Ezra Levant argues Justin Trudeau provoked U.S. tariffs to justify Liberal Party relevance, warning retaliation could cost Canadians $1,900 per person and spike inflation to 3%. He critiques Trudeau’s focus on wealth redistribution—like expanding EI—over border or NATO solutions, calling it a ploy for higher taxes. Levant highlights $670B in canceled Canadian resource projects since 2015 and contrasts Trump’s $1.7T U.S. investments with Canada’s stagnation, urging deregulation and tax cuts instead of escalating trade wars. [Automatically generated summary]
And I think the response by every Canadian political leader, other than maybe Danielle Smith, is a disaster.
You know, the old saying, don't get mad, don't get even.
Get ahead.
That's one of my favorite sayings.
It's so hard to live up to, I'll admit.
And Canada did not do that today.
We'll see if we can out-bully America.
Not sure if it's possible.
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Tonight, what's the best way to respond to Trump's latest round of tariffs on Canada?
It's March 4th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
U.S. President Donald Trump has hit Canada with a series of tariffs.
It's the second or third time he's done so.
It's a bit hard to count since he immediately rescinded them last time.
There's a chance that can happen this time, too.
The response from Trudeau was predictable.
Now I want to speak directly to one specific American, Donald.
In the over eight years you and I have worked together, we've done big things.
We signed a historic deal that has created record jobs and growth in both of our countries.
We've done big things together on the world stage, as Canada and the U.S. have done together for decades, for generations.
And now, we should be working together to ensure even greater prosperity for North Americans in a very uncertain and challenging world.
Now, it's not in my habit to agree with the Wall Street Journal.
But Donald, they point out that even though you're a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do.
We two friends fighting is exactly what our opponents around the world want to see.
Trudeau's not gone yet.
In fact, it sounds like he might stick around a little bit longer.
As we know, the Liberal Party is going to be picking a new leader over the weekend.
But when is it going to be your last official day as Prime Minister?
That will be up to a conversation between the new leader and myself to figure out how long a transition is needed.
It should happen reasonably quickly, but there's a lot of things to do in a transition like this.
Christia Freeland has her response ads out too.
Donald Trump's nickname for me is the killer.
Because the last time he tried to come after Canada, I was in charge, and I won.
I negotiated an even better free trade deal for Canada than the one we had before.
I don't capitulate.
I don't back down.
I know what it's going to take to win against Trump.
A second time.
So join me.
I've never heard of Donald Trump calling her that.
He's called her other things, that's for sure, but I don't think he's called her that one.
Here's Doug Ford's response.
To support the federal government's efforts, Ontario will also launch its first round of retaliation.
Starting today, LCBO, the largest purchaser of alcohol in the world, will begin removing U.S. products from its store shelves.
And as the exclusive wholesaler, American brands will no longer be available in LCBO catalog, meaning other retailers, bars, and restaurants in the province will no longer be able to restock U.S. products.
Trump's 51st State Proposal00:09:20
This is an enormous hit to the American producers.
Every year, the LCBO sells nearly $1 billion worth of U.S. wine, beer, cider, seltzers, and spirits, including more than 3,600 products from 35 states.
As of today, every single one of these products is off the shelves.
He's canceling rural internet too because it's being supplied by Elon Musk's company.
As part of this government-wide procurement ban, we're going one step further.
We're ripping up Ontario's contract with Starlink.
It's done.
It's gone.
We won't award contracts to people who enable and encourage economic attacks on our province and our country.
I'm not sure if that's legal.
I bet Doug Ford will still have to pay for it even if he rips up the contract.
But if he's bravely going to commit people in rural Ontario to having no internet to even get back at Trump, I guess that's that.
By the way, I fully support people being asked to buy their own internet.
I mean, Starlink is so cheap.
I don't know why the government is getting involved in the first place.
Why was the government buying internet for people?
Here's Pierre Polyev, who has made the political calculation that he can't let the Liberals outdo him.
At 12.01 a.m., President Trump stabbed America's best friend in the back.
My message to the president is this.
Canada will fight back.
We will defend our people and our economy, and we will put Canada first.
There's no doubt that our economy will suffer, but so will yours, President Trump.
In fact, you're already paying the price with trillions of dollars erased in stock market value over the last month of these threats.
Already Americans are paying higher gas prices.
As at midnight, a new American gas tax kicked in on U.S. working class taxpayers and motorists.
Your workers will soon start losing jobs.
