Ezra Levant argues Donald Trump’s "51st state" remark was a negotiating tactic, not a serious threat, tied to Canada’s border security failures—70+ countries linked to illegal migration and China’s drug trafficking—and Trudeau’s carbon tax policies. Dan Kelly of CFIB highlights the GST/HST holiday’s administrative chaos for small businesses, while the CRA’s premature enforcement of a 19% capital gains tax hike raises legal concerns. Shopify’s founders, once Trudeau supporters, now criticize his policies, fearing business flight. Levant frames Trudeau’s moves as politically driven, worsening Canada’s economic climate and discouraging entrepreneurship amid growing public frustration. [Automatically generated summary]
Do you think Donald Trump means it when he says he wants to turn Canada into the 51st state?
I don't think so, but I think he is loving the freak out amongst the Canadian left who thinks he's dead serious.
I'll show you what he's done to poke at them a little bit.
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All right, here's today's podcast.
Tonight, is Donald Trump really going to invade Canada?
It's December 5th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
As you know, Justin Trudeau flew down to Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's residence in Florida, which he's using sort of as his de facto White House.
Trump's Border Threats00:14:52
His transition team is hunkered down there.
Howard Luttnick, the head of the transition team, also nominated to be commerce secretary.
That's where they're vetting people, bandying about names.
And Elon Musk is being hanging out there too, along with RFK Jr.
Sort of exciting to watch.
Trump has a very high work ethic.
He was campaigning for as much as 20 hours a day during the campaign, and he really didn't take a single day off.
He went straight to work thereafter.
I think he's really moving through it at a quick pace.
And world leaders are calling him, and many are going to see him.
And Justin Trudeau did that too.
He did that after, as you know, Donald Trump made a tweet or a post to his own Truth Social, that's his own social media network, saying that if Mexico and Canada, and he lumped the two countries together, if Mexico and Canada didn't solve the border problem in two ways, stop illegal migrants and stop illegal drugs, both countries would be hit with a 25% tariff on all goods.
Now, that is a shocking thing to hear.
Mexico, within a day, got on the phone, the new president there, and basically gave Donald Trump enough to say, all right, mission accomplished, Mexico will no longer allow the mass migration the caravans going through.
I don't know exactly what they said.
No one does.
We weren't on the call, but it was enough for Trump to declare victory.
And the Mexican president sort of had her feathers slightly ruffled, but mission accomplished.
Can you imagine how that would flatten the Mexican economy?
But understand, Trump was doing that.
If you read Trump's book, Art of the Deal, he describes how he negotiates.
He makes outrageous demands to reset the conversation and to make the settlement look very reasonable by comparison.
If you don't ask for everything, you're not going to get what you really want.
I mean, it's some negotiation tactics that I found very interesting in that book, Art of the Deal.
When he said that to Canada, I think a lot of Canadians thought, oh, he's going to actually, he wants tariffs.
I don't think you need to be an expert in negotiations to see Trump doesn't want a 25% tariff on Canadian goods.
He wants us to do what he's threatening us the tariffs for.
He wants us to secure the border.
He wants us to stop migration.
And there are some terrorists who have been caught coming over the border.
And he wants us to stop the flow of illegal drugs that originate sometimes in China and go through Canada to the states.
And the right answer is: sure, we will fix our borders.
We would do that for our own interests, but happy to work with our American partners on that.
I mean, happy to fix the problem of Wroxham Road.
It's amazing that Canada found a reason not to do so.
I think the reason that Justin Trudeau didn't get on the phone and say to Donald Trump, sure, let's fix this.
I think the reason Trudeau didn't do that is Trudeau's trying to figure out a way how to use this the next election.
Can he campaign against Donald Trump in the upcoming election?
Because that would be a lot easier for him than campaigning against Pierre Polyev.
Pierre Polyev and the conservatives under him are in the 40s, almost approaching the 50% mark in polls, whereas Donald Trump is far less popular in Canada.
