Ezra Levant’s June 11, 2018 episode slams Justin Trudeau for rejecting Donald Trump’s NAFTA tariff cuts and five-year review clause, despite Canada’s $100B auto industry at risk. Trump’s G7 "joke" exposed Trudeau’s ideological resistance over economic pragmatism, while allies like Japan and Europe adapt—Levant warns Canada’s stubbornness could collapse its auto sector permanently. Legal expert Manny Montenegrino backs Trump’s concessions, criticizing Conservatives for defending the dairy cartel. Ford’s election contrasts Trudeau’s climate-focused neglect with Ontario’s job-saving priorities, hinting Trump may exploit Canada’s divisions to force weaker terms. Trudeau’s India trip and globalist distractions further undermine his trade leadership, risking long-term economic betrayal. [Automatically generated summary]
Tonight, we're on the brink of a full-blown trade war with the United States and Canada's auto industry is in jeopardy.
It's June 11th, and you're watching The Ezra LeVant Show.
Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.
You come here once a year with a sign and you feel morally superior.
The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
We're in a trade war.
It's as bad as it gets because for the first time in living memory, the United States is a president who is absolutely dedicated to bringing factories back to the United States after a generation of offshoring.
I've heard what Trump's doing is called reshoring, which is a word you rarely hear because it's really never happened before, but it's happening under Trump.
Whether it's Apple repatriating more than $250 billion, this says nearly $245 billion, let's just call it a quarter trillion dollars, back to America from other countries where they had put it for tax reasons, or the booming energy industry, just for another example where Trump wants to turn America from a net energy importer to an energy exporter.
It's actually what Trump campaigned on, industry and jobs.
That and building the wall with Mexico, which is related in some ways.
The media, which is comprised mainly of coastal elites in LA and New York, they cared about their pet ideological issues, the fact that Hillary Clinton was a woman or Trump's personality.
But in the Rust Belt, all they heard was this.
This is our mantra, buy American and hire American.
Buy American and hire American.
Buy American and hire American.
Do you recall one of the very first meetings that Trump convened at the White House after his inauguration in January?
It was with blue-collar trade unions who almost always support the Democrats.
He met with them and he ripped up the proposed TPP Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal.
He just ripped it up.
And all those big labor bosses, the Teamsters, the steelworkers, they were stunned, I think.
Maybe, maybe Donald Trump was for real.
When the president laid out his plans about how he's going to handle trade, how he's going to invest in our infrastructure, and how he's going to level a playing field for construction workers and all Americans across this country, and then took the time to take everyone into the Oval Office and show them the seat of power in the world.
The respect that the President of the United States just showed us.
And when he shows it to us, he shows it to 3 million of our members in the United States was nothing short of incredible.
And we will work with him and his administration to help him implement his plans on infrastructure, trade, and energy policy so that we really do put America back to work in the middle-class jobs that our members and all Americans are demanding.
Thank you very much.
That was 500 days ago.
I think he's proven he's pretty serious, don't you?
The media doesn't understand blue-collar things since they live in elite bubbles.
When was the last time some pundit from McLean's magazine or the CBC actually stepped onto a factory floor or visited a mine or a construction site?
Never.
They hate that kind of stuff.
So they don't take Trump seriously when he talks about that.
Trudeau is surrounded by fancy people who are very good at jet-setting to TED Talks and Davos, but they don't actually know how to do anything or build anything.
So they don't know how much Trump cares about bringing factories back to places like Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Indiana and Wisconsin because they don't care.
Those are uncool places and uncool businesses like making cars in Michigan boring.
They only like Tesla cars because they're virtue signals on wheels.
These kind of lefty politicians, they like companies like Instagram and Facebook that aren't really about anything.
So the media doesn't get it.
Everyone thinks Trump's shtick is just that.
It's an act.
He's bluffing maybe.
But I think he means it.
Can I ask you a question?
In any of Trump's dealings with foreign leaders over the past 500 days, has he ever bluffed?
Whether it's sending cruise missiles after Bashar Assad in Syria, or actually putting massive tariffs on China, or canceling a nuke deal with Iran.
Can you please show me where he's been faking it or just bluffing or just kidding around?
I don't recall such an instance.
But now Donald Trump is coming for our Canadian car factories, and it's obvious why.
We sell about a million more cars into the U.S. than they sell up to us.
If Trump brings those cars or their factories back to America, to Michigan, Ohio, and the steel comes from Indiana and Pennsylvania, he's going to be president again in 2020.
And more than that, he really will have lived up to his motto.
Like it or not, make America great again, buy American, hire American, at least for people who were forgotten or ignored in the past.
Now, I've shown you this steel workers ad before.
I won't show you the whole thing now, but it's a middle-aged steel worker from Indiana who's actually campaigning against Trump in 2016, basically saying Trump was lying.
He didn't mean any of his promises about steel.
I actually found this guy.
He's a real steel worker.
He's not an actor.
