Ezra LeVance condemns Ontario Premier Doug Ford's $29 million luxury jet purchase as a gross betrayal of fiscal responsibility, contrasting it with the province's recession and industrial decline. Joined by Noah Jarvis of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, they expose the hypocrisy of Ford, who previously attacked the "gravy train" while borrowing $25.8 billion and offering corporate welfare. The segment highlights Ford's transformation into an executive cosplaying for wealthy allies like Mark Carney, ultimately framing the jet as a symbol of political corruption that mirrors Orwell's Animal Farm. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Doug Ford's $30 Million Jet00:01:36
Hello, my friends.
Doug Ford got elected because his brother Rob was known as a taxpayer's advocate.
Well, it's so gross.
Today, Doug Ford announced he's buying a $30 million private jet for his own use.
So, so gross.
We'll take you through all the details.
But first, let me invite you to get the video version of this podcast.
And I want you to see a few videos.
I'm going to show you some videos, including another airplane that Doug Ford was on.
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Just do that at RebelsnewsPlus.com.
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That's how we pay our bills around here.
Oh, yeah, one more thing.
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Tonight, Doug Ford kills whatever remnants of fiscal responsibility he has and orders up a private jet.
It's April 17th, and this is the Ezra LeVance Show.
Shame on you, you censorious thug.
Hey, it's great to be back at the studio.
Shame on Censorious Thugs00:11:03
Yesterday, I was in Ottawa with our dear friend Sheila Gunn Reid, our chief reporter, who was invited to testify before a House of Commons committee on media.
And she did such a good job.
I'm glad we were able to show you so much of it yesterday.
You know, I've just been thinking about that nonstop since yesterday and what it means not just for Rebel News and the Independent Press Gallery and Sheila, but just the idea of freedom based media.
And for Sheila to go there with such a strong presentation, to be invited there by the committee, And even the Block Hibakwas attempts to attack her.
She handled herself so well.
And what a contrast to the panhandler media there, who, and you could say, as for you, panhandle, you're always asking for donations.
Well, yeah, voluntary donations from people who want to support us, not shaking down governments for subsidies to take it from your pocket at tax time.
I was so proud of the contrast between Sheila and her message and her dignity and the beggar journalists there who really only care about.
Getting free money, and that one from the Canadian Media Guild who was calling for censorship of critics.
Anyhow, I don't mean to rehash what I said yesterday, but I've been thinking about it a lot.
And I hope you're as proud of Sheila and, frankly, of our freedom journalism as I am.
Okay, well, one of the things that happens when you're independent and don't take any government money is you're beholden to no one.
If there is a state broadcaster owned by the province of Ontario, for those of you outside Ontario, you probably don't know that there's something called.
TVO, TVO Ontario, and a French version of it too, that are like the federal government, CBC.
Can you imagine that?
An extra layer of government broadcasters.
So obviously, they would be careful about criticizing Doug Ford because that's where their money comes from.
Of course, we take no money from any government, so we'll call it like we see it.
And I think the first thing to note is that the province of Ontario has become a have not province.
Can you believe it?
The mighty industrial heartland of steel mills and auto factories.
Well, those industries in particular are in retreat.
The whole country is actually in a recession that has been hidden by mass immigration.
What I mean is that on a per capita basis, our income is declining.
We're getting poorer.
But by bringing in a million foreigners every year, it just juices the overall stats.
So we're each getting a smaller slice.
The pie is sort of the same size, but just because of mass immigration.
But Ontario is in decline.
And I just I don't just mean in terms of crime and wokeness and schools.
Apparently, some schools only have 50% attendance, and that's normal.
But the loss of the industrial sector, I mentioned steel.
You might remember I went up to the steel mills in Sault Ste. Marie, just shutting down.
And part of it is Donald Trump's tariffs.
But listen, it's been a 30 year decline in heavy industry in Canada.
The auto sector, again, 30 year decline.
Donald Trump and his trade, his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, have said, look, they want those factories.
In America, not in Canada and Mexico.
