mr. Trudeau just has nothing to draw on.

00:11:23.040 He can find four or five senior bureaucrats who understand what trade is about and they can go

00:11:29.440 down there together and Mr. Trudeau, when the president says this, this is what he's getting at.

00:11:35.280 so what you know uh there's nobody to do a deal with and if they do get a deal who's going to

00:11:42.440 ratify the emergent or the prorogations are everybody come back going to do this thing

00:11:49.980 and then we're going to do a non-confidence vote you know it's very hard you really need

00:11:58.020 you don't need a political analyst you need a crime writer or novelist

00:12:02.260 to try and figure out the subtleties and the nuances of which way this thing could go.

00:12:07.540 Part of the problem is that Parliament is sovereign,

00:12:10.360 and that sounds very hokey to most people,

00:12:13.520 but it means the courts really don't even have jurisdiction over this kind of thing.

00:12:18.300 It's governed by constitutional convention.

00:12:21.120 So there really isn't, like the court really might not be able to interfere,

00:12:24.500 even if it is unconstitutional.

00:12:26.140 If that Parliament didn't do it, the problem is it's sovereign.

00:12:28.680 So, you know.

00:12:29.720 Yeah.

00:12:30.440 But the Crown is sovereign.

00:12:32.260 Parliament is sovereign.

00:12:33.800 It's another unknown.

00:12:35.480 This really is probably the worst times that candidates

00:12:37.980 experience this.

00:12:40.360 I don't know.

00:12:41.960 Possibly ever.

00:12:43.060 But I'll tell you one thing. This would not have happened

00:12:45.880 under a better prime minister.

00:12:47.440 Can you imagine Trump pushing Stephen Harford

00:12:49.800 around like this? I can't.

00:12:51.780 I can imagine him...

00:12:53.440 Any American president, if they really

00:12:55.920 want to, could bully

00:12:57.840 around a Canadian prime minister.

00:12:58.940 We're the little guy on the block.

00:13:01.060 and it's a pretty small block. There's three.

00:13:03.520 It would be more of a different respect.

00:13:04.760 I mean, even a liberal one,

00:13:05.920 you've been to question a channel.

00:13:07.760 No.

00:13:07.980 The problem is Trudeau is...

00:13:10.000 Yeah, Trudeau might have tried to strangle him.

00:13:15.000 Sorry, not Trudeau, Christian.

00:13:16.980 Okay, well, then we're just going to have to...

00:13:19.980 We're going to have to transition to

00:13:22.900 what immediately...

00:13:25.640 The larger context in which the resignation happens now.

00:13:28.780 fruto announces his resignation monday uh trump that night was kind of dancing on his grave as

00:13:36.140 one would expect from not he was president normal normal president but from trump um

00:13:41.580 but then he immediately went right into annexation or union talks between the countries

00:13:49.720 and we've talked about this before and i and i get to lord it over you a little bit nigel 0.81

00:13:55.260 When we were talking about this, I was making the case that Trump is probably mostly joking, but he's going on about this a lot.

00:14:07.540 And I'm starting to think there's a small chance he's not entirely joking.

00:14:12.260 And you are holding back, cracking a smile that I was totally nuts.

00:14:17.660 You were being polite as you could.

00:14:18.920 You were a polite guy, but I could see you holding it in.

00:14:21.960 i i don't think it's a joke anymore well i'll tell you what it is it's a barrage that precedes

00:14:30.340 the advance of the infantry he's throwing everything out there to to mess with the minds

00:14:35.960 of mr trudeau in the first place but everybody who is working with him and canadians in general

00:14:42.440 and it is working good gracious anybody who watched the cbc presentation of it yesterday

00:14:47.960 They were, I mean, I just couldn't watch it any longer.

00:14:52.220 So he does, he has already ruled out military force.

00:14:57.780 He was asked that.

00:14:58.820 Didn't rule it out for Panama.

00:15:00.320 I can imagine the Yanks going into Panama. 0.54

00:15:02.820 Didn't rule it out before.

00:15:03.860 I mean, that's how it all got started.

00:15:07.360 It was an intervention from the United States.

00:15:10.640 So with Greenland, I don't think there's any need.

00:15:13.800 Small, small pop quiz.

00:15:14.520 Do you know who tried to first build the Panama Canal?

00:15:16.480 It's in French, wasn't it?

