Justin Trudeau’s late push for a "cultural exemption" in NAFTA negotiations—despite U.S. ownership of major Canadian outlets like National Post and Vice—suggests a calculated move to blame Trump for deal failure rather than addressing economic risks, including Canada’s falling dollar and delayed Bank of Canada rate hikes. The Rebel defends its role as a conservative watchdog, exposing Trudeau’s hypocrisy (e.g., 2012 video on his mother’s alleged infidelity amid feminist claims) while resisting left-wing deplatforming tactics that backfire, like targeting figures like Zina Bash or Gavin McInnes. Moderation in conservatism, they argue, invites media attacks, proving ideological purity and boundary-pushing—like Trump’s approach—are the only viable strategies against relentless partisan smears. [Automatically generated summary]
Eliminating Cultural Exemption? Bad for Canada!00:04:34
Tonight, the NAFTA negotiations just keep getting weirder.
It's September 5th, 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 for why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
Today looks like it's going to be an important day for Canada trying to negotiate our way into the new trade deal between the United States and Mexico, a successor trade deal to the NAFTA treaty that Trump has officially served notice that he's cancelling.
I'm recording this video before the full day's negotiations are done, but I'm pessimistic anything will be announced tonight.
Take a look at this new statement by Justin Trudeau.
We have made it very, very clear that the cultural exemption must stand as part of any renegotiated NAFTA.
It is inconceivable to Canadians that an American network might buy Canadian media affiliates, whether it's newspaper or TV stations or TV networks.
It would be a giving up of our sovereignty and our identity, and that is something that we simply will not accept.
So we've made it very clear that defending that cultural exemption is something that is fundamental to Canadians.
And again, we will not sign a deal that is bad for Canada.
And quite frankly, eliminating a cultural exemption would be bad for Canadians.
Where did that come from?
That's a new objection, isn't it?
Wasn't he digging in on the dairy cartel before and a dispute resolution mechanism?
Where did this cultural industries objection come from?
And why now?
So late in the negotiation, and why negotiate in public?
Isn't that specifically what Christy Freeland said just last week that Canada wasn't going to do?
So when it comes to specific issues that we've been discussing and the specific progress that we're making, this, as everyone knows, is an extremely intense period in the negotiation.
And Ambassador Lightheiser and I have agreed that the best way to make progress is not to be negotiating in public.
But can I show you that Trudeau clip just one more time?
Take a look.
We have made it very, very clear that the cultural exemption must stand as part of any renegotiated NAFTA.
It is inconceivable to Canadians that an American network might buy Canadian media affiliates, whether it's newspaper or TV stations or TV networks.
It would be a giving up of our sovereignty and our identity.
And that is something that we simply will not accept.
So we've made it very clear that defending that cultural exemption is something that is fundamental to Canadians.
And again, we will not sign a deal that is bad for Canada.
And quite frankly, eliminating a cultural exemption would be bad for Canadians.
What does that even mean?
It's inconceivable that American companies could own a Canadian newspaper.
Inconceivable?
He's got very good arms.
He didn't fall!
Inconceivable!
You give your sin de Hort.
I don't think it means what you think it means.
Inconceivable?
Actually, most Canadian newspapers already are owned by Americans.
Post media, their bondholders are all New York-based hedge fund managers.
Post-media.
That's the National Post, the Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Vancouver Sun, Montreal Gazette, the papers in Regina and Saskatoon, the entire Toronto Sun chain of newspapers, 92 weekly newspapers.
Most Canadian newspapers are owned by Americans.
So what's he talking about?
Most big online media in Canada is foreign-owned too.
BuzzFeed Canada, Huffington Post, Canada, Vice Canada.
They're all American.
And on the TV side, well, obviously more Canadians watch CNN for cable news than watch CBC News Channel or CTV News Channel and all the big shows we watch on the main networks are just American shows made in Hollywood or New York.
Congress vs. Court Deal Mexico00:13:19
I'm not sure what Trudeau's talking about other than, obviously, his beloved CBC and maybe a few other smaller handouts like that.