It's a tough one.
It's a tough one to fight.
I'm not blaming anyone, certainly.
I'm just noting that Ontario is doing poorly.
The province bet massively on electric vehicle batteries.
Just a crazy thing for the government to get into.
And now Doug Ford himself has this wacky approach to the trade war with the United States.
You're not going to win a trade war.
Maybe you can win a trade negotiation, but not if you're trying to embarrass the U.S. president every day.
Anyways, that's the backdrop.
Ontario is not doing well economically.
The cost of living for young people is so high, it's literally having an effect on the marriage rate and the childbirth rate.
If you can't get married and can't start a family because you can't afford a house, that is a civilizational level damage that the poverty is doing.
And that's what's happening in Ontario.
So, with that as the backdrop, the crime wave, the taxes, the wokeness, the brokenness, Doug Ford announces well, he didn't announce it, it's leaked.
That he's getting himself a new jet.
And not just any jet, a luxury intercontinental jet.
Now, I could understand a plane for hopping around Ontario.
I really could.
But this is a luxury product, the kind of thing that maybe a rock star would have.
It's a Challenger 650.
It's built with the kind of range to fly to London, England.
It's not for puddle jumping around Ontario.
Now, I understand that jets are not just for status, they are a tool for super busy executives.
I absolutely get that.
I mean, for example, they're not bound by commercial schedules.
They go when you're ready to go.
And that means that you can have meetings, and as soon as the meeting is done, you can go to the next meeting.
You don't have to worry about being late or early for a flight.
For people who are talking about confidential business, which would include the premier, they're secure.
You can go straight to, you know, they have a very private lounge, but you're not waiting there long.
You get on the plane and you're not sitting next to strangers.
Hey, by the way, I don't know if you saw this.
But I got on the plane coming back from Ottawa yesterday, and who sat down next to me but Michael Ma, the Chinese spy?
Take a look at this selfie I took.
I said, Can I take a selfie with you?
He didn't know who I was.
He said, Yes.
He said, What do you do in Ottawa?
I said, I run Rebel News.
He went silent.
And for the rest, that's the Chinese spy, the guy who flipped from conservative to liberal.
Anyways, sorry for that.
But my point is, you never know who you're sitting next to on a plane.
So if you're the premier or a fantasy executive, you can't speak to Confidentially.
So there is a business case for jets, and they're not just for rock stars and sports heroes.
They are for busy people who use them as a tool, time is money.
I'm not sure if that really applies to the Premier.
He's not like an executive who has to have a torrential schedule.
I just don't think he is.
And the giveaway is the luxury international part.
If you really are flying around Ontario, I think that's good for the Premier to do.
You don't need a 4,000 nautical mile luxury jet for that.
You just don't.
And the entitlement and the, of course, I need itness of this is so gross.
And I remember that Doug Ford won election on the back of his late brother, Rob Ford.
It was Rob Ford who made the city and the province of Ontario and indeed the whole country fall in love with his attack on what he called the gravy train.
Let me show you.
I'm not going to play the whole thing, but I'm going to play a few minutes of it.
One of the most powerful, endearing videos I have ever seen of the late Rob Ford.
And I don't care what city you're in, Torontonians will instantly feel nostalgic.
But if you're in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Montreal, watch this guy.
This was when Rob Ford was a city councilor.
He wasn't the mayor yet.
And he was showing what he means by the gravy train, making a list of all the freebies and perks and the little thefts that city councilors get.
I shouldn't say theft because it was all legal.
That was what was so gross about it.
Look at Rob Ford and remember.
Why everyone loved Rob.
Take a look.
All the free passes for counselors.
I call them free perks that are tax free, which is costing the taxpayers millions of dollars.
So let's start off.
Free Zoo Pass.
Toronto Zoo VIP Pass.
The VIP named on this card and his or her family will be granted parking, admission, and rides at the Toronto Zoo without charge.
I can bring everybody.
And my family here to the zoo for free.
The average person has to pay $15, $20 to get in, $10 or $15 to park, $5 or $10 a ride.