So if Trudeau could find a way to frame the entire next election as standing up to Trudeau, he would probably do a lot better than if it was standing up to Pierre Polyev, who Canadians have really come to be comfortable with.
And not only is Donald Trump less popular than Polyev, but it would put Polyev in sort of a pickle because Polyev would probably feel compelled in some way to denounce or disavow Trump just so he wasn't retarded Trump's puppet up here.
It's a really interesting thing.
But you can see that although Donald Trump hosted Justin Trudeau down at Mar-a-Lago, you could see that not everything was quite right.
For example, how odd it was that Trudeau did not go down with his foreign minister, Melanie Jolie.
Don't you think that the foreign minister should come and meet a foreign country, a foreign leader, our most important ally militarily, economically?
But I think that Trudeau knew that Melanie Jolie would just embarrass everybody and she didn't want him there.
She'll leave her, she'll be left for the unimportant files like denouncing Israel.
Christia Freeland was not there either, even though she's the de facto PM in so many ways because they knew that Trump just despises her.
They brought Dominic LeBlanc, who's probably the closest thing to a competent cabinet minister.
And of course, Trudeau's chief of staff was there too.
The photo of the dinner looked friendly enough, but Trump and Trump published it, but he was not effusive in his praise, as he has been for other leaders.
And here's a clip of Fox News reporting from two sources who were at the dinner, who were clearly American sources, because Canadians would never have leaked this.
That Donald Trump joked that if Trudeau didn't get his act together, Trump would turn Canada into the 51st state.
Here's how that was reported on Fox News.
And tonight we're getting some new details about that Trump-Trudeau dinner from two people who were at the table.
We are told that when Trudeau told President-elect Trump that new tariffs would kill the Canadian economy, Trump joked to him that if Canada can't survive without ripping off the U.S. to the tune of $100 billion a year, then maybe Canada should become the 51st state and Trudeau could become its governor.
Right.
But more on that detail with the panel.
Peter, thank you.
Minister making his way down south to Palm Beach, Florida, after the announcement that President Trump was going to levy some 25% in tariffs if changes didn't happen.
Now, I want to read from this.
Peter Ducey referenced it some amazing detail, according to two people at that table who heard the discussion.
President-elect Trump, while cordial and welcoming, was very direct when it came to what he wants from his counterpart to the North.
Trump said to Trudeau, paraphrasing here, Canada has failed on the U.S. border, allowing large amounts of drugs and people across that border, illegal immigrants from more than 70 countries.
But President Trump was even more animated when it came to the U.S. trade deficit with Canada, that he put it more than $100 billion.
He said, if Canada can't fix those things, he will levy this 25% tariff on all Canadian goods on day one when he gets back in office.
At which point, Prime Minister Trudeau says he can't do that because it'll kill the Canadian economy completely.
And Trump asks, so your country can't survive unless it's ripping off the U.S. to the tune of $100 billion.
Well, he said, Trump said, maybe Canada should become the 51st state.
Prime Minister Trudeau nervously laughed, as did others at the table, but Trump went on saying, you know, Prime Minister is a better title, but you could still be governor of the 51st state.
Then someone at the table said, Mr. President, that would be a very liberal state to more laughter.
President-elect Trump said, well, maybe we'll make two, a conservative one and a liberal one.
But if you can't handle the list of demands without ripping us off in trade, then maybe you really should become a state or two and you can be governor.
Now, if you have been paying attention to Donald Trump in the last eight years since he was president and then candidate and then president-elect, you'll know that Donald Trump makes jokes.
He makes insults.
He is an entertainer.
And you don't even have to have followed him the last eight years.
Follow him before that.
He was constantly doing media.
He was the star of the hit TV show The Apprentice, and he has an entertaining style.
So I think even if you don't find that a funny joke, I think you ought to know that that's a joke.
I mean, that's the thing about jokes is you don't have to laugh at them.
But I think we can all acknowledge that that is a joke.