I mean, the Canadian magazine industry, it's almost dead.
McLean's magazine barely even publishes anymore.
I think their entire staff is just a half dozen people from what used to be Canada's mightiest news magazine.
I don't know if you saw this news.
They're all for sale.
All the Canadian magazines, Canadian business, Hello Canada, Money Sense, Flair, Chatelaine, McLean's, all the Rogers magazines, they're being dumped.
So what's Trudeau even talking about?
Inconceivable.
Well, who knows what Trudeau's talking about?
I don't even think Trudeau really knows what he's talking about, as usual.
And believe it or not, in this case, that's the point.
He's just throwing up patriotic sounding objections to a trade deal so that when, not if, but when Trudeau fails to get us into NAFTA, he can claim he meant to do that.
I showed you a clip from the Princess Bride movie.
Here's another old-time clip that fits.
I meant to do that.
Yeah, sure you did.
You meant to screw up the NAFTA deal.
Here's Arlene Dickinson from the CBC who writes, I love how suddenly everyone is a far smarter and better negotiator than Justin Trudeau and Christia Freeland.
This is five-level chess, not checkers.
Like it or not, they represent us, and this is about showing strength as a nation for our nation.
Stand tall, Canada, stand tall.
Sure, lady, 5D chess.
That's what's going on in Trudeau's mind.
I guess the India fiasco, that was just 3D chess.
You may think it looked dumb, but it was sort of double smart, that's all.
And that Saudi fiasco, that's 4D chess.
It's brilliant.
Don't be so superficial in thinking it backfired.
And getting booted out of NAFTA, but the Mexicans staying in, that's 5D chess.
Just like this disastrous Trans Mountain Pipeline Court ruling that literally banned the pipeline from proceeding.
Construction has stopped.
In the words of Bill Mourneau, the finance minister, that's an important step forward.
Taken together, today's decisions from the Federal Court of Appeal and from Kinder Morgan shareholders are important next steps in getting this project built in the right way for the benefit of all Canadians.
Hey guys, did you know that a court order banning construction is an important step in construction?
Well, the CBC sure seems to think so.
They become parody of themselves.
Let me show you their latest from just this morning.
NAFTA talks resume as questions grow about Trump's ability to deliver Trump's ability.
Did you know that that's what's in question here?
Let me read a little bit more from the story.
Canada returns to the NAFTA table in Washington Wednesday after a four-day break in negotiations that appeared to be pretty stressful for the American side.
The Trump administration's failure to secure a deal before last Friday wasn't well received by key voices in Congress, where NAFTA's fate ultimately will be decided.
By the end of the weekend, the White House seemed to have fallen out with an ally it had hoped would back a revised NAFTA, a union representing millions of working-class Americans, now souring on President Trump's ability to deliver.
Hey, do you think any of that's true?
Do you think Donald Trump is stressed out? about NAFTA?
Especially now that Christy Freeland's in town.
Do you think he even knows she's in town?
Here's the letter that Donald Trump sent to Congress.
It was sent on August 31st.
It's not going to be sent or will be sent.
It has been sent.
And it has let Congress know that he does have a new deal with Mexico.
And I don't know if you know, you can see the words there.
With Canada if it is willing.
So the deal's with Mexico, but he's saying Canada can join if we choose to join them.
But he's proceeding as if we won't.
It's true that in the U.S., Congress has to approve any new trade treaty.
So it is technically true that Congress could block Mexico's deal with Trump if they wanted to.
Do you think that's likely to happen?
Do you think that a deal that forces Mexico to limit the amount of cheap Chinese parts in their factories, like their auto factories, that requires a high minimum wage in Mexican auto factories that now levels the playing field between Mexican factories in terms of labor standards and environmental standards, levels of playing field with American factories?
Do you think that's going to be blocked by congressmen, either Republican or Democrat?
Can you imagine you're running as a Democrat for Congress this fall in the 2018 midterm elections a few months away and you're running in those battleground states, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, the Rust Belt.
