Ezra Levant answers audience questions on Christmas Day 2025, defending Rebel News’ fight against anti-Christian discrimination while explaining his refusal to move to Israel despite family ties. He details the Jumbotron truck’s diesel-powered protests, including a Hamas clash, and its loyal driver’s security needs. Trump interviews were attempted but failed due to no personal connection, unlike UK journalist Pierce Morgan. Praising Tommy Robinson’s rise—from crowdfunded legal battles to a million-strong London rally—Levant highlights Canada’s legal inconsistencies, like Tamara Leach’s harsh house arrest versus lighter penalties for others. Five lawsuits against police, including RCMP and Toronto’s false arrests, remain unresolved, with Alberta’s secession as the only escape from federal censorship. Concluding, Levant thanks supporters for a decade of defiance, framing Rebel News as a catalyst for political change amid systemic double standards. [Automatically generated summary]
It's Christmas Day and you're watching the Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you sensorious boobug!
Oh, hi, everybody.
Merry Christmas.
Happy Hanukkah.
As you know, every year we do something called Letters to Ezra.
Sheila does the same thing, Letters to Sheila.
And you can ask me anything about Rebel News, about myself, about the world.
I mean, I have a lot to say all year round anyways, but these are your specific questions.
And really, nothing's off limits.
There might be something where I say, well, that's a private matter, and I might not answer, but I sort of like the personal questions.
If you're curious, I'll do my best to answer.
Now, normally I wear a Santa hat, but I think one of our elves took it this year.
I can't find the Santa hat, but I've got this big Santa mailbag.
I think it's a bag meant for gifts, but in it are your letters.
I have not looked at these before, and these were just randomly selected when we had our website, letterstoezra.ca.
These are what you wrote.
So without further ado, let me read your letters to me.
I have not seen these before, so I'll answer them on the fly.
And here we go.
Letter number one.
It's a long letter from Reynold LaChrance.
It says, thank you very much, Ezra, for Rebel News, a real media outlet.
I specifically wanted to say how much I appreciate you for all that you've done for the Christian church around the country.
No one has done anything like you have done to defend pastors from our corrupt government politicians, even those who pretend to be conservatives.
As a Christian myself, I want to express my sincere gratitude for what you, Ezra, and your great media have done and continue to stand up for freedom in our country.
God bless you.
And Rebel News Media, P.S., you guys are the best.
Well, Raynal, thank you so much for those words.
They really mean a lot to me.
We do stand up against anti-Christian discrimination, which we saw a lot of during the COVID times.
Whenever there's a church fire, if possible, we report on the scene.
I traveled with my colleague Lincoln Jay to rural Manitoba to this scene of a burnt down church.
I think that it is underreported, anti-Christian discrimination.
And of course, you know that we crowdfunded money a few years back to rescue Christians from Iraq.
We managed to get some Christians into Australia by helping privately sponsor them through Glenn Beck's Nazarene Fund.
So it is an important thing for us.
I'm Jewish myself, as you know, but most of our staff, we have staff from all different backgrounds, but this is one of the things we share.
So I'm very glad that it means a lot to you.
But I want to say, Reynolds, where's the question in there?
I guess it's a letter to Ezra.
It's not a question to Ezra.
So I accept your friendly letter, but it was a pretty softball question.
Let's see if there's some tougher ones in here.
Here's one from Carl Linkletter.
See if there's a tougher question.
Ezra, with so many Jewish people heading back to their homeland, I'm wondering what is keeping you here instead of to Israel.
Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate you, but I'm wondering, do you feel the pull?
And if so, why have you not answered the call to come home?
That's an interesting question.
I was born in Calgary.
My parents were born in Western Canada.
In fact, my roots go back to 1903 when my great-grandfather came over.
I don't know if you know the story of the prairies, but it was pretty unsettled.
And 125 years ago, 150 years ago, there was a real risk that American Manifest Destiny would incorporate British Columbia.
Remember, they bought Alaska from the Russians.
I think that was the 1860s.
So it's just, if you look at the map, it was so obvious that they incorporate British Columbia.
That was one of the impetus, the main impetus, I think, for building the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Anyways, you build the railway, but it's largely empty ground.
I mean, there were, of course, some Indian bands, but there was a deliberate strategy by the government to bring over farmers, including from Eastern Europe.
That's why there's a lot of Ukrainians in Western Canada.
In fact, my family came from Ukraine.
Anyway, you build the railway, and of course, you need to put people in that great hinterland.
There were, of course, some very small communities, and of course, some Indian bands, but they wanted to populate it and to farm it.
And so they deliberately took out ads in Eastern Europe, inviting people to come over and farm.
And it was actually a kind of a deal.
And you can look this up.
It's very interesting to me.
