Ezra Levant critiques Mark Carney’s 210-day tenure as Canada’s PM, where he failed to secure a U.S. trade deal despite Trump’s $17T+ investment claims and threats to relocate auto manufacturing from Ontario/Quebec. Carney praised cooperation but avoided addressing tariffs on dairy (favoring Quebec) or Trump’s attacks on windmills, transgender policies, and open borders, while Lutnick dismissed auto talks. Keystone XL pipeline revival was raised but likely irrelevant to U.S. trade priorities, leaving Carney’s delegation—including Jolie and Anand—with minimal impact amid a 23% drop in Canadian travel to the U.S., signaling strained relations. [Automatically generated summary]
I finally went through the 33-minute press conference that Mark Carney and Donald Trump had together.
And there's some very interesting moments and some very bad news coming.
I have to say, I'm a little bit depressed for our friends in Ontario in the auto sector.
Trump and his Commerce Secretary Lutnick could not be clearer.
They want to move it to America.
I think they mean it.
Anyways, I'll take you through it.
This is one of those times where I really think having the video version of this podcast is helpful so you can see the body language and the facial expressions of Mark Carney and Donald Trump talking with each other.
To get the video version, just go to RebelNewsPlus.com and click subscribe.
It's eight bucks a month, which gives you great stuff, but it also keeps Rebel News strong because we take no money from the government and it shows.
Tonight, Mark Carney came back from Washington, D.C., but did he come back empty-handed?
It's October 9th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
Trump's Opening Comments00:03:37
So much going on in the world.
I've only today been able to go through the entire 33-minute scrum between Donald Trump, Mark Carney, and the press gallery in the Oval Office.
Now, a lot of the questions had to do with American issues, including the shutdown of government and the sort of brinksmanship between the Republicans and Democrats.
And that's interesting enough, but that's not really of interest to us.
For us, it's Mark Carney going to Washington for, I don't know, second, third time.
I don't know exactly how many.
And yet again, coming back without a trade deal at all.
Mark Carney has been prime minister for about 210 days.
And I'm not sure what he can point to in any sphere, not just with the United States, but anywhere around the world.
What has he done?
What I'd like to show you is some excerpts from the 33-minute conference because I think there's some interesting moments I'd like to share.
Let's start with Trump's opening comments.
He's a flatterer in his own way.
I think Donald Trump likes being flattered.
I mean, I suppose we all do.
But he's also a flatterer who sometimes is effusive in his praise, even for people that I'm not sure if he quite earned it.
Trump's opening comments, I don't think he's actually being paying that much attention to Canada.
And I don't say that to denigrate Canada.
I'm a Canadian.
But there's so many enormously important things that Trump has been working on, from the Hamas-Israel peace deal to the attempt to get peace between Russia and Ukraine to reviving the U.S. military to trying to renegotiate NATO.
I mean, I can just think of so many enormous things.
And I don't think that meeting with Mark Carney is in the top 20 of them.
Here, take a listen.
Well, thank you very much, everybody.
It's an honor to have the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, who I have made very popular.
He's an extremely popular Prime Minister, and I'm very honored to do it because I liked him right from the beginning.
I've liked him, and we've had a good relationship.
We have some natural conflict, but we will probably work that out.
But we've had a very strong relationship, and your hosting of the various countries that showed up were that was a beautiful job you did.
I appreciate it very much.
Trump said he made Mark Carney very popular.
I suppose there's a bit of truth to it.
That's a recognition of him essentially nuking Pierre Polyev and the Conservatives by shaking the tree about the 51st states, something that I think is very unlikely to happen.
But just by saying it made a sort of resurgent, sort of a dark patriotism.
I mean, I suppose saying never join the U.S. is a form of patriotism, but it's not a positive form of patriotism.
It's a reaction to a trumped-up threat from the U.S.
I think Donald Trump there was acknowledging that he is why Mark Carney is prime minister.
I think there's truth to it.
Now, Mark Carney jumps in.
He knows what he's doing.
He butters up Trump.