00:15:17.440 the Scots. The Scots. Because some genius thought it'd be a great idea to send a bunch of 1.00

00:15:22.060 gingers down to the equator in the jungle to hack a canal through. And it was so financially

00:15:28.840 ruinous that Scotland went bankrupt and had to join the United Kingdom. Ah, the gingers are on

00:15:35.140 the comment right now. They don't like being called gingers. I could not resist a bit of

00:15:42.100 trivia there. The Panama Canal is an interesting history. It certainly is. But look, I mean,

00:15:48.300 there is absolutely no way in this day and age that an American president would militarily

00:15:56.080 invade Canada. They might Panama. They might Greenland. They've got bases there already. 0.80

00:16:01.760 Technically, it'd be an invasion of another NATO country. He's not going to send the army to seize

00:16:05.460 Greenland. No. Well, they've got bases there already. It'll just be a matter of doing things

00:16:10.100 a different way for about 50,000 people.

00:16:12.140 Most of them can be paid off pretty easily and quickly.

00:16:14.680 So that's not going to happen.

00:16:16.160 But I do think that this whole blast of rhetoric

00:16:18.920 is designed to diminish the will and the resolution

00:16:23.480 of the Canadians who are going to have to face them. 0.75

00:16:26.660 Can you imagine being a senior official

00:16:29.900 in the Privy Council office right now,

00:16:32.280 and you know that in two weeks' time,

00:16:34.000 you are going to have to go with the Prime Minister,

00:16:36.900 or you might even be sent by the Prime Minister

00:16:39.320 without the presence of the prime minister

00:16:41.300 and deal with a bunch of guys who say,

00:16:43.560 all right, 25%.

00:16:45.160 What's your opening bid?

00:16:47.400 You know, lucky you.

00:16:49.760 Well, the opening bid's not 25% anymore.

00:16:51.380 It's annexation.

00:16:52.640 Yeah.

00:16:53.220 I mean, he's raising the price.

00:16:54.920 It was discomforting at the press conference

00:16:56.760 that I was talking about

00:16:57.680 because it started with, you know,

00:16:58.920 the Panama Canal and Greenland.

00:17:01.540 But this wasn't Trump throwing out a meme

00:17:04.280 or a tweet or anything.

00:17:05.520 It was actually him speaking a few sentences,

00:17:07.600 essentially saying, well,

00:17:08.440 we can take Canada. We'll just do it economically. We can crush them with enough 0.91

00:17:12.180 economic force was the term. Yeah. You know, that basically, I mean, you read between the lines 0.86

00:17:16.460 and they'll come on bended knee after enough starvation. And we call that

00:17:20.460 dollar imperialism in the fifties, you know? Yeah. And it's

00:17:24.240 we have to take it seriously. I mean, I could see him following through

00:17:28.520 with that. And usually a situation where you have, you know, somebody foreign

00:17:32.520 is threatening the well-being of your nation. The nation rallies around

00:17:36.420 the leadership. But here's where we're in trouble. We look like an anthill

00:17:40.380 that's just been stirred up and everybody's running in a hundred directions. There's no leader to rally

00:17:44.380 around. Well, no calls. Actually, Derek, you should

00:17:48.280 talk about that column of yours that you put out.

00:17:52.480 Well, that's where I'm going. Okay, Mr. Trudeau is asking us

00:17:56.520 to back something he doesn't. So, yeah, just

00:17:59.880 today I posted a column on this

00:18:03.200 and you know it is incredible watching the left in canada demand that patriots rise up

00:18:11.080 man the ramparts against the foreign invader where were you guys during the freedom convoy

00:18:18.940 when you jailed our people for protesting against authoritarianism from our own government where

00:18:24.620 were you guys when the statues of sir john and mcdonald and queen victoria were torn down and

00:18:31.060 You kept them down.

00:18:32.640 Even conservatives like Doug Ford, who's trying to wave the flag right now.

00:18:36.560 Look what's in front of Queen's Park right now.

00:18:40.440 There is the statue of Sir John and MacDonald.

00:18:43.140 It has essentially a tomb around it.

00:18:45.580 It is covered so that no one can see it because vandals are there.

00:18:49.380 Doug Ford and the police will do nothing about it.

00:18:52.120 Where were you guys when you changed the national anthem to make it politically correct?

00:18:55.900 Where were you guys when you lowered the flag on Parliament Hill and across the country

00:19:00.160 in all federal buildings for six months for a sham hoax that Canada is genocidal.

00:19:06.920 Where were you guys when you denigrated valor and military honor of the Canadian Armed Forces

00:19:15.840 and replaced it with DEI and tampons in the men's room?