His name is Jack Tippold.
We're Facebook friends now.
I've asked him on Facebook if he'll support Trump in 2020.
Now, he won't tell me, and I suspect he's a die-hard Democrat in public, but I'm pretty sure every single other person in his factory is going to be voting for Trump, and he probably will too, secretly.
Trump's Anger Toward Canada00:14:51
Wouldn't it be great if we had a prime minister who went to bat for industrial workers in Canada?
Imagine all the industry that goes into a pipeline.
I mean, talking about steel.
So Donald Trump arrived at the G7 in Canada meeting a few days ago, and he sits down for a very short sort of introductory photo op with Justin Trudeau, and he tells a joke.
Trump's always making jokes, even if he's dead serious, maybe especially if he's dead serious.
Most of the time, the media pretends not to know it's a joke, or they genuinely don't get the joke.
But can I show you the joke?
Because there's never a truer word spoken than in jest.
Listen to this.
We both got elected on a commitment to grow the middle class and help those working hard to join it.
And that's exactly the kinds of things that we're going to stay focused on.
And it's a pleasure to have you here, Donald.
Well, Justin, it's been really great, and I appreciate, you know, Justin has agreed to cut all tariffs and all trade barriers between Canada and the United States.
So I'm very happy.
So I'd say NAFTA's in good shape.
But we are actually working on it.
We are actually working on it.
Now, that was a joke.
There were some giggles there, so people knew it was a joke.
Now, they had not actually come to that agreement.
But I think that's what Trump wants, doesn't he?
That was the point of the joke.
I mean, I think he wants an end to trade barriers.
He keeps saying he does.
He keeps acting like he does.
The joke, the reason that was funny, haha, is that he was pretending that he had already come to that deal with Trudeau, which is a very complicated deal.
He pretended that they had a deal already.
But would you agree with me in that joke?
He sort of revealed what he wanted.
And don't we want that too in Canada?
I mean, we're right next to America geographically.
We don't want, I mean, for God's sakes, we got the longest undefended border in the world, right?
We're right next to the world's most important market, right?
90% of Canadians literally live within an hour or two of the U.S. border.
Our economies are so linked.
Why wouldn't Trudeau actually just jump right in and say, yes?
It's a deal.
Lawyers will work out the details.
Trump said some other things too.
It could be that NAFTA will be a different form.
could be with Canada, with Mexico, one-on-one, much simpler agreement, much easier to do, I think better for both countries, but we're talking about that among other things.
But the relationship is probably better, as good or better than it's ever been.
And I think we'll get to something very beneficial to Canada and to the United States.
Isn't that where Trudeau says, yes, I do, me too?
Why wouldn't we say, yeah, let's just have a two-way deal, just Canada and the United States, best buddies.
Mexico are the picture.
They're so different.
They irritate America in different ways.
Mexico does, including with cheap labor and illegal immigration.
Let's just get our own deal and wish the Mexicans well.
We have no hard feelings towards them, but let's just make sure we're not lumped in with them when Trump brings down the hammer.
Well, Trump was focused on North Korea, by the way.
I mean, Trump has been preparing for that historical meeting for weeks.
The meeting actually happened today in Singapore.
Trump didn't even want to go to the G7 meeting.
I mean, those are all leaders he can just talk to any day, just picks up the phone when he wants to.
I mean, we know that Justin Trudeau loves field trips and foreign trips and vacations.
Trump has some real business to deal with.
So you'll forgive Trump that he showed up a little bit late to a G7 breakfast meeting on women's equality and intersectionality.
This is a picture of that.
Boy, did the liberal media mock Trudeau remark Trump for that.
Justin Trudeau literally gave a speech at the G7 that he wanted Trump to sit through about feminism and intersectionality.
That is a postmodern Marxist phrase that means you can't just be feminist.
You have to be a feminist of color or a trans feminist or something else.
Can you imagine Trump sitting there, listening to Trudeau blather on like some college blogger or something, instead of Trump preparing for his North Korean summit?
Or how about instead of looking at it from Trump's point of view, instead of Trudeau focusing on feminism, how about focusing on NAFTA?
But look, Trudeau's going to be Trudeau.
He doesn't have any depth on any policy file other than marijuana.
While he was surely going to have fun at the G7, like the host of a big fun party, his only real goal with Trump was to do no harm, right?
Let Trump come and go without starting a fight, right?
You said that video.
They got off to look like a good start to me.
The problem is Trudeau is surrounded by people who hate Trump and say so privately all the time and publicly some of the time too.
So Trudeau has to be careful.
He has to be on guard not to talk about Trump in person like he talks about Trump behind his back.
Like the example here, this is the father of Trudeau's communications director.
His name is Bruce Anderson.
He's saying Canada should try to kick the United States out of the G7.
He claims that Trump actually likes North Korea more than he likes Canada.
That's the implication here.
As if Trump's not going to bring that dictator to heel.