Can you imagine saying you're against Trump's deal with Mexico, that you prefer no deal with Mexico, you prefer NAFTA with cheap Mexican goods just flooding into America?
I'm sorry, I just don't see it.
But maybe it takes getting $1.5 billion a year from Trudeau, as the CBC gets, before you can see how amazing a negotiator he is or something.
The CBC is right.
Congress could kill Trump's new deal with Mexico.
I think it's going to pass overwhelmingly by both parties, but hey, if that little hope gets you through the night, hold on to it tight, because Congress can stop a deal, but how do they get Canada into a deal?
The CBC hasn't figured that part out yet.
I think Canada's in a bad place.
Actually, Christy Freeland's first response to Mexico signing a deal with Trump was that, well, obviously Mexico got ripped off and obviously wasn't a very good deal.
You know, ASIP wrote a fable about that called Sour Grapes.
You know, if the Fox can't reach the grapes, he was trying to get, wow, they were probably sour.
He probably didn't want them after all.
Freeland, who doesn't have a deal, who wants a deal, says Mexico, who have a deal, they don't have a good deal.
Remember this?
Mexico has made some significant concessions, particularly in the area of labor and of world origin on cars.
I don't believe that.
And neither does Mexico, obviously.
I don't know if you know this.
I mentioned it the other day.
Both leading political parties in Mexico actually negotiated the deal together.
Isn't that funny?
Both the outgoing party and the incoming party, because they had an election, but the new president hasn't taken over yet.
So it's pretty much unanimous in Mexico that they got a good deal.
Both parties are celebrating the deal.
And more than that, it gives Mexico certainty after all of Trump's anti-Mexican bluster.
But Christia Freeland knows better.
I mean, she's so plugged in, obviously.
As I told you last week, you know, the Mexican foreign minister has visited the White House 45 times and visited Jared Kushner's personal house 10 times.
That's Trump's son-in-law.
To get this deal.
But Freeland knows better.
It's not a good deal.
Now, maybe she's right.
Maybe a deal hammered out after 55 meetings that both Mexican political parties love.
Maybe Freeland knows better.
Maybe Mexico got a really crummy deal.
Well, if so, that's not good news for Canada, is it?
Because that's the template now.
That's the starting point for us now.
That's what we're being asked to sign up for now that's already been negotiated by the Mexicans.
We have to follow in Mexico's footsteps, I guess, because Trudeau took the summer off.
Maybe he should have taken fewer personal days.
Maybe Christia Freeland should have spent more time working with Trump than bashing Trump, as she did all year in thinly veiled attack speeches.
What irony that the day Trump announced his Mexican trade deal, Freeland was instead in Berlin, Germany, giving another anti-Trump speech to some Europeans.
So why this new objection from Trudeau?
Why that he won't do a deal if it doesn't protect the CBC?
Well, I think that's not an accident.
I don't think Trudeau wants a deal.
I think he wants to lose NAFTA and blame Trump because it's easier for him to campaign in next year's election against the evil Donald Trump than against any Canadian real rival.
Trudeau's back on his original game plan.
Throwing in poison pills, as they're called in business, little deal breakers, sabotaging things designed to push the Americans away.
Last year it was gender equity and global warming and indigenous matters, nothing to do with trade.
I mean, feminism and global warming, those are legitimate issues.
Aboriginal issues are legitimate issues.
They're obviously important to Trudeau, but they have nothing to do with NAFTA.
They have their own proper forums.
I mean, the UN's Global Warming Convention, that's where you go to talk about your carbon taxes.
That's not a trade issue.
But Trudeau wasted half a year trying to jam them into a NAFTA trade negotiation.
Maybe we actually did have 55 meetings with Trump's people, but we just spent them talking about feminism instead of what Mexico did, getting access to the U.S. market for their auto industry and so many more industries.
It wasn't just virtue signaling by Trudeau.
I have come to believe that it was Trudeau actually trying to scuttle the deal by putting such bizarre things to the Americans.
The CBC is impressed with Trudeau.