00:19:20.200 Where were these lefty patriots? 0.90

00:19:23.360 They were calling us racist, sexist, homophobes.

00:19:25.720 They were calling us every name in the book saying we were un-Canadian.

00:19:29.220 They've been denigrating Canada, calling us a post-national state.

00:19:34.080 Now that Canada faces a very real potential threat to its sovereignty,

00:19:39.460 we might not even be left with a post-national state.

00:19:41.740 We might be left, as I wrote, with a post-state nation. 0.75

00:19:46.360 So how dare they come to us right now and demand that we man the ramparts

00:19:51.280 when they have been debasing and degrading this country,

00:19:55.740 its history and its traditions for years.

00:19:58.500 They want to stand up and play patriot now.

00:20:01.720 What's left to defend?

00:20:02.940 What are they going to do?

00:20:03.840 Stand up a whole bunch of purple-haired castrato 1.00

00:20:06.000 getting together from the coffee shops

00:20:07.600 and marching in the streets?

00:20:09.200 Maybe they'll make the Americans laugh themselves to death.

00:20:11.640 We don't have a resistance, guys.

00:20:12.980 We need reason right now, 0.99

00:20:14.280 not sudden idiotic notions of patriotism, 0.99

00:20:17.980 as you said, after spending 10 years 0.99

00:20:20.460 of telling us why we shouldn't have any.

00:20:22.620 It's absurd.

00:20:24.580 But we are not a unified nation.

00:20:26.720 there's just levels and levels and levels as to why we are in such terrible condition to deal

00:20:31.500 with what we've got coming down the pipe in 12 days from now no it's a catastrophic failure in

00:20:38.060 leadership and this it's just an interesting question as to who was actually responsible for

00:20:47.700 deciding mr trudeau that it was time to go was it his own caucus who had been calling for him to

00:20:54.340 step down or was it that in the end he didn't want to go nose-to-nose with Donald Trump?

00:21:01.080 You know this is the moment where Canada needs leadership from the left or the right but someone

00:21:07.240 to speak for the country. I'm not even trying to use the word nation anymore because Dustin Trudeau

00:21:11.240 does not believe Canada is a nation. It's a post-national state. But we are left. You know

00:21:18.920 Sun Tzu says, the battle is won, not in the field, but in the temple. It's your inner moral strength,

00:21:25.120 your courage of conviction, your plan. Well, we know there's no plan. There's not even a government.

00:21:29.800 We don't have a general right now. We've got a rabble on the field. But does the rabble in the

00:21:34.080 field, you know, if we're the peasants with pitchforks, what do we believe? Who are we?

00:21:41.840 Well, what is Canada? I mean, Canada was, I mean, our identity has always been somewhat

00:21:46.380 stitched together by the state. We were British North America, and we had to stitch together

00:21:51.760 French and English, not a traditional common national identity. But it had to be stitched

00:21:57.420 together, and it was grown and cultivated over time, and it was brought low by Pierre Trudeau

00:22:02.380 trying to replace it with multiculturalism. You know, the dark side of Canadian nationalism is

00:22:08.400 just knee-jerk anti-Americanism. What's a Canadian? What is a Canadian? Well, we're an American with

00:22:13.240 health insurance, no guns. Well, that's always been a bit BS to begin with. But what are we

00:22:20.080 really defending now? I grew up such a fanatical Canadian nationalist, patriot. And I've been told

00:22:29.300 that everything I love about Canada is evil. All the symbols, the institutions, the traditions,

00:22:34.480 these are evil things. So what am I being asked to stand up for right now?

00:22:39.040 Oh, you are certainly being asked to stand up for all those things that they've been denigrated

00:22:42.680 as if you just so eloquently put it but you also said where is the leadership coming from

00:22:49.640 in the complete absence of leadership in the liberal party it must come from the opposition

00:22:58.040 and those those qualities all these things that you have been talking about can be reclaimed it

00:23:06.040 It is possible to say, you know, we were wrong about Sir John A. MacDonald.

00:23:11.440 It is possible to say we were wrong to let liberals get away with castrating our military,

00:23:21.240 which is even as recently as 10 years, 15 years ago, was active in Afghanistan and doing an amazing job.

00:23:31.700 These things can be brought back, but somebody, and I'm thinking here, the leader of the

00:23:37.620 opposition needs to step forward and say, okay, obviously things have gone completely

00:23:43.920 off the rails.