But this is how they think inside the Liberal Brain Trust.
I mean, that is crazy talk, but that's the father of Trudeau's right-hand woman.
That's what he's saying in public.
Imagine what he says in private.
This is the house husband of Catherine McKenna, Trudeau's environment minister.
His name is Scott Gilmore.
He's actually calling for Canada to put economic sanctions on Trump and his family.
My point is, Trudeau and his circle are so hateful towards Trump, they're unprofessional and unguarded, and they had to keep on their best behavior just 48 hours until Trump was gone, and they just couldn't do it.
So things worked out pretty well until the very end.
And only after Trump had gone on his plane and flown away, en route to North Korea, only after Trump had flown off, Trudeau did a press conference where he said Canada wasn't going to be pushed around anymore, as in he was talking tough, only now that Trump was gone.
After all, I guess they don't have phones on Air Force One or something.
Oh, they do.
Trump saw that pushback, and so he tweeted from the plane.
He said, PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our G7 meetings, only to give a news conference after I left saying that U.S. tariffs were kind of insulting.
They will not be pushed around.
Very dishonest and weak.
Our tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy.
I believe that, actually.
I believe that Trudeau was obsequious in person and only pushed back bravely after Trump was gone.
I believe that.
He was only brave after the fact.
Absolutely, I believe it.
I mean, this weird New York Times piece today shows how terrified Trump is of Trump.
Look at this.
He literally practiced, practiced handshaking.
He had like a handshake trainer or something before meeting Trump.
So Trump is busy studying tough policy files, trade files, peace with North Korea files.
And Trudeau is practicing how to shake hands.
And then bragging about that to the New York Times, I guess.
If you think that's bad, look at our foreign minister.
Listen to Christia Freeland talk about how she likes to really negotiate trade deals.
The European Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, and I call each other sisters in trade.
We sign our emails, hugs.
Do you actually do that?
Yes, we do.
We sometimes send each other smiley faces in particularly difficult moments.
So yeah, hugs.
I don't know if Trump is a hugger.
Not sure if we've got the right people on the job here, do you?
But again, the goal was just do no harm, skip through the weekend.
Trump's going to forget about all of us when he goes to North Korea.
But Justin Trudeau couldn't help it.
So now, like it or not, fair or not, overreaction or not, Donald Trump says he's coming for us, and he's coming for the thing he actually cares about, our auto industry.
And he's particularly focused on our dairy industry as the excuse.
He says it has a 270% protective tariff, including new tariffs brought in by Justin Trudeau just two years ago.
Bizarrely, just as Trump was coming to power, Trudeau thought that would be a good time to bring in more tariffs on the state, so reckless.
But remember back to that first video I showed you, this one.
Justin has agreed to cut all tariffs and all trade barriers between Canada and the United States.
Why not just say right there, yeah, yes, please.
Thank you.
How on earth is a total free trade agreement, no barriers, not the dream outcome for Canada?
We're right next to the enormous U.S. market.
We speak English like they do.
They are just across the bridge or the highway.
We are friends.
How on earth could we not make out like bandits here?
In fact, those Quebec dairy farmers, how could they not win with the massive U.S. market for their fancy cheese?
Well, Trudeau refused.
He refused for weird reasons.
You heard Trump.
He wanted a Canada-U.S. deal.
Get Mexico in their own deal.
No Mexico involved.
Trudeau refused that?
Why?
Were you virtue signaling white-knighting for the Mexicans?
Trump wanted a five-year deal to be renegotiated, reviewed after five years.
Trudeau refused.
Why?
The current deal has a six-month cancellation provision.
How is a five-year deal worse than one that can be canceled in six months' notice, which, by the way, Trump has already formally given?
Why are we nitpicking with this guy who just offered us free access to the world's most important market?
Why don't we say, you know, you're joking, but we're in if you're in.
Why didn't we do that?
Trump's not just mad at Canada.
He's mad at Europe.
Look at this great picture.
He's adamant, isn't he?
Look at them all staring down at him, Angela Merkel.
But look at him.
He's defiant.
He don't care.
I suppose you could look at this picture and say, Angela Merkel, she's my hero.
She's speaking truth to power.
But I think Jack Tibbald looks at this picture and says, good Lord.
Oh my God, he's actually fighting for steel.
Here's what Trump tweeted.
said, and add to that the fact that the U.S. pays close to the entire cost of NATO, protecting many of these same countries that rip us off on trade.
They pay only a fraction of the cost and laugh.
The European Union had a $151 billion surplus, should pay much more for military.
Is he wrong?
We all know he's right.
I mean, he's mad at Germany there, but he's mad at Canada too, because isn't he right?
Americans pay to protect us.
And all he wants is to be able to sell some dairy and some cars here and some steel, and he wants an end to our tariffs.
Is he right or wrong about who pays to protect us?
I mean, I don't care if you're a new Democrat or a communist.