And the reason that's funny and the reason Trump said it is because obviously Trudeau is weak and Trudeau has made Canada weak and Trudeau has put Canada in a position with not a lot of bargaining power.
In fact, the one thing America most wants from Canada, our number one export to them, is oil.
And Trudeau has basically declared war on oil, is jacking up the carbon tax, and through Stephen Gilbo, seeks to have a production limit on the oil sands.
That's not in Trump's interest.
So I think that Trump looks down on Trudeau and what he's done.
So he would make that joke.
The only reason that joke works is because Trump disrespects Trudeau and Trump sees that Canada is weak under Trudeau.
That joke wouldn't make sense with Mexico.
That joke wouldn't make sense with the UK or France.
The only reason that joke is plausibly funny, if you think it's funny or not, is because there's a tiny grain of possibility to it.
Of course, it's not for real.
It just shows that Trump does not respect Trudeau.
What's amazing is the reaction from the so-called smart people in Canada who not only think that Trump really wants to put a 25% tariff on Canadian goods, when in fact he's just using that as the stick to get what he wants, they actually are almost taking seriously that Trump would invade.
Jean Charé, the former Premier of Quebec, the former Tory leader, and the sometime Conservative Party leadership candidate, he actually tweeted, oh, Donald Trump, well, last time we had a war, we beat you in 1812.
Now, I hope that Jean Charé was responding in kind, just making banter, but I think too many Canadians are taking Trump literally.
They don't see the humor there, and they themselves don't have a sense of humor.
And look at this picture that Donald Trump published on social media of him standing with the Canadian flag, looking like he's about to invade.
So clearly he likes poking at the Canadian political class.
I want to show you something a little bit more serious, though.
We've been talking about banter and negotiating tactics.
And really, if you have the time, if you can pick up Trump's book, The Art of the Deal, if you read that, you'll understand how he uses the media, how he says things deliberately, provocative, to knock the other side off their balance.
And he wrote that long before, like decades before he was president.
It's worth a read.
And he's quite a character.
And if you don't understand that he's a character, I think you're going to miss a lot of his points, which a lot of liberals deliberately do.
But there's no doubt this poses a challenge for Canada, securing the world's largest unsecured border.
And like I say, I don't know if Trudeau actually wants to do that because I think he wants to pick a fight with Trump.
But I want to show you this.
Here's a clip of a CBC government journalist talking to a pundit who's sort of associated with the Conservative Party.
And he's outraged that Pierre Polyev is not signing on to Justin Trudeau's.
I'm not even going to call it a plan because I don't think Trudeau has a plan.
He's outraged that Pierre Polyev would put forward his own ideas about how to deal with Trump instead of just repeating Trudeau's ideas.
And if you watch this video, it sort of feels like the CBC has been given its instructions on what to say or not to say to.
Here, take a look at this really weird interaction where the CBC government journalist is mad at the leader of the opposition for opposing.
Take a look.
All the national leaders get together in the cabinet room.
That's where they met, apparently.
And they were all asked to not say things like the border is broken.
And in about 45 seconds, Pierre Polyev says, the border is broken.
And then he leads off question period about the broken border.
Right.
This is exactly the sort of thing they're all being asked not to do because it helps the U.S. news cycle and helps the president-elect's argument.
He was making comments about the border well before that meeting.
He had also done an entire media availability on Sunday where he talked about what he would do to fix the border.
So he's not just coming out and saying the border is a problem and it needs to be fixed.
He's also outlining a path for how it could be fixed and actions that the government could take.
So it's not just identification of a problem.
There's also a solutions roadmap that he's identified.
I mean, the CBC, we know they're in collusion with the liberals, but it's rarely this obvious.
Polyev was asked not to say we have a problem.
He was asked, he was told by Trudeau, don't say the border's broken.
Yeah, the border is broken.
I think even the liberals acknowledge that.
I just got two words for you, Roxham Road.