Jobs they had upgrading Canadian raw materials, which, by the way, you were getting at an incredible and ridiculous bargain.
And your businesses will be selling fewer products to your closest neighbor.
And that's only the beginning.
While Canadians are slow to anger and quick to forgive, once provoked, we fight back.
And we will fight back.
Of course, I'm against tariffs on Canada.
I wrote an op-ed to that effect in the Wall Street Journal a couple weeks ago.
I just wrote a book about it.
It's not in Canada's interest to be given import taxes for anything we sell to the states, but that's not going to convince the U.S. My book argues that it's not in America's interest to have these tariffs.
It's not the America first move.
Smacking around Justin Trudeau is great, but look, he's going to be gone in a few days.
Smacking around Mark Carney and Christia Freeland will be great also, but they're not Canada.
They're the worst of Canada, and they know it, and they're hiding from their own MPs and their own voters.
They know they're that hated.
Canada and the United States have had trade frictions before under both Republican and Democrat presidents, but I think it's different for a few reasons this time around.
I think it's hitting us a bit differently this time because it is coupled with Donald Trump yanking Trudeau's chain, calling him Governor Trudeau and talking about making Canada the 51st state.
That, I think, has changed tariffs from something about the economy to something more personal for a lot of Canadians.
I get it.
It's audacious, or even more than audacious, it's implying that Canadians should break their bonds of citizenship and national loyalty and join up with America.
Now, Trump always says it with loving adjectives.
I don't know if you noticed that.
You'd be a cherished state, stuff like that.
But it really is an astonishing proposition if you take it literally.
I suppose it's akin to asking someone who is already married to divorce their spouse and marry you instead.
It's more than just presumptuous, even if it's only a joke.
I mean, let's use that analogy for a bit.
If someone actually did come up to you and told you to divorce your spouse and marry them instead and actually started to make a case for it, what would you say?
By the way, here's Trump's case for it.
Canada's been very bad to us on trade, but now Canada is going to have to start paying up.
And Canada's been tough on the military because they don't have a very, they have a very low military cost.
They think we're going to protect them with our military, which is unfair.
So Canada is going to be a very interesting situation because we just don't need their product.
And yet they survive off the fact that we do 95% of what they do.
And Canada is just absolutely, I say it, and sometimes people smile and sometimes they say, great idea, but Canada, their taxes would come down greatly.
Their security would go up greatly.
Amazing things happen to Canada.
And really, Canada in this particular, why would we pay $200 billion a year in subsidies to Canada when they're not a state?
You do that for a state, but you don't do that for somebody else's country.
So I think Canada is going to be a very serious contender to be our 51st state.
Trump talks about a stronger economy, which is obviously true.
And he talks about a stronger military, which is obviously true.
And I think on at least one occasion, he has suggested swapping Canadian dollars for U.S. dollars at par, which would be like a 50% profit for Canadians.
Now, put that in terms of asking someone who's already married to marry them instead.
It's outrageous, isn't it?
Even if the proposer says, you'll move out of your small home into my large mansion, and I have a job that pays much better, and I'll give you more attention, and I'm better looking.
Now, some people would find that absolutely outrageous.
It's an indecent proposal, as the movie about that same theme was called.
But there might be some people who's saying, even if they say it in their minds, you know what?
I'm with a bit of a deadbeat.
We're always short of money and it's not going to get any better.
Maybe I'll take a leap.
As in, what if someone was already quietly unhappy in a marriage and had been contemplating a divorce anyways?
We call those people separatists in Canada.
So go back to the 51st state part of the analogy.
Are there Canadians who are feeling that Canada is a bit of a dead end, that there's no chance of prosperity, that there are a lot of problems that aren't likely to be fixed?
I showed you that poll the other week that particularly young men are the most receptive to Trump's proposal.
Young men who are obviously thinking about how hard it is to buy a house, start a family, get ahead.
Here's Trump saying, join us and you'll be rich and free and safe and respected and wanted and part of a country that's proud of itself.
Compare that to what Trudeau has to offer.
How does Trudeau treat those same people?
The polls show that young men from the West are the most receptive.
I mean, Trudeau has treated them so poorly, and so will Mark Carney.
I mean, just close your eyes for a moment and imagine what Alberta would be like if it were part of the United States, a country that actually develops oil and gas and builds pipelines.
Imagine how prosperous that place would be, as opposed to being treated as an enemy from the kind of guy who says words like people kind.
