Ezra Levant critiques Doug Ford’s snap election call on February 27, framing it as a reaction to Donald Trump’s unproven tariff threats while ignoring real border crises like fentanyl trafficking. The Foreign Interference Commission, led by Justice Marie Hoag, avoids naming affected MPs—including Arya Chandra—and pushes censorship over accountability, despite WeChat’s role in targeting conservatives. Sheila Gunn Reed calls the report a "cover-up," while Ford’s strategy mirrors federal Liberals’ Trump-focused electioneering. Ultimately, the episode suggests foreign interference and border issues remain unaddressed, with Liberal leadership races further entangled in globalist controversies. [Automatically generated summary]
Even though there was an election in Ontario just a couple years ago, he's doing so because he, like Justin Trudeau or Christia Freeland or Mark Carney, he wants to run against Donald Trump in the election.
He doesn't want to run against his actual opponents.
He wants to paint himself as the great Canada defender.
But will it work?
I'll take you through that and I'll also talk to Sheila Gunn Reed about the findings in the Foreign Interference Commission.
But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to what we call Rebel News Plus.
It's the video version of this podcast.
I want you to see about three or four clips of Doug Ford, his election ad, his election announcements.
I really want you to see how he's positioned himself as the champion of Canada.
I'm not sure if I quite buy it.
Just go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe.
It's eight bucks a month for the video version.
And just as important, that $8 a month helps us survive because we don't get any money from Trudeau and it shows.
Hey, one more thing.
The last time you sat down with your financial advisor, did you have a real conversation?
Do they allow you to express all your concerns or did they dismiss them out of hand and give you the head office talking points?
When it comes to your family's wealth, you need to work with people you can have a real conversation with, people who share your values and won't view you as a fringe minority for believing things that are plainly true.
Work with our friends at Rocklink Investment Partners.
They're a proudly Canadian, conservative, and independent.
They adhere to the time-tested principles of wealth creation and preservation.
They'll work with you to build a financial plan for your future.
Call Rocklink and get your investments on track.
Call them at 905-631-5462 or email them at info at rocklink.com.
That's Rocklink with a C. Info at rocklink.com.
All right, here's today's podcast.
Tonight, Ontario's Doug Ford calls an election.
Like the federal liberals, he prefers to run against Donald Trump.
It's January 29th, and this is the Esther Levant show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
Ontario's Doug Ford has called an election The election will be on February 27th, just a month away.
This isn't even three years after the last election in 2022.
This is, I mean, that election was an opportunistic election itself.
There was a disturbing trend of many governments going to early elections in the middle of the pandemic.
To take advantage of the fear and crisis mindset that was gripping Canadians, people would stay with the safe bet they knew because it was a crisis out there.
In almost every instance, the incumbents did great.
It was a victory of fear.
All the politicians learned a terrible lesson.
In the case of Doug Ford, he learned that a crisis is too useful to waste, so he's going early again.
And the crisis this time isn't COVID, it's Donald Trump and his threats.
Here's Doug Ford explaining his case.
We will be calling the election next Wednesday.
I'll be seeing the Lieutenant Governor on Tuesday.
We need a mandate from the people to fight against Donald Trump's tariffs, the attack he's coming against our families, our businesses, our communities.
And with a strong mandate, we will be able to fight with Donald Trump to make sure we stop the tariffs and make sure that we give certainty to the people of Ontario.
And they take investing tens of billions of dollars.
We'll do tens of billions of dollars.
It's no different than during the pandemic.
We'll make sure we secure people's livelihoods, and I will do whatever it takes to protect the people of Ontario in turn because we're the engine of Canada protecting all Canadians.
We will not back down.
So speaking of that mandate, I mean, if you feel that you need a new mandate, do you feel like you've lost the confidence of the people of Ontario?
To the contrary, to the total contrary, or Canada as well.
Right now, there's a lack of leadership at the federal level.
And at the federal level, we don't know who's going to be the next prime minister.
Right now, we need strong leadership in this country.
We need strong leadership in this province, and we're going to deliver that strong leadership for the people of Ontario.
