Ezra Levant highlights the Liberals’ June 26 by-election defeat in Toronto’s St. Paul’s—held since 1980—where "ultra Trudeau" candidate Leslie Church lost to Conservatives amid voter backlash over crime, immigration, and pro-Hamas marches. He ties Trudeau’s leadership to alleged corruption (CESIS reports, foreign influence) and authoritarianism, mocking potential successors like Chrystia Freeland ("small and little") and Mark Carney (carbon tax elitist). Levant also condemns Trudeau’s handling of Tommy Robinson’s politically charged arrest in Calgary, contrasting it with leniency toward asylum seekers, suggesting the Liberals’ decline may force a reckoning—but Trudeau’s 2026 mandate ensures no immediate exit. [Automatically generated summary]
I want to talk more about that incredible by-election in St. Paul's, Toronto.
Now, it's just one seat.
Who cares?
It doesn't really change anything.
Well, it does because it shows that no liberal MP in the entire country is safe.
Half of the cabinet campaigned for that liberal and they lost.
What does that mean?
Will Trudeau leave?
I want to chew it over with you.
I'm sort of excited by what it portends.
But I'd like you to get the video version of this show.
It's called Rebel News Plus.
Just go to RebelNewsPlus.com, click subscribe.
It's eight bucks a month.
You get, because I want to show you some interesting video clips, including what one crazy liberal staffer told our reporter.
So you need the video version for that.
Go to RebelNewsPlus.com.
All right, here's today's podcast.
Tonight, the Liberals lose a stronghold in the heart of Toronto.
It's an incredible result.
What does it mean for the rest of the country?
It's June 26th, and this is the Ezra Levant show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
You see the results of the federal by-election in the riding of Toronto St. Paul's.
I bet you did, because it was huge news.
It was a liberal stronghold since the 80s, and it is so deep in Toronto, which, you know, winning that seat for the liberals is as obvious as the conservatives winning, oh, say, Calgary, Southwest.
If Calgary Southwest ever falls to the Liberals, it would be, you know, pigs would fly.
But that is exactly what happened.
Absolutely astonishing.
You could get a feeling that something was afoot because every day another federal cabinet minister came into the riding to door knock or at least have a selfie taken.
It was an enormous effort, all hands on deck.
The liberals were fielding a candidate named Leslie Church, who was a former senior advisor to Christia Freeland and carried with her some of that policy residue.
People are a little bit tired of Christia Freeland.
And even though Leslie Church was more physically presentable and less irritating, it was still Christia Freeland's gal.
It was an ultra Trudeau candidate.
You could tell things were afoot when Trudeau's face and name appeared nowhere in the liberal campaign materials.
I have to tell you, I never thought the conservatives would win.
I thought the margin would narrow, but seriously, winning Toronto, St. Paul's, look at this map.
I saw this on Twitter.
This is the red.
These are the districts of Toronto.
Red are liberal, and that blue chunk right in the heart of it is conservative.
Unbelievable.
Only a few percentage in the end, but you win by one vote or by a million.
It's still a win, and it was utterly shocking.
And it is a premonition of things to come, I think.
It's true that a by-election gives voters more freedom to clap back at the government because if they go rogue and do something dramatic, it's not going to change the entire country.
You can be more courageous in a by-election vote, knowing you're not changing the government or the whole direction of the country.
You're sending a message.
But I think that that message is going to be shared in the general election unless something dramatic happens in the next year.
And it could.
I mean, Trudeau has been 10, 15, 20 points back in the polls for about a year.
If I were a liberal MP or a liberal cabinet minister even from almost anywhere, I would be terrified right now.
This feels like, for those of you who are my age or older, the Brian Mulroney handing the baton off to Kim Campbell, who in the 1993 election wiped out the mighty Conservative Party, winning just two seats, not even Kim Campbell's own.
I don't say the Liberals are going to go down to two seats.
They have some seats in the Toronto and Montreal areas that will probably survive any flood, but they'll be under 30 seats for sure.
A wipeout is coming.
And right away, Trudeau said he will not quit, and Christia Freeland echoed that.
Here's a clip of that just to see for yourself.
Before I wrap up, I would like to say a few words about last night's by-election.