And the outrage that Polyev would ask a question about our broken border in question period.
So the opposition leader is opposing and he's asking questions in question period.
How dare he says who?
Not, I mean, you could, I suppose a liberal could make that argument, but it wasn't a liberal MP or a liberal pundit.
It was a government journalist at the CBC state broadcaster, just because it helps.
It doesn't help Trump to say our border is broken.
It helps Canadians because we've got to fix the broken border for our own sake.
And yeah, because it'll stop the 25% tariffs hitting us.
Just incredible.
If you think that this is the worst thing in Canada right now, it's not.
Coming up next, my talk with Dan Kelly of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business about how Trudeau's gimmicky $250 tax cut is actually costing more than it saves.
That's next.
Pierre Polyev always talks about calling a carbon tax election.
It's clear he wants to make affordability a centerpiece of his campaign.
And it's done quite well for him over the past year.
Almost every single poll has shown him with about a 20% lead.
And when you ask Canadians what they care about, affordability is a big one.
Luxury concerns that people can afford when their bank accounts are full, like global warming issues, those have fallen by the wayside as housing and groceries take the lead.
So it's not that surprising that as Justin Trudeau looks at a very likely 2025 election, he's seeking to win back some of that ground.
GST HST Holiday Controversy00:14:47
And indeed, he has announced, and Christy Freeland has announced, a GST holiday around the Christmas season.
And when Pierre Polyev said that that was not something he would support, the Trudeau liberals pivoted saying, uh-huh, he's not really in favor of tax cuts now, is he?
So far, that messaging has not connected with Canadian voters.
But put that aside, is it good policy, joining us now, to talk about tax cuts in general and the government's fiscal policy?
Is Dan Kelly, who's the president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, you can follow him at cfib.ca or on Twitter.
Dan, great to see you.
Thanks for coming on the show.
Good to be with you, Ezra.
Well, it's our pleasure.
You bring a lot of expertise with you.
And of course, you're in touch with independent business, which typically means small and medium-sized business.
And one of the things I've heard is just handling these GST, HST changes is going to be a real paperwork burden for small businesses.
Is that the case?
What are your members telling you?
First of all, before you answer that, why don't you sum up the changes that Trudeau has brought in and then tell us how business is reacting to it?
Yeah, look, this is a two-month holiday from December 14th to February 15th.
It removes the GST, zero rates it effectively.
And in HST provinces where the combined federal provincial tax is 13 to 15%, it gets rid of the whole thing for a two-month period.
It's only on a few goods.
So it is on restaurant meals and some of the grocery products that still carry GST, packaged goods and snack foods, drinks, for example, beer, wine, and some coolers, children's books, children's toys, even the Christmas tree.
So that's it.
And so for that, small and medium-sized businesses are now scrambling with two weeks' notice to try to temporarily remove the GST from those items and only those items in order to keep compliant with CRA rules.
And that's where the rub comes in.
Small business owners don't mind tax reductions, but I find myself in the unusual position of lobbying against an actual reduction in tax.
That's not our issue with it.
The administrative issue for this temporary tax reduction is the major problem.
So just as a couple of examples, if you go and you want to buy Lego, certain Lego sets are GST exempt, other ones not.
What would be the difference?
Why would it apply to some and not others?
Apparently, it is if the Lego set is Lego set is oriented at children, it is going to be GST exempt.
So that we're apparently to go with what's on the manufacturer's suggested age group for the particular toy.
Model planes that are oriented at kids are GST exempt.
At adults are not.
We have all sorts of administrative questions pouring into our offices across the country.
A gift basket that includes some food, but say a coffee bug in it.
What's that?
How is that going to be taxed?
These are judgment calls that business owners are having to make.
A hobby store in Calgary said that they have 3,500 items and they have to go through every single one and make judgment calls as to whether it remains taxable or is not taxable during this period of time.
And if they make a mistake, Ezra, they're going to have an audit from the Canada Revenue Agency in March or April demanding back taxes, penalties, and interest.