Here's another statement from Ford.
Well, what I'll tell the people of Ontario, we're going to see an unprecedented attack to our families, to our businesses, to our communities.
Something that we've never seen in the history of the country getting economically attacked by the largest country in the world, the most powerful person in the world when it comes to President Trump.
And we're going to be there for him.
We're going to support the people.
We're going to protect the people, protect their jobs, protect communities, protect businesses, just like we did during the pandemic.
But this is going to be more of an impact.
The pandemic was natural around the world.
This is a man targeting to attack and take every business out of Ontario, out of Canada, and try to bring it to the United States.
And I'll do whatever it takes to protect the people of Ontario.
Let's be honest, he really has no idea what to do about the United States.
He's alluding to giving billions of dollars in free money to companies and people like he did in COVID.
But to do what?
How?
And what does that even mean?
How would it work?
Would it just be a gift to companies that export?
Would they be able to pocket it?
Would he be paying the tariffs or what?
Is it just free money?
How?
Paid for by whom, may I ask?
And I want to show you one more clip.
Here he is saying those liberals would just spend money, unlike us conservatives who would spend 10 billion, tens of billions.
I don't understand this.
He goes from saying we're going to spend money to the opposition would waste money in like one second flag.
Look at this clip.
I just don't even get what this means.
We'll redouble our efforts to build Ontario's economy.
We will do whatever it takes to protect workers and their livelihoods.
We will invest tens of billions of dollars in new spending to keep people working.
We will work with unions and businesses to retain and reskill our hardest hit workers.
And as we do, we need to do everything possible to keep our economy competitive.
We'll keep up the fight against the job-killing liberal carbon tax.
And we're urging the federal government to join us in cutting red tape and streamlining approvals to get big things built faster.
He's talking about protect Ontario.
That's his campaign slogan.
Okay, good idea.
Protect in what way, though?
And whatever a politician says, I'll do whatever it takes.
It's like what Justin Trudeau and Melanie Jolie have been saying.
Everything's on the table.
I think that's code for, I have no idea what to do.
I don't think Doug Ford needs a mandate.
His mandate is pretty fresh, barely two years old.
And we don't know what Donald Trump is actually going to do, if anything, towards Canada.
He said his deadline was his inauguration, but that's more than a week ago.
He says tariffs are coming, but they actually haven't come yet.
I think they might.
I think Ford and Trudeau really want it to happen, but so far they haven't.
And take a look at this.
I think this is a very important video.
This is Trump's commerce secretary, Howard Luttnick.
He would be the guy actually doing the tariffs, and he loves tariffs, by the way.
But here he is pretty blunt.
He's saying, this is really not a commerce move.
It's not a tariff move.
It's a please close your border to illegal migrants and drugs.
Take a look.
Not a tariff per se.
It is an action of domestic policy.
Shut your border and stop allowing fentanyl into our country.
This is a separate tariff to create action from Mexico and action from Canada.
And as far as I know, they are acting swiftly.
And if they execute it, there will be no tariff.
And if they don't, then there will be.
But it's an action-oriented model.
That's not the ordinary tariff.
The ordinary tariffs need to be studied.
So shut your borders.
Stop allowing fentanyl into the states.
He says it's a separate tariff to create action.
The tariff isn't the goal.
It's the stick.
As far as I know, the tariff may not even actually come.
And as far as Lutnick knows, he said it, that if Canada and Mexico actually keep fighting illegal immigration, there will be no tariff.
I think Doug Ford might be calling an election with no tariffs afoot, but he doesn't want to waste a crisis.
Ford is right.
I'll give him this.
Doug Ford is right.
There is no leadership from Ottawa.
Okay, it's not quite true.
There are a lot of people in Ottawa, including Justin Trudeau and Melanie Jolie and Christia Freeland, come to think of it, and they are staking out their position, each one stronger than the other.
All saying the same thing as Ford.
We're going to fight.
We're going to retaliate.
My favorite was Christia Freeland saying how much Trump hates her.
Like that's a reason to vote for her.