What a difference, though, between how Mark Carney talks in the Oval Office, where he's submissive, obedient, and full of lavish praise, compared to on the campaign trail.
I like to say that one measurement of character is if you act the same way in public as in private, and it's tough to do because we have different facets to our personalities.
But the way that Mark Carney absolutely despises and attacks Trump pretty much anywhere in Canada, especially when he's talking to the regime media, versus just absolute sucking up here is quite something.
So here, take a look at Mark Carney's response.
Diplomatic Trade-offs00:15:10
But in the meantime, we'll spend some time and we'll make some deals and we'll do some things that are good for both of our countries.
And Mark, it's an honor to have you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
And if I may, you kindly hosted me and some of my colleagues a few months ago.
And I said at the time you are a transformative president.
And since then, the transformation in the economy, unprecedented commitments of NATO partners to defense spending, peace from India, Pakistan through to Azerbaijan, Armenia, disabling Iran as a force of terror, and now, and I'm running out of time, but this is in many respects the most important.
When you're created of Canada, that wasn't where it was going.
No, but on this solemn day of commemoration of the October horrific attacks of October 7th, for the first time in decades, hundreds of years, thousands of years, this prospect of peace that you've made possible, Canada stands four square behind those efforts, and we'll do whatever we can to support that.
Thank you very much.
Well, the one thing that stood out to me was that Mark Carney is so eager to help with Gaza.
First of all, no, you're not.
What does Canada possibly have to offer?
I suppose you could throw more free money at it, but maybe that's going to stop now that Hamas is removed there.
I think Mark Carney liked funding Hamas a little bit less, more skeptical that he would fund a reconstruction.
But the main point is that Mark Carney was willing to give Hamas a diplomatic and political victory by recognizing them when they were in control of Gaza before they had disarmed, before they had a ceasefire, before they released the hostages, before they agreed in any form to democratic reforms.
Mark Carney gave them the win and strengthened them along with the UK, France, and Australia.
In very concrete terms, Mark Carney made it more difficult to get this deal done because he was giving strength to Hamas.
If you can believe it, Qatar and Turkey and Egypt were more helpful to Donald Trump than Canada.
And you'll notice that when Trump talks about the countries that helped him get the peace deal, he lists Qatar and Israel first.
He lists other Muslim countries.
He does not list Canada.
That's not an accident.
Here's a question by a Canadian reporter.
If things are so great, why is there no agreement, no trade agreement?
Why has Canada and the United States failed to reach an agreement up until now?
Well, it's a complicated agreement, more complicated maybe than any other agreement we have on trade, because, you know, we have natural conflict.
We also have mutual love.
You know, we have great love for each other.
I love this.
I love Canada and the people of Canada.
And Mark feels the same way about here.
The problem we have is that they want a car company and I want a car company, meaning the U.S. wants a car company and they want steel and we want steel.
So in other countries, they're very far away.
And there's no problem.
You can compete and you can do.
We don't like to compete because we sort of hurt each other when we compete.
And so we have a natural conflict.
It's a natural business conflict.
Nothing wrong with it.
And I think we've come a long way over the last few months, actually, in terms of that relationship.
So when it comes to trade, the United States was always giving everything.
They gave everything to Canada.
And they would let car companies leave here and go to Canada.
But that hurts the United States.
And other presidents didn't see that.
They weren't business oriented.
They might have been good politicians in some cases, not in all cases.
They were bad at both.
But it's a very natural conflict, and it's something that we're working on.
I think Trump is actually pretty honest here.
There may be mutual love, but there is a natural conflict from competitors.
I mean, if you're buying a car made in Canada, that's a car you're not buying from the United States.
Same thing with steel.
Trump couldn't be clearer.
There's no need to have a special Trump whisperer to decode things.
Although I just keep laughing when the Canadian embassy in Washington keeps hiring these super sophisticated, you know, Republican whisperers.
What does Trump really mean?
Well, he means he wants to move our auto industry down to the States.
Of course he does.
There's no electoral college votes for him in Ontario and Quebec, but there are in places like Michigan and Ohio.
Trump says the U.S. gave everything to Canada.