The poor average family is paying $200.
Counselors that are getting paid $100,000 get to get in for free.
It's absolutely wrong.
That's just the tip of the iceberg.
Let's get on to some other stuff here.
Metro passes.
Here's a metro pass.
This is equivalent to $1,300 a year.
Again, counselors make $100,000 a year.
I take home $1,400 a week net.
Why should counselors get a free Metro Pass?
The TTC is dying for money.
We've just increased fares 25 cents.
The average person out there, the poor working student or the poor working senior that has to get out there and get on the bus every day has to pay $3.
But we, the counselors, get on the bus for free.
This should be eliminated immediately.
The parking passes.
Parking.
We can go to any parking lot in the city of Toronto and park for free.
Friday night, Saturday night.
And all the counselors say is, oh, well, we're doing city business.
Well, when I ask, you know, what time are these passes being used at?
Or what day are these passes being used at?
They aren't going to give me that information.
But it's taxpayers' money, years and years and years of parking passes.
So when the average person has to go to Rogers Center to watch a Blue Jay game or go to the theater on King Street or go out for dinner, They have to pay $20 or $25.
Counselors get the park for free.
This is absolutely wrong.
This should be eliminated immediately.
Let's move on.
Exhibition.
Exhibition.
We get in the X when it's on for free.
We get the park for free.
The average person, you go to the X during August and September, costs $10, $15 to get in.
Parking's $10, $15.
Counselors who get paid $100,000 a year get to go on for free and bring their family in for free.
How's that right?
The taxpayers are paying for that too.
Conservation passes.
So if you want to go up to Algonquin Park or go to a park in the summer or go camping, you have to pay $30, $40 to get in to the campgrounds.
Not counselors.
Counselors get to go in for free.
Here's all the conservation.
So you can go in, take your family, come camping, any park in Ontario for free.
On the back it says the person named here if in together.
With a vehicle and its occupants, they are entitled to a day entry into any conservation area in Ontario without charge.
Again, taxpayers are paying for it.
Free Park Passes for All00:14:46
Rob Ford, what a great man.
May he rest in peace.
I'm so sorry he's gone.
Rob Ford should have been the premier, not his slick brother Doug Ford, who won on Rob's reputation falsely.
You want to see what Doug Ford reminds me of?
This pastor, a Christian pastor, spending tens of millions of dollars.
On a private jet.
Have you ever seen this clip before?
I'm not missing that dedication in Jerusalem without the airplane that we have that I bought from Tyler Perry.
And I didn't pay anywhere.
Tyler's one of the greatest guys.
He made that airplane so cheap for me, I couldn't help but buy it.
Do you ever use your private jets to go visit your vacation homes, for example?
Yes, I do.
Okay, again, getting back to the comment you said that you don't like to fly commercial because you don't want to get into a tube with a bunch of demons.
Do you really believe that human beings are demons?
No, I do not.
And don't you ever say I did.
We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but principalities and powers.
Yeah, that's Doug Ford.
By the way, Doug Ford was not always like this.
He had more of Rob in him before.
Here's Doug Ford boasting about not using the premier's plane.
Take a look.
I'm the only premier.
I'm the only premier in history.
that refuses to use the Premier's plane, the King Air, that costs the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Yeah, that was a long, long time ago.
I mentioned how some executives use business jets not for status, but for productivity.
And Walmart is famous for that.
Walmart has actually quite a large jet fleet.
It's not just for their C suite people, CFO, CEO, it's for busy executives.
And again, it's not for status.
These executives are often required to share a hotel room with other executives.
That's how.
Cosh conscious Walmart is they use the jet so they can hop one, two, three, maybe even four cities in one day as opposed to one city because you're going to the airport, you're waiting around, etc.
It's you know, Walmart has this whole way of getting regional managers to stop by every Walmart I don't know, once a week or something, so it's a way of really staying connected.
That is not what Ford is doing.
Doug Ford is not up at Attawapiscat and up at Sudbury, and he's not doing that every week, which is what Walmart does.