If you came over, you were granted a certain number of acres.
You had to clear it, clear the rocks, and farm it and break it and plant it and build a sod house.
And if you achieve those goals at the end of a few year period, you got it.
So it was, it was extremely hard work.
And they brought over people in groups.
So they would bring over whole communities together.
Anyway, very interesting story.
So my family, 122 years ago, was part of that.
And so we were actually in Alberta before Alberta became part of Confederation.
Alberta joined the country in 1905.
So I know in some parts of the world, having a 122-year history is not very old, but in Canada, especially Western Canada, that's positively primordial.
So my affiliations are Alberta.
I mean, even though I'm in Ontario and I'm a Canadian, I do in my bones feel Albertan.
That's where I went to undergrad and to law school.
And that's where I got involved with politics with the Reform Party.
And I believe I absorbed the conservative freedom culture of Southern Alberta.
I have been to Israel and I love it.
And that's sort of the religious roots of Jews.
And I have some family over there, but I've never contemplated moving there.
Canada is my home.
I enjoyed traveling to other countries too, like the United States and the United Kingdom, and even occasionally to beautiful places like Italy.
So, you know what?
I mean, I suppose from a religious point of view, Israel would be home, but from a personal point of view, every other aspect of my life, I'm Canadian.
You know, that's how I feel.
In fact, if you asked me to really identify myself, I would say Alberton, even though I'm in Ontario.
Lita says, I wonder from time to time how difficult it must be to find a driver willing to drive your amazing tool, the Jumbotron truck.
Do you have a steady, loyal, and fearless one?
Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas to you and your amazing legendary team.
You are my heroes.
Lita, that is so nice of you to say.
And that's a really good question.
I love the truck.
You know I do.
And I know David Menzies loves it.
And many of our different reporters have worked with the truck.
The truck gets people's attention.
Like when we took it up to Algoma, to the steel mill, boy, especially we got there before dawn, right?
Because the men started arriving at the factory.
I think the first shift was 6.30 a.m.
So we were out there really early and it was still dark out.
You turn on that truck and it's got a diesel powered generator in it.
The truck itself is a regular truck, like an F350 Ford or something.
But then you've got this custom built.
Basically, it's, you know, 100 TB panels.
And to give it all that juice, there's a diesel generator in the back.
So that thing is blazing like a lighthouse.
And to have that at 6.30 a.m. when those workers came into Algoma was pretty exciting.
Anyways, to your question, that Algoma trip was super fun and easy, but sometimes we take the truck with a spicy message.
Like, for example, we took it to the University of Toronto and they had the Hamas encampment.
I don't know if you saw that.
And some people actually came up and sort of pounded at the truck.
Someone somewhere else threw a rock at the truck.
We have certain things I'm not going to disclose that are sort of security features on the truck that make it a little bit safer, but you are exactly right.
Our truck driver is very brave.
He's totally committed to the project.
He loves the truck.
And he even enjoys the, like, for example, when we went up to Sault Ste. Marina, Algoma, I flew there with our videographer, Lincoln J. Simply.
We just simply didn't have the time to drive there and drive back for the mission.
But the truck obviously has to drive.
The truck can, you can't fly the truck there.
So our truck driver has to make big commitments to get going a day early, stay in hotels because you have to bring the truck with you, right?
So he's gone to Montreal.
He's gone to Ottawa, etc.
So as a long answer to your question, say we got a great truck driver who is a real believer.
He loves the truck as much as you and I do.
And he's used to it.
He's not scared easily.
And on occasion, you may know we actually have security guards to accompany the truck because it's a beautiful truck and it's very expensive.
And although we have certain security features on it, we really don't want the truck to be hurt.
And we've had the truck for a year or more, actually.
And it's still given her.
We had to replace a transmission once, so it's a cost, but I'm glad you like the truck.
And I sort of wish we could position it in Alberta and in British Columbia or in other places too.
But it's just hard to move it around.
And I wouldn't want the truck to drive all the way across the country.
I just think that it would be difficult for the truck to do that.
But thank you for your kind words, both the truck and a truck driver.
Okay, let's get some more letters here from Sean.
What is your main hobby?
Everyone needs a hobby to de-stress and just have some fun.
I'm curious what your top hobby is.
Oh boy.
You know what?
I'm terrible in that I don't really have a hobby.
Is reading a hobby?
That's too boring, isn't it?
You know, I think social media has killed a lot of hobbies.
You know, I've got kids and I spend some time with them.
That's more than a hobby.
So I guess I'm an Uber driver for the kids.
When I'm very well behaved, I do go to the gym, but as you can see, that's been a while.
And there was a while where I actually had a personal trainer who was a great source of motivation and I lost some weight.
I've got to get back on that.