So that's why we came here today to ask you to also look into the policies that religious charitable organizations have in our legislation so that it can also be changed because maternal love is the love that's going to change the future of mankind.
So we'd like you to look.
We like to say people kind, not necessarily mankind, more inclusive.
There we go, exactly.
So some people in unhappy marriages might actually consider a marriage proposal, even if it were outrageous.
Just like 40% of young men in Western Canada prefer Trump's offer of patriotic prosperity to Trudeau's woke feminism and socialism and his failed state.
Let me talk about Pierre Pollia for a moment.
A couple of weeks ago, I was at his Ottawa rally, his Canada first speech there.
Big speech, good speech, big turnout.
They're making ads out of it.
Here's a clip.
We will be a self-reliant, sovereign country that stands on its two feet.
We will reward work, unleash entrepreneurs, harvest our resources, make our own goods, trade with each other, build homes for our youth, rebuild our borders and military, honor our history, and raise our flag.
What binds us together is the Canadian promise that anyone from anywhere can do anything.
That hard work gets you a great life in a beautiful house on a safe street, wrapped in the protective arms of a solid border, defended by brave soldiers under a proud flag.
To preserve that flag and its promise, we must work together, fight together, and win together.
Canadian Promise Under Threat00:15:41
That is what it means to put Canada first.
I thought it was a good response to Trump and a good message to Canada, but I think Trump derangement syndrome has turned into a pandemic.
It's absolutely nuts, at least in our ruling class in Canada, at least in Ontario and Quebec.
I think they hate Trump.
They don't like the 51st state indecent proposal, even though half of them vacation in Florida.
And they saw how Trump manhandled Vladimir Zelensky a few days ago, and they're mad about that too.
And they're mad that Trump isn't controllable in the same way most politicians are, that he's a disruptor, that he says the quiet part out loud about everything.
In this case, America is tired of lifting such a big load for the world from national defense to one-sided trade.
Trump made this social media post just today about the fact that there are basically no U.S. banks with a retail business in Canada.
Why? He asks.
There are a ton of Canadian banks in the U.S.
I see TD Bank and Scotiabank everywhere.
Why can't we have competition up here?
I mean, where we could choose a U.S. bank instead of our atrocious Canadian banks.
Why not U.S. cell phone companies?
I wish we had competition.
Do you really love Rogers and Bell and Shaw?
Now, those are retail commerce questions, but mainly, I think the U.S. is tired of paying to be the world's policeman, and people are outraged that he's asking for thank yous from all those who move.
Here was JD Vance the other day.
Mr. President, with respect, I think it's disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media.
Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems.
You should be thanking the president for trying to bring it into this country.
If you have been to Ukraine, did you say what problems we have?
I have been to come once.
I've actually watched and seen the stories, and I know what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour, Mr. President.
Do you disagree that you've had problems bringing people into your military?
We have problems.
And do you think that it's respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?
You know, if a guy gives you $300 billion or $100 billion or whatever it is, you can say thank you.
You can say thank you an extra time, even more than you think you should.
I'll just tell you right now: if anyone wants to give me $100 billion, or let's be more realistic, if you want to give me $100, I'll say thank you to you more times than I need to.
That's a deal.
So, what's the best way to fight back?
Well, fighting back against President Donald Trump and the world's most powerful economy probably won't work out well for Canada, especially given the personal vitriol that Mark Carney and Christia Freeland are directing at Trump.
I mean, he responds in kind to that, doesn't he?
He escalates.
There's an old saying that I try to follow in life, although it's sometimes pretty hard.
I don't know if you ever heard it.
Don't get mad, don't get even, get ahead.
Have you ever heard that?
Oh, it's hard to do.
I think Canada's liberals and others like Doug Ford, who's still in campaign mode for some reason, even though he won his election.
I think they're at the get-mad or maybe the get-even stage.
It feels good for a politician to rail against a foe, especially one as controversial as Donald Trump.
But is it actually getting Canada ahead?
I think Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has it right.
Don't insult anybody.
Just bite your lip.
Focus on the actual irritants, lack of seriousness on border controls for drugs and illegals.
Acknowledge the obvious that we are short on our NATO spending obligations.
I mean, listen to Trudeau here.
Listen to the tense he uses, sort of future-past tense.
What is this?
I have tripled spending in the past for the future.
What is he even saying here?
We will use every tool at our disposal so Canadian workers and businesses can weather this storm.