You know how much he pays to protect us compared to how much we pay to protect ourselves.
And it's Trump's offer, free trade on everything.
Is that so odious to us?
Don't we actually want that?
Well, not if you're a Quebec dairy farmer, because you're making out like a bandit because of the dairy cartel.
So what's more important to Canada?
Quebec dairy farmers making super profits?
Or, I don't know, the auto industry?
I actually think that's the choice we have now.
Based on Justin, let me read this as a Trump tweet here.
Based on Justin's false statements at his news conference and the fact that Canada is charging massive tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers, and companies, I have instructed our U.S. reps not to endorse the communique as we look at tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. market.
Yikes.
And it's true.
We sell them about a million cars a year more than they sell to us.
Trump wants those factories back in Michigan and Ohio, but Trudeau won't budge on dairy.
And he'll tell Trump that he's a bully.
Now, to be fair to Trudeau, Trudeau's language at the press conference that got Trump mad wasn't particularly extreme.
He just said Trump was trying to push Canada around and we're insulted.
But was Trump actually trying to insult Canada, push Canada around, or was he actually just trying to reduce tariffs?
I don't think that what Trudeau did is a grievous, wounding insult, but don't you know one thing about Trump?
Don't we all know one thing about Trump?
That Trump's rule of thumb when it comes to insults is if anyone insults him, he punches back tenfold.
Don't we know that about Trump?
Friend or foe, don't we know that about him?
Why would you say that Donald Trump is insulting us and pushing us around?
Why would you say that in public, at least, when in private you are meek, which I absolutely believe he was?
Why, when your only proper goal is to maximize Canada's relationship with America, Trump or not?
Well, like I say, because Justin Trudeau and his handlers all despise Trump.
And saying, I'm insulted and stop pushing us around.
That was the most polite they can be towards Trump.
And you know what?
Trudeau and his people, they don't mind a trade war because look at them denouncing Trump.
I bet they move up in the polls a few points because our media, our cultural establishment, they all hate Trump.
So they love that Trudeau is now the world's hero at fighting with Trump.
Angela Merkel is smarter than that.
France's Emmanuel Macron is smarter than that.
The UK's Theresa May is smarter than that because they want something from Trump.
They want trade.
They want military protection, whatever.
Trudeau is sacrificing our auto industry for the dairy farmers, but really for an ideological poke, poke a stick in his eye, for a campaign issue maybe.
I mean, I bet that in the last 48 hours, Justin Trudeau has been overwhelmed by love and support from the globalist left.
Here's Donald Tusk, the unelected president of the EU Council, which is, by the way, one of five different unelected European Union presidents.
Had you ever even heard of Donald Tusk before?
There's a special praise in heaven for Justin Trudeau, he writes.
Canada, thank you for the perfect organization of G7.
Perfect.
He's not referring to concierges and waiters.
He's referring to Trudeau embarrassing Trump.
So big win.
You got Donald Tusk on the side.
Is he going to buy a million cars a year?
Evan Solomon, who I increasingly regard as the only independent journalist in Ottawa, here's what he wrote.
He said, this is the biggest threat of all, tariffs on automobiles.
A senior source told me this would be close to an existential threat to our economy.
This is very, very dangerous, hard to overestimate.
Here's a former liberal premier of Quebec, Jean-Sharais, saying the same thing.
If Trump follows through on the threat to put tariffs on autos, it will be a catastrophe for Canada.
I say again, why not just say to Trump, yeah, free trade?
You're joke there?
That's no joke to us.
Dairy Subsidies Threat00:02:56
Let's do it.
We totally want it.
Let's just do it.
No tariffs.
Happy to get out of the Mexico deal.
They're big boys.
They can handle themselves.
Everyone in Canada knows the dairy cartel is awful for Canadians.
It makes milk and cheese and yogurt very expensive for consumers.
It hits poor people the hardest because if you're rich, you're not drinking 10 times more milk than a poor person.
You just have 10 times more money.
The poorest people have to buy their milk.
We all know the dairy cartel is wrong.
What a great excuse Trump's offering us to actually get rid of the dairy cartel.
And we could say, well, we had to do it, dairy farmers.
Sorry, Trump made us.
That would have given us two wins, give Trump a concession.
It's actually something we secretly want to do, get rid of the dairy cartels, and we get to save our steel and auto industry.
Instead, we'll have neither.
All the liberal hangers-on were so gleeful this week, and they all value smearing Trump more than actual public policy that helps Canadians.
Here's Andrew Scheer, leader of the Conservatives, based in Saskatchewan.
And what does he have to say about this?
Here's what he said on Friday when Trump arrived.
He said, I spoke with the media in Saginais, Quebec today, and reaffirmed the Conservative Party of Canada's commitment to Canada's supply management system and support for dairy farmers.
And Trudeau needs to explain what he meant when he said he was open to flexibility on that file when negotiating with the U.S. and what concessions he offered to them from Canada's dairy industry.