So aspirationally, I would say going to the gym, but that's obviously not the case right now.
And it's sort of a pitiful thing.
We have a dog also, and a dog will fill up a lot of your time.
You know, just taking him outside and just, you know, he's really become one of the family.
We got the dog during the COVID.
It was a COVID dog, but it was the best decision we ever made.
I think together as a family, we love that dog.
So that's my partial answer is the dog, when I'm on my best behavior, the gym.
I do try and read.
Just the other day, I ordered a book called 1913, which was basically the state of the world right before the First World War.
I'm very interested in reading.
It looks very interesting.
Okay, here's a very long letter.
I'm not sure if we're going to read the whole thing.
It's from Kevin.
It says, Dear Ezra and the entire Rebel News Media team, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to you all.
Thank you for continuing to ask questions many in Canadian media won't.
I want to ask whether you'd ever consider reaching out to the White House or President Trump's administration to explore a one-on-one sit-down interview with Donald Trump, either in Washington or elsewhere.
I truly believe a single video of this interview would become Rebel News number one most viewed clip of all time, creating massive buzz and further cementing Rebels' mark on the Canadian media landscape.
Many Canadians feel our federal government under Prime Minister Carney is increasingly disconnected from the public.
And the letter goes on a little bit more to make the case.
Kevin, we've tried.
I don't think we've tried recently, but there was a point in time where we really tried hard and we pitched ourselves to the White House by saying we're the only media in Canada that are friendly to Trump.
And that's true.
I don't know if you remember, if you've been watching us long enough, you'll know that in 2015, when we saw Donald Trump come down that escalator, I personally watched his speech and gave the first commentary.
I thought, this guy's good.
He's got some good ideas.
And I really like the Make America Great Again theme.
So we endorsed him in 2016.
Not that a foreign endorsement really means anything.
And again, in 2020 and again in 2024, and we're the only Canadian media to do so.
Conrad Black has been a fan of his too.
But other than that, I think we are the most Trumpy.
And it's tough to be a Trumpy Canadian, especially during the age of tariffs.
But I don't think that cut any ice with the Trump White House.
Really, unless you have a personal connection with Trump, he doesn't tend to do interviews with foreign media.
In the UK, he would talk to Pierce Morgan sometimes.
Has he done an interview with any Canadian journalist?
I don't think he has.
I'm not saying it's not possible because I know there's some British and other foreign media in the White House.
And on occasion, they're allowed to put questions to the president.
But it's very rare that a foreign journalist gets a full sit-down with Trump.
But I obviously agree with you.
If we were ever to get that, it would probably become our most watched video ever.
Trying To Keep Tommy Out Of Trouble00:03:52
There was a point in time when we tried very hard, is what I'm saying.
Next letter from Friedhelm Jungklaus.
Dear Ezra, I want to thank you for your courageous and consistent voice with addresses serious problems and developments in Canada, particularly in the political arena.
I thank you also for your support of Tommy Robinson in England, where the country seems to border on disintegration.
Keep up the important work you are doing.
It will not be in vain.
Friedhelm, thank you very much for that letter.
And again, there's no questions here.
There's a couple questions here.
I thought there'd be a lot more questions.
Maybe I should say questions for Ezra or ask me anything as opposed to just letters to Ezra.
Thank you for that.
And yeah, Tommy Robinson is funny.
I got to know him a little bit more than 10 years ago when I was at the Sun News Network and I just heard of this guy and I saw him on YouTube.
I interviewed him again when we started Rebel News.
And then I remember just saying to him, what are you doing?
Why don't you make videos for us?
I'll pay you X amount per pop.
And a star was born.
You know, he you may not remember this, but Tommy back then had a fairly quiet life.
In fact, I don't think it's telling tales out of school to say that when I reached out to Tommy, he was doing home renovations.
Like he would buy a house, fix it up, and flip it.
That's sort of how he was earning a living.
Construction.
And construction is a very noble trade.
And frankly, I wish I had more skills like that.
But I said to him, I said, you have a different destiny.
The world needs Tommy Robinson to do something else.
No disrespect to construction, but put down your hammer and your saw and pick up a microphone.
You have work to do.
And we helped him and we sort of taught him some of our ways.
And he was with us for a period of time.
I don't know exactly how long.
He's tough to be the boss of.
You could probably guess that, right?
As in, if you ever say no, I don't know if Tommy takes no for an answer.
And it was hard because we're on this side of the Atlantic and there he is in London and we're on the phone saying, don't do this, Tommy.
No bad idea.
You'll get in trouble.
Well, trying to keep Tommy out of trouble.
I mean, I don't know, you know, wild horses couldn't keep him away from certain trouble.
So it was doomed from a, you know, employee-employer relationship.
But as you know, a few months after he left us, I mean, I stayed on good terms.