First, I want to thank all the volunteers and candidates for putting their name forward and participating in this important democratic exercise, including our tremendous Liberal candidate, Leslie Church, who ran a strong and positive campaign.
I also want to congratulate Don Stewart on his victory in this tightly fought race.
But most of all, I want to thank the people of Toronto-St. Paul for exercising your right to vote and making your voice heard.
Now, this was obviously not the result we wanted, but I want to be clear that I hear people's concerns and frustrations.
These are not easy times, and it's clear that I and my entire Liberal team have much more work to do to deliver tangible, real progress that Canadians across the country can see and feel.
We'll never stop working and fighting to make sure that people have what they need to get through these tough times.
My focus is on your success, and that's where it's going to stay.
Deputy Prime Minister, can the Prime Minister still stay on to lead the Liberal Party into the next election, given that you just lost one of the safest seats in the entire country last night?
Yes, he certainly can.
Can you explain why?
Because everybody we're hearing from behind the scenes believes that the result last night means catastrophic losses across the country.
If you cannot win in Toronto under Justin Trudeau, why should anybody believe you can win anywhere else under him?
Our government is focused on working hard for Canada and Canadians and on delivering results for Canada and Canadians.
That is what the Prime Minister is focused on.
That is what we are all focused on.
The Prime Minister is committed to leading us into the next election, and he has our support.
Even if Trudeau is deciding to quit, I think he would still say he's not deciding to quit while he figures out how to do it.
So just because a Liberal says something doesn't mean it's true, especially with Trudeau.
But I'm starting to think that he won't quit.
Now, I think that there's a lot of reasons for him to quit.
He has been repudiated by voters.
He has led the country into disaster.
No one believes him.
People laugh at him.
They're not even noticing the things he does.
No one trusts him anymore.
The deep dislike to him, I don't think he's been turned around.
Even liberal pollsters like David Coletto, I remember a comment he meant.
It's like if a friend, if you if a friend becomes an enemy or if you decide you don't like someone, you're just not going to listen to them anymore.
And that's how Trudeau is.
He's like a former friend that you have an enmity with now.
Coletto said it more gracefully than that.
But here are the reasons why I think Trudeau would stay.
Would go to maybe let someone else have a chance to revive his party.
He would go because his time is up.
He has passed his best before date.
He would go because he's brought us disaster.
Those are all reasons to go.
But none of that appeals to who Justin Trudeau is in his heart.
I mean, think about it.
Here are some reasons I have why I don't think Justin Trudeau will quit.
Number one, he has to stay to manage the cover-up.
I'm talking about Chinese influence peddling.
I'm talking about Iranian influence peddling.
We've seen the steps he's taken to cover that up.
First, he dispatched his family friend David Johnson to write a whitewash, and now he's contradicting CESIS reports.
Like he is scared, obviously, of facts coming out.
He instructs his liberals to hide and to vote against certain disclosures.
So I think number one is a cover-up, not just of foreign interference, but of financial corruption too.
We're starting to see millions, hundreds of millions, billions of dollars of spending absolutely crooked.
The case of the ArriveCan app is sort of an obvious one, but that's only $60 or $70 million.
We're talking billions.
So number one reason he wants to stay, I would imagine, is so he can make sure the machinery of the state, the levers he has to pull, covers up what he has done and what he is doing and will do.
A related reason is even if he wants to go, a lot of other people have a stake in Trudeau remaining in power.
Not just the liberals, but Trudeau himself.
If you've paid Trudeau $100,000 in bribes, and if you're saying, that's a shocking allegation, that's defamatory, what proof do you have?
Well, okay, let's use the example of the communist Chinese agent, a communist Chinese agent who made a six-figure gift to the Trudeau Foundation that was picked up by Trudeau's brother.
So let's say you're someone who paid a bribe like that.
Well, you don't want the person you bribe to leave.
You want to keep earning a rate of return on your bribe.
If you are someone who's plugged into the lobbyist machinery, to the procurement machinery, if you're someone who gets sweetheart contracts like Anita Anand's husband does, if you're McKinsey and you've got sweet deals through Christia Freeland, you don't want the team to change.
You've invested hundreds of millions in your team.
You're probably getting billions out.