00:23:44.800 We need to get through the next couple of months, but ladies and gentlemen, this is

00:23:49.040 how it's going to be when we, and to take back all of those things we have had taken

00:23:56.960 from us.

00:23:57.860 And you can start that framework, but that's still a longer game.

00:24:01.060 But I almost wonder, I mean, we're just speculating on scenarios because Trump's so unpredictable.

00:24:04.960 What if he steps past the prime minister?

00:24:07.640 I mean, he's already kind of acknowledged, you know, the Musk and the others are acknowledging that Polyev appears to be the heir apparent.

00:24:13.240 Just say, I want to start dealing with this guy because I know he's going to be the prime minister in five, six months and we can get stuff done.

00:24:21.260 Now, does Polyev say no?

00:24:23.700 and at the same time though that really undermines our entire governing system when

00:24:27.880 a presumed new leader is now negotiating on behalf of like but this would have sounded

00:24:33.260 outrageous a month ago where are we sitting now so that that's that's where actually that's a

00:24:39.100 great point that's that's where i wanted to go with this conversation because he's not the

00:24:44.120 equivalent of trump where he's been elected but not yet inaugurated he's not the prime minister

00:24:48.620 elect. He is the assumed next prime minister, but he's not the prime minister elect. But we are in

00:24:56.780 such an unprecedented situation, and we are in such a moment of genuine crisis for Canada that

00:25:04.300 is it appropriate now? And, you know, when you go into these negotiations, you kind of need the

00:25:08.780 bureaucracy behind you. You need the pointy heads in the Foreign Affairs Department or whatever the

00:25:12.960 how it's called now, global sucking, whatever.

00:25:18.080 But, you know, you don't have that team behind him.

00:25:20.980 He doesn't have the expert diplomats and trade experts.

00:25:23.720 You really want that when you go into negotiations like this.

00:25:27.200 But is this the point where Polyev has to almost assume the role of prime minister now?

00:25:35.200 But that's also dangerous for him politically.

00:25:36.860 He can be seen as arrogant, getting ahead of himself before he's elected.

00:25:40.460 On the other side, he might be seen as prime ministerial,

00:25:42.400 that he's going to step up and do the

00:25:44.340 prime minister's job right now because he

00:25:46.280 is clearly incapable

00:25:47.780 and even unwilling

00:25:50.380 to lead the country.

00:25:53.420 Yeah, I mean

00:25:54.100 what

00:25:55.280 Pollyer has to avoid 1.00

00:25:58.040 is being

00:25:59.180 seen as favorable

00:26:02.060 to Trump.

00:26:03.720 Whatever he thinks of Trump, and I suspect

00:26:05.980 that in his heart, he probably sees

00:26:08.140 much merit in the policies

00:26:09.760 that

00:26:10.720 that Trump is pushing forward, not just about Canada, but generally.

00:26:15.440 And that's for him to let people know, not for me to speculate about.

00:26:19.540 But, you know, he can't afford to be seen as Trump-lite,

00:26:24.580 as the Guardian newspaper recently labeled him.

00:26:28.000 He can't afford to be seen as anything other than

00:26:31.080 the strongest possible opponent of any kind of American takeover of Canada.

00:26:37.080 however you can also step forward to the center stage and say clearly the people who should be

00:26:42.920 doing the job are not doing it they don't appear to be capable of doing it and they appear to be

00:26:50.280 unlikely to do it we need a government of national unity to get us through this crisis what about it

00:26:57.560 trudeau that will mean including the conservatives and the bloc quebecois amazing though it would be

00:27:04.440 and the NDP. Sorry, you're talking about forming a new government in the meantime before an election?

00:27:09.720 Yeah. Well, certainly, it would be effectively a government. It wouldn't be leading all of the

00:27:16.640 other legislative stuff. But there's a job to do. Somebody needs to do it. Prime Minister is

00:27:22.580 incapable of it. So let's get the team together to do this. I don't think that conservatives can

00:27:27.620 or should agree to it. There's only one thing this country needs, and it's an election. We need it

00:27:32.360 so desperately right now. And we're not going to get it, short of another convoy heading to Ottawa

00:27:37.180 and honking until Trudeau cries again. We're not going to get another election until probably called

00:27:43.900 in early March. And then I said it's probably, sorry, late March and then called for early May.

00:27:49.780 We're not going to get it until then. And there's only one thing. And even the election's not going

00:27:54.060 to solve our problems. But at least it puts a captain on the team, gives the team a common set

00:28:00.320 of colors to fight with. Well, of course, that's the gold standard, an election now, get it done.