None of them are actually solving the problem that Trump outlined in his first social media tweet that started this whole thing, the call for a closed border to fentanyl and migrants.
He just wants the border fixed.
They all want to fight.
I mean, what would be more fun for Doug Ford or Justin Trudeau or Mark Carney to do?
Actually fix the border issue, which is sort of a conservative thing, or declare war against Trump while running in an election against Trump when he's not even on the ballot.
Here's an aesthetically cool ad by the Doug Ford team, but I say again: what does it mean?
A fighter?
How?
We all have things we worry about.
But when we know trouble is headed our way, we need a fighter.
Someone who protects us, our jobs, and our families.
That's Premier Doug Ford.
Doug Ford says.
When Ottawa descended into chaos, he stood up for us.
Now, taking Trump on tonight, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the next four years won't be easy.
There's big decisions ahead, and there's only one leader to protect Ontario.
That's Premier Doug Ford.
Who's going to fight for you?
You know, Ford has those Canada is not for sale hats.
That's his answer to the Make America Great Again hat.
I don't think it's, I don't think it's clicking.
I think that's a response to Trump's social media jokes about the 51st state thing.
I think that's a joke.
It's not lawfully, legally going to happen.
I don't think that's the real threat.
I don't think Ford really knows what to do.
But why hasn't he tried to figure it out?
Why hasn't Doug Ford gone down to Mar-a-Lago or to the White House to try to fix the problem, or at least to try to learn more about it?
Isn't that actually how you fight with a friend or a neighbor?
Especially if your neighbor is a little more like Tony Soprano than Ned Flanders.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is the only one actually fighting, and by fighting, I mean the only one who's trying to go and stop the fight, the one who wants a deal.
The rest of the premiers would rather torch the country to get a few more years squeezed out of an early election.
The federal liberals want that the most.
You know, if Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau and BC's David Eby get their way, there will be a trade war.
And then you might actually see a movement to break up Canada by Canadians.
As I showed you the other week, a lot of young men lack an emotional connection to Canada.
And I blame our schools and I blame Justin Trudeau.
They lack a deep connection to Canada because they've been told to hate Canada.
They've been told we're genociders.
They've been told to hate Johnny McDonald.
And a lot of those same young men love the prosperity of the United States and they sort of like Trump's masculine decision-making style too.
Right now, I grant you, the polls look pretty good for Ford.
That's why he's going early.
He wants to lock it in.
Here's our favorite pollster, David Coletto.
You can see Doug Ford, when you remove the undecided, is at 53%.
That's huge.
And two unknown first-time leaders, Bonnie Crombie for the Liberals and Merit Styles for the NDP, they're at 22% and 17%.
They're going to get crushed like a bowl of eggs if these poll numbers hold up.
Doug Ford wants to lock in that poll numbers now.
And he just might.
I mean, God knows the other two options are atrocious.
But I don't know a single conservative who is enthusiastic about Ford.
He's really only one millimeter to the right of the liberals, and he can't even say that about anything cultural.
He's fully woke.
He abides the pro-Hamas, hate marches on the street.
He's fine with transgenderism in schools and sports.
Yeah, two cheers for Doug Ford and his opportunistic election.
Stay with us for more.
Hey there, Rebel News listeners.
Do you have a business or cause that you want to promote to the tens of thousands of regular Rebel News viewers?
Choosing Foreign Nationals00:04:41
Now's your chance.
Whether it's ads on podcasts like this one, videos, our website, or even our digital billboard truck, Rebel News has your advertising needs covered.
It's easy to get started.
Just head over to rebelnews.com/slash advertise.
That's rebelnews.com slash advertise.
Fill out our form and find out how Rebel News can help spread your message today.
Don't wait.
Advertise with Rebel News.
reach freedom-loving patriots, and support our independent journalism.
Oh, there's a theme with this liberal government.
They appoint people to investigate themselves, don't they?
They do that a lot.
For example, after the Emergencies Act, the martial law, Justin Trudeau appointed his own handpicked judge and gave that judge a mandate drafted by the prime minister's office to see if everything was okay.
That was called the Public Order Emergency Commission.