From expanding EI benefits and making them more flexible to providing direct supports to businesses, we will be there as needed to help.
But Canada, make no mistake, no matter how long this lasts, no matter what the cost, the federal government and other orders of government will be there for you.
We will defend Canadian jobs.
We will take measures to prevent predatory behavior that threatens Canadian companies because of the impacts of this trade war, leaving them open to takeovers.
We will relentlessly fight to protect our economy.
We will stand up for Canadians every single second of every single day because this country is worth fighting for.
Yeah, you know, you don't have to grovel before Trump.
You have to be respectful, not because of Trump, but because of America.
If you want something from America, that is.
But if you don't, then don't.
But we do, don't we?
We want their free army, don't we?
We want access to their American markets for our cars, don't we?
Ironically, oil is the largest export to the U.S., and they need that more than we need them.
But we undid our pipelines to the ocean that could have sold our oil to other customers.
Trudeau did that, didn't he, come to think of it?
But you don't have to grovel, but you have to deal like a grown-up.
If you want to protect your dairy cartel, your banking cartel, your cell phone cartel, if you want to put taxes on U.S. digital streaming services, fill your boots, but expect countervailing measures from Donald Trump.
But like I've said all along, there is a moral hazard here.
The Liberals will lose the trade war, but they think they can win the election battle over it.
I saw an estimate today of up to 1 million job losses out of this trade war.
I think that's high.
But still, imagine a party that is so desperate to hang on to power that it would incur that damage, or even 100,000 jobs lost, or even 10,000 jobs lost, rather than just fixing a border and addressing some specific irritants, just so the Liberals can find a way to rule over us for a few years longer.
I don't think Donald Trump realizes the dynamic up here, especially with that 51st state thing.
He made a social media post the other day about Wayne Gretzky not wanting a 51st state or something.
I think Wayne Gretzky told Trump that that whole 51st state thing is emotionally roiling Canadians and that he should cool it.
Well, Trump doesn't really care.
He's got a lot of things on his plate.
He doesn't really care for this reason.
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.
So the nine-year Prime Minister of Canada, son of a prime minister of Canada, is asked what makes a Canadian Canadian.
And all he says is, we're not like you.
We're not you.
We're not American.
The implication being we're better than you.
Don't Canadians really think that?
I mean, look at the motto of that company, Chapters Indigo, the world needs more Canada.
Or the conceit, best healthcare system in the world.
Or this one, we're nicer than Americans.
We're more generous.
Are you sure about that?
You sure?
You sure we're not just more smug?
Anti-Americanism is in our bloodstream.
Remember Rick Mercer?
He had a whole series about it, talking to Americans.
Boy, were they dumb.
As if Canadians could find Ukraine on a map.
Just read it to yourself and then, if you want to.
To the Right Honorable Paul Martin Jr., Prime Minister in Waiting.
Given that 2001 has been declared the year of the senior citizen, we demand that the government of Canada discourage the Canadian tradition of placing senior citizens on northern ice flows and leaving them to perish.
I'll sign that.
So what are you studying against?
History.
Right, there you go.
I definitely believe that senior citizens shouldn't be placed on ice flows.
And you're a profit?
Yeah.
How many years?
Nine.
You like it?
Yeah, it's good.
Good school.
Would you be interested in visiting Canada's national igloo?
Absolutely.
How many times has the Canadian intelligentsia mocked Trump, called him a rapist, which is what the Globe and Mail calls him every day?
Maybe Trudeau is right.
Maybe his core identity is just not being American.
And this trade war is his way to prove it and possibly his way to hold on to power a bit longer.
I think Trudeau needs to exit this stage of public life already.
I think he needs to go and we need an election immediately.
I think it's outrageous that Parliament has been dissolved this past month while the Liberals go through their internal party practices, their election process.
I think any Canadian leader who thinks the way to negotiate with Trump is to threaten him back, I think that's a fool.
They're getting mad.
They're not getting even.
You know, Doug Ford, I don't know if that's actually going to solve the problem.
You're not going to get even with a $20 trillion economy.
That's the U.S. economy.
Sorry, an orange juice and bourbon boycott is not going to bring America to its knees.
They're getting mad and getting even, but they're not getting ahead.
Actually, they are getting ahead themselves, for themselves.
And we'll continue to be important to diversify our economies, but we can't replace an economy that is responsible for 80% of our trade overnight, and it's going to hurt.
