Ezra Levant highlights an Ipsos poll revealing 43% of young Canadians (18-34) and 61% of Gen Z men would join the U.S., driven by Trudeau’s economic policies—$1T debt, $60B deficits, a capital gains tax hike (costing $90B/year in jobs), and an April 1 carbon tax increase despite Canada’s 1.4% global emissions. Trudeau’s "post-national" rhetoric, devalued currency, and free passports to non-citizens further erode national pride, while Mark Carney’s leadership risks deepening divisions. Alberta’s potential separation looms as young Canadians flee high costs, questioning whether Trudeau’s legacy will fracture Canada’s future. [Automatically generated summary]
A crazy poll by Ipsos, which is quite a large polling company, showing that almost half of young Canadians are open to joining America.
And in fact, if you look into what's called the crosstabs, you can figure out that 61% of young men, Generation Z men, 61% would take Donald Trump up on his offer of citizenship and redeeming our Canadian mini bucks at par.
I'll take you through that poll.
We'll also talk to Franco Terrazano to show you how Justin Trudeau has basically destroyed our country economically.
Very interesting.
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All right.
Here's today's podcast.
Tonight, I'm not sure if the U.S. would want all of Canada to join it, but would they take Alberta?
It's January 17th, and this is the Es for Levant show.
Shame on you, you sensorious bug.
Hey, look at this from the pollster Ipsos.
It's a new poll about should Canadians join the United States.
Here's their headline.
Four in 10, 43%, Canadians age 18 to 34 would vote to be American if citizenship and conversion of assets to U.S. dollars guaranteed.
Then they say a strong majority of Canadians agree that Canada should remain independent in spite of Donald Trump's comments about Canada becoming the U.S.'s 51st state.
So that's their headline.
Now, the poll was taken between January 9 and January 13.
Two very preliminary observations right off the top.
Things have gotten even hotter since that poll stopped on January 13th.
And we'll know on Monday if Donald Trump carries through on his threat of tariffs.
And that could lead Trudeau, the lame duck prime minister, to do something insane in his final weeks.
I mean, really, there's no accountability to the guy who does what he's want.
He could put economic sanctions on Alberta for our own good to fix the problem for the good of the country.
Come on, be a team player.
This is the chance to get Alberta.
So Donald Trump is making a tariff threat, and you want to take it out on Alberta.
Yeah, that's pretty much what he said.
Here's Trudeau.
I think it was really important yesterday as we met with first ministers from across the country that premiers have an opportunity to express the interests of their citizens, of their industry, of their area.
Certainly, I don't blame Danielle Smith for speaking up for her industry.
That's part of her job.
But every single premier other than Danielle Smith then chose to put Canada first and say, but we're all part of Team Canada because what happens to any part of us happens to all of us.
And we will be there to respond strongly, to fight for Canada, and to do it in a united way that makes sure that it's fair across all industries, across all regions.
That was what we came together yesterday to do.
I would actually like to point out to Danielle Smith that Canadians know the importance of standing up for each other.
That's why Canadian taxpayers bought the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion, TMX, to be able to get Albertan oil to new markets.
That was an investment that all Canadians made that the Alberta government is making billions of dollars off of because in what was a very difficult decision, the federal government, we made the decision to purchase and build and complete that pipeline.
That's an example of all Canadians standing up for Alberta and getting it done.
So yes, premiers should be advocating for their own industries, their own country, their own communities, but they should also put their country first as every single premier except Danielle Smith did.
I could point to any number of those premiers and point out lots of moments in which they have points of disagreement with me.
From Doug Ford to Scott Moe to Tim Houston to even David Eady and Wab Canoe and others.
There's all sorts of disagreements we're going to have.
But when push comes to shove, every single one of them are Canadians first.
And yes, they're going to look out for their communities, but they also know that looking out for all of us.
Trudeau really isn't good at dealing with strong women who disagree with him, is he?
I mean, holy moly, he just doesn't know what to do with Danielle Smith other than to attack her.
Funny thing is in Alberta, that probably just makes her stronger.
My first observation is that things might get a lot hotter on Monday.
My second observation is Trump must have seen something in that moment at Mar-a-Lago when Justin Trudeau came down, when he met with Trudeau.
He must have seen how sensitive Trudeau was, how insecure, and perhaps through him, how sensitive and insecure some parts of Canada are.
And here's what I mean by that.
With a couple of weeks worth of roiling and boiling, nearly half of all young Canadians would join the U.S. That's all it took.
I mean, there's been no campaign, no political party, no referendum, no advertising, just pretty much talking about it on Twitter.
That's our starting point is 40 plus percent of young people.
And that's on Trudeau, by the way.
And what makes a country?
Why would people love Canada?