00:28:05.260 I don't, I appreciate your sentiment, a government of national unity, but

00:28:10.080 my precedent for this is 1939. Except the prime minister is Oswald Mosley.

00:28:18.760 I don't think so. No, what I'm saying is it's completely incompatible.

00:28:23.700 That's a different road altogether. There is no, there is no government to rally around right now.

00:28:28.720 You can't form a coalition

00:28:31.100 where the government's completely lost all confidence.

00:28:33.600 Well, there is a person and a team

00:28:35.100 that you can rally around.

00:28:37.460 Not without an election right now.

00:28:39.800 Informally. I mean,

00:28:40.660 everything's going to be informal, but it can

00:28:43.060 be written in pencil.

00:28:45.340 What I'm talking about is

00:28:47.140 extra constitutional at the

00:28:49.240 same time. I thought you were talking about

00:28:51.280 forming a new cabinet.

00:28:52.780 When we say government of national

00:28:55.180 unity, I thought you were talking about

00:28:56.920 Like in the traditional cabinet sense, we form like a wartime coalition cabinet.

00:29:00.880 All I have needs to step forward with a clear plan and a group of people standing behind him who could actually put it into practice and challenge the liberals to get with their program.

00:29:11.200 Okay.

00:29:11.800 Yeah.

00:29:12.300 I mean, it's, I can kind of see the formation of a, it's like a shadow opposition in a sense.

00:29:18.660 Well, we're kind of the shadow future government.

00:29:20.840 You know, you don't want to be too presumptuous, but you could say, well, this is what's going to be.

00:29:25.560 I mean, try to get cooperation out of the Bloc. I mean, if anybody's pragmatic among the leaders

00:29:29.960 in there... You don't need the Bloc right now because it's just about... If Palliev can go

00:29:36.040 and negotiate a deal that he can implement once he wins the election. Yeah, to give the appearance

00:29:40.760 of credibility, the more you could bring in as Nigel Singh, at least to look like we've got a...

00:29:45.000 The Bloc has every reason to join this kind of an effort because they'll be toast if...

00:29:51.240 They might not even be welcomed as a 50-verse. 0.99

00:29:53.240 They'll be all that's...

00:29:55.160 Canada will leave Quebec.

00:29:56.660 Yeah, let's talk, Frenchie.

00:30:00.860 Okay.

00:30:03.200 Sorry, I get to rub it in Nigel's face just a little bit more.

00:30:06.320 This is when I wanted to talk about Trump not being entirely joking about annexing Canada.

00:30:11.980 You had a hard time keeping a straight face.

00:30:14.000 I think we get to talk about it now.

00:30:15.860 I think we get to talk about it as something he is serious about.

00:30:18.340 Now, maybe he is serious about it, but he's using it, like, it's not just a troll anymore, having fun, laugh at our expense, laugh at Trudeau's expense.

00:30:28.240 At the lightest, it's a negotiating tactic to rattle the hell out of us so that when we come to the negotiating table, maybe we're like, please, just a 25% tariff, don't take us over.

00:30:39.680 Maybe, but I don't think so.

00:30:41.920 I think, I think he wants to.

00:30:44.640 I think he, you know, this would put him on Mount Rushmore.

00:30:47.740 I mean, this would more than double the size of the United States.

00:30:50.200 It would make us bigger than the Soviet Union was at its height. 0.93

00:30:53.800 Jeez, we might even be bigger than the Mongol Empire was.

00:30:56.280 I'd have to check the math on that.

00:30:58.320 But we'd be in the neighborhood of the Mongol Empire, the largest land empire in world history.

00:31:05.580 Probably, maybe it would even be bigger than the British Empire?

00:31:08.720 Maybe.

00:31:09.740 It would be wildly big, wildly powerful.

00:31:13.220 You're the fact-checkers of all left Google.

00:31:15.860 No, Facebook.

00:31:16.800 Facebook. Yeah. But I think he's serious about it.

00:31:23.260 Psychological warfare.

00:31:24.780 Well, there is psychological warfare. The question is, is this just meant to rattle us or is this meant to now soften us up or an actual plan to incorporate Canadian promises as states in the United States?

00:31:36.600 Mechanics of such a move, realistically, would take more time than Trump has possibly got to hope to be in office, even if that was a long term goal.

00:31:44.680 I mean, if he if he really thinks that this giant union and he would be the one in history who went beyond the Alaska purchase and expanded the American borders, if that's seriously what he's got in the back of his mind, still serious.