My messages to Canadians is that we have a higher pain threshold than our partners to the south of us.
We can continue to fight.
We will have to bring the fight, and it will hurt Americans as well.
Not to mention, and it's important to reiterate that 35 of those states, their primary trading partner is Canada, so it will hurt them.
And we hope that logic will prevail.
Mark Miller is right for his own life.
I mean, he can endure pain because he's a member of parliament.
He's a cabinet minister who makes six figures.
He's getting an automatic pay raise on April 1st.
You know, the MPs have rigged it that way.
Every April 1st, they get a pay raise.
So yeah, Mark Miller is getting ahead.
You betcha.
And his old boss might stick around and his new boss might win.
They are getting ahead.
It's just the rest of Canadians who have to lose.
Those 1 million job losses, or even if it's 100,000, there won't be any MPs amongst them, will there be?
The answer here is to reduce the temperature, resist the urge to insult the most powerful country in the world and make the case to their president in his language.
America first.
And their best friends, the Canadians.
It's like Batman and Robin.
We're not as big or as tough as Batman.
And if you punch Batman, if Robin punches Batman in the nose, it's not going to work out well.
But if Robin can be respectful and self-confident and helpful and avoid inflaming things, Robin will do just fine.
You know, Vladimir Zelensky's meltdown in the Oval Office, that was a cautionary tale for what happens when you go in chippy and sullen.
There was a big deal waiting for him, but that deal's gone now, I'm afraid.
I'm worried about Trump's tariffs.
Sure, I am.
But I'm actually much more worried that the insane escalatory personal reactions by Canadian politicians are going to make it far worse.
I mean, just think about this for a moment.
Today, I'm writing to every senator, every congressman and woman, and the governors from New York State, Michigan, and Minnesota, telling them that these tariffs persist.
If the Trump administration falls through on any more tariffs, we will immediately apply a 25% surcharge on the electricity we export.
We will not hesitate to shut off their power as well.
I'm encouraging my fellow premiers to follow suit.
Is that really going to scare Trump or would it actually result in a reaction from the United States to the same effect to Canada?
Say, cutting off oil pipelines from America to eastern Canada.
You know that Ontario and Quebec get their oil largely through pipelines that go through the states.
Those Ontario and Quebec politicians probably don't know that.
They're so smart they prefer oil piped in from the U.S. as opposed to energy east pipelines that they killed.
Ontario and Quebec helped kill the Energy East pipeline, so they get their oil from America.
Montreal, their oil comes up from a pipeline in Maine, in the state of Maine.
Do you doubt for a second that the United States would respond in a devastating manner if Ford actually did turn off the electricity?
Boy, they're foolish.
Yeah, we're not sending our best, are we?
I hope we get out of this okay.
Well, tariffs are a kind of tax.
Interestingly, it's a tax paid for on the importing country's side of things.
So, for example, if there's a tax on oil shipped from the oil sands in Canada to a refinery in the U.S., it's the American side that pays the tax.
That refinery pays it.
How, and this is the heart of my book, Deal of the Century, The America First Plan for Canada's Oil Sands.
How does that help your U.S. refineries if you're making them pay an import tax?
It's not like they can replace that 4 million barrels a day with American sources, at least not for years to come.
And countervailing tariffs, that is, okay, you put tariffs on us, we're going to put tariffs on you, on orange juice, on bourbon.
Those are a couple of the examples I've heard.
Well, okay, so who pays that tax?
That's Canadians who pay it.
And you can see that prices are going to go up on both sides of the border.
To support the federal government's efforts, Ontario will also launch its first round of retaliation.
Starting today, LCBO, the largest purchaser of alcohol in the world, will begin removing U.S. products from its store shelves.
And as the exclusive wholesaler, American brands will no longer be available in LCBO catalog, meaning other retailers, bars, and restaurants in the province will no longer be able to restock U.S. products.
This is an enormous hit to the American producers.
And it's sort of, oh, yeah, you're hurting your citizens.
I'm going to hurt more, even my citizens, even more.
That's a strictly Milton Friedman-esque free market libertarian analysis.
Let's go to a man who thinks about taxes all the time.
His name is Franco Terrazano, and he is the boss of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Franco, good to see you.
Did I properly explain what a tariff is?
It's just a tax paid for by an importer and therefore the customers of that importer, right?
Yeah, that's exactly right.
A tariff is just another form of tax that your own citizen pays, right?