This is nuts.
You know, I understand the point because, of course, everyone wants lower taxes, but if it's just for a two-month, I'm going to call that a gimmick because if it was real, it would be permanent.
I'm sure a lot of companies had paperwork issues when Harper took the GST down from 7% to 5%, but they knew it was a one-time thing.
It was fairly straightforward.
And I think they liked the fact it was a tax cut.
This is a two-month blip.
And, you know, I go to a dollar store in my neighborhood occasionally, and I can just imagine the hundreds and hundreds.
And by the time you do it, and it's starting in less than two weeks, and by the time you do it, it's almost time to undo it.
That is no gift to anyone.
No, and look, for these retailers, they've also announced this just a couple of days ago.
The legislation, for goodness sakes, isn't even passed.
I was at the Senate committee last night reviewing the legislation, for goodness sakes.
And here we are in the busiest possible season for small business owners, where it's make it or break it.
If they don't do well during the Christmas and holiday season, many of them are just done.
And so they are now having to put in place this complicated system.
In fact, it even gets worse than that.
They have to continue to charge the tax until December 13th when the store closes.
So your dollar store has to do that, say, till 9 p.m. on December 13th, Friday night.
Saturday morning, they have to have in place the proper system to make sure that they're not charging GST or HST at that moment.
And as a result, they have to that evening do the computer programming to make that happen.
But they can't do it beforehand.
Otherwise, they will have not charged the tax when they are supposed to.
These are judgment calls.
The CRA is not even in a position to give guidance on most issues.
We've got a litany of examples of complex situations.
As you said, when the GST was first introduced, that's how we ended up with the six donut rule where you pay GST if you buy five, but you don't pay GST if you pay six.
Well, at least you only had to do that one time.
You didn't have to switch it on, switch it off on a dime here as we are right now.
You know, I mean, when I go into shops these days, I have a different mindset.
I feel very sympathetic with the entrepreneurs and I feel sympathetic for the typically the young cashiers who are, because all I can think of is how do you live in these expensive housing markets if you're making, like I just, I look at a business, I look at a restaurant different than I probably did 10 years ago.
Maybe it's just my own experience.
And my point for mentioning that, Dan, is, was there anyone at the cabinet table who has done the hard work?
Like, I think of, I mean, just think of a corner store, think of a convenience store, think of a gas station attendant.
You're on your feet all day.
You're making 30 cents here, a dollar here.
You know, a long time ago, I got to know the Ontario Korean Businessmen's Association.
I actually worked for them briefly, I should disclose.
They work their tushes off 364 days a year.
Maybe they close on Christmas.
And they're making a buck here, a few pennies there.
And I wonder if there is anyone from that world, Dan, who was around the decision-making table, because it sounds like it was a bunch of people whose only life experience is online or working for an NGO or a government agency.
No one has had a job where they're on their feet 12, 14 hours a day, making money 30 cents at a time, which is what it's like in the convenience store business.
And I'm just thinking of dollar store, convenience store, and restaurants.
And I don't know, Dan, is there anyone within Trudeau's advisors or his cabinet who has ever lived the life of a small business person?
It is hard to find.
I can tell you that this was designed with political calculations in mind and not much else.
This was designed to curry the support of the NDP because the NDP had put forward a list of items to permanently exempt GST HST from, and that was the main impetus behind this particular decision.
Look, again, small businesses don't mind trying to help their customers save some money.
But all of the administrative costs to put this in place are going to exceed for many the value of any additional dollars their customers may be able to spend in these businesses.
I've talked to restaurant owners that were almost in tears.
One guy was going through every bottle of beer because the way he read the bulletin said that it was beer, wine, and mixed drinks that contained less than 7% alcohol.
So he was trying to figure out how to, for each beer, determine what button to press to exempt the GST if it had under 7 or what button to press if it had over, only to for then need to clarify, just because I've been dealing with this for a couple of days now, to say, no, it's all beer, all wine, and it's only spirit coolers under 7%.