00:31:56.220 And he's trying to beat up, you know, soften things up to move towards it.

00:32:00.020 I just don't see anything close to that happening within less than a decade or two.

00:32:05.680 I mean, even if we started moving towards it, how much appetite is there on the average American's part to want to see this?

00:32:10.500 How much appetite does the average Republican to say, let's have a bunch more electoral college seats, go Democrat in the future?

00:32:16.600 Because Canada sure as heck would.

00:32:19.440 Yeah, but I mean, he commands the Republican Party absolutely at this point.

00:32:23.800 They're going to follow his lead.

00:32:25.580 The Democrats, I mean, they're kind of poo-pooing it a little bit right now, but they kind of do want a bunch of new, mostly blue states.

00:32:31.180 And it's in their interests.

00:32:32.520 uh so i you know going back to our earlier conversation about this when it maybe was

00:32:39.220 just trolling us maybe it was a little bit serious if he wanted to do it i mean you know

00:32:44.640 we got a lot of people who have been happy to denigrate canada and drag it through the mud for

00:32:49.560 the last few decades upstanding about how proud a canadian they are all of a sudden right now we

00:32:53.600 We have to keep up crappy, recycled Tim Hortons as if that's going to go away.

00:32:59.140 But if he was to impose a crippling tariff on us, he could send us into the dark ages economically.

00:33:07.780 And I know some people I've had, I've had chats with people who are, you know, don't follow politics closely.

00:33:12.300 They're like, well, maybe we'll just increase trade with other countries.

00:33:14.380 Yeah, well, we've tried it.

00:33:16.240 Stephen Baker tried to bring us firmly back into the British orbit.

00:33:19.360 Doesn't work because guess what?

00:33:20.480 It's a small island on the other side of an ocean.

00:33:22.160 even China. There's just no other real main trading partner for us. We are connected at

00:33:29.400 the hip to America, if we like it or not. And sometimes we don't like it, sometimes we do.

00:33:34.200 If he wanted to crush us economically, he absolutely could. And it would hurt America,

00:33:40.180 but I've seen, you know, lefty pundits say, well, it'll hurt Americans even more. No, it won't.

00:33:44.260 It'll hurt Americans a bit, but it could cripple us. And at what point are Canadians who are 0.93

00:33:51.980 demanding that the basket of deplorables go to the ramparts right now to defend Canada.

00:34:01.080 At what point are Canadians willing to say, enough, we give up, we'll join?

00:34:08.380 I find it hard to imagine that anybody would make the decision to join the U.S.

00:34:16.960 because they were going broke.

00:34:18.240 it might be the smart option

00:34:21.340 but

00:34:23.240 there's something about that

00:34:25.940 that just sticks

00:34:28.020 in the crawl and you'd rather

00:34:29.580 drink your coffee cold

00:34:31.680 than hot

00:34:33.580 if it means that you have to

00:34:35.880 become an American when you don't want to

00:34:38.040 I think there's a lot of people

00:34:39.640 in this country at the moment

00:34:41.360 who are kind of smiling at me

00:34:43.060 and said it actually wouldn't be so bad

00:34:44.500 of course

00:34:47.260 that's with Trump asking if it was Biden asking those same people probably would

00:34:51.820 not say that and then a bunch of people opposing it right now it's saying that

00:34:55.060 would be so bad with a Kamala exactly so it kind of depends who you like but

00:35:02.500 you know I can't think of a precedent for a country being forced into some 0.83

00:35:07.300 kind of surrender of sovereignty through economic means alone always

00:35:14.680 ultimately depends on somebody walking in and say give us the keys in a forced marriage you know

00:35:20.900 i can see i i'd have to get really hungry before marrying that uh you know uh nasty uh ill-tempered 1.00

00:35:29.620 pimply gal down the street you know uh it's just if only for my own principles and and uh

00:35:35.320 personally maybe it'd be a beautiful woman i just don't want to be forced and i think that sort of 0.88

00:35:39.900 thing would galvanize a lot of people as nigel said you know i'll put up with the cold coffee 0.83

00:35:42.840 But let's say we get mass unemployment.

00:35:47.220 Like if he was just to shut the border, mass unemployment.

00:35:51.100 The Canadian government would go actually bankrupt pretty quick.

00:35:57.180 Americans don't own a ton of our debts, but they could call in our debts. 0.99

00:36:00.860 Close the border.