Oh, they think he's doing great.
But I don't think anyone else in the world is.
Our Canadian dollar is falling lower and lower and lower.
That is the world saying, we think the Canadian economy is overvalued.
It won't be as successful tomorrow as it is today.
So get out of Canada with your money.
Or if you're the CBC, you could pretend it's good news that a low dollar, you see, makes our economy more competitive, you see, since it's a discount on everything we sell to foreigners.
If we had a 50-cent dollar, our stuff would be even cheaper for Americans to buy.
That's the Venezuela strategy.
That would be great.
People would really buy our stuff if we gave it away.
We'd only earn half as much for our exports, except, funny enough, oil.
That's bought and sold on a global market priced in U.S. dollars.
But our dollar is falling, and the Bank of Canada has delayed its announcement on interest rates.
So even the Bank of Canada says we are in dangerous territory so much turns on whether or not Trudeau can get a deal.
They're going to wait to tell you what they're going to do with interest rates.
But hey, don't worry, guys.
The CBC says it's Trump's turn to worry.
Justin Trudeau is in charge now, man.
The master negotiator.
Justin Trudeau, grand diplomat.
Justin Trudeau, the consummate business executive.
Justin Trudeau, workaholic.
Yeah, I'm worried too.
Justin Trudeau wants NAFTA to fail so he can campaign against Trump in 2019.
I've seen some polling on this issue, and it suggests that is actually an attractive strategy for him.
Canadians don't like Trump.
I don't believe it's going to be an attractive strategy, though.
Right now, asking people what they think of Trump, it's a hypothetical question.
It's a fantasy scenario.
If we're kicked out of NAFTA, are you mad at Trump?
If we actually are kicked out of NAFTA, it's not going to be a hypothetical question.
It's going to be having our entire auto industry shut down.
If you shut out our auto sector from the U.S. with a 20% tariff, that's what Trump is threatening.
That is 160,000 jobs lost, according to various bank studies.
I'm pretty sure those 160,000 families won't understand why Trudeau killed their industry, their private sector, well-paying, six-figure job industry.
What, to protect some dairy farm millionaires or some cultural industries?
That's code for just the CBC.
Even if the CBC tells them he's the most brilliant diplomat since Bismarck, I don't think Canadians will buy it.
Stay with us for more.
Our special guest, Gavin McInnes, is next.
Not being proper at this time.
Shut this error down.
Shut this era down now.
I urge you to shut this era down.
Conspiracy Theories and Banishments00:06:26
I have said to the nomination that Brett Kavanaugh must not be put on the court.
It's insane.
Well, that is an excerpt from the longer, more riotous scene on Capitol Hill yesterday as Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump's nominee, the second nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States.
It's a new Democrat strategy of shouting down, blocking, deplatforming even mainstream conservative Republican picks.
This, by the way, was not some random organic act.
Photos have emerged of protesters literally being paid cash to protest, and the Democratic congressmen themselves have acknowledged that they coordinated in advance with these street teams.
My thesis is that this is merely the latest step in the move of the left to deplatform.
And when they don't like that, it's not to debate, but to shut down.
First they went for Alex Jones.
Now they're coming for friends like Gavin McInnes and his Proud Boys fraternity.
Gavin joins us now via Skype from New York.
Gavin, great to see you again.
Thank you for having me, sir.
I think that you were merely an appetizer when you were kicked off Twitter, when your proud boys were all kicked off Twitter, when you have been deplatformed when they pepper sprayed your face when you went into New York University, when you were, I think the main reason our cruise last year was banned from Norwegian cruise lines, this deplatforming of the right, it's not actually aimed at you, Gavin.
It's aimed at anyone who disagrees with the left.
You were just the test drive, don't you think?
Yes, it's aimed at anyone on the right who might help Trump get re-elected, and that means appealing people who are charming.
They're not concerned with Richard Spencer because he has no appeal.
They're not concerned with David Duke.
They are concerned with funny people who have rational reasons for their small government pro-Trump beliefs.