I try to stay on good terms with some of the folks who passed through our doors.
And when he was arrested and thrown in prison, it took me, like, I wasn't his boss anymore, right?
So when one of our people gets arrested, I'm the boss.
I know exactly what to do.
It's expected of me.
Everyone here knows I'm going to make the decisions.
I'm going to send in a lawyer.
We're going to do what we do.
And unfortunately, we have practice that it's happened to us many times.
But I was no longer Tommy's boss when he was arrested three months after leaving us.
So I didn't have the authority to act for him, right?
Who am I?
I'm an ex-employer.
Do I really have the right to represent him, to hire lawyers and make decisions for him?
So it took me about a month to get permission from his family because I couldn't communicate with him to sort of lead the charge to have an appeal.
And so I actually re-engaged with Tommy after he left Rebel News.
And boy, he's come a long way since then.
So I'm talking too long about Tommy.
I really admire him.
And look where he is these days.
He's got, he's back.
He's re-platformed on social media.
He had a huge rally in London on September 13th.
The minimum police estimate is 150,000 people there, but there are credible estimates that put it over a million.
And he's a powerhouse in his own right.
And Elon Musk is now paying his legal bills.
We used to do that.
We crowdfunded his legal bills.
Now Elon Musk is covering that.
So Tommy Robinson is really on the ascent.
Suing For Inaction00:06:21
And let me say this about the UK.
I just saw a poll today that the Reform UK is destined, if the election were held today, to form a majority government on the backs of their anti-immigration stance, which is really Tommy's message.
The Labor government, which currently has a majority, if you can believe it, they would be reduced to just four seats.
So the UK has really turned around or is turning around.
And hopefully Nigel Farage will be the next prime minister.
I know Tommy and Nigel don't get along, but I don't care.
I see Tommy as an activist and a journalist.
And I see Nigel Farage as a politician.
I don't see a contradiction in supporting the vote.
Mike Spence from Victoria BC says, I'd like to see a show or several on the ridiculous inconsistencies in our legal system and the federal government.
Tamara's sentence, Tamara Leach, I presume, is grossly unfair.
Compare that to how Elizabeth May was let off with a warning after she occupied a building in a protest.
Or Stephen Gilbo, when he broke into the CN Tower, when he climbed on Ralph Klein's residence in Calgary.
The Truckers protest, how it was handled compared with the greater impact of the railway blocking by the Mohawks two years earlier to the month, which has a greater impact on Western PQ and Eastern Ontario, not just the small point of Ottawa.
Why the difference?
Exactly.
You're so right.
And I was in the Ottawa court.
I really thought she would be acquitted.
I was sort of shocked when she wasn't.
The fact that she got a sentence of house arrest, at first I thought, oh, good, she's not being sent back to actual prison.
But how would you do locked in your house for a year?
I got to get out of the house.
I got to go and see things.
And I would go nuts if I was locked in my house for a year.
She's allowed out for five hours a week for groceries, for doctor or dentist appointments.
I don't know, maybe I'd be booking a dentist appointment every month just to get out of the house.
She's allowed to go to church.
And I can't remember.
There may be a few other minor things like that.
She's not allowed to go out for dinner.
She's not allowed to go to see friends.
She's not allowed to go for a walk.
I don't think she's allowed to go to the gym.
And I saw that sentence and I thought, that's so harsh.
But working carefully with her lawyer and getting the approval of her probation officer, we realized that work is an exemption.
So that's where we all, and I know that's what you're referring to.
That's when we offered her full-time employment at Rebel News, which requires her to travel.
And she had her first official visit here last week, and it was excellent.
And, you know, things are going to be pretty low-key over Christmas, but we've got big plans for Tamara Leach.
And I know that she's well loved from coast to coast.
I know that because we've worked with her before on similar things like her first book.
So stand by.
She's going to be writing another book, which I'm excited about.
But to answer your question, you bet there's a double standard between how the truckers were treated versus environmentalists or the Hamas protesters.
Mathieu writes: It's a shame to see the police forces everywhere are working so hard trying to prevent Rebel News from reporting on the ground.
Wouldn't it be a good idea to fight them legally or file official complaints whenever they decide to interfere?
Success in court creates useful jurisprudence afterwards.
Also, is there any hope of fighting the registered or authorized media list that the federal government are constantly referring to?
That's a fairly new thing.
So isn't it time to eliminate it?
Mathieu, you were exactly right on all of these things.
And I should tell you that Rebel News currently has probably five lawsuits against different police forces.
We're suing the RCMP for when Alexa was shot with a riot gun at the trucker protest.
We're suing the Montreal police called the SPVM, something police de Ville-Marie.
I'm sorry, I forget the French name for their police force.