He's not barnstorming the province.
This is all about status, not productivity.
He could use a small plane, especially one that gets into smaller centers.
That I think I would support.
And he's done that before, actually.
I will eat my hat if this is not abused.
This is, I'm so certain of it, Doug Ford being in a class of people, hanging out with people who are wealthier than him because they've made their money in the private sector.
And they have private jets.
And he's also hanging out with his best buddy, Mark Carney, who flies in private jets only.
And I think he's feeling jealous.
And I think he not only wants to travel in luxury style within Ontario, but I am certain, I'll bet my hat, that he's going to use this for his friends and his families and his donors and to go up to the lake.
And he'll say, Oh, the police say I needed to fly in the intercontinental jet for security.
He's done private flights before, but look at this one.
Check out this plane he was in.
This was the OPP, this was a police airplane he used to fly to Windsor.
Take a look at that.
That is not a luxury aircraft.
It's probably comfy, but it's not big enough that you can stand in and walk around.
It's not the kind of thing that you're drinking champagne with your buddies and taking selfies.
That is a working plane.
And he used that to fly to Windsor, which is a pretty big city.
And you could fly from Toronto to Windsor on a commercial jet, but I can understand the case for flying in that private aircraft.
Again, it leaves when the premier's ready.
Comes back when he's ready.
He avoids waiting in.
I would support that.
But do you see the difference between that propeller driven OPP, that's the Ontario Provincial Police aircraft to Windsor, and the luxury jet he's blind?
I don't have a problem with a little propeller plane.
It probably saves him an hour on each side.
And he's not flying it to Vegas, I can assure you.
Doug Ford has been thinking about upgrading the.
Government's expense for a while.
Let me read you this story.
Bonnie Crombie rejects Doug Ford's claim she flies on private jet of her buddy, the developer.
So, this was a sparring match where Doug Ford was accusing his political rival of flying private.
I think Ford has some kind of inferiority complex, said a developer who calls Convery a friend.
Oh, isn't that the truth?
Let me read just a little bit.
The premier took his shot at Bonnie Crombie in question period, alleging the newly elected leader has been, quote, too busy flying around on the private jet.
Of her buddy, the developer, that everyone knows who this developer is.
Yeah, I think Doug Ford is the king of the developers.
I've got nothing against developers.
They are incredibly important in the economy and they earn their money.
I think Doug Ford wants his own jet as opposed to just bumming the rides off his friends.
You know, the crazy thing is, Doug Ford thinks he can become prime minister.
He's repeatedly said that Mark Carney is his best buddy.
He totally supports Mark Carney.
Throughout the federal election, he didn't just not campaign with Pierre Polyev.
He actively and regularly undermined and attacked Pierre Polyev, creating a psychology, a group psychology of Polyev can't win.
Look, even Doug Ford is attacking him from within.
It was nonstop.
And by the way, it still continues.
And I think Doug Ford constantly provokes Trump, which is a bizarre thing to do in doing trade negotiations.
I think he's trying to precipitate a reaction from Trump so he can be Captain Canada just like Mark Carney is.
Doug Ford is awful.
And I think if Rob Ford was around, I think he would be appalled at what his brother has become.
Hey, by the way, my friend David Menzies is really working on this issue.
We've got a petition at stopthegravyplane.com.
Feel free to go over and sign it.
Hey, stay with us.
More on this with the Taxpayers Federation.
I want to start off by saying I do not begrudge a busy executive the use of private aircraft where appropriate.
As I mentioned in my monologue, Walmart, which is a very cost conscious company and in some ways a very humble company, uses private jets as a business tool.
They send their regional managers around to as many as four different cities in a day, something that would be impossible to accomplish at that speed or even at that cost through commercial aircraft.
But they don't fly.
International luxury $30 million jets that could go from Toronto to London.
They're just little puddle jumpers that are going around in a region.
This is a luxury purchase.