What is a country in general?
Well, it's borders.
It's a passport that's valuable.
It's money that's valuable.
It's a history that's valuable.
You're proud of the history.
It's a purpose.
It's a common culture, a feeling of solidarity, a connection to the land, some common symbols.
These are a few of the things that make up a country and citizenship.
And Trudeau has tried to destroy all of that.
I mean, my favorite worst example is that Trudeau took Sir John A. MacDonald off the $10 bill.
He changed the lyrics to, oh, Canada, in a small way, but what is he doing messing around with our anthem?
He has given away millions of our passports, really, to anyone in the world who wants them, including scammers and schemers.
He's called Canadian history detestable and genocidal.
He's printed hundreds of billions of dollars to devalue our currency.
He's denounced anyone who disagrees with him, really, as being racist or sexist or what's the new one, transphobic.
He's made us a weak laughing stock around the world, where his really, his only shtick is showing his fancy socks to world leaders who are bored with him now.
He's at the kids' table in these foreign meetings.
Trudeau has declared war on the land and those who work the land, from farmers to oilmen.
He's announced to the New York Times no less that we are post-national.
Now, what's interesting, and I'll show you this in a moment, is that young people most want to join the United States.
So it's people who didn't have a proud, patriotic education about Canada.
It's people who have grown up under Generation Trudeau.
Trudeau has been in office for nine years, nine years of Trudeau, nine years of woke.
Young people apparently don't feel the connection to Canada, but obviously they want to connect to something.
They want to hang out with someone who thinks about greatness and history, someone and something proud and hopeful and prosperous.
Half of young Canadians see that in America now more than they see it in Canada.
Isn't that sad?
I mean, it was pitiful the other day on CNN.
Did you see it?
When Trudeau, who's been avoiding Canadian journalists, Trudeau was asked to define Canada.
You would think that the prime minister of the country for nine years would have a pretty good answer to that question by now.
His answer was, we're not America.
Did you see that here?
Take a look.
That's not going to happen.
Canadians are incredibly proud of being Canadian.
One of the ways we define ourselves most easily is, well, we're not American.
There is such a depth of pride that that's not actually an issue.
What I think is happening in this is President Trump, who's a very skillful negotiator, is getting people to be somewhat distracted by that conversation to take away from the conversation around 25% tariffs on oil and gas and electricity and steel and aluminum and lumber and concrete and everything the American consumers buy from Canada is suddenly going to get a lot more expensive if he moves forward on these tariffs.
And that's something that I think we need to be focusing on a little bit more.
Can you imagine if any other world leader had said that as their answer?
It's impossible.
Imagine summing up your entire country, your entire people, history, culture as well.
We're not American.
In fact, maybe we're a bit anti-American.
Is that the best he has?
Is that the best he can say about all of us?
What an insult he has made to us.
No wonder young people find that uninspiring.
Hey guys, vote for Canada.
Stay in Canada.
Love Canada.
Build your future in Canada.
Invest in Canada.
Why?
Because we're not America.
Imagine if Pepsi's ad campaign was, we're not Coke.
Imagine if Ford was, we're not GM.
You have no identity of your own.
You're just not something else.
So when Trump says, hey, join America, we're going to make America great again, a country where their poorest states, you know, Mississippi, Alabama, are wealthier than Canadians on average.
And though they certainly have their problems too, I think they feel like they're about to have another golden age.
They're going to get stronger, richer, healthier, better.
And you can, let me show you this.
Here's just an example.
I showed this the other day.
Could you imagine a businessman anywhere in the world announcing a $100 billion private sector investment in Canada?
Well, that's what happened a couple of weeks ago in Mar-a-Lago.
Do you remember this?
My confidence level to the economy of the United States has tremendously increased with his victory.
So because of that, I'm now excited to commit this $100 billion and 100,000 jobs into the United States.
This is double of last time.
as President Trump said.
Because I say, oh, President Trump is a double-down president.
I'm going to have to double down, you know?
$100 billion and 100,000 jobs.
This is, you know, my confidence level because that has doubled down.
So I am truly excited to make this happen.
Here's another guy with $20 billion of his own money that he's going to put in America.
Remember this?
Take a look.
It's been amazing news for me and my family.
When he was elected in November, we've been waiting four years to increase our investments in U.S. to very large amount of money.
We are a company operating in more than 20 countries around the world.
We have delivered more than 45,000 luxury units and another 45,000 in the pipeline.
In data center, we are in 10 countries around the world, in Asia, Europe, and Middle East.
And we're very, very excited now with his leadership and his open strategy and policy to encourage businesses to come to U.S. For the last four years, we've been waiting for this moment.
And we're planning to invest $20 billion and even more than that if the opportunity in the market allow us.