So when President Donald Trump imposes tariffs on Canadian goods brought into the U.S., well, that's largely just American businesses and American consumers who pay that tariff, who pay that tax.
So conversely, when our federal government in Ottawa announces retaliatory tariffs, well, who feels the pain of that?
Tariffs and Their Impact00:09:14
It is largely a tax on Canadian citizens, a tax paid on Canadian businesses, and therefore a tax paid by Canadian consumers.
Now, Ezra, you know, I understand the emotion that a lot of people are having right now, right?
When someone throws a punch at you, what do you want to do?
You don't want to back down.
You want to swing back.
But unfortunately, what a retaliatory tariff from the federal government in Ottawa will mean is not a swing that lands on Americans.
It's a swing that will land on Canadians, right?
This will be another tax that does, in fact, make life more expensive here in Canada.
That does hurt Canada's economy.
And look, I don't think it's going to work in forcing the U.S.'s hand to back down.
The U.S. economy is obviously 10 times bigger than our own.
And I don't think the Florida orange juice growers are going to bring the U.S. economy to its knees.
You know, I mentioned Milton Friedman earlier.
He was a Nobel Prize-winning economist who was really a champion of the free market.
He said that the right approach to tariffs and other trade barriers, and this is just a pure economic economist's point of view.
Are other cultural and nationalistic and political reasons to do things differently?
He preached what he called the universal declaration of free trade.
He said that's sort of how Hong Kong did it in the 20th century.
They said the whole world is free to sell things to us.
We won't have any tariffs.
If you want to tariff us, that's your funeral, but we are going to be a free trade city.
That's basically how he described Hong Kong.
And Hong Kong, of course, was a great success story in the 20th century and to this day.
As in it's unfair that someone's putting tariffs on your exports to them.
It feels pointed.
And Donald Trump is using his taunting, which he's good at.
I mean, he's good at giving people nicknames.
He's good at, you know, he does that even to some of his own team, like he used to call Marco Ribio Little Marco.
So that's how Trump rolls.
It's that Manhattan brawler style.
So there's a real bunch of emotions in Canada right now.
But just from a strictly economic point of view, the pure libertarian approach is don't harm our citizens to get back at Trump for harming his.
Now, I know that's hard to not punch back when you feel punched, but that's just the economist point of view.
But it actually would go to inflation, wouldn't it?
Talk a little bit about what would happen if we put tariffs on U.S. imports.
Well, Ezra, number one, you don't win a fight by punching yourself in the face, right?
Like, I hate that I have to say that.
You want to fight by getting stronger, right?
So think about it this way: an American tariff is sort of like a sales tax in the sense that it's a tax on Americans that increases prices on American consumers.
Well, if the U.S. government raises sales taxes, the Canadian government's response shouldn't be to hike up our own sales tax.
No, like what we should be doing here in Canada is making Canada strong, making Canada competitive.
And that means slashing taxes, slashing government waste, slashing government regulations, and actually building pipelines here in Canada.
Now, I'm glad you brought up how tariffs will impact Canadians.
Like, there is no refuting the simple fact that when President Donald Trump imposes tariffs, that will hurt Canada.
There is no refuting that.
But you know what's the one thing that will make that worse?
If the federal government imposes tariffs on Canadian citizens, right?
So look, a 25% across-the-board tariff from the U.S. government, well, that would cost each Canadian about $1,300, okay?
But if Canada were to retaliate, that would increase that cost to about $1,900 per Canadian.
So you can see that Trump's tariffs will hurt Canada, but what would make that worse for Canadians right now who are struggling is retaliatory tariffs.
Let me bring up some other data here from the Peterson Institute, okay?
So no retaliation from Canada.
You're looking at inflation of about 1.7%.
If Canada retaliates, the inflation jumps up to about 3%.
So like make no mistake about it.
I understand the emotion of fighting back.
However, I don't think the right solution is for our federal government to hammer Canadians with another tax, which is exactly what retaliatory tariffs are.
What I think will work is if we finally do what we should have been doing in Canada for so long, ending the carbon tax, saying no to capital gains tax hikes, drastically reducing income taxes and drastically reducing the size and cost of the state here at home.
You know, here's one more thing I'm worried about.
I don't know if you remember, but the first responses we heard from Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau and Christia Freeland to these threats of tariffs.
Remember, Trump made them in November.
He said, I want that border fixed up by the time my inauguration comes around or else there'll be hell to pay.
So he sort of gave a two-month heads up.