So Andrew Scheer was actually demanding that Justin Trudeau dig in harder on behalf of Quebec's dairy cartel.
I mean, we all know that's how Andrew Scheer beat Maxime Bernier by literally 1% of the Tory leadership last year.
Scheer gamed the system very cleverly.
He realized that a party member's vote in Quebec was worth many more times than it was in Ontario or Alberta because each riding got the same number of points in the system.
So if you sell 10 memberships, you could dominate a riding in Quebec that you'd need to sell 100 to dominate somewhere else.
So Andrew Scheer made a promise to Quebec dairy farmers.
If they support him, he'd support them.
That's all this policy is based on.
A deal a year ago with some Quebec dairy farmers.
That's not in Canada's interest and it's not conservative.
Jason Kenney and Doug Ford echoed Scheer's comments.
Here's Kenny.
He said, well, you could see yourself, he downplayed our 270% dairy tariffs.
He said, we've had a 60-year-old Canadian supply management system.
And by the way, the U.S. has dairy subsidies.
So layoff.
Well, I think that's the point, Jason.
That's what we're trying to do here, get free trade.
Or at least that's what Trump's trying to do.
I'm not sure if arguing that dairy subsidies have been going on since the 1950s rebuts Trump's point about years and years and years of unfair trade, does it?
I think it sort of makes Trump's point.
Trump's Dairy Dispute00:04:45
I know that Jason Kenny doesn't like Trump.
A number of conservatives don't.
But I'm not sure of signing with Justin Trudeau, who clearly wants to scuttle the deal and campaign against Trump.
I'm not sure if that helps Canada or Albertans in Jason's case.
I'm pretty sure if things keep going downhill, Alberta will be punished by Trump too, whether it's agriculture or energy.
Remember the beef ban 10 years ago.
Look, I like Trump, but I know he's not everyone's competition.
I don't like that he's going to war with Trudeau because we're all going to be hurt by it.
I'm not trying to side with Trump.
I'm trying to understand what Trump is saying and doing.
I'm siding with Canadians against the Quebec dairy cartel that is the problem here, against Trudeau's sociopathic anti-Americanism, against picking a fight with our closest ally, just out of reasons of ideological hate and personal disagreements.
And as a 2019 re-election tactic, I'd be against this if it were Barack Obama on the other side.
Look, this is going off the rails.
And you know what?
The laziest prime minister in a generation just took another personal day off.
He set NAFTA on fire on the weekend.
And look at this.
This is his official itinerary.
He just wants to kick back and watch the world burn.
He needs a day off.
Trump doesn't care.
Look, Trump's already off to Singapore, and I think he's on his way back already.
Canada is small potatoes to him, but Justin Trudeau, actually, I don't think he cares either.
Because he's the world's anti-Trump hero now.
And that's all that he and his staff care about.
That and Quebec dairy cartels.
Stay with us.
We're doing the whole show on this.
My friend, Manny Montenegrino, is next.
Welcome back.
Well, I've been trying to follow this in real time, as so many aspects of the news are.
Twitter is not just a way for us to learn the news, it's a way for Donald Trump to spread the news, and Justin Trudeau and others, too.
And so all this happened so quickly over the weekend.
And one of the people I was following most closely, because he had such a keen eye, is my friend Manny Montenegrino, a former national partner at a significant law firm based in Ottawa.
He worked amongst his clients for Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party.
So he comes from a conservative perspective, but he also has the keen eye of a senior lawyer.
And what he sees here deeply troubles him as well.
Joining us now via Skype is Manny Montenegrino, the president and CEO of Think Sharp.
Manny, good to see you.
I don't think I did you proper justice in your introduction, but I'll let your words speak for themselves.
What is the number one thing that worries you about this fight between Trump and Trudeau?
That we are going to be decimated.
Canada is going on the wrong path.
And I understand what is happening.
And I'm surprised that we have not heard the other story or the strategy coming out of Trump.
We tend to dismiss him.
We tend to ridicule him.
We tend to make light of him and joke.
But the man is very serious and the man is purposeful and the man has been successful and we should take him seriously.
And I have and I've reviewed what he's done.
I've reviewed what Mr. Trudeau has done and I'm deeply alarmed for Canada.
Well, that's the thing is people can object to Donald Trump's style or even his language.
And I mean, you can be nitpicky about it, but I see some senior world leaders have said, all right, so Donald Trump is a phenomenon, a force of nature we have to deal with, but let's deal with it in our interest.
It looks like Japan has really tried hard to say, all right, we don't quite understand what's going on here, but we know it's so important to Japan to be on the right side of this because Japan is still reliant on America for its defense, especially in the age of China and North Korea.
So I think Shinzo Abe has visited the White House and talked to Trump so often, and he's not getting involved in stupid Twitter fights.
He's just saying, how can I protect Japan?
And I think even some European leaders are biting their tongue, even if they have a beef with them, Manny.