But at the moment, we're planning $20 billion in data center, catering for the AI and cloud business for the hyperscalers.
Trump doesn't have to say, we're the best place in the world to do business.
It's just evident.
We can all see that that's true.
People don't invest $100 billion of their own money in failing jurisdictions.
The only big investments in Canada these days are governments shoveling tax dollars into schemes and scams.
I mean, America is a country that's sending rockets into space, that's making driverless cars and building robots.
And I'm just talking about the three things Elon Musk is doing.
In Canada, what are we doing?
We're jacking up the carbon tax again in 10 weeks.
That's not particularly inspirational compared to Rocketman, is it?
Still Planning Big Investments00:10:17
And Trudeau hasn't ruined the country fully, obviously.
It's still salvageable, I hope, maybe.
I mean, I think we need to deport about 5 million people, and that's not a joke number.
It is the number of people who do not have permission to remain in this country after December.
But it's not just about immigration and prosperity, it's culture too.
In America, free speech is making a comeback.
First, Twitter, but now Facebook.
Did you catch this?
I want to talk about something important today, because it's time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram.
I started building social media to give people a voice.
I gave a speech at Georgetown five years ago about the importance of protecting free expression, and I still believe this today.
But a lot has happened over the last several years.
There's been widespread debate about potential harms from online content.
Governments and legacy media have pushed to censor more and more.
A lot of this is clearly political, but there's also a lot of legitimately bad stuff out there.
Drugs, terrorism, child exploitation.
These are things that we take very seriously, and I want to make sure that we handle responsibly.
So we built a lot of complex systems to moderate content.
But the problem with complex systems is they make mistakes.
Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that's millions of people.
And we've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes and too much censorship.
The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech.
So we're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms.
So you're a young person.
That could be inspiring as opposed to Trudeau's censorship plans.
Who does that inspire?
Trump is exciting, not just because of his personality, but because of his plans.
And they're simple: peace through strength, smaller government, close the borders and make citizenship meaningful and valuable.
Crack down on crime.
We are none of those things in Canada.
What young person wouldn't prefer the promise of America, especially if they haven't yet been able to put down deep roots in Canada.
You're a young person in Canada, but you haven't been able to build your life partly because you can't afford to put down deep roots.
If you ever want to feel sad, go to realtor.com.
That's the American real estate website.
And search for the price of houses.
In places like Texas or South Carolina, or if you really want your dollar to go far, go to Arkansas.
See what you can get for $200,000 in Arkansas.
Here, let me show you the page I did it for you.
I selected realtor.com to show houses for sale in Arkansas between $200,000 and $300,000.
Just beautiful.
I mean, $200,000 is a down payment for a home in Toronto or Vancouver.
And yeah, sure, those are in U.S. dollars, but that makes the point even more, doesn't it?
Because they are earning U.S. dollars.
You can buy a house if you're a young person there.
Even with the currency conversion, those are houses you can never afford in Canada.
So you're a young Canadian, your country is overrun by foreigners, either crowding you out of a university or crowding down wages through competition or just getting in front of you in line at the hospital or shouting pro-Hamas threats in the street, and you can't afford a house and your prime minister calls you names if you complain.
Why wouldn't you make a new life in the land of opportunity?
There's a reason why the phrase the American dream is famous.
You don't really hear the Canadian dream that often, certainly not under Trudeau, do you?
So when Trump says, hey, Canadians, join us, a real young person just might.
So let's look at this poll.
I just want to focus on one of the various questions.
And you can see it here.
They ask a lot of questions, but my favorite is: do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
If the United States offered all Canadians a full U.S. citizenship and a full conversion of the Canadian dollar and all personal assets into U.S. dollars, I would vote for Canada to become part of the United States.
Agree or disagree?
So this particular table shows the answers by different demographic groups, and they combine strongly agree and agree, and they combine strongly disagree and disagree.
So 30% of Canadians say yes to that proposition, that they would take up Trump on his offer of becoming an American citizen and converting their dollars at par.
So 30% say yes, 70% say no.
But that's of the whole population.
And again, that's a very high number, by the way.
And again, this is without any campaign, just after a couple weeks of banter.
But let's drill down for a moment.
In British Columbia, you can see here, broken down by location, 33% say yes.
That's combining strong agree and agree.
In Alberta, surprisingly, it's a little bit lower, 29%.
In Quebec, it's 26%, which is interesting.
I wonder how many Quebecers who want independence would be satisfied with joining America instead of being fully independent.
And incredibly, the biggest number, is this a surprise?
The biggest number who say yes is Ontario.
34%.
That's more than Alberta or Quebec.
There's a margin of error here, but still, that's very interesting, isn't it?