And it's not working.
What's not working?
Because I am terrified by how well the deplatforming is working.
And I don't mean necessarily people being banned.
I mean like thrown out of buildings.
I'm terrified of the high-tech banning.
I mean, you were vaporized on Twitter without warning, explanation, or appeal.
Tommy Robinson was kicked off Twitter for the same reason.
Alex Jones was kicked off just about every platform on the same day.
So I think it is working.
That's what scares me about it.
No, what's not working is this push to delegitimize Trump and to make people not like him anymore.
Trump is getting re-elected, I promise you.
And similarly, in Canada, Justin Trudeau was trying to censor the mockery of him.
That's making him even less appealing.
So every time these people do things, yes, it's inconvenient for us.
Yes, we need to find a new social media.
But our popularity keeps growing.
Alex Jones, the day after he was banned, had the number one app on the entire internet.
You're right.
And the thing about Alex Jones is you mentioned a couple of fringe racists.
You mentioned Richard Spencer and David Duke.
Alex Jones is not a racist, obviously.
He engages in conspiracy theories.
But the way I see his place in the conservative firmament is he's a uniform.
He's an omnipresent skeptic.
He's skeptical, he's an equal opportunity skeptic.
He calls BS on everything.
He disputes everything.
He doesn't believe anything.
Which I think, if you have to be a sucker who believes everything you say from authority, or if you want to be a bit paranoid and challenge anything you hear from authority, these days it's probably better to be a universal skeptic.
And does he go too far?
Sure.
Is it entertaining?
You bet.
But I believe that his use is that he doesn't believe anything he reads and he gives airtime to any contrary view.
That's why he has a huge viewership, unlike David Duke or Richard Spencer.
That's why they want to shut Alex Jones down because he actually is an important voice, even though I think he goes too far, obviously, on certain matters.
He's a little paranoid, but he's a universal skeptic.
I think there's two things going on here, and it's funny that you and I are talking about it because you're more into politics than me, and I'm more into fun than you.
Both of those things are why he was banned.
He was banned for conspiracy theories, and I agree with you.
What the hell is the matter with a conspiracy theory?
Watergate was a conspiracy theory before it was true.
You know, Vince Foster, then breaking into his office, that was a conspiracy theory before it was confirmed.
Conspiring, a theory about conspiring.
Good.
Get some theories about conspiring.
I want the government to be under scrutiny.
But the second point is the fun.
He was hyperbolic.
He was screaming.
He was throwing his papers at the camera.
He was banging the table.
He's ripping his shirt off.
He was colorful and fun.
He still is, obviously.
And this whole war to make everyone think the same is ultimately a war on fun and a war on color.
I keep talking about this radio station in Austin that's booting out all of these bands that might like Trump.
And what you end up with is Stalinist radio, where every musician feels the same about every subject and every song is supporting same agenda.
That's not what the West is about.
That's what the East is about.
Yeah.
You know, I saw this insane essay the other day about post-comedy, where it has the trappings of a comedy routine, but it's not funny.
And that's the comedy that will be left after we get rid of the...
I mean, you know, was it Orwell or was it Solzhenitsyn who said, every joke is a little revolution?
It was Solzhenitsyn was sent to prison for making a joke in a private letter.
And all it was was a nickname.
He called Stalin the whiskered one.
That was enough to send him to Siberia.
That's how I think we're getting to that kind of crazy mob rule again, except for it's not one tyrant, it's the tyranny of the mob.
New York Times just had an article about this, I believe it was yesterday, that was complaining about private Facebook groups.
Bash And Whiskered Ones00:06:22
And they mentioned that I talked to my friends on private Facebook groups.
They talked about anti-vaccine people.
Now, obviously you and I are on the same page with vaccines.
We support them, and I'm against the idea of not vaccinating your children.
But what I'm against more than that is the concept that you're not allowed to privately criticize big pharma.
We're now at the point now where private discussions are under siege.
Soon they're going to be subpoenaing our texts and recording our conversations.
This is already treading into dark territory.