And joining us now to talk about the inappropriateness of such libertine spending is our friend Noah Jarvis, who's the Ontario spokesman for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and he joins us from Ottawa.
Noah, great to see you again.
I don't want to come across as someone who says, well, no, The premier should take the bus because I can imagine his time is valuable and he can't really hang out for an hour in advance of a plane because he needs to talk confidentially.
I'm not trying to be holier than thou, but the luxury intercontinental jet, there is no business case for that.
That's my view.
What do you think?
No, you're exactly right, Ezra.
There is no justification for buying a luxury private jet.
You know, at the end of the day, the Ford government is supposed to be representing Ontario taxpayers, it's supposed to be a fiscally responsible.
Government, according to their own words.
But when you're buying a $29 million private jet, it just actually tells a much different story.
And this is within a context of the Ontario government borrowing $25.8 billion this year.
The government is broke.
They have unmoney and they're billing taxpayers for a $29 million jet.
That's not a responsible use of taxpayer dollars at all.
You know, the transformation of Doug Ford.
From the guy who was fighting the gravy train.
That was actually never Doug Ford.
That was his late brother, Rob Ford.
But it was just a few years ago where he would stand up in the provincial parliament and rail against the liberals and rail against anyone who used private jets in government life.
And here he is making excuses for it.
It reminds me of that great book by Orwell.
My favorite book by Orwell is 1984.
But a close second is Animal Farm, which is a great starter book for anyone who wants to get into Orwell.
And it was.
Just like it sounds, an animal farm.
And the animals sort of socialized at a revolution.
And one of their mottos was, all animals are equal.
But then by the end of the book, it was, some animals are more equal than others, which is such an Orwellian phrase.
And here we have, and in that book, and I'm almost done my analogy, forgive me for going on at length, Noah, there was this moment where the pigs who had led the revolution started to look like the farmer they revolted against.
And here we have Doug Ford.
Who used to be Mr. Oh, fight the gravy train.
Isn't that funny?
He's the guy with the gravy plane.
I just, there's, it feels like a case study for term limits or for something.
I don't know.
I just, he has drifted so far away.
No, don't stop me.
I'm ranting.
But I just, I think he's repudiated everything conservative he used to stand for.
Absolutely.
I mean, back in 2019, Premier Ford proudly stood up in the legislature and proclaimed that he would never use the taxpayer premier's jet.
But now this guy is buying a new luxury jet for $29 million.
And it's not just the jet.
You know, before he became premier, when he was campaigning for the job, he said that he would end the gravy train for political parties by ending Ontario's political welfare program.
Guess what?
Not only did Premier Ford refuse to end the political welfare program, he actually made it This was also the same premier who said he was going to end corporate welfare.
Well, guess what?
Ontario is now the corporate welfare king of confederation.
They doled out $11.9 billion in corporate welfare last year.
So the premier Ford has really backtracked on a lot of his commitments that he made back in 2018 and 2019.
Almost all of them were commitments that would respect taxpayer dollars.
Yeah, you know what?
I just keep thinking of that animal farm.
I want to think a little bit about how one becomes jealous.
And I think we covet that we see.
So I think that Doug Ford looks around and he sees the federal liberals flying around in all those jets, not just Mark Carney, but any cabinet ministers grabbing a jet.
I think that Doug Ford hangs out with ultra wealthy developers, and I have nothing against them, but they're flying in jets.
I think Doug Ford is in these high society circles.
Where everyone's flying in private jets, and he's saying, Hey, how come I'm not?
And I think that part of this is he wants, he really now identifies with the super elite in life, not ordinary people.
He's certainly not a populist anymore.
And I tell you, I just know in my bones he's going to want to use this luxury jet for personal reasons, to bring his family around, to go up to the cottage.
I think we've got to keep an eye on him.
I think we've got to check.
The passenger manifest.
I think we've got to check the itineraries because, and by the way, this guy just sprang it on the world.
He just announced it.
No debate, no vote, just boom, ta da.
I think he is fully turned into a Justin Trudeau type liberal, and we got to watch for him taking a billionaire island vacation.