In what was supposed to be the economic powerhouse of Canada, that's where the most people want to join the states.
If you look, the answer is pretty steady no matter the income level.
So rich or poor, everyone thinks that's a good deal.
Here's that same question now broken down by sex, age, and education.
Again, the national average is 30%.
Now that rises to 38% for men.
I think that's because in many cases men are the breadwinners.
I think men are the ones who are thinking about prosperity and a future.
Imagine if someone said to you that they would give you one U.S. dollar for every one Canadian dollar you have in the bank, and you don't have to listen to that clown Trudeau or his successor, Carbon Tax Carney, anymore.
That's a huge number of young people that would say yes to that deal.
Like if someone walked into your room right now and said, I'll give me all your Canadian dollars.
I'll give you American dollars one for one, and I'll give you citizenship in America.
Huge numbers of young people would say yes.
You can see 43% of 18 to 34-year-olds.
Well, what are 18 to 34-year-olds?
They're done high school.
Maybe they're going to college, but they're starting their life.
They're looking to get married.
They're looking to get a job.
They're looking to buy a house.
That's how you start life.
You're starting families.
You're paying the bills.
They're the people Trudeau has hit the hardest.
They're the people who want this American deal the most.
You can see seniors, by contrast.
Only 17% want to join the U.S. Fair enough.
They've put the most into Canada, and Canada has put the most into them.
They've probably paid off their mortgages.
They probably don't have to work for a living anymore.
So they don't have those same stresses.
And by the way, they're patriotic because they grew up in a time when patriotism was still a thing.
Look at by education.
Not a lot of difference, but people without high school, which could be tradespeople, they're the most eager to have a crack at being American, maybe because it's the easiest to get ahead there if you're working class.
And look at that last category, generation.
Gen Z, 48% want to join the U.S. 48%.
Now, if this were broken down by sex and age, if we knew the number for Gen Z males, I think it would be a majority.
In fact, what I did is in my own math, I transposed the difference between men and women onto that Gen Z number.
And by my calculations, a Generation Z male, 61% likely to say yes to the deal.
And all I did there was I took the Gen Z number for both genders, and then I unpacked it using the earlier stat of the difference between men and women.
61% of Generation Z males would join the States.
That's the Joe Rogan generation.
That's the Jordan Peterson generation.
Those are people who are impatient with wokeness and want to have a prosperous life.
Imagine how broken Canada has to be when just a few tweets by Trump is enough to make more than half of young men say, sure, we're ready to join.
That sounds like a good deal.
And imagine how tone-deaf Trudeau and the rest of the regime have to be to say, in response to Trump, we're going to punish Canadians by attacking the oil patch, aka young men working for a living, and generally escalating the trade war.
Instead of just doing what Trump asked, to seal our border against illegal migrants and illegal drugs.
Oh, by the way, remember this?
In the United States, it's illegal for states to break away.
You might remember they had a whole terrible civil war about that.
In Canada, it's completely legal.
There's a law called the Clarity Act.
It was already ruled on by the Supreme Court.
It's legal.
They have step-by-step how you do it.
The Supreme Court says as long as there is a clear question in a referendum, the province can separate.
You might recall that Quebec came within 0.5% of separating, and that was a generation ago.
I predict that within one year, the Panama Canal will return to the sovereignty of the United States.
That's not that hard to imagine.
Jimmy Carter should never have sold it to Panama for a dollar a generation ago, but that wasn't even that long ago.
I think that's going to happen pretty quickly.
I think that Greenland will not join the U.S. as a state.
It's too small.
I don't think it'll join even like a territory like Puerto Rico or Guam.
But I think it'll do something like maybe sign a 100-year trade and military agreement with the United States that makes it a de facto American turf.
It'll still call itself Greenland and have some local independence, but I think it's basically going to hook up with America and they're going to get rich off it and they're going to feel more important than Denmark seems to be treating them.
And what's left?
Well, there's Canada.
Where will we be in a few years?
Government Breaks the Budget00:15:17
Well, the jury is out.
I think if someone who loved Canada and wanted to restore it to a status of pride and strength and prosperity were to become prime minister and made a compelling case for Canada, I think such a person could win back the 48% of Generation Z that wants to quit.
I think so.
But if Trudeau is replaced by a droning World Economic Forum oligarch like Mark Carney or Christy Freeland, more of the same, with an added war on Alberta oil and the jobs that come with it, don't be surprised if one day there actually is a separation referendum in Alberta.
And don't be shocked if it passes.
I'm going to be meeting up with the Premier of Alberta on Sunday in Washington, D.C. I'll let you know what she has to say.
Stay with us for more.
It's a shocking statement, but it's always true.
And if you look at how the prosperity of our country has slowly fallen behind the Americans, I think a lot of it has to do with taxation, including the hidden tax of inflation.