Well, I mean, as you know, Robert Spencer, not Richard Spencer, the Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, MasterCard, I mean, they've backed down since, but they just said, oh, we're not going to do any transactions with you as if MasterCard has morally reviews every single expenditure.
It would be like your cell phone company calling you up one day and saying, hey, we don't like some of the conversations you're having on our cell phone, so we're going to take away your phone number and you have to, and by the way, all the other cell phone companies are too because you've been saying some bad things.
That's the politicization of everything.
I don't want to take too much more of your time because I know you're busy today, but let me show you a clip from those same Brett Kavanaugh hearings on Capitol Hill.
There is a young woman, I think she's with the White House.
Her name is Zina Bash.
And let me show you, you can see...
I would give an eight.
I think she's a Benjamin Buttons babe in that she's getting hotter as she gets older.
She's a very beautiful woman, and the name Zina Bash, as you can detect from it, and let's play the B-roll of her sitting there.
She's behind Brett Kavanaugh on the right there, as you can see.
And she's just resting her fingers on her arm.
But it looks, I guess if you're looking for like some encoded hidden message, it looks like she's making the okay symbol on her finger.
I guess if you're like, who is that Dan fella who had all these secret cryptic things at the Louvre?
You know, these, oh, I'm just trying to remember the name of his awful pulp fiction novels about these Vatican conspiracies.
Anyways, if you're looking for a secret symbol, that apparently is it.
And look at this tweet.
Look at this tweet about what Zina Bash did with her fingers.
More context for the Zena Bash incident.
During the Kavanaugh hearing, she is sitting normally, then checks her phone to read something.
Some are saying a text, but we have no confirmation.
Then she holds the pose at issue for over 30 seconds with a slight smirk.
You be the judge.
Dan Brown, that's the name of who I'm thinking about, the conspiracy theorist fiction writer.
So talk about conspiracy.
Who has more of a conspiracy theory, Gavin?
Is it Alex Jones who's asking questions about government?
Or is it some kook on the left who thinks that that Jewish Mexican lawyer who puts her finger like this for a second is tweeting out, I'm not even kidding, they're implying it is a white power signal.
They're implying even more.
They're implying that the text said something like, it is time.
And then like hashtag WP or something.
All right, it's time to do it.
But I think you and I might differ a tiny bit on this.
You think they're being willfully ignorant and pretending that they believe that that is a thing.
I disagree.
Like if this was the Salem Witch Trials, you're saying they're calling that person a witch just because they want to kill them.
I think they actually believe this person is a witch.
I think they believe that there was a text.
And I saw other tweets from Occupy Democrats and big companies, pretty mainstream leftist groups saying, they're not even trying to hide it anymore.
They're rubbing it in our faces.
I think believed what they're screaming.
You know, maybe it's a bit of both.
Maybe some people believe that a Jewish Mexican lawyer, female woman, not male women, but there's so many little check marks there.
Jewish, check.
Mexican, check.
Female, check.
That she is a white power advocate.
Some people believe that, but other people say, you know what?
We've just got to step on the Brat Kavanaugh hearings.
We've got to throw it in the air.
They've got three in a million Americans.
You know, maybe half a million people will believe it and we'll just rev up our base.
And I think a lot of it's fake, but you know what?
I think what they're trying to do is they're trying to Proud Boysify.
They're trying to Gavin McInnesify, Alex Jonesify, an accomplished young woman, Hispanic lawyer in the White House.
That's how far gone they are.
Last word to you, Gavin.
You know what it is?
Also, it's projection.
They do hide in media.
They do.
These writers for shows, they will tell you later that that character was trans or this person was gay.
Or even the guy who wrote Star Wars said that the Darth Vader and the Empire was meant to be white nationalism.
And that's really what the message was.
Or they were speaking of Proud Boys, there's this guy, Josh Androwski, I believe is his name.
And he's the one who got them kicked out of this bar in LA, which we're legally pursuing.