00:36:02.080 You get mass unemployment, like Great Depression level unemployment.

00:36:06.100 Everybody else's standard of living is falling.

00:36:08.820 You could do it, but how many Americans are going to put up with that for long either?

00:36:11.240 I mean, they're not all heartless. And what about other countries? They're going to get pretty upset, too.

00:36:15.080 We're seeing expansionism through economic weaponry. This is a precedent around the world that's not going to be well received as well.

00:36:22.220 I mean, I know we what I'm saying is Trump could do it. Trump just could hurt us terribly.

00:36:28.720 Oh, he could. And I'm just I don't know where is the breaking point.

00:36:32.020 And I think the breaking point, if say we had a Trump a decade ago, I think the breaking point would be harder.

00:36:37.680 because there was at least a government that did care about a sense of Canadian identity that was

00:36:44.940 proud of Canada. We've had a government of power now for 10 years and we've had a group of people

00:36:50.980 in the commanding heights of Canadian high society and industry for generations that do not believe

00:36:58.100 in this country as a nation. They believe in it as a state, as a geographic boundary of which

00:37:04.260 there is a body called a government that has a monopoly on force and gets to redistribute wealth

00:37:08.740 but not not a nation in the sense of england france or germany or a civic nation in the sense

00:37:14.360 of america they have a real set of common values beyond not being americans is there really a big

00:37:21.060 sense of self and and while maybe i'm speaking wildly here we're all speaking wildly this is a

00:37:29.020 wild situation. It is a wild conversation. But think of this. I don't know how this would play

00:37:34.460 out, but I'm not calling immigrants unpatriotic, but I am saying it takes time for your attachment 0.60

00:37:41.340 to a country to grow. You don't feel as Canadian probably the very first day on Canadian soil as

00:37:47.020 you do after five years, after 10 years, after one or two generations. The longer you're here,

00:37:52.800 the more connection you feel to the country. Wouldn't it just be the height of irony

00:37:57.980 if we have a bunch of newcomers to Canada 0.98

00:38:00.720 who wanted to go to America as their first choice

00:38:02.620 and they now get to vote on getting to join America.

00:38:06.720 Well...

00:38:06.960 I mean, that is something to consider,

00:38:08.720 that Justin Trudeau, having opened the floodgates

00:38:10.700 to people who, let's be honest,

00:38:13.520 may have preferred America as their first choice,

00:38:16.240 might see this as the backdoor in.

00:38:17.800 Well, look, this is actually...

00:38:20.200 It may not be that.

00:38:21.380 It may be that all the best and the brightest

00:38:23.760 continue to flow from Canada to the United States.

00:38:28.460 There are people who can work anywhere,

00:38:31.280 and there are some people who, by the nature of their family attachments

00:38:34.860 and their particular skill set,

00:38:37.060 basically pretty much flourish where they were born,

00:38:39.840 or they don't flourish at all.

00:38:41.600 But if you're a doctor, you're an AI specialist,

00:38:44.800 if you're one of the people who develop particular skills,

00:38:48.620 and Canada actually starts to seriously circle the drain,

00:38:53.220 What do you do?

00:38:53.960 Are you going to sit there and drink your cold coffee?

00:38:56.040 Or you say, well, you know, might as well go to where my bills are appreciated.

00:39:00.760 That would be the United States of America.

00:39:03.000 Probably.

00:39:03.880 Australia, I suppose.

00:39:05.300 All right.

00:39:05.900 Well, we're going to turn it into our parting shots now.

00:39:09.860 Let's start with you, Corey.

00:39:12.240 Sure.

00:39:12.640 It kind of ties into this whole thing.

00:39:14.420 If there was any single move, if we want to start getting away from some of the stuff that has undercut Canadian identity and pride, unity,

00:39:22.580 in a national sense. It's those frigging land acknowledgements. They got to stop. Somebody's

00:39:28.400 got to get up and say, that's it. They're done. They're stopping. We're not going to start every

00:39:32.320 event, every hockey game, have every radio station take a portion of time in the day 0.94

00:39:36.060 to expect everybody to stare at their shoes and acknowledge that they're a nasty, nasty person

00:39:41.040 because somebody who lived here 300 years ago was there before your ancestors or you or whomever

00:39:46.060 showed up. That's one of the worst, almost cult-like things that is happening in schools

00:39:51.240 that keeps driving it into people's heads that you are not a legitimate part of this nation.

00:39:57.160 It's no wonder people don't feel connected to it today.