That is the government printing so much money that effectively your money is devalued.
I remind you that when Stephen Harper left office, Canadians were actually ahead of Americans in terms of per capita earning.
If you can believe that we were richer than the Americans now, we're poorer than even the poorest state.
These are heavy matters, but it's important we keep talking about them.
And the guys who never stop fighting on this battle, you know who I'm talking about.
One of our favorite guests and certainly a fan favorite is our friend Franco Territano.
He's the boss of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
And unfortunately, he's very busy these days.
Franco, it's a target-rich environment, but I think it means Canadians are sort of waking up to taxes and they're like Atlas shrugged.
They're going to sort of shake off all these little taxes, God willing.
Give me your thoughts on the recent days in this country.
What's going on?
Well, look, I agree with you in the sense that Canadians are just so sick and tired of this big, bloated, bossy government looking for ever new ways to take more money from us so that they can waste our tax dollars largely on themselves, on fancy trips abroad, on giving corporate welfare to multinational corporations, or on hiring tens of thousands of extra bureaucrats, right?
So Canadians are sick and tired.
And one of the massive tax hikes that we have seen from the Trudeau Liberal government is this capital gains tax increase.
Now, number one, it will wreak economic carnage on Canada.
There's really no way else to look at it, right?
There's this recent report from the CD Howe Institute, University of Calgary economist Jack Minch, who crunched the numbers, and the capital gains tax hike will result in 400,000 fewer Canadian jobs and blow a $90 billion hole in our economy.
So this is a massive tax hike.
It's going to make Canada way less competitive.
And you know, Trudeau, he likes to claim that, oh, don't worry, folks, it's just going to hit the billionaires.
No, no, no.
This is a sucker punch to many ordinary Canadians.
It'll hurt small businesses.
It'll hurt doctors.
It'll hurt people saving for the retirement.
Mintz notes that this could impact like a million Canadians, half of whom earn under $117,000 annually.
Now, help me out, because is this the tax?
I mean, there's so many taxes.
We're being soaked in so many ways, but is this the tax that the CRA, the Canadian Revenue New Agency, is going ahead and collecting at a new rate before it's actually been authorized by Parliament?
Or am I confusing that with another tax?
No, that's correct.
This is the undemocratic.
It's not even passed by Parliament.
It's just happening.
And even though it hasn't been approved?
That's correct.
The legislation hasn't even been brought into Parliament, let alone passed, right?
This is about as undemocratic of a tax hike as you can imagine, where you have unelected CRA bureaucrats that are going to be putting their grubby paws on Canadians' pockets.
And to make matters even worse, like set aside just the economic damage of a capital gains tax hike.
But this is an undemocratic tax hike, right?
It has never been passed by Parliament, not to mention the fact that Parliament is now shut down until March the 24th.
There's every indication that when Parliament resumes, there's going to be a non-confidence vote relatively quickly and the government will fall and head into an election.
So this legislation has never been passed.
It will likely never be passed.
And also the party that's leaving in the polls, the Conservative Party under Pierre Polyev, well, they have just come out and said that they would reverse the capital gains tax hike.
So this legislation never passed, likely will never pass.
And the party likely to form the next government says they're against it.
So there's no other way to spin it, right?
This is an undemocratic tax hike where unelected bureaucrats are taking more money from Canadians.
Yeah, that just, I mean, I don't know if that's even legal.
And, you know, we all know that phrase, no taxation without representation.
And that's a centuries-old concept.
In fact, that was even part of the, you know, the Boston Tea Party and the rebellion against the king.
And in fact, if you've ever been to Washington, D.C., their license plate motto, I don't know if you know this, Franco, is no taxation without representation, because they're saying we're paying taxes in D.C., but we don't have a congressman or anything.
It's an ancient kind of fairness.
And, you know, who allows a tax collector to collect more taxes if it has not been authorized by Parliament?
I find that very unjust.
Like, you can argue against the HST.
You can argue against any particular policy, the carbon tax.
But I suppose the final line of defense for those advocates would be, well, Parliament passed it.
That's the will of the people in our system.
If you don't like it, run against it.
And there's some basic truth there.
But if Parliament itself didn't even pass it, it just feels so achingly undemocratic.
Boy, did you know anything about the legality of that?
Like, is that, like, how did that even happen?
Just some exec, is there even an executive order?
Like, how does a tax collector collect taxes without Parliament's approval?
I've just lost here.
Well, stay tuned on whether or not this is legal.
You know, I don't want to be cute, but I just can't release anything until it's final.
But let me just say that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, we are going to use every tool in our toolbox to fight what the CRA is doing and what the government is doing.