And he admits on podcasts, very openly, when he wrote for SpongeBob SquarePants, that he would sneak in communist and socialist messages into SpongeBob.
And then you look at Sam Hyde, who was booted from Adult Swim because someone lied and said he was sneaking in secret swastikas and alt-right messages, which he absolutely, unequivocally was not.
So they are accusing us of doing what they do on a regular basis.
Yeah, you know, it's so funny the amount of outrage over this little hand symbol, which isn't even like that.
That's the letter F in sign language, or it's okay or fantastic in common parlance.
Louis Farrakhan, the head of the Nation of Islam, was sitting next to Bill Clinton at Aretha Franklin's funeral, out and out racist.
He's really a black Klansman.
That was just edited out of the whole thing.
But an innocent, non-gesture, that's dominant news.
We're living in crazy times.
Accusing Rebels of Rebellion00:09:09
I hope you keep fighting the fight down there, Gavin.
I always will, my friend.
All right, thanks for taking the time.
There you have it.
Gavin McInnes, he has a show called Get Off My Lawn on CRTV, and what a pleasure to talk to him today via Skype.
Stay with us.
More ahead on The Rebel.
Hey guys, we're trying out something new.
We're going to switch to one guest a day because I don't think people are watching the whole show through.
I see that on our viewer analytics.
We get statistics, how long people watch the show.
And everyone watches the monologue more or less, but I don't think people are sticking around for the second guess.
So I think we're going to do one solid guest every day, not that some of them aren't solid.
And we're going to see how people like it.
And you let me know.
Send me letters what you think.
Tomorrow we've got a great guest lined up.
I think we're working on it.
We haven't confirmed them, but a real fan favorite.
Let me know how it goes.
And if that's the right balance, you know, a 20-minute monologue and let's say a 15-minute solid interview.
We'll do it that way.
If you really want me to have too short a guest, you let me know.
But as we're trying that out for the new season, let me know.
Here's your viewer feedback on the topic of Andrew Scheer and the importance of conservatives working together.
Suzanne writes, I'm a longtime subscriber to the Rebel and truly believe you are a vital megaphone for conservative voices in our country.
I've also been to a few Rebel events in the Toronto area, which I always find informative and entertaining.
But you need to get on board with Scheer, and here are some of the reasons why.
With Jagmeet Singh being a weak NDP leader and likely to be unpopular with Quebecers, we can't count on any splitting of the left vote to help us beat Trudeau.
As for being personas non-grata at the Conservative Convention, you have to own some responsibility for making the Rebel a liability there.
Ignoring all the outstanding journalism you do, I could just see the CBC dragging out footage of you, basically calling the PM's mother a whore, painting you and the Rebel as fringe, and pulling focus from the whole event.
With regard to supply management in the dairy industry, I don't think that's a hill to die on for any wise Canadian politician.
I believe it's highly probable the Americans will stand firm on that issue in the negotiating our next trade agreement.
I can easily see a scenario where Maxine Bernier gets his way without any Canadian politician having to wear it.
I hate to be so political, but I'm just looking at the long game.
If ever there were a time for conservatives in Canada to stick together, it's now.
Well, Suzanne, first of all, let me thank you for your support.
You're obviously a Rebel Premium subscriber, and you've been to our events, and I'm sure we've said hello in person.
So thank you.
And I see your letter is written in good faith, and you share our objective, get rid of Justin Trudeau.
It's not actually our main objective here at the Rebel.
Our main objective here at the Rebel is to be the other side of the story, a conservative opinion and news site with some activism thrown in.
We're not a partisan tool, although obviously we support parties of the right.
Part of our job, in addition to supporting parties of the right, is to ensure that they are indeed conservative and criticize them when they're not.
Because if we don't, no one else will.
In Canada, Conservative parties are already always criticized from the left.
And they all start bending that way just out of peer pressure.
That's what happened on the carbon tax issue.
Our job is to stiffen the spine of conservatives so at least they can go straight instead of curving to the left.
Secondly, I see another one of our roles is to talk about the untalkable things to make them a legitimate part of the national conversation.