In the case of China and Iran, you're getting policies out.
I mean, if Iran didn't have control over Trudeau and his brother, it's unlikely that Canada would have such a pro-Hamas position.
So all these people, even if Trudeau wants out, Trudeau's court hears, Trudeau's financiers, Trudeau's threateners, his honey traps, they want him in.
An example of that would be Ukraine.
Put aside your views on the Ukraine conflict, which I think is awful, and I hope it resolves itself peacefully as soon as possible.
The amount of money and materiel and weaponry that Canada is sending to Ukraine might not be the same if Trudeau is no longer prime minister.
That's certainly something they're saying in the United States if Trump succeeds Biden.
So that's just one example of an enormous stakeholder in Trudeau's continued prime ministership.
So cover-ups for himself, his stakeholders insisting he stay.
Here's a third reason I don't think he's going to go.
He doesn't really care about democracy.
He doesn't have democratic impulses.
He has authoritarian impulses, anti-democratic impulses.
When he was asked what his favorite country was, he said communist China.
And he didn't just say China.
He continued.
Here, watch the clip again.
Because of its basic dictatorship, take a look at the clip.
There's a level of admiration I actually have for China Because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say, we need to go green as fast as we need to start investing in solar.
I mean, there is a flexibility that I know Stephen Harper must dream about of having a dictatorship that he could do everything he wanted that I find quite interesting.
Not because of wonderful things about China.
You know, I've got a long list of things I like about China, from the food to the culture to the art to the history, the architecture.
It's a wonderful thing, there are many wonderful things.
The most odious thing about China is the thing that Trudeau likes.
Just like Trudeau always admired Castro, just like Trudeau's brother did a propaganda film for Iran called The New Great Game.
Trudeau doesn't care about a vote in St. Paul's.
He doesn't care about a vote anywhere because he's an authoritarian.
He'll use the mechanism of an election to get where he wants, but he feels no compunction defying the democracy.
The next reason is related.
I think it's how he views himself, not just an authoritarian, but I think he thinks he's some sort of magical destiny's child, a messiah, that he is a super person, morally or personally or cosmically superior than the rest of us.
He actually believes he's God's gift to Canada.
He thinks that he is the chosen one.
I think you can see that in how he talks about himself, how he sociopathically lies, how he is completely unprincipled if it's to say how he refuses to apologize for anything.
He has never apologized for anything in history other than apologizing for other people.
As an I apologize for what Stephen Harper did, I apologize for what a past government did.
He's got a messiah complex.
Why would a messiah quit?
Another reason I don't think he's going to quit is what else would he do?
What's he qualified to do?
There was a time when I think he actually thought he could be involved with the United Nations or maybe NATO, not NATO, but he actually thought he was sort of a global personality.
Yeah, that hasn't been true, if it ever was.
It certainly hasn't been true in years.
He's sort of the laughingstock around the world.
And NATO, which is a serious organization that is in battle right now, they see Trudeau as being the lowest spender, the biggest talker, but the lowest spender.
So if he doesn't have a role with the UN or the World Economic Forum, he's not smart enough to have a role there.
Really, what's he going to do?
No one's going to put him on their board of directors.
And who would succeed him?
That's the other thing.
Mark Carney's Critique00:04:04
I'm sure there's a lot of liberal backbenchers who saw the wipeout in St. Paul's and are thinking, oh my God, I'm next.
Well, they're right.
But, you know, the obvious saying, it's almost a tautology: you can't replace someone with no one.
I mean, I guess in life you could, but not as the leader of a political party.
Someone has to be the leader.
Okay, who would it be?
Christia Freeland?
Is there anyone less likable?
Here's a clip of her saying that people who don't vote for her are small and little and cold.
And like, just talk about projection.
Look at this atrocious person.
That is Leslie's vision.
That's the liberal vision.
That's why I'm really calling on the people of St. Paul's to go out there and vote for her.
Because the alternative is really cold and cruel and small.
The alternative is cuts and austerity, not believing in ourselves as a country, not believing in our communities and in our neighbors.
Yeah, do you think that, I mean, Trudeau is detested, but Freeland has all of Trudeau's smarminess and condescension without any of his charm.