00:40:00.120 There's the first part of we were talking about reversing some of the damage

00:40:03.000 and land acknowledgements. 0.94

00:40:05.560 They're ridiculous. 0.95

00:40:06.620 That sounds like a column. 0.99

00:40:08.940 It sounds like a very good column.

00:40:11.460 My parting shot.

00:40:13.100 And I'm thinking about who replaces Mr. Trudeau when he finally lets go of the reins.

00:40:18.560 And, of course, Mr. Carney, Mark Carney, has been touted as a possible one.

00:40:24.780 I find that a very disconcerting prospect.

00:40:27.540 Carney has had two great gigs at central banks.

00:40:30.360 He has the UN on his resume.

00:40:32.180 If he becomes the leader of the Liberal Party, the most likely outcome is that he's going to ride the ship all the way to the bottom.

00:40:41.040 He's going to lose, and he's going to lose big.

00:40:43.260 He can't possibly think that he's going to win.

00:40:45.700 So it's like applying for the job of captain of the Titanic after the ship has already hit the iceberg.

00:40:51.920 Why would you do that?

00:40:53.240 The only reason that I can think of is that he has some subtle plan and so do the people around him

00:40:59.820 that he can follow some extreme ideological agenda that means something to him and something to them

00:41:06.140 for the time he's got, be climate change related, but it means bad news for the rest of the country.

00:41:13.140 there's no good reason for

00:41:16.080 Carney to be running that makes any sense

00:41:17.900 in a normal world, so it's got to be something

00:41:19.900 really off the charts

00:41:21.520 I hope he enjoys his

00:41:23.780 two weeks as Prime Minister

00:41:25.300 well, speaking of

00:41:27.840 short-lived Prime Ministers

00:41:29.060 and

00:41:30.340 potential successors to

00:41:33.200 Justin Trudeau, my parting shot

00:41:34.920 is for Canada's next potential Kim Campbell

00:41:37.860 Chrystia Frigoland 0.78

00:41:39.040 I

00:41:41.220 think it would be

00:41:43.040 you know canada is going to have a woman as prime minister someday who is in office for more than 0.99

00:41:49.800 a month like kim campbell we're gonna have a real woman prime minister um and i think christia 1.00

00:41:57.180 freeland would actually be doing the cause of having a woman leader of this country a disservice 1.00

00:42:02.600 by standing right now to take the fall and be the liberals kim campbell kim campbell didn't really

00:42:08.260 have a shot coming with the wild unpopularity of the brian mulroney government when that ended

00:42:12.220 and i don't think christian freeland would have a real shot either um and i and i think

00:42:18.660 canadians will not not elect her because she's a woman they will not not elect her because she's a 0.98

00:42:23.480 liberal and a dyed-in-the-wool trudeau liberal despite their one little fight at the very end

00:42:28.300 she's a trudeau liberal through and through and that's why canadians will not elect her 0.95

00:42:32.040 um but if she is a lot is is the uh liberal leader she goes down it'll be a 2-0 record

00:42:39.020 of disastrous, blowout

00:42:40.960 fear party woman leaders. 1.00

00:42:43.520 And I think that'd be a bad

00:42:44.500 signal to send young women who

00:42:47.220 want to be Prime Minister of Canada someday.

00:42:49.600 I think she should let a man take the 1.00

00:42:51.260 fall on this one, and she can consider picking up

00:42:53.160 the pieces after.

00:42:55.460 Amen. All right.

00:42:57.360 Well, that's it for this

00:42:59.120 edition of The Pipeline. I want to

00:43:01.160 thank you all for joining us.

00:43:03.260 Obviously, Corey and Nigel was...

00:43:05.760 I can't believe we're even talking about this

00:43:07.160 stuff. It's just absolutely bonkers. But I've enjoyed it. I want to thank all of you for

00:43:12.560 joining us here today on the pipeline. Remember, the Western Standard is government advertising

00:43:17.700 free. We do not. We are one of an extremely small number of media outlets in Canada that refuse to

00:43:23.200 take Justin Trudeau's taxpayer media bailout. We are funded by people like you. So please go to

00:43:29.800 westernstandard.news right now. Click on subscribe. A membership is only $10 a month or $100 a year,

00:43:35.560 and it'll give you unlimited access past the paywall

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00:43:39.920 Thank you very much for joining us today, and God bless.

00:44:05.560 You

Western Standard - January 10, 2025

THE PIPELINE： Trudeau's post-national state is now prey to become a post-state nation

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