But, you know, just to really add a point on how undemocratic this is, in 2021, the last federal election, the Liberals did not even run on a capital gains tax hike, right?
So not only has parliament not pass legislation for this capital gains tax hike, but the liberals in the last election, they ran on a lot of tax increases.
They never ran on a capital gains tax increase.
So no way could you say that this is the will of the people.
It absolutely is not.
So now there's two reasons that this is going forward.
Number one, pure bureaucratic overreach, to say the least, right?
Bureaucracy run amok, to say the least.
But number two, this should be on our elected representatives, right?
This is on the liberal government, liberal cabinet ministers and liberal MPs for not speaking out against this.
In fact, all MPs should be speaking out against this because what is going on is the government is essentially rubber stamping a tax hike.
And when this happens, you got to throw up your hands and say, well, what's even the point of having members of parliament if the government can just increase taxes without parliamentarians even having a vote?
Like this is a total crushing blow to our democracy and the fundamental idea of no taxation without representation.
But folks, two other things here.
Number one, why isn't the liberal government stepping in on this?
Well, besides the political aspect, the government is broke.
It's more than a trillion dollars in debt.
They ran a $60 billion plus dollar deficit last year.
Like just to put a point on that, like this capital gains tax hike will take about $7 billion from Canadians this year.
Well, the Trudeau government, the way it's spending, will blow through that cash in less than a week.
Right.
This government spending is so out of control.
But number two, the reason why all Canadians have to come off the bench on this is because we can't let politicians or the government get away with this precedent, right?
They try to take as much money from Canadians as they can, and we cannot let them get away with it.
Yeah, wow.
Well, I was just looking at a poll by Ipsos that showed 43% of 18 to 34s would consider joining America if they could get their Canadian dollars at par with American.
And I did some calculations looking at the crosstabs.
61% of Gen Z males would do that.
And I'm thinking, why is that?
I think it's in large part because how do you start a family if you can't buy a house?
How do you get ahead when taxes are so high that inflation is so bad?
And I think that's a very sad thing.
It's one thing for people well into the thick of life in their 40s, 50s, 60s to pay these taxes.
But I truly believe that a big reason why young people would take Donald Trump up on its invitation to join America is because it's too tough for a young person to pay the bills in this country.
It's a sad thing to say.
I got one more question for you, though.
In 10 weeks from now, we have another tax hike, don't we?
On April Fool's Day, we've got another tax hike coming, don't we?
Sure do.
Carbon tax, it's going up again, right?
Probably the most unpopular tax in Canada.
Canadians clearly oppose a carbon tax.
Why?
Because it makes the necessities of life more expensive, right?
Canadians can't afford it, and it doesn't work to help the environment.
Like, come on, Canada makes up 1.4% of global emissions.
You're just talking about the United States, the largest economy in the world, our biggest trading partner, in many respects, our biggest ally, but also our biggest competitor.
They don't have a carbon tax.
Even the Biden administration didn't impose a carbon tax, right?
Trump's not going to impose a carbon tax.
So what are we doing here?
The carbon tax is all economic pain without environmental gain.
And what's happening April 1, a carbon tax increase.
But Ezra, let me just point out a timeline here, right?
Parliament shut down until March 24th.
We'll presumably have a new prime minister, the next liberal leader, presumably, right?
Well, in a couple days or a couple weeks after Parliament gets back, there's going to be non-confidence votes.
And then April 1, carbon tax increase.
So, you know, a little pro tip to all the liberal leadership hopefuls out there.
Do you really want to head to the polls immediately after hiking the carbon tax?
Like, I'm not this political pundit.
I don't pretend to be, but that doesn't sound like smart politics to me.
Well, I got one last question.
I'm grateful for your time.
Thank you for carving out some time from your schedule.
Of course, Mark Carney, the former Bank of Canada governor, then Bank of England governor, I call him an oligarch.
He's the boss of Brookfield, which is a huge asset management firm and that does other things.
And Bloomberg, like these are very big companies.
He was a governor on the World Economic Forum.
Like he really is a master of the universe.
And he's come back to Canada to do us the favor of leading us.
And I've been following Mark Carney for some time.
And I really think that his central idea, even when he was at the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, has been carbon, carbon budgets, carbon taxes, carbon markets.
Like it's all he talks about.
He says he's part of Greta Tunberg's movement, which is crazy to say.
I would say I see myself as part of the social movement.
I think those at the vanguard of the social movement might see me as being farther behind.
And I've, you know, full, absolutely full credit, and I do in the book to Greta Thunberg, who I've had the pleasure of meeting several times and who absolutely has catalyzed that movement, the youth movement, and also done something incredibly valuable.
And this is embarrassing to admit, but I think we should admit it.
And this is often true, by the way, in finance.