And sure enough, that judge said, boss, I got your back.
Everything was okay.
Well, I don't know if you remember, but a few months later, when the independent federal court of Canada reviewed the legality of the Emergencies Act, it said it was illegal and unconstitutional.
And it was a scorching ruling.
That's the difference between choosing your own investigator.
Well, Justin Trudeau likes to do that a lot.
And when credible allegations from our security services said there were at least 11 different riding associations in Canada where there was massive foreign interference, including the astonishing case of Han Dong, a Liberal MP who reportedly had busloads of foreign Chinese nationals.
These were not Canadians.
They were foreigners bust into a Liberal nomination because that's the Liberal Party's rule.
Apparently, choosing foreign nationals, choosing who the candidate there was.
And this happened in 11 districts while Justin Trudeau hand-picked the judge again, Justice Marie Hoag.
And wouldn't you know it, everything's okay.
In fact, the real problem, she said, is too much freedom on the internet.
Joining us now to talk about it is someone who was following the entire Hoag Commission and who has written about the report.
Our friend and chief reporter, Sheila Gunried.
Sheila, great to see you again.
Ezra, thanks for having me back on the show.
There's absolutely nothing in this report that should shock anybody.
Justice Hoag laid it out at the beginning of the second half of the Foreign Interference Commission.
She said that, regardless of CESIS's findings, that 11 parliamentarians had wittingly or unwittingly participated or benefited from foreign interference, she would not be naming them because of the stigma attached.
So that sort of set it up.
We certainly wouldn't want any stigma for being a foreign spy.
I mean, where's your compassion for the foreign spies?
Right.
Or where's your compassion for the Canadian public who are going to go into the next election, potentially voting for people who have wittingly, I would suggest they all did, with the exception of Mary Ying, who I think doesn't do much wittingly.
I think all of them knew exactly what they were doing, but they were happy to take the help because it meant that they would win.
And the senators, they're doing it for freebies.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly right.
Well, Marie Hoag said, Justice Marie Hoag says that there was minimal impact on elections.
I don't know how that's possible when foreign nationals bust in, chose in the case of Han Dong, according to CESIS reports, they chose him.
And he, you know, there's certain districts that are a sure bet, or at least were sure bet for the Conservatives, sure bet for the Liberals.
Most of this help went to the Liberals.
Handong is a member of parliament who was selected by the CCP, by the Chinese Communist Party.
That was ratified by voters in his district because they vote liberal no matter what.
But he was chosen by China, wasn't he?
That's exactly what happened.
And now, in Hoague's report, she actually says that foreign interference did happen in nominations and it did happen and it could have flipped certain writings.
She says that did happen.
So for her to say that our democracy is not at risk of foreign interference, she finds that it did affect and disenfranchise Canadians.
Foreign Interference Threat00:10:33
But her solution to this is a revamped version of Justin Trudeau's censorship bill, C63, to combat disinformation instead of tightening up rules around foreign interference.
Government has the primary responsibility for ensuring national security and protecting our democratic institutions.
But what I have read and heard convinces me that society as a whole must contribute to defending these institutions if we want to ensure their survival.
Foreign actors are no longer content to use traditional means to interfere.
They are also using sophisticated technological means and increasingly sowing disinformation in traditional media, but above all, on social media.
Distinguishing what is true from what is false is becoming increasingly difficult.
And the consequences are, in my view, extraordinarily harmful.
The impact of traditional methods should not be underestimated.
But the greatest threat, the one that I believe threatens the very existence of our democracy, is disinformation.
This threat is all the more nefarious because the means available to counter it are limited and very difficult to implement.
Nevertheless, we must not give up, but rather attack it forcefully altogether.
This cannot be the sole purview of government.
It will not work.
You know, I'm just thinking of the cover-ups here.
If I recall, the first guy that Justin Trudeau put on this scandal was Morris Rosenberg, who was the head of the Trudeau Foundation, if I'm not mistaken.
And I think he was there when they personally accepted a quarter million dollar check from the Chinese Communist Party.
That didn't pass Muster.
So he appointed, guess who?