But it kind of illustrated the point that for business owners that are trying to do what they can, they want to stay in compliance with government.
They don't mind trying to help their customers save a buck or two.
But this is not the way.
It is a hot mess.
And there are a thousand better ways to reduce the burden on Canadians than a temporary two-month holiday.
For one thing, get rid of the carbon tax that is going up by 19% six weeks after this holiday ends.
Like we're lowering prices for two months and then permanently raising taxes six weeks after the holiday ends.
Like that, for retailers, for businesses in general, this is a mess.
It's such a tease to say for two months, we'll give you this very complicated, very narrow group of discounts and breaks.
And you're so right that six weeks later, you got whiplash because carbon taxes go up, which, I mean, Polyam has turned it into a talking point, but it's true.
Anything that moves, if it moves, if it keeps you warm in the winter or cool in the summer, it's going to be using carbon.
And frankly, that's the point of the carbon tax.
If you ask them why they do it, it's, you know, I don't know if you remember Stefan Dion 15 or so years ago, he used the phrase, you know, carbon shift or green shift to try and change your social behavior.
So if you actually say, well, how is the carbon tax going to save the world?
It's designed to sort of push you away from certain behaviors, as in keeping warm in the winter, moving things around.
So they don't deny that not only is the tax painful, they say that that is the point of it to get you to stop doing those things.
I think, I don't know, I just wish we could reconsider that.
Because like I said a few moments ago, I think that environmentalism and making, and Trudeau gave an interview recently where he says people should prioritize climate change in their life over meat and potatoes issues.
I think that is out of sync with the times.
I think there's real poverty out there.
And I just don't know if he can swallow his pride and delay that carbon tax hike.
I think he's so dead set on it ideologically.
And he's not the kind of guy who blinks.
I don't know.
I'm just very sad about this.
And you've told me things that are sort of laughable, like you go, ha, because they're shocking.
But there's no comedy here at all.
These are livelihoods.
It is.
Look, behind every counter of a small business is somebody just trying to make a living, somebody that's trying to do the right thing, pay their employees, keep the lights on, and build some wealth for their family for the future.
But it has been really, really tough over the last number of years.
We are at the point now where only a quarter of Canada's entrepreneurs would recommend to the next generation to start a small business.
Oh, my God.
This is really alarming.
We actually have now more businesses leaving than entering.
For the first time in 40 years, more business exits than enters.
Those are really worrisome statistics.
And this is among the people who have chosen entrepreneurship as their profession.
We've done just about everything to discourage them along the way.
83% of small businesses now oppose the carbon tax, want to see the federal carbon tax gone, and we're increasing it.
At the very least, if we had a couple extra billion dollars, let's press pause on the increase that we're planning for April the 1st as we explore options to get rid of the whole structure.
Dan, you've been generous with your time, and there's just two more things I want to put to you.
And you alluded to one before.
I mean, when there's a tax change, the CRA tries to help.
They really do.
I mean, we can all be frustrated with them and you wait on the phone for hours, but their purpose is to help.
But if they don't know what the final rules are, if it hasn't actually been passed into law yet and the regulations and I don't know, maybe it sounds like they're sort of trying to do it, build the plane while they tax you down the runway.
There's got to be a smarter way to make policy than like just give people, give everyone a couple weeks' notice.
Is that even lawful?
Like can the executive office, you know, there's the legislative and there's the executive.
Can the prime minister just sort of wave a wand and say this is the new tax rate if it hasn't been debated and heard in committees and voted on?
Like does the government have the power to do that?
Well, there's two recent policies I'll use as an example along these lines.
This GSTHST holiday, I think it is incredibly unfair the way that they are implementing it, but at least it appears that the legislation will be passed before December 14th.
And as a result, that will be the law of the land and businesses have to do their best to comply with it.
That's one thing.
The short notice is deeply unfair, but at least it will be law.