Could you imagine Freeland is the next leader?
Who?
Mark Carney?
Mark Carney is handsome and he's a good talker.
He's basically been out of this country for years.
He's an elitist snob who, actually, last time I bumped into him was with the World Economic Forum.
I asked him a question about carbon taxes and he said, oh, yeah, we should sort of hold off on those.
But his whole life has been about carbon taxes and green schemes.
Remember my conversation with Mark Carney on the streets?
Take a look.
Gilbo was saying go to electric cars.
That doesn't work.
Well, you've got to have, watch out.
You've got to have the full, you've got to have full capacity, right?
And you've got to have, you know, one of the things we're going to need to do in Canada, across Canada, and this is, you know, for the benefit of jobs in the country, is build out the grid.
You can't switch before you build it out, number one.
Number two, one of the things you need, regardless of the form of energy you have, we have, is also to have what's called a capacity market alongside the electricity market.
So you think that Gilbo's plan is a little bit hasty since we haven't done those foundational things?
Well, I think what's important is that, you know, whether it's in Alberta, Ontario, Canada, Australia for that matter, is that you have to, you have to build.
You have to build.
And it's a time to build.
And look, we're in a position where we in Canada are in a position where we have been an energy superpower.
We can continue to be an energy superpower.
We've always had the ability to develop new sources of energy.
But the PM said there was no market for natural gas.
How do you feel about natural gas, especially to relieve Ukraine and other Europeans from Russian gas?
How come they are buying Russian gas and Qatari gas, but Justin Trudeau won't let them buy Canadian gas?
Well, we would have to get to build the trains in order to do what called LNG trains in order to get the gas to them.
Yeah, I mean, Mark Carney has strong political skills, but he is so condescending.
He is the United Nations man, the World Economic Forum man, the Bank of England governor.
He's exactly what this country is sick of, out-of-touch elitists who want taxes on you, and they don't believe in national sovereignty.
Mark Carney makes Michael Ignatiev look lifelike.
Who then?
Melanie Jolie?
Why?
Because she's the least ugly of the contenders.
I don't think that that cuts a lot of ice anymore.
Justin Trudeau could be called, you know, handsome still.
I mean, not handsome in an objective sense, but compared to other political leaders, sure.
Jewish Hate Fest00:09:42
And really, that's how I think he appointed so many of his cabinet appointees.
I mean, Melanie Jolie does not have, there's no there there.
Did you see this the other day?
Remember that Canadian Navy ship docked in Havana at the same time Russian ships did?
And Melanie Jolie was asked about it, and she had no clue.
Did you see that clip?
Take a look.
There is this strange thing happening in Cuba, Minister, that I'm wondering if you can help me understand.
The HMCS Margaret Brook, which is a patrol vessel from Canada, gone to Havana for three days starting tomorrow to celebrate Canada-Cuba bilateral relations.
And there's some eyebrows being raised because it's in port at the same time that Russian military vessels, including nuclear-powered submarines, are there.
Why would Canada have a Canadian ship in a Cuban port at the same time as Russian military vessels are there?
Listen, this is something that I have to look much more closer to.
This is an information that is news to me because the Minister of Defense also works with CAF and D ⁇ D on this very issue.
But of course, we'll look into this and get back.
She's like an intern.
She's not the decider.
That was deeply embarrassing.
And the government tried a bunch of excuses for that ship.
Oh, it's on a secret mission.
Oh, it's a goodwill tour, goodwill with Cuba at the same time.
It was so bizarre.
She's gone very deep into pro-Hamas territory.
I mean, maybe she would get some purchase from downtown Montreal seats, but really, I think it's not so much that she's hated in the rest of the country.
It's that no one thinks for a second that she's a serious person.
François-Philippe Champagne, I think he actually thinks he could be leader.
He's the guy who literally took a home mortgage from the Chinese communist government, from a Chinese communist bank.
There are hundreds of real banks in the world to get a mortgage from.
There are countless ways to get a mortgage.
Who would choose?
No, I'm not going to go to a company.
I'm not going to go to Scotiabank or Barclays Bank or wherever.
I think one of his places was in London.
I'm going to borrow money for my home from the government of China.
And he became foreign minister, and that was still his mortgage.