And so those first reactions, Doug Ford, but especially the federal liberals, remember what they said?
They said they really wanted the trade war, in my view, because that lets them wrap themselves in the flag and be heroes.
Instead of fixing the border, they focused on the fight.
They said, we're going to do what we did during COVID-19.
We're going to have massive transfers of wealth from borrowing and taxing to give it to those industries that are affected.
Like I can imagine these tariffs could be devastating to the auto industry if they remain.
So what we heard from Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau and Christia Freeland is tens of billions of dollars paid to, well, I don't know, anyone, everyone, the industries in question.
I'm worried that if Trudeau or Mark Carney bring in countervailing tariffs or if Pierre Polyev does it, that it'll just be a tax windfall for the Canadian government and it'll be an excuse for them to tax and spend.
That's all a tariff is.
Just use the word import tax.
So if Trudeau or Carney or Freeland or even Pierre Polyev bring in an import tax, well, politicians love doing that.
And there's nothing they love more than an emergency.
I'm sorry, I don't really have to.
I don't want to do this, but it's a climate emergency.
I got to give you a carbon tax.
I'm sorry, I don't really want to do this, but it's a COVID emergency.
So I got to have a tax increase and borrow.
I'm sorry, there's a trade emergency.
You know, these emergencies keep on happening.
What can I do?
I got to tax you more because I love spending.
There's always an emergency when taxes are involved.
We will use every tool at our disposal so Canadian workers and businesses can weather this storm.
From expanding EI benefits and making them more flexible to providing direct supports to businesses, we will be there as needed to help.
But Canada, make no mistake, no matter how long this lasts, no matter what the cost, the federal government and other orders of government will be there for you.
We will defend Canadian jobs.
Well, look, we saw the government use the cloud of COVID to go on a debt-field spending spree, right?
Massive money printing.
And what happened there?
Well, I mean, obviously, so many businesses struggled, so many Canadian workers struggled, but we also saw the printing press on overdrive, which led to the 40-year high inflation in 2022, right?
During the pandemic years.
So, look, I'm very concerned that politicians always have the incentive to use an emergency or a crisis as a shield to expand the size and the cost of government.
You know what I mean?
Like, think about who benefits from a tariff war, if we can call it that, right?
Well, who benefits?
The power centers, right?
Politicians get to show Canadians that they're fighting back, that they're doing something.
Bureaucrats, right?
Now they have expanded roles, hire more bureaucrats, spend a bunch of other people's money.
Well, who loses in a tariff war where the U.S. imposes tariffs and then Canada retaliates?
Who loses?
The ordinary American and Canadian citizens.
That's who loses from this.
Yeah.
You know, I just wish Parliament were in session right now so we could learn more about what diplomacy, if any, was being used here.
I mean, Justin Trudeau has been going over to Europe for photo ops and flying around and doing all sorts of stuff.
I don't know when the last time he's talked to Donald Trump is.
And we just don't know any of those questions because we don't have question period.
We don't have emergency debates.
How we can make massive decisions like what the retaliation is without the House of Commons even discussing it is shocking to me.
I don't know.
I'm just, I do not feel like Canada is staffed up.
I don't believe we're on solid ground.
I don't think this government has a mandate.
I think parliament being dissolved is insane.
And I think that there's a huge moral hazard, if you know what I mean, because it's actually in the political interest of the Liberal Party to have a big old fight with Donald Trump that is more politically valuable to them to just solve the problem.
And I think we're going to be hit hard.
Foreign Investors Pouring In00:06:05
But as you said before, on April 1st, we're going to hit ourselves even harder with our own tariff of sorts.
I'm talking about the carbon tax pricing group.
One last thing, Franco.
I saw Mark Miller the other day saying Canadians can withstand a lot of pain.
Here's a quick clip of that.
Is that we have a higher pain threshold than our partners to the south of us.
We can continue to fight.
We will have to bring the fight and it will hurt Americans as well.
Not to mention, and it's important to reiterate that 35 of those states, their primary trading partners Canada.
So it will hurt them.
And we hope that logic will prevail.
Well, Mark Miller can stand a lot of pain because he every year has given himself an automatic pay raise on April Fool's Day.
It's so fitting.
So he'll do fine.
He's a cabinet minister.
He makes serious six-figure income.
He will be able to do this without feeling the pain, but the pain will come from ordinary Canadians.
Last word to you, Franco.
Oh, yeah.