I'll take you back, though, Ezra, to the capital gains increase, the inclusion rate increase from 50% to two-thirds that was announced as part of the April 2024 budget.
If you can believe it, that has not even been introduced in the House of Commons as legislation eight months later.
We are eight months.
This is now the law.
This is now being actually implemented by the CRA because there is custom in Canada that if a tax change is announced, then the CRA will begin to implement it in advance of the legislation, assuming the legislation is passed.
But we are now in uncharted territories in Canada because we have now put in place rules that went into effect June 25th, 2024, the legislation for which has not even been introduced in the House of Commons.
Parliamentary Dysfunction00:08:56
This is how scary this is.
So we are now consulting constitutional people to help understand this better.
There is a chance this whole capital gains thing could just get flushed down the toilet because Parliament is not functioning right now.
Yeah.
You know, that's a technical area of law, administrative law, constitutional law.
And it's beyond my knowledge.
I think it's a fairly obscure thing.
Dan, it reminds me of an Alberta case during the COVID pandemic times where I forget the name of the case, but the law wasn't introduced by the right party.
I don't know the technical, it was a very technical decision that the policy came from the wrong person in the wrong way.
So all the cases, all the tickets, all the charges were thrown out because it wasn't introduced the right way.
And I think that's how it ought to be, by the way.
The government shouldn't be able just to, they should be held to the rules.
So that's- Well, I just had a constitutional expert share with me that in the UK, governments can introduce a policy that then can take legal effect in advance of the legislation passing, but they have a time limit to do that.
And if they don't, the government has to refund the money that has been collected in that period of time.
We would be well past that in Canada now.
And it is something that we're looking into seriously at CFIB.
That is heartbreaking.
And I don't know why I'm feeling a little emotional talking about this.
It's because, you know, everywhere I go now, I feel the economic stress.
I see it in people's eyes.
And this is just an unnecessary stress.
And hearing your discussions with individual business people, trying in good faith to figure it out.
Let me ask you one last question, Dan.
You've been so generous with your time today.
I don't want to keep you too much longer, but there's a company I've been watching out of the corner of my eye, and we use this company ourselves.
It's called Shopify.
Shopify.
It's a great Canadian tech success story.
It's basically an interface to allow people to sell things on the internet.
You've probably seen it on many ways.
Yeah, it's very successful.
And the entrepreneurs behind it are public-spirited guys.
They seem like really good guys.
I've never met them, but I follow them on Twitter.
And I remember years ago, they were, you know, Trudeau was cool and he was pro-technology.
And so they'd hang out with him.
But now I see the founders and the CEO of Shaw.
And I don't want to mischaracterize what they're saying, but they're deeply concerned about the path of our country.
Part of me thinks they might even leave Canada to go to the States or something.
Like, I just feel like they're doing amazing things, allowing people to become entrepreneurs.
And even they, and they're sort of, they used to be Trudeau's friends and they're not political people, but I feel like they're being compelled to speak out because Canada is so crazy these days.
I think that would be a devastating blow.
I mean, I think Trudeau should heed their warning because they're not his enemy.
They're not partisan conservatives if they're speaking out about this now.
And I think everyone knows the brand, but they don't know the people behind it.
These are wealth creators, opportunity creators.
And I think they're terrified for what they see in Canada.
Do you have any relationship with those guys?
Do you know who they are?
Have they spoken to you at all?
Because they are the king of independent business, right?
They're the tools.
I bet you most of your members use them.
It's ubiquitous now among small and medium-sized firms.
Shopify has done a great job of building out networks.
In fact, they're not just for e-commerce.
I saw this weekend visiting a toy store in Toronto.
The in-store payments were powered by Shopify, too.
A big, big company, huge success story.
But the entrepreneurs have been very clear.
You and I are following them the same way on Twitter.
They've been very concerned about the changes in capital gains treatment in terms of what it's going to say about the possibility of building success in Canada.