Very obvious truths are not fully understood in the system.
So what she hammered home was the carbon budget, how small it was, how rapidly it was being depleted.
And we've moved in a few short years, in part because of her, from a world of ESG, sustainability, broader conversations around, as I say, sustainability, to a relentless focus on net zero.
It's called the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero for a reason, because we've moved to the relentless logic of having to get emissions down consistent with the carbon budget.
So in that regard, I'm part of that and part of mapping what people want to the mechanisms, particularly in finance, in order to deliver it.
Yesterday, when he announced his run in, I think he was in Calgary, he was asked about the carbon tax.
Can I play a clip of that for you?
I'd like your reaction.
I'm trying to understand.
Here's a guy who for 20 years has been talking about carbon taxes.
I'm trying to figure out what he meant yesterday.
Take a look.
If you were going to take out the carbon tax, you should replace it with something that is at least, if not more effective.
And by effective, it's not just having the same impact in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but it's making our companies more competitive.
It's creating jobs.
It's ensuring that Canadian households are made whole in terms of their finances.
Because perception may be that it takes out more than the rebate provides, but reality is different.
And Canadians will miss that money.
So you need a comprehensive approach.
You need a comprehensive plan, not just a soundbite that fits on Elector.
And that, again, is a difference between me and some others.
I don't do a little leak.
Comprehensive Plan for Canadians00:04:58
I don't do a soundbite.
I do a comprehensive plan that addresses all the aspects.
And you'll see that in the coming weeks.
I don't understand what that means.
That sounds exactly what we have now.
Trudeau giving this little carbon rebate.
This is, you know, Steph Andion in 2008 was talking about the green shift.
I don't understand what he's saying, but if I was forced to say, Ezra, what do you think that means?
I would say he's just going to rename the carbon tax.
Well, I have no idea what it was he was talking about there, to be honest.
Like, that was about as clear as mud, like a total word salad.
But you know what's so crazy about all of this, right?
Because for Kearney to win the liberal leadership, he has to be the smart guy in the room, right?
The guy with all the plans to save the economy.
That's going to be his pitch to the liberal membership.
Well, if you're the smart guy, then shouldn't you have the answer to the most obvious question that he was going to face?
Are you going to keep the carbon tax or are you going to scrap it?
It's a yes or no answer, and it's an answer that he should have.
And as you just heard by his response, he had no idea.
Or at least that's what he said to the Canadian public, right?
But here's the thing.
Canadians are against the carbon tax.
Canadians are against all carbon taxes.
So now you're starting to hear even liberal politicians start to speak out against carbon taxes.
Okay.
Well, two things.
Number one, prove that you're against the carbon tax because taxpayers have trust issues and immediately call for the government to scrap the carbon tax.
Don't wait after the next.
But number two, Ezra, and I know we're running out of time, but I just have to say this.
Canadians are against carbon taxes.
Canadians want carbon taxes gone.
They don't want the carbon tax relabeled.
And, I mean, Canadians don't know Mark Carney well.
And if this is their introduction to him, and if every time he's asked, will you scrap the carbon tax, yes or no, if he gives that answer, you know, that's like if my wife says, Ezra, will you take the garbage out?
Well, you see, I have this comprehensive plan.
And this is a problem.
Ezra, will you take the garbage out or not?
Well, hey, you know, we're having a focus group.
And like if it's that BS on a yes, no answer.
We all know what the answer is.
This man has spent his entire public life.
And by the way, his wife is even more extreme than he is.
Like this is a green, extreme family.
And he just, wow.
But listen, I know you're going to fight hard on this.
I also, if I heard you right, you were very careful about how you phrased it.
But if I was a betting man, I want to keep my eyes peeled.
Maybe the Taxpayers Federation might even wind up going to court to fight this capital gains tax.
I can, if you do, please come back on the show.
We'd love to hear it or send the lawyer.
And again, I'm making a leap here.
I'm filling in a blank because someone's got to, if this capital gains tax, as we discussed five minutes ago, is illegal, someone's got to do something about it.
And Rebel News likes to litigate these things, but this is such a good fit for the taxpayers.
We'll help you crowdfund it if you need it.
We'll help you.
Like that would be such a victory if the Taxpayers Federation would undo this tax.
That would be the greatest gift you could give to millions of entrepreneurs.
And you're the perfect people to do it.
So let me lobby you.
Please do what I think you're going to do.
And if we can help, come back on the show, okay?
Well, Ezra, you know, can't give away too many details.
All I can say for sure is that we are going to fight every way we can against the undemocratic capital gains tax hike and the carbon tax.
Well, I'm delighted, and thanks for taking the time.
And you're in for a busy season, my friend.
Sure.
And I'm glad you are because we rely on you.