His family friend, David Johnston, who's sent his daughters to school in Communist China, who's traveled to Communist China countless times, met with the president there.
So putting David Johnston on the Chinese interference file is the fox in the hen house.
This Justice Marie Hog is the third try, but I think it's like that public order commission.
The terms and the mandate, it was a stitch-up from the beginning.
This was an inside job.
I'm not saying that the judge herself is a foreign spy.
I'm saying that her refusal to name names and her cover-up, it feels exactly like the hand-picked judge that was in the case of the martial law.
Yeah, and the only real recommendation she makes is censorship of Canadians.
You know, there's a real thing that she could have recommended that would nip in the bud a lot of this stuff, and that is kicking WeChat out of the country.
But because that is where the majority of the foreign interference is organized and spread, particularly against Canadian conservative candidates like Kenny Chu and Michael Chong.
That would alleviate a lot of this problem coming from communist China.
But instead, the best the liberals can do is censor regular Canadians who are disaffected by the government online and kicking TikTok's office out of Canada.
Yeah.
You know, WeChat, for those who don't know, it's sort of an everything app controlled by communist China.
It's a Chinese app, but an enormous number of Chinese Canadians use it.
It's a news app.
It's a payment app.
It's like Twitter and Amazon and Facebook all combined.
And it is a government instrument.
It is an instrument of propaganda.
I'm not saying there's nothing useful or fun about it.
It is useful and fun, which is why so many Chinese Canadians use it.
And it's in the Chinese language.
But it is controlled by the People's Republic of China.
And it is pervasive in this country.
And when it goes on the attack, subtly and overtly, it moves thousands of votes.
But Trudeau doesn't mind because the 11 tampered writings were all in his favor that we know of.
Yeah.
I mean, this is where they organized against Kenny Chu and spread disinformation about him that he was somehow anti-Chinese.
I think you can tell by his last name that he's ethnically Chinese.
Justice Hoag also complained in her report that the findings of CESIS sometimes lacked transparency, that they weren't telling the targets of foreign interference that they were indeed the targets of foreign interference.
It is true, but she's also lacking transparency when she won't even tell us who the beneficiaries of the foreign interference were.
You know, this is so tidally covered up.
And of course, it's happening when everyone is distracted by the liberal shenanigans, by the Trump tariffs.
I mean, this is coming out.
You know, I remember on 9-11, I'm old enough to remember that on 9-11, there was this famous British bureaucrat who sent an email when the towers were falling.
She said, hey, guys, this is a good time to put out any bad news.
I don't know if you remember that anecdote from more than 20 years ago, as in, let's take out the dirty laundry while everyone's looking somewhere else.
But really, if you look at both Christia Freeland and Mark Carney, the two leading candidates to take over from Justin Trudeau, they are deeply enmeshed in foreign regimes.
Mark Carney, extra deeply, they were both World Economic Forum people, and Mark Carney is heavy into China.
It's actually incredible to me that the next prime minister is going to be selected in a similar system that selected Handong.
14-year-olds can vote.
They don't even have to be citizens.
It used to be anyone in the country.
Now they're saying permanent residence.
They're still not citizens.
You have 14-year-old children who are not citizens who are going to select, not elect, the next prime minister of this country while the rest of us just have to take it.
Yeah, we just went through this big year-long process to get to the bottom of foreign interference.
I mean, we had Michael Chong being targeted directly out of the Chinese consulate, and nothing, nothing tangible is going to change before Canadians go to the polls.
I think at the latest in October, we could have exactly the same problems going forward.
And Ontario is a hotbed of this stuff.
The majority of the problems actually came out of Ontario and the lower mainland of BC.
You guys are going to election right away without any changes happening whatsoever to stop foreign interference.
Yeah.
You know, we've been talking about China and the Chinese Communist Party.
We know from global news and other sources that there are hundreds of Iran agents.
And we see the evidence of that on the streets.
Most of these pro-Hamas rallies, they're not actually Palestinians.
They're Iranian agents.
They're funded, directed, and this has been going on for years, especially in Toronto.
They have this yearly Al-Quds Day anti-Semitic fest on Queen's Park.