We're suing them for not protecting her.
We're suing the Toronto police for their attack on David.
We're suing the RCMP for their attack on David, I think.
Not sure.
We're suing the Toronto police for falsely arresting me.
What am I up to now?
Five, six?
We sued when Abi Yamini down in Melbourne was arrested five times.
So sometimes, let me talk about Abi's case, the police settled.
They didn't give us any money, I will tell you, but they gave us a written apology and a promise not to arrest him again.
And that's actually all we wanted.
So you're exactly right.
That's the way to do it.
And it worked in Australia.
Here in Canada, so far, the police are very intransigent.
And we have not had, we have not gone all the way in one of these police lawsuits, but I expect that may happen in 2026.
Donna Ford says, your news team has done a great job of covering important stories, but my favorite has to be David Menzie's relentless pursuit of the truth about the male teacher with ginormous bazooms in Halton.
Kudos also to the new go to the New York Post for their efforts in pursuing the truth.
Yeah, that was such a crazy story.
And, you know, that guy was so weird.
And to wear those insane artificial rests, those prosthetics.
In a school with children, it seems to me he was using the children as some sort of forced participants or like a forced audience to his bizarre fetish.
Like he could be at home with those prosthetic breasts, but that wasn't doing it for him.
He had to be there in class, interacting with the boys, interacting with the girls, forcing them to deal with him as their teacher instead of as a sexual activist, which he was.
That was such an insane story.
And the fact that the union and the government and the school boards closed ranks behind them is so crazy.
Racist Wingnut Wrote Book00:09:06
And you're right.
The New York Post and Rebel News.
And I think, I think the Sun News Network covered it.
Sorry, this Toronto Sun covered it.
A lot of media are afraid to touch anything trans.
Robert Williamson.
Hello, Ezra and team.
Best wishes and happy new year.
Following you from the beginning.
And I still have your bobblehead in the original box with your autograph on the box.
My question is.
To make clear Rebel News political stance for my critical family and friends who say Rebel News is extreme right.
I say no.
I tell them that Ezra Levin, Rebel News is just as much against the extreme right as they are against the extreme left.
I say that you are believers in small government and separation of powers and believe in individual freedom and personal responsibility.
Libertarian in anything.
Am I correct?
Perhaps you could clear this up and give me a real explanation for me to use in conversations.
And if I'm wrong, then please set me straight.
Many things.
Stay safe wishing you and the Rebel News team all success.
Yours truly, Robert Charles Williamson, a 74-year-old Canadian who no longer recognizes as a country.
Not the country I grew up in.
God bless.
Robert, thank you for your letter and your last sentence is very touching.
I used to call myself conservative.
I suppose when I was very young, I called myself libertarian.
Certain things have scrambled it a bit.
For example, during COVID times, if you wanted people to have the right to say no to a jab, did that make them right-wing or left-wing?
Because, you know, some of the left would say, my body, my choice.
That's sort of a liberal mantra, right?
Some on the environmentalist left or the Green Party left would say, I don't want to take a lot of pharmaceuticals.
Let me have a natural, you know, immunity and health and things like that.
So the stances we took during COVID, which is when actually we really grew a lot, a lot of viewers then, we were for privacy.
We were for individual autonomy.
We were against junk science.
Privacy was a big thing for us.
It still is.
So is that left-wing or right-wing?
I mean, historically, the left has cared about privacy, I think.
So, I mean, I suppose on big government, like spending and stuff, we're for smaller government, for lower taxes, for lower debt.
But, you know, so was Paul Martin the liberal, right?
So was Jean-Quéten.
Those guys actually bounced the budget.
Yeah, I don't take extreme right.
That to me implies racism.
And we're not racist.
We have people of all different backgrounds here.
And I don't think that would happen if we were racist.
I think calling people racist is sort of the left's tactic if they disagree with you, especially on things like immigration and multiculturalism.
I don't think it's racist to say our million people a year immigration policy is crazy, out of control, and it's hurting everybody.
That's not racist.
So yeah, I mean, I appreciate your point.
I think a lot of people who call rebel news extreme right, they actually don't watch it.
They just heard about it and, you know, maybe heard other people describe it.
I think that if you just show people our Twitter feed, our YouTube channel, and have them watch five videos and say, all right, here's five videos.
Tell me, I mean, here's an example.
I'm just going to pick one out of the blue because it just popped into my mind.
Remember when I went out to Western Ontario and there was some Amish farmers that were getting huge fines from the government because they didn't download the ArriveTan app on their smartphone because they don't have smartphones because the Amish don't use electricity.
So that was a story.
We were helping the Amish and we were crowdfunding lawyers for them through the Democracy Fund.
Is that extreme right wing to help a low, like they have very low income, very low power, these Amish, they're an anachronism.