That's next.
He's going to be, for all we know, he is already.
No, I'm ranting because I'm mad at this.
I feel like this guy is a false advertiser when he calls himself a conservative.
Cosplaying the life of the rich and famous, this one right here.
It is really incredible how he's backtracked on his promises to be fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars.
I mean, the premier doesn't need a jet.
The past premiers didn't need jets.
He didn't need a jet for the first seven and a half years in office.
And now, all of a sudden, a jet is just so imperative.
Look, even very important people who travel overseas all the time don't need jets.
Our foreign affairs minister frequently travels commercially when They are going overseas to meet with foreign dignitaries.
Even the Finnish president was spotted recently flying commercials.
So, I mean, like, Premier Ford is not in that position.
He's not a foreign affairs minister.
He's not a head of state.
He's a provincial premier.
The vast majority of premiers don't have a private jet.
It's only Quebec.
And Quebec is probably one of the more fiscally irresponsible provinces in the country.
You know, just because your friend is jumping off a cliff doesn't mean you should go and join them.
Yeah.
And if he has to go to London or Frankfurt or whatever occasionally, Fine, buy a business class ticket so we get some sleep and can do some work.
But that is, you know, a fraction, a sliver of a fraction of the cost of buying a jet.
I don't know.
I think this is gross.
I'm actually rooting for the opposition in Ontario, which I don't normally do.
I love how they're using the phrase the gravy plane, a takeoff on the Ford family's use of the gravy train.
Quebec Leads Fiscally Irresponsible00:02:46
Well, no, I'm really glad you're out there and the Taxpayers Federation, because I know you guys are true watchdogs in every good sense of that term.
Thanks for coming on our show.
And I really hope you keep his feet to the fire on this thing.
And I think it looks so bad.
I think when Ontarians and all Canadians are sort of hurting, for him just to say, Well, I deserve it.
It's a gift.
I'm having a me day.
I deserve it.
As you point out, he's cosplaying as an executive.
All his friends who have private jets, they earned it.
He's just taking it.
And I think it's gross.
Keep at it, my friend.
Keep at it.
Well, thank you for having me on, Ezra.
I really appreciate it.
All right.
There he is Noah Jarvis from the Ontario wing.
Of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Stay with us.
Your letters to me next.
Welcome back.
I mentioned Sheila in Parliament, and some of you mentioned it too.
Here's letters from Sarah Islano, who says, Well done, Sheila Gunn Reid, for representing the people with transparency and truth, even though they couldn't answer during the end and cut her off.
Speaks for itself that they were afraid of the truth.
Yeah, it was so weird.
They kept having audio issues when Sheila started to speak.
I was listening to the exact same interpreters in my earpiece.
Like it was the same exact system.
I didn't hear a problem.
It's funny how they only had a problem when.
Sheila was speaking.
They were trying to cut her off.
Russ Dowdswell says, This is likely the most important issue for the survival of this country.
Sheila has explained this with great clarity and needs to become viral.
This article needs to be viewed by every Canadian.
I'm glad you feel that way.
I mean, I'm proud of Sheila and Rebel News and the Independent Press Gallery, but it's more than that.
It's bigger than that.
This is about can you even trust your journalists?
If they're on the payroll of the government, I don't think you can.
And that one super gross Canadian Media Guild journalist.
Wasn't just calling for money, but calling for the censorship of rivals.
It was there all, and you could see it with your own eyes.
Joe Citizen 7463 says CBC doesn't even allow taxpayers to post comments on their YouTube channel, despite our generous funding.
Isn't that interesting?
I mean, I occasionally go to CBC YouTube, but I don't recall seeing that.
I totally believe you, by the way.
Yeah, they hate when mere citizens have something to say.
Remember, they're aiming just for one viewer.
Mark Carney, as long as they please him, they know they're fine.
We have to listen to all our viewers because we're viewer supported and it shows.
That's our show for the day.
Until next week.
Boy, the week went by quickly, for me at least.
From all of us here to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.