Yeah, I don't, I think he's probably someone who's going to be named in the Chinese influence scandal.
I don't think he'll be the leader.
Mark Holland, just for plain old kookiness, I don't, I mean, he wears a bow tie in clown shoes.
And I don't know if you saw the other day, he gave a speech about how the government has opinions about how sex should feel.
Here, just take a look at a few moments of that.
Perhaps the most cringeworthy speech given in Canada in 2024.
Did you catch this?
We shouldn't touch this topic.
People don't want to talk about it.
I was the first health minister, probably the first member of parliament, who talked about the importance of pleasure in sex.
Yeah, that's Mark Holland.
I think he thinks he can be leader, by the way.
Who else would be?
Ahmed Hassan or Arif Virani, who are really, between the two of them, are some of the most odious members of the liberal Hamas caucus.
So who?
Like, this morning, I literally looked at every single cabinet minister in the liberal government, most of them who you haven't heard of because they're just demographic appointments.
They're window dressing.
They're not actually deciders.
Who?
Like, tell me someone in this country who would lead the party with any ability.
Justin Trudeau is awful, but at least he has some momentum.
No, I don't think he's going to leave.
But it's just been incredible to watch the liberals try to come to terms with this loss.
Let me show you this one amazing tweet.
I haven't followed this person.
Obviously, they're a liberal backer.
I just got a lot of retweets.
So this really apparently summed up a lot of liberals.
She said, devastated by the Toronto St. Paul's result.
The anti-Trudeau hate fest, fueled by Polyev and the media, and voters who voted on single issues and ignored the real benefits brought in by the government for all Canadians will lead us into dangerous territory.
Be careful, Canada.
Oh, there's so much in there.
And the anti-Trudeau hate fest.
I think a lot of people do hate Trudeau.
Maybe even the liberals who didn't put him on the lawn signs.
But is there hate only on one side of things?
I think Trudeau, his standard reflex to people who disagree with him is, hey, you're a racist.
You're anti-this, anti-that.
I've never heard of anti-Trudeau media before.
I mean, the Toronto Star is still deeply in love with Justin Trudeau, and that's the main paper in Toronto.
My favorite line is: voters who voted on a single issue.
What does that mean?
I think that's a code word for Jews, because I don't know, about 10% or more of the population in St. Paul's is Jewish, which is actually a fair bit for Canada.
And they were sort of sick of the pro-Hamas hate marches, and they weren't getting any help from their own party.
So I think the Jewish vote, however big it is, moved over.
And given that the margin of victory was less than 2%, maybe the Jews did turn it.
My favorite line is this one.
Voters ignored the real benefits.
The real benefits?
You know, you'll own nothing and you'll be happy.
Benefits for all Canadians.
The most divisive government in history, it's dangerous.
Be careful.
You know, I think it is pretty dangerous in Toronto, but basically, this is all code for.
You are stupid.
You voters are emotionally unstable.
You were easily manipulated.
You're ungrateful.
And hey, Jews, shut up about things.
Hey, by the way, our young reporter, Sarah Stock, went there to do some streeters right outside the liberal campaign office the day after.
Look at this guy here.
This is just so classic.
How do you feel about the liberal loss last night of this riding?
I'm surprised.
She was leading by 700 and then woke up this morning and there was about 590 for Stewart.
What do you think that is?
I think there was electoral interference by Melissa Lansden.
She sent letters to the Jewish community to vote for conservative.
Is that considered electoral interference?
I think she represents Thorndhill, not Toronto.
What about Christia Freeland coming on the same day as polling?
Wesley Church worked for Christia Freeland.
Would that be considered election interference, though, if Christia Freeland came and gave a speech in the riding the same day as the election?
No, that's an endorsement.
Yeah, if it is true that the Jews didn't vote for you, now they're residents in St. Paul, blaming the Jews, condemning the Jews, and saying the Jews somehow are democratically illegitimate.
They're interfering in an election where the voters don't interfere by voting.
That's the voting part.
Just astonishing.
And the liberals don't get it.
Here's another astounding tweet.
This is from a new Democrat named Sherry De Novo.
I just got to read this.
Breaking.
The end of the liberals as the natural governing party begins in Toronto-St. Paul's.