And of course, we don't like to hear that, but it is true that we have more access to the U.S. market than anyone else in the world.
And Trump is here to say you have to pay a toll for that.
Here's the next question about compromises.
Is there any compromise?
Take a look.
I've heard a lot of compromise this summer.
Are you willing today to offer some compromise to Canada, maybe on steel?
And then we know.
Well, we've made compromise, and we've made some compromise even on steel.
But, you know, we have the same basic authority and the same basic, this could be also a little bit of a conflict with other countries all over the world on steel because we want to make our own steel.
We don't want to bring steel in for the most part, but we will bring it in and we do bring it in.
We continue to bring it in from Canada, but there is a tariff to pay.
And I think that would be a normal thing to say.
But we've come a long way.
I think, Howard, we can truly say.
Do you want to make a comment on that?
Well, I think the opportunity we work together.
But as you said, there's conflict.
Why do we make cars in Canada?
You've called that out, and we've addressed that.
So there are places we should work together.
There are places where we have natural conflict.
It's a tough situation because we want to make our cars here.
At the same time, we want Canada to do well making cars.
So we're working on formulas, and I think we'll get there.
Very interesting answer from Trump.
We already have compromised.
And I think Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, who's in many ways, if you can believe it, more blunt than Trump, says, why do we make cars in Canada?
Well, there's historical reasons for that.
There's friendship reasons for that.
There's diplomatic reasons for that.
But in the Trump world, those reasons are no longer valid.
They're obsolete.
I think that's terrifying for Canada.
The auto industry isn't what it once was.
So many Canadian cars are imported.
And maybe we were foolish to allow Japanese and Korean imports in as easily as we did.
But the oil and gas industry is by far a larger exporter to the states.
But tens of billions of dollars worth of cars are sold into America every year and thousands of jobs in Ontario and Quebec.
I don't know.
Maybe, I don't know, just a wild guess here.
Maybe Doug Ford's rants and insults aren't working.
I don't know.
I could be wrong.
There's another question put by a reporter.
And I'm not sure if it's factually true, but I'll play it for you anyways.
The allegation that Canadians are not traveling to the U.S.
Now, I suppose that can be objectively measured, but the imputation is that that's because Canadians are mad at the United States, which that's the part I take issue with.
Are they mad or are they reacting to the fact that our economy is in recession on a per capita basis, that our dollar is extremely weak?
Is the slowdown of Canadians visiting the states because they're getting back at Trump?
Does anyone actually think that way when they say, let's go to Disneyland?
No, I don't like Trump.
Let's go to Florida this winter.
No, I don't like Trump.
Let's go across the border to do some shopping in Washington State or New York or Pennsylvania.
No, I don't like Trump.
I simply don't believe that normal Canadians do a political analysis before deciding where to go in the RV.
I think it's a financial analysis.
Canadians are refusing to go to the U.S.
The numbers are down like 23% in the first seven months of the year.
What do you say to Canadians that don't want to go to the U.S. now because of your 50-foot state talk because of the trade war, the tariffs, and fear?
Look, I understand that.
And Americans don't want to buy cars that are made in Canada.
I mean, we have the same conflict.
So there isn't, it's something that will get worked out.
There's still great love between the two countries.
But, you know, American people want product here.
They want to make it here.
Detroit was emptied out and moved to Canada, moved to Mexico, moved to other places, not just Canada.
And now they're all moving back.
You know, they're moving back.
We have, right now, it's just telling Mark, we have 17 trillion, but it's really much higher.
That was as of a couple of months ago.
We have over $17 trillion being invested now in the United States.
As an example, Biden, he was the worst president we've ever had, but they had less than $1 trillion in four years.
We have more than $17 trillion in eight months, eight months.
And I think that number is going to be $21, $22 trillion.
There's never been anything like that in the history of the world for any country, not even close.
You know, if you did $1 trillion in a year, that's pretty good.
We're going to do over 20.
And it's coming in with AI.
It's coming in with auto plants.
You know, we're building auto plants, a lot of auto plants in the U.S.
It's coming in for a lot of reasons.