They're living like it's the 1800s or something.
Is there extreme right wing to help them when they were being bullied by the government?
Like they had hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for not having the ArriveCan app, which was such a dumb thing.
So how's that?
So you show people that video or show, I mean, some of the work our individual reporters have done, like Alexa Lavoie reporting on some of the craziness on the streets of Montreal.
That's not far right.
I would say the antidote to that is just having people see who we really are by watching what we really do.
Pauline says, Ezra, first a big thank you for standing for truth.
I would like to ask if you would consider running for office.
Well, Pauline, thank you.
I don't know if you know my history, but I was very involved in the Reform Party of Canada when I was young.
I joined when I was a teenager.
I got to know Preston Manning way back in the day because I was in Calgary.
That's where he was.
I became the head of the Reform Party Student Society, University of Calgary.
That's actually where I got to know Nahid Menshe, who is now the leader of the NDP in Alberta, and Danielle Smith, who's now the premier there.
So there was this little political clubhouse that we were all in there.
It was sort of fun.
And when I was 29, I threw my hat in the ring.
I had been Preston Manning's assistant.
He retired.
I threw my hat in the ring.
I won the nomination.
I started campaigning.
There was a special by-election because Preston Manning had resigned.
And it was five weeks till the by-election day.
And this is Calgary Southwest, one of the most conservative places in Canada.
I was fairly well known there.
I had four generations of my family there.
I had a really good campaign team.
My lawn signs were going up.
But Stephen Harper needed a quick entry into parliament.
And after initially resisting him, I stepped aside and he went into parliament.
And that just sort of knocked me off my politics path, but it knocked me on to a different path, right?
I wrote a book called Fight Kyoto.
I did a little bit of lawyering.
I started the Western Standard magazine.
I wrote more books.
A whole bunch of things came from that.
I went on Sun News.
I started Rebel News.
We helped fund the Democracy Fund charity.
So I did have plans to be an MP.
When I was in my 20s, I thought about it a lot.
And every, I'd say once a year, I think, well, what if?
What would have happened if I had, if things had been different and I had become an MP?
Sometimes I think, would I have been able to tow the party line?
Let me give you two examples.
There was a time under Aaron O'Toole's leadership where conservative MPs, if you can believe it, had to support the carbon tax.
He called it a carbon levy.
Would I really, I mean, I wrote a book called Fight Kyoto.
I wrote a book called Ethical Oil.
Would I really have been able to bite my tongue and support that guy?
I don't know.
I know myself and I'm pretty stubborn.
Or how about during COVID times?
Again, Aaron O'Toole, he was totally indistinguishable from the other parties.
Would I have been able to bite my tongue to be a good one?
And that's the thing, because when you're a member of parliament, you have to be a team player.
The leader gets, I suppose, a little more leeway.
But being an MP from Calgary, would I really have been, would I have survived those ideological crises?
I don't know, maybe.
Maybe I would be super duper there, but I, you know, we'll never know.
But what we will know is that, you know, the other projects I've worked on have been fairly political.
And I don't know, I feel like I've managed to make a difference and build a bit of a team.
That's one of the things I'm proudest about at Rebel News is we put together an interesting team.
Don't you think?
Like, what a collection of people we put together.
Not just our current staff, but our alumni over the years.
It's been amazing.
It's been a great way to meet unusual and wonderful people.
So in other words, I did consider running for politics, Pauline.
I threw my hat in the ring.
I was five weeks away from winning in Calgary, Southwest, but I was knocked off course.
I suppose never say never, but it's certainly not on my mind.
I feel like I have a daily duty at Rebel News and I'm doing it every day.
I'm doing journalism.
I'm crowdfunding.
I try to run the company.
So I don't see myself in politics in the foreseeable future.
I'm not saying never, never, never, ever, ever, but I mean, I got stuff I'm doing.
John Phillips says, considering all the new laws the liberals are bringing in, are you considering moving west?
Well, John, that's an interesting question that you pose because, of course, the liberals, I presume you're referring to, are Mark Carney's federal liberals.
So moving west wouldn't really save me if the laws are promulgated nationally.
So all these laws we're talking about, Bill C8, Bill C9, what used to be called C60.
I won't bore you with the alphabet soup of what they're called.
All these different censorship bills, they may be passed in Ottawa's parliament, but they are binding on all 10 provinces and three territories.
So moving west, there's a freer spirit in the air, that's for sure.
Censorship in Canada00:02:54
But you would not be immune or exempt from Mark Carney's censorship by virtue of being in Alberta.
Now, of course, if Alberta is separated, that changes everything.
But running to Alberta would not find a refuge for us from these censorship laws.
Calvin Arndt says, hey, Ezra, you shouldn't worry about the weight loss challenge.