That's my point, is they don't care about personal tribes.
They're just thinking, how do I save Japan?
How do I save Taiwan?
How do I save South Korea?
How do I protect Italy?
Go ahead.
Exactly.
Well, let's go through that.
The Other Side Of NAFTA00:05:53
We're talking about the trade dispute that's escalating.
What we haven't heard is the other side.
We dismiss everything coming from the USA.
And there's a lot of rhetoric going around, and it sounds great to be a nationalist Canadian.
I mean, on my Twitter, I post the fact that I was called by a prime minister as an unwavering patriot.
I will fight for Canada, anything that comes in Canada's way.
And I feel myself in this biggest battle that I've been involved in my 30 years in this fight.
The trade is completely, people are not getting the proper view.
Trump has made it very clear at the outset, Canada is not a problem, it's Mexico.
And the numbers prove that.
There's a huge deficit with Mexico.
But yet, for some way, Trudeau throws himself into the mix.
It would have been very easy to sign up a trade deal and move on with the USA because its focus is on the injustices around in every trade deal that they have.
Now, China has agreed with Trump and has offered and has agreed to buy $200 billion more in goods.
South Korea has agreed.
So Trump has already succeeded in his trade discussion, his trade advancement around the world.
United States, and he says it, and we don't listen.
He said, United States has already lost the trade war.
Those are profound words.
It's a big statement.
United States has lost $800 billion a year every year.
Trump is not afraid of the war because they are already being decimated in the war.
He doesn't see losing the trade war.
He sees winning by engaging in the discussion of a trade war.
We don't listen to that.
He's already picked up $200 or $300 billion in his quest around the world.
Mexico and Canada are being obstinate.
Why?
And this is what troubles me.
Now, another thing is what has Trump said in the trade deal that's offensive to Canada?
I have not found, and I put hours of research into this.
I have not found one proposal that's offensive to Canada.
I know of six or seven proposals that Canada has given to the U.S. that was roundly rejected by China, by Japan, by Australia, and now by the U.S.
I know where the injustices lie.
And it is protecting the marketing boards that we have in Canada.
It's looking for those virtue signal causes.
And Trump has figured that out.
So I don't know where USA is on the offensive clause request in this trade deal.
Right.
I mean, the other day I showed headlines August, September, October, November, again and again, Justin Trudeau leading with gender analysis and global warming.
And I disagree with Trudeau on those things.
But fine, put those in a different track.
Don't call that NAFTA.
It's not the North American Gender Agreement.
It's the North America Free Trade Agreement.
I can imagine how frustrating it was for Trump, who has a real beef.
And you can think, you can say he's wrong.
But as you point out, he has this.
I mean, for decades, he's been on about these trade imbalances.
And if our guy's talking about feminism and intersectionality, which was a G7 meeting this weekend.
Yeah.
It's going to, it's going to, I don't know.
It's almost like we're.
Go ahead.
But Ezra, I put that aside.
I know that Trump has put that aside as noise.
He is a deal maker.
He's looking at the fundamental aspect of the deal, and that is to remove Canada from NAFTA and have a bilateral deal.
That was an honest and which is a good idea.
If he's about to pummel Mexico, we don't want to be anywhere nearby.
Exactly.
And the Canadian prime minister should put Canadians first.
He doesn't.
He sits there in protection.
He also offered a five-year review clause.
I've drafted hundreds of clauses.
That's a very good clause.
The prime minister resoundingly rejected it.
No one asked him why.
Presently in NAFTA, I think it's Article 34 or 45, I forget which.
I've gone through it, which provides for an immediate termination of NAFTA on six months' notice.
What is better for security, a six-month termination clause or a five-year deal?
And I offer this as well.
In a new economy that we're going through, documents and agreements should be reviewed every five years because things change so quickly.
I mean, in five years, Amazon has grown a full Walmart, which took 60 years to do.
The economy is moving quickly.
The economy is shifting.
A five-year review is good for Canada and good for the United States.
And it's just such a weird procedural reason, like a technical reason, to oppose a deal.
Like you say right now, Trump has already given six months' notice under the current provisions.
So how on earth, like why would you even care about a technicality like that as opposed to the substance?
Here's what I got a question for you.
And you are a long-serving soldier in the conservative battles for this country.
And Andrew Scheer, who's the conservative leader, literally on Friday put out a series of tweets where he confirmed his party's commitment to the dairy cartel in Quebec.
He said, I just got off the phone with the Saginai dairy, he didn't use the word cartel.
And even Jason Kenney in Alberta was saying, oh, these dairy cartels have been around for 60 years.
Conservative Commitment Confirmed00:12:03
So we're admitting the problems there.
I think real conservative public policies get rid of the dairy cartels.
And if we can say Donald Trump forced us to do that, how's that not a double win?
We get rid of the dairy cartels, which we've never had the political capital to do on our own.
So we're actually using Donald Trump as the bulldozer to get that deal done.