It's coming in because of the fact, I think the November 5th election was a big factor, and I think the tariffs are a big factor.
And again, we want Canada to do great, but, you know, there's a point at which we also want the same business.
We're competing for the same business.
That's the problem.
That's why I keep mentioning one way to solve that problem is a very easy way.
But we're competing for the same business.
He wants to make cars.
We want to make cars.
And we're in competition.
And the advantage we have is we have this massive market.
So it's, you know, it's quite an advantage.
But the answer, of course, is that Americans says Trump don't want to buy cars made in Canada.
I find that a terrifying thing to hear.
But Doug Ford has no idea on what to do with it.
Trump says that $17 trillion has been invested in the United States by other countries.
And Mark Carney, in his own way, suggested that, well, Canada would invest a trillion dollars.
I'm not sure who he's speaking for.
He has no authority to say that.
But even if that's true, how is that in Canada's interest?
If you're promising to invest a trillion dollars in the United States, over which you have no control, you're just a prime minister.
You're not an investor anymore.
How is that a win for Canada?
Aren't you getting anything in return for that?
Trump says we're competing for the same business.
That's what he cares about.
Anyway, there's another question from the press corps.
I'm skipping the questions about Democrat-Republican squabbling.
There's another question from the Press Corps.
Why can't Canada do a deal?
It's a pretty good question to ask the author of The Art of the Deal.
You know, how come the UK and the European Union have succeeded to sign deals and bring the tariffs down, and Canada still hasn't been able to do the same?
Yeah, because they're not located right next to each other.
It makes it, in many cases, it's much better and easier.
Yeah, if I may, let's be clear about the relationship as it stands right now.
We are the second largest trading partner of the United States.
We do a lot of trade going across the border.
We're cooperating, first thing.
Secondly, we are the largest foreign investor in the United States.
Half a trillion dollars in the last five years alone, probably $8 trillion in the next five years if we get the agreement that we expect to get.
Thirdly, there are areas, as the president just said, where we, I wouldn't conflict, maybe not so much conflict.
We compete.
There are areas where we compete, and it's in those areas where we have to come to an agreement that works.
But there are more areas where we are stronger together, and that's what we're focused on.
And we're going to get the right deal, right deal for America, right deal, obviously, from my perspective for Canada.
That's a pretty pitiful answer from Mark Carney after 210 days to say, well, we don't need a deal.
We've got a great deal right now, even without it.
And it is true that Canada has really the most favored access to the American market you could imagine.
It is true.
But that was all done before Mark Carney returned from Europe to rule over us.
None of that is to his credit.
I don't know if you saw the images of cabinet ministers taking selfies from the private jet on down to meet with it.
It was very embarrassing to me to see the Canadian delegation.
I mean, what's Melanie Jolie doing down there?
What's Anand, the foreign minister, doing down there?
I mean, really the B team, the C team.
I think they just love flying on the private jets.
Here's another question, which I thought was interesting, or another reference, rather, to the golden dome.
And that's what Trump is calling the American version of the Iron Dome defense system.
Here, take a look.
So one thing where we are working very closely is the Golden Dome.
That's the protective mechanism, and you see how that works.
It's unbelievable.
Ronald Reagan wanted to have it.
And at that time, they didn't have the technology, even close to the technology.
But he was advanced.
And we'll be working together on a golden dome for the two countries.
And it's something that I think is going to be very important, especially when you look at the world, you look at what's happening.
We want to have that protection.
It's really amazing.
The technology is unbelievable.
Well, I'm glad to hear that Canada isn't foolish enough to say, no, we don't want American military protection, because if that were the case, we would have no protection whatsoever.
Whether it's the Chinese spy balloon or questionable airplanes, it's American fighter jets that scramble, not Canadians.
I don't even know how many CF-18 jets are able to be airworthy and ready to fly on any given day.
I just, I think the numbers probably single digits.
So I'm glad that Canada isn't being stupid and anti-American here.
But the obvious question to me is, who's going to pay for it and how?
Mr. President, will Canada be leaving empty-handed or will Canada be leaving?