Life is meant to be lived and enjoyed and balanced with other considerations.
With that in mind, when you're in the UK or Ireland, what's your go-to meal that you always want to enjoy there?
And have you found a place in Canada that makes it as good over there?
Well, Calvin, first of all, thanks for your friendly words.
I need to lose some weight.
I know I do, not just for aesthetic reasons, but to be healthy.
And I love feeling better.
When I was working, there was a time I was working on six days a week and it showed.
And I felt a lot better about things.
So I'm going to try to get, you know what, I travel so much, that's one excuse I have.
But, you know, I'm going to try.
You know, let me recommit to my 2026 New Year's resolution.
But to your question, the funny thing is my trips to Ireland are often so quick.
I'm not kidding when I say half the time I go to Ireland, it's for 24 hours.
So we land, we like grab a bite at the airport, we go to our thing, we work all day, and then we go to a pub and we have pub for food.
I mean, of course, you know, I'm just trying to think, is there a particular pub?
I honestly can't remember particular things I order, but you go to a pub.
You know, actually, last time I was in Ireland, I went to a Japanese restaurant.
And another time, I don't know, I'm not seeking out very particular Irish cuisine.
And unfortunately, I'm not there for a long time.
Of course, I have the Guinness.
I'm not a big drinker, but when you're in Ireland, you got to have some Guinness.
In the UK, I'm usually in London, which has just so many amazing restaurants of all different varieties.
I know I'm not giving you good answers here, but I guess in closing, I don't really have a favorite food over there because there's just so much, so many restaurants.
And actually, they have a ton of, like they call them Tesco or Marks and Spencer's, like just little places where you can go in for a sandwich or a snack.
That's actually, because we're always running around, right?
So I actually, it's rare that I have time to go to a sit-down dinner.
I mean, sometimes when I land to cover a Tommy trough, I'll land at 6.30 in the morning.
It'll take me to like 8.30 to get into town.
I get to the court, I live tweet, and then I turn around and I'm on the 6 p.m. flight home.
You know, I'd say about a third of the time I go to the UK, I'm just not even staying the night.
Drea's Tenacity Awards00:02:49
Anyhow, thank you for the personal question.
I don't think I answered it well.
Martin Yates says, all of you at Rebel News have done an incredible job this year.
However, I was wondering if you and or your team would consider coming up with some sort of an award, like a Rebel News Pulitzer Prize, and present it to Drea Humphrey for her incredible work on covering all the chaos that happened at the Universal Ostrich Farm.
She covered the entire situation for several months and even drove directly there one night to cover the arrival of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and RCMP and having nothing but a tent to rest in.
She even spent many days there leaving her family.
Incredible dedication of journalism to show the world the truth.
Martin, it's like you read my mind.
She did such a great job there.
I visited twice.
I didn't stay very long, but I was able to visit and to see the respect and the gratitude and the love that the people there felt for Drea.
She truly was their voice.
By the end, there were other voices too, but I think Drea's tenacity helped make it possible.
And you're so right about her.
I mean, you know that she's a mom, right?
I mean, being a mum is so busy.
I don't want to give way any personal details, but we had an RV there.
I can't, I think we have said that she had her family sort of with her.
You know, talk about incredible.
It wasn't just her commitment, her family.
So that's why we had to crowdfund the RV for her to stay there.
So she wasn't in the tent for a month.
No, she did great.
And the answer to your question is, yes.
Every year in December, we have internal awards here.
We call the Rebbe's.
And we have sort of an award ceremony.
And we hand out a variety of Rebbe's.
Sheila won for Hardest Worker, won't surprise you to hear.
And Alexa and Guillaume won for their bravery on the streets.
Drea won for her coverage of the ostrich.
And my favorite Rebbe is the Viewers' Choice Award where viewers vote.
And I presume you voted in that.
And I hope you got our email about that.
Everyone's allowed one vote.
And every one of the rebel journalists, except for me, has their name on the ballot.
And the top three at our Viewers' Choice awards get a Rebbe award.
And this year, Avi was in third, if I'm going from memory.
David Menzies was in second.
And Drea came in first.
And my theory, I mean, I don't know this because you don't have to give a reason for your vote.
My theory is that it was her great work during the ostrich situation.
This is from Sean Barrett.
Hi, Ezra and team.
I would like to say thank you for all the hard work you do to provide unbiased reporting.
Recently, I had a phone call to my MP's office of Dominique LeBlanc.
It was not him I was talking to, but his minister.
Thoughtful Citizens Make a Difference00:06:11
He was trying to defend the government for the convoy and arguing the peaceful protest of the truckers by saying they were blocking roads and businesses extra.
I told him I don't believe all that.