And the whole point of lower rates of taxation on capital gains is to allow people to reinvest those dollars to continue to grow businesses and grow companies.
Often in the tech world, you basically reward people through some shares that grow as opposed to being able to pay them what they would be worth in the private sector.
And we're changing a lot of the foundational rules that have encouraged people to take risks on their own.
For goodness sakes, we can't have everyone working in the public sector if we want to have a country that actually has tax dollars to support the social programs on which many Canadians support themselves.
So this is deeply worrisome.
We're running the risk of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
And I am very, very worried about the spirit of entrepreneurship from what I'm seeing in Canada.
You know, when I started doing this 30 years ago, the most frequent question I had from a business owner is, which of my three kids do I want to groom to take over the business?
Now I'm more likely to hear from business owners.
I don't want any of my three kids or two kids these days to take over the business.
I don't want to have them go through the same hell that I've gone through over the last couple of decades.
And how disappointing is that?
That entrepreneurs don't want their kids to have to go through the struggles of red tape and paperwork and high taxes that they've had to go through as they try to build a company, build a brand, or contribute back to their local communities.
That needs to change and it needs to change real fast.
Dan, that's such a sorrowful thing you've just said.
You know, it reminds me of something I like to think about sometimes about the free market, where both, you know, it's a funny thing, and I don't think it's just a polite courtesy.
Why is it when you buy something in a community store or a small business, when you buy it, you say thanks, but the store says thanks.
Like, how come both people are saying thank you other than courtesy?
It's because both people came out ahead, right?
Both people, you got something you thought was valuable and you thought was worth it, and they sold it to you in a way that they could make a go of it.
It was the mutual, happy trade, and everyone came out ahead.
And I just feel like we're losing the opportunity of the free market.
And like you say, the public sector is growing unrelentingly.
It's boom times.
It's never been better in the public sector.
And they're driving out the small guys and the medium guys.
And you are raising the alarm.
And the reason I mentioned the Shopify guys is because they are not built to be politicians, but they just can't stay silent anymore.
I think we're in trouble.
And I tell you, the next election can't come soon enough.
I know you guys at the CFIB are non-partisan, so I won't ask you to comment on that.
But boy, I think the whole world needs to shake up in this country.
Dan, it's really great to connect with you.
And I wish you and your members good luck.
And hopefully this will be a good Christmas season for them and tax relief will come soon.
Thanks so much, Ezra.
Good to be with you.
Likewise.
There you have a Dan Kelly.
He's with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
You can follow him at cfib.ca or on Twitter.
Stay with us.
More ahead.
Your letters to me.
This is about when some pro-Hamas supporters actually, I'm not going to say stormed parliament, but they entered into parliament and had a little insurrection.
Wozniaker says, the whole House of Commons was silent.
Not one member said a word.
No one will be fired for this breach.
Nothing.
Remember when veterans were stopped from going to the war memorial?
Some are much more equal than others.
You're talking about the comparison with the trucker convoy, when the National War Memorial was locked down, when the riot police were dispatched.
I remind you again that the truckers did not enter any parliamentary building.
They stayed in their trucks and on the streets.
Here you had an actual insurrection, if you want to use that language, trespassing, intimidating parliament.
And there were some arrests, but they were all let go.
It's just incredible, the double standard.
Tommy Dee says this is unacceptable.
As a Canadian, these people need to be charged and jailed.
What if a half dozen of them had guns?
They could literally take Parliament.
I hope they weren't stupid enough to have brought guns, but a forcible invasion of a public building for a political purpose that does feel a little bit like Section 51, intimidating Parliament.
Perhaps 565 says, free the hostages now.
Isn't it funny how Democrats in the U.S. and the Canadian government have just stopped even mentioning that?
Hostages and Political Intimidation00:00:18
Whereas Donald Trump published a statement of social media threatening holy hell raining down on those who still have hostages when he takes office in January.
It's going to be an interesting time.
Well, that's our show for today.
Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, see you at home.