Will Mr. Carney be leaving Washington with a deal on tariff?
I think they're going to be very happy.
We have a lot of things that we're working on that people don't talk about.
They talk about, you know, competitiveness.
He's a very competitive person.
And they talk about things that we don't necessarily agree on.
But I think they're going to walk away very happy.
I think so.
Mark Carney's Dairy Dilemma00:09:53
There's another question about a minimum tariff.
Here's the answer to that.
When the USMCA gets renegotiated, do you want a minimum tariff on goods between Canada and the U.S.?
Well, we're going to have tariffs between Canada, and, you know, they have them with us.
I will say with our farmers, as you know, they went up to as much as 400%, 250%, 300, and even one at 401.
We found one having to do with a very small product, but it was high.
So, you know, we've always had tariffs between the two of us.
And actually, Canada was charging us very high tariffs on our agricultural things, a lot of our agricultural product.
And that's one of the things that we talk about for bringing that down.
So, you know, this is a mutual thing, but we've been charged tariffs.
Look, we're the king of being screwed by tariffs, just so you understand.
And I'm not talking about with Canada.
I'm talking about with countries all over the world.
So Trump is saying he will have agricultural tariffs.
That's code for the dairy industry.
Right now, the beef industry really has no tariffs, but cheese and milk and poultry does, and that benefits, of course, the Quebec dairy farmers.
I guess the question is: how high a price is Mark Carney willing to pay, or rather to have the rest of Canada pay to preserve Quebec dairy farmers getting massive premiums for their products?
That's an irritant for Trump.
It was in his first term.
How many auto industry jobs is Mark Carney willing to sacrifice to keep Quebec dairy farmers in a privileged position?
My favorite moment was when Trump went on a bit of a tear against his, I don't know, his favorite things, his pet peeves.
Take a look at this.
We have some advantages over other countries, and we do have a great market.
We have an amazing market.
But you know what?
If I let this go, if we didn't win this election, if we had these people that were running that were ruining our country, destroying our country with their open borders and men playing in women's sports and transgender from everybody and windmills all over the place, if we allowed that to go on for another couple of years, we would be, I'm not sure that we'd even have a country.
Windmills and transgenderism.
I mean, maybe Donald Trump didn't know what he was saying there, but I'm guessing he did.
Because, of course, Mark Carney's central issue for a decade has been windmills.
He was the head of the Global Financial Alliance for Net Zero, all about green energy.
He was a sustainability ambassador for the United Nations.
His whole raison d'être was getting people off fossil fuels and onto green schemes like wind turbines.
And I don't know if you know this.
I haven't made a big fuss about it because I think it's a private matter generally, but it is relevant that Mark Carney's own child is a transgender child who has transitioned.
And I don't know if it's just a coincidence that Trump chose to poke at that, but he did, and Mark Carney kept a straight face.
Here's a clip indicating one more time that they will include dairy in their tariffs.
Take a look.
Well, you signed a trade deal with Canada that doesn't include supply managed goods like dairy, for example.
Well, a deal with it is root dairy.
I mean, it's going to include everything.
We'll do a comprehensive.
Well, I have to say this about Donald Trump.
He's pretty candid.
I mean, you know where you stand with him.
He's going to flatter you.
That's the BS part.
But when he says things like, we're coming for dairy or why are we buying your cars?
I think it's wise to take him seriously.
And I find that terrifying for Ontario's auto industry and some autos in Quebec.
Here's Trump in butter you up mode, where he says he thinks Mark Carney is a great prime minister.
Take a look.
No, I think he's a great prime minister.
I mean, he could represent me anytime.
I will tell you, and I'm not saying that because he's young.
No, he is a very strong, very good leader.
He's a nice man, but he could be nasty.
He could be very nasty, maybe as nasty as anybody.
I think Canada, let me put it this way: I can tell you this because I deal with lots of leaders all over the world.
He's a world-class leader.
He's a man that knows what he wants.
And I'm not surprised to see that he won the election and won it substantially.
And I would think he's more popular now.
He's a good man.
He does a great job, and he's a tough negotiator.