It's a lot easier to say something like that when you take a $300,000 taxpayer-funded salary and you pad your pockets with more pay every single year, courtesy of the taxpayer.
And look, I'm glad you brought up the carbon tax because what happens April 1, still scheduled on the books, a 19% increase to the carbon tax.
Look, you want to really fight back?
Well, we got to make Canada's economy stronger than ever.
And the first way to do that is to just stop blowing holes in our own economy with massive taxes and massive red tape.
The carbon tax folks alone last year cost our economy $12 billion.
Okay.
And folks, I know we're wrapping up here.
I just want to bring in Mark Carney again because he wants to hammer businesses with a hidden carbon tax.
Well, we already know that Trump is trying to lure businesses to the United States.
He's the president.
He wants to do that.
Well, we shouldn't be helping Trump take our businesses.
And guess what?
A hidden carbon tax on business will encourage greater production in the United States and less production here in Canada.
You know, just give me one more second on that.
You know, almost every week, Donald Trump has a huge announcement.
He brings in some tycoon or some investor or a bank president who announces $100 billion, $200 billion, $500 billion private sector investment in the U.S. economy.
He has not announced, as far as I know, government grants for this sector is that sector.
Maybe I missed it.
But he's bringing in the head of SoftBank.
He's bringing in the Taiwan semiconductor people.
That was a huge announcement yesterday.
What was that, like $100 billion deal?
Apple, so far he has announced in the last, I guess, five weeks, $1.7 trillion with a T worth of private sector investment.
That would be the equivalent, divide by 10 for the Canadian proportion, right?
That would be like $170 billion worth of private sector investment in Canada in the last five weeks.
It's unthinkable.
I can't think of any company that's putting that kind of dough into Canada.
Trudeau's trying to give the simulation of it by giving government grants to railroads or to electric vehicle batteries.
So whatever else you say about Trump, I mean, and you can disagree with tariffs, you can disagree with his approach.
He's brought in $1.7 trillion worth of private sector investment in industrial investment.
Like this is not just services stuff.
This is AI, microchips, making Apple products.
We can't get that because no one has business confidence.
Whatever you say about Trump, there is optimism and confidence.
And don't take it from me.
Take it from all these foreign investors pouring into an America.
Well, Ezra, let me just bring up one more stat, okay?
Because since 2015, we've seen $670 billion in natural resources projects that have been suspended or canceled.
$670 billion.
Okay.
So what should Canada do?
Well, number one, folks, let's just remember the solution is not to give our government more power and more of your tax dollars.
Okay.
What we should do here in Canada is what we should always have been doing.
Cut the regulations, cut the massive cost and size of government, especially in Ottawa.
And let's actually get some real tax relief here, right?
Scrap the carbon tax, scrap the capital gains tax, cut income taxes, cut business taxes.
And in Canada, we also got to cut out this corporate welfare, right?
Trudeau putting taxpayers on the hook for about $30 billion in corporate welfare to multinational corporations to build battery factories.
That's not how we should be growing our economy, okay?
We don't need these government bureaucrats playing investment banker with our tax dollars.
We need tax cuts and red tape cuts.
There he is.
Franco Terrazano, the boss of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
He's looking out for the little guy, and God knows we need his help.
Keep up the fight, Franco.
These are dangerous days.
Hey, thanks, Ezra.
Thanks for having me on.
All right.
Always our pleasure.
Stay with us.
Your letters to me next.
Your letters to me, T-Mac says.
She means central bank digital currency and social credit score digital ID.
That.
That is absolutely part of the rules-based international order.
But in my mind, and there was a little factoid I didn't include.
There was a tweet she had condemning Israel for its war in Gaza for violating the rules-based international order.
Like I say, it's a way for NGOs and weak, ineffectual leftists to try and stop strong countries from doing what they want to do.
Not Russia or China, but just America, or in this case, Israel.
Canada's Complicit Pipeline00:00:42
Judith Taylor says, well, Canada is buying Russian oil, but then sending money to Ukraine.
How crazy is that?
Yeah, isn't that crazy?
Eastern Canada still imports oil from Russia.
And I'll remind you that Justin Trudeau personally had a waiver on the sanctions.
There were pipeline turbines from one of Russia's energy pipelines that were, believe it or not, shipped to Montreal to be serviced in Montreal by SNC Lavalan, no less, and then shipped back.
Canada helped Russian oil and gas by refurbishing their pipeline.