It's a win for us.
And maybe we can get a concession in return from Trump, like our auto sector.
That's the big deal here, our auto factories.
Right.
Well, you've put a good point.
I look at it differently.
I look at it from, when I used to go into these big boardrooms and negotiations, I looked at it from the perspective of the person that I was dealing with.
And what does Donald Trump think?
Donald Trump doesn't care about our milk marketing boards and our dairy, our tariffs that we have and all these little tariffs.
He walks into the negotiations honestly and saying, let's start free tariff everywhere.
He doesn't care about the six-year history.
He's talking about free trade.
We should understand that and respect that.
He's also looking at, I mean, you're looking at, he has got into power, and I don't know why Canadians are not focused on this, but he got into power because of Michigan and Ohio.
He looked at Detroit.
Detroit has a shell of its former self.
Canada now produces 4 million cars or manufactures 4 million cars.
We consume three and we sell 1 million.
That is Trump's big prize.
He tried it a year ago and everyone backed him off.
And here's what's happening, Ezra, if you pay attention.
Here's what's happening.
He wants the auto sector.
He tried it a year ago and he didn't have what I'll call the political backing in America.
Now this trade war is happening.
Justin Trudeau is elevating it.
And I know why he's elevating it.
Because as you can say, as you said, everyone's rallying behind the prime minister because we don't like Trump.
We want to fight.
That gives Trump the opening to go after the auto sector.
We are giving him the justification to say, hey, why is Detroit empty?
Why is Michigan empty?
Why are we not building the cars in America?
And you know what?
Justin Trudeau is giving him the license.
If we lose the 1 million cars, that is equivalent to $100 billion in GDP to Canada.
We can't sustain that.
Trump wants it, and we're making it happen because of crass politics by the prime minister and the liberals to shore up boats at the expense of our economy.
Nick, go ahead, Ezra.
No, I'm terrified by it.
I mean, it's such a contrast.
Donald Trump loves industrial jobs.
He loves hard hats.
He loves guys who drill and dig and build.
And I think of how Justin Trudeau frittered away $100 billion worth of pipelines and oil sands.
And that was Canadian stuff that we were building here.
I just don't think Justin Trudeau values that.
He would rather be the champion of the UN and the third world, the global leader of the opposition to Donald Trump.
He'd rather get the kudos from the EU than have an auto industry.
And I know that sounds insane, but we watched him destroy $100 billion of oil industry.
I think there's a real risk that Trump is going to say, hey, GM Ford, Fiat Chrysler, come back to Michigan.
I'll lower your taxes.
I'll lower your fuel economy standards.
And by the way, I'm putting a 25% tariff on American stuff, so you should come anyways.
Well, that's a simple, that's all he's going to do.
He understands it.
You put a tariff on Canadian cars, they'll build them in America.
You're not going to buy a car that's $20,000 more because it comes from Canada.
Trump knows what he's doing.
What is happening?
I kind of disagree.
I think what Trudeau is doing, and he's, and it's political, crass-political movement.
Trudeau has lost credibility because of his India trip.
He has not seen of a man of substance.
And you see certain polls, even I'm surprised that two and a half years in, his mismanagement of mostly every file has got him in very low polls.
The only way that he can bump himself up in the polls is by this nationalistic movement.
And that is to say, me against Trump.
And we're all rallying.
You see conservatives rallying because it's the right thing to do.
It's the wrong thing to do.
And I'll give you the numbers, Ezra.
And people just are not, there is equal trade between Canada and the U.S.
It's about $350 billion each.
That only represents 2% of America's GDP.
It represents 20% of Canada's EDP.
We forget that Canada is one-tenth the size, although we have equal trade.
If Trump, if Trump risks the 2%, let's say he cuts it in half, that 1% with trade wars and so on.
America is growing at 3.5% this year.
America, Trump has got $200 billion from China, $100 billion from North Korea.
He's already, while Justin Trudeau takes his days off, he's already shored up the ability to withstand a 1% cut in GDT with a war to get auto.
Canada can't withstand it.
We've already got our oil industry in trouble.
Our GDP this year is going to grow at 1.3%.
We've lost 53,000 jobs.
Canada is weak.
We cannot take a hit of 10% of our GDP.
We will be in a deep recession.
And if we lose our auto industry, we will lost it forever.
So stop with the politics.
People understand this is a very sincere and real risk.
And Trump wants it.
Trump wants it badly.
He tried last year.
Now he has the ability to do it.
He has America on his side to do it.
And we're going to lose the auto industry and we'll never get it back.
And we have to take this very seriously.
And I'm disappointed with conservatives.
I'm disappointed with liberals.
I'm certainly disappointed with the prime minister.
But I do know that Trump will succeed in this.
And we can't win this war.
The numbers don't make it for us.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's a few people speaking clearly on this.
I saw Jean Charé was deeply concerned.
And he would know.
I think he would know he's enough removed from the fray that he's not all about positioning an ego.