Does he really think Mark Carney is a great prime minister?
I don't think he knows anything about how Mark Carney does.
I don't think he spent a minute thinking about it.
He's working on a few other things right now.
When he says Mark Carney could represent me, I think that's an outright fib.
I think Mark Carney has shown what a poor negotiator he is.
He doesn't have a deal after 210 days.
Saying that he is a very strong, nice man who can be nasty.
It's a funny thing.
That's a Trump compliment, but I just don't think it's true that Mark Carney is very strong.
Calling him a world-class leader who knows what he wants and wants substantially.
He didn't win substantially.
Going from memory, it was what, two percentage points?
A world-class leader.
Tell me anyone in the world who follows Mark Carney.
Tell me anyone in the world other than Hamas who says, I'm really curious in Mark Carney's take on things.
I just don't think it happens.
What's interesting also is that what there were no questions about in the past, there have been questions in the Oval Office about censorship.
When the UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer visited the Oval Office, questions were put about the Online Safety Act.
That's what it's called in the UK.
Well, as you know, Stephen Gilbo recently said he's going to revive the Online Harms Act, as it's called in Canada.
And that is now a policy of Mark Carney.
No one raised that.
I sort of wish they would, but really, what's the odds that a regime journalist from Canada is going to ask about censorship?
They support it.
I saw this headline in the CTB news because while I think it was actually yesterday, so two days ago, Lutnick was in the Oval Office.
Yesterday, I think it was.
Lutnick, that's the Commerce Secretary again.
Let me read the headline from CTB.
Lutnick dismisses any prospect of auto deal between U.S. and Canada.
And they say, says sources.
Well, the sources is he gave a speech in Toronto.
I don't think it was caught on tape, strangely, but there were a lot of people there, including Doug Ford.
And here's what he had to say.
I heard that, and it's very clear.
We want to manufacture automobiles here.
I would say it's a massive threat when you have the Secretary of Commerce coming out and saying that.
And the president, you'd only say it if the president gave him the green light.
So we have to be prepared.
And the auto sector needs to be prepared.
Not only are good uniform members, but also the prime minister.
My first question: what are you going to do to protect the auto sector here in Ontario?
Yeah, not so insulty now.
Look, losing the U.S. market for the Canadian auto industry is going to be an economic disaster.
And it would be as disastrous for that province as shutting down the oil sands exports would be for Canada, which makes you wonder why Mark Carney has been so avoidant of building new markets for Western oil.
But this really is an existential threat to Ontario.
Not that the auto industry is as large, either in absolute or relative terms, but it's such an important source of good jobs in Canada.
And it's pretty clear that Trump wants to move those factories to Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan.
I mean, he's been saying it even since his first term.
And what does Doug Ford have to say in return?
I think his insults aren't really working.
But what is he going to do?
Literally, what can Canada do?
I don't know.
Insulting Trump seems to be the choice.
I'm not happy about it, but it's coming.
And by the way, Doug Ford and Mark Carney are joined at the hip.
They say that Mark Carney raised a surprising issue with Trump, which if it's true, I like the sounds of it.
They say that Mark Carney raised the prospect of reviving the Keystone XL pipeline.
Now, that's a pipeline that would take 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta and Saskatchewan into the U.S., displacing OPEC conflict oil.
And this is a great idea.
Trump approved this in his last mandate, but it was killed on day one by Joe Biden.
So opening it up again would be great for both countries.
It should be a no-brainer.
And it's sort of surprising that it took 200 days for Carney to mention it.
But I saw in the news that the company that owns the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, they say, yeah, they're happy to hear it, but they knew nothing about this proposal.
Let me say that again.
Mark Carney, maybe he just popped into his head, but after 210 days, as the guy who knows how to handle Trump, it pops into his head at the last minute, and he didn't even talk to the company itself.
Well, listen, I hope it actually works.
And maybe buying Canadian oil will somehow please Trump in a way that might make him save Canada's car industry, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Hey, can you tell me in 210 days as Prime Minister, can you tell me one single thing that Mark Carney has actually achieved?