Tories win.
The alt-right is taking over Canada.
Question: What are we going to do about it?
The alt-right in St. Paul's?
I think that means like neo-Nazis.
Look, that district has voted liberal for more than 30 years.
They didn't replace everybody in the last few months.
It's the same people.
It's people who have been voting liberal for 30 years decided to do something different this week.
So did they suddenly become alt-right just by voting for conservatives?
I think it's a rebuke to so many things that the liberals did, including their support for Hamas.
But they're actually being condemned.
This hating the voters, despising the voters.
I must be right.
They must be wrong.
Any loss I have in the election is because they're not grateful for me.
This shows that the deep state, the establishment, the liberal establishment, the liberal NDP establishment, they don't get it.
They don't understand that people are fed up with them and tired with them, and it doesn't make them racist.
The people of Toronto, St. Paul's are actually still pretty liberal.
You know, it's a pretty lefty place.
They're just sick of the crime and the pro-Hamas hate marches and mass immigration and a prime minister who can't get anything done.
Amazing times and a portent of things to come, but do not think Justin Trudeau is going to step down soon.
Mark my words.
He's going to go as long as he can.
And under Canadian constitutional law, I think he can stretch it, theoretically, even to 2026.
Hey, welcome back.
Your letters to me.
Border Cop Intervention00:03:44
Someone named NTU says, immigration lawyer, but Tommy isn't immigrating.
Well, you're right, but that's the branch of law that deals with people even making visits to Canada.
You can be denied entry to Canada even as a visitor for various reasons.
What's interesting, at least as of the moment I'm recording this, Tommy has never actually been told what he did wrong.
In Canada, you get something called a Section 44 report, which is basically the border guard saying you did this wrong or you have this criminal record or you lied about this.
When you're banned from the country, you get this report by the border cop that says what you did wrong.
Tommy Robinson was arrested, taken into custody, and then released with conditions.
But as of this moment that I'm saying this, he has not yet actually received any reason why any of this has happened.
He has not received a Section 44 report.
So yeah, you need an immigration lawyer.
I barely know what a Section 44 report is.
It's a specialized branch of law called immigration law.
Brett Wilson says, go to the British Embassy and report your passport stolen.
You know, it's so funny you say that.
I don't think I'm giving away a confidence when I say I was in the negotiation with the border cops and Tommy, and we had our immigration lawyer on the speakerphone.
And one of the things the border cop said to Tommy is, hey, Tommy, by the way, the British embassy is reaching out in case you need any help.
Here's their phone number.
And I thought that was really funny because I happen to know that the British embassy would likely not have a lot of help for Tommy because, well, I'm sure they would help him get home, actually, but they're not fans of Tommy either.
Lig now says, political prisoner and arrested for journalism is one of the hallmarks of a police state.
Thank you, Rebel News.
Well, that's the thing.
And it's sort of ironic because Tommy came in and he gave his speech in Calgary and it was a good crowd, but it was, you know, it's hockey playoffs.
So, and we only had about a week's notice to promote the event because we didn't want to promote it before Tommy was actually in.
So we had, I don't know, 150 people.
It was a great event, by the way.
And it ended and it was sort of calm.
Like it didn't make a big splash in the world until eight police showed up, grabbed him, bundled him in the back of an SUV and took him to jail, which is astonishing in itself.
I was talking, I mean, I'm talking to a lot of immigration lawyers in the last 48 hours.
And can you think of the last time when eight cops, four in uniform, four undercover, if I'm right on my math there, three vehicles, eight cops, some of them undercover, are sent to arrest a guy who's not planning on immigrating here, who's not committing a crime, who is actually an invited guest.
They don't even treat people who sneak in at Wroxham Road like that.
At Wroxham Road, the police act as luggage boys, as concierges.
So I think it is quite political.
Today, our lawyers are trying to negotiate with the border police to alter those conditions.
And if not, they will be applying for an emergency order tomorrow.
So things are really happening quickly.
Anyways, Tommy's a handful.
I never thought I'd see him in Canada, but he's here.
I'm back in Toronto now.
But if that immigration emergency hearing happens, I will go back to Calgary.
That's our show for today.
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, see you at home.