He can call it like he sees it.
Manny, it's great to talk about it.
Yeah, now, one more point, if I can add, if you have a few seconds.
Sure.
We've seen it already in British Columbia.
A year ago, the BC election happened, and they were very clear.
They want to stop Kinder Morgan.
Trudeau did nothing for a whole year.
The democratic will of the people, and you know what?
The Premier's doing what he vowed to do, much like Trump said what he's vowed to do.
He ignored it.
The Prime Minister ignored it till the last minute.
And what has happened?
We have a trade war between Alberta and BC, and we bought a pipeline and we destroyed investment.
Now, Trudeau is doing this, ignoring the pleas of what's happening in America, and it's going to be 100 times worse than what we've experienced at West.
Right.
In slow motion, we watched that crisis unfold between Alberta and BC.
And he just, Trudeau was like a deer in the headlights or a spider caught in amber, whatever your analogy is.
And he just was in slow motion while the rest of the world was going by.
And Trump moves in the speed of the speed of the world.
And the real risk is Canada, Alberta, and BC will fix your problems because we are Canadians.
But once we lose the auto sector, there'll never be a president that'll say, we'll give it back to Canada.
Yeah.
You can't move the oil sands to the United States because they're stuck in Canada.
You can pipe it down there and they'll take the oil.
But the auto factories, you can move those absolutely.
Absolutely.
And that's what Trump's after.
Manny, it's great to catch up with you.
Let's keep in touch on this story as it goes forward.
No problem.
All right.
Take care.
Thank you.
That's our friend Manny Montenegrino.
He's the president and CEO of Think Sharp.
Stay with us.
more ahead on the rebel hey welcome back on my monologue friday about doug ford being elected the new premier of ontario Robert writes, Doug Ford is far more cautious than his brother.
He was very gracious in his first media conference as a premier designate.
If the left stream media try the same shenanigans they pulled on Rob Ford, I think it would be highly counterproductive.
The public has far less trust for the media now than in the days of Rob Ford.
They will lose whatever trust they have left as they engage in endless, unsubstantiated attacks on Doug Ford.
Oh, but they can't help themselves.
They cannot help themselves.
Their arguments aren't really working.
I mean, most Canadians don't support a carbon tax, for one example.
Most parents don't support the very, very young child sex curriculum.
Like, no parent wants their five and six-year-old kid to be talking about graphic sex in grade one.
Like, what are you doing?
So, instead of making the argument on the merits, what can they do?
They just lost the argument on the merits.
Their hero, Kathleen Wynne, got less than 20% of the vote.
So, of course they're going to go personal.
Of course, they are.
Ted writes, one down and three to go.
Trudeau, Notley, and Horgan.
Yeah, I think Rachel Notley is going to lose.
I think that's pretty sure.
I think Justin Trudeau has a hard fight ahead.
It'll be interesting.
It's really weird to watch all the Canadian establishment line up around Justin Trudeau and the war against the evil Trump.
I'm a little bit surprised to see the Conservatives do that, both provincially and federally.
But if the economy is tanked by this, I don't know.
Will people say, well, Trudeau is just thick enough for us.
It was the evil Trump who did it?
Or will Trudeau get the blame?
I don't know.
I think we're in for a tough time.
I don't know if the media will allow anyone other than Justin Trudeau to win, but they liked Kathleen Wynne too, and she's gone.
Jerry writes, Ontario voters have restored my faith in their province.
I had a recurring nightmare that Ontario voters would keep the Liberals in power no matter how badly they were abused, but I was wrong.
Welcome to the real world, Ontario.
You are a bright light for the rest of Canada today.
Yeah, I was worried too, because some of the scandals happened before the last election, and it didn't seem to register.
But I think it just took time.
I think it just took time.
And I think people wanted to see that the opposition leader was a real difference.
Doug Ford is undoubtedly different than Kathleen Wynne in, frankly, a way that Patrick Brown wasn't.
Well, that's the show for today.
Look, Donald Trump is, you know, he's new, he's unusual, he's the center of all the action in the world's politics, but I think in some ways he's very easy to understand.
Listen to what he's saying.
Don't provoke him with personal jibes.
And he's a deal maker.
He wants a deal.
I think instead of doing those simple, simple things, Justin Trudeau ignored what Trump wanted to talk about and talked about feminism and gender intersectionality.
I think Trudeau doesn't know about making a deal.
Why on earth are we insisting that we be in a deal with Mexico?
Why on earth are we opposed to a five-year review?
So we're fighting over stupid stuff for majoring the minors.
And finally, why do you poke at Trump?
I mean, other than it gets a reaction, but don't poke a bear.
It's just going to growl.
Yeah, that growl might suit your purposes electorally, but it's not helping our country.
I think Justin Trudeau is not as good as his supporters think he is.
We should have known that out of India.
I think we know it for sure now.
That's the show for today.
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, good night.