It's Iran.
And we don't know who the pro-Hamas bloc is voting for.
I think they're for Kearney because some of them protested against Christia Freeland.
Like the Chinese Communist Party, they're keeping sort of a low profile here.
I want to know who Mohamed Faki is backing.
He's the pro-Hamas extremist who was given an order of Canada.
He used to be Trudeau's pal.
If he's backing Mark Carney, that could put Kearney over the top.
I think Carney's going to be the winner.
He's got the deeper China ties, and he seems to be casting his lot in with the Hamas side of things.
I think Carney's going to win with a slam dunk, not because he's better known or more popular or better than Christie Freeland.
I'm not here defending her.
I'm just saying he's got this team of operators on his side and Freeland doesn't.
Well, and there's the whole sideshow with Arya Chandra.
I mean, he was engaged in that very open and kind of threatening argument taking place in the House of Commons.
It was like a war between India and Sikh separatists happening on Canadian soil.
And as we know, a lot of the friction between Sikh separatists and India, it's happening in Canada.
It's actually worse here in Canada than I think it is in India.
And I wonder what role foreign interference and pressure on the Liberals had to do with not allowing his nomination to go forward.
You know what?
A few minutes back, a member from Surrey Newton introduced a motion seeking unanimous consent, and I said no.
I believe on the way out of this chamber, the member threatened that I'll be effed up.
So another member also aggressively accosted me in the lobby.
I feel that as a member of parliament, I should be able to express my opinion, my views freely in the House, and I should not be felt threatened by any words or actions of my fellow members.
The craziest thing is the Liberals have said he is manifestly unfit to run for their leadership.
That's tough talk, but apparently he's good enough to be an MP in their party.
So, hey, local residents, your MP is manifestly unfit to serve, but he's good enough for you.
He's just not good enough for us.
That just is astonishing.
Sheila, thanks for the update.
You got it.
I think this fell down the memory hole.
I think they released it now, like that bureaucrat on 9-11, just to cover it up.
That's exactly what I think happened.
What an absolute waste of time.
It was a result in search of the process to make it happen.
Yeah, it was reverse engineered.
Sheila Ghanreed, our chief reporter, thanks very much for following this story.
You got it, Boston.
All right, stay with us.
More ahead.
Hey, welcome back.
Your letters to me.
RCMP Agenda Revealed00:02:15
Platinum Sniper said if the RCMP didn't have double standards, they wouldn't have any standards.
You're talking about how the police are going after someone saying deport them all, but haven't lifted a finger against the pro-Hamas hate marches.
Well, the RCMP, I hate to say it, have been highly politicized under Trudeau's reign from the appointment of Brenda Lucky on forward.
They have really been politicized to protect Trudeau, and he's done a number of things that are on the face of it quite illegal, including taking that free gift from the Aga Khan.
This is very early in his first term of the vacation on Billionaires Island.
Liam Loves Metal says their own policies have soured Canadians to immigration.
You're right.
And I see that Quebec is now talking about insisting on a provincial Quebec culture rather than multiculturalism.
You know, I would have appreciated hearing that 20 or 30 years ago.
I fear it's quite too late, especially if you see how far gone Montreal is.
Montreal and Toronto are just disasters.
Alpha skeptics say Alberta and Saskatchewan should get rid of the RCMP and create a provincial force that will enforce the law.
I agree with that.
You know, the RCMP have an anti-firearms agenda.
They're woke.
Remember, the RCMP started as the Northwest Mounted Police.
It actually started in the West.
I'd like to see that again.
If Quebec can have the Sirité de Quebec, and if Ontario can have the OPP, the Ontario Provincial Police, why can't the prairie provinces have the Northwest Mounted Police?
And you know what?
It would get Ottawa out of meddling around in the West.
Well, that's our show for today.
Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.
Thanks for tuning in to this podcast.
If you appreciate the news that Rebel brings you, consider being a part of what makes it possible.
You can do so by subscribing to our exclusive content at RebelNewsPlus.com.
That means get exclusive shows, documentary, behind the scenes, and more.