And when I asked if the government not doing anything about the Palestine protest blocking roads in Toronto and other places, he was saying that's not happening.
He's not seen on the news.
So I guess it's not happening if CBC doesn't report on it.
My question is, how can I get involved in my province of New Brunswick to actually help make changes?
I am tired of the liberals gaslighting.
Thanks so much, Rebel team.
Sean, you have some very interesting points in there that you make.
The first is, as you know, we just hired Tamara Leach, the trucker queen, I would call her, to be a full-time Rebel News staffer, which I'm very excited about.
So you'll find that good news because you support the Truckers.
Second of all, I think you're very keen to point out the double standard with how the truckers were dealt with with other protests.
And, you know, it's not just the Palestinian protesters.
It's, I don't know if you remember a few years ago, there were the Idol No More, they called them the Aboriginal protests, the blocked railways.
Of course, you have environmentalist protests all the time, especially mining roads and logging roads.
One of the important things about a justice system is that it's equal justice under law.
People have to feel like they're going to get a fair hearing and not be judged based on their ideology.
I think in Canada, we're at risk of losing that.
As to your question of what to do about it, I mean, there's a lot of things you could do.
Depends on your talent and your taste and how much time you have and your personal style.
Some people are very conflict averse.
Some people are extremely busy.
Some people have more money than time.
Some people have more time than money.
Some people like talking.
Some people like reading or writing.
So I suppose the answer is very personal.
But here's a, I'm just going to come up with a list of a few things anyone could do if it suited them.
I think that actually running a social media account, if you have interesting and thoughtful things to say, can make a difference.
I mean, you have to have thoughtful things to say.
You're competing against millions of people.
But if you have a Twitter account, or X's is now called, and if you try and be thoughtful and smart or funny, funny is the best, you can build a following.
And I think that can really move hearts and minds.
You can bring news to people's attention that they might have otherwise missed.
You can make arguments, rebut people.
And to me, the best part of X or Twitter is you can engage directly with big shots, with presidents and prime ministers and premiers and other politicians.
So that's one way of doing it.
I mean, I know a lot of people think social media is just fooling around wasting time, and it can be, but it can actually be a force also.
You don't want to have all your whole life consumed by it, though.
Another thing is, I mean, depending if you have money, you could theoretically donate to a political campaign that reflects your views.
And one of the reasons people donate is not just they want their party to win, but it typically brings you into contact with a politician where you can give them a piece of your mind, where you can tell them what you care about.
That's another thing, going to a town hall meeting.
You mentioned Dominique LeBlanc.
My guess is maybe it's only once a year, but he probably has a town hall meeting, public meeting where you could go and have a say.
There's not a ton of talk radio left in Canada anymore, but there still is some.
That's something you could do is to call in.
I'm just coming up with things that an ordinary person might do or could do.
If you're active, you could become a door knocker for a candidate.
I mean, that's a partisan approach, but there's a lot of things to do.
Sending emails or even making phone calls to politicians, they do notice those things.
A phone call to an MP's office where you give them your address proving you're in the district, that probably is more important to that politician than an email or a tweet or most other things because they say, oh, an actual resident of my district actually took the time to phone.
I better phone him back.
You never know.
You might get Dominique LeBlanc himself on the line.
Well, that's all the questions.
I thought there was going to be some more tough questions or more personal questions.
Maybe I didn't clearly call for those.
I thought people were going to put me, were going to grill me a bit, but everything was pretty friendly.
Anyways, thank you so much for your letters today.
And I know there were a couple other letters that Olivia mentioned were on some similar topics, so we didn't double up.
I've enjoyed the year very much, and I think we're ending the year in an interesting way with two new staff.
I mentioned, of course, Tamara Leach, and maybe you've seen we've had another reporter named Scarlett Grace who's done about three or four reports with us.
I haven't formally introduced her to you.
I thought we'd test her out in the field a little bit.
So, we've got two heroes of freedom who are, I think, going to be great rebels, and I'll introduce them to you over probably in the new year.
I wish you a Happy New Year and a Merry Christmas, and I wish you a new year of peace and justice and freedom and prosperity.
And I hope that we can take our country and put it on the right path.
And I think Rebel News is a part of that.
It's not the whole part, but it's a part of it.
And I think we have a role of encouraging politicians to be better and criticizing those who aren't.
And every once in a while, we make a difference, like I think we did with our, you know, so many of our legal crowdfunding campaigns, including for Tamara Leach, whose appeal we're funding.
Anyways, I'm feeling a little bit nostalgic with the end of the year.
Thanks, everybody, for being part of our team.
As you know, Rebel News takes no money at all from any level of government.
And because of that, we rely 100% on you, our viewers.
So the fact that we're still here after 10 years, that's a testament to your faith in us.