And I had the pleasure of meeting up with Chris Sims, your Alberta boss, the other day.
And she's doing great.
And I know you've got a whole team across the country.
So keep it up, my friend.
Hey, thanks, Ezra.
All right, there you have it.
Franco Terrazano.
He's the boss of the Taxpayers Federation.
He's got a big fight ahead, and we're going to stand with him the whole way.
Stay with us.
More ahead.
Hey, welcome back.
Your letters to me.
Jess says, Trudeau is hanging something over Ford.
Thank you, Danielle, for standing up for all Canadians.
Yeah, I think that Doug Ford is going to copy the Justin Trudeau or Mark Carney strategy, which is to embrace the trade war and use it as the issue of choice in an upcoming campaign.
I say again, my own house, I had a couple of door knockers from the Ford Conservatives last weekend.
So I think it's a certainty.
I think it's sort of gross that Doug Ford wants Alberta to be the sacrifice zone.
How would Doug Ford react if Danielle Smith said, well, let's punish the Americans by shutting down the auto sector?
I mean, no one else would talk that way about any other province, except that seems to be acceptable to talk that way about Alberta.
Special Mission in Ottawa00:02:56
By the way, I don't think it'll work.
James C. says, honestly, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if Trump targeted Ontario and Quebec industry.
Well, look, we do love our fellow Canadians, and just because Doug Ford or Francois Legault say things we disagree with, we don't want to punish ordinary working people in those provinces, and we don't.
Which is why it's so nutty that instead of focusing on what Trump wanted us to do, which is fix the border, we're letting that remain an issue so we have the battle over, well, what's he going to do if we ignore his reasonable demand?
It is a reasonable demand between neighbors to fix a fence between the two neighbors.
Now, maybe you talk about, well, who pays for that?
And here's my beef with your fence and vice versa.
You have an argy bargie about it.
But when a neighbor says, your wild dog is running into my side of things, if you don't deal with your wild dog, I'm putting up a fence.
Donald Trump just said, stop the illegal immigrants and stop the illegal drugs.
And instead of doing that, it's like these various politicians are welcoming a battle.
Joe Bush says, all Canadian provinces are equal, except when it comes to liberal economic policies.
And Alberta is always the province that is thrown under the economic bus.
Well, as I said in my monologue, the idea that Canada would join the United States is more palatable to more people than you might think, especially the younger the person, the more likely they are to support it.
By my math, Generation Z males are 61% in favor of the idea of joining the U.S. Young males are not yet the decider in this country.
There's more Gen X and middle-age and boomers out there.
But if things actually go as bad as Trudeau is threatening, you might see a full-blown unity crisis.
And, you know, it's one thing for Alberta to separate and become independent.
There's a lot of unanswered questions for Albertans if that were to happen.
Well, what currency do we have?
What army do we have?
How do we get access to, you know, the shore, like to seas through our pipeline?
There's a lot of questions.
But a lot of those are answered very quickly if it's not, well, Alberta independence, it's join the United States either as a 51st state or with some sort of special agreement there.
And I say again that Trudeau has weakened the ties between all citizens in this country for nine years.
He's destroyed and tried to destroy the things that make people proud of a nation.
Culture, history.
you know, a strong economy, meaningful passports, meaningful cultural symbols.
Trudeau has declared war against all of that.
So he's weakened the attachments.
He's kind of pushing Alberta away.
Davos Returns: Canada's Future00:01:33
This time, though, Trump is pulling Alberta.
I'd say the chances of Alberta separating Canada have not been this high since the first national energy program done by another Trudeau.
I think that's our show for today, but I'm excited about what's coming up on this weekend.
I've got a special mission in Ottawa tomorrow.
You'll see the results of that soon.
And then on Sunday, I'm meeting Premier Danielle Smith in Washington, D.C. to talk to her about things.
We'll see what she has to say because things are getting hotter.
I'll be in Washington on Monday for the inaugural, for the, we're going to cover a lot of things on the ground.
And then I'm going to Davos for the annual World Economic Forum.
As you know, we go every year.
And it's sort of crazy that both leading liberals in the candidate, in the leadership contest, Christia Freeland and Mark Carney, both of them are or were directors of the World Economic Forum.
What are the odds of that?
So I think our dedication to the annual visit to the World Economic Forum is showing its value.
If you want to understand both Christia Freeland and Mark Carney, you've got to go to Davos, and we'll be doing that.
I'll be there with Sheila Gunrid and Avi Yemeni.
And of course, we'll be back in Canada as soon as possible.
And by the way, we have a team remaining in Canada from David Menzies to Drea Humphrey to Alexa Lavois covering everything that moves from here.
So that's our show for today.
Until next time, which is very soon, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, see you at home.