I think refugees and immigration is an obvious point.
M103, the censorship motion, even the carbon tax.
Two years ago, conservatives were stampeding towards the carbon tax position.
Whether it was Michael Chong or Andrew Coyne in the National Post or Preston Manning or Patrick Brown, and you can scoff and say none of those people are real conservatives.
Well, they sure looked like they had the feeling of momentum.
It was up to us, the grubby rebels.
And we had our anti-carbon tax posters and lawn signs and rallies.
So part of our job is to soften up the battlefield, shape the battlefield, to get people talking about things to make it easier for scaredy cat politicians to get in front of the parade that we've already mustered.
I believe that the Rebel deserves some credit for the fact that Ontario's Premier, Doug Ford, is anti-carbon tax.
I believe we helped shape that issue in the Ontario provincial debate.
So that's our role.
I don't see our role as merely being a repeater for the Conservative Party.
We support the Conservatives when they're conservative, but we pull them to the right when they're not.
We talk about things that are too spicy for them to say, and we normalize those subjects.
We move the Overton window, as they say.
But as to your specifics, I mean, I recall what you're talking about.
I remember doing a video back in, was it 2012, about Justin Trudeau's mom, who was unfaithful to Pierre Trudeau as he was to her, and she went to New York and partied and slept around.
They both had affairs on each other.
I remember doing that video at the sun, I think it was six or seven years ago.
And it went to how Justin Trudeau sees women, and we now know that Justin Trudeau, like his dad, is a groper.
I stand by that journalism.
I think it was legitimate journalism, especially when Justin Trudeau claims to be a feminist, to scrutinize his own conduct.
And I think it's fair to remind people of what his role model for a family was like.
I don't know if you recall, but Pierre Trudeau physically beat Margaret Trudeau so bad that she would have a black eye.
Maybe you don't think that's relevant, and maybe it's not, but I think for a story we did on that back in 2001 or two, to claim that that would be a reason why Sheila Gunn-Reid in 2018 shouldn't be allowed to attend the Rebel, that's crazy.
That would be like saying every single CBC journalist should be banned because Gianne Gameshi beat women also.
Is that why you would ban reporter number two because reporter number one did something bad a year?
I don't even think my report seven years ago was bad.
But to justify banning Sheila Gunn Reed because of that, that's the mistake that Andrew Scheer's team has made.
And I've talked about this before.
Banning the rebel was not because we've done anything.
And even if they disagree with our opinions, so what?
Allowing journalists to come to your event doesn't mean you agree with their opinions.
But the fact that you're so scared about what the CBC or the liberals might say or do because of like five degrees of separation, Ezra, when you were at the sun seven years ago, you did a video about Margaret Trudeau sleeping around and sure it was factually true.
But in 2000, I mean, it's just so obscure.
Do you see how your mind has been colonized by the media party and you have a form of Stockholm syndrome and you are now doing their bidding and you are now marginalizing the media of the right, the party of the right at the behest of the media of the left.
And I disagree with your conclusion.
I disagree with it.
And I know that Andrew Scheer's views were not shared by many people in his party at all.
We had hundreds of conservative delegates come by our hospitality suite and we had Andrew Scheer's own staff tell us they disagreed with their boss.
So being a timid conservative is not being a real conservative.
And it's not going to win, Suzanne.
Let me close on that point.
Even if we did everything in your advice, Andrew Scheer ain't going to win by being a timid knockoff.
That would be like saying, just be like Mark Ro Rubio.
Just be like Jeb Bush.
Just be like Mitt Romney.
Don't be like Donald Trump.
Jeb Bush will do it.
Marco Rubio will do it.
No, no, no.
Don't you see, Suzanne, that the left will demonize and destroy anyone, no matter how kindly and moderate they are.
They did to Stockwell Day, they did to Preston Manning, they did to John McCain.
When those people are all retired, or in John McCain's case, dead, then they lavish them with praise.
But no matter what we do and no matter what Andrew Scheer does, the media party